Dashyl's Dream Journal

Warm. Soft. I am floating on…water, warm water with a surface tension thick enough to support me as I float. Were those my father’s words, “surface tension”? I have never seen the sea, but my father says I will float easier on the ocean than on a lake or a river. I must be on the ocean. My father’s voice is drifting away, growing silent. The smell of sea air is all around me; I can breathe it in deeply through my nose. I open my eyes. All I can see is a steel gray sky above me. What color is the ocean beneath me?

I turn over to see, but I breathe in water, salty, bitter water that chokes me. I can’t breathe. I flail, I thrash. I try to call out but I cannot make a sound. I thrash so much that the seawater begins to froth up. Soon, bubbles of white foam surround me. Right when I can no longer move my limbs and feel like I will black out, the foam begins to rise and carry me up with it.

I am floating again, this time, on a cloud, bright white against the gray sky. Milky tendrils made of tiny crystals tickle me behind my ears. The wind ruffles my hair and my clothes. The feeling is very peaceful, soothing. I turn my head to the left and there, floating on his own cloud, is Fretly. He waves to me and I wave back. He points at something to my right. I look that way and there is Soern floating next to me on his own cloud. He is laughing great big belly laughs as the three of us float at the same speed, in the same direction, surrounded by the mercury sky.

Suddenly, a pink arrow shoots out of the gray and pierces Soern’s cloud from beneath him and then rips through his body. He cries out and grabs the wound in his chest. The Kirzan on his cloud begins spiraling away from me. “Keep going,” he bellows as he falls out of sight below us.

I turn to Fretly, alarmed. My friend has a concerned look on his face. Somehow I know it is not because of Soern but because something else is wrong. Fretly begins shaking his head slowly, sadly. “Wait,” I want to say, but as I do, his clouds drops from the sky. I reach out and grab his hand even though he should be miles below me as fast as he’s descending. Then I notice I am falling quickly, too. We look at each other. His face is calm, which makes me feel calm despite the wind rushing faster and faster over us.

When we hit what I think is the ground, there is nothing. No smash, no sound, no pain, just the silvery gray light around me. Fretly is gone. I am no longer on a cloud but am back on the hard, grassy ground. I am sleepy. I roll over on my side and curl up in a fetal position. Clouds, or small patches of fog, begin to roll in from every direction. They roll towards me like they are attracted to me. They bump up against me, hard and soft at the same time. Sometimes, they poof little puffs of air into my face. Sometimes they stick out a tongue and lick my face or my hands. They constantly make a noise, a wet slurping noise, like a sucking and a chewing. That sound and the gentle touches lull me back to sleep. And I sleep.

Entry from Kilkarak's Expedition Journal Day 12

It has taken me a full day to recover from my beer drinking exuberance. I do believe it could be considered poison. Certainly, I envision scenarios where someone could drink enough ale to die. If I had doubled the amount I drank, I could very well be dead right now. Thankfully, I survived to inform you of an idea this brewed beverage has given me. Given the debilitating effects of the drink, if it were to be made readily available at establishments in each city the Legion has conquered and assimilated, the population could be easily controlled to a certain extent. Let this entry be a reminder that when I return from this expedition I should run experiments to determine which elements of beer could be manipulated through chemistry to offer desired results such as compliance, obedience, submission, and cooperation. It could be a most malleable elixir with a myriad of applications useful to the Legion.

The way forward has been slow and challenging despite the maps I have brought. Many years have passed since I have traveled to the Tanglefern Thicket. Vegetation has become so overgrown that landmarks and navigation points look different than I remember. We have had to backtrack just to stay on the trail a few times already. Dashyl seems to be enjoying it, though, smashing through the brush and asking me the names of all the unfamiliar flora and fauna we encounter. The ubiquitous tangleferns are just about to unfurl the curly tips of their branches, which means the calendar is changing over to the Meduna Cycle and the Blossoming will soon begin. The Blossoming Phase will bring out the arthids that we are here to collect. The tiny carapids will begin to swarm over the new growth and flowering vegetation, drinking their fill of sap that they will turn into the unique fluid I need to run my experiments. Dashyl and I will be collecting and milking thousands and thousands of these little creatures to extract enough to supply my experimentation for many cycles to come.

We are in the very northeast corner of the Thicket. We will painstakingly make our way south and traverse the Thicket like a needle pulling thread up and down and back again until we have covered its many acres. We will need to contact the Keepers of Tanglefern to restock our supplies, but I have brought a good amount of qu to spend. The Keepers live an isolated and often bitter existence. Many of them "volunteer" to be a keeper to escape punishment or avoid paying debts in other areas of Legion control. They will enjoy a chance to earn some easy qu selling me food and whatever else we may come to need. For now, we have all that we need as we start the working part of our journey.

