Maybe I could fold elements of this in there? I don't know. And so, at the end of the three days, I find myself more indecisive than ever. Ugh.
This chapter brought some good stuff to the table. I really did like the archeologist couple in here. They're fun characters, and their banter is good too.
On the bright side, though, I think I will try to update this blog a more often. So enjoy Chapter Three.
Chapter Three
He woke the next morning, feeling much refreshed although
the memory of the dream still lingered in his mind. He climbed out of bed and
bathed, feeling much better afterward, even though he had to put back on the
dirty, stinky clothes he'd been wearing from the day before - they were, quite
literally, the only thing he had aside from the now mostly empty satchel and
bag of money.
Back in the main room, he found that a number of other
guests were already eating and talking. Retin eyed him, as he sat down.
"So," he said. "You got a date with
her."
"I don't know if I'd call it a date..."
"Retin!" the innkeeper appeared. "Fresh
rolls. Deliver them, if you please."
"Yes, Grandmother." He gave Daniel another baleful
glare. The rolls turned out to be delicious, slathered with butter and drizzled
with honey. They were served alongside smoking sausages that tasted a bit odd
to Daniel's mind, but he supposed they might have come from some of the very
weird creatures that this world seemed to have. A cup of juice was placed at
his elbow. He drank thirstily. It was very sweet and tasted of an odd blend of
oranges and grapes.
As he ate, he began thinking ahead to what he wanted to do.
Alieas had invited him to come to those ruins which, he thought, would probably
be a good idea. He might get some answers there, or maybe not. In any case, he
still needed to know more about this world. He was still fairly clueless.
After breakfast, he picked up his satchel, and swung it over
his head whenever the door swung open and Alieas walked in followed, followed
by a burly man with a giant walrus-like mustache and a tall, pale woman with
dark eyes and a high-necked dress. She had a sword at her hip and a cloak on
her back.
"This is him, Mother!" she was saying. "I
told you he'd still be here."
"You are the boy my daughter met yesterday?" she
asked, studying him with a severe eye. "She invited you to join us on our
hunt today for the lost ruins."
"Well...yeah."
"It's quite splendid," the man with the giant
mustache said - Alieas's father, Daniel guessed. "She needs quality
friends."
"In any case, we would be delighted to have you
along," Alieas's mother said. "I am Faran, and this is my husband
Kemkarat. We have been hoping our daughter would invite someone to join us for
some time now."
"Erm, I'm happy to meet you." Daniel said after a
moment.
"We are leaving now. If you wish to join us, you must
come now."
"Well, yeah. I was about to come and find you." He
said.
"Then come."
He stood, waved goodbye to the innkeeper, who appeared to be
piling even more tasks on poor Retin.
"This is going to be a lot better, I can just
tell," Alieas gushed.
"How come you wanted me to come?" he asked.
"Just curious."
"Oooh. Because you're the mysterious one. Retin's just
so dull, you understand. But you wandered in from the desert and walked all the
way to the village by yourself! What was that like?"
"It was hot and I was tired," Daniel said.
"Just like I thought," Alieas nodded gravely. "Our
ride isn't too far away." They had just left the village perimeter when
Daniel's jaw dropped. There, standing before him, was a bizarre floating
vehicle whistling steam. Gears chugged, pistons moved, random pipes pumped out
white or occasionally bright purple smoke. It looked like it would fall apart
at any second.
"You...live in that?"
"Every day," she said. "We travel around in
it. Honestly, we've had it for years."
"Hurry up, you two. I want to get to the ruins before
noon." Faran strode inside, a metal hatch with a wheel in the middle, a
bit like what he would expected to find from a submarine.
"Why does she carry a sword?" he asked, as he
ducked inside.
"Protection, of course. She's a very good swordswoman,
and the sword's enchanted - it's sort of a family heirloom. Even the
Rune-Crafters in Lanarskisil couldn't do any better."
"Rune-Crafters? Lanar-what now?"
"The Capital, silly! Biggest city in the world! And
Rune-Crafters, well. They're about enchanting objects, making them stronger.
Her swords way sharper than any blacksmith can make it, and it has special
powers."
"Really? What are those?"
"She doesn't know," Faran said. "If you saw
them, you're far too close to death for your own good."
"Oh."
"Well, Daniel, do make yourself at home. It's a little
cramped, but quite pleasant all in all." Kemkarat bowed.
"Yeah, thank you."
He looked around. It was fairly dark, with small windows
providing a little bit of light. It was obviously clean, cold and slightly
sterile but nevertheless there was a homey feel to the room. An armchair had
been jammed into a corner, tablecloths covered surfaces.
And the books and scrolls. Hundreds of them, stacked all
over the place - here, there and everywhere. He picked one up curiously, some
sort of scholarly work on the minute detail of the architecture of a place that
he had never heard of before. On top of the books, papers overflowed every
which way, some with half scribbled notes on them, others were what appeared to
be grocery lists, still others lists of equations.
"Right," Faran said. "We're off."
He peered up front, in time to see a much larger window in
front of a series of levers and buttons. A beat up leather chair stood in the
middle, while Faran pushed a button or two and pulled a lever.
With a great groan and wheeze, the vehicle began to move.
The village was soon lost to view, replaced by more of the
empty desert.
