Hungry Heart - Book 5 - Ch. 23 (Patreon)

Chapter One / Chapter Two / Chapter Three / Chapter Four / Chapter Five / Chapter Six / Chapter Seven / Chapter Eight / Chapter Nine / Chapter Ten / Chapter Eleven / Chapter Twelve / Chapter Thirteen / Chapter Fourteen / Chapter Fifteen / Chapter Sixteen / Chapter Seventeen / Chapter Eighteen / Chapter Nineteen / Chapter Twenty / Chapter Twenty-One / Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three – Where He Belongs

Toru looked inside his heart and began shouting victoriously. The cry of triumph emerged from somewhere so deep inside him that it was impossible to say where it started or ended. His hair was all flames, too, and his skin burned hotter than the sun, but he was experiencing no pain whatsoever. His chest, flooded by light and fire, gave him power, and he knew that he could do anything.

When he looked up, the wolf was gone.

“Oh, no,” he exclaimed, “Varg will never forgive me!”

The words barely left his lips when a horrendous cracking sound whipped through the air, forcing him to look up. The sky was falling, and through the large split in its middle…

Sand poured in, clinking like cheerful bells, and on the crest of its wave, his friends were tumbling down toward him.

He forgot everything and ran to them. He stumbled and ended up driving his head directly into Varg’s large chest. The wolf welcomed him and opened his arms wide, laughing out loud, while Claw and Duril embraced him from the sides, cheering as well. The young storyteller was there too, accompanied by a small ball of fur. Everything most likely had an explanation, but Toru couldn’t care less about useless things such as words. He melted in his friends’ arms, who were just as overwhelmed as he was by their reunion.

“Hekastfet,” he shouted and looked around, to see if he’d manage to catch a glimpse of that evil-wielder, but he was no longer in the world of the shard, but outside of it, in the room where he had found it.

“Toru, you’ve done it again,” Varg said with affection and ruffled his hair. “You defeated him, once more.”

Toru frowned in confusion. “But how? I don’t even know how. He tried to kill me a thousand times, or so it felt. And it hurt, and then, the ground began to heat and I felt like--” He stopped and looked around. The air smelled of ash, and he yelped as he realized that his naked feet were pressing against dying embers.

“Sogou here thought of helping you by lighting a fire underneath the shard. Because you like warmth, and fire can purify anything,” Duril explained as he took Toru’s hand and helped him sit on the ground. The healer quickly found his healing herbs and rubbed some onto the wounded soles.

Toru sighed in relief. “I was made of fire there,” he said, pointing at the cracked shard that lay now on the ground in pieces. “My chest was all flames. And now, look at my poor feet.”

Claw chuckled and pulled at Toru’s right ear. “Look at him, crying for attention. Do you want me to kiss your poor feet, kitty?”

“Not you,” Toru replied right away and then blushed, realizing what he meant by it. Duril was holding his right foot resting against his thigh, while he used his only good hand to treat his injuries.

“We’ll all do that and more,” Varg promised, “but I believe that we must leave this place first. Vetor, I have a hunch that you won’t be needed here anymore.”

“I beg your pardon,” came the startled reply from the ball of fur on the ground.

Toru stared at the thing curiously. It wasn’t a ball of fur, then; it had to be a person of some sort.

“Don’t you want to be free?” Varg continued to question that strange fellow. “It would do you good to see the world above after you served it so dutifully here for such a long time.”

There had to be a story there, but one that could very well wait, Toru thought, but he didn’t even manage to finish those words in his own head before the roof began to shake.

“What do you think is going on now?” the young storyteller yelped helplessly.

Toru looked up and watched as the Aureate Sea invaded the shard room, grabbing them as if they were toys and wrestling them to the surface, while the sun above shone like a ball of fire.

***

One moment they were underground, and the next they were floating through the warm sand, the waves of the Aureate Sea drawing them slowly to the shore and placing them there with so much care that Varg couldn’t help thinking that the sea was alive in its own way.

The boat riders were shouting and pointing at them, and for a moment Varg felt tempted to grab all of his friends and break into a run. But then he noticed that the boat pilots had someone with them; no, they had Toru’s body, the one the young tiger immediately recognized as his. There was no stopping him after he saw his familiar body. He shouted back and began running toward the owners of the strange boats roaming the sands of the Aureate Sea.

“Young tiger,” one of the boat riders began and then knelt in front of him, an action imitated without delay by his brethren. “As messengers, we couldn’t intervene, but we could give you the best fighting chance we could. We are glad to see you alive and well.”

Toru crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at the messengers. “So that’s what you are! But you took my tiger away. How can you say that you helped me? Please, don’t kneel, because it’s strange and I don’t like it.”

Varg grinned and exchanged a short meaningful look with Duril. Their Toru was the same, no matter what body he inhabited.

