Dagger: Chapter Seven

Chapter 7

Ariam was doing her best not to stare at the settlers, but it was hard not to, they were strange. Bleak and gray, many questions were in her head. Once they finally got to the Big House, the door swiped open all by its own. “Weird,” Ariam commented. When they stepped in, the house had not many furniture, only a desk, a chair to sit by the desk, and a large bed. And relaxed on the bed was a woman, even though she wasn’t standing up, the whole gang could tell she was tall just by the looks of her long highway legs. And it was pale white.

            This was Batshibah, the leader of the small settlement of Ferdan. This was such a mystery, why would people be settling in a place like this, in Tmavy Woods of all the places. And weird even the settlement leader was a woman, something unfamiliar at those times. Batshibah was fair with pale skin, black-haired lady, and in the gang’s view the lady wore skin revealing clothes. She looked way too young to be a leader. Her face had more emotion than the whole settlers in Ferdan combined as she was grinning and playing with her long nails, while gazing at her guests. She looked despicable Ariam thought this woman was something more than what she put on to be.

            If Batshibah was dark magic, Raewyn could feel it by now, but the elf only felt an eerie unease ambiance coming out from the tall long dark mysterious lady. Like she was someone’s thought or dreams perhaps, as if Batshibah wasn’t real.

            “Daggers,” she hissed by the view of Ariam and Obadiah, their animal eyes must have given way who they were.

            The inside of the house was spacious, with little light coming through. The lumber that was made of it looked dark and black, almost crying. “Welcome to Ferdan,” said Batshibah. “What brings well-armed individuals to come to a quiet settlement in the middle of Tmavy Woods? Two Daggers, an elf mage, and a pirate captain, very dangerous people. Should I trust you folks? What is your business here?”

            “We mean no trouble to you and your people,” Obadiah claimed calmly as he can. The old Dagger and the rest of the gang knew Batshibah was not at all delighted by their presence, but she also looked like she wanted their help for something, just by the sound of her voice. “I can see that you know who we are, we are Daggers and these are our companions. We are looking for an ancient relic, a part of a piece of the gate to Oblivion. Maybe your people possibly have found it perhaps?”

            Batshibah smirked with gladness as Obadiah finished his inquiry. She got very interested almost immediately, “I know of this relic,” she said it very stifling like. “I know where it lies, and I know who holds it at the moment.”

            This was great news thought Ariam. “Where is it?” the young Dagger instantly begged.

            “I’m afraid I cannot simply give you the details,” Batshibah was playing negotiation. “You see, a group of orcs led by an elf living deep in the woods have been attacking our settlement for weeks now. That is why people have been on edge.” On edge? They looked calm as an Antalla’s cow, presumed Ariam. The settlers were not at all on edge or seemed affected by harassments of orcs.

            “So you want us to help you, then you tell us where the relic is,” Bernard said, knowing how the art of concession worked.

            “Yes, simple enough. I’m sure well-armed individuals such as the four of you can handle this. Kill the elf and his orcs, and then I will tell you where the relic is.”

            Ariam asked why her men couldn’t do this by themselves, but all Batshibah did was ignored her. “Either you do this or don’t, it is up to you. But this is my offer, kill the elf for me and I will tell you where the relic is.”

            “Any reason why this elf has been attacking your settlement?” Raewyn was very curious. Orcs don’t usually let a single elf lead them. Orcs would rather eat elves for dinner. And an elf wouldn’t be allied with orcs, considered the two races hated each other since the creation of the First Civilization. Something wasn’t right here.

            Batshibah explained that the elf was demented and a child of the wild, worse than the free elves. The trees controlled his mind and body, added Batshibah. “I don’t know the reasons for this elf’s atrocities, maybe he hates humans, maybe he hates civilization, all I need to know he is troubling my people and he needs to be taken down, along with his orcs.”

            Ariam distinguished the leader of Ferdan wasn’t telling all that she knew, she was hiding something, and there must be a reason to it.

            They accepted this deal. “We will take care of this elf and his orcs for you, and in return you will tell us where the relic is.”

