The Forgotten Land of Myria

ROY

Minutes seemed to turn to hours inside the Trenches. They were worse than I thought. The trails were murky, and the air damp. Brave’s hooves sunk with every step, spattering tiny drops of mud onto my leg.

We had been riding for about two hours, but I wasn’t holding up too well. The cold air was slicing through every inch of my already shivering body. My legs were numb, hands blistered, and I couldn’t feel my fingers or toes. My lips were chapped and sore, and my teeth hurt from all the chattering.

Livia--who was in charge of the supply horse--had fished out a fur coat, but it wasn’t enough. Sometimes, when I thought the freezing weather would finally heat up, a rush of wind would bite at my face and I’d drill myself back into the coat.

I looked at my hands. They were yellow, covered in blisters and lumps. The tips of my fingers looked like they had been smeared in black ink, and I felt an urge to scratch them. Frostbite.

When I thought I couldn’t take it anymore I felt a hard hand land on my shoulder. As her horse leveled mine, Safira handed me a red flask.

“Livia told me to give you this. Take some. You’ll feel better.” I smiled, but she didn’t seem to care.

“Thanks.” She frowned and pulled her horse ahead, leaving splotches of mud behind her.

Wow, I thought. What’d I do to her?

It’s like she’d been avoiding me ever since our chat in the mast a few nights ago, when she left suddenly--after I’d thanked her. As she took off ahead, another hand rested on my shoulder, this time a soft, gentle touch. Ada.

“Don’t mind her,” she said. “She’s not exactly the friendly type.”

“H-how come? I mean, why’s she like that?” I asked.

“I’m not sure,” Ada tilted her head. “It just takes some time for her to get used to new company, I think. Safira has endured hardships through a lot throughout the course of her life, and I guess it has led her to hide her emotions--not trusting anyone.”

I frowned. “She’s been through a lot?” I rephrased. “Like what?” Ada was silent.

“She...” her voice trailed. “For one, when she was only a child--I think she lost she lost two close friends. I don’t know much about the details, but--” She now looked at me, petrified. “They were kidnapped. By Theon.”

I nodded. “What else?” Ada looked away.

“I’m in no position to tell you this.” She was frowning, but it soon dissolved back into a smile. “Besides, your elixir is getting cold.”

I popped the top off, and cupped my hands around the red flask as a mound of steam blew into my face. As my lips touched the flask I flinched, my tongue stinging from the burn.

Ada laughed, patting my back gently. “You’re going to have to be quicker than that,” she said. “You can’t take small sips. To be effective, the elixir must go down all at once.”

I gulped, still shivering. “Are you c-c-crazy? I have to slam this?”

Her eyes widened, and she shot me a teasing look. “Okay,” she said like she was enjoying herself. “Just hand the flask over and find another way of keeping warm.” I turned the glass cup around in my hands. I gave her one last look for reassurance, and she nodded, nudging me on. Slowly, I brought the flask back to my mouth and, holding my breath, I downed it.

To my surprise, it wasn’t hot. At all. In fact it was ice cold, and, for a second, it seemed to freeze my entire body even more than before. Then, the cold slowly began to crawl away from my limbs and drain from my face, like something was sucking it away, until it was all piled up in my chest.

I then felt a bubbling sensation in my lungs and, for a moment, I couldn’t breathe. My chest squeezed up and finally cold air burst out of my mouth and nose. It was like all the icy air in my body had shot out in a fog.

My legs melted while my fingers and face slowly defrosted.

“How are you feeling?” Ada asked.

“That was...relaxing,” I said, still breathing out some cold puffs.

“See? What did I tell you?” Ada nudged me playfully. Warm air filled my lungs and I actually had to loosen my coat. I let the stream of heat unlock my muscles as I twirled my wrists and ankles. I noticed that the blisters on my hands had disappeared.

“How come no one else needed to take the elixir?”

Ada nodded in response, flipping her moonlit hair that shone, even inside the dark Trenches.

