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The Girl Who Would Be King

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Nemo brought the lantern out from his bag and walked around the clearing. taking everything in as Ri stared horrified at the macabre art display in front of her. He stopped and looked up at one of the five skeletons pinned to a tree. Like the others, the skeleton was lifted a few feet off the ground so that the pommel of the sword embedded in its chest was at eye level. He cautiously moved his hand to the grip to test how firmly in place it was. His eyes went to the black jacket with white lining the skeleton was wearing. It was a nice jacket, he thought. Nemo looked around the circle and stopped on a skeleton wearing the same jacket. He walked over to it while calling out to Ri. “Do these jackets mean anything to you?”

“What?” she asked, startled out of her trance. “They look like the ones the guards get when they join.” Ri looked around, “I was here a day ago. The only thing here was the boulder and the sword.”

“I’m not doubting you, but these guys look like they’ve been here awhile.” He examined the sword sticking out of one of the skeletons, trying to touch it as little as possible. “The blade on this sword is rusting, and I’m not the tracker Rayne is but I’d expect a display like this, whether done by one person or a few, would require a bit of foot traffic. I don’t see any tracks other than our own.”

Ri walked forward to the skeleton sitting on the boulder at the center of the clearing. “This looks like the raincoat––” she stopped dead.

Nemo turned around, Ri was staring down one of the forest paths. He was about to ask what was wrong when he heard them. Voices headed their way. Ri’s face had gone pale at the sound of the voices. “There shouldn’t be people here.” she said quietly.

Nemo grabbed her by the arm and led her into the trees, crouching down and extinguishing his lantern. “Cover the sword.”

Ri quickly got the blanket out of her bag and loosely wrapped Aotrom up in it. After a few seconds of waiting, two hooded figures holding torches and spears, with swords on their belts, emerged from the dark path. 

“See?” The first figure said, vindictively. ”I wasn’t making stuff up. I did my patrol this morning and nothing. Evening patrol, this.” He gestured around the clearing. Nemo couldn’t see their faces but their voices sounded young.

The second figure walked up to one of the skeletons wearing a guard jacket and started examining it. “This looks like one of ours. Is anyone missing their jacket?”

“I don’t think so. I don’t remember seeing anyone without theirs.” said the first. 

The one doing the investigating walked over to the center display and looked over the spears. “These look like our spears but those aren’t our swords.” As he said this, he lightly touched the tan raincoat the center skeleton was wearing.

“Is this a warning?” His companion asked, he sounded scared.

Yeah , I think we can say it is,” the second figure said disparaging ly. He paused for a moment. “They don’t usually give warnings though.” He looked around the circle, as he did the torch light reflected off the white liner of his hood. “Unless––” he was cut off by Ri bursting from their hiding spot.

“Chris? What the fuck are you guys doing here?” she asked, gesturing with the covered Aotrom. The two boys whipped around to face her, both pulling back their hoods.

“Briana, what the hell? We’ve been looking for you guys for months.” replied the ginger, angrily.

“First off, Bri- anna you piece of shit. We’ve known each other since we were six, get it right. Second, what do you mean months ? We’ve been here less than a day.” Chris scoffed and rolled his eyes annoyed.

“Hi, Ri.” the other boy said, waving awkwardly with his torch hand.

“Hey Teddy.” she looked around and noticed Nemo wasn’t with her. Seeing the worried look on her face he stepped out of the trees with his hands slightly raised. The noise and his sudden appearance startled the boys. They planted the torches into the ground and quickly moved between him and Ri; spears at the ready. “Wait, wait. Stop it!” she said smacking both boys on the shoulder. “He’s with me. Teddy, what did this jerk mean you’ve been looking for us for months?” Both boys relaxed, Chris started pacing around the clearing.

“It’s like he said. Gordie led us into the woods to find you guys. Girls. He thought you were in trouble––”

“Why would he think that?”

Teddy eyed Nemo nervously. “I mean…” he sheepishly gestured to the adventurer. “Why else would you be hanging out with someone like him?”

“Someone like me?” Nemo asked, smirking.

Before Teddy could answer, Chris was back in the group, gesturing with his spear. “This was months ago! We think. We lost track of the days a long time ago. We followed you through the portal and have been stuck here ever since.” He was trying to sound angry but Nemo heard his voice shake a couple of times.

Ri brushed the spear away from her face. “Listen, no one told you to follow us––”

“Gwen’s father did.”

