The Land: Founding (Chaos Seeds Book 1) (4 page)

Richter was led around the tall
golden grass surrounding the Hearth Tree. It was made perfectly clear that he
was not allowed any closer to the sprites’ home. He was told that the wolves
had been attacking other animals with abandon. They were even not eating much
of the animals except for perhaps a few bites. It meant the wolves were killing
for sport. Also they had been ranging downriver, closer to the Hearth Tree than
they normally did. Though none of the sprites had been killed yet, apparently
there had been some close calls. Looking to his right, he spied the taciturn
wood sprite that had led him to the Hearth Tree. He found out his name was
Sion. Even though he no longer aimed an arrow at him, Richter could feel the
animosity radiating in the sprite’s gaze. The Hearth Mother had sent the small
man to accompany him on his quest. Sion had not been pleased with the order.

After walking for half an hour, he
attempted to engage the sprite in conversation.

“So what can you tell me about the
forest?”

“That it’s much more likely we will
be eaten if you make a bunch of irritating noise asking idle questions,” Sion
answered. His gaze never even wandering in Richter’s direction, he continued to
scan the trees.

Having had just about enough of this
green clad munchkin, Richter replied, “I didn’t mean to invade your territory.
I was just hunting in the woods, and if you don’t want to be here why don’t you
just go back and tell Hisako that you don’t want to accompany me?”

“We do not bicker and argue like
humans. We do not question the wisdom of our leaders, and by knowing of our
place, we serve the Spirit of the Forest. I would not bring dishonor upon
myself by saying that it’s absolutely ridiculous that we need a smelly stomper
like yourself to help us, especially when I can’t reliably determine the
difference from when he has spoken or broken wind.” Sion paused for a moment,
“I would never utter such words.”

This speech, which comprised probably
75% of the all the words Sion had spoken since meeting him, was delivered in
the same disinterested tone as those Geek Squad douches who recommended a
customer plug the laptop in to fix the fact that it wouldn’t turn on anymore.
(Speaking as former Genius Bar employee… those guys are the worst! Who needs to
wear a uniform to install Windows?)

Richter simply ground his teeth as he
stomped forward before saying under his breath, “No one told me those blue
berries made you toot.”

Continuing to move forward, it was
about another hour before Sion raised his hand silently. Making eye contact, he
motioned to a tree up in front of them to the left. Nocking an arrow, Richter
slowly stepped forward, walking through the trees as silently as he could. As
he passed a lichen covered boulder, he saw the wolf. Its head was down as it
greedily tore into what looked to be a rabbit. It was a mangy thing, brown and
dusky gray in patches. On its side was an area bare of hair, giving the
appearance of having been gnawed away. It would reach to almost waist height if
it was standing straight up. He could see its ribs silhouetted against its
skin.

Slowing his breathing, he released
the arrow with his exhale and struck the wolf its haunch. It immediately
dropped the rabbit with a yelp and turned its eyes towards him, teeth bared.
Richter saw its blood shot eyes and foaming mouth, and knew he had discovered
the reason for the wolves leaving their normal hunting grounds. They were
rabid! All such deductive thoughts fled his mind however, as it launched itself
at him, seeming to cover the twenty yards in a blink. Reacting instinctively he
dove to the left barely missing the wolf’s lunge. He fell sprawling, arrows
falling out of his quiver and over his shoulder. Knowing he had bare moments before
feeling the wolf’s teeth sink into him, he drew his dagger and rolled over. He
had barely turned when the wolf was upon him, lunging for his throat. Shoving
his forearm against the wolf’s throat he attempted to stab it with the knife in
his other hand, but the blade stopped on the wolf’s ribs, barely penetrating.
The wolf strained again, the fangs now mere inches from his face. Flecks of the
wolf’s slobber fell upon his face, mixed with gobbets of flesh from the animal
it had been eating. It strained against his forearm to get close enough to sink
its teeth into Richter’s throat and end his life.

 Screaming in horror and anger,
Richter adjusted the angle of the knife in his hands and stabbed it into the
wolf on top of him. The blade now easily slide between the ribs of the wolf as
he stabbed it again and again, hot blood spilling over his blade, then his hand
and then his arm, but he still didn’t stop and neither did it. Changing his
angle of attack he stabbed farther up towards the wolf’s head and felt the
knife pierce the wolf’s heart with the barest resistance followed by a small
pop. The wolf seemed unaware of its own death for the briefest of moments
before collapsing on top of Richter.

“
Ahhh
,
Arghh
,” Richter grunted attempting to push the wolf’s body
off of himself, and then instead settled on rolling it to the side. He took
several deep frantic breaths as he willed his heart to stop beating so wildly.

