Authors: Stephen Zimmer
Even so, their trust was now placed with a man whom they knew very little about, in a world that they knew even less about. For four people who were not from a world that was very oriented towards trusting strangers, it was a very uneasy and burdensome predicament to be caught within. Lee could not deny that such a reality did not sit entirely well within his own heart.
Ryan paced back and forth anxiously, while Lynn and Erin sat quietly nearby on stools, with pensive expressions on their faces. All cast periodic glances at the Jaghuns, exhibiting a sustained wariness towards the woodman’s formidable creatures. Lee kept to his place near the bottom rung of the staircase, leaning up against the wall as he regarded his companions, and the Jaghuns.
It could not be denied that they were all effectively prisoners of the new world, especially relating to the situation immediately at hand. Lee felt ill prepared for what was rapidly descending upon them, and knew that his three companions were faring little better as they struggled with their own inner turmoil.
After several ponderous, uncomfortably silent moments, Lee finally straightened up and meandered slowly over towards the broad door on the back wall of the dwelling. He looked at it carefully, taking in its crafting and texture. There was very little that was special about the door. It was just a plain wooden door, constructed of rough-surfaced planks, with an additional wooden plank that was used to bar it shut from the inside.
His thoughts and curiosities were fully directed to what lay just beyond the door. Lee had an instinctive feeling in his gut that they would all be crossing through that doorway soon enough. It was better to expect the worst, if only because it was a much more honest and likely expectation.
If an invading army was moving through the woodlands, Lee did not see how it could fail to find Gunther’s dwelling. He knew that Gunther certainly did not intend to greet the invaders or parley with them.
“So what is going on here? Are we just going to sit around and wait to be killed?” Erin complained, fear thickly present in her edgy voice. “This is just a trap, and all of you know it. Isn’t it, Lee?”
Her gaze was now riveted upon Lee, as he stood before the mysterious doorway. Ryan and Lynn looked up as they awaited Lee’s reply.
Deep in a serious train of thought of his own, Lee reflexively flinched at the rather curt inquiry.
“What do you mean?” he asked, as he turned to look at her.
“You heard what he said. There’s an army outside in those woods, one large enough to cause him to pull in all of his precious beasts. I suppose he can make his buildings invisible too,” Erin said derisively. “And he wants us to go through that door, maybe by ourselves, and seek help from some kind of creatures that we don’t know the first thing about. I think it is incredibly stupid. What happens if these … Stone Hides … Unguhur … whatever they are … do not believe we are friends of Gunther? Then what, Lee? Think they are going to be enthused about a bunch of strangers, especially if they suspect something amiss?”
“Can you be so sure of anything, anywhere around here?” Lee posed to her, exasperated by her continually obstinate manner. The lines of his face tightened with the tension that coiled tightly within him. “We’ve seen no reason not to trust Gunther. He knows a lot more about this world than we do, and you know damn well that he and his Jaghuns saved our own hides … which definitely aren’t made of stone, Erin. We don’t have many options, and no good ones that I can see. I think we should listen to him, and risk a little trust in this case.”
His sharp response clearly caught Erin off guard. Her mouth started to open, and then tightened in a mien filled with petulance. Lee had no illusions that she was barely withholding a strident retort that was perched upon her lips.
“No, there are no guarantees” she said at last, with some manifest reservation. Her voice then became firmer, as her eyes narrowed with a hint of defiance. “But the odds are a lot better when an army is not breathing down your back.”
Lee nodded in full agreement. “I don’t argue that, Erin. I’m sure none of us do. But still, we have to adjust as things happen. We must react. I’ve said what I think, so let me ask you, what options do we have? Running around on the surface through the woods? Do you really think we would last very long?”
She glared at Lee, and remained fixed in silence.
“We wouldn’t do so well, and I think we all know that,” Lee pressed.
Erin turned her face away from Lee, but not before he saw a sullen expression weighing down heavily upon it. She then shot Lee a thorny glance. “No, so I guess that we are just screwed … and I’m just being realistic, you know. I think we all know that.”
