Aridian's Torch
By Jay Jones

  Chapter One

…Kell was afraid. The last of his courage was gone with the coming of night. About him the forest was closing in as the last rays of sunlight faded. The dense foliage turned from green to black as the long shadows joined together and surrounded the clearing in which he stood.

 Now it was night and the tears that had been threatening all day escaped to run freely down his face. At twelve years of age he was loath to cry, but as night fell the hopelessness of his situation finally overwhelmed him. Lost and alone in Rooftop Forest Kell held little hope he would survive the night. His blonde hair flopped down to cover his blue eyes as he bowed his head in defeat, hugged his arms to his chest and dropped to his knees. Shivering with cold and fatigue, Kell cursed his luck to have been separated from the rest of his clan. Dressed only in light clothing the biting cold of the Autumn night was penetrating his slim body. All about him he heard the eerie sounds of the forest night, the crack of a stick, a crashing of undergrowth, then the hunting call of some forest denizen. He was afraid, dark visions of the tales hunters told on cold nights around the glow of the village meeting hall fire began to plague his mind. He hadn’t been afraid then, with friends and family all about. Then his imagination turned every sound into a creature of the night about to pounce. He knew many of the tales were false but some were true. Wolves did roam the forest, looking for the weak. Fast-bears, while not numerous, were real enough and could outrun a fresh horse, let alone a slight boy. As the night advanced, a pure and very physical cold began to descend about Kell. He began to shiver and as the cold of the night deepened, the shivering turned to shaking.  Then his body grew numb. He was still cold but it didn’t matter anymore.

A golden haze filtered through the trees, heralding a new day and slowly spread warmth through the trees despite the dampness of the past night. Eventually the warmth penetrated the boy huddled in the middle of the clearing. Kell struggled to come to his senses. He knew he wasn’t home, the familiar smells were absent and he was cold and damp. Dew had wet his thin cotton blouse adding to his sense of wrongness. Kell let his eyes flicker open and the sight of the forest allowed him to recall his predicament. Gaining his feet somewhat unsteadily he looked at the trees that formed an endless circle around him and wondered what to do. The forest is so big he thought. I just don’t know which way to go. I could be going around in circles and never know it. Where is everyone? Why haven’t they found me? I don’t think they will find me. I’m alone and it is up to me to survive.  He looked around at the surrounding forest once more, hoping for a miracle, hoping to see his people appear out of the forest gloom. At last, hungry and thirsty, he set off through the trees trying to take a downhill path. He hoped this would lead him to one of the many gullies and streams that ran through the forest. As he walked under the canopy of trees, he searched constantly for food plants and soon spotted a Roundberry bush. Greedily, he plucked the sweet berries from the bush, savoring the sugary juice, easing the dryness of his throat. Water would not be far away. The bushes always grew near a water source. Kell walked on down the slope and sure enough a melodic tinkling announced the stream he was searching for.

Jumping down the slippery bank Kell drank his fill of the cool clear forest water. Crouching by the bank, his sense of being alone returned. No longer hungry or thirsty, his fears of the previous night arose again. The hairs on the back of his neck rose. He glanced about nervously, but nothing appeared to be around. I am just letting my fears get the better of me, Kell thought, trying to dismiss the feeling that he was being watched. Rising up from the bank, he made the decision to find high ground. Maybe if he climbed a hill he would be able to gain a sense of where he was.

On the other side of the stream a pair of small curious eyes watched the boy, as he rose and left. The creature had silently watched the boy as he slaked his thirst. It was a curious animal by nature and the sight of a human man-child alone in the forest had aroused its interest.

Nimbly it skipped across the rocks jutting out from the stream bottom almost slipping on the last rock. A hind foot dipped into the water. Vigorously shaking the offended limb, and muttering to itself, the animal set its long pointed nose to the ground and picked up the young human’s scent. Then it began to follow.

