The Hero's Recusants (Akynd Chronicles Book 1), page 8
Frowning, Ji’leon reached for her and embraced her in a deep hug. “I know you do, sweetheart. I’m glad you were enjoying yourself. There isn’t enough joy in the world. But perhaps, with luck, we can change that.” Pulling back, she looked at Gabrielle as she spoke the last sentence, catching a glimpse of her expression as it changed back to child-like determination.
“Let’s.” replied Gabrielle as she floated back towards the tower.
Inside the tower, Gabrielle found little in the ways of light. The one light present was extremely bright, nearly blindingly so. She found Keldon on the far side of it, Ram’uk on her side where Ji’leon lead her to. Tilting her head curiously she looked between each of the three. “So I just breath in the smoke from this fire and that’s it?”
Slowly Keldon nodded, before pulling his hands from behind his back. Her stuffed animal was strapped down tightly to a mirror, the bandages tied strongly enough to hold it in place, but not so many that one could not easily identify the animal.
“Kinra!” shouted Gabrielle, elated at the sight of her most prized possession. Her elation swiftly fled as the keepsake was tossed into the flames. Ji’leon and Ram’uk grabbed her and thrusted her forward to breathe in the fumes. Struggling to get out of their grasp, watching the bear, her bear, burn before her, something inside her snapped. “Get off!” she shouted, shrugging her shoulders and sending Ji’leon and Ram’uk flying with telekinetic blasts. Ji’leon hit the wall on her right with a crackle of electricity, and then crumbled to the ground, unbreathing. Ram’uk hit the far left wall in a ball of flame that quickly dispersed as his hand issued forth an enchanted wind. Before he could return to Gabrielle, he watched in horror as she telekinetically pulled her flaming doll from the fire, wrapping it in a hug as it burned to ash, burning her skin in several places, though she seemed not to notice, or care. Ram’uk squinted, watching warily as the smoke came off the burning toy and filled her nostrils. He barely noticed Keldon waving a hand over Ji’leon’s crumpled body in the background.
As the last of Kinra burnt to ash, Gabrielle let out an audible sob, followed by a scream of outrage. “No! I’ve lost enough, I won’t lose you too!” Reaching down, she grabbed a fistful of the ash and sputtered out a long string of syllables too fast for Ram’uk to follow. She hurled the ashes to the ground and they began to swirl around in a small tornado, pulling light from the fire, and a soft glow from Gabrielle’s heart. The tornado gradually grew, till it was nearly nine feet tall, and then it began to change. The ash turned to a golden hue, the spiral at the base of the tornado splitting off into two solid spirals, as large around as a tree trunk. Two great limbs sprung forth from the body of the tornado, also thick and muscular. Finally a head formed atop the twisting vortex, taking a distinctly lion-like shape, with the exception of a singular horn protruding from its head. With a blast of dust the tornado exploded harmlessly in all directions, leaving a tall, muscular, patchwork Kinra in its stead.
Kinra turned its head slowly, appraising Keldon, Ji’leon, and Ram’uk as potential threats, its lengthy tail swishing back and forth behind its ankles. Finally, Kinra’s gaze settled upon Gabrielle. The beast’s eyes immediately softened as they fell upon the burnt, tear-soaked face of its creator. Opening its mouth it revealed a row of razor-sharp teeth, before closing it again, as if testing its own jaw. Then, in a hollow voice that sounded all too much like Thomas, it spoke. “Ga... Gabrielle?”
Chapter 8
An Enigma
Gabrielle lept into Kinra’s arms, hugging him tightly. Kinra lifted a mighty bear paw and wrapped Gabrielle in a protective, loving embrace in return. Keldon and Ji’leon stood awestruck behind her, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Keldon was the first to recover, albeit slightly. “Well... that was... unexpected.”
“Unexpected?” gasped Ji’leon, her eyes never leaving the spectacle. “How’s it even possible? She hasn’t been trained, and even with our resurrection spells, ~something~ has to be left to raise!”
Keldon merely shrugged. “All she knew of us was that we can do almost anything we can think of. Also that the transformation is to help prevent the loss of loved ones. I just never thought... Alive?” Shaking his head, his false confidence gave way to confusion.
