Hungry Heart - Book #4 - Ch. 24 (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

Chapter Twenty-Four – A Place without Knowledge

Willow touched him gently on the shoulder, making him turn on his heel. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“I recognized your scent,” Toru said. Willow’s was not as heady as the other bearshifters’. Just as his overall appearance was light and breezy, so was the smell of his skin. Anyone who knew him and had a decent sense of smell could pick him out from a thousand.

“Walk with me a little,” Willow said invitingly and wrapped his arm around Toru’s as soon as he nodded in agreement.

Late in the afternoon, The Quiet Woods became a lazy place, with all the creatures, great and small, feeling pulled toward a well-deserved nap. The sounds of small insects, the only ones not interested in resting at that hour, filled the air.

It wasn’t like him to be awake at that hour, especially when all his friends were enjoying the reprieve, but a strange energy had started to grow inside him ever since his talk with Shearah, as if he could barely wait to be back on the road again. It wasn’t his usual longing for places and people he had never seen before. It was something more, and if he could find out what it was, it would make him happy, but also as if he lost something at the same time.

Normally, he wouldn’t allow such confusing feelings and thoughts to fill his soul and mind. But these weren’t normal times, and the thought of seeing Te’cla and deciphering the quest of his life were pulling at his heart strings like nothing else. In other words, he felt impatient and willing to start their journey toward that final destination sooner rather than later.

However, he couldn’t deny his friends the reprieve they had earned for themselves after having found Niverborg and going through all those trials.

He waited patiently as Willow took him down a narrow path that wound round a tall hill and seemed to go up, up, without an end in sight. The late fall was kind in The Quiet Woods, and the sun, while bright and up in the sky, wasn’t merciless like in the peak of summer.

“It’s a bit of a hike to the top, but something tells me that you’re not the kind to hang back when a challenge is presented to you.”

“You’re right about that,” Toru said and puffed out his chest, pleased with Willow’s delicate praise. “Where are we going if you don’t mind my asking?”

“I want to show you one of the most beautiful views here, at The Quiet Woods.”

“This place is beautiful no matter what part of it you see,” Toru offered, having learned a bit about manners and whatnot by watching others, and, in particular, his brother, during their time at Niverborg. Unlike him, Lakan had been born and raised as royalty, and despite the hard times he had been forced to survive, his upbringing showed in how he spoke or ate at the table. Toru felt admiration toward him, and, when given the chance, he was trying to imitate some of his brother’s mannerisms that had struck him as being proof of nice, polite behavior.

Willow laughed and leaned against his shoulder. Bearshifters were tall, and Willow was particularly so, which meant that he stood taller than Toru. Nonetheless, Willow made it so that his companion felt he was the one to offer protection because of being stronger.

“We’re here.”

They stepped on a flat surface, not much larger than a spot of grass where an animal had lain to catch its breath. Toru stared at the vast expanse of green below them and his breath caught in his chest. The beauty of the world stretched in front of him, as far as his eyes could see.

“Here, in our place of birth, as well as many others on the face of Eawirith,” Willow began, “we live a life of blissful ignorance. You came and set us free, and our lives return to the same old thread. We do not know another, and if you hadn’t told us, we would have never known about Hekastfet and the threat of evil upon this world.”

“It is not possible for you to know such a thing,” Toru said. “I understand.”

“Still, it might hurt your beautiful heart,” Willow continued after offering him another short and sweet smile, “when people, in their ignorance, do not recognize your worth.”

“I don’t care about such things,” Toru assured him. “You see, I have with me all the people I care about. Duril, who’s a healer and the sweetest soul I’ve ever had the chance to know. Varg, who is strong and wise, and also a leader, a head of the pack. And Claw, too, who can talk to mystical and magical beings and see beyond this world we see. What need do I have for the kind words of the many?”

Willow laughed softly and caressed his shoulder, the one in which the dark shards were embedded. “I see that I was worried for nothing. Although, it does hurt a little to learn that the rest of us don’t mean anything to you.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Toru said right away. “We’ve made so many new friends along the way, and I only regret that it will take a lot of time until I get to see them again. Like my brother. You know, he’s like you, in some way.”

“What way?” Willow asked, intrigued.

“Like someone noble,” Toru explained to the best of his abilities. “You two know how to hold a fork and whatnot. Those kind of things, I mean.”

Willow nodded. “I see. Although, I have to assure you that I’m not some part of the nobility, known to people or otherwise. But I appreciate that you just compared me with your dear brother.”

