Shining Force
Gunpowder Mountain
A thousand meters up and a thousand meters again. The black powder sucked at their steps, cruelly gave way at the worst possible times, resulting in bruises, broken bones, worse.
Thank God for Lowe. Thank God for his staff and his skill, thank God that the weather hadn't worsened. While the sky was a dismal dark gray, constantly threatening precipitation, it never had quite given way. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed in the distance, but no rain. Not yet, thank God.
Max placed a hand one one of the glimmering overlarge boulders blocking their path. Gripped and pulled himself forward, gasping for breath, his hair messy in his face. He hadn't the energy to brush it aside.
He attempted a smile. Failed. Took a moment to let his party pass, let the stragglers catch up. Tao was last, marching easily, face set and eyes humorless. When she passed him their shoulders collided.
Accident. Must have been an accident. Was an accident. The words they'd had in headquarters and then on the long road to the mountain, those were words. Everybody was stressed, everybody was tired. Just words. Give it time, a good battle or two, then meat and mead and salt in front of a roaring fire and all would be forgiven. All would be forgotten. Now gnash your teeth and bite your tongue and get going.
"We must be near the top by now," he called, slogging forward again. "Tao-what do thy elf eyes see?"
She gave no immediate response. Hopped nimbly atop a nearby precipice and stared into the heights still shrouded by distance and darkness. Hissed a curse and hopped down.
"The adversary awaits us. To arms!"
"Know thy place," Max corrected her, earning a haughty glare. "But thy judgment is correct. To arms, comrades. Beware an ambush."
This said, he darted to the vanguard of the formation, evading Tao's shoulder, and led the Shining Force forward. Some hundreds meters more of cracked glimmering rock and shimmering black powder and they were at the mountain peak.
Now they saw the adversary and the adversary saw them. Skeletons, a crew of them, armed with sword and shield, yet...
"No firearms," Tao said, unblinking at Max's side. "The obstacle to the path of the Shining Force, one of the final remaining defenses to Runefaust itself-and no firearms."
They were nervous, too. Bones chattering and clattering, fidgeting, panting, staring at the forthcoming force. Yet not attacking.
A glance at Hans. A look at Diane. Both archers took position aside the force, bows knocked with arrows, yet not pulled and aimed yet. More a warning than a threat. Let them see, let them fear, but let them know that there was no violence yet.
"My friends," Max said, stepping forward with his arms wide, his sword at his side. "I greet you."
No response. The skeletons neither retreated nor did they move forward. They were sweating-shaking-paranoid-yet they didn't attack. No matter, a different tactic. Address them in their native tongue.
"□□□□□□□□," Max declared. "□□□ □□□□□□□□ □□□□ □□□, □□□□□□!"
Raised eyebrows. Signs of recognition. And yet still no response.
Tao spat into the ground. Shouldered past Max and held forth her staff.
"Shameless scum, thy better addresses thou. Speak! Speak else I'll cauterize thy tongues for uselessness. Blaze, Level One-"
"Nay! Nay, recant thy spell!"
The lead of the bunch, a skeleton wizened with a gray beard and a walking stick darted forth. Back bent by age, he too shook, yet stood as tall as he could to address Max and Tao.
"Foolish youth! Are thou unaware of the namesake of this mountain?"
"Gunpowder Mountain," Tao spat. "Meaningless drivel as far as I can see. I care not for the delusions of Faustian cartographers."
"Think! Think, hasty one, lest thou damn us all with thy recklessness!"
"So many words, so little said," Tao said. "Thou, I'll save for the end. Thy tongue I'll cauterize slow. Blaze, Level-"
"No!" Max shouted. He darted to her and pushed her staff down, halting the spell midword. Now he knew. Now he understood.
"Tao," he gasped. "The name of the mountain, the overlarge black crystalline boulders, the fine carbon-based powder at our very feet-this whole place is-"
He never finished his word. In the blink of an eye, she drew his sword and swung it in a neat tiny arc, cutting off Max's lips and tongue and nose and face, leaving him bleeding and shrieking on the ground.
"No Egress spell can thou cast. No further futile words can thou offer," Tao said. "Now, the true leader of the Shining Force takes her throne."
She turned to the adversary, blood spatter on her cheek, bloodshed on her mind. One among the skeletons uttered a strange incantation, she sidestepped it and let it rain confusion down on the useless masses behind her. At the archers, skinny fools they were, now shouting and drawing a bead on her for some reason.
Traitors them too, it seemed. Fools and knaves, just like the rest of them. All mad, all foolish, all lucky to simply be graced with her presence.
And then she smiled a twisted smile, a shell of a smile, a smile that they had never seen before and would never see hence.
"The Blazes with you all," she croaked. "Blaze Level Four."
No egg. Not here. They served not egg here. And flesh? Ask for it and suffer a tongue-lashing. Shout for it and suffer expulsion. No more than bee's honey here. And only then, only if it was ethically procured, its vendors appropriately protected and rewarded for their efforts.
Butter and rye. Cloudberry jam and softened sheep's cheese. And a cup of strong coffee to warm the innards against the cold. Now step outside into the wind and marvel at the mountains, at their majesty and power.
Snowcapped they were, cloaked in fog and snow. Yet one among them stood out. Its slopes were darker than the others, a malevolent glimmering black.
An ignition. A spark so small the eye could barely see-now an explosion. Air turning to vapor and a pressure wave fast approaching-
It hit and knocked him over. Him and the house and the minuscule town altogether. And then came the shrapnel and the heat, and tore him all apart into nothingness, and he knew no more.
(Remember, kids-don't play with dynamite!)
