Smart Alec in the Dark Lands

by Donald Wigboldy

  "Take a bath like the rest of us when we feel that way then."

  Frowning up at the silver rider, Shae instead reached down to touch the clasps holding the four pieces of her leg armor together even as the water shape receded back into the lake. Baring her legs, Alec could see thin lines where the joints met on her skin. Lines where the top and bottom of the carapace ended encircled her legs around her ankles and just below her knees, while strap lines which had held the thigh plates were slow to disappear.

  Shae stepped into the water as Helios sighed seeing that his plan to follow the five hollows would be delayed unless he chose to leave the genasi behind. The water appeared to climb her legs before she could even step in as deep as it would take to reach as high on her. Only in to her knees, water appeared to encapsulate her thighs as well disappearing beneath the leather pieces of her skirt. More moved up her abdomen to the upper breastplate before the girl moved even deeper.

  In to her waist, Shaelamee dove into the lake disappearing under water. Alec could see the blue shape with her black armor as the girl moved ahead at a surprisingly quick rate. He wouldn't have guessed that she could move so far or as fast from the simple dive. In moments, Shae was more than thirty feet away from where she had started. Alec guessed that it would take him at least twice as long even if he had a good push from his legs to start to get as far in the same amount of time.

  "She's fast," he commented.

  "Genasi are almost more like water spirits than normal folk. Sorcerers and wizards can control the elements. Shae's people are the elements that they are most aligned with... or something like that.

  "On Gamrahna and its moons, her people have molded the environment to match their elements. Each species can live on the same planet or moon, but they live apart molding their piece of land to suit them."

  "They don't match the environment, but change it?" Alec questioned curiously. He would have assumed that the genasi had formed into these various types of elementals to adapt to their world, but not according to what Helios was saying now.

  "Sometime in their past, it is believed that they came from a different world entirely. That is how they live on both a planet and the moons around it. Some even say that it wasn't magic that they used as we know it, but something else that moved them between worlds."

  "They could have used portals like the Ciemnosci have now."

  "Hmm, the storm gates... yes, I suppose that is possible too. I simply tell you what others have conjectured from their history on Gamrahna."

  Their eyes looked for Shaelamee in the lake again. The girl had submerged before they had begun to speak. More than a few minutes passed and still she remained under water.

  Showing concern, Alec asked, "You don't think that her armor is heavy enough to cause her to drown, do you?"

  A surprising bit of laughter came from the dragon's mouth as he continued to sit atop his reddish brown mount. Even it seemed a little agitated by the sound. "A water genasi drown? Now that would be funny."

  At Alec's confused look, Helios explained, "Her kind can breathe under water, human. Just as the fire genasi can walk through most fires unscathed or earth genasi can move through stone without need for air for long periods, water genasi are like water elementals capable of living under water if they want.

  "It is part of why Shaelamee feels no need for clothing as we do," he added with a shake of his head. "They prefer to exist in their environment without being weighed down. Shaelamee barely cares about most temperatures. It would have to be very cold to make her want to wrap herself in a blanket, though extreme heat can dry out her skin dangerously."

  Popping her head out of the water almost a quarter of a mile into the lake, Alec could see a content looking smile on the girl's face thanks to his magically enhanced vision. He looked away towards the forest wondering if the hollows would return. The riders were closer to the trees here, though they were still a fair way off from them.

  Helios followed his gaze and said, "They are certainly acting a bit strangely." Pausing in thought, the dragon man added, "They've been hiding more than they used to, now that I think about it. We've had to look harder to find them to destroy the creatures of late."

  Alec looked back towards Shaelamee thinking on that point. "They avoid water, you said."

  Nodding his silver head, Helios answered, "Some of the other forts put a simple water filled moat around their walls. It keeps them out quite effectively."

  They were still splitting their attention between the woods beyond the lake and the water where their third member continued to swim when Alec noted a strange bit of movement in the lake. Fish darted away from the center in great numbers. More than just schools of fish, the novice wizard could see several varieties moving together without regard for predator or prey. While Alec didn't know their place either, he spotted larger fish rushing through or past the smaller darting kinds. Surely it wasn't normal behavior.

  "What is going on there?" Helios voiced the same worry as the creatures' strange movement caught his eye.

  Shaelamee must have noted them as well. The girl popped up looking around at the fish moving like a wave past her. Some made for the shallows while others bolted for the river leaving the lake entirely. Glancing around her, the genasi started to swim back to shore. A bit more casual than he would have thought she would return; Shaelamee still seemed to be trying to find what had made the other creatures of the lake suddenly flee. It wasn't the girl since she had been there long enough and been ignored. Even now the fish swarmed past Shae without any apparent concern for her presence.

  Standing up as much as he could on the back of the salamander, Alec thought that he saw a large dark shape in the water. As he watched the center of the lake seemed to rise up in a bulge that began heading towards the fish, shore and more importantly Shaelamee.

  "There's something in the lake. It's big," the boy warned the dragon man watching beside him.

  "Where...?" Helios started to ask and rose up in the stirrups atop his mount as well.

