Unknown Story Chap. 19 part 2

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The morning was colder than the last few. There was frost on the short grass and Khor brushed some ice out of his hair as he stood. There was also ice on the sleeves of his jacket and he brushed that off as well.

Khor glanced at the fire and saw a few ice crystals forming there. He yawned and looked over at Vathen. It had been two days since he was told where they were going and two days since they first entered The Passageway.

Khor was in the middle of a massive open field with only one tree far off in the distance. There was a small string of smoke coming from that spot and Khor instantly thought of merchants.

Vathen had mentioned them using this massive open field to transport goods easily. Vathen and Khor slung their packs over their shoulders and began walking that way.

As they approached the tree Khor saw a large campfire and a massive cart. The cart was tied to two large horned beasts. Khor automatically approached the animals while Vathen noticed sleeping men near the fire.

Each man had a black bottle in his hand and smelled of alcohol. Khor approached the large animals. They were on all fours and came up to his chest. They had long slender horns protruding from either temple that curved elegantly foreword and out just before it came to a fine point.

The creatures were a dark grey and had large padded feet with large blunt claws. As Khor moved closer the animals breathed through their nostrils and shifted nervously. Khor hummed softly and extended his hands openly.

The one closer to him settled down and Khor whispered soft words into its small floppy ears. He lightly rested his hands on the hard forehead of the beast and stroked it gently. It looked at him with large plain black eyes and allowed him to pet it more.

Khor smiled and stepped closer looking at it more intently. He saw several bruises and cuts on its legs and face. Khor slowly moved to the other one and pet it gently as well. The two gathered close to him and he pet each one with one hand.

“These animals have been mistreated,” he said to Vathen who was looking underneath a large black sheet that was pulled over the cart.

“Be careful. Vith can be brutal if they’re not tame.”

“They seem fine to me,” Khor said as one softly rubbed his head into Khor’s belly. Vathen glanced over and half smiled. Khor patted each on the head again and walked over to where Vathen was.

He helped Vathen pull back the cover and revealed several weapons in metal cases and a black box. Khor reached out his hand and lightly touched the cases. The weapons were in good condition but the cases seemed to have been handled clumsily.

Vathen scooped up the black box and examined it carefully. From what Khor could see there were no hinges, handles or knobs. It was pure black and very simple, with only a large, even X on each side.

Vathen flipped it over and examined every side. “What is it?” Khor asked, curious. Vathen remained silent for several moments then finally answered.

“If it is what I think it is… It’s a Sorcerers Box.”

“Dare I ask?”

“A Sorcerers Box is something the long dead Necromancers used to store their tools and weapons. I haven’t seen one in years…” He drifted off, gazing at it intently. Khor looked back at the sleeping merchants.

One belched loudly and stirred. “What do we do about them?”

“We leave them.” When Khor turned back around Vathen was pulling the sheet back over the cart. “What about the Vith?”

“What about them?” Khor walked over to them and stammered.

“Well, we can’t just leave them with these guys. They’ve been mistreated.”

“And do you really think we can help them?” Khor was about to answer ‘yes’, then thought about how far they were traveling. He couldn’t pay for the food, shelter and couldn’t promise them a safe life. No, they would have to be left behind.

Khor pet each one on the head once more and slowly walked away. One moaned sadly and Khor attempted not to look back as he followed Vathen. Khor looked back after several minutes and saw the men gathered around the fire moving wildly.

Khor barely caught a glimpse of Vathen’s smile before it disappeared. “You took it didn’t you?” Vathen said nothing but kept walking. Khor shook his head. He had no idea what a Sorcerers Box was but it was apparently important. He would ask Vathen at a less inconvenient time.

Vathen quickened his step and Khor followed suit. The men back at the camp were now very far away. Khor looked out into the distance and saw another small group of merchants. They were traveling however.

Vathen and Khor slowly caught up with them. There were five carts all drawn by Vith. Khor saw no scars on any of them and felt pleased. The carts were larger and a few of the merchants were riding in them or on large strange creatures.

Each creature seemed to be the pure white skeleton of a large lizard. The thing came up to around Khor’s head and did not have any flesh on it at all. They had four legs and their belly’s lightly brushed the grass.

They also had a small set of sharp horns on their skulls and large nailed feet. Khor stood slightly further away from these as they began to pass the merchants. “What are you selling?” Vathen asked one on one of the large skeletal lizards, attempting to start a pleasant conversation.

The man had blonde hair with flecked brown and had a brown beard, obviously from the north. “Mainly scraps of metal. We’re also herding these Kraktel all the way to Klastoon, stopping at Cyte first.”

“I wouldn’t head that way, friend. The place is swarming with vicious creatures that’ll tear you apart.”