“This is such a wonderful place,” Toru said as he turned his eyes toward the vista spread in front of them.

“And I want you to know how grateful I am for being able to look at it like this. If Hekastfet had won, we would have had to give it up. Maybe we wouldn’t have been alive at all. That thought alone makes me realize how fragile we all are without even knowing it.”

“I don’t think you’re helpless,” Toru said.

“No, helpless no,” Willow said and shook his head, “but fragile. And that’s because we have no knowledge about many things happening in the world, as we enjoy our day by day happiness, here, in our home. I think it’s time someone started writing the chronicles of The Quiet Woods.”

“I hope you’re not counting on me,” Toru replied. “I have little knowledge of the letters.”

“You have much more important quests to attend to,” Willow pointed out. “Far be it from me to think that you would have the time to sit down and write our history. That’s something I’d like to undertake. I will write on those pages the story of how the savior of our world once visited The Quiet Woods, and I had the chance to show him all the beauty that he saved due to his selfless heart and unbreakable spirit.”

Toru felt his cheek starting to burn under the lavish praise. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. “I just didn’t want the evil to win and claim everyone’s lives. Maybe I only cared about my own happiness.”

“Then we’re the lucky ones. You’re a good soul, Toru, and never doubt it. This,” Willow said and let his fingers brush over the shoulder with the shards, “will never be something that will define who you are.”

“I will keep that in mind. I will do what needs to be done, because I cannot let Hekastfet win.”

“I want to give you another piece of advice, Toru, and you may do with it what you will. Search for knowledge everywhere you go. Have Duril, who’s a scholar and can read, see what secret knowledge places keep. Ask Varg to search for people who hold knowledge in their minds, as I can tell those eyes of his are the kind to see well beyond what others allow him to see. As for Claw, I will ask him myself.”

“What for?” Toru asked.

“He’s special in his ability to talk to creatures that exist under the surface of this world. But he must not let them lead him wherever they want to point him to. Don’t think I’m arrogant in telling you all this. It’s just that, sometimes, the spirits of the wind talk to me, too.”

“Have you ever heard of the hermit, then?” Toru asked, curious to hear as much as he could from those who knew more than him, no matter how little.

“Yes. He is the one who steals knowledge, I heard. And there’s something else the spirits said to me. They tell me of a place not very far from here, where all the knowledge disappeared overnight. It happened recently.”

Toru felt his ears perk up at the news offered by Willow. “Do you believe it’s Te’cla’s fault? Could it be that he had descended from the mountains to gobble up some knowledge?”

“I do not know,” Willow said, offering an apologetic shake of his head. “But Te’cla, if I understand correctly, doesn’t consume just any knowledge. The way people plow their fields, or how they store their food in winter, those are not things he yearns for. He seeks only particular, secret knowledge, like someone who searches for gold in the fast waters of the river.”

“Tell me more about this place,” Toru demanded, now intrigued.

“It is a town where most people work the land and trade in their goods. It is called Guthran, and nothing makes it stand out, or, at least until now, nothing did.”

“What is happening there, as we speak? Can you tell, from what the spirits of the wind told you?”

“It is chaos. Without their knowledge of doing things, the people risk destroying their crops and bringing famine upon themselves in the winter that’s coming. I’ve already advised our people to start preserving food and harvest more, so that later we can go help those people. But what the spirits told me, I have to admit, Toru, chilled me to the bone. Those poor people are destined to a harsh fate. Not only can they not remember how to harvest their crops and tend to their animals and homesteads. They are slowly losing their ability to think and speak as human beings. That isn’t something I know how to deal with.”

“Have you told Shearah?”

“She asked the spirits that travel through here to bring news. She wants to save them, too, but besides helping feed and clothe them for winter, she doesn’t know any more to do.”

“I wonder why she didn’t tell me about Guthran.”

“It’s possible that she believes that your quest to find the hermit is a lot more important. That is how spirits are, Toru. As much as they can sympathize and care for others, their eyes see beyond mortal beings. But I couldn’t let you leave without asking you, if you can, to go see that place and save it.”

“I know how to fight and use my claws and fangs. But I will try, because wicked evils have tried to stand in my path before. I will save Guthran,” he said solemnly, and Willow hugged him with tears in his eyes.

So much gratitude couldn’t be in vain. And any anomaly they found in their path, they had to explore. Who was to say that such an abnormal thing as people losing their minds and souls wasn’t caused by the same evil trying to take control of the world once more?