            “I give you my word.”

            And just like every quest, there was always a side quest to it. “You will find the elf and his group of orcs lies deep in the forest inside an ancient ruin. I warn you all now, do not listen to the trees. They will only deceive you and given the chance they will turn you mad just like the elf.”

            “What other troubles will we find in the woods?” Bernard asked this. “Orcs led by a wild elf, talking trees, there must be more there?”

            “Tmavy Woods is dangerous, nothing here can be trusted. Nothing. But I have no doubts four capable warriors can overcome whatever lies within.”

            They talked for a bit, asking about the elf and the dangers that was lying in the woods, but Batshibah gave them only vague answers. “The night is drawing near, now is the best time to go after the elf. Bring his head here, and I will fulfill my end of the deal.”

            “Let’s best get to it,” Obadiah instructed the youths in the group, only he was the proper adult in a band of teenagers. “Get the elf and we’ll come back.”

            Once they were out from the Big House, the door behind them closed by itself without Batshibah moving off her bed. Raewyn swore the woman was a witch, but there was no aura that signified she was. So the little elf mage stayed shushed. “Obadiah, we don’t hunt elves and orcs. This isn’t out field,” Ariam commented.

            Obadiah gave Ariam a bothered look. It is true that Daggers don’t hunt elves and orcs. Orcs aren’t fully evil creatures. They were a sentient race just like humans and elves. They may look beastlike and act savagely at times, but they are sophisticated and complex people of the Frozen Lands from high north. They are a towering race who possessed strong brute force and endurance no race can compare. The Orcs are widely feared in the continent of Tanah, not many people would accept orcs in their settlement or municipal for this mistakenly viewed race were considered to be monsters, no different than werewolves and goblins. And so they lived deep in the woods away from human and elf civilization.

            This strong gigantic people came from the Frozen Lands, an ice-covered continent further north of Tanah across the Unmoving Sea. Because of the permanent and harsh winter, life in the Frozen Lands had become difficult, and so by the first series of years during the First Civilization, thousands of years ago, the orcs migrated to Tanah in hopes for a better life but only found hardships by the humans and elves who feared the intruders and attacked them with full bigotry until their numbers were little. The orcs couldn’t go back to the north because the climate was deemed harsh to survive, and so they scoured in the woods of Tanah being treated as savages. In retrospective, humans were also from the Frozen Lands, only they came before the orcs did. In the Legends, humans came to Tanah from the north and then spread throughout the whole continent in tremendous speed and created the First Civilization. In the process of creating the great civilization throughout thousands of years, humans adapted to the environment to look more and more like the locals they killed and enslaved: the Elves. Elves once ruled the whole continent of Tanah, but not anymore.

            And so to really think about this whole situation, humans used to resemble the orcs because they came from the same land, and in time changed their appearance because of the environment. And about the elves, well wise old skinny scholars who like to read books and play with dead fossils instead of talking and having an active social life held belief the reason why elves were shorter than humans was because humans took away the elven people homes, and also their access to have more nutritious foods when the humans enslaved the elves in the First Civilization, resulting in the elven folk to distort their own height. And so one might say that the humans were a bunch of really horrible people who can’t see past through their own one sided, self-righteous and ignorant views. To define the word hypocrisy, one would have to include every human behavior and trait in it.

            Ariam of course knew little of the orcs, but she knew enough they were no different than the humans and elves, and killing them like animals was just wrong. One point goes to Ariam for thinking like a decent person, give one big round of claps for her.

Because honestly, the world was not meant solely for the human beings to live, it is for every being. Everything that exist now are the precious beautiful dancing opalescent bedazzling offspring of the ever expanding unknown obscure cosmos, this includes yourself and the animals that know all too well about the circle of life, your neighbors who have a slightly different views in politics has no difference than the flowers searching for sunlight, your fellow man who have different beliefs and skin tone are no different than the stars combusting in the far off galaxies; all of these have a right to be where they are, you have the right to be where you are as well.

