The Lord of the Plains (6 page)

Later they saw another bird, being as
careful as the first one. Riley watched it again for a few moments
before her attention turned away.

They walked on.

Suddenly a splash and a roar came. Riley
turned, startled. She was just in time to see a long glinting blue
pillar, standing a good three meters from the ocean. She could
discern no marks on the scaly pillar to tell her anything about
this creature. No eyes, mouth, no holes or appendages. The bird was
gone. Then the creature slowly crashed back into the water. The
water swirled and churned in its passing. Only after a couple of
minutes did it calm down.

Aerlid stopped and stared. ‘A mixed? No…’ he
said, his eyes on the water. ‘Yes, it is. How did
that
happen?’

Riley looked up at him and took his hand.
She was shook up. Aerlid turned away from the water. He glanced
down, noticing what she had done and smiled. ‘It’s alright. Come,
let’s keep going.’

They did not go back into the forest, but
they did move further away from the beach.

They left the beach as the coast began to
curve northwards and headed further inland, back to the forest.

Riley did not complain. The ocean was new
and exciting, yet scary too. How was she to fight things in the
ocean? She could not swim. If they crawled up on land perhaps it
would be more even, but the ocean creatures were too alien for her,
she feared them.

The days gradually shortened and soon it
would begin to grow colder, though it was still weeks before they
would have to think of changing their clothes.

There was a purpose to Aerlid’s travel that
had not been there since he’d decided they should enter the gemeng
village. He was going somewhere now.

One day they came to the edge of a cliff.
Perched upon the lip of the cliff was an ancient wall of stone,
barely higher than Riley. The years had worn the stone down, until
its original function could not be discerned. Riley glanced once at
the grass underfoot and caught a glimpse of the same rock that made
up the wall. They had come across these remnants of an ancient time
several times during their travels, but they held little interest
to Riley and she paid no further attention to the wall. Aerlid said
they were very, very old, and at her obvious disinterest revealed
no more.

Aerlid though favoured the wall with a long
look, ‘this must have been the palace…’ he murmured.

Riley did not respond, and instead looked
out over the cliff in amazement. It was not forest that greeted her
but a vast plain of grass. In the distance the jagged shapes of
mountains were just visible, though she did not look at those. She
peered over the edge of the cliff. The plains were like an ocean of
grass, so they were at once alien and familiar.

Riley spared a glance for Aerlid and grinned
at him.

He smiled and sat down on the cliff edge
next to her. It was a long drop to the ground below, not that this
bothered either of them. ‘Those are the Plains.’ Aerlid spoke.
Riley settled down to listen, her eyes wide with interest, moving
between him and the Plains.

‘The strongest gemengs in the world are said
to live here. I don’t know if that’s true, nonetheless they are the
strongest gemengs in this part of the world. There are many groups
or tribes,’ he continued, ‘these gemengs aren’t like the ones you
met. Even the weakest would be stronger than all the people in that
village combined. No, they are all warriors here, and they are
constantly at war with each other. Though…’ he cast a critical gaze
over the view below, the wind playing with his hair. ‘It seems they
have more control these days, or perhaps there just aren’t any fire
masters among them. There was a time when these Plains were often
in flames. Fires would rage across from here to there.’ and he
pointed at the mountains, a blue haze in the distance. ‘Many would
die, and afterwards the land would be nothing but charred black
ruin. It always recovered quickly though. Fire is naturally common
in this type of land anyway, just not so… uncontrolled.’

He stopped for a moment, enjoying the
peace.

‘We won’t be going there.’ he said after a
while. ‘It’s too dangerous.’

Riley shot him a frown and then
reconsidered, remembering the fearsome ocean creatures.

He smiled, knowing what she was thinking.
‘Maybe once you get a bit taller.’

They stayed there for a while, Aerlid
instructing her in an easy and relaxed manner on the different
gemengs he knew of. He’d stop sometimes for great lengths of time;
there was no hurry in this instruction. Further, this was one of
the few things-fighting- that he knew interested his charge…though
interested might be a weak term… either way, she listened
attentively and absorbed it after hearing it only once. She also
had a disconcerting habit for one so young of coming to her own
conclusions about things he had never even spoken of- extrapolating
from the lessons. Her decision that she would wield two weapons was
only one example.

He told her how to recognize the different
types of gemengs, where they would most likely be found, how they
tended to fight, their strengths and weaknesses, and if he knew
anything about how they lived he told her that too.

After a few hours they moved away from the
cliff. Aerlid did not wish to draw the attention of the Plains
people, though he had wanted to show this to Riley. He took her
through the forest, the course of travel chosen so that they would
remain a safe distance from the Plains.

