Come along now everyone” he called out as he carried on without waiting for anyone at all, “We have places to be, specifically the capital; to see what all the fuss is about and perhaps to partake in those wonderful sounding festivities, “Oh my dear Mert and dear old Eddie, would either of you perhaps like to maybe become the magician of the realm, or the realm magician, whatever it was that old fellow said?” he laughed as he jogged along everyone running behind to keep up.
The pair of them looked over at each other hesitantly to see what sort of reaction the other was likely to have, though neither of them instilled the other with a great deal of confidence in that short moment where their eyes met. “What exactly do you mean Master Abernacky?” called out Eddie attempting to be extra polite not quite knowing whether Abernacky was just acting strange or had completely lost the plot.
“I mean precisely what I say” Abernacky gave a perfunctory respone, and for a short moment he slowed down and turned to face everyone else, allowing them a short moment to catch up. Once everyone was a tad closer he spoke again in a musing sort of tone, “hmm perhaps not Mert, no one has seen a golemancer in living memory so best keep that to ourselves I suppose” he mumbled
He turned and glanced over at Eddie; the corner of his mouth started to curl into a wry smile. “Eddie, oh my dear Eddie”. Eddie shifted on the spot uncomfortably, not knowing what to make of this change of events. “I think it would be best if you maybe, perhaps even decided to of your own free will joined up with this fantasic contest to prove your magical prowess”.
The whole group all stood there idly, none of them really quite sure what was happening or what they should do; they were all very glad though as well that Abernacky’s attention wasn’t currently aimed towards them. “Umm, I’m assuming I don’t have a great deal of choice in the matter?” asked Eddie, “absolutely not” beamed Abernacky and clapped him heartily upon the shoulder, “may I at least know the reason why you’re so set upon this endeavour” Eddie inquired.
“To put it simply, I want to find out exactly what is going on, there are almost no people in this world with the ability to detect someone else’s magical powers, so why exactly does the king wish to invite all of the magicians or even anyone at all with magical powers to some big old party with a prize at the end” he took a long drawn out breath and then carried on, “also that old fellow seemed to be terribly dubious about the whole thing and about what the king was even doing, and to top it all off Ryshal as much of a lovely friend he may be to me; I would rather not believe him but the fact that he somehow apparently knew that the king had died has me a little worried. Perchance the king is actually dead and has been possessed by a demon or other such creature and that is why they are drawing all of the magicians into one place. Which is exactly why I find it to be terribly imperative to go there as soon as possible”
The silence that followed hung in the air worse then the stagnant smell of the swamp all around, only the sounds of bugs buzzing around could be heard, Abernacky stood there with a polite smile and looked at his companions “well anyway then, I don’t trust that old man, He didn’t seem to be very fond of the small town that he told us about, so he is lying I believe that either the place doesn’t exist at all or it is quite dangerous; let’s go and have a look just for the fun of it though” Abernacky turned around and off he went, though at a more leisurely pace,
It didn’t take a great deal longer to reach the place the old man spoke of, especially after the almost running pace that Abernacky had set before. There was a singular large dead looking tree which opened out into a more solid piece of ground just behind it. There was a sign haphazardly stuck on to it. “All visitors welcome, all shall be accepted with hospitality”
Beryn was the closest to it when it finally came into view “oh how wonderful” She smirked in an overly sarcastic tone, Striped grumbled to himself “I doubt anyone is welcome in such a place”, “I would rather be back in my own forest to be honest” remarked Moya, the group slowly crowded around the tree and were talking amongst themselves deciding what to do, Mert was looking around the tree and out into the opening behind it. He could see off a good distance that there was a house that stood there, the roof was sagging in the middle where vegetation had taken root, there was peeling paint though not much was left of it, the porch at the front was rotting away with some of the steps missing, there were no windows just empty space in the wall where a window should be. The whole building gave off an eerie abandoned sort of feeling to it.
Mert mentioned it to everyone else, they all stood there staring for a matter of moments, then suddenly there seemed to be a spark of light emminating from one of the upstairs windows, as though someone had just lit a lamp or started a fire. It gave off a welcoming feeling to it, a homely sense as though the place was actually lived in by someone. Just past this house there was another just barely visible in the swampy haze. The second house had fared much worse then the previous, the entire front wall had completely rotted away and had left the innards of the house completely on display for the world to see.
