The garrison had a generous stockpile of woolen blankets that made for a very cozy bed. As soon as I closed my eyes, I opened them and felt rested.
I got up and went outside. I was alone in the freezing cold. The courtyard was cast in blue, and the sky, turning amber, clung to what remnant of stars it had left. Up on the rampart, waves with pink and yellow highlights seemed motionless, like a painting as they crashed against the black wall of the Terbulin ridge that wrapped around all the way to the eastern horizon where behind the jagged line of gray-purple was the bright glow of the rising sun with lances of yellow beaming out across the sea of clouds before me.
Breakfast that morning was salted pork sauteed with spinach and cheese, corn muffins hot from the oven and slathered in butter, and a peculiar drink with an unmistakable strong, nutty aroma I would never forget.
"What is this?" Geraln asked. The men of the garrison laughed as they watched us sip from our mugs.
I answered him myself. "They have this in Ulum. They call it kafi."
Davod sipped, then turned to face me with his eyes wide. "Where the hell did you find this in Ulum?"
Faren sipped, closed his eyes, and marveled, "where has this been my whole life?"
Zaken explained. "It's two things. The kæfi is bitter by itself, and they add something called azukʊ to make it sweet. I hear the Emperor can't get enough of the stuff."
Geraln nodded. "I can't blame him."
Ales's fingers trembled. "Is this right? It's like a jolt of energy; I don't think I've ever felt so awake!"
The man from the porcupine clan slapped his meaty hand on Ales's shoulder. "Truth be told, man, Carthia's not all monsters."
Timeu smiled. "Wait until you try dokono!"
The others laughed in agreement.
Eventually, the five of us gathered in the courtyard while the heavy iron portculliexeusesai creaked open, heavy steel chains whined in protest, and a thin layer of ice shattered across the stone floor. The bars were pulled, two to the left and one to the right, the door farted open in spurts, and we found ourselves on the small landing at the top of the pass, set with gravel and black ice scarcely ten feet from oblivion.
"Fuck it," Davod proclaimed, "let's go."
Tucked off to the side, we passed by a serpent totem that matched the one at the front gate, and set off along the 'road' as it dropped sharply, clinging to the mountain on the left and dropping down through the clouds on the right. It wasn't even a road so much as a slanted outcropping of rock that people walked over. How in the world a merchant could get an ox-drawn cart up this way considering how steep the incline and how narrow the passage I couldn't imagine, but they'd done it—I could see the wheel wells impacted into the black-and-gray gravel.
Then we saw some wheel scuffings that went right over the edge.
"Watch for ice," I reminded everyone. We clung to the other side like it was our mother's teat, each of us too scared to speak one word lest we lose focus on where we were. Above the sound of boots crunching tiny pebbles covered in icicles was the high-pitched whistle of the wind as it swept across the rock face we traveled.
We kept on the road for hours as it dropped down, inching us closer and closer to the clouds. We'd descended to where we were almost level and found a small shelf of rock that seemed to have broken off from the main wall and settled a few feet above the ground, so we sat for a while. Geraln opened up his pack and brought out the trail rolls. "This is the last of them. We have two maple-almond, a cherry-hazelnut, and two honey-coconuts left."
Ales spoke first, "I didn't get any of the hazelnuts."
Faren, too. "I didn't either."
I also added, "we had hazelnut?"
Davod answered me, "those ones are the best."
Geraln looked at him directly. "How many did you have?"
Davod shrugged. "I mean…"
Ales protested, "we were supposed to get an equal amount, man! Come on!"
Davod smiled. "Alright. Give me one of the maples."
Geraln sneered, "you get last pick."
"What?" Davod smiled.
Ales shook his head. "It's only fair."
Faren spoke up. "Who gets the hazelnut, though?"
Ales and I looked at each other, then back to Faren. Geraln spoke to that. "OK, I'm thinking of a number between one and ten, inclusive. Ales?"
Ales turned to Faren. "You pick first."
Faren shot back, "no, you go."
"Go ahead," Ales replied.
"I'm fine. You first."
I broke the discussion. "I'll pick first. Five."
Ales went second. "Six."
Then Faren, "four."
I managed out, "what the fuck?"
Before I could process what I'd just fallen for, Geraln spoke. "Eight. Ales, hazelnut is yours."
Faren followed, "I'll take a maple."
