Light of Epertase 01: Legends Reborn (11 page)

Rasi nudged her.
Alina, Alina. Wake up. You’re safe.

She whimpered and turned away, her vicious nightmare broken. Her heaving chest relaxed into calm rises and falls as she continued her sleep.

Rasi lay awake as the darkness faded and the bright yellow sun peeked over the horizon in the south, flashing a yellow hue into Rasi’s home. To the southeast, beyond the mountains, a more distant reddish sun also burned along the horizon. By midmorning, they would both be above the mountains and Alina would be missed at her home.

Rasi’s straps wriggled and stretched into the air. He tried to will them back over his sleeping treasure but they were more concerned with morning nourishment than keeping Alina warm. She fidgeted and reached for a blanket that didn’t exist. Rasi sat up and leaned his head over her half-naked physique. This was his favorite part of life – the few moments he was able to watch her sleep. He stared at her gorgeous stirring body as she stretched on the hard dirt floor, sighing away her slumber.

Good morning, Alina, my love.

She stretched her arms above her head, not quite awake. Rasi rubbed his finger along the outline of her ribs as they pressed against the skin on the side of her chest. She shuddered.
Good morning, my love,
she replied and opened her eyes to his gaze. She asked why he stared.

You are as beautiful as any sight I have ever seen. Even the suns and stars in the sky envy your beauty.
She smiled.

His straps reached for the ceiling to rid themselves of a long night’s worth of kinks.

She ran her hand along his chest and over the heavy scars on his shoulder. When she touched his long-since-healed wounds, her eyes wore the same look of pity that his scars always provoked from her and it made him uncomfortable. He stood up into the suns’ light projecting his muscular silhouette onto the cave wall.

“I see why people fear you,” she said. “If only they knew how gentle you are.”

Rasi smirked.
You’ve never seen the bad in me.

“I don’t believe there is any.”

Rasi wished her words were true.

His long, ratted hair rested against his shoulders. He tugged at a single braided lock and played with it between his fingers. It reminded him of his wife and he felt a rush of guilt. He turned away.

“What is wrong?” she asked in her angelic voice.

He shook his head.

“You miss her, don’t you?”

I miss the world,
he snapped and stormed out of the cave.

The air wasn’t as cold to him, even wearing no more than his animal-skin, knee-length kilt. The blood flowing through his straps seemed to keep him warm even in the harshest weather.

He watched the river’s water whisk by. When those dark, self-pitying feelings grabbed hold, he had to fight to squash them.

With his mind distracted, a rodent-like creature scurried past the cave’s entrance. One of his straps snatched the squank into its grip. The rodent squealed. Its bones popped and snapped with sounds of cracked knuckles.

The strap dropped the limp squank carcass at Rasi’s feet, breaking his daze. He picked it up and carried it back into the cave.

Alina whispered, “I’m sorry.”

I love you, Alina.

She nodded a sympathetic nod.

Rasi asked if she was hungry. She said that she was.

He tossed three pieces of wood onto the smoldering fire and fanned the flames with his hands. The air hissed from the wood’s heated pores in melodic crackles. While the fire grew, he dressed his prey.

You’re getting better with those,
she said.
I mean your straps.

I didn’t do that. They must be hungry.

She snuck up behind him. One of the straps floated past her face and settled into her palm. “They are so heavy,” she said. “And warm. Like a slab of meat.” She leaned closer, examining its blood-red, veiny surface. “Are they heavy on your back?” Her voice was as soft as a butterfly’s breath.

No. They support their own weight. Or maybe I’m just getting used to them.

He tore away a cooked squank leg and handed it to her. She sunk her teeth into the charred meat and ripped a chunk away as though she had never eaten before.

“They say a dragon lives in these mountains,” she blurted with her mouth full.

He peered up from his meal.

“Have you seen it?” she asked and her eyes grew wide.

Rasi grunted and shook his head.
No. Why?

“Oh, no reason really.” Her shoulders drooped a little and she turned away. “I’ve heard tales and was curious is all.”

Though Rasi had no idea why she was so fascinated by the thought of a dragon, he saw her disappointment and hurried to relieve it.
I have seen one before,
he thought. She spun her head around in anticipation.
When I was a child, several of my friends and I snuck into the woods near my farm. We had heard rumors of a nest in the forest center and though forbidden to go there, one night we did.

“What happened?” she asked, looking like she would burst if he ended his tale too quickly.

It smelled us and we ran.

“That’s it?”

That’s it.

“But you saw it?”

Yeah.

“What did it look like?”

It was big, big as your castle. And colorful. I think it was a female.

“It didn’t attack, or give chase?”

No. Dragons, as I hear it, are more passive than anything nowadays. Since the Epertasian-dragon wars, the few still alive try to live mostly in peace. So, to answer your first question, no, there are no dragons in these mountains. And to answer your last, if you ever come across one, stay out of its nest.
He threw another hunk of wood onto his fire, sending floating sparks to the ceiling. He peeked at her as she stared at the flames.

She smiled, then draped the pelt of a cotee over her shoulders and carried her breakfast out onto the rocky path along the cave’s front. Rasi followed her as she approached the edge of the river embankment. The frigid water raged past, crashing against the sides of the rocky shores.

