The Land of Broken Roads

-I see a fence,- said Socks, well into the heat of the afternoon. Since he was the tallest, everyone else had to keep walking to see it, but sure enough, there it was. All wood, with thin posts and smaller branches woven between them to make a mat. It looked weather-worn and forlorn, with no difference in the scenery on one side or the other.

“Where’d they get the wood?” Dirt asked, since he hadn’t seen a tree all day.

Marina said, “Trees don’t grow well here. The soil is loose and strong winds tend to push them over, if they grow much at all. The city keeps a bunch of groves, though. You’ll see them when we get closer. Back in the One Kingdom days, wood and charcoal were brought from elsewhere and traded for grain, but that’s been a long time now. Lots of cold people in the winter.”

“Have you seen winter?” Dirt asked.

“Of course,” said Marina. “Happens every year.”

“Oh. Well, how cold is it? Is it as cold as water, or colder than that?”

“As cold as which water?” asked Ignasi, cracking a smile.

“You know, like when you jump in, and it’s cold,” said Dirt. “And it takes you a moment to get used to it. Like that.”

-The water in the pond wasn’t very cold,- said Socks.

“Oh. Yeah. I guess you’re right. I was thinking of that basin.”

“It’s probably colder than that,” said Ignasi.

“Is there anywhere you can go that it isn’t winter?” asked Dirt.

“Yes. You can go inside. Marina, shouldn’t there be a road somewhere by now?”

She walked the rest of the way to the fence and pulled away one of the branches, which crumbled in her hand. “This fence is about to collapse. We’re still too far from town. Whoever’s field this was isn’t tending it anymore. Socks, do you smell any sheep or goats? Any cattle?”

-No. Should I?- he replied. Curious, he raised his nose high to sniff the wind. -No animals.-

“Yeah, this one’s abandoned. So we’re probably on the far end of the field, and it’s a field no one owns. The roads’ll be farther in,” said Marina, with an ease in her voice that didn’t sound quite natural.

Hèctor didn’t say anything. He kicked straight through the fence, shattering it into twigs and dust, and kept walking. It seemed he was pretty clear on what he thought had happened and had no interest in pretending otherwise. His footfalls were heavy with dismay, and that killed the conversation for everyone else.

They trudged on in silence, their steps heavy despite having no packs on their backs. Dirt looked around for minds, wondering if he’d find something interesting, but he could see nothing except his companions, all the little things that lived in the grass, and the grass itself, which looked almost like a smooth carpet of fog, with so many tiny minds so close together.

It seemed like it should have been obvious, now that Dirt thought about it. Why would a whole city be safe and alive, only a couple days’ travel from a big town where everyone was dead? And which hadn’t been touched for years? There was still plenty of stuff there, so if any people remained to go get it, they would have. Maybe they wouldn’t have stayed there, with all the ghosts, but surely it was easier than making new stuff.

No, it seemed increasingly likely that Marina’s city was all going to be dead, too, which made him wonder what they were going to do with the three humans. They couldn’t walk fast enough to travel with him and Socks everywhere, so bringing them along wasn’t an option. Could he and Socks just leave them, though? He supposed they could make it back to the tower, get new packs, and go home after that. It wasn’t that far, even for slow humans.

Still, thinking about it made him uneasy. He’d been hoping to see where they settled in so he could come back someday when Socks was big enough to be safe from the Devourer. Marina would probably go live with the dryads when she got close to bearing her young, so Dirt could visit her there, but what about Hèctor and Ignasi?

-I smell more goblins,­- said Socks, to everyone.

“I wanna come this time,” said Dirt. He tossed his little pack to Ignasi to hold and jumped onto Socks’ back. “We’ll be right back. You can keep walking if you want. We’ll find you.”

Hèctor just nodded, then scowled again, his face betraying something deeper than his angry exterior. Regret, possibly. He kept walking without slowing down much, and the other two followed.

Socks left at a run, following the scent on the wind. He hopped over a fence, crossed the large field, and hopped the fence at the far side. Nearby, Dirt saw a mound all grown over with grass, which might have been a house once. It had something poking up that might have been a wooden plank. There was another one a short distance away, right outside another fence.

