by Steven Drake
She felt Zitane shake her shoulder. Her concentration broke, and she opened her eyes. Something was there in the sky, a dark shape, long and thick like a dark ribbon drifting in the wind. It looked like no living creature she had ever seen or known, but she knew instantly that that thing, whatever it was, had been the source of her fear.
“What is that?” Zitane asked.
“I don’t know,” Mirisa said. “I don’t think I want to know.”
“Kellan, you’d better sound the alarm,” Zitane said.
“Already on it,” Kellan yelled over his shoulder as he ran toward the bell tower near the south gate. A few moments later, the bell was ringing loudly as the people of the town pointed up toward the dark ribbon in the sky. Many ran for their homes, or for the lodge to shelter. The lodge had an underground storeroom that could hold nearly everyone in town for a few hours at least. Between that and the handful of homes with cellars, everyone should be able to get to relative safety.
“We should get to the lodge,” Zitane said.
“No wait,” Mirisa said. “There’s something else.” There, a few hundred feet behind the great flying worm and higher in the sky, was a much smaller shape, a winged creature of some kind, most likely a wyvern, but that was not all. She felt a great energy, it shone like a star even while her eyes were open. Unbelievably, whatever it was, the dark thing fled before it.
“I think I see it,” Zitane said. “By the light, is something chasing that monster?”
The thing moved with unnatural speed, faster than any bird or flying creature should, but the pursuer gained with each passing second. As the dark shape passed high overhead, slightly north of the town, she saw the bright pursuer fall from the sky towards the dark worm in what she guessed to be some sort of attack. The star impacted the dark worm with the force of a thunderbolt, and both started to descend rapidly.
“Miri, we really should take shelter,” Zitane pulled on her arm, but Mirisa found herself rooted to the spot, unable to turn away. She perceived a great struggle between the two powers in the sky. A swirling cloud of darkness erupted around the dark worm, engulfing much of the creature. The sky itself darkened, as the dark void seemed to pull the light from the sky. A strong wind kicked up, blowing and swirling throughout the city, nearly knocking Mirisa over. Finally, an unearthly shriek ripped the heavens, and the struggle was over. The black worm drifted downward, emptied of all the power and dread it had carried before. Mirisa breathed a deep sigh. The darkness was gone, defeated, but how? The bright light that seemed to pursue the worm had disappeared as well. The black shape fell through the air and crashed onto the side of the Leaning Mountain, just above the snow line, several miles west of town.
Chapter 2: Somewhere on the Mountain
With the danger seemingly over, Mirisa shut her eyes again, and focused. Again, the white blurry world spread out before her. The dark cloud was gone, and so too was the bright light that had followed it. No, there it was, greatly diminished but still present, somewhere on the side of the mountain.
“What was that?” Zitane asked.
“I’m not sure,” Mirisa answered. “Whatever it was, it’s dead. I don’t feel that fear like I did before.”
“I wonder if it was injured. I saw something else chasing it before it fell, maybe a wyvern, but I couldn’t tell.”
“No, something killed it. Someone, I think.” Miri’s fear had gone, and her curiosity was growing. She had never seen or felt anything like this before. If the source of that brilliant white light was a person, as her intuition now told her, then perhaps they were friendly. Perhaps it was someone who possessed magic. Miri had heard that there were others in the world, far away in the east, with amazing abilities. She wanted more than anything to meet someone like that.
“Somebody was flying through the air chasing a monster, but why?” Zitane scratched his head and stared up at the mountain.
“I don’t know, but I think someone’s still alive up there, on the mountain.”
“Not for long I’d wager,” Zitane said. “How could anything survive a fall like that?”
“I think we should go up there,” Miri blurted out. “I want to see if someone’s up there. They might need our help.”
“What?” Zitane said with a stunned expression. “A moment ago you were terrified and now you want to see it?”
“I told you its dead. I want to see who killed it.”