“Hm…” The merchant sped up and met another merchant traveling with them and began to whisper to him. That man nodded and soon the word was spread throughout the caravan. Khor and Vathen fell away from the merchant group and Khor took one last glance at the Vith before they slightly changed direction.

That night Khor and Vathen found two large trees to rest under. They met no other merchants along the way and quickly set up a fire, the temperature dropping rapidly during nightfall.

Khor sat in front of the fire, hugging his knees. He was shivering slightly and wrapped in the oilskin. Vathen leaned against the tree with his cloak wrapped tightly around himself.

“We’re nearly there.”

“How much longer?”

“Just a few days.” Khor gazed into the embers and focused on them, mesmerized.

“So, what do you think is in that box?” Vathen grew silent and Khor dropped it. He obviously didn’t want to talk about it and he would probably tell him eventually. Khor laid back and closed his eyes, drifting lightly off to sleep.

The morning was extremely cold. Winter was here. It had not snowed yet but it was only a matter of time. Khor stood and heard the crunching of the frost under his feet. He slowly walked over to Vathen who was gazing out across the plain.

“W-we, need to g-get more supplies if w-we’re gonna go into the m-mountains in the winter.” Khor was rubbing his arms and shivering violently. Vathen nodded and whispered, “I know. Do you see that dark dot on the horizon? That’s a small village we’re going to travel to before entering the Selsean Mountains.”

“G-great.” That morning Khor slipped on another shirt and zipped his jacket all the way up and pulled the white hood over his face. The frost made thousands of crackling sounds as they walked.

Khor gazed longingly at the small black dot in the distance, slowly growing closer. Khor felt something wet on his face and looked up. It had begun to snow, tiny white flakes floating down and landing on the ground.

Khor swore under his breath and continued to follow Vathen. Vathen seemed entirely unaffected by the cold or snow. After several hours of walking snow was littering Khor’s shoulders and the top of his head and he could now make out the specific features of the building in front of him.

It was tall and mostly made of metal, there were glass windows all across the side, but the door was apparently on another side of the large structure. As they neared Khor noticed other buildings, all of them made of metal and completely rectangular.

Khor only saw seven buildings then Vathen moved to the side and Khor followed so they could go around the structure. When they rounded the corner Khor saw over thirty building laid out on a flat stretch of ground.

It wasn’t the largest village he had seen but also not the smallest. All of the thirty buildings were placed equally around a stone courtyard with a majestic fountain in the center. There were lamp posts placed around as well as benches.

From what Khor could see, the fountain had a small, lumpy creature with a hammer at the base. Out of the tip of the hammer water spurt foreword and showered into the bottom. As you moved around you also saw Vith with a string of water pouring out of each horn and what Khor thought was a horse. One level up from that was an elegant creature with pointed ears that looked like a man. It was holding a thin sword and a line of water was bursting from the tip.

If you followed that second base around, you could also see a human and what looked like a merman. The finned creature held a trident with water spurting out of each prong. And at the very top of this intricate fountain was a man with a jacket on.

He was much older than Khor and had a pointed beard. He held a sword in one hand that he held high and a wand in the other. Out of the wand was a huge shower of water blanketing the entire fountain with water.

The sheet was frozen over and it distorted the rest of the beautiful sculpture. Khor could here the rest of the fountain pouring smoothing with a light tinkling sound but the entire thing was slightly hazy and hard to make out.

People wrapped in heavy clothing walked around the snowy courtyard and Khor saw two lovers sitting at the fountain kissing. This reminded him of Rakari and made him wonder what was happening to her at this moment.

Khor followed Vathen around the fountain and part a tall bush covered in snow. Khor tapped the bush and the snow fell off to reveal a withered plant. Khor looked around and saw that almost every building was now covered in snow, making everything look even more beautiful.

Vathen eventually walked right up to the front door of a large building and opened the double doors. Khor was instantly hit with a wave of warm air. He almost immediately ripped off the hood to let the warmth fill him.

They walked into a small room with a few sofas centered around a small glass table. There was a desk across from the door and a staircase to the left. Vathen hurriedly walked around the couches and up to the front desk.

There was a man in a black suit behind the desk with a large book in front of him with yellowing pages. He had blonde hair and a small mustache. There was a quill in the crease of the book and he said in an annoyingly fancy voice, “Name?”

“Jerdals. One room, two beds.” The man stuck his nose up at him and scribbled the name, ‘Jerdals’ in the book under numerous other names. “Room thirteen, floor three.” He reached under the desk and retrieved a small silver key.

He set it on the desk and pushed it over to Vathen. He scooped it up and was about to walk away when the annoying man said, “Seven towers.” Vathen walked back over to the desk and set one gold crown on it and said, “Keep the change.” A tiny smirk crawled over the man’s face and he slipped the coin into his jacket pocket.

