The Creators: Book One

Chapter Three: The Earth Former

Chapter Three

The Earth Former

ASTRID

The Gratoran Wall was nothing but a blue haze against the sterile desert sky, its amorphous outline split violently by Droktin's Pass, whose geometric strangeness dwindled to a murky sliver with each agonizing minute. I watched as the tallest peak of the range, Iona, my homeland, faded into the azure blandness with the rest of the mountains until it disappeared completely in the sweltering air. The wheels of the slave cart squeaked, and the metal bars singed my skin. My wings ached behind me, bound together roughly by the orc's vicious knot. A nymph girl sat in the spot across from me, her eyes downcast, her ram-like horns dusted with the debris of the churning wheels. Her face was girlish, with full cheeks, a soft chin, and big forest-green eyes. Her skin was caramel, I thought, though it was hard to tell with all the sand that covered it. If her skin was caramel, it meant she was a young nymph; the older ones didn't age with sagging flesh, but with a lightening off their complexion until it was a green hue, and a darkening of their hair until it was turquoise. As far as I could tell, her hair was a dirty-blonde, but once again, that damned sand covered everything in its brownish coat. The nymph was draped in what looked like a burlap sack, though it could have once been a cloak. Her hands were bound to her ankles, and she appeared to be staring at nothing at all. I pitied the girl; she wasn't made of the hard stuff I was. I am a valkyrie, a winged-warrior of the mountain, the pride of the snow and cold, the sword of the highlands, and... and... and a captive to three fat orcs. Great Creators, I'm an embarrassment.

"Hey," I said to the girl, "how come you're so far from the Arbortus Forest?"

She didn't answer.

"That's what; three-hundred miles east of the wall?" I asked. "Doesn't your kind always stay in the trees?"

No response. I sighed, and leaned back into the bars, trying to acclimate my skin to the searing temperature. This is what I get for going on a foolish quest looking for impossible answers. They'll rape me tonight; me and that girl, and there's nothing I can do to stop them. My chastity, my pride, and my honor will be stripped of me, and then they'll clip my flight feathers, and sell me off to some orc-lord. Maybe I can kill myself before that happens. Is there any hanging rope in here? I searched around the cart, seeing not a single slicing edge, nor a loose spike to slit my wrists with. I contemplated smashing my head against the bars, but realized that would just leave me unconscious. I resigned myself to at least another hour of rest before I contemplated suicide again, and tried to stare vacantly like the nymph girl.

A black rock popped out of the sand, inches from the cart. It just... jumped right out of the ground like a breaching trout in a stream. I shook my head, unsure if the desert was causing mirages, or if I was losing my mind. Another one popped out, this one a bit bigger. I blinked, thinking I must be going insane, but then a third rock surfaced right in front of the left wheel. The cart jerked, reassuring me of my sanity, but the orcs seemed to take no notice, and we kept rolling.

"What in Creation...." I whispered, looking between the bars. "Hey, did you see that?"

The nymph girl just kept staring at the floor. Her green eyes weren't vacant anymore, but seemingly fixed in concentration. There was a vein protruding from her forehead, and her hands were shaking.

"Hey," I asked, "hey, what's wrong?"

"Too much sand," the woman finally said through gritted teeth, "too much fucking sand!"

A blood vessel burst in her eye, the vein in her forehead throbbed, and her body trembled with the strain of something, as though she were trying to lift an impossible weight. What in Creation is wrong with her?! I thought to myself, cringing back as spittle shot from her clenched teeth, Is she rabid? Should I ask a guard for help? Another blood vessel burst in her eye, the vein in her forehead seemed to beat with its own pulse, her face was growing purple, her entire body was wracking with spasms; and then, she stopped. She looked up at me, and the biggest, shit-eating grin I've ever seen in my entire life appeared on her face.