“You’re sure it’s a person? I don’t know, Mirisa. Even if you’re right, they might not be friendly, and it would take hours to climb up that high.”
“Oh, where’s your sense of adventure, Zitane.” Kellan suddenly appeared behind Zitane and clapped him on the shoulder nearly knocking the small elf over. “I want to know what that thing was. Who knows, might be good eating.”
“We should at least take Garok with us,” Zitane said.
“He’s gone out east again,” Kellen said. “Communing with nature or whatever it is he does when he wanders off.”
“He’s paying respects to his family, visiting the mountain where they were born, somewhere up in the Frostfires. He lost his family just before we met him,” Mirisa responded somewhat curtly. “He does this every year, don’t you remember?”
“Well, perhaps we should wait till he gets back.”
“Bah!” Kellan dismissed the possibility. “That could be weeks, and I want to see this thing before a snowsabre drags it off. If there’s one of those flying worm things, there may be more, and as it’s my lot to protect this town, I investigate any threat. I don’t need to wait for an ogre to protect me. Still can’t believe I let an ogre live in the town.”
“It doesn’t matter if he’s an ogre,” Miri interrupted. “Garok is our friend. He’s protected Zitane and I so many times I’ve lost count. He helps everyone in town.”
“Didn’t say I regretted the decision,” Kellan said. “He’s better than a pack of war hounds when it comes to scaring away bandits, and better than an ox team when we’re hauling in the harvest. Still, I wonder what my father would say?”
“If we’re going to do this, we should get going.” Zitane sighed deeply and slumped his shoulders. It was obvious to Miri that her brother did not want to go, but then he always was too timid. A bit of adventure would do him good. “If we leave now, we can probably reach the snowline before it gets too dark.”
“Always the practical one,” Kellan said. “And quite right. I’ll get the horses and supplies to camp overnight. If all goes well, we can reach the spot where it fell just after dusk.”
Within a half hour, Kellan had readied the horses, and they set off up the mountain. Though the afternoon was passing quickly, the weather was good. It was high summer after all, and Kellen knew every path, cave, rock, and tree on the Leaning Mountain. Kellan’s grandfather had founded the town a half-century ago, and the stout hunter had grown up there. The Leaning Mountain had been Kellan’s personal playground as a child, and he knew every crack and crevice, even in the dark.
The climb proved simple enough. Miri had climbed the mountain herself before, all the way to the peak that jutted out from the rest of the mountain and hung over the valley where Exire lay. Kellan guided them truly and quickly towards the spot where the creature had fallen. Even without their guide’s knowledge, Miri would have found him easily from the faint sense of power that radiated from the spot, a power that grew ever more interesting as they drew nearer.
Their experienced guide and experienced horses made all the difference, and they made excellent time, turning what might have been a half day’s journey into one of just slightly over three hours. Still, the sun had set, and the western sky was dyed in deep crimson and cool lavenders by the time they reached the snow line. From that point, Miri guided them with her sense of the power. Zitane grew ever more nervous, asking every few minutes whether she was sure she wanted to see this person, but she was sure. Just as a sense of terror had gripped her earlier that afternoon, a different sensation now captivate
d her, an anticipation that defied explanation.
After climbing a particularly high snow drift, Kellan froze and held up a hand to halt the group. After a momentary pause, he motioned for the others to join him, and Miri ran up the drifted snow only to lay eyes on a stunning and surreal scene. About ten yards ahead, in a low spot between snow drifts, the snow had melted and left a spot of bare ground some twenty yards across. Further down the slope, the melted snow had refrozen into bizarrely shaped sheets of ice that reflected the colors of the sunset. The remains of the beast lay coiled and piled into a mass at the center of the bare patch.
