Disclaimer: The author of this fanfiction does not, in any way, profit from the story. All creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).
The Reclamation of Paralon
by Pout
Chapter 13: The Sieve
Inui was shaking his head again, just as he had been doing since they first entered the Sieve the day before. The Wilds were said to be nearly impossible to navigate, but Inui had not believed in things impossible until now. They were currently traversing the inexplicable terrain at a rather admirable pace. It was all so vexing.
“This is illogical,” the former statistician remarked. Again. He was sure they had passed this very same rock formation two hours ago, and yet he was sure they were indeed proceeding in a more or less northerly route. And last time, there hadn’t been a bog fifty paces to the left; Inui was sure it had been on the right. “Absolutely illogical.”
While Inui was steadily developing a headache as he tried to wrap his scientifically trained brain around this new dynamic, Momoshiro himself was developing a nice, steady twitch. Not only was Inui being a big baby about his inability to negotiate the intricacies of the Wild, but their talented guide, Itsuki, was being his usual inquisitive self.
“So you came up from Ellestor?”
“Yes.”
“What were you doing there?”
“We helped pull a job for a friend.”
“All the way in Ellestor?”
“It was Kamio’s friend.”
“What was his name?”
“…Bob.”
“Do I know him?”
“I don’t know, Itsuki. Do you know a Bob in Ellestor?”
“So why are you guys going to Berridge now?” Momo was starting to wonder if Itsuki was working for Bunker as more than just a guide, but then the other man opened his mouth and said: “Oh, I know! Are you going there to sell your prostitute?” and Momoshiro quickly lost all suspicion.
“Dan isn’t a prostitute, Itsuki,” he reminded.
“Oh, then why did you steal him from a brothel?”
As Momoshiro struggled to converse with Itsuki, Dan was walking with a spring in his step and a tune on his lips. He’d never been on an adventure before and this was, as far as he was concerned, the best thing that had ever happened to him in his whole entire life. (All sixteen years of it, mind you.) Sure, they had almost died a few times. There were those sizzling fire snakes and the screeching crickets that were the size of watermelons. Oh, and the poisonous geyser that they had almost walked right into because Itsuki forgot that they weren’t immune to the toxins like he was (a fact which Inui found most interesting and had him immersed in his notebook for a good twenty minutes). But really, the rest of it was just loads of fun.
It was just around noon when they stopped for a break and Itsuki told them to stay put as he went to scout ahead. Dan was digging around in his pack for lunch and Inui was absorbed in his notes again, but Momoshiro was wondering if it was such a good idea for Itsuki to leave them unattended. Their guide had said something about unfriendly deer before he left, but he hadn’t mentioned any details.
Momo took a sandwich from Dan and surveyed their surroundings. They were currently walking along the base of a high sandy cliff that rose up to their left. To the right was a bog that bubbled up occasionally and seemed to be moaning like an old man when the wind blew across it. Of course, it was the same bog they had passed twice before that very same morning, but Momo wasn’t one to keep track.
Being in the Wilds made him nervous. He had made runs through Wild territory before but those had been short trips, cutting corners to save some time, nothing too extensive. Still, he had a welt running down his left bicep where a whipping orchid got him when he was fifteen and pushing his luck cutting through a patch of Wild near Gaden on his way to the Hook.
The Wilds were places where magic and logic were often overruled in favor of chaos. One of the defining features of Wild lands was the impossibility for traditional navigation. As Inui had noted, a linear trajectory from point A often resulted in arrival at point D rather than point B, though point C may have been bypassed a good four or five times along the way. Aside from this obvious problem, there was also the matter of the numerous deathtraps and bloodthirsty beasts which littered Wild terrain. The hazards encountered in the Wilds were exceptionally dangerous because of a third feature particular to these territories: the distortion factor. Magic behaved differently in the Wilds. A simple heating spell could result in a light flare, or an attack spell could backfire on the caster. Thus, one could not rely on protection circles or healing spells and certainly no offensive magic. In fact, it was best not to cast at all in the Wilds where many a fool had been killed by magical misfiring.
The fatalanx that they had faced before had been dangerous enough when casting a freezing spell was still a plausible strategy. In the Wild, the thing probably would have killed them.
Momoshiro was finishing off an apple when Itsuki finally reappeared announcing that they needed to pick up the pace. Apparently, something had shifted and now they were heading back the way they came.
Before Itsuki could start with his questioning, Momoshiro decided to initiate the interview himself. “What would make a fatalanx leave the Wilds?”
Itsuki looked over his shoulder with an inquisitive look in his eyes. “Why do you ask?”
“Before we got to The Block, one attacked us at night in the middle of the forest.” Itsuki’s usually neutral expression looked decidedly unhappy. “That’s not normal; it just isn’t.”
Inui looked up from his notebook and nudged his glasses up the bridge of his nose authoritatively. “The Wilds are self-contained. Everything within the Wilds stays in the Wilds. Because of the drastic difference between neutral and Wild areas, biological specimens tend to stay within the sphere to which they are most accustomed. A fatalanx deserting Wild territory is unnatural, illogical, and anomalous.”
