GRANDORA: Chapter 11: Heavy Rest (Patreon)

Author’s note: Hey guys.

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First of all, let me thank you for voting in the Poll - I was surprised at how even things were regarding Grandor, Ratchetmare and potentially the new story. Most of all, though, I'm grateful for your feedback. I did a similar poll on RR and ScribleHub and you showed me how wrong I was. I'm ashamed. You guys humbled me. Instead of trying to convince me to return fully to Lament of the Slave, you've showered me with sincere concern about taking the path of rewrite and the silver linings of that. I didn't find a prevalence of one or the other in the comments; the exception to this is that I have found more mentions of failures where the author abandoned their work after a few chapters during rewriting, than examples where they successfully finished the work.

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It's definitely something to keep in mind before and if at all I venture into the rewrite. But not only that, there are so many things you have pointed out to me and for that I am so grateful. Thanks again.

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As for the rewrite of Lament of the Slave; I don't even know where to begin. What I can reveal is that if I jump into it, I'd like to treat it more like individual books with a beginning, middle and end. Give it a better structure, and hopefully better pacing. As you may know, I'm a pantser author, discovering stories with you as I write them, but here that would mean sticking to a certain outline - which would be a new-ish experience for me.

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Anyway, I'll keep you posted as things progress.

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Enjoy the chapter!

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Chapter 11: Heavy Rest - Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/99855577

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Chapter 11: Heavy Rest

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My near drowning aside, was I any closer to sensing the might in the stone wall? I didn’t think so. All I achieved was a greater control of the might in my body - or rather, an enlightenment as to how limited my view of its use was.

So no, I didn’t come anywhere close to forcing the stone to part in front of me the way Feracore did.

In fact, it wasn’t until four cycles later that my perception reached behind the damp and cold of the cave walls and I finally sensed the might imbued within them.

My hands shot up.

“Finally! Fucking finally!”

The echo of my voice reverberated through the small cave, celebrating my triumph with me. I did it - or not? Uncertainty and doubt crept into my joy pounding heart. Returning to the wall, my hands trembled at the possibility that it could have been just a fluke, my wild imagination driven by the madness the loneliness of this place pushed me to.

“Yes!”

It was there, faint, but the might was still there under my palms.

After taking another victory lap around the cave, I eventually settled down to master properly what had taken me so long to get into. Reading. If I had to compare it to anything, it would be reading. I finally recognized the letters on the pages. Now it was time to make sense of them.

Alas, it proved to be no easier than taking the first step. Despite my enthusiasm and determination to get through it in no time, sensing the might in the stone wall more than a finger’s length from my palm took another dozen cycles.

Far too long!

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***

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“Is this enough?” I wondered aloud as my perception reached along the wall from one corner of the room to the other.

Yes, room.

Well, technically, this place was still a cave. But you see, during my stay here, as part of my training, to distract myself from going crazy, and above all to stave off boredom, I had turned the little cave into a full-fledged square room.

No, Ferracore didn’t lend me a hand, nor did he teach me his trick of moving the rock walls - in fact, I didn’t even catch a glimpse of his tail the whole time. What I did was simply melt the stone with my hands - and sometimes with my whole body. Admittedly, it made the walls look like they were made of mud.

On the other hand, I managed to create a decent door and even a window, although the view through the stone pane wasn’t particularly grand.

Nevertheless, the room aside, the question remained: “Did my perception reach far enough?”

Certainly a pittance compared to what Ferracore could do. But even in my wildest dreams, I dared not fantasize about having power on par with the Grand Beasts. The burning question in my mind was whether the distance of six paces at which I could perceive the might in stone was enough to keep me from feeling embarrassed in front of Ferracore.

Little by little, hour by hour, day by day, the range of my perception grew. There was no doubt about it, and so if I sit here, doing my best, a little longer . . .

“Fuck! I can’t stay here any longer!”

