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“Come on Mak! We’re going to be late!” shouted Katherine at me from the doorway. The day had finally come to leave, we would be taking a carriage there. I looked over the house, remembering all that had transpired to get me here. I thought of the smell of the study, the coziness of the living room, and wonderful meals in the kitchen. As excited as I was to join the guild, I would miss this place dearly. Slowly I walked up to an impatient Katherine who was tapping her foot in frustration. “Come on you pest! We have a three-day journey and if we are late, I’ll feed you to a cat!” she bellowed. Aldan and Clementina decided to take us there personally, they said it was because they hadn’t been to the city in a long time, but I think they were not quite ready for us to go yet. Aldan said a few words in front of the house before getting on the carriage with us. The house vanished instantly. “That should do it!” he said before joining us. “Just a quick spell to keep the house safe and clean while we are away.” Aldan smiled as he took the reins. And so, we began our journey to Exordium.
The first day went by fairly quickly, I had put several books into my demi-plane spent the day reading about the history of aberration incursions. Katherine, meanwhile; was practicing her drawing with Aldan while Clementina took over steering for a while. Katherine was naturally gifted in a great many things: magic, combat, academics, card games, but art… “What do you think of this one Uncle Aldan?” Katherine said holding up her latest work. “It’s lovely dear,” he said, “I love the detail on the rope.” Katherine’s face flushed with anger, “That’s not a rope! That’s a tail! It is supposed to be Mak!” she yelled. I chuckled a bit to myself, causing Katherine to give me a glare of violent intent. But before she could strangle me, Aldan spoke up. “Sorry Kat let me give it a try,” he said picking up a pen and paper. After a few minutes, Aldan presented a very flattering sketch of me. “This is how I would draw it,” he said, “You are not far off!” he encouraged. He then began giving Katherine art advice and talking about how much she has improved from when she was younger. As fun as it was to tease her about her art, I had to admire that she kept on drawing anyway. Aldan and Katherine had been drawing together as long as I have known them. It gave me a strange feeling of calm to see such a familiar sight.
The next day we stopped in a small village to get some food and stretch our legs. We hopped of the carriage and started towards town. A friendly looking human man wearing glasses came walking towards us at a brisk pace with his arms stretched out. “Aldan! Clementina! It has been ages!” he yelled out as he approached us. Suddenly, his friendly face turned to fear. He started waving his hands yelling, “Turn around! Don’t you see it?” we looked at each other, then behind us then back at him, and shrugged. Now he was the one who gave a confused look. “What’s the matter, Ignatius?” Aldan asked, then a look of shock appeared on his face. “Oh! This is Mak! Remember I wrote to you about him!” Aldan called out. But Ignatius did not stop, shaking his head and motioning us to turn around. Clementina and Aldan suddenly looked at each other, and then upwards. Before Katherine and I could see what they were looking at, Aldan sent a blast of magical energy into the air, and down came an enormous bird! “Ah…” said Aldan nodding solemnly, “A stalker-hawk had been following us, I can’t believe I didn’t notice.” A wave of relief washed over Ignatius’ face. “You are wearing your reading glasses old friend, not your true seeing ones!” said Ignatius. Aldan’s face turns red, “Ahh… I must have forgotten to switch them after I was drawing.” Of course, only someone like Aldan could take nearly being killed by an invisible predator so lightly. “Good to see you again,” said Ignatius as he gave Aldan a hug. “Ah little Katherine, you’re all grown up!” he said. Katherine politely smiled. “So you’re Mak eh?” he said to me, “I hear you’re quite talented with portal magic! Quite the feat I must say!” he said.
Ignatius brought us to his home in the village. It was larger than Trodthrough, but not by much, and it had the delightful smell of baking bread and children could be seen playing around the well. “After we eat I want to show you something!” Ignatius said to Katherine and I with enthusiasm. It was a sunny day so we ate outside. After we finished our meal Ignatius led us to the outskirts of the village, it was a steep climb up the large hill. Eventually, we came to a ledge and Ignatius turned around. “Can you guess what we are standing on?” he said. We both pause for a moment and quizzically look around. “Here’s a hint.” he said, “We are actually in a valley!” I look off into the distance and can see for miles without obstruction. “Are you sure about that?” Katherine asks sarcastically. “Quite sure!” he says with enthusiasm, “Follow me!” he motions to the edge of the cliff. Ignatius casts a spell that caused a chunk of earth to break off and float in front of him. He gets on and calls for us, “What are you waiting for?” I look up at Katherine knowingly. “You go on ahead,” she says nervously, “I’ll stay up here thanks!” Ignatius frowns, “Not good with heights eh? Tell you what, when we get down there I’ll send a magic image up so you can see it.” Ignatius offered. “Sounds good to me” she said, I got on with Ignatius and we floated down.