Not if he could help it, Toru decided. If it was in his power, he’d save those people. And even if it wasn’t, because he had amazing friends by his side that were wiser than him, and even stronger in different ways.

***

Varg listened carefully as Toru explained to them what Willow had told him, about a place soon to be devastated by the loss of knowledge of its inhabitants. He was just as surprised as his companion to learn of such a thing. “Knowledge that simply disappears? That sounds a lot like someone we intend to pay a visit to, don’t you think?” He stared at Claw, and then at Duril.

Duril nodded. “Te’cla. He’s the one with a penchant for stealing knowledge, but it is true what Willow says that he’s not the kind, at least according to the legends surrounding his name, to steal common knowledge. There must be an evil force at work, without a doubt, but assuming it is the hermit sounds like a narrow path to which we shouldn’t confine ourselves.”

Claw intervened, “I happen to be of the same mind as our friend here. Nonetheless, it is something worth seeing with our own eyes. I doubt there is someone else hurrying to help these poor people in need.”

“Willow is preparing food, clothes, and other provisions,” Toru argued.

Claw smiled and took the young tigershifter by the shoulders. “I know my people are hard at work. What I was thinking was some kind of magical being that must be seeing what’s happening at Guthran as we speak.”

“Magical beings can see everything?” Toru questioned.

Varg had to hide a small smile. Toru’s feud with such beings was nothing new. With Demophios, as much as he had become attached to the old snake turned into an artifact that was then was lost in the desert, Toru had fought an uphill battle to understand his words. He wasn’t fond of how the old witch Agatha talked, either, as well as others they had encountered along the way.

In all honesty, Varg couldn’t say that he blamed him. After all, oracles, hermits, and witches, they all held knowledge of various kinds, and enough of it. They should have been capable of saving at least a small town like Guthran. And yes, Claw saw things clearly. No one had hurried to their aid, and the bearshifter wasn’t thinking about blankets and preserved food. There was something inherently bad regarding what was happening to that place. Who was to say that whatever was eating away at the people’s memories and knowledge couldn’t spread and infect other places?

Duril’s voice brought him back from his musings. “How come Shearah didn’t tell us about this?”

“That is something I’ve been wondering, too,” Toru said. “I mean, it’s up to her to tell us everything that’s unusual, at least if she hears about it. Willow believes that she might not see it as important because she knows we have more difficult tasks ahead of us, such as finding the hermit and dragging him out of his little cave by his beard.”

“I will go speak to her,” the healer announced.

Varg agreed. If there was someone Shearah would open up to, in case she had some secret reasons to keep such a thing away from them, it had to be Duril.

***

Summoning a spirit of the wind just as you saw fit was not particularly easy to achieve, Duril realized when he started searching for the benevolent magical being watching over the forest. While he had expected his mere presence in the silent glen to make Shearah appear by magic, it looked like he needed to break the quiet by calling out loudly for her.

“Shearah, can you please show yourself?” He waited and then, just as he was about to put his hand on one of the trees and ask about the whereabouts of the gentle mistress of The Quiet Woods, she emerged from an old trunk as if she had just been stirred from her sleep.

“Duril. How come you have not left yet?” she inquired.

“Willow told us about this place called Guthran,” Duril began, unwilling to waste precious time with polite to and fros.

Shearah sighed. “His heart is too big, even for a bearshifter. I had my reasons to not tell you about this anomaly.”

“Can you share them with us?” He could tell she was hesitant, so he felt the need to press on. “You know we cannot ignore the plight of people, regardless of how few they may be. Please, don’t tell me that their lives aren’t important.”

“Even if I did, I doubt that you would listen to me. The thing is, Duril, I have a very bad feeling about that place, and I’m afraid it’s only a trap. You see, the spirits of the wind tell me what they know, and based on those things they tell me, I can weave a thread and see where it is going. This trap is wicked and it is trying to delay you in your quest.”

“Delay? If it’s only a delay, I don’t see how it would be that big an obstacle for us. After all, Toru must search for the shards of evil all over the place. If he finds a few more on his path to The Scarlet Peaks, I don’t see how it can be that great a problem.”

Shearah cast her eyes down. “I see that you’re not willing to back down until I tell you everything.”

“Something like that, yes. Those people need help, Shearah. Are you truly bent on ignoring their cry for aid?”

The chastising seemed to reach the wind spirit, as she looked up and stared at him pleadingly. “Whatever is there, it’s something like Shearah, the other one, did to keep this place the same, day after day.”

