The Elderkin Prophet

Chapter 7

The sound of heavy clunky bits of metal and buckles clanging with each recurring step woke Ophinia up. Barely conscious, she feels very weak and notices that she was being carried. All she could see was a thick black dusty cloak and hard footprints making a trail with each step before she fell unconscious again.

The air around her begins to become much colder than the morning heat. Everything around her starts darkening. She struggles to breathe, choking as if she inhaled a poisonous mist. Every ounce of heat from her body begins to disappear, she felt cold and lonely. Every sound felt muted; a dim purple light echoed from the ceiling. It called to her, a feint ringing and clattering sound began to play. She seemed to be underground and all around her she felt a voice echo amidst the winding corridors of some kind of ancient sanctuary. Thousands of voices ran through her mind, as her cold broken body lay in the middle of a large stone circle. Dark silhouettes of vines seeped through the ground around her and behind those were even blacker figures, standing still. She felt an overwhelming presence above her, it began to empower her. She felt paralysed.

 Ophinia suddenly opens her eyes to a warm roaring fire that greets her. Her senses began to return. Was that a dream or a nightmare? She began to think. She could barely remember anything from that dream but the darkness that had swallowed her. Ophinia finds herself sweating; she was wrapped in thick layers of soft Mool fur. She gets up slowly but her body aches. Every muscle in her body seemed to be crying and paining, but she still gets up. She looks around herself and sees Uul resting, sleeping peacefully against a large round tree wrapped in his cloak. His spear was resting on the ground besides him next to his worn out armour. They were out of the marshy forest lands. They were closer to where they began their search from. The large dark trees and the gloomy atmosphere around them was replaced with even larger brown and yellow trees that shot up high into the sky. She could hear the tweeting of birds again! The poisonous aura of the forest was gone and a fresher cooler breeze blew. The sun was setting as it shined its bright light all across the forest floors.

Ophinia slowly wraps the fur she rested in and got up on her feet. The campsite was a mess. There were things thrown everywhere. From bits of paper to crumbs of muskbread and other smaller items lay stranded across the floor. She found her backpack, opened and strewn on a small tree bark above her. There were tiny footprints on the dusty floor around her. She knew that it was her Buga. She began to search for the tiny thing and tried calling out to it. She instantly hears rustling of leaves from above and as she looks up she sees the tiny critter running down the tall trees. It seemed to have a tiny bird clutched in its mouth. The buga jumps down on the ground and looks up at Ophinia, it twists its furry head sideways, awaiting a response. Ophinia  bends down slowly and offers her hand to the buga. It puts down its prey and begins to sniff her hand. She begins to pet the critter delicately along its back as she thinks of a name for it.

“Hmm… I think I’ll name you, Ser master tracker!” The buga twitches its ears.

“Hahaha no, Moogi sounds like a good name for you. Anyways, thank you for leading us to the scouts Moogi.”

Moogi begins to wave its tail happily.

Ophinia picks herself back up on her feet and turns around. She begins to pack all of her scrambled things from the ground and packs them back in her backpack. She complains about the pain and ache. She tries to remember what happened after the spell she casted but struggled to remember anything. The spell weakened her greatly. She never expected the spell to be that powerful; she was afraid and angry at the same time. She began to worry about the dream she had again. She was scared that the dream might have been connected to the power she used from the spell because she tapped into the raw strength of the fold. Magic always came at a cost, a sort of bargain. She rose up her bandaged hands; they were still tingling with sensation from the spell. Uul managed to replace her old ruined bandages while she rested. Her arms had a few dark black freckles sprewn across it. She feared that it was corruption and that the dream she got was probably a projection of the nightwell. Chills ran down her spine but she pushed away the thought. She looked up as the stars began to align in the darkening skies and the golden clouds began to slowly whisk away. A cool breeze began to blow which made her return back to the fireplace. She noticed a small pot atop the fire; she opened it to find fresh stew inside it. Grabbing a bowl, she began to fill herself a serving of the soup. It had bits of carrot and brine roots along with some meaty cooked bits of something.

