The Travelers' Song

by Brendan O'Gara

  Running at a moderate pace, Thalin and Gadlin took notice of the forest. The canopy was eclipsed by poplar, beech, and hazel. Their crowns allowed cascading light to shimmer through the branches for a collection of saplings to grow on the sloped and slanted ground below. Thin vines clung to many trees, and a mishmash of flowers claimed quiet corners and added colorful variety to the otherwise monotone scenery. None of the men spoke as they kept pace with Gadlin, who seemed to not tire out even before the true fight began.

  Noises of small creatures and the song of birds brightened up the forest, accompanied by the trickling sounds of a gentle stream. While maneuvering over broken terrain of low hills and scattered stone, Johan giggled from time to time. After a short time, Gadlin decided that the woods started to look familiar. He also noticed that he could no longer hear the animals he’d heard just moments before. Gadlin halted the troop. They gathered close to Gadlin, who turned to Johan. “Pray tell what is it that has you in fits of giggles before we gather our tenacity and go into this next situation?” he queried.

  Johan looked at his friend and his comrades as they arrived to take a small rest before pressing on. “Well, it’s like this. A man approaches a priest. ‘Bless me Father, for I have sinned,’ he says. ‘I’ve spent the week with seven beautiful women.’ Then the priest says, ‘Do not fret, my son, all you need to do is take seven lemons, squeeze the juice into a glass, and drink the juice.” Johan continued with a laugh, “Will that cleanse my sin from me?’ asked the man. The priest says, ‘No, but it will wipe that smile of pleasure off your face.’” All the men snorted and stifled a laugh.

  “It never fails to amaze me, Johan, that even though we’re about to go into what could well be our last altercation, and knowing we are about to face a kimera, you bring a smile and laughter to our hearts. Johan, thank you for this,” Darr said.

  Wandalor drew closer to the group and pulled out what appeared to be ash. Giving each man a dimly glowing stone like a tiny ember from a fire, he explained, “I have read about kimeras breathing fire. These will help us to survive if the one we meet is such a beast.”

  The group began again to move through the underbrush until Gadlin motioned for them all to stop. Thalin gestured to his ears and his friends fell silent. There were no sounds; not the sound of small animals in the underbrush or of birds in the sky. Not even an insect buzzed. Gadlin lifted his chin to the air. His nostrils flared. He had caught the scent of something unfamiliar. His face became dower as he said softly, “It’s a smell none except carrion eaters enjoy. It’s the scent of feces, musk, and sulphur. It means death is near, and a lot of it.”

  Thalin brushed past Wandalor. Johan stepped in front of Gadlin and held his arm out straight, making a fist the group could see. He motioned that there was an open area about sixty feet in front of them. Thalin also used hand signals and identified both major and minor terrain features. It was understood that the entrance lay past a ridge line. There was a blind cliff forty feet farther and a depression filled with water. Gadlin cleared his throat softly and everyone turned to him. “Not all of us see well in the dark, so we’ll need torches. We should separate into two groups and enter via both sides of the cave opening so as to minimize the chances of the kimera escaping.” He paused, waiting for an argument from Darr. However, Darr remained silent.

  Wandalor finally broke the silence with a whisper. “I will take up the rear of the group. As you know I see quite well in these dark places, as does Thalin. Who, in my opinion, should follow Darr as he is the most proficient with his bow.”

  Gadlin nodded in agreement. “Good. I’ll follow Johan, then. His keen sight and knowledge of traps will serve us well.”

  Darr interjected, “Traps? What beast will set traps?”

  Thalin shrugged. “What is the standard practice of the monks for fighting kimera? Darr, is there one? Not to knock your training, but we don’t really know what we’re getting into, and I’m sure that Gadlin is only trying to be safe.”

  Gadlin was silent, as was Johan. Darr didn’t have to like it. All he had to do was follow directions. The men had long ago decided to defer to Gadlin or Thalin when there was to be an engagement in the wild. As was often the case, many of the altercations they encountered took place in cities or townships. Gadlin and Thalin preferred not to spend time in populated places. Johan and Darr took charge in those people-filled and man-made spaces.

