The Omen, page 26
part #5 of Eden's Gate Series
“Just go!” I yelled. “Sung, ride with Jeremy.”
Sora immediately lowered herself when she approached, and I practically jumped as I mounted her. “Come on Trynzen!” I yelled and waved my hand down to pull him up.
“Go! Go! Go home!” Trynzen replied. He looked at Sora almost as if he were instructing her to run away.
I shook my head. “What are you talking about? Come here!”
He looked up at me in confusion.
I reached my arm out. “Grab my hand and get on.”
“On?”
“Yes, damnit!” I yelled harshly. He was really testing my patience.
Trynzen reached out, grabbed my hand, and I was surprised when I felt the coarse pad on the center of his paw. I pulled, and he seemed to get the hint by lifting his leg and mounting Sora behind me.
“Hold on!” I ordered. I turned my head slightly when he didn’t follow direction. “To me.”
Trynzen grabbed my waist with his paws, and I tensed when I felt the sharp scraping of his claws against my armor.
Edgewood, I projected to Sora.
Rarri and the others were already several hundred meters ahead.
Yes, father. Sora darted behind them.
Chapter Thirty
2/5/0001
When we were far enough from Highcastle, and it was clear that no one was following us, we slowed our pace to Edgewood.
“I am Trynzen,” Trynzen said behind me. “You are who?”
“Gunnar,” I said.
“Help Trynzen why? Trynzen not understand.”
“Jenzyn asked me to,” I replied. I almost told him that I was getting rewarded for doing so, but I reckoned it might not go over very well if he thought the person who broke him out was self-serving.
“Jenzyn…” Trynzen whined. His hands clenched, and I felt his claws digging deeper into my armor. “Where we go? You take Trynzen home?”
“Not quite yet,” I said. “We’re taking you to a safe place, and then we’ll let you go home. Just relax.”
He shuffled slightly. “Trynzen not understand!”
“Just relax…”
As we approached Edgewood, I noticed a small path had been carved, beginning at the forest’s threshold. When we were closer, I saw it was merely the beginning of a trail, but the trees and foliage had all been cleared in the direction that we usually traveled.
“See?” Jeremy said. “Pretty nice, isn’t it?”
“Yeah...” I muttered.
A few minutes after crossing the threshold of the forest, we arrived at the village, and I was surprised when I saw two more small cabins that were halfway built and a stone wall erected on one side of our castle foundation.
“Damnnnn,” Sung cooed as his eyes scanned our entire setup. “This is where you guys stay?”
“Yep,” Jeremy said confidently. He turned to me as our mounts came to a stop. “What do you think? Soon enough, we’ll all have our own houses.”
“Nice,” I said. “This is all Aaron’s doing?”
“As far as I know,” Jeremy replied.
There was almost no light left in the sky, but Aaron was still outside smashing his hammer into a long piece of metal on his anvil. Jax and Rina were both lying down beside each other near the campfire with their heads resting on logs where we normally sat. Ozzy was nearby, holding a skewer of meat over the fire.
I wasn’t sure where Keysia was.
“Welcome home, guildmaster!” Jax said jovially. He moved his hand off Rina’s and pushed himself up into a sitting position.
“We’ve been waiting for you, man,” Ozzy added.
“Broski!” Aaron yelled from his crafting station. He was surprisingly shirtless, and his skin was covered in sweat. “Welcome back. Seems like you’ve been gone forever.”
I dismounted Sora and Trynzen followed right behind. He turned his head from side to side, looking up at all the tall trees and buildings. It was as if he had never been in a forest or seen a cabin in his life.
“How’d everything go?” Rina asked. “Jeremy mentioned you were taking care of a quest in Highcastle when he dropped Keysia off.”
“Remember how we escaped the Bloodletter’s keep?” I asked.
Rina nodded.
“It went something like that.”
She crinkled her brow and frowned. “That doesn’t sound fun at all…”
Aaron laid down his hammer and sauntered closer to the fire. “Who are these fellows with you two?” He pointed to Jeremy and Trynzen then pursed his lips. “What’s with the shroud?”
“This is Sung,” I said, pointing to him.
