Talk to the Stars
When he reached the top of the gorge and peered onto the mesa that lay ahead, he saw a troubled land of ice-drenched trees with broken snapped branches under sullen and bleak grey skies. In the distance he could see the freezing rain pour from the clouds in hazy, charcoal shrouds upon misfortunate intermittent pockets of ground. Winter, miserable winter, had come to this country. He felt decidedly chillier just seeing the frozen precipitation descend unconsciously upon the fields and leaf-stripped copses ahead of him. Nature, it was said, has no conscience. Yet he could feel a purposefulness here, a malignant purposefulness bent on desecrating the inherent goodness of the world. Somehow, he felt that the Aura in Ascension was behind the ugly weather.
Chyna was about a hundred yards ahead of him and she was almost halfway down the hill. She wasn't looking behind to see if he was following her. The speed that she took her steps made him wonder if she wanted him to catch up at all. He could let her go and be on his own again, the way a Challenge was meant to be carried out. But circumstances had undeniably changed for him now. His mission was no longer just a hike into self-discovery. There were desperate people waiting for him and he could not let them down. Yet without the Redeemer, he did not know what kind of help he could be to them. Still that was no reason to shirk his responsibility. He owed it to Straye and he owed it to Everan and to the others for whom he had no names.
But most of all he felt that he owed it to Chyna. They had a strong difference of opinion about the fiasco they just went through. He doubted that he could ever reconcile himself to what had taken place but he knew that he had better reconcile himself to the prairie woman. He called out to her but she would not stop. She continued walking paying him no heed. He felt weak with the thought that their friendship might have come to an end. Somehow or other, Chyna had become a defining symbol of who he was and to be without her was to be without himself.
He broke into a run to catch up, calling her name and blurting out apologies that he sincerely felt. Yet she continued to ignore him, even when he, at long last, caught up to her and took hold of her by the shoulders and said, "Chyna, I was wrong. I had no right to make you feel bad for what you did."
Her dark eyes looked away from his and she moaned, "Leave me alone." She broke from his hold and went into a full run. Her legs were shorter than his but they were fleet and swift. He ran after her but he could not keep up. She was deepening the gap between them even though he did not give up and raced behind her for many long minutes. Her stamina was amazing as she broke through erratic terrain where there were many encumbrances that could slow her up if not entirely halt her.
Chiapos did not give up either. He found that his own strength did not falter with the prolonged running. His breath was not growing short, the muscles in his legs did not tire. Was this another benefit of Cenan's milk? Or was it his desire not to have Chyna leave his life?
They must have run miles up and down gorges and ravines and defiles, and through streams and slick mud beds. They were always heading in the same direction which Chiapos had to assume was the way to Tanejul. She moved with the speed and elegance of an antelope and he admired her for her agility. He was enduring this test of stamina through being bolstered by the magic milk, she was doing it all on her own. She did not have the resources that he had available to him yet to watch her move he could not help but think that there was something superhuman at work within her as well.
After about forty minutes of full-out racing, they entered into the lands where the freezing rain had covered everything with an icy and treacherous sheen. Chyna was still undaunted by it and continued at her breakneck speed until her footing gave out on her over some ice-coated grasses and she fell backwards upon her buttocks. Chiapos charged at her, his own footing less than tenuous. He too fell except he fell forward smearing his face along the grass as he skidded to a gradual stop.
As he lifted himself from the grass, wiping away the ice and mud that streaked his face he could hear Chyna laughing. She was still sitting in the grass not five feet from him. And without any forethought, he jumped upon her, embracing her in his arms and smothering her in kisses. She responded alike and the two were swept into a passion that was consummated in the making of love upon the ice fields.
It was Chiapos' first time to engage in this activity and as far as he could tell it was Chyna's too. Yet, the youth from Rainwater and the girl-woman from the prairies instinctively knew how to satisfy each other and to make each other know that they were satisfying. To Chiapos, it was the most wonderful moment in his life and he could see by the shine in Chyna's eyes that she had not known many better moments either. Afterwards as the two lay in each others arms, they talked of the dreams they had in their youth and what dreams they would have pursued had not this foul spirit descended upon the world.
Chyna's dream was nothing more than to live out her life on the prairie homestead of her grandfather with a soulmate and children of her own. She wanted to dedicate her life to the work of making the prairie a home for women as well as men. She did not desire riches or leisure although she yearned for a better quality of life, one where she and other women would be treated equal to any man in the prairie community. She knew some women in Tanejul who were either daughters to prairie men or mistresses to them. None had ventured out to the prairie and all felt an emptiness inside from being apart from their men.
Chiapos spoke of nothing that was as socially oriented as Chyna’s desires. He was fulfilling his childhood dream by going on the traditional rite of adulthood and thus far the Challenge was living up to his dreams although he would have preferred that it would not have been so perilous. Somehow his adventure of self-discovery got muddled into a greater destiny to overcome evil. If he and the rest of Mallog’mor’ach were to survive and surmount the terrible Aura, his desire was to return to Rainwater and to live out his life in the age-old customs of the village and to hopefully, eventually, become an elder.
"You will become an elder from all that you have learned on your Challenge." Chyna spoke encouragingly. "What you have compiled so far on your adventure would guarantee that other Rainwatermen would approach you for your counsel."
"Elders know from the heart and not from experience," Chiapos replied. "So far on this trip, I have not been very smart. I have been duped every step along the way. A Rainwater elder would not have fallen for the things that I have fell for."
Chyna leaned over him and kissed him on the forehead. "Don't belittle yourself, Chiapos. You have made no big mistakes and the small ones that you have made can all be thought of as lessons in learning. You will someday return to Rainwater a very wise man knowledgeable about what life is like outside of the borders of your village."
