by Mussie Haile
Meko chuckled. “Psychics read spirits, not the human mind. I understand how frustrating this can be. You know, once, I was in the same spot as you are in now.”
“Yeah?” Eldana replied, her face brightening.
“Yes,” Meko agreed. “You see, telepathy is not as easy as Kochob makes it seem. But my difficulty was not strictly with telepathy,” Meko said. “It was that I could not control nature.”
“What?” Eldana asked with incredulity, then burst into laughter, for the elf to join in.
“You do not mean it,” Eldana said.
“I am serious,” Meko replied.
“But I thought, as elves, the power to manipulate nature comes to you easily, like, well, second nature.”
“True,” Meko replied with a smirk. “But with me it was different. Imagine how I must have felt. All my mates were growing flowers and causing them to bloom, weaving vines into furniture and whatnot, and I was still struggling to make a flower bud open!”
Eldana laughed, for Meko to join in (with some little chagrin).
“It sounds banal and ridiculous now. But it was a huge problem for me.”
“I can only imagine,” Eldana said. “So, what helped you?”
“I had to ease myself. Relieve me of thoughts, and whatever weight was clouding my focus,” Meko said. “You know, right now, nothing will make you feel so light and free than a swim.”
Eldana looked eager.
“Oh, please do point me to where I can get one. There is nothing more I need at the moment.”
“There is a pond not too far from here,” Meko said. “You just have to go straight through there.” Meko pointed to the left of where they stood.
“I do not have to make any turns?” Eldana asked.
“No. None at all. You just move straight. The land rises from here to there though.”
Eldana smiled appreciatively. “Thank you, Meko. Really.”
“Do not thank me yet. Thank me when you have felt better.”
Eldana smiled. “Well, I best get back to my mother. She likes to have me around.” Meko said.
“I will see you later, then,” Eldana said.
“Later,” Meko corroborated.
Eldana watched Meko disappear into the trees and smiled.
She is so friendly, she thought. Eldana realized that the hostility that Meko had displayed earlier was just the result of distrust. At least now she saw that the company were peaceful.
Eldana turned and went through the direction Meko had pointed out. Just as Meko had said, the land began to rise. Eldana had never heard of this section of the Ciroc before. However, she had never had cause to be here in the past. The atmosphere gradually eased into one of a humid chill.
I must be getting close, Eldana thought. As she walked, she thought she heard a thunk from the woods to her left. She turned and saw nothing. Leaving no stone unturned, she reached out with her mind, feeling psychically for any objects in the region. She felt rocks, squirrels, birds, but nothing more. She brought her mind back to herself and walked on.
Soon, she began to hear the sound of crashing. The crashing grew louder as she walked closer until she came to a chasm at the bottom of which lay clear blue water. She looked to her left, and saw a river that stretched out from the horizon, and fell into the pool beneath as a waterfall.
Excellent, Eldana thought, feeling a flush of excitement.
She turned around, looking for any path that might lead down to the pool. She found one soon enough, a trail through the brush. She followed it until she broke out the trees and into a small band of sand which the pool lapped at. She stood for a moment, staring at the crystalline brightness of the water, then she pulled off her boots, and sunk her feet into the soft wet sand. Eldana exhaled from the feeling of coolness that wrapped her feet.
Smiling, she unfastened the studs on her shirt, folded it neatly, and placed it on her boots. Her trouser followed, and so did her underwear. She walked to the edge of the pool and dipped a foot in to measure the temperature of the water. It was just the right amount of cool. She took a few steps backward, took a breath, then ran and sprang into the water. She broke its surface with a splash.
The ripples that Eldana had formed from breaking into the water were just beginning to settle when she re-emerged from the depths. She gasped and smiled with delight.
“Oh, Meko, a thank you is not enough for this.” She said aloud.
Eldana whooped and dove back in. She took longer this time to re-emerge, and when she did, she was no more in search of air, as she was the first time. Her face was an emblem of glee and satisfaction. She waved her arms back and forth through the water, as she stayed afloat. Then she closed her eyes and let her thoughts drift. The past came back, like the water, into her mind and bringing Sinto’s picture before her. She hated him now, yet, she could not help but remember the times she had caught him staring pityingly at her. She sighed, letting the peace of the water seep into her, to wash the ugly feelings away.
A sound woke Eldana with a start. For a moment she had fallen asleep right there in the water! Her eyes flew open to stare fully into the sun before she flinched and shut her eyes. She turned away from the sun and opened her eyes slowly.
She was about to turn, and go for her clothes when the sound came repeated; a thud. Quickly, she turned, just in time to see something, a creature lying a few meters away from her, at the foot of the ascent that led out of the chasm. The creature was huge, almost the size of a brown bear. Eldana’s heart pounded.
What’s that? She asked herself.
The creature had hairy gray skin, covering a well-muscled frame. Just then, it grunted, shook, and got to its feet.
Eldana was silent all the while, watching the creature stand to its towering height, and then it turned, and she saw its face, broad, and long, with teeth like an array of miniature tusks...
Orc!
