Invitation, The (a.k.a. Champion Select)
By Cyrus Jorgen
The late morning air was still crisp from the dawn as the wagon exited the capitol's expansive outer walls. The frayed cloak held the dying winter chill at bay as the sole human passenger mused in silence among the chatty goats, the intended occupants of the wagon.
The traveler pretended himself a stranger to the herdsman's boy driving the wagon from the front seat. Although the traveler played a significant role in saving the goat farmer's wife last year, he was still held with an appropriate amount of suspicion. The lad at the front seat had none of the qualms the adults had for associating with a ranger and, ever grateful for his mother's continued good health, been more than happy to offer the traveler a ride to the livestock fair in the neighboring hamlet. Besides, the herdsman and his older children were gone ahead with the majority of the herd at dawn, leaving the youngest, able-bodied child to drive the wagon containing the competition goats after the morning sunshine mellowed their ornery natures.
The closest nannie made another pass at the hem of the traveler's cloak only to be brushed aside with an absentminded wave. The goat's horizontal-pupiled glare was reproachful and it nattered to its closest ungulate companion about the trifling nature of humans. This startled a chuckle out of the traveler and he turned his eyes from the pastoral horizon to give the goat his full attention.
"Not for goats," he said in an even tenor, at odds with his shabby appearance. His homey attire suited the secrecy of his assignment and in company of others, he was sure to roughen his voice with the rural dialect of the eastern plains. The multipurpose Order of the Crown recruited all manner of citizens to dispatch on varied missions, including an affluent spice merchant's second-born son like Eadric.
Eadric had been enlisted in the Order of the Crown as a bystander by the King, then Crown Prince, himself during a scandalous insurrection attempt at a lunar banquet celebration some six years ago. Thanks to extensive training, as was befitting of a merchant caravan guardian, Eadric managed to defend the Prince with no preparation and a piece of wrought iron trellis. Aside from being personally bequeathed a small wrought iron pin in the shape of a trellis supporting a single, four-petaled cress flower, the Prince's royal flower, Eadric had not been in the direct presence of the King again until two nights ago.
Before the traveler could replay his most recent meeting with his monarch again, the lad in the driver's seat let out an ear-piercing whistle, hailing a sibling that was come to check on his progress. That was the signal Eadric needed. He disembarked from the wagon without calling out to the young goatherd and drifted off the earthen road to the other side of a massive oak, out of the view of other travelers.
His destination was not the livestock fair, but the week's end horse fair that took place on the first and third week's end of every month near the next village. More precisely, his mission was to investigate the area south of the fairgrounds and across the broad Cress River, the main waterway leading from the capitol. After a series of neglected reports of missing persons or animals, never from the horse fairs on the north side of the riverbank, one of the more tenacious Order dispatchers noticed a distinct pattern with the disappearances, being the first to correlate the missing people and animals with strange wildlife activity on the southern banks of the Cress.
The traveler stowed away on the next wagon to pass, this one filled with boxed parcels and smelling of leather. The lass charged with sitting on the back of the wagon as a lookout for stowaways traded her silence for a share of his breakfast, castle sweetmeats and pastries, and assistance with repairing damaged harnesses. The leatherworker journeyman driving the laden wagon was unable to see behind the stacked cargo and only once called out to make sure the apprentice was working on the harness repairs, obvious busywork since none of them would be for sale at the prestigious horse fair.
Eadric had picked up novice leatherworking from the Order's master of horse, a woman with little patience for inactivity, especially idle hands. The work had a numbing effect and soon his mind was wandering back to receiving his assignment.
He reported to the dispatch office and was ushered into a room that was already occupied. Quinn, one of the Crown's best scouts, was pacing the length of the back wall. She did not look up until after Eadric shut the door. Then she'd blurted, "It really is you." Eadric had not the time to reply for the door reopened and King Jarvan IV entered the room, followed by two guards and a clerk of some sort. Shock delayed Eadric's bow long enough to make the young King's eyes twinkle.
Then Quinn proceeded to give the King what could only be described as a mild tongue-lashing for assigning Eadric to a mission better suited to her expertise. The King heard his subject with patience and amusement before dismissing her from the room. Eadric thought her words somewhat over harsh as their acquaintance to date spanned a single night of pleasant company during and after a formal banquet.