At this point Nemo noticed that the boy Teddy wasn’t paying attention to the argument. Rather he was standing with his weapon ready, glancing into the forest. “Chris.” he said nervously. Chris ignored him but in the torch light Nemo could see that a thick fog had suddenly covered the forest. The fog was so dense that the paths and all but the closest trees had completely vanished. As if it had intelligently encircled them while they were distracted, it was now steadily creeping into the clearing. “Chris!” he said more desperately. Chris finally stopped glaring at Ri and looked around.

“Shit, they’re here. Circle up.” Chris moved to Teddy’s side and readied his spear. The fog was already upon them.

Ri looked to Nemo. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” He replied, gripping his sheathed sword. “But be ready and stay close.”

Ri gripped the wrapped sword close to her chest and took a deep breath. The silence of the darkness was broken by the crunching of forest debris from several directions around them. “Okay.” she said exhaling. She unfurled Aotrom and the moment it touched the air, the fog shot back from around her and most of the clearing, startling both boys.

Teddy turned around and saw Ri holding the glowing sword. “That’s new.”

Ri smirked at him as Chris looked to see what he was talking about. “Do you know how to use that?” he snarked.

“Do you still have that scar from when I tagged you in training?” 

The sounds of footsteps in the forest converged at a point to the left of them just outside the clearing, still cloaked in fog. The group repositioned themselves to face whatever was in the forest. Chris and Teddy in the front with their spears ready, Nemo and Rayne behind them. Rayne and Aotrom at the ready. Nemo drew his own sword with one hand and with the other, he palmed a glass marble from inside of the leather satchel at his side. Nemo had barely readied his sword with both hands when three figures engulfed in pitch black shadow emerged from the forest. 

They were tall; their heights varied slightly but Nemo guessed that even the shortest one stood three to four inches taller than him. The darkness drifted off of them like thick steam vapor. Their silhouettes resembled men or elves but appeared to have large horns.

After a moment of the two groups staring at each other, the figures drew weapons of their own from places unseen. The two flanking shadows had swords while the middle one held two axes. It leaned back, face to the sky, and from it a sound like the crack of thunder emerged. Nemo’s vision shook with the noise and he fell to one knee; steadying himself with his sword. He looked to his right, Ri was on her knees with her hands over her ears, forehead pressed against the ground, and Aotrom laying just in front of her; dimmer than it had been. He looked up as the fog rushed back towards them. As it passed through the figures, their forms puffed out like a cloud of smoke; their silhouette now a swirling mass of pitch black mist.

To Nemo’s surprise it was the boys who made the first move. Teddy and Chris charged the left and right masses; who moved forward steadily in kind. A second before they clashed, Chris stopped, hurled his spear at Teddy’s target and without seeing the result, unsheathed his short sword and engaged his target. The one creature dodged the thrown spear but in doing so was unprepared when Teddy ran his own through its chest. A thunderous roar, similar to the one before, echoed through the clearing. Nemo’s vision shook again but he recovered quickly.

The impaled creature grabbed Teddy by the jacket and whipped around. Teddy went flying through the air and disappeared into the fog. The shadow dropped the tattered jacket half that tore off Teddy’s body and gave chase into the mist. It was at that moment that Nemo realized the boys didn’t know he and Ri didn’t charge with them.

Nemo launched himself forward like a runner at the starting line; he charged towards the third and biggest of the creatures. As he did, the fog around them rushed back again, almost like he had startled it. To his left Chris was holding his own against his target but not gaining any ground as the dark figure’s attacks became more and more aggressive. Ahead and to the right, Teddy was on the ground, struggling against his adversary who was standing over him; evidently the creature had ripped the spear from its chest because it was now trying to impale Teddy with it. As Nemo shifted his focus back to his own target, Ri came rushing past him to help Teddy. As she did, Aotrom gripped in both hands shining brightly; the fog continued to run further from them, from her. The creatures’ forms snapped back into focus as the fog passed by them again.In front of him, his foe waiting for him. 

He was about twelve feet away from it when the black silhouette launched itself forward, axes held high above its head, smoke like darkness trailing behind it. Vibrations shook Nemo’s bones as their weapons clashed. He quickly found himself on the defensive. He peddled backwards parrying and dodging. Rushing in was reckless Nemo thought to himself. He didn’t know what this was or how to fight it. Was this a beast or was there intelligence in the darkness. 