Geraln reached in, "maple for me, too."
"Hey!"
Then he handed me and Davod each a honey-coconut roll.
In truth, they were delicious, all of them. Except maybe the hazelnut rolls; I had no knowledge on that. Ales closed his eyes and hummed, then gave a nod to Davod, "you were right, man, these ones are the best!"
Truth was, the sweet, chewy honey-coconut rolls were delicious in their own right. Davod shook his head in ecstatic reverie and spoke. "So… apparently, there's this girl down there they call The Teacher. They say she's pure fucking fire, man."
Ales broke out laughing. Geraln shook his head and scolded him, "priorities, man! Why is that what you're thinking about?"
I jumped in. "You know, Geraln, it's always about that. In fact it's never not about that."
Davod laughed and raised his trail roll to me, and we toasted.
"Anyway," Geraln continued, "I'm kinda concerned about staying alive, you know? Girls… staying alive…" he'd lifted both hands in the air as if he were a scale with two sides in balance.
"I don't know," I said, "I don't see why these things are incongruous. Guy up on the rampart said all we have to do to survive is listen to the natives. So, you find yourself a nice native girl and listen to her."
Ales cracked up laughing. "That's gotta be absolutely the most fool-proof plan I've ever heard. I can just hear it now: darling, I need you to… string up the laundry, polish the silver, pick up these socks, bathe the hound, detangle the nets, and while you're at it rethatch the roof, the garden needs weeding, wash these cups, and if I catch you looking at that tramp down the road one more time so help me…"
Davod laughed. "Oh snookums, you're such a good listener!"
Ales assured him, "just trying to stay alive, dear!"
I couldn't help but laugh. Geraln covered his face in his hands, trying not to laugh, but it escaped from him no less.
Faren shook his head and smiled. "Last night, one of them told me the Marquis of Ulum is down there, personally overseeing the place."
Ales furrowed his eyebrows. "What's a marquis?"
Faren tilted his head and looked at him. "You don't know your ranks, man?"
Ales shot back, "I know my ranks, man. A baron answers to a count, a count answers to a duke, a duke answers to the Emperor. What the fuck is a marquis?"
Geraln explained. "A marquis is a count; he's the Count of Ulum, but he's given special military privileges."
"Like what?" I said.
"Well for one, you know how under Herali law the barons under a count can vote to get rid of him? A marquis is protected from that."
Ales pulled his face back. "How the hell?"
Geraln explained. "It's an Imperial designation, so… you know…"
Faren nodded and continued. "Zaken said that twice the Barons in Ulum tried to do that."
Ales nodded. "So that makes him the Emperor's bitch, then, doesn't it."
"Pretty much," Geraln replied.
After a while we felt rested. I began to stretch, while Davod took up his pack and stood. "You guys ready?"
Geraln muttered, "no."
"Alright, let's go then."
With that we stood, stretched, and continued along our journey.
It wasn't more than a few hundred yards ahead that the road dipped into the white mist. We were at a level such that towering before us was a billowing cloud that had grown considerably since morning. And, we descended.
We felt the mist as much as we saw it; the moist air surrounded our skin. While it was still somewhat cold, I'd noticed a welcome respite from the frigid high altitudes of the gate we'd left behind. Rather than be home to sheets of treacherous ice, the loose gravel grew wet, crunching beneath our boots. As we began to dip, I turned and took one last glance at the road behind us as it climbed steeply up for miles, and the tiny gate beyond was scarcely visible.
We spoke not a word of normal conversation. Between the sheer drop on the right and what soon became such a heavy fog that we could scarcely see the road beneath our feet, a silent understanding overtook us that every ounce of concentration needed to be reserved for the task at hand.
It was quiet. The wind could no longer be heard against the rocks above us. Right in front of me, coming from the figure whose dark outline faded in and out of visibility, I heard "Ales here."
Behind me, another voice echoed. "Faren here."
Behind him, I heard Geraln's voice cut through the mist. "What is that? What are you doing?"
Faren answered him. "It's what we do in the fog when we can't see anything."
"Caleb here," I echoed.
"Davod here," I heard coming from somewhere ahead of me.
We continued our way for what felt like at least an hour as the fog grew darker and thicker, with roll being called every few minutes. Then suddenly, I heard a sound like some gravel being thrown about, and a voice cried out "FUCK!"
