Chapter 6: Beware Of The Marsh

Forevermore forward and beyond must you move. Never faltering before danger and death.

The Companions are now on the downward slope of the Pheminol Mountains heading towards the Blackheart Forest. The grandeur of a world that is both beautiful and harsh beckons to them, and shares with them its power and grace. Like a pretty little girl handing a flower to a queen of divinity.

It seems, even though the odds are against them, their hopes are lifted by the brief encounter with the last Mystic Wizard. The name Tomac will resound throughout the time of history from this moment henceforth. For Tork it is an especially exciting discovery, for he now knows he is not the last of his family bloodline. Plus the training he received from his great-great grandfather gives him an aura of strength and confidence. There are times in everybody's life that they take a leap forward in understanding and growth. This is one of those times.

The trip out of the mountains is long and tedious. Going up, over, through and around cracks, crevices, peaks and valleys. Though it is still a long trip to the Blackheart Forest, they can see the beginning of it on the horizon. It looks like an ocean of trees.

Because they are getting closer to the forest they start to see more and more wild life. At one point a huge brown hairy four-legged creature with fangs as big as daggers, and which probably weighs more than twice that of Maddox, watches them trespass through his territory. With a growl and a howl that shakes them to their bones, it is a most formidable looking creature that could be the ancestor to either the bear or the wolf, but it lets them pass without incident.

There are parts of life that are impossible to understand. Often those moments are the hardest to understand, but the most important to live.

As The Way teaches, "There is no greater lesson than living life."

Both Maddox and Lynx comment on the fact that they must be on the lookout for Marauders, for they are known to run wild in and around these parts of the Pheminol Mountains and all throughout the Blackheart Forest. Which, of course, makes sense to Kyle, for he has had the feeling that someone has been watching them for some time now. He cannot see them, but he can feel them, and the giant diamond on the hilt of his sword, though it is not glowing, does feel warm to his palm, which he usually rests on it at the ready.

As they get closer and closer to the Blackheart Forest, the sensation goes beyond a simple warning until finally it becomes so strong that the feeling that they are being watched and followed becomes all too obvious. As usual, once they realize they are in harms way once again it is too late.

They have foolishly walked right into a Marauder camp, and there in front of them stand twenty men of all ranking, and even more of them start to appear on the plateaus, which flank them. In all, thirty-five Marauders now stand poised to attack. There is no more doubt in Kyle's mind that something supernatural is beginning to block and confuse his powers. How could he allow this to happen?

At first the Marauders seem as shocked as the Companions are that anybody would be crazy enough to enter their camp. But soon they gather their composure and yell out a sorry excuse for a battle cry and charge.

By this time Kyle, Maddox, Lynx and Tork have their weapons drawn, and much to the surprise of Kyle and Maddox, Tork is yielding a full sized sinister looking sword. It is in the style of the knights of old. It is not the fact that Tork's grandfather must have given him one, but it is the fact that they did not notice it up to this point, and he never said anything about it. Although he still wears the dagger tucked in his belt up front, it is this new sword that he seems comfortable with.

As the Marauders start to charge, Maddox gives out such a fierce battle cry of his own that it stops some of them in their tracks for an instant. In combat it is often an instance that separates death from life, defeat from victory. As Kyle, Maddox and Tork rush forward to engage the enemy, Lynx turns and starts to plunge arrows into the Marauders on the plateaus with such an amazing speed that even seasoned warriors are taken aback, and then he takes off in their direction with a laughter that is so true to his nature that it makes Kyle smile and laugh to himself, just before he clashes with his first foe.

Maddox swings and strikes true with his mighty battleaxe, then turns and knocks two more out of the fight with the handle as he butts them unconscious.

Tork meets another who is holding a sword to block the coming blow, and when the collision of steel on steel happens the Marauder's sword breaks like water before a saint, and the Marauder splits in two from his right shoulder to his left hip. Tork spins using his momentum and takes out another by taking his leg off at the thigh, and then plunges his sword through yet another. He does this all in one fluid motion. Kyle has seen such actions from masters of their art, but he marvels at the fact that Tork went from a boy to a seasoned warrior in but a few days. As Tork is pulling his sword free, an arrow flies from one of the plateaus and hits him in the lower arm. He screams a furious growl of pain, not of fear or complaint, and continues on in the fight.

Kyle, doing much of the same kind of damage, is getting backed into a corner. It seems each time one is taken out two replace him. With a swipe here and a thrust there Kyle takes long gashes in the thigh, chest and on the face, but never breaks pace. He continues the fight. Necessity makes men.

Maddox comes up behind them and viciously takes out a couple more, and then the rest run for their lives. Maddox has worked himself into such a crazed frenzy that he cannot be stopped, and continues the fight to the point that he chases the Marauders off and out of sight at his own peril.

Kyle swears under his breath, partly, because he is in pain and partly because Maddox has just run off with death in his eyes. The fact that neither Kyle nor Tork are in any shape to follow him, only makes the situation worse. He looks around for Lynx. Although he cannot see him he can hear him laughing, and with every giggle he seems to be coming back their way. Kyle calls out to him, "Lynx!" and he appears around a corner.

