Hello, greetings, good day and all that jazz.
I went back to college a month back and it was odd, considering I'd been nowhere near the plear in nearly a quarter of the year. It's certainly take some getting back into the habit of rising at six in the morning... I'm doing four subjects now between two branches of the same college now so I have to spend half my dinner catching a bus between the two. Hmm. Anyway, here is Chapter 14. I hope you enjoy it!
PREVIOUSLY
The Trinity caravan make their final preparations for the upcoming journey, only to be interrupted by the appearance of Princess Fiona of Alfitaria, who was stowing away on their caravan. She believes that the Trinity-landers can help her find a cure for her father... but with so much else to do, how on earth are they going to have time?
14 (Trouble In Tida)
Hours later, the Trinity caravan was trundling away from Shella and back towards the distant bulk of the Veo Lu sluice. It was much later into the morning than had been anticipated, but progress was being made. The cause of the delay was in fact an addition to the caravan itself.
There was one major structural difference to the caravan, and that was the roof. Where before it had consisted of two metal plates curved to form a double arch, now there was just the one sheet. Quite neatly, it formed a semi-circular ceiling to what could now be considered 'the second floor', even though the caravan was only a couple of feet taller. The second floor was now home to the two Selkie passengers, meaning that Princess Fiona could sleep in Sera's bed. Princess Fiona herself had thought it up, and six skilled Yukish blacksmiths had worked through the night to ensure it was ready the following day.
"I could get used to this," Sera said happily, swinging her legs over the back, "Once you go away I'll have the entire caravan top all to myself."
"Be quiet, you," De Nam replied absently. He was sprawled out on one of two blanket rolls, a couple of pages littering his pillow. One page, bigger than the others, was gripped in his hands and held not inches from his face.
"Sorry to interrupt your studies," Sera laughed, and turned to examine what it was that currently held his fascination. De Nam waved it vaguely.
"It's the original map of Rebena."
"So I see."
"My problem is thus; why is it only showing the city? The page is giant, and the Rebenans were the undisputed rulers of quite a lot of land back then. So where's the rest of the map? It's as if someone just… rubbed the outside off, leaving the centre."
"Very interesting," Sera said, "Do you want something to eat?"
"You're not listening to me - "
Below the Selkies, Mioko was sat in the caravan chopping carrots on a board placed neatly level on her knees. Ciaran was outside with Kass, leaving Fiona hidden away in Sera's bed watching the quiet Clavat prepare a light salad lunch.
"I'd like to learn to cook," she offered, after a while, "The servants won't let me try back home."
Mioko made a neutral noise and continued to slice away. Fiona winced at the lack of reply but plunged onwards. She briefly had the strange feeling that she was paddling out of her depth.
"I heard you're a tailor. Is it difficult?"
"Not really," Mioko said shortly. Her tone indicated that further questions were not particularly welcome. Nonethless, Fiona persevered with determination that, in the face of Mioko's silent treatment, was nothing short of admirable.
"I'd have thought it would be."
Mioko sighed inwardly. The poor girl was trying so hard to be friends, and Mioko was no good at holding a grudge. Despite the massive cultural differences between them, she actually quite liked the straightforwardness of the princess. Besides, Fiona was younger than she was and under a lot of stress. Mioko did not have it in herself to be unkind to anyone. She pursed her lips in mock severity and beckoned. Fiona climbed down carefully, looking apprehensive.
"Smile," commanded Mioko, and the princess did so obediently. Mioko set aside the chopping board and slid the knife securely back into its wooden block before picking up one of Sera's pairs of leggings. The Selkie had split it running through the sluice just days ago.
"Have you done any needlework at all?" she asked the princess, who shook her head.
"I tried once, but my tutor said I was no good and I should concentrate on my languages instead. I'm learning to read Old Selkic."
"Every girl ought to know how to use a needle," Mioko said severely, "It's not just good for sewing, you know. Sit here, I'll teach you."
The next four days passed rather uneventfully, apart from a strange lack of other caravans or indeed anyone else on the roads. Towards the end of the fifth day, it was getting a little unsettling. Mioko staved off her nervousness by appointing herself Fiona's new friend and teaching her all the domestic talents she knew, while Sera busied herself helping De Nam peruse the mass of maps and Ciaran stared grimly into the distance, trying to spot some sign of life. Kass said absolutely nothing for the entire trip save what was necessary, keeping his gaze fixed on the back of the papoamus. Lack of energy was to be expected near Tida - after all, considering what had happened there caravans tried to avoid the place and nearby villagers had moved away - but this sheer emptiness was downright odd.
Not surprisingly, it was with much relief that Ciaran announced that he could see another caravan on the horizon.
