To the bottom! The Deepcombers are professional dungeon crawlers in a print-crazed medieval society where reckless teenagers reign supreme above ground and blood thirsty creatures dwell below. Lonastasius is a 17 year old mutant slave who breaks his...
Crunch, crunch. Melcart trampled dead leaves. "See what I've found hidden underfoot." He added a wild strawberry to his food pile. The season had passed now but the plants still offered the occasional seedy fruit. The pile was mostly nuts; ripe acorns lay buried in the clumps of grass and dead leaves at the base of the oak. Lon looked away from the muddy breakfast because he didn't find it very appetizing. His head-ached and there was still blood in his mouth.
Rather than rise to face the day, the white-haired lad collapsed and fell back to sleep; his body was badly bruised and needed more time to heal. Mel stood close and probably wished there was more he could do to help.
Lon glimpsed the walled settlement at dawn. He saw the vegetable fields out front of Atarskal in a half-slept dream and he imagined himself afloat over these verdant fields. He looked up and over the walls at Atarskal. It was strong fortress aglow in the sunrise. White smoke trails issued from the smiths' chimneys and caught the morning light. Up top, the watch tower gleamed; he saw a golden symbol on the peaked roof. It was a bor sign on top of the air element. Of course!
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
A slow drum beat of a single horses' hooves called him away from the discovery. The lad's eye drifted back across the fields again. His mind floated over the mist-covered cucumbers, and beans and ripening tomatoes and snow peas.
A female rider with long black hair rode a dark horse through the misty crops. Was she real? Or had he just imagined her? There she was again ; he could hear the horses' hooves, a heartbeat on the hard ground. He could see her now. The sunlight struck her face. It was Valari, and she looked profoundly sad.
Val was dressed in dark clothes and rode a black steed and cast long shadows across the land. She rode as though part of the animal, like she controlled its mind and they were one creature. The horse jumped the stone fences between the vegetable gardens and finally into the pasture field.
Barrrrrooooonnnnng. The ram's horn atop the lookout tower in the settlement issued a vibrant wheeze. The horn's report was loud and echoed in the mountains.
"I suppose everyone looks for us?" Melcart asked and his words cut through the fog and woke Lon from his hazy dream.
The sea drover opened his eyes and to his surprise he found the black horse he'd just imagined no stood right in front of him. It sniffed his face. He moaned and rolled away.
"No," Valari said. She dismounted and took the horse's bridle to keep it from nibbling Lon, "they're looking for the dairy herd."
Lon gulped. Was he somehow responsible for the cows going missing? He shot a glance at Melcart who shrugged to indicate he didn't know anything.
"How did you know we're here?" Lon asked. He wondered if they'd been spotted by the fieldworkers. Were the elders already discussing it? His whole plan required coming and going from this pasture completely unobserved.
