Tales of Terra #1: Legends of Old

A Trail of Memories

They continued to ride down the dirt road through the forest until they came to a clearing surrounding a pond. Deciding to give their horses a break, they got off to allow them to eat some grass and drink water.
"So... Alredon? Why did you allow me to come along with you?" Klissa asked as they watched their horses.
"I felt like you might know more about the creature that could be useful if it actually exists."
"To be honest, there isn't much to know since most people who see it die." The information she was giving him he already knew and he hoped he wouldn't regret bringing her along. "But I was able to find the name of Octovore, or the Shadow of Death."
Alredon was disappointed, figuring this whole trip was going to be completely pointless.
"Alredon? Why don't you like talking about the Trenchen Fields?"
"It is a very sensitive subject for me," he replied in a serious tone. "I lost many friends and their bodies are most likely still there, right where they fell in battle." Alredon avoided making eye contact with Klissa, not liking that she brought the subject up again.
"I just want to know the truth."
"Sometimes it's better to not know the truth. You could end up being haunted by it in your dreams," Alredon explained, still feeling the mental scars left on him. "Have you heard of the Horsemen?"
"Of course, everyone knows about the five Horsemen of Destruction."
"I saw three of them on those fields."
"Are you serious?" asked Klissa in shock.
There were no accountings of people seeing the Horsemen in person, just that they existed; so Alredon wasn't surprised by her reaction.
"Yes. They were War, Death, and Pestilence. Those three probably killed more on both sides than any one warrior that ever went to the battlefield," Alredon spoke, staring off at the distant treeline. "I saw as Death took the souls of the fallen while the other two either made the strong sick or the weak die out on the front lines."
He recounted how they all arrived on three large black horses, each glowing a different color. Death was blue, War was red, and Pestilence was purple.
His mind flashed back to how he was lying on the edge of a crater in the dead zone between the two warring sides. The bottom had a small pool of blood. Alredon could remember the smell of decay of both humans and Qitarans alike. The ground was scorched black and the few trees that stuck out were as dead as the fallen bodies.
That was when he saw them, the three riders appearing on their steeds, looking out across the entire battlefield. War and Pestilence seemed to enjoy the show while Death sat indifferent, looking at the dead. They all dismounted and walked across the field of corpses, Death absorbing a light blue energy from the bodies she passed. Alredon remembered his heart beating faster as he watched them, his grip tightening around the handle of his swordstaff, not sure what he should do.
"Alredon? Alredon, you okay?" Klissa asked, snapping him back to the present. He looked around at the clearing surrounding them and their horses eating some grass.
"Aye, just remembering things," Alredon responded, getting up and walking over to Asher, preparing to continue on their journey.
"Were you remembering the battle?" Klissa asked with concern, grabbing the reins of her horse.
"The memories of that place haunt my dreams every night," Alredon said, absentmindedly. "I lost too many friends in those fields."
He was confused as to why he said so much to someone he had only known for less than a day.
"I'm sorry if I've asked too many questions."
This apology caught Alredon off guard. Most people just wanted to learn about famous individuals to gain something but this young woman seemed genuinely sorry for asking.
"It's alright. There was a chance you were gonna find out about it eventually," he said as they got onto their horses and crossed the field towards the treeline on the other side.
Eventually they came upon a dirt path and continued down it. Beams of sunlight shone through the small gaps between the leafy branches above their heads.
"How about this? I'll tell you a bit about myself and in return, you do the same later." Alredon felt like he surprised himself as much as he did Klissa with this offer. "Do we have a deal?"
"Aye! So long as it is okay with you, of course," it was interesting to Alredon, since he knew she wanted to know, yet she wanted to make sure to not cross a line.
Alderon wondered why he was willing to tell this woman about his past. There were very few people in the world he had told about his past to. He knew magic wasn't coercing him into doing so as Alredon was trained into sensing such magical abilities. It seemed like he was developing feelings for his new companion but he didn't know why. He had only known her for a small amount of time and yet he was willing to open up to her.
"I grew up on the edge of the feywilds, the ancient and mystical home of the Qitaran race. I wasn't really welcomed by the different Qitarans that dwelled there because I was half human. A half-breed is often hated by their pure blooded kin." As Alredon told his story, he pointed out his short, round tipped ears with his index finger and looked up at the leaves above them. His mind flashed back to how the feywilds looked when he explored them as a child. "That was until one day, when I was exploring the untamed wilderness, I found a young girl looking at a brightly colored flower. I could tell she was of the Validen, the highest of the Qitaran tribes, by the white and gold clothing she wore."
