Yamara - Book 1 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Then I noticed two things. The first was how hot it was. Unbearably hot, in fact. The sun beat down mercilessly on us, and a quick glance around me showed no vegetation or even shade in which to hide from its harsh effects. The second was that I felt burdened. It took me a moment to figure it out, and when I did I was left speechless. I felt as though I weighed more then I had before, though my body and equipment was unchanged.

The wizard had died by now, of course, and I crawled over to him and pulled my dagger out of his throat. He did not seem to mind when I went through his pouches and robbed him of everything of possible value.

Not certain what I would do with all the strange things I had found on his body, I nevertheless was concerned that I might have somehow ended up in a location so remote from anything I was used to that anything I could use to barter for my continued well being might come in handy. More of that survival instinct I had learned at a young age. It did not help me when I heard a faint raspy noise, like something hard sliding along rock.

I looked around myself quickly and saw nothing, then I glanced up at the narrow walls of the gully. I hate to admit it, but I was caught off guard then. Surprised even, by the large reptilian head rapidly descending towards me. Before I could draw my sword to strike at it, its fangs sunk into my shoulder. I staggered back from it, and it let go easily. I prepared myself for a fight and was again caught off guard when it did not advance on me. In fact, it seemed to almost be ignoring me, turning its attention instead towards the dead wizard.

I backed away from it slowly, thinking that perhaps I could find a more favorable position to fight it from, or better yet, that I could just outrun it. Now that it was down in the gully with me, I could see it was a big insect of some sort. More of a cross between a lizard and a spider then anything. Easily 10 feet from head to the back of its abdomen, it was covered in some sort of hard chitin shell or plating that did not seem to limit its multi-legged movements in the least.

The spider thing examined the wound in the wizard's throat and then stuck out its forked tongue quickly to lick it. Satisfied with what it found, it continued to lap away at the congealing blood. When it had taken care of that, it worried at the wizards neck with its teeth, trying to force more blood out. Well, without a living heart to pump the blood, the critter was mostly unsuccessful. I stumbled then, trying to back away further. The creature had changed tactics and was now contenting itself with slowly eating the wizard.

I tried to regain my feet but had trouble doing so, my legs did not want to obey me. I tried to raise my arm to brace myself against the rocky wall of the gully but it too, betrayed me by hanging limply at my side. I knew then why the spizzard (part spider, part lizard - a drugged mind seldom thinks rationally) had ignored me after biting me. I had been poisoned. I tried desperately to fight off its effects, but only managed to lose what little position I had and ended up rolling myself over onto my belly. I could smell the hard baked ground and feel the heat radiating off of it onto my cheek. Desperate to escape, my heart thundered in my chest and my breathing quickened rapidly. I realized I was helping the poison spread even further by doing this, but I was understandably a little bit upset at my inability to defend or protect myself.

Imagine my delight, or lack thereof, when I felt the spider try to bite me again in the back after several minutes. I considered myself lucky when I realized it had missed my skin and instead had only managed to bite into the soft leather armor. Then I realized it did not matter, for it had picked me up and was dragging me off somewhere to be his next meal.

A quick death, as it turned out, might have been preferable. Instead, I was ensheathed in a silk cocoon. On one hand, at least I was out of the sun. But on the other, the silk cocoon acted like a blanket and I was kept miserably hot. I do not know how long I was kept like that, but I know a few days passed before I began to feel that I could move again. Unfortunately, the cocoon was a prison from which I was not going to be able to escape on my own. Then the foul creature stuck his head back inside and bit me again, this time almost gently, and in addition to injecting fresh poison into my system, he stuck around and drank all of the blood from the wound. I was not looking forward to my fate.

No food and no water had already begun to take their toll on me, but from that point on, I began to lose my sense of reality quickly. During my increasingly rare moments of lucidity, I still struggled to try and free myself, but my conscious mind had mostly given up, it was the dark self centered bitch within me that would not die.

That was a good thing too, I think, because the next time I became aware of my surroundings I head the sounds of conflict. Eventually the sounds died out, and I wondered if the spider had won or if I had found something new intent on eating me. My hopes grew when I heard the sound, muffled and indistinguishable through the silk cocoon, of voices. What could be worse then hanging upside down in a cocoon for several days paralyzed from a poison while an incredibly hot climate took its toll on me? Nothing. Well, that is what I thought until my would be rescuers cut the silk holding the cocoon hanging from the rocky overhang above me. It was perhaps a 20 foot fall onto hard rocks below. The silk cushioned me quite a bit, I suppose, or otherwise I would have ended up more then just bruised and battered.

