The Bree Tree Ruins to the north of the Calpheon region contained one of the strangest ecosystems known to scholars. The crumbling stone temples had been there for eons, as had the various mobile plants that inhabited the area. For some unknown reasons, life-forms living in the ruins somehow incorporated the stones into their own physical bodies, evolving into strange new beasts that seemed to be half creature, half stone. The Ruins Spiders were only the start of the myriad of strange stony creatures that frequented the areas. It was not uncommon for unwary adventurers to find themselves crushed flat by a giant humanoid rock creature. However, Parma and Egami were hardly unwary.
The large creature had given away its position with a grinding sound as it had unfurled its rocky limbs. Lying near the entrance to a clearing in ambush, it had struck with speed belying its massive size. However, Egami was well-versed in these woods, having traversed most of Calpheon’s wilderness in her travels. She had recognised the Ruin Creature’s attack instantly and had shouted a warning. Parma was no slouch, either, and she had leaped back in time to avoid the giant stone fist that was slammed into the ground, shaking the earth. Now, Valkyrie and Tamer stood facing the twelve-foot-tall monster that roared in frustration, lumbering towards them, murder in its’ eyes.
“We don’t have time for this,” Parma muttered, stepping back in time to avoid another blow. “The trail grows colder by the minute.”
Egami smiled grimly. “Don’t worry about the trail. I can pick it up. Worry about our friend here.” The small woman shot up a tree, climbing hand over hand as she scampered up the massive redwood. “Distract it!”
“Oh, sure, give me the hard work!” Parma retorted, raising her shield. She beat her sword against it, filling the crisp air with a loud ringing. The Ruins Creature turned towards the sound, growling deep in its throat. It swung again, only for Parma to adroidtly sidestep and lash out with her blade. The sword struck stone, causing a shower of sparks. A long groove had been cut into the creature’s rocky arm, but no apparent damage had been done. Parma frowned. “How do we hurt it?”
Egami’s voice rang out from a branch directly above the creature. “The joints! They’re only plants!”
Parma stared at the creature, and found Egami’s voice to be true. The Ruins Creature’s massive arms and body were weathered stone, but the joints that held the massive chunks together were barely more than vines. The Valkyrie shouted a battle cry and charged forward. The creature raised an arm and brought it down, intending to crush the annoying pest that dared to attack it. Parma raised her shield, one edge angled down. The creature’s blow deflected off the shield, the angle directing the momentum towards the ground. However, the mighty blow was still enough to send shock up Parma’s arm and knock her off her feet. She heard Egami’s voice, still coming from the tree. “Nieka!”
Tucking into a roll, the Valkyrie bounced to her feet in time to see the massive ethereal wolf crash into the side of the stony behemoth. Already off balance from its’ missed attack, Nieka’s weight caused the creature to stumble, dropping its guard as one arm slammed into the ground to steady it.
Parma did not waster her opportunity. She flew towards the creature’s exposed leg, lashing out with her sword. The hardened steel sliced through the vine joint, shearing the stony leg from the creature’s body. It roared in pain as it collapsed to the earth, throwing dirt and detritus in all directions as it flailed around, seeking purchase. Parma’s sword flashed again, taking off another limb, this time an arm. Now crippled, the creature lashed out at the Valkyrie, seeking to take its’ foe with it to the grave.
Egami leaped from the branch above, she hurtled through the air, her sword flashing from its sheath as she landed lightly on the beast’s back. The thrashing creature bucked and roiled, but the tamer held her balance with almost superhuman agility. She hopped from back to neck, raising her blade. She drove it down in silence, punching the sword through the back of the Ruins Creature’s neck. The roaring turned to a surprised whimper, and the creature sagged. Egami jumped from the creature to the ground as the once-mighty leviathan began to disintegrate, leaving a pile of plant and stone rubble in a roughly humanoid shape upon the clearing floor.
Egami walked towards Parma, sheathing her sword and stopping briefly to give Nieka a pat. Parma likewise put up her weapons, nodding in approval. “Well, that was easy.”
Egami smiled. “It's not usually. It’s best to avoid the Ruins Creatures. I suggest we do that from now on.”
Parma chuckled. “Point taken. We’re no good to anyone as stains on the forest floor.” She glanced around. “So what about our trail?”
Parma and Egami had reached the ruins the previous day. Picking up a trail had been difficult, partially because their unnamed assailant had been very careful to mask his tracks. However, the presence of Ruins Spider venom had led the pair to a nest of the creatures that frequented an area close to a main road. By Egami’s reckoning, it made sense that the black-cloaked man had picked up the venom residue from there as he had made is way through. Sure enough, a set of tracks had been found, moving up the road with purposeful steps. Parma and Egami had followed them until they had turned from the road, heading east towards the village of Florin. Upon Egami’s assistance, they had diverted from the path there to move through the forest. It was better to exercise caution, lest they ran into unwelcome company of the Ecril kind.
