Legend of Fire and Ice

by Xaiver Morden

  “I am coming!”

  Chapter Eight

  The little team was moving forward on the swampy land, soaking wet although the rain had stopped, but their clothes did not dry, because of the humidity. The land was covered with thin, green bushes and cedars used to wetness, along with huge open waters. The thick clouds still hid the sun. It was late in the afternoon. Their steps were followed by hungry reptiles, waiting for the moment to attack their victims. The members of the group spent the journey with quiet conversation.

  “What is your stand on men, Everly?” the witch asked the olive skinned young girl.

  “I haven’t met the one yet. Only drunk idiots or fat, gold digging merchants. They wanted to take advantage of my young age, but they never got what they wanted from me,” she replied impassively.

  “You’ve never been with a man?” she asked quietly, leaning closer to her.

  “No, but I don’t even mind. If I give myself to someone that will be the person I want to spend the rest of my life with,” she replied with sparkling almond shaped eyes.

  “You are such a romantic. When you grow up you will realize it works a little differently,” the witch explained.

  “You and Corwen got really friendly as I can see,” the thief girl was smiling.

  “Yes, I think we are getting to know each other better. We will see the rest. Making love to him is amazing, even though I’ve been with many men,” she poked Everly with her elbow.

  “Sir DaMatta. Do you regret that you have came with us? You are only with us for a day, and yet we faced countless dangerous situations,” asked Corwen, turning toward the knight.

  “Not at all captain! My god marked this path for me, and I will walk on it until the end, no matter what we face on the way,” he answered definitely.

  “So be it my friend. So be it.” Corwen rubbed his check.

  “Just don't run out from booze on the way. Problems needs to be solved, one way or another,” grumbled the massive orc on his deep voice.

  They could only smile on their partner’s alcohol addiction

  Soon Lowarien started talking.

  “I believe I see houses ahead of us, there might be a settlement,” he pointed forward.

  Naturally, the others could not notice anything. The elf’s eyesight was much sharper than the others’.

  “We can spend the night there, if the locals take us in,” the captain said.

  A few minutes later, the others could see what the elf was talking about. A few dozens of reed cottages could be seen in the distance on an island, surrounded by water. The only entrance for the island, was a planked bridge-like structure on stakes.

  The habitants of the little were tiny, non-humanoid creatures. Men were wearing breechclouts made of seaweed, while women were wearing tunic-like dresses.

  They were no taller than four feet. Their head was larger and their face was flatter than a human’s. They had large brown-green eyes. Their wide mouths were frog-like ad they did not have lips. There was no visible hair on their bodies and their skin was moss green and a bit wrinkled. They had webbed hands. The men had long, jagged fishing harpoons. Some of them had primitive arrows.

  The tiny warriors were friendly towards the newcomers. They stopped the horse riders and began talking on human language to their guests.

  “Greetings strangers! We are the nation of the iblorgs. You are welcome here, if you came in peace,” one of them said, lisping.

  “Greetings to you too! We would only like to spend one night in your village. We just want to have some rest and leave,” Corwen told the little creatures.

  “Please, follow us. We are taking you to the chieftain, who will decide the rest,” one of the iblorgs with a harpoon said.

  They crossed the wooden bridge leading to the island. The reed cottages were built in circles. A few of them were visibly ruined, their roof smashed open, and some completely destroyed. Curious eyes were staring at the strangers from the houses. Children of the small creatures were following them a bit nervously, whispering to each other. There was a larger building in the middle of the village, which was probably the townhouse. The harpooned warriors of the swamp led the company straight to this building and escorted them in.

  A few dozens were watching the newcomers as they arrived in the building. There were long tables and benches next to them. Opposite the entrance, there was the chieftain sitting on a small throne.

  He was a bit larger than the others and obviously old. He had a huge belly and wrinkled skin. He wore a strange medallion made of silver with an emerald in the middle. He only wore a breechclout too, like the others and he had a strange creature next to him.

  He wore the skull of a smaller crocodile, clenching a pinned staff with endless feathers, shells, bones and other curious objects clinging on it. He had a knee-long dress, made of animal leather and greenery.

  The chief opened his webbed hands and started speaking, slightly lisping.

  “Greetings strangers! I am Hajrinana, chieftain of the iblorgs. Why did you come to Seaweed Village?” he asked the adventurers.

  “Greetings to you too! I am Venuri del Corwen from the Northern Dukedoms and the leader of this group. We would like to spend this night in your village, if you are kind enough to let us.”

  “Of course, you are welcome here. If you came in peace. Unfortunately we only have one free cottage for you since many of them were destroyed,” the chieftain said.

  “What happened? Who attacked you?” the priest/knight asked.

  “There is a swamp giant in the area. He not only attacked the village, he also kidnapped my successor; my daughter Jaralanda. So we are quite tense nowadays. My folks are scared and I have to assure them that I can take care of this and nothing similar can happen ever again.”

  The adventurers looked at each other secretively and they thought of the same thing, so Corwen cleared his throat and began talking.