He pulled her down close to him and sought out her lips, more so to keep her from praising him rather than to experience her tenderness. "You're shivering," he whispered, breaking away from the kiss.
"It's cold out here!" she replied, huddling her body even tighter against his. Chiapos could feel the freezing rain pelt her bare back.
"We've got to get dressed and get moving before you get sick," he said, letting her go even though he wanted to make the moment in her embrace last forever.
She kissed him one last time and grudgingly got up. It was apparent that she wanted time to stop as well. She pulled on her shift and then dug into her bundle. Chiapos wondered if she were going to produce her secret cache that was to save Straye and Everan in Tanejul. She still had not made mention of it and he had no idea what it could be. Instead she produced a coat made of some hide that Chiapos did not recognize. "What kind of coat is this?" he asked.
"It's a seal coat," Chyna answered pulling the garment over her head and draping it down over her body.
"Seal?" Chiapos had never heard the word before.
"I'm not sure myself what a seal is. I got the coat in Tanejul from some trader that came from the coast. He told me that a seal is a marine animal much like a dog except that its hind legs are fused together to be shaped something like the tailfin on a fish and that its forelegs don't have toes but are rather like the dorsal fins of a fish."
Chiapos laughed. "Half dog, half fish! I think that the trader was telling you a story."
Chyna giggled herself. "I don't know if he was telling me a story or not but I can tell you that I have never been in such a warm coat. Where's your coat?"
"It's in my bag," he answered. "I don't need it right now. I don't feel cold at all." And as he spoke those words he wondered if this was yet another miraculous transformation due to the milk from the Appointed Servant.
"You'll put it on soon enough. The weather is only going to get harsher as we approach Tanejul."
"How much further is it?" Chiapos asked. "It seems that this shortcut, this Highwayman's Trail, is interminable."
"We'll be in Tanejul in about three days." Chyna had all of her gear put together and she was starting to walk. Chiapos quickly caught up and was thankful that she was no longer hostile to him. But he was beginning to grow apprehensive about some future day where he would have to part company with her forever. They had said it in their dreams - she wanted the prairie, he wanted the village. This partnership of theirs would not last forever.
They walked and chatted steadily for hours over land that was greasy from the freezing rain. The air was cold and damp. It was the kind that ate right down to the bone and chilled the marrow to the freezing point yet Chiapos did not feel any strong urge to don his greatcoat even though Chyna pleaded for him to do so. He told her that it must have something to do with Cenan's milk and she had to concur. She said that she had seen many a man boast about how the cold doesn't affect them and that she saw many of these same men become wretchedly sick from not being realistic about what the cold can really do to them.
"Believe me, I can sense the cold but it is nothing more than a sensation. It isn't any discomfort and I don't have to shield myself from it," Chiapos answered.
"You are becoming something that I think you were not meant to be when you were born," Chyna commented. She expounded, "You don't eat or drink or need sleep. You don't get cold when the weather is bitter. These are all things that humans experience and if you are no longer experiencing them, I can't but wonder if you are losing your humanity."
Before Chiapos could take objection to this point of view, Chyna went on further. "To me what you are becoming is something more primordial, more a part of the elements than to the living. The wind doesn't eat or drink nor does it sleep and it can never feel cold onto itself. Auras are said to have this elemental quality. Do you think that it is possible that you are becoming an Aura yourself?"
It was an interesting speculation - one that Chiapos himself had pondered. Had Cenan set in motion the forces that would change him into an Aura? Had she done this in order that he could do combat on equal grounds with the Aura in Ascension? Had she seen to it that he would be equipped with the Wood of Faerie so that his battle would be won? If she had done all these things purposefully, why hadn't she given him the wisdom on how to wield these new powers? Why would she have not given him an all-encompassing drive to always hold onto the Redeemer? And why would she have not given him the insight to know what his weaknesses were so that he could properly guard against having them become factors in his possible demise? Could Cenan have done this for him? No, he realized, she couldn’t do this for him. His body might be changing but his mind was still his own. He had to be the one to learn what his new capabilities are and what shortcomings he may possess and until he does discover these qualities about himself, he should always be prepared to act on an instant's notice by what his inner judgement tells him.
"No," he said to Chyna, "I don't think that I am turning into an Aura. What I'm turning into is something that only I will know when it happens."
"Whatever you become, I hope that you will always remain innately good." Chyna smiled. "You have a good heart, Chiapos of Rainwater, and that is something that hopefully can never be changed. You are either born with it or you're not and you have been born with it."
The Highwayman's Trail up to this point was never clearly delineated. The path itself was always nondescript. It was more or less a general direction to follow rather than a worn roadway. However, now Chiapos was beginning to find that he and Chyna were coming upon a stretch along the path where there was some definition to the trail. He could see the grasses strode down and here and there an impression in the soil of someone else's footprint. Yet, he could not see any grooved markings of a wagon. He did not know with any certainty whether Samarin was still following this trail, if he was alive at all, or whether the vagabond rogue was still pulling the cart. This served to depress him. If there was one need that he could feel in his body it was the need to be reunited with the Redeemer. If he had the capability to dream, he was sure that he would dream of the Wood of Faerie. It was almost like an obsession with him.
When he asked Chyna if she still thought that they were on Samarin's trail, she confirmed more than opined that Samarin was indeed on the road ahead of them. She was somewhat surprised that the old ruffian had managed to stay ahead of them given his burden and all. But he most assuredly was ahead of them because like the thief that he was, Samarin would hone in on Tanejul the way that a fly hones in on dung.
