Chapter 35
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Though he wasn’t one to disrespect the dead, Omid still poked the pale bluish fiend laying impaled on a rock spike with the tip of his sword. The black metal didn’t pierce the flesh, merely tapping it as its owner tested the limits of death and the possibility of trapped corpses.

“Don’t worry, they’re not the kind to get back up.” Taljir said as he was busy looking over his own kill that was laying on the ground. Omid turned his head over to the Beastmaster, face begging for answers which got a chuckle out of him. “They’re Moktehu, and I once visited a tavern by the sea that had one dried out and hung on the wall. The owner would tell stories about how his grandfather slew the thing and secured the treasure it guarded in a sea cave.”

Omid looked back at the impaled being called a Moktehu, craning his head this way and that to inspect it. “So they are of the sea…”

Taljir shrugged and adjusted his scarf over his head. “There might be some hidden lake around here…but we did nothing to anger them…” 

The apprentice mage studied a stream of blood running down the stone pillar. “Nothing but being on the wrong side of an alliance.”

“Does your girlfriend have any scary things on her side?” Taljir asked as he was reminded of how Zallans were fighting for dominance even now, rolling his eyes at such a notion.

“She does. They will be assembling at her palace, while I retrieve her newest and most reluctant ally.”

“Most wonderful!” The Beastmaster announced with a cheer, wincing as he remembered his injury that was still sore before he continued with a strained smile. “A kindred spirit in trying times!”

Omid shook his head as he returned his focus to the body. The Moktehu wore only a loincloth, leaving no place for any carried items. And unless the large stone spike currently holding it up had damaged anything on its chest or back, it bore no obvious tattoos or other markings. He sheathed his sword and joined Taljir in inspecting the other as The Beastmaster turned over the corpse with his boot.

Revealing absolutely nothing but full frontal nudity to elicit an annoyed groan from both as they walked over to the shade where their camels waited for them. Omid took a drink from his water-skin, giving a relieved sigh before speaking. “Sareen has a rivalry with a Mirzallan, so he’s my top guess as to who sent those…’Moktehu’ after us.”

“And did you have a plan for dealing with him?” Taljir asked as he too rehydrated in the shade.

“Of course.” Omid said as he tried flexing his hand, still feeling soreness in his own arm as it was still healing, even at an advanced rate. “With fire.”

Taljir stared at the apprentice mage before rubbing his eyes and looking back up to see that Omid still had a wry grin on his face. “You’re going to fight a master of water…with fire?”

“I assure you my plan is only insane, not stupid.” Omid said as he held up a hand in defense as he retrieved a lantern from Masel’s saddle. Taljir gestured for him to continue with a curious look, watching as Omid quickly ignited a small flame in the lantern and set it down before backing away from it.

First, he spoke a word of Earth Command to open the small metal hatch on the lantern, never turning down an opportunity to practice. Then he focused in on the flame as he had done under Aiz’s vocal guidance. He felt the flickering, ephemeral nature of the flame, and the need for a different inflection in the command. He called out a Command to the flame, beckoning for it to continue to burn but to do so while it leapt from the wick and into his hand in the blink of an eye.

Taljir clapped from the sidelines, smiling as he asked “How is that going to defeat a man who could probably turn the entire ocean against you?”

Omid couldn’t help but laugh as he let the flame die out in his hand before it burned him. His companion’s question wasn’t even mocking in tone, but the apprentice mage couldn’t help but share his concern as he shook his head. “Well it’s easy, or at least easy in theory. I’ll just ask him to-”

A flash of movement and two large thuds just beyond the shade had the pair scrambling to their feet and grabbing at their swords while Omid commanded a stone wall to burst from the ground as cover against whatever had appeared, and whatever other two things hit the ground with an even larger thud.

“We found these assassins sneaking about, observing you from afar.” Came a voice that echoed far more than the canyon walls would normally allow. “Take word to the princess that our loyalty is clear.”

Near silence and a still moment was interrupted only by the unflinching performance of a songbird somewhere in the distance. Its chirps and calls echoed and bounced off of canyon walls and palpable tension alike.

The stone wall that had erupted from the ground slowly retreated back into the canyon floor, revealing the two humans with vice grips on their lowered swords and cautious yet still panicked faces. Their eyes darted back and forth between the addition of two new pale blue corpses of Moktehu, and the pair of towering figures standing just behind their apparent recent kills.

Both of them were in the general shape of a human though several heads taller than even Taljir, elongated limbs, and heads that seemed a bit too tall wrapped in scarves as fine as the rest of their clothing that was worthy of a king’s elite guard. The pair each had glowing eyes as the only thing visible about their form, the apparent man bearing yellow and the apparent woman bearing red. Everything about them was close to being human without any possibility of ever being mistaken as such.

Omid sheathed his sword, cleared his throat, and took a step forward. “Your effectiveness has been noted, and is appreciated. Perchance we may travel together for further effectiveness?”

The strange pair did not blink, if they even could. But they did stare down at the two humans in the shade where their long shadows reached. As Omid was starting to notice about such supernatural beings, they did not make any small involuntary movements. No swaying or shifting their weight, nor small twitches. Everything was deliberate, including how they studied the pair before the slightly more curvy figure spoke with a feminine voice that still echoed too much.