Sung smiled and stepped forward to shake everyone’s hands. When approached Aaron, he licked his lips and swallowed. I wasn’t sure why, but he looked frazzled about something.
“You guys heard of Crylight?” Jeremy asked.
Ozzy shook his head, and the rest of the crew looked perplexed.
“Crylight?” Aaron asked. “Are you talking about that famous team back on Earth?”
“Yeah, man!” Jeremy said.
Aaron nodded. “Well, then yeah. I heard of them. Nexicon doled out more cash rewards to them than any other squad in history. They dominated just about every competitive eSports game we put out.”
“Yeah, dude,” Jeremy said. “And Sung here is from Crylight.”
Aaron turned to Sung and raised his eyebrows. “Wow, nice! How’s the experience translating over here in Eden’s Gate?”
Sung shrugged. “It helps, but playing games doesn’t really translate to living a game.”
“Yep, yep.” Aaron paused, tilted his head and squinted. “You know, I’m pretty sure I saw you on TV a few times. Maybe even saw you at some Nexicon events.”
Sung grinned. “We competed in hundreds of your events.”
Aaron raised an eyebrow. “’Your events?’ So you know who I am?”
Sung tensed and began stutter. “Um… well… ugh… You said you saw me at some Nexicon events. And I don’t remember competing against you, so I presumed you worked for the company before. Or maybe you were a report… yeah… a reporter!”
Aaron pooched his lips and squinted a bit, but after a couple seconds of thought, he just shrugged. “Well then, you’re good at analyzing things. I used to be a programmer at the company. Anyway, nice to meet you.”
“You too!” Sung replied as the two shook hands.
Ozzy bit into a chunk of his skewer and spoke with his mouth full. “Who’s the other guy in the robe?”
I turned to see Trynzen had wandered off and was standing in front of a tree, staring straight up at it.
“His name is Trynzen,” I said. “He’s a Barbaros.”
“He’s a Barbaros?” Jax asked. “I can’t be sure from the shroud, but he looks too skinny to be a Barbaros.”
“Ummm, well, he’s kind of special,” I explained. “He’s not quite like the other Barbaros I’ve seen, and he was in the Highcastle prison a long time.”
“Prison?” Rina asked. “He’s a criminal?”
I glanced over to Trynzen who was still standing at the tree, paying no attention to us. I approached the fire, kneeled in front of it, and motioned everyone closer. “I have a mission to get him back to Barbaros for 20,000 gold.”
“20,000 gold?” Ozzy’s eyes went wide. “Shit!!!”
“Yeah, and he was in the Highcastle jail. From what he told us, he almost killed someone in the Freelands when he was running away from a couple people. He doesn’t seem like a particularly bad character, but the King isn’t exactly lenient with his sentencing.”
“So, the King released him at your request?” Jax asked.
“No,” I shook my head. “I snuck inside the jail and broke him out.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Jax asked. “Are you trying to turn Unity into the Sparrows? Are we going to be a law-breaking group of rogues?”
I sighed. “It was just once, and no one got caught. After hearing his backstory, I felt bad for him. I think in this case, we did the right thing. Maybe you’ll understand once you meet him.”
Jax frowned harshly, but he didn’t say any more. Rina grabbed his shoulder to comfort him.
“What’s he doing over there anyway?” Aaron asked.
Trynzen was bent over, pushing aside a pile of leaves near that same tree where he had been standing.
“Trynzen!” I yelled.
Trynzen jumped, startled by my voice. He turned to me, and then scurried towards the fire. “Trynzen hungry! Look for food!” He looked towards Ozzy’s skewer of meat and licked his lips.
“We’ll get you something to eat,” I said. “Why don’t you take the shroud off and sit down?”
“Food for Trynzen?!” he asked excitedly.
“Yes,” I affirmed. “Have a seat.”
Trynzen bent over and start wiggling himself awkwardly out of the shroud. When it fell to the ground, and his derelict body and tattered rags were revealed, Rina let out a slight shriek before placing her hand over her mouth.
Aaron, Ozzy, and Jax all looked at him with wide, disturbed eyes.
“Everyone, say hello to Trynzen,” I said.