The beast was uglier and more disturbing than she had imagined, inspiring a sense of dread even clearly dead as it was. The thing looked like an ugly snake colored in several unattractive hues, fetid green, bile yellow, and dull rust red. It looked like it had once had a dozen or more sets of wings from the remaining bones, though it was hard to tell, disfigured and warped as the corpse seemed to be. Most of its flesh sagged and hung off the bones like partially melted wax. The bones had been exposed in many places, black as if charred by fire, and bent into odd curves like reeds permanently bent in a hard wind. Much of the beast’s midsection appeared to be gone, sheared off by some unimaginable force, yet the missing sections had not fallen nearby, a riddle for which Mirisa had no answer. The beast’s head was vaguely reptilian, but too large for anything Miri had ever seen, with unnaturally curved and thin teeth, like something out of a nightmare. It had rear legs, long, thin, clawed, and misshapen as the rest of the creature. It looked like it might be some variety of wyvern, but nothing like Miri had ever seen. Yet more disgusting than its appearance, some sort of vile green liquid covered the ground around the body, and it stank, a smell so far beyond putrid that there was no proper word for it. Miri choked and coughed. Zitane threw up.
“So much for good eating,” Kellan managed to joke as he covered his face with a handkerchief.
“Well, this must be what Miri sensed,” Zitane said. “But what is it?”
“Damned if I know. I suppose it might be some kind of wyvern,” Kellan said, “but I’ve never seen one like this before. It’s too large, and misshapen, extra sets of wings. Hmm…” Kellen poked at the green liquid with his quarterstaff. The green liquid hissed as it burned the veneer from the end. “I don’t think this is natural. I’ve heard rumors of mages fusing beasts together into chimeras. No good news comes out of the east these days. I wonder if that’s what this was.”
“Ugh, how awful.” Zitane turned his nose up. “At least it’s dead. I don’t think that’s something I would want to meet if it was alive.”
“No indeed,” the usually confident rogue said as he stroked his bushy, curly beard. “Mirisa, let’s go. I agree with Zitane this time. I don’t want anything more to do with this creature, or whatever killed it.”
Miri ignored them. She had already reached the other side of the bare patch, looking for the source of that light. She did her best to ignore the ugly corpse and accompanying smell, and tried to regain her sense of the other power. It seemed to be fading quickly. She scanned the area until she noticed a disturbance in the snow a dozen yards past the bare patch. Something had impacted the snow and left a pit several feet deep. Once she got closer, she saw a raven-haired elven man lying at the bottom. The deep snow had probably saved him, as his fall had displaced several feet of white fluff. He was tall, strong, tough, and hardened looking. His hair was disheveled, wet from melted snow, and it clung to his face and the sides of his head. He had a layer of dark stubble beneath his chin, and from one ear to the other. His face was striking, handsome in a way, yet cold and unyielding, hard and frozen like the mountain where she had found him. His face seemed calm, even peaceful, as though he was perfectly content to lay dying on the side of a mountain. He wore simple black leather, and he carried a strange looking sword in his hand. It didn’t look like it was made of metal, but rather some kind of black crystal with a red hilt and cross guard. The surface seemed oddly fascinating, captivating almost. Gradations of black darkness seemed to shift and swirl in the flat of the blade. The outline of the blade seemed fuzzy to Mirisa’s eyes, as though the edges of the blade could not be exactly defined. For a moment, she gazed into the black emptiness, momentarily entranced by the strange shifting darkness. She heard the man let out a tired breath, and she snapped back into focus. He needed her help.
More than his physical appearance, or the sword he carried, it was the energy that made him fascinating. She felt it, like a warm wind radiating from him. When she shut her eyes, she could see a pulsing light, stronger than any she had encountered before, but there was something else, a swirling black smoke, a darkness that intermingled with the light. She had never seen anything like this before. What could it mean? Either way, Miri knew without doubt that this man had killed the awful thing that had filled her with such fear. She had to help him, if she could.
She slid down the packed snow and sat by the raven-haired figure. Though he had fallen from a considerable height, and done battle with the whatever-it-was, he appeared to have almost no visible injuries, just a few minor broken bones, yet he clearly was suffering.
