“What did you say?” Berg asks Mai.
“I said this has got to be a dream, why?” she repeats.
“I think that you might touch on the reason. For us, it is a dream, but for them, this is real,” Berg responds. They think about that for a while before they decide that has to be the commonality. But the importance of the statement eludes them. Tera suggests that it’s not real for the three of them, and it is for her and Ericka. “If we went to your world, the roles would be reversed.” The rest nod their heads in agreement, still not fully understanding how or why it works, as they drift off to sleep.
They follow the lakeshore all day, and the only change is it becomes wider, and the bugs become annoying. They come across a well-worn trail that leads from the forest to the lakeshore. Mashaun and Tera study the trail for some time, trying to discern the different tracks. There are mostly cloven hooves with large cats, dogs, Tsaub, and some soft shoe prints. Tera sees the Tsaub’ tracks and starts to say something, when Mashaun puts his hand over her mouth, telling her to be quiet. He chooses not to tell them about the Tsaub, giving Tera a cold stare. He points out the shoe prints about the same size as his own and she nods. The sun has begun to set behind those eastern mountains. They make camp about a hundred feet off the trail, and they will decide on whether to follow the trail or the lake in the morning. Ericka and Berg will take the first watch, then Tera, Mai, and Mashaun the last as they settle in for the night.
Shortly before sunrise, Mashaun hears voices coming down the trail. He quickly, quietly, wakes everybody, douses the fire and they move off into the cover of the woods. Mashaun tells them to stay put and moves to where he can get a better look at the trail without giving his position away. Soon a dozen or so short stocky creatures with various shades of green gray skin come casually walking down the trail. He can’t see their feet through the underbrush but sees them carrying crude slings, spears, and swords. Sitting atop a scrawny neck, are disproportionately large heads, allowing them the ability to turn their heads like an owl. Most of them only wear a fur loincloth with a couple wearing fur from the shoulders down. “Ork? I thought they were all but wiped out!” “Apparently not,” Mashaun replies.
Just then, the orks stop and smell the air as if trying to catch a scent. Soon several of them head off through the woods straight toward the camp. They go right to the campsite, calling one dressed in a full-length fur. They exchange a few words that no one understands. The orks fan out and start beating the underbrush, trying to flush them out.
“You can’t let them find them! They won’t survive that long if captured. Ork is known for being viciously cruel and without mercy,” she tells Mashaun.
“Great, there are a bunch of them and only one of me. I think I should give them a chance to surrender first,” he says sarcastically. Then he has an idea.
He breaks cover and fires an arrow at one of the leaders, hitting him square in the chest. The ork stands there momentarily, not realizing what has happened. Then it crumbles to the ground in a heap, stunning the orks before they start looking around. During the delay, Mashaun moves to a different place where he launches another arrow at one of the orks on the trail, dropping it like a sack of bricks. From a different direction, Tera fires an arrow at one on the trail. This works—draws all of them to the new attack. Again, he quickly moves, but this time, they either hear or smell him and heads in his direction. Mashaun hears an arrow whiz by him, hitting an ork. Swinging around, he sees Tera. He is both upset and glad to see her, and they split up to confuse the orks.
When the orks start charging into the woods, Mai wants to go and help, but Berg puts his hand on her shoulder and quietly tells her, “Stay put, that is what he wants us to do. Besides, the two of them are more than a match.” Mai lies there with her head in her hands, quietly whispering, “This is not real.” That gives Berg an idea, and he tells Mai to do the same except visualize that they are under a rock. Mai looks at him for a minute before realizing what he is saying. They put Ericka in the middle, and soon Berg joins her with the vision of them being hidden, hoping that by putting Ericka in the middle, it would hide all of them.
Mashaun finds another spot to hide. After a moment, he drops another ork and slips farther away from the camp. Tera and he work well as a team, always managing to cover each other’s back. This continues several times. Once they almost found him, but Dalistra tells him they are near, so he hides in some thick underbrush as he hears one drop, drawing their attention toward him. He hears them as they noisily walk by within just a few feet of him. When they are a safe distance away, he scrambles to a new place at the base of a tree when one breaks out of the brush. With no time to hide, he draws his sword, but Dalistra tells him to remember Tera’s story. At first, it baffles him, but then he remembers the ability to hide in plain sight. He backs up to a tree and freezes, visualizing being part of the tree. Tera, being ready to fire, watches as Mashaun fades into the tree. The ork walks right by, passing less than an arm’s length away, unaware that its life or death is so close. Tera shakes her head with bewilderment.
Suddenly he has a new strategy. He finds a large tree with low branches to climb and hides in it until they are gone. Tera drops a few more before disappearing into the underbrush, making her way back to the others. He is able to watch the campsite in the distance, and there appears to be one milling around while they make a litter to carry their dead. It takes some time before the orks give up the search and return the way they came with their dead. Tera gets back to where she left the rest only to find a large rock that she sits on to get her bearings. Once the orks are out of sight, Mashaun returns to the group and finds Tera sitting on a rock until Mai gets up, and Tera falls on Ericka. Berg helps them up, with Tera a little embarrassed about landing on Ericka. At first, Ericka is furious at Tera until Mai tells her what happened when she starts to laugh about the rock.
