Egris and the Silence of the Storm

by Robbie Ballew

  A second guard stepped forward. He was wearing a flat top helm with a squared, t-shaped opening leaving the eyes and mouth exposed, a squared nose guard protected his pointed nose. Attached to the top of his helm was an ornament in the shape of a serpent’s head.

  The shoulders were rounded, very wide, and large in size. Decorated with a long, curved metal ornament on each side, starting at the neck and reaching forehead height. The upper arms were protected by pointed, layered metal braces which sat perfectly under the shoulder plates.

  The lower arms were covered by vambraces which had metal leaves covering the outer sides. It was a beautifully intricate design. The breastplate was made from many layers of smaller metal pieces, mimicking the scales of a reptile. It covered everything from the neck down, and ended at the groin.

  The upper legs were covered by a chain mail skirt reaching down to the knee. The lower legs were protected by greaves which had several layered metal sheets on the outer sides and looked like more scales.

  “Crawl back into your hole, beast!” He yelled.

  “We don’t live in holes!” I shouted over the taunts and guffaws coming from the other elves. “Nor do we eat bark!”

  I continued to study the others. Some were dressed in simple, elegant garb, while one held a bow with a helmet unique to him. Attached at the top were two curved animal horns. Taken from a boar no doubt. The shoulders were oval, narrow but still large in size. Decorated with a scythe-like blade on each side, the blade started near the neckline and curved outward.

  I felt it was a mockery of my kind. Armor meant to look like a false faun. On the bow the limbs had been decorated with rows of gems and ended in points ornamented with tusks. The handle was wrapped in thick leather and decorated with magic runes. The large quiver across his back was made from thick leather. The outer sides had been decorated with animal horns, which likely had a significant meaning. Perhaps animals he had hunted.

  I fell to my knees and begged with my face to the ground, "I come in peace, seeking only to feed my family! For years we have lived at peace --"

  “If you want some food, take this!”

  I looked up just in time to see an apple hurtling toward my face just before it impacted my jaw. I felt the juices spray into my mouth and wanted to grab the fruit from the dirt and bite into it, but I knew I needed to maintain my dignity.

  I rose to my feet as the other fauns emerged from the forest. They were howling and braying as though scaring off a wild dog. The elves continued to pelt us with fruit. I saw the elf with the bow pull an arrow from his sheath.

  “Run!” I shouted to the others as I bolted into the woods. A moment later I heard the thud of an arrow sticking into a tree, only inches from my head. As we ran deeper into the woods we could still hear the laughter of the elves echoing after us.

  We had come to them in peace, humbled ourselves before them, and they had made a mockery of us. When we had gotten a safe distance away I stopped and gathered the others, making sure we were all accounted for. We were embarrassed, humiliated, but not injured.

  “Curse the elves and their greed!” Nix spat. “Hoarding their food like dragons.”

  “Silence!” I shouted. “We must be careful not to curse another living being. They are acting out of fear for their own survival, the same as us.”

  “They have never faced the fear of starvation,” said Bewhal, whose white fur showed the red stains of tomatoes and other fruits that had been hurled at him. “Half the food in those carts will go rotten before they have time to eat it all!”

  Indeed, we could still smell the food even now. Sweet fragrances of citrus and greens. Even some rare foods grown only near the coast. Our senses were heightened more than elves and we could pinpoint the exact location of every piece just as easily as if we were seeing it lay on the ground.

  Puprary, who I recognized as one of the shepherds I had helped chase away the wild dogs, and who bore several scars from his many encounters with wild predators over the years, spoke up. “I say if they won’t share willingly, we take it by force!”

  “No,” I said. “We must not resort to violence. It is not our way.”

  “Violence is sometimes necessary,” he retorted.

  “To protect,” I replied. “To defend. Never to attack.”

  “Then what do you propose?” Asked Nix. “That we return empty handed? That will only strengthen Brau-Na’s resolve.”

