A Life Less Ordinary: Chapter 19
By Sulia Serafine
[12-23-00. This is a Protector of the Small fanfic; all credit goes to Tamora Pierce. I'm broke, so you can't sue me.
Oh, one more thing: BAD LANGUAGE (I. E. cursing, swearing…). You have been warned!
P.S. And now, Happy New Year!]
Joren sat in the tree, watching Faleron light the campfire below.
"Are you sure you want to stay up there? The spidrens--"
"I'm fine, Faleron. Besides, I've already located the spidren nest. They won't cross the river to get here. Well, usually, they don't… not unless we draw a lot of attention to our campfire, if memory serves me right. So what if they come? We can handle a brood of them." He shrugged and yawned. "Hand me something to eat, would you?"
"Well, Mithros! I didn't think you'd gone all professional like that," Faleron said as he reached up to hand Joren a piece of venison and a bread roll. He did a mock bow. "Great Wise Joren, what else can you tell me about these evil creatures that I don't know? I am an ignorant man for a knight of Tortall."
Joren smiled. "Oh, shut it."
Faleron sat down cross-legged and started drinking some water from his canteen. "Seriously, Joren. What did you do all the time in that other world?" He held up his hand before Joren could respond. "I know-- I heard the story. But what could you possibly have done as a mercenary?"
"You did remember the part about the Mirans, right?"
He nodded.
"Well, at first, we started to help people against their Miran troubles. But we found we were just two people compared to an entire army and concentrated on finding a way home. Keladry," he paused when he said her name. "Anyway, Keladry was mad at that notion first, but she became more attached to the concept when she nearly died at Arthados. Death is a very sobering thing."
"Did you hang around knights?" Faleron asked with a smile. "Were they as good as us?"
He laughed. "No, no knights. But I bet they weren't as half as good as us." Joren's mood darkened. He was talking about the other world in past tense. Did that world still exist? Maybe it was destroyed. Maybe it still existed, but time went by faster, or maybe slower.
"Good questions, boy. I'm sorry, but I'm not giving you answers."
Joren's head snapped up. "Did you hear that?"
Faleron looked at him skeptically. "Oh, is it the spidrens that you said wouldn't attack?"
"I'm serious!"
The knight got on his feet and drew his sword. "Right." He reached down and grabbed a spear. "Catch!" he tossed the spear up. Joren caught it with his outstretched hand, but frowned.
"It wasn't like that, I don't think-- more like a voice. Are you sure you didn't hear it?"
"No! Why would I hear voices?" he whispered fiercely. "Now, honestly, did you hear spidrens or not?"
Joren sighed. "No--"
"Behind you!" Faleron shouted.
Joren's eyes widened. He turned around just in time to see the head of a spidren, it's silvery sharp teeth slick with saliva in the moonlight. It threw a rope of its glowing web at him. He moved to dodge it. The branch snapped under his weight. He crashed down to the ground.
"Gods! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" Joren cried. "Watch out! There are more!" He ran to the campfire and lit a torch. "Damn it! I can't believe we were so careless!"
"Watch my back!" Faleron yelled as he dodged another stream of spidren web. Then he gasped. "They have weapons! Axes, for crying out loud! And look! They've killed our horses!"
Joren eyed approaching spidrens, sneaking their way through the bushes. He also spotted the poor horses. They were being torn apart by two gluttonous spidrens. He grabbed a lamp from Faleron's bedroll and flung it out into the darkness.
"What did you do that for? Are you crazy?" Faleron threw a spear at another spidren. He was good on his mark, and the spidren fell from the trees. He held up his sword again, waiting for the closer spidrens to make their attacks.
Joren drew his sword, but raised the torch high. He looked to see where the lamp oil had spread, then threw the torch. The spidrens did not retreat in time. The torch lit the lamp oil. All the dry bushes were ablaze. A dying spidren threw an ax straight at his head. Joren ducked, but it grazed Faleron's shoulder, whose back was turned.
"Agh! We're outnumbered!"
"Don't think that! We'll be fine. Move toward the fire with me! They won't risk going near it."
"But they can still throw bloody axes," Faleron shouted angrily. "Watch out! Here they come!"
A dozen spidrens descended upon them from the trees. The image of their arrival would be burned into the back of Joren's mind whenever he had nightmares. He swung his sword, upward, over his head. They moved off to the side of camp to rush them with their human weapons.
"Careful! They're putting webs all over the place!"
"Burn it all!" Joren screamed and grabbed a dry piece of wood from the campfire. He lit it and threw it at their bedrolls, which were under the spidrens. They shrieked loudly as their furry bodies were engulfed in flames. A few made it past the fire and charged them with an ax. Faleron raised his sword to deflect the blow and spun around, cutting the spidren across its abdomen. Blood splattered on him and the knight howled.
