Part 1

I watched as the sun died down between two mountains in the distance from the front of the carriage. The faint and soothing white of the clouds slowly changed into a calming pink and dipped the world in their euphoric magnetism. Lucas was keeping maintenance of the sword he brought back in Alamara while the other four we were traveling with were all doing their things. Some reading, some were half-asleep, others were speaking to each other or even fixing their clothes with needle and thread. The coachman, a man in his late fifties named Rione, was whistling a bitter-sweet tone between the puffs of smoke of his large and old wooden pipe. He wasn’t a man of many words, as I learned throughout the journey, but, when he was in the mood, he knew how to keep good company with stories, rumors and legends.

“You can see it in the distance, if you have good eyes that is” Said Rione as he pointed the pipe in the direction south-east where the sea met the land.

I strained my eyes, trying to catch what he was pointing at, but all I could see was an endless road stretching like a contorted snake between hills and small forests. Sporadically, one farm or an entire small village would appear in front of my eyes but I was sure it wasn’t what Rione was pointing at. I struggled in vain, which seemed to put a smile on his old and wrinkled face scorched by the sun. Only after getting a good laugh at my expenses did he finally open his mouth to talk.

“That, my blind friend, in the distance where the sea meets the land are the cities of Migur. Funny how you didn’t recognize your own homeland PuHaHAHA!”

“What? Are you serious!?”

“Yes-” Replied Rione with a victorious smug on his face “- though I’d say it’ll take us another full day to reach the gates. Migur West is still just a black dot in the distance, even worst is Migur East”

“Will we camp out tonight to mister Rione?” Said Namisatto, one of the people traveling with us, springing into the conversation uninvited while only putting his head between the flaps of the cloth covering the carriage.

“Yes, the horses are tired and I don’t travel in the dark. It's just one day until West so deal with it” Coldly replied the coachman, snorting at the sudden intrusion. Bad blood ran between the two of them.

“Admit it old man, you just wanna get your ass to sleep. Ain’t it right?” Continued Ros after joining in the conversation whilst snickering. Ros found no reply to his question.

We traveled for one more hour until the light of the dying sun was not enough anymore to show us the road. As we did for the past two weeks, us passengers helped Rione set up a rudimental camp. If we were fewer we could’ve slept inside the wagon but six of us would barely fit in it by sitting so laying down was out of the question.

Lucas went into the closeby woods to find some dry sticks together with Ros who looked for clean water and stones to surround the campfire. Rione tied the horses to a lonely tree where the grass was green and abundant. Namisatto began taking out the pots and the wooden bowls to clean everything from the dust gathered during the previous days. I was tasked to chop the meat, vegetable and mushrooms for the soup while Ario and Lauter checked the wagon for possible damages. None of us was organized enough to synchronize with the others so it took us more than an hour to finally sit down and eat our fill in front of the campfire. All around us were seven sleeping bags made out of various different cloths and furs, one for each. Everyone came prepared, even me and Lucas. As I filled my mouth with one last spoon of the meat and mushroom stew, wine began pouring into the guys’ mugs.

“So you two come from Alamara, uh-” Asked Lauter as he gulped down what remained of the wine in his mug before filling it up again “- How’s the rich kids’ academy?”

“Ooohhh right, today’s your first day traveling with us” Replied Rione before anyone else could.

“Mh? Yeah, what about it? Did I say something wrong?” Promptly replied Lauter surprised by the sudden butt in.

“Nah, just the fact that everyone here asked the same question when we joined the brothers” Continued Namisatto.

It was true. Lucas and I were the only two members of the original wagon that departed from Alamara towards Migur East. During our two weeks journey, many joined and left the wagon. Some traveled for less than a day, some for a week and some simply wished to share our camp in search of protection from the night’s predators. The first one of the current group to join us was Namisatto. A man in his early thirties, tall with short, silky blonde hair in a seemingly bowl cut and an air of proudness and dignity around him. He worked as a bard, traveling from town to town, village to village, narrating the feats of heroes and legends of old. He was the bastard son of a noble from Rio Nord but was neither interested in politics of inheritance so he cut off all relationships with his family and dedicated his life to his art. He joined our wagon in a village three days south of Alamara, right under the southwest shore of Halfmoon lake. He didn’t have a clear direction in mind but rather just wanted to travel and earn more stories to tell as well as reputation.

“And the answer they gave us all was: rich kids got clean asses but shit for brains! HAHAHA, never knew one so bold to describe nobles like that, Lucas!” Intervened Ros with his usual loud voice and even louder laugh.

