Chapter 1
Stretching away from them, the black fissure puffed purple gas, deep below dark magic was warmed and boiled by the deep heat of the land. Sombra and Yesric, like many other creatures, had drifted to sleep in the warm cocoon. Around these fissures plants and fungi crowded around to form a rainforest in the middle of the Frozen North, basking in the heat. Every tree worked to bend into a lattice creating a shell that the icy winds struggled to penetrate. Beneath them shrubs and flowers coated the ground, and moss and lichens blanketed rocks. Slowly watered by the gently melting snow above the trees.
Yesric was first to wake, after all he wasn’t the one doing the hard work. Quietly, the bard took his book from his pack and racked his brain for rhythms and lyrics. The words were scribbled down and promptly crossed out. The letters they used were once scratched in by their claws, but since they made quills and parchment the hardest part of Yesric’s job was made just that bit easier, since he didn’t have to carry a roll of leather around anymore.
“Why are you up so soon?” Sombra groaned as he woke from his slumber much later, lifting his head from the dent it had made in the grass.
“Well, I haven’t exactly exerted as much energy as you have I?”
“Sure, remind me on how often you tell me I walk too fast” he grumbled, rubbing sleep out his eyes.
“You could outwalk an avalanche” the cousins exchanged judgment through glares alone.
“What you writing?” Sombra rolled onto his front and craned his neck over.
“A bard’s notebook is private material!”
“Is it really when you belt it out your lungs at the tavern every segment end?” Yesric glared down at him with a deep frown. Rolling his eyes, Sombra clambered onto his legs and glanced around the area, figuring to eat what’s growing instead of the rations.
“Get me some mushrooms would you” Yesric asked him.
“How about you get your own mushrooms”
“You’re already standing”
“You’re the older one, you’re supposed to look after me”
“And you’re the hunter”
“Lazy ass” they had this brief argument many times. Yesric being a hundred years older than him should be setting the example. But Sombra was following his dams footsteps in monster hunting, and at least a quarter of the last hundred turns were spent out in the wilds. They never settled a definitive answer, as the hunter had saved the bard as many times as the bard helped the hunter out of a difficult situation.
Sombra strolled around grabbing mushrooms and berries and bought them back. From his pack he pulled out a grill bowl, chucked the mushrooms in then lowered it into the fissure. The hot gas heated the metal and cooked them, creating crisp lines across the chitin.
“You know, I’ve always wondered why the grill is a bowl not a plate, since you know, a plate is easier to pack” Yesric questioned, and Sombra stared at him as a particularly powerful puff of gas swung the bowl on its rope.
“…ooooh its so it doesn’t fall out, oh come on don’t look at me like that”
“I figured it was fairly obvious”
“I am the creative one, not the smarts!”
“As if I’m any smarter, we were taught the same-“
“You could list of a hundred and one things about wyverns don’t act like you’re not the smartass here”
“Is that a challenge?”
“Oh for the North please don’t” the grill was pulled out the fissure and they ate breakfast in silence. They gathered their packs together and walked away from the fissure, approaching the lattice of trunks and branches. The branches scrapped against them, although Sombra couldn’t feel them through the leather and metal of his armour.
The air turned cold again as they left the fissure, returning to the familiar sight of snow and permafrost and networks of mountains to the North and South. Last Segment, Sombra had found tracks from the Tormentor he had been tracking, one that had been pestering Reh Nalore, although they had lost it through a glaciers cave system. The guards managed to burn it which meant the occasional patch of blood had been left, along with the distinct tracks of the oversized insectoids.
“How badly do you think we’ve lost it?” Yesric asked.
“If the bait worked and attracted the right one then we should find its tracks again”
“You put bait down?”
“Where we entered the fissure”
“So you led it straight to us?”
“Most convenient” Sombra started a dead pan walk left to where he set the bait, meanwhile Yesric stood still and confused. Sombra found the bait gone, easy to spot when it consisted of a whole reindeer being stood up with wood. Nearby were the insectoid tracks and patches of blood.
“This way” Sombra strode past Yesric who was still out of it, Sombra was a few meters gone before he snapped back to reality.
“You lead a Tormentor, a thing that eats things whole, straight to us, while we slept? Are you mad?!”
“Probably”
“Whu- it would have paralyzed us while we slept, we wouldn’t be able to fight back, and that is no way I, Yesric, the bard of Sheel Taesi deserves to-”
“They smell of piss and bile the stench would wake you up” Sombra continued onward, following the tracks. The drops of blood continued and he was certain they were on the path to the right Tormentor. A hole to a cave system beneath them could be seen in the distance.