The trip through the forest had been hard. Kell’s water flask, carefully filled back at the stream, was nearly empty—though he had sipped only sparingly from it. Fortunately, it was Autumn and many of the forest’s trees were laden with ripe nuts, so the boy was not hungry. His biggest problem was keeping warm at night. His cotton shirt was warm enough during the day. But at night he almost froze. Kell had tried to sleep in the trees the night before, thinking to gain the protection of height from prowling animals. However, he soon discovered he was in more danger from the cold than of being eaten. Kell had climbed back down to the ground and burrowed into a mound of fallen leaves. Under the leaves it had been warmer and it kept the dew off him. Kell hoped it covered his scent from marauding animals, too. After two days of constant travel Kell had gained the top of a hill. It was barren of trees. Perhaps it was just too rocky.

Climbing up onto a huge boulder, Kell straightened up and gazed out at the view below. He was amazed at just how far he could see, and surprised at how truly enormous the forest was. It spread for miles about him. There was no sign of the sea to the East, but far to the West was the brown of the plains. Kell knew that they were the plains although he had never seen them. They were even larger than the forest and so flat. In places they were crossed by long snaking lines. Trees followed these lines and Kell thought perhaps they were channels where water flowed.

Looking to his north, Kell could see the Broken-back Mountains. A tale of his village told of how a giant had stepped in the middle of the range and caused it to sag, hence the name. To Kell, the range did appear to dip in the middle. It was shaped like the crest of the moon tipped on its side. Snow tipped all but the smallest mountains in the center.

To the South the forest extended for miles before ending at a swamp. Not many ventured into that swamp. It was said that if the creatures of the swamp didn’t get you, then swamp sickness would. Kell shuddered, he was glad that he did not have to venture into that place.

Again he looked to the East but the sea was not there. Far in the distance the sky on the horizon was a shade bluer than the rest of the sky and there perhaps was the sea. Kell dropped his gaze and climbed down from the rock. He was a long way from home and it was obvious to him that his journey had taken him even further away. Sinking back against the side of the rock, he cradled his head in his arms as disappointment sank its cruel talons in his heart. Tears trickled slowly down his face and dropped to the bare ground beneath him. He watched through bleary eyes as they spread out into dark damp circles that evaporated to nothing.

The little creature that had followed Kell lay hidden behind a log, silently watching. Rumbletuft could see the young human was sorrowful and he was sad for it.

What should he do? His first impulse was to find the Wizard and bring him here but by then the youngster may have moved and finding him again could prove more than a challenge. His second thought was to go to the young human and get him to follow him to the Wizard’s cottage, however that presented a problem, namely courage, of which Rumbletuft knew he had precious little. He swished his furry tail in agitation, while his front paws dug tiny grooves in the earth. What to do? What to do? His long snout quivered in agitation. There was no question of course what he should do. It is the doing that was hard. Still if he returned to the wizard without the young human he could just imagine the trouble he would be in and Chalemon was difficult enough these days in any case. All right he’d do it, he would walk over to the young human and introduce himself. I’ll do it right now, before I think about it again. He left his place of concealment. Kell was buried in miserable thoughts. How was he going to cross all that forest? He couldn’t even find his way back to his friends before and now he was never going to see them again. No doubt, he’d be prey for some hungry animal. He’d never see his seaside village again. Never eat his mother’s fresh baked bread. Never swim for clams or dive off cliff tops with his friends. He’d never—and at that point a long thin cold snout pushed its way up underneath his armpit toward his buried face and said, “Ahem.”  

The effect this had on both of them was explosive. Adrenaline shot through Kell’s veins, priming his body for an instant acrobatic feat, in this case leaping backwards up onto a rock four feet high, where he crouched in fighting stance breathing in staggered gasps. Rumbletuft on the other hand, terrified by Kell’s unbelievably fast reaction, had beaten his own swift retreat back to his log for cover. Unfortunately for Rumbletuft, instead of hiding behind the log as he had before, he had in his panic headed for the log’s hollow end. It was wide enough for his head and shoulders, but not quite large enough for the rest of him. This left his rump exposed well outside the hollow log.

Kell’s first view of his attacker therefore was a fluffy tail and two short hind legs that were scrabbling furiously at the loose earth in front of the hollow log. The animal was trying the impossible task of forcing an oversized rump into too small a space.

From within the log a muffled wail could be heard. It struck Kell as highly amusing, his laughter bubbled out unbidden. He doubted whether this creature was all that dangerous. Jumping down from his perch on the rock, Kell settled down to wait and see just what the animal was.