It took them literally hours to cut me out of the thing, apparently the silk was not the same as I was used to, for it was incredibly strong and resilient to cutting. When I finally emerged, I was still groggy from my ordeal and partially suffering from the effects of the poison. One of them, a very tall woman dressed in an outlandish outfit, gave me some water, which was warm and not particularly tasty, but very welcome nonetheless. I tried to look around and recover my wits, but instead I overloaded my senses and passed out again.

When next I awoke it seemed to be dusk. A small campfire burned nearby and I was wrapped in my cloak and laying close to it. The others were huddled around it too. First I saw the woman that had given me water, she smiled oddly at me and I noticed that she had distinctly elven features. Pointy ears, high cheekbones, anemically thin... definitely a elf. She had blond hair cropped close to her head, pale blue eyes, and was quite beautiful, in an outlandish sort of way. What surprised me was her clothing, she had a cloak pulled loosely about her body to protect her from the chill of the evening and a pair of comfortable looking boots on. The rest I filled in from my memory, which consisted of a loose skirt that fell only partway down her legs, several water skins, and a few weapons that I could not remember.

Sitting next to her was a giant of a man. Sort of. He was 9 feet tall if he was an inch. Black eyes and mottled green skin on a distinctly reptilian face. Even considering his size, I could tell that he was incredibly strong from the breadth of his shoulders and the look of his hands. He too, had a large cloak wrapped about him, but occasionally he would reach out and turn the spit over the fire and I could see that he wore some sort of scale mail that was made from the scales of a creature I was unfamiliar with instead of steel.

Two others sat around the fire, next to the giant iguana was a 6 foot tall man with coal black skin and deep blue eyes the color of sapphires. His cloak was thrown over his shoulders and he was ignoring those around him as he sharpened a weathered steel battle axe. The way he handled it I knew he was not only an expert with weapons, but that he was taking extreme care with it. He had a bastard sword at his side, a two handed sword laying on the ground beside him, obviously next to be sharpened and maintained, and a heavy crossbow across his back. He wore a set of scale armor similar to the giants.

The last one of my rescuers was undeniably a human woman. Golden hair with reddish highlights framed her brown eyes and delicate face. She looked far too innocent and beautiful to be amongst such a group, but then she looked at me and our eyes met. I could instantly tell there were hidden strengths and secrets within her. She wore a cape wrapped around herself as well, but it was open in front to allow her to reach out and help the giant cook the meal. Her arms were bare, as was much of the rest of her body when I finally caught a glimpse of it. She wore a strange looking one piece light tan colored outfit consisting of a bustier that was open at the sides below her breasts and in front, revealing the top of her well defined stomach. The two pieces of fabric that covered her ample breasts connected just below her navel. From there it turned into a loin cloth. Two additional straps rode high on her hips and joined her outfit where her loin cloth began for additional support and also to support the saber at her side and several daggers concealed about her person. Like all the rest, she had several waterskins close at hand.

"How are you feeling?" The human girl asked me, her accent so strange she had to repeat herself before I could understand it.

I tried to speak but found my voice was not ready yet. After coughing against the scratch in my throat, I opened my cloak and pulled out one of my own two waterskins and took a drink out of it. Somewhat relieved, I was finally able to answer. "I've been better. Where am I?"

I glanced at the food cooking, thinking some food would do me good, even though I was still very light headed and nauseous from my ordeal. I was surprised to finally recognize it as my former captor, or at least a section of him.

"We are five days east and north of Neewon, on the eastern edge of the badlands there," The girl said to me. I call her a girl because while I was only 19 years old myself, she seemed a few years younger then I.

The names meant nothing to me. My blank look was noted.

"Where are you from?" The elf asked me, studying me carefully.

I took another pull on my waterskin and pulled my cloak back about me, hot as it had been during the day, it was cold at night. "Ossulmere, originally. Am I in the southern parts of Halador now?"

"Halador?" The human asked me, equally confused about the name as I was about Neewon. "Ossulmere? Where are these places?"

"How did you get here?" The elf asked again. The lizard-man paid little attention to the conversation, focusing mostly on the meal. The human man seemed oblivious as well, instead concentrating on his weapons.

I considered my situation as best I could, which was not saying much. Hungry, tired, sick, and dehydrated, I had little choice but to hope my rescuers continued to treat me well. "A wizard attacked me in the Pirate Isles, I had apparently upset someone or other at one point and they decided they did not want me to continue living. Well, as the wizard tried to cast a spell on me, I managed to stick him in the throat with a dagger. The spell apparently went wild and both of us ended up here, although he was dead in a matter of minutes from the wound. Then that giant spider attacked me, the rest you know." I left out my involvement with the Ornithrym, I figured it was better to keep quiet about that for now, just in case.

"Pirate Isles? I've never heard of them, are they in the Sea of Lost Souls?" The girl asked me. "Oh, and that wasn't a spider, that was a silk crawler."