Somewhere ahead of me, I heard Ales's voice. "What happened?"
Then, a moan of a man in pain, then grunting, then "Davod here. Fuck!"
We came up to him. Beside the disturbed gravel was a large, smooth stone that looked wet but for some fresh scratches where gravel had been run across it. Davod took a minute to clutch his knee, and I bent over to take a look.
"I'm fine," he said, shaking me off.
"Let him look at it," Geraln insisted.
He did. He had a nice bruise and his ankle was stiff, but other than that nothing serious. "You're good," I said, "but let Ales take the lead."
Davod looked at me with his eyes wide as though I'd spoken some heresy.
So, I clarified. "It's just that it's his turn to slip on the next one. Gotta spread it out, you know?"
At that, Ales chuckled, "gee, thanks."
Then Davod started laughing, before shaking his head and taking in a deep breath. "Man, I thought I was fucked. I started heading towards that edge over there, gods. There's nothing to hold onto up here!"
Faren raised his hand. "I vote we be careful."
I couldn't help but smile at the sentiment. Geraln raised his hand, too. "All in favor of being careful?"
"Aye!" we all repeated, before shaking it off with a fresh round of laughter.
We continued our descent. Being careful.
After a time, the road started to transition from moist to wet, and the cold air had begun to surrender to a profound sense of moisture as well. Beside us throughout the road, small tufts of grass began to emerge through cracks in the rock. Off to the right, I saw a glimpse of some dark color seeping through the clouds, and the mist around us began to abate such that we could see each other well enough without all being close together.
We kept walking, and I saw another patch of dark color making its way through the clouds, only this time I could see the outline of trees in a nearby mountainside. Then, the clouds around us grew thick once more.
"What the?" Ales's voice came from ahead of me, and he stopped.
I came up to him and he was looking at a fern growing in the cracks of the rock wall to our left. "What's wrong?"
"This fucking fern brushed my face, scared the shit out of me!"
Faren laughed. "Thought it was some giant lizard, aye?"
We all shared some nervous laughter. Then, Ales shook it off and took a deep breath. The thick air was a welcome respite from higher up, and but for the intense moisture it was fairly comfortable. We continued our descent.
Then, we came out of the clouds entirely, and there were trees everywhere.
The cliff wasn't so high by this point, and led down to a gorge thick with green of a density I'd never imagined possible. Up the side of another mountain, trees blanketed the world like a carpet in all directions with not a hint of any towns, villages, farms, roads, or anything human. This world carried with it the steady chorus of chirping insects in the distance that blended into a unified sound. Above it all, dark clouds gathered in blocks of gray and darker gray with no pattern I could discern.
"Wow!" Geraln's eyes bulged. We all felt the same.
We continued along the road, descending into this strange world of primeval wilderness, and the chorus grew louder. Soon, we saw a tree on the right, stretching its high branches defiantly towards the height we were at, while its trunk descended beyond a canopy dense with other trees.
The air grew thick and warm, moist, but decidedly warm, and for the first time sweat began to bead on my forehead. All around us, the chattering chorus of insects started to include chirps and whistles of some otherworldly variety.
I felt tiny droplets on my skin as a herald of an incoming rain. Then, not so much as a few seconds later, we were deluged. All around us, buckets of rain clattered on the leaves, in the road, on the rocks, and all over us. We were soaked through, with water pouring off the rocks and rushing down the side of the road all around us. Then again, not a minute later, the rain stopped.
The sudden storm left pockets of muddy gravel all around us all along the road, making it treacherous. It was Faren who spoke first. "We should stop and dry off."
And so we did. We found ourselves in the middle of thick forest on both sides of the road, with long, smooth leaves of trees I'd never seen before amid palm trees with vines climbing up the top only to disappear beyond more trees. Strange animal noises called out in every direction, still with that same chorus of insects grinding in our ears.
We took off our shirts and boots, trying to ring them dry as best we could, when I felt something soft and light on my arm. It was a tiny black mosquito that whisked away before I could swat the thing. I heard a smack, and Geraln's hand was on his neck. All about, tiny blurs began to converge upon us, and that unmistakable buzz crescendoed in my ear enticing me to swat it away.
The assault grew more and more fierce. Faren spoke with urgency, "we have to move."
