The Curse Of Earthias

Chapter 2-1

CHAPTER TWO

Kai hoisted his travel bag over his shoulder and stepped out of the wooden hut, closing the door gently behind him. The trees waved their branches as a light breeze swept through them, carrying a swirl of leaves onto the path leading to the Earth Healer’s main village.

His every nerve twitched with anticipation – he hadn't left the dark side of the forest, where he lived with Grandfather Heen, in years. Yet his twin sister, Xanna, who was being educated directly under Lady Sia and therefore resided in the village, came to visit him all the time, barely taking notice of how long it took to journey back and forth.

Not only was Xanna fearless when it came to travelling alone, but she was so skilled with her Etherin – the Earth Healer’s form of magic – that, even though she was still an apprentice, Lady Sia had given her control of growing the crops for all four seasons.

Briefly, as he shook away the worst of his anxiety and walked on, Kai pondered how unimpressive that would probably seem to the humans, who were said to grow only simple crops. But with the special crops the Earth Healers had developed over the years to give them maximum food while damaging the forest as little as possible, this was a role of great importance and required a lot of Etherinal skill to accomplish.

Puffing out his cheeks, Kai sighed. Nearly every Earth Healer he knew loved Xanna, but when it came to him, their whispers turned scornful. Not that he was jealous of his sister; he cared for her deeply and simply didn’t think like that. But he’d hoped by now that the other Earth Healers would come to accept that his interests were just different to theirs, and nothing to be mocked for. Yet he knew that wouldn’t be the case. As soon as he stepped foot in the village, most of them would either blank him or ask the question they always asked: why did he waste his time researching and obsessing over the ancient techniques of Earth Healer swordplay when they were no longer under threat, and indeed had not been for hundreds of years?

His answer was always the same: humans were unpredictable and could decide to attack the forest of Earthias at any time if it took their fancy.

However, so much of the Earth Healer’s history had been lost after the Last Battle that they often laughed at him. They didn’t know the truth about how the humans had once invaded the forest, murdering the Earth Healer men and k********g their women to take as brides, only to kill them in disgust after learning that they couldn't bear human children. Kai gritted his teeth, recalling the time he'd read about it in the books Grandfather Heen kept hidden. It'd all been for the sake of some greed-fuelled lord gaining more land so as to outdo his rivals.

As far as Kai knew, only he and Grandfather Heen were learned enough to read such books, though as Wise Woman, Lady Sia knew of their history too, as had the Wise Ones before her. Yet they'd all chosen to keep it a secret for fear that it would stir up trouble.

Still, Kai had to acknowledge that not all humans were the savages they appeared to be. A decree had been issued after the humans gained a new royal family, forbidding all attacks on the Earth Healers and Earthias itself, even banishing those who had once done so to the wretched wastelands surrounding Xylantria. It was this that convinced the Earth Healers to take up the humans' call for arms when the demons of the Underworld advanced on the country.

Many lives, Earth Healer and human alike, were lost, but they succeeded in pushing the demons back enough for the human mages to seal them inside the stone fortress of Mal Roch'etchu, which connected the Upperworld to the Underworld. Afterwards, peace had settled between the Earth Healers and humans, and for a while they brought trade to each other as well as friendship.

Then, for reasons unclear to the Earth Healers, the magic of the humans vanished, as if it had been snatched from them overnight, and with it their contact with Earthias. Nevertheless, from the rumours that mysteriously reached Grandfather Heen’s ears (were the very trees whispering to him? Kai wouldn't have put it past him to know their language) the humans had adapted well, though skirmishes with swords and poisons were becoming increasingly common.

Grandfather Heen had also mentioned to Kai that there were a lot more human travellers in recent years, though the old Earth Healer had been unable to guess at their intentions.

It had been due to a party of these travellers staying overnight in Earthias, with the permission of the past Wise Woman, that'd caused the disease which took the lives of Kai and Xanna’s parents, and many more besides.

There had been almost double the number of Earth Healers living in Earthias back then. Kai couldn’t quite believe it, but even Lady Sia had told him it was true. She was the one who had tended to the sick as they lay dying, desperately trying to find a way to cure them, though she’d failed every time. That was when she'd just been a healer and hadn't started her training to step into the role of Wise Woman yet. Normally curing diseases was easy for her, but that particular disease had been completely foreign to Earthias, coming from a contaminated seed that the human travellers had unwittingly been carrying. In the end, there had been no cure; the disease died out of its own accord.

Scrunching up his face, Kai tried to remember what his parents had looked like. He knew that Xanna, with her dark green hair, tipped with vibrant red, and her light green skin, so resembled his mother that she brought a tear to many of the older Earth Healer’s eyes, but his father’s face eluded him. He supposed he would have been a younger version of Grandfather Heen, though trying to picture that was really quite difficult.