“I guess even the heroes have vulnerabilities.” She giggled and pranced ahead on her stallion. I smirked to myself, like an idiot.

My smile faded when I saw Eleazar stop his horse down the path. Everyone else gradually stopped and he raised his hand before we could ask why.

“Everyone get off your horses, right now, and ready your weapons,” he said, calmly sliding off his saddle. “We are going to be attacked by a hoard of murcats.”

“Wh--m--murcats?” I knew I should be doing as I was told instead of asking questions--and before I could finish my thought, I heard the rumbling. It came suddenly and quickly, and by the time I looked back to see what it was, a pack of beasts were already racing down the path.

I was only able to get a glimpse of them. They were cheetahs, with blade claws, and saber-teeth. The sound of their snarling shook the rocks, the ground--and me. While everyone was getting ready to fight, I froze.

“Roy!” Leof yelled. “Get off your horse!”

Too late. I took too long to dismount and, Brave took off along with all the other stallions. I heard Leof calling out behind me, but by now I was already speeding down a slope. I wasn’t the only one, however.

Angus had made the same mistake and we were head to head, being chased by the murcats that hadn’t been hit by arrows, swords or spears. I could hear some of the others calling after us. Half a dozen of the beasts had made it through.

One murcat was so close I could see its bared fangs. The two large saber teeth hung over its mouth. Another one, who was closing in on the other side leapt at Angus, and his obvious instinct was to duck.

It was enough to dodge the murcat, but it looked like he had lost his balance and was slipping off his horse. Before he fell, I reached out and was able to wrap my arm around his chest.

Another murcat pounced, this time at me. My instinct wasn’t so good. Instead of ducking, I drew my sword and took a one-handed thrust at the murcat that soared over me. The sword sliced it across the upper belly. As it fell on me, one of its hind legs caught my face, tearing it open.

The impact sent me off balance, and since I didn’t have any free hands, both Angus and I--and the murcat--splashed through the wet mud, as our horses ran off.

By the time I untangled myself from the dead murcat, its friends had probably figured out what had happened. I could hear them coming straight at me, but before I could react, someone grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and I was dragged along the muddy tracks. I looked up and saw Leof, holding me stiffly in one hand, and Angus in the other.

He hauled Angus up onto the croup, but when he tried to pull me up, something yanked at my foot. One of the murcats had caught up. Pain roared through me and I let out a cry as it sunk its teeth into my leg.

With a shaky hand, I reached for the spear that was still strapped to my back and ripped it free. Before the murcat could bite any harder, I dug the spear in its eye, and it freed its grip, falling behind--but taking the spear with him.

Leof lugged me up between him and Angus. I tried to ignore the pain, knowing that the other murcats were still on the loose. I looked back just as another one charged at us. This time, Angus was the one to act.

He pulled back his bow and shot the murcat that was gaining on us. Three down, three to go.

Leof turned to me with a sort of anxious look on his face, realizing he would have to take matters into his own hands.

“Take the reins!” he bellowed. Before I could say anything, he leapt off, pulling out his sword in midair. The horse tripped up, but continued racing. However, as soon as I clutched its reigns, it stopped cold, twitching its ears.

Then, in a series of neighs, it rocked viciously back and forth until it threw Angus and me to the ground and ran off.

The horse chooses its rider, I remembered, how convenient.

Behind us, Leof was making all our effort look easy. He had landed on one of the murcats and--in a matter of seconds-with three swift slices, the rest of the beasts were piled up lifeless at his side.

He ran back, mounted his horse, and galloped off, leaving us on the ground.

A few minutes later, they all met us and ran to help Angus and me. Leof had retrieved my spear--having lost it way back when the second murcat went down--and dropped it at my feet.

Before I could thank him, he had already turned away, while Eleazar slowly knelt beside me.

“It seems like our hero’s gotten a bit shaken up.”

I forced a smile, knowing I’d messed up, but still proud that I had taken down two of the beasts myself.

However, now that the adrenaline had worn off, the pain in my leg came in sharp stabs and my cheek started to throb.