"Look, there." He hung from the side of the caravan and flung out an arm for Sera to look along.
"So there is," Sera acknowledged, and felt the anxious knot in her stomach lessen. Innocently, Mioko joined the group and peered at the smudge.
"That's not one caravan," she pointed out, "There's at least three there. I'm surprised you didn't see that, Sera."
"Three?" Sera focused in on the dark blob and saw that her friend was right, "What's going on? A fight, or maybe a crash? Kass - "
The Lilty sped up the papoamus without her having to say another word.
The Trinity party coasted to a stop beside the three other caravans. All were hitched at the top of a relatively steep slope, beyond which the land dipped gently into a little basin where the abandoned village of Tida rested. They were guarded by papoamuses of varying shapes and sizes, and bore individual emblems on their sides.
And all of them were empty.
"Do you think the caravanners ran away?" Fiona asked rather naively, climbing down from the platform to join Sera, Ciaran and Mioko. Kass began unobtrusively tethering their own papoamus to a nearby tree while De Nam watched on from the roof. The little group surveyed the silent collection of carts.
"No, we're so near to Tida," Mioko was whispering despite herself, "This can't be coincidental."
"I think you're right, Mi," Sera replied dully, "I think this is a case of competition. These caravans represent three completely separate towns, and they're all trying to get to the myrrh tree here with complete disregard for timetable, or each other. I know for a fact that this town," she pointed to the nearest caravan, "doesn't even use this tree."
"They'd only be doing that if each of them had checked every other tree they possess and found them dry," Ciaran said, and wished he hadn't, "I'm getting a horrible feeling, guys."
"I don't want to go to Tida," Mioko said suddenly, "I don't want to go."
"We have to, Mioko," Sera reminded her, but she too was feeling queasy with dread. De Nam called down from his post on the roof.
"Sera, you're not going to like this."
"What is it?"
"I can see at least six other caravans between here and Tida. They're all empty."
"Right," Ciaran said firmly, "Everyone get kitted up. You too, princess, you can borrow Mioko's shield and my dagger. Kass will look after you. Don't argue, you can't stay here. I want to know what the heck is going on - "
It all became dreadfully apparent what was happening as the party of six reached the end of the road. Sera detached herself from the group, leaving the chalice to Kass, and scrambled up a steep little hill to get a better view into the overgrown maze that the village had become. Most of the houses were in a state of irreparable decay, hung about with slime and cobwebs; statues and gateways had become smothered with that same slime, passable only if a skilled mage could burn a path through to the next garden with a Fire magicite. This damn place was a haven for monsters. Few caravanners wanted to be reminded what would happen if they failed, and so Tida had become one of those last ditch destinations that tempted only the hardiest few. If those few weren't good enough they were overwhelmed by the infestation of bug monsters that lived in every cranny of the rotting buildings. Today, though, the usually deserted scene was alive with activity.
"What can you see, Sera?" Ciaran called up weakly.
Sera didn't reply.
From her high perch she could see near enough the entire village. What she saw made her sick to her very marrow.
At least twelve groups were scurrying from place to place, desperately trying to outdistance their rivals in their efforts to find the shortest route to the myrrh tree. As she watched, two of those groups ran into one another and immediately fell about fighting in their frenzy to be victorious. Their faces were masks of complete and utter terror.
A group of Yukes blasted apart a wall of cobwebs and hurried through - the stuff was animated by the miasma and sought to reform itself as quickly as possible. Charging up behind them came a second party who tried to follow the Yukes through. Only two of the three made it, the third left on the other side of the division. His companions tried to hack their way back to him with their swords but failed, their expressions making it evident that they had no Fire magicite with which to bring him through after them. He was stuck there - and from behind him came running a pack of little worms, mad with bloodlust.
Plumes of purple powder rose some hundred yards to their left and Sera spotted two fellow Selkies backed into a corner by a giant worm. One was racked with poison induced spasms and the other fared little better, bleeding copiously from the stomach as she battered away the smaller worms leaping up at her with her racket. Both were on their last legs. The fighter's racket splintered in her hands and the two Selkies disappeared into another hazy lilac cloud of poisonous spores.
There were screams to the right and Sera saw a Clavat girl chased around a corner by a huge flying insect the likes of which she had never seen before. Wings whirring, it bore down on the girl and knocked her over with a blast of air. She was all by herself, that one girl, without a chalice in sight. How could her group have lost her? She spotted them, two toher Clavats, leaning around the corner of that same building, debating hotly what to do. Then, just like that, they ran away and left her to the insect-warrior's mercy as if she were bait, and they had consoled themselves with the excuse that she was dying for the greater good.
Is this what miasma does to us? Or is this fear? Do we do this to ourselves?