“Miri, what are you doing?” Zitane called out from behind. “Leave that thing be. Didn’t you hear Kellan talking about chimeras? This is probably the mage that set that thing loose in the first place,” Zitane pleaded with his sister. “Let it die.”
“It’s not an “it”. It’s a person,” Mirisa said. “How can you be so heartless? Would you rather that thing be alive?”
“I don’t know Miri,” Kellan added. “There’s worse folk in the world than you’ve ever seen. Anyone with the kind of power to kill something like that is bound to be trouble.”
Mirisa ignored both of them. She was already searching for the source of this man’s pain. She passed her hands a few inches above his body, searching, until she came to a spot above his right side. It felt sickly and wrong, almost reminding her of the awful feeling that had woken her from her nap. Miri looked closer, to see a deep puncture wound that had cut straight and clean through his leathers. The wound had not hit any vital organs, but something about this wound felt different. It must be poisoned.
Miri took out a knife and cut off a section of his armor. The skin around the wound had darkened to a deep purple, nearly black at the entry point. The discoloration had spread across most of the right side of his body. Miri laid her hands upon him. His skin felt ice cold, but not for long. She shut her eyes, and focused.
The first time Mirisa had ever used her healing gift, it had been when she was about thirteen. She had found a bird that had broken its wing. It hobbled and leapt and tried to fly. It had been so heartbreaking to watch, the bird flailing and trying to escape, desperate to take wing, unable to do the one thing it had been born to do. She had caught the bird, and held it in her hands, when her mind had blanked from feelings of sorrow and sympathy. Then she had felt something leave her body, like an invisible energy, that seemed to carry all her sorrow and pain away. A few seconds later, the bird had stilled, and when she opened her hands, the bird stared at her for a moment, then chirped curiously and flew off. The joy she had felt in that moment had stayed with her. From that point on, every time she healed someone, she thought of the bird.
She felt the energy pass out of her and into the injured man, but this felt entirely different than any other healing she had undertaken. Immediately, she felt immense pressure pushing back against her, an almost hostile force opposing her, something dark and malevolent. It seemed to be poisoning this man, and fighting her healing force at the same time. What kind of wound was this? She focused harder, unwilling to be defeated so easily, and she fought. Her muscles tensed, her jaw clenched, and her teeth ground against each other as she concentrated furiously on the dark force. Beads of sweat formed at her brow, as energy poured out of her, more than she had ever used before. After several minutes, the man’s breathing seemed to get stronger, and his light grew brighter aga
in. Miri let the power fade and breathed deeply of the cold mountain air.
“I guess once you’ve made up your mind it doesn’t matter what we say,” Zitane said. “I just hope your intuition is right.”
“Isn’t it always?” Miri playfully jabbed.
“So how bad off is he?”
“He was near death,” Mirisa said. “His wound is some kind of poison I think. It felt like it fought me. I’ve never felt anything like that before.”
“Will he live?” Zitane asked.
“I can’t be sure, but I think so,” Mirisa said confidently. “I was able to make some progress, but it’s sapping my energy. I feel exhausted already.”
“From the look of that wound, I’d say poison.” Kellan had now run up behind them. “That knife wound looks angry, worse than I’d expect from a wound that small. It doesn’t look like it hit any vital organs, but it’s still bleeding, and doesn’t appear to be healing on its own.”
“Can we take him back to town, Kellan?” Miri asked. “I mean we accept everyone, right?”
“I suppose, for now,” Kellen spoke slowly. “He’s no danger in this state, but be careful. Anyone who can fight something like that, well, we have to assume he’s dangerous by default.”
With that decided, Miri set about the more mundane tasks of cleaning and bandaging the wound. They cleared the snow around the man and started a fire, then pitched their tent over the man’s body. Once the fire was ready, they heated rocks in the fire to place beneath him, though he seemed to no longer need it, he seemed to be radiating far more energy since Miri had used her healing energy. Miri kept watch until well into the night to be sure he would remain stable, then eventually nodded off.