Ros joined us two days after Namisatto did. He had fifty-four years but looked like to be not older than forty. He used to work as an adventurer before accepting a request to fight off a band of brigands only to fail the job and get an arrow to the knee. He had to stop being an adventurer for the time being and decided to go back to Migur East where his sister lives. His appearance was rough. A dark pink skin scattered with scars and scorched by the sun. Brown hair with wisps of grey, a sign that his thick mane was starting to lose to his age. He had tired and sunken eyes that, in contrast with how they looked, frenziedly moved in search of possible dangers, a habit that came with his line of work.

One week later came Ario, a Wellenguard hunter who thought it better to leave the border for inland cities. Then, in the morning of the day before reaching Migur West, Lauter joined us. He was a soldier of twenty-five, short but with a strong body and sturdy shoulders. Black hair and black eyes adorned his pale skin. The squat face added roughness to his whole appearance making him look like a bandit if not for the dignified expression he sometimes showed.

“Hahaha, so it really is a city full of rich fucks…Alamara, bah! I’ll never set foot there!” Angrily shouted Lauter as he slammed his mug onto his thick thigh.

“Yeah, a lot of spoiled kids set base there-” I replied, politely refusing with a gesture Lauter who offered to pour me a drink “- There’s even a whole area where rich and nobles built their mansions. Though I can’t say I’ve ever been there”

“And the academy?-” Kept asking Lauter “-How’s that of a place?”

“Depends. If you are from a noble family then the academy becomes your kingdom if you play your cards right. If you are not then, well, it becomes much harder…pfftt even just being alive sometimes hahaha!”

“Haha, yeah, but your brother told us you ruled over there, right?” Eagerly asked Namisatto. He was always like this when anything involved magic or a good story. Always eager to gain a new tale to tell.

“Ruled is too big of a word…We had some difficult years at first since some of the students didn’t like our presence there, but-”

“But he kicked their asses and even gained the title “mage of the storm” after showing what he was capable of!-” Interrupted me Lucas “- The whole academy began respecting him, even the upperclassman, and people even came asking him to teach them. No one dared to disturb him, me or our friends anymore and even the teachers talked respectfully to him!”

“Wow!-” Loudly laughed Ros “- Seems like your brother is your biggest fan! HAHAHA!”

The conversation kept on until more than two wineskins were emptied. Jumping from their hate for nobles, the beauty of women and stories of their hometown. Many topics were touched, all except one: the war. It was a looming topic that everyone felt curious about, especially since we had a soldier in our group, one that came from Gnome Pass, the only city of the War Lands currently touched by war. Every now and then, all of us would steal glances at Lauter in search of a way to strike at the topic of the war. But everyone felt too much pressure in asking that, until the only sound that filled the camp was the cracking of the flames in front of us. In that silence, Lauter spoke.

“*sigh* I already know what you guys want to ask. I’m not smart but I’m not a dumbass either, you know, I’ve seen you stealing glances and avoiding the topic of the war as much as possible”

“...”

“If you really want to know I can’t help you much. I know little more than you do”

“It would still be something more than what we know now” I replied without taking my eyes off his face.

“Very well then, as you know I was a soldier stationed in Gnome Pass. I simply did my guard duty together with other ten soldiers until a group of Belzanians a hundred strong came at the village doors. What other choice did we have if not to surrender? Luckily, Belza’s soldiers didn’t treat us like slaves or asked us to fight for them, they simply took food and shelter and hid from scout units coming from the north. The only downside was that we weren’t allowed to leave. It was thanks to an envoy coming from the north that the soldiers left the city behind. It seems that a big battle began at Hephos Hold and their help was necessary…I took advantage of the situation and escaped but I’m now considered a deserter so I can’t show my face around so freely anymore”

“I’m sorry it happened to you-” Replied Lucas “- but, do you know how the battle was going on Hephos Hold? You know, since it’s closeby the War Lands could be next and Migur West is just down a river sooo, you get my worry”

“I get it but I really don’t know much about it…I jumped at the situation and ran in the heart of the night before they could come back. Sorry if could ease your w- No wait! There is something that I know!”

“Oh!?-” Asked Namisatto interested in how the story took a sudden turn “- and what is it that you know?”

“I overheard two guards talking about something. It was the reason why they were going back to Hephos Hold. I couldn’t hear much of it but I did grasp some. It was a talk about a mage, an adept-tier mage!”

[Adept?!.... If they added an adept-tier in their ranks, they’re either desperate and already played a trump card or they’ve got enough mages that an adept is expendable so early in the war… Either way, it’s a damn bad sign!]

Part 2

The day started early with the warm rays of sun breaking through my lazy eyelids and casting colorful forms and shapes over my irises together with the oily smell of meat being cooked over a fire. I moved away the covers made of fur from my chest and hid the dagger I was holding back into its sheath and behind the brown leather waistcoat I was wearing. Fearing betrayal, I began to sleep holding that dagger ever since the first day. I was one of the first to wake up together with Rione and Lauter. Lucas beside me, was still sleeping soundly with his usual overly-satisfied face and a tiny string of drool falling from his mouth.

