Chapter 4
Somewhere in War's territory
"You weakling, how could you fail a simple mission"
"It's not my fault. She was stronger than I expected"
"She hasn't even used magic or her weapon. She escaped by the help of your own poison"
"I would have followed her if your stupid Sister didn't knock on my door and distracted me. "
"Lame excuses. I thought you are better but I guess I was wrong about that."
"Please give me a second chance"
"Why should I do that?"
"Because your sister likes me and she would be angry if you hurt or kill me"
"That's true. Lucky for you that you are fucking my sister. If you wouldn't be her girlfriend, I would have killed you, so don't disappoint me again"
"I'll be successful this time, Master Krayn"
Krixa guided Sarah through a long corridor, she stopped in a small chamber and a deep voice asked
"Who are you, and why are you disturbing me?"
"My name is Sarah Darkbinder and I'm here because I need your help.
"Sarah Darkbinder I've never heard about you before. Sarah is not your real name right?" the voice asked.
"I don't know my real name, I lost my memory years ago. Do you know my real name Miss Nagaburo" Sarah answered.
"Nagaburo is enough. Come closer, so that I can try to find more information about you"
Sarah did as she was told and a blue webbed hand touched her head. She could only saw the left arm of the shaman, the rest of her body was covered by the darkness. Sarah felt a little pain in her head, it felt like a small needle which pierced her brain.
"Weird" the deep voice said.
"What's wrong?" Sarah asked.
"Normally I can get the information I need about a person by touching them, but in your case it does not work quite well I only got a few information but not only about you, about the destiny of Astaotov too" Nagaburo answered.
"The information you talked about, are they important at least?" the silver haired woman asked.
"I'm not sure. I better tell you everything I have seen."
"Fine. Go ahead"
"I saw a woman who was dancing with the fire. The black dreadfulness rises. The blood prince loses his pride and he is not the one anymore he once was. Darkish flames will consume the world. The master of the dead rises and the living being fear the Reaper. The Four will split and fight the one who wants all power. The power of the End will cleanse this world."
Nagaburo made a pause and she said "That's all I have seen".
"Is this a prophecy? What does it mean?"
"I can't tell you what does it mean, you can only find it out by your own.
"What about me? What do you know about me?"
"You are stronger than you think. You are in grievous danger. The Riders will help you but don't trust the brutal one. I have to go, be careful De…" she couldn't even finish her sentence as the arm disappeared.
"What…Where is she? Why has she disappeared"
"I don't know she never did that before" Krixa answered
"Maybe she is in danger, maybe she needs our help. And why couldn't I saw her whole body?"
"I don't know. I've never seen her whole body. I just saw her left and right arm and her tail. Even if she needs our help, we don't know where she lives"
"Her tail? Have you never asked her where she lives?"
"No I haven't asked her. She is Naga, a child from a human and a sea snake."
"Weird combination. I've never seen Nagas before"
"Because you never went to the black-water-ocean in the east of Famine's territory"
"Famine is another member of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Is it true that he disappeared right after Plague?"
"Yes and War took his territory. Something is rotten with the horsemen. That is a bit too much of a coincidence that right after they disappeared, War took their territory. "
"What else could he do? Someone has to rule over the kingdoms"
"Death is still there. Normally Death and War would get one territory but instead War got both of them. There is something fishy about the whole story, I guess there is something out of order. I wish I could unravel this mystery"
"I've a bad feeling about this. 'Darkish flames will consume the world'. That doesn't sound good."
"We have to truly understand what this prophecy means and then what can we do to deny the world's end"
"You are right but how will we decipher the meaning of the prophecy"
"What we know is that Nagaburo talked about Death who will fear the living beings, Reaper is one of her many names but I have no clue about the rest"
"Me too"
"What are we doing now?"
"Hmmm… I'm not sure… Maybe…"
"Maybe what?"
"I don't know let's leave this mountain"
"Fine"
"What are you doing?" Sarah asked as she watched Krixa closely, as she pulled out a brown backpack out of a shelf.