Livia and Ada came to my aid while Sky helped Angus man up--the kid was curled up like a baby!

At least he was conscious this time.

Ada held her staff while Livia searched the supply crate for something. The pain was overwhelming and I was having a hard time even breathing. My eyes felt droopy and my thought process was slow.

“My, you’re burning with fever,” said Ada, pressing her soft hand against my forehead.

It took loads of energy just to lift my shaky arm and point at the red flask that hung over Ada’s belt. “E--elixir,” I managed to croak out, but Livia snapped her hands out, and shook her head.

“The Phoenix Tongue isn’t quite appropriate right now. In fact, I’m afraid elixirs aren’t exactly going to solve your problem at all.” She tried her best to roll up my pants leg to examine the wound without me wincing in pain. “Murcat bites carry a vicious amount of venom that can only be extracted with purmont, a substance we don’t have at the moment.”

“Damn it, who forgot the purmont?”

Ada was heating a bucket of water with her staff. She then took a small bowl and poured the steaming water, as gently as she could, on the wounds on my cheek and leg. The heat made me flinch.

“This can at least ease the pain,” she whispered, trying to reassure me.

I could see Safira standing behind Ada and Livia, cleaning a bloody arrow and watching carefully as Ada worked on my wounds.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Leof, Sky, and Eleazar discussing something about the map, and next to them, Jardious seemed to be treating Angus (though I didn’t remember him getting hurt during the fight).

After some more long minutes of the water treatment, Livia turned and called for Eulisses, who was busy chewing some seepwillow, and feeding his horse. He got up, unfolding himself like a string puppet, and trudged towards us with his staff and grimstone in hand.

Livia met him halfway. She told him some things that I couldn’t hear, and he nodded slowly, fixing his black mouse-lemur eyes on me. He then approached us, grabbed the bucket that Ada had been using, and held it over me. With no ceremony, he dumped the entire thing in my face, and steam erupted as I gagged and gasped.

He could have just used a hot iron and I would have felt the same thing. I tried to raise my hands when I realized I was pinned down.

Unable to move I let the burns do their worst and, in a matter of seconds, I blacked out.

When I woke up, the first thing I saw was fire. Thick flames burned, only inches from my face, stinging my eyes and singeing my cheeks. My chest was pounding, soaked in sweat, and my limbs felt sore and heavy, like I’d been glued to the ground...

I came back to my senses fully and was just about to pull myself up when I heard voices whispering behind me.

“How about trying to consider it for one second?”

“He hasn’t convinced me.”

They belonged to Eleazar and Leof and, by their tone, they seemed to be talking about something I wasn’t supposed to overhear. I thought it would be best to get up right away, but curiosity beat pain and I stayed put, pricking up my ears.

“All I’m asking is a bit of discernment on your part,” Eleazar muttered.

“Do I not have enough? Am I an unwise man who refuses to think this over?” Leof challenged Eleazar.

“Oh please, if anything don’t be dramatic about it. I’m not saying you are unwise, I’m saying you need to be a little more wise. Wiser, in this case” I couldn’t see their faces, but I’m pretty sure that ticked off Leof quite a bit. No one can get fully used to

Eleazar’s sarcasm.

“That’s the same--”

“There’s a distinction,” Eleazar snapped, with the sharpest tone you could get to in a whisper.

There was a long silence after that and I had a feeling they were looking at me. All my muscles tensed. I even forgot to breath, at least until I felt a wrench in my chest. My eyes stung and watered from the fire.

“He can’t be a Taiowen Warrior,” Leof mumbled. “Myria hasn’t seen one in 12 years, ever since the Second Invasion, and this won’t be it.”

“For the sake of all of us, give it some time...”

“The boy is not a fire elemental” Leof bounced back, raising his voice sharply.

“We don’t even know what he is,” Eleazar said. “I’m sure Tahi Toa can give it some thought if we--”

“My father would have known!” Leof interrupted Eleazar, this time in a fierce loud voice, cutting the whispers. I heard him storm off. Soon it felt like Eleazar was looking at me again, and I waited a few minutes--to sell it the coincidence--before “waking up”.

