The Land: Forging (Chaos Seeds Book 2) (13 page)

The good times kept rolling. Even Yoshi loosened up. Some of the dwarves brought a cask of ale up from the village stores, and they all enjoyed each other’s company for hours. The rain eased at about midnight, and people meandered down to the longhouse as they got tired. Many decided to just rest under the limbs of the Quickening, however.
Shiovana had cast a spell to drive the water in
the ground away from the surface, leaving a perfect campground.

It was a wonderful chance for the sprites and the villagers to mix. Even Richter’s familiar also got in on the fun. She swooped around blowing gusts of air into people’s hair. There was also a spirited game of “catch the dragonling,” played by all of the village children. Their shrieks of delight allayed the parent’s fears, and soon the dragonling was apparently accepted by everyone present. After hours of play, all of the children were put to bed, and Richter and his familiar sat against the base of the tree. Some people still laughed and sang, but most had settled down to rest. Sion sat next to him.

“You have made a wonderful home here,” Sion said, still laughing over some of the antics he had seen through the night.

“Yes,” Richter said, smiling back.

“You know you’ve said almost nothing about your old home. Do you have
family or friends that you miss?”

“Yes,” Richter said, a bit of the
joy fading from his face. “I do.”

“Then why don’t you ever talk about them,” Sion asked.

“I was raised to focus on what’s in front of me, and to accept the reality of a situation. The reality is that I’m in The Land now, and I probably will be forever. Thinking of the people I left behind doesn’t help, so it doesn’t matter. I choose to focus my energy on what does matter,” Richter said, still looking at the
die-hard partiers, who were drinking and sharing stories.

“Come on,” Sion wheedled, “just tell me something.”

“I don’t really want to talk about it! It doesn’t matter who I was! All that matters is that I’m Richter!” He was shouting at the end. He didn’t look at Sion. He just kept gazing at his people.

Sion looked at him with a shocked face. Anger also made its way
across
the sprite’s features briefly, but it fled when he realized his questions much have scratched at a buried hurt. So he just sat back against the trunk of the
Quickening,
and shared his troubled friend’s company in silence.

They both watched the laughing villagers. Richter let his anger extinguish in the soothing tones of his people’s joy. Then he started talking softly. “My mother is a strong woman. My father is kind. My brother has the biggest heart of anyone I know. My sisters
devote themselves to helping those in need. I have nieces and nephews, who are the most brilliant and beautiful creatures in any world. I was training as a healer. What my people called a
doctor
.” He stopped talking. They sat in silence again.

“How can you be okay leaving all of that behind,” Sion asked when Richter didn’t start talking again.

“I would have them here with me if I could,” Richter said, “but they would all encourage me to listen to my heart. And as much as I loved looking up at a Georgia sky, I have always wanted an existence of magic and wonder. I had an amazing life there, and yes, there are people I left behind that I miss dearly. The Land is my home now, though,” he said firmly. “My mother always said, ‘Indecision causes confusion, confusion causes accidents, and accidents cause death.’ I won’t be indecisive.”

Sion nodded in appreciation. He too had a strong mother who had both wisdom and an inability to not share it.

“Of course,” Richter continued, “she also said that every time I masturbated, god killed a kitten… So her advice was all over the map.” Richter’s voice lowered conspiratorially, “Just so you
know
, that was the day I started actively making a world without cats.” Sion chuckled and Richter smiled. “Like you said, I am making something wonderful here. I feel truly blessed to have you as a part of it, my friend.”

The sprite looked at him, and they shared a quiet moment of friendship. That was
short-lived
, however. It ended when Daniella shouted, “Sion. Quit loafing around and come over here!”

Seeing the sprite wince, Richter chuckled, “You better get over there before her voice hits a higher octave.”

He waved his friend away, and then looked at the psi dragonling that was lying across his lap. Richter was convinced she just viewed him as a walking pillow. His hand rested on her
warms
scales, slowly stroking her. She purred at the attention. “What do I call you,” he said. She gave no response except to continue enjoying the attention. He had learned that if he stopped stroking her, he would earn a hiss in response.

“Well if you don’t care, then I will name you myself.” He ran through dozens of names until he found a special resonance with one. “Alma. What do you think of that?” She raised her
head,
and then sniffed before settling back down. He chuckled, “I’ll take that as agreement.”

Richter spent more time just looking out over
his people and the sprites. This was a perfect moment. He was smiling as he drifted off to sleep.

*
Danger!*

*Wake!*

*DANGER!*

That was the first thing he heard even though it was only in his own mind. The next thing he heard were distant screams.

When he opened his eyes, the only light was a faint radiance from the silver trunk of the Quickening. Not enough to make out details when he was facing away, but it gave him an
orientation. He ran away from the trunk. The shouts and bellows getting louder as he sprinted toward the edge of the meadow. When he was able to see over the
escarpment,
his heart sank. The longhouse was on fire! He cast
Night Vision
on himself. What had been a black canvas with one spot of light was now
a world
of green and black. He almost wished he couldn’t see it.

His village was being attacked! Large humanoids had made their way across the trench. He couldn’t tell what they were, but he could tell they were big! There were bodies on the ground! The invaders seemed to be trying to break into the longhouse. What had happened to the guards? He could see that there were dozens inside the village, but Richter could see an even larger second wave of attackers approaching! How had they gotten in? One attacker was hanging by the gate… Yes, there! The bastards had made a crude bridge with several trees lashed together. An advance team must have hacked down the gate. The rest were going to get in!

Hisako and the other sprites came close. The villagers that had passed the night under the Quickening were right behind them. Cries of panic arose from the group. He felt the panic himself. They were being attacked! He froze in disbelief at what was happening. Then he heard Sion.

