Elemenchya - Book One

The main road of Main Market expanded before S’bowynn as she stared at the front gate. She tightened her shoulders to fortify her determination from the deepest place in her mind she had pulled it from earlier that morning. The frightful dream expelled S’bowynn from her bed in a spinning, malicious haze as her awakening forced itself upon her. Her hands, knees, and feet flailed uselessly until a storm of tingly, shocking pain radiated throughout her body until she was able to regain control over her limbs. Doubt seized upon her helplessness, allowing it to crawl through her thoughts and attempt to take root in her mind.

Should I go with Artim and Brista?

You will bring death upon your companions. You’re unskilled. A burden. It will be your fault…

It could be a wonderful adventure. I’ll never know if I stay…

The world is a dark painful place. You’ll only find misery and horror and pain…

I want to go…

Do not seek The Void

The nightmare sank its teeth into S’bowynn’s mind, but just beneath the surface laid the foundation of desire that S’bowynn had too timid to dig for. Using the offer of companionship as a catalyst, the foundation rose out of the firmament of her mind and now its existence was undeniable. The fanged doubt scraped against her desire as she laid upon the cold floor. All she had to do was stand and it would lose its grip. She stared at the dust and considered her future as her limbs regained feeling.

S'bowynn knew her choice was made, all she had to do was rise to meet it. A defiant curiosity was growing in the pit of her stomach and crawling up her throat like heartburn. She swallowed her doubt, casting it into the burning hell of her throat, hoping it would dissolve and release her from her paralysis. Once the cold of the floor had fully saturated her skin and she couldn’t lay any longer, she rose up and her muscles eased. It took much of the morning for her to dress and pack a satchel before she left the tiny shed.

She had eased into the larger house to find paper and a writing implement to leave a note for her parents of her leaving before they woke. Despite feeling like a coward, S’bowynn couldn’t just disappear. She reassured them of her love and that she would return but the immediacy of opportunity didn’t afford her the time to explain. It was a convenient truth, but S’bowynn leaned on it anyway in her letter before she slinked back out of the larger building.

She fought against her body, choosing not to take a quick side trip to the shop where Derohn had been her employer and friend. What would she say to him? From the conversation she elbowed her way into yesterday, he was not a believer and gave the impression if S’bowynn told him she was going to go hunt down his sisters demented elementals he may be less than happy with her decisions. She felt guilty leaving him without help, but he had gotten along without her before, and he now had his sister to look after and soon her children. In the months to come, there wouldn’t be room for S’bowynn. Realizing that hurt less than she thought it would.

I have to go, or I never will, S’bowynn thought to herself. She closed her eyes and clutched the strap of the side satchel while she envisioned herself standing before the gateway that contained the vessel where all her memories had been created. In her mind, roots had wrapped themselves around her shoulders and were straining at unnatural angles from the cobbled road leading out into the world. A facsimile of herself stood like a statue. With her deliberate pull of air into her constrained lungs the earth cracked and began to fall away from the vimovan she was within the statue. The force of her exhaling snapped the roots that anchored her. By the time she opened her eyes again, she was already walking under the robust timbers.

Just outside the tent-city was a lone wagon already hitched to a massive animal that was shifting its weight impatiently against the straps a slender blonde man was securing over the beast. He moved to place himself between the creatures’ eyes and rested a soft palm on its forehead and ran his fingers up and down through the course hair. S’bowynn quickened her steps as her excitement propelled her toward the man. “Hey!” she called out and closed the distance between them.

Artim smiled and took a half-step away from the animal. “I’m happy to see you,” he said softly. He slanted his head to one side upon noticing S’bowynn’s bag. “Do you have everything you need?”

“I don’t need much,” she explained as she removed it from her shoulders.

Artim smiled fondly. “Say your goodbyes?”

“Kind of,” S’bowynn said frankly. “But I AM ready.”

“Better be,” Brista said as she appeared around the canvas covered wagon.

“Brista,” Artim scolded.

Brista shrugged. “She needs to understand this is an adventure, not a vacation.”

Artim took a deep breath but offered nothing more than a small shrug when he faced S’bowynn. The silence he allowed filled with severity while he waited for S’bowynn’s answer.