Rabid Forest Wolf (Lvl 4) has died.
You receive 32(+8)
exp

Staring up at the green canopy above him
with splotches of blue seen through the leaves, he was elated. “
Woooo
,” he shouted punching his first into the air. Turning
his head to the right, he saw Sion looking at him quizzically.

“What are you doing,” the sprite
asked.

“I’m celebrating, and where were you
during the fight?”

“This is your quest, not mine. And it
is clear that you’re celebrating. I meant, why
are you
celebrating when those other wolves are right over there,” Sion asked pointing
to Richter’s left.

Slowing turning his head to the left,
he saw two rabid wolves with their teeth bared, not 15 feet away. Before he
could move, the wolves were on him and his world narrowed to consist only of
fangs, blood, and above all, pain.

All color faded from his vision as
his remaining eye stared up at a wolf’s mouth closing around his face, and then
all was black.

You have died.

A blur of colors and the sensation of
great speed, complicated by a lack of all emotion, until he felt as if he was
falling from a great height with a heart clenching stop…

A horrid scream ripped itself from
Richter’s throat. “
Nooo
, please stop,
pleassseee
!” His arms flailing around, his head whipped
around wildly searching for the wolves. After a few frantic seconds, he
realized he was back in the hidden glen, and his conscious mind began to
reconcile the subconscious knowledge he already possessed. He had died. The
wolves had killed him! Closing his eyes, he curled up onto his side and cried.
There was nothing graceful or dignified about it. His body was immobilized by
his great racking sobs.

 They had been tearing at him!
They had torn off a piece of his chest before he died. He had… he had seen…
that damn wolf had been chewing on a piece of him! The horror of it washed over
Richter. He relived the cold feeling he had experienced at the moment of death.
He drowned in the memory of helplessness as the wolves teeth had torn and
ripped at his tender flesh. Those memories hammered at his psyche! His mental
torture physically manifested in his inability to leave the fetal position. As
soon as he came to the end of his nightmarish remembrance, the sequence started
again from the beginning. He relived the experience over and over, not able to
break free of this hellish loop.

As his mind continued to torture him
however, another emotion rose. As he thought about the experience and the pain,
he began to feel something else besides horror. It started as the kernel of a
feeling, barely noticeable, inconsequential even. But it grew. After a while he
recognized this feeling. He felt anger! No, that wasn’t the right word. He
felt… rage! He raged at the wolves for hurting him! He raged at Sion for not
helping him! More though, he raged at being helpless and afraid! Not just in
the past moments, or the past day, but instead at feeling just a bit afraid his
entire life! Of not having any true control over his life’s direction, and
instead bowing time and again to the demands of society, the demands of his
family, or the ridiculous demands he made of himself fueled by reality TV and
pop culture. He felt the need to take control over his own life, face any issue
head on and no longer escape! He felt, the need, for power! Richter broke the
loop of pain he had been reliving and stood, a fierce determination in his
eyes. This was not about denying something horrible had happened. That would
have been just another form of escape. This was about accepting the realities
of his life and, despite the numerous blows of fate, standing tall!

You are Resolute! The choices in your
life led you to a critical point. A nexus of opportunities were laid before
you, many leading to disaster! You have chosen a finer path! The experiences of
your entire life have culminated in this one moment. You have decided not to
kneel, but to stand; not to beg, but to take; not to wait, but to forge ahead.
Bonus to mental resistance 15%. Bonus to spiritual resistance 15%

Staring at the message across his
field of view, he blinked in surprise. He had not expected the Universe to
reward him for his own personal journey, but he would take it, and after a
fashion it made sense. While he could increase his speed, strength, and skills,
he would ultimately be the same person, unless he decided to change within.
With a firm twist to his lips, Richter smiled. It was time to get back to work.

The phantoms pains of the wolf attack
still plagued him somewhat, but they had lost much of their power over him.
They were illusions, and would not deter him. What was real was the air in his
lungs, the power in his limbs and the strength of his will. Backlight by the
sun shining down into the glade, and took a step forward to go and finish what
he had started. It was at that moment of true purpose, that he looked down, and
realized he was completely naked.

“Universe, you’re a dick.”

Making peace with the fact that it
was most likely not going to be fun running through a forest with no clothes,
he decided to check his status.

He had expected the loss in
experience, but the loss in skill progression was a bit of a shock. At his low
level, it was not much of a setback. Skills were always harder to level at high
levels though, and a loss at that point would truly hurt. If he remembered
correctly, neither skill had been close to leveling when he died. Maybe if his
percentage was greater, he wouldn’t always go back to zero. Either way, dying
had real consequences.