The King did not remark on Quinn's behavior and asked Eadric to look into a concerning matter linked by the mysterious disappearances near the horse fair. That the King would ask, not command or tell, made Eadric uneasy. He suspected Quinn would be given the mission if he refused. Comments about his lackluster career in the Order and personality aside, he liked the somewhat androgynous scout. Her loving bond with her bird of prey and blunt loyalty to the Crown were refreshing. After appropriate gestures were given, Eadric was off to go monster hunting.
Tracking really, he supposed as he tilted the brim of his hat against the moving sun.
Traffic increased on the road as the morning advanced; the journeyman leatherworker was not making good time. The traveler took his leave of the wagon before more passersby could note his presence. The air took on a wet, earthy smell as he headed for the Cress River.
As Eadric looked for a place to cross the broad river, he was struck by the normalcy of his surroundings. There was nothing to suggest that a dangerous creature was running amok on either riverbank. Insects continued to whirr in the grass and birdsong pealed throughout the glen. A vixen and her kits slunk through the tall stalks on the southern bank, searching for waterfowl nests.
The bizarre pattern of disappearances suggested an intelligence to the operation. And there was the curious observation that of all the reported missing animals, a large and well-known territorial boar among them, no horses had disappeared that were not recovered later, those being ruled as accidents and negligence on the part of the handlers at the fair. Eadric would leave the puzzling of its significance to his betters.
In any case, sending Quinn to sniff out the trouble would draw attention. Eadric had a documented reputation of minor involvement in numerous assignments of a... magical or unusual nature. His training as a caravan guardian made him well-suited to the slaying of minor beasties and he also had familiarity with fending off technological constructs so popular in the city-states to the east. His experience went beyond the post-assignment reports, something he had not thought his King to be aware of.
Just as the traveler was resigning himself to continuing down the bank for a mile on foot, an enterprising barge captain hailed him from the river. Rural events tended to start late in the morning, causing landbound vendors to begin their treks into the dawn. Those with access to barges at the river ports were able to reach their destinations as late as stall setup would allow.
His purse a few coins lighter, Eadric stepped off the barge without embarrassing himself. He was a better horseman than sailor, but at least the Cress was gentle enough for his stomach. Eadric continued to the road, eyes searching the surrounding meadow. The first human disappeared from this very place six months ago, but the Order dispatchers suspected the trend may have begun almost a year earlier based on a report of a missing dairy cow from a hamlet seven miles away and the decreased predation of travelers by bandits in the area.
The density of disappearances had increased for the past four months, all happening closer and closer to the looming forest attempting to encroach on the riverbank. Although the forest was encompassed by human habitation on all sides, it remained foreboding and primeval. Rangers and foresters found it to be plentiful with game still and there were no reports of an invasive species upsetting the habitat. Unfortunately, that meant men or monsters. Eadric was not sure which was worse.
When Eadric crossed the forest threshold, the surrounding noise of wildlife muted. There was a peaceful gloom to the wood, with beams of golden sunlight pouring between the centenarian boughs. A bullfrog belched from farther within and a faint breeze carried the smell of rotting plants. Eadric chose to follow the deer tracks going away from the unseen bog.
He lost the trail going over a fallen tree and suppressed a moment's panic. He sat on the log and visualized the terrain map in the dispatch office. It would take three days to traverse the entire distance, which was just light camping when compared to a caravan wilderness route. Something about this place distorted his perception of time.
Eadric decided to exit the forest and enter by going south from the riverbank. Then he noticed the ruin as he turned to hop over the log again. A rabbit trail crossed an overgrown, but deliberate path. He drew the sword concealed in a back sheath under his cloak, wishing it were a quarterstaff or, better yet, his halberd.
His boots made quiet scuffs on deteriorating gray cobbles. The structure was immense and perhaps had a dome in its younger days. The moss-covered foundation and parts of walls peeked between the ancient trees. The branches of the surrounding trees thickened as they reached over the ruins, keeping light from penetrating the canopy. The area was cast in shadow.
The air had become stagnant, warm and full of loam. Eadric's eyes roved the area, looking for signs of passage by a large creature. Natural animal tracks skirted the area in a peculiar way. Their avoidance of the darkness made him uneasy. Quinn's bird would not be effective in this place.
Eadric allowed himself a sigh. The wood was warded somehow; he could almost sense it. His most useful "skill" for caravan guarding was his innate sense for danger. While he may not be watched by eyes, something was aware of his presence. And it would be rude to decline an invitation.
He stepped across the line of light into the shadowed ruin.