"Its blood! Argh! It hurts!"
Joren spied the black droplets burning through Faleron's clothing in the firelight. "Just like acid…" he murmured. "Bear it, man! They are more!"
He drew a knife from his belt and threw it at another approaching. The immortal caught it and grinned to show all its disgusting teeth. Joren cursed under his breath. "Don't we have anymore spears, damn it?!"
"Web! Watch out!"
He wasn't quick enough. The web caught his foot and stuck him to the ground. Joren viciously hacked at it with his sword, trying to get free. Faleron found another knife in his boot and tried to help Joren cut himself free. "Don't worry about me! Watch out!"
The closest spidren, having Joren's knife, threw it straight back at Joren's head. He jerked his head to the left to dodge, but he could feel the blade slice across his right cheek. He gritted his teeth and got up, now free. He charged at the spidren, brandishing his sword high. Faleron turned to face the immortals coming to them from behind.
His thrust was knocked aside with one long furry leg. The head darted forward, eager to bite Joren and taste his delicious human blood. As it did this, Joren spun around again, almost too fast for it, and swung his sword as hard as he could. The monster's head came off, rolling to the ground a few feet away. Joren jumped back just when the blood flew threw the air. He jumped over the dead body. Then, he braced himself for one last creature.
It was holding up his lit bedroll, waving it around to burn him. Joren ducked down to the ground and reached for his crossbow. It hadn't been burned up in the fire he created. He closed one eye and took three seconds to aim at the fire-wielding spidren.
He squeezed the trigger, and the bolt lodged itself in spidren's eye. Joren rolled on the ground to avoid the falling body and the falling bedroll. "Faleron! Are you okay?"
Faleron screamed curses at the monsters. He faced off against one last, wielding two axes. He ducked and wove around the immortal's limbs. There was a bit of stick, glowing web stuck to his front. It was difficult for the knight to move. Joren's eyes widened.
"Careful! You're getting too close to the fire!"
Faleron caught a glimpse of him from the corner of his eyes. He panted in the effort of keeping away from the spidren, but also trying to strike it. Finally, the spidren lunged forward, waving its axes in every possible angle. Joren cried out to him. Faleron fell backwards to the ground. The spidren jumped on him, preparing to feast.
"No! Gods, no!" Joren shouted hoarsely.
All of a sudden, the spidren stiffened. It made startled sounds, and then went limp. Faleron pushed it off with his legs, and coughed. He was holding his sword pointed straight up from where he had stabbed the spidren. The black blood dripped down from the sword and onto Faleron's hands. The young man threw his sword away from him with a yelp of pain and turned over so he was on his hands and knees.
"Hey, Joren," Faleron called as his limbs tired and he collapsed stomach flat on the ground. "Are you alive?"
"Yeah, but in no better shape than you," he replied. The blonde cleaned off his sword on part of his bedroll that wasn't burnt and looked up at the towering trees. "I think that's all of them." He looked down at him. "Hey, at least you get to show off some new burn scars from the bloody acid."
"Bloody acid?" Faleron croaked.
"Sorry. No pun intended."
"It's okay. My shoulder stings a bit." He reluctantly forced himself up and ripped his sleeve into strips to tie it around his hands and another strip for his shoulder. "What about you?"
"I got singed by the fire a little. It's nothing big." He froze and felt his cheek. He winced. "Oh well. New scar to show off, eh?"
"Right," he agreed. "The fire is dying out by itself. But it would be better if there was some rain."
"Yeah, rain," Joren agreed.
"That can be arranged."
A sudden downpour fell upon the two hapless warriors. The fire scattered around them was immediately doused, and they had only the moon for light. The luminescent light reflected on the falling water, and on the clouds they saw through the opening of sky above them. For a moment, they both stood there. Faleron finally spoke up.
"We, um, don't have anything."
"What?"
"Horses, fire, bedrolls, food. We used all our weapons until they were all broken-- excluding our swords."
There was a pause.
"Want to use the axes?"
Faleron stared at Joren past his sopping wet hair covering his eyes. He was still panting and wincing from the fight. In addition to that, he began to slightly shiver from the cold rain. His breath became visible as he huffed in the night air. His eyes were stern and reproachful. For a moment, Joren thought the knight's hands would close around his neck and strangle him. Instead, this happened:
"Okay. Axes, it is." He shrugged and walked past to lean down and obtain one.
"We can cut some branches and build a makeshift shelter for the night."
"What about food?"
"We already ate."
"What about tomorrow?"
"We can return to King's Reach. Your family's the one who set us on this job, remember?"
"Oh yes. I wonder what my smug brother will think when he hears we took down the whole lot of monsters."