Dashyl's Quest: The Tournament Plains

“I was the greatest champion these Tournament Plains ever saw,” Soern said, sweeping his gaze over the plains that stretched far south. “Being back here always brings up good memories, memories of my hard-earned glory and my fabulous gain. But leaving these plains and entering Trader’s Haunt, as we will soon do, brings up memories I would rather not revisit.” Soern’s words trailed off and he grew quiet as his igwaza trotted along the road that was taking him closer to those painful remembrances.

“Why,” Dashyl asked, “what happened to you in Trader’s Haunt?”

Soern sighed softly and reluctantly began to tell his tale. “I squandered everything I had gained and lost the glory my name used to conjure up when spoken among the people of Veratar. You see, Trader’s Haunt is a den of thieves, a place where anything you want can be gotten if the price is right. I had a coterie of Dark Traders at my beck and call. I was wealthy beyond measure from my winnings in the tournaments and I had an insatiable appetite for the rare and the exotic. I will not tell you all the things I imbibed and ingested, but they were from the farthest reaches of Veratar and some of them not of Veratar, but from far off lands only Myrkin have visited.”

“Myrkin,” Dashyl asked suspiciously, “I thought they only existed in tales told to children. They are real beings who live underwater?”

“Oh yes, Dashyl, they are very real, very mischievous and very devious, too, if you ask me,” Soern said. “We may see one or two in Trader’s Haunt, in fact.”

Dashyl’s eyes grew wide. “Oh, that would be something.”

Fretly chimed in at this point. “I don’t see what is wrong with what you were describing, Soern. Trader’s Haunt sounds fantastic.”

“Ha, well, someone with your fast fingers would be right at home in the Haunt,” Soern reasoned. “But for someone like myself, it was a trap, a place I could forget the screams of all those I had killed and indulge in whatever pleasure I wanted. I lost my fighting form and could no longer compete in the tournaments that had made me wealthy. Inevitably, my wealth ran out and I tried to live off the past glory of my name, but that soon wore off, too. I was a disgraced man. A joke. Once, those who saw me on the street would tremble with fear or excitement. But then I grew slow and dim-witted and those who saw me would laugh or shake their head in pity. In the end, I was forced to leave Trader’s Haunt and ended up becoming the guardian of the road to Anchorwatch, where you found me.”

Soern said no more and scratched at his wound under the bandage on his left hand. “We will need to see a curic in Trader’s Haunt. I think my hand is getting infected.”

They rode on in silence for the rest of the afternoon, lost in their own thoughts, Soern reliving his memories, Dashyl imagining his future and Fretly dreaming of all the fun to be had in Trader’s Haunt.

As the day wore on, the wind shifted and the smell of the sea washed over them, reminding the travelers of how close they were to leaving the plains. The three of them stood with their igwaza on the banks of the ditch that signaled the plains were coming to an end. They could see the dark mass of trees on the horizon where the woods began.

Dashyl rubbed his neck where the razorwigs had cut him on the other end of the plains. “I don’t like this,” he said, “I’m having flashbacks to the razorwig swarm.”

“Aye,” Soern responded, “We will not take the road any further. Let’s follow the ditch to the south for a ways. Then we will cut over and enter the woods. It will slow us down, but I know a way to sneak into Trader’s Haunt. There is a curic I know there, if she is still there, who may give us shelter and see to our wounds.”

“What about the deadeye,” Fretly asked.

“Who knows,” Soern relpied, “his employer may know that his lackey failed in his mission and could be watching the road. Or at least he hired someone to watch the road. There’s no shortage of mercenaries for hire in Trader’s Haunt who would gladly make some qu by whatever means necessary.”

“Are you sure this is the best way to go,” Dashyl asked, “it seems so dangerous.”

“Trust me, young one,” Soern said, “I know the seedy underbelly of Trader’s Haunt as well as anyone. I’ll get you in and out safely, but you must do what I say without question.”

“Yes, sir,” Dashyl and Fretly said simultaneously.

Soern laughed one of his big belly laughs and shook his head. “We’re not in an army, you two. Just listen to me and be on your guard. Now, let’s make our way along this ditch and find a place to make camp for the night.”

The two young friends nodded their heads, again in unison, as they were both ready to dismount and rest their weary bones.

Dashyl's Quest: The Tournament Plains

"Sleeping under your own personal tent, I see." Soern's voice stirred Dashyl from sleep. On his chest was his father's journal lying open and facedown. Soern chuckled as Dashyl picked up the book, sat up, yawned and stretched his arms.

"No," Dashyl responded, indignant. "This is my father's journal. I must have fallen asleep reading it last night."

"We all need our rest, Dashyl. Even though we're two-thirds of the way through these plains, we still have a long way to travel to Trader's Haunt," Soern said.

