Present - The Immortal Vale - Talen

“Right you two,” the guard captain said. “You’ll be patrolling the path to the entrance for the next three bells.”

“Ooh, something exciting,” Mei Ling said, her eyes lighting up at the idea of battle.

The guard captain let out a harsh laugh.

“Our outer patrols will catch everything before it gets anywhere near where you’ll be Mei Ling. Master Wu wanted the two of you to learn about discipline, so that’s what this is focused on.” He nodded decisively. “If you do happen to see anything out of the ordinary, even a stray animal, you are both to return here immediately and report. I don’t want you fighting, however tempting it is. Do I make myself clear?”

He stared at Mei Ling, daring her to disagree.

“Yes, honorable captain,” Talen said, glancing at Mei Ling and hoping she wasn’t going to force the head of the guard to make them do drills for the rest of the afternoon instead.

“Yes,” Mei Ling said, dropping her gaze and letting her shoulder slump.

Talen kicked the side of her foot.

“A thousand apologies.” Mei Ling bowed slightly. “Yes honorable captain. No fighting, just reporting.”

“Good, because if you don’t follow orders, Master Wu has offered your services to run errands until the next full moon,” he said looking solely at Mei Ling. “So, you will be patrolling from here right through to the second pagoda and back again. You can walk that distance within one bell, so I expect to see you here three times during your shift. Got it?”

Talen and Mei Ling nodded and bowed to the guard captain before leaving the castle through the side gate.

***

“I can’t believe how boring this is,” Mei Ling said, kicking a pebble on the path.

They’d already walked far enough from the castle to lose sight of it and the black rocky path went straight for as far as Talen could see. Granted, he couldn’t see that far because the path rose and fell over the rolling hills. It probably was boring for Mei Ling, but he’d never been out here before, so despite the lack of variation in the landscape, he was happy.

The guard captain had shown Talen the route on his map. It descended rapidly down from the castle, into the valley. After crossing a shallow river, the path started back upward into the undulating foothills of Sun Long Shan, the tall, snow-capped mountain that dominated the landscape in every direction. At the top of one of the smaller rises sat the first pagoda.

Talen could see it just ahead of them, off the path on the right hand side. Its grey pillars painted red at the top to match the sloped, ridged roof. Four yellow lanterns hung, one at each corner to give travelers a place to rest and meditate on their journey. If he’d remembered correctly it marked the halfway point in their journey. After this, the path would be cutting through farm lands on its way up past the second pagoda to the village at the base of the mountain. Talen and Mei Ling, however, wouldn’t be visiting the village today. They’d need to turn around as soon as they reached the second pagoda.

They walked up to the first pagoda. The castle guard had established a notification system to show which side of the building the patrol currently walked. At the base of the closest pillar was a medium sized rock with a red X painted on it. Talen picked it, straining from the weight, and carried it across to the other side.

“Put it here,” Mei Ling said pointing to the pillar opposite where it had been.

“Well that’s not going anywhere by mistake,” Talen said dropping the rock with a thud.

“I hope we get to see something exciting,” Mei Ling said, as the two of them walked down the slope away from the pagoda. “Growing up, my father used to tell me stories of his time in the guard. Everywhere in this realm was at war then. Demons roamed the land and he spent most of his time battling them. There haven’t been any demons here for years now.”

“Yes there have,” Talen said, stopping walking. “A friend and I fought some on our way to the castle when I first got here.”

“Ooh really? What did they look like? I’ve never seen one,” Mei Ling said excitedly.

“Well, there were two different types,” Talen said, resuming his walk. “The smaller ones had dark orange skin and their heads were twice the size you’d have expected on their bodies. Their teeth looked like needles and they had several rows of them in a huge mouth. They were pretty small overall though, only came up to about here.” Talen held his hand out at the level of his chest. “The others seemed to be the ones in charge. They were much bigger. At least one and half times my height and easily twice as wide. They had jet black skin that kept cracking all over the place, releasing tiny flames. If you can imagine a blob with arms and legs you’d have a good idea of what they looked like. Kind of a walking, talking wall of molten lava.”

The two companions approached the top of the hill, finally able to see what lay on the other side.

“How many did you fight?” Mei Ling asked, eyes glued to her friend’s face.

Talen’s mouth fell open and he stopped dead in his tracks. Grabbing Mei Ling, he pulled her roughly to the ground.

“Wha-,” she squawked before Talen quickly covered her mouth.

“Demons,” he whispered, pointing to the other side of the hill.

Mei Ling’s eyebrows shot up and she tried to jump to her feet. Talen, however, had a firm hold on his friend and pulled her back down before anything could spot them.

“Follow me,” Talen said. “Quietly.” He glared at Mei Ling, who nodded briefly.

On their bellies, they crawled up to the crest and carefully peered over. There, coming down the side of the next slope were an army of dark figures. Talen counted fifty of them, with more coming over the hill as they watched.

“We need to get back and tell the guard,” he whispered, backing away from the top of the hill before they could spot him.

“I think we should take them on,” Mei Ling said, a glint in her eyes.

“There are over fifty of them,” Talen hissed. “If the captain doesn’t know they’re here, that means they’ve already wiped out the patrols outside of this area because he thought we’d meet nothing on the road. That means we wouldn’t stand a chance. We need to get back.”

Grumbling, Mei Ling finally nodded. “Fine, let’s go.”

As soon as they’d crept far enough away from the top, they stood up.

“We need to run,” Talen said breaking into a jog. “We need to be over the top of that next hill before they get to this point or they’ll see us.”

“Agreed,” Mei Ling said. “Race you.” She sprinted back toward the first pagoda, Talen struggling to keep up.