Haven's Addiction

We rode out from Basin City into the wild lands of Haven. Really, they didn’t look all that wild. They looked like any other state park I had ever been to, only larger. There were still paths to follow, even if they were hard to see at times. Obviously this wasn’t a place that had been traversed often, but there were still inhabitants here. After a full day of riding toward Placid, the trails were noticeably thinned out. We made camp on the first night outside of a grove of trees. Gerald and Edik took the first guard watch, which suited me just fine. I crashed as soon as I laid down, exhausted from the days events.

The next day we continued the arduous journey through the vast empty lands of Haven. Talk about boring. There were trees, trees, more trees, some bushes, grass, and trees. None of the foliage even looked that different from what I’m used to back home. It was as uneventful as could possibly be. I should have seen this as a good thing, but instead I was insanely bored. Not to mention my ass hurt from riding the horse all day.

I expected the trip to be exciting and full of adventure, but didn’t have any luck at all. Instead I faced an endless expanses of wilderness. It didn’t help Gerald’s disposition towards me that I kept asking, “Are we there yet Papa Smurf?”. It helped even less that after mid-day I did it every hour on the hour exactly to the second. Hey, I had to preoccupy myself somehow and if I’m anything it’s thorough in my ability to irritate.

Setting up camp was interesting, though. Gerald used a bag full of chalk powder to create a circle on the ground that encompassed our entire camp. With the circle complete, he cast a spell that protected us. I couldn’t tell it was there, other than the chalk outline. When I opened up my Sense I could clearly see the energy shimmering around and over us like a dome. It wasn’t that dissimilar to the energy shields I learned to create with my Psionic abilities, but with magical energy, and with significantly more complexity.

“Everything will be fine just so long as you stay within the boundaries,” Gerald grumbled, which were the first words he spoke to me since leaving Basin City other than “keep up the pace”, and “what are you waiting for, let’s go.” It surprised me that he didn’t say a word about the ruckus I caused back in Basin City, but I didn’t want to bring it up if he was willing to let it drop. I ignored his general unpleasantness towards me and tried to remain cheery.

“Are you expecting any trouble?” I wondered, nervously.

“Out in these wild lands, anything is possible. I’d rather not take the chance. There are a lot of wild beasts that roam these regions of Haven. It is so far from civilization that creatures have plenty of room to roam and grow. There is no telling for certain what all lurks in the wilds.”

He made sense. All throughout the day I could sense eyes watching us. Few of them seemed to have intent against us, but I got the feeling they were merely watching, judging if we were a threat, and biding their time for the opportunity to strike. They would certainly have that when we slept.

“How does the barrier work?” I inquired.

“There are several spells assembled here. There is a blanket to prevent scrying. There is a repellant that will dissuade basic animals from going anywhere near us. There is is a similar repellant that will work on sentient life, but it will only deter them if they have no intent on us; otherwise it will only delay them for a few moments. There is an illusion to obscure us. There are also energy draining wards that will sap the physical and mystical energy of anything that crosses it from the other side. It won’t harm them, merely weaken them.”

“Making it a lot easier for us to harm them if we need to.”

“Yes. Hopefully it won’t come to that. Killing is a younger mans game,” he glowered at me with that final remark. I still didn’t get what it was that he had against me, other than the fact that I could be occasionally irritating. At times it felt like annoyance for being here at all, like he was stuck babysitting me. At other times it was like he had a personal grudge against me. I tried to ignore it as best I could, especially considering the scary prospect that he could, and likely might, kill me and leave me for dead out here in the middle of nowhere so my body could never be found. Or worse yet, leave me crippled to be mauled by wild animals or eaten alive by ants.

“What if we pass through the barrier?” I wondered out loud, gulping at the thought.

“There are no deterrents for that, I would just hope you have the intelligence to not do it. The energy drain will sap you though, and it will take a while for the effects to wear off.”

So there would be no wandering off at night. Was that to keep me contained as much as it was to keep the beasts from getting in? I couldn’t tell.

“What happens if we need to get out?”

“It can be easily released and reinstated from the inside. If I’m not capable, Edic can do it.”