"I know that, but it's been a long time since I've been able to read one of my father's entries and I'm so curious about what he's written," Dashyl responded. "Maybe there's a clue about who's following us."

"Aye, you are right, there could be. Who was your father," Soern asked.

Dashyl paused. He looked over at Fretly who eating his breakfast. Fretly just stared back at him, chewing slowly.

Soern, sensing Dashyl's hesitation, said, "Now, son, you don't need to tell me, but you can trust me. I've helped you this far."

Dashyl sighed, "My father was Kilkarak, the greatest chemist in all of Veratar."

Soern simply said, "Humph."

"What," Dashyl asked.

"I have no use for Sarion chemists. They deal in the unnatural, often using their knowledge and talents to further the nefarious plots of the Legion," Soern paused to drain the last of his drink. "The only chemistry I can appreciate is the science of brewing tea. So many magical combinations one can make when combining herbs, leaves and water."

Dashyl's eyes welled with tears suddenly. He turned away from Soern, letting his tears roll down his face and under his chin. "My father was a great man. He died in the name of science."

Soern came up behind the boy and put his hand on Dashyl's shoulder. "No need for that, son. I'm sure your father was a good Sarion. I'm sorry I spoke ill of the dead."

Dashyl sniffed and hung his head. "I miss him so much," he whispered to himself.

"We'll get you to Trader's Haunt and away from this corner of Veratar. Once we accomplish that, you can think about how best to honor his name," Soern comforted.

"Look at that," Fretly exclaimed, pointing to a group of dark forms moving towards them from the far edge of the horizon.

Soern left Dashyl's side and stood next to Fretly, following his gaze. After squinting for a while, he said, "Ah, that's a heard of bufflegars. They're gentle creatures that grow fat on the grasses of the plains. However harmless they may be, they do attract vaygr who hunt them when they come close to the edge of the plains. We're probably safe where we are, but it's another reason to move on. Hurry up and eat your breakfast, Dashyl. We must be on our way."

Dashyl took a deep breath and patted the cover of his father's journal. The hard pieces of wood wrapped in cloth that served as the journal's covers felt comforting, like he could feel his father's hands holding them. The young Sarion placed the journal back into his gear sack and pulled out some food to eat. He couldn't wait to learn more about his father's thoughts and feelings.  The boy silently wished he was in a safe place where he could forget about people chasing him and people wanting to kill him, where he could just sit and read and read and read and be with his father again.

Entry from Kilkarak’s Expedition Journal: Day 10

Sick. Worse than any sickness I have ever felt is this after-ale malady that has settled upon me. Was I poisoned? This cannot be how everyone feels after imbibing their fair share of fangwail pale ale and bitterot brew, can it? Upon awaking, the contents of my guts soon came spewing forth. I was in such a dizzy state that I could not find the chamber pot quickly enough and I am afraid I left quite the mess in our room. Dashyl and I had to leave quickly because I overslept.

Jarax had come in to wake me before he left with the decoy Dashyl, but apparently I was not able to be woken up. My friend left me a note. It saddens me greatly to think that my last communication with Jarax could be through his note. He wished me success on my journey and told me to look him up someday in Agrigane. He said I could sneak into the city under the cover of night and he would provide a disguise so I could attend his performances as a masquer. I can only hope that scenario will play out after Dashyl and I have collected our fill of specimens from the Tanglefern Thicket.

We were able to leave Histra just before first light. We had no trouble leaving without attracting attention. We avoided the roads and forged our own path slowly over the rolling hills. We have camped under an overhang at the bottom of a craggy hill. I could not travel far as the ale-sickness drained my energy and made my head pound with pain. I could not concentrate all day and told Dashyl we had to walk in silence.

Tomorrow I will be able to have conversation with my son again as we walk. We will be each other’s only companions for a long time. Now, I must sleep and hope this sickness has run its course.

Dashyl's Quest: The Tournament Plains

"All I can see is grass in every direction," Dashyl exclaimed as he dismounted his igwaza.

"Yes, that's why this is a good place to stop, no one can sneak up on us here," answered Soern, who had already dismounted and let his igwaza drink from the stream that ran through the ditch where they had stopped. "This ditch," he continued, "marks the mid point of the plains. This one still has a trickle of water running through it."

"So these ditches are not natural and were dug here," asked Fretly.

"Is that not the definition of a ditch," Soern asked back.

"Who made these ditches," asked Dashyl as his igwaza knelt over to drink with the other two.

"No one knows," said Soern flatly. "An ancient civilization, perhaps. Perhaps these plains were leveled as farmland ages ago and these are the irrigation ditches of those long lost farmers. They trisect the plains all the way to coast."

"Trisect," quizzed Dashyl.