It turned out that Sky, Livia, and Jardious had been there all along, but hadn’t spoken a word. They all eyed me, especially Livia.

“Good evening, young hero,” Eleazar greeted me nicely, like I hadn’t seen anything. “Enjoyed your rest?”

I nodded sluggishly. Dizziness struck when I tried to get up and Livia rushed to help me. She tilted my head so the side where I had been cut faced hers. By the look on her face, it still wasn’t pretty.

“How is your leg?” she said, checking the wound. She let out a sigh of relief. Livia told me to try to move it. I strained, but was able to lift it up and see it for myself.

There was a full bite mark tracing my entire calf, but the rest of my skin looked normal. No swelling, no fresh blood. Whatever it was, my wounds were healing, leaving only scars.

“Well,” Eleazar broke in. “You’re still not looking pretty, but you’re out of the woods. Take it easy--just try not to pull another ampidio like that again.”

He patted my shoulder and before I could ask him anything, he pointed down a tunnel, to our left.

“The others have made camp in there. Just follow the firelight.”

In other words, “Get out, we need to talk about some more private stuff”. I dragged myself up and trudged into the tunnel, greeting Sky and Jardious on my way out.

The tunnel broke out into a cave dimly lit by a fire. At the opposite side of the fire sat Ada, twirling her hair around her fingers while looking through the flames.

Behind her, Angus lay sideways, with his head resting on his hand, facing the wall. On the far end, Eulisses had his head turned to the fire and was pressing one eye against his grimstone like it was a magnifying glass. Safira sat not so far from him, with her back against the wall, reading a scroll.

I limped past her first, but she pretended not to see me, not lifting her eyes from the scroll.

“Whatcha reading?” I asked, trying to catch her eye. She lifted her head slowly, jaw tightened, and responded with, “Nice cut.”

She seemed pretty proud of her response, but I just so happened to know the word she hated most. “Thanks,” I replied, in a mocking voice, and she scowled, burying her face back in her scroll. I smiled and turned away from her.

Eulisses looked like he really hadn’t noticed me, so I didn’t bother talking to him, though I did have a few questions for him--the first being why he poured a bucket of hot water on my face, and how that managed to work.

Ada--who was the only one that seemed glad to see me-opened a bright smile and waved me in to sit with her.

“How are you feeling?” she asked eagerly. “I was beginning to feel a bit worried.” She brushed my wounded cheek gently, frowning the same way Livia had.

“It’s nothing, really,” I explained. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.” She didn’t look convinced, so she pressed her thumb against the cut, and I winced in pain. “Well, maybe a bit.”

As we shared laughs, I caught a glimpse of Safira staring at us over her scroll, but she rolled her eyes once they met mine.

“I suggest we keep your leg immobilized while you sleep,”

Ada said. “You’ve only just survived a murcat bite.”

We talked some more, until everyone was asleep. Almost everyone. Angus, who hadn’t said a word since I had come in, was lying still, facing the wall.

I wasn’t going to at first, but I decided to talk to him. Thinking about it, it was stupid that we barely talked to each other, considering we came into this whole thing together. Even though we had just met, we knew each other better than we knew anyone else here, so there was no point.

I trudged towards him and slid down to his side, being careful not to bend my bitten leg. The wall was covered in very neatly traced carvings.

“Did you make these?” I asked. He nodded, holding up a hand-sized blade, like the ones people use for sculpting. “That’s really impressive.”

He shrugged in response, flipping the blade around in his hand.

“What’s that?” I asked, pointing to one of the most detailed carvings, of two towers held together by a bridge.

“Tower Bridge,” he said, “in London.”

“Right,” I muttered. “And that one?” “A sundial” he responded, “like the one in Tower Hill.”

“Ahh. Lot of towers in London I can tell.”

He didn’t find that funny, so I cleared my throat and tried to keep the conversation going.