Klissa watched and listened to him quietly.
"I went to talk to her. After showing her where she could find more of those flowers, we became good friends."
"What was her name?" Klissa asked.
"I didn't learn her name until much later. It was Épi, the first born child of the high king of all the Qitaran tribes."
"She was a princess?"
"Aye. A princess who was apparently not only learning how to become the high queen of the feywilds from her father, but also how to use magic from a series of teachers." He smiled as images of her long brown hair and hazel eyes flowed into his mind.
"Really?" Excitement filled Klissa's voice, even though her attempts at hiding it failed. "I've heard it is really hard to learn magic, taking most of a person's life just to master one spell."
"That would be partially true. It depends on both the person and the type of magic they are attempting to learn," Alredon explained. "Those who use magic have to be careful because they can't just use any spell. If they use one that is too powerful, they could just as easily kill themselves as they succeed in casting it."
Based on Klissa's surprised reaction, Alderon figured the books she had read only spoke of the great deeds powerful magic users performed throughout history and not limitations magic users had to work with.
"But why is using magic so dangerous?"
"Because everyone has a certain amount of spiritual energy within them to use in order to cast spells. If you run out, from using either too many spells or one that was too strong, the person would die."
"I know about spiritual energy. I have seen it."
"You have?" This development shocked Alredon since spiritual energy isn't something one can just see like the trees around them. Unless it was one of the times when the spirit fires appeared in the sky, but even those tend to only show in a handful of places including the far north.
"When someone dies, I am able to see their spiritual energy leave their body. It almost looks like a light fire moving from their bodies towards the sky."
"You know where the souls of things go, right?"
"I was told they all go to the spirit fires where they watch over those still alive," she replied. Alredon realized her knowledge must come from books she read not just from her homeland but his as well.
"Is that what you believe?"
"I don't know. I mean I have felt the presence of a loved one nearby but I could never actually see them." He saw her face flicker with pain as if remembering someone she lost.
"Who did you lose?"
"My grandmother. She had lived a long life and had travelled to different parts of the world, even saying she had met a goddess once."
"A goddess?"
"Aye. Tiamat, the goddess of monsters."
"What happened?" Alredon was intrigued since few people had actually met one of the true gods. It was said the true gods were one of the first beings to exist in the world and were responsible for creating different parts of it.
"All she told me was that they talked to each other for a bit before Tiamat vanished."
There were stories of the gods meeting with mortals for a variety of reasons, such as giving them new abilities or providing advice. Alredon's mind traveled back to the Trenchen Fields when he thought he had seen a god.
"You know, one day while me and my allies tried pushing against the human forces, some of us thought we had seen a god but none of us truly knew if it was a god or some powerful magic user thanks to the large clouds of smoke that filled the air above our heads."
"What happened when you saw this supposed god?" Klissa asked, almost seeming to push aside the thoughts of her grandmother and back to learning about Alredon.
"Our commander had us charge into the desolate wasteland between our positions and the positions of the human troops in the hope that we might be able to get to them," Alredon explained as he looked down the road ahead of them. "But we were met with heavy resistance and as some of us were taking cover within a large crater we saw something large fly over us with massive purple and black wings before it slammed into the enemy forces and changed into a person."
"That must've been a terrifying sight," she was looking about, sounding like she was getting nervous from the talk of monstrous beasts.
"Don't know, like I said, all of the smoke prevented us from getting a good look at it and when it was a person they changed their arms into tendril-like blades before they slashed completely through the nearby human troops before disappearing once more," Alredon knew that whoever that person was, they were attacking both sides because he had seen fallen Qitarans with the same kinds of injuries. But no matter how much he tried to find them they would always vanish before he could do anything or even see who they were. He then snapped back to the present and looked at how the sun was starting to get low, telling him that they were going to need to find someplace to sleep for the night.
"This looks like as good a place as any." The both of them came to a small clearing that served as the bank of a good size river.
"Are we really going to be sleeping here?" Klissa asked as they both dismounted their horses before tying them to a nearby tree branch.
"Aye. Is there a problem?" Alredon raised an eyebrow as he took off his gear from Asher's back and set them on the ground. "Don't you have a sleepsack?"
"I do. It's just," she paused as if trying to hide something embarrassing.
"It's just what?"