“Hey, jump really high for a second. Let’s see if we’re close enough to see the city from up there,” thought Dirt. He held a little more tightly and Socks leaped from the ground with all his strength, burning a great deal of mana at once. The sensation of speed gripped him from hair to toes and Dirt squealed as soon as he could catch his breath. The air slowed. Their momentum slowed.

For an instant, they hovered in the air. Dirt looked as hard as he could in every direction, and sure enough, in the distance was a ring of gray stone located across a sparkling river. Only a few hours’ journey on foot, or a few minutes for Socks, and they’d be there. “We’re close! It’s right over there,” said Dirt, sending a mental picture.

Then the fall began, and Dirt held on for dear life again. They hit the ground hard, but Socks was moving forward fast enough to absorb the worst of it and keep running.

The goblins weren’t much farther, a pack of at least ten. Socks threw Dirt right into the middle of them, which was perfect. They were so surprised they hardly had time to scream with their high, raspy voices before Dirt started swinging the staff with both hands and bashing their heads in. With mana in his arms, it almost didn’t matter where he hit them. The staff wouldn’t break, but the goblins sure did.

Socks grabbed one with his teeth and front paw and tore it in two, flinging the top half at the next one. The thick, heavy corpse slammed into it with a resounding thud, and Socks pinned it down and tore that one apart, too.

Mindful of his clean pants, Dirt danced away from the spray of blood and bashed another sideways in the knees, then straight down on its head. The skull shattered, but fortunately it burst backward, not forward.

A few heartbeats later it was over and the goblins were all dead. One of them had a rusty axe that looked human and another had a broken sword. Socks took the axe, then turned over two more goblin corpses until he found a second axe. He spun them dramatically through the air with his mind, looking pleased with himself. Then on a whim, he picked up one of the more intact goblin corpses and tried hacking at it with the axes. They held up a lot better than a sword would, swiping right through the body with a splash of gore while remaining unharmed.

-I want a big weapon. One big enough for me. I wonder if we can find one somewhere,- said the pup, excitedly imagining how much fun that would be.

“That would be the scariest thing ever! Can you imagine? Just swoosh, and kill that tentacle monster with one swing! What kind would you want?”

-I don’t know. One that wouldn’t break. But it doesn’t need a handle. It could be all blade.-

“How about a big ring, a great big circle, that’s only sharp on the outside? You could wear it around your neck if you get tired of carrying it with your mind,” said Dirt.

Socks thought about that and decided he loved it. ­-The inside could be soft. Then it would be nice to wear. I bet no wolf has ever had something like that before. Now I want to make one.-

“Well, we’ll keep our eyes out for enough metal. And maybe Hèctor knows how to make metal stick together or go into the right shape.”

-He might know,- said Socks. He leaned down and sniffed the ground, then the air. Then he started wagging his tail and said, ­-There are more goblins around. I smell another group somewhere.-

Dirt looked around for minds but didn’t see anything close enough to recognize as goblins. “How far away?”

-It’s hard to tell. The scents carry a longer distance on the wind here because there’s nothing but grass.-

Dirt and Socks looked at each other for a moment, then in the direction of the wind. Dirt rubbed his toe on the grass to get a bit of blood off. “Let’s go back to the others, and then go to the city. We should warn the people there not to go out because there are too many goblins around.”

They both knew that was a degree of optimism bordering on insanity, but Socks didn’t argue. He didn’t have to. He just gave Dirt a bloody little lick and tossed him up onto his back.

After a short race through the fields, they found the humans hadn’t waited, but neither had they gone far. Marina scanned Dirt for blood before even welcoming them back, and seemed relieved when he wasn’t covered in it, except some on his face where Socks licked him. He wiped it off with his hand, then onto the grass.

Dirt said, “I saw the city. It’s still there. It’s over a river, right, Marina?”

“Yes, that’s it! Did you…” She trailed off.

“We didn’t get close enough to see the people, but there are more goblins around, so we’re going to go warn the humans before we hunt any more. Just in case,” said Dirt.

“The tower was still there, too,” grumbled Hèctor.

“Where’s your sense of joyous optimism?” said Ignasi trying to sound mirthful, but his dead-looking eyes gave it away.