  The men took time to light the torches they had so as not to have to worry about doing it near the entrance and be caught off guard. They shifted their weapons and equipment so that each man who needed a torch had the ability to use it and have his weapon in the most proficient place. As the group crested the hill and began to descend, Wandalor found himself disheartened by the silence of the woods that seemed to grow thicker the closer they got to the cave. The forest was unnaturally still. That stillness filled Wandalor with dread.

  Bokat awoke in his chamber, feeling the ground around him alert his senses that there were animals moving with a purpose and in his direction—passing over ground that he had marked off as his own. He opened his six eyes, three in a row going up both sides of his reptilian head. The luminescence of the stone cast eerie lights about him. He had grown accustomed to the lighting already, shedding a pale grey light in the cavern. He rolled lazily onto his right side. His senses told him he had time to be patient; they were close, just not that close yet.

  The creature possessed powerful appendages—two on the right and two on the left. His ‘hands’ ended in a thumb and two fingers. He flexed his talons like a cat might. His claws were dry but when he drew them in and out again, they seemed wet. His midnight black fur covered him from head to talon. Where one would imagine to find feet was a pair of talons to match the hands. Bokat uncurled his segmented scorpion-like tail, intertwined with a second set of arms slightly longer that his upper pair. Bokat turned to look at his nest. What was once a shirt was now a vile collection of pieces of dirty fabric, grime and muck, hung from a boulder like a discarded old towel. Part of the bottom has been torn off and the sleeves were worn away, leaving much of the stone exposed. Piled on top of that was a rugged fleece, in relative good condition apart from the holes. There were pants as well. Rips and tears had turned them into a dirt-stained mess of shreds. There were shoes that seemed to go with the outfit, and multiple piles of similar items that compiled the Bokat’s nest.

  Johan was the first of the troop to enter the cave entrance. It was overgrown with vines and roots. Stacked stones made up the entrance. Johan found himself stunned at the sight of the size of the opening. Thalin was having a hard time with the entrance, as parts of the vegetation did not look as though it was in the correct place. When looking at the roots, overgrowth on the forest ground, and up at the ceiling of the cave, it looked like the ground moved out of the way to shape the cave. The roots were torn and stone sundered.

  Darr sighed as though the weight of the God of Light was on his shoulders. Inside the mouth of the cave stood a massive stalagmite. From his vantage point, he couldn’t determine the depth of the cavern. The stalagmites created a corridor for him to move through and separated him from the rest of the group. Thalin waited for Darr to go five paces in before he entered, so as to have room to fire his bow around him. Darr noticed the musty smell of death waft out of the cave, and he could smell undertones of brimstone. The smell reminded him of his time in the forges. The odor of raw metal began to fill the air. The ground was rough, there were no tracks and no ruble to be seen. Things seemed to his untrained eye as though whatever had been in or out of this area had been dragged. Thalin, behind Darr, took notice of things in a similar manner. The ground, stark white in color on the right side, teemed with a steady flow of brown insects that moved in both directions.

  Johan and Gadlin moved at the same pace and distance as their counterparts on the other side of the massive stalagmite. The men worked as a team, each stepping where their partner lifted his foot and moving as silent as a baby’s
breath. That was until Johan caught sight of the other side of the massive stone he and the group had been walking next to flaked away and revealed itself to the air. In the stone was an immense vein of copper and calcium running a jagged path up and around the stone. The calcium mineral gave a false shiny view of silver as it was aerated. Johan’s pace quickened beyond one that was cautious to stand and face this massive amount of wealth.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Within the cavern, Darr saw the reason the insects were scurrying in vast numbers. The edge of the calcium column the ground flattened out twenty feet in front of him and sloped down to an area of carnage. Openly visible to Darr was a slaughter pit. In the stillness of the cave, the air didn’t move. Darr could only imagine the odor that must be emanating like a wall of stench, waiting for the first creature with delicate lungs to venture into it and causing the air to move.