With a perimeter defense and camp fire set up, we sat down to our magically created MRE’s. It was bland, no doubt, but not all that bad. Kind of like college dorm food, just a hint of flavor to make it taste slightly better than a roll of toilet paper, but with enough nutrients to get you through the day. It looked like instant mashed potatoes, the kind that come in flakes and you just add water. It had the same texture as toothpaste, but tasted like tofu with a few herbs and spices thrown in.

Boregard and Vincent took turns taking watch for the night while the rest of us slept. The magical barrier was helpful, but not foolproof. Someone still needed to stand guard just in case. It was enough for me, a sure sign at my naivete at what might be lurking out in the dark.

I laid awake for a while staring up into the sky thinking about everything that happened in the last couple weeks, and missing my wife. When we first met, we set a date to go stargazing. She was taking an Astronomy class and needed to take photos of the stars for an assignment. I’ll never forget how she told me after the fact how much she looked forward to the possibility of me kissing her that night. I laid on my bedroll looking up at the stars pretending it was that night, and that she laid right there with me. As I looked up into the sky I could make out familiar constellations; big dipper, little dipper, and Orion stood right out. I wasn’t sure of any others. Astronomy was her forte, not mine. I smiled as I drifted off to sleep thinking that, as big as the universe is, I still felt somehow connected to home while looking up into the infinite void.

The next morning we broke down camp. Releasing the barrier was much easier than I ever expected. Gerald simply broke the chalk line with his foot and the magical energies dissipated. The circle could only be broken from within the barrier. Then we packed up and were back on the horses for another round of ‘nature I spy’. As we got closer to Placid I could sense fewer and fewer life forms around us. I don’t think it was because they were avoiding us, but that there were fewer of them.

Around mid afternoon we neared the edge of a forest that went on for as far as the eye could see. According to our map, the forest went on all the way to Placid. The mass of trees were thick and dense enough that there was no way we would be able to make it there by dark. We spent a few hours circling around the forest to the point that would be the shortest distance to Placid. The map was supposedly accurate because they had spies in the area keeping tabs on Placid until they lost all contact. Although, the forest seemed to have expanded by about a quarter of a mile further than they expected, which made me wonder about the accuracy of their source. In the morning we were going to head to Placid as quickly as possible, and hopefully make it before dark. Who knows what kinds of traps or hazards awaited us there. This was the forbidden forest where all who entered never returned. I reached out with my Sense and couldn’t detect a single life form, not so much as a mouse or bird. There was definitely something out there, outside of my range of detection. It wasn’t inviting, and had either scared off all the other animal life, or preyed on it.

The campsite and barrier were set up once again. This time Edic and I took the first watch. Being this close to the danger zone, we needed to take watch in pairs. I was thankful for the company. I don’t think I could have stayed awake sitting in the dark by myself. In the same regard, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to fall asleep on my own either. It had been an exhausting ride, but I could sense the danger lurking out in the forest. The protection of the barrier wasn’t enough to put me at ease anymore. There was still the possibility that something could sneak in unnoticed, or simply barge in and wipe us all out. It wasn’t like camping at a cabin in the woods. There were literally no walls around us to protect us.

Gerald touted the barrier as revolutionary and amazing, but so far I hadn’t seen it do anything, and the lack of physical barriers made me uneasy. I could tolerate getting killed in the heat of battle, but the prospect of getting mauled in my sleep wasn’t favorable. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the possibility of any sort of violent encounter made me edgy. All the simulations in the Danger Room didn’t prepare me for the mental and emotional strain of facing real danger. I was beginning to see why Gerald was so opposed to the idea of having a combat virgin in the group.

Edic and I sat and talked to pass the time, mostly to distract our nervous minds from the potential danger lurking outside. So far there hadn’t been any talking involved on this trip since we spent it all riding through difficult terrain. I found out pretty quickly that he was the magical equivalent of nerd.

“The barrier is a fascinating structure of various spells interconnected and woven together, which is complicated to do without a solid mystical stasis to hold it all together. His grounding crystal is the central core that each of the spells emanates from...” he went on to explain.

Yep. Like I said, definitely a nerd.