Of all the things I could have imagined, of all the nightmares I’ve had, there is nothing that could compare with this. The entire hill, 200 m of what I thought was a mound of earth, was merely a thin layer over top of this. “Beautiful isn’t it?” Ignatius said in a hushed tone. “Not exactly the words I would use, but definitely incredible!” I responded. Whatever it was, had a mouth full of teeth, and I mean a mouth full. Everywhere inside of its mouth was covered in razor-sharp teeth except for the hole leading to its esophagus. “I found this fossil about 5 years ago” Ignatius explained. “Some adventurer shot down a red dragon and it caused a rockslide which uncovered it.” I stared at it in awe, how could something so big even exist. Aside from the head, what I assumed to be an arm was the only other thing that had been unearthed. I say assume because it was nearly as horrifying as the head. It was covered in jagged spikes, and it came to an end in three long hooked claws. Just looking at it made me feel uneasy, I started to feel my muscles go stiff. My mind began to imagine this creature as it was in life, no living adventurer could possibly harm it. It was more like a force of nature. “It is truly a terrifying sight, but not nearly as much so as it would have been before” as Ignatius spoke it broke me out of my trance. “I can’t imagine how it could get worse!” I said in disbelief. Ignatius took out a small set of vials from his bag and selected one labeled “blood sample”. “Under where the eyes would have been, I found samples of blood,” he said in a serious tone. “This being, it bled profusely and frequently from its eyes.” He then grabbed another vial and spoke, “This is human bone matter when I unearthed its arm a year ago, I found dozens of humans impaled by its claws… And-” suddenly he stopped speaking. “I’m sorry, I went too far, let’s go back up,” he said quickly. I hadn’t realized it, but after he spoke I felt my face. I had been crying.
Katherine greeted us at the top of the “hill”. “What was that!” she yelled to us. “I don’t know,” said Ignatius, “There is nothing like it in any archeological research I have come across; however…” We both looked at him, what didn’t he tell us. “There are legends, myths really, that speak of gigantic creatures that come as divine punishment,” he said grimly. “I never really believed that. Nothing could be that huge and support its weight, but here we are.” I couldn’t contain my curiosity, “What did they call them?” I asked. Ignatius shook his head, “It depends. They were all different, but all huge.” Then he took out an old book from his backpack. As he opened it dust flew out and the pages made a crinkling sound. “There are no images, but there is a description closely matching what we have found so far.” he grimaced as he spoke. “They call this one Agony” he spoke in a tone that sent shivers up my spine. “There is an image now!” Katherine proclaimed proudly holding up a piece of paper. “I drew this based on the image you sent me.” While the drawing was far from perfect, it managed to capture the creature well enough that my body recoiled from the image instinctively.
“Alright kids!” we turned around as Aldan’s voice boomed from down the hill. “We are all stocked up and ready to continue!” he said. “Coming!” Katherine yelled back and started heading down the hill. I jumped up on her back and turned to face Ignatius, “That was fascinating, thank you… There aren’t any… you know… living things like that?” Ignatius shook his head, “No! No! No! If there were it would be impossible to hide at that size!” he said confidently. I breathed a sigh of relief as I waved good-bye to the archeologist. We met up with Aldan and Clementina and walked down together. “I’m guessing he showed it to you guys?” Aldan said noticing my thoughtful expression. “Yeah, it was incredible and terrifying…” I said darkly. “I drew a picture of it!” said Katherine, “Sure, it was freaky, but it’s dead so no need to worry.” In spite of her words, even she looked put off by it, she was clearly trying to cheer me up. “Yeah, you’re right,” I said despite my concerns. “I had a similar reaction myself!” said Aldan. “It goes to show how much more there is to learn about our world.” A very optimistic take on this situation, but I suppose that is the attitude a researcher must take regarding these matters. We got back on the carriage and continued on the road, Katherine and I watching the hill get smaller and smaller the further we got from it. But even if it was out of sight, it was as big as ever in my mind.
The third day of travel dragged on far too long. My stomach was uneasy with excitement and every moment seemed like an eternity. Reading was impossible, the anticipation of going to the city of Exordium, or really any city was all-consuming. Based on Aldan’s books, they were full of gigantic stone buildings and had busy roads where there wasn’t a moment of quiet. A picture of my old cave came to mind, but instead of going down into the ground, it goes up into the sky. These sky caves littered around a field with people running between them, not unlike the morning my friends and I were called for duty. Katherine snapped me back to reality with the fidgeting of the hilt of her sword. Clementina finished up repairing a tear on Aldan’s cloak before suggesting, “Why don’t we take a moment to stretch our legs?” Aldan looked at her in confusion, “We haven’t been going that long? If we keep going at this rate we could be there by mid-afternoon!” he said. Clementina gave an exaggerated look of shock, “Oh good heavens! You’re right! Were we to stop for even a moment, we’d be set up by bandits! Even the slight delay would set us back hours! Nay, days!” she said in a dramatic tone that even she couldn’t stop herself from laughing at. “Alright, alright” Aldan conceded with a smile, “Your theatrics win you this round, my love.” Aldan stopped the carriage in a clearing by the forest road.
