Chapter 2- Gane's Gamble

The same forest scenery carried on for about four hours. Gane maneuvered around trees and over large stones until he could barely see the sun shining through the canopy of violet leaves above. The darkness of night rolled in slowly at first, but pounced and surrounded him whenever he turned his mind away from it. Gane noticed now that he could barely see his hand before him. He reached into his bag and felt around for a moment. Searching with a rising panic for a torch to heave up an island of light in the flooding waters of darkness. Damn, I can’t have left them all behind. Gane settled for a match, which he lit against the back heel of his shoe. The match provided little more light then the Spinning lady Constellation in the sky, but if he were to find some firewood then perhaps a more suiting fire could be made. Gane bent down and held his match in front of him to search the ground for firewood. He wandered and turned around trees absentmindedly in his search, but managed to scrounge up enough kindling to start a small fire. Looking now for a spot to set up, he found a spot where the canopy opened to reveal the vast starscape above him. He set his kindling down and carefully held the match to it as the fire began to meekly spread. Gane laid the lit kindling down and fed larger sticks to it as it grew into a relatively robust campfire. He removed his backpack and placed it about two feet away from the fire before removing his coat and gear. He set his sword by his side for safety and wadded his coat up into a makeshift pillow which he placed behind his head. Camping had always been one of the small pleasures afforded by his journey. He never tired of it, and never shared the discomfort with nature held by many of his old friends back home. They were always astonished by his willingness to simply lay down and sleep in the grass, preferring to wrap themselves in blankets and tents whenever they were compelled to spend the night “in nature”. As he laid his head down on the coat he was slapped with the bewildering beauty of the night sky, which was unhidden by the treetops in this clearing. The mosaic was a firm black filled with every other color in the world swimming about, each inch performing its own act in an orchestra of light. It was an image of controlled chaos, every star a different size, strength and color. Such a sky was the penultimate muse, a raw energy of art which every work of man could be traced back to. No force or obstruction dared to stand between the eye and the grandeur of above, save the occasional serpentine shadow which crept across the image. They were a natural phenomenon however, more a feature then an obstruction. Gane had never been afforded such a clear and personal look at the night sky before, it set in him feelings of fulfilling oneness and existential inferiority. His thoughts turned to his journey. How was one so small and insignificant going to affect all that was before him. He tasted a bit more of the first feeling he had had when being given his quest. The feeling of not being up to the task, of feeling so small in the face of what was to be his destiny. Sohouta, the last record of its location was in Sohouta. 

His mortal body shook him from the trance with a jolt of panic as several small legs were felt scuttling up his side. Gane brushed the small centipede off of him and realized now that he had been made into a banquet for the insects of the forest. A mosquito drew blood from his neck and flew off, before being intercepted and drained of its catch by another bug. This Kissquito flew back to Gane and returned the blood to his vein before sucking up a droplet of his sweat and contently flying off. Gane waved thanks to the bug. They were of the man made variety, introduced a hundred some years ago to live mutually with people and combat the dreaded blood sucking pests they were built from. Gane had gone back and forth on his opinion of men using magic to create new forms of life. He had even stood staunchly against it for a time. But his mind was changed when he was asked who made his species. Finding no answer other than, something must have built us out of magic, Gane became more open to the possibilities. And you had to admit, the creatures were much more pleasant this way. Gane turned his head to the fire he had set up, it swirled and danced strongly now. He pushed away the grass that was near the fire, to prevent its spread. His mind tiring from a long day’s trek, Gane finished up and cast one more glance upwards. Strangely he could see two white stars hanging lower now. Almost… peering out from the trees at the edge of the clearing. Stranger more was that the light in these stars seemed to wave slightly. Gane looked sleepily over to the fire again. Their light moved... in tandem with the flickering of the fire. As realization came, the two white stars leapt from the treetops and easily cleared 10 feet before landing at the edge of the campfire. Frontlit by the fire was the image of a tall Roni woman. Squatted down from the landing and poised to pounce again. She had eyes like an owl, short antlers, and hunter’s garb. With skin like an ash tree’s bark, a bandolier of small bombs, and a strangely shaped tool in her left hand. She stared silently at Gane for a second, before he meekly asked “Do you speak Neirn?”. 

“I have such skill.” she responded unblinkingly.

“What do you want from me?” Gane inquired with his hands up.

“You come from somewhere, which is not here.” Her words were spoken in a roundabout way. Typical of a Ronic accent. 

“I come from Nierlyben, about twenty days west of here.” Gane responded again as his fear turned to an inquisitive confusion. 

“Prove you are not the Cu’maru then!” She pointed the sharp end of her strange object over the fire and towards Gane’s face. 

“I am a humble traveler, all I carry is my notebook, and my essentials. You may look through them if you like, but I need my sleep now.” Gane’s response was forged less from bravery, and more from the exhaustion of walking all day long. But nonetheless, the Roni woman was caught off guard by the frankness of his response. 