Not quite dry enough for some degree of comfort, I tried to pull my wet socks over my feet, and those bugs attacked my ankles. I wrestled my boots on, and they attacked my wrists. I swatted one, leaving behind a small splattering of red in my palm, only to see ten more come for the feast.
We kept walking, trying to keep a good clip in hopes of moving past any more squadrons lurking in the trees. By this time, we were in near darkness for the dense canopy of leaves above us with only the occasional break above which showed nothing but dark gray clouds.
Then, the leaves above us began to clatter once more as more rain fell, and our boots began to stick in the mud. We were drenched in sweat and rainwater. Then a minute later the rain stopped, and the air felt hot and sticky.
"What… is… that?" Geraln pointed to a nearby tree with his eyes open wide. As he gaped, a mosquito had landed on the lower part of his eyelid.
I looked, but it was Ales who answered him. "That, is a BIG fucking snake."
There in a tree branch, scarcely visible in the black shade was a dark brown snake with black diamond patterns along its back that draped its body over the branch, letting itself fall down on both sides several feet many times over. Its body had to be at least a foot in diameter, and its head lay perfectly still, gazing at us out of one eye as if judging whether it was in the mood to eat one of us.
But for a flick of its tongue, it didn't move, and we resumed our trek. The road grew decorated by large slats of flat black stone interspersed with tufts of grass and vines that fought to reclaim it for the forest and led us up another hill with trees so thick we couldn't see more than a few feet into them. We saw a train of black ants with blue stripes, each one easily an inch long with the ones traveling off to the left carrying scraps of what looked like meat and those moving towards the right empty-handed. Unwilling to get into an argument with them, we stepped over gingerly, then continued to climb up the road as it drifted further and further into this primal world.
Then, she appeared.
As if in one motion, scarcely five feet in front of us and silent as a calm breeze amid the cacophony of the forest around us, a tall lizard stepped out onto the road carrying a girl on its back.
The creature's head hovered at my eye level above the ground, with tiny scales all about its body and a blue stripe running from its eye down its neck and all the way to the end of its tail that swept about behind it, in all easily three yards in length and standing on two massive, powerful legs that ended in curved talons some inches long. It had muscular forelimbs that dangled down before its body that also ended in sharp talons, and its mouth hung slightly ajar, revealing a zigzag of ominous teeth. As it moved, its head held still while its body repositioned, only to move of its own a moment later. The beast turned its narrow face to the side so as to fix one eye on us directly, a blue-yellow eye with a narrow black slit running from top to bottom.
At the back of its head was a scant harness of some kind of leather with metal balls at the side, with reins trailing back along its neck to the girl's hand, and on its back and tied around its chest was a saddle of simple cotton and leather set with small pockets about.
As for the girl, she was dark. Skin so dark as to flirt with shades of black, and green as that man I met in Ulum. Her eyes were yellow as the sun, and her hair was ivory white with streaks that hinted at shades of yellow, and cropped into a bob about her ears. She sat upon the beast, making her taller than myself by at least a foot, but from the way her feet fell to the side I could tell she'd have been short if she were standing. She was almost naked; her clothes consisted merely of a strap about her waist with a cotton loincloth, a necklace of large, carved wooden beads, and another strap over her shoulder that held at her back a short bow and a quiver of arrows with fletchings in a rainbow of colors.
Behind me, I heard metal scrape against leather.
Immediately, the beast turned and faced Davod, getting down on all fours and letting out a sharp hiss, coiling its long neck and gaping its mouth wide to display a mouth full of jagged saw blades that could likely sever a man's arm within a second.
"vʌ!" she shouted, and pressed her hand on the beast's haunch. Her fingernails were covered in some kind of black lacquer and sharpened into claws, and she had the outline of a bat's wing on her right shoulder like a tattoo but white on her dark green skin.
Davod stood wide-eyed and trembled with his sword in both hands. Ales stood beside him, his sword in one hand while his other hand was stretched out beside him, grasping at nothing. Geraln stood like a statue, unable to move while his mouth was fixed open and another mosquito decorated his earlobe.
I couldn't remove my eyes from her or her mount. She was fit as any girl I'd ever seen, with muscles chiseled into her dark-green skin. Her bare breasts scarcely tiny mounds in her bare chest and nipples poking prominently outward. She grasped at the reins of the beast tugging as if trying to restrain the thing.
"Put that away," I said. "She's a friendly."
