Part 4 "The Dice of Life"
They paddled into another rocky Fjord covered on all sides by high cliff walls. Slobo saw huge ugly fish with large teeth swim past in the water. He stared at it somewhat admiringly. Then without warning brought his paddle down on it hard pulverizing the fish.
He looked toward the water regretfully. "Oh no the poor fishy."
Anita stared at him shocked. "What the hell are you doing Slobo? That wasn't funny."
"Didn't mean the poor fishes no harm. The poor, poor fishes." He crawled miserably in the bottom of the boat. "We likes fishes, nice fishes. Gullum, gullum."
Slobo clenched his fists together angrily. "No, no Slobo Fraggins. We hates it. We hates it forever."
Anita looked behind her to Slobo. "Are you ok, cause you're like totally wigging out over a fish."
Slobo looked up nonchalantly. "Had you going there didn't I."
Anita gave him a piercing look.
Slobo turned his gaze away from her.
Cissie strode over the large rocks making a path over a small stream. "This place is so different from our world, such a oneness with nature."
Gud Luk followed behind her stepping deftly on the rocks. "Yes the El Fvis have in our blood heritage an empathy with both the plants and animals of the world. With me this gift is especially strong."
He grabbed her by the elbow and motioned to a group of trees on the horizon. "Come on, if you don't want to get wet."
Gud Luk began to run, Cissie followed shortly behind him.
Gud Luk and Cissie reached the sheltered cover of tall trees, in the next moment and without any warning a tremendous downpour began. Cissie stared out at the deluge from the under the thick canopy. "Wow that was amazing." Cissie turned to face Gud Luk. "How did you know…"
But he was already traveling deeper into the forest.
Cissie followed Gud Luk along his path. Various creatures could be seen scuttling about in the trees. "In these woods much good hunting can be done."
"Hunting." Cissie said mortified. "But I thought you just said you had empathy with the animals?"
"Yes, thus it pains me when my arrow does not strike true and my prey does not die swiftly."
"But doesn't the mere fact of killing them bother you. Don't you feel kind of guilty?"
"Is the hawk bothered when it ensnares a rabbit in its talons? Does the spider feel guilty when it coils its prey in its web? Life lives on life, that is the way of life. It is not for El Fvis or Man to judge such things."
Gud Luk looked to small clearing of light shortly ahead of them. "Beyond lies the great orchard."
"Orchard? I thought the El Fvis didn't farm."
"We do not farm as humans do. We plant our fruit trees among the other plants of the forest." The entered the clearing to look up at a gigantic tree. It towered twice the size of the other trees of the forest. Its branches were heavily laden with fruit.
Bart stood in front of the pool, in the white El Fvis robe. He tapped repeatedly at the pool trying to cause it ripple. "C'mon, c'mon."
Cissie noticed him as she passed. "Give it up Bart. The pool obviously doesn't want to listen to you."
Bart approached Cissie his shoulders hunched over disappointed, he was waving a sheet is his hand. "I just don't get it Cissie. The pool used to belong to my character."
"What character Impulse?"
"The Elvin druid Aeker Alik." He showed her the sheet. "See I have an 18 wisdom."
"Don't you think that should be I.Q. Geez, Bart I think you're taking this too seriously, I mean when you first started role-playing with your friends I thought it was ya know healthy to be interacting with other people instead of playing video games all the time. But you've become like totally obsessed."
"I am not obsessed." He jerked his hand abruptly upward in protest. And the small round green die he had in his hand was flung upwards. It plunked into the pool behind him.
Bart stared at the pool in horror. "Oh no! My Dice! What will I do without my dice?"
"Die Bart."
"Probably."
"No when it's singular it's pronounced die, Geez Bart and you say your not obsessed." Cissie turned and wandered off.
Bart looked at the pool his die had fallen into and groaned.
The DeWorfers and the El Fvis fired arrows from the top of the hill. The El Fvis arches with their longbows, when the wind was proper could fire arrows all the way to the bank of the lake where the P'Orhks where gathered. The DeWorfers kept to shooting at practice targets rather then loosing their arrows needlessly in the lake below.
One of the El Fvis came up behind them. "What you're doing is well intentioned but nonproductive. When the real shorting starts you'll just be in the way." He turned from them and walked back toward the cliff.