“We must not be late to the summons of the princess.” She said as she extended a long arm and long gloved finger to point towards Omid. “It appears you have your own business here, and are managing well. We will meet again to dispatch more foes together.”

The apprentice mage had no delusions of having some kind of rank just because of his…closeness with an apparent princess. A title and rank that Omid was still struggling to not over-analyze less he fall into a spiral of overthinking like he was now. He did, however, remember to give a respectful bow to the strange pair which they returned before turning their backs and walking off down the path from which he and Taljir had already traversed.

When he did finally turn back, Omid found Taljir frozen in place. Yet gripping his sword even harder. Only when they made eye contact did The Beastmaster sheathe his sword with shaking hands. “Will we have less horrifying allies?”

“We must appreciate the allies that we have.” Omid wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve. “Though we will soon have three more human allies, if that will help.”

The Beastmaster leaned against Nazer’s saddle, heaving a deep exhale leading into a steadier breath. His eyes had eased themselves closed before he spoke. “Remind me how you stay so calm with…”

He made a broad, sweeping gesture with his arm at nothing and everything. “All of this?”

“I started by telling myself no one else would, or could.” Omid said as turned to squint at the two tall silhouettes vanishing into the distance. “But I started to realize that few others could dream of being so lucky…”

Taljir’s snort cut in as Omid drifted off into another pensive gaze. He finally opened his eyes as his nerves settled and he readied another remark, only to stop as his mouth hung open and he looked away to bite his tongue. “Your idea of luck is strange, but it did revive me.”

Omid snapped back to full awareness as he cast a questioning look at Taljir, raising an eyebrow before shaking his head and striking a heroic pose like one might find carved into palaces. "Luck? That was all skill.”

He held the pose for a few moments more, his scarf covering the lower part of his face to assist in the smile that was quickly battering down the gates of all seriousness. Another moment more and the two burst out into snickers and chuckles. Accumulated nerves and anxiety were burned off by laughing a bit too much at a dumb joke, and the pair soon set out once more on their camels.

Neither cared much to dwell on the fate of the world, increasingly troubling questions of morality, or almost dying again. They focused instead on the increasingly lively and colorful canyon walls revealing more plant life and small animals scurrying and flitting about. The sight of plants in verdant green had both of them gawking and staring as their camels continued onward. 

Between Omid’s attire, and Taljir’s eyes, neither had forgotten what green looked like. And yet the sight of their first plant that was not withered and faded had them under a spell that neither could name. To see something apart from themselves looking so green and alive brought back memories of a life beyond The Great Desert. The very last that they had seen like this was attached to the stem of a certain indigo flower that Omid now bore as precious cargo that now seemed like a distant and forgotten warning of The Great Desert.

This was only a rugged fern growing out of a rock wall, but it was still something natural.

At least until the doubt began to nestle itself in next to the recall of this entire mountain range being some place that seemed forbidden to humanity. Though even for a moment, they hoped that like the birds it was merely a happy guest of all things supernatural here as opposed to being one of those things beyond mundanity. 

Though the heat had not been as extreme here somewhere in these impossible mountains, it had still been notable. And it had been notably fading independent of the day wearing on. By the time the pair had arrived at their stopping point for the night, the environment had grown considerably more temperate as the land grew more green. As day quickly faded into night, even the nights were of a more reasonable temperature.

“I spotted some sticks for a small fire.” Taljir mused as he stared into the flame of their lantern while he reclined on his sleeping bag. “We could have a real fire but…well would someone out there grow angry at us for that?”

Omid sat reclining as he too studied the flame, then stared off into the long fading light in the shadow of the mountains where Taljir pointed. He squinted and frowned as he mulled it over. “As long as the wood is not from a live plant, we should have as much right to it as those birds making nests.”

Taljir narrowed his eyes at one such bird nest nestled high in some canyon crevice, stroking his facial hair with his hand as he debated something in his head. “And are we positive the birds are not…you know….them?”

“What, you mean the more…intelligent beings? No.” Omid shooed away the thoughts with a flick of his hand, then let that hand fall to his sleeping bag as a thought hit. “However…”

“I knew it…”

“However they might be messengers or…or servants of…well, someone.”

The Beastmaster craned his neck to try and see anything out of the ordinary about the birds here, though they were quieting down for the night as could be expected of such diurnal birds. He shrugged. “A larger fire, some roasted food…I am not going to fall for that again.”

The apprentice mage grunted in reluctant agreement, eyes returning to the lantern’s flame as he wished for more flammable things to practice fire magic with. Even his clothes bore no out of place threads, though he expected no less from a seamstress working for Sareen.

Who was unfathomably far away, and could have likely created a fire from nothing if she so desired. She could have turned an entire mountain to charcoal and dared any who would complain about it to face her. And only after crushing them, in a possibly literal fashion, would she insist on watching her apprentice sleep.