The creature roared and jumped towards Eldana. Without thinking, Eldana raised a wave of water and smashed the orc back to the edge. The orc spluttered and wiped its huge hands on its face. But it charged again. This time, Eldana raised water out of the pond in the form of a tentacle, and hurled it at the advancing orc, almost at the same time, that she muttered a spell. The tentacle of water became solid ice in mid-air and speared through the orc. The impact was so heavy, it knocked the orc back to the band of land circling the pond.
Eldana watched the orc twitch, and gurgle as blood gushed from its mouth, then it stilled. Her heart was pounding fast.
What is an orc doing here? She asked herself, before panic caught at her. The elves!
Eldana scrambled out of the water and was about to reach for her clothes when a fist smashed into her from behind. Eldana tumbled to the ground. She heard laughter in a very gruff voice, and fear spread through her blood like cold water. She groaned and tried to stand to her feet. But a kick to her ribs sent her flying to the edge of the water. Eldana lay, struggling to breathe beyond the stinging pain in her lungs. A large hand clasped around her neck and raised her into the air. She opened her eyes a little and stared directly into the face of an orc. But it was not just one orc. There were three of them.
The orc gave her a toothy grin. “See?” It roared to the others. “She is still alive.”
“And naked.” One of the orcs said, laughing mischievously.
The orc holding Eldana gave her a lecherous glare, and she felt the dire urge to vomit.
All the while, Eldana had been staring at the orc, keeping it focused on her, while she pulled out the shard of ice she had used to impale the other orc with her mind.
She roared, hurling the shard of ice at the orc holding her with her mind, for it to pierce the back of his head, and out of his mouth. The orc’s grip loosened, and Eldana fell to the ground.
The remaining orcs stared, stupefied, at their fellow as he cr
ashed to the ground. If Eldana were hale, then this would be a window of opportunity that she would have utilized to finish off the orc hunting party, but sadly, she was not. Blood spilled from her mouth, and she could feel her strength waning. Fear gripped Eldana tightly, she choked with it. She did not have the strength to mutter a spell or manipulate any of the elements with her magic.
She saw the remaining two orcs turn and face her, their eyes filled with such malignancy. Tears dropped down the sides of her eyes.
No, she thought. Please, No.
The orcs began to approach.
In the last bid of defiance and desperation, Eldana screamed, and stretched her mind out, seeking to slam into the orcs. Suddenly, Eldana’s mind was filled with foreign thoughts and images. They were so much, that they induced a feeling of giddiness. She retched and cried because the motion hurt badly. Her mind was piqued when she noticed that the thoughts and images were centerd on her. It was then that it dawned on her. She was in a foreign mind.
She looked up at the orcs and saw that they stood still, like inanimate objects. Eldana began to laugh, and then she lapsed into a fit of painful coughing. And then she cried. She tottered between elation, relief, and pain.
Eldana had just successfully become a telepath. She looked at the orcs, whose eyes were still trained on her, and she felt a spike in their thoughts. Their thoughts had just moved from one of malice and aggression to full-blown fear.
I’ll show you fear, she thought.
She forced her mind to go deeper, throwing aside any consideration that Kochob had admonished that the telepath has. The thoughts became clearer, and then Eldana touched something else. It was like a minute incorporeal mass. The thoughts seemed to emanate from there into the larger space. Intuitively, Eldana knew that this was their essence, the very core of their minds. This was what controlled their bodily movements. She latched on to it with her mind and fed it new thoughts.
Eldana watched with a cold stare, as the orcs turned mechanically towards each other and began to claw and bite at themselves. Eldana’s eyes stayed on them, even as they ripped pieces of their flesh out, and sprayed blood everywhere. She watched until they fell to the ground, dead from exhaustion and the gravity of their wounds. Eldana sighed, and breathed softly, so she would not aggravate her broken ribs.
I have to get back, she told herself.
Slowly, she placed her hands on the floor, heaving, and wincing with the pain that the effort had caused. After so many trials, she was able to use her hands as support, to lift herself off the ground. The pain was too grievous to let her stand straight, so she walked to her clothes in a slouch with one hand free, and the other arm pressed gently to the side of her ribs that hurt.
With her free hand, she managed to put on her clothes, and then she trudged up and out of the chasm. The walk back to the elves’ settlement was difficult, and she often stopped to catch her breath but she kept moving anyways. As she went on, she established telepathic communications with squirrels, birds, badgers, and any other animal she could connect with. Their minds were different from the orcs. They did not have coherent thoughts as the orc did. Their mind worked with sensations and impressions. So she impressed on them her desire for directions back to where the elves were and also asked them if there were any orcs ahead. The animals, though wary of her presence, sent back images of the forests, leading up to the elvish settlements. But none came back with any sense of more orcs in the forests. She moved on anyways.
It was not long afterwards that she came to the spot where she had met Meko earlier.
How quickly things change, Eldana wondered, instead of the usual tranquillity that had pervaded this part of the Ciroc, the princess’s feelings were now tinged with what she had just experienced.
