“Who seeks to pass the Bronze Doors?” he asked in a steely, monotonous, unfriendly voice.
“Traff of Gintla village, I passed a through a few days ago to collect pla-”
“We know of you and have been expecting you for some time, our question was directed at your companion.” The soldiers expression reminded me horribly of the Command back at the outpost. That same feeling of worthlessness washed over me.
“This is Skagwort, we met deep within the Stone Labyrinths. He saved my life from a grim fate indeed, the Lemurs captured us both and he saved my life and stopped the them from killing us by destroying the support pillar to the entrance to their main cavern, bring the entire cavern down in a cave-in. He also treated an arrow wound I got with some healing magic he knows. He seeks the shelter of Hydlaa.”
“He may pass, I shall alert the fortress of your passing.”
The soldiers eyes glazed over for a few seconds, looking through me as though he were lost in his own mind. He returned to his previous state after a few seconds and continued to ignore us. The doors began to open, slowly, as if they didn't want to blind us by the fantastic scene behind themselves. Suddenly, the noise of the waterfall became immense, matched only by the loud rumbling of the waterwheel as the water cascaded down onto it, pushing it round so that the next tier was free for more water, one depending on the other. The duet very nearly drowned out everything else around us but we were just able to hear the doors bang shut behind us and a group of identically clad soldiers marched towards us.
“Traff and Skagwort, welcome to the Fortress of the Eagle. You are welcome here and throughout our lands. You are free to live as you please, although, anti-social behaviour may lead to you being exiled from here. Do both of you understand?” He stared at us with hard, questioning, suspicious eyes. Traff smiled warmly back,
“Of course Captain, we would expect nothing less, we shall be leaving shortly, may we have some food for our journey back to our homes?”
“Certainly,” The Captains manner softened instantly, “Take as much as you need, the storeroom is over there.” He pointed to a door off behind him, smiled at us again, and left. We restocked ourselves with food for our journey, which wasn't much, as Traff said there wasn't far to go. Perhaps I was close to finding myself a place to call home after all.
We walked off down a winding path from the Fortress of the Eagle, feeling the stares of the soldiers on our backs. We chatted happily for a time, he was happy to be nearly back, with platinum in hand and I could not wait to meet this village full of people Traff had told me so much about. As we walked we left the large rocky canyons that had housed the waterfall and came to a lush valley full of vegetation and animals. Being a surfacer at heart, I still wondered how all this was possible so deep underground, with the roof so high and bright it was like the real sky, the creatures and plants thriving on the Crystal as if it were the sun itself. Traff had obviously caught me looking round in wonder and asked me of the surface. I told him what it was like, the sun rolling round the sky every day, unlike the static Crystal, and the moon that rose like a ghostly orb in the dark of night, lighting the landscape like a miniature sun in it's own right while the wolves from all around howled at it as if seeking to banish it from the sky and allow the sun to return. Of course that was hardly all the time and you didn't notice it really, until it was gone. Suddenly I missed the surface a lot and my first ever feeling of homesickness washed over me like the smell of a bad egg.
We walked on in silence while he visualised and I remembered, until suddenly he jumped up, full of energy. “There!” he shouted to me “There! Just ahead! Down there in that valley, do you see it? My village! Come on lets go! Lets go!” He reminded me of a Lemur child seeing the Army Parade coming down the street, but his joy and happiness lifted me from my depression and we ran down the valley towards his village. As I ran down the hill towards the village I began to see the blue figures of Krans going to and fro in the village, but something was wrong. Most of them were not moving. In fact most were lying propped up against buildings of shelters. As I got close I saw why, some had their legs missing, others their arms. Some had all of their limbs missing or more even. We slowed and Traff, also noticing his friends and neighbours were not as active as they once were, began to look worried as he approached with caution.
