by J. Carrarn
No. She would have to become stronger, and hopefully, a useful pattern would unlock and present itself. If need be, she would find a way to end one of the Kaot Lords and take its mana-core. There had to be a pattern that would allow her to reach the rift!
Her determination didn't waver, and she focused on the mental image again.
I will return to Skulltown. I will go home.
--
Far away from where Sumil was making her silent vow, a small rift hung in the air above a deep pit. A lone Kaot was scouting around the edge of the crumbling ridge, hiding behind stones while sniffing the ground with an elongated, fanged snout.
A shape was ejected from the rift, hanging in midair for a split second before plummeting down into the deep pit.
"What the-"
The figure turned into a blue lightning beam that shot to the ground before reforming into a simple, white skeleton.
"Seriously?" Galg spat, his disembodied voice floating around his head, filled with distaste. He glared up at the hovering portal, his eye sockets flaring up for a moment.
"Damnit, Drys! Sending me out to scout for these stupid Rifts is one thing, but actually hurling me in here on some fool mission to find Sumil? Without even waiting to hear if I was willing to go? That's low, even for you!"
Galg looked around and noticed the Kaot that was staring at him. It was twice as long as him, bent low to the ground, and vaguely resembled a shadow stalker.
"What are you looking at, ugly?"
His words acted like a catalyst, and the Kaot sprang forward, growling softly as it pounded toward the much smaller skeleton.
"What's this? Haven't heard of Galg the Mighty, eh? Well, come on then, and see if you can get a piece!" Galg laughed, and when the Kaot launched itself at him, he turned into a blue bolt of lightning that shot through the leaping shape. A black, scorched, and smoking hole appeared in the middle of the Kaot's chest. It slammed into the ground, unmoving.
Galg appeared behind it and once looked at the still shape with an expression of disgust before scanning the horizon.
"Great, bloody great. And how, pray tell, oh mighty Drys, lord of Skulltown and all the lands around it, should I go about finding our long-lost Sumil in this nasty place?"
Galg let out an exasperated hiss.
"'I can't find Sig, Galg'. 'I can't find Sumil, Galg'. 'I can't find Solus, Galg'. Bah! Fine. I'll just take a quick look around. Perhaps I can pick up a mana-core while I'm here. Let's see if they can bully me around if I come back with a fancy new evolution!"
Taking one a last look at the portal, he disappeared into a blue lightning bolt that shot off into the distance.
About the author
J. Carrarn is a forty-year-old husband, and father of one who lives in the Netherlands. Most of the day, he sits behind a computer, solving software problems. For over thirty years, he has been spending his free time reading whatever fantasy and sci-fi he could get his hands on, from Tolkien to Dan Simons’ Hyperion. If he wasn’t reading, he was playing fantasy and sci-fi games.
Nowadays, the time he doesn’t read or write books, he spends with his wife and son, cooks Italian food, or ponders when corona will allow the gyms to re-open.
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Thank you for reading book two in the Nothing but bones series! Depending on the response it gets there will be a third book, hopefully this year.
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