Massive trunks had sprung up in a haphazard order when the expansive ceiling deteriorated or was removed. The trees were closer together than the natural layout of forest would have allowed. Mushrooms and blooms of vegetation cast faint glows along the trunks, giving off an ethereal light that seemed to brighten as Eadric's eyes adjusted. There were rusted metal parts in corners of wall fragments, the organic material that would have given the furniture form long since rotted away.
Movement of dry air raised the hairs on the backs of his arms and neck. The glowing walls of plants fell away into a large chamber, a courtyard perhaps? Many trees were felled in a pattern, their leafy tops protruding outside the courtyard to make room for an occupant. Eadric hesitated at the threshold.
The timber in the darkness groaned as something heavy shifted within the space, somewhere in front of him.
"Come now, you've made it this far."
The flora muted the voice, but its resonance emitted from something larger than human. The vibration of sound seemed to travel through his skull. It was cultured, patient, and... expectant.
"Some would have thought to send a more direct invitation," Eadric decided to say. He sounded raspy to his own ears. The stopper of his water canteen was loud as pulled it open to take a drink. He concealed a spike of adrenaline by pretending to be flippant, but his host was not fooled. Everything inside him was screaming to flee, but his mind already knew it to be too late.
His host enjoyed the silence and Eadric steeled himself for attack. Seeing that the visitor kept his nerve, the voice spoke again.
"Some gambits are best savored." Did he hear amusement?
Eadric blinked and relaxed his stance, keeping his grip on his sword. "Well, then. How might I be of service...sir," he asked, affecting a convincing imitation of his older sister and heir to the family's trade route empire.
Sharp, hitching noises came from deep within something large and solid. It was accompanied by strange, rustling scratches of movement. It was chuckling?
The creature must be immense. Its voice seemed to come from a higher elevation than its mirth, closer to where the tops of the felled trees had once been. How had it gotten into the forest without destroying any of the outside tree line? Perhaps it had been hibernating here long before and the kingdom sprang up around it.
Eadric moved it to belly laughs, a promising sign.
"A merchant soldier, then," his host said. "I admit, I was curious as to whom your...king, was it? -would send. Now then, let's have a look."
Eadric ignored the invitation to step closer, but that did not stop the sensation of being appraised. It made him think of the horse fair. "Why not horses?"
It made a guttural sound that Eadric interpreted as further delight. "Yes. I eat my food and my food's food, but did not care to eat my food's transport. From what I have observed, they are barely more useful than the..." It trailed off in thought.
His host liked to talk and enunciated better than half the kingdom's populace. Eadric started to consider the odds of distracting the monster long enough to escape. Maybe it was too big to get out. That would not explain the disappearances though.
"Oxen," the voice hissed, losing some of its crisp pronunciation. The scratching noises rustled again and the logs groaned as the creature shifted in the dark. "I believe they were called oxen when I was here last. Yesss?" The sibilant inquiry was not rhetorical.
Even his gloomy younger brother could not have come up with a more bizarre way for Eadric to meet his end, a morbid pastime while on caravan. "'Oxen' is still in use at this time," he confirmed.
There was a heavy, clacking sound as his host moved something large enough to create a brush of air. "Where are my manners? Let me tell you why you have been summoned."
The bed of logs groaned again as the monster settled its bulk on them. As it shifted, a wave of air rolled forth and Eadric was enveloped in the scent of a dry, almost spicy musk. He did not have to wonder at the manner of creature before him long for the beast's efforts to get comfortable stirred the vegetation inside the courtyard to emit a glow, but something unnatural prevented it from fully illuminating the chamber. The brightly glowing mushroom caps were nowhere to be seen in the courtyard.
The silhouette was lumpy, having more contortions or appendages than was normal for fauna in the area. A serpent, Eadric thought, or something that can slink between the trees. The top part was arched like a swan or crane's neck. There was a reflective surface where the head loomed, but the feeble light brushed against awkward angles. He could not puzzle out the shape.
The glowing green slits were its eyes.
"I have need of a champion," said his host, getting to the point, "and certainly whatever your king thing thought to send to slay me will do."
Eadric sensed no lies and surprise made him forget to be afraid. "You have need of a champion?"
"Indeed," the voice concurred. "My direct presence would be an act of war and then there is the matter of thousands of crawlers having sprouted up between here and there."
Crawlers? A rather unflattering and demeaning term. Were the kingdom's citizens these crawlers? This did not bode well. Were crawlers the monster's food or it's food's food?