And then the ground disappeared earlier than expected.
They tumbled, he gained his footing grinding his claws into the snow and slowing to a stop. Meanwhile Sombra heard the grunts of Yesric barreling down the slope, Sombra heard him stop as he shook his body free from snow, then heard Yesric scream.
“Bloody Snow! I found your Tormentor!” He watched Yesric scramble away from the limp, crumpled body of the Tormentor. Its four main legs were curled up, along with one of the front arms. The other arm was bent backwards and the muscle between the chitin was torn. The psychedelic fans on its head hung loosely. On its back Sombra could see the burn between its armour plating. Sombra made his way over and took out his knife. He cut off the burned chitin for the bounty and then began cutting the legs and arms off.
“I’ll carry the legs” Yesric offered.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, in case you need to move particularly fast at some point”
“Alright then” Sombra helped tie the limbs to Yesrics back and they turned to look up the slope they fell down. The snow was loose and so was some of the rocks and shards of permafrost, but both figured they would prefer to struggle up that instead of wander into a cave system with who knows what in it. They clambered up the snow and boulders, slipping back often but eventually Sombra pulled himself onto stable ground and helped Yesric up.
Sombra led the way to Reh Nalore across the semi frozen landscape of the day, walking across fields and trekking across the side of mountains. It took a few hours, but Reh Nalore’s Longhouses could be seen on the plateau bellow them. They made their way down the rocks into the village. It was clear they were visitors, as the home tassels showed. While Reh Nalore had a crimson theirs was gold. They headed to the guards’ house on the Plateau’s point. On the way there they had other umbrum second glance them and foals hop away in surprise, Sombra could understand. There was definitely a difference between the neatly cut Tormentor you get for tea and multiple severed, bloody legs. Sombra pounded the door of the guards’ house with his knuckles.
“I got your Tormentor” he called out bluntly, although there was still a faint high pitch due to puberty taking its time on the final touches. The heavy wooden door swung open and an older guard starred at the young stallions. Of which Sombra could feel Yesrics awkward smile of “please excuse him, he is a pain” behind him.
“Ah, I see, thanks Laddie, I’ll get yer Bounty” the guard turned back into the building.
“Would it hurt you to be a bit more…cheery?” Yesric asked.
“Would it hurt you to wait five more minutes for work to finish in which we can go grab a drink at the tavern”
“Would that make you smile, just once”
“Yes, because I will be off work”
“You are such a pain in the ass” they quit bickering when the guard appeared with a bag of silvers. Sombra gratefully took them in his claw, stashing it into one of his packs.
“Thanks” he said with a sprinkling of cheer.
“There should be rooms in the tavern lads, get yourself some good rest before heading back yeah”
“Will do” the pair trotted off down the street, in which Sombra grabbed Yesric by the hair and dragged him towards the butchers stall. Sombra had the arms and legs priced up and received more silvers. Then they headed to the tavern, its patrons could be heard from outside. They strolled inside and the voices became louder, some were drunk, others were on their merry way there. Sombra let Yesric wander off to the mares, as usual, while he made his way over to the bar. He sat down and waited patiently for the bar tender to make his way around.
“Ah, a monster hunter, by any chance are you the one who sorted out that tormentor”
“Yeah, its gone now” Sombra said with a significantly more positive tone to his usual.
“Good, good, it gave my daughter a terrible scare, left the house and it was just sitting in the pathway”
“Well, she can rest easy now, its legs are at the butchers if she fancies it”
“Now fresh Tormentor is not somethings I’ve had in a while…anyway what can I get you?”
“Jolgeirstaoir”
“You old enough for that?”
“Dam soaked the leather I chewed on as a foal to put me to sleep, I’m quite accustomed to it” the stallion walked away briefly to the one of many barrels of the honeyed alcohol and filled a tankard.
“Hey um, is their anyone round here who makes toys and what not?” Sombra asked.
“What kind bud?”
“For my little sister who turns three hundred in a couple segments” Sombra bluntly replied, unimpressed at the implication.
“Oh…in that case theirs an old mare, lives in a longhouse with a reindeer with uneven antlers on the front, sews some lovely softies”
“thanks” Sombra sat and enjoyed his drink, while he watched from the side lines as mares either were drawn to Yesric or took swipes at him in annoyance. Sombra retired to a room once another bard showed up. He did like Yesrics music, he was more talented than he thought, but two bards just turned into a competition that got louder and louder. He was pretty sure Yesric heard him say what room they had. But either way Sombra flopped down in the pillows for some rest, finally taking off his packs and armour and being able to sleep in a comfortable position.