Part 7
Terror Unleashed
Ranin watched the group ride for hours, but Namic looked elsewhere. Ranin watched as they made camp in the evening.
“Namic, they’re discussing future plans,” Ranin said, grabbing Namic’s attention.
“Where do we go next?” the girl asked.
“We will have to look for work, I reckon,” Uncle Ben noted.
“Uncle Ben, shouldn’t we report the constable?” the girl asked.
“No,” Sworder said. “Any magistrate we speak to would side with the constable. That would put you in danger.”
“He’s right,” the old man said. “We are better off staying out of the public eye until the incident is long forgotten.”
“Where to then,” the girl asked.
“Well,” he thought for a second. “I guess we continue north. Maybe find a farmstead of a village that needs some cheap labor for a few weeks in exchange for some room and board in return.”
“Well, I guess,” the girl consented.
“Just so we all understand, we can’t go back,” the old man said. “There’s no place for either of us there.”
“I know,” the girl said. “I knew that the moment I turned to you. That’s why I did not want to drag you into this. I just want… I want justice.”
“Do you want justice or revenge for the wrongs others have done against you?” Sworder queried.
“I’m not sure,” the girl asked admitted.
“We can’t do anything about it right now,” the old man noted.
The girl yawned. “I agree, I think its time to bed down for the night.”
“As I said,” Namic began. “It may be sometime before anything of note may happen.”
Ranin gloomily agreed. Namic eventually moved on to look elsewhere. Ranin rarely glanced away always being dragged back to the small wagon in the wilderness.
“Are you still watching?” Namic asked, after some time had passed.
“Yes,” Ranin said wearily.
“Why do you still watch them?” Namic asked.
“I am not sure,” Ranin noted. “But nothing else seems important enough, but why is he still holding up his form?”
Namic looked at the group. The girl and her Uncle slept in the back of the wagon while Sworder sat just outside keeping watch.
“It must take a great amount of concentration and effort to maintain that form for so long,” Ranin stated.
“He does it for her,” Namic said.
A distant howl, piercing the night, echoed from a great distance. The girl began to stir and Sworder looked back at her.
“What was that?” the girl asked.
“A dire wolf,” Sworder said calmly.
“A dire wolf?” the girl said panicked, holding her knees to her chest.
“Worry not, the cry was from far away,” Sworder comforted. “Dire wolves tend towards forested lands. They would not stray this far into the plains.”
Sworder stood. “I will scout the area to be sure,” he continued.
“Thank you, Sworder,” the girl said sleepily, before drifting back off.
“Does he not seem different?” Ranin asked.
“No,” Namic rejected, “He is exactly as he was before; simply now his mission is different. Now he is to protect this girl.
“Hmm,” Ranin said uncommitted.
“Come now, there are things which may be important to see,” Namic said, pulling Ranin away.
Over the next few days the two watched the wagon migrate north. They watched as the group found work at a farmstead. Letting their horse be used as a draft horse, the uncle helping in the field, and the girl working in the kitchen. The Farm owner was a little apprehensive in letting a Kazan join the crew but relented finally. Quickly, they watched Sworder become the sitter for the children.
Weeks passed with Ranin and Namic checked in periodically. Finally, one day Namic called to Ranin, “Come here. Something is about to happen.”
Ranin looked at what Namic was watching, excitedly. There sat the girl braiding one of the younger girl’s hair, while Sworder watched.
“How do you know something will happen?” Ranin asked.
Namic spared him only a glance, before returning to the scene.
The girl finished the braid and began examining her handy work when one of the farmhand’s daughters ran up.
“What’s wrong, Alasia?” the girl asked looking up from the braid she was examining.
“My brother, he’s missing!” Alasia said. “He was in the forest but he hasn’t returned. Dad and the others are looking for him but they haven’t found him.”
“Sworder,” the girl said, standing.
“Where was he going when you last saw him?” Sworder asked, walking from behind the girl.
“He was walking to the forest towards the Northeast. He’s been gone for over a day now,” Alasia said.