Cissie called out to him. "Hey you could take some subtlety lessons from my mom."
She looked to the small but determined DeWorfers. If they were able to use longbows like the El Fvis they too could hit the far away targets.
"Hmm…" she thought. "Toelkeen!" She called out.
A DeWorfer approached her.
"Do you think you can build a giant Crossbow, one that you could put really large shafts into. Technically they would travel a much greater, distance."
"You mean like a ships harpoon!" His face brightened. "We'll get on it right away."
Cissie rounded the corner of the path where she saw Bart sitting cross-legged under a tree. Above the tree Bart had posted his character sheet. It exclaimed: the Seer and Prophet. The Wise Aeker Bart Alik.
A group of people both El Fvis and DeWorfer were gathered reverently around him. Bart listened as one of them asked his advise. "…And I'm wondering well should I leave my wife for my mistress."
Bart rolled a yellow die and looked up at the DeWorfer who had questioned him. "Yes, absolutely yes. Do it right now and happiness will be yours."
The DeWorfer looked up determined, and then ran out as fast as he could.
Cissie burst in among them. "Bart have you gone nuts? What kind of advice are you giving people?"
"Great advice. The die don't lie Cissie." Bart gathered up the dice in his hand.
Bart smiled up at her. "It all makes sense now Cissie. I am my character."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"I went to reach my hands into the pool to get my dice and suddenly a lady's hand rose up of the pool. The lady of the pool, held aloft Eks Kaalibber."
He held up the yellow stone and said, " I bestow upon thee, Bart, the yellow stone of light, you are one of the eight one whom I chose to be the vessel of my prophesy and the keeper of my promise, I dub thee the Wise Aeker Bart Alik bearer of the yellow stone of light."
Cissie looked to him incredulously. "Bart, are you insane? You're living in a fantasy world."
Bart smiled gleefully. "Yeah I know. Isn't it great?"
The gang paddled their boats through the narrow fjord walls. El Evan and Aleks paddled ahead.
"This is the twisting and treacherous Fjord of the Rings. Be wary I'll heard recent tales of terrible water beasts from these parts." El Evan cautioned.
Cass smiled. "Don't worry well keep a…"
A huge set of crocodile like jaws burst out of the water just before Cassie. "Look out!"
An arrow was fired through the snout of the huge crocodile like fish. The jaws of the creature snapped together just short of Cassie. The arrow protruding through the roof of its mouth jammed through its lower jaw pinning its mouth shut. Cassie withdrew her sword and brought it down hard on the creature cleaving its skull. Black blood spilled forth from it as it slowly sank beneath the waters surface. The gang stared at the black oily blood as it floated on the surface of the water.
Suddenly 3 more of the giant fish creatures burst out of the water. One knocked over the boat with Slobo and Anita in it. Cassie utterly prepared now managed to spear it through the top of its head with her sword before it was able to torn its attentions lose on Anita and Slobo.
Aleks standing firmly in the boat, unleashed his small metal ball on a rather small thin chain, attached to the pole. Like a flycatcher casting his rod he expertly flicked the ball hard into one of the small black eyes of the creature. The ball pierced the soft tissue around the eye, driving deeply into its skull, and the creature fell into the water dead. The last one came at Kon. With a swing of great power if not much finesse Kon cleaved deeply into the jaws of the creature with his sword. He struggled to free his sword from the maw of the blindly attacking monster. Cassie's sword came down from behind him it cleaved cleanly through the creatures head. Its body sunk beneath the waters while Kon flopped down inside the boat, his sword still lodged in the creature's head.
Kon stared at the head curiously. "For a minute there I thought we were in trouble."
Then a giant reptilian creature stood rising up from the water.
"I'm telling you Robin he's flipped." Cissie lead Robin and Secret along a path.
"I'm sure it can't be that bad Cissie. You're making him out to be some kind of sinister cult leader." Robin stared puzzled as they entered the grove.
"All right everybody line up to get your cool aid." Bart hand out small glasses.
"Bart, what the hell is this?" Robin faced him angrily.
"Oh hi Rob. Sure is hot out. Want some cool aid?" Bart handed him a glass filled with a colored liquid. "It's an El Fvis drink, honey sweetened."
Robin looked at the drink skeptically. "I'll pass thanks. Cissie told me what you've been up to. She told me that you told a man you didn't know to leave his wife. Why are you doing this?"
