OMEGA - Sorcerers

Death

For a moment Natan was amazed at the breathtaking view as he died. The world is too beautiful to leave.

The evening wind caressed the grass of the wide valley to his left. On the other side, the green turned into black volcanic rock and swung up to a high volcanic cone. Up there the rocks hid his secret.
The light of the setting sun coloured the rising clouds of smoke almost like red blood. At the bottom of the valley, a trickle of water meandered through the fertile volcanic soil. Cows grazed peacefully.

He tugged at the straps that tied his hands and feet to a thick branch. Useless. They just cut deeper into the skin. He moaned. The pain. His body rocked in the air, ten feet above the ground. Blood was dripping from open wounds into the dust beneath him.

My family! Where are my children, my wife? What did those bastards do to them?
Natan clenched his fists. Gritting his teeth, he swore revenge on the bandits who had abused his hospitality. They had eaten his bread, drunk his water and then knocked him down.

Why had they hung him naked from the tree outside his house?
Never mind. Natan smiled. In a few moments he would be free. A rumbling, crashing and cursing came from the house.
Robbers and thieves. Wait for my revenge!
A furtive movement at the corner of the house caught his attention. Eran! His son had escaped. Eran looked at him questioningly. Then one of the bandits dragged an armful of cowhides out of the house.
Natan shook his head. He would find a way to free himself. The safety of his family came first. Eran gave him an encouraging look and disappeared.

Natan bit his tongue until he tasted the blood in his mouth. He tensed his neck muscles and spat the blood-saliva mixture on the leather straps that bound his hands. He squeezed the air from his lungs.
One more time. His breath went whistling. He coughed.
A grey veil fell across the world. With each exhalation the mist grew thicker. Everything around him came closer. The bandits turned into shimmering green shapes. The walls of the house seemed to become transparent. Natan strove deeper into the gray.
Now. The call.„Come" His mental call made its way through the fog as a thin thread. „Come." They came. Colored spots buzzed in, swirling around him. A green blob floated before his eyes. 

You have a job for me?, a voice sounded.
Whispering, he gave the order: „Free my hands and tie up the three men who are robbing my house".
For how long?
„For one day" Natan waited. The creature should have followed the blood and entered the ropes. But nothing happened.
Your blood covers only living things or is too far away. I cannot help you. The blob disappeared. The familiar surroundings returned.
„Wait!" Something was wrong. He felt his blood on the shackles. Like a signal fire, it glowed right in front of him. Why didn't the creature enter the straps?
Moaning, he raised his head to look at the leather shackles: freshly cut cowhide. The shreds of meat hanging from it had not yet begun to smell. In a few days at the earliest a spell, or whatever the ancestors called it, would work on them.
That was no accident. Those men knew about his ability. They knew the limits: The beings from the gray never entered anything living.

I can't break free! In panic, he jerked and pulled the straps. He moaned in pain. His life force dripped from the cuts onto the ground and trickled away.

The bandits piled up valuables in a pile in front of the house. Hooves rattled on the way from the valley. Natan, who could no longer feel his hands and feet, jumped out of his twilight state. He knew the rider. His nephew Rigan.
„Bandits!" croaked Natan. „Bandits!" he tried to warn him.
But Rigan rode calmly until he was just below the branch where Natan was hanging.
„Natan, Natan. That was completely unnecessary. All you had to do was tell me the secret of your sorcery." He turned to the three men. „Do you have his notes?"
The giant who knocked Nathan down pointed to a pile of parchments and scrolls. „That is all. What it says, I do not know."
„The family?"
„Locked in the basement."
„Do you have his amulet?"
„Yes. But it's shiny. You said we could keep all his valuables."
„It's worthless. Give it to me!" Reluctantly, the bandit pulled out a coin-shaped piece of metal on a chain.
Rigan held it up and spat on it. „That is what I think of your ancestors, Natan. Your constant babbling about them was annoying. No one will ever be interested in them, and their moon metal is useless."
If he only knew! I saw the remains. His heart began to beat with excitement as he thought of the find behind the volcanic rocks: arm-length shredded plates of the indestructible moon metal, thousands of colorful metal threads and records on a strangely smooth material.
The ancestors showed me the way into the grey. Good thing I left the records there.