“That’s unsettling. Are you saying that those people are already trapped in such a fate, of every day repeating?”

“Not yet. But if you go there, you’ll be lured and trapped in it.”

“You must not believe in us enough if you think that knowing such a thing would stop us.” Duril examined her open face slowly. She had hidden such things from them because she wanted to protect them, but what kind of heroes were they if they willingly removed themselves from the path of danger?

“I should have known that.” She cast her eyes down again, this time in self-reproach and defeat. “The chances are that you would have learned of the place and its predicament once you left The Quiet Woods anyway.” She took a deep breath. “I don’t believe it is the work of a black shard. Somehow, it feels like a trick to me.”

“Te’cla,” Duril said out loud the name that has been on his mind, ever since he had learned about the fate of that town. “Why would he do such a thing? Does he really need the knowledge of simple people who know the rhythm of their everyday lives and nothing else?”

“It is not a need for knowledge that motivates him in doing this. He is trying to lure you into his trap because he doesn’t want you to climb The Scarlet Peaks and find the place where he hides.”

“You sound so certain that it is him.”

“One of the spirits caught a glimpse of a small man, so small that he could be mistaken for a child, hiding in a barn, holding an open book, and murmuring incantations. But the vision only lasted for a moment. The spirit thought it must have been just a figment of her own imagination but decided to tell me about it anyway. I don’t think such things should be dismissed. They count for something.”

“That is unsettling, indeed. So, the old hermit is not keen on letting us reach the place where he must be keeping hidden all that knowledge he has stolen. But you said that he is keen on stealing Toru’s knowledge, so he must want to meet him.”

“Him, yes, but him alone,” Shearah explained. “This lure and trap is for you, Toru’s companions. If he manages to split you up, to separate him from the rest, that is something that must look good in his cards, or else he wouldn’t bother.”

“I see now why you were so reluctant to give us this news. But we don’t fear the hermit. And it is good to know what kind of trap we are walking into,” Duril concluded.

“Do you really think you know what kind of trap it is? All you have is what a few spirits saw, and my own thoughts on the matter. Don’t you think it’s too little?”

“Let us be the judge of that. And based on that little, as you call it, you also considered it safer for us to avoid Guthran, even not learn of it at all. Who is reading too much into the little they know?”

Shearah stared a bit at him, looking rightfully discomfited. “I suppose you took my own reasoning and turned it against me. I can only bow in front of your craft. And I believed only Master Varg would be able to reach in others’ souls with just a look and convince them of giving up their secrets.”

“You’re thinking too highly of me,” Duril replied. “What I think is that you wanted me to come ask you of these things. Am I wrong?”

Shearah shook her head. “Have you ever found yourself torn between what your heart wants and what your mind tells you it’s the right thing to do?”

“Without a doubt,” Duril confirmed.

“This is one of those times for me. I know that my mind is telling me that Toru and the rest of you are walking blindly into danger, and that this danger can be avoided. But at the same time, my heart pulls me toward those people and their dire fate. I’m glad that you’re going to help them. And I will have the spirits keep watch over you.”

“Is that possible? Spirits of the wind are always moving.”

“That is true, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t communicate with each other, that they don’t pass on what they learn. I’ll be counting on them to tell me what is happening to you.” Shearah took a moment for herself, as her eyes darted sideways. “I have one request, Duril. Don’t let Willow and the others learn the whole truth. I’d rather he thinks that I’m a soulless spirit that neglects the suffering of a few for the sake of the greater good than that I’m sending you right into the heart of danger.”

“My lips are sealed,” Duril promised. “They’ll do their part, gathering supplies, as you know.”

“I know. I will do my best to delay them, but at some point, I will have to let them walk up there. They will end up making their way back with everything they gathered, because by the time that happens, I expect Te’cla to have pulled the string of his trap tight and caught you inside.”

“Don’t underestimate us. We’ve lived through many trials to get here. But we are all grateful for your worrying about us, and I know I’m speaking in everyone’s name when I say this. Shearah, I’m making a promise to you. We will come back, and we will tell you how we dealt with a hermit who believes himself cleverer than everyone else alive.”

Shearah laughed softly. “That’s a promise I’ll gladly hold you to. And I can see that you are learning things about the hermit without even seeing him once. Such are the ways of those that become known to the entire world, whether for the good or bad they bring into it.”

“I somehow doubt that he wants to be that well-known,” Duril offered what he believed.

“You are right. Word of Toru’s adventures must have reached his ears if he went to such lengths to create a trap that required him to come down from his cave.”

