A Song for the Rain

The rest of that day, I continued to explore the village. Many of the villagers invited me into their homes, asking me about my exploits on the battlefield. Some offered me trinkets and amulets designed to bring good fortune. Several offered food, too much food for me to eat alone, so I put some in a little sack to save for later. They shared with me many songs and prayers, passed down to them from previous villagers. Of particular note to me was a song about the rains. Despite having not seen any rain in so many years, they still remembered what it was like and yearned for its return.

The autumn rain, so shall we meet

And shall our crops rejoice!

We pray for the rainfall so neat,

We sing all with one voice.

There was one thing I had to admit about that last encounter with Tomosse. He reminded me of the beauty in music, which I had long forgotten.

The Watcher had just closed his morning eye and opened his night eye, my cue that I needed to return to camp. We had to make preparations for the upcoming fight tomorrow morning. I passed by Parawa's house on the way back and thought about stopping by one last time. No, I thought to myself. She had moved on. I needed to do the same.

“Ships!” someone cried out, interrupting my thoughts. “Coming over the horizon!”

Ships? At this hour? It sounded impossible. Playing it safe, I made my way over to the shoreline. A line of light arced its way along the ground, separating me from the shore. From what little I could see, dozens of ships approached the shore, though they were still quite a distance away. Each one was ablaze with lights and accompanied by the sound of oars slapping the water. Were they friend or foe? A horrible screeching sound soon joined the ships, providing the answer. Terrons. Only demons rode those.

Everything that could have gone wrong was going wrong. We had no time to evacuate the village, hardly any time to set up defenses. Our allies hadn't even arrived yet. Tomosse did not arrive as promised. We had not set up any means of dealing with terrons. Once again, we were being ambushed by the demons.

A memory of a previous battle flashed before my eyes. Ships crawled across the seas accompanied by terrons. I was here before. This was the same strategy they used before.

I approached closer, beginning to see soldiers running up and down the line of light. The line itself became two lines. Soldiers had already planted two rows of torches into the grass, forming a safe path. One man stood out amongst the panicking masses, a tall man with appointed ears, royal robes, and long white hair.

“Your Highness!” I shouted at the Elf King.

“Zikatta,” he greeted me as I approached. He shouted, “You two! With me now!” Two other soldiers joined us on the walk path. They were elves, judging by their pointed ears and distinct silver helmets.

“Archers!” someone shouted in the distance. “Ready arrows!”

“Your Highness, I need to lead these soldiers into battle,” I told Edagri. “They seem to do well with me leading the way.”

“Aim! Hold!” Soldiers continued tossing orders around. I still could not shake the feeling that I had been here before. Or perhaps that was my body actually trembling. The Elf King could see it as well. By now, two more soldiers joined us, enough to form a small party.

“No,” Edagri countered, his speech blurring words together. “I'm forming a scouting party. I need you to lead these men into the mountains and locate anything the demons might find valuable, ancient mana sources, hidden treasure troves, anything. It's clear to me this village is being protected by some sort of ancient… super-powerful magic… of some sort.”

“Your Highness, I need to -”

“You need to do as your King commands,” he replied sternly.

“King?” It could have just been a symptom of the condition he was in. “Excuse you?”

It took a while for him to realize what happened. “My apologies. I seem to have misspoke.”

“Wait a minute.” I caught a faint odor of alcohol. Oh no… I leaned in closer. There it was, plain as the Watcher's eye on the morning horizon. “You're drunk?!”

The Elf King reacted as if I had just insulted him. “How dare you, good sir! I am not -”

“We're in the middle of a war and you're leading these soldiers into battle drunk!”

“I only had one goblet before they announced the enemy's arrival!” Edagri insisted. He was flustered and very drunk, not a good combination in the middle of battle. I leaned in to get a good smell of him.

“I smell…” I said as I began to recall the very distinct mixture of drinks he had consumed during the day. “Four goblets of rum, a couple of shots of ale, and a cup of lemon water to wash it all down.”

“How did you…?”

“Your Highness, I was a tavernkeeper for fifteen years,” I explained to him. “You can't hide drunkenness from me. It's almost like you're drinking just to get drunk.”

The Elf King struggled to regain control over the situation. He knew I had won. “Just go into the mountains and keep the demons out.”

“Get the shield wall up!” a soldier shouted. I briefly considered whether Edagri knew something that I didn't. Perhaps he saw my hands trembling and assumed I should not be on the front lines. Or perhaps there was something even more beyond that. It wasn't worth fighting him on this. Not right now.

“As you wish.”

•

But I did not immediately venture out to the mountains with these soldiers. There was someone I needed to find first. Soldiers rushed around to hastily assemble a shield wall and catapults. I felt a slight panic set in as I became surrounded by the masses. No… I needed to focus. She had to be found.

