FARHAYVEN: VENGEANCE Page 6

  Spirit lay on his belly, his eyes gazed lazily into the flickering flames. Ray was already asleep. But sleep came hard for Lance. He relived the horror of his family’s death in his dreams night after night, waking up with tears in his eyes. After a long struggle, he finally dozed off. The howling wind had died down to a gentle whispering breeze, a fitting serenade to the three wearisome travellers fast asleep in this dimly lit cave.

  The next morning the trio woke up to the harmonic chirping of birds. The bonfire had burnt to ashes and the sun was just rising over the distant mountain tops. Their usual routine began. They freshened up at a nearby stream. The icy cold water jolted their senses to life. Breakfast consisted of some wild fruits and vegetables they had found in the forest the evening before, in addition to the supplies that Ray had bought earlier in Greentown. Then there was nothing left to do but to walk, and walk they did. Everyday, they walked and walked so that they could get to the next town. But Lance sensed that there was more to this nomadic travelling than just moving from town to town hunting demons for rewards, yet he was too polite to ask. He was sure he would find out when the time was right.

  The morning was cool due to the heavy downpour the night before. A gentle breeze soothed their skins as the trio walked down the lonely road heading eastward. Ray stared straight ahead, immersed in heavy thought as he walked. Something was troubling him, yet he was not sure what it was. Lance was taking in the sights of his surroundings as he walked. He had never been out of the Greentown area before and the forest that they were now travelling through held mystery and excitement for him. Strange looking butterflies, rhythmic chirping of birds and the occasional monkey swinging from tree to tree enthralled him. Lance was used to the green of plants, but unlike his father’s farm, these were wild and disorganised; somehow chaotic yet calming at the same time. Spirit moved along beside them. He was neither in deep thought like Ray nor fascinated with the forest like Lance. His state of mind was one of alertness, both for prey and for predator. His eyes were wide and his ears erect, waiting and searching for signs that only the hunter-survivalist instinct in him could understand.

  The strangest thing happened! They felt dizzy and disorientated. They lost their footing. Both Ray and Lance fell. Ray managed to land in a one-kneed kneeling position while Lance ended up flat on the ground. Spirit staggered wildly but did not fall. Low-pitched, loud rumbling noises deafened their senses. Lance turned questioningly to Ray.

  “Earthquake,” said Ray.

  Then the rumbling stopped. The dizziness and disorientation took a few moments longer to subside. Lance had never experienced an earthquake before and from the look of confusion in the white wolf’s face, neither had Spirit. Ray had experienced it only once before, a long time prior. All around them there was just silence. Then the birds started chirping again.

  “So this is… um… Earthquake _ so the feeling of being in one of this is as such, master?” asked Lance, as he picked himself up off the ground.

  Ray was already standing. Spirit looked around curiously.

  “Earthquake _ the feeling of being in one of this is as such, though it may vary in intensity,” explained Ray.

  “Why… Earthquake _ why does one of this happen and why now?” questioned Lance.

  “Earthquake _ of this, it has happened before, 20 years ago. Rare _ earthquakes are of this and the reason they happen is because Nature always, ALWAYS tries to seek equilibrium, which is a type of balance; and when this balance is upset, the forces of Nature reacts and responds with all her might. Nature _ the force of this is so powerful that masses of land can be caused to shift and collide with each other, thereby causing earthquakes,” Ray explained further.

  “Cause _ what is it of this that resulted in the imbalance of Nature just now?” asked Lance.

  “Know _ I do not of this of the specific cause but maybe we shall be able to find out soon, as it will be no small matter and it will be quite obvious,” admitted Ray.