“That is unsettling me,” Duril admitted. “It makes me believe that his intentions are far from good. But that shouldn’t come to me as a big surprise. After all, what good should we expect from someone who steals the knowledge of others?”

***

Toru listened closely as Duril explained why Shearah had been keen on not telling them about the town plundered of its knowledge. He felt anger, but only for a moment. Shearah was a good little lightning bug. She was trying her best to keep them safe, which was endearing seeing how small she was. A gust of wind could take her away, but she was the wind, so he guessed it was fine.

She was also so different from the other Shearah, the one who had kept The Quiet Woods trapped in time like a stubborn child refusing to grow up. Duril had seen that one, right before they had dove into the well of no return, and she had told the healer ominous words that hadn’t become the truth.

That gave him hope and conviction that no forces of evil, no matter how powerful, would ever prevail. As much as he disliked having to deal with challenges that didn’t require him to use his claws and fangs, he wanted to beat Te’cla at his game with every fiber of his being. Just as much as always, he was grateful to have his friends by his side, to help him on such a demanding quest.

“We are going to catch the hermit,” he said, feeling filled with new vigor as his companions were already exchanging ideas. “Maybe we won’t have to climb up to his lair, after all.”

Duril nodded thoughtfully. “It would be great for us.”

“Let’s not get our hopes high. A tricky character like him probably has ways of escaping. Who’s to say that he hasn’t already left, leaving only the trap he created for us behind?” Varg intervened, as always, the voice of reason.

“It’s still worth making an effort to catch him by his beard, as Toru says,” Claw offered his thoughts, along with a kind smile.

Toru was pleased. This quest could be the key to finding out about Nelsikkar, and also about how to defeat Hekastfet. He doubted that the evil that had plagued the world for millennia would give up without a fight, and the sooner he discovered how to overcome it, the better. Toru believed that he would set out to collect all the black shards from all over the world with a lighter heart, once he was in possession of the proper way to destroy them.

Something, however, was nagging him, at the back of his mind, as if there was a certain important detail that he kept forgetting. Absent-mindedly, he reached for his shoulder and felt the shape of the shards.

“Do they hurt you?” Claw asked.

“No. Most of the time, I don’t feel them at all. But I’m no fool,” Toru assured the bearshifter. “They are listening,” he added. “When I was talking to Shearah, they shook my shoulder so violently that they took me by surprise. But I’m ready for them. Not even in my sleep can they take over me.”

Claw smiled and nodded briefly. “I like to think that we’re strong enough to hold you down if you start acting up all of a sudden. At least as long as is needed for you to come back to your senses.”

“I don’t think such a thing would happen.” Just as he said those words, Toru wondered if the shards could take over after all.

Claw seemed to guess what was going on in his mind. “There is a reason why they can’t take over. We all felt the dark power coming from them, and our meeker souls were quickly overcome. But you, who were at the center of it all, were steady in your faith and did what you had to. You saved your brother, and your heart wasn’t tainted in the process.”

“That still doesn’t mean that they won’t try,” Varg pointed out.

Toru understood what his friend was saying. They shouldn’t let their guard down, even if it looked like the shards weren’t strong enough to take control over his body and use it as they saw fit. As for his mind, he was sure in his heart that it would never fall prey to the temptation of power. He was utterly content with what he had and believed himself to be powerful enough to withstand the harshest challenges.

“The hermit will be one person we will ask about the shards and how to deal with them. But there will be others we will meet along the way, I’m sure,” Duril said. “And Claw might hear the call of oracles at any time. We won’t just be sitting with our arms crossed, doing nothing.”

Toru took his favorite lover by his shoulders and pulled him close. “And I will defeat anyone who stands in our way. Are we ready to head toward this place without knowledge? I can barely wait to get my hands on that hermit’s beard.”

Duril laughed softly. “Are we really sure he has a beard? He might look completely different from what we imagine.”

“Then, I will just grab him by the scruff of his neck,” Toru said, after a short moment of deliberation. “Do you think he might be missing a neck, too?”

They all laughed at his words, but it was genuine, well-meaning laughter.

“No matter what he has or hasn’t, we will do our best to corner him and make him tell us all we need to know. And, if he escapes,” Claw said, “we know where to find him. Something tells me that it’s quite out of the ordinary for him to leave his cave and venture into the world. That means that he might want to meet you, Toru. That’s something we can use to our advantage.”

Of course. The one laying the trap was about to get trapped, instead.

TBC

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