Aaron swallowed. “Umm… hey….”
“That’s Aaron,” I said. “You’ve already met Sung and Jeremy. The pretty lady over there is Rina, and the big fella is Ozzy.”
Trynzen smiled, revealing his sharp, feline teeth. He lifted his hand to his chest. “Trynzen is Trynzen!”
“Right.” I motioned to the log beside me and again invited him to sit.
As Trynzen walked over to the log, Ozzy stood up to intercept him, holding out his hand. “Nice to meet you Mr. Trynzen.”
Trynzen looked curiously at Ozzy’s hand then turned to look at everyone else as if he weren’t sure what to do.
“Shake?” Ozzy asked. “No?”
“Shake?” Trynzen questioned.
“Your hand…” Ozzy said.
Trynzen lifted his paw, and Ozzy grabbed it, giving him a light shake and a smile. Trynzen looked down at his paw in confusion when it was over.
“Welcome to Edgewood,” Ozzy said.
“Shake?” Trynzen questioned again.
“It’s just a friendly gesture,” I explained.
“Friend?”
“Yeah,” I said. “We’re all friends here.”
“Friend?” he asked again.
“Yeah…”
Trynzen turned to me and held his hand out again. “Friend?”
I took a deep breath and shook his hand.
Trynzen smiled, and his chest rose in excitement. He circled the fire and jolted his hand out to Aaron. “Friend?”
Aaron shook his hand. “Yeah, sure, man.”
Rina instinctively jerked back when Trynzen scurried over to her and held out his hand, but then she slowly reached out her hand and gave him what barely passed as a handshake with her fingertips. “Yeah, of course. Friends...”
He repeated the process with the others before he finally returned to the log and sat down.
“So… as I mentioned, Trynzen isn’t quite like other Barbaros.”
“Trynzen is Trynzen!” Trynzen cried.
I raised my eyebrows. “I’ll fill you all in later about what I know, but for now, I hope you’ll trust our decision to set Trynzen free.”
“I just hope this doesn’t come back to haunt us,” Jax said. “You’re certain that no guards saw you break him out?”
“I’m pretty certain no one saw me enter or exit the prison. Perhaps people saw us when we were leaving Highcastle, but for all they know, we had nothing to do with the breakout.” I thought it better not to tell Jax that we had killed Alexander Campbell, another Sparrow, and a Faithsworn in the prison, or that there was another random prisoner inside who had definitely witnessed what had happened. It would just amplify his worries.
“Sung did a great job during the whole thing,” Jeremy said.
Sung smiled. “You too.”
“Oh yeah. What was that thing you were doing to get the guard’s attention?” I asked.
“What? My little rendition of Cornholio? You told me to act weird.” Jeremy pulled his chestpiece up halfway over his chin and held his hands up high. “I am the great Cornholio! Please hand over all your kroka now!”
“What the hell?” Ozzy asked.
Aaron burst out laughing. “I remember that shit!”
“Remember what?” I asked. “What is that?”
“It’s old school,” Jeremy explained. “I can’t really do it right without a t-shirt, but yeah. It’s Probably something your great granddaddy would be more familiar with. You’re too young, Gunnar.”
“Dude, we’re almost the same age,” I said, “and Aaron isn’t much older.”
“Yeah, but me and Aaron…” Jeremy held his fist out towards Aaron, and Aaron sent him slow-motion fist back in return.
When both fist touched, each of them pulled their hands back slowly and wiggled their fingers. “Boom!” they said in unison.
“Me and Aaron are the cool cats around here,” Jeremy said.
“For shizzle, my nizzle.” Aaron grinned.
I snorted and rolled my eyes.
Jeremy tilted his head to Sung. “Sung’s pretty cool too.”
“Thanks, man.” Sung smiled wide. “You guys are all really cool too. The last two days have been pretty awesome.”
I looked closely at Sung for a moment. There was something odd about him, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. But other than that slight oddness, he seemed like a good guy. He had done well during our trip to Barbaros and in Highcastle. All of his advice had been solid as well. Basically, he seemed like he’d be a strong addition to the guild, especially with his pro-gamer credentials.