  “Dear Hajrinana, we might be able to help you, if you help us too. We are searching for an ancient ruined town that can be found somewhere around here in the swamp.”

  “There is a former human-built town that sank, not so far from here. It is about a one day walking distance from the village to the Southeast. We know that way well. We will be happy to show it to you, if you bring back my daughter unharmed and make the giant go away.”

  “It is a seal chieftain, we will take care of that giant and bring back your daughter,” the captain replied confidently.

  “Great, this is good news for us!” Hajrinana said joyfully with arms up in the air.

  “Please show us where the giant lives,” Corwen said.

  “I will gladly lead you there, the giant lives on the west, not far from here,” the iblorg with the leather dress and the strange staff said.

  “He is the well respected shaman of the village called Crocodile Mesmerizer Borlog,” the portly chieftain introduced the bloke next to him.

  “I will lead you there tomorrow morning, where the giant rests so you can take revenge on him. I am leaving now. I’ll be waiting for you at your cottage as the sun comes up.”

  He turned his back to the company and walked out of the building with his staff knocking on the floor.

  “Bring food and drinks to our guests!” the chief commanded the others.

  They were seated to one of the tables and they were brought fresh fish, mussels, and some kind of a green local beer made of seaweed. The orc took large sips from it and tasting the drink, started speaking.

  “Even though it is made of seaweed, it is quite good.”

  “Tusk, you would drink anything with alcohol in it,” the young thief girl snapped at him.

  “That is true,” the huge warrior shrugged his shoulders.

  The others were laughing loudly. The rour was feeding his servant dragon with a little fish and he was munching on them happily. After dinner, the golden haired elf got out his pipe, put tobacco in it and blew out the large clouds of smoke. He was obviously deep in his thought
s.

  “Something is strange, as far as I knew the giants of the swamp, were not particularly aggressive creatures.”

  “Have you ever met one?” Larianna asked.

  “I met one of them once. It was not really aggressive,” he answered pensively.

  “Who knows what happened whit this one, maybe we can get on with it and solve this without any violence,” the captain said.

  “Giants can be dangerous, if we have to fight him it might not be so easy,” the priest/knight said.

  “Larianna can mesmerize him, to walk away quietly,” the thief girl winked at the witch.

  “The mind of the giants works differently than ours. I don’t think any of us could control it,” Al Sarran informed the tiny thief girl.

  “There are excellent fighters at this table, they will take care of him,” Everly replied quickly, fiercely looking around the group with her almond shaped eyes.

  Corwen almost chocked on a bite and turned to the girl, coughing.

  “Sure, we will take care of that giant, no problem.”

  I have never fought with a giant so far, I hope we can defeat him together. If we have to fight with him. We do not have any other choice. If we want to find the hero’s grave quickly, thought.

  “Friendly little creatures these iblorgs, aren't they captain,” asked Everly.

  “They seem like that, and it comes in handy that they know the swamp very well.”

  “It's sure that is not an accident that we stumbled into them. The gods wanted it this way,” said their armoured companion.

  “Whatever led us here, my good paladin sir. I hope it did it for a good reason.” He leaned backwards in his chair the panther man as he pet Dergo.

  Everybody was full after the copious dinner, when a few harpooned warriors appeared at their table.

  “Please follow us, we will show you your cottage, where you will spend the night!” the swamp creatures told them.

  They said goodnight to the chieftain and followed the small warriors. It was already dark outside. There were torches lit around the village, to provide some light for the habitants. They were led to one of the cottages, at the edge of the island.

  “We are here, this is the place you will sleep strangers, we will leave now, have a good night!” They left the group behind.

  They left the horses tied to a pole. The round, pointy building made of reed, was fixed with stalks. They only found a few blankets inside on the floor and a large bucket-like case made of fibers. It was a bit small for all seven of them. Larianna nestled close to Corwen and they fell asleep hugging each other. As the sun came up, they woke up to the noise of the shaman’s staff knocking at the door.

  “We have to go. It’s morning. Get up!” the man in the strange clothes said from the outside.

  They quickly got themselves together as Borlog was waiting from them impatiently outside. He was sitting on a scaled, large lizard-like animal with a harness. He had a rein in one hand and he was riding the creature like a horse.

  “Follow me. We have a few hours of riding ahead of us. The giant does not live so far.”

  Leading the reptile, he headed out from the village on the bridge. The members of the group got on their horses and followed the iblorg on the lizard.

  “Have you ever had any problems with the swamp giants before?” the elf tracker inquired from their leader.

  “We could always get on well with them. There had not been any incidents like this.”

  “You have many fighters. Why don’t you go after giant and kill it?” Tusk asked.

  “We have brave fighters, but a giant would simply smash us. We would not stand a chance against him, and he took hostage of the heir so we cannot attack him,” the shaman explained.

  “Why did he kidnap the girl?” the captain asked.

  “He has not come up with any requests yet, but I think he will soon return and ask for ransom.”

  “We are here to stop this from happening don’t worry, we will take care of the giant easily!” DaMatta said confidently.