  Death holds a noxious vapor that can force the living to collapse to the ground or run in revulsion. What Darr saw made him believe it was a sight that heretics would see as they descended into Hades. The bodies of dead animals lay about the area, the skins both on and off of them. Bones of men, dwarves, orcs, and other once-living creatures were like garbage in piles. Not the skulls. Where are the skulls? Darr asked himself. Then he saw them. The skulls of animals and humanoids alike were lined up on tall stones like macabre trophies. Immediately, Darr realized what they were looking for had intelligence. A wild beast wouldn’t separate the skulls from the bones. By this act alone he knew it was not the sign of a beast at all.

  Bokat moved silently. He sensed five bipeds moving closer into the opening of the cavern. He deliberately placed his foot on soft mud as four of the invaders moved. He felt the small vibrations through the ground that told him of movement. Bokat was a creature with strong tremor-sense, though his low-light vision was poor. He relied on keen, sensitive receptors to movement and vibrations that automatically pinpointed the location of creatures or wagons that moved across the terrain. He was taught to use this ability by his masters, The Vrah.

  Bokat quieted all thought and slowed his breath. The only things audible were the heartbeats of his foes. Invaders to his private domain. His home. Five living beings, easy targets. Four inside, one outside. Bokat’s thoughts swarmed. Good, leave one to flee back to the village, bring more sailors to avenge the one I wounded. Bokat scowled. Got away, that one.

  These five smelled different; not like the villagers. They were brave or stupid enough to avenge the others whose bodies were in the feeding chamber. Bokat still crouched near the edge of an overhang above the main chamber entrance. He sensed greed like oil on the skin. Easy kills, no armor. Saliva welled up in Bokat’s mouth, seeped over blood and meat-stained teeth, pushed over piercing, venom-filled fangs. Bokat felt conflict looming, his blood coursing. He moved closer to the edge.

  Unable to control himself, Johan reached out and caressed the calcium pillar. In the newness of its exposure to air the calcium took on the look of silver. Johan’s lack of familiarity with minerals had lulled him into the belief that what has saw was a huge pillar of silver with a vein of copper running through the column. Riches, fortune, wealth, and opulence were all Johan could see.

  Gadlin was at a disadvantage going into the cavern. The smell of mud and fungus were both heavy in the air. The light was dim and his distance of sight diminished by both the lack of light and by the glare that was the torch light he held. In his one hand he held a four-foot spear and a torch. He attempted to be careful not to scorch his weapon. In his other hand was the spear’s twin. He held his weapon in such a manner to pull his hand down to gab the short spear to dig deep furrows into the beast.

  Thalin took his time and moved slowly in pursuit of Darr, as was his job. Using his elf like eyes, Thalin could peer farther and with greater clarity than Darr. Thalin wasn’t nearly as well armored as the Paladin in his resplendent silvery metal armor. Thalin took notice of the direction and the tilt of the warrior’s head. He followed the visual cues and looked past Darr. He saw the insects and the ground, and the air held decay vapors. Darr couldn’t see the scent of death, yet believed that they were lingering just above the ground from experiences he had in the months leading up to this moment. Thalin saw as well the skulls had been set apart from the bones on high stones, like coveted prizes. Thalin’s heart began to race and blood coursed through his veins. He felt heat rise up inside as a bead of sweat took form on his forehead. Thalin pulled the string on his bow and readied an arrow.

  Wandalor, from his position on the edge of the cavern entrance, was unaware that to his right Darr and Thalin were viewing the murderous evidence of the creature who was at the heart of the carnage that they witnessed in the tavern. He could see quite well the look of absolute awe in Johan’s eyes as he made his turn to view the calcium pillar. The reflection of silver in Johan’s eyes gave Wandalor a clear view to his friend’s thoughts. Wandalor’s eyes of an elf, or even a half elf, were to be envied. The acuity and attention were unsurpassed in the bipedal races of man.

  On the outskirts of Wandalor’s view, closer to him, was Gadlin. Wandalor could see his back and could see the ranger’s weapons and armor. He could even tell that Gadlin’s muscles were taut and ready for a fight. As a result Gadlin was not caught off guard as Bokat leapt down onto Johan, who was half turned from Bokat and still awe- struck at the sight of such wealth. Bokat took sight of Gadlin in his hawk-shaped helmet and arm guards with blades. With breakneck speed, Bokat lashed out at Gadlin with the segmented scorpion tail seething with venom.