Uul slowly opens his eyes and sees Ophinia in front of the campfire. He was still exhausted but looking at her back on her feet filled him with joy. Ophinia noticed him wake up and smiled back at him. She walked towards him and offered the bowl of soup.

“Here! The soup you made is really good.”

Uul reaches out his hand.

“Thank you.”

Ophinia returns back to the pot to fill another bowl. Uul looks at her.

“When did you get up?”

“Oh, just a while ago. My body aches with pain though.”

“Haha, that’s what you get for setting off such a large fire bomb.”

Ophinia sits herself in front of Uul and begins to drink some of the soup. Her expressions become serious.

“Can…Can you tell me what happened after that spell? I can’t seem to remember anything.”

“Well, for starters. I ran towards you after the blast, you were spellshocked. You seemed barely alive, half unconscious on the ground. Your eyes, forehead and mouth had like these, dark veins coursing through them. I was scared that you were dead. You look much better now. Those veins seemed to have gone away but your beak still slightly darkened.”

“What else? Were there any more of those things?”

“No, I believe your spell incinerated the ones attacking us and sent the rest scurrying. After the dust settled, I picked you up and brought you back here.”

“Thank you… for everything you do for me. Thank you for protecting me so much.”

Uul almost chokes on the soup after hearing Ophinia. Both chuckle lightly.

“And what about the remaining scouts? What happened to them?”

“I’m afraid that they are all … dead.”

Ophinia looks down into her bowl sadly.

“That scout saved my life and I couldn’t do anything to save his.”

Ull comforts Ophinia and then reaches for his backpack. He pulls out the scroll that Kin’uel had handed to him. He unfurls it and shows it to her.

“See this? This is what the scouts had come to Horger forest for.”

“What is this? It looks like some kind of map.”

“It is.”

“A map to what?”

“I don’t know yet. Kin’uel said that whatever it was, it was the closest thing they ever had found that could help the Onxy Legion find the Nightwell and its source.”

“It looks like it has something written on it.” Ophinia takes a closer look.

“It appears to be ancient writing. I don’t know how to read this.”

“Nor do I, I believe that there is one person who can. That’s why we are headed to Glunarg, an old friend of mine. The last time I saw him, he lived in a small shack on the outskirts of Froli. So that’s where we are headed.”

Uul wraps the map and puts it back in his backpack.

“Kin’uel also asked us to report this finding directly to Mulnac, the captain of the Onxy Legion in Froli.”

Ophinia finishes her soup.

“So, what do we do now?”

“Well, we should begin our journey back after some rest. Its nightfall, If we leave soon; we can reach the Kenyut pass within daybreak. We can follow the river back out into the bay. Better get some rest.”

Suddenly, Moogi jumps down from above onto Ophinia and sits in her lap.

“Oh! Hello!”

Uul makes a face.

“Ugh, I thought the Buga would have run away by now, although he was decent company on my way back here.”

“I’ve decided to name him Moogi.”

“You what! Wha…W..What; why would you name him?”

“Because, I’m keeping him.”

Uul frowns.

“Ughh. Fine, He can stay. For now.”

Ophinia cheers up. Both of them begin to return back to their bedrolls around the campfire for some rest. The skies have darkened up completely by now and the croaking of smaller insects and critters could be heard. Deeper in the forest, some twinkling lights of fireworms were seen. The tall trees above them began to glow lightly because of the creeper vines that hung from their upper branches. The wind began to howl as flakes of dust and particle drifted in the gusts of wind.

Time passed and Uul gets up. He wakes up Ophinia soon after and they began to pack up their belongings. The campfire had sizzled out by then, leaving trails of dark ash everywhere. The night was dark but things were still visible. There were very few wild animals moving in the dark; things were silent.

Uul looks up at the skies. He searches for the moon

“Minerva, gods be praised.”