  “We will wait until after dark,” I answered. “After they have set up camp for the night, we will sneak in and take what we can. No more than half. Enough for them, and enough for us.”

  “If you do this,” Yastrye cut in, “you will destroy what little good-will there is between our two species.” He was much older than the other fauns in our group. Nearly as old as I was.

  “What other choice do we have?” I asked.

  “We can still go to the elvish capitol, and speak to their King.”

  “These men came from the capitol! Do you expect the master to act differently than the servant?”

  “There is always hope!” He responded. “If you refuse to see that, then perhaps I should make the journey myself. Will no one go with me?” He looked around to the other fauns. They all lowered their gaze to the ground.

  I wanted to stop him. To tell him it was a fool’s errand. But I couldn’t help but admire his idealism. Hardly an hour ago I myself believed the elves would help us. But the truth was, even if the King was willing to help, there was no time.

  The journey would take him weeks, and that was assuming the King would even be willing to give him an audience. There was nothing I could do. My family needed me. If the elves wouldn't share, we would take. Or maybe I was just trying hard to convince myself I was right.

  Yastrye departed on his venture and the rest of us tried to get as much rest as we could before the raid. I couldn’t sleep. My stomach churned with anticipation of what was to come.

  When darkness fell we made our way along the path until we found the clearing where the elves had stopped to set up camp. They had erected their tents in a circle around the carts, and a single guard sat awake next to a fading fire. That wouldn’t be a problem, we fauns were experts at stealth.

  We moved around behind the tents to the opposite side as the fire, and slowly crept towards the encampment.

  “Remember to only take what we need,” I whispered. “Focus on grains and vegetables, things that will last. Avoid the exotic fruits, though their smells may be tempting.”

  We moved silently between the tents, and Vuplait moved to the front of the carts to keep an eye on the guard by the fire. The rest of us found bags or baskets among the carts and filled them with as much as we could carry.

  I heard the sound of footsteps and looked around the cart to see Vuplait stumbling toward me.

  “Vu, what are you doing?” I whispered. Just then, he toppled onto his face and I saw the arrow protruding from his back.

  “Run!” I shouted to the others as I tossed my basket aside and hoisted Vuplait onto my shoulders. I could feel his warm breath against my fur and knew that he was still alive.

  We all turned to make our escape, but it was too late. The elves had emerged from the tents and surrounded us. It was a trap, and we had walked right in.

  Without a word, Puprary charged one of the elves and leapt through the air, kicking him squarely in the chest with both feet. We all bolted to the hole Pruprary had opened up for us and slipped through the circle of tents. The rest of the elves converged on us, barely missing us with their swords as we scattered into the forest, carrying only what we could easily run with.

  We didn’t stop running until we had nearly reached the village. We paused long enough to make sure we hadn’t been followed, then took stock of our plunder. It would be enough to last us a few weeks, maybe a month if the harvest yielded anything at all.

  I carefully removed the arrow from Vuplait’s back, and Bewhal pulled some herbs from his belt to treat the wound. In the lig
ht of the early morning, we carried our spoils into the village. We dropped the food outside Brau-Na’s tent as he emerged and saw Vuplait in my arms.

  "What have you done?" He asked.

  "We have fed our families," I replied with indignation.

  "But at what cost?" he sighed.

  I knew the cost. We had disturbed the peace between the faun and elves that had lasted centuries. Perhaps the elder was right and I was wrong. Perhaps this was a test from the spirits and we had failed. It didn't matter. That morning everyone ate. Everyone smiled. Miev and the other younglings no longer dug for worms and I made the journey home with enough food to feed my family until the harvest was complete.

  As the weeks went by I gleaned what I could from the crops, but it was barely enough to make a difference. I knew we would have to make another raid soon. Our scouts had observed dozens of caravans going to various villages, and were currently tracking three of them.

