Journey to Yesod
Art drawn by: Bintang Hamal
Written by: Hunter Ake
Edited by: Lilliana Steele and Dee Dee Davis
Chapter 4 (Part 2)
Quadect 19th, 1258
It was an uneventful night. The thralls didn’t return and there were no new threats. The group packed up and continued northeast, toward the capital of Ydalia. Mist crept in from the thick woods and the three allies grew more on edge as their visibility worsened. Worse than hearing strange, unexplainable sounds, they faced deafening silence. It sounded to Dulani as if there wasn’t a single living thing in this forest besides them. The group began moving again, each footfall was like timber falling with all the overbearing weight of an aged titan of a tree. The unsettling silence was creeping into the group’s collective skulls just as the silhouette of a town materialized in the mist. They entered the fog-laden town and found it completely empty; half-eaten food sat cold on tables, doors left ajar, and most disturbing of all; clothes scattered everywhere.
“What in the world happened here?” Sook asked, knowing her companions knew just as much as she did..
“It’s like everyone just vanished where they stood,” Dulani said nervously. After an hour of searching, the fellowship found no trace of a living soul.
“I have no idea where they even could have gone,” Zenebe was unnerved and gripped his staff tight. “Do you think this might have been the thralls?”
Sook merely shrugged in response and Dulani shook her head, “Those things, as supernatural as they were, attacked us with swords and axes just like anyone else would. If they were responsible for this, there’d be more blood.” Dulani’s response only served to unnerve the group even more.
Zenebe finally spoke up, “Well, if we run into Pirouz or his allies again, we should inform them of this town. Otherwise, I don’t think there’s anything more we can do here.” The two women agreed and the group moved through the forest toward Ydalia.
Quadect 20th, 1258
The fog didn’t let up. The oppressive atmosphere weighed on the traveler’s shoulders. Even by mid-afternoon, when the sun was at its highest, the mist continued to cling to the ground. The group stopped to eat and rest before making their next push for the capital. As Sook and Zenebe discussed the events, Dulani suddenly perked up. It was so distant but after the continuous silence, hearing a distant noise was so alien.
Dulani shushed the others and listened intently. It was so far away but it was unmistakable, the clang and crash of metal on metal. “It’s most likely thralls, several of them.”
The group left their fire burning and hid in the surrounding area. Dulani high up in the branches of the trees and Sook and Zenebe positioned behind trunks on the opposite side. Sure enough, eight thralls clumsily burst from the treeline onto the campfire, they stood there in silence, as if puzzled by the lack of people. Dulani watched from her vantage point. “These things must be controlled by someone else. They could track the fire, but they act like they have no idea what to do now”, she thought to herself.
Suddenly, the thralls lurched into motion, clamoring straight for Zenebe and Sook as if they knew where they were. Sook transformed into her lizard form and Zenebe clutched his staff, channeling magic through it. Dulani, Sook and Zenebe were ready, even if thoroughly creeped out. Sook swatted two thralls away with her tail, sending them flying into the woods. She then grabbed the chest plate of another with one hand and its arm with her other. She easily tore the arm off. Just like before, no blood spilled and the thrall didn’t even make a noise.
Zenebe captured five of the thralls in a large bubble of water, swirling it around in multiple different directions at once, to keep them from escaping.
The thrall that had lost an arm swung its sword at Sook who simply swatted it away with her horn. “So, tearing off their limbs doesn’t stop them, apparently,” Sook shouted before grabbing the one-armed thrall with her claw and cleaving through the unguarded lower torso. The thrall continued to move, even after being hacked in two. Sook tossed the upper torso aside and Dulani watched from the trees as it desperately tried to crawl back to Sook.
One of the thralls Sook launched into the woods came charging at Zenebe when Dulani suddenly dove down from the tree, slicing through its unguarded neck with her katar. The head rolled across the ground as the body continued twitching in place. Dulani kicked it over and it simply contorted helplessly on the ground. “Ugh, these things are so gross!”
Sook casually popped the head off the torso on the ground and it began shuddering similar to the one Dulani decapitated. “So, they need their heads for precise control, even if they continue living.”
The other thrall that Sook had launched into the woods came rushing back.
“Wait!” Dulani sprinted forward as Sook stood in place, she sliced through both arms of the thrall with her katar and stepped back. Sook and Dulani both watched as the thrall simply began trying to kick at them while the arms twitched on the ground. “They certainly want to kill us, no matter the cost,” Dulani mused.
“Now let me try something,” Sook said before slamming the thrall down on the ground. Sook began pounding and smashing the thrall into the dirt, breaking the ground beneath. The thrall was helpless to defend itself from being crushed. By the time she was done, the thrall’s armor was completely compressed. It was hard to tell, with how resolutely it had been smeared into the dirt, but the thrall didn’t move any longer. Finally, Sook and Dulani stood ready as Zenebe released the five thralls he had kept under control.
“These things have been in here for well over five minutes at this point. Let’s see what happens,” Zenebe said before he released his magic. The thralls fell to the ground and without hesitation, shambled back to their feet and attempted to attack. Dulani and Sook quickly decapitated all five and knocked their bodies over.
“So, they don’t need air either, it seems,” Sook commented.
“Ugh, these things give me the creeps, I hope we can get out of here as soon as possible,” Dulani said while wrapping her arms around herself and shuddering.
Quadect 23rd, 1258
The adventurers climbed the hills; upon looking back, they could see the forested basin covered in a solid blanket of fog. “I wonder if this area is like this year-round or not,” Sook said.
Dulani spoke up, “What I wonder about more is that town. I never saw any bugs in the area so it’s really hard to tell how long that food had been sitting around. I simply can’t put my finger on how long it’s been like that.”
Zenebe already began pressing forward up the hill, “We’ll just have to ask somebody when we get the chance. Surely, we’ll find a town soon that actually has people.”
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