"I beg your pardon, but I have been dispatched to investigate a series of disappearances," Eadric said. It should have felt ludicrous to speak with a monster like this, but it did shorten the detective work. "Might you have insight into this matter?"
It laughed again and Eadric associated the rhythmic scuffling with limbs pounding in merriment. There were at least three and should the creature be balanced, that meant a minimum of four. Eadric blinked, again, he realized, feeling something dark in his thoughts.
"I saved them as a gesture of good faith," the monster explained, serious at once. It enjoyed a pause. "You are welcome to see for yourself." The gloom shifted and a limb's passage was marked by the blur it made against the glowing surroundings.
Eadric backed away, gaze sliding to his right. He recalled a multi-pronged fork in the ruin before he came upon the courtyard. The layout suggested halls going around the creature's chamber. His gut knotted and he could sense the monster's expectation again. This was his window of escape.
Damn his curiosity.
His King had sent the Order's sole ranger with an almost precognitive ability to perceive danger and the sheer inability to keep himself out of it.
Eadric went down the collapsed right hallway. As he put structures between himself and the creature, he felt a lessening of pressure at his temples. He wiped his eyes as if waking from a heavy sleep. The glowing mushrooms had returned and created a bright path at his feet. The stone cobbles gave way as he rounded a corner and his boots scuffed against hard earth. Soil pervaded the area, disrupting the living light source.
At first, Eadric thought he'd come across a landslide's leavings. He noticed a beam of light eking from behind the... pillar. Then he could sense them. His footsteps were loud as he rounded the pillar. There were more pillars in a circle around a large scraped hole in the earth.
The people were alive in the hole, in varying states of discomfort. None look injured outside of signs of struggle, but many were unconscious. A few were huddled apart from each other. A woman silently muttered in her rags.
Eadric went back around the pillar to collect his thoughts. His palm rested against the roughhewn surface and he noticed there was no mortaring for the stones. It was a single block. His gaze traced up the pillar, to find it tapered into a jagged spike. All the pillars were spikes of earth jutting from the ground.
The muttering stopped. As Eadric noticed, someone in the pit made a squawk of surprise from vocal cords ragged with past screams.
"H-hey!" rasped the muttering woman. That got the attention of every conscious captive in the pit. Their sounds of struggle and desperation echoed in the unnatural silence, assaulting Eadric's eardrums.
He flung himself against the pillar and the noise roared with their panic. The smell of too many unwashed bodies rose up from the pit.
"I said QUIET!" boomed the host's voice, rendering Eadric deaf.
His every cell vibrated with the sound long after the scream was finished. Once the reverberation in his eardrums ceased, the silence was claustrophobic. His chest beat with the primal fear that had overtaken him, but his own gasps were muted to him. He crawled around the pillar –he did not recall being brought to his knees- and looked in the pit. The occupants were caught in the throes of their active despair but no sound issued forth.
Eadric cleared his own throat without gagging. All sounds and life, including the captives' smell, was muted. Now that he was aware that it should be, he could still smell a hint of the captives' misfortune. Eadric returned to his host with an unsettling knot underneath his heavy heart. This was also out of Quinn's area of expertise.
The creature enjoyed Eadric's resignation and waited for him to speak.
"I trust they will be returned," Eadric started, "alive and further unharmed." Sure, they were alive, but would they live again after their torment?
His host was magnanimous. "Any harm you see was done of their own kind. I had to remove the ones that hurt the others. Even though crawlers gain no actual power from killing each other, you are quite effective at it. And I have noticed you do not partake of your slain flesh." There was incredulity in the statement. "Why kill each other at all? I do not find there to be a lack of space. Yet. Do not worry. We will not let your population get out of hand."
Eadric switched his sword grip to the other hand, though he suspected he was outmatched for firepower at the moment. He also did not like the usage of the word "we". It was a pipe dream to hope that the creature was a singular incident. After their first words, Eadric had given up hope for survival. That the monster seemed to need him may turn things in his favor. He needed to tell the Order and the King of this great danger.
He found reverting to his trader origins more comforting than his courtier training. "You mentioned needing a champion? Those can't come cheap for someone of your...resources."
The creature almost squealed with laughter and clapped two limbs together in with hard clacks. Eadric withheld a grimace. What claws made such a sound? Being covered in a carapace of some sort would suggest an insectoid shape. The lumps had to be limbs, not coils. He could not suppress a shudder. Before his tenure with the Order, Eadric would have relegated obvious large, dimensional bugs to the childhood fairytales that spawned them.