            Except for the Titans, they were a mistake and should not have existed at all. That was a major error in the construction of the world. Please be reminded that the Titans and hairy disgusting insects that can fly were a mistake by the Gods and if the opportunity were to strike, exterminate them with extreme prejudice and hatred would you kindly.

            “This seems a whole full lot of shady,” Bernard gave his input, just as they were about to leave Ferdan and into the woods. “I know because I’m very shady. I think we should ask around the settlement, ask them of their situation. In luck, maybe one of them might slip up and tell us where the relic is without having to hunt down the elf and his big nasty orcs.”

            For once, Obadiah was surprisingly amazed how he agreed the things coming out from the captain’s mouth. Most of the times, they were at each other’s throat. “Fine, that seems to be a good idea.”

They first approached a group of women preparing dinner for the men by the fireplace, stewing meat and vegetable soup. Ariam could only hear their whispers, they weren’t actually whispering to each, but to themselves like drone bumblebees without a mind of its own. “Excuse me,” said the young Dagger oh so very politely, please and thank you. They paid no attention to her greet, and so Bernard put on his charm.

            “Why, hello ladies, I have a ship and I’m a captain. My name’s Bernard, I’m sure you heard of me, everybody does. I’m the Dreaded Pirate Bernard,” but still the women paid no attention, the women chopped the meat and stirred the pot, all in the while mumbling nonsense only to themselves. “Hello, look at my face. Pay attention to me,” Bernard insisted.

            The gang all jumped at once in shocked when all the women finally turned their heads in an orchestrated manner, their eyes was soulless, and their mouths were still chanting ambiguous murmurs that only the God of Nonsense would manage to catch. Ariam’s heart gave her quite a scare as it jolted by the sight. What is wrong with them, she thought and feared. She did not expect that would happen. “Alright, don’t pay attention to me. Don’t even look at me,” Bernard said deprecatingly to the women. And once the captain said that, the women turned back to their work, and the gang concluded talking to these women would do them no benefit.

            They went on and on, approaching other people in the settlement, and all of them did the same thing, chanting and murmuring strange mumbled words. Talking to the settlers made Ariam revealed all of the settlers displayed strange symptoms. They all seem unusually focused on their work. And demanding answers from them appeared to make the settlers very uncomfortable. They approached a pregnant woman, and not only was she in pain, but she was the only one that showed any true emotion, and that was fear. She was afraid of something. Until lastly, Ariam noticed something very peculiar in the settlement, there were no children present at all. Now certainly this had gone very weird, very quickly. There were no laughter, no proper conversations between the settlers, and no children, what was the meaning of this.

            They went back in to the Big House and asked Batshibah about the settlers’ weird behavior, but she canned the topic by stating the elf and his orcs had been mentally effecting the settlement by his harassments.

            At that moment something happened that made the gang all pulled out their weapons and ready for a fight, arrows winged from the darkness of the trees and it struck down the settlers. The arrows didn’t actually kill the pilgrims, for the arrowheads weren’t sharp and made of iron, but blunt and made of weak wood.

            The settlers didn’t seem to be bothered by it, when one of them fell to the ground unconscious, the others didn’t give the impression of panic at all. They continued their work like nothing just happened. Only the men who escorted the gang before reacted and shoot their arrows back to the trees, but they showed no emotions of hate or anger. They fired their arrows dryly with no passion at all.

            While the arrows were flying about in the air, Ariam could see a silhouette of a man jumping on the branches of the foliage, firing his arrows in the speed of light. And just then it stopped. And the man hiding behind the trees was gone.

            “Did anybody got hit?” Obadiah asked the gang as they took covered behind a small house. Cramming together has been a habit for all of them.

            And all the teens replied together, “Nope, we are all fine.”

            “What the hell was all that about?” Bernard said. “Why shoot the arrows if you’re not planning to kill anybody.”

            Ariam knew it wasn’t over, for she could sense the man unseen above the trees was going for another attack. “Get to cover Bernard, I think something out there is coming out,” Ariam warned and the captain followed.