Her last words dripped with mockery and scorn. She turned away on the wooden stool, her back now squarely facing him and the others. Lee watched her for a few seconds, both mystified and disgusted with her churlish attitude, before finally letting his eyes drift back to the others.
“Am I wrong?” Lee asked them a little plaintively.
Lynn shook her head, before answering him in a voice laden with the onerous weight of full resignation. “No. Just a lot of things going on right now. The shock of being here is wearing off, too, and I’m finding myself thinking a lot more about my friends and my family, and the life we were all taken from. It has been troubling enough for me without all of those concerns starting in on me. And now, those worries certainly are making their presence known.”
“No kidding,” Ryan added. “I was just wondering what Antoine might be thinking, about where I am, where I’ve gone. And I really wonder if I am ever going to see him again. Can’t let myself have much hope now. What would be the sense in that, given all this surrounding us? Don’t even really know anything anymore. So what’s the use?”
The teenager looked away, and Lee did not have to go any closer to know that the young male’s eyes were now moist and reddening.
A lump rose in Lee’s own throat, as he thought of his elderly mother, the beloved woman who he had always been near to attend to. He thought of the brothers and sisters he was now separated from, perhaps irrevocably. The small restaurant that represented his life work, refuge, and savings could not be forgotten either.
It was almost as if all of his former life had just been a dream, all ephemeral images of the mind, with nothing of it accessible anymore. Were it not for the three people currently in the room with him, he might well have begun to sincerely doubt the reality of his memories.
Nonetheless, he kept his stronger emotions tucked deeper inside of him. He could see that Ryan and Erin were not all that far from a breaking point. Both were grasping for answers, and even if it was little more than a façade Lee had to act as if he had some bearings.
Lee could not see past the stoic demeanor that Lynn had been presenting, to see how close or how far she was from sharing their disposition. Lee was not about to assume anything in regards to her. Yet no matter whether or not the strain of everything had her at a breaking point, Lynn was absolutely right about what was beginning to happen to all of them.
The anxiety and pace of the initial hours following their stunning appearance within the new world was finally dissipating. They were all starting to get acclimated to the new world, at least enough that their minds were starting to drift back more and more to the world that they had been so shockingly taken away from.
Looming before them was a strenuous test of character, one that exceeded anything that they could ever have known. Every member of their families had been removed from their world, and every friend, and every familiar surrounding. Everything that they had come to know since the day they had been born was entirely gone.
All that they had left of their own world was each other. This overbearing climate of great loss was coupled with the daunting task of picking up the pieces of their lives and somehow finding new things to hold on to. It was imperative that they find new goals to drive them ahead, a step at a time.
In a way, Lee recognized that the cruelest aspect of their shared predicament was their very memories, but he also knew that he would not have it any other way. They might not ever find their way back to their own world. Yet just as the memories of loved ones that had passed away stayed with him, so did those of all of the people from his former world.
With both groups, those living and those who had passed away, Lee refused to deny that he would someday, and somehow, find a way to reunite with all of them. It was a very considerable element of what gave meaning to anything good that he had ever experienced in life.
Lynn was the nearest one of the other three in proximity to Lee. He took a couple of steps over to her, and placed his hands gently upon her shoulders as he smiled down at her.
She looked up to him, and though she did not smile, he could see the beginnings of a filial affection reflected in her face. Even though it was nascent, the sight encourged him greatly.
He said softly, and reassuringly, to her, “There is one thing, Lynn … Ryan … Erin … We still have us.”
Quietly, he turned away from Lynn after lightly stroking her upper back. Walking over to Ryan, he put his right arm around the young man’s shoulders and gave the youth a firm hug. After holding the embrace for a second, he patted the young man firmly on the right shoulder, no words needing to be said.
He then made his way over to where Erin was still sitting with her back facing him. She twitched as his hands touched her shoulders, as if about to recoil, though she did not resist as he went on to reach around her, and hug her from behind.