This comment lifted Chiapos' spirits somewhat. "There's only three days between us and Tanejul, I sure hope we catch up to Samarin before he reaches the town. I have a feeling that once he gets into Tanejul, we will have the greatest of troubles trying to locate him."
"I think that you are right there. Even back in the good old days, Tanejul had many dens and lodges where criminals could steal away their presence and almost seem like they fell off the face of the Earth. Now, with this dark pestilence that has settled upon the town, I'm afraid that there are far more of these underworld hovels and that our chances of finding Samarin are going to be greatly diminished and that you might never be reunited with your magic stick again."
Chiapos nodded. "The Redeemer has become very precious to me. I think about it almost constantly," he admitted, knowing that he could trust Chyna.
"Do you think that that is healthy?" she asked, stopping to stare into his eyes.
He felt momentarily awkward and then answered, "It's not healthy to stay away from food or water, yet I do that. Whatever I am becoming, part of that existence is made up by a need to be with the Redeemer. Somehow I don't feel complete without it. Strange that a piece of wood would have that effect upon me, wouldn't you say?"
"Everybody has to extend their persona past their body. Some choose people, some choose animals and pets, and some choose the inanimate," Chyna said with a small smile on her face.
"The ones who choose the inanimate are the strange ones, right?" Chiapos returned the smile although his could be attributed to embarrassment. He did not like being associated with any kind of weirdness.
Chyna maintained her smile. "Not necessarily, I think that my extensions go into the world of the inanimate. My grandfather's house is very important to me, I think of it as a part of me, yet it is inanimate. And I would say that there is nothing strange about that. Now, yours is a little more different but it is essentially the same kind of thing." She giggled. Her eyes narrowed with the gentle laughter that Chiapos found very appealing.
Night was beginning to fall and with it the overcast skies began to dissipate, leaving in their wake a crisp black star-strewn canopy. It was the first time in many a night that Chiapos could actually see the stars without being hindered by clouds or overhanging trees. He marveled at their eternal beauty and felt akin to them in that they were the same stars that shone over Rainwater and they were the same stars that he saw when he was a little boy growing up in the village. Here, they were again far, far away, as if nothing had changed at all, as if he had not wandered the many miles that his Challenge had consumed, as if he had not come of age. This he felt pleasing, very pleasing. The stars were a constant in his life no matter how much the other parameters in his existence had changed.
"They are beautiful, aren't they?" Chyna said softly. Chiapos realized that she had been watching him watch the stars.
"I can see pictures in them, can you?" He pointed to the cluster that was outlined by a parabola on the top with two parallel stars beneath. "My people call that one the Scythe, see those top stars they are the handle and the bottom ones make up the blade."
"I think it is called the Scythe wherever you go. We call it that on the prairie and we call it that in Tanejul as well."
"Then everybody is not seeing it the way that I do," Chiapos declared. "What I see is a dipping pan that you sway into the sky to catch a shooting star. I believe that if someone was to be able to get up there and get a hold of that pan and catch a shooting star, that person would be revered above everybody in legend. This person would be lauded even more than the Mammoth of the Tester, for this person would have command of the skies that rule over all that lay below."
"Would you like to be that person?" Chyna asked. He could no longer see her face too well because of the darkness.
He shirked. "I don't know. At one time, I guess I would have wanted that power but now that I have had a taste of what responsibility is attached to that power, I'm not so sure that I would want it any more. I think that I would prefer to live an ordinary life and be happy in the simple pleasures that that life offers."
"Then why do you continue on this quest of yours? Why not go back to Rainwater and take up the life that you left behind? It would please your family I am sure. They must be worried sick about you being gone for all this time. They don't know what has become of you and don't fool yourself, they would be happy to see you come back again. There's no shame in finishing your adventure early."
The words surprised Chiapos. He did not expect to hear them from Chyna. She, of all people, should know how important this Challenge had become to him and how important it was for him to get to Tanejul and rescue his countrywoman. Yet, he did not want to ruin the mood of the evening with such a self-centered diatribe. Instead he replied, "These stars that I am looking upon are also shining down on my village. My family is also looking up at them and in them they know that I am looking at them too. They are our means of communication because I can sense in their sparkling little bodies that my father and my brothers and sisters are staring up at them and the twinkle I see in the stars is the twinkle in their eyes. They want me to finish this journey because they realize how important it is to me and as long as there are stars I can talk to them."
"That's a pretty image, but I don't buy it at all!" Chyna laughed. "Of course, you are going to finish this Challenge, I wouldn't let you leave it now that we are only a few days out of Tanejul. You don't have to make up a story about talking through the stars to defend your choice to continue your travels."
"You are starting to get to know me," Chiapos replied. "Still if one could talk through the stars one would never be separated from anything in one's life. Some day I hope to have that ability."
"You would rather have that ability than the ability to catch a shooting star and rule the lands below?"
"Yes, any day."
"I think that I would want that ability too." She dug her arm through his elbow. The two companions strolled in the dark of night. They strolled along the infamous and nefarious Highwayman's Trail under a brilliant tapestry of pristine winter stars.
Aether Fires
They walked arm in arm for hours. Their pace was swift but not hurried. In many ways the night was matching the romance of the Challenge that Chiapos had dreamed about when he was younger. As the stars and planets and constellations followed their age-long paths across the sky, Chyna was beginning to tire. Chiapos suggested that they should stop for the night and that she would allow herself some much-needed sleep. At first, she was not amenable to the idea, making a point that a rest would delay their arrival in town by that much more amount of time. But in the end, she agreed and she went to sleep in the bed that he had fashioned for her from boughs that he had cut from a nearby fir tree with his axe.