His host appreciated getting down to business. "Indeed. You seem a useful type and could, perhaps, suit my purposes." A gust of fetid air blew over Eadric as it sighed. "I suppose simply promising you power beyond your wildest dreams is insufficient."
"Surely anyone would have done then," Eadric put in.
"Surely not," the creature snapped, showing annoyance for the first time, its glowing eyes narrowing. It drew itself up to a height Eadric could not admire in the gloom. "I need a tool, not a rabid beast."
The snort of ironic levity escaped Eadric before he could stop himself. The pressure in his temples increased and he blinked. "It would be easier to listen if you stopped doing that," he pointed out.
"Indeed." It gave a light snort. "Your crawler king is lucky to have sent a void seer on his first try. I went through a veritable legion before I found my last champion. Perhaps I shall use him next when you break. Ah, yes. Crawler champions always break eventually. The mere presence of my kind will erode lesser minds."
Eadric's dreams would be haunted by the monster's captives. According to his father's people, that type of mental decay held all the attributes of exposure to the Void.
This was a bad deal and he said as much. "Perhaps quality tools require more than power."
It snorted at him. "True. I am choosier with my champions than most of my kind."
The creature paused to muse over something. Eadric did a short counting exercise to himself to keep anxiety at bay. The casual way it spoke of its ilk was unsettling. How many could there be? When it spoke again, Eadric knew he needed to get as much information as he could or his escape would be pointless.
"The southern sands, do you know them?"
"Shurima?" The vast expanse of desert was inhabited by the semi-nomadic remnants of a decaying empire. Eadric had several long caravan routes to that distant land under his belt.
"So, it is still called such. The first crawlers I found did not know it." Eadric heard the sounds of it scratching itself and getting comfortable. "As you may have surmised, I am of a kind from another place, let us say. Although overrun with crawlers these days, this land is quite hospitable for the occasional sojourn."
"And your champion," prompted Eadric.
There was a clicking sound that was reminiscent of tutting. "There is one of my kindred on extended holiday in the southern sands and my champion shall go forth to share my salutations and proposal."
"And how do void, uh, people, exchange greetings?" Eadric puzzled, certain he would not like the answer.
"Void monsters, please," it corrected. "We are not a people. Some of us simply pass our time being civilized. And we would greet each other much the same as anything does. But I need a champion for the proposal. You must slay the void monster in the southern sands."
"Come again?"
"Is it stupider than I thought?" the creature wondered aloud to itself.
Eadric's eye twitched, causing him to startle. Had he just gotten annoyed with the monster? "Why don't you slay it yourself? Surely, you're better equipped for the task."
It responded with frustrated tones. "I am issuing a mating proposal, not trying to kill her. Crawler, you will put away your weapon and pay better attention. You cannot kill me with a metal stick anyway. And you will not be able to give a convincing go at killing her if you do not have the right equipment."
"My name is Eadric, not crawler," he snapped.
The green eyes lowered and disappeared. He heard a slow, wet crunch. It went into repetition. The creature was chewing something. The pressure in Eadric's skull increased and his stomach roiled. When he grabbed his forehead, the sensation and sound stopped. Then a quick, sharp rip of something meaty.
Eadric frowned and straightened. Alarm rose in him at a sudden stillness to the silence. His instant reaction to leave the courtyard saved him as a massive object flew to his previous location. The monster had flung it with such force that the ground gave way and debris flew into the hall where Eadric sheltered. The plants closest to the impact zone muted before flashing bright.
A giant, mantis-like scythe was embedded in the ground. The end of the stalk where it should have been connected to the monster twitched.
Eadric fled to a piece of wall tall enough to block his vision and retched. His body shook and he leaned against rubble to catch his breath. He closed his eyes, determined to gain composure even if it killed him –and he was dead one way or another. He rinsed his mouth with his canteen. The counting in his calming exercise told him at least ten minutes had passed. He stood, dusted his clothes, and walked down the hall to where the courtyard entrance would be, acting as if intact walls still existed.
"Very good," the monster crooned, immensely pleased. "Now, do not embarrass both of us and try to use my claw on me. I would never hurt myself; you shall see what I mean." It remembered chewing off its own limb moments ago. "I will grow another claw, nothing to fret about."
Eadric eyed the creature's scythe claw, more than the length of an entire human. The carapace was reddish at the extremity, shading to deep violet at the connection point. Already the wound had ceased seeping and taken on a glassy sheen. The dark liquid that dripped to the ground steamed as it evaporated. Eadric was certain it was toxic.