"I'm taking some stuff which could be useful" the other woman said as she put some rare, green crystals and a couple of ritual knifes and daggers in her backpack.
"That's stealing" the younger woman replied. "
And? There is nobody here who can interrupt us and we don't know whether this items belongs to someone, maybe he or she doesn't care about it or the person doesn't know that this stuff still exists. We'll need them more than him or her".
Sarah nodded in agreement and she searched for something which would be useful and she found a couple of gold coins and a few amulets.
"So where are we going now?" Krixa asked impatiently. "We need to find more information so we'll try to find her, another shaman, a druid or someone who can help us with Nagaburo's prophecy" Sarah answered.
"We can travel to Stillmaw, it's the nearest larger town in the environment of the Howling Mountain" the older woman responded as she placed her hand on Sarah's shoulder.
"I thought that we hear screaming, crying, howling and terrifying voices as we entered the Mountain" Sarah asked.
"Wait you can't hear them?" Krixa replied as she looked at Sarah confused.
"No I can't"
"Weird. Can you take of my cuffs"
"Not now"
"Why?"
"Because I can't trust you at all, I will take them off if I'm sure that I can fully trust you"
"And what do you do when we have to fight?"
"If I can beat the alone, I won't take them off, but if we are in trouble I hope that you will help me and don't stab me in my back"
"If you treat me well, I will help you"
"Good"
Sarah told her that she would like to go. Krixa nodded and she followed the other woman who started walking in front of her. Krixa kept staring on Sarah's butt while they walked almost an hour through the never ending halls. The colour of the wall was a shabby grave and the further they went, the dirtier and more destroyed the walls became.
They reached a tunnelwith ladder which was fastened vertically on the wall. Krixa looked downwards and noticed the tunnel was large, thin and goes deeply downwards. She told her new companion that she would climb down the ladder first. Sarah waited as her admirer took the first steps down and after that she grabbed the leader and also went the first steps down. During their climb, this took them almost two hours because they couldn't simply jump the ladder down in large leaps, Krixa stared secretly at Sarah's butt and Sarah didn't even that.
They left the tunnel behind them as they opened a hidden door and the sunlight dazzled them. "Good to finally see the sunlight again" Krixa said. "We were only over three hours in the mountain" Sarah responded. "Yes but it was dark I could barely see my hands as we walked through the halls" the water spirit replied.
"Keep walking Krixa"
"But I need to take a break"
"We don't have enough time"
"Only a short break PLEASE. My feet are killing me"
"Fine" Sarah muttered as she sat down on the ground and Krixa did the same.
"I'm hungry" Krixa said.
Sarah snapped and a magical back appeared and she pulled out a few pieces of bread and some meat. She handed half of meal over to her companion. The blue skinned beauty thanked her and both started to eat. They decided to continue their walk to Stillmaw. As they walked the half of the distance, they heard screams out of the nearing forest. Sarah sensed the auras of eight persons, two of them were very powerful.
Krixa looked into Sarah's eyes and nodded, exactly knowing what she wants to do. Sarah freed her from the cuffs and they ran quickly into the forest and Krixa snapped and it started to rain immediately. Krixa felt that the raindrops are hitting some persons and she immediately knew where the scream came from.
"Two persons are getting attacked by six other persons towards north-western direction" she said.
"How do you know what?" Sarah asked confused. "
I'll tell you later" She replied only a few seconds before she disappeared.
An old man at the age of sixty and a young man at the age of twenty-three were surrounded by six shady figures, who wore brown trousers and shoes and green doublets. Their faces where covered by black headscarves and their clothes were worn out.
"Give me all of your money and properties and I'll promise that we don't kill you" their leader, a tall muscular man shouted.
"Leave us in peace and nobody will get hurt" the young man said.
He wore a blue robe with a golden lion on his chest, his hair had an unnatural green colour and a small ring was pierced through his bottom lip. A green flame was tattooed under his left eye. His companion had short, white hair and he wore shabby, brown cloths and a backpack.