"I've never slept out in the wilderness. When I was travelling on my own I made sure I would be sleeping inside an inn or something". For some reason this brought a smile to Alredon's face before almost chuckling at his companion. "What?"
"You are going to make me earn whatever coin I get, aren't you?" he asked as he started looking around for some sticks and dried plants to make a fire with.
"What? It's not my fault that I've never slept on dirt!" Klissa responded, almost sounding offended by Alredon's words. "I've only ever really slept in a bed within my family's castle."
"Maybe not, but you're going to have to for tonight. Tomorrow we will be in the town that is supposed to be under attack by your beast." His arms were full of sticks as he walked back to the clearing, dropping them near the middle. Once he created a small pile of dried leaves and grass, he pulled out his flint and steel from one of his pouches. When he started striking them they would create a clank sound as tiny orange sparks flew from them onto the pile.
"You sure you know what you're doing?" Klissa said as she sat on her saddle after setting it on the ground.
"I'd better, my father taught me a few things when it came to surviving in the wilderness and then I learned a few other things while I was at the Fields." Alredon struck his flint and steel several more times before finally igniting the pile of dried plants. As it was smoking he would lightly blow on it creating a small fire before starting to add some of the sticks he collected. Soon enough they had a decent size fire between the two of them.
"Stay here. I'll be right back," he said as he grabbed his quiver of arrows and his bow.
"Where are you going?"
"Going to get us something to eat. Unless you'd like to go to sleep hungry." His response only got her to glare at him as he stood up looking at her from the other side of the fire. "Didn't think so". With that he walked off into the brush, putting an arrow on the string of his bow before he started looking around. As Alredon walked silently through the darkened forest, he was able to hear something small moving nearby. When he slowly crept closer to see what it was, he spotted a couple of rabbits eating from a bush. Alredon knew that he hadn't been discovered yet since his targets weren't on alert yet. While locking his eyes upon one of them he drew the string of his bow back before letting it loose. The arrow flew through the air swiftly and silently before sinking the sharp metal tip through the back of the rabbits head, exiting out its mouth. Before the other rabbit was able to run away, Alredon quickly placed another arrow onto his bow before letting it loose as well, hitting the second rabbit. He went up to the two rabbits and set a hand over both of them.
"Thank you for giving your lives so that I may live and may your souls find their way to the great fires where you may find your ancestors," once he was done he yanked his arrows out of them before he started carrying them back to camp.
"You shot a pair of rabbits?" Klissa exclaimed as she looked at the two dead animals hanging from Alredons hand. He wasn't really able to tell if she was disgusted, angry, or a mixture of the two.
"Is there a problem with that?" he asked as he set them on the ground before pulling his dagger from its sheath.
"You don't just shoot rabbits!"
"Well it was either that or we didn't eat," after he spoke, he sliced through the gut of the first rabbit, just deep enough for him to open it up without puncturing the organs. Klissa covered her mouth with her hand, gagging at the sight of seeing an animal being butchered. Alredon made two piles, one where he would put parts they wouldn't eat and a second with parts they could. After he had fully skinned the rabbit, Alredon quickly moved on to the second, repeating the same process he had done with the first. When he was done, he took the pile of inedible parts in his hand and chucked them into the river.
"What're you doing?"
"Let nature have some of what it lost," Klissa didn't really understand but was soon distracted when Alredon quickly sharpened two sticks.
"What are those for?" But her question was soon answered when Alredon shoved one of the sticks through the rear of the first rabbit until the point came out of its mouth. After doing the same with the second rabbit he set them up with two other sticks that made it so they were hanging over the crackling flames underneath them. As they were both cooking, Alredon sharpened a third stick and started placing the different organs that he had saved onto it before letting them hang over the fire as well. But he was making sure to keep a close eye on them, since they were much smaller than the rabbits he knew they were going to cook faster.
"You want one?" Alredon asked as he took the organs off of the fire, poking some of them with his finger to make sure they were done.
"Um, nay. I'm good," Klissa's face showed heavily with disgust as she stared at the stick of organs.
"You sure? The hearts are nice and tender," he could see on her face that nothing he said was going to change her mind. After shrugging his shoulders he pulled off one of the hearts and popped it into his mouth. As he chewed on the tender meat, Klissa just had a look of disgust as she attempted to keep herself from throwing up. They both sat there in silence as he continued to eat one organ after another, with only the sound of rushing water going through the river and the light wind blowing across their faces. When he was done, he chucked the stick into the river before looking down at the two rabbits over the fire.