  Pointing in the direction of the massive bulge moving towards Shaelamee, the large blue eyes narrowed before Helios chanted a quick spell. A frosty looking blue ray lanced out over the head of the girl swimming towards them striking the water ahead of the moving swell. Ice formed on the surface of the lake where the beam struck making a slab a few feet across and a couple inches thick.

  The water swept the ice aside never slowing its pace as it closed on the girl swimming for shore. It had been less to stop whatever remained hidden beneath the surface than to warn Shaelamee of the threat pursuing her.

  A second ray struck out aiming closer to the bulge of water and surprisingly it disappeared from sight letting the lake settle back down with only the disturbance of waves spreading out from the bulge's descent. Both men continued to watch over their friend as she picked up the pace hurrying towards them just beneath the surface of the lake making a much smaller ripple than whatever had been pursuing her.

  Something suddenly lashed out. Shae's movement reversed. A hand flicked out of the water only to be sucked under leaving just a ripple where it had been.

  "What happened? Did something grab her?" Alec asked worriedly.

  "Can you breathe under water?" the silver dragon man countered instead of answering his question.

  "No..." he began.

  "Then stay here with the salamanders. Keep an eye out for the hollows and run if you must."

  "What about you?" Alec wondered both confused and still worrying over Shaelamee who remained somewhere beneath the water.

  Instead of answering, Helios chanted a new spell that lifted him off of the salamander. Watching him use a flying spell that didn't involve any wings like the dragon mage spell he had seen used at White Hall, Alec was shocked to see the silver sorcerer jet out over the lake hovering about fifteen feet above the surface of the water. He watched Helios searching for Shaelamee circling around the spot that they had last seen the girl.

  A green lig
ht burst flashed under the water and a second one followed. Water sprayed upward like a splash of a fist sized stone dropped from above. It made Helios pause in his circling and the dragon cast another spell into the lake striking the same point. To Alec's eyes, this looked more like a ghostly skeletal hand lancing out from the clawed fingers of the dragon man. Where it struck, the spraying water seemed to crystallize turning to snow before dropping back into the lake.

  Another burst of green light flickered beneath the surface, but it seemed like it was deeper than before. Helios looked uncertain as he hovered holding another spell by the apparent blue glow around his right hand. Without a target, however, the sorcerer could do nothing more than wait and look for the genasi or whatever had taken her.

  When the massive water whip lanced out wrapping around the dragon man's legs, Alec jumped in surprise. Helios was dragged down splashing into the lake even as he released another blue beam of cold into the attacking tendril. Ice formed too slowly for the sorcerer and he disappeared beneath the surface of the lake like Shaelamee, but it didn't grow calm. Two more flashes of green light preceded explosions from the surface of the lake. Water sprayed for dozens of feet around each break. Blue light joined that of the green.

  Helios suddenly lanced out of the water. His flight spell still in effect, the silver dragon sent several more beams of cold into the lake. Splashes flew up towards him as well while Alec could never make out the actual source for the disturbance. Green light continued to make explosions regularly and Helios surprised the boy by diving back into the lake once more. This time by choice, the dragon man's magic could be seen flashing amongst that of the green light.

  A roar, as the lake burst with a sight like Alec had never seen before, echoed across the water reaching the novice easily. It was like nothing the wizard had even heard of either, even from the legends he had listened to as a child.

  Several sickly gray colored tentacles whipped in the air above a large round body. Eyes on stalks shook above a large toothy maw that was the source of the cry.

  Out of the water Helios soared once more firing an assortment of the cold blue rays and the clawing ghost hands into the monster. Shaelamee suddenly could be seen gripped by another of the tentacles as she fired green eldritch blasts into the thick, gray hide of this beast. Each blast left a scorch mark on its body, but it clung to the girl no matter how hard she tried to break its grip with her magic.

  A sword suddenly appeared in Shae's right hand. It looked solid, but it had formed from nowhere. Green flame lashed out from the sword as she cut at the tentacle holding her. A second flame bounced off catching fire on another tentacle as if she had intentionally made it ricochet to the second body part.

  Ice formed on its hide as Helios continued to attack the monster from above, while the green flames tried to burn it in turn. A tentacle tried to catch the silver dragon again, but he was able to dodge even as he continued to fire down at the gray flesh of the beast.

  Shaelamee cast a pair of green bolts towards the eyes burning one badly. It roared screams of pain, but refused to let his prey go even though she continued to hurt the monster. It was tough, but the two magic users kept wearing it down with their spells.

  When it finally released the girl, Shaelamee seemed to land on the water. Her feet found a surface that she was somehow able to stand on as she continued to fight the monster which had thought her a choice meal. A tentacle lashed out knocking her back where the girl splashed into the water this time. The surface broke as it should, but Shae recovered after a moment to jump back out of the water. She ran on the surface of the lake like it was land continuing to rain more of the green beams and flame on its exposed flesh until the monster retreated beneath the water for good.