  Gadlin saw a blur of black fur and three golden- colored eyes with rectangular pupils. Like that of a goat. Gadlin instinctually moved his torch to get a better view of the beast as it crashed past him. This fortuitous action put the head of his spear directly in the path of the incoming attack and deflected Bokat’s attack. Gadlin was surprised to both hear and feel something ricochet off of the spear head.

  Thalin noticed that, though the ground was mainly clear of debris, it did lift up with each of Darr’s steps, indicating there was moisture in the ground. Not just moisture, but there was a bog nearby.

  Johan felt the air move across his face and felt the concussion of the ground near to him to his right side as the tremendous form of the beast landed the leap from the ledge. The distance had been farther than Bokat estimated. The creature’s weight and size caused the powerful legs to flex.

  Feeling the ground shake beneath his feet, Darr shifted his weight to the balls of his feet and began to push himself faster. He reached out with his sword hand to turn. As he rounded the corner, Darr laid eyes on the beast. “Damn, you’re ugly,” Darr exclaimed before he could stop himself.

  Wandalor could clearly see the imminent danger to his friends. He began to run to his left and forward. As he moved, he started an incantation.

  “Savage basilisk!” Gadlin shouted as loudly as he could, knowing that his call would no doubt alert the others to the trouble. Maybe it would jar his own brain into working order instead reverting to that of a savage himself at the sight of the gargantuan creature with a reptilian head. The first thing that jolted into his mind was the similarity of this creature to a dragon.

  Bokat lashed out with the upper arm on his left side, claws covered in venom seeking to dig deeply into Johan’s flesh. The feeling of the air moving in such a violent, fast manner, coupled with the concussive force of the kimera’s weight landing so close to him, unbalanced Johan and he faltered. When Johan turned to see his attacker, attempting to maneuver out of position and not be struck, the ground itself rolled under his foot. He lost his footing and fell violently to the dirt. The claw of the kimera passed through the spot where his head had been before. Johan heard a tear and felt a pull at his scalp as he fell.

  Gadlin got to the creature before anyone else had a chance to react. He lurched forward and dug his short spear into the kimera’s right leg. Being low in his lurch forward, the head of the spear was pointed up. He rose up and the sp
ear bit deeper into the thigh muscle. He could hear footfalls coming up behind him.

  Wandalor spoke in an ancient language, with both hands open, palm out to the kimera, his eyes ablaze with yellow energy. He concentrated as bolts of that energy shot from his hands. The blasts struck the kimera with resounding force and shook the creature. The strike rippled the fur on the side of the immense body. Bokat screamed in a language as ancient as the world itself.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Thalin bounded around the opposite corner, only to be caught in a sonic attack of fury and duration. Suddenly, Thalin understood what he was hearing. It was the scream emanating from Bokat in a language Thalin could understand. Shocked, he could not fire; instead, he took a moment to maneuver for a better, cleaner shot.

  Darr could see what would be Bokat’s next attack on Johan. In an attempt to cover his friend from harm he knelt on one knee and extended his shielded arm to cover Johan. As if on cue, the kimera unleashed a barrage of attacks onto Johan with his lower set of limbs. The monster set about tearing the shield out of the way with his upper limbs. The kimera’s tail stabbed into Johan’s right thigh, pushing around his armor and gouging deeply, sending venom far into the wound.

  Johan immediately fell victim to the venom. His leg felt cold like ice. The flesh around the wound felt like it was on fire. Johan’s mind raced faster than his own movement would allow. Thoughts swirled in and out of his consciousness. I’m dizzy, oh so dizzy. Why is the cavern spinning? Please make it stop. Wait, there’s blood. My blood! Oh God, I remember now. No, this can’t be the end, right? Yet I feel so weak. I’m down on my back. I want to stand up, but I can’t. My legs, they won’t move. My body won’t move.