The boat pilot rose to his feet, his long clothing floating in the sweet afternoon breeze. “Hekastfet has had a firm hold of this place because of that damned shard buried in the bowels of the earth for a long time. Dirt kills fire, young tiger. You were in danger of being destroyed by the evil nurturing itself from the depths of the earth.”

“I don’t think it’s that easy to destroy me, no matter what you say,” Toru said, still seeming a bit miffed over having been deprived of using his tiger throughout his last quest.

“No one has absolute power. Good needs help to triumph,” the messenger said in an even voice. “And evil will always be hard at work to squash good. We couldn’t offer you our direct help, bound as we are to our sea of gold and fire.”

Toru scratched his ear. He most likely had a thousand questions. What left his mouth was only natural. “Can I have my tiger back now? I hope Mako will be all right, too!”

“He will.” The boat pilot approached Toru and placed one hand on his shoulder.

Varg felt his eyelids getting heavy, but it only lasted a moment. When he opened his eyes again, he was staring at a confused Toru getting up from the ground. A Toru in his usual body, although he had to check to be sure, running his hands over his thick muscles and through his silky hair.

“Kitty, all good?” he asked. If the boat riders were messengers like the others they had met so far they would be secretive, impossible to read, but in the end, with a passion for good that was reflected in their actions. Still, Varg couldn’t help thinking that Toru was bound to still feel annoyed with them and their decision to deprive him of his trusty tiger.

A startled shout from Mako made them all turn toward the young man.

“What happened to me?” Mako asked as he, too, touched his body everywhere.

Sogou was the one to take matters in his hands. “My friend,” he said while resting one hand against Mako’s shoulder, “you’ve been part of one of the most amazing adventures that have ever happened on the face of Eawirith.”

“I have?” Mako asked, looking around, startled to see how many people surrounded him, or to find himself on the shore of the Aureate Sea, since his last memories must have involved being on the top of the tower holding the Heart of Tradeweaving.

“I will tell you everything,” Sogou said joyously. “And you will tell me everything, as you remember it. The sooner, the better, because memories tend to be fickle things.”

It was good that the young storyteller was taking it upon himself to inform Mako about the spectacular things that had happened while he’d been unconscious. Toru, on the other side, was beyond himself with joy. He was jumping up and down, trying his body out, as if he wanted to convince himself that it was still as nimble and strong as he remembered it being.

While Toru was having fun being himself, Varg wanted to understand a lot of things. He walked over to the boat rider that seemed to command the others. “The underground shard was destroyed. It seems to me like the prison there must have been drowned in sand. I’m worried about the poor souls locked in there.”

“They are free now,” the messenger replied calmly. “There was an illusion keeping them chained.”

Varg nodded. “What about the guards who threw them in there? Scary mountains of men, dressed in full-plate armor? Do you remember them?”

“Yes. Their role here is done. As is ours,” the boat rider replied. “Coinvale will become a different place now.”

“How so?” Varg asked. “And what was your role?”

“To keep the evil locked within it from spreading out into the world. We commanded the Aureate Sea for that reason only.”

Varg looked around. The sea was calm now. Its waves no longer rushed toward the shore, breaking against it with the happy clink of rolling coins. “What about the people of Coinvale? What does this mean for them?”

“The evil is gone. They never knew about it, and they never questioned what their Council ordered or established as the law.”

“The Rules for Harmony,” Varg added.

“They will have to come up with different rules now. And they won’t need the Council anymore. Instead, they will turn their heads to a different source of wisdom and knowledge.”

“I know!” Toru shouted right from behind Varg. “It’s the librarians! They will know what to do.”

“What librarians?” Varg asked.

Toru climbed on his back and wrapped his arms around him. “I missed you, Varg, and I have a terrible need to tell you that these librarians make the best steak in all Coinvale. And they gave me some really very tasty drumsticks.”

Varg chuckled as he struggled to hike Toru higher on his back. “You will have to tell me all about it, kitty. Don’t you dare keep all the good food to yourself. Only I think you must stop playing now, since our quest is not over until we make peace with the people of Coinvale.”

“They will be upset that they can’t use their strange contraptions anymore,” Toru commented. “I don’t want that, although they should be made to undersatnd how evil those shards were.”

“It will be the Council’s task to inform the citizens of Coinvale about it,” the boat rider said patiently. “Now that our duty here is concluded, we must take our leave.”

Varg watched as the boat riders climbed into their boats and began pushing them off from the shore into the vast calmness of the Aureate Sea. These messengers tended to leave more questions than answers in their wake. He knew that he would have to keep his to himself until they met other messengers again in the future.

***

“Do you see that?” Toru asked excitedly while pointing at the sea of sand.

The former sea of sand, Duril thought, since it looked like the boat pilots were taking the Aureate Sea with them, wherever it was that they were going. Behind them, a valley stretched, one void of any vegetation.

“I believe that the citizens of Coinvale will have quite the shock when they see this,” Duril said. “It will definitely take a lot of explaining as to how this came to pass.”