Momoshiro nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah. What he said. What do you make of it?”
Itsuki shook his head. “Things have been strange in the Wilds for a while now.”
“What do you mean?”
Itsuki shrugged. “Things don’t always shift right.”
“There is a right way to “shift”?” Inui asked, sounding rather skeptical.
“The animals get confused sometimes. It’s strange, like the Wilds are leaking or something.”
“Leaking?!” Dan cried, his eyes wide like saucers.
“Shh!” Itsuki ordered suddenly as he dropped to a crouch.
They followed his lead and got close to the ground, each man trying to keep as still and as quiet as possible. In the distance, they heard a low rumble. Itsuki was squatting with his hands flat on the ground, listening and waiting. The rumble got louder and Dan had to slap a hand over his mouth to keep from gasping when he recognized it to be the sound of hoof beats. It crescendoed to a roar, then, there was silence.
Itsuki was in action immediately, springing to his feet and starting out at a full-fledged sprint. Following blindly, the others raced after him. Momo turned to look behind them as they ran towards a crop of rocks about fifty paces away and instantly regretted doing so.
Behind them was a flock of raptaurs. The creatures were shaped like small donkeys with elongated heads on long giraffe necks and vicious fangs on jaws that could snap a man’s arm in half. But worst of all was the tar-colored, over-sized bat wings that protruded from their backs. Despite their hulking appearance, they were actually rather good and quick fliers, an unfortunate fact for the four humans on the ground. Raptaurs hunted in flocks and shared their kills and they liked meat – another unfortunate fact.
The group reached the rocks in good time, but the raptaurs, though still a distance away, were approaching rapidly.
“Dig,” Itsuki said as he began to scratch out a hole under one of the wider shelves provided by the rock cover. They managed to carve out a pretty well sized space, but it was clear that it wouldn’t properly protect four people.
Itsuki frowned then turned to Dan: “You don’t fit.” He shoved Inui and Momo into the hole, then pulled Dan over and pushed him into a crevice between two of the rocks. The younger boy was small enough that he could slide into the gap and virtually disappear.
“Hurry up,” Momo pressed. “They’re coming!”
The guide laid a piece of oiled rope in front of the area where Dan was squirreled away and set a match to it. The rope went up in a violent blaze giving off a foul smell. They could hear Dan making offended noises and muffled complaints. Itsuki climbed into the pit and laid another piece of rope out in front of them, lighting it to create a blazing curtain that would hopefully protect them from the predators.
They watched through the fiery screen as the hunters descended in hopes of a kill. The smell of the rope was bad enough to drive most of the creatures away, but some of the skinnier, hungrier, more desperate specimens came closer and attempted to smother the fire by kicking dirt onto the rope. Luckily, the oiled ropes held and eventually the raptaurs lost interest and took off in search of a more accessible meal.
“That was close,” Momoshiro muttered.
“Uh oh,” Itsuki murmured as he climbed out into the open. He was looking up to the skies again, but this time, he was looking in the opposite direction.
Momo got a heavy feeling in his stomach as he crawled out and followed Itsuki’s line of sight. “What are those?” he asked with urgency, giving Inui a helping hand up.
“Those are killer flies,” Itsuki responded as he pulled Dan from his hiding spot.
Momo nodded resignedly as they ran for the bog, “That’s great, just great…”
The view from Lord Atobe’s chambers was magnificent. One could see a distant view of the ocean at Pekbo Bay to the west and the mighty expanse of the Pentashé Desert to the south, and below was the great city of Teibis, the capitol of Jagroth, southernmost of the Great Estates.
“I never in my wildest dreams would have been able to picture you as a rebel,” the Lord Jagroth commented with a smirk on his lips.
“I’m doing what I believe is right,” Tezuka replied.
“Well, good for you. But don’t blame me when they have you hanging by your neck or worse in the Circle at Atavis.”
“Atavis is corrupt. They have no right to call judgment for the Circle of Justice. Their courts are a mockery to law and order.”
“Are you about to lecture me again?”
“The Regent is running the kingdom into the ground. He doesn’t have the right to rule. He must be removed.”
“Listen to you. You’re talking about assassination now?”
Tezuka shook his head. “His morality and competence are compromised. He will ruin Paralon if he continues to dictate.”
Atobe rolled his eyes. “Enough. You and I both know that I’m not about to change my mind concerning this matter. Rebellion against the crown is impossible. Just look at the numbers. They would slaughter us. I will never risk Jagroth for this.”
Tezuka’s frown was set deeper than ever. Atobe smirked again and held out his hand to the other man. “Now, come back to bed so you can continue trying to persuade me.”
It was said that the Sieve was one of the riskiest and most impenetrable Wild territories in all of Paralon. That people still attempted to cross it spoke volumes about the value of the Berridge ports, and about the lunacy of those who still chose to make the attempt after learning of the risk.
Still, crossing was not totally impossible. Notably, it was when good and trusted guides came through The Block that survival rates went up, from 15 to maybe around 50 percent. The most successful guide of all time was a young man who had wandered curiously out of the Sieve all on his own when he was about 14 years old. Naked and caked in what had to be years of mud and swamp guck, young Itsuki was still prone to hopping like a frog when he was finally brought to Bunker’s office. Seeing as how the previous top guide had unfortunately just been burned alive in a gas pit, Bunker had an opening. The rest, as they say, is history.