What was supposed to have been a quest for relief, as Meko had suggested, had turned out as something much worse. As Eldana went further into the familiar ground, her ears began to pick the clamor of steel, and shouting voices. And when she broke into the home clearing of the elves, she saw a sizeable band of orcs engaged in a battle with elves. Some of the orcs had fallen, but so had some of the elves. Eldana heard a loud maniacal roar and turned to see Hermon battling an especially large orc. Hermon had transformed, his eyes were black. Yet he had not gone full berserker (surely for fear of shortening his life span). In the commotion, Eldana was uncertain of which side was winning. But it seemed to her like the orcs were growing more aggressive with every passing moment.
Eldana limped forward, and just then saw an orc about to bludgeon an elf who he had succeeded in knocking to the ground. Immediately, she infiltrated the orc’s mind and fed it a new instruction. The orc dropped its striking arm, and turning away from the fallen elf, walked towards one of its kind, and caved his head in with their club. But Eldana was far from done. She controlled the orc, and sent it ahead to smash the heads of its kin. One, two, three. But then the fourth one was not as unsuspecting as the other three. He dodged the blow of the orc Eldana controlled and sent his sword through the other orc’s skull. Without wasting time, Eldana infiltrated his mind and continued using him to finish off his own.
Just then a voice spoke in her mind.
Eldana?
She recognized that voice. It was Kochob’s. She could not see him, but she knew he was the one.
How many are they? She asked back.
About thirty or so, Kochob replied we are trying to hold them off so Fraweyni can get the others to safety.
How are you doing this? Kochob asked after a pause. I can feel your mind. You are controlling them.
You are a good teacher? Eldana replied knowing this was not the whole truth. Her training was paying off, or perhaps it was the situation she found herself in that brought her spiked her powers.
So you becoming better than me that quick? She heard him asking. Without trying to discuss this point in a middle of fighting, she tried to get real answers.
Do you know why they are here? She thought was more important. Kochob did not answer immediately but when he did, she felt a slight nauseating feeling in her stomach.
Chaos is spreading. Chaos is spreading really fast.
She put an answer aside for later and focused back on the fight. Eldana’s orc was killed, and just before she could gain control of another mind, she heard a roar behind her. Years of training kicked in, and Eldana threw herself to the side. If she had stayed there a second longer, she would have been impaled. She groaned in pain and turned to face the orc, who looked at her with a spark in his eyes like she was an amusing prey. The orc had seen her from within the fray and had connected her actions, whatever it was, to the unusual behaviour a few of his kin was beginning to manifest. So, he snuck off into the cover of the woods and stole towards Eldana.
“I am Grib, son of Grab.” He growled. “Orcs are impervious to magic. But if your magic worked on some of us, it will not work on me. You will die.”
“This is not magic, you foul beast.” Eldana cussed and stabbed into Grib’s mind.
She was alarmed at the level of resistance she felt. Grib’s mind was fortified, as if by a wall. He smiled knowingly at her.
“The sons of Grab do not lie. You shall surely die.” He growled with excitement.
Just then, Eldana remembered what Kochob had said about protected minds. With all the strength in her, she raised a spike of earth from beside Grib. The quick movement of the earth beside him caused him to look. Intensifying the force of her mind, Eldana speared through his distracted defense. The last thing that flashed through his mind as he became hers was horror and regret. Eldana sent him stampeding back into the fight, and she watched as he immediately started lopping off heads. The orcs began to notice that they were not just fighting against the elves, but also themselves. Their numbers were beginning to dwindle with Eldana jumping from mind to mind when the body of the mind she controlled was struck down.
The orcs tried to beat a retreat, but the elves adroitly surrounded them, and soon not one orc was left standing. Eldana staggered, as she heard someone call her name from the group of elves standing over the fallen orcs. She thought it sounded like Siem. The orcs turned and caught sight of Eldana, her shirt soaked in blood. Eldana was suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of exhaustion. Every part of her body complained; her mind clouded. She began to feel the air constrict like walls were sprouting from all around her and coming together to hem her in. Darkness began to eat up her vision, before it swallowed her whole.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Journey Continues
It was dark when Eldana came to back to her senses. Her eyes opened, and she stared at the flat roof of the infirmary. She heard movement to her side and tried to move. Sharp pain spiked from her ribs, causing her to hiss.
“She’s awake,” somebody said.
Immediately, Siem was there at her side.
“Hey,” she greeted, her eyes tearing with concern, and the hurt she felt for her friend. “How are you feeling?”
Eldana looked at Siem and smiled. “Well, I am not dead?” She replied. “Is everyone okay? Hermon?”
Siem nodded. “Everyone is okay. They are all here.”
Just then, Hermon, D’rmas, and Mikko edged into her vision. They had smiles on their faces. D’rmas inclusive. Eldana could not help but wonder how odd the smile made him look. She had seen him laugh. And that was the only way he expressed his excitement. But this was new.
“Wow. I must be dead. D’rmas has a smile on his face.” Eldana said, expressing her surprise.
D’rmas chuckled.
“The smile is not the only thing,” Hermon said. “This piece of rock here has softened. And it all happened when Siem began to give him massages.”
Eldana widened her eyes in surprise.
“Massages?” she asked looking at Siem. “How come I never knew of this!?”
Siem smiled.
“You were too busy with being of Balance and Chaos stuff.” She replied.