The elf seemed to be on to something, however, for she spoke up before I could ask what in the nine hells the Sea of Lost Souls was. "Magic? What is that? Do you mean psionics? Does none of the areas we speak of sound familiar to you?"

I shook my head, a little surprised by the possibility, but not to badly, since I already knew I was not in the same place I had been. I glanced up at the night sky, looking for the familiar constellations of Halador. My mouth fell open then, and I can admit to being totally caught off guard. "Farther..."

"What do you mean? You're farther from your home then you thought? Is it on the other side of the Sea of Lost Souls?" I had to give the girl credit, she really was trying to understand and help.

"Look," I snapped at her, "I have no idea what a Sea of Lost Souls is! I've never heard of any of these places you mention, and I'm really very lost here! And why in the nine hells is that sun so damned small?"

That got their attention. The jolly green giant stopped turning the spit and instead stared at me. The man stopped sharpening his great sword and did likewise. The elf's eyes widened as she figured out what I was about to discover. The girl was on the same pace as me though, she looked up and looked back at me in surprise. "That is Kurth, the smaller sun that is always in the sky. Yorinn has only just set an hour or so past."

Kurth? Yorinn? I had no idea what those names were. "This isn't Halador, is it?" I asked, my voice dropping to a whisper.

"This world is called Acathia," the elf responded gently, ahead of me and realizing what a shock I was beginning to go through.

"Oh wow," The girl said, playing catch up. "You're from another world! The soothsayers were right! Did you come from the sky too?"

"My name is Sandala, you are welcome to come with us if you like," the elf woman said to me, indicating I should try and ignore the girl.

"Yeah, my name is Brina, please come with us, I'll tell you all about Acathia if you tell me about your world!"

I was a bit annoyed by the girls enthusiasm. I caught the man scowling, and decided that the more I looked at him, the more he reminded me of a dwarf, even though he had no beard. Or any hair at all, from the looks of him. The giant / lizard / man just looked on with interest, but at least he was turning the spit again.

"I will travel with you, my name is Yamara," I said to them, trying to keep my mental balance.

Brina opened her mouth to say more but Sandala stopped her by leaning over and laying her hand on her arm. "Brina, Yamara needs to eat, drink, and rest some more, save your questions for later."

Brina appeared annoyed, but nodded and smiled at me again. I took another drink of water and found myself suddenly numb. I drank more and found that I had nearly emptied one of my waterskins already. I nodded thankfully to Sandala and laid back down to rest a bit.

"She's not having any of my water," I heard the man mutter as he went back to working on his weapons.

"Kryl, shut up you witless Acathian! Can't you see she needs our help?" Brina snapped at him, favoring him with a blistering look.

"Is that what humans are called here?" I asked, sitting up too quickly.

Kryl shot me a dark look before he got up and put his weapons back about his person and stomped off into the cold night.

"Nay, Yamara," Sandala explained to me. "Acathians may have once been related to humans, but for countless generations they have been bred for fighting, either in armies or for gladiators. Very tough, very strong, and very powerful, but as you can see, they can be rather difficult too. Kryl is a hard worker and a very reliable man to have at your back, but he's as stubborn as a nezmir."

Before I could ask my next question, Sandala laughed lightly and said, "Sorry, a nezmir is a giant lizard used to pull wagons and caravans. Very unreliable though, it's not uncommon for them to eat their handlers."

I nodded my thanks to her, then shook my head at all the new information. I finished off my first waterskin and laid my head back down.

"Don't worry about Kryl, he just doesn't like changes much. He's happiest when he has some hard work set out for him and nothing to slow him down." Brina said, smiling at me again and trying to make me feel at ease.

I nodded again, to caught up in my own thoughts to appreciate her good intentions. I glanced at the giant and said, "Alright, then what are you?"

"Arktan," The giant said, pointing with his thumb towards his chest. "I am Faradwim."

I nodded. Of course he was, it made perfect sense. I stared up at the night sky, wondering if one of the tiny dots above me was Halador and how I would ever get back there.

The silk crawler was cooked fully soon. I was hesitant to try it, but I had to admit that it tasted pretty good. The meat was rather juicy, which made my mouth water more. I was well on the road to recover after my second helping of it. By the time we were done with it, I was ready to sleep some more. I still had so many questions, but my body demanded that I follow its orders first.

I never saw Kryl come back to the camp and stare long and hard at me. I never heard the four of them have a conversation about including me in their group, or at least Sandala and Brina arguing with Kryl about including me while Arktan just sat quietly and listened unless someone specifically addressed him. I had no idea of the decision they reached until I awoke the next morning to Brina's gentle touch on my shoulder.

Continued in Chapter 3

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