Davod trembled and allowed his eyes to meet mine for a split second before returning to her. Ales spoke, but didn't tear his eyes from her one bit. "How do you know?"
Faren answered, "because we're still alive, man." He was as relaxed as I'd ever seen him.
At length, Davod and Ales abided and began to sheath their swords, and I watched as the lizard lifted its head, then hoisted itself on its hind legs, keeping its head perfectly still as it moved its body, turning to keep one eye trained on the two men who'd threatened it moments before.
The girl then turned her neck to face me directly with those bright yellow eyes, then stretched her arm out to point at me and shouted, "yonim!"
The word rent my mind in search of meaning while the high-pitched whine of a mosquito settled in my ear. I swatted at it but caught nothing but air while the girl continued her unsettling gaze upon me. Her mouth was fixed in an expression I could not read. Her beast paced the ground in front of me before turning its whole body round and turning its head so that it faced Davod with its other piercing eye, again, allowing its whole head to hover in place while its body moved around it.
"Yonim!" she said again. Her eyes were glued to mine in total focus. Her voice was high in the register, yet endowed with authority. I tried to mouth the word, digging through my thoughts for some shred of meaning.
"Yonim?" Faren tilted his head, gazing at her through droopy eyes while Geraln remained as a statue.
Ales answered him. "Do you know what she's saying?"
"No," he shook his head.
The lizard took a step towards me, then stretched its neck out and brought its snout directly to me, brushing against my chest and sniffing about. The girl continued to stare at me. "Yonim!"
I mouthed at the word several times over, chewing it up for meaning while Faren repeated it a second time. I looked around. Ales stood dumbfounded, shaking his head while Davod continued to keep his eyes on the beast. It pulled its head back some, then yawned its mouth full of jagged teeth open and let out a string of clicks followed by a most peculiar chirp. Then it stepped around to my left over to where Faren stood and sniffed at him.
"Hello there," he said, then lifted his hand up as if to pet the thing, when it snapped its head towards him and lunged. No sooner had it got its mouth open than the girl yanked hard on the reins and pulled back before it could clamp its jaws down on his hand.
Its whole body turned away from him, and she reached out to slap his hand away while shouting, "vʌ tʊxoɣeza! ʒu! Ʒu!"
Then she turned round to face me one more time. "Yonim!"
Ales spoke in frustration. "What the hell does she want, man?"
But there was something in her tone. Something was different. That command, I'd assumed was something along the lines of asking us not to touch the creature, had rolled off her tongue as though she'd been born to it. There was a smooth confidence to her cadence that betrayed fluency. Not so with the word, yonim. It didn't come out the same. I reasoned, therefore, that she must have assumed it meant something in our language, and began to pick it apart quietly. "Yonim. Yo…nim. Yo-nim. Yo nem…"
The beast stepped towards Geraln, who responded by trembling in terror and remaining absolutely still. His voice let out a light whimper as the thing touched its nose to his arm and sniffed. He shook, breathed heavily, and a dark wet spot spontaneously appeared in the center of his trousers then grew outwards and down his leg.
"Gods!" Davod shook his head in utter disbelief.
I kept at it, turning her word around trying to see what it was. "Yoh nim. Yoh nem Yoh…" I had it. "Name!" I looked up at her. "Name?"
She looked directly at me and smiled. Her eyes went wide. "Nay-yeem. Yo nay-yeem!"
"Caleb of Gath."
She repeated it. "Kaydibuvgath."
She then turned to Faren. "Yo nay-yeem!"
"Faren of Suuya."
"Fa-dhe-nuv-su-ya." She turned to Davod. "Yo nay-yeem!"
Davod stood and stared.
Faren urged him, "tell her your name, man."
Davod glanced at him, then turned to face her directly as she stared at him. "I'm Davod of Gath."
"Amdavoduvgath." She turned. "Yo nayeem?"
Geraln trembled as she faced him. Her lizard sniffed at Davod, and Geraln's words shook with the rest of him. "Geraln…" he shook his head, and drops of sweat flung from his chubby face. "Of Gath."
"Jedanuvgath."
Ales spoke through the tension he wore all over his face. "This is weird."
She looked directly at him. "Thisizweed."
Then as quickly as she'd appeared, she urged her beast to the side and disappeared into the forest.
"Wait!" I called out, "what about your name?"
But she was gone.