The frantic leg movements slowed after some time. The wailing also ceased. Slowly, the creature backed out of the log and turned its snout around to face Kell. Its expression was a mixture, both timorous and sheepish. It looked around as if to reassure itself that no one else had witnessed any of the proceeding events. Satisfied no one had, it looked directly at Kell.

 “Ahem,” it said. “I wonder if I may be assistance?”

Kell felt his mouth drop open. Had the little furry animal just spoken? Had it just asked whether he required assistance?  “You just spoke,” he replied, in total bewilderment.  

Rumbletuft acknowledged this with a smile which, given his long snout, came out more like a snarl but his vigorous head nodding gave Kell the affirmative answer to his question.

“What are you?” Kell asked, looking at the furry animal. It was about the size of a large cat. Bright inquisitive eyes looked at him over a long pointed muzzle. Its body was set low to the ground on four solid short legs and it trailed a long bushy tail behind.

“I am Rumbletuft of the Quafts,” said Rumbletuft, with a low bow. “Assistant, and personal organizer for Chalemon, Wizard of Rooftop Forest,” he finished.  

Kell took all this in silently.  Maybe it could help him. It lived in the forest after all and knew a wizard. The wizard was his best chance of surviving the forest, Kell realized.

Rumbletuft was growing impatient, the young human was just standing there looking at him and the day was already half gone. If he was to rescue the youngster, they needed to get down off the hilltop before dark.

 “Come young one, I’ll take you to the wizard. You’ll be safe there. If we stay here much longer, a less friendly animal might decide we look like dinner.” With that Rumbletuft started down the hill.

Kell followed, he didn’t have much choice and the little animal was right it was time to get off the hill before dark and find a place to hide for the night.

As Rumbletuft had thought, it took them the rest of the day to reach the bottom of the hill. Night was quickly falling and finding a safe place to sleep was on his mind. The trees had closed around them again making Rumbletuft feel more secure. The forest was a big place and hiding was his specialty. Spotting a tight bunch of berry bushes, Rumbletuft ushered the young human into their midst.

The aroma of the bushes’ flowers would help hide their scent and the thorns would discourage larger animals from entering. The young human stopped long enough to gather a hand full of the sweet berries before burrowing, much to Rumbletuft amazement, into the dead leaf litter and disappeared from sight. Well, thought Rumbletuft, not so helpless after all and did the same himself.

The early morning light filtered through the trees casting dappled shadows that danced across the earth with the slight breeze. From the middle of the leaf litter a long thin snout poked up like a periscope. Quietly it snuffed the breeze looking for any scent that might proclaim danger. Once Rumbletuft was certain there was nothing about to pounce on him, he emerged fully from the leaves and set about grooming himself. The hardest part of this exercise was always the butt of one’s tail, he thought, scrabbling around in tight circles, trying to reach the elusive area. Dead leaves scattered everywhere, until thoroughly exhausted Rumbletuft panted to a stop. Kell, had emerged somewhere in the middle of this performance and after brushing himself down briefly he settled back to watch Rumbletuft’s antics with amusement. “Good morning,” He said.

Rumbletuft continued to groom himself. Then, glancing at Kell, he said, “Morning, young human. Better we go now, don’t you think.” He then set of before Kell really knew what was happening.  The boy scrambled out of the thicket after him.

* * *

A short time later, another snout was investigating the area within the thicket where  Rumbletuft and Kell had slept. This snout was long and hairless, pale flesh in color with a few hairs sprouting singularly here and there. A sinuous, black body supported the creature’s flat head from which two small glowing red eyes surveyed the scene. Short legs with clawed feet scratched at the earth where Kell had laid for the night, releasing Kell’s scent into the morning air, another animal’s scent was noted by the creature as well. Whining with excitement, the creature cast its snout about to gain knowledge of the direction its quarry had gone. It set its snout to the ground and began to follow the scent, dribbling a trail of slimy mucous, as it went.

“The Master will be pleased.  I’ll follow the trail. Yes, yes, until I’m sure, must be sure,” it whispered, over and over again as it went. What reward will the Master give his slave for the knowledge of where the one in the prophecy is? Perhaps a mate to own for itself, or even real red meat instead of just the maggots.  Oh, yes the Master would be pleased, Smerl thought.