Elements of Glory: The Princess of Nothing

’Change is something that never changes… that is to say, change is always coming, and it’s not about how much or how little change enters your life, it’s how you deal with it when it arrives… do you understand?’

-Thaddeus, one of his favourite lessons to teach his Orphans

As the rain poured down on Aragam, Togik, Wuzzul, and the baby Samantha, the blue-clad Wasgician found himself glancing back and back at the grey and white castle. He’d half expected Emily to see them off, despite the harsh words the two of them often shared. But she’d not shown. He didn’t believe she was really a Princess, but she certainly knew how to act like one!

He shifted his weight in the saddle on Togik’s back, and held baby Samantha closer to him, trying to shield her from the rain. Wuzzul, now awake – and getting wetter by the moment – stood in front of the Wasgician, on the edge of the saddle, his hairy-backed hands held over Samantha’s face like an umbrella.

‘Me wishes the rain would stop,’ Wuzzul said sadly, looking up at Aragam with his big, round, eyes.

‘You and me both,’ Aragam grumbled, looking toward the open gates of the castle, as Togik trotted through them. They passed through, onto the muddy road that split off in a ‘T’ some distance ahead. Aragam knew their rout took them left, toward the Kingdom of Beryit.

‘Might as well hurry up, Horse,’ Aragam sighed, nudging Togik in the side with his heel. ’We don’t have all day, remember?’

The Stryth snorted. ’I wish you’d stop calling me, Horse.’

‘Listen,’ Aragam said with a bit of an edge, ’you get me out of these God-forsaken lands and I’ll call you whatever you want.’

Togik snorted again, and then started to trot, which quickly turned into a canter, and then a full out gallop. Aragam, holding Samantha tightly in his arms, pressed his knees into Togik’s side, to keep from falling off. Wuzzul bounced up and down on the edge of the saddle in front of Aragam, but never fell, concentrating deeply on keeping the rain out of Samantha’s face.

On and on they charged, through the forest. As they made their way along the muddy road – thick green forest on both sides of them – Aragam lost tack of time. His thoughts got him thinking about Grulem, and what the man’s reaction would be when he returned with a baby and a small funny looking creature, who declared himself as Samantha’s protector.

I’m probably not even going to get paid, Aragam thought moodily to himself.

The Wasgician was quickly taken from his thoughts, when Togik came to a sudden halt, throwing Aragam forward in the saddle and nearly launching Wuzzul off of his perch. The jarring stop scared Samantha and the baby started to bawl loudly.

’Horse,’ Aragam growled, looking up, ‘what the-’

The Wasgician fell silent when he saw what had caused the Stryth to so suddenly stop. Standing in the road ahead of them, soaked from head to toe, was a small boy, who couldn’t have been much more than ten cycles old. He had pale, grey, skin and inky black hair. He was standing in the road, barefoot, in tattered clothes, and had his profile to Aragam, so the Wasgician couldn’t really make out the child’s face.

The child didn’t move, he just stayed where he was, in that one spot, barefoot, the rain pouring down on him.

‘What’s him doing?’ Wuzzul asked, and then looked at Samantha, concern in his big eyes. ‘I think him is bothering Samantha.’

Aragam really didn’t believe for a moment that the strange boy had any bearing on the baby’s mood. It had been Togik’s sudden stop that had set her off.

‘Just go around him,’ Aragam said to Togik.

The Stryth shook his head. ’No,’ he whispered, ’I sense great evil… I feel the chill of… death.’

Aragam knitted his brow in surprise. He didn’t feel anything. He admitted to himself, drearily, that he wasn’t the greatest Wasgician of all time, but he could usually sense dark Gemgic or powerful evil as good as anyone... he didn’t feel anything.

Then, to his further surprise, he felt Togik start to tremble; he began backing up too.

‘We need to get out of here,’ the Stryth said, fear in his voice.

’This is the only road,’ Aragam reminded. ‘Where exactly would you-’

Wuzzul snatched Samantha out of Aragam’s arms, and leapt down to the muddy road, running – at incredibly fast speeds – with the crying baby, back the way they’d come.