Nemo got his answer as they clashed again, locking weapons. The figure pressed its weight against Nemo’s sword and brought its face close to his. No features could be made out from the darkness but from the abyss a chuckle like rolling thunder emerged. Intelligence, it was enjoying the fight. Good, Nemo thought.

With all of his strength, Nemo pushed the interlocked weapons upwards exposing both his and the figure’s chests. Take the bait, he silently pleaded. 

Crunch . Nemo felt his sternum crack as the figure kicked him in the chest, sending him tumbling backwards. He used the momentum to roll backwards and create distance. As his feet touched the ground a sprang up and backwards, widening the gap even more. The figure reared back and let out another thunderous laugh as Nemo flung the palmed marble forward. It struck the shadow in the chest and the sound of actual thunder echoed through the forest. Lightning ripped through the figure hitting a tree behind it; charred splinters and sparks exploded from the trunk.

The forest fell dead silent as the figure crumpled down dead. It hit the ground and evaporated in a puff of smoke. The two other figures froze in place, seemingly stunned. Chris was the first to take advantage of the lull. His adversary had him pressed up against a tree with a skeleton hanging from it. One of its hands was around his neck, the other holding his sword hand at bay. Chris reached above him and grabbed the sword holding the body in place. The creature screamed as he brought it down on its collar bone. It loosened its grip on Chris’s wrist and then went silent as he drove the freed sword up through its chin.

Chris stumbled forward through the smoke, skeleton following, as Nemo shifted his attention to Ri and Teddy. Their foe had regained its faculties and was holding its ground against the pair. It lashed out with its sword in one hand and twirled its stolen spear around with the other when it needed to drive them back. It was all Teddy could do to keep out of its reach. Where Nemo’s adversary moved and fought like a warrior powered by adrenaline, this one moved like a nimble fighter he observed.

Unlike Teddy, Ri parried and evaded the figure with ease. Nemo was about to rush in to help when something about Aotrom made him pause. Just before any movement Ri made, Aotrom’s light pulsed slightly. It pulsed, she knocked the figure’s sword away from her. Pulse, she brought her sword down on the creature who only barely managed to block with its spear. Pulse, she spun away from its counter attack. Mid spin Aotrom pulsed again, this time brighter than before. Ri moved and repositioned herself with unnatural speed, striking down again against the figure; this time slicing through the spear and the creature’s arm. It reeled back in pain but, with a pulse, Ri was right there driving Aotrom into its chest. The figure blew away in a puff of smoke before Aotrom’s hilt made contact. 

The fight was over and the group had a moment to breath. Nemo chuckled to himself watching Chris struggle with the skeleton he was now entangled with as Ri broke the silence.

“You can do magic?!” she exclaimed.

“Not exactly.”

“Looked like magic to me.” she said, approaching with Teddy.

“”Same.” Teddy agreed, looking hesitant to get close to Nemo.

“Just a bag of tricks, no magic talent here.” He looked to Chris. “What were those things?”

“We don’t know. We’ve been calling them shadow people… because why not?”

“Scathanna.” It was Ri. “They’re called scathanna.” Aotrom pulsed when she said the name.

“How…how do you know what they’re called?” Teddy asked.

“I don’t––” 

“Aotrom is telling you isn’t it?” asked Nemo.

Ri looked at the sword as it pulsed again. “I think she is.”

“Great the glowy sword talks to you…” Chris cut in. He looked at Teddy, “You in one piece?” Teddy looked himself over, removed the jacket half that was still hanging on to him, and nodded sheepishly. “Good. We need to get going before more come. The fog is gone. We need to move .” He looked around to get his bearings and started towards one of the paths.

“This is the way to the beach.” Ri said, pointing down a different path.

“Your beach maybe. We’re going back to ours.” he looked to Teddy. “We said we’d be back before nightfall.” 

“Hold up.” Ri shook her head in confusion. “It was the middle of the night when we entered the forest.”

Chris rolled his eyes. “When you entered the forest, your beach was in the middle of the night. Each path leads to a different beach. Each beach is on a different time schedule.” He started to walk away but turned back. “How have you guys not figured that out yet?”

I’m sorry . When we came across a scarecrow made from a skeleton, with a creepy sign telling us not to go any further, we didn’t!”

“Wait. You guys got a warning not to go further into the forest?” Teddy asked.

“Yeah, about halfway between here and our beach is another clearing.”

The two boys looked at each other. “Ours comes straight here. And the others we’ve been to are also straight shots.” said Teddy.