Once Chyna was asleep, Chiapos was again alone with his thoughts and his envy that he, himself, could not slumber any more. To pass the time, he recited to himself his journey thus far and all the events that had taken place. Even being as modest as he could, he had to admit that his story would be a strong new entry into the Challengelore. It might inspire children to take up the ancient tradition. Perhaps even his own children would spend their youth yearning for the day when they, themselves, would embark on the heraldic trek across the breadth of Mallog’mor’ach and return back again all the way to the mythical May Shores. He wondered how much time would elapse before he reached that remarkable region. Most Challenges that are successfully completed last anywhere from a year to two. He had a feeling that his would last quite a bit longer than the norm if he could successfully complete it at all, given the state of desperation in Tanejul and the unknown role that he would have to play there.
As he mused over his accomplishments thus far, he became aware of the Aether Fires dancing across the northern skies. They always took him aback. Their mystery always cast an eerie spell upon him whenever he beheld them. Or when he ventured to wonder who or what was in control of them. The Challengelore and the ethos of Rainwater never tried to explain the Aether Fires. They were as accepted as a part of life as were the river and the valley, yet every Rainwaterman would stare upon them in awe on those bewitching nights when the fires breathed.
He watched the flickering lights race across the heavens with the wild and reckless freedom of young buffalo. Their ethereal fingers stroked at the Scythe. Were they some purposeful entity that sought to scoop the shooting stars? Were they trying to garner stewardship over all that watched from below? Suddenly a chill ran up his spine as he postulated that maybe that this new hypothesis of his was exactly what was going on. Maybe it was the Aura in Ascension striving to obtain his mastery over the dominions of the earth, sea and heavens? And as he gazed upon them with a threatened fascination, he thought that he could see shapes in the Aether Fires - frightening shapes of a flock of woodcocks attacking innocent people en masse. Was it his imagination or was it what he was actually seeing? The woodcocks, each small individually, were gargantuan as a group and nothing could impede their will. Chiapos began to shiver although he was not cold. Was this a premonition of what was to come? Was this the scene that was taking place in Tanejul? Was the city being invaded by such a harrowing horde of wicked long-billed birds? He could not look any longer and found himself almost wishing that the skies would become overcast again and hide these terrible revelations from him.
He fixed his eyes upon Chyna and tried to concentrate on the sound of her sleeping breath, yet no matter how hard he endeavored, he could not eradicate what he saw or what he thought he saw. It was a very powerful and destructive omen and he did not know what he could do to stop it. He was just a Rainwaterman, more boy than man, how could he be instrumental in the defense of the world against the terrible forces that were set upon conquering it? Even the Redeemer itself, did not seem to be the all-powerful avenging weapon that would save the good people of Mallog’mor’ach. He was feeling very small, very helpless, and very out of place and much inside of him was pleading with him to turn around and go home. The villagers of Rainwater would understand, his brothers and sisters would understand, even his father, Chakka, the one in the family who was living most vicariously his son's dream, would understand. This was not the business of mortal men. This was the war that was being waged between supernatural spirits. It was not his business.
But at this moment, when he was feeling his darkest, his nightmarish doubts were thrown from his mind when he heard a faint sound in the distance. It was a familiar sound, a sound that he hoped that he would hear again although it was a sound that he thought would always be forever mute to his ears. It was the sound of cranky creaking. It was the sound of groaning wood and grinding metal that always complained about having to work. It was the sound of a wagon.
It came from ahead of him, maybe a mile away or so, but it was definitely the sound of Samarin's wagon! The crusty scalawag was not that far ahead and Chiapos imagined that had he and Chyna continued to walk instead of stopping for the night they would have walked directly into Samarin's camp. He could almost feel the Redeemer cry out to him. It was ahead of him and could not be more than a mile away. If it was Samarin, the highwayman had evidently broken his camp for the night and was now on his way again.
Without delay, Chiapos stirred Chyna from her sleep. She made no protest about having to rise and when he explained to her that Samarin was just up ahead, she sprang to her feet and gathered her things quickly. She wanted to catch that man as much as he did.
The wagon's creaking was barely audible and Chiapos had to really concentrate to hear it. Realizing that sound works both ways, he and Chyna made certain that they made as little of it as possible. They did not want to alert Samarin that he was being followed.
The darkness served them as a veil, Samarin would not be able to see them. Conversely they weren't able to see him either. But they had the steady squeaking of the wagon as their unfailing guide that would lead them directly to him. They moved swiftly through the open grasslands where they were presently located. There was a slight incline to the lay of the land which worked in their favour as it meant that their quarry would have to work all the harder to maintain his speed given his cumbersome burden.
As they moved, all that Chiapos could think about was being reunited with the Wood. It was an attraction that was more transparent than the feelings that he had for Chyna. The Redeemer was at hand, soon it would be in his hands and the culpability of this possibility urged his muscles onward and to move faster. Chyna was keeping up with him but he realized that she was being pushed to the limits of her strength.
The wagon was moving steadily itself and after half an hour of pursuit, it seemed to Chiapos that they had hardly gained on it at all. The sound of the protesting wheels had barely grown more audible. "I don't know how he is doing it!" Chyna whispered. "He’s got that load and he's moving uphill and in slippery conditions. He’s as strong as a buffalo!"
"Maybe he's not alone," Chiapos ventured. "Two people could move that wagon faster than just one."
"He's alone. If there were somebody else with him, we would hear them talking. Don’t forget that that ex-partner of yours has an energetic tongue!"
Chiapos laughed. "That he does."
Chyna shushed him. "Remember that he could hear us." Chiapos nodded and the two companions moved silently onward.