"These ditches divide the plains into three parts. We will come upon another dry ditch that will signal that the final third of the plains are ahead of us," explained Soern. "In fact, we may need to use that ditch as we used the first ditch for an escape."

Dashyl blinked a few times and said, "You mean we might face another swarm?"

"That is a possibility. Or who knows what? We'll need to be on our toes and keep our heads on a swivel," Soern warned. "We haven't seen anyone following us yet. My guess is that the deadeye was working alone and did not share information about his task or employer with anyone else. Lucky for us, I bet he was a greedy cogrel and wanted all the pay for himself."

"How can you be so sure," asked Fretly.

"Oh, I am not sure. But, having dealt with many Sarion and most of the races who call Veratar home, I just have a gut feeling that he was working alone."

"Does your gut know if anyone else will come looking for me in the future," Dashyl asked anxiously.

Soern laughed a little at this question. "Dashyl, to that question, my gut answers yes. What we know is that whoever is searching for you knows your name, but not enough else to give a description of you. We can use that to our advantage." Soern stroked his beard for a few moments, then added, "In fact, we should call you by a new name starting now. Any suggestions?"

Fretly chimed in immediately, "Rigglewort." Fretly laughed out loud at his own suggestion.

"Shut it," Dashyl said as he got up an punched Fretly in the shoulder. After some thought, he offered, "How about Kilkarak, after my father?"

"No dummy," Fretly answered, "you need to hide the fact that you are Kilkarak's son."

"Oh, right," Dashyl said, plunging back into thought.

"Don't think too hard about it," Soern urged as he ruffled the boy's hair. He opened the pack with their food supply and handed out three of the smashed bars of dried fruit and torgen leaf that they had been eating since they left Soern's.

"How about Volkard, after the great warrior from the Sarion legends," Dashyl finally decided.

"Can I call you Vollie," Fretly teased.

"Ugh, no." Dashyl said.

"Hush, Fretly," Soern commanded. "Volkard it will be. I know of the legend of Volkard. May you have the same level of courage your people believe he possessed."

Dashyl, growing very serious, solemnly bowed his head and said, "Thank you, Soern. I will try."

"Eat up, Vollie," Fretly called out as he popped the last bite of his bar into his mouth and winked at Dashyl.

"Yes," agreed Soern, "let's be on the move again. If we time it right, we can approach Trader's Haunt under cover of darkness and not from the main road. We must hurry, we do not want to be exposed in the plains much longer."

"Will things be better in Trader's Haunt," asked Dashyl.

"I wouldn't say that, Volkard, but we will be closer to our goal, won't we," answered Soern.

Dashyl nodded in agreement, but felt that his journey would be far from over once they reached Trader's Haunt.

Dashyl's Quest: The Tournament Plains

When the three travelers reached the road they found the deadeye's own igwaza runner tied up and anchored off to the side. When Soern rode right past it without saying anything, Dashyl spoke up. "Are we going to take his igwaza with us?"

"Why," Soern asked back, riding on.

"Well, I mean," Dashyl pasued, "He could find his way back to the runner and it could carry him back to wherever he came from and he would be saved...and maybe come after me again."

"Earlier, you wanted me to spare his life and now you are wanting to doom him to die in the these plains by taking his only hope of survival?" Soern scoffed.

"No, I mean, I don't know," Dashyl stammered.

"Let the poor carapid crawl through the ditch and find his runner and ride it to safety. Let him take a longer drink from the tea cup of mercy," Soern said, adding, "it would be delightful to have some tea, don't you think."

"If we are not going to take the igwaza, let's see if there's anything worth taking off the igwaza," Fretly said as he dismounted his runner. He searched through the bags and sacks the deadeye had packed on his runner.

"You're going to steal from a blind man?" Soern asked.

"Well, I am an urchyn," explained Fretly. "Some qu might come in handy in Trader's Haunt."

"Fretly Fast-fingers is what I'll call you from now on," Soern said.

"Not a bad nickname," Fretly replied, pulling out a little pouch that sounded like it was full of coins.

"Bah," said Soern, "an old Kirzan saying goes: 'Fast fingers are quickly lost.'"

"Ha," laughed Fretly, pocketing the pouch full of qu. "As long as I have my fingers, I shall not fast and qu will be quickly lost. That's my saying." The dextrous urchyn had pulled out a coin and ran it back and forth over the knuckles of his left hand. "This day's starting to get better," Fretly said as he flipped the coin into the air, climbed back onto his igwaza, then caught the coin in his right hand.

"Enjoy it while it lasts. If that deadeye does live, I wouldn't want to be the one who stole from him," Soern warned.

"Aye, and I wouldn't want to be the one who stabbed his eyes out," retorted Fretly. 

"See," said Dashyl. "Doesn't it seem like a good idea now to bring his igwaza with us?"

