Marin, Book 1 (The Xortha Chronicles)

Chapter 16: Into The Mountains

Marin

Chapter 16: Into The Mountains

Marin had been on the road three days since leaving Northwatch Hold and her rations had run out. Thankfully, she was able to stop here and there to let Socks graze a little while they traveled. Marin was heading east and she could see mountains in the distance ahead of her. She wondered if she would come to any towns before she reached them. There had been a little traffic on the road since yesterday and no one was willing to give information about what lay on the road ahead.

The road began winding up into the mountains and in places there were rocks littering the road where they had fallen from the cliffs above. Marin hoped none of them would make Socks twist an ankle. Marin rode for an hour and came upon a sign: "Thalrin's Pass" She kept going and soon came to a town nestled in a valley. All of the buildings were little better than log cabins, but there were enough of them to call this a village.

Marin dismounted and led Socks around the village looking for something resembling a general store and found Bartle's Trading Post. Inside was a man of average height with short dark hair and a thick mustache.

"Howdy!" said the man. "What can I get for you today?"

Marin gave the man her list. "And I'd like a tent that's big enough to stand up in. My current tent; I have to crawl to get into it."

The man gave a little chuckle, "I got just whatcha need." He went into a back room then returned with a large roll of canvas and poles, wrapped around by a rope. "This'll sleep four people, five if yer all friendly, and you can stand up and stretch in the mornin' if ya want."

Marin thanked the man as he helped her take everything outside. She filled her saddle bags with the provisions for herself and Socks, then tied the tent and two twenty-pace lengths of rope to the saddle. Poor Socks looked overloaded with all that stuff on her. Maybe she should get a pack mule, thought Marin.

At the far end of town, people were gathering around a wagon. A few men in armor were trying to push their way through the crowd. Marin went over to see what the commotion was and discovered the wagon had carried the mangled bodies of two men. There was a murmur in the crowd, "Was it a yeti?" and "Could there be a dragon up here?" seemed to work its way around the throng. A guard with a man in a leather apron approached the back of the wagon; the man in the apron measured the bodies with some string.

"I already have a few coffins they'll fit in," said the man in the apron whom Marin realized was the local carpenter. "I'll bring them out." and he left.

Marin asked one of the armored men, "What happened to these two men?"

"They were mining under a cliff one league south of here," said the guard, "One man's wife hadn't seen him in days and asked the marshal to send someone out to look for her missing husband, and this is what we found." he pointed to the bodies. "This isn't the first time we've found bodies in this condition."

Marin looked them over and noticed bite marks that looked too big for wolves, and their arms and legs were bent at odd angles. Whatever did this was fairly big. "I might be able to track down what did this," said Marin.

The guard looked at her for a moment, "Do you see what these men look like? These mountains are no place for a young girl to go traipsing around in!"

Marin smirked, "I'm a battle mage from ShinTzu. There is more to me than what you can see here."

Mockingly, the guard said, "Oh, is that so? Well Ms Battle Mage, take the south road out of town and you will come to a valley, There are several caves in the cliffs there. I'll give you until tomorrow before I come looking for your remains." He gave a mocking bow, then turned and walked away.

"Men," said Marin as she mounted on Socks. She turned down the south road and followed it as the guard had said. Marin came to the valley and started looking for the caves which she found on the east side.

"I should probably go to each one and have a look," Marin said to herself. She dismounted and led Socks up the eastern slope and approached the cave from the north side and peeked in. Marin couldn't see very far in and didn't smell anything that might indicate something living there. She was about to walk on but said, "I better check anyway." Marin dropped Socks' reigns and went inside the cave. After a few paces she cast Glow and lit up the cave. Nothing here but dirt and gravel on the floor and some paintings on a wall that looked like some stick people hunting. She left and went to the next cave on the slope. After a good search she found nothing.

Marin searched six more caves, all empty, and then came to one that stank of filth. "Something lives here," she said to herself, "I wonder if they're home?" Marin went in casting Glow as before and she came upon a large, hairy, man-like creature setting on the ground eating something that might have been a deer.

The creature looked up at the light and stood up. It must have been three paces tall! It roared and charged at Marin.

Marin cast Lightning Bolt and it struck the creature on the chest and its hair burned. The creature yelled and ran faster. Then Marin cast Flame Tongue and it burned a hole right through the midriff of the man-thing and it fell to the ground in a heap. There was no blood. It seemed the fire spell cauterized the wound.

Marin searched the cave to see if there were anymore of the creatures but found none. She did, however, find an old backpack that she guessed belonged to an unsuspecting traveler. Marin picked up the backpack and went back to where the man-thing lay. She took out her dagger and cut off the creature's head and then tied it to Socks and they walked back to Thalrin's Pass.

Marin found the marshal's cabin and went in telling the marshal her story. "I have the creature's head on my horse so you can come see that I really did kill it." said Marin.

The marshal went outside and looked on in surprise. "It was a yeti all the long! Folks were sayin' maybe it's a dragon come to eat us all alive!" He turned and beckoned Marin to follow him back inside where he took a coin purse from a trunk. "We didn't have a reward posted for that thing but I'll give you this." He handed the pouch to Marin which contained twenty two gold, eighteen silver, and thirty nine copper coins.

Marin didn't complain. It was more than she got from Northwatch and for a fraction of the effort. She thanked the marshal and left. Someone had hauled off the yeti's head which Marin was thankful for.

Marin and Socks got back on the road east and left Thalrin's Pass behind them. A nice place to visit but she wouldn't want to live there. Marin stopped for the night and set up her new tent. It was as big as the man had said and she didn't have to crawl anywhere just to sleep.

Once inside her tent, Marin opened the backpack she had found. In it was a black robe, two books, both leather bound and one with vellum pages, and a small coin pouch. The coin didn't total up to ten gold but she was more interested in the books. The book with paper pages was a journal describing someones travels in the area with a lot of detail given to the many flowers they had found. The vellum page book had some basic spells, ones she already knew, and an enchantment that made animals talk.

"Well, at least I got some coin, I guess," said Marin with a sigh, she thought the books might be worth something to a library but she had no use for them.