The bandits laughed at his comment and their leader responded.
"I bet in his backpack are lot of golden objects. I heard that priests from Kalamos are very rich and they have a lot of gold."
The young man kept staring at him and said "I'm neither a priest nor I'm from Kalamos." "
Don't try to fool me, I can see the coat of arms of Kalamos on your robe" the muscular man replied.
"That's not the coat of arms of Kalamos, it's the Kajan one, idiot. And I'm a mage and not a priest" he hissed as he pulled out a large magic wand out of his robe.
The magic wand was decorated with a valuable, rare red crystal on the tip of the wand. He muttered a magical spell and he created a large fireball, which was over one meter large. He threw the fireball in the leader's direction, but the man was fast enough and he got out of the way quickly. Two Bandits were hit by the flaming missile and the other three normal bandits watched them burning and screaming in pain. The three bandits took the opportunity and run away.
"Come back cowards" their leader shouted in anger but his crew ignored him while they kept running away from the mage.
"Looks like that this is a fair fight now, one versus one" the mage said.
"Do you really think that you can beat me? I'm not as weak as the other men. Be ready for some real pain" the leader replied as he pulled out two large, hunched silver shining daggers.
He ran in the mage's direction as the mage created a second, much smaller fireball and threw it in the bandit's direction, but he was able to dodge the fire missile and he landed a kick right into the green haired man's stomach. A painfully noise slipped out of his mouth as the leader stabbed one of his daggers in the mages chest. He forcefully kicked the mage's knee and that caused him to fell to the ground. The cruel man burst into laughter as he watched his opponent lying wounded on the ground.
"I'll end this now" he said as he prepared himself for the final blow."
"Not so fast" Krixa shouted.
The leader quickly turned towards her and observed her while he kept smiling.
"And who are you?" he asked. "
That's none of your business. I'll be the last person you will see" she answered. "
I'll not be beaten by a whore like you" he taunted.
"Take that back or I'll cut your tongue of your stupid mouth" she taunted back.
"Haha quit funny. Let's be serious" he said as he pulled out his second dagger out of the mages chest.
He walked a few steps forward and the old man quickly ran to the mage and he tried to stop the bleeding. The leader sprinted towards Krixa and swung his daggers with the attempt to hit her but she dodged his attack without having any problems. She created a thick wallet out of water around her fists, she froze the wallet and created two ice gauntlets. The bandit tried to hit her with a second attack but she blocked his attack with her gauntlets and she punched him right in his face. He groaned in pain as he stumbled back, his nose was bleeding.
"Arrgh… you whore, you will pay for this" he shouted and a red visible aura appeared around his body, He jumped in her direction as he started attacking her. He was a lot faster than before and she was struggling to block his attacks. She saw the incoming blow from the left side, but she wasn't fast enough for dodging the attack and one of his blades pierced her skin and dug itself deep in the left side of her hip. He kicked her in the stomach and pulled out his blade in the same move. Krixa fell to the ground, blood flowed out of the wound.
He smiled evilly as he said "Prepare to die".
"I won't die today" Krixa replied as she formed a sharp knife out of ice ram it into the bandit's left upper leg.
"Fuck" he cursed as he stumbled back and pulled out the knife.
Krixa took the opportunity and created a large ice-spear which floated behind him. The leader could not see the longish weapon and he stumbled a few meters back and let out a painful scream as the tip of the spear bored its way into the man's back. Krixa made a small gesture with her hand and the spear impaled the bandit, he was dead immediately and his lifeless body fell to the ground.
She turned her attention to the green haired man and she asked if he is okay. He replied that he is fine because he old man used magic to heal the wound. Krixa healed her wound. Sarah appeared, she noticed the impaled bandit and the burned, black corpses.
She asked what had happened here and the mage answered that they were attacked by bandits from a special clan and Krixa had saved them. Sarah asked them who they were and what they were doing here. The young man told her that his name was Clay Paddon and he old man's name was Cedric Pale. They also told them that they want to travel to Stillmaw. Krixa asked them why they wanted to travel to Stillmaw. Clay answered that he had to find a rare and special relict and he has to do a research in the giant library.