"Leave it," Soern commanded. "We must get on our way. I think we should be good to run the igwaza along the road. We're about a third of the way to Trader's Haunt. We'll have one more night to sleep on the plains." Soern gave the signal and the three igwaza broke into a run carrying their riders ahead smoothly and swiftly, each one secretly hoping the deadeye would die and no one one else would be following them.

Dashyl's Quest: The Tournament Plains

"Did you really think I wouldn't find you wallowing in this ditch," asked the man in black armor. "Did you think I would just keep walking down the road hoping to come across your corpses?" He didn't wait for a response. "I knew how you escaped the second I came across this ditch. It was just a matter of following it away from the road." The man never took the aim of his arrow off of Soern. Soern never took his eyes off the archer.

"Let me guess," Soern spoke finally, "you're a Sarion. A deadeye from Tanglefern. Am I right?"

"Bullseye," answered the deadeye. "Now, which one of these little twerps is Dashyl?"

Dashyl sucked in air when he heard the question and Fretly's head snapped sideways to look at his friend.

"Ah yes, the younger one," the man said as he studied the boy. "Are you Dashyl," he asked.

Dashyl looked at Soern but the warrior still did not take his eyes off the archer, so Dashyl looked at Fretly. Fretly slowly shook his head.

"Why do you want to know," Soern asked the man.

"I have been hired to find him," the man admitted. "I have been looking a long time for you," the man addressed Dashyl directly. "My waiting has finally paid off and now I can get paid," the man said, chuckling to himself. He turned his attention back to Soern. "I am only getting paid to find one Sarion boy and you, my Kirzan friend, are no Sarion boy, I'm afraid."

As the man pulled back on his bow string, Soern yelled, "Rush him!"

Dashyl froze, unsure of what he should do. He saw Fretly jump over to his backpack and look for something inside. The archer fired his arrow as Soern charged him, screaming. The arrow pierced Soern's left hand and the warrior fell to his knees clutching his hand with the arrow stuck halfway through.

Fretly had found Dashyl's knife and flung it at the deadeye, but it bounced harmlessly off his armor. Fretly followed up his throw by throwing himself through the air at the man. The archer deflected the leap with his left forearm, knocking his attacker to the ground. The deadeye reached behind his back to grab another arrow. Fretly took the opening and grabbed the bow with both hands and hugged it to his body as tightly as he could. The archer tried to shake the bow free at first. He dropped the arrow he was holding and started punching Fretly in the face and head, but the urchyn would not let go.

While Fretly and the deadeye wrestled, Soern stood up and with a great bellow pulled the arrow all the way through his hand. He snapped the arrow in two and dropped the back half. "Fretly, move aside," roared the huge Kirzan. Fretly let go of the bow and rolled away. Soern then charged at the deadeye ramming the middle of his armored chest with his shoulder. The man fell down with Soern's big bulk on top of him. The old warrior held down the deadeye.

"Who hired you," the warrior asked the man.

"I'll never tell, he could make my life a living terror, you can only kill me," the man answered.

"What does he want with Dashyl," Soern asked.

"Save your breath, old one, I'm not one for conversation,"the deadeye said, obviously struggling under the warrior's weight.

"I see. Then that's that. Fretly, open the visor on his helmet," Soern calmly commanded.

Fretly did as he was asked and turned away as he realized what Soern was going to do. Dashyl watched, however, as the Kirzan stabbed the broken arrow into each of the man's eyes, then stood up.

"Try finding your way back to Tanglefern, now, deadeye," Soern said as the man rolled on the ground and screamed in agony.

"Get on your igwazas," Soern again calmly said, "we're getting out of here."

"We can't just leave him here like this," Dashyl pleaded.

"Look," Soern said sternly, "he's a hired assassin. He would have killed us and maybe you. We are showing him a mercy he would not have shown us."

"Mercy? But..." Dashyl protested, but words failed him.

"Let's go, Dash, Soern's right," Fretly consoled.

Soern bandaged his hand as the other two gathered their gear quickly. The three travelers mounted their runners and headed back toward the road. The deadeye ran after them for a short ways, pleading for them not to leave him, but he couldn't run far without tripping and soon they were out of range of his cries.

Dashyl's Quest: The Tournament Plains

A gentle chorus of trilling and chirping soothed Fretly as he slept. A smile crept on his face as the sound grew louder and louder until it woke him up. Through sleepy eyes the young man saw a group of birds hopping and scratching at the ground on both sides of the ditch. Then Fretly remembered his watch duty and he jumped up, shaking off the grass stalks that had been covering him. He spun around to see Soern laughing at him.

"Oh boy, way to keep watch, there, watchman," Soern said as he laughed his signature belly laugh.

Fretly scratched his head. "I guess I fell asleep before the end of my watch. Sorry," he said before yawning. "What are all these birds," he asked, coming over to sit next to Soern.