He motioned for me to stop and went on alone, into a house. He was inside for quite some time and I had to force myself not to stare at the horrific scene of slowly melting Krans. Eventually Traff came back and beckoned me to come in the house as well. Once inside Traff asked me to help support another Kran who turned out to be a blacksmith melt the platinum to liquid, as he did not trust himself or anybody else to do it, they couldn't waste a drop, not with the scene outside. I understood and helped Traff hold the Kran whose name I was told was Gorryan melt the metal. It took most of the day to do it, platinum was a hard metal and without proper control over himself Gorryan found it harder than usual to melt it. Finally, he poured a blue substance into a beaker, it had been cooling for a while and Traff had been asking the old blacksmith questions about what had happened.
“It began to get worse and worse I'm afraid.” The blacksmith said shaking his head,
“More and more people began to catch it and we were not sure what we would do for food, as there was barely anybody left to forage for it.”
The blacksmith sighed wearily as though he was letting a huge burden of painful memories off his shoulders before continuing.
“People began to die, their own vital organs began to dissolve slowly and painfully. It was the most horrific thing I have ever seen. Every one of the people in this village depends on you Traff to save us from such a terrible fate. I suggest you go now, put some of the platinum in our well and give everybody a flask of water. For some of the worst ones, mix some extra in. I beg Talad that this is the cure, if it isn't, none of us have any hope of survival.”
Traff and I set about giving everybody their 'medicine' and were soon very nearly done. The last people we needed to see was Traff's own family, who he presumed were still in his house. He asked me to wait outside as this was a very personal matter and if anything had happened to them he wanted to see it himself. He was only inside for a short time and when he returned I could see that he was trying to hide an immense sadness that had taken him. He was shaking violently as well. I had a feeling his family was already dead, or worse. He didn't talk much, barely at all in fact, so I went to stay the night in the Inn and Traff went back to his house to get some rest. Hopefully things would have progressed and people would be far better than before.
I awoke the next morning in the Inn, it was a small bedroom but more than enough for me and my pack. I went downstairs but I couldn't find the Inn keeper, which was odd, as he didn't have any legs. I walked out the door and to Traff's house to go an get him and noticed that there wasn't anybody at all lying in the streets. Had they all regrown their lost limbs and gone off somewhere? I got to Traffs door and knocked. I waited a few seconds and, after no reply, knocked again. Still no answer. I began to get worried, surely Traff wouldn't leave without me, he'd wake me and make me come too, right? I tried to open the door and found it unlocked, so I went inside to look for him. He was nowhere downstairs, so I began to climb the stairs. Halfway up I heard a groaning, it sounded like it was coming from further up and I began to run up the stairs shouting his name. The top of the stairs went both left and right and, as I was thinking which way he would be, I heard the groan again and ran down the right side, following my ears. I tried the handle but it was locked so, pulling out my bend short sword once again, I began to cut my way through. It was a very thin door so it wasn't long before it cracked and splintered into a large enough hole for me to get through. But I didn't climb through immediately, for a second, I stood in total horror at the scene that lay before me. Traff lay on the floor with no legs and one arm that was merely a stump. He lifted his head to me and I saw that he was also missing some of his face, half of his nose and one of his eyes. His single eye looked up at me in a mixture of relief, incredible pain and regret. I forced my way through the hole and knelt beside him. I rolled him over so he didn't have to lift his head to talk, but he still found it hard to utter any words at all.
“It's.... all my... fault...” He gasped “The platinum... it... it speeds up... the illness... They're all... all gone... all dissolved... like me...”
“It's not your fault Traff, you didn't know that it would do this, you were told it would cure you all. You were trying to save everyone!”
“No... no... we didn't...” he coughed, sending his body into a spasm for a second. He lay still again catching what breath he had left. “We didn't... test it first... We just... gave everybody... the platinum and.... killed them... all...” He was dissolving even more rapidly now, it seemed the more strength he used the faster he deteriorated.
“Who told you it was the cure Traff? I'll make them pay I swear, I'll avenge your whole town. Tell me who did this.”