The real question facing him now was
where to place his unused points. He had no idea what he was going to need in
this wide world. The lack of professions was a complete game changer. To be
specific, Xuetrix had said that professions were just very different and hard
to obtain. That information was next to useless at this point though, offering
no guidance at all. Dismissing it from his mind, Richter focused on what he did
know. He decided that he needed greater speed to run and dodge if he was going
to hunt the wolves. He placed all six unused points in Agility.  The last
thing he did was decide to limit some of his prompts.  The combat and
individual experience notifications were a distraction he could live without.

Silently vowing to make up for his
lost progression, he sipped from the Pool of Clarity, and then took off at a
fast jog from the glen. As he made his way to the river, the small plants and
stones hurt his feet, but not as much as he would have thought. Heartened, he
increased his pace to a run, making his way upriver. He quickly learned what
Athenian runners must have known thousands of years before; a man running with
no clothes on was not exactly, secure, in a key area. He took back all of the
times he wished sports bras had not been invented. Those poor girls must really
hurt after a while! He amended his thought to, ‘Well, let’s be honest, almost
all the times.’ The sight of Sophia doing hurdles was a treasured memory! Sigh.

Focusing on the task at hand, he
continued running forward, his new body seemingly up to the task of moving at
high speed for several miles before running out of steam. He pushed himself
until his breath grew ragged, and sweat flowed in rivulets down his body, and
then he pushed more. He ran until his stamina bar came perilously close to zero,
and fainting seemed a real possibility. He would pause while it slowly built
back up, but at 50%, would take off again. He had run many miles, and was
nearing the end of his stamina for at least the tenth time, when he heard
melodic voices above him.

“Quick! Shoot before he gets any
closer!”

Throwing his hands up, he said,
“Stop! I’m Richter, and have been seen by the Hearth Mother. I am approaching
the Hearth Tree to fulfill the quest she posed to me. I will kill the wolves.”

There was a moment of silence until
he heard a quiet, “Proceed.”

Though he couldn’t see them, he knew
he was being shadowed by the sprites. Word of his approach would likely make
its way ahead of him, but he still slowed to a jog so as not to alarm the wary
sprites. Checking his status, he saw that his Agility had increased by +1 due
to his hours of running. After proceeding for a ways through the forest, he was
finally rewarded with the sight of the Hearth Tree. As he approached the tall
gold grass, the forms of Hisako, Sion and four other bowmen greeted him

Hisako looked upon him with a wary
glance upon her face, while Sion stared at him with open distaste.

“Why have you returned,” she asked.
“I know that you had fallen.”

Walking forward, Richter did not
answer, but instead moved until he stood directly in front of Sion. With the
flat of his hand, Richter slapped him across the face. The sprite fell to the
ground, and Richter fell on top of him preparing to strike him again. He heard
the creaking of drawn bows, and then the sharp command of the Hearth Mother,
“CEASE THIS NOW!”

Richter felt his body seize into
immobility while Sion cursed beneath him, staring into his face with a fury
that matched his own. Sion stood and drew a long needle like rapier from his
sword belt, drawing his arm back to drive it into Richter’s eye, until Hisako
spoke again, “I said cease! Now what is the meaning of this? What exactly do
you remember?”

Richter found he could move and speak
again, collapsing to the ground as she ended his paralysis. Quickly standing he
pointed to Sion and spit out the words, “I remember everything. He let me be
torn apart and eaten by the wolves while he just watched!”

Looking sharply at Sion, Hisako
asked, “Is this true?”

“The quest was his not mine,” he
grumbled not making eye contact with the Hearth Mother.

“Yet you knew that you were sent to
help him, and thereby help our people by removing a dangerous threat! We will
address this in a moment. My first question remains, Richter. Are you whole of
mind? Do you feel any gaps in your memory?”

“I don’t know what you mean. I am
alive and I know who I am,” he said. He had thought of what to tell the Hearth
Mother during his run, but had not come to any clear conclusion. Upon seeing
her, he decided to speak from strength. “I will always come back to finish my
tasks, AND repay my debts,” he added looking over at Sion who glared back. “Why
do you keep asking about my memory?”

Returning his gaze to Hisako, Richter
saw her face had resolved into decision. “The Wood Sprites of Nadria honor their
commitments. We entered into a pact with you when you agreed to the quest and
my people have not aided you as they should have.” With a snap in her sweet
voice she said, “Sion! Bring Richter his items! Now!” The male sprite was smart
enough not to argue with the Hearth Mother after hearing the steel in her
voice. He melded silently back into the grass, and was moving quickly if the
part in the grass Richter could see was any indication.