Without much pleasantries, I joined the coachman and the deserter in cooking my own share of meat. It wasn’t a very varied breakfast, it was composed of strips of meat, leftover mushroom stew and some vegetables.

[What I wouldn’t do for a tea and some eggs…] I thought to myself as I took the first bite of the meat I was carefully cooking.

By the time everyone had woken up and finished breakfast I was coming back from the small stream that Ros found the previous day, followed by Namisatto. The one thing I hated most about the long journey wasn’t staying sitting for so long, eating the same food over and over and neither sleeping under the sky. No, it was not being able to shower once a day like I was used to at the academy. Luckily, both for me and for the others, we sometimes came up to some small rivers or streams where we could at least wash off the sweat and dirt. Namisatto too seemed to suffer the lack of showers like me. But the reason he followed me that day wasn’t solely for a dip in the cold water, rather he was more curious about the snake-like scar running through my upper body. His shower of questions was much more potent than the current of the stream under my calves.

Once everyone was ready and the camp had been taken down, Rione made his usual shout, sign that he was ready to get going and everyone jumped in the wagon with Rione and Ario in the front. The wagon pulled by two piebald brown horses and covered by the old brownish cloth, finally began to take the road for our last day. By Rione’s prediction, we were going to reach Migur West’s gates in time for dinner. Finally being able to see my family after five years filled me with a sense of expectancy as well as anxiety.

[I wonder how they’ll act!] I thought as I observed the landscape from the back of the wagon.

“..aph…Raph…Raph! Wake up!” Shouted Lucas after finally having enough of calling me and shaking my shoulder.

As my instincts dictated me, I rapidly reached for the sword I was holding in my arms before realizing who was the one causing the commotion that woke me up. I relaxed my now tense muscles and yawned before finally facing the overly close face of my brother.

“What do you want hard-ass?”

“Tch, you and your poisonous tongue. Whatever! Since I’m such a grateful older brother I’ll forgive you!” Replied Lucas puffing his chest and acting mighty with the expression of a satisfied and complacent noble. One expression we saw quite frequently at the academy.

“Yes, yes, thank you for your grace oh almighty one. Now, do you mind telling me why the fuck you woke me?” I replied after faking a bow.

“It’s Migur, Raph! Migur West! We can see the walls from here!” Excitedly shouted Lucas as he almost began jumping on his seat with a shine in his eyes.

I didn’t need to know any further. I rapidly moved through the labyrinth of legs and reached the front of the wagon where the door made of cloth opened up at my passage like wind through a field of grass. There, eating a piece of hard bread and smoking his pipe, were Ros and Rione who upon seeing made a big, wide smile and some space for me to sit. Lucas’ head popped between the curtains right after.

“You can see it from here, no?” Asked Rione, once again pointing towards the road with his pipe. This time I knew he was pointing at the grey walls surrounding Migur West.

“Yeah, difficult to miss I’d say…How long will it take?” I asked right after.

“Mhhh, hard to say precisely. The road since now didn’t have many turns, but as we get close to the city, more farms will get in the way…Mhh, I’d say a couple of hours? Bet you guys’ parents will be surprised to see you coming! I remember my mom would throw a feast every time I came back home hahaha. Those were good times!”

I stood silent as the idea of being back home finally settled inside my head. The sight of the sea in the distance, the smell of salt and wheat in the air, the woods scattered like patches on an old dress. Those truly were the same sights I recalled from our journey towards Alamara. I was mesmerized by them, more out of a nostalgic feeling rather than their actual beauty. Lucas was the same, his eyes darting from place to place until they stopped somewhere further along Migur West, in the distance. Intrigued, my eyes followed his line of sight but it took me a while to recognize what was it that I was watching.

Further north of Migur West, where hills and small rivers took the place of farms, low clouds approached with a speed never seen before. I found it strange to see such a gathering of clouds that day of all days since the sky around us and over the sea was as clean as a blank canvas. Interested in discerning the nature of that huge cloud, I decided to focus more deeply.

It was huge, even from that great distance I could easily tell the size of the clouds was incomparable to anything I could’ve summoned. Dark brown in color and much lower than the usual clouds, almost running ground level. That cloud swallowed everything on it’s path turning the world’s fancy colors into shades of sepia. What concerned me most though, was it’s speed and path. If it truly was as fast as I thought it was, then soon Migur West together with us, would have been swallowed by it.

“You see that too, right? That, in the distance, are those…clouds? Dust?” Asked Ros with a certain tone of worry in his voice.