“Great work though.” He gave a slight nod, but kept his eyes fixed on the carving skimming his hand over it. His expression was gloomy, and suddenly, I felt sorry for him. I had been spending so much time thinking about my own problems, I never stopped to think that Angus might have problems of his own. He must have been homesick too.

I smiled at the carving that stood right above his head.

“That one I recognize.” It was the largest one. “The Opera House.” He smiled, tilting his head down. I had a feeling that he was always trying to hide his expression. I felt a grin slide across my face and I patted him on the shoulder.

“That was a great hit back there. A real bull’s eye.” He managed a smirk, but didn’t say anything.

“Thank you,” I finally muttered, as I got up and made my way back to the fire.

Well, that’s a start I thought.

“Goodnight,” I told Ada as I lay down by the fire. I turned the other way, facing Safira who was curled up with her scroll falling gently over her like a blanket, and, in no time, I was fast asleep.

A few hours later I woke up gasping, with the back of my leg trembling. My skin tingled like I was ready to molt. I stood still for a moment, panting, until I noticed the wide pair of eyes staring at me through the fire. Ada’s hand rested on my sweaty shoulders.

“Relax,” she whispered. “It’s the fever acting up. Here, have some of this.” She handed me a large bottle, wrapped in cloth, and gently brought it towards my mouth.

“I thought I wasn’t supposed to have any elixirs.”

“Oh, no worries,” she reassured me. “This isn’t an elixir. It’s fruit juice.” I blinked in confusion.

I guess I forgot about regular drinks, I thought.

The taste brought back memories. I chugged the entire bottle in loud gulps. Ada pulled out a piece of white cloth and tied it around the bite mark as gently as she could.

“The pressure is going to hurt a bit, but it’ll prevent your wound from tearing again,” Ada reassured me. “It’s still fresh.”

When I was done, Ada took the bottle, placed it beside herself and turned back towards me, curiously.

“So,” she tittered as I wiped the fruit juice from the corners of my mouth. “Who’s Ben?”

“Huh?”

“Ben,” she repeated. “And Sally, Russell, and Jenna? Who are they?”

“Oh, uhh... They’re my friends,” I said slowly, not sure what she was getting at, “from back home. How do you know about them?”

“You talk in your sleep,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

“Ah,” I felt myself blush. I never liked when people watched me sleep.

“You should get some sleep, too,” I told Ada, who had her eyes fixed deep into the fire.

“Oh, no thank you. I don’t sleep.”

“Excuse me, what?” She said that like it was the most casual thing in the world, like she was turning down a drink.

“What do you mean you don’t sleep? How in the--”

“I’m not sure really,” she frowned and tilted her head, looking more confused about it than I was. “I guess I just never got around to it.”

Never got around to sleeping. Did that even make sense?

“How long have you gone without sleeping? I mean, don’t you get tired?”

She knit her eyebrows, as if I had just said the silliest thing. “Of course I don’t feel tired. If I did, I’d be sleeping!

Besides, why do you think you’ve never had to take a shift at night?”

She nudged me playfully, and suppressed a giggle.

“Makes sense...I guess.”

“I’m sure you must be feeling tired,” she whispered thoughtfully, in a sort of teasing way. “You should get back to that.”

“R--right,” I shook my head absently, distracted by her faint smile. “Well...uhh...goodnight. Again.”

“Goodnight.”

I was restless at first, partly because of my leg and partly because I couldn’t decide whether Ada watching me sleep was a good thing or not. Before I could give it any more thought, Ada began humming a soft lullaby. In an instant, my eyes drooped and my head began to rock back and forth to the sound of her dreamy voice. I let out a deep breath as my sore hands-that had been clenched in tight fists--slowly released their grip. My shoulders rolled back and my knees unlocked. I curled my good leg into the rest of my body, warming my insides.

As my eyes rolled back and Ada’s soothing voice grew distant, I took one last moment to enjoy the pleasure of falling asleep.

A pleasure Ada had never known.