  The largest was going towards the south, a village called Glint. It was a modest village, maybe a few hundred elves. They had already delivered there three times in the last week, and it was obvious to us that the Mayor had been bribing merchants to send extra goods their way. Glint was known for having a giant manor and hosting many different kinds of celebrations.

  I walked into my barn and looked around. I had to be more prepared this time. I had to have some way to defend myself. Some kind of weapon. I found a rusted out wheelbarrow and hammered it into a crude breastplate. I tore apart an old plow that probably hadn’t been used since my grandfather’s day, and sharpened the blades on my grinding stone.

  I looked up from my work and saw Chrysalis peeking around the edge of the doorway. There was a look in her eyes I had never seen before. Fear.

  I dropped what I was doing and fell to my knees.

  “Come here, child,” I said.

  She rushed into my arms and embraced me.

  “I don’t want you to go, daddy,” she cried.

  “I know dear, I know.”

  The guilt blackened my heart. I had been having nightmares about the raid since it happened. No fauns had died, nor had we killed any elves. Still, everything I was doing went against our very nature.

  The next day I marched into the village and met with my party. They were all similarly outfitted in makeshift armor and homemade weapons. Vuplait wanted to join us, but he had not fully recovered from his wound.

  “You will come to regret this,” Brau-Na said as we made our way to the edge of the village.

  “Better to live with regrets than die clinging to old traditions,” I said. Without looking back we ventured into the forest once more. It didn’t take long before we picked up the scent of lavender and soups, and tracked it to the caravan. Once again using the shadows as our greatest defense.

  We threw our voices across the valley and decaying trees. They echoed and faded into the night sky. There were no answers to our battle cry. No torches. The caravan was deserted. The food inside... rotten. Masked by the smell of soups and cleaning supplies.

  And there, in the largest wagon, there was a faun. Mutilated beyond recognition, but I knew who it was. I could recognize what was left of the green hood.

  "Yastrye?" I said in a whisper. There was no answer. He was gone. Nailed to his body was a note.

  "What should we do?" asked Nix.

  "We should fight," said Bewhal with a clenched fist.

  "Fighting will only cause a war," I said.

  "We are at war," said Puprary.

  "No, we are not at war yet. We are just two peoples trying to survive. No different than a wasp and a fly," I answered, trying to stay calm in front of the others. The truth was I wanted to rip apart the next elven-kind I saw. I wanted to lead them to a village and burn it down.

  "A fly stands no chance against a wasp," said Bew.

  "A fly is more agile, faster, smarter. A wasp can sting but it is fragile," I came back. Not that I needed to defend such a silly statement.

  "We need to wrap the body, burn the wagons," I said, gathering cloth from the wagon around me. "We will take him back with us. Home."

  We carried Yastrye through the night. Four of us at a time. Swapping out every couple of hours. One taking the lead to watch for animals or elven soldiers that may have been planning an ambush. After we arrived back to the village Brau-Na demanded to see me. Some saw what happened as a punishment for not trusting the spirits. Others wanted to seek retribution.

  "We have lost our way," he said shamefully.

  "We are doing what we must to live," I said, looking down at my hands, still covered in Yastrye's blood.

  "Will you see us all die this way?" he asked.

  "I would see my family eat."

  “Perhaps Yastrye’s fate would have been different had you not angered the elves.”

  "The King never would have made a deal," I said.

  Our 'crimes against their Kingdom’ and ‘irredeemable savage nature' had been decided long before we raided the caravan. Long before Yastrye went to try and make peace. The elves were blaming us for the drought, for the curse. They had been planting the seeds of our destruction in the minds of their villages and people for years. They called us Satyrs. They mocked us.

  Brau-Na looked at me with resignation and sat down in his wicker chair. I could see a void in his eyes. An emptiness.

  "Do what you must. I understand far better than anyone the way the world shifts. The delicate balance of light and darkness. I can feel your heart blackening. Do not let it wither like the crops in your field.