Teddy piped up from the back of the group “Let’s go and see who is home then” and off he trotted across the open ground without a worry in the world, everyone else very quickly called out to him without hesitation, “stop you fool” they chanted in a number of different not entirely well meaning ways, Stripe was the first to talk again. “Who in their right mind exactly do you think would be living out here?” Teddy stood there, mouth slightly ajar at a loss of what to respond with, “Precisely, no one would, look at this place and those buildings, they’re as like to fall forwards as they are to fall backwards, more then likely both and split straight down the middle” Stripe had walked right up to Teddy in that short moment and Teddy took a concerned step backwards, “Oh for…. I’m not going to attack you Teddy, I was going to go with you and first check what is going on, slowly and carefully and as quietly as possible” “Ha, that means you’d best not go then Stripe, you’re clanking around with only a helmet and a sword, imagine if you had the rest of the outfit” Beryn was laughing, everyone else chuckled as well. “I think it best perhaps if someone like either Moya or Mert were to go, most likely Moya since she has a great deal of experience of being as quiet as possible hunting and tracking prey in the forests”
There was no discussion or otherwise disagreement with the thought, Moya quickly had slung her bow over her back and started off around the tree to the right and took a wide path towards the front of the building, keeping it in full view the entire time. Slowly she slunk through the boggy swamp grounds, avoiding the window till it was completely out of view and then she picked up speed, crouched low she moved with a surprising amount of speed; the rest stood around the tree in varying amounts of concentration.
It took only a matter of minutes before Moya had made her way over to the house, she had reached the corner of the building where it connected the closest wall with the light shining in the window and also the front porch. By now everyone was paying full attention, as she skirted carefully around the side of the house and towards the back of the building. She paused for a moment at the final corner, looked back over at everyone skulking and attempting to look as inconspicuous as possible. She savoured the small grin she had before disappearing around the bend.
There was several tense moments where nothing was happening at all, all of a sudden the light in the upstairs window went out; though nothing else happened after that. Nothing but the deafening noise and silence that could be found in a swamp. Everyone was starting to become restless and fidgeting where they were stood. It didn’t take very long for Abernacky especially to become the most restless out of the group, no matter what he was doing he couldn’t stay still for long periods of time. He made a move and was about to lurch forth and run across the grass, but the moment he moved there was an immensely strong grip around his arm, “Abernacky, Now is not the time to go blundering into just any situation you feel the need to” Beryn said in an annoyed sort of tone that garnered no further discussion.
A few more minutes passed in idle waiting and silence, no one was talking amongst themselves, and most had either leant against the tree or even attempted to find a mostly dry piece of ground to sit upon.
Then suddenly there was a call, Meet had noticed something “look, everyone there she is!” he exclaimed, and indeed there she was; stood at the window waving out. She looked to be beckoning everyone over hanging her arm out the window. Oddly there was a strange creaking noise at the same time. The sound of groaning and straining wood could be heard across the empty fields, the building was starting to lean dangerously to one side, the noise growing into a thunderous cracking noise.
The building was leaning to both sides at the same time, it seemed to stop moving for a moment and the sound abruptly came to a halt; in a matter of moments the entire building tore down the middle and came to a crash upon either side in a giant pile of ruble. The dust cloud rose high above and was slowly settling as the group was running across the open field without a care for the noise and what it was likely to attract.
Each and every one of them had clambered upon the wreckage of the house and were digging bare handed amongst the pieces; throwing them in every which way. There was a loud clang as a chunk of wood had bounced off of Stripes’ helmet and sent him flying. There was a call of pain from underneath the rubble; where Stripe had landed. He jumped up quickly lost his balance and stumbled over again, the sound came again from deep underneath; though this time it was someone calling out for help.
Without a moment to lose Stripe exclaimed to the group “over here” and started digging as fast as he possibly could, throwing debris as fast as possible in all directions. Soon the rest had surrounded him and started to shift as much of the house littered around. It didn’t take long before they found where the noise had come from. There was Moya lying upon the ground with a large beam of which the weight was bearing directly down upon her. She groaned out loud under the unforgiving force of the beam. Hurriedly Stripe, Eddie and Abernacky had all grabbed the beam at different points and started to lift purely by coincidence at the same time, the beam shifted slightly and dislodged a lot of detritus from the surrounding rubble.
The three of them groaned with the strain of the effort, however it didn’t take very long before they reached the point in which they could lift no further. The exertion was becoming apparent upon all of their faces. Striped burst out under the increasing pressure “quickly someone wedge something underneath it. Beryn and Teddy moved without hesitation and slid down into the hole and started to pile as much rubble as possible underneath the beam in the hope that it would be held up and that they could then manage to pull Moya out from underneath; However the plan wasn’t going to work as they had only managed to raise the beam enough so it wasn’t immediately crushing Moya though it provided no further ability to move out from under it.