Carving the room out of stone could only keep me sane for so long. Better to be embarrassed than to lose it. And the fact that I was now pulling my hair out, literally, was proof enough that I was on the verge of going insane.

Sure, exaggeration, but still . . .

“Time to find Ferracore, Eirlys’ore.”

One would think that locating a massive beast would be easy. Up there on the surface, sure. Down here, though, your eyesight was useless. I had a better chance of finding the behemoth by ear and vibration.

That said, I couldn’t hear shit, and all I could feel through my feet was the chill of the stone floor. Either the youngest Grand Beast was asleep, or he was so far away that there was no point in chasing after him, especially when I had no idea which way to go in the first place.

“The limestone cave it is.”

If Ferracore’s perception was half as good as I thought it was, he’d notice that I’d moved. Not to mention that my mouth watered at the mere thought of the taste of freshly baked bread.

Seriously, eating that bitter shit that was all over the place every fucking day was torture.

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***

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»Resting AFTER a good meal, CHILD of mine?«

“Yes, I am.”

Talking to someone other than myself was so strange, so underrated, so . . . right. Yet I remained on my back, unable to move under the weight of my stomach - when I tried, a whimper escaped my lips.

»SOMETIMES regret bites back FROM the most UNLIKELY places.«

“I regret nothing.”

Stubbornness? Sure. Nevertheless, the truth - at least as far as my full stomach was concerned. The bread-like taste of the limestone was divine - add to that the salt of my tears of joy, and I just couldn’t stop.

»Taking responsibility FOR one’s actions is HONORABLE, not admitting one’s mistake IS the mark of a fool.«

“I am not a fool.”

»I did NOT say you were, BUT do you think YOUR actions honorable?«

Of course not. How could I, an ordinary gal, be blessed with the trait of heroes? Honestly, to me, honor was something lost to humanity as a whole - the stuff of fairy tales. No hero I wished for to rescue me from the mines showed up in all those years. Either they had more important things to do, or, as I believed, they just didn’t care like the others.

“There’s nothing wrong with eating.”

»ONE way of looking AT it. Just the NATURAL cycle of life.«

“You make it sound like I just ate your favorite rabbit.”

»You MIGHT as well have. DO you know how LONG that rock over THERE braved time before it ended up IN your stomach?«

“No?”

As much as I enjoyed talking to him, the point of what we were talking about totally escaped me. Again.

“Are you saying I should feel guilty about eating rocks?”

»NOT at all. The wolves do NOT feel guilty for taking a HARE, and neither do THE hunters. But it WOULD help if you WERE more aware of WHAT you are eating.«

There was an easy answer to that. Just stones. However, I dared say that I knew Ferracore well enough to know that was not the answer he was leading me to. What more could a rock be? The answer lay on my lips, just to reach it. And licking it off the remains of my feast did just that.

“Does the type of rock affect my digestion?”

»Naturally. I HAVE always found limestone to BE rather . . . heavy.«

“Oh, that’s why . . . ”

It wasn’t just me finally satisfying my starved taste buds with something other than bitter horror that was to blame for how beat up I felt, nor was it the fatigue after a good meal kicking in that I usually blamed for my inability to move.

“W-why didn’t you say something sooner, Ferracore?”

»Because IT would not have made ANY difference. What YOU saw was a ROCK.«

Again with the riddles.

“I get it. No two rocks are alike.”

»Indeed.«

“But why tell me now?”

What has changed? It couldn’t have been me having no issue with a rock as food now.

“It’s my perception of your might? Hold on. Do different kinds of stones affect your might?”

»OBVIOUS, I would say.«

Of course he thought so. He was a damn Grand Beast. I, on the other hand, grew up believing that no material could stand up to their might. Well, except for . . .

“Ether Crystals. It was in my face the whole time, wasn’t it?”

»THAT is just the WAY some things are.«

Yeah, some gals were just too dumb to see what was right in front of their eyes. In fact, the whole reason I spent half a month in a small cave was because of how the Ether Crystals were impacting Ferracore’s might in the surrounding caves, but it never once occurred to me that another type of stone could do the same thing. I was indeed dumb, so dumb - no question about it.