Quiet as a mouse they walk down the trail for a while without seeing a thing. Making sure the orks don’t return with reinforcements. They rest just off the trail around noon, figuring that the orks are long gone by now. Ericka asks what happened. The all look at each other and swap stories of the near misses, putting the pieces together as to how the Orks missed them. They realize how Mashaun, Mai, and Berg could find trails and ledges that weren’t there. Mai asks about living in a dream.
“Let’s assume that we are living in a dream, and then we are not confined to the natural laws that Tera and Ericka must follow,” Berg rationalizes.
“But you have to visualize and believe it to work,” Mai follows.
“Yes, that is why the trail disappeared because Ericka didn’t see it, and she put the doubt into our minds,” Mashaun surmises.
“That explains everything,” Berg says excitedly.
Ericka realizes that they would have a better chance on their own, but she also knew that if she left, she would not survive by herself. She knows that Tera can take care of herself, and if they went together, she would have a better chance, but either way, she did not want to leave the group.
They have become family and friends.
“What about me?” Ericka fearfully asks them.
“What about you?” Mashaun asks her, sensing her anxiety. Dalistra doesn’t care one way or another. However, Ericka and Tera are competition for Mai, and she secretly likes that.
“Well, you could have made it out of the pit sooner had it not been for me, and I have nothing to offer the group. Berg, you are smart, one of the smartest people I know. Mai, you are pretty and the best non-magical healer in the land. Mashaun, you wield a bow like no other, and you are at home here,” as Ericka raises her arms, gesturing toward the forest. “Tera, you also are excellent with a bow, but what do I have to offer? I have been a slave for most of my life. I am thankful to you for giving my sister and me our freedom, but I have nothing to offer you but what I was taught as a slave,” Ericka says tearfully.
Mai is quick to put her arms around Ericka. “Are you kidding? You a
re a better cook than all of us put together and a good, no, the best cook out here, which is worth your weight in gold. But more importantly, I like having someone who can throw balls of energy. You are family.” Mashaun, Dalistra, and Berg are surprised to see Mai jump so quickly to Ericka’s defense but are glad to see it also.
Even though they haven’t seen any orks since this morning, they set up a cold camp and bed down for the night. Without the fire, the bugs are an annoyance, making it hard to get any sleep; otherwise, it is a long, quiet night. After a cold breakfast, which Ericka is more than happy to prepare, they head down the trail. It takes only a few hours before they smell burning wood. At first, they think that the forest is on fire—it is too strong to be a campfire. They hurriedly run down the trail to see if they can view the source, almost running right into a city of orks. Mashaun manages to stop them before entering the clearing, forcing them into the tall grasses on the fringe of the tree line. “Almost wiped out? It doesn’t look like it.” Mashaun thinks. Dalistra is dumbfounded for the first time since he took her out of the cave.
From the ground, they see numerous buildings made of wood and wattle, ranging from one to three stories tall. The closest one appears to be shorter and newer; the ones behind, with several streets leading into the town and a trail becoming the main road. Over the roof of the buildings, something reflects the sunlight somewhere behind the buildings. Mashaun climbs to the top of one of the trees to get a better look. From the treetops, Mashaun sees over the rows of buildings and gets a good view at just how big the town really is. There must be twenty thousand orks living there. In the middle is a tower over six stories tall. The surrounding buildings are only five stories tall and get gradually shorter until the closest ones are only one story, forming a pyramid of buildings.
The tallest building has a round, flat dome, similar to a radar dome that sparkles in the sun. Within the rows of four-story buildings are two silver globes on spikes and two more on the outside corners of town. He cannot see the other side of the town but assumes that there are two more on the other side of the city. He climbs down and tells the others. They look on with disbelief. One by one, they climb the tree to have a look, and each one is amazed at the structures and organization of the city. Berg tells them that shows a high level of intelligence and sophistication, wanting to talk with them. The rest of the group tells him that is not a good idea.
They move deeper into the forest before setting up camp for the night. It is going to be a long and cold night again. They take turns watching the city, feeling a bit uneasy being so close to thousands of orks. When the first moon begins to peek over the trees, they watch in amazement as the city shimmers and fades disappearing in the moonlight leaving only the clearing. The trail seems to pass through the clearing with a few side trails. There is no smell of burning wood or smoke rising from where the city should be.
They want to go down and see if it is gone or just hidden like the cave like when they first arrived—that seems like a lifetime ago. They try throwing sticks and rocks, but it’s too far away. Mashaun fires an arrow that disappears toward the end of its flight. Just when they think it is safe, a squad of orks appears on the road and fan out, searching the brush. They scramble back into the forest before each finds a tree to climb with their stuff to spend the night. Tera and Mashaun are ready if the orks find anybody, but after a short time, they return to the safety of the invisible city. Dalistra tells Mashaun that might explain why they were thought to be wiped out—they can’t be found at night.