"Everybody be happier this way. The dice said so."
"The dice said so?"
"Yeah, it's magic."
"Bart, you have no magic, Secret said so remember?"
"Robin…" Secret interrupted.
"You're Bart Allen not this Bart Alik or whatever it is you call yourself."
"Robin…"
"That die is not magic. That man will not end up happy."
"Robin…"
Suddenly a man approached Bart. "Oh Wise Aeker Bart Alik, I have done as you advised and couldn't be more happy. It turns out my wife is having an affair with my scoundrel of a brother."
"Huh?" Robin looked on confused.
Secret stepped forward. "Robin his die is magic."
"But… I though you said."
"Yes Bart has no magic power but the die and the meaning he interprets from them is magical and 100 percent true."
A DeWorfer sat before Bart. "Well my parents wish me to be a carpenter but it is not…"
Impulse rolled the die. "A carpet layer there's nothing wrong with that. That's what you should be."
The DeWorfer looked at him confused. "A carpet layer? What is a carpet?"
"You know, it's like a big rug that covers the whole room."
"Rugs?" He smiled. "Thank you for the path you set me on wise Aeker for I did not wish to be a carpenter but instead like to work with fabrics and cloth."
Secret looked to Bart. "100 percent true even when he doesn't understand the question being asked of him."
From the branches of one of the bountiful giant trees in the El Fvis orchard, Cissie sat bow in hand flinging arrows at a small dead piece of weathered wood at the top of the stream. "He loves, he loves me not."
"He loves me." She missed the piece of driftwood which had several arrows embedded in it already. Her arrow instead plinked off a rock, and landed in the small stream.
Cissie stared exasperated.
She climbed down, and approached the area where she hand been shooting her arrows.
She reached into the stream where her arrow hand landed, and pulled out a small sparkling blue stone. "Omigod."
Flame spurted from the nostrils of the reptilian creature. It loomed over the boats. "Dive!" shouted Cassie. She lunged into the water throwing herself overboard.
Aleks lost his balance at the sight of the creature and fell overboard. El Evan pulled back his bowstring, preparing to shoot, and was not prepared for the rocking of the boat, he too went clumsily overboard.
The beast flung a flurry of flames from its gullet down upon the boats where they had been.
Anita surfaced on the water. She looked up into the gaping maw of the huge wingless dragon lizard. "Oh, oh we're toast."
"No it's toast. I'll have it for breakfast." Slobo swam up close to the chest large creature. He was puny in comparison to the large beast.
He pressed his hand against the chest of the creature. A shadowy gray blackness emerged from Slobo's hand. The blackness reached out to envelope the creature, until there was nothing. It was absorbed completely into the blackness.
A small triangular shaped red stone fell from where the creature had stood.
It fell in front of Cassie who managed to catch it before it fell in the water.
"Slobo you killed it." She exclaimed.
He turned to look at them. His face twisted into a hateful glare. "Yes. Kill. Kill." He raised his hands to them the blackness lingered about them.
Anita yelled. "Slobo honey, you're flying over the Coo Coo's nest again."
"I was…" he said suddenly very tired, "I was just, just joking." His eyes rolled into the back of his head it slumped back underneath the waters.
Anita dove in to catch him.
Cissie approached Bart causally. "Bart, Bart Alik or what ever you call yourself these days."
"Yeah Cissie? You seek advice. On the blue stone perhaps."
Cissie's eyes widened. "How did you know about the blue stone? No never mind that. What do you know about the blue stone? I need an explanation."
"You have the Eks Plaa Naeshen Cissie."
"Huh?" Cissie looked at him puzzled.
"That's the El Fvis name for the stone you got. What you want is a story to explain the Eks Plaa Naeshen."
The Story of El Niinyoe.
All the creatures of the sea feared the great water beasts. Without warning the giant water beasts would rise up out of the water to bring its jaws down upon the vessels of the sea, like giant waves collapsing on top of them, it would swallow them hole.
With the water beasts gone the greatest dangers that prowled the oceans were the sea wolves. The sea wolves, they would hunt in large packs using their enormous bodies to try push and lead ships into rocky shoals, piercing their hulls and causing them to swiftly sink beneath the waves, leaving the sailors at the mercy of the sea wolves sharp teeth.