“Leave it to me, Mister Duril,” Sogou said cheerfully. “Now that our heroes have sorted out the evil lurking underneath the city, it is time for new stories and adventures.”

Duril had some ideas on that topic and wanted to begin voicing them when he noticed Vetor not far from them, sitting on the shore and staring at the vanished sea. He knew that the curator was looking at the empty valley, because he had shaped into the body of an old man. Duril had a mind to ask if that was what Vetor truly looked like.

He walked over and sat by the curator’s side. “What do you make of all this?” he asked politely.

Vetor shook his head. “It is incredible, but many good deeds are like that. Hard to believe.”

“How so?”

“People love good stories, something that young man over there knows well,” Vetor explained, pointing at Sogou, who was now eagerly asking Toru a thousand questions. “But they also don’t like to think that they could be real. At least, most of them. That leaves the rest. Those who believe in them. The few dreamers.”

“Toru doesn’t mind not being famous,” Duril said. “If that is what you’re worried about.”

“Since I’ve seen what he can do, I will never be worried about him again.”

“What will you do now? The souls that were trapped in that prison you had to keep in order are now released, as the messengers told us.”

“I will find something else,” Vetor assured him. “I will always work. But I doubt the citizens of Coinvale will accept me among them. I will most likely have to travel until I find a place where I belong.”

“Do not write this place off just yet,” Duril said, touching Vetor’s elbow gently. “You were a tool used by evil, too.”

“I am a shapeshifter,” Vetor said with a sigh. “How can they welcome someone like me among them? They’ve only heard of such things from tales and what not.”

“How about we have one of them pitch in and help you out?” Duril gestured for Sogou to come closer, although the young storyteller seemed reluctant to halt raining questions on Toru’s head. The young tiger didn’t seem to mind the barrage, but he did appear to be struggling with having so much attention and admiration poured over him.

Mako, dazed as he seemed to be in light of what he had just found out about where his body had been and the things he had done without his knowledge, just looked at Sogou like a chick with its mother hen. He even followed after him, two steps behind.

Sogou seemed happy to help. “We surely need a shapeshifter who’s such a master of numbers and organization,” he said promptly. “My father can use someone like that to help him with his business. What business that may be remains to be seen now that Coinvale has been left without its signature landscape. We all have a lot of work to do, but I will render you assistance in any way I can, esteemed curator.”

Duril knew he could count on the young man to do the right thing, so he left Vetor in Sogou’s care and returned to Toru. The young tiger still appeared overwhelmed by the fight he must have carried out against Hekastfet inside the strange shard.

“How awful was it?” he asked directly.

Toru dropped his head on Duril’s shoulder. “Strange rather than awful,” his muffled words came out. “Demophios helped me, and so did the old librarians.”

“Demophios?” Duril asked, startled to hear the old snake mentioned. He had thought the mythical creature had lost himself in the desert, leaving Toru with more questions than answers.

“Yes. Although he knows how much I miss him, he didn’t stay long. But after saying other weird things, as is his habit, he pushed me in the right direction. I ended up at the old library where I ate delicious foods, and Amimi Kota – that’s the head librarian – told me about other shifters who have saved the world before. He told me many things, each one stranger than the other. Apparently, he thought I’d be mad to hear about other shifters saving the world. But I was just surprised.”

That was a lot of information to take in, Duril thought. Other shifters? Besides tigers?

Toru sighed. “I wanted to save that wolf inside the shard, but he disappeared before I could do anything for him. I’m wondering if Varg will get mad at me.”

“Varg would never get mad at you, as you know well.”

“People here are saying I ended up victorious, but I feel more confused than ever. If I am to defeat Hekastfet for good, I must wait for the end of time, according to the head librarian of Coinvale. And I don’t think I have that much time on my hands. What do you think of it all, Duril? Do you believe that Hekastfet can be defeated?”

Duril caressed the blond head and pressed his lips against his lover’s temple. “It looks to me like you heard a lot of new things. We will have to ponder over them and see what sense we can make of them.”

“That’s a relief,” Toru admitted. “Without my tiger, I felt vulnerable at first. But then I understood that I can’t rely on anything other than my own heart and mind. Not even the strongest magic can take them away from me.”

“Without a doubt,” Duril confirmed. “Now, we have to return to the city and put things right.”

“I’d rather go back on the road. The people here will be mad because of the shard.”

“We need to tell them the truth. And then we will let them judge for themselves. After all, they have a share in the blame.”

“How so?” Toru asked.

“They agreed to accept things without questioning their power or provenance. I believe they will understand. And if they don’t, we always have the road to return to,” Duril promised.

“Mister Toru, Mister Duril,” Sogou shouted while waving at them. “We must go back to the city and begin the preparations.”

“Preparations for what?” Toru asked.

Sogou smiled ear to ear. “To celebrate the heroes of Coinvale, naturally!”

Duril smiled back. At least one person in all Coinvale believed them to be such.

TBC