Small Starts

Danielle woke, again, with a pounding headache, to Melorandious shaking her shoulders.

"Come on, wake up!" Melorandious said. "As much as I'd like to let you sleep, we have to move."

"Move?" Danielle said.

She still wasn't sure why her pillow felt like a tree. Or what she clutched to the point of her hand cramping that felt so hard and so cold.

"Yes, move," he said. "We've got a lot of ground to cover."

Pulling apart her eyes, Danielle saw the field and Melorandious. His strange robes and freakish horned stumps brought everything back to her. A half-thought of screaming occurred before she strangled her emotions back into silence.

I am going to get out of this world, Danielle thought. I am going to go back home.

This vindication empowered her to calmly get up. Melorandious was already a yard ahead of her, stopped only for her sake.

I guess I'll eat later, Danielle thought.

Last night made her raise no complaints about that. The sooner gone, the better. They moved over higher hills and under taller trees. A forest enveloped them.

Danielle ate a few dried fruits from her bag. This made her life much improved. Mostly, the unending movement kept her complaints and fear to a minimum. Mostly. The pace was not fast, on the slower pace of a walk. Yet the walk was unending.

Melorandious remained unflappable. His cheer from before diminished, but neither did he show any signs of rising panic. Danielle felt the panic in waves. It leaked into her thoughts and threatened to break her demeanor. In these times she forced herself to focus on nothing but the next step.

While Danielle found her breathing growing more raged to match the higher hills, Melorandious chose to speak. It was a few hours after they had begun walking. Danielle's headache had faded into a dull sensitivity.

"Aldles kingdom treats both fiends and Magi as vermin to be cut down," he said. "They consider fiends as an abomination, and Magi as something close to devils."

"We're talking now?" Danielle said. "I thought we were focusing on getting out of here?"

"I appreciate your patience in this trial, but I never desired total silence," Melorandious said.

"OK then," Danielle said. "Is it religious? Their hatred."

Melorandious shrugged, but Danielle could hardly see it over his bag. Only the right shoulder that didn't have the strap rose above it.

"No," he said. "Maybe. I don't know much about the religion, or religions, of the Aldlesians. It's more likely to do with the war that the king of the City of Sages started."

"Asshole," Danielle said.

"Indeed," Melorandious said. "He did it as an attempt to--well, I suppose the only thing that matters now is that his removal from the throne did nothing for relations between the city-state and kingdom."

"But," Danielle said. "Is it such a great idea to go to a country that used to have some kind of evil wizard king as its leader?"

"The people hardly chose their leader," Melorandious said. "If it makes you feel better, it sounds like a group of Magi have taken over. And we'd have been so less noticeable there. A drop in the rain."

"Have been?" She said. "Isn't that where we're going?"

"Unfortunately," Melorandious said, "no."

"What do you mean 'no'?" She said.

"The original plan was to cut through the Aldles," he said.

Danielle choked.

"Hoods could cover our heads, and as long as we avoided cities and towns we could have been through to the City of Sages in weeks," Melorandious explained.

Weeks? Danielle thought. And we were supposed to cut through a country filled with people who hate us?

A shiver passed through her.

"So we're not going there anymore?" Danielle said.

"We'll have to take a detour, and head for the quickest way out of these lands," Melorandious said. "To the Blue Mountains, that is where we'll find easier trespass."

"But the Aldles hunters aren't gonna just let us go," Danielle said.

"They won't, but the army can't patrol the entirety of the mountains all at once. If we hit the mountains at the right point, we'll be able to bypass their forts and leave without their notice."

Is this only a best-case scenario? Danielle thought.

She decided she did not need to hear the worst case.

"But what about the ones following us?" Danielle said.

"We can't get lucky there," Melorandious said. "There will be those who will notice the unit is missing, and then their choice will be to track the Rovers or the two fiends who killed their brothers-in-arms."

"We'll outrun them, right?" Danielle said.

Melorandious turned his face towards her. His expression was a representation of a cold stone wall.

We're not going to outrun them, Danielle thought.

The journey fell into a steady rhythm of footsteps and forest sounds. The chirps of birds Danielle didn't recognize echoed out. Whether it was her ignorance of birds or naivety of this world was up for debate. The susurration of the various shaded tree leaves. The silent sun added to the harmony by coloring all the greenery in the foliage and grass in variations of all saturations and shades.

As morning changed to noon, Danielle fought to maintain the same amount of distance with Melorandious. He always managed to stay around five paces ahead of her. If she put in more effort to keep up he went faster too.

The worst part of it was the lack of a path. Half of her focus Danielle spent on not tripping over a root or rock. Then Melorandious led her into the first creek they saw.

"Uh," Danielle said.

Melorandious had already slid his shoes off and had one foot in when he peered back at her.

"A little water won't kill us," he said. "Might cool us off a bit too."

"Yeah, I'm not swallowing that," Danielle said. "I doubt you're stepping in for a quick dip so how about you cut to the chase of why. And maybe I'll consider it."

Melorandious heaved a sigh that included his shoulders.

"Simply, the running water will help further disrupt any trails of mana leading to us. And other trails too," Melorandious said.