"I cannot believe you just ate the organs of two rabbits," Klissa said with disgust in her voice and a look of disapproval in her eyes.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I plan on eating one of the rabbits too." She just continued to glare at him from across the fire, apparently not liking the idea of eating a rabbit. "Do you just not eat meat? Because all meat came from an animal that died."
"I know that! It's just that rabbits are cute and I feel like they shouldn't be eaten." This forced Alredon to start glaring at her for sounding like a child when they needed to eat.
"Would you prefer the Octovore ate you because you didn't have the strength to run away fast enough?" Even though he knew that his tone may have been a bit harsh, he also knew that what he said was true. They both were going to need their strength if they actually ran into something that is dangerous and he didn't want her family coming after him because she got herself killed. While they were waiting for the rabbits to fully cook, Alredon unrolled his sleepsack and laid it out a little bit away from the fire.
"I recommend you get ready to go to sleep as well," Alredon said as he placed his saddle where his head would be when he went to sleep. "After we are done eating we should get some sleep. We'll need to get up early tomorrow so we will have a good day's ride." Klissa didn't respond to what he said except for getting up from her saddle and setting up her own sleepsack in a similar way to Alredon's. When she was done, she laid on top of it while she used the fire light to read one of the books from her side bag.
"So what're you reading about?" he asked as he pulled his sword from its scabbard so he could clean off whatever small bits of dust had collected over the years of being locked away. Its vibrant blue blade gleamed in the fire as he rubbed a small rag that he had gotten from one of his saddle bags.
"The story of Zandar, the conqueror king." Alredon was surprised that she was reading about him. He had heard quite a bit about him for being one of the greatest warriors in history. Zandar was one of the few people to have ruled over almost the entirety of the known world.
"What part are you at?"
"When he marched towards the shimmering glass desert." It was well known that the only place that he hadn't conquered was the shimmering glass desert and of how he was determined to add it to his empire. But when he took his armies to take it from the barbarians he had fallen in battle. Though it was said that he fought against a barbarian war elephant by himself, before he died from his wounds, he managed to see the coastline on the far side of the shimmering glass desert.
"He is one of my favorite people from history because of how he was one of the greatest military minds to ever live."
"He was definitely an impressive conqueror, though his empire probably would've lasted longer if he didn't take almost all of his troops to fight over a desert," Alredon said as he finished wiping his sword and slid it back into its scabbard.
"Maybe he preferred to conquer the last of the known world then to have his kingdom last for hundreds of years." It was an interesting idea to think about since most rulers would prefer to preserve their kingdom instead of risking everything on gambles. But that was also what made Zandar stand out from any other king in history for putting everything he had on the line to reach his ultimate goal.
"If I remember correctly, his tomb has yet to be found, right?"
"Aye. There is not one person alive who knows where he was buried but many people have been trying to find it ever since his kingdom fell."
"What do you think was buried with him?"
"Probably a variety of treasures and maybe a couple of enchanted items since he liked collecting such things." This made Alredon think of what he would've done if he had found his ancestor's swordstaff. He probably would've tried taking it from them one way or another, but he either never found it or knew that everything magically powerful came with heavy costs.
"I'm surprised you are interested in such things. Most of the warriors I've met have mainly wanted to talk about things like weapons and combat."
"Sounds like most of the warriors you've met are either idiots or haven't seen actual combat."
"What makes you say that?" Klissa asked as she marked the place in her that she was at before putting it back within her bag and looking over at Alredon.
"Because if they did see the horrors of warfare then they wouldn't want to talk about it, they'd just want to try and forget all about it," Alredon said as he looked deeply into the fire, past the flames and into the glowing embers underneath. "That's the kind of things they don't put into the stories and songs, how the stench of decay just fill your nostrils as you try to survive the chaos raging across the battlefield."
"Is that really what it is like?"
"Aye, and hope that you never get to go through it yourself." It was from the terrified expression on Klissa's face that told Alredon that she was getting it. The loss of life isn't something that should be celebrated in things like songs and stories like it was in the name of a glorious victory. That's what made him sick of the lords and ladies that had never seen the carnage. They would say that it was a glorious battle and a hard victory won through the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of lives. Though he knew that he wasn't the only one to have such feelings, but it didn't seem to decrease his feelings for the people he fought for.
"Hopefully you will take heed of the words I speak so that when you become the lady of whatever land your home is in, you will do your best to not just send whatever warriors you have into combat unless you have to."
"I will."