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"Silk and Stone, Wood and Leather and Iron"
12/17/2013
I.
From one hundred feet up, Haley lessened the tornado winds which were propelling her through the sky. She lowered her legs, stretched her arms out to either side for balance and dropped toward her friends who were staring up with trepidation. Too fast. The Windcatcher cloak flipped around to cover her head and cut off her vision; she dropped down to slam hard into Timothy and Demrak Jin, tumbling all three of them end over end across the meadow. The frozen earth did not make the impact less punishing.
"Will you PLEASE pay attention!" shouted Timothy Limbo. He had ended up on the bottom of the heap, stretched out on his back with Haley sitting up near the top of his chest and Jin sprawled over his legs. The small Gelydran woman sputtered incoherently as she disentangled herself from Tim and Haley.
Getting the heavy blue cloak straightened out, Haley grinned down at her new KDF teammate. "Be honest, Tim. Back in school, lots of guys would have absolutely loved to have me sitting on them like this."
It was true. At eighteen, Haley Lawson was cute rather than gorgeous, tall and slender with trim long legs in blue tights. Her best feature was the pair of bright lime-green eyes under auburn bangs. She showed no inclination to get up off Tim.
For her own part, Demrak Jin was bristling with outrage. The Gelydra was only a few inches over five feet tall but wiry and lithe. She wore her Race's customary long-sleeved tunic and pants of abrasive grey shark-hide and had her bone-bladed long knife sheathed across her back. "You do not take seriously the great gift you have been given." she spat. "Perhaps you do not deserve the Air Gem."
Finally climbing up onto her feet, brushing back to tangling long hair from her face, Haley said, "Ease up, Sharkie. So I misjudged my approach a little. I knew my pals would be glad to catch me."
"Sharkie...!?"
"Come on, you guys, settle down." Timothy Limbo alone of the three partners had on the KDF field suit they were supposed to wear on missions to the other realms. The heavy boots, pants and waist-length jacket were not only made of tough protective material, they held a dozen small tools and gadgets in concealed pockets. Timothy stood up, tugging down his jacket where it had become twisted around, and gestured at the vast green expanse that reached down the hill where they stood. "We've got some hiking to do before it gets dark. Better get to it. We only have forty-eight hours here in Signarm before we zap back to the real world."
Haley began, "Why walk? This realm has got some great storms to the far north, I can sense them. Let me summon some two hundred mile per hour winds and I can fly us to this town where we're supposed to go..."
"No." The single word from the Gelydra carried immense conviction. In the late afternoon sunlight from a cloudless sky, Demrak Jin did look intimidating. In a wide flat face under bristling white hair, her eyes were sullen. Her people of Ulgor believed that each of them was born at the same time a shark was, and that the ferocious shark spirit lived in their hearts. Haley's attempts at nicknaming Jin "Sharkie" were not far off the mark.
Windcatcher wilted a little at the cold stare she was getting. "Oh, all right. I suppose walking gives us time to review this mission." She started leading the way at a brisk stride. "Now, let's start with we're in the northwest region of Signarm. It's called Barodal, kind of rustic and uninvolved in what the Barons and the King are up to."
"You are accurate so far," Jin admitted grudgingly as she trudged along behind her two mates. "What more can you say?"
"Well, it's farmland mostly. Wheat, tobacco, some corn. A lot of small villages but no towns big enough to really be called a city. The Barodalin are supposed to be pretty comfy here with lots to eat and their own homemade corn liquor to drink. If you go south, the Barons are always ganging up on each other in vicious little wars, but up here things are quieter."
"You have to admit, Haley was paying attention at our briefing." Timothy Limbo had slightly taken the lead as the slope slanted down more steeply. Coming into sight was a narrow river that sparkled silver in the sunlight, and wooden buildings could be made out along its bank. "We have a few observers here. That was Jeremy's doing, of course. When he was KDF leader, he tried to have some locals on retainer in every realm. They let us know if anything weird and ominous happens."
"Weird and ominous is what we're all about!" laughed Haley.
"Yep, true enough. Sable got a message from one of our observers here. Some of the farmers have been hurt by mysterious intruders. No fatalities so far, but broken arms and severe bruising are no joke. Houses have been ransacked and supplies like food and firewood stolen. And inhuman figures have been seen, running through the night."
"It's the sightings of these monsters that worry me," Haley put in. "Moving statues! Moving statues of iron and granite, smashing down doors and paying no attention to the pitchforks or shovels getting broken on them. Kind of a scary image, no wonder the rednecks of this realm are spooked."
"These creatures have not met US yet," Demrak Jin said.