“Hey, guys,” I said. “Sung wants to join the guild. Thoughts?”
“You know I’m all for it!” Jeremy piped.
Aaron shrugged. “Another Reborn and a pro-gamer at that? The Sizzler approves.”
“Reborn?” Trynzen chuckled. “Human dumb.”
Everyone ignored the comment.
Jax glanced at Rina as if they were reading each other’s minds then turned to me. “We trust your judgement, Gunnar.”
“Fine by me,” Ozzy said.
“Where’s Keysia?” I asked.
“She headed deeper in the forest to check up on the other dark elves. Said she’d be back later,” Jax explained. “But if anyone trusts your judgment, it’s her.”
I felt pretty confident Gerard wouldn’t object either.
“Alright then,” I said and reached my hand out to Sung. “Welcome to the team, Sung.”
I willed him a guild invitation.
“Really?” Sung asked as he grabbed my hand.
I nodded. “Hopefully you’ll help us rise to the top like your guild back on Earth.”
Sung Ngen has joined your guild: Unity!
“Thanks, Gunnar!” Sung said. He turned back towards the fire. “Thanks everyone.”
“Aaaaannnnnd,” Aaron said cockily. “With all this growth, we’re going to need more housing.” He waved his hand at the frames of the two new small homes. “I’m surprised you haven’t said anything about two new houses… or the castle wall… or the path leading to Highcastle.”
I rattled my head. “It’s fucking great!” I said. “I’m glad you’ve been getting things done while I’m gone. But how’d you get the money for the houses?”
“My crafting is scaling up. I created a couple pieces of exceptional armor that sold for quite a penny in Thorpes. I took all the gems we had from the shop as well and dumped ‘em all for gold too. Almost emptied the guild reserves, but I think it was worth it.”
I glanced back at the houses again. “I’d say it’s worth it. I’ll give all the gold we collected on our trip to Gerard.”
“Speaking of selling items in Thorpes, we’re stocked with a bunch of items and junk trades that haven’t sold,” Aaron explained. “Someone should load up the wagon and do a run to sell them off.” He raised his chin and scanned the perimeter of our village. “I saw Jeremy has a little pig now, but where did you guys leave Betsy?”
I swallowed, and my heart sank at the thought of our morbid meal in the Barbarosia mess hall. Jeremy looked down, and Sung shifted nervously.
“Betsy was killed…” I finally said.
“What!?” Aaron gasped.
I explained how the horse was killed during a dungeon run, and Aaron was visibly upset, even without me mentioning that she had been turned into food.
“Man, that’s awful,” he whined. “I was really getting close to her.”
“I’m going to miss Betsy,” Rina said.
“I know,” I said with a sigh. “I’m sorry…”
Aaron looked down as he shook his head. “No, it’s okay. I mean, I knew it could happen, and she was a community horse anyway. We’ll get another.”
“Let’s bump it up to guild priority number one,” I stated. “We’ll get two or three so we can put the stable to good use.”
Aaron huffed. “Damn. Now I need some joojak. Betsy dying has got me all sorts of fucked up.” He looked over to us. “Did any of you pick up some?”
We all shook our heads no.
“Damnit,” he hissed. I had never seen Aaron look so down.
“I don’t have joojak, but I’ve brought everyone some food!” Keysia yelled as she entered the clearing, carrying a large, wooden tray. Wrapped around her arm and neck was her serpent, Neshander, which had grown noticeably larger than before. Its body trailed between her breasts and curled its rattler right at the edge of her skirt, which immediately brought deviant thoughts to my mind.
Damn, she looked seductive.
“Food!” Trynzen cried, and rocked forward as if he were about to leap out of his seat.
Keysia paused and looked cautiously at the Barbaros.
“It’s okay,” I advised.
She blinked a few times before continuing forward ‘til she was right upon us, and leaned down to give us a good look at what was on the tray. Numerous brown potatoes, split at the top, were arranged in neat rows. The white starch spilling out of them was covered with tiny black specs and small, red, and pink flower petals. “Just a few baked potatoes. It’s nothing special, but we have a few of these potato plants near the dark elf camps. I wanted to surprise you with something and give my cooking skills a start.”