“Look. We can tell you guys everything we know about this place but we need to leave now.” Chris said, almost pleadingly.

 Ri looked at Nemo. “Should we go with them?”

“You guys were sent here to look for the girls right?” he asked Chris.

“We were.”

“If we go with you, will your group come back with us to their beach? To consolidate the groups.”

“Yeah. We’d do that. Gordie would probably suggest the same anyway.”

“Then yeah. We go with them.” Nemo said to Ri.

 

The group was walking for a bit, with Chris and Teddy in the lead when Nemo put his hand on Ri’s shoulder slowing her pace. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m good. Wasn’t hurt in the fight.”

“That’s…not exactly what I meant.” He paused trying to find the best way to ask his question. “Was Aotrom giving you instructions in the fight?”

“She was. Kind of. But not really.” She was speaking quickly, still hyped up on adrenaline. “Wait how did you know?”

“The sword would glow just before you acted. Like when it talks to you.”

“She wasn’t talking to me and I’m not even sure it was her.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve experienced it. When she talks to you there is a presence. You feel her. This…something was guiding me, not talking to me, and it wasn’t always female. In fact most of the time it was male, different males and once or twice the presence was female. But not Aotrom.” She thought for a second. “Should I be worried?”

“I don’t know. We don’t really know what that sword is. Just be careful, okay?”

She nodded as Teddy called out to them. “Guys catch up, we’re here.” 

The group stepped out of the forest and onto a familiar looking field of red grass. Ri ran ahead a few feet and stared wide eyed into the distance. “Are those houses?” Nemo looked ahead and sure enough, roughly two miles a head of them was a cluster of houses. He also took note of an odd shaped structure about halfway between them and the houses.

“Yeah, there’s fourteen of them.” Teddy answered. “They’re arranged in a spiral along a street. A bit past them is our beach. What about your beach?” 

“We just have the one house on the beach.” Ri shielded her eyes from the son that was setting in front of them. “Who is that?” She was pointing at the structure that now had someone under it waving a torch back and forth.

Chris stepped ahead of her and raised his torch in the air. “That’s our guard post.” He mimicked the other light’s movement as he said this. “Those creatures haven’t attacked us here yet but we’re still being careful. Come on.” He led them to the structure and Nemo couldn’t be anymore confused at what he saw. The structure, which he was now thinking is the wrong word, was a cylindrical object roughly the size of a carriage lying on the ground. Extending from the cylinder, at an angle upwards, was a large slab of metal at least the length of the main section. This gave the appearance that the object was lying slightly on its side. Nemo walked to what he presumed to be the front and ran his hand over the surface. At the front and along the sides, someone painted a black mouth with sharp white teeth. He crouched down and tried looking through the oval, bubble-like glass window that sat on top of the object. Years of dirt and grime made it almost impossible to see through. As Nemo circled to the back he saw that it looked like the object was originally larger, it looked like a chunk of it had been ripped off. He was so enamored by the object that he hadn’t noticed Ri was following him until he was back with the boys and was startled for a second that she wasn’t there.

“What is this thing?” Ri asked from behind Nemo.

“We have no idea.” said a tall boy with long blonde hair, he was the one who signaled them. “My brother thinks it's some kind of dwarven machine.” 

“It’s fascinating but not why we’re here.” said Chris. “Sam, grab your stuff.”

“But my shift isn’t over.”

“Gordie is going to be calling a meeting and I don’t feel like trekking back out here to get you. Come on.” 

 

Chris led the group to the center of the neighborhood and it was only then that Nemo realized he’d been here before. Ri must have had the same thought. “Nemo––”

“I know.” he replied.

“Does this mean––” she looked back to the forest nervously.

“I don’t know. In my vision the sun was above the forest. Not the ocean.”

“Same. So no attack yet?”

“What attack?” asked Teddy. He was standing beside them with Sam. Nemo looked around and Chris was gone.

“My sword gave us visions. One of them was this place being attacked by those shadow creatures.”

“Your sword gives you visions?” Sam asked.

“Apparently it also talks to her,” it was Chris coming back with several other boys. “She also says they’ve been here less than a day.”

“Chris, shut up for a second.” said the tallest of the boys. He looked to be wearing the same outfit as the others but wore a tan raincoat instead of the black jacket. “Ri, it’s good to see you.”

“Gordie, you guys keep talking like we didn’t see you just yesterday.”

“Ri, we’ve been here months. We’ve searched almost all of the beaches but never found any sign of you guys.”

