Rashemen Book 2

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"Well, in that case, I suggest that we get ourselves to a place that will better suit us for defense when he does attack, or send more minions, such as a forest, with lots of boulders in the ground. I bet we can find something better than this rocky barren lake with just a day or two's journey. Let's go." Sepp walked over to Gesed and hugged him goodbye, then set off to the south, towards the forests, towards Iceborn.

 

Atten sat down and took a load off his tired feet.

 

Nakia followed Sepp glad to be getting away from the icey wasteland. Whatever they had to face it would be better in the living forest.

 

Jex shrugged, sheathed his scimitars and followed after Nakia, he couldn't after all let Sepp go off on his own now could he.

 

Delinos took a quick glance down at Atten, then trotted behind the others.

Although they both weren't about to show it, the Drow brothers were scared out of their minds.

 

After a few days journey, the group reached a very nice place indeed. Inside a nice forest, a small river cut a steep valley out of the bedrock, exposing granite boulders interlaced with iron ore. There was much life here.

"We'll make our stand here. He'll come soon. Let's set up a nice surprise or two for our mind flayer friend, shall we?" Sepp asked his companions.

 

"I wish Del was still around, she would know the lay of the land better than anyone." Jex said as he looked around the valley. "I'd prefer to fight him in a shadowy cave, or at night if possibly. With three drow, the darkness would be our advantage."

 

"What sort of traps would work on a mindflayer?"

 

"Just about any trap if you can get him into it. The problem is where to put them and how to hide them. Also, everyone needs to know where they are to avoid them and be able to lure him into them.

Jex, you are right. Night would be best if we can manage it, or at least dark. Halflings do best in the shadows. So that is five for darkness. Maron, Alexi, Atten how are you in darkness? Mayhap that would be a problem for you?

A cave, narrow entrance but space for fighting."

Nakia looked speculatively at Sepp but mummers. "But we are all tired and used so much of ourselves already."

 

Sepp heard Nakia say something, actually it was more of hearing her inside his head instead of with his ears. He opened his eyes and caught his balance with a jolt, realizing he had been about to fall asleep. "Yeah, uh, what was that, Nakia?"

 

"Aye, and none of you have a regeneratize amulet like mine. Which judging by the lack of results it's been drained in the last few days. Or else I am to beat up to allow my body to catch up." Jex said as he tapped at the amulet trying to get it to work. Perhaps it is time for a good rest. Not a five minute breather while we run from a demon."

 

Maron smiled "I'm fine in darkness, don't worry about me. If anyone is feeling bad, I have some healing spells left. How best should I help in the fight? SHould I heal, or attack?"

 

"Can you cast, Chaotic Command, if so that spell would come in helpful against a Mindflayer. It eliminates the power of their psionics." Jex said looking towards Maron. "If you can cast it on one of us. But it has to be a person who can get close to the Mindflayer, we might just get out of this encounter unscathed."

"We'll have to kill the Mindflayer first, or at least incapacitate him. Whatever minions he has won't be nearly as much of a threat to our well being. But don't take them lightly. Especially if it's those demons again."

 

Maron smiled. "I can cast it, yes. It seems to me that you would be the best person to cast it on. Not only a fighter, but a drow. I assume that you know more of the devourers than most of us, right?"

She cast the spell anyway, sure that he was the best option. She cast a number of strength enhancing spells, just to be safe, and then a thought struck her.

"If I cast a Slay Living spell, I can help you, Jex. I am more manoeuvrable than anyone else, and so if someone distracts him, I can try the spell. What do you think?"

 

"Only if you feel safe. Getting close to him that is." Jex said as he flexed his newly invigorated muscles. "Remember the most important thing is getting out of the fight alive. That goes for everyone."