On the other hand, I couldn’t help but wonder . . .

“Ferracore? Is there any material that can block your might?”

»I suppose YOU mean it would NOT take my might. Yes, THERE is.«

“And . . . ?”

Sure, it might have been some kind of taboo among the Grand Beasts; their secrets never shared with humans, but I couldn’t help but be curious. After all, if . . . well . . . I was just being stupid again. Unless you built an impenetrable box, knowing such a material was useless.

Was the might that bad, though? I’ve been using it down here for days, quite extensively at that, and I haven’t noticed any apparent changes in my body. Yes, there was the burned part of my face, now covered in scales instead of unsightly red scabs, but that was it.

»WHY do you want TO know, child of MINE?«

No doubt. It was something the Grand Beast didn’t want to talk about, a taboo, something dangerous to them.

»It IS a useless stone,« Ferracore continued. »You CAN not shape it, NOR can you eat it.«

“Oh.”

Admittedly, not the brightest answer. But could anyone blame me for being stumped when the grand mystery turned out to be an inedible rock?

»Forget it, CHILD of mine. What you MUST keep in mind WHEN shaping a stone is THAT not all listen alike. SOME resist the might MORE, while others go WITH its flow. You WILL find stones that SING with my might, THEN others that burst IF you are NOT careful.«

My ear perked up. Burst? As in, if I’m not careful, the stone I’m shaping might explode in my face?

“What stone will do that?”

Ferracore hummed, confused.

“I mean the blowing up.”

»You WILL find out.«

“But . . . ”

»Is it NOT better to learn FROM your own mistakes, to EXPLORE for yourself, than to LISTEN to someone else’s TALES? If I TOOK Vetrifyr’s memories as MY own, there WOULD be nothing left for ME - nothing left FOR myself. It would MAKE me no different FROM Vetrifyr, and I would cease to BE.«

“You mean you would lose the will to live?”

Thus, his might . . . and life, possibly.

»NOT necessarily. But I WOULD certainly not be THE Ferracore you KNOW. I would not be ME.«

Damn. The memory thing was darker than I thought. The experiences he had inherited were like two sides of a coin, the double-edged blade.

“I see.”

I didn’t necessarily agree that everything had to be learned through experience, however, I now better understood his efforts to always push me to find the answer for myself.

»Good. Now, ARE you ready to SHOW me what you HAVE learned, child of MINE?«

“Just a little longer,” I groaned as I tried to roll onto my side, my stomach still heavy with molten limestone.

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***

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»What GOOD is it to see mountains IN the distance WHEN there is a stream to CROSS in front of you,« Ferracore explained when I told him, with a dose of shame, of my modest progress. »IF you want MY might to move a STONE, it does NOT matter how far YOU see, but how WELL you perceive it.«

Immediately, a heartbreak struck me, and a question arose in my mind: Was my days-long effort to expand my perception a mistake? If he had just told me earlier, I wouldn’t have - well, I wouldn’t have learned from my mistakes.

“I understand. I’ll do my best to sharpen my perception first, Ferracore.”

»No NEED to feel down, CHILD of mine. From WHAT I have seen, YOUR perception is ample.«

“It is?”

»DO you doubt my WORDS?«

“No!” I blurted out. “No, I wouldn’t dare, Ferracore. Only . . . ”

»Do not LET your own doubts WEIGH you down. Now SPREAD your perception through that WALLl over there AND observe.«

Not one to let go of my doubts so easily, I did as he said and walked over to the rock wall, placed both hands on it, closed my eyes, and spread my perception. Despite the Ether Crystal cave nearby, his might in the stone was there for me to see, thin as it was. I could see the cracks in the stone, the layers of it, framing the story of how it grew into its present state.