“Hang in there,” he whispered into her ear. “Way too early to lose hope, Erin. Let’s keep fighting.”
As if he had broken down some sort of barricade, she abruptly turned in his arms. A glimpse at her face showed that her hardened demeanor had melted.
She wrapped her own arms around Lee and buried her face intently into the middle of his chest. He could feel her body shake as she quietly sobbed, grasping him tightly as if she was afraid that if she were to let go, he might well disappear from her life as well.
In that moment, he came to a momentous realization that required its own considerable degree of resolve. In his heart, he made a silent and sincere commitment to his three suffering companions.
He shared their fears, and shared their growing sadness, but he knew that he now had to be stronger than he had ever been in his whole life.
Lee had never been married, nor ever been a father before, but he sensed that he had, in a way, just gained three new family members within the last few moments.
*
Dragol
*
The huge form of Tragan loomed like a mountainous shadow within the dark confines of the central command tent. Sparse glints of light reflected off of his eyes from the couple of small torches set within the enclosed space. Though smoke escaped through the hole in the upper center of the tent, a haze now encompassed the relatively small space.
Dragol and Goras stood silently before him, their eyes lowered and heads tilted in respect before the high commander of the Unifier’s sky warriors. Only Framorg himself, the legendary figure from the Mountain Bear Clan who had been chosen to be the overall War Chieftain of the Trogens, outranked the large Trogen standing before them.
They sensed that the monotony of the sky patrols was about to break, for they had been summoned firmly, urged to return with great haste. It was evident that Tragan was still boiling over the debacle in the skies over the Five Realms, and the loss of so many fine Trogen warriors.
Tragan had been venting about the matter ever since Dragol had been conducted into the tent. Tragan was still filled with resentment that the Darroks were being crewed entirely by Trogens in the first instance.
As Tragan explained it, the Avanorans wished to avail themselves of the far greater strength and stamina of the race of Trogens in comparison to men. The undeniable physical advantages of the Trogens had been a major part of the reason that had compelled the Unifier to use them in the task of manning the Darrok carriages.
Trogens were far more adept at jettisoning the great stores of large stones within the carriages affixed to the creatures’ backs, both in terms of endurance as well as the girth of individual missiles. Enabling larger stones to be selected increased the destruction that could be levied upon the enemy. The average Trogen was able to lift up rocks of such size that two humans cooperating could barely carry.
Avanorans were also relative newcomers to the use of Harraks and the environment of the upper skies, having only adopted them at the Unifier’s insistence, once He had come to power. It was true that Harraks had been imported to Avalos, and that a new population was being bred. It was also true that a new force ridden by Avanorans had been established, and that large numbers of human warriors were even now being trained.
Even so, as a whole, Trogens were still far more prepared and comfortable when undergoing the sensations of flight. The Trogen propensity for enduring physical hardship, and being able to withstand the highest altitudes far easier than humans, had sealed the choice of who would accompany the Darroks as their attendant crews. That choice had now been sorely abused, as the overconfident human Viscount Adhemar had left them so vulnerable.
Tragan’s face had clouded with the blackest of rages as he had described in visceral terms what he would do to the viscount if he ever encountered the Avanoran. Dragol knew that it was best that the viscount remain in Avanor, as he literally would be torn limb from limb if Tragan ever got the man in his grasp.
Finally Tragan proceeded to the reasons for his summons of the two Trogen chieftains. As Dragol and Goras had perceived, their summons to Tragan’s tent involved the changes that would be taking place in the wake of the debacle with the first Darrok raid.
For Goras, Tragan’s wishes were not all that disruptive. Dragol, on the other hand, had to fight against mixed emotions churning within, as he listened to the orders from Tragan. A part of him was firmly bound to duty, and well pleased that the viscount’s error in judgment on the first raid was being resolved with Trogen self-determination. Another part of him met the words of Tragan with chagrin, as he did not wish to be separated from Goras, and the other Trogens in Saxany, so close to the great battle.