  “I really hope these are not just some empty words and you are as good of fighters as you say,” the shaman looked at him, narrowing his eyes.

  The group, led by the Crocodile Mesmerizer, who knew the moorland well, moved fast. They crossed several large watery areas without sinking. They had been walking for two hours when they stopped for a moment.

  “Stay quiet. I have to focus!” the shaman said to the others.

  Moving his staff up and down making the shells and bones rattle, he pointed at the sludgy water around the team, which began to change quickly. The horses were neighing and they sank to their breasts with their riders into the swamp that captivated all of them.

  “What the hell are you doing with us?” Corwen shouted with outrage.

  “I tricked you fools. It was a trap!” the shaman on the lizard was cackling mockingly.

  “Don’t you want us to help your village, you idiot?” DaMatta asked furiously, stuck in the sludge with his warrior horse.

  “You foolish adventurers! I planned the whole thing, and unfortunately, you were in my way, so I will leave you behind in the swamp. You will not be the first ones disappearing in this dangerous land,” he was grinning like a frog.

  “I will leave now and tell Hajrinana that, sadly, you were killed by the giant. He will be disappointed and my plan will be in motion. Have a nice drowning, my friends!” he headed back to the village on the huge lizard, singing joyfully.

  “I will strangle little frog, if we get out of trap!” the orc grunted.

  “That little bastard. He tricked us!” Everly replied, angrily.

  “Somehow, I had a bad feeling about this shaman and now it turns out it was true,” huffed the Ertonfellian warrior.

  “Let’s think about how we could escape from this sludge which will slowly, but surely swallow us up,” Corwen suggested to the others.

  “Panther man, you always have a good idea!” the witch, clenching her horse’s rein and turning to the rour, said intensely.

  “Yes, I have an idea. Tusk, are you strong enough to pull all of us out, if I got you out of the clench of the swamp?” Al Sarran asked the mold green skinned, strong warrior.

  “I do everything I can,” he replied confidently.

  “Anyone who has a rope put it around the horse’s neck and pass it to the next person!” DaMatta encouraged the others.

  Following the wise command, they quickly put a rope on the horses’ necks and linked them together. They were deep in the swamp and only had a little time left. The horses were jittering desperately and were neighing nervously. Everybody was panicking.

  The rour began to focus and murmured some word, pointing his staff towards Tusk. The giant warrior was lifted up from the back of his horse. The magic flew him to a least swampy area next to them, where he could land safely.

  “Tusk, here is my ring that will make you stronger, we need all of your power now!” Corwen shouted, throwing the crafted golden jewelry to him.

  The orc put it up. It only fit his little finger, and he grabbed the end of the rope they threw to him and began to pull it with all his strength. His muscles tightened and he used all of his power. The magical object began working, helping the orc with the challenge. The stretched rope was crunching as he tried to rescue his mates, while struggling and gasping. Luckily, the rope was made of a strong material and could endure the load. Large drops of sweat were falling from the face of the giant warrior, but they slowly moved towards the shore. He pulled out the captain first who, together with Smokey, joined in the rescue process and they quickly pulled out the others, before the swamp swallowed them. Everybody was pulled successfully out and besides being covered in mud, they had no injuries. Larianna hugged the captain.

  “I was so scared we were going to drown, but when I saw you pulling us out I knew it was going to be fine,” she said, holding Corwen tight.

  “It’s all right, my lovely, everything is fine now, and the sham
an will regret this. I can assure you!” he caressed the witch softly.

  “My clothes are so muddy that I will cut that frog in half for this!” Everly was in a fret.

  “What do we do now Corwen?” the elf warrior asked.

  “I would like to go back to Seaweed Village and impale that bastard! But my mind says, we should go to the giant’s house and rescue the chief’s daughter,” he replied edgily, taking a deep breath.

  “I’m of the same opinion,” the sorcerer joined in.

  “The habitants of the village would not believe us if we just turned up there and confronted the shaman.”

  “Let’s find this bad giant. It cannot be that hard,” Everly said on her thin voice.

  “Let’s split up, but remain in seeing distance so we could explore a larger area and find him sooner,” the Ertonfellian tracker suggested.

  “Good idea. We will do that. Go on, let’s find that little monster!” the captain ended the conversation jokingly.

  They split up and began to examine the swamp, searching for the tracks of the giant. They had no luck in the first thirty minutes. Then they could hear the thief girl shouting as she found a couple of huge footsteps heading west where the giant’s home was supposed to be. With the elf in the front, they quickly began to follow the footsteps, occasionally disappearing in the water and reappearing in the muddy ground. Less than an hour later, they noticed a small hill with a wooden hut, covered in moss and a large swamp cypress tree next to it. There was an iron cage swinging on the tree’s branch in the soft wind. Leaving their horses behind, the team was approaching the hill with careful steps. Getting closer, they could notice the kidnapped iblorg girl in a shattered tunic. She was happy to see the newcomers.

  “Jaralanda, your father sent us to rescue you! Have you seen the giant?” Corwen asked her quietly.