 

"Yes, let's all try to survive this fight," Sepp agreed. He found himself being pulled back to sleep. He sat down next to a tree. He looked inside himself and saw a huge hole. It was the emptiness of his energy reserves. He had done so much in the past few weeks, constantly pulling energy from one place, channeling it from or to somewhere else, but always part of the force had to be from his own self. He had dug himself an enormous hole that needed to be filled up with sleep, food, and contentedness. He teetered on the edge of the pit for a horrifying moment, looking down into the black depths of his existence.

Then he fell in.

Nakia, who'd been resting next to him, felt him go, and grabbed at his mind, only to follow him into the pit of slumber.

 

Atten was already asleep, gald to be away from the lifeless land of ice and feeling more at home with the stronger living force he could feel in this area.

 

Jex smiled at Maron and climbed a nearby tree. He would take first watch. The amulet was beginning to work again. He sat on a thick limb and looked off in the distance. He felt content and at the same time prepated. The Mindflayer and his demon companions would find trouble if they attempted to harm Jex and his friends tonight.

He looked around as everyone slept or prepared to sleep. Allowing his eyes to close Jex slipped into meditation, he continued to use his other senses to look out for trouble.

 

Huiy'Trej watched the group from a clearing in the distance. He stood along side the lead demon who had encountered the group early. "They are strong and they fight well together" said the demon.

Huiy'Trej stood in silence, he could sense the power of the two drow brothers, they would be the wild card when he attacked. He was a little nervous about the half drow, his soul seemed weak, but it didn't seem to affect the young elf. The two halflings seemed like the easiest targets but from the assassins and the demons tellings they were still formidable.The human druid didn't seem like much, but there had to be something special about him. He was the one charged with protecting the Heart of the Earth Even the avariel was a concern of the Mindflayer.

He was a little concerned, but he still considered himself more powerful than the whole group. "We'll attack at dawn, you and your spawn will wreak havoc and I'll use my psionics to eliminated the greatest threats." Huiy'Trej said as he cast a shadow door spell and dissapeared into the night air.

 

Blackness. Sleep. A new awareness of existence. The sloshing of water.

Sepp opened his eyes and found himself in Drell’s boat on a large river, with his whole family seated comfortably around him, which was weird, because Drell’s boat was just some goat skins stretched over a bone and wood frame and was barely big enough for her. A handsome halfling, who Sepp knew to be his uncle Charlie, but not in dog form, smiled at him a friendly hello. Sepp looked at the river, which was large and flowed gently along. Drell didn’t have her oar, they just floated down the river, letting the current take them where they will.

“Ma,” Sepp asked. “What’s the name of this river? I’ve never seen it before.”

“Most people aren’t even aware of it. They just flow along in it like that leaf there,” she answered, pointing to a yellow leaf floating by them. “Those who are aware of it have different names for it. Some call it Life. Others Time. We all must go with its flow, from the Mountain to the Sea.”

Drell let her hand trail in the water, making small splashes and eddies. Sepp watched the water. Sometimes, a large boulder underneath the surface caused the water to curl and eddy, or roll around and get caught in a spin for awhile, but for the most part, all the water, and all the things on and in it, went in one direction, towards the Sea.

“Ma, why does everything have to run towards the sea, and not the other way?” Sepp asked.

“You always were the curious one, Little Sepp,” Ma replied. “If you look closer, you will see that that is not always true, though for the majority of things it is a valid observation. When Drell splashes in the water, some of it goes backward for just a little ways. Look over there,” she said, pointing to a tributary where a small waterfall was throwing mist up to float back a ways before it settled back on to the stream. “Who knows how long some of that water has been caught in the trap, constantly going over the falls, turned to mist, falling back down again, only to become mist again, while the majority just tumbles over the falls, oblivious to where it is or what is happening. And look there,” she pointed to a large chunk of ice, stubbornly refusing to leave its perch on the bank. “That water might have been frozen for years and years, letting the River just roll on by. And when Water is frozen like that,” she beckoned two small pieces of ice over to her and picked them up, “It is possible to send it a long ways forwards or backwards in the River, just so.” She threw one piece of ice ahead of them a ways, and the other behind them. "And then there are the Clouds.”

