The Snake Charmer

"'There weren't always dragons in the Valley. Were there?'

It was the first thing that he had said that caught my attention. We was in Aya's pub, the local kitchen for many a traveler. He was no different 'til the question came out. Then again, it wasn't really a question. He was makin' a point and everyone knew it."

The Cadamurian guard stood silent. Staring.

"You know, how could a stranger know that?" asked the boy.

"Perhaps he wasn't a stranger," remarked the guard.

The only sound that followed the guard's cheap retort was the growl of the boy's stomach. It echoed in the dark cabin; lit only by the oil lamp hanging above the Cadamurian lumber table he was cuffed to. The loaf of bread he was offered sat just out of reach across the table that served as a reminder that the forest of Cadamere once traded as an ally to the Valley. The boy, again, thought the whole ordeal was odd; that the main fire place was quenched and the figures of the guards in the room were not seen, only felt through the crafted darkness.

"I'm not really all that attentive, so I didn't notice much before that. He was probably just badgering Aya at the counter like a cheapskate trying to get a drink. But he had balls. I'll give 'im that."

"How so?" inquired the guard.

"We in the Valley don't like strangers," said the young villager staring at the guard. He was returned a grotesque scowl. "Or... people we don't know at least. But he knew something."

"What did he know?" demanded the guard.

The young villager looked down and gulped. He gripped his cuffed hands as he tried to make a decision. The guard didn't hesitate. He grabbed the back of the villager's head and slammed it into the table, breaking the boy's nose and rolling the bread off the edge.

"CONSPIRATORS! You have already concealed the return of dragons from the king!" The guard held the boy's bloodied head back again. "Do you now hide a criminal too? If you wish to be blind to these things, allow me to help." He squished in the boy's left eye. The agonizing screams were heard all throughout the village as the townspeople looked on the locked cabin, restrained from interfering by more Cadamurian guards posted outside.

"Dragons weren't real a month ago boy. What point could your stranger possibly have been making?" mocked the guard.

The boy tried holding his whimpering back. Blood dripped on the table in front of him; the half-image of a pool mixed with the pain made him tremble. And he was afraid.

"What did he know!?" the guard yelled.

"That we don't know anything!" cried the young villager. "We don't know how or why they returned; we don't have control of them. We can't even get close!"

The Cadamurian guard stood silent.

The boy started crying and placed his head in his left hand to hold what remained of his eye to his socket.

"That's enough Etio," a gravel voice from behind the brutal guard demanded.

The guard grabbed his helmet from the table and stood at attention off to the side.

"What did your village do to him?" asked the voice.

"I don't know. I remember standing to confront him with the rest of the bar, but he began speaking soothing words. We ended up not fighting at all."

"Where did he go?" the voice requested.

"I don't know..." whimpered the boy.

A disgruntled sigh.

"You're such a bad eyewitness that I'm considering taking your other eye," said the voice as the boy winced. The sound of a creaking floor moaned out as the owner of the mysterious voice stood. Two more guards came from behind the boy and picked him up over the table, dragging his feet and blood toward the tall silhouette now backlit by the opening front door.

"I guess we'll just have to see," said the figure in a sly, sick joke.

The boy was thrown out into the open and the village gasped behind the line of guards. The figure stepped out.

"Captain Baltimar!" the guards shouted and stood at attention. The tall man shrugged, pulling up his dark Cadamurian green, armor-laced jacket to combat the cool wind tunnels of the Valley. The hair of his beard was salt and peppered, thick and unkempt, fully contrasted with a bald head. The beard was scuff enough to prove his experience without scarring the skin of his 'clear conscience'. The imperial cast sword at his side meant he was either a good enough swordsman to take it, or he was a close friend of the king.

"This is what happens to those who conspire against Cadamere!" the captain bellowed. The crowd shuffled in fear and a mass whisper moved amongst them.

"Eppo! Eppo!" The captain eyed someone shoving through the crowd. "What did you do!?" she shouted. She ran through the guards arms but it was no use. The captain smacked the defender to the ground as she tried standing up for the boy. She fell with a small grunt. Now next to him, she moved to comfort him.

"He's just a boy! You're a monster," she said to the captain as Eppo hugged her.

"And you're weak," he spewed back, poised with irreverence.

"Have you this much loyalty to the king? The one who made our home the frontlines of battle? The one who taxes us relentlessly?" the woman asked.

The captain eyed her, sizing her up. He heard a desperate villager try to rouse her fellow townspeople.

"Why aren't you taking this up with the Lord of the Valley?" she yelled.

"He can't!" the defender shouted back. The captain had misjudged her. "He shouldn't be here," she said eyeing him back.

The captain leaned forward and said, "You must be Aya." He smiled as he eyed her defense of the boy. He stood back up, confident he would get what he came for. "All you peasants are so dirty. The way the rest of your people talked about you, I figured you to be different. No matter. You obviously have information."