I took to liking him right away.

He knew most everything there was to know about magical theory. He was a bookworm with an incredible rate of retention, and probably read most of the books in Drognaus’s library, if not all of them. While he wasn’t all that skilled of a wizard himself, he knew how the stuff worked, hence his value for this mission. We were unlikely to come across anything he wouldn’t know of, whether it was a magically warded trap, or an unusual creature. He was the groups traveling encyclopedia of the arcane. I looked forward to picking his brain when this mission ended. I didn’t dare ask about the Graxis with the others around, and was leery about ever asking him in the first place.

The rumbling in my stomach broke up the conversation, which elicited some laughter from Edic. This was followed by a growling in his own stomach, which prompted laughter from both of us.

We begrudgingly drug out our rations. It was handy to have enchanted items that produced food for us. It certainly lightened the load of equipment we needed to carry, and we would never have to worry about starving to death even if we were stuck in a dank dark hole with no means of escape. We wouldn’t die, but it was no way to live.

Edic obviously disliked it as much as I did. He looked at his rations, eying it carefully, mentally debating whether he would to eat it or not. It would certainly put a stop to the grumbling in our stomachs, but made our noses, taste buds, and psyche scream in protest. Then it hit me. I had a cache of fresh food stored away on hand.

My sudden movements as I went for my pack startled Edic and he dropped the bit of food he had on its way to his mouth, looking somewhat relieved at the loss. I reached into my magical Crown Royal bag and pulled out one of the leather preserving pouches. His eyes went wide with excitement when I opened it up to reveal the contents. In this one I had stuffed away a few slabs of steak. I pulled out a similar pouch that contained a block of cheese and some vegetables. Thanks to the preservation spell they were just as fresh as when I put them inside two weeks ago.

The drool pouring down Edic’s chin wasn’t very becoming of him, but I kept it to myself because I was likely drooling just as much. Since our normal rations didn’t need cookware, we had to cut them up and use some sticks to make kabobs. Just as I was about to put them over the campfire, Edic’s eyes lit up just as mine when I realized I had the food.

He quickly dashed to his own gear and whipped out a pack about the size of a messenger’s bag. Inside were hundreds of little compartments containing various herbs and chemical components. I could tell by how deep he rummaged around in it that, much like my bag, his was larger on the inside. I knew from reading at the library that material components were vital to a myriad of different spells. With the right elements and know how you could produce practically any spell effect you wanted. Edic obviously knew all of the components in his bag of tricks by heart because none of them were labeled and he didn’t hesitate in finding what he needed.

He ended up with a handful of herbs that he ground together with a pestle and mortar, also from his bag, and sprinkled them over the meat and vegetables before placing them over the fire. The aroma that emanated was far more impressive than the concoction the bartender at Basin City cooked up. My senses were in pure ecstasy. The scent was so delightfully pungent that I could literally taste it in the air.

“They say that magic was first created in the kitchen,” Edic said as I handed him a piece of cheese to gnaw on while we watched the food cook. “All magic is really just a recipe after all.”

“How so?” I was fascinated by this, so much so that it distracted me from the delightful aroma.

“It’s simply a matter of mixing up the right ingredients and adding energy. Everything there from meat, vegetables, and herbs are the components of the spell. The fire is the magical energy. Put the right ingredients together, channel some energy through it, and you get,” he took a deep breath in through his nostrils taking in the aroma with a moan of delight.

“Just like cooking, magic is tricky. If you apply too much energy you burn it, too little and it’s undercooked. If you have the wrong combination of ingredients it tastes awful, or can be poisonous. Each of the components on their own are all well and good, but together in concert they can make something truly fascinating.”

His theory made absolute sense with what I learned about magic so far. Supposedly, everyone had the fire of energy within them to produce magic. Some could only produce enough flame equivalent to a lighter while others had atomic blasts, but having the energy and using it properly were two different things.

“Where did you get this,” he marveled at the now empty swath of leather that the food had been wrapped in. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

“Q made it.”

“The quartermaster? I didn’t think he dabbled in such things. I’ve seen preservers before, but not quite like this.”