When dawn arrived, they still had not made up the distance between them and Samarin. A heavy fog had set in which kept visibility checked to only a hundred feet or so. Disappointed that they had not gained on the highwayman under the cover of darkness, Chiapos was nonetheless thankful that they still had a cloak of invisibility about them. The sound of the wagon was now very noticeable. It filled the fog with a lonely cry. Chiapos liked to think of it as a lonely cry of despair emanating from the Redeemer being forlorn about being separated from its master.
He estimated that the wagon was within a hundred yards, just beyond the veil of the fog. One quick dash could have him crashing into Samarin and the wagon and the Redeemer. Unable to contain himself and not thinking of Chyna, he broke into a hard and feverish run directly at the sound. He ran through the fog like a canoe through still waters, creating a wake of wisps of mist behind his path.
Then through the fog, his eyes could see the squared-off shape of the wagon's box and then he could see more of the cart, its handles and attached to their ends was the shape of a body.
It was a huge body, a body with four legs. Chiapos stopped dead in his tracks. The wagon was being hauled by a buffalo! No wonder it was making such great speed. But Samarin was nowhere to be seen.
Charging up to the buffalo and the cart, he ran in front of the beast and halted it by placing his hands upon its massive furry forehead. The animal was well trained and instantly heeded the Rainwaterman’s command as if it were psychically attached to him. Cautiously, Chiapos started to investigate the cart when Chyna caught up to him.
She was winded from her hard run but she had enough strength left to hit him hard in the chest. "Fool!" she wheezed. "You could have been killed."
"It's not here!" Chiapos lamented. "Is this your wagon?"
Chyna studied the vehicle, running her hands along the feel of the wood. She nodded her head. "This is my grandfather's wood. It's the wagon."
"Then where is he? Where is Samarin?" Chiapos cried.
"Well, if he is in the vicinity then he knows that we are too!" Chyna scolded him.
She started looking into the load box of the wagon. The only objects to be found were some chunks of waybread. None of the things that she had loaded into it back at her grandfather’s were there. The Redeemer was not there. "I'm guessing that he has decided to go it alone to make more speed. He must have done this before last night because there is no sign of his tracks anywhere around here."
"He's got the Redeemer!" Chiapos grimaced with regret. This small moment of triumph had faded into the exasperation of loss.
"That's all the booty he needs to carry. The Wood of Faerie would be worth a lifetime's accumulation of wealth in some circles of Tanejul. He must have sold off all the other wares along the trail. That's how those brothers came by the carvings. Samarin didn't want to be weighed down any longer. He must somehow know that we are following him and felt that he had to hurry but he could have at least taken the time to set this poor creature free." She was referring to the buffalo. "This poor thing could have been stuck with this troublesome cart for many days."
She undid the straps that tied the buffalo to the cart, while rubbing its head in gentle, loving strokes. When the buffalo was freed, it did not scamper off. It stayed right where it was. It was obviously a domesticated animal. Chyna slapped it on its rump to signal that it could romp off but the buffalo just walked a few steps and began feeding upon the grass. "I have a feeling that someone had traded the buffalo to Samarin for some of my things because this is not a wild animal. This one grew up on a ranch."
Chyna walked up to the buffalo and looked beneath its ears. There were three horizontal bars branded in the flap. "I don't recognize the markings but they are definitely from some farm. It was probably stolen from the ranch by some thief and had to spend some time working the trail hauling robber's loot. Poor thing." She petted the animal on its thick, muscular hump.
Chiapos had hardly heard anything that Chyna had said. He had been filled with so much expectation of catching Samarin that now the disappointment that the highwayman was not there was overwhelming him. His Redeemer was nowhere to be found. If the thief was now moving unburdened by the dilapidated wagon, he could already be in Tanejul and the Wood of Faerie could be already sold and forever gone. "There's no point hanging around this forlorn place any more. Let's get to town," he sighed.
Chyna agreed. She gave the buffalo an affectionate hug and bid it farewell and she took up the walk behind the Rainwaterman. There was a sound behind her and when she turned, she saw that the buffalo was following her. Her amused giggle caused Chiapos to stop in his tracks. "It looks like we have company," she smiled.
Chiapos smirked. "We've got no time to tend to a beast of burden." He ran at the buffalo to scare it off. It groaned in confusion and scampered off a few yards before stopping and staring at the two humans in bewilderment. "Come on, let's go!" he said somewhat nonplussed to Chyna.
Much to his consternation, the buffalo had taken up the trail behind them once again. "Chiapos, he's back!" Chyna tried to stifle her laughter. She had obviously taken a liking to the creature. "Just let him follow us. He's not going to be any trouble."
"He'll slow us down. Those things have got to eat and we don't have the time to hang around while it devours a few fields of grass. We've got to get to Tanejul as soon as possible." Chiapos wondered if his resentment towards the buffalo was due to its association with the great crashing of his spirits when he realized the Redeemer was not there. Or was it a jealousy that he had to now share Chyna's affections with a matted, smelly, cud-chewing mass of meat?
"That's nonsense. He won't slow us down. It will probably prove to be a boon to us to have him tag along." Chyna was becoming disturbed with Chiapos' reticence. "He’s already proving to be better company for me than you, you sullen sod. Don't listen to him, Dedication, he's just a miserable and bitter wretch."
"Dedication? Don't tell me that you are going to name that thing Dedication?"
"That's what he is. He's dedicated. He could have his freedom but he chooses to come along with us. He's a boon, not a bane. He's a gift, not a hardship." Chyna had slipped back and walked by the buffalo's side. "My place is by Dedication's side, if your place is not beside me, then go off by yourself."