The lessons continued.

It was getting colder. Cold enough that
Riley had started giving him baleful scowls for bringing her to
this part of the world. Cold enough that it was time to get
something warmer to wear.

‘Riley,’ he called. She was running ahead of
him and doubling back whenever she got too far ahead. The thin
material of her clothes did little to keep her warm, though running
made up for it, and she could run all day.

She trotted back to him, her brows slanted
darkly over her eyes.

‘We need some coats. You are to make
them.’

She turned without a word and started
trotting off the way she’d come.

‘Off you go!’ He said cheerfully, and gave
her a gentle boot in the rump.

She started and turned over her shoulder,
giving him an injured expression. Still, she ran off quickly and
silently.

He did not expect to see her for some hours
and continued walking. He knew it would get colder here, but how
cold, he wondered? Would the leaves fall and the snows come? Would
it get windy and rainy? It hardly mattered however. He had taken
her to colder climes before. She hadn’t liked it, though she still
needed to know how to survive in unpleasant conditions as well as
in the pleasant sunny weather of the forest they frequented most
often.

Around midday Aerlid found Riley. She had
made a camp and was busy preparing the carcass of a dear. When she
noticed him she gave him a cross look, but he could tell she wasn’t
really unhappy. She was working with stone tools. A small smile
tugged at his lips. She wouldn’t use her sword for cutting up
animals, it would never be used for something so mundane. She’d
make herself another set of tools before she did that.

The deer was too much for them to eat by
themselves. As Riley skinned it Aerlid began preparing the meat and
drying it so that they wouldn’t have to waste it. Aerlid had taught
her to take only what she needed and to use all she took.

Riley used the bones to make a needle. It
took a few tries to get it right. She used the sinews to make
thread. Then with her recently made knives, needles and thread,
Riley set about fashioning cloaks for them. They’d had some once
before, but they’d been lost in a freezing mountain stream some
time ago, and they’d had no need for a new set since.

Riley didn’t finish that day. They stayed at
that campsite a few days. By then Riley had made a lovely warm
cloak for Aerlid.

He asked her what she was going to wear.

‘It’ll take ages to eat this meat.’ She
said. ‘I’ll make one later.’

‘Perhaps we’ll find someone in need of
food.’

Riley shrugged in uninterested response.

Chapter 6

They left the forest for soft rolling hills.
The vegetation was made up of low grasses, with the occasional
shrub. The wind was insistent and cutting as it blew across the
hills. They had coats now at least, and warm bed rolls.

Aerlid didn’t think it would snow in these
hills, though it was certainly getting very cold and unpleasant.
Further north? Maybe.

Riley did not find the hills particularly
interesting. She had stopped running back and forth and trudged
along beside Aerlid in sullen silence. Aerlid ignored her
sulking.

There was no large game in these hills, so
perhaps it was good they were loaded down with enough meat to feed
a family for a year. Still, if they chanced upon anyone out here
(and Aerlid hoped they would), he fully planned to unload most of
their burden on the unsuspecting traveller.

They had been travelling through the hills
for almost two weeks. They reached the top of a hill and Aerlid
stopped. Riley did too, after a few paces. He stretched and looked
around. The sky was grey and cloudy, and there was nothing to see
except hills in every direction. It would be easy to get lost here.
He glanced down into the shallow valley they would soon be
descending into. It had proved quicker to just walk over the hills
rather than try and find a way between. He stopped in surprise. Was
that a curl of smoke rising from the ground? He could see no hut or
camp, or anyone down there at all.

Riley spotted it too and pointed. A hopeful
gleam came into her eyes. Was something going to break up their
routine?

They walked down the gentle slope towards
the smoke. As they got closer Aerlid could see that some of the
grass was raised and the smoke was coming out from under this. He
got down on his knees and observed it more closely. To him it
looked as if it was a trapdoor, hidden with grass and left partly
open for smoke to escape.

He shot a look at Riley, she stood beside
him.

‘Hello?’ He called into the smoky gap. ‘We
are travellers! Is anyone there?’ He spoke in the language he knew
had once been spoken here. He hoped it hadn’t changed too much. It
was just one among many languages he knew and had taught to Riley.
If this failed he’d try one of the others.

He could always just leave part of the meat
by the hole. As long as he didn’t have to carry it anymore and it
didn’t go to waste.

A thought occurred to him. As Riley watched
Aerlid changed subtly in front of her. She noted it, but she was
not surprised by it. She had seen none of the gemengs from the
village do that- though she had an idea that they were quite
different to her and Aerlid. She thought no more about that than
she did about anything else.