“The... Xacha...” what was left of his head rolled to the side and I re-righted it “he... he said... he said that it... could cure us...”
“And it did.” The icy voice broke the quiet around me and my dieing friend, it was calm, it was confident, and it belonged to a Xacha standing behind me.
“Look around your town young Kran, do you see anybody suffering? Do you see anybody dissolving? Do you see anybody dead?” A smirk formed on his lips “Nor do I. So you see, they are all cured! You yourself will soon stop suffering and be happy with the sweet, sweet embrace of death.” He savoured the last word like a fine food, obviously enjoying saying the word as well as watching it in action. “And your little Dwarf friend here shall join you soon and nobody will know what happened to the 'poor little Kran village'” He laughed suddenly, “You must admit, it is indeed the perfect plan, the bodies take care of themselves, the land is left completely unoccupied, ripe for the plucking as they say! If you are to have one good thought before you die then at least be happy you know of such a fantastic, foolproof plan and that you were killed by it. A worthy way to die if you ask me.” He grinned again, and then nodded towards Traff. “It seems mister Kran couldn't hear my little speech, a pity he had to die so soon. Never mind, at least you heard it. Now, my little friend, how would you like to die? Fire, air, earth or water?” He laughed again and began to slowly wave his hands in a rhythmic fashion and magical energy began to form in mid air. Realising he was casting his magic far too fast for me to be able to reach him with my sword, I turned and ran towards the back of the room and just a few steps from the wall, threw myself out of the window. As I collided with the window everything seemed to slow down, the glass cracked and shattered around me, slicing at the air and falling with me to the ground, as my feet left the window frame I felt a surge of heat in the air and just had time to look round and see a fireball engulf the wall, setting the wooden house alight. I looked down again and saw myself hurtling towards the ground, getting myself into a position to roll when I hit the ground just in time. I had a few glass cuts from the fall but other than that I was unhurt, and the adrenalin rushing through my body meant I could not feel them anyway, I could tend them later, right now I had a bigger problem. The front door of the house suddenly flew off it's hinges and I leapt behind the nearest crate that was stacked up against the side of the house. The Xacha walked calmly out of the door, leaving the fire inside the house slowly forcing it to collapse in on itself, much like the disease that had once infected it's occupants.
“Come out little Dwarf, you'll barely feel a thing.” he laughed again “After the intense feeling of burning and pain that is.” He put his hand to the ground and a huge wave of flame burst outwards from him in a circle, setting everything alight nearby. My crate was just out of reach, but it was a close call. He walked away from the house casting another spell. Suddenly an old voice in my head sounded, one from my military years at the outpost. 'Now or never' it said, and I understood. I stood up, lifted my bend short sword high in the air and brought it down on a rope lying by my feet. It cut through it with ease and the sound of the rope whipping up made him turn and see me. “There you are my little Dwarf, is our little game over now? Have you come to die with what little dignity you have left?” I wasn't listening, my eyes were following the rope. It twisted and turned like a snake but the weight on the other end pulled it through it's pulley. The weight was another crate, held high in the air by a small make-shift crane that was next to the house. With nothing holding the crate up, gravity took over. The Xacha followed my eyes, still casting, and saw what I saw. He paused, lost his spell and was crushed by the weight of a crate full of food. Suddenly nothing could be heard but the still burning house, now overcome with fire.
I walked from the carnage, the feeling of loss for my friend beginning to take over my mind. Even though we had met such a short while ago we had already become great friends, my first true friend it seemed. Maybe it was the Gods telling me they don't want me, everything and everyone I come in contact with seems to get some terrible fate because I came in contact with them. Even the Krans, had I not saved Traff they would not have drunk the platinum and dissolved so fast. It seemed my journey was not over yet, I had to keep searching for somewhere to live, even if it was on my own, in a small house in the middle of nowhere. I certainly hoped not. My last chance was Hydlaa City, so taking the map the Dwarves had given me so long ago, I set off.