“Nevermind that, how is she even still conscious?” Ram’uk asked, having wandered over, giving Gabrielle and Kinra a wide berth. “From my experience, and from what I’ve heard of the two of you, she should be near dead with that kind of expenditure. She seems instead... invigorated.”
As if to prove the point, Gabrielle released Kinra and plucked out one of his hairs, following with one of her own. Twisting the pair together she recited another stream of words and tossed the pair above her head. With a soft glow and a loud pop, the two became a pair of ravens, one as black as Gabrielle’s hair, the other with a tint of blue from Kinra, one landing on each of her shoulders. As the adults stood open- mouthed, they listened as she spoke softly to the ravens. “Mom... Dad... I want you to meet Thomas.”
The ravens looked towards Gabrielle, then up to Kinra, then began chirping away. The blue tinted one leapt up, flapping a few times before landing on Kinra’s shoulder. Kinra glanced at the bird and spoke softly. “I am Kinra now.”
The bird nodded as though it understood, and chirped away to the black raven, still on Gabrielle’s shoulder. Gabrielle smiled widely. “I knew you’d like him mom!”
Keldon walked forward slowly, assessing the events occurring before him as he approached. A low growl escaped the lips of Kinra, who tilted his head slightly as the footsteps neared. Gabrielle quickly looked up at the warning growl, and followed Kinra’s eyes to Keldon. “Oh it’s okay Kinra, he is a friend. Without him, I would not have been able to bring you back!”
Kinra settled, his tail returning to its swishing motion as he nodded once in response. Keldon arrived in Gabrielle’s odd little circle, and immediately set to work healing Gabrielle’s burns. The black raven leapt up with a few quick beats of its wing and landed on Keldon’s shoulder, chirping noisily as he worked. “It wasn’t supposed to go this way. You shouldn’t be conscious.”
Gabrielle grinned up at him in response. “Really? Cause I feel great!” she exclaimed happily, twirling through the air to prove her point.
Keldon appraised her curiously, thinking carefully as a barrage of questions crossed his mind. He soon settled on what seemed the most important question at the time. “How did you... bring them back?”
Gabrielle simply shrugged. “Akynd can do anything, right?”
Keldon opened his mouth to reply, then closed it. Suddenly Kinra exploded into motion, twirling around and pouncing away, the blue raven still upon his shoulder as he spun wildly, then struck out with thick, powerful, razor sharp claws, lopping the head off of Ram’uk’s approaching body. He turned to face Gabrielle again and was caught off guard by Ji’leon, who uttered a single phrase that dismembered the beast with slashes of wind. Gabrielle glanced over at the remains and walked up slowly. With a wave of her hand she recited the phrase she’d heard all too often the past few weeks. A weave of flesh extended Ram’uk’s neck, connecting to its head as it pulled it back into place. The barbarian quickly opened his startled eyes, looking around as he opened his mouth to shout. Gabrielle held a single finger to her lips to quiet the barbarian, and turned to the dismembered patchwork body before them. “Stay quiet. I have to make sure it works.”
Without any prompting, the pieces of Kinra began sliding towards each other, reassembling the creature where it fell. As the last of his pieces gathered, a left foot to be exact, Kinra lept to the ready, posed to strike as his eyes darted between the pair before him.
“Kinra! They are my friends as well! You don’t need to kill everyone you know. Just bad people!” Gabrielle scolded, seeming unphased by the creature’s intimidating presence.
Kinra hung his head, then nodded solemnly in response. The blue raven on his shoulder bowed its head as well, as though she too were being scolded. Ram’uk, rubbing his neck thoughtfully, stood up and extended a hand for Kinra to shake. “Good hit,” he said simply.
Clasping the barbarian’s hand and shaking once, Kinra began to hold his head up again. “Would have been better with a weapon,” Kinra replied with a grin. With a twitch of his ears, he released Ram’uk’s hand and turned to face Ji’leon. His grin only widened as he extended his paw for a shake with her as well. “Good hit”.