It was an ultimatum that Chiapos did not have the spirit to counter. He did not say it out loud but his actions spoke that he acquiesced to the new conditions of the travelling company. Who would have ever thought that his Challenge would involve animal husbandry?
The fog was very slow in lifting. By midday it had thinned to a whisper of its once dense self but it took another bout of freezing rain to wash it away. With her seal coat on, there was no need for Chyna to huddle closely to Dedication but she did so nonetheless, perhaps to share her warmth with the buffalo rather than to take some warmth from it. Chiapos had to admit that Dedication had thus far not slowed them down at all. He was still keeping the brisk pace that he had set for himself ever since they started along the Highwayman's Trail.
The Teeth of Tanejul
In the distance, tall rocky spires began to dominate the horizon. They had a formidable appearance and they did not have any friendly atmosphere to them whatsoever. They looked cold and slick and practically impassable. "Tanejul's just on the other side of those ridges ahead. They are called the Teeth of Tanejul or just simply the Teeth," Chyna commented.
"How are we going to get through them?" Chiapos asked with worry. He could not imagine how the buffalo would ever manage to climb up and over those formidable hills.
"They are treacherous but we can get through them."
"Dedication too?"
"You'd be surprised at the agility of these animals. You and I will have problems with our own footings long before Dedication does," Chyna's tone was spirited and uplifting.
"Will we have problems?" Chiapos asked with a semblance of foreboding.
"I have passed through the Teeth many a time and have never really experienced any problems. The only thing that might give us some trouble is the weather. If it continues to ice rain the way that it has, the pass through the Teeth may get to be a tad worrisome but we should still be able to get through."
It took about six hours for them to actually reach the bottom of the Teeth. Looking upwards at these ridges Chiapos saw that they climbed upwards at a ridiculous angle that he could swear was almost vertical for at least a thousand feet. It was beyond his ken to imagine how these ridges were supposed to be passable especially for a bulky, awkward animal like the buffalo, Dedication. Yet thus far the beast was still proving to be a boon rather than a bane to their progress.
"We don't climb right here, silly!" Chyna laughed when she saw how distraught her partner had become. "The slope is more tame about five miles to the east from this spot. That is where we make our climb."
"Five miles more!" After travelling hundreds of miles to get where he was, another five miles should not have seemed so daunting to him but he had it fixed in his mind that this was the point where they would scale the Teeth. To hear that they were still five miles out made Chiapos' spirits sink into a lowering funk.
"You can try to climb here if you like but you will quickly find that you would be sorry for making such an unwise choice," the prairie woman rationalized. "I don't like the idea of another five miles either but the reward is well worth the extra effort."
Chiapos looked at the granite wall before him and right away saw dozens of usable and well used footholds. There seemed to be no dearth of them. This slope was not as dangerous as it first appeared. With a good pair of hands the climb could be rather simple. He wondered if Chyna was choosing another spot for the sake of the buffalo, which had no hands, so that it could come along with them. He did not give voice to this suspicion and reluctantly agreed to trudge the extra five miles to a gentler slope where no hands were required.
They followed the path of the foothills as it zigzagged along the edge of the plain that they had just crossed. The grasses here may have at one time stood tall and obtrusive but with the weight of the freezing rain upon them, they hung low and were easily trammeled upon.
About half way to their goal, the weather took a turn and it was now starting to snow. Huge white flakes drifted downward relentlessly and with their cumulative effect, they were quickly layering the land with a white surface. By the time they reached the place where Chyna said the pass through the Teeth lay, there was six inches of snow on the ground and it was still coming down at a near-blizzard pace.
"This is no good," Chyna said. "This snow is going to make everything very slippery. We are going to have to be very careful."
Once again, Chiapos wondered if she was referring to the buffalo and not to him and her. He never truly had any problems with the snow in his life before. But then again, he never climbed thousands of feet in the air during a snowstorm before either.
He looked at the pass that Chyna had selected. The slope was still incredibly steep but there appeared to be something like a road that meandered back and forth up the mountainside to its summit. This road was covered with nearly nine inches of snow and it had held many stretches where its edge was also the edge of the precipice. He could see the treachery that Chyna spoke of - one wrong step and you could end up falling to your death in an instant. However, all and all, for the extra time it took to get here, it still presented a far more expedient route to get to the summit of the Teeth than the first location where he had wanted to climb.
"Do you want to take a pause for something to eat?" he asked Chyna.
"That wouldn't be a bad idea," she admitted. "It's going to take all the strength that I have got to get up there. A quick meal might serve me right." She pulled out a chunk of waybread that she broke into two pieces giving Dedication one of the chunks. "There, my friend, this will give you some strength."
"You have got to be joking!" Chiapos cried. "You are giving the animal some of your food!"
"Don't listen to him!" Chyna cooed to Dedication. "He doesn't understand that you need some tender loving care too."
The buffalo bellowed as if it understood what Chyna had said. It chewed the bread with the same sturdy chomps that Chyna masticated her own share of the meal. Chiapos could not look at them without feeling some anger. He kept his mind and eyes focused on the climb ahead of him, trying to path out their route up the slope.
"Ready anytime you are!" Chyna said.
Chiapos turned and saw that she and her buffalo were starting to walk up the path. Without saying a word, he took up the rear, having the sway of Dedication's rump lead him along the snowpacked upward trail. His feet sunk through the snow up to midcalf with every step. The buffalo was also experiencing the same difficulty, the impression of its cloven hooves were well defined in the drift.
Yet, they pushed themselves along and with the increase in elevation came a sharper decrease in the temperature. Chyna wrapped her seal coat close to her body. Dedication's gnarly fur was becoming covered in a coat of snow. Still, Chiapos was not experiencing the physiological reactions associated with a body's exposure to the cold. He could sense that there was a deep chill in the air but it did not produce any of its usual concomitant shivers and shakes in his body.