“The Clouds?” Sepp asked, looking up to the sky. “Oh yes, of course.” He could see many clouds behind them, and also many clouds ahead of them. Some of them looked just like clouds, but others. Well, they looked kind of scary. “What about the Clouds, Ma?”

“As in Nature, they are the water that has taken to the sky. They are behind us and ahead of us. And as you see, sometimes they look like things. If they are very big, you can see them from a long ways off, but it always seems that they get blurry as you get closer to them. Whenever you try to take a really good look at something that seems important, you end up getting lost in a fog.” Ma sounded really wistful at that.

“I see,” Sepp said. Though he really didn’t. Not yet anyway. This was all so weird.

Suddenly, the boat hit a rock, and Pa, Ma, and Drell fell out into the River. Pa sank like a stone. Ma and Drell stayed under, but visible, flowing along with the current. Watching them, Sepp became aware of other creatures in the Water. Sometimes they went with the flow, but sometimes they stayed where they were, or even swam against the current!

“Ma, Drell!” Sepp called to them. “What are those things swimming with you?”

“There are Ones who can swim in this River, up and down it they go, the only ones who can resist the pull of the Sea,” Drell answered.

Someone touched Sepp’s shoulder. It was his uncle Charley. “It was good to see you in color, I’ve got to go.” He fell out of the boat and was not there anymore as soon as he hit the water. Sepp looked at the only one left in the boat with him, Gesed, who was crying profusely.

“Gesed, what’s wrong?” Sepp asked with concern.

“All the Water in this River wouldn’t be enough to cry the tears needed to be shed for our family.” He glanced at a dark cloud they were quickly approaching. Sepp looked too. It was ominous, vaguely like something he had seen before. A large shape, with a boars head and goat legs. What was it? Where had he seen it before? “Looks like it’s time for you to wake up, Prophet,” Gesed said as he pushed Sepp into the water.


Sepp woke up next to Nakia, who was still sleeping. It was raining, almost dawn. Thunder pounded through the ground. The beast was near him.

He sprang up and drew his two green daggers, letting the small amount of acid on them suck in the rain and turn it to more acid. Behind a tree, the large demon from the previous attack was looking for him, or his friends. He jumped out and thrust a dagger into each of the demon’s legs. It howled, then sat on him.

He was squished. It grabbed him and held him up in the air. “Well, look here. It’s the Sleep stumbling false prophet. I’m gonna eat your heart!”

“You’ll have to eat mine first!” a cold voice growled as an accompaniment to the sound of steel sliding into flesh. The demon looked down at its chest and saw the point of a sword protruding a few inches. It dropped Sepp, took two steps forward off the sword, and turned around to face Prince Alexi, ichor dripping from his sword.

“Okay, I’ll have it your way. Royal hearts taste much finer than this common sort anyway,” the demon said. It took a small crystal hourglass out of a pouch and crushed it in its hand.

The World changed. Time stopped. Sepp’s body stopped working, his heart didn’t pump, he didn’t breath, but somehow he was still aware of the creatures now moving around him, Alexi, and the demon. They were the Ones who swam whereever they wanted to in the River of Time. Somehow, by crushing that crystal hourglass, the demon had called many of them to his service. Sepp watched in horror as the demon took Alexi’s sword and used it to split his chest open. With two huge hands the demon cranked open the cavity and lifted Alexi’s heart out. Then, with a wink of an eye, he dismissed the Time creatures.

Everything moved again. Alexi was suddenly aware that his heart was in the mouth of a fiend. “Dinner time!” the demon said in an awful cheerful tone, then bit down and swallowed Alexi’s heart after three chews.

Somehow, Alexi managed to shout, “Mother!” as a last word.

“Now for seconds,” the demon said, turning to Sepp.