“Almost?” Nemo asked.

The lead boy looked him over. “A few of the paths are blocked to us. When we first got here we searched this beach and three others. One was completely empty. One had a few dozen broken and decaying long ships that look hundreds of years old. And the third is an endless salt flat where the ocean should be.”

“What about the last one? There are five paths at the clearing.” Nemo asked.

“We haven’t had a chance to search there. Traveling back from the salt flat was the first time we were attacked by the shadows. Ever since then, if we enter on to a path it fills with fog and we’re attacked. Their attack parties are usually between two and four but even with a full group it takes everything we have to fight them off.” he sighed heavily. “We never tried pushing into the last beach. The second we stepped foot on that path, they were upon us. We thought that was the one they were coming from. I’m sorry.”

Ri looked at Nemo and then back to Gordie. “You have nothing to apologize for. We’ve been coming here for over a year and have never been attacked.”

Gordie nodded his head understandingly, “I still don’t understand the time difference though.”

“I had a thought on that,” said Nemo, “Bri, you and the girls said you can choose when you go back? You can choose how long you’ve been gone?”

“Yeah?” she responded questioningly, clearing not following his thought process.

“What if the same thing can happen when entering the portal? Have you girls ever entered the portal separately or is it always as a group?”

“A group. It was part of our pact; we could only come here as a group.”

“So your theory…” Gordie cut in, “your theory is that this place is…?”

“That this place is weird .” said Nemo, mimicking Mac. “Also, how did you guys figure out how to open the portal?”

“We didn’t…” he trailed off for a second, “it was already open when we got there, I thought you guys left it open.”

“The portal closed behind us. Someone else must be coming and going from this place.”

“Great. Now that, that is cleared up. What is this about an attack?”

Ri took a deep breath, “Okay, so long story short. Found this glowing sword in the woods, picked it up, turns out the sword is a she named Aotrom, she started talking to me and giving me visions. I'm part of some prophecy about defeating a great evil at the expense of those I love.”

“That’s… a lot. Do you have specifics on what this ‘great evil’ is? Could it be the shadow creatures?”

“They’re actually called Scathanna. And I don’t think so. They’re definitely involved but I don’t think they’re Aotrom’s main focus.”

“Gordie, it could also be the queen.” Chris interjected.

“What queen?” Ri asked.

Gordie took a deep breath, “At the salt flat. We traveled a decent way across the dead ocean and came upon a field of swords sticking out of the ground. Almost like grave markers. At the center of the field was a woman. She was kneeling on the ground, maybe praying. She was wearing a black gown with long sleeves, it looked like a mourners gown.  Her head and face are covered by a silver chainmail veil that came down to her torso. On her head was an iron crown with long spiked prongs. When we called out to her the entire field of swords started shaking. The closest to her lifted into the air and started circling her.”

“What did you guys do?” Ri asked.

Chris shook his head, “We fucking ran.”

“We did,” confirmed Gordie, “we ran back to the clearing where we were attacked for the first time by the shadow people. The Scathanna.” He looked at Aotrom wrapped up and tied to Ri’s pack. “Could you ask your sword about her? We’ve been calling her the Queen of Swords.”

“I came up with that.” said the short dark haired boy standing next to Sam.

“It’s really hard to ask Aotrom about specific things,” started Ri, “we don’t have full conversations. They’re fragmented. I actually get the feeling like she’s hurt; not whole and struggling.”

“Oh.” Gordie thought for a second. “Have you tried healing her?”

“How would I even start to go about that? My mom is the blacksmith and even then she’s not physically damaged.”

“Actually, I was thinking Mac. I know she has some healing spells up her sleeve, have you tried asking her to heal Aotrom?”

“I have not.” She looked stunned. “That’s actually a really good idea.”

“Well, no time to waste. BOYS!” The other five boys who had been standing at the ready rushed to Gordie. “Pack up. We’re leaving in ten.” The boys ran off into several houses; presumably to gather their things. As Teddy turned to leave Gordie grabbed his shoulder. “Where is your jacket, guardsman?”

“We ran into some of the Scath… Scathanna?” he looked to Ri for reassurance and she nodded in response. “It got torn in half in the fight. I’m sorry.” he stared at the ground as he apologized.

Gordie playfully nudged him on the shoulder. “I’m sure you gave them hell for it.” He took off his raincoat and tossed it to him. “Take it, give it back to me when we get home.”

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