Grandfather Heen was so sour in his disposition that Kai was sure it was relative to the number of wrinkles on the old man’s face. He also had a broad nose and forehead to match, and his skin was so deep a green that he looked like an avocado. What was left of his hair was starting to lose the redness that all Earth Healer men had, turning white at the tips as though it’d been dip dyed. No, it was impossible to imagine him looking any younger. It hurt Kai’s brain simply thinking about it.

Shrugging his bag further up from where it'd slipped, he quickened his pace. The dark side of the forest wasn’t called that for just any reason. Though the sun's rays were strong, rich shadows covered every leaf, every rock, every branch. They flickered at the edges of his vision, hiding the wild creatures rustling around nearby, most of which the other Earth Healers hardly dared mention. Kai had seen only a few of them up close, having been kept under Grandfather Heen’s watchful gaze at all times when he was a child, but he'd heard the calls of many more.

The one he heard most was the clicking call of the Gogans; small, spiny creatures that scurried along the forest floor on six legs, oozing a trail of toxic plasma from their long fleshy tails. The plasma, as well as acting as a defensive mechanism, also served as a lure for the Gogans’ main prey, the Wringlers, who were so attracted to its scent that they would head straight to it.

Wringlers themselves resembled small trees that slithered along on dense roots and were so defensive of their territory that they would fall and crush anyone who risked taking even three steps inside it. The toxic plasma of the Gogans would dissolve the Wringlers’ woody exterior, meaning they could feed on the remains with ease, but digestion was often slow and left the Gogans vulnerable to their own predators: Haswards. These were four-legged creatures reaching an average height of an adult Earth Healer’s navel, and had sharp teeth and claws that could tear through the tough spines on a Gogan’s body in seconds. The Haswards also had thick, needle like fur that shot out at approaching enemies and paralysed them for days.

Once, when Kai was only a boy, he'd come across a Hasward as it fed. Not knowing the danger he was in, he'd slipped past Grandfather Heen and edged closer for a better look, but tripped on a large tree root and alerted the Hasward to his presence.

Grandfather Heen found him not a moment too soon, and with a quick use of defensive Etherin, saved him from being the Hasward’s next victim. The memory chilled Kai to the core, and he had no idea how Grandfather Heen could walk about so fearlessly every time he went out – even if it was his job to scout the dark side in search of such creatures and develop methods to keep them out of the Earth Healer’s villages.

His work was one of the reasons why Grandfather Heen had decided to live there in the first place, so he could observe at any time, for though a river separated it from the light side, nearly every dangerous creature known to them was an expert swimmer. The other reason was that he disliked village life, saying that it was far too busy for comfort. Kai tended to agree with him, but he was beginning to wonder if that was only because he’d spent so much time with the old Earth Healer. Maybe going to the villages every now and then would do him good, even if he did have to put up with all the jibes.

Coming to the river, Kai stepped into one of the small wooden boats moored along its bank. He loosened the knot and took hold of the paddle. He followed the river’s gentle pull and guided the craft over to the other side, barely three boat lengths away. Tying it up again, he stepped out, and immediately it was like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Was it simply because he’d crossed sides, or was it his flourishing excitement about the Festival of Renewal? After all, that was the reason he’d decided to go to Foet, Earthias' main village, this time. Well, that and Xanna’s begging (and, on occasion, screaming).

He smiled, thinking about how pleased she would be to see him. He was also looking forward to speaking with Lady Sia after the festival's opening ceremony – he couldn't recall the last time he'd sat down with her to catch up on things.

Xanna exited her hut, arms laden with great wreaths of flowers to be pinned on every door in Foet. She was wearing a gown made from a special cloth, the thread of which came from the Tulipas plant, known for producing rich red hues. It matched the red tinge at the tips of her hair perfectly, a fact that had not gone unnoticed by most of the male Earth Healers her age, who kept stopping to compliment her.

What had gone unnoticed, however, was how much of a rush she was in trying to get everything ready for the evening. There was still so much to do, and hardly any time to do it in. She sashayed her way around everyone who attempted to bar her way.

As Kai approached the village's large communal area, he spotted her sprinting back and forth between all the huts arranged around it to pin the wreaths, and then dart back inside her own for more decorations. When she reappeared, she was carrying so much that she could barely see over the top of it all. A bag of Lightus bulbs wobbled on the pile, threatening to fall. She tried to rebalance them as she hurried along, but the hem of her dress caught on the buckles of her boots and she tripped over. Kai rushed forwards and caught her a second before she hit the ground, simultaneously catching the bag of Lightus bulbs in his free hand.

‘Oh, thank you, sir! I—' She looked up from her efforts to steady the rest of the decorations and squealed, immediately dropping everything at her feet so she could embrace him. ‘Kai! You are actually here!’

‘Of course I am. Your recent begging did not leave me with much choice,’ he smirked as she let go. His ribs carried a dull twinge where she’d squeezed them, and he massaged the area with his fingers.