"Obviously," she bitterly retorted.

"Well, a man would have come through your village about a week ago. Best case scenario Aya, is you sent him on his merry way when he stumbled in. Or, you are still hiding him. Where is he?"

"I don't know anything about that. But, I did hear a man set your holy forests on fire Captain Baltimar. Could that be him? Odd that you chase an ordinary man down when he razes your possessions, but not the king when he does it to build his castle."

Baltimar knelt down to look Aya in the face. "He is no ordinary man," he said, as a hunter talks up his prey; further his own praise when he makes the kill. "Accuse me of supplying the king that which he needs to build a kingdom, but I don't owe you answers. Not like you owe me..."

Captain Baltimar grabbed Eppo once more and ripped him away from Aya. A short frenzy from Aya and the crowd was quickly held back by the guards. "All you people owe me!" the captain shouted. He turned to Aya and said, "Your son is no ordinary man either; is he Aya?" Eppo began crying once more; fear and red streaming down his face. "Maybe you were smart for not telling him where you sent our criminal, but you definitely won't be smart for not telling me."

Aya and Eppo looked at each other, growing pale with adrenaline and the cold wind growing colder as the mountains of the Valley began to eclipse the sun.

"Have you this much loyalty to the king?" she begged once more.

"Tell me what I need to know!" Baltimar shouted, growing annoyed. He drew a hidden dagger and held it to the boy's throat.

"I do not know," she sniffled through falling tears. "We don't remember."

The captain scoffed at her through a chuckle. Belittled her through a genuine laugh.

"How will I find this unordinary man if nobody knows where he is?" He locked eyes with Aya. "As for my loyalty to the king, it might be worth my while in gold to inform him of these dragons. But, if your criminal isn't going to pay for his crimes, maybe THIS will make amends!"

Just as Eppo closed his eyes, Aya cried, and Captain Baltimar drew back the blade to cross the boy's throat;

a ghastly screech was heard

and all in the village stopped, trying to peer through the fog in the East, to see...

what ungodly creature could make such a sound.

The soft howls of gusts and the crunching of dirt was inattentively heard by the Captain as Etio neared to his ear, "We have a squad in that direction Captain," he whispered.

Baltimar looked over to some of his guards, "Go," he commanded. They drew their swords and left the line to inspect the area. Baltimar pushed Eppo back to Aya through the hole his guard had left, now concerned that his prey was among him.

A figure clouded in fog began to form in front of the inspecting guards. A man... a limping man... one of their own. The shape of his armor gave it away and the guards rushed to him. They grabbed him to support him,

but they screamed! He was as hot as the Under itself! His face was charred black, the fog around him; actually smoke, and he walked into the peaceful cool winds of the Valley to experience a moment's reprieve before the afterlife.

The winds brought his ashes across his Captain and left his molten armor singeing into the grass and sod. The patrolling guards, now writhing in pain, were hidden in the blend of fog and smoke. All but their kneeled forms were seen by the shocked bystanders.

A flash of fire, and their forms were no more.

Further stilled by fear, the silent village awaited the final emerging shadow from the fray until a tall and graceful man appeared. He was strong and lean, armored and confident. A magically imbued sword, white with fire, carved through the air at his side in a subtle display of power as he approached.

"Who are you!?" shouted the Captain.

He glared at him with vicious green eyes and said...

"I'm no ordinary man."

The eyes of the villagers suddenly matched the vicious green of the stranger, and an ax met the neck of an onlooking Cadamurian guard, and the warriors of the village drew their hidden weapons with a shout of victory.

At least five guards fell instantly, succumbing to their own shock and the speed at which bravery pounced on them. The remaining tried to fight, but were quickly ganged up on. Baltimar drew his weapon in anger, and its inscribed name flashed in the remaining light of day, STAGHORN.

With his first swing, he beheaded the blacksmith. He stabbed a father, and then was saved by one of his guards from a fanatic fisherman, only to lose that guard to the largest man in the village. Baltimar opened the man's chest with an offensive thrust and found himself alone as he watched his last guard become engulfed in the magical fire of the stranger's sword. He backed away as the village pushed him toward the edge of town. The images of blood and char burned into Baltimar's brain. And the smell changed so quickly, from cold air and meadow daffodils to fleshly ash and hot metal. It almost made him trip over his tremblings. The captain turned, and ran. And he was afraid.

A herdsman lunged after him but the stranger gently grabbed his shoulder and held him back.

"It's okay Lano," said the man. His voice soothed with power instead of persuasion. "Fate has scourged that man beyond recognition this day. If I was allowed to retreat from him, he must be allowed to retreat from me." Lano nodded and backed down.

"Master Rhugar."

The stranger spun to see the village seer, Phanera. She was walking towards him, clearly upset and very quickly for how old she was. The trinkets wrapped around her neck and walking cane clacked together like dry bones from her stumbly strut. Her robes now touched the ground due to her slight hunch from age. They dragged the blood of the fallen towards Rhugar and she broke the distressed silence of the costly victory, "You were right. They came."