"Rockhoppers. They know razorwig swarms will knock grass seeds from the stalks and the rockhoppers follow them out of the woods to feed on the bounty," Soern explained.

"Oh yeah," Fretly said, "these are those birds that can't fly. They sure are tame here, I've never seen them come so close to a camp."

"Not many people around to hunt them here," Soern replied.

"How's Dashyl," Fretly asked.

"I'm fine," answered the boy who also had just woken up. Dashyl sat up and rubbed his jaw. "I can move and I can talk, I guess that means I'm doing alright." He winced and felt the sutures on his cheek and then explored the wound on his neck. "Still hurts all over," Dashyl said.

"Now you know why a razorwig swarm is so dangerous," Soern reminded him.

"Oh, thanks, for a moment I forgot why I feel like this," Dashyl snapped.

"Now, now. You're lucky to be alive. We all are," Soern said. "Eat some rations and let's make a plan of action so we can move on soon. Maybe we can catch whoever set off those explosions and put the swarm in motion towards us. I'm going to feed the igwaza while you two eat."

The two friends ate their breakfast in silence. Dashyl had to eat gingerly due to the cuts on his cheek and neck. Soern returned from feeding the runners and crouched down with the others to begin discussing a plan. Before he could say anything, a loud screech pierced the air followed by a soft thud and an flurry of feathers spinning in the air near them.

"Whoa," Fretly said, startled. "What was that?"

"Look, it's a merlyn, it must have dive bombed a rockhopper," Soern pointed into the air. "There, it's got one in its talons as it flies away."

As the three travelers watched the merlyn rise into the sky with its prey, something whizzed over their heads and struck the merlyn, knocking it from its course. It released the rockhopper it had killed and both birds fell from the sky like deadweights. The rockhopper's lifeless body fell right at Dashyl's feet. The shocked companions were staring at the dead bird when they heard a strange voice.

"Greetings," said a man wearing black armor and a green mask with what looked like a large orange eye on the front. The man stood on one bank of the ditch and was wielding a bow with an arrow notched and ready to fire. "Any of you move and I will put an arrow through your throat."

Dashyl's Quest: The Tournament Plains

"Soern, hey, Soern," Fretly repeated as he shook the old kirzan where he sat against the dirt wall of the ditch. "Don't fall asleep now," he pleaded.

Soern opened one eye that didn't really focus on anything and pushed Fretly away by the face.

"Wake up, Soern," Fretly yelled.

"Why," Soern mumbled.

"Because, we can't stay here," Fretly said as if it were obvious.

"What," Soern asked as his head bobbed up to listen.

"Somebody made those explosions happen. Somebody who wanted to hurt us, maybe," Fretly reasoned.

Soern blinked his eyes a few times then stared straight at Fretly. "Hupht," he spat, "you're right. Those explosions could have been deliberate. The chances of someone taking this road with any kind of unstable radia that would just happen to go off just at that point are very slim."

"Right," Fretly confirmed.

"That someone is probably going to follow the swarm after a while to look for our dead bodies." After Soern said this, both he and Fretly looked at Dashyl lying motionless in the moist dirt of the ditch. They then met each other's gaze with a new resolve despite being exhausted.

"We've got to move farther down the ditch to get away from the road. With any luck, our pursuer was not watching from afar and failed to notice our escape," Soern said. "Even if there is no one on our tail, it will be good to rest in this ditch overnight, heal and set out just before first light."

"Right," Fretly agreed.

The two stood up and started getting ready to lead their igwazas away from the road. Fretly readied Dashyl's igwaza as Soern crouched over the boy, asking him questions.

"Are you awake, son," Soern asked.

"Uh humph," was all Dashyl could answer, still unable to move his jaw.

"Did you hear what we just said," Soern continued with his questions.

"Uh humph."

"I'm going to pick you up and drape you over the back of your igwaza. We'll make our way away from the road slowly. Are you good with that plan?"

"Uh humph."

"Fantastic. Up we go." Soern grabbed Dashyl's body and gently rested him on the back of the boy's runner. "Is that fine," he asked, patting Dashyl's head.

"Uh humph."

The tired trio traveled in silence frequently casting furtive glances back toward the road, but they never saw anybody.

"Here is good," Soern announced after some distance. "The ditch has curved away from the road enough that we should be covered from the sight of anyone searching for us. Let's make some shelters out of the grass stalks before we eat and sleep."

"I'll take watch for as long as I can," Fretly volunteered. "Maybe our pursuer will pass us in the night and we will be pursuing him tomorrow."

"I hope so," Soern replied, then spat on the ground and rubbed it into the dirt with his boot.