After a few hours of careful travelling, Egami held up a hand, signalling for pause and silence. Parma acquiesced, knowing that Egami’s tracking abilities had kept them alive on more than one occasion. Both women hunkered down in the brush, and the Tamer turned to her friend.
“It’s best I go alone from here,” Egami whispered. “Florin is usually a quiet place, but I hear a lot of noise coming from it.” Sure enough, the air was rich with distant shouts and clangs. Parma frowned.
“Sounds like an army. Weapons being readied.” While lacking Egami’s wilderness expertise, Parma was far more experienced in the sights and sounds of warfare than her guild-mate. “Florin is a peaceful town. The army wouldn’t go there.”
“Unless it isn’t the army,” Egami replied, her eyes darkening. “I’ve been thinking about the Ruins Spider venom. The black cloak would have had to deviate from the path to pick up the residue on his clothing, unless the spiders had swarmed.” Egami held her friend’s gaze.
“You think the venom was deliberate?” Parma asked. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” Egami answered truthfully. She shifted on her haunches. “Let me go and see. Maybe I can find out why.” She smiled at Parma. “You should retreat to the clearing where we fought the Ruins Creature. I’ll meet you there in a few hours.”
“And if you don’t come back in a few hours?” Parma asked.
Egami smiled. “Tell Denryo he can ‘borrow’ all the clothes he likes.” With that, she was gone, melting into the undergrowth, leaving Parma to retrace her steps.
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The small village of Florin was an average farming and trading village that lay nestled in a small valley that acted as a northern pass to the next region. Nothing of note had ever happened there, save for the occasional encroachment of forest creatures that needed culling. It was a sleepy, quiet place, home to a few families that never left. That was why, as she stared across the main path to the village from her perch in a leafy tree, Egami realised that things were much worse than they had feared.
Bodies were piled high at the village entrance. Judging by the plain clothing and dirty features, Egami guessed that they were Florin’s farmers and traders. All dead, she thought with a twinge of anger and sadness. The ringing of metal and the roar of conversation assaulted her ears. Beside her, Nieka growled quietly. The Tamer laid a calming hand on his head, and the wolf quietened.
Florin had been transformed into a bloody outpost. Men and women swaggered through the village, roaring and joking. Their black armour, weapons and faces were streaked with blood. They strutted confidently through the streets, helping themselves to whatever loot they could find, be it gold, food or women. Egami gritted her teeth. This is butchery, she thought. Her keen eyes spotted a pattern on the black armour – a pattern shared by all of the murderers. A raven flying over a mountain pass. A symbol matching the one on the cloaked man. Ecril, she thought. They’ve lain waste to the entire village.
Almost as if he had heard her, the cloaked man emerged from a house into the daylight. He did not bother to look around. Instead, he strode straight to the centre of the village, where two other figures waited. Egami almost growled along with Nieka as she beheld the cretin who had attack them and had left them with Vahlodian’s body.
The Tamer forced her anger from her thoughts, struggling to replace it with calm detachment. She was there to gather intelligence, and she couldn’t do that paralysed with rage. She studied the two other figures. They were obviously leaders amongst this Ecril battalion, as they carried themselves with authority and confidence that set them apart from the other soldiers.
One figure was a man, so thin he bordered on being skeletal. He was dressed in fine robes and wore no weapons. His face was dominated by a vulture’s beak of a nose that hooked down sharply over stained teeth. His very bearing had an oddity about it, almost as if he had no place being there among seasoned warriors. He looked like a talker, not a fighter. She realised with a start that this was the ‘Shgaem’ that Denryo had spoken about – the recruiter who had approached the Velkans in the first place.
The second figure was a massive roll of a woman. Fat cascaded from her figure like the waves of the ocean. She wore a leather jerkin that barely concealed her epic belly. She walked with a heavy stride, leaning back to support her copious gut. In one hand she carried what looked like a giant padded mace, with a long string dangling from the handle. In the other hand she held a bloody piece of fish, which he tore chunks from with a surprisingly small, beak-like mouth.
The monstrous woman stopped chewing long enough to ask the cloaked man a question, her voice rumbling almost to where Egami sat, the sheer volume carrying to her even if the words didn’t. The cloaked man must have answered, because the woman tossed back her head and laughed, sending bits of fish spraying everywhere. The skinny man also spoke, gesturing to the cloaked man’s clothing. The man nodded in reply.