“Not normally. It was my idea. I got a preserver while I was in New Haven City. I inquired about whether there was a way to improve upon it. It was a bulky box and not very handy. Plus he said they weren’t that easy to make.”

“Yes. You have to assemble the materials and then enchant them. I’ve made a couple myself. It’s not a particularly complicated spell, and its uses are so variable. Not just for food, but preserving other components as well.”

“That’s exactly what he said. But why does it have to be assembled first?” He looked at me confused the exact same way Q did when I asked it. “See, you guys have become so accustomed to magic that you don’t question how to make things work. You are taught from the beginning that this is how it’s done and leave it at that.”

“So how did he make this?” His curiosity peaked as he examined it closer.

“He enchanted a large sheet of leather from some mammoth beast. Then he cut it into pieces. He created about a dozen pouches like this one in the time it took him to make one before.”

“Fascinating.” He pondered the implications of this. While he weighed all the possibilities of spells that could be modified in such a way, Boregard stirred and joined us by the fire. He looked to be in heaven from the aroma. With his sense of smell significantly higher than ours, it came as no surprise.

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” he said. I offered him some and he took one of the kabobs off the spit and stuck it right under his nose, breathing it in deeply as best he could. “It’s nice to be able to smell something again.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused. “Aren’t you an expert tracker that can sniff out anything?”

“Normally,” he said with his nose still soaking in the herbs, “but there’s something growing in the woods out there that’s wreaking havoc on my sinuses. I can’t hardly smell beyond my face.” Now that I was aware of it, his voice sounded as if his nose was stuffed up.

“Do you think it’s natural?” Edic asked.

“Hard to say. It’s probably Borkin weed. It grows in the wild, but not enough to cause this severe of an effect without someone promoting its growth.”

“Other lycanthropes,” Edic declared instead of asking.

“Likely. Borkin works best at masking the odors of other lycans.”

“You think someone is trying to cover their tracks?” I wondered aloud.

“It didn’t hit me until we got close to this forest. That’s too much of a coincidence to take as chance. There’s likely something lurking in the forest between here and Placid that doesn’t want us to know it’s there. The fact that the forest seems thicker than reports said, seems to confirm it.”

“Fortunately we know it’s there now,” I remarked.

“Hopefully that will be enough to get us through it alive.”

“What do you think is out there?” I asked, feeling uneducated.

“Whatever it is specifically planted something to numb trackers. So they’ll be sitting and waiting, watching for us, for their chance to jump out of the shadows. With a forest that thick there will be a lot of shadows for them to hide in. It’s their territory, so they can make their hiding spots impossible to find.”

This news wasn’t very comforting. We were likely walking into a den of stealth ninja’s who were waiting for us, and they already eliminated the only early warning system we had to alert us of their presence.

Boregard wolfed down his kabob, which was still so uncooked that it was dripping blood, thanked us for it, and went back to his bedroll to sleep. Edic and I sat in awkward silence, all too aware of the implications of what he just told us. He was a veteran warrior who had seen countless skirmishes, so he didn’t seem the least bit worried by what we were up against. Edic and I, on the other hand, were still newb’s on the battlefield. While I at least had combat training in Castle Gold, it seemed obvious that Edic didn’t. He was a scholar, not a fighter. The fear on his face was painfully evident as we sat in awkward silence watching our food cook.

The joy I anticipated of eating it was now gone. The meat seemed bland and flavorless as my mind was elsewhere, concerned about the possibilities of what lay ahead. Granted, not as flavorless as our standard fare of rations, but I still took no joy from eating it to distract my mind. I thought that I was prepared to face the dangers of Haven, but realized just then, as I stood at the precipice of walking into something truly dangerous and life threatening, that I wasn’t nearly as ready as I thought.

Edic and I sat in silence for the longest time after we finally finished our meal. My body certainly thanked me for filling it with real food, but my mind still wandered elsewhere. The terror of what might happen when we broke camp to enter the forest creeped up on me. Not only were the creatures I encountered in the Danger Room and read about in the library cropping up to mind, but a myriad of other monsters from mythology and the depths of my own imagination. The monsters that I created with my own mind were far more frightening than any of the others. Perhaps this was a good thing. If I expected the worst, then I would be more prepared for the real thing. At least it sounded plausible in theory. I hoped that it was enough, and tried to use that to put my mind at ease.