Omid shook his head as he remained reclined, reached out a hand to command the lantern to open, and then beckoned the flame into his hand. He tossed it between hands, the flames dancing close to his skin as he had long stored his gloves for the night. Chanting the word of Command Fire to not only keep the flame mobile, but alive despite the lack of fuel.

“And you are certain your plan will work?” Taljir asked with a furrowed brow as he watched the apprentice mage fling the flame back into the lantern, then pull it back into his hands several times. 

The young mage slung the flame back into the lantern with a flick of his wrist, gaining increased speed in doing so this time. “Absolutely not.”

He beckoned the flame into his hand from afar, snatching it and flinging it back into the lantern with one fluid motion before following up with a final command to close the latch on the lantern. Looking down at his hand, he shook it after having felt the flames reach out a little too close to his skin for comfort. “I am, however, genuinely open to ideas.”

Taljir chewed on a piece of salted meat, humming to himself as he thought it over. “Nothing that seems good when I think about it for too long.”

“Let me hear them anyway.” Omid waved off his concerns.

“If he’s a being of water, and you’re learning fire magic, why not try to boil him?”

Omid snorted and shook his head in disbelief. “Because he-”

The apprentice mage wavered, his mouth snapping shut as his brows pressed together and he wondered if that idea actually had some merit. After giving it some more thought while Taljir leaned closer with a questioning look, Omid finally sighed and shook his head. “While that might be a possibility, I am far from having such mastery of fire in time to do so.”

“Then strike directly at the heart of that Mirzallan’s honor!” Taljir said with a cheer and a triumphant fist to the darkening sky. As soon as Omid cracked a hesitant smile, he looked off into that darkness. “We just have to get through your…’retrieval’ first.”

Omid wasn’t sure if he was more anxious over challenging a Zallan or retrieving Sareen’s newest ally. One should have been far simpler than the other, but it still involved pressing an actual person into service of an often capricious woman. For a good cause, but it still sat poorly with him. “We will arrive there early in the morning, and you shall wait outside of…a threshold as I am told. I can show you how to craft that transportation circle in the event that something happens to me and you need to return to the moon-”

“If that happens, I’m taking my chances down here.” The Beastmaster said as he pointed to the ground. “Whatever horrors might be visited upon me down here all alone will be more than I can wish for by going back up there and saying I lost her prince.”

“I am not a prince!” Omid held up a pointer finger in rebuttal, but cleared his throat and settled back down. “However you are…probably not incorrect about what would happen to you, but isn’t that the mark of a fine lover?”

“When I take a wife and tell you of our exploits, do not be surprised if she comes after you with a ladle and know that you said it would be fair!” 

“Does this mean you shall be finding the strongest woman you can who will beat me to a pulp for my past transgressions?” Omid asked with a wry smile.

“That–” Taljir had raised a finger to object, but it instead found its way to his chin as possibilities flashed in the eyes of The Beastmaster. “...that is a very interesting idea. For later.”

The apprentice mage nodded along as he crawled into his sleeping bag and Commanded the flame in the lantern to extinguish. “Later.”

Though Omid’s nerves were starting to build high once more, with an eye towards rivaling the mountains high above, sleep came easy after another long day of fighting for his life.

His sleep was a rare calm in a storm of emotions lately, and he dreamed of flying. With nothing but will to carry him, he flew to the very highest peaks of the very tallest mountains. A breeze blew his braids as flocks of birds flew beside him and greeted him in chirps and songs, the sheer number of them amplifying their squawks and calls into a cacophony until it was enough to wake him.

Omid blinked bleary eyed in his sleeping bag as the birds continued their song. He rubbed at his eyes, listening to their song echo around the canyon while his hands reached for the flap that sealed him in. While he didn’t recall hearing so many birds in these lands, he was groggy enough that he only cared about how they had woken him from a perfectly fine dream. Though he did stop as he felt something small and light land on top of his sleeping bag to stand on his chest.

Prying the sleeping bag open and peeking out, a vibrantly colored songbird sat on Omid’s chest and stared back at him. Formerly tired eyes went wide and stared out of the sleeping bag flap at the creature standing on top of him. The beautiful bird stared back, tilting its head as it sang at him and many others joined in the song from around it. Omid’s eyes shot to the side as he saw a massive flock of countless different types of birds all gathered around their camp. 

All of them watching.

Finally his eyes fell on where Taljir rested, finding the other young man already wide awake with eyes as big as his own. Staring back at Omid with an obvious question and even more obvious fear in those eyes searching for an answer.

The little bird sang again, and a thousand and one birds joined in a cacophony of clashing songs, squawks, and calls. Though they didn’t move, only watching the pair of humans sitting frozen in their bedding.

Would you believe that the "end" of this book is within sight now? I say "end" because I only mean the final act of it. Don't ask me how long that will be, nor how long it will take to get there, but my image of what happens gets clearer with each chapter. I don't plan for this to be the only book in the series, but I can't say much beyond that.

What I can ask of you, dear reader, is to spread the word if you have been enjoying reading this tale. I will probably attempt publishing in some form, but beyond that I can't say much. You spreading the word, however, will help Between Mountains and Moons find more of an audience and be more successful. 

Don't fret just yet, there is so much more to come.

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