“Y-you… may sleep. But should you attempt to escape in the night… I will stop you.” She responded with a fake kind of bravado and confidence that gave the impression of her being unsure how exactly to respond. 

Gane laid back down onto the coat-pillow and began to drift off. As he did so, the Roni woman pulled his bag around to the other side of the fire and began looking over the objects in his bag. The Night sky carried on as the hours passed.

Gane awoke lightly in the morning. His first thought was how he did not recognize the clearing in the daylight. Most notable were the split wooden posts, ripped up foundation, and ruins of what had presumably been a small Roni hamlet. The ugly scars of wreckage that had been invisible in the night were all that Gane could see as he looked around his surroundings for what felt like the first time. His second thought was that of regret. Had he known, he would not have set up camp and slept in the middle of what had once been the road of this little village. His third thought was to get his notebook and write down whatever he could find about this place. He looked around the fire pit for his bag, when his forth thought slapped him upside the head. Where was the Roni woman?! Gane quickly unwrapped the coat and threw it on his body, then grabbed his sword, which he was surprised to see was still next to him. He kicked at the last smoldering embers of his campfire and ran around the side of a half standing wooden shack. He found his bag dropped next to the side of the structure. He picked up the nearly empty bag and slung it around his shoulder. The notebook was gone... she wouldn’t have just stolen it and run off. A flare of anger shot through Gane. This invasion of his privacy was a personal insult of sorts. Then again he had given permission in his sleep deprived ramblings. His anger mixed with panic as he remembered what was kept on page 138. Once again he had failed to keep the bigger picture in mind. Gane pinched himself again as his emotions settled into a floor of depressed apathy. Without that page he might as well just turn back. He turned around several times, realizing that even if he weren’t lying to himself about giving up, he had no idea which way was back. This is when Gane’s emotions finished their loop and returned full circle. The rage had been doused in self doubt, and managed to emerge as a strong invigoration. He hadn’t come this far just to give up now. Gane drew his sword and scanned the area with a keen precision. The little village was ruined, but it had a road that led up a hill to the north. Gane backed up to the clear spot again and stood on his tiptoes to see that upon that hill there were bricks from a stone tower poking out from the trees. Gane charged up the hill towards the building.

He followed the path up a steep incline, not built for legs of his length. Grabbing hold of vines and bergroot weeds he managed to pull himself up to what looked like a temple, left abandoned in much the same way that the village had been. The doorframe was slanted and broken and the door was smashed into several bits. Gane slowed a minute to observe the claw marks that clearly indented into the wood, and what was even more frightening, the stone bricks as well. Gane kept low and quiet, but his invigoration pushed him further inside. He peeked within and saw a long hall with a ruined wood floor. Grass and moss seeped in from the torn up floorboards, the walls were dilapidated, the carpets were all but disintegrated and the shrine at the far end of the hall sat alone. Daylight poured in as the roof had collapsed inwards, bits of broken shingles were strewn across the hall’s floor. Gane’s eyes narrowed as he saw the Roni woman, sitting cross legged in front of the shrine, with her head down. Gane clutched his sword hard, he kept his hand near it as he leaned in, unsure of what the Roni woman would do should she spot him. He crept around the broken door and over fallen shingles. Determination buzzed inside his bones as he took each step carefully over the broken floor as quietly as he could. With as a light a step as he could take, he maneuvered around the wreckage. His breath held so to keep quiet. Gane was about halfway across when the woman turned around and looked at him. They stared at each other in silence for a beat before Gane spoke up. 

“What happened here?” He hoped to gauge her response or at least keep her talking, but mostly he was just genuinely curious.

“This was my home…” She stood up and turned her head to face the massive collapsed scaffold. “... this is what the Cu’maru did to it.”

Gane took his hand off of his sword and approached her slowly as well. “How did you survive?”

“I didn’t, I wasn’t here when this happened. I wasn’t there to stop it.” She looked down. 

Gane felt bad for asking, with a tinge of pity he asked “I wouldn’t have slept here if I’d known, I’m sorry…”” I’m told your people are excellent hunters, would you like to help me find breakfast?” Gane smiled as warmly as he could.

The Roni woman turned her head to him now. She had a puzzled look on her face. “Who are you?”

“My name is Gane Halaney, I’m a beastiarian travelling through here from Nierlyben.”

She looked at him a second and considered what he had said. “I will help you, my name is Yhora.” She relaxed some of the tension from her face and followed him out of the temple.

Gane was glad that his little gamble had worked out. He no longer felt any threat from her. Once again his instincts had saved him, not only now would he finally get something substantial to eat, but he could get his notebook back, and hopefully get directions to Sohouta. “So what kinds of game do you have out here?”

“Many varieties, these woods hold all sorts of creatures.” She responded as the two made their way down the steep stairs that led to the temple and away from the ruined village. They dove back into the expanse of trees and moved deeper into the underbrush. “I figured you were a poacher at first, what exactly does a beastiarian do?” She asked as she revealed the notebook in her hand. 