“Has he ever disappeared like this before?”
“Never.”
“What is the plan?” Sworder asked the girl.
“We go after him,” the girl told him, and then turning to Alasia continued. “I’ll do what I can.”
“Then let us move,” Sworder said.
Grabbing a horse, the two rode out to the Northeast, where the tree line began.
“What will they find?” Ranin asked.
“We shall soon see,” Namic replied.
Sworder searched the tree line but found no sign of the boy.
“What now?” the girl asked.
“We join the search in the forest, or we return to the farm empty handed,” Sworder said.
“Come on then, he has to be here somewhere.”
They tied up the horse to a tree before starting off.
“Logic dictates that the closer portions have already been searched,” Sworder began. “We would have better luck heading deeper in.”
“Could they really find the boy if the searchers could not?” Ranin asked.
“It’s certainly not impossible,” Namic admitted.
“We are in a forest?” the girl inquired, as they walked.
“Indeed,” Sworder said.
“You talked about forest being the dire wolves hunting grounds, what about now?” the girl asked.
“We are not deep enough into the forest to encounter any, but they are most active early morning and late evening. I doubt we will see any,” Sworder commented.
It was past midday when the girl suddenly stopped; the two had traveled for nearly two hours.
“Wait, this place feels familiar,” the girl said.
“What, that!” Ranin exclaimed.
Namic simply nodded.
“This feels like the place where I found you!” the girl said.
“It is?” Sworder said confused. “I do not see any familiarities.”
“This way,” the girl led, and sure as she had spoken she found an entrance to the forgotten underground.
Sworder led the way down and it eventually led to a large rectangular room. Soft and faint light streamed down form to small openings and in the center was a raised dais.
“It has been discovered already,” Namic noted.
“By whom?” Ranin queried.
“This must have held a Sealing Stone,” Sworder began.
“A what?” the girl interrupted.
“A Sealing Stone.”
“What’s a Sealing Stone?” she asked.
“It is what you touched to unseal me,” Sworder explained.
“I really didn’t see it you know,” the girl said.
Sworder sighed. “Yes, indeed, I do remember that. Nevertheless, Sealing Stones are rituals which hold a Kazan and only release when a person agrees to the contract placed on the outside.”
“And something like that happened here?” the girl asked.
“It seems so,” Sworder agreed.
“And the Kazan would just appear like you?” the girl continued.
“Well, Kazan’s take many forms, but essentially, yes.”
“And the Kazan will protect whoever unsealed them?”
“Well,” Sworder said with a pause. “That would depend on the wording of the contract.”
“Careful of what you agree to,” Ranin said. “You never know what you sign away.
“How long ago was the stone unsealed?” the girl asked.
“There is no way to know,” Sworder said.
The girl looked around, rubbing her shoulder. “This place makes me nervous. We should go.”
“I wonder,” Namic said to himself before looking away.
“What?” Ranin asked too late, so he watched the two exit the ruins by himself.
The girl and Sworder continued their search before Namic looked back.
“What did you see?” Ranin asked.
“You could look yourself,” Namic noted.
The sky grew to a young dusk as the girl found her way to a pond. The pond was small, but on the other side a large waterfall cascaded down from the cliffs above.
“It’s beautiful!” the girl cried.
“And I think our search has come to an end,” Sworder said, gesturing to the top of the cliff where a boy sat near the waterfall looking at it from above.
“Hey,” the girl said, waving her hands and jumping up and down.
The boy waved back. “Hello,” he called back.
“Your sister is worried,” the girl said. “We should go home.”
“Sure, but I’m not sure how he will take it.”
“Who’s he?” Sworder questioned.
“Come on,” the boy said looking to his left and right. “You can show yourself.”
There were a few moments of silence before a large reptilian creature clawed its way to the edge of the cliff. The reptile had two wings folded against its body and a long neck.
Sworder stepped back drawing his sword. “A dragon!” he said as he prepared himself for battle.
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