  Alec hurried towards the girl hearing her gasping for air. As many spells as she had been able to continue to cast, the novice wizard would have assumed that Shae was fine; but seeing her face had turned a dark purple, he worried that she had sustained a nasty injury from the creature. It had certainly looked powerful and its tentacle had held her quite firmly for several minutes. He supposed that she had been lucky, however, since he had noted the large jagged teeth capable of tearing through flesh had never clamped down onto her body.

  Once Shaelamee reached shore, she began to frantically reach for the side of her armored breastplate. He could see a couple cracks in it, like it was a bug's carapace that been stepped on by a heavy boot. The lower two pieces attached to the main plate were crumpled with the lower band torn from the left side to hang from the remaining opposite pin.

  The chest armor came free dropping onto the dark sand of the shore exposing the blue skin of her upper body again. A dark blue bruise was already forming below her breasts, Alec noticed with a blush before the girl encircled her chest with her arms still gasping for breath.

  She noticed the boy start to look away in embarrassment and complained, "Can you not act like that? That monster half crushed me. You can at least give me a moment to try to catch my breath before giving me strange looks after it nearly squeezed the life out of me, Alec."

  Her words sounded breathless and he did his best not to appear as embarrassed as he was while lifting his eyes to her face. She was pretty, even though the girl was a blue skinned genasi. If her skin was the color of his, Alec doubted that anyone would be able to tell her from a human. Well, the color and the odd amount of water seeming to cling to her skin even after exiting the lake were certainly not normal for a human, he reminded himself again.

  "Is anything broken?" he asked with concern.

  Her eyes closed a moment as she concentrated internally considering the damage. Alec noticed the blue lids with her dark lashes of the same shade as her hair. They appeared as dry as a human girl's might, which seemed odd since he could imagine that the lashes could grow wet from tears easily enough. In spite of her pain and probable injury, the genasi didn't have tears in her eyes at all; he noted.

  Hands shifted from her breasts to gingerly test her ribs and abdomen where she was bruised with her fingers, Shae winced when she pressed in a couple places. He wondered if the girl had any healing magic, since he had none to give. His eyes hadn't spotted any spells other than the odd green bursts of light and the flames projected from her hands so far; though she had used the transportation magic across the courtyard to the tower when he had met her the day before. None of what she had done so far led him to believe that she could use healing magic, however. In fact, it was rumored that healing wizards couldn't use damaging spells and still heal. It was why he couldn't think of any healers that used fire spells beyond that of lighting a lamp, he supposed.

  Shaking her head, the genasi opened her eyes focusing the green windows of her soul on him as she replied, "I don't think anything is broken, but I am certainly bruised. That beast caught me in the lake and just tried to squeeze the life out of me." She sighed and Alec noted her hands shift back to her breasts as she complained in a surprisingly revealing way, "Gods, even my boobs hurt!"

  Movement from above them and towards the lake caused the two to look at the Zmaj descending from the sky like a silver knight to land beside them.

  "It has disappeared. The Catliss is both large and deep enough for even a creature that big to evade my searching from above," Helios informed them sounding disappointed in himself.

  "What was that thing, Helios? I've never seen anything quite like it," Shaelamee asked still sounding out of breath though the color in her face was returning to her usual shade of blue now that she could breathe properly again.

  "I believe it was..." the dragon man closed his eyes trying to access his much earlier memories of studying about his old home world, "...a bulmara."

  The word didn't seem to have any similar translation for Alec to hear and even Shaelamee looked confused by the word. "A bulmara?"

  Shrugging, Helios replied, "Well, that is what I believe my people used to call it. The bulmara aren't that commonly found, especially inland in a fresh water lake.
"

  "Well, whatever it is called. The creature is dangerous. We may need to ask Ediyem to let us form a larger team to kill it," the genasi complained sounding a bit angry.

  "Is that just you wanting a little revenge for nearly being eaten by it?" Helios asked sounding surprisingly amused by the thought.

  She waved his question off as Shaelamee knelt beside the battered chest plates. Her fingers found the cracks and could even pass through them. While Shae was both slender and small, as were her fingers, the cracks were noticeably large in contrast. Alec thought that they almost looked larger than before the girl had dropped it to the ground and wondered if the contact had actually managed to do more harm to the armor.

  A small hiss after stretching her hand towards it signaled Shaelamee pulling the hand back to her ribs again. She rubbed her right side below her breasts showing the pain.

  The girl glanced to Helios and said, "This armor is shot. I don't even know if a good smith could fix this. I might need to look into finding a new one."

  Switching stances, Shae sat down with her legs crossed and closed her eyes for a moment before asking the dragon man, "Can we spare a little time for me to rest? Sometimes soaking in water can help heal my people faster."

  Helios looked up at the clouds and considered where the light might be in comparison to where they stood or sat. "If we keep moving, we might make it to the valley and back to be in our own beds again by the evening. On the other hand, if we don't find anything causing these hollows or making them act so strangely; then we will have to set up camp anyway, so getting there quickly might not matter."

  He looked at the girl sitting on the ground wearing her armored skirt and a pair of bracers on her wrists. Shaelamee still massaged her ribs and breasts gently as if the attention might make the damage to her ribs go away.

  "I guess we can wait. If we are attacked again, and you can heal up a bit, you will be better in a fight if we run into one."