{"id":272,"date":"2010-07-02T12:30:59","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T18:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atfmb.com\/Evermist\/?p=272"},"modified":"2010-07-08T20:51:19","modified_gmt":"2010-07-09T02:51:19","slug":"chapter-thirty-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/atfmb.com\/Evermist\/2010\/07\/chapter-thirty-four\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter Thirty-Four"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a9 2010, Patrick Hester.\u00a0 All Rights Reserved<\/p>\n

Chapter Thirty-Four<\/h1>\n

Narut touched Jaycn on the shoulder.\u00a0 The older man had been nodding off as he sat his watch over Elias.\u00a0 His friend slept like the dead, never moving, barely breathing.\u00a0 Whatever the Engineers had done, it was slow working.\u00a0 They said he would need several more sessions before he would be safe and on his way to properly healing.\u00a0 Until then, Jaycn, Narut and the others had taken it upon themselves to watch over Eli.<\/p>\n

“I’m fine,” Jaycn protested as Narut dragged him to his feet.<\/p>\n

“You are not. You need sleep.\u00a0 I’ll take this watch,” Narut answered him softly, but firm.\u00a0 Jaycn grumbled as he left, but he did leave.\u00a0 Narut settled into the chair beside Eli’s bed, wondering what the Engineers had done.\u00a0 Everyone he talked to said the same thing; they were taken into a dark room and told to breathe deeply.\u00a0 Soon, they found it difficult to keep their eyes open and the next thing they knew, they woke back in the infirmary, their wounds healing, pain lessened or completely gone.\u00a0 The worse the wounds, the longer it took to be healed.<\/p>\n

Eli had been among the worst. <\/p>\n

Worried, Narut reached over and pulled the blankets higher on Eli.\u00a0 “It won’t due for you to catch cold before they can heal you,” he said to his friend.\u00a0 “For now, dream my friend.\u00a0 Dream of your Millie\u2026”<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Elias did dream, but not of Millie.\u00a0 He saw before him a golden wood where everything seemed to glow as if powered from within by ephemeral light.\u00a0 Above him, a canopy of unfamiliar leaves was the only sky he could see.\u00a0 Beneath his feet, the grass was soft and moist, coming just to the top of his ankles.\u00a0 He moved through the grass until his soft leather boots touched an impossibly ancient stone, one of thousands forming a road twice as wide as any he’d ever seen.\u00a0 Above him a blue sky replaced the canopy of leaves and a bright sun caused him to blink and squint.\u00a0 Looking South, he saw that the road stretched nearly to the unfamiliar mountains on the horizon, cutting a swatch through the Great Forest surrounding him.\u00a0 To the North, it disappeared into that same Forest, swallowed by trees older and larger than he was used to seeing.<\/p>\n

He had a feeling that he needed to keep moving.\u00a0 Since he saw nothing to the South but imposing mountains, he chose the Northern route and began to walk.<\/p>\n

The city was hidden in the Trees, or a part of the Trees, and yet was of the stone as well.\u00a0 It didn’t make sense, but it did.\u00a0 He shook his head, closed his eyes and looked again.\u00a0 His eyes tried to focus on details, but everything seemed to blur, fade and resolve again.\u00a0 It caused his eyes to burn so he looked down, noticing for the first time that he held something in his hands, something made of wood.\u00a0 He tried to remember what he was supposed to do with it when someone touched his shoulder and there was a spark-<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

“Xanh!\u00a0 Xanh come quickly!”<\/em><\/p>\n

Xanh smiled, placing the Bak’al’nos back in the cradle on his workbench.\u00a0 The neck was coming along nicely and he’d just completed the holes where the pegs would seat.\u00a0 Alia tugged at his sleeve again and he turned, smiling at her.<\/p>\n

She was a head shorter than he, younger by nearly six cycles and somehow, he’d inherited her as a follower.\u00a0 His Father often warned that he had taken responsibility over her the first time he allowed her to trail behind him.\u00a0 Xahn didn’t really mind though, as she always made him smile.<\/p>\n