  The trio resumed their journey, harassed by mild aftershocks. At noon, they stopped to rest and have lunch. After a two-hour rest, they resumed their journey eastward. The many cotton-looking cumulus clouds had begun to take form up above; providing the trio with a temporary shade from the hot sun. Ray looked at the clouds and estimated that they would have about five hours before the clouds developed into cumulonimbus clouds easily twice the height of an average mountain. These clouds would then send down gusting winds and lashing rain that were so typical of the nights of Wet Season. He knew that the lifespan of a cumulonimbus cloud was approximately two hours, with half an hour of development stage, half an hour of heavy downpour and one hour of dissipation in the form of light rain. However, the dissipation of such a cloud would provide enough moisture to develop another of its kind and the cycle would repeat itself. The overall effect would be relentless rain lasting the entire night.

  After two and a half hours of travelling, they stopped to set up camp for the night. Half an hour was spent on foraging for food and the driest of woods that they could find; and another half an hour was required to build a makeshift tent, using the long roll of black canvas that Ray had strung across his back. That left another one and a half hours for Lance’s martial arts training, less than ideal as far as Ray was concerned, but Nature had not left him much choice.

  One and a half hours later, Lance was sweating profusely from practising the Cross Side Horse Kick. To execute this kick, Lance began by standing side-ways facing an imaginary opponent. He then moved his rear leg forward across the back of his front leg, lifted his front leg in a curled knee position and finally, extended it explosively towards that imaginary opponent. As Lance wiped the sweat of his brow, a flash of lightning cut across the darkening sky and the shattering sound of thunder came a few moments later. Ray stopped Lance’s lesson and Lance hurried off to the nearby stream to clean up. A quarter of an hour later, the first wave of violent outbursts from the clouds above hit their little makeshift tent, which was water-proof as the canvas was treated with a special type of resin. Ray had, through the use of his Elemental Sorcery skills, raised a wall of solid rock on the upwind side of their tent and used it as a windbreak. Then all three of them went to sleep in the coldness and the darkness of the wet night.

  The next day, Ray, Lance and Spirit continued on the lonely road eastward. Lance was taking in the beautiful sights of nature, as usual, when suddenly Ray stopped. A piece of dark blue canvas stood out slightly amongst the green of the forest. Lance did not know the significance of this, but Ray and Spirit did. It was a sad sight, but a familiar one. The canvas that they saw was a piece of clothing from a dead man. Ray went to take a closer look and confirmed his suspicion. The distinct headband on the corpse identified him as an Elementhar, though its jewels were gone. Lance stared at the body, but felt neither fear nor revulsion. He had seen dead bodies before.

  Ray searched around and retrieved a book from a backpack nearby. He examined the book closely. It had a slightly damaged dark blue cover, but the pages within were undamaged. He knew the significance of the colour of the book’s cover and the dead man’s robe but he read through some of the pages to be certain.

  “Ordered Elementhar _ he is one of him, and of the Order of Water Elementhars as proven by this book,” said Ray as he showed the book to Lance.

  “Know _ how do you do of this, master?” asked Lance.

  “Identify _ one can normally do of this through the centre jewel of an Elementhar’s headband, or the colour of his robe, or the colour of his book cover, and most certainly through the contents of its pages,” answered Ray.

  “Book _ of it, what is its significance?” asked Lance.

  “Book _ the significance of it is that it is his personal copy of the Vanguard Manuscript, a hand-written document of our history, laws, the spells that we have mastered and also of our life experiences. Vanguard Manuscripts _ every Ordered Elementhars’ one of these are similar in its record of our history and laws, but are individual in it
s record of the spells that that particular Elementhar has mastered and of his or her life experiences. Vanguard Manuscripts _ each copy of these are the individual Elementhar’s identity, or you may describe it as his soul expressed in words and recorded on paper,” explained Ray.

  Lance took a good look at the book in his hand.

  “Colour _ of this, what is its significance?” asked Lance.

  “Colour _ of this, dark blue signifies water, orange-red represents fire, dark brown symbolises earth, white denotes wind and golden yellow is identified with mind. Vanguard Manuscripts _ every copy of these are distinct and individual, and it is a courtesy to return such a manuscript to the owner’s order so that they know of his demise and are able to honour him or her properly,” answered Ray.