“Uh, not to be superstitious or anything but, room thirteen, isn’t that bad or something?” Vathen smiled slightly as he walked up the staircase and up to the second floor. Khor followed and waited for an answer.

They walked down a long hallway with many doors in it and across to the other side and up the next staircase. They reached the third floor and saw fewer doors than before. All the brass numbers on the doors were polished and shiny.

Vathen stopped before the door with the brass number, “13” on it. The numbers were old and rusted. Vathen jammed the key into the door and twisted it violently. Khor heard a click and twisted the knob lightly.

The door did not open and Vathen muttered a spell quietly. A board on the wall next to the door peeled away and Vathen put the key into the small slot within. He returned his attention to the door and walked in.

There were two beds and there was a lamp in between the two. There was also a lamp on the desk and a lamp hanging from the ceiling. There was a large window across the room with a heavy curtain pulled over it.

Vathen instantly walked over to the thin closet built into the wall and opened it. A moth flew out but other than that nothing happened. He closed it and Khor watched the moth fly over the room.

“How long are we gonna stay here?” He asked while keeping his eyes on the elusive insect.

“Just a few days, we need new supplies and this is the only village for miles with proper living conditions. The moth flew close to Khor and he whipped out his hand and caught it within his palm.

He opened his hand only slightly so he could see it sitting at the bottom of his hand. It stared back at him with large grey eyes and Khor whispered to it. The spell hit the moth and Khor opened his palm.

The moth flew away and Khor rushed over to the window and threw back the curtains. It was completely dark now and light stars winked down into the room. Khor opened the window and the moth flew out into the night.

“You know it won’t be able to stand the cold.” Vathen whispered as he undid his pack and hung his cloths in the closet.

“I know, I put a cold resistant spell on him.” Vathen said nothing else and set his empty pack on the bed closer to the window. Khor removed his pack and began to store his things in the closet next to Vathen’s things.

Khor sat on his bed and looked around. Two lamps went out and the one hanging from the ceiling dimmed. Vathen already had his boots sitting at the foot of his bed and his cloak was draped over the chair at the desk.

Khor removed his boots in the dark and left his jacket on, it was still slightly chilly in the room. He lay under the covers and stared up at the ceiling. He closed his eyes and thought of Rakari, her features and how she acted. He smiled and went to sleep.

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Knall was pacing from one side of the small room the other. The faint light from the torches throwing his shadow upon the wall across from him. His hands were behind his back and he stared at the floor intently.

There was a long slender metal table that seemed to be built into the floor in the center of the room. Knall glanced at the lamps and whispered a soft spell. They burst wildly and dimmed down slightly, still brighter than they were before.

There was a small bed in the corner and a wooden door on the wall. Knall walked over to it and pounded relentlessly at it. Eventually a deep voice replied, “What?”

“When am I going to be let out of here!”

“When he comes.” He had asked the question thousands of times and gotten the same answer each time. He had no idea who ‘he’ was or why he was locked up in this room because of him.

He asked to speak to Derez several times but still got the same response. At first he had felt tricked, fooled and deceived and realized he trusted Derez far too much to begin thinking things of him without giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Knall returned to his pacing and heard footsteps from outside the door. There was a hushed conversation and the door opened. There were only shadows beyond but a silhouette emerged from the shadows.

Derez stepped into the light of the torches and stood next to Knall. Knall looked down at him fiercely and crossed his arms, waiting for him to speak. Derez turned to the table and sat at one of the polished chairs.

He motioned for Knall to sit but he glared at him with his pure fellow eyes. “Very well, Knall this is the time our friendship must be shown the most. There is much explaining that must be done and I swear, answers will be given. You must only wait for a little while longer.”

“I walked in, had a black powder thrown in my face and was knocked out. I woke up in this room and have been looking for a way out for three days. You walk in here and promise answers, and tell me this,-“Knall ran foreword very quickly and grabbed Derez by the throat, hoisting him four feet above the ground.

Knall’s eyes bore straight into the calm, dark blue eyes of Derez. Knall squeezed hard and heard Derez splutter. The wizard simply hung there, not attempting to peel away Knall’s hand or even using magic.

Knall set hi down but did not let go, still glaring into his eyes. Knall gripped as hard as he could for one second and let go. Derez instantly fell to he ground and clawed at his neck, gasping for air. Knall turned his back to him without saying a word.

He could hear Derez stand and face him. “I suppose I deserved that.” Knall said nothing. “Knall, I know you have no reason to trust me now but…” The words caught in his throat and he for the first time, Knall knew he didn’t know what to say.

Knall heard Derez walk up and attempt to put a hand on his shoulder that he easily prevented by stretching his wings. “Goodbye, friend.” Derez walked over to the door and knocked, it opened and he walked back into the darkness.

The door shut and made a loud bang and Knall sat at the chair. He held his head in his hands and thought. What is going on?