The suns were low enough in the morning sky to still be hidden by the mountains. In the long shadow cast over Omid and Taljir they found additional relief from the heat afforded to them as they passed through canyon walls. Morning birds chirped away in the distance, occasionally passing overhead. Omid followed them with his eyes from atop Masel and noted with some amusement that they were all unlike any bird he had seen before.
They had unusual plumage and sung pieces to beautiful songs that Omid imagined few if any humans ever heard if they were truly only found in this strange mountain range.
They were also almost certainly not responsible for the sound of something larger climbing over rocks that he had heard a few times in the last hour or so. Every time it sounded as though there was less and less rust colored rock and canyon to separate them from the pair of humans. After the third time it seemed to be no coincidence, and yet nothing had jumped out at the pair of riders on camels.
He didn’t know if the feeling of eyes on him was from whatever was pursuing him, or his companion who may or may not want him dead at this point. The feeling washed over him and made his skin crawl enough to make him shake it off.
Omid waited a while after the last sound and called for a brief break for water and food. The pair dismounted their camels and Taljir’s half covered face was wrought with enough uncertainty to show through his eyes alone. He approached Omid as the apprentice mage retrieved dates and a jug of water.
Taljir marched up far too close, keeping his scarf covering most of his head as he stared Omid down with eyes squinting in anger that still betrayed worry. He spoke in a low voice. “Did you see them?”
The apprentice mage felt his mouth go dry as he chewed on a date. “No…did you hear them?”
“...maybe?” He crossed his arms, still glaring. “What’s the plan?”
Omid spat out the seed of his date and pulled his scarf back up over his nose. He looked past Taljir to where Nazer rested with a saddle full of supplies and one bow. “How skilled are you with the bow?”
“They were so far off that I could only barely tell they were human shaped before they vanished into a crevice.” He shook his head. “I have not mastered the bow to hit something far off and darting into cover just yet…”
The apprentice mage sighed. “If they are that far off, then my own magical ability is also untested at such ranges. We need to lure them close.”
Taljir’s raised brow asked the obvious question of how they planned to do that. His crossed arms, above average stature, and eyes wide with concern that looked close to a glare made him more than a bit imposing.
“Follow my lead, and shove me back.” Omid said in a near whisper before being shoved back with no hesitation, leaving the apprentice mage to stumble a few steps before dusting himself off. “It only needs to look like we’re fighting while we keep planning.”
“We should make it convincing then.” Taljir said with a touch of venom to his voice. He took a few long strides towards Omid before looming over him. “What’s the plan?”
Omid was shoved back once more and Masel cast a curious eye to his rider managing the stumble better this time after having expected it. His eyes darted to the side towards a small, barely noticeable sound of a rock being disturbed. The apprentice mage shoved Taljir back to the immediate response of Nazer braying and startling some nearby birds into squawking and chirping. He marched up to him and kept his voice low and sounding perturbed, probably more genuine emotion leaking in than he realized. “We still need to be in fighting condition. Let them think we’re fighting and unaware, perfect time to strike.”
“And if they can attack from range?” Taljir said as he made a show of dusting himself off and puffing out his chest.
“Then we would have to hope they are not too accurate with their strikes, so that we could run and die tired.” Omid brushed some barely there dust off the sleeve of his upper arm, scoffing as he eyed his companion. He swore he saw movement in the distance behind a rock. “There is also the off chance that they might be friendly.”
“Fair points, but are you going to seduce another monster?” The beastmaster shoved Omid once more, letting out a hearty laugh that still betrayed his own nerves at the approaching adversaries. “What would your parents say about their son’s new bride?”
“They. Would. Be.Thrilled that I found someone for me and that it was MUTUAL!” Omid shouted and insisted to Taljir and himself. Nazer bellowed his displeasure back at the apprentice mage who’s fists were balled up at his sides as the canyon had gone silent enough for anger to hang heavy in the air.
The apprentice mage considered throwing a punch that would miss until movement caught his eye up on a high canyon ridge casting a shadow down on Taljir.
His companion’s eyes went wide in shock to make it all the more confusing when he shoved Omid aside as something collided with him, knocking him to the ground. Omid had only a moment more of stumbling to stay on his feet before the shadow of something above him on the canyon rim leapt down at him.
He saw a blur of a vaguely human form leap at him with claws like daggers extended outwards. Omid dove to the side and shouted a spell of command to create a stone spike where he had once stood. The unknown assailant only had the ability to shriek in shock before colliding with the stone spike. A wet, visceral crunching sound ended the shrieks and sky blue blood poured out from the impaled foe.
Omid only had a moment to see just what it was that had almost landed claw first on him and what was currently trying to tear Taljir’s face off. Both of them could only be mistaken for a human at a distance. Up close their limbs were elongated, the flesh was pale and sickly like a drowned corpse further shaded by their blue veins.
The remaining foe had long, stringy and oily hair currently draped in Taljir’s face as the aforementioned claws tried to tear him apart. One stray claw grazed his shoulder as he yelped in pain and drove his knee into the foe’s chest. Omid had drawn his sword and charged at the fiend, not confident in being accurate enough with an earthen spike to not hit a flailing Taljir. Before the blade could find purchase, the lithe being lept off of Taljir and landed hunched over on its feet in one blinding motion.
As Taljir scrambled to his feet the fiend was already dashing at Omid and avoiding another stone spike erupting from the ground. Several more stone spikes failed to connect, the foe dodging each with perfect fluid grace. It thrust a clawed hand at him, and a last second stone wall commanded from the ground was the only thing to have the claws scraping off bits of red rock instead of flesh.