The next morning, as the moon fades from the sky, the ork city reappears. Mashaun finds an animal trail that circumvents the city. They can catch glimpses of it as they slowly make their way down the trail. Berg is busy looking at the city when they come across a log lying on the clean trail. A close inspection reveals a series of trip wires should anything go around it, leaving, going over, which would make them visible to anybody in the city watching.
They backtrack for nearly half an hour before heading deeper into the forest, realizing that the orks are more creative and cunning than first thought. Travel is slow through the thick branches of the willow like trees that grow like unyielding tall bushes, forcing them to retrace their steps and choose a different route many times during the day. By the time the light begins to fade, they are not sure which direction or how far the city lies. The thick canopy prevents them from using the star cluster or the sun for directions, casting a solid shadow all day. For several days, they hunt and pick, go forward only to find a thicket, forcing them to backtrack once again. They break out of the forest only to find a clearing with a small city in the middle. Somehow, they are at the other end of the city.
They sit down tired, dirty, and disgusted that they spent days fighting branches, insects, exhaustion, and even their own sanity only to find themselves back at the ork city. Mashaun sits placing his head in his hands. In all his years of wilderness adventures, this is the first time that he has been that turned around, making him frustrated with himself.
As if to add insult to injury, it starts to rain, turning into a downpour, and he just sits there, shaking his head in disbelief. It doesn’t take long for them to become cold and wet to the bone, which forces them back into the forest to set up camp. Once they get the canopy over them and Mashaun finally gets a fire going, their spirits improve. Tera tells them that at least they don’t stink anymore, and they moan with a slight chuckle at her attempt to make light of the situation.
By morning, the rain has stopped, but the clouds hang just over the trees with the tops of a few taller ones vanishing in the clouds. The choice is simple: follow the road that leaves away from the city, and if it takes them back to the lake, then so be it. The muddy road makes movement slow and treacherous with no way to hide their tracks. Over the next few hours, the road narrows becoming a path then an animal trail. At the lakeshore, they come to several small abandoned buildings next to a river at least a hundred feet wide. Nobody thinks much about the fact that the river is flowing toward the mountains or that it’s obviously higher than normal.
Only that it offers them some shelter and protection, something they have not had for a long time. With the dark clouds still low, looking as though it could rain again at any moment, the group decides to make camp until the weather breaks. By early afternoon, they find a building that still has most of the roof, with the walls still standing. Ericka finds what looks like an old pier that has collapsed into the river. There are a couple of boats sitting on the river bottom, their ropes, and wood rotting away.
By evening, Mashaun finds some fresh meat while the rest of them put some finishing touches on the shelter. During the meal, Ericka suggests that they build a boat and go down the river. Berg unrolls the map on the floor and studies it for a while with the others looking on. By now, the map is showing the wear and tear of many months on the road. The best he can tell is that they are still going the right direction, but the river would take them the wrong way, but he is also tired of walking, as are they all. They awake the next morning to a light rain that continues all day, giving the group time to relax. Mashaun doesn’t like just sitting around—never did— and goes exploring while the others enjoy the downtime in the comfort of the shelter. Berg continues to study the map and the notebook, while Tera and Ericka talk about their homes across the mountains. Mai enjoys the time off and wonders about her friends back home and the test she was supposed to take.
That afternoon, Mashaun stumbles across an upside-down boat made of overlapping slats. It is about fifteen feet long and three feet wide. Cautiously looking underneath, he finds it dry and in good condition. He wonders how long it has been there, whom it belongs to, and if they are still around. He hunts around for any tracks or signs that will give him a clue but doesn’t find any. The rains have washed away any traces that the owners of the boat might have left. Remembering that by believing, the three of them can see things that are not there. He takes Ericka back to the boat, asking her if she se
es it also. When she touches the boat, they are excited; it is real, and they don’t have to build a boat.
CHAPTER 26
The River
Several days later, the rain finally lets up; swelling the river even higher, and now the boat sits in about knee-deep muck and water. It takes the better part of an hour to uncover and turn it over, starting to float right away. They tie it to a nearby tree so the current doesn’t take it before they are ready. Attached inside is a curved handle the full length of the boat with a torpedo like device connected at an angle on one end. The device has runes carved into the wood with a hole running the full length. The boat has a short flat section on the back with a couple of straps that loop over the steering shaft, attaching it to the boat while giving it the freedom to swivel. Ericka loads the group’s gear into the boat, while Mai, Berg, and Mashaun go looking for a makeshift paddle. They search the forest full of trees and not a decent piece of wood for an oar. Mai is the last to return to the boat, running, flat out yelling at them to go.
Mashaun stands next to the boat with an arrow nocked and drawn, scanning the forest behind Mai for what is chasing her. Tera has an arrow ready to fly while standing in the boat. Berg takes the rudder and tells Ericka to cut the rope when Mai is in the boat. She takes a small ax and stands ready. Just as Mai gets to the water’s edge, a tsaub comes into view, then another and another. Mashaun and Tera each hit one, but they don’t slow down, a second, then a third arrow before dropping one as the Tsaub continue charging and throwing spears. There are ten or twelve of them barreling down on the boat only a few dozen yards away when Mai almost dives into the boat.
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