The green was not in her eyes, and it faded in the rest of the village.

"You blame me," Rhugar inquisitively stated.

"Exercise decorum Master Rhugar. We just shed blood. I'm not trying to pick a bone with you," said Phanera as she twiddled a crow skull on her neck. The villagers began picking up the dead around them, and dusk had just begun. Remaining fighters took watch near the gates of the town. Fire pits were being lit for the warmth and light to prepare for what will be a long night.

"You still haven't warmed up to me though. Let us walk," said Rhugar as he took her hand. She needed to speak about something and the midst of the gruesome aftermath was no place for it. They began walking away from the direction Baltimar had ran.

"I hate to be the last one to the party around here. I'm the seer! But yes, I still am weary of you. I know that's not easy to hear but I will not lie to you." Her worn voice was feisty with attitude, and she spoke quickly.

"Nor I you."

"Then tell me, we are masters of Fate. I can see it in your eyes. Yet we disagree on many things. How can this be? My visions have never failed me, yet your philosophies let my village embrace this massacre in which we lost Sasa, Tugor, and Jolum and those are only the bodies I saw on the way to speak with you."

"You only see what Fate lets you see. I know how Fate breathes, I know what compels her. I know not only what evil can do, but what it will do. But I too, only see what Fate allows me."

"What of the minds of my village? They slayed people and were slain!"

"Fate has not decided for that captain to get his way. He is crucial in fighting a greater enemy."

Phanera sighed. For a mystic, having one who is more mysterious than you is a torture. "Master Rhugar, how I sometimes wish your magic could be used on me. I feel as though it would bring me some clarification. Perhaps, help me see farther."

Rhugar smiled. "You are a seer. And you are the one these people look to. You cannot be swayed. Fate will allow you to see what you must." His words comforted, yet remained mysterious. "I must check on Aya and Eppo."

Phanera sighed again, further into frustration. "I'm old Master. I don't have much time, nor the company of those who truly understand me. Forgive me. They are probably in the pub."

She looked up from their walk to realize that Rhugar had been walking to it the whole time. They now stood outside it and Rhugar smiled at her. She laughed, tapped his hand, and began walking back home to help her village.

~

Rhugar entered the pub to see Aya and Eppo at the counter. The warm place had turned into a sulking ground for the villagers who'd spent their time there. The injured laid across benches and tables, groanings from wounds and the magic Rhugar had inflicted on them hung sparsely in the air. The worst of which, Eppo's whimpers as Aya cleaned his eye. Rhugar approached Aya, passing by the children who lost their fathers, now carving and prying at the Cadamurian lumber the pub was made of with the knives their fathers gave them to grow up prepared.

Aya saw Rhugar coming from the corner of her eye, and exhaled as much frustration as she could in one go. Eppo noticed her change as she worked on him, and sat up from the counter to see Rhugar.

"Master Rhugar!" he said. Eppo ran to hug him and Rhugar embraced him. "Master, can you... heal my eye?"

The whole place was quiet, waiting for his response. He knelt down on one knee and grabbed Eppo by his shoulders.

"Young Eppo, we cannot ask this of Fate. There is an exclusive reward in suffering that we cannot attain without endurance. This is now a part of you. It has set you on a path you must face. Everything in your life does this. You must not try to escape who you are."

The quiet remained, and the disappointment was as obvious as the bandage on Eppo's face.

"Okay," the young man replied. Rhugar stood. Aya walked to him and grabbed him by the arm, leading him outside. She practically threw him down the steps to the pub.

"I can't believe you," she gasped.

"Fate is a cruel mistress," he replied as he regained balance.

"You CAN heal his eye. Do it."

"Fate is a cruel mis-"

"No, you're a cruel person! That boy defended you! I defended you! And taking over our bodies? That feels awful! I feel naked. And... and my neighbors you got killed... and the ones who you made kill..."

Rhugar stood silent.

"I've seen you. I've seen you do miraculous things! But, now all of a sudden... You cannot?"

"Aya-"

"Or you won't?!"

The silence after the accusation told Aya all she needed.

"You've struck me," said Rhugar.

"You led those men here. So, you've struck me, my son, and my village," said Aya holding tears back. "Maybe that captain was right. Best case scenario would've been to send you on your way."

"Aya, I am here to help mankind."

She couldn't tolerate it anymore.

"Then go help somewhere else."

The doors to the pub closed and locked. Rhugar stood in the darkness of night, regretful yet adamant, listening to armor being stripped and fires being kindled in their pits from the center of town. He quickly meditated on the events of the evening, on the repercussions. Gaining back his resolve, he realized, he had conquered an enemy and lost an ally. He needed a new one, and he knew who helped humanity best. Only, an ancient feud might get in the way. He had to go to Mount Winderguff. He had to go see, the Giant in the Mountain.