Dashyl's Quest: The Tournament Plains

Dazed and upside down, Dashyl couldn't focus on anything that was going on around him. Overhead, an incredible jumble of razorwigs whizzed by, their bodies blocking out the sky until it seemed like thousands of lights were flashing before the boy's eyes. The noise was deafening, like he was about to be caught in the sharp, grinding gears of some dangerous machine. Dashyl closed his eyes and tried to move, but his body felt numb and tingly. He squeezed his eyes tighter and waited for the noise to stop roaring above him.

As quickly as the swarm had crashed over him, the last of the razowigs leapt over the ditch. The full light and sudden quiet cleared Dashyl of his confusion. He could see Fretly hiding behind his igwaza as it bit into the segmented body of a razorwig that must have fallen into the ditch. The igwaza easily crunched through the creature's exoskeleton as it became lunch for the runner. Beyond this fracas, Soern smashed at what must have been multiple razorwigs around him. The carapids were soon exterminated and Fretly ran to Dashyl's side.

"Dash, are you okay, oh my, are you okay," Fretly asked as he knelt next to Dashyl. At that moment, Dashlyl felt his heart beating hard in his throat and he had trouble moving his jaw. All he could do to answer was shake his head.

"Soern," Fretly yelled. "Dashyl is hurt. His neck has been slashed open and he is bleeding a lot."

"I am checking on my runner. Find some kind of cloth and apply pressure to his wound," Soern shouted back.

"Forget the igwaza, you dumb kirzan, Dashyl might be dying here," screamed Fretly.

Soern rummaged through his pack and retrieved a few strips of cloth and a pouch. He handed a piece of the cloth to Fretly. "Here," he said, "take this and apply pressure. He will be okay. Just don't let him bleed out." Soern changed his focus to Dashyl. "You'll be okay, son. Try to be calm. I've got to attend to my runner. If he has a broken leg, then its no use mending him. But if I can help him, we need him to cross the plains. The other igwaza are not big enough to carry me." "Besides, I can't afford to replace this igwaza," he muttered as he returned to his injured runner.

"Whatever you say," Fretly snorted as he held the cloth firmly against the gash in Dashyl's neck. "Your left cheek is cut pretty bad, too. Your chin is scraped up and your bottom lip is busted open." Fretly squinted as he continued. "I thought you would have seen us bolt for the ditch. We would have waved you down."

Soern came over and took Fretly's place tending to Dashyl. "The leg wasn't broken and I don't think there were any ligament tears. I sewed up the wound and he should be able to run again just fine. Now let's look at you." The kirzan held Dashyl's face with one of his big hands. "I'll have to sew up your neck and cheek. It's going to hurt. On the bright side, the razorwig's legs are so sharp that the wounds heal up with with hardly any scar. You'd never guess that I've been sliced up more times than I can count by razorwigs. Well, you might guess that I've been sliced up, but you'd never tell where the razorwigs got me."

Soern pulled out a needle and some threadlike material from his pouch. "Here we go," he said as he threaded the line on the the needle. "This needle is from the proboscis of another type of carapid. One carapid slices you open and another carapid closes you up. Isn't that life on Rynaga, eh?"

Dashyl didn't have time to consider an answer as he felt the needle bite into his flesh. He couldn't open his mouth to scream, so he screamed and hyperventilated through his teeth.

"Hold on, Dash," Fretly consoled. Dashyl calmed down and clenched his jaws tight. Once his neck was finished, he hardly felt the cheek being worked on, the numbness had reached the top of his head.

"Soern, look," Fretly called out as he pointed farther down the ditch. Three razorwigs were leaping down the ditch in their direction.

"Leave this to me," Soern said, grabbing up his hammer. The hefty kirzan waited calmly as the slashing carapids raced towards him. At just the right moment, he twirled his hammer in his hand twice then brought it down on the head of the lead razorwig. Wasting no time, he jumped into the air, spun around and smashed the other two hapless creatures with one great arcing blow.

Soern turned around, let his hammer fall to the ground and stood with his arms in the air and his face beaming. "Ha ha," he laughed, "I've still got the moves!"

"Oh yeah? What happened to your beard," Fretly asked, cracking a bit of a smile.

"What..." Soern asked as he frantically grabbed at the area under his chin where the majority of his beard used to be. "Blast, one of those confounded beasts sliced off my beard," Soern said before sputtering out a long stream of kirzan curses.

The old warrior trudged back to where Fretly was continuing to clean up Dashyl. "Here, let me feel your jaw," Soern said once again taking Dashyl's head in his immense hands. He rubbed Dashyl's temples and felt where his bottom jaw connected to his skull. Pain shot through Dashyl's head and he winced. "Hm, you might have broken your jaw or damaged your skull. We'll have to wait until the swelling goes down. Dashyl nodded and just tried to relax and not think about the pain that draped itself over every part of his body.