I almost laughed, realizing that it was no longer just a stone to me. Once again, Ferracore opened my eyes to the world and its vastness.

»Ready yourself, CHILD of mine.«

His thunderous voice had barely stopped echoing through the cave when the might in the stone wall thickened and moved, and with it, the stone itself.

»DID you see?«

“I certainly did. But . . . how?”

»Does the CHILD never leave the mother’s TEAT, or does it learn to FEED itself?”

A sigh almost escaped my lips. Ferracore could be so annoying at times.

“F-from what I know, mothers teach their children how to get food.”

»Did I NOT just do that?«

“Then . . . one more time, please, Ferracore.”

The cave shook with the Grand Beast’s laughter.

»It IS good to SEE you growing INTO yourself, child of MINE. Very well, I will GRANT your request. Ready YOURSELF and observe.«

For the long life the Grand Beasts led, Ferracore didn’t waste a beat of it at times. Not giving me a moment to think, I put my hands back on the cave wall and expanded my perception. The same thing as before happened in front of my “eyes,” leaving me just as lost.

»Satisfied?«

Not by a long shot. But to ask for more would be pushing his benevolence.

“Thank you, Ferracore. It helped me a lot.”

Not a lie. For what little I glimpsed, the second demonstration showed me the reason for the thickening of might in the stone before it moved. Ferracore put his own might into the cave wall.

»Good.«

For a moment, I thought the Grand Beast had told me what it wanted and I would be left to my own devices again. But wrong I was. Instead of leaving as he usually did, Ferracore lay down on the ground, his huge eyes fixed on me. The goosebumps his gaze gave me were hard to describe - perhaps as if I had a swarm of bugs crawling up my back. Simply, with the Ferracore’s gaze on my back, my concentration was rarer than the Ether Crystals in the human kingdoms.

But I couldn’t just stand there by the cave wall, sweating from head to toe, and do nothing,when the expectations of the Grand Beast lay heavily upon me. So I took a deep breath - which didn’t help at all - put my hands on the wall and spread my perception.

That was the easy part, the part I had down by heart.

“Here I go.”

With a silent whisper to give myself some courage, I pressed a new purpose onto the might in my body. Although to say it was a new purpose wasn’t entirely true. I had pushed the might in my body into the stone outside my body so many times that I couldn’t count it on my fingers. This time, however, I did not want to melt the stone, let alone eat it - my stomach was still rather heavy. No, what I needed the might to do was to spread out in the stone and stay there.

It didn’t - of course. In fact, the might didn’t leave my palms at all.

Second try. Same result.

By the third try, I felt really lame.

The fourth one really pissed me off.

And on the fifth go, I cursed out loud.

»YOU are trying TOO hard, child of MINE.«

Given that I’d spent the last month doing nothing but mastering the art of might manipulation, I guessed he didn’t want me to take a break. Was I pushing the might that hard, though? All I was doing was what I always did.

“Shit!”

The curse that escaped my lips was more than apt as I fell back into my bad habit of overthinking things. From what Ferracore had taught me, working with his might wasn’t all that complicated. In fact, I usually had the answer right in front of me before I even started to make an effort. My only problem was that I was too blind to see it.

So what was it now? What did Ferracore want me to see?

Trying too hard.

Too hard.

Hard.

The word echoed in my mind as if shouted in a vast, empty cave.

There was nothing hard here but the stone. Oh, wait, was that it? The wall?

With renewed vigor, I took a breath and, doing my best to ignore the bugs crawling up my back, I tried to rid myself of the notion of stone as something solid, so hard it was practically impenetrable. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, with the image of a stone wall no different from the air, I let a purpose roll into the might in my body.

It swirled, more than ready to do its job, making my heart race in the process.

And then it just stopped.

“Shit!” I gasped.

The speed with which the might died down, part of it seemed to just vanish, took my breath away. Definitely not how it was supposed to go. But what had gone wrong?

No matter how hard I racked my brain, the answer eluded me.

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