Rojuun (9 page)

“I see. Would it be more important for a
bridge to last longer than a city?” Liselle asked.

Tathan looked down a side road. “Yes. A
bridge doesn’t have people cleaning and taking care of it all the
time. Plus it’s harder to cope with a broken bridge than a broken
building.”

“Wow. I never even considered that.” She
looked around some more. “I wish I could meet the people who lived
here. Should we explore?” she suggested hopefully.

“Sure, we can do that,” he agreed. “But we
must be careful when entering buildings. Wild animals may have
moved in. We can set up camp in that building over there.” He
pointed out a moderate-sized building. It had a dome with a few
holes, but looked largely intact.

“That looks good to me,” she agreed.

The large doorway had probably held double
doors at one time, but there was no trace of them now. Inside, it
was dusty and empty with no furniture to give any clue as to what
the building had been used for. They set up the horses in the near
corner and put their camp in the back where the walls and domed
ceiling were still intact. It would protect them from weather
should they wish to stay for any length of time.

After taking care of the horses and camp,
Liselle asked, “Shall we explore now?”

A gravelly, tenor voice came from the
doorway. “Oh yes, I do love exploring!”

Tathan and Liselle spun in alarm.

***

In the doorway was a thin man. His hair was
metallic purple and his skin was cream-color, tinged with more
purple. The leggings and vest he wore were matching purple with
gold filigree. His feet were bare as was his chest underneath the
unclasped vest.

It was immediately clear that he was not
human. His eyes were liquid-silver with no pupils or irises. He had
a wide grin with sharp, intimidating teeth.

But out of all that was odd about this
creature, the fact that he was hopping from one foot to the other
in a funny sort of dance was the strangest. It was a happy dance.
He would hop twice on one foot, then twice on the other foot, and
then he would do a spin, moving his shoulders up and down in time
with some unheard music.

Tathan had his sword out and was standing in
front of Liselle to protect her. “Who and
what
are you,
Stranger?”

“Me? I am . . . Vevin!” he exclaimed, still
doing his happy dance. “Yes! Vevin is my name. Vevin is a good
name, no?” he asked hopefully.

While Tathan stood there staring in
disbelief, Liselle moved out from behind him and gave the newcomer
a big smile. “Vevin is an excellent name. I like it.” She casually
waved her hand in her cousin’s direction as Tathan crouched, ready
to attack. “Don’t mind Tathan. He’s a bit jumpy and we didn’t
expect to find anyone way out here in the middle of the
forest.”

“Yay! I like you.” Vevin waved at Tathan.
“Hi Tathan!” Still doing his dance, he spoke to Liselle, “You’re
nice. And pretty! I didn’t expect anyone out here either!” Vevin
added foot slides to his dance.

“Thank you, Vevin,” Liselle said. “You seem
like a very happy person.”

Vevin leaned forward with an intense look.
“No! I’m not happy at all. He stole my home and hurt me bad!” Vevin
turned his head and showed them a long, deep gash along the left
side of his face from the bottom of his chin to the top of his
head. It looked as though it was beginning to heal, but it was a
very serious wound.

“Oh, Vevin. Who did that to you?” Liselle
moved forward with a hand raised to touch it. It made Tathan
nervous.

Vevin shrank back. “Him! He’s bad and he
stole my home and I can’t say his name or he might find me and kill
me!” The dance changed to a frightened shuffle. Vevin hunched his
shoulders together and began moving back and forth like a
snake.

Liselle made calming gestures. “It’s
alright, Vevin. We won’t say his name. He’s very bad if he did that
to you and stole your home.”

“Yes! Very bad!” Vevin went back to doing
the original happy dance. A wide, toothsome smile filled his face,
marred by the wound. “Do we get to go explore now?”

Liselle could tell that there was something
off about this person. She wondered if perhaps the wound on the
side of his head had damaged his mind. “Yes, Vevin. We can go
explore now.” She turned to her cousin. “Can’t we Tathan?”

Tathan said nothing, just continued to
crouch with his sword at the ready.

Liselle walked to Vevin. “Oh, I’m sure he’ll
follow. Let’s go explore.” She linked her arm in Vevin’s elbow.

