Asgotl, at the Crystal Shrine of Tiki

The griffin Asgotl turned to watch his mistress waken the crystal. He looked to see if he could discern the vision she had raised within. He did not understand what it was he saw but could not ask Aylem about it while she was in her trance.

The small creature shown within the crystal was a strange patchwork of the skins of different creatures. A curved piece of horn with a horizontal slit covered where there should have been eyes. Whatever it was, it walked upright.

The feet were those of a small bear with pine branches tied to them. That confused Asgotl. What purpose did the branches serve? Did the creature use them to walk on top of the snow? How strange.

What should have been hands or claws were covered with white and brown blobs of fluffy fur, but those furry blobs held a bow with an arrow aimed at Aylem's two children, lost for two days after the storm. Using a bow made the creature sapient and therefore more dangerous than unintelligent animals. Asgotl couldn't think of any forest monsters whose description matched this strange thing appearing in the crystal through the magic of his mistress.

The great hexagonal crystal was ten hands high and four wide, rising from a base of smaller opaque pink and black crystals. Heldfirk, all of ten years old and newly awakened to his power, held his crystal out to threaten the creature, shouting words which Asgotl could not hear.

The creature was small. Even kneeling in the snow next to his bloodied and unmoving sister, Heldfirk was taller than whatever the creature might be. Asgotl could not tell if Opo'aba was living or dead. Heldfirk seemed exhausted. His hand was shaking and the light within his crystal was dim and flickering. Tears streaked down his face.

The boy yelled some more and the creature lowered the bow but did not uncock the arrow. Then the vision faded as Aylem gasped and held her head.

"Mistress, what is that thing? And where is Ledjetl?"

"Ledjetl is dead and it's not a creature. It's a rogue Coyn," she shook her head, the light catching the amethyst-jeweled coif holding her silver hair. "It won't hurt them, I hope" she sighed with fatigue, not relief, "Heldfirk should be able to fight it off if it attacks."

"Where are they? Can I take you there in time before the sun goes down?" Asgotl was already tacked out with Aylem's multi-person saddle.

"How fast can you get across the lava plains when it's this cold out?" she asked him. "They are somewhere in the valley of the Vanishing River." She rose from her chair, pulled on her sheepskin coat and leggings over her flying clothes. Then she threw several already-packed saddlebags on Asgotl's back.

"How did they get there? Everyone is searching to the south, not the northwest," he could not believe they had gone so far when they were lost in the storm. "I can cross the lava plains before sundown but it will be dark soon after. We won't be able to come back until it's light again."

"I'm prepared for that. Let me get these boots laced and I'll message Imstay by bird."

"He will be most unhappy if you leave by yourself."

"He is always unhappy but daylight is fading. There's no time left in the day to return to the palace and still get across the lava plains afterward. He can complain and grouse all he wants but they are my children too. I will not wait."

---

EMILY, in the Valley of the Vanishing River

If I was wise I would leave these two Cosm children to die here in the snow. Their mount was killed by the snow bear who lived on the Tourmaline Mountain on the opposite side of the valley. I heard the fight between the two beasts by the creek and explored the aftermath once it was quiet. When I first heard the fight I didn't know that one was a flying horse, straight out of the Greek myths of my previous life. In this world, they are a sapient race enslaved as mounts by upper-class Cosm.

I skinned the bear, who must have died by the children's magic, and left the skin in the stream to wash it and to loosen the gooey fatty bits so I could clean and cure it later. I liked the thought of having a bearskin to sleep under during the cold season.

The valley's big felines, which I called mountain lions for lack of any better term, would soon be down to scavenge the dead animals; so I cut and bagged as much of the bear meat as I could carry in my game bag. The bear had not been bled so the meat would be gamey but it wouldn't be too bad if I made jerky with it.

I will miss that bear. During the five years that I have lived in this valley, we had come to an understanding---well, after I invented matches. Then all it took was a few irritant smoke flares at the good fishing spot by the falls where we both liked to fish. The bear left me in peace after that. I would try not to feel guilty while I ate the jerky.

After smashing the control gem embedded on the winged horse's head, I had to leave the carcass behind. It was too heavy to move and with the recent snowfall, too wet to burn. I knew it was a sapient creature and had problems with eating another intelligent being. I did not skin it nor did I take its meat. I regretted leaving it to the mountain lions.

I followed the tracks leading from the fight site, assuming that any upper-class Cosm who owned an enslaved mount would have more than enough magic to stay alive and get home safely. I just wanted to make sure they did not find my own home and would soon leave my valley, never to return. Because of the volcanic rift and the geyser fields, the Cosm seldom crossed the flood basalts. This made it a good place to live, far away from any Cosm settlement.

I did not expect two children. It's hard to gauge age based on size in this world, since the more magic a person had, the taller they would be once they reached adulthood. Based on his face, the boy had not yet reached puberty but wasn't too far from it. I couldn't guess how old the girl was since she collapsed facedown in the snow. Her back was wounded and still bleeding from the looks of the stain on her coat and in the snow.

They were both bigger than I was and the girl's hair was already turning silver. That meant she had a lot of magic. The boy was too young for his hair to turn yet; however, given the height and his already-flickering crystal at a young age, I guessed he had a lot of magic too. Despite his magic, he was panicked and exhausted and maybe even approaching hypothermia since he was trembling.

They both need help. I just didn't want to be caught and dragged back to the hell hole of Cosm society, which could happen if I tried to rescue them. I wanted them far away from my home, even if I did help them.

Despite everything, they were still children and one was badly hurt. It took me only a moment to decide. All the while, the boy tried to scare me off with his fading magic power flickering in his crystal tool.