Kyle continues, "Lynx, Maddox just ran off in that direction after the retreating marauders, go get him and bring him back please."

First Lynx looks worried, "Are you two okay?" he says in his broken accelerated version of common.

"Yes, we are fine. Please, go get Maddox to make sure he is safe, and to get him to come back here."

Now that the adrenaline is slowly fading, they look around to take stock of the situation, and what they see is twenty to twenty-five dead bodies all around them and up on the plateaus. All of them are in their own unique, but strange poses, of death that always numb the senses after a battle. It is not the first time Kyle has taken a life, but it never ceases to amaze him at the poses people fall into at the time of death.

It is about fifteen minutes later when Maddox and Lynx return back to the original place of battle. When they get back, they find Kyle and Tork bandaging themselves up the best they can with what supplies they have. Maddox is covered with blood, but he seems content now, so whatever he set out to do apparently he accomplished it.

They sit there, Kyle shows his own savage side by sitting atop a corpse, and lick their wounds for a while longer until at last they come to the conclusion that they want to find a purer and more peaceful place to camp for at least part of what is left of the night, rather than where they are amongst all the death and bloodshed. Although the death fades into the shadows, the smell can never be hidden.

Even though Tork and Kyle are both wounded, Tork's arrow wound is through the meat part of the arm, so they just plug the holes until they can do something more for him. Kyle has gashes on his thigh, chest and a small one on his face, but none of them are deep enough to give concern, for they have just barely broken the skin. All and all they got off with minimal damage to themselves, so they start off down the last stretch of the Pheminol Mountains.

They continue on until they find a suitable place to stop for a well deserved and needed rest. Kyle is very intrigued by the mystifying and powerful sword that Tork now yields.

Kyle, an obvious admirer of swords, asks Tork, "Where did that sword originate from? Did your grandfather tell you? And how did you come to have it without us knowing about it?"

Tork answers with pride and power in his eyes, "Tomac said it appeared in the caverns out of nowhere but a day or two before we found our way there. He said he believes that we were meant to find the Lost Mystic Caverns, and that everything that has happened and will happen is meant to be.

"In our ancient scrolls it says that evil will take this land and shake it apart. Then it speaks of a stranger who will come upon this land with the Heavenly Gods and their powers strong and pure in his heart. He will lead an uprising of we the oppressed people and free this land from all that is evil. Then and only then will the people be thankful for what they have once more. It is written that people who live in strong societies often lose sight of the very things that allowed for such a society to exist in the first place.

"Although actually he thinks it does not say we will free the people as much as show the people the way, but in truth he does not know exactly what it means. So many things have many possible meanings. He told me he has spent all his years in those caverns trying to figure out the ancient prophetic scrolls, but still he is not sure of their true meaning. He did point out that what was true in one generation will be true in another, but the way to the understanding will be different. It was a little confusing, my friends. Apparently the understanding is in the journey, not the words."

"Did he teach you the ways and abilities to read the scroll and to send Zarton back to his prison?" Kyle inquires.

"He taught me more of the old language, that is true, but he did not teach me the true meaning of the spell. He did say that any more contact with the outside air would destroy the scroll, so he put a seal of power on my dagger until the time comes to use it. He then said I will know what to do when the time comes, for it is written in the stars that it will be done."

Maddox speaks up and gives his unique opinion, "Let us hope it be done or all this for nothing."

Lynx replies to that, "No matter what or how this ends, it will prove to the Masters that they are not the supreme rulers they think they are, and it will show the average person that they behold a power that they did not realize."

The Companions rest for a while longer. They eat and drink what is left of their supplies. They now have no choice but to continue on until they find wild food or population. Not that they really have a choice in the first place. They walk another good distance, and just when it seems they are at the beginning edge of the Blackheart Forest they come over a gently rolling hill and there in front of them is a seemingly endless swampy marsh. It looks daunting, but it smells even worse.

"What the abyss is that?" Kyle wonders aloud. Maddox replies, "Oh frosh..." As most people do when they get disturbed they have a tendency to fall back to their natural dialect. "I had forgotten about this. It has been a very long time since I journeyed this way, and the last time I came this way my world had ended, as I knew it. It is Triton Marsh and it is not a very hospitable and pleasant place for trespassers."

"Well," Kyle calmly asks, "How long will it take us to go around it?"

But it is Lynx who speaks up and answers the question, "To go around it? It will take at least four days, maybe a week, and we will find no edible food until we get to the other side."

"With mine and Tork's wounds we need to find medicine fast. How long will it take us to go through it?"

Maddox thinks about it for a second, remembering his run from horror, "I travel through after Masters destroy my home and people in the Rye Mountains. To travel through it take a half day of constant traveling, but the Augs do not take kindly to visitors and they do not know the meaning of compassion."

Kyle asks, "The Augs? What are Augs and just how formidable are they? But in truth I suppose it does not really matter, because we have no choice but to go through. We must go forward or falter, and within those choices there really is no choice"