  “Reading _ of this and of writing, I know neither!” said Lance in a sudden burst of panic.

  “Teach _ I shall do of this to you,” comforted Ray.

  Ray took the book back from Lance and placed it in his backpack. He also salvaged the dead Elementhar’s canvas tent roll and his backpack, which he gave to Lance. The backpack contained some cooking utensils, a bamboo water container and some clean clothing. Unfortunately, the robbers or scavengers, whoever they were, took the dead Elementhar’s sword and hunter’s knife. A hunter’s knife would have been very useful to Lance. Ray and Lance dug a grave and buried the dead Elementhar. They then proceeded on their journey. Lance was curious as to the cause of the Elementhar’s death but did not ask, though the white eyes of the corpse and its shrivelled skin gave an almost clear indication of demon attack. The dead Elementhar was probably robbed by thieves after his death. Ray had explained to him earlier that there were many thieves and highwaymen in Free Falls, owing to the economic hardship that had befallen the kingdom.

  That evening, instead of practising martial arts, Ray taught Lance meditation instead. Ray instructed Lance to seat comfortably, draw in slow deep breaths and calm his mind. This was fairly easy for Lance; however, the next step was almost impossible. He was told to ‘empty’ his mind of all thoughts. He tried and tried, but his mind would not allow itself be emptied. Ray told him to draw in deeper and slower breaths. He relaxed his mind more. Ray told him to let go of the feelings of fear, anxiety, sorrow and all negative emotions. He tried, but achieved only mild success. Then Ray told him to let go of the feelings of happiness, excitement, satisfaction and all positive emotions. This was also met with mild success. But slowly, both positive and negative feelings began to vacate his mind. Now all that was left was a floating sensation and he felt himself floating aimlessly in the void of his mind. But in that void lay a calmness that he had never experienced before. He continued to immerse himself in it for half an hour.

  Ray evaluated Lance’s progress. He was pleased so far.

  “Eyes _ stop and open yours of them now,” he instructed.

  Lance opened his eyes immediately. All the emotions rushed back into his mind.

  “Wow… I mean, calmness _ I experienced of this, master,” expressed Lance.

  “Progress _ you have made of this fairly well today, Lance. Meditate _ you must do of this after each martial arts lesson. Important _ it is very much of this that you do so, so as to remove the unwanted side effects of the lessons, or else you may become agitated and unnecessarily aggressive,” instructed Ray.

  Lance nodded his head to indicate that he understood.

  The late evening Fallsian sky opened up once again with its routine of thunderstorm and rain. Lance sat in the makeshift tent that they had built earlier, slowly eating his dinner. Spirit was already asleep, his chest rising and falling in rhythm with the gusts outside the tent. Ray was reading the copy of the Vanguard Manuscript that he had retrieved from the dead Elementhar, illuminated by the tiny flame that was being produced by his right index finger.

  Reading the manuscript, Ray found out that the dead Elementhar had conducted many of the same experiments that he himself had once conducted when he was a novice; but through the notations of the results, he sensed that the dead Elementhar was a very conservative person in nature. The first clue was the nature of his handwriting. It was neat and upright. It showed that he was a careful person, and a careful person was normally conservative in nature. The second clue was that the dead Elementhar did not vary his experimentations, but merely conducted his experiments in accordance with the standard instructions. This meant that he did what he was told, and not what he wanted to do or was curious to do. Or so Ray felt, but he could be wrong. He would find out more about the dead Elementhar as he read more of the manuscript later, he decided. But he was getting tired, so he closed the manuscript and placed it in his backpack, and welled up his emotions of sorrow and sympathy for Master Elementhar Wave Soltude.

  The Seventh Day of Second Month of Wet Season began as usual for the trio. The shadow of the late morning clouds provided a minor relief from the hot rays of the sun as they climbed the steep slope of a large hill. It was a short cut off the main road. Animal-drawn vehicles could not get through the steep incline of the hill and thus the road was made to go around it. Ray and Lance negotiated the steep terrain with great difficulty, occasionally losing their foothold due to the loose soil. Spirit, on the other hand, ran up the hill easily and stared back at them. He stood on the small plateau at the hilltop, wagging his tail as he waited for his two companions to arrive, which they did after completing the two hour climb.