Minerva was one of the three moons that circled Phaera. Each moon shined in a cycle of three days. The Brightest of all the three moons was Minerva. It was the largest of the moons and was so bright that even in the darkest hours of night; things were visible in plain sight. The second moon was Thrah. It was smaller than Minerva and had several marks and spots on its surface. It would shine with a bright blue glow; its aura was often was the sign of love and healing. The third moon was Nebul. The darkest of the three, it was bigger than Thrah but appeared smaller than it because of its darker face. It barely emitted any light and would glow with a purple haze; these nights were cold and dark. Ancient Gull lore would often link their three gods to each moon. Nebul belonged to the fallen one; the one who created the Nightwell.The Gull would always avoid venturing out of their homes on this night since it was deemed to bring badluck. Two of the moons, Minerva and Thrah could sometimes even be seen during daylight.

Ull and Ophinia walk towards Hulu River. It ran between the forests they were in; it was here where they had tied down their small rowboat before beginning their search. Ull began to untie the knots after loading their equipment onto the boat.

“Are you feeling okay? Are you ready?” He asks Ophinia, who was struggling to put on her cloak.

“Yes, yes I am. Let’s go, I’ve been dying to get away from that horrible forest.”

 The two sit themselves on the wide wooden boat as it shifts atop the gentle and still waters. They were enveloped by the bright large moon overhead as they looked in awe at the millions of stars that floated carelessly above them. The sky was filled with dark and rich colours.

Uul and Ophinia begin to row in unison. Ull looks to Ophinia and says.

“We won’t have to paddle for long. Once this stream connects into the main river, we will be carried with the flow of the waters out into the bay.”

Ophinia huffs. “Yes, that’s good to hear, I’m already growing tired of this.”

A few moments later, both of them are disturbed by strange popping sounds coming from the waters. Uul stops paddling and takes a look.

“Oh, look there, in the water ahead of us. Do you see those bubbles popping on the surface of the water?”

“Yea, what is that?”

“That’s a smaulder right there, hiding inside in river bed.”

“What’s a smaulder? I’ve never heard of it.”

“You’ve never seen or heard of a smaulder before? Well, okay. Let me tell you a story then. Long ago there was this village boy. He was young and would go fishing with his father downstream every night. They would catch a whole lot of fish every time, enough to feed their entire tribe. They would always see these bubbles floating on the surface of the water occasionally between the river reeds. The boy’s father always told him not to go near the bubbles and never to touch them. They would always steer past them. They would stop fishing and return home quickly after seeing the bubbles in the water.”

Ophinia seemed to be very interested in this story.

“So what happens next?”

“So one day, when the boy’s father was sick, he went to go fish alone. He was always curious about what those bubbles were because he could not see under the water and during the day, the bubbles would never pop. Out of curiosity, he plopped his head over the boat to look at what was under the water; and suddenly! The bubbles stopped and a long sticky tongue broke through the water and wrapped itself around the boys shoulder and pulled him into the waters.”

“That’s it?”

Uul, chuckles. “Wait, there’s more. After the boy’s disappearance, the tribe sent out a band of gulls to find the lad. They found the abandoned boat the next morning and dived below the waters to find any traces of him. All they found was a mound of sand and upon digging it open, they found this fat green skinned slug like creature which had moss growing all over it. They tore open the creature and found the decomposed remains of the boy. His body looked burnt and some said that he was still alive! Since then, they called these bubbles, smaulder traps.”

“That’s scary, but I still don’t understand why they called them smaulders.”

“That’s because these things would use their long sticky tongue to catch anything that disturbed its frothing bubbles and pulled in into the water. It would then release some kind of acid onto its victims, paralysing them and digesting them slowly.”

“Oh, that’s actually really interesting. Maybe one day I could sample the smaulders acid for potential alchemical substances.”

“Yea, you go do that someday. Just don’t ever disturb those bubbles. They like to breed in still waters like these for potential thirsty animals during the night.”

Time slowly passed and the night went on. The two paddled their way into the main river and then drifted off into a peaceful slumber. The moving waters began to carry them onwards.