Vevin went eagerly with Liselle,
occasionally doing a little hop or dance. “Let’s investigate the
building with the cave first! Maybe I can use that as my new home!”
Vevin pointed at a building to the east, the largest structure
standing.

It was three floors tall, with remains of a
domed roof. The cream-colored, stone walls of the upper floor were
collapsing. “That looks like a good place to start,” Liselle
agreed. It was early afternoon, giving them a fair amount of time
to explore.

Tathan followed them, studying the stranger.
His black blade seemed to suck light out of the air. It made
Liselle shiver. Turning back to Vevin, she asked, “You said you
were looking for a new home?”

“Oh yes! I need a new home. He took my old
home, so I need a new home,” Vevin said.

Liselle liked his voice. It resonated
through her bones. His scent was earthy, with a hint of lightning.
“Wouldn’t you rather have a home where there were more people,
Vevin?”

“No. I like quiet places. I need someplace
to keep treasure,” he explained.

“Treasure?” Liselle asked.

“He took my treasure too. I didn’t have
much, but he took it.” Vevin’s dance moved back to the darker
shuffle. “He took everything and hurt me. I need a new home.”

“Alright, so we need to get you a new home.
That way you have someplace to put your treasure,” she summed it
up. “Are you going to get it back from the person who took it from
you?”

Vevin shrank and the liquid-silver of his
eyes rippled in what Liselle guessed was fear. “No! He’s not a
person. He’s dangerous and I’m not going to try to get my treasure
back.” Abruptly, he went back to the happy dance as the cousins
stared at him. “I’m going to get new treasure as soon as I find a
home to put it in.” Vevin was avoiding the subject of whatever hurt
him.

“Well, that sounds like an excellent plan.”
Liselle began walking toward the building again as Vevin did his
little dance. When he saw her walking, he took a single leap to her
side, bigger than any normal person could have made. Liselle looked
back at Tathan to see that his eyes were wide once more.

A moment later, they reached the ruin. Its
architecture was that of a church. Remains of statues lining the
walls had the trappings of priestly orders. Crumbling remnants of
fountains lined either side of the walkway to the main doors. It
must have been a magnificent sight to behold once upon a time.

Vevin peered into the dark beyond the large
doorway. “Oh, it’s nice in there! I like it a lot. I can see there
are rooms and even caves underneath. We should definitely explore
them!”

“Rooms and caves underneath?” Liselle
couldn’t see much beyond the doorway.

“Oh yes. There’s dormant magic down there
and some sort of being. It should be interesting,” he said, smiling
as he headed into the building.

“Some sort of being?” she asked. When he
didn’t respond, she followed him into the building.

Chapter
9

Tathan watched them walk into the building.
In all his travels, he had never seen anything like Vevin. Vevin’s
leap to Liselle was further than Tathan had ever seen anyone jump.
Whatever the creature was, it was not human. Liselle seemed to
trust it, but she was naïve. It could be leading them into a
trap.

The way the creature acted was odd too. It
kept dancing while talking about someone who had hurt it before
stealing its home and treasure. The wound on the side of its face
looked severe. Tathan had seen lesser wounds that had killed
people. All of it added up to trouble in Tathan’s eyes.

The worst part was that he had a sneaking
suspicion he wouldn’t be able to overcome the creature should it
become violent. Vevin was more dangerous than almost anything
Tathan had come across, though he couldn’t tell exactly how.

He followed them into the vacant building,
ducking along the wall after entering the doorway. A small blue
flame appeared from Liselle’s hand. She lifted it into the air and
let it float above them as they looked around the room. Tathan
sighed. Announcing they were there by tossing a light up in the air
was not the way he did things. He continued moving along the walls,
ready to flank anything that might attack.

It was a large room with chambers on the
sides. Cracks lined the ceiling and walls. A fallen altar, broken
into five pieces, stood at the end of the rubble-strewn aisle. The
remains of a fallen statue rested behind the altar. Two crumbling
fountains, similar to the ones outside, were on either side of the
aisle. At one time, it would have been beautiful.

“Which way should we go?” Liselle asked
Vevin. They had their arms linked and the creature was looking at
her with that sharp grin.

“Oh my! Which way indeed? This is so much
fun. Let’s find a way down!” Vevin pointed to large stairs on
either side of the room. The staircase on the left was caved in.
However, the stairs on the right side still looked to be
intact.