“Ipas?” I shouted as I searched the chaotic front lines for the Lyko, needing to duck away from soldiers recklessly swinging their weapons around as they darted around. “Ipas, where are you?”

“Halliyah?” Ipas shouted back. I could hear her, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“The demons are approaching the shore!” a soldier shouted as he darted between us.

“Rain fire on them!”

“Hold fast!”

“Ipas! We need you!” I shouted.

After a while, she finally emerged from the crowd. “What's the matter?” she asked.

“We need a seer,” I explained. “Edagri is sending us into the mountains to see if the village is being powered by some ancient magic or whatever.”

“He's not sending you into battle?” she asked.

“I think after what happened at Freehold,” I continued, “he'd rather I stay far away from the battle so he can claim all the credit if we win.”

“If we win,” she answered. “And you're just going to follow his orders?”

“I don't have a choice,” I admitted. “I'm not exactly on good terms with any royals.”

“Whatever you say, hero,” Ipas shrugged off my concerns. “Let me set up my stones.”

She had set up her seer stones in her special pattern and chanted her prayer, “Stones of sight, show me your wisdom! For this, I call upon Aab the Boundless Wisdom!” For her, the stones began to project an image.

“What do you see?” I asked her.

“For once, this Elf King is telling the truth somewhat,” was her answer. “There seems to be a reservoir of water buried somewhere in those mountains. I've never seen anything like it before. Rivers flowing freely underground.”

“This village must be using that reservoir to keep the grass green and their fields bountiful,” I realized.

“It's strange,” Ipas admitted. “When the Endless Summer began, many of the world's rivers stopped flowing and dried up. And yet there are still places where fresh water flows freely.”

“It's as if the world itself is out of balance,” I told her. “But that's our play. The demons need fresh water just as much as anyone else. They will want that reservoir to keep their forces replenished.”

“We need to be careful, though,” Ipas warned. “I also see the wiamiu patrolling the mountains.”

“Of course,” I said. “It wouldn't be a trip into the mountains without risking the wrath of the armored cats.”

•

We set out for the mountains at once. Behind us, the battle had already commenced. The shore, perhaps even the village, became caught in an infernal firestorm. It was the classic demon tactic, overwhelming the enemy with aerial ambushes and sheer numbers. The screams of men and demons mingled together until they became indistinguishable from one another. It was a sound I could have spent the rest of my life not hearing again. The past and the present became a blurry mess. What was happening now and what was just a memory became difficult to tell apart.

But we had a mission from King Edagri. He did not care about the village, only what lay in the mountains beyond. We were the last line of defense against the demon hordes, the only thing separating them from the precious water flowing a distance below our feet. There were six of us.

“Are you sure you don't want to turn back?” Ipas asked me.

“Of course, I do,” I answered before pointing at the elf soldiers in front of us. “I don't think they will allow us, though. Edagri does not want me anywhere near the battlefield.”

“To Arakkia with Edagri,” Ipas protested.

“Don't say that too loudly.”

“It was your quick thinking that defeated the demons at Freehold,” she continued. “Not his. You should be leading the battle.”

“We'll deal with that when we finish Edagri's pet mission,” I told her. “For now though, we need to be in his good graces. And the rest should sort itself out from there.”

Before we could continue any further, the distinctive growling of the wiamiu was heard in the distance. Strangely, I could only hear one. No others gave their replies to the growl. People were never far away from the wiamiu, whether they kept them as pets or they merely followed the trails of wild cats in search of food.

“We must be careful,” I told the others. “Any sudden sounds could alert the wiamiu to our presence.”

“Surely, the six of us could easily defeat a single wiamiu,” one of the elf soldiers scoffed. “Or do you tell us that the chosen hero is afraid of a big cat?”

“I only urge that we do not rush to violence so easily,” I answered. “People keep these animals as pets. If we were to kill someone's pet due to our rash judgment, the laws would not be so kind to us.”

“Very well,” said the soldier.

We progressed further into the mountains. Much unlike the Dorns, these mountain paths were green and full of life. Unfortunately for us, one of the other soldiers had not watched his step. He walked right into some thorny bushes. At least thirty thorns jabbed him in the face, with several just barely missing his eyes. He let out a painful scream, one that could very well have summoned an entire pack of the armored cats, or even worse, to our location.

A single cat leaped off the nearest cliff, right in the middle of our group. One of the soldiers immediately moved to do battle with it, but the cat attacked him much faster than he could. A single swipe of its paw could have cut open the man had it attacked with claws out. Its claws were thankfully retracted, but that did not stop it from pouncing or attempting to do so on each of us. When it moved towards me, I slipped and fell onto some nearby rocks.