Danielle slid her boots off without further comment. The water stung on the start of blisters. But it was cool. Rolling up her pants, she took a few steps forward. Melorandious only nodded before setting off again.

"Hey!" Danielle said. "Maybe I do want the lecture about more of this magic crap! Don't assume!"

"Now?" Melorandious said.

I was just joking, Danielle thought, but actually.

"Yeah," she said.

They splashed through the stream, the sand sinking beneath Danielle's feet. She looked up to catch a glimpse of the trees reaching out across the surface to each other.

So pretty, she thought, especially when I don't have to bat the branches away.

"Well, where would you like to begin?" Melorandious said.

Danielle found, surprising herself, that she had an answer.

"I think your tattoos would be a nice start," Danielle said.

"Ah, yes, I was actually expecting questions about those earlier," Melorandious said.

He stepped up onto a big flat stone. Danielle took a brazen step onto the large stone. Her foot slipped off. She had a second where she saw the stone hurtling toward her.

Crap, she thought.

Melorandious grabbed her arm and leveled her out. Danielle felt a visceral bottoming out of her innards. She jerked out of his hands before she thought.

Arms flailing, her ass landed on the streambed with a thud. The water splooshed itself around her before falling all over her.

"Ah!" Melorandious said.

Danielle looked up at him as he looked down at her, his arms still in the position of reaching for her.

He acts harmless, she thought. But he killed people last night and treats it like nothing.

She shivered.

I wonder if everybody in this world could do that.

"Are you sound?" Melorandious said. "We can't stay here all day."

Danielle spat some water out. Standing up, she stepped around the rock in the stream. She was completely soaked now anyways.

"My 'tattoos' are sigils," Melorandious said. "They're the same things that the Rovers had littered all over. Excepting that these sigils are considered open as they use an outside source of mana. And they are much more detailed and intricate, more like what you'd find on a sword or a staff. But the idea is the same."

"And what idea is that?" Danielle said.

"Shaping the mana through written words and forcing it into a stable and measured effect," Melorandious said. "One form of what a spell can be."

"So what's on your arm is a permanent spell?" Danielle said.

"I guess that's a way of looking at it," Melorandious said. "Most people consider spells as only the activation of a chain of sigils."

"Excuse me for not majoring in minors," Danielle said.

I could die and I'm still shooting off at the mouth, Danielle thought. I'm braver than I thought.

"We can't all have an interest in the fine details," Melorandious said. "Just so you aren't a complete fool on my account though, sigils aren't the only way to cast a spell. The spoken word, music, gestures, and even thought can bring a spell into being. Sigils are just the stablest and well-studied forms used."

"Even thoughts?" Danielle said.

Melorandious laughed but cut it off.

She might be able to just do it, he thought.

"I've only heard a few accounts of it," he said. "In stories, spirits simply will spells into existence. But most Magi, hedgemages, or other castors have no such risk."

"Is it mana that allows that?" Danielle said. "Or something else?"

"Well, the spirits incorporeal form might allow different interactions with the world," Melorandious said. "But I truly don't know if it's one or the other or both combined."

"What do the spells on your arms do?′ Danielle said.

"One controls water, and the other fire," Melorandious said.

He held his arm out to her. They were past the point in the stream where Danielle could avoid the slippery rocks. His expression held a ghost of a smile, slightly crinkled eyes, and the touch of a curve of the lip. Danielle scowled as she took his hand.

There was a small part of her that felt more than a little afraid of him. But.

I can't get home if I die here, Danielle thought.

The first day of their trek passed in this manner. Short lectures dropped into focusing on their feet or eating. Danielle's misgivings ripped apart from her desire to get home.

Finally, hours after the sun had set, Melorandious sat down. Danielle gratefully did the same. At rest, her mind wrapped itself inside a whirlwind of thoughts she had ignored throughout the day. Frightful images of the hunters and Melorandious fighting, and the old woman repeatedly falling down.

It finally clicked in her head.

"You've got the bags, so you spoke to the Rovers before we left. Right?" She said.

"Yes," Melorandious said.

"Then do you know how they're doing? How that old lady is?" She said.

"I don't know all their losses," he said, "but the crone was alive still when I spoke to Nimus."

"Oh, that's good," Danielle said.

Melorandious lip lifted in disgust, but in the night it went unnoticed.

But she could have really died, Danielle thought. I could have died. What the hell do I have to prevent that?

Magic was there, but it depended on Melorandious. Which meant waiting until tomorrow.

Tomorrow, who knows what could happen tomorrow? Danielle thought. Anything.

Danielle narrowed her eyes. She grabbed her pack and pulled the Aldles sword from it. Her hands shook.

I'll try magic, she thought, but for tonight I'll try this.

Tightening her grip she stood up again. Melorandious squinted at her blurry shape in the darkness. Legs wide, heavy thing raised, she swung.

Melorandious chuckled.

Danielle glared pointlessly in the dark.

"Either help me or mind your own business," she said.

"Sorry, but don't you think you'd be better served with rest?" Melorandious said.

"I'll just swing it a few more times," Danielle said.

"Your choice," Melorandious said.

The sword came down again.

I am going to get out of here, Danielle thought.