Liselle began walking to those. “Alright,
down it is. Let’s see what we can find.”

“Oh yes. I hope we find the caves
underneath!” Vevin said with another hop. “We need to remember to
look for someplace to put treasure too.”

“We’ll definitely look for someplace to put
treasure.” Liselle agreed.

“Oh wonderful! You are my favorite person
ever!” Vevin stopped for a moment. “I’ve never met a person before.
You’re my first person ever! Yay!”

Liselle laughed, “Yay! That’s wonderful.
You’re my favorite . . .” she trailed off, hoping he would finish
the sentence. He just stared at her with a toothy smile. “. . .
Vevin. You’re my favorite Vevin,” she finished.

He added a skip to the dance. “Oh, that’s so
wonderful. I always wanted to be someone’s favorite Vevin!”

Tathan shook his head at the exchange. There
was something seriously wrong with the creature. He continued to
scan the room looking for danger as he followed them to the stairs.
“Let me go down first.”

Liselle’s ghostly flame illuminated the
landing as Tathan entered the gloom below. He knew appearances
didn’t always matter when exploring, but it truly felt
abandoned.

The level below had hallways and rooms,
which appeared as though they might be quarters for the long-gone
priests. Tathan used a gesture and a word to light his own yellow
flame.

Vevin looked at Tathan’s flame as he came
downstairs. “Why do you light flames? Are you cold?”

“We need them to see by, not for warmth,”
Liselle said.

“Oh! You can’t see in the dark? How
extraordinary.” Vevin flicked his hand into the air and tossed a
purple flame to go with the blue and yellow. “There you are. That
should help.” Liselle had cast her blue flame easier than Tathan
had ever seen anyone cast a flame spell, but the ease with which
Vevin had casually flicked his purple flame made Liselle’s casting
seem labored.

“That’s wonderful, Vevin! Thank you.”
Liselle gave him a hug, which made him very happy.

Tathan moved through the hallways, peering
into each doorway. Liselle and Vevin exchanged glances, shrugging
at his behavior. Tathan saw the exchange and didn’t care. He had
stayed alive this long for a reason.

They came to a large room that might have
functioned as a dining room. The remains of a barren kitchen nearby
lent credence to the belief. A large spider the height of Tathan’s
knees skittered away at their flames. Tathan looked around to make
sure there wasn’t a nest.

“There’s nothing interesting here. Let’s go
further down,” Vevin said. Tathan turned to look at him and
discovered the creature was doing another dance. Vevin hopped on
one foot twice while his other leg was stretched to the side. Then
he hopped on the other foot, while stretching the original leg out
to the side. Then he would do a shuffle each way. The entire time,
Vevin had a wide grin on his face.

“I don’t trust you, Vevin, if that’s even
your name. I think you’re leading us into a trap,” Tathan said.

Vevin stopped dancing. With a hurt look, the
creature hung his head.

“Tathan!” Liselle scolded. “I know you jump
at shadows, but I’m telling you that he’s not leading us into a
trap!”

“How do you know that, Cousin? You’ve never
been out of the Valley,” Tathan accused. “People will trick you,
betray you and lead you into traps all the time!”

Tathan crouched with sword ready in his hand
and teeth bared. He saw them both step back with fear in their
eyes. Vevin’s eyes rippled as they had when talking about the
monster that had hurt him.

It wasn’t Tathan’s intention to frighten his
cousin and he was surprised at what seemed like genuine fear from
the creature. “How can you be so sure, Liselle?”

There were tears welling in her eyes. “I
don’t know how, Cousin, but I know.” Taking a deep breath to gain
control of her emotions, she wiped her eyes. “I don’t know what
terrible things have happened to you. Perhaps someday you’ll tell
me of your travels, but you can’t keep pointing your sword at me.”
She stepped forward and pushed his sword aside with fingertips.
Then she reached out and wrapped her arms around his shoulders in a
hug.

He stood there in shock for a moment. When
she continued to hold onto him, he broke down and began to cry on
her shoulder. He didn’t even know why he was crying. It could have
been the death of his family, or the stress of his journeys and all
of the times he had been afraid in his past.