Chuckling softly, seeming less intimidated by the behemoth before her, Ji’leon extended her hand and shook with Kinra. Before long the group had moved on from discussing what had happened, and moved on to discussing what was to come. All the while, the ravens sat watching, chirping back and forth in what seemed an almost nervous tone.
Chapter 9
Approaching Doom
An explosion of sound resounded from the combat arena within the tower as the entire group trained. Ram’uk swung his axe viciously at Kinra, who bent his wrist and caught the blade with his outstretched claws on his left hand, keeping the axe from biting flesh. With a quick twist of his bear-like paws, the axe went flying. Kinra seized the opportunity to thrust with his strong hand, stabbing forward with a fierce duom—a long spear with curved blades facing backward behind the head of the spear. As Ram’uk’s hand issued forth the returning spell to rematerialize the axe, it left him open to the impaling death strike from Kinra’s duom.
Just before the blade bit flesh, it was parried away with a katana. Kinra turned to face the katana’s wielder, kicking Ram’uk back to avoid being flanked. Unfortunately, there was no wielder in sight. Turning quickly, Kinra caught a glimpse of Gabrielle just in time to notice her second katana slashing at his throat. Ducking backward he breathed a sigh of relief as the katana wedged itself into a heavily notched quarterstaff, being grasped by a determined looking Ji’leon. She swung her staff overhead quickly and caught the other katana as well before flicking the weapons back at Gabrielle sharply. The katanas flew straight at Gabrielle, who reacted just in time to catch the katanas in a spiral, deflecting the oncoming black and blue ravens with the broad side of her blade. Twirling violently after the deflections, she sent her swords flying at the unsuspecting back of Keldon, whose own sword was plummeting down towards the chest of Ram’uk.
As the hairs on the back of Keldon’s neck stood, he quickly tossed a spell towards Kinra, who was striking downward at Ji’leon. The two instantly switched places, Kinra impaling Ram’uk with his duom as two katana’s pierced his back and protruded from his chest. The two immediately fell limp as Keldon left his short sword in the chest of Ji’leon. Turning to face Gabrielle as her blades floated back to her sides, Keldon clenched a fist thoughtfully, then decided instead to draw a pair of curved daggers from his chest. He charged forward at Gabrielle as her blades rushed forth from her still body to meet him. He nimbly reached up with one dagger, narrowly cutting a black raven just in time to save his eyes. With a well placed spin, he dodged the first of her katanas and grabbed it, parrying the second with it before hurling his newfound katana into the blue raven, pinning it to a wall. One curved dagger still in hand, he fought his way to Gabrielle, pushing the offensive while not even breaking a sweat.
Gabrielle, on the other hand, was sweating profusely as she tried to match the man’s speed with her katana, trying to hold him back long enough to get the upper hand, to find another weapon to manipulate, to find something. But Keldon kept approaching, finally snatching the katana from her telekinetic grasp and stabbing her through the right wrist with it, pinning her to the wall by her blue raven. Gabrielle reached forward with a blast of telekinetic energy, and it fell upon nothing as Keldon had simply ceased to be before the attack was placed. Rematerializing he raised his dagger to finish the job, but was cut short as Kinra’s duom burst forth from his chest. Panting heavily, Kinra pulled the blade from Gabrielle’s wrist, unpinning her from the wall. She waved her hand over Keldon, who began to stir again as she healed him.
“I will not get used to that, Kinra,” Keldon stated plainly as he pushed himself upward. “I’m used to those I’m fighting staying dead, until the fighting is done, at the very least.”
“What better way to learn awareness?” Kinra responded with a chuckle.
Gabrielle, grumbling to herself, waved her hand over the scar where Kinra had pulled the blade from her, and sealed the wound. Yanking her blade from the blue raven seemed to affect it in a manner similar to Kinra, as the bird quickly began to flap again. Wandering across the battlefield, she muttered over the fallen and plucked the blade from the black raven as well. Soon enough the black raven was perched next to the blue raven, and their chirping back and forth continued.
“So when do we fight evil?” asked Ram’uk as he stood, brushing himself off. “Not that I mind getting smacked around and doing some smacking around, but we’ve done this quite a few times. Everybody has won, everybody has lost. Seems to me we are all pretty even, the only way left to train is fighting with each other, instead of against each other. For that we need bad guys.”