I hung my bow on a pine branch and looked around. There was a large fir tree not a stone's throw away that would be big enough for the two overgrown children. If I could get the boy to help, I could have it lined with pine boughs and have a fire going before the sun went down. Undoing my outer cloak and pulling off my mittens, I removed my rabbit-fur face covering and untied the slitted piece of horn I used to protect my eyes from snowblindness. The boy gasped when he saw my face.

"You're a Coyn! You have to help us! I order you to help us! Whoever your master is, we will adequately reward him!"

I just shook my head and rolled my eyes, and dropped the game bag off my back. Making a neat pile of my possessions, I pulled my hatchet from its holder on my belt and walked on top of the snow to the fir tree. After getting in underneath and scratched by the dead branches at the bottom of the trunk, I started whacking off branches to make space under the living boughs. The tree was ancient and large enough to have no snow inside the circular embrace of its protective needles. Pine and fir trees were the best winter emergency shelters in a pinch.

The boy tried to follow and I had to smile as he kept breaking through the drifted snow. "Hey! Where are you going? What are you doing under there?"

I dragged out the first dead branches and returned underneath to cut more. By the third trip, the kid understood what I was doing so there had to be a few of his brain cells still functioning. By the fourth trip, there was enough room for him to get inside the circle of branches.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" he demanded. I pointed at my mouth and shook my head, hoping he would understand that I couldn't talk. Then I handed him a branch and motioned for him to take it outside.

"That's for you to do," he huffed. "You're the Coyn. It's your place to take care of me."

I shook my head emphatically, put my hatchet away, and walked back to my cloak and game bag. I tied my horn eye guard and face covering to my belt, put on my cloak, hefted my bag, and started walking in the direction of home. The boy stumbled through the snow as I glided on top of it with my pine-branch snowshoes.

"No, wait. Come back. Who owns you that you can disobey me?" he was beginning to sound panicked. "Get back here. My sister is really hurt. You can't leave us." He caught up to me on his longer legs and grabbed my shoulder. I turned to face him and poked his forearm with my long knife hard enough for him to release me. As soon as he did, I placed the knifepoint against his sheepskin coat at his stomach level. He needed to back off.

"You will be punished for that," he pulled his crystal from his pocket and started to engage his magic power. I knocked it out of his hand, cutting the base of his palm as I did so. He was no better than any other Cosm I had ever encountered. Right then I was ready to leave the two children to their fate.

"Ahh! That hurt!" He fell to his knees, clutching the wound. "Why are you doing this?" He started to sob. I kept walking.

"Please, even if your master wants to have a ransom, please help my sister. I'll do what you ask. Just help her."

I stopped and considered. I probably couldn't trust him but I could build a shelter and a fire and leave them for the night. I turned and walked back to the fir tree. By the time I was cutting more branches, he quietly pulled them away from the tree. I noticed he had retrieved his crystal and had healed his cut already.

Having made a big enough space for the two of them and a fire, I started to cut pine branches off a tree nearby and carry them to line the ground around the trunk of the tree, leaving space for a fire. The boy watched for a moment and then started to pick up the branches I cut and took them to the fir tree shelter. Then I cut three bigger branches and dragged them to his sister. I layered them one on top of the other and tied them together with some leather strapping from my belt pouch. By the time I was done, the boy had joined me, watching what I was doing.

"You know what you want to do but I don't," he said in a subdued voice. He looked and sounded exhausted. I motioned placing his sister on the pine branches. He nodded and between the two of us, we managed to push and roll her in place. I picked up the branches where they were tied together and started to pull.

I have to give the kid credit for being a bright boy. He figured out that I was using the branches as a sled to slide his sister to the shelter. He did the pulling work since I could barely move her weight. While he did, I ran to the shelter on my snowshoes to get a fire started. I had dead fir needles and kindling piled when he pulled his sister in under the fir tree.

Her face was pale and her back was soaked in blood. The bear must have clawed her back badly. I dug out my box of matches and a pebble of fine sandstone coated with red phosphorus. The boy's eye grew wide at the flare of flame when I struck the match on the pebble to start the fire.

"How can you have fire magic when you're so tiny? Are you really a Coyn?"

I just smiled and motioned him to feed the fire. How could I even begin to explain that it wasn't magic, just some home-brewed chemicals and ground-up minerals?

I used my whole weight as leverage to roll the girl over onto her front. I ignored the boy's protest when I sliced up the back of the coat with my knife and cut up her clothes. They were ruined anyway so I don't understand why he was complaining. I started thinking of what I had at home that I could use to clothe her later. She looked to be that age where girls get all self-conscious about developing chests and such. She would need clothing too in front of her younger brother, though I had no clue if pre-pubescent boys even thought about girls that way.

The claw wound was bad. I could see her shoulder blade and two ribs through the deepest of the gouges. The best I could do for now was clean the wounds and bandage them. Before I started, I got the rest of her coat off and checked to make sure there were no other major wounds. I was glad the girl was out of it because the small leather bottle of bleach-based antiseptic solution would have stung. I hoped it would keep infection away until the boy had regained enough energy for healing magic.

His nose wrinkled at the smell of the bleach. "Is that the best you can do? Most healing potions smell a lot better than that. Don't you have any she can drink instead?" I shook my head no. The deepest gouge was still bleeding. I looked at the boy, pointed at his crystal in its holder, and then pointed at his sister's wounds.

"I'm so tired I can't even get a flicker now," he complained. I dug in my pouch for my precious roll of linen and my walnut shell of rosin and beeswax paste. My best option was to cover the lacerations with linen and use my paste to get the bandaging to stick to adjacent uncut skin. Once covered, I could then apply pressure to get the bleeding wounds to stop. Short of trying to stitch wounds, there was little else I could do. If I had to resort to stitches, I would need to go home to get the silk thread I stole from the Uldlip trade fair five years ago.