‘HEY!’ Aragam bellowed. He was about to leap off the back of the Stryth, when an overwhelming chill fell over him, and he knew it was the presence of powerful evil. Aragam couldn’t imagine why he’d not felt it before. As he released a breath, a huge plume of steam blossomed out in front of him, and his eyes were drawn to the grey child in the road.

‘W-what’s happening?’ Aragam asked, his voice weak in his throat.

‘It’s the child…’ Togik said, his voice sounding equally strained. ’This is the Dead Boy!’

The child turned its head, and looked directly at Aragam. The skin around his eyes was inky black, and his eyes were dark pools of nothing. The child’s lips were black too, contrasting shockingly against his pale skin. A lifeless expression hung on his face, as he canted his head to one side, and started walking forward, smoothly, hauntingly, like a ghost.

‘What’s going on?’ Aragam said, his teeth chattering. ’It’s the morning! The evil of the Weral Kingdom only moves in the night!’

‘HANG ON!’ Togik cried, wheeling around and breaking into a solid gallop again, fleeing the Dead Boy. Aragam clung to the Stryth for dear life, and scanned the road ahead of them for Wuzzul and Samantha. Some distance ahead, the little creature was scurrying along the soggy road, clutching Samantha close to him.

‘We have to grab them,’ Aragam shouted toward Togik’s ear.

The Stryth didn’t respond.

‘HORSE, DO YOU HEAR ME?’

Togik continued on, and even started running faster. He wasn’t going to stop! The fear had him and was blinding him! Aragam grabbed Togik’s reigns and yanked back on them, the Stryth tossed his head, reared up, whinnying angrily, and then dropped back down, bucking wildly and sending Aragam flying. The Blue Wasgician landed on his side, in the mud. When he looked up he watched Togik, bucking wildly like a wild stallion, charge aimlessly into the woods.

Still feeling cold all over, and a heavy sense of dread weighing him down, Aragam slowly stood up. His shoulder ached, but he pushed himself to his feet. He looked toward Wuzzul and Samantha, who’d fled even further along the road. Then he turned the other direction, to check how far away the Dead Boy was.

The child was nowhere to be seen.

That fact didn’t fill Aragam with even the slightest bit of relief. The dark foreboding still permeated the area. Turning back toward fleeing Wuzzul, Aragam broke into a run. He charged along the muddy road, covering the distance between him and the small creature as quickly as he could, and when he finally was near enough, he grabbed up Wuzzul and Samantha both in his arms and stopped running, his breath short and catching in his throat.

’No, no, no, no!’ Wuzzul cried struggling in Aragam’s arms.

’It’s okay! It’s okay, it’s me!’ Aragam shouted.

Wuzzul, with both of his skinny little arms wrapped around bawling Samantha, turned his head and looked up at Aragam. The little man’s bottom lip quivered and he looked terrified.

‘It’s still out there,’ the Dooy whispered. ’Bad things is moving all around us…’ Tears started to stream from Wuzzul’s eyes. ’Them sense her, them sense Samantha… them wants her power! Not even the daytime holds them away now. We is have to go! We is have to hide! Back to the castle, Wasgician man! Back to the castle!’ Wuzzul wailed. ’It am safe there. It am safe with her!’

A new shiver ran up and down Aragam’s spine, and he looked toward the woods on his right. Back through the rain, deep into the trees, he could see movement. Things were back there, and all of them felt powerful, evil, and insatiably dark.

Samantha screamed. Then a shock of energy rolled off of her. Wuzzul cried out first, followed closely by Aragam, as a painful charge of energy passed through him, making his limbs go numb, and causing him to drop to the road, releasing Samantha and Wuzzul.

It took a moment for Aragam to regain feeling in his limbs. By the time he did, and sat up, he saw that Samantha was rolling around in the mud, her body shifting and moving. Blue energy rolled over her form, and she floated up into the air, growing larger before Aragam’s eyes. Samantha’s blonde hair grew long, and she changed in mere moments from a small baby into a young woman.

Aragam stared in utter dismay as Wuzzul stood up and gazed, waving his hands, shouting and crying that it was too early.