Keldon nodded thoughtfully. “It wasn’t just training, it was wasting time. An army of goblins from caves on the far side of the mountains is marching through the Refori woods. They should be here by tomorrow. Now we will not need to go to them.”
“An army?” Ram’uk replied, a single brow quirked. “How do we know they are evil, and can not be helped?”
At once a uniform snort resounded from the nostrils of Keldon, Kinra, and Gabrielle. A lesser scoff came from Ji’leon, though whether it was because she thought snorting was too masculine or that the question did not warrant more than a simple scoff, she did not say.
“They are goblins,” Keldon responded simply.
“Just because they are goblins, does not mean they are beyond saving,” Ram’uk replied evenly.
One by one, Keldon, Ji’leon, and Gabrielle’s mouths each fell open in surprise. Staring at Ram’uk as though he had grown another head, they each stood in silence as if to determine whether he was joking or not. It was Ji’leon that came to her senses first. “You’ve got to be joking.”
Shaking his head, Ram’uk explained, “No, I’m not joking. There was a time when barbarians were viewed as evil, and so too were magi. If we go off of rumor and superstition alone, we might as well kill ourselves. There are enough people in the world who perceive us as worse than goblins, you know.”
Ji’leon opened her mouth to reply, but Keldon held up a hand, finally able to shake the shock from his system. “Would you agree that most goblins are beyond saving?”
Ram’uk quirked a brow. “What are you getting at? If this is some kind of greater good argument, forget it, I didn’t sign on to kill those who could be saved.”
Keldon shook his head before Ram’uk could even finish his statement. “I assure you, no such argument will be made. I value the lives of potential innocents as much as you.”
Ram’uk considered for a moment, before hesitantly responding. “Alright... yes, I believe that most goblins would likely be unwilling to be saved.”
Keldon nodded once, as if he expected the answer. “Very well then, in that case, for the greater good...” he paused for effect, smirking and throwing a wink at Ram’uk before continuing. “I jest, I jest. What I suggest is that we get a look at them before we fight. If you sense no good in them, we battle them full on, to the death. If you sense some good, we do the same, but after killing them all, you can raise them one at a time to see who is willing to seek your redemption, and who would rather rot in their graves. Any who wish salvation, will be spared. Those who do not, combat practice for the ravens.” Immediately an uproar of offended sounding chirps erupted between the pair of ravens, who evidently thought themselves to be too great of warriors for this insult.
Considering the proposal, Ram’uk scratched his scruffy chin with his right forefinger and thumb. “Hrmm...” he began, quickly scratching his chin before proceeding, “Very well, sounds good to me.”
Looking to Ji’leon and Gabrielle for agreement, Keldon received silent nods from each. They retired to their well deserved rest, eager to put their skills to the test.
They slept soundly that night, as the war drums approached their tower. Confident in their ability to overcome simple goblins, none had a care in the world. Ram’uk lay on his bear skin throw, his feet dangling several inches over the edge of his four post bed. Ji’leon had fallen asleep reading in a reclining chair, and not for the first time in her life. Gabrielle was cradled in the arms of Kinra, sleeping soundly, as Kinra stood whispering with the ravens—evidently sleep was not part of their returned forms. Keldon was sitting cross legged on a woven tapestry, his eyes closed as he slept lightly.
As dawn came each of them woke to the sounds of drums in the distance. One by one they made their way to the kitchen to discuss tactics over breakfast. Ji’leon wanted to go with a heavy magic assault, followed by picking off survivors with their weapons, while Ram’uk wanted to save the casting for if it were needed, and lead with the weapons. As Keldon opened his mouth to speak, Kinra interjected, as if leadership came naturally to him. “It is only natural that the wizard would wish to use magic, and the barbarian would wish to use a blade,” he offered calmly. “We must remember, these are but goblins, and are meant as a training exercise. Any one of you could likely take the army, as goblins are rarely trained in magic, and have little in the ways of weapons more than pointed sticks. If we lead with magic, the fight will likely be over too quickly to gain any insight as to how we work as a team.”