  Ray sat down on a medium-sized boulder that was the common feature of this plateau. Lance sat on another and was gulping down some water when suddenly, Spirit started a low pitched growl and bared his fangs.

  Suddenly, an arrow cuts through the air and lands a finger’s length away from Ray. Ray jumps to his feet while shouting instructions for Lance to hide behind a large boulder nearby. Several arrows fly from behind some nearby bushes towards Ray. Pointing a finger down towards the ground, Ray sends out a continuous flow of soul energy and upon flicking his finger upwards, raises a wall of solid earth; thereby shielding him from these deadly arrows. Rolling sideways away from the wall of solid earth, Ray counter-attacks by sending a few flaming spheres soaring towards the bushes. Loud explosions echo throughout the plateau as the spheres hit their targets, and seven humanly figures run out of the bushes, stumbling and screaming in pain as some parts of their bodies were on fire.

  Spirit does not waste even a single heartbeat of time, running and leaping into the nearest of the humanly figures. He sinks his fangs in deep and anchors himself onto his prey. The unfortunate victim lets out a feeble moan as the life drains away from his body. Meanwhile, Ray runs forward and using his silver staff, delivers a Horizontal Strike to one of the attacker’s jaw, smashing it. As the attacker turns and falls to the ground, Ray follows up with a Vertical Strike to the top of his head, shattering his skull and thereby killing him.

  By now, the remaining five attackers manage to put out the fires on their bodies by rolling on the ground, and begin to surround Ray and Spirit. They abandon their bows and draw out their swords instead. The first attacker stands exactly in front of Ray, the second and subsequent ones surrounding Ray and Spirit in a clock-wise direction. Spirit let go of the corpse and stares fiercely into the fourth attackers’ eyes. This attacker shrinks slightly in fear and takes a step backwards.

  With a tremendous yell, Ray thrusts his finger at the first attacker and sends an arrowhead shaped pebble straight into his throat, thereby ending his despicable life. At the same time Spirit runs toward the fear-stricken attacker but at mid-point, turns instead towards the third attacker, and then leaps into the air and sinks his razor sharp fangs into this unfortunate victim. The fourth attacker freezes in fear as he watches Spirit’s savage attack and the fatal result it brings. Ray attacks the fifth attacker who is standing next to the first one and executes a horizontal strike to the torso. The fifth attacker tries to block the strike with his sword, but with marginal success. Ray follows up by stepping forward and executes a Horizontal Strike from the r
everse-side and smashes the attacker’s knee, sending him crashing to the ground in pain.

  Ray runs through the gap that has been created by the downing of the two attackers, turns around and faces the second attacker. The second attacker lunges forward with a stabbing motion. Ray easily parries the attack and slams his silver staff into the attacker’s jaw in a counter-attack, sending him spinning towards the ground. The fourth attacker turns to run, but within ten paces an arrowhead shaped pebble pierces his heart from the back and separates his soul from his body. The fifth attacker tries to get on his feet, but with a shattered knee, has tremendous trouble doing so. Not being naive enough to wait for his opponent to fully regain his footing so that he can be attacked again, Ray steps forward and deals out a fatal Vertical Strike to the attacker’s skull. Turning towards the second attacker, Ray realises that he is already dead as his head had fallen on a sharp rock that has cracked his skull.

  Ray signalled for Lance to come out.

  “They _ who are of them?” asked Lance.

  “Robbers _ they are of them and by the looks of it, killers as well, judging by the fact that they had tried to shoot arrows at us earlier,” replied Ray.

  “Doubt _ master, I do not mean to do of this of you, but was it necessary to kill the one that was trying to run away as well?” expressed Lance.