Author's note: this story continues my tale, 'Going feet First', and follows Galen, a soldier once in Vietnam, now on a journey into a medieval fantasy world filled with Elves, Magic, and all kinds of fantastical creatures.
Welcome to Raska.
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Going Feet first
Chapter 4: Crossing the line
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The sun had begun to set over the waving yellow fields that covered the vast plains of the province commonly known as the Rock Lands. Stones of all sizes littered the region, from pebbles smaller than mice to boulders larger than elephants. They appeared everywhere, in every direction, but were more concentrated around the half-mile wide trench that cracked open the surface of the world and stretched with the flowing fields into the west, far beyond what the eye could see.
There was little variety in vegetation or color aside from the sea of golden grass, which reached out in both the west and northern directions. To the south lay a line of mountains running east-to-west, with rolling foothills before them that formed the southern border of the Rock lands. On the eastern border lay a thick, lush forest that went from the edge of the foothills to somewhere beyond the horizon in the north.
At the edge of the forest, a single blue butterfly laid hiding in the shadow of a fair-sized boulder. Its broad wings twitched back and forth, lacking the strength to properly beat as its antennae drooped down to its feet. Its body, normally blinding in its radiant blue glow, now only flickered as though it were a candle surviving on its final drops of wax. For this winged insect, time was running short.
On the opposite side of its rock, the sun was sinking low into the western sky, the pale blue moon peeking out from in between the mountains in the south to take its place. Just as the natural satellite cast its light upon the butterfly, the bug's antennae sprang up as new life breathed into its body.
All over its exoskeleton a fierce aqua light flared. Its insect wings retracted into its back while its two fore legs expanded several times over in both thickness and in size before taking on a broader, flat shape. These new wings emerged from the light as the rest of the body fattened and feathered over, settling into the form of a vertebrate creature.
Where an insect had once lain, there was now a sparrow with a wingspan as wide as one's hand was long, with pale blue feathers matching the color of the moon above. Two long, solitary feathers replaced the antennae jutting out from its forehead, only now they curled back like two small horns above its light-blue eyes and dark, black beak.
With a degree of caution, the blue sparrow peered around the rock it hid behind to look into the western sky. The sun was nearly set, with its last quarter barely above the horizon, but the shape shifting creature could not wait any longer.
In a flurry of feathers, it leapt out from behind the boulder, its body cast wholly into both sunlight and moonlight at once. From the second the last lights of the dying day touched its feathers, the creature felt as though its strength and power was being sapped from its core, its very life-force draining from its veins into that sinking, red star. Only the direct gaze of the moon at its back kept the bird in flight, feeding it energy as fast as it was drained away.
Despite this constant power-shift in its body, the sparrow soared high above the land, reaching magnificent speeds unobtainable by any natural beast. Then the very winds across the region shifted, changing their direction to keep at the bird's back before swiftly picking up in its wake. In the distance was its destination, and with another beat of its wings it flew off toward the mighty crack in Raska's crust.
All who knew of this open gap in the world called it by one name: the Sundered Trench.
Those with vision of a magical nature could see the arcane power bleeding out of the depths of the divide into the world above. Hunters and gatherers could grow fat from the bounty of resources offered by the forest growing on its floor. Masons could go wild with the endless supply of granite that made up the walls. To any who held control over it, the Trench was a resource fit to build a nation, even an empire, a fact that turned two certain groups to bloodshed.
Flying a great distance above the ground, the bird cast its eyes upon a certain spot in this worldly divide that was still more than a league away. With a power as supernatural as its other abilities the sparrow's vision zoomed in on a place where the natural demeanor of the Trench came to an end.
A stone wall, too thick for any normal weapon to break down, spanned the breadth of the divide. Artillery pieces of ballistae and catapults stood primed and ready on the battlements with archers scanning the area for any sign of movement. There were only two ways past this wall. The first was using the road along a cliff's edge, and the second was through the large tunnel at the base, made for the river to pass through. Unfortunately for would-be intruders, there was an iron grate built specifically to stop anything larger than a fish from passing through.
Atop the cliff, where the Trench met the plains above, the ruined stone base that once supported a scout tower was still burning with residual fire magic. The rest the building and its soldiers had collapsed into the divide and smashed into the jagged cliffs, becoming nothing more than a pile of rubble and bodies.
In the immediate area around the tower's remains, a hundred men in metal armor were swarming about in a frenzy, most of them moving along the cliff road. Some of these Knights carried bodies or helped to clear the tower's rubble while others barked orders. The rest remained on guard, weapons held as though a battle were imminent.
Closing its eyes for a moment, the sparrow retreated into its mind, paralyzing its muscles to keep itself in a glide over the plains. Then its consciousness severed connections to the body and fell free of its physical host before shooting out ahead in the form of a white wisp.
A new, sentient mind was sought out by this spiritual being, one free of will or lacking the reluctance to surrender control of its body to another. Within seconds one was possessed by the bird. The former host spirit was pushed aside to make room for the invading wisp in a second as it rushed to claim the creature's vision. When it did, it was greeted by the sight of an armored men titan before it.
Paying little mind to the size of the human it observed, the bird's consciousness looked to the faces of both the knight and them man he held a conversation with. Lacking any hearing organs the bird began to read their lips as they spoke, utilizing the compound eyes of its new body to read both their lips at once.
Soon it became clear the men were discussing demons and Dark Elves and a revenge that must be reaped. They openly wondered if the attack was done by an enemy scouting group, taking out a guard tower so their main army could move undetected or was simply done in the name of harassing them. Little did these men notice the small ant at their feet whose eyes had begun to glow blue while it crawled onto their leader's sabaton and up his leg plates.
Not a moment later, a man in leather armor came riding in upon a horse. At once the ant turned to see he was shouting his report of Dark Elves nearing a cavern entrance that was not too far away, and that they had a human captive with them. At that second, the blue glow died away from the ant's eyes and the tiny insect mindlessly returning to its food-gathering task with little wonder as to what had just occurred.
Back in the distance, the blue sparrow's eyes flared as they opened and pulsed in reaction to its consciousness rejoining its body. It banked hard right toward a specific location in the Sundered Trench and began to dive. There was only one place where the Dark Elves would be taking their prisoner and if the bird's guess was correct, it already knew who that prisoner was.
A trail of blue light arced across the sky behind the bird as it sailed toward the ground. Any other creature would break apart at this speed, yet this mystical being remained whole and undeterred. Though it was still half a league away, sparrow could use its impossible vision to see the large group moving through the forest of the trench. Not fifty paces ahead of them was the cave to which they were headed; a dark tunnel barely high enough for a horse and rider to enter.
You will not take him down there!
the bird screamed mentally, its body erupting into blue flames as its shot like lighting toward the Elves.