And as Sera stared in abject horror at the massacre below her, she saw the true colours of mankind and found them too ugly to bear.
Distant roars sounded... Sera's gaze was dragged upwards once more to the very distant edge of the village, where some giant shape was stirring. A shout of alarm from the path below sounded as the ground trembled. Mioko clung to Ciaran and Kass steadied Fiona, their outlines blurred for a second.
"What was that?" Fiona stammered, as Ciaran yelled up again, "Sera, what's happening?"
Sera collapsed to her knees, hands over her mouth, unable to comprehend what she was seeing. This was not right! Had everyone gone mad? They were acting like savages… monsters. In fact, they were no better, some of them. Monsters were stupid and vicious because they didn't know anything else. Fat tears of grief and rage burned in her eyes as she rammed her knuckles into her mouth to keep from sobbing at the awful scene. She would not cry! She became vaguely aware of her companions gathering about her to see what had rendered her so speechless.
They mustn't see this. It's too horrible.
Another tremor shook the floor, causing Ciaran to fall over in its severity. It was a timely distraction and Sera took advantage of it to place herself as much as possible in everyone's line of sight.
"What is that? An earthquake?" De Nam exclaimed, hauling the Clavat upright.
"Not an earthquake," Kass supplied woodenly, "Armstrong."
"Who?" Fiona said tremulously.
"What, not who. The house that the last survivors in this village hid in before the miasma killed them all. The residual feelings left echoing inside it allowed the miasma to possess it. It's just another big monster now, full of pain and anger and suffering," Sera spoke as if by rote staring into some middle distance in which the scene below her did not feature, beautiful face composed, "If it jumps or pounds the floor, it's so heavy you get a tremor. Someone must have - I mean, it's obviously woken up."
Fiona let out a little squeak of fright and seized Ciaran's sleeve.
"What?" the boy asked distantly, and Sera realised with a sinking feeling that he could see right over her arm. He gazed at the small scale war unfolding below him with a mixture of disgust and morbid curiosity. The princess tugged harder. Finally, his attention roused, Ciaran tore his eyes away and followed her finger.
Two skeleton soldiers were advancing down the path towards the group. Ciaran handed Fiona to De Nam and leapt back down onto the road. Sera went after him, half falling in her shellshocked state. She could still hear the frightened screaming; it was so difficult to focus any more…
"Sera! Duck!"
The Selkie rolled instinctively. The part of her brain that had long since been programmed to obey Ciaran's orders had saved her life. A wild slice with a rusted scimitar had whistled right over her head, lopping off a chunk of her silver-blue hair. Rolling once more to put herself safely out of harm's way, Sera struggled upright and reached over her shoulder for her racket. One skeleton came bulling towards her, bony shoulder aiming for her stomach. She sidestepped neatly and clouted the thing on the back of the head. It dropped in a clatter of bones, shield rolling away. Sera blinked. She hadn't expected it to give so easily.
Dismissing that, she whirled and sped to Ciaran's aid. The Clavat's assailant was putting up much more of a fight than Sera's had, and he looked gratified when she arrived on the edge of the fight. Dropping to a crouch, Sera lashed out at knee height and her foot connected. The skeleton lost its left shin. It hopped about bizarrely for a moment, frantically trying to stay upright, until Mioko and Fiona pelted it from above with pebbles. It scattered across the path.
The next thing Sera knew, Ciaran had charged her, sword hurtling towards her head in a downwards strike. She shut her eyes, but that was all she had time for. There was a scraping noise from somewhere behind her left ear as Ciaran's sword whooshed over her shoulder and collided with the dry skull of the skeleton Sera had felled moments earlier. Somehow, the stupid mindless thing had put itself back together. She lashed out backwards blindly with her racket, and only managed to get the end caught in the poorly reassembled ribcage.
Ciaran pulled back, trying to circle behind it; Sera was left momentarily weaponless. Attempting to turn and free her racket, she came face to face with two insane golden pinpricks where the eyes should have been. The gaping jaw hung from only one side of the skull, stuck there by moss. The skeleton leered, joints clicking and rasping as it reached for her with one hand and raised its weapon in the other. Ciaran's sword swung round again and again from behind it, finding no purchase on the fleshless bones and slipping off uselessly. Then the scimitar was all she could see, wicked hooked edge sweeping round in the direction of her exposed waist.
From nowhere, Kass appeared in front of her.
His lance moved, stopping once, twice, and then he was gone again. The skeleton's spine was suddenly S-shaped. It cracked like a mirror before Sera's eyes into dozens of bleached white shards, and collapsed for the last time. The scimitar bounced away until it landed, point first, into a patch of sparse grass some distance away. Ciaran sheathed his sword and ran over, putting a hand on each of Sera's shoulders worriedly.