"So," Kemkarat said. "Alieas says you walked
all the way here from the desert. Is that so?"
"Yes," Daniel said. "I don't remember much
before that." He thought, on further reflection, that it would probably be
a good idea to keep the dream to himself. And the pendent as well. He didn't
know them at all and Amar's warning about trusting people in whatever weird
land he'd ended up in struck true. He didn't know these people at all - they
seemed nice enough.
"Maybe you were raided by bandits and they had a device
that stole your memories!" Alieas said.
"That would be
interesting!"
"That's a thing that can happen?"
"Yes," Kemkarat said. "It unfortunately is -
there are such devices that drain memories from a person, and let the holder
view them as he sees fit. It is...not a pleasant experience." Daniel had
an unpleasant thought at that point -what if his memories were stolen from him?
He tried to think back, but drew a complete blank.
But there was also that dream, he thought. That felt like memories. Maybe they're
still buried. I don't know anymore.
He fell silent, lost in thought. Alieas chattered on next to
him, speculating on what sort of person he might have been, what he have done,
each proposal more outlandish than the last.
"So what's so special about these ruins?" Daniel
asked after a short pause.
"Well, they're quite unique," Kemkarat said.
"I have a book around here somewhere. They were freshly uncovered just a
few months ago - it's one of the old outposts of Mar Koru."
Daniel felt a chill down his spine.
"Mar Koru?" he said, trying to act casual.
"Mm, yes. The Society of Light. Defunct now, but they
have long roots. We're going to examine one of their older outposts."
"It's basically ruined buildings with pottery inside
and some writing on the walls," Alieas said. "Not really all that
much fun."
"So...this Society of Light. What makes them so
unique?"
"Well, they were guardians against the monsters from
Outside. Nobody knew too much about them, they were a very secretive bunch -
last one recorded died...let's see. Alieas, could you find A History of Traok and Environs, please?"
"Here, Father."
"Thank you." He took the book, flipped it open and
quickly skimmed through it, apparently looking for the page.
"740 D.M."
"That means nothing to me," Daniel said.
"What year is it now?"
"It's 1357 A.E - Ascension of the Empire, by the way.
This happened thousands of years ago. But, if you believe the legends, Mar Koru
never really dissolved. They merely went underground, keeping their existence a
secret. And some people say they've met one of the agents. Personally, I've
always believed it. Evidence has always been on the scanty side but
well..."
"You're not launching into that old story again?"
Faran called from the front seat. "I fear you're going to waste his
time."
"What story?" Daniel asked interested.
"Well. It happened many years ago. I was but a young
man, having freshly left the college for my first taste of adventure. In any
case, I went to the forests by the Sea and one night, I found myself alone in
the woods. It was night, I was tired and thought that I should camp for the
night. But I saw an old man, who offered me shelter."
"So what did you do?"
"Well, I accepted of course. But the old man turned out
to be a terrible monster in disguise, a disgusting beast with more legs and
eyes than I care to count. It summoned...well, something. Holes."
"Holes?" Daniel said. "That doesn't sound
scary."
"Ah, but these weren't any holes. They were rips in the
universe, gaps to the void between the worlds, where it is said fell monsters
and even more horrifying creatures dwell."
"All conjecture." Faran said from the front seat.
"Honestly, dear. It gets wilder every time you tell it."
"So what did you do?"
"What any sensible person would do, of course! I
thought the beasts off myself, swing a punch. But the creature avoided my
attack. I, being in the prime of health and limber from my tenure playing
Siflan, dodged the creature by swinging to the left and then I looked around
for a weapon of some description. And I found what I was looking for! A spear,
probably taken from some poor hapless victim!"
"Siflan?" he asked.
"It's a sport," Alieas said. "I'll tell you
about it later."
Daniel stared at him. Kemkarat was fairly rotund. From the
corner of his eye, he could Faran shaking her head, plainly amused.
"So, of course," Kemkarat said. "I stabbed
the creature with the spear, kicking it as I did so into one of those holes in
reality which all closed up."
"Do you still have the spear?" Daniel asked,
interested.
"Alas, no. It was lodged in the creature when it fell
back into the Void."
"Last time it was merely a shaft of broken wood,"
Faran called. "The time before that you said you defeated it with your
fists."
"It happened, I promised you."
"Didn't you say this had something to do with Mar
Koru?" Daniel asked.
"Oh yes. After I defeated this terrible creature, I
left the cave and saw a man standing there, an older person with a sword in his
hand. He had the pendent around his neck and thanked me on bended knee for
dealing with the creature."
"On bended knee," Faran snorted. "Dear, I
love you but I don't think anyone would get down on their knees to thank
you."
"He had the pendent around his neck, he said that he'd
been hunting that monster for some time and then he waved his hands and -
wouldn't you know it - I was suddenly in the nearest village. No sign of anyone
around me. I say, Daniel, are you alright?"
"I'm...I'm fine," Daniel said, looking away. The
second Kemkarat mentioned an old man, memory fragments surfaced suddenly in his
mind: a very old man, whose mind was since gone, babbling, a bloodied hand and
a familiar pendent being placed around his neck...
Alieas looked at him with concern. "You sure you're
okay?"
"Yeah, fine."
"Excellent news, everyone," Faran called.
"We've arrived."
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