“What has gotten you so excitable?” he asked, fighting the urge to ruffle the tuft of hair between her horns.<\/p>\n

“I overheard the An’lo’san<\/em> talking – they say creatures have come over the Mountains of Kaskien.”<\/p>\n

“Creatures?” Xanh asked, his curiosity piqued.\u00a0 Pushing back his ears, he wondered what sort of ‘creatures’ the An’lo’san had found.<\/p>\n

“The An’lo’san sounded worried.”<\/p>\n

‘Worried’<\/em>?\u00a0 Nothing worried the An’lo’san – they were the greatest warriors in all the Forest!<\/p>\n

The Kan’zo<\/em> was bustling as he and Alia navigated through the crowds of buyers and sellers.\u00a0 He saw three tables with interesting wares but Alia was insistent that they not stop, so he reluctantly let her lead him by the hand until they were walking up the Thien<\/em> towards his Father’s house.<\/p>\n

The An’lo’san standing guard nodded as they passed through the entryway and into the courtyard.\u00a0 Xanh took a moment to make an offering to their house God, before walking around the pond and into the main house, Alia trailing behind him.<\/p>\n

His Father stood with his back to the door, three An’lo’san standing on the points of the triad patterned in the tiles of the floor.\u00a0 Each looked grim and travel worn.<\/p>\n

“They walk on two legs like any good Eldar, but that is the end of any similarity between us,” one of the An’lo’san, Busuma if Xanh recognized the voice, was saying.\u00a0 “Their skin is pink and soft, it colors under the sun.\u00a0 Worse, they have no horns.”<\/p>\n

Xanh looked down at his hands, at the gray skin there.\u00a0 ‘Pink’? \u00a0His mind boggled.\u00a0 And no horns?\u00a0 Sadness filled his heart.\u00a0 Such a deformity could only be a punishment from the Gods.<\/p>\n

“They are smaller as well, much smaller – almost like children,” offered another.<\/p>\n

“And they ride the demon Koshen<\/em>,” said the third.<\/p>\n

“We ride the Saln,” his Father said with a wave of his hand.\u00a0 A long pause, and then a sigh.\u00a0 “What do they do?”<\/p>\n

“Nothing.\u00a0 Yet.\u00a0 The An’la’zia<\/em> wait and watch.”<\/p>\n

“As is their purpose,” his Father added.\u00a0 Then another sigh.\u00a0 “We will wait as well.\u00a0 Let me know what they do, then we will know how to act.”<\/p>\n

“Yes Paentar<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

The An’lo’san stepped passed them and Xanh waited until they were gone before clearing his throat.<\/p>\n

“You heard?”<\/p>\n

“Yes, Father.”<\/p>\n

“We’ve no idea who or what they are.\u00a0 I want you and the other Ahn’sa<\/em> to provide a score of the horned Ashe<\/em> each end day for the next season.”<\/p>\n

“A score?!\u00a0 Father – it will take every waking moment to produce so many!”<\/p>\n

“I am aware, my son.\u00a0 But we do not know who or what they are, and we cannot take chances, not again.\u00a0 We will not have a repeat of the Shenz<\/em>.\u00a0 I’ll not see my people slaughtered for sport.”<\/p>\n

“Yes Father.”<\/p>\n

Xanh moved back into the courtyard, Alia in tow.\u00a0 Somehow, the water in the pond looked less clear than it had a moment ago.<\/p>\n

“What will you do, Xanh?”<\/p>\n

“What I am told, Alia.\u00a0 What I am told.”\u00a0 A score a day!\u00a0 How will we manage such a commission and remain sane?<\/em><\/p>\n

Tell your friends:<\/em>
\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a9 2010, Patrick Hester.\u00a0 All Rights Reserved Chapter Thirty-Four Narut touched Jaycn on the shoulder.\u00a0 The older man had been nodding off as he sat his watch over Elias.\u00a0 His friend slept like the dead, never moving, barely breathing.\u00a0 Whatever the Engineers had done, it was slow working.\u00a0 They said he would need several more […]<\/p>\n

Tell your friends:<\/em>
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