  “Do what you must for our village. For your family. But do not lose your faith. Look for the signs from the Spirits. There will come a time when they will call upon you. All of us. There is a darkness rising. I have dreamt of it. I have felt it."

  "What do you mean?"

  "When the dragon raged across the sky and the last thunder rolled through the heaven. The ground was stained in blood and bone."

  The dragon who ate the rain. So he had dreamt of it, as well. I stayed with him another hour and meditated. Listening to his vocal chords hum in a low vibration as if he was speaking in dragon tongue. I couldn't understand a word.

  Nix and Puprary were waiting for me outside. Wrapped around Nix's belt I could see a small dagger. Something salvaged from the wagon or found on one of his scouting missions.

  "What are we going to do?" Puprary asked. Everyone was waiting for me to give them answers. I looked around at my village and my thoughts once again turned to my family.

  “We will raid again tonight. They are afraid of us. Afraid of the wild. We will use that. We will make them fear the woods. We will take what we can without killing," I ordered.

  More than twelve other faun joined us as we set out into the woods and found the second caravan Nix had been scouting. This one wasn't hiding the scent of rotten food or dead faun.

  We crouched amidst the trees around them and howled like a pack of wild wolves. Our voices together as one. It was loud and low enough it would have put the fear of death in a Praeg.

  The elves ran. Leaving behind the caravan and food. Except they weren't running form us.

  They had been prepared to defend themselves against a few faun. They had bows, arrows, swords, staves, axes, and many were wearing extra armor. Word of just how dangerous our claws were was beginning to spread. But they weren't afraid of us. Not this time. They were running from what else had smelled the food. They were running from a wild Kamulatitan driven mad with hunger.

  "FALL BACK!" I yelled. It was too late. The Kamulatitan had already broken through our flank and toppled over several of us in a sprint. It laid out on its side for a moment. I could see how weak it had become. It's body, once covered in tough scales, was now broken. The once bright and beautiful red scales themselves had started to wither away and the creature had turned a dull gray.

  As quickly as it fell it began to get up again. Moving towards the wagon. We didn't stand a chance against it and I called out for us to
retreat again. Some of the younger fauns weren't listening. I could see Bew running towards the wagon. Probably planning to grab as much food as he could, not realizing that that creature wouldn't stop, and even in a weakened state he could never outrun it.

  "Bew! Stop! Run!" I shouted, but I was too late. The creature had bitten down on Bew and I couldn't see him anymore. Nix pulled out his elven dagger and let out a war cry. The same we used to scare off the elves. Does he not know it would take Vaeger steel to pierce the creature's hide?

  The Kamulatitan turned toward him and swatted the ground with its tail in a wide circle. We were nothing more than pests to the creature. Nix threw his dagger and hit the Kamulatitan in the eye. It let out an ear-piercing scream and turned all its rage back toward Nix.

  The creature charged him, but he managed to roll out of the way. It looked like he was going to try and climb on top of it for a moment but he hesitated and lost his opportunity. I could only hope he trusted his instincts and ran back alongside the other fauns.

  I’M TOO CLOSE. The realization was all too late as the creature’s tail was starting to swing towards me. I tried to dive out of the way but it hit me right in the chest. First there was a breaking sound. Followed by screaming. I could feel my ribs crack. I felt them warp inside me and press against my insides. My body felt completely shattered.

  I could barely see with the sweat in my eyes. A body shouldn't be able to lay in this position, but I was. Warped and twisted with nobody to help me, I felt my body growing heavier and heavier with every breath. I couldn't move my legs, I couldn't move my arms, I couldn't even move my head. Surely this would be over any second.

  ‘Not like this...please. Not like this.’

  Everything was spinning. It didn't matter which way I looked, everything kept spinning. I felt dizzy. Even with my eyes closed I felt dizzy.

  "Chrysalis... I... Love you."

  I woke up in a cold sweat. I was being dragged through the woods. I looked up and saw Miev pulling me as I lay across a large gurney made of sticks.