The group had gather around and were all stood there wondering exactly what they were going to do. Hands on hips and scratching their heads in the hope that some divine idea would strike them without warning. After a number of moments there was no such hope. Mert was musing out loud “If only we had some form of large beast or something that could help us” he spoke lost in his own thoughts not noticing he was actually speaking out loud.
There was an absurdly loud outburst of someone shouting in the immediate vicinity of everyone; they all jumped as though the building was somehow going to collapse even further into the ground. “Mert you absolutely wonderful genius of a man; though you may be small in stature, your brain is as large as a planet” Abernacky blurted out, Mert shifted where he stood and started to blush “oh um, thank you I guess, though I don’t quite know what it is I have done” he replied, Abernacky response came at once, “Why you have come up with a solution and of course you are the one and only person who can fulfil it was well, how perfect indeed”
Mert really didn’t know how to react, he had absolutely no idea what Abernacky was talking about at all, the obviously clueless look upon his face must have given that fact away as Abernacky continued, “You are a golemancer after all my good friend, you can just make a beast to help us” Abernacky beamed at him with all sense of belief that one person could muster.
It was almost as though a light shone within Merts’ mind as he finally understood what Abernacky meant. Though he wasn’t entirely sure of his own ability; now was definitely a good time to try.
Promptly Mert found his was down into the hole in the rubble as everyone else made their way back out so as to not be in the way. Mert tucked himself down as far as he could and into a comfortable position as much as was possible, leaning upon the beam and ensuring that he wasn’t adding any extra weight upon Moya he looked at her and whispered, “I’ll do my absolute best, try not to move okay” his attempt to be reassuring seemed to at least provide Moya with a little hope.
Mert closed his eyes and ran his hand slowly across the beam, He delved into his inner mind, sensing everything that was around him. He strained his ears and took a deep breath through his nose and smelt as much of the surrounding timber as possible. Slowly but surely the increasingly familiar golden threads came forth into his consciousness. Calmly mert was picturing everything within his mind as much as possible, He could see Moya laying there in front of him, surrounded by golden threads, turned his head and could see rubble all around, with the same golden thread albeit a lot less; he looked down to the beam and could sense two golden threads passing back and forth along the length of the timber.
Mert reached out with his mind and using the golden thread that was always within his own mind he used it to connect to the first thread in the beam and then directed it towards the second creating a single connection from his mind through the length of the timber beam. In an instant there was movement, Mert quickly flung his eyes open to see what was happening. He had done it!
Abernacky was in the background whooping with joy, everyone else just stood there amazed that something like that was even possible, despite the fact they had seen it previously it was still a sight to behold.
The large beam had sprouted both a pair of legs and arms, it creaked under the strain and slowly started to lift itself up from the pile of rubble, Mert tried to urge it towards picking up Moya up, however it didn’t have fingers or apendiges, it had rather unhelpful timber stumps; it ended up scrabbling around in the rubbish and achieving very little. Mert using his mental connection moved the timber beast over to one side, where it promptly got a leg stuck amongst the rubble and tumbled down the pile and splashed into the mud below.
However once the beam had been removed it made getting to Moya a lot easier, only smaller rubble was left slightly piled on top of her. Eddie was the first back down into the hole and was throwing pieces of debris in all directions, the rest of the group had to duck as bits of wood and rubble went flying past as he was lobbing it. It wasn’t long before Eddie had cleared it out and gradually he started to lift Moya up and out of what was left of the building, he stumbled as best he could up the bank through the shifting mess and brought her out.
He crouched down upon the debris hovering over her; ever so slightly checking whether she was okay or not.
Moya shoved him away, and he landed directly upon a rather sharp piece of timber, he jumped up with a yelp rubbing his behind cursing. “I was just trying to help you, you ungrateful” he looked and the pair of them stared deep into each others eyes for a moment and Eddie’s sentence drifted off into nothingness. An odd silence settled over the group and shortly Moya lifted herself up, “I’m fine; you bunch of fools bumbling about” though there was an obvious smile on her face. However everyone else felt a bit, put out by the statement.
YOU ARE READING
Skayre
FantasyThe world is in danger, however only one person is aware of it. Attempting to convince people to join him and save the world is the hardest thing he has ever done, can Abernacky manage it.