With a gasp, the energy stopped roiling around Samantha, and the girl dropped to the road, laying in the mud, her naked body barely covered by the shreds of cloth that had been her swaddling. Her skin and hair were almost entirely covered in greasy mud, but slowly it was washing away as the rain continued to pour down.

The cold around Aragam grew more oppressive. He looked to the left and the right, watching more figures moving around in the trees. Dark eyes, glowing yellow eyes, and red eyes, from countless different things, stared out of the forest, watching Aragam, Wuzzul, and Samantha. Aragam felt that at any moment the monsters would leave the forest and attack!

Reaching into his robe, he pulled out a small stick, which quickly grew into his Gemgic power staff, with a blue crystal inset on the top. Aragam stood up, muttering Gemgic words, and taking the proper stance, hoping against hope that for once in his life, he wouldn’t be completely useless.

The blue crystal at the end of his staff didn’t even glow as he spoke his Gemgic words, stepping nearer to Wuzzul and Samantha, ready to defend them against the evil with every ounce of power he had – or his fists if need be. He didn’t know why, but he, suddenly, felt very, very protective of Samantha. The back part of his brain was telling him to run for his life, and if he didn’t, he’d be dead.

But his heart seemed to take on an unexplainable courage, and he stood a bit taller, speaking his Gemgic a little louder, though the end of his staff still didn’t glow.

In the forest that was to his back, he heard a branch snap, he turned quickly, pointing his useless Gemgic power staff at whatever was leaving the woods.

The pale child with the fathomless black eyes stared back at Aragam, his face blank. Out of the woods, behind the child, stepped a huge, brown, shaggy, wet, Werewolf, with one missing ear, a scar on his long snout, and a hateful, angry, face. The creature snarled at Aragam, and clenched big, clawed, hands.

At his feet, Aragam heard Samantha gasp. He looked down at her and watched her brilliantly blue eyes flash open. There was fear in her face – no it was terror. She sat bolt up and looked around as a few more evil monsters stepped out of the woods, their eyes fixed on her.

The Werewolf howled, and the Dead Boy screamed a loud shriek that hurt Aragam’s ears.

Samantha covered her ears and let out a scream of her own.

Most of the monsters retreated back into the forest, but a huge, inky black, spider, crawling close to the ground, darted forward, charging Samantha. Aragam pointed his staff at the monster and shouted Gemgic words of power.

The end of his staff flared, but that’s all, before the giant spider crashed into him, knocking him over, and grabbing Samantha by the hair. The fury spider – built like an oversized tarantula – scuttled across the road and charged into the forest, dragging Samantha under its body.

‘NOOOO!’ Wuzzul squealed and raced after the spider, along with a throng of monsters, and creatures large and small. There were so many that Aragam couldn’t count them as they charged across the road, scurrying into the other side of the forest, after the spider and Samantha.

Aragam was knocked again and again to the ground. He felt hooves, and clawed feet, and bare feet smash into him. When the throng had passed, he was left bruised and bleeding in the muddy road. He lay there, alone, his body aching, cursing himself for his ineptitude as a Wasgician.

When you need it the most, you were the most useless! Wonderful work Aragam! No, really, splendid, you old fool!

Then he was assaulted by the coldest chill yet. Pale bare feet slashed through the muck near his head and stopped. Aragam shivered, and forced himself to look up at what was above him. Like the Dead Boy, this man had black lips and dark skin around his inky eyes. His hair was also black, but he looked more withered than the boy. His cheeks were sunken, and his lips were wrinkled and wizened, his skin even more pallid than the boy.

The Dead Man canted his head to one side as he stared at Aragam. A small smile came to his dead lips.

’Crawl away from these lands,’ the Dead Man said in raspy voice. ’The Element will soon be ours, and the others will flock to me. No one will stand against us… Run away, little Wasgician, and warn the people of this world, that soon they will face Armageddon!’ The Dead Man turned and walked off into the forest. ‘Abandon all hope,’ were the last words Aragam heard, and then he was alone again, laying in the road, as the rain poured ceaselessly from the churning sky.