He asked the women if they wanted to accompany them. Both agreed and they walked two days with a couple of short pauses. The four travellers arrived at the town's front door and they spotted seven guards, who wore helmets, corselets and trousers made out of high quality iron. They had well-forged iron swords and round iron shields. The town's walls were made out of over fifty metres tall and, according to the difference between the gates front- and back door, ten metres wide red sandstone. Behind the front door and the back door was an iron portcullis each, which were pulled up. They went through the gate and spotted a large lookout tower in the opposite wall. A lot of inhabitants walked through the streets or went in and out of houses, which distinguished in size, colour and form. Most of the inhabitants wore expensive, glamorous clothes. The town's size was five times larger than the size of Jensbark. Between the houses were a lot of taverns, brothels, shops and other buildings.
Cedric asked a young, raven haired boy, about the citadel and the library, which was inside the citadel. The boy answered that they had to go to the market in the middle of the town, then they had to follow the "Gable Street" till they reached cathedral and next to the cathedral was the citadel. Cedric thanked the boy and the group walked to the market.
Stillmaw's market was almost seven times larger than the market in Jensbark. The group decided to split up and spend an hour on the market, they agreed that they will meet each other later in front of the citadel.
"I want to have some better clothes Sarah" Krixa said.
Sarah was surprised what Krixa called her by her real name.
"How you know my name, I've never told you my real name" she asked.
"In your covers was a letter with for name on it" the blue haired beauty answered.
"Ah I totally forgot about I'll give you some money" Sarah replied.
"Nah I'm fine I have my own money" the water spirit said as she pulled out a couple silver coins out of her bra.
"Where did you get them from?" Sarah asked
"Maybe I took them from the bandits, because dead people don't need money at all" the blue haired beauty answered with a small smile.
Sarah said "Okay then buy something you like" and Krixa replied "Okay then let's go we don't have much time". Sarah nodded and the women walked from stall to stall, they found a lot of different clothes but Krixa liked neither of them.
They walked through the market and regarded the different stalls for almost an hour as they spotted a smaller stall with a table full of robes, hats, shoes and other garments, which are produced out of black leather. A young female elf at the age of nineteen stood behind the desk. She wore a simple green dress and her brown hair was tied up in a ponytail. They walked to the stand and Krixa greeted her.
"Hello Miss how can I help you" the saleswoman asked.
"I want to buy this, this, this, and THIS" she answered as she pointed on black leather boots, a black leather trousers, a blouse and a beautiful, long and black dress. "
This will cost three silver coins and thirty-one copper coins" the young elf said. Krixa gave her four silver coins and told her that she can keep the rest. The woman thanked her and said goodbye. Krixa said goodbye back as she took them.
"We can go now Sarah".
Sarah nodded and said "These clothes look pretty cool."
"I know" she responded.
"Let's go. The others are probably waiting for us."
"Where are they? Talk to me or I'll kill your wife and your children" Jane Telkin said as she pulled up the farmer by the neckline of his yellow tunic.
She stared unemotional at the farmer's scared face.
"I'll tell you everything I know but PLEASE spare my family and me" the thirty-six years old man said with a high pitched voice.
"Where are they?" Jane repeated more impatiently now.
"They were on the way to Stillmaw, but two men accompanied them" answered frightened.
"Two men?" the Obliterator of Dju'Kan asked. "Yes two men, a young man with green hair and an old man. The green man wore a blue robe and the old man wore brown cloths. They crossed my farm a day before" the farmer answered. "Good. We have all information we need" she said with a creepy smile.
"Do you leave us in peace now" the man asked.
"No" Jane hissed.
"But you promised me…" he said but Jane interrupted his sentence by stabbing a sharp knife, forged out of obsidian, in his chest. "
I promised nothing" she said with a smile. His wife stared to sob and his two children cried.
"Kill them all, then burn down the farm" she said as she turned her back to the farmer's family and walked out of the barn.