It was then that Egami realise that the spider venom was no accident. They wanted us to find it, she thought, her mind racing. They wanted us to come here. As more pieces of the grisly puzzle fell into place, dread welled in Egami’s heart like a heavy black mist. We were supposed to find the venom. We were supposed to track the cloaked man. We were supposed to come here – into their trap. Gods, they murdered an entire village simply to catch us. Egami shook her head, tears welling in her eyes as she realised just how truly malevolent Ecril was. They were prepared to massacre entire villages just to get what they wanted – the deaths of a few who defied them.
The tamer realised that she had been there long enough, and jumped from her perch to another branch, heading back to Parma with a heavy heart. This fight may well be our undoing, she thought.
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By the time she had reached the clearing, Egami had calmed down somewhat. She knew that time was with them, for the Ecrilian would not abandon Florin, for fear of missing the Velkans. That bought them at least a week to return to the others and inform them on what they’d found. Egami moved faster, seeing the break in the trees ahead. However, a shrill voice caused her to stop dead in her tracks, eyes wide. It had come from the clearing ahead. She slowed to a crawl, moving forward silently. As she peeked into the clearing, she was greeted by an armoured back. Past it, she saw Parma, sword drawn and shield raised. The shrill voice sounded again.
“I will not ask you again! Where is George Ironwulfe?!”
George? Vahl’s son? Egami raised an eyebrow, confused. She stayed put as the shrill, grating voice continued from the armoured figure. Parma’s eyes drifted to Egami and she also raised an eyebrow.
“Why would I know where he is? Or who he is, for that matter?” The Valkyrie asked, keeping her tone carefully neutral.
“Don’t give me that nonsense!” The squeaky voice shot back. “He’s a Velkan, same as you! Where is he?”
Parma sighed, lowering her sword slightly. “What is your quarrel with George? Maybe I can help.”
“The only way you can help is to tell me where he is!” The armoured figure squealed, stepped closer to the Valkyrie. Parma shook her head, her bobbed hair quivering. “What did he do?”
“I’ll tell you what he did!” The prepubescent voice whined, grating more and more on Egami’s nerves. “He killed my bandits! My bandits! That was my spot and George came and took it!”
“Your spot?” Parma asked incredulously. “Yours? How can it be yours? If it had bandits, surely it’s everyone’s spot?”
“No, it’s mine!” The voice whined. A sword was raised. “I’ve been there longer than he has! He took my bandits! I want my revenge!”
Parma sighed. “Revenge? Have you thought this through, child? You’re asking me, a guildmate to George, where he is so you can kill him? Is that your brilliant plan? What happens in your masterful strategy if I say no?”
The voice grated to a new pitch and the sword was raised further. “Then I, Kimichi, will kill you as well! I will kill all the Velkans! You can’t stop me!”
Parma shook her head and chuckled. “Well, I can’t, but she sure can.”
Egami stepped into the clearing behind the armoured warrior. She placed both hands at his back and gave him a sharp shove, realising that while he wore plate armour, Kimichi was no heavier than she was. He stumbled forward, straight into Parma’s gauntleted fist. He crashed to the ground like a sack of excrement, dazed. Egami wasted no time in snatching up a set of vines from the Ruins Creature’s corpse. She bound Kimichi’s arms and legs, trussing him up like a turkey. She stepped back, shaking her head as the adolescent warrior regained his sensed. She shot a sideways glance at Parma.
“I leave you alone for a few hours and you find this?”
Parma chuckled. “I’m as surprised as you are. Our young land baron here simply walking into the clearing and started yelling at me.”
“He reminds me of Devotchka when she doesn’t get her evening wine,” Egami observed.
“Worse,” Parma replied. “At least Devotchka shuts up after a while.”
“Let me go!” Kimichi screamed, veins popping up on his pockmarked, pimpled face. “Let me go so I can kill you all!”
“As lovely as that sounds, you spoiled son of a pig,” Parma chortled, drawing her sword. “I would prefer to just kill you here and be done with it.” She raised the blade.
Egami held up a hand, ignoring the shouting Kimichi. “We don’t have time. He’s harmless. Leave him. We need to meet the others.”
Parma sheather her sword, worry creasing her features. “That bad?”
Egami sighed, her eyes shining. “Worse. Much worse.”
Both Tamer and Valkyrie turned and headed for the clearing exit. As they passed Kimichi, still strung up on the ground, he screamed after them.
“I won’t forget this! Ironwulfe is dead! You’re all dead! My guild will declare war on all of you! I declare war on you! I promise you that I will never un-declare! We will be at war until the end of your days!”
Egami called back over her shoulder. “I would worry about your own days. If you keep screaming, the Ruins will make sure they are cut short.”
Egami and Parma vanished into the forest, leaving only the dappled sunlight and the shrill voice of Kimichi behind them.