“Wow, this really sucks.”
“I second that sentiment.”
“We’re gonna die, aren’t we? We’re gonna get stuck here forever. No one will ever find us, or look for us, or find us, or anything! And we’ll die here! Forever!”
“Wow, Dan. Stop panicking.”
“I agree. Your extreme terror is not in any way beneficial to our current situation.”
The current situation was this: all four of them were taking cover in the bog, neck deep in sludge and mud, huddled under a patch of lily pads which they had placed over their heads, for “camouflage.” Hovering above them, and buzzing loudly in their collective swarm, was a whole hive of giant killer flies that were apparently waiting for their prey to flee the bog so that they could tear them apart and eat them with their carnivorous teeth. Yes. TEETH.
“So, Itsuki, what’s the plan?”
“Hm. Well, how long have we been here?”
“Approximately three hours and twenty-one minutes.”
“That’s creepy, Inui… How long do these killer flies usually stick around?”
“Hm… Maybe I shouldn’t say. Anyway, that’s not really the problem anymore.”
“Pardon? The giant insects waiting to devour us are not the problem anymore?”
“Yeah.” They waited. “Oh. Well, the makpats start to wake up when the sun starts to set. That’s in about thirty minutes.”
“Makpats. Those are the alligator-like beaver things, right?”
“That does not sound promising.”
“Well, that’s the problem now. This marsh is full of makpats. Big ones. Probably the most aggressive in southern Paralon.”
“Fascinating.”
“This is not good, not good at all.”
“We’re just gonna die here in this stinking marsh! Forever!!”
Inui huffed an annoyed sigh. “You can’t die forever. You die once. You can, however, be dying for a very long time; a fatal disease, for example, or torture. A fatal wound could also fester for quite a long time.”
Itsuki nodded and added helpfully, “Like if a makpat bit you. You’d probably bleed-out over the course of a few days before you really, really died.”
His three clients turned to stare at him in contempt.
“Tell me you have some kind of plan,” Momo whined.
“It depends on how far away mom and dad are.”
“Mom and dad?” Momo questioned. Itsuki nodded. “I didn’t even know you knew who your parents were.”
And that’s when the frogs arrived.
From beneath them, the mud and slime began to swirl and slide as it gave way to the creatures manifesting at the bottom of the bog. Displaced waves of sludge came at them like a massive tidal wave as five great humps surfaced. Even more suddenly, five sticky cannons shot forth into the sky. The frogs’ massive and outrageously long tongues cracked like whips through the air, trapping large caches of killer flies then snapping back into their happy, hungry mouths.
“Oh! Frogs and flies!” Momo said in understanding, chuckling as if their lives had not been in imminent danger just five minutes before.
The giant frogs delighted themselves with their snack, and soon the predatory insects were fleeing from the melee, teeth and all. Dan cheered as if they had just won a small war while Itsuki climbed up onto one of the massive amphibians. He croaked (as in vocally) a few bars, then the creature he sat upon answered in kind, its voice a surprisingly pleasant baritone.
In total, there were five of the creatures sitting there in the bog with them. Dan gazed curiously up at the one closest to him and carefully extended an arm to touch the emerald-hued hide. Pulling his hand back, he made a face as a thick trail of slime came away with it. The big frog just sat there and Dan stared up at the beady eyes wondering if they were staring back at him or not.
After a short conversation, Itsuki translated to his party that his “family” was willing to take them “under” which would likely shorten their trip by half. The group cheered until they heard what being taking “under” really meant.
Itsuki’s family was a group of giant emerald stick-swim frogs, whose specialty was navigating the “under” currents that ran throughout the Wild waterways. Just as the topographical elements of Wild geography shifted inexplicably, so too did its watercourses. This explained how the family of creatures had appeared from under the bog so suddenly. By diving under and catching particular streams as they were shifting, they could ride the channels to new waters with ease. It was an extremely useful technique and in this case, a markedly beneficial one seeing as how it would save the group valuable time.
However, the matter of exactly how frogs transported humans turned out to be a rather sticky one.
Momo stared up at the beady-eyed frog that Itsuki called Papa. “So you’re saying we have to roll around on their backs, cover ourselves in their slime, let them wrap their tongues around us, then sit there in their mouths and hope the taste of their own slime is enough to keep them from accidentally eating us while they’re swimming underneath?”
Itsuki nodded as he rolled on top of his Mama’s slime-covered back.
“This will not be pleasant,” Inui declared as he rubbed slime between his index finger and his thumb.
Momo sighed wearily. “Let’s not complain and just do this. The sooner we get to Berridge, the sooner we can take a bath.”
Dan squawked from on top of the smallest frog and animatedly warned his guardians to keep their mouths tightly closed when rolling in the slime. Momoshiro and Inui exchanged looks then dutifully faced the frogs.
If you would like to provide feedback on this story, please feel free to e-mail me at: poutonly@gmail.com.