Don’t get too close,
he cautioned
.
She glanced back with a smile, then sat and dangled her legs into the splash of the chilled water.
You should back up. The water is fierce,
he said again.

She continued to grin. “Nothing can hurt me when you are around.” He touched her cotee-covered shoulders. She shivered.

It’s cold out here. You should come back inside.

“The cold lets me know I’m alive,” she said. “I want to stay with you. I never want to leave.”

Your father will worry. He will send trackers.

“Let’s run. We can flee these lands. We’ll go to Lithia or the Islands of Torick. You will protect me.”

He would be lying if he denied that it was his dream as well, but life on the run was hard.
Your father is King of Epertase. His reach stretches the entire known world. We could never be free.

“I know,” she said, resignation pouring from her voice. “But every moment we are apart, my heart dies a little.”

He smiled and saw his reflection in her emerald eyes. He wanted to tell her how his heart ached as well but it would only make their goodbye more painful.
You’d better head back. You will be missed soon.

She glided her hand along his cheek. “I like it better with your chin bare.”

I know you do.

She disappeared into the cave.

Rasi let out a distinctive grunt which brought Salient and Allusia trotting from beside the cave’s mouth. Salient’s black coat wasn’t as vibrant as it used to be. His matted mane drooped over his eyes; its inky shades of black were woven with streaks of ratted gray. Rasi stood facing his long-time companion and stroked his muzzle.

Alina returned in attire more fitting a princess. She grabbed Allusia’s reins.

Rasi wrapped his arms around her from behind. She turned in his hug and squeezed him with a surprising strength. He scanned the mountainous landscape, always alert for the next battle. He wanted to go with her, to protect her, but he knew better. Nothing would give Elijah more pleasure than to remove his head. And finding Rasi with his daughter would assure that the king would do just that.

Instead, he would secretly follow, only he’d not make the mistake of letting her catch him again. He couldn’t bear another scolding.

She mounted Allusia’s saddle and snapped the reins. Her mare spun away. As she rode over the rocky path, she watched Rasi over her shoulder until she disappeared into the woods. He climbed onto Salient’s bare back and quietly followed.

There were more cold days than warm ones this time of year, telling Rasi that the threat of another brutal winter drew near. Once again the snow would surely isolate him at his cave near the top of Shadows Peak, and Alina’s visits would become sparse until they ceased altogether. The thought of another lonely season was more than he could suffer. Now more than ever, he considered accepting Alina’s repeated pleas to hide him inside the city; yet he was too stubborn, too proud. Maybe next year, he told himself as he had each year before, though not likely. He was long convinced that his destiny was to grow old and die in the mountains.

Rasi’s breath left his mouth and hovered in the air.

I grow tired of life here.

His bones crackled as he stretched and rose to his feet. At the rear of the cave, the light from his small fire flickered onto a dried-out sheep’s stomach that he used as a crude bag. He reached into it and dug around until he found his prize – a dark-gray, muzzle-like mask that covered his mouth and nose. The carved-out slits along the side of its hard shell were filled with foam insulation that he had stolen from an unattended supply cart at the forest’s edge. He tied the leather straps around his head and pulled them tight. His warm breath disappeared. He smiled at his creation.

He mounted Salient and followed the flowing stream. His first and perhaps most important task was locating a winter’s worth of japsy weed. Not only would the fire it produced keep him warm, but in a pinch the herb could serve as nourishment. And once removed from the dirt, japsy weed lasted several seasons. Since the fire-starting plant ironically grew near water he knew it was only a matter of time before he found it.

Rasi rode Salient late into the morning until he came upon his prize, an entire field of green, clover-shaped weeds hiding just off his path. He patted Salient’s neck and dismounted, leaving Salient to graze the field while he filled his sheep’s stomach with the goods. Satisfied with his take, he tied his bag around Salient’s midsection.

The rush of the frigid flowing water almost tumbled him over as he waded into the shallower section of the stream.

His straps hovered, waiting, careful to stay above the cold water’s bite. A coppafish as large as his thigh leaped from the water. Without thought, a strap snatched it from the air. The fish fought and squirmed, almost slipping free but the strap held strong and slammed it against a rock. It flopped along the embankment for another moment or so while Rasi hunted for more. After catching three more healthy-sized fish, he made his way to Salient, removed several winding ochrid whiskers from another bag, and poked the ends through the fishes’ mouths. Then he tied them together and slung them over his shoulder.

He figured a few more nights of hunting larger game and he would pack his things and ascend the mountainside to his true home atop Shadows Peak, free from unintentional explorers.

At night’s fall, Rasi relaxed outside of his cave, his straps draped down his back, ready for a long-earned rest. He hoped Alina would come this night but then again he hoped such most nights. She didn’t.

A new morning began. Long before the other commanders had awakened, their gruff, old leader sat up on the hard cot he had called bed for so long and stretched his arms to the music of cracking joints. He gritted his teeth, fighting the urge to cry out. Years of wars and birthdays had not been kind. He wore not a stitch of clothing as he crawled out of the bed. He made his way to a pail of piss-warm water, cupped his hands, and splashed the handfuls into his face. A piece of smudged steel, buffed to give reflection, hung on the wall above his pail.