The snow continued to fall all along their climb up the precipitous slope of the Teeth of Tanejul. It blinded their vision as it swarmed their faces with the relentlessness of berserk bees. The winds had also picked up in this higher terrain. It almost seemed that it had a purposeful will to blow them off the face of the mountain. It took a great deal of concentration and willpower for the trio to eke out their painfully slow route up the Teeth. Chiapos was having increasing difficulty in keeping his wits about him. The howls of the gales allowed no other sound to penetrate his attention. Several times it seemed that Chyna was saying something to him but he could not make out what she had said.
And then he made that one errant step. His foot slipped through the snow and found no solid bottom beneath it to support him. At once, he fell to his knees and they smacked upon the solid surface under the snow just inches ahead of him. Had his step been one foot longer he would not have slipped. But the momentum of his fall caused him to slip and he soon found himself desperately grabbing at anything to keep himself from tumbling down a sheer drop along the face of the mountain. In his mind, he could only think of the Redeemer and how it had saved him on a mountain peak months ago. It was not here now and he feared that he was experiencing the last moments of his life.
His hands were flinging like a madman trying to purchase a grasp upon anything. But the snow was not giving him any hold. His body was slipping further over the precipice and it would be only a matter of inches before everything would come to an end.
And then his hand miraculously clasped upon something warm and furry and sturdy. It was Dedication! The buffalo had somehow managed to maneuver itself perilously close to the edge. Chiapos's other hand flew up and took hold of the buffalo's leg as well. The beast, snorting clouds of vapour from its nostrils in the blizzard, slowly and carefully hauled Chiapos back up to safety.
Once he reached the firmness of solid ground, Chyna embraced him. "I told you you were straying too far to the left!" she shouted to be heard above the winds.
Dedication's monstrous head nudged itself between the man and the woman. It wanted to be part of the celebration too. Chiapos took him by the horns and pulled the massive skull up next to his body. "You are my friend!" he cried out loud and from that moment he no longer felt any latent hostility toward the buffalo.
"Stick to the tracks that I make!" Chyna hollered. "I've crossed this pass in weather worse than this before."
Chiapos tilted his head up and down to indicate that he would not even consider any other plan. Chyna broke free from the nice warm huddle between humans and beast and started moving up the trail again. This time, Chiapos followed directly behind her, leaving Dedication to the rear.
It was a long and arduous climb, the most grueling effort that he had to put out thus far on his Challenge. Thankfully, he was immune to exhaustion and was able to keep his own. He marveled at Chyna's stamina and strength. She was doing all this without the aid of some ancient, mysterious magic. Perhaps she came from a stock that was even more ancient and more mysterious. She never faltered and she never paused for a rest until the night came.
They were about two-thirds the way up the Teeth of Tanejul. They were on such a narrow path that to step three feet to the left would place them in a similar fiasco as the Rainwaterman had experienced earlier in the day. "We can never make the top in the night. It is too dark and the snowsqualls that are rising up would make any further travel extremely hazardous," Chyna said. "We can make the summit in the morning."
Chiapos was a bit disappointed. He would have preferred to continue with their onslaught of the mountain but he fully understood Chyna and did not want her to fall down flat on her face from sheer exhaustion. He agreed with her but he wondered out loud how she was going to keep warm on this mountain's face in such horrendous conditions. Chyna's smile told him the answer. "In front of Dedication?" he smiled wryly.
"With Dedication as our bed!" she wrapped her arms around him and he could feel her drawing warmth from his body as she poured a series of kisses on his forehead, cheeks, chin and then his lips.
The buffalo did not offer himself up as a bed. Rather he masticated on his cud, with his head turned away from the wind and in so doing was viewing the young lovers directly. Chyna did not feel impeded by this, she seemed to thrive on it as if it gave her an additional thrill that Chiapos could not provide. The Rainwaterman was oblivious to his bovine audience, he was so intent to caress and love the woman but after the act was consummated and they lay silently in each other's arms, he grew increasingly aware of the mechanical chewing and the steady gaze of the buffalo. "I hope that you didn't save my life just so that you can watch me all the time!" he laughed at Dedication.
The awareness of a hoofed creature was always open to debate. Some think because of the gargantuan skull, there is a huge brain underneath capable of dealing with the most difficult philosophical questions, while others think that buffalo skulls are filled with nothing but space meant to house excess grasses. Chiapos never really pondered this subject before but at that moment, he was inclined to believe that Dedication understood everything and was acting like a large, moral judge deciding upon the ethics of which it had just seen.
Chyna fell asleep in his arms and he did everything that he could possibly do to keep her warm. As she had predicted, snowsqualls started to develop and attack the mountainface with the fury of an enraged female bear. It was merciless and relentless and in a short space of time, the snow began to encroach overtop of their blankets. At first he was going to wipe it away but he suddenly recalled tales from previous Challenges where the protagonists kept warm by burrowing under the snow and using it as an insulating layer against the true culprit of chill, the wind.
Dedication must have been starting to feel the cold through his thick mass of fur and hair. He crawled closer to the two humans and then he lay down, propping up his side against Chiapos who was thankful for the action since now they had a warm shield against the wind. Soon, the buffalo was asleep. Chiapos could feel the slow and powerful expansions and lessenings of Dedication's chest. All in all, he felt very cozy in his surroundings, something surprising given the tenuousness of their perch and the severe winter weather conditions.