Into this fray came the sharp-eyed el Fvis archer El Niinyoe. One day while traveling by sea, as El Niinyoe was a wandering El Fvis unlike most, who choose to remain in the forests. The sea wolves attacked the ship. The sea wolves' heads stormed out of the water. One opened its huge canine jaws, its furless skin stretching back into a snarl, headlining its sleek seal like features. It slithered up to them like a ferret with fins. El Niinyoe the most famous and skilled archer in all of Innbee Tweenerth unleashed a volley of arrows killing the entire pack. Even to the last of them they attacked, uncaring of the futile odds.
From that day El Niinyoe roamed the DeWorfer seas, devoting himself to the cause of protecting the ships against the monsters.
But the sea wolves were greatly displeased by this, and they banded together into larger groups and raided the wharfs and coastline. El Niinyoe was only one bow, but he had a vision of many large bows stretching from the DeWorfer ships.
He outfitted each boat with harpoons and when the sea wolves made their next raid. El Niinyoe and the fleet were ready for them.
The harpoons made short work of the sea wolves, every one of whose number died attacking.
From that day forward armed with the harpoon, the sea wolves never again threatened the DeWorfers.
And as a token of the appreciation of the feats of El Niinyoe he was given the blue stone, which had fallen into DeWorfer keeping.
A thunderous barbarian on horseback approached Slobo. On his mount he carried many swords, a large spiked ball and chain was sung from his back.
"Hey get up ya sissy batstich, ya got work to do."
"Huh." Slobo stared at the shadowed but well-defined muscular figure. "Who are you?"
"I'm the batstich who laughs in deaths face. You're in deep this time kid, you're going to need me to get through this." He gestured to a vast desolate salt plane before them. On all sides the horizon stretched off into infinity. "We're in this together kid. Just you and me."
Slobo he heard a voice call behind him.
He turned to see a female figure running toward him on the horizon.
"Ignore her kid. She can't help you out here. We're alone, there's just us."
Slobo could make out the form of Anita approaching on the horizon. "Just the two of us eh? How come you're still here?"
"Geez, Slobo. You don't think we we're going to leave you to drown." Anita smiled above him. Her turned and saw that he and the rest of the group were on the edge of an embankment at the fjords end.
Kon stared down at him. "Even though you have terribly destructive powers, which you brandished at us yelling kill, kill." He offered Slobo his hand to help him up.
"Oh… oh, that." Slobo stood up. He saw that they had reached the end of the winding fjord. A small twisting river would have flowed from the falls from where they stood to the valley could see stretched out below them. Instead the water was being carted away beyond in a gigantic salt aqueduct that stretched away over the horizon. Its weight born my monumental columns of salt that stretched up from the valley below them.
El Evan looked at them apologetically. "The way is not as I had anticipated, as I'm sure you can tell."
El Evan stared into the dry ruined valley. "The path that I know followed the river."
Aleks examined several scrolled papers before him. "My maps too say that the river takes us near the gates to the salt lands."
Cassie shrugged her shoulders. "Ok we'll take the dry riverbed then. We don't have much choice, we only got one boat left."
"I ain't going with ya." Slobo started walking away from them.
"Slobo!" Cassie called after him.
"The further you guys are away from me, the better off you are." He headed toward the boat by the salt aqueduct.
He turned to face them. "I, well you know, I really l… like… I think you guys ain't so bad."
Slobo got inside and immediately started paddling off and was quickly propelled away from them.
Kon watched the boat drift away. "Now that was a heartfelt goodbye."
"Slobo you're not thinking strait about this. Wait for me." Anita ran after him but he was beyond the rocks along the salt aqueduct. She didn't stop running, she ran atop the edge of the 6 inches wide aqueduct. Very quickly the distance between herself and the ground lengthened until she was running along the edge of a very high precipice. "Slobo!" She called quickening her pace.
Slobo turned to see her running along the edge of the aqueduct. "Ah Geez babe." He grabbed the edge of the salt bank and slowed his boat. "Ya got guts babe I'll give ya that. And I ain't talking about the height." He looked at her tearfully
Anita hopped from the high ledge to the boat. "You're not going to go all sissy on me now are you."
"Guts and stupidity, although sometimes I wonder if they ain't the same thing."
End of Part 4
"The Lord of the Stones" m