Katherine and I didn’t waste a moment, we leaped from the carriage and began sparring. Katherine drew her practice blade started slicing. “Soon this will be happening for real! Better get used to this!” she shouted as she delivered a thrusting strike. The wooden blade nearly struck my cheek as I dodged to the left, sure it wasn’t sharp, but the strength behind it was no joke. “With aim like that, I’m really in trouble!” I teased before infusing my legs with magic and jumping to a nearby tree. “Get back down here you sneaky little rodent!” she bellowed as she hurled a bolt of magical force at me. The rush of the air displaced by the force nearly knocked me off the branch despite the attack missing. “Careful, one of these days you might hit something!” I yelled as I began bouncing from tree to tree. She chased after me, cursing under her breath. Leaping from branch to branch I slice small branches with my glove blade, stuffing them into my portal as I avoid Katherine’s attacks. She fires another attack of dark acid but misses completely. “Careful! That could have really hurt! Good thing your aim is so ba-” I didn’t get to finish my quip. I jumped to another branch without double-checking, she hadn’t aimed for me, and it wasn’t acid. My right foot landed on the branch and immediately slipped on the dark grease that coated it. I reached out and touched a branch above me but couldn’t grab it before I fell. I came crashing down to the ground with a THUD. “Ow,” I said rubbing my head, I looked up and saw Katherine looking down at me with a grin. “You’re getting sloppy Mak,” she said smugly. “Oh, you got me,” I said with a grin. Her expression turned from one of victory to one a terror, she looked up just in time to see the portal I put on the branch above me release dozens of branches on her head.
Our battle continued as I ran further into the woods, jumping from portal to portal, trying to create distance between us. Bizarrely, the trees became sparser as I went deeper, before me appeared a small clearing with a pile of firewood. Before I could survey the area properly, the sound of vengeance came from behind me. The clanking of armour, the gritting of teeth, the yelling of “I can’t believe you dropped a pile of wood on me!”, there was no time to think. I bolted to the pile of lumber, Katherine’s footsteps so close behind that I could feel their impact on the ground. Just as she was about to deliver a kick to my rear I leaped to the top of the pile and pushed them down upon her. CRASH the logs came rumbling down tripping Katherine and bringing her to the ground. “Victory! I have felled the mighty warrior Katherine” I gloated. And then it hit me. THUD I went flying through the air several feet before impacting a nearby tree. The “it” that hit me, was a shovel. “Get down and stay down rat!” said a grisly voice. When my eyes came back into focus I saw a large man with a red beard with patches of grey, he was holding his shovel in a threatening pose. I suppose I was lucky it wasn’t an ax considering the pile. “Hey! Only I get to call him that!” shouted a now upright Katherine. “Stay back young one!” the man replied as he approached me, “I’ll take care of it! This one seems tougher than usual” I rubbed my sore back, fortunately, I did practice some defensive magic, a normal Nequese would’ve been crushed by that hit. Putting my hands up I tried to deescalate, “Sorry about your woodpile, we were jus- Woah!” my sentence was left unfinished as he nearly took my head off with a swing of his shovel. “You’re a squirmy one!” he shouted ignoring my words. “Cut that out!” Katherine demanded as she jumped at the man, grabbing the handle of his shovel. He stared at her in shock.
“If you lay a finger on Mak,” Katherine said menacingly. “Let go!” the man shouted, she enhanced her arms with magic and pulled the shovel from his grasp. “As I was saying!” she spoke louder, “If you lay a finger on Mak, then…” Katherine crushed the handle of the shovel, splitting it in half. After she did this I hopped onto her back, sticking my tongue out from the safety of the position. The man looked sheepishly at us for a moment before speaking. “Oh…” he said, “I didn’t realize it was your pet, I thought it was atta-” “PET!” I yelled in indignity! Katherine had to hold me back from clawing his face off. The man reeled back to get away from me. “Keep that thing under control miss!” he said angrily as he retreated. “He’s not my pet, he is my friend! Let’s just go Mak,” she said, still carrying me as I tried to sink my claws into the man’s face. After I had calmed down a bit, Katherine spoke to me as we walked back to the carriage. “This is going to happen again,” she said in a grim tone. It was true, I knew it was, but after visiting with Ignatius I had kind of forgotten. “We won’t be able to fight them all like that, as much as I’d like to” she continued, looking straight ahead. “But…” she turned and looked to me with a smile, “We can find out different ways of fighting!” she said confidently.
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