As Chyna and Dedication slept, his mind took to wandering and wondering what tomorrow would bring. Tomorrow would be certainly the day that they would finally arrive in Tanejul. The name held an enchantment to every man and woman born in Rainwater. All Challenges pass through Tanejul at one point or another and some of the most amusing anecdotes in the Challengelore had their site in that town. Of course, some of the worst events that happened to trekking Rainwatermen also happened in Tanejul. It was a place of mystery. It was a crossroads where the peoples of the west such as Rainwater would meet up with peoples from the north and the south of Mallog’mor’ach. But most importantly, Tanejul was the site where the Challengers had encounters with the peoples of the east. These easterners were the most intriguing to the Rainwater adventurers. There was something globally different about the peoples of the East from all other sectors of Mallog’mor’ach. They seemed to possess a level of consciousness that could not be matched by others. Some of the Easterners were inherently good people and were the first to offer aid to a Rainwaterman in trouble but others were singularly evil and made life miserable to any that had the misfortune of crossing their path. Martok had claimed to be someone from the East, from an ancient town called Cresswell in an extinct land known as Malaga. The Challengelore had never made mention of these Malagans but the mere fact that Martok had said that he was from the East was enough to fascinate Chiapos in that early and strange meeting that they had along his Challenge. However, this Martok proved to be a manifestation of the Aura in Ascension. This was the same Aura that was even now wreaking havoc upon Tanejul and its people, the same Aura who was powerful enough to take on the Mammoth of the Tester, and the same Aura who seemed to be vulnerable to the Wood of Faerie. Tomorrow would be the day that he might encounter the Aura once again and this time it would be without his trusting Redeemer. It was a frightening thought that made Chiapos wish that the night would last forever and that tomorrow would never come.
He did wish that he could have met up with Samarin before entering the town but it seemed a hopeless dream now. They had been so close to catching up to him but somehow that conniving wastrel had eluded them and had taken with him the Redeemer. Chiapos found himself cursing the bandit in a semi-audible voice that was loud enough to cause Chyna to stir. She mumbled something and then fell back into her sleep.
Although it was dark, Chiapos could imagine her gentle face in slumber. She was well aware that troubles lay ahead but somehow or other she managed to put that aside and find the peace that only sleep could bring. Chiapos wished that he could sleep but that strange icon from the past, Cenan, had taken that luxury away from him. Sure, it was convenient not having to worry about the next meal and the next drink but eating, drinking and sleeping were also pleasures in life and these simple acts were now only a memory to him. He had learned his lesson about trying to indulge in one of these activities earlier. It had almost killed him. To partake in these life-sustaining acts was for him now the anathema to life itself. He was metamorphosing into something, something that he was not quite sure of. He likened himself to a chrysalis, that migratory state between the simple beginning and the complex future. He was not sure if he wanted this to happen to him but it was now too late. Why hadn't Cenan warned him about the consequences? Was she as much quagmired in the moment's lust as he had been? Or did she know that if she had told him what to expect when he sucked from her breast, he would never have allowed himself to gamble on such an uncertain state of being? One thing was for certain now, his life was in flux and tomorrow that flux would be taking on entirely different dimensions.
Time lapsed by with Chiapos lost in his reflections. When the buffalo, Dedication, grunted in his bovine dreams and brought the Rainwaterman back to the present, he realized that to deeply examine one's thoughts had an effect much akin to sleeping. He had managed to pull himself away from the stimulus-dependent stream of consciousness into lower chasms where his soul resided in a purer state. This was a trick he promised himself that he would take advantage of more often, whenever the rest of the world went to sleep, he would find solace in his thoughts or by reliving all his memorized passages of the Challengelore.
When he returned to his here and now circumstances, he could see that the morning would be soon at hand. It was the pre-dawn darkness but it was not completely black. The sky had an eerie tone to it - filled with an ethereal amber haze that glowed from over the clifftop. Could that light be emanating from Tanejul? He remembered a time in his youth when he spent a few nights away from the village. On those nights the clouds overtop of the village had glowed to show anybody who could see them where the village of Rainwater lay. His father had explained to him that this glow was produced from the campfires within the village itself. Was this amber glow that was lighting the clifftop above him the glow of the hundreds of campfires coming from the fabled city of Tanejul?
It made him itch with anticipation. Tanejul was not far away and he was already experiencing some of the aura of that city. It excited him and made him eager to get going.
It seemed like both Chyna and Dedication were linked to his thoughts for both of them suddenly stirred and were rising from their respective sleeps. The buffalo rose to his knees, and then to his hooves, and he started masticating upon his cud. Chyna stretched underneath her covers and said in a soft voice, "Today is the day, Chiapos. Today is the day we reach Tanejul. I hope the city is not in shambles, I hope that there is something I can still recognize in it today."
"There will be, I assure you," Chiapos answered, although he was not quite sure why he chose those words. What assurance could he give?
Chyna laughed in a girlish manner. "I just want to eat something before we get started. Who knows when I will get a chance again?" She pulled out another piece of waybread. As she took a bite from the chunk, she cringed, "I'm really looking forward to eating some of the spicy foods that Tanejul has got to offer. This bread isn't exactly appetizing."
"It looks very appetizing to me," Chiapos commented. "Any food looks appetizing to me. Goodness, I miss that simple pleasure."
"Oh, you're lucky! You don't have to worry about your next meal any more. I tell you eating can be such drudgery." Chyna was rolling the bread in her hand, inspecting the amorphous lump for any spot that might seem savoury. It didn't seem like any was, she put the bread away in her pouch. "Are you ready to experience the sights and sounds of Tanejul?" she said with mockish enthusiasm.
"I'm ready!" Chiapos answered. "Show me your town!"
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