Gane felt a twitch of nervousness at this, she had probably overlooked page 138, but he had no clue how widespread knowledge of the Gourd was around here. “I travel the world and log information on all forms of life. I have only scratched the surface of what can be found in Kellylin however.” 

She handed the notebook back to him. “You should keep your mind out of this book while we hunt, however it is very impressive.” 

Gane nodded and put the notebook in his bag again, feeling a genuine joy from the small compliment. The two moved through the trees to a small ledge that overlooked a creek, it was rocky and painted in unrisen leaves, with a slight trickle of water rolling down it. They crouched down on their stomachs on the ledge and Yhora began fiddling with her supplies. In a hushed voice she asked. “How good of a hunter are you?”

Gane had hunted a few times with his grandfather back home, he was never so good at it. Perhaps his gamble had not worked as well as he thought. “I haven't hunted much lately.” This was a stretch, he hadn’t hunted at all in the nearly three weeks he had been on his journey.

Yhora gave him a playfully disappointed look. “Then watch how I do it.” She pulled out her strange tool from the past night. It was only two feet long, one end was sharpened into a spear’s point and the other was shaped like a mix between a spoon and trowel. It was carved from a rich brickwood with a yellow ribbon tied around the middle to serve as a handle. “This is called a Tsuk, it is a tool and a weapon of traditional Roni variety.” She pulled one of the small bombs off of her bandolier and laid it on the trowel end of the Tsuk. She reeled it back behind her shoulder, then swung the Tsuk forward, lobbing the bomb through the air in an arch. It landed by the small creek with a single bounce. The bomb sat quietly where it had landed.

“Dud?” Gane inquired in a whisper.

“No, it releases a sweet scent to attract animals.”

“But we have no bows or arrows?” Gane asked. “How will he hit whatever comes?”

“I can throw my Tsuk like a spear, that should cripple a leg, you will have to go down there and chase whatever comes to finish it off. She responded.

“Do any of those bombs explode, couldn’t you throw one to kill it?”

“Not if you want the animal to be edible.”

Gane nodded and accepted his role. He climbed down the ledge and crawled behind a bush near the base of the creek. Not ten feet away from the sweet smelling bomb, he kept still and prone to pounce at whatever came. The two kept quietly in their positions for around twenty minutes, Gane noticed that the forest felt the slightest bit colder today. The chills of the Rising season moved in quickly in Kellylin. His mind began to turn away from the situation as he thought about writing this in his notebook, when a creature stepped out from the brush on the other side of the creek. A thin faced bovine looking beast, with large sharp horns and a dark grey hide approached the creek and sniffed at the sweet bomb. The beast looked to weight about twice as much as Gane. He looked up at the ledge in hopes of seeing a signal to abort from Yhora. But instead he saw her Tsuk go sailing through the air and piercing the leg of the creature. The Beast began to take off down the length of the creek, limping slightly with the Tsuk still caught in its leg. He looked back towards where Yhora was again for a split second before mustering up the courage to charge out after the beast. Gane drew his sword, mediocrely crafted with a blade that came to a split end like a snake’s tongue. Gane screeched to a halt as the beast spun around and readyed to charge at him.

Yhora watched in horror as Gane foolishly charged after the Buohram(Man-Trampler). She stood up and looked over her bandolier for a bomb that could help without blowing Gane’s legs off in the process. Finding none as the beast readyed to charge she yelled out to get its attention. The beast’s focus was broken and Gane managed to dive out of the path of its first charge. Panicking harder now, she leapt from the ledge down to the creek and landed with a roll. Rolling against the rocks in the creek scraped her back badly, but likely saved her legs from breaking from the jump. The beast charged past her, Yhora sidestepped out of the way and pulled her Tsuk from the leg of the beast. 

Gane, now soaked from creek water and covered in mud, picked himself up as he witnessed Yhora’s swift move. He was impressed with her skill, but too concentrated in the moment to really register it. Gane ran out and stood a few feet away form Yhora, so that the beast wouldn't be able to charge at both of them at once. The Beast chose to charge at Yhora again. She moved to avoid it but jolted in pain and grabbed at her back. Seeing this Gane charged to intercept the beast and swung his sword with two hands in a downward motion clear across its ribs. The Beast groaned in pain and began losing its balance before tripping heavily over Yhora and toppling to the ground. 

Yhora managed to maneuver herself right as the Buohram tumbled over her so as not to break her leds. She stood up relatively unharmed and took her Tsuk swiftly to the neck of the Buohram. It let out a last grunt but died quickly. She stabbed a major artery to give the creature a swift death. Gane approached, brushing the mud and dirt off of his coat and sheathing his sword. He panted heavily and looked at her with a slightly shocked expression as he reigned in his heartbeat and let his nerves calm. She turned to him and said. “This was a little bigger than what I had in mind, but great work.” 

Gane stepped up to her and the felled beast. “That was incredible, where did you learn to hunt like that?” 

“Help me carve this up and cook it and I’ll tell you.” Yhora responded as her nerves began to calm as well. The two grabbed the beast and dragged it up to the mouth of the creek where they sat down to carve their catch.