“Your clothes were savaged and bloodied.
Do not be concerned though. We will give you greater protection than those rags
ever provided in recompense for Sion’s behavior. I apologize for his part in
the pain that you have suffered, and yet still I ask that you do not judge him
too harshly. He has no love for humans, it is true, but his heart is stalwart,
and he will stay true to a friend through death. In the meantime, please accept
these gifts.” As she finished speaking, she closed her eyes and folded her
hands as if in prayer. A green glow once again surrounded her, but much more
intense than when she summoned the arrows. It grew in strength until it flared
brilliantly. When his vision cleared from sunspots, he found items in front of
him.

You have received: Chest Plate of the
Wood Sprite. Defense +7. Type: Light armor. Durability 40/40. Item class:
Uncommon. Quality: Above Average. Weight: 5.8 kg. Increased Concealment in
Woods +5.

You have received: Reinforced pants
of the Wood Sprite. Defense +5. Type: Light armor. Durability 30/30. Item
class: Uncommon. Quality: Above Average. Weight: 3.4 kg. Increased Concealment
in Woods +4.

You have received: Shoes of the Wood
Sprite. Defense +4. Durability 25/25. Item class: Uncommon. Quality: Above
Average. Weight: 1.2 kg. Type: Light armor. Increased Silence while walking
+10.

You have received: Bracers of the
Wood Sprite. Defense +6. Weight: 3.4 kg. Durability 30/30. Item class:
Uncommon. Quality: Above Average. Type: Light armor. Dexterity +3.

Blinking in surprise, he stared at
the Hearth Mother. Losing the edge in her voice she simply smiled in
understanding, “Please accept these gifts in the open spirit of reconciliation
with which they were given. I must warn you of the danger to your mind I asked
you about earlier, however. I am familiar with the immortal rebirth of higher
level beings, though I have not heard of humans with this ability outside of
the mightiest mages. While your rebirth will preserve you for the most part, it
is still not without danger. You will be reborn in all but the most extreme
conditions, but each time you die there is a chance you may lose your memories
in addition to experience and skills. There is no specific rule as to when this
happens. It does not happen frequently, but it is a serious reality which
immortals must face. I have heard that the greater purpose you have in the life
you live, the greater the chance you will come back to yourself. So live well,
and may these gifts protect you and heal the damage between yourself and my
people. ”

Hearing her words, Richter was indeed
moved by her generosity, and felt much of his anger drain away. The discovery
that he could lose his sense of self upon death however, was truly frightening.

As he started to equip his new armor,
Sion came back with his old equipment in a brown sack, minus his clothing which
Richter assumed was now only bloody strips and wolf scat. He dropped the items
on the ground in front of Richter.

Looking at Richter, Hisako asked,
“Will you finish the quest which you started? We will allow you to travel the
forest either way, but this problem could well make the entire region unsafe
before long.”

You have been offered the opportunity
to cancel the Quest: Cleanse the Forest I. The Hearth Mother believes Sion has
not acted honorably.  As such, you will be allowed to hunt and travel on
the lands of the Wood Sprites without aggression from them whether you finish
you quest or not. Do you wish to cancel? Yes or No?

 “I finish what I start,”
Richter replied. “I will kill the wolves, but you need to know that I don’t
think it will solve the problem. The wolves I fought were driven mad with
disease. They were rabid. If we don’t stop the source of infection, these woods
will be rampant with rabid wolves, bears and other predators.”

“Do you accept the responsibility to
root out this evil at its source,” she asked.

You have unlocked the Quest: Cleanse
the Forest II. It is clear now that some sickness has befallen the animals of
the Forest of Nadria.  Killing a few rabid animals will not correct this
problem.  You have been tasked by Hisako to figure out what is making the
animals rabid. Reward: Increased regard from the Wood Sprites. Possible gifts
from the Wood Sprites. Yes or No?

Richter had assumed that his quest
was a chain when he saw the Roman numeral “I” after the initial quest.  He
wouldn’t stop now.

 “I do,” Richter replied
steadily.

Looking back to the newly returned
sprite, Hisako’s eyes hardened again somewhat. “I cannot force acceptance into
your heart, Sion. I know well why you might welcome the death of any human.
This man is only responsible for the actions and drives of his own heart,
however. I will not force you to accompany him again, but I encourage you to
work towards clearing this dark mark from your life. Watching another in pain
without offering aid is not our way. What will you do?”

A complex series of emotions worked
its way across Sion’s face, but not much time elapsed before he answered, “I
serve the Spirit of the Forest,” and he moved to stand beside Richter.

Sion the Wood Sprite has become your
Companion. Companions will stay with you only as long your goals align.

Looking over the both of them the
Hearth Mother said, “May the Forest shade you.”