S’bowynn turned and walked with determination to the back of the wagon where canvas was hanging in two slits, barely obscuring the interior of the wagon that was filled on the sides with shelves and bags tightly secured to their resting places and folded fabrics covered the width of the floor. She lobbed her satchel into the wagon once she knew it was clear and she wouldn’t break something, making herself embarrassed before they even left the city. Hearing no clashing or clattering, S’bowynn returned to a spot where she could face her new companions.

Laughter erupted from Brista when she tossed her bag, and she welcomed her return with a strong clap on S’bowynn’s back. “That’s fucking right! Vimagen’s Will comes through this one!” Brista walked off to the far side of the wagon and Artim climbed up onto the bench at the head of the wagon.

S’bowynn awkwardly decided to take up position beside the beast whose shoulders towered above her height. “You can pet him,” Artim called from the wagon. “Eastforth has been our companion on this journey for a while. He’s very docile.”

“And stinky!” called Brista from somewhere out of sight.

S’bowynn hesitated for a moment before moving closer to Eastforth’s head. When she was close enough to make eye contact, she lifted her hand as if to show her intention to the animal before letting it rest against his massive neck where his mane framed his throat. Even as he gazed back at her, the animal looked slightly down upon her. He has one massive horn that crowned his upper forehead and sloped gently over his hulking shoulders, extending midway down his back. “Hi,” she said quietly enough that only the two of them could hear. Eastforth made a gentle grunting noise that sent a rush of child-like joy through S’bowynn’s chest. She increased her petting, lightly pressing her nails through his course fur.

“You’ll have plenty of time to get to know ‘im. Most of the travel, we walk,” Brista surprised S’bowynn, coming up behind her before continuing her strides down the road leading away from Janoiah. When S’bowynn stepped away, Artim gave a light whip to the reins, tapping the leather straps against Eastforth’s haunches. The beast responded and started pulling the wagon along the same path. S’bowynn followed suit, looking back periodically as the city shrunk from view, eventually being swallowed up by the sea of yellow grass.

When there was nothing left to see of her home city, S’bowynn started trying to mark their distance by tracking Arovdora as they traveled. It wasn’t long before she realized she was having a hard time tracking the passage of time because he was chasing them and would soon pass above them. The road had gone from a cobbled stone near the city to a dirt path lined with square stones on either side. After the stones lost their conformity from masoned stone to large, unaltered stones pulled from Loova-am and placed as markers growing more and more distant from one another S’bowynn felt her anxiety grow until each stone reassured her, they were still on the road. In her search for the next stone marker, she had failed to notice the road was no more than a well-traveled path of grass that was shorter than the rolling waves around it.

“How do we know where we are?” S’bowynn reached for the wagon as if the waves of golden grass were trying to sweep her out into their vastness.

Artim looked off into the distance from his position on the raised bench. “We don’t,” he answered plainly. He looked down and watched as displeasure filled S’bowynn and her hand closed around a strap secured to the side of the wagon tighter. He smiled and continued, “We won’t know where we are for a few days.” This answer made S’bowynn stumble, saved only by how tightly she was holding onto the wagon. Artim stifled his laugh before it began but was unable to stop his smile. “There are no landmarks between here and a river running south of us. Come here,” he moved over on the bench and reached inside the canvas, grabbing for something.

S’bowynn grabbed onto a wood rod that took her weight as she hoisted herself onto the wagon and sat on the bench beside Artim. She looked toward Eastforth for some sign he was burdened by her added weight, but he made none. Artim found what he was reaching for and placed it on his lap before pulling on a green ribbon and unfurling a half-finished map. His fingers traced over the paper, barely touching the ink upon it.

“I purchased this one off a trader who told me he was familiar with the area,” he pulled another map from beneath the one they were looking at. The second map was crude with vast empty spaces between shapes and symbols S’bowynn couldn’t read. “This is Janoiah,” Artim pointed to a cluster of symbols that looked like buildings surrounded by a thick black circle crested with a gate in the lower left-hand corner of the parchment. He then took his other hand to work across the scribbles nearer the top of the page. “These are the plateaus along the northern boarder of the eastern plains. As we travel, I’ll update my map,” he shuffled the papers, so the first one was on top again, “for accuracy.”