The silence was awkward and painful, which made the thoughts of horrible things floating around in my mind that much more prevalent. There was nothing else to distract me from them. That is, until the screaming started.

We heard the screams in the distance coming from the woods, still very far away and faint. There were no other sounds aside from the small crackling fire next to us, so the screams were as clear as day. Edic and I both jumped with a start and looked in that direction. At first we thought we imagined it, or at least hoped as much.

Then it happened again, followed by a howl of some feral beast, and then another, and then another. The screaming continued and was headed in our direction. We quickly readied our weapons and went to the edge of camp. The energy of Gerald’s shield surrounding us shimmered directly in front of my face. The screaming and howling warbled through the force of the energy shield. The shield made it so we couldn’t be easily heard, but also had the same effect the other way around, which meant that whatever was going on outside was closer than it sounded. Even with my ear as close to the shield as I dared get it, I could just barely make out the source of the noise.

“What do you think it is?” Edic asked nervously.

From the closer vantage I could discern more of what I was hearing. Someone ran in our general direction, terrified and probably hurt, who was being chased by several creatures.

“Do you think we should get the others?” He inquired, getting more scared.

There wasn’t time to answer. An old man came charging through the clearing at the edge of the forest. His clothes were shredded and torn with several cuts and scrapes bleeding underneath. He immediately sprinted through the clearing without looking back, running for dear life. The howls and growls could be clearly heard not far behind, hot on his tail.

“Open the barrier,” I promptly told Edic.

“What?!” he exclaimed, not believing what he was hearing.

“Can you seal the barrier back up once we get him inside?” I commanded with much more authority than I expected.

“Yes, but...” I didn’t give him the chance to finish.

“Then do it. Release it now because he can’t even see that we are here. Get it ready to close and as soon as he is in, seal it back shut.”

He didn’t say a word, merely nodding. At first I didn’t think he would do it, but then he surprised me and bent down using his hand to break the seal of chalk powder on the ground. I could feel the energy of the barrier dissipating instantly. I didn’t hesitate.

I brought out my rifle with the flashlight mounted on the underside and flicked it on, pointing it in the man’s direction. He was startled and stumbled, tumbling to the ground, slow to get back up. I called him over and then was on my feet running over to him. I glanced back to see Edic kneeling over the broken seal, quickly getting out a handful of chalk dust to reseal the protective circle and preparing the spells to reinstate the barrier.

I put the rifle back in the bracers as I sprinted so I could help the man back up. He flinched at my touch, but accepted my help. I could tell already that he was in pretty bad shape. There was so much blood on him that I couldn’t tell where exactly the injuries started. The middle aged man looked older than his years with the beginnings of gray hair. He appeared to be absolutely terrified, and I didn’t want to stick around any further to find out what he was so scared of.

I got him to his feet, practically carrying him back to the encampment as quickly as my legs could carry me. He seemed a lot lighter than he looked, but then again it could have been the newly formed muscles that I wasn’t quite used to yet. We were getting back to the encampment quicker than I expected, but not quick enough.

I could hear the growl of something, obviously on four legs, clear the trees and heading straight for us. I didn’t bother to look back. I didn’t want to know what it was. All of my energy was put into getting us beyond the barrier, and praying that Educ would get it up in time. Whatever was behind us was incredibly fast, and I could hear it closing on us. I debated dropping the man, arming up, and taking the beast out myself, but there was no need as we crossed the chalk line.

As we got to the edge of the line I leaped over it with the man in my arms so that we didn’t disturb it, breaking the seal. When we landed I rolled away from the injured man laying flat on my back, and brought the rifle back up. What I saw was terrifying.

The next few moments happened in such a blur that I didn’t acknowledge them until after the fact. A huge wolf like beast on all fours bore down on us only a few feet behind. The ground it gained on us was astounding. As the rifle appeared, the beast leaped in the air ready to pounce. As its feet left the ground I could feel the energy around us suddenly crackle and come alive as the barrier came back up.