“Richter, look at me.” He turned his head to look at his Companion. The sprite just said, “We’re here with you. We will save them.”

The solidity of his friend broke him out of his immobility. “Right! You, you, you and you,” he said pointing at four sprites. “Hold this line. You are to protect the children and nonfighters. Don’t let anyone past you!”

“Yoshi!” Richter cast
Night Vision
on the sword adept
. “Can you see the second wave of attackers? We can’t let them get into the village. Go to the bridge that they made. I need you and the other sprites to destroy it!” He nodded once and then started giving orders to the sprite warriors.

Richter looked out at the villagers, “We are being attacked. Those of you who do not know how to fight need to stay here. But anyone that can wield a sword or swing an
axe
, I need you to come with me. I need you to do it now! Our people have barricaded themselves in the long house, but these attackers have set it on fire. They don’t have long until they
will be
forced to open the doors. We need to kill whoever this is before that happens! Now who will fight?!”

He had been afraid that his speech would not rouse anyone, but he was wrong. Thirty men and woman stepped forward. One dwarf woman held onto her man begging him not to go, but he gently disengaged and stepped forward. Richter was ashamed that he didn’t remember his name. “We are with you, my Lord. But we have no weapons. What can we do?”

Hisako stepped forward with a fierce expression on her face, “We take them from their dead hands! You
four, guard
this hill, like Lord Richter ordered.” She pointed at Daniella and Sion, “You two come with me. The rest go with Yoshi and hold the line of the village to make
sure no more get in. Mages, you have one minute to cast whatever buffs you can. It’s time for battle!”

“I have some extra weapons,” Richter said handing out the short sword and two daggers he had in his inventory. Then Richter gave a bloodthirsty grin, “These stupid bastards have made the mistake of invading our home! They will NOT live to regret it! We are life takers and heart breakers! Let’s go!”

You have made a Call to Action: Kill the majority of your attackers to be awarded the skill: War Leader. Failure to so give you the trait, Fool in War: -50 Fighting Spirit to those near you.

Richter just nodded to himself. It’s not like failure was an option anyway. It did remind him about the boost in Morale providing a boost in Fighting Spirit as well. He quickly checked his village status page, and saw that the entire village should get a 10% increase to their ability to deal damage. He prayed it would be enough.

He cast
Barkskin
on himself, unfortunately,
the range was only ‘self’ so he couldn’t buff anyone else. He then cast
Haste
on himself and the sprites that would be in his group. The spell was prohibitively expensive at
twenty-five
mana per cast. Each cast only affected one
target,
so he could not extend the buff to all of the villagers and sprites. Sion cast
Haste
on Yoshi and several of the other sprites.

As they had been preparing, Alma had been circling above them.

*
Fight
,* she thought to him.

*
Stay here
,* he thought back. He didn’t not want his little familiar to be harmed. He had no idea if she could be
reborn like
he could.

*
Fight
,* she thought again with determination. Then he felt something surprising. Alma cast
Haste
. The dragonling zipped through the air. She was so fast that he couldn’t follow her
grey body in against the night sky despite having cast
Night Vision
.

The last thing Richter did was to hand out Potions of Clarity from his Bag of Holding. Those attackers were going to die tonight. There was no point in wasting the experience. He himself drank two precious mana potions from his limited stores. If his village survived this fight, potion making needed to be a priority!

They all streamed down the hill, with the armed fighters in front. At the bottom, Yoshi’s group broke off and moved quickly toward the bridge. Richter, Hisako, Sion and Daniella ran towards the
long house
. It wasn’t long before they could see enemies in front of them. Just before they were upon them, Hisako warned them to look away, then gave a shout and thrust her hand up. A ball of golden light ten times as large as what she summoned earlier that night flew from her hand, and up into the sky. Even though he was looking in another direction it seemed like he was staring into the sun! He quickly dismissed
Night Vision
and opened his eyes, everything was bleached white, and he noticed a blinking icon of an eye that was clouded over. A number beside it counted down from three, and when it reached zero the icon disappeared and his vision was again normal. He was immediately thankful for Hisako’s warning. With his increased light perception, he might have been blinded for the whole fight!

Luckily, his momentary disorientation hadn’t cost him. The light caught the attackers, on the other hand, completely by surprise. They cried out in pain, vainly trying to cover their eyes. The ball of golden light didn’t just make it easier to see, it also immediately made Richter feel stronger!

You are in the aura of Blessed Light. All creatures of neutral or positive alignment gain +10% to physical attack and defense. All creatures of negative alignment suffer -10% to physical attack and defense.

Hisako followed her first spell with another shouted incantation. One of her hands contorted through a series of gestures in quick succession, while words in a tongue that not even Richter could decipher poured from her lips. She formed her other hand into a claw with her palm face
up,
and swiftly lifted it. Five different rock spikes, each six inches wide, shot up from the earth and impaled one of the attackers! Two spikes pierced one arm and one leg. The other three spikes tore through the invader’s
torso,
and left the dead body suspended in the air. That opening salvo brought the attention of three nearby enemy fighters. Richter was given his first
up-close
look at the creatures that had ruined the peace of his home. He used Analyze.

Name: Krin’ak. Bugbear Level 8. Health 220. Mana 100. Stamina 190. Disposition: Enmity. Bugbears are the result of sorcerous experimentation blending cave bears with goblins. The race is naturally strong and hardy. They are adept at hiding. Warlike to a fault, it takes a strong leader to control them. Well known to incorporate other races in their war parties.
Bugbears get one point to distribute per level, and each level gives +1 to strength, +1 to Constitution, +1 to Dexterity, +1 to Endurance.