( the rest of the story )
12/17/2013
I.
From one hundred feet up, Haley lessened the tornado winds which were propelling her through the sky. She lowered her legs, stretched her arms out to either side for balance and dropped toward her friends who were staring up with trepidation. Too fast. The Windcatcher cloak flipped around to cover her head and cut off her vision; she dropped down to slam hard into Timothy and Demrak Jin, tumbling all three of them end over end across the meadow. The frozen earth did not make the impact less punishing.
"Will you PLEASE pay attention!" shouted Timothy Limbo. He had ended up on the bottom of the heap, stretched out on his back with Haley sitting up near the top of his chest and Jin sprawled over his legs. The small Gelydran woman sputtered incoherently as she disentangled herself from Tim and Haley.
Getting the heavy blue cloak straightened out, Haley grinned down at her new KDF teammate. "Be honest, Tim. Back in school, lots of guys would have absolutely loved to have me sitting on them like this."
It was true. At eighteen, Haley Lawson was cute rather than gorgeous, tall and slender with trim long legs in blue tights. Her best feature was the pair of bright lime-green eyes under auburn bangs. She showed no inclination to get up off Tim.
For her own part, Demrak Jin was bristling with outrage. The Gelydra was only a few inches over five feet tall but wiry and lithe. She wore her Race's customary long-sleeved tunic and pants of abrasive grey shark-hide and had her bone-bladed long knife sheathed across her back. "You do not take seriously the great gift you have been given." she spat. "Perhaps you do not deserve the Air Gem."
Finally climbing up onto her feet, brushing back to tangling long hair from her face, Haley said, "Ease up, Sharkie. So I misjudged my approach a little. I knew my pals would be glad to catch me."
"Sharkie...!?"
"Come on, you guys, settle down." Timothy Limbo alone of the three partners had on the KDF field suit they were supposed to wear on missions to the other realms. The heavy boots, pants and waist-length jacket were not only made of tough protective material, they held a dozen small tools and gadgets in concealed pockets. Timothy stood up, tugging down his jacket where it had become twisted around, and gestured at the vast green expanse that reached down the hill where they stood. "We've got some hiking to do before it gets dark. Better get to it. We only have forty-eight hours here in Signarm before we zap back to the real world."
Haley began, "Why walk? This realm has got some great storms to the far north, I can sense them. Let me summon some two hundred mile per hour winds and I can fly us to this town where we're supposed to go..."
"No." The single word from the Gelydra carried immense conviction. In the late afternoon sunlight from a cloudless sky, Demrak Jin did look intimidating. In a wide flat face under bristling white hair, her eyes were sullen. Her people of Ulgor believed that each of them was born at the same time a shark was, and that the ferocious shark spirit lived in their hearts. Haley's attempts at nicknaming Jin "Sharkie" were not far off the mark.
Windcatcher wilted a little at the cold stare she was getting. "Oh, all right. I suppose walking gives us time to review this mission." She started leading the way at a brisk stride. "Now, let's start with we're in the northwest region of Signarm. It's called Barodal, kind of rustic and uninvolved in what the Barons and the King are up to."
"You are accurate so far," Jin admitted grudgingly as she trudged along behind her two mates. "What more can you say?"
"Well, it's farmland mostly. Wheat, tobacco, some corn. A lot of small villages but no towns big enough to really be called a city. The Barodalin are supposed to be pretty comfy here with lots to eat and their own homemade corn liquor to drink. If you go south, the Barons are always ganging up on each other in vicious little wars, but up here things are quieter."
"You have to admit, Haley was paying attention at our briefing." Timothy Limbo had slightly taken the lead as the slope slanted down more steeply. Coming into sight was a narrow river that sparkled silver in the sunlight, and wooden buildings could be made out along its bank. "We have a few observers here. That was Jeremy's doing, of course. When he was KDF leader, he tried to have some locals on retainer in every realm. They let us know if anything weird and ominous happens."
"Weird and ominous is what we're all about!" laughed Haley.
"Yep, true enough. Sable got a message from one of our observers here. Some of the farmers have been hurt by mysterious intruders. No fatalities so far, but broken arms and severe bruising are no joke. Houses have been ransacked and supplies like food and firewood stolen. And inhuman figures have been seen, running through the night."
"It's the sightings of these monsters that worry me," Haley put in. "Moving statues! Moving statues of iron and granite, smashing down doors and paying no attention to the pitchforks or shovels getting broken on them. Kind of a scary image, no wonder the rednecks of this realm are spooked."
"These creatures have not met US yet," Demrak Jin said.
( the rest of the story )