The beast hit the barrier in mid air, unable to stop, and howled out loud in an incredible amount of pain. I fired with the rifle on full automatic. Every round hit the beasts hairy hide as the kickback pushed the stock painfully into my shoulder. It was so huge and in the air headed right for me that it was impossible to miss. The flash from the muzzle flare illuminated the beast like a strobe light. Because of the silencing magnets placed on the rifle, the scene reminded me of a slow motion shot from some cheesy action movie where the theater suddenly went silent for dramatic effect.

I quickly released the trigger and rolled out of the way before the creatures dead body could land on me, crushing me to death. I quickly got to my feet and plugged a couple more rounds into it to make sure it was dead, my hands trembling as I did. It was large enough that its weight alone would have certainly crushed me had I not rolled out of the way.

I looked over at Edic, who was wide eyed in marvel at the enormity of the beast I just put down. My first real kill, I thought to myself. Although it was hard to hear even my internal voice over the sound of my heard thudding in my chest. I needed to make a conscious effort to keep breathing normally to keep my from hyperventilating.

I took a closer look at the beast, not daring to get too close to it, uncertain whether it was fully dead just resting. While it appeared to be some sort of wolf, it was the size of an adult bear. The fourteen point buck on the wall of father-in-law’s den that he constantly brags about was a lightweight compared to this thing. This beast looked like it would have eaten that buck for dinner. The images of its head mounted on the wall at home were quickly washed away as several more of them came running out of the woods. They weren’t as large as the one I just landed, but were still fearsome in their own right.

Edic jumped away, startled by their sudden appearance from the trees. It took him a moment to realized that they couldn’t see us because of the barrier. He quickly went over to check on the man’s wounds while I kept an eye on the creatures outside, rifle at the ready with trembling hands.

The barrier would keep them away, but it wasn’t one hundred percent certain guaranteed. The beasts were like wolves; muscular, fast, and with big pointy teeth, but were as big as a lion. It was hard to tell exactly what they looked like because of the darkness outside. With the barrier up, the light of the campfire no longer shone across the field. A number of potential creatures came to mind from descriptions I read about in the library, all of which were deadly. I wasn’t about to take my eyes off them for a moment.

Edic quickly called for help, but there seemed to be little need. They all came over in a flash, wide eyed and alert from years of training. The ruckus we made when the beast broke through the barrier was enough to rouse them, and they were already on their way with weapons at the ready. Vincent helped Edic drag the now unconscious man over to the light of the fire so they could tend to his wounds. Gerald and Boregard came to where I stood keeping an eye on the beasts lurking outside of the barrier. They were sniffing around trying to find our trail, but seemed oblivious of the fact that we were actually only about 20 feet away.

“What happened?” Gerald demanded in his usual grumpy tone.

“He came out of the woods with this thing in pursuit,” I gave the creature at my feet a swift kick, “and several of his buddies close behind. We got him in just as it reached us.”

“You broke the seal?” He grumbled, appalled at what he was hearing.

“What else could we have done?” I yelled back. “Left him out there and watched him get mauled to death by not-so-gentle Ben here?” I didn’t care at that moment if the other creatures heard me through the barrier. I’m no hero, but I wasn’t about to let this guy die if something could have been done about it. I got the impression that Gerald was going to push the matter of my incompetence further, but he didn’t get the opportunity.

The monstrous hound things sniffing around outside our encampment suddenly stopped in unison and leaned their heads up into the sky belting out a synchronized howl that sent shivers down my spine. The howl was in one long continuous note that never seemed to end, much longer than it seemed possible with one breath. We all stood, transfixed on them, weapons at the ready. They couldn’t see us and showed no indicating that they were at all aware of our presence. Yet there was still the lurking doubt that maybe they were going to strike. While we were all capable of handling ourselves, these were big fierce creatures with supernatural speed. I took one down pretty easily, but only because it was in mid flight, unable to dodge, and crippled by crashing into the magical barrier.

All eyes were on the six howling, hairy beasts that were only twenty feet away with nothing but an intangible barrier between us.

Then the barrier went down.