“Yeah-” Replied Rione taking a larger hit of pipe than usual “- giving me the creep that thing is”

“Lucas-” I said after closing the second string of my cape due to the increasing wind “- warn the others…that thing, I have a bad feeling about it”

“Yes…I feel the same” Answered Lucas with eyes full of concern before retracting his head inside the cloth and disappearing.

In less than a couple of minutes, all seven of us were looking out towards the approaching brown cloud. Some in the front, some from the back, and others even raising the cloth from the wagon to look out. Everyone’s attention was focused on that cloud, both in awe and concern. Everyone’s face soon became a mask. There was no reason for it but everyone tried to mask the growing fear inside them. I was no exception.

The wind began rapidly picking up speed. My hair, recently cut but still on the longer side reaching down the base of my ears, was getting blown by the wind in every direction, so much that I was forced to fix them up in a bun to get them out of my eyes. It was then that, as if forcefully dragged by the wind, a bass sound began picking up volume as the colossal wave of low clouds approached. The sound, if it could be described as that, resembled a cry full of anger of something big, colossal, something that defied the common sense. The image of the Black Ogre Demigod became an omen of death inside my head. I paralyze, remembering the fear I felt that fateful day. Cold sweat wet my forehead, neck and armpits leaving ugly stains on my blue shirt.

My body, still as stone, forced me to look with growing fear at the tsunami of dust preparing to crash into Migur West’s walls. The sun had disappeared. The shadows typical of evening began claiming the world as theirs bringing with them ghosts and fears singular for every person. I looked, glared and searched the wave of dust in search of the humongous figure with a body as black as a starless night. But I could see nothing other than a formless stain of black liquid creep under the wave like a hungry snake. The stain seemed to swallow everything on it’s path. Hills, woods, streams and even a mill, all under the cloak of the stain’s knight, the cloud of dust. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I powerlessly watched the cloud crashing on the walls of Migur West.

[What the hell is that?] I thought as I rubbed my eyes, hoping to figure out the nature of the events occurring in front of me.

It was only when the cloud touched the West gate and began closing in on our position that I understood the essence of it. The wave of clouds running low, the dust, the black swallowing stain. My body trembled as the answer formed in my head.

“TURN THE CARRIAGE NOW!” I screamed at the top of my lungs trying to surpass the volume of the wind and the roar of the earth.

“W-what are you talking about?-” Replied Rione with a pale face and gawked out eyes “- That’s just a low cloud, you know. It happens”

His tone, his face, the tremble in his hands, his tense facial muscles. I understood instantly that he was forcing himself to suppress the fear and the instinct of running away. It is in human nature to react differently to threats. Where one fights the danger, another expends all his energies to escape. Then some, very few humans, forsake the danger, not out of courage or fearlessness. It is a means of defense against fear. Rione was so sunken in fear that his brain completely erased the possibility of that cloud being dangerous.

“IDIOT!-” I shouted as I launched myself at him in an attempt to steal the reins of the wagon “- IT’S NOT A CLOUD, IT’S A FUCKING HEARTHQAKE!”

Rione screamed and fought back at my attempt to take over the wagon and it took both me, Lucas and Ros to stop him from struggling. When he was finally controlled and I took over the reins, it was already too late. I didn’t even have time to order the horses to turn around when the tsunami of dust took us seven in it’s embrace.

My sight became obstructed. The walls of Migur disappeared. The sky disappeared, even the horses did. The cracking, roaring and rumbling of the earth being scarred and cut on our left sent shocks of fear down my spine so strong that mana instinctively gathered around my arms. Screams and shouts raised from behind my back, inside the wagon now devoid of cloth due to the stealing wind. I tried to look back at my partners in the journey but mostly at Lucas standing right behind me. As I turned, with the edge of my eye, I saw it. The colossal black stain beside our wagon.

It happened in an instant. I was sure the earth breaking was happening in the middle of the cloud now looming over Migur West, not on it’s edge where we were, but I didn’t consider the possibility of the earthquake being branched. In the same instant that I recognized the earth opening into a chasm, the sky and ground became one and our wagon began falling into nothingness.

We were falling. And fast at that. Like a rock being cast from a bridge. The brown sky gradually lost its light until it became nothing but a little, pale scar in the abyss of blackness surrounding us. The horses whined. The men screamed. The wood cracked under the pressure of the air and the earth expresses all it’s ancient rage. I looked around in search of something, anything to save myself and my brother while trying to keep my feet steadily fixed on the wagon and browsing through all the spells known to me.

Seconds, interminable seconds of the familiar feeling of being one with the rushing air, flowed through us as the scythe of Death closed in on my neck once again. Then, a dim light appeared in a faraway place below us. Bluish light, dim, soft and in continuous movement, like a candle being thrown in the night. We were approaching our destination: the solid ground.

[...shit, not like this again!…]