The Firmament Saga: Book II: The Rivers of Blood

Chapter 3: Into the Wilds

Chapter 3: Into the Wilds (Eri)

Waxday, Week 10, Month Duos, Year of God 489

"Damn!" Lineria Farmer exclaimed, looking around the wooded landscape. "I think we've been here before!" The tall, broad-shouldered young woman ran her fingers through her cropped black hair in frustration.

"This area does look familiar," her companion and friend Lutheril Bootmaker sighed. "The landscape out here is just so sundamn identical that you can hardly tell one tree from the next." Lou was a dark-haired, medium-sized man of the same age as Eri with an impeccably-tended moustache and intelligent, searching eyes. Behind him stood Kane Equus, the group's third member and another close friend of Eri's. He was slightly younger than the other two, but stood a few inches taller than them and boasted a magnificent auburn beard beneath his hard, deep eyes.

They had been traversing the area to the west of the Holy Kingdom for a few days now. After their homes were massacred by the Rain Caste, they had fled into an underground tunnel network that spanned the entire world, and met each other there. They had been used by the ancient people who first came to the planet to help turn it from a lifeless ball of rock into a verdant paradise. The same ancient people had also left behind a valuable treasure - mysterious helmets that gave whoever wore them a vision of the past - specifically, when the entity known as the "God of Rain" that the denizens of the Theocracy worshipped had destroyed the pre-existing civilization. It was no god, in fact - it was merely what the people from the vision-helmets called a "terraforming AI." Its real name was YLD-4, but Eri still referred to it as the God of Rain in her head.This valuable information would serve the heathens, whom they were seeking out, well.

Right, the heathens, Eri thought, fingering the high-tech helmet on the side of her backpack. The people who lived outside the enclosure of the Theocracy had been battling the influence of the God of Rain for centuries. They apparently all worshipped a goddess called Gaia, who had communicated with Eri and her comrades in a time of dire need. She had granted them the ability to construct warrior-puppets out of earth and stone, which they had used to ward off a deadly threat. Unfortunately, Eri had been unable to replicate that ability - or any other mystical powers - since. She had tired to re-enter that special, mystical place where the Earth Mother had brought them, but it didn't work.

"I need a rest," said Thyrian, the fourth and final member of the group. He was in his thirties but had aged prematurely, his hair already greying. He was a master bootmaker and had been Lou's employer, before taking a debilitating head injury whilst in the tunnels. He had been displaying symptoms of concussion in the two or three weeks since suffering the injury, and the wide, shallow gash in his head, despite being washed and bound regularly, seemed to almost fester. Thyrian had been growing weaker and weaker with each passing day. "My head hurts."

Additionally, he had connection to the heathens. He had lived with the Forest Clan during his adolescence, which was near the territory his group was currently traversing. He alone spoke their language, and if he died, Eri, Lou and Kane would be stuck up Shit Creek without a paddle when it came to diplomacy.

"Good idea," Eri said. "We've been walking for hours."

"This terrain sucks, too," Kane said. "I've never seen so many hills." The terrain in question was a forest unlike any Eri had seen back home. It consisted of hundreds of tiny hills, each topped with a gargantuan pine or deciduous tree and assorted bushes and foliage. In the shallow, narrow gullies between the tree-hills, meandering rivulets of water flowed, seemingly in random directions. The dense canopy of the verdant trees above them caused it to be nearly impossible to see the sky. Even that would have been useless, as the sky was nothing but cloudy, solid grey all day. Apparently, people in the olden days could see the "sun", which moved from east to west across the sky, but neither Eri nor anyone else she knew had ever seen it. It was apparently anathema to rain, and people cursed it regularly.