"Oh, I may still have the moves, but it takes more out of me." Soern let out a long, loud sigh and collapsed on the ground next to Dashyl. "Time to rest," he said. "Then we need to think about our next move."

Dashyl's Quest: The Tournament Plains

The igwaza Dashyl rode was considerably slower than the other two. Soern and Fretly were increasing their distance ahead of the boy and he had no idea how to make his runner run faster. "Goooo," he yelled and dug his heels into the animal's hide. The reptilian creature grunted and Dashyl quit trying to make it go faster. "You're probably already running as fast as you can," he told it. Dashyl turned around to take another queasy glimpse of the swarm on his tail. "But will it be fast enough," he muttered.

Facing forward, Dashyl noticed that Soern and Fretly had vanished. He could see no sign they were ever running in front of him or that they had ever been on the plains with him. Dashyl's mind raced faster than his mount, which was careening down the road so fast that Dashyl could hardly keep his eyes open. An even greater fear seized his heart and tears came to his eyes, not from the wind but from the fear that he was suddenly alone. 

All that was in front of the boy was the open road cutting its path through the unending grasslands. What was Dashyl rushing towards, he didn't know. But he did know he was running from a dangerous swarm of razorwigs, a type of carapid that could be deadly for some reason. He could now hear the faint noise of the swarm over the galloping of the igwaza's feet. The sound was not exactly a buzzing, it was a sound more like a thousand knife blades being sharpened simultaneously. 

Dashyl did not want to look back. He just wanted to close his eyes and let the igwaza take him where it would. Even with his eyes shut, he could hear the shhhkk, shhhkk, shhhkk sound growing louder, closer. But there was another sound, also growing louder, something familiar. His own name. Was the swarm calling out his name?

The bewildered boy spun around to make the madness make sense and immediately it did. Soern, calling Dashyl's name from the back of his speedy igwaza, was gaining on him. "Stop," he heard Soern bellow. Dashyl gave the command in kirzan to stop and the igwaza gracefully came to rest, panting heavily, eyeing the swarm behind it. 

"There's a ditch back there," Soern yelled once he had caught up to the boy. "We might be safe in it. Come on!" Soern's runner adroitly spun around on its hind legs and ran the other direction. Dashyl's igwaza soon followed. They were now running full speed towards the swarm. He could see the individual razorwigs now. The carapids shot themselves forward in great leaps using their back legs. Dashyl could also see the danger. The forelegs of the razorwigs had razor sharp edges that sliced through the grass stalks and presumably anything in their path. 

Soern disappeared into what must have been the ditch a little ways off to the side of the road. He popped up a moment later without his igwaza and waved his hands in the air. Once Dashyl realized his igwaza was headed straight for Soern and the ditch, he closed his eyes. The swarm loomed right above him now like the crest of a wave ready to break.

The massive wave of carapids crashed over the ditch just as Dashyl's igwaza leapt for safety. The boy heard Soern cry out and his igwaza gurgle in pain, then pain shot through Dashyl's cheek and neck and he cried out. His eyes shot open in time to realize he was flying through the air headfirst into the opposite side of the ditch. His chin hit took the brunt of the landing as his body slammed into the dirt wall and then crumpled into a heap at the bottom of the ditch. 

Dashyl's Quest: The Tournament Plains

Dashyl could barely feel the igwaza runner galloping beneath him. The tops of the golden grass stalks whipped by him in a mustardy blur, the wind deafened his ears, his heart felt as light as it had ever felt. Dashyl laughed and screamed, then let the wind force its way down his throat, puffing out his cheeks. Tears shot away from the corners of his eyes and his nose began to ooze, but he didn't care.

"This is incredible," Dashyl shouted to his companions who were ahead of him on their own igwazas. Dashyl's was the smallest and must have been the slowest runner of the three. Unable to contain himself, the young boy let out another yell, "Wooooooo!" Fretly turned around. He heard me, Dashyl thought, but Fretly did not focus on his friend who was following him. Instead, he looked past Dashyl, back toward the tree line. His eyes filled with fear before he turned back around and began urging his igwaza to run faster.

Reluctantly, Dashyl turned around to have a look. He instantly became queasy not looking in the direction the igwaza was running. Fighting the urge to close his eyes, Dashyl saw what he first thought was a line of smoke or fog obscuring the tree line far in the distance. But the cloud did not disperse or rise into the air. Rather, this cloud hovered over the tops of the grass stalks and was getting closer. Dashyl could look no longer and faced forward again. Even though the weird cloud moved toward them quickly, the igwaza could surely outrun whatever it was, he reasoned. Then Dashyl looked back once more. The cloud had moved closer than he figured. It must be moving extremely fast, he thought, but how? Dashyl's body suddenly pumped adrenaline due to fear instead of exhilaration. He finally understood, they were being chased by a razorwig swarm.