Mark of the Ranger

XLII. Oric and Ordinary Days

          Everyone's jaw was hitting the ground. Stone soldiers weren't common. I, personally, had only seen a basic model of one in the Ranger Academy textbooks. The stone soldier rolled its hand to show that it wanted an answer eventually. Isabel shook her head to snap out of her ninth daze of the day, then tried for a name. That was what the stone soldier had asked. "Uh...Thy name shall be Oric," she tried. The stone soldier almost seemed to smile, then gestured for her to continue. "You shall be protecting the Grand Wizardess. Currently, that is me." The stone soldier seemed happy. 

          He stepped up to me next. "My name is Oric," he said. "What is your name?" I responded with my newest nickname, Lion, and it seemed satisfied. The rest of my team introduced themselves, and we were just wrapping up when Jordan burst in, Josie on his tail. "We heard a--" Jordan began, then gasped like a suffocating fish. I guessed that he saw the stone soldier. Josie looked at the stone soldier with a calm expression, then froze solid in shock. Oric waved a hand in front of Josie's eyes after walking up to her, but she didn't respond. Jordan did the exact opposite.

          "Is that a stone soldier?" he nearly screamed, then examined every part of Oric's stone skin. Oric didn't seem to mind, given that it was made of stone, not humanity. "Is that your own idea," the stone soldier responded, "or do you say that because others have told you that is what I am?" Jordan seemed confused, but decided not to say anything. Josie finally broke shock, and simply said nothing as Jordan dragged her away to do something that was probably important. I checked my pocket watch. It was eight o'clock at night. I looked up at the sky, and realized it was covered up by trees.

          "I think it's time we went to rest," I commented, looking back at my pocket watch.  My teammates gave groans of protest, but I disregarded them and went back to the village. Not knowing exactly where to go, I simply sat against a wall. Within an hour, I fell asleep.

          That night, I had the same dream that I couldn't shake. I watched again as Jeff and I turned to stone, Elena was swallowed by a geovore, and the other things I could barely bear to watch. I shook myself awake. When I checked my pocket watch, I saw that it was four o'clock, undoubtedly in the morning. Not wanting to go to sleep and have that horrible dream again, I stood up and went to look for my mask. It was next to the chair I had been tied to in that basement sort of building. Once I had donned my mask, which was still equipped with Lenses of Sight, I found Oric. Its guarding frame was given away by its glowing visor-eye.

          "Good morning, Oric," I said to it. Oric slowly rose its head and nodded, then looked up at the sky. "How can you know?" It asked. "The sky is covered by trees." It pointed up to prove its point.

          "We Rangers just have a sense for these things." Oric seemed to doubt me. I didn't have anything else to say, so I just went looking around the village. There were multiple tree-houses, but I was looking specifically for Commander Jordan. However, I couldn't find him or a house with his name on it. I checked my pocket watch again. It was six o'clock, so it would be any time now before he woke up. As I put my pocket watch back in my pocket, I heard running water and some light, tuneless humming. There was a river nearby, and someone was bathing in it.

          I followed the sound and found that the hum definitely belonged to a man. That was a relief, as I didn't want to walk in on a female. I drew close to the sound and hid behind a tree, respecting the bathing person's privacy. After a few minutes, I heard the person step out, set something down, then get dressed. I also heard straps being fastened, just like the ones on my breastplate. The person walked out from their bathing spot, and I saw it was Commander Jordan. I walked up to him, hoping to startle him. "Good morning, commander," I stated.

          "Oh! Good morning, Ranger. Have you tried bathing in the stream? It's kept warm by fire crystals in the lake that feeds to it. We put them there years ago," Jordan responded. He only seemed mildly surprised, and he pointed upstream when he talked about the lake. I took off my mask, as the stream was lit by sunshine. "No, I haven't tried it yet. Do you have soap?" I asked, continuing the conversation. I thought it would be a great idea to take a bath. I couldn't remember the last time that I had. I must have smelled terrible without even noticing.

          Needless to say, the commander had some soap. I took a bath, gave the soap back, and nothing else interesting happened that day. Oric and Marrow were bored out of their skulls--and skull armor--and Ko and Karen simply took turns throwing knives at trees. Elena shot arrows at scarecrows, and Josie commented on how she was a horrible shot. Nothing interesting happened.

          I went to sleep instantly that night, and had no dream. The universe must have thought that my day wasn't boring enough. I woke up that morning, calmly noticing that we were continuing our journey today, and I probably should have practiced with my lances. Oh, well. I checked my pocket watch for the ninety-fifth time in two days, and it noted that the current time was five forty-five. I yawned, and found my teammates, friends, and general companions(the general companions being Marrow and Oric). Jordan had told his "underlings" that he was to leave today, and Josie had done the same.

          Jordan pointed the way, and we continued the journey.