"You all there, Li? You seemed a bit out of it…"
"Those people in Tida," Sera mumbled. The part of her that was vain cursed her inability to stand straight and speak clearly, "They're killing each other. They're on the same side. It's horrible. I saw them killing one another."
"Yeah," Ciaran replied levelly, "I know. I saw it too. The others haven't, because the tremor distracted them. I'd rather it stayed that way, because if they see that they'll be hysterical. I need you to block it out for me and be brave, for them. There's nothing you can do. If we go down to even look at anything, never mind go for myrrh, we're going to get attacked. So what we're going to do is make an excuse and go, right now. Can you help me?"
Sera nodded numbly, and felt him squeeze her arms tightly for a moment.
"Good girl. Come on."
"Are there more monsters like that in there?" Fiona asked when Sera and Ciaran rejoined the rest. Sera looked to Kass to thank him, but the Lilty was staring away into some alternate world, silent. It was as if he hadn't even realised what he'd done. Ciaran nodded in response to Fiona's question.
"Yes, and worse. We're not going in there."
"Why?" De Nam said, "Amidatty asked us to try and make some notes about how miasma attacks a village. There's no other place that'd be as useful as here."
"And I'm saying that we really shouldn't need to go in there," Ciaran said. Something in his voice told De Nam all he needed to know. The Selkie's eyes narrowed, and he nodded slowly.
"Aye, you're probably right. It probably wouldn't have helped anyway. Tida's so far along the infection scale now we wouldn't even know where to start looking for the beginning signs."
Ciaran radiated silent thanks as De Nam carefully steered Fiona away from the hilltop. Unfortunately, Kass wasn't so quick in retrieving Mioko, who was still stood atop the hill.
"What's going on?" Mioko said suspiciously, "We came all the way here to be scared away by two skeletons? And what about all those caravans back there? Where are the people?"
"Mioko, come down and I'll tell you." Ciaran said pleadingly. The Clavat girl appeared not to have heard him.
"I can't feel the myrrh tree," she said, and sounded puzzled. Ciaran tried again.
"Come down and don't look."
It is all too well known that when the brain registers the command 'don't look', the eyes will automatically lock onto what they have be told not to look at, just so that they know what it is they should not be seeing. Mioko half-glanced towards Tida, and that was enough for her to understand what was happening. A look of horror crept over her features.
"Ciaran," Mioko gasped, "What - oh my goodness - this isn't - Ciaran! Look at this!"
"I know, Mioko, I know!" Ciaran scrabbled up the hill again to pull her away, talking as loudly as he dared to cover her frantic cries. He was unsuccessful. Kass turned to look, and Fiona walked into the back of him before she also whirled to see what he was staring at. De Nam covered his eyes with a groan.
"They're attacking one another!" Fiona shouted, looking panicky, "What's going on?"
"We have to do something! Come on, we have to go down there!" Mioko said wildly, drawing her sword in confused determination, "Before they all kill each other - "
"We can't!" Sera tried to restrain Fiona as the young princess strove to look, "We have to go, come on. There's no time and there's nothing we can do - "
"You don't understand!" Mioko said. The words themselves weren't overly loud but it was as if she had screamed and slapped everyone present in the face.
"Don't understand what?" De Nam asked. The Clavat girl's grip slackened on her sword and the tip dropped to the floor. She looked utterly woeful.
"It's so pointless," she murmured.
"What is?" Ciaran tried to get her to look at him but she seemed entirely unable to focus on him.
"They're all killing one another to get to that myrrh tree and there's none there. It's a pointless waste of life! I have to say something, make them stop…"
"You can't, they won't listen," Ciaran glanced to Sera and De Nam for help but they had no words with which to persuade the Clavat, "Besides, how can you really be sure there's no myrrh here?"
"Because I can hear the tree," Mioko said simply. Ciaran pulled back, bewildered.
"Say what?"
"I can hear the tree," she repeated, "but I can't feel it. You - you know why that is?"
Ciaran was temporarily transfixed by her question. Something told him that she wasn't quite all there, and needed the prompt. He reached out to steady her, heart burning in his chest.
"No."
"I can't feel the myrrh because the tree is completely full of miasma," Mioko finished softly, "But I can hear it because… it's screaming in agony."
And so Chapter 14 ends. I wasn't quite sure how to write this piece, since I wanted to bring home the severity of the problem and bring a real sense of pressure into the story now, but I'm also reluctant to write severe gore. This was a sort of balance between the two and I hope it worked alright for you, readers.
As always, I love reviews and comments! If you have anything to say or ask, feel free and I'll get back to you :D
Until next time!