            There was a strong speeding gush of wind, and rasped rapid footsteps closing in to the settlement, whoever this person was, he was fast. And then jumping out of the trees, a medium heighted man wearing a wooden mask, dressed in wild fur clothes, and wielding a sharp knife that seemed to be made of a bear-wolf fang in his hands fought the armed men in the settlement.

            By the Gods, this man was faster than a Dagger, and the mask didn’t cover his ears, and by the looks of how pointy it was, the man was an elf. All of the armed men attacked him at once, and the elf dodged their attacks easily by jumping and sliding. 

            When one of the men shot an arrow at him, the mysterious masked elf did a backflip and caught the arrow as it was flung right at him, and threw it to the ground instantly. This masked elf however, did all he could to not seriously injure his enemies.

Ariam got out from her cover and tried to talk to the mysterious man, she deemed the man had his reasons, and his reasons wasn’t to kill by the looks of it. “Stop!” they clashed vanes, Ariam parried the man’s strikes, it was hard keeping up to his speed, and she was a Dagger. “I don’t want to fight, I mean no harm. Please listen to me.”

The man swiped his knife, and once he listened to Ariam’s plea, he jumped back away and turned to the Big House. The masked elf kicked a few armed settlers, knocking them back unconscious, and then rushed to the Big House like a mad dog.

“What were you thinking?” Obadiah pinched Ariam’s ears.

“The man didn’t kill anybody, clearly there must be a reason to it, let’s get to him before he reach the Big House. There is something more going on here,” and with that they all lashed into action and chased after the masked elf.

When the masked elf finally reached the door of the Big House, he was rocked back as the door swung open. Coming out of the building was Batshibah herself with a knife of her own. The masked elf got back up to his feet and swiftly jumped on a house’s roof adjacent to the Big House, where he stared down the enigmatic leader of Ferdan. “Jamarpabelle! I am right here,” said Batshibah, her hand gripped on the knife that looked a lot similar to the masked elf’s weapon. “Attack me if you dare. If you think you can do it.”

The gang stopped to witness the scene. It seemed these two perplexing characters knew each other.

Batshibah ordered one of her men to shoot down the masked elf who was just standing there gazing at the settlement leader, contemplating perhaps. The masked elf cut the arrow coming straight towards him with ease and grace with his knife, and just then, Batshibah threw a hidden knife at the elf. He discarded the knife, and then jumps down of the roof and charged towards Batshibah in full speed like a cannonball.

The two battle, exchanging cling and clangs of their blades at each other, and it looked like Batshibah could hold herself in a fight. Batshibah’s stance was strong, she held her ground like a true warrior, all in a while, the masked elf was hopping and leaping around like a flying monkey, his great feat showcased his prodigious agility and flexibility.

When the fight was at the masked elf favor, Batshibah cried out to the gang, “Help me! I will tell you where the relic is if you cut off this boy’s head.”

Obadiah was the only one to attack, he swung his great axe at the masked elf, and knowing he could not outmatch the huge Dagger, the masked elf darted out, but not before Batshibah threw her knife at the masked elf’s gut. Blood dripped out of his wound. It didn’t kill him, but it managed to severely hurt him. The masked elf was still strong enough to run off, leaving a trail of blood as he did so. “Run! Run back to the woods! And don’t you dare come back!” jeered Batshibah.

When the commotion was all over, Batshibah then said to the gang, “There, that is the elf. He didn’t bring along his orcs this time. But now you know, what we have to face. That elf has been nothing but trouble. Now will you help us, and kill him. I promise I will tell you where your relic is.”

They agreed once more, undoubtedly pretending.

Once the gang was out of the settlement, Obadiah turned to all of them and whispered, “We can’t trust that woman. You’re right Ariam, there must be a reason why that man didn’t kill anyone. We’re going to follow his blood trail, and talk to him instead.”

Ariam felt relieved that Obadiah finally listened to her. She was surprised even, the senior Dagger rarely acknowledge that Ariam was her own person, that she had her own ideas of the world. Obadiah worried too much of her safety, he didn’t realized he was suppressing her. “Thank you for listening,” she said wryly.