While it made sense to use a void monster weapon to slay another void monster, it would still be impossible. He estimated he would need two hands to heft the limb, but could not find the nerve to approach with it still giving the occasional twitch. In fact, it seemed to be twitching whenever the creature shifted on its bed of dying trees. He furrowed his brow and looked up at the green eyes.
"It will better conform to your needs over time," the monster assured him.
The plants began to dim around the limb. The logs shifted as the creature stood. Eadric started to draw his sword again and thought better of it. He could see the creature's lumpy bulk shifting and expected more noise. It did not appear to be encumbered by the loss of limb. It turned its back to him and stretched into a sinuous shape, revealing the outline of an attached and functioning scythe claw. Eadric flinched when a purple and red finned length of limb stretched toward him. The insect monster had a tail.
As the tail pulled back, Eadric felt obliged to mention, "I did not agree to be your champion."
"Eh?" It turned around and cocked it's head, glowing eyes tilting. "You had several opportunities to escape and here you remain. You are free to do as you please and use my claw how you will when I do not have need of you. In return, I will not take the crawlers of this nest, or whatever you call your groups, for prey."
"For our purposes, they're called countries," informed Eadric.
The beast made an exasperated sound that indicated it knew the correct use of the term 'country'. "Fine. Now that you have my boon, I can sate my hunger. Any bigger and you would not have been able to heft my claw." It snickered at the imagery and turned its back to Eadric once more. "The claw will shield you from other void energies and you can internalize its, well, mine, to keep it from effecting your surroundings. Do eat to keep it from consuming you entirely and I recommend feasting often. You'll want to take hold of it before I go."
"Where are you going?" Eadric had been staring at the scythe claw and he peered past it, into the gloom.
"To feast," it answered with relish. "Tell your crawler king to clean out his riffraff while I am gone. I said I would not prey on your country, but I reserve the right to eat anything that wanders into my vacation home after I return. You will be summoned at my convenience to discuss the matter of your upcoming trip."
The light of the plants flickered and he heard a quick, swooshing sound as the creature slashed its remaining scythe. Unseen pressure brought him to his knees as a beam of purple lightning traced the motion of the monster's limb. The light wavered and stretched into a swirling, jagged canvas, spanning the width of the chamber.
The dark, pulsating light illuminated a tusked, five-limbed creature balancing in a bipedal position, each set of limbs designed for a different function. There was an uneven number of the first limb set due to its severed partner in the ground. Eadric's mind reeled and his independent thought began to slip from his sense of self as he gazed into the intricate winding of purple and black light.
"Take the claw!" the beast snapped, stomping a strong hind leg.
The ground underneath Eadric shuddered and he was vaulted forward. His arms reached out in a reflexive gesture as he collided into the severed claw, both falling into a heap on the floor. The vibration from the void canvas ceased buffeting his body upon impact. He lifted his upper body, one hand balancing on the still warm carapace of the claw.
The creature stepped into the canvas, its surface rolling like a liquid. As the tip of the tail disappeared, the canvas collapsed inward into nothingness. Eadric was enveloped in true darkness. He gasped as if he had been submerged underwater for too long and rolled off the claw, onto his back. His stomach calmed the instant he was no longer touching it.
He poured the remains of his canteen over his face. When he opened his eyes, the courtyard was bathed in the unfettered light of the courtyard's plants. He sat up and saw the perfect circle of logs that had been the void monster's couch. An area was sluiced in a reflective liquid where the creature had gnawed off its claw.
Eadric stood, rubbing his sore right shoulder, recalling he fell into the claw on his left side. He stared at the scythe. His merchant's attention to detail had noticed the creature severed a right-side limb. So, he was the monster's champion in truth. He hoped someone in the Order more accustomed to dealing with darker magics or perhaps a court mage would be able to tell him more about his promotion.
Birdsong twinkled in the surrounding wood. Eadric's heart lightened. He breathed deep, clear air. Traces of ozone and spicy musk were the only signs that the void had dwelt within the primordial forest. The buzz of nature accompanied him through the ruins and forest.
When he reached the tree line, he had to shade his eyes against the late afternoon sun. Assuming he had been in the forest for mere hours, his post-assignment report would read like a simple missing persons recovery. Later, as he made his way back to the capitol, no one would remember the traveler with the strange, canvas parcel on his back for they would be distracted by the aura of terror that had overcome them at the particular minute of his passing.
THE END