"Do you think there are more?"
"If there are, we can take them!" He gallantly posed.
Joren rolled his eyes. "Right…"
Near dawn, the rain had finally stopped. Last night after much effort of convincing, Joren got them to go up in the trees. When Faleron complained about bugs, Joren handed him a bottle of some sort of oil to rub over his skin. Back in Egavar's Dark Forest, the Nodestrum said it would keep bugs from bothering him. He called it bug repellent, whatever that was. So, Faleron slept peacefully in the sturdy branches of an old tree that was mostly dry. The branches above them were tied together to form sort of a cover from the rain.
The mercenary rested his hands behind his head and watched the sky turn pink and orange. The sun would be up any moment now. He let out a deep sigh and wondered who the voice was. The one he always heard at the strangest times.
"When I was drunk," he whispered, "on the winter holiday. Just now, with the rain…" He didn't understand. Was it some sort of god looking down on him and having fun manipulating his wretched life? If it was, it was probably one of the stranger gods that he didn't take well to.
His wandering mind suddenly remembered something. He reached into his belt pouch and took out the ivory cat he bought for Keladry. He turned it over in his palm and studied it earnestly. "Was it a mistake buying this for her? It's not like it did me either of us any good."
"I beg to differ."
Joren growled. "Just who are you? Get out of my head!"
"You should be thankful I am here at all."
"I'm as grateful to you as I am to those damn labafrets… whoever you are…"
"The labafrets could do so much for you."
He gripped the tiny ivory cat tightly in his hand. "Well then, I'd command the labafrets to bring Egavar to Tortall! Maybe he'd know how to help me! And while they're at it, they can let the Mirans come in this land for our knights to fight and defeat!" He waved his arms about in mock melodrama. "Why, we could fix everyone's fucking problems, couldn't we?"
"Don't be so childish."
He dropped down from the branch. He threw the cat to the ground and pointed out randomly at the sky. "Stay out of my head, damn it! I don't care if you are some kind of god. Stay the fuck out!"
Faleron was awake and staring at him as if he was crazy. The blonde calmed down and ran a hand through his hair characteristically. "Joren, are you… okay?"
"I'm fine. It's nothing. A bad dream," he lied and picked up the cat. He glared at it with intense hatred and put it back in his pouch.
~~
Keladry was walking across the courtyard. Lords and ladies of the court lingered around the courtyard, deep in conversation. Some of them paused to look at her. Some gazes were filled with fascination for the girl who was missing for four years. Others looked at her with distaste for the girl who was training to be a knight and still had the option to be one. She ignored the looks and concentrated on her own brooding thoughts. She kicked the ground with the toe of her boot.
"Aaaahhhhhhh!"
She blinked. What was that sound? And why did it sound so close? She looked around her. "Hey, did anyone-- OOF!"
Something big and heavy fell on top of her, flattening her to the ground on her stomach. All the air rushed out of her lungs. She groaned and squirmed to get out from under whatever was on top of her. It moved on top of her. "Goddess!" she thought. "It's a person!"
The person groaned in pain as he (she could tell by the groan) rolled off her back and sat woozy on the ground. A few lords and royal guards rushed up. Keladry also rolled over so she could take a look at him. Her heart nearly stopped. The man was tall with dark hair flipped over his face. His familiarly accented voice muttered curses as he clumsily stood.
She blinked. She blinked again.
"Egavar?"
He squinted at her with his dark eyes. "Keladry?"
"What are you doing here!" she screamed.
He looked up at the sky. "Uh… I was sure I was standing on the balcony of the mayor's home. We were discussing strategy with the other capital city officials."
A man pushed past the crowd gathered around them. "What's the meaning of this? What's going on?"
"My lord!" Keladry exclaimed. It was Gareth of Naxen, the Younger. "This is Egavar! He's from the other plane I told you about!"
"How?"
Egavar pointed up. "Don't ask anything more than that, 'cause I don't know."
Gareth's mouth was open in astonishment. "Well, then…" he paused. "Take him inside. We'll talk about this in private. Someone! Get his Majesty! Sir Miles is near, get him!"
A couple of royal guards ran as they were commanded. Gareth was about to say something else when a lady screamed. They all turned around and spotted what she was screaming at.
There was a black hole in the sky. It spat out men-- more particularly, soldiers with familiar crests upon their clothing and armor. Keladry shook her head vigorously while Egavar became dizzy. The wind had a mind of its own and gently floated the men down. They didn't see past that because the high palace walls and trees prevented them.
"The Mirans… The Mirans are here…" Keladry whispered. "Gods help us…"
~~
Author: Ha! And you said there wasn't any plot left… Happy Holidays from your (hopefully) favorite K/J author