The Beastmaster had taken advantage of the distraction to dash over to his bellowing camel and retrieve his bow and arrows. A loosed arrow glanced off Omid’s stone wall a second after the foe’s claws did. It turned to him with large yellow eyes that promised hate and retaliation for daring to almost hit it with an arrow. The ranged distraction was short lived before long legs carried the fiend around the stone wall in the blink of an eye to force Omid to defend against a claw swipe with a harried parry with his sword.
Another arrow forced the fiend to dodge backwards, giving Omid an opening to breathe and send another stone spike up from the ground. Only for it to be dodged at the last second, yellow eyes now staring holes right through him. It dashed to the right, then dodged left as Omid tried another stone spike that failed to even graze it. A final desperate stone spike sent the fiend dodging back to the right between the stone spikes.
There was no distance left between them as the fiend drew its arm close to its body to prepare a final strike to disembowel Omid.
There was no way Omid could hope to parry a stab from this range and this angle.
There was a screaming in the apprentice mage’s over things ending like this with so much before him.
There was an arrow poking out of the left eye socket of the fiend and one remaining yellow eye frozen wide in shock.
There was blood pouring out from the arrow wound, and the fiend limply fell forward onto Omid.
The apprentice mage shrugged it off and tried to steady his breathing.
“YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!” Taljir shouted in triumph and hugged Nazer’s neck. “I AM HEIR APPARENT TO ISHA HERSELF!”
Omid leaned against one of the nearby stone spikes and regained his composure. He scrunched up his eyes and took several deep breaths as he heard Taljir approaching in a slow trot. His dark eyes opened to see his companion standing before him with bow in hand and a frown creasing his lips.
“You’re bleeding.”
The apprentice mage raised a brow, sheathing his sword and preparing a rebuttal only to find that the sleeve on his sword arm had been slashed open and was now tinted red. A stinging sensation started to radiate from the wound as the adrenaline from the fight started to wane and fade.
“So I am…” Omid said as he realized that he had been far closer to death without even realizing it. He pulled the sleeve back to inspect the shallow slash while he nodded towards Taljir’s shoulder. “As are you.”
Taljir waved off his concern. “I don’t feel it if I don’t think about it. But that will change once the excitement of battle wears off.”
“And when might that happen?” Omid asked as he held his wound and led the two of them back to Masel. The camel remained notably calm through the whole ordeal and only gave Omid a curious look as they approached..
“Right now.” Taljir winced and held his shoulder while Omid retrieved a small metal box from Masel’s saddle.
Omid inspected the small, lightweight metal box that bore a unique pattern of flowers and skulls engraved in it. He flicked a small locking mechanism to open it and find a thick, dark green salve within. “This will not help with the pain, according to Sareen. In fact, it will sting horribly. It will, however, prevent wound rot, speed recovery, and counteract whatever toxins may have been on those claws. Take only enough to lightly cover the wound, like so.”
He sat the box down on Masel’s saddle, gathered a globule of the dark green substance on his finger, and smoothed it over his arm wound. He then grit his teeth, let out a muffled scream, and danced about as a feeling like a thousand and one needles were being poked into his arm.
Taljir winced and hesitated, then gathered some of the dark green paste to smear on his own wound before joining Omid in an agony dance accompanied by a chorus of screams through grit teeth. “Are you certain this is meant to help us?!?”
“I was told ‘use this on any wound you may incur, and remember the faces of the foe that inflicted it so that I may end their entire line’.” Omid balled up his fist as he fought the urge to press at the wound for some kind of imagined relief from the assault of a thousand and one imaginary needles. Clenching and releasing his fist let him finally summon more words. “And yes, I did ask. And yes I got confirmation that ‘you may use it to keep The Beastmaster alive’. And yes, I’m fairly certain she killed at least one person to obtain it.”
“I feel so blessed!” Taljir rocked back and forth on his feet. “Though that is impressive.”
“Let’s not encourage her methods of acquisition, even this far away-”
“No, not that.” The beastmaster chuckled wide eyed through the pain. “The little impression you do of her to quote her.”
Omid raised a brow and tried to speak, failing as he thought back to what he had just said. He wasn’t doing that, was he? “I…what?”
“At least she doesn’t completely hate me.” Taljir tried moving his arm, wincing as he did so but relenting into a nod as he saw the wound had already formed a scab. “That must have taken some effort.”
The apprentice mage sighed and shook his head. “There would be no sense in bringing my best friend back but letting my woman’s opinion of him go unchanged.”
The beastmaster tilted his head, scoffing at the statement. “And how is that going?”
“Did you miss the part where she had no reservations against using a rare healing salve to keep you alive?”
“This probably wouldn’t have killed me, but…” The taller young man shook his head and let his gaze fall on Nazer. He turned and started walking over to him and left Omid at his own camel as he spoke. “Do we have some time to actually rest and have a small meal without having to put on a questionably serious fight to lure mysterious assailants into a fight that we have a hope of winning?”
Omid looked around the canyon clearing. The only other living creature he could observe aside from the two humans and camels was a single bird returning to a withered tree jutting from a canyon wall, its song now breaking the silence.
“Pretty sure we do.” He said as the pair slumped down against their seated camels in pure post-battle exhaustion.
Minutes passed until Taljir called out. “Apologies for shooting arrows into melee.”
“You did what you had to, and it worked.” Omid dismissed him and took a drink from a jug of water.
Taljir leaned his head back against Nazer as he thought that over, staring up at the sky. “That’s a dangerous line of thinking.”
Omid similarly stared up at the sky and the one small wisp of a cloud up there threatening to vanish at any moment. “When walking a razor’s edge, it’s good to have company to help you balance.”
“And if we all fall together?”
“More incentive to help someone not fall.” Omid rubbed around the wound to relieve some of the stinging pain. He heard Taljir chuckle and decided that a few more minutes of rest would be worth it.
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