“Good point. Maybe they left all their wine behind!” said Hèctor, trying to mimic Ignasi’s tone of voice, which he did very poorly.

Their failed attempt at banter made the mood worse, not better, and no one had anything to say after that. Socks walked behind, only directing them to turn a little this way or that to keep on the most direct path. They passed through field after field, and the closer they got the more cultivated the area looked. Still no houses; at least, no standing ones. Some had been burned, but most of the others looked like they’d simply been knocked over and hadn’t been sturdy to begin with.

By the time they got their first glimpse of the gray city walls, many of the fields showed signs of more recent work. Furrows had been dug, now just long rows of weeds and bare dirt. Irrigation ditches wandered everywhere, some full of mud and silent, reeking water.

Marina looked like she was about to cry, but she stoically kept her head up and faced forward. Hèctor and Ignasi were in equally black spirits, their feet dragging with a weariness that had nothing to do with tired legs.

Only Dirt held out any hope at all, because those walls had to be good for something. He didn’t dare let himself accept that humans were almost gone from the world, and perhaps only four remained at all. It was certainly starting to look that way.

The full city came into view, or at least the walls did. They were taller than Socks and made of flat gray stone, carved almost as well as Dirt’s people used to do. They made an impressive unbroken circle around such a huge area they almost looked straight.

Socks suddenly got an eager lightness in his step that only Dirt detected, and when he looked at the pup’s mind, Socks shut out his thoughts just to tease him. But Dirt could guess what he’d seen. He looked with his mind-sight and sure enough, at the barest edges of his perception, a number of bright minds appeared. They were too distant to see exactly what they were, but Dirt already knew.

“There are people!” he shouted. His heart filled with such relief and happiness that it almost turned into tears, and only focus and willpower kept him from cracking.

Hèctor said, “What? How do you know?” He was the first to answer, but Ignasi and Marina had been about to, and now awaited his reply.

But Dirt gave no explanation, choosing instead to sprint the rest of the way to the walls. It was a longer distance than he’d estimated, since the walls were huge, but Socks happily raced him and an instant later, Dirt was standing close enough to throw something and hit the stones.

“Hello!” he shouted. His voice hit the flat wall and echoed back to him.

They waited. No answer came. “Hello! Hello, humans!” he shouted again.

Dirt used his mind-sight again. There was no direction, since he and Socks weren’t melding their thoughts, but he could guess the distance. There were hundreds in there, too many to count quickly. The town was alive! Most of them were farther in, with only a few who’d been close enough to hear. Those ones looked at each other in confusion—a group of four women with dark hair like Marina.

“We’re outside! Hello! How do we get in?” he shouted, as loud as he could.

The women reacted in horror and whispered to each other. There could be no children outside the walls. Not living ones, or human. This was some new, terrifying threat.

“It’s okay! We’re not dangerous! Hello?”

The women ran, thinking they had to find and tell someone. Danger. Dirt realized he should have been just focusing on one instead of trying to watch them all at once, because he might’ve gotten more information that way.

Socks stepped up to the wall and stood on his hind legs. He stretched out as far as he could and it was just barely enough for him to peek over the wall into the city.

Hèctor reached them first, running without enthusiasm. Marina and Ignasi weren’t far behind. “There’s no one on the walls. The town’s dead,” said Hèctor, his black eyes betraying a flicker of hope.

-Dirt was not lying. There are humans in there. Plenty of them. But not as many as I expected. They are afraid of us, even though they haven’t seen me yet,­- said Socks, to everyone.

“How do we get in?” Dirt asked. “I can just jump over, but that can’t be it, right?”

“There’s a gate, Dirt,” said Marina, with such an air of exasperation that Ignasi started cheering up.

“Oh. Of course. Are you going in that way?”

Marina said, “It was closed. If you hadn’t run off so fast I would’ve told you. It’s over that way. Come on. If there’s still anyone in there, they’ll be watching the gate.”

Dirt said, “I already said there are people in there.”

Marina turned to walk in the direction of the gate, but Dirt opened his backpack and took his fresh red shirt and pulled it on for the first time. It was itchy and smelled old, but it was soft and flexible and he’d get used to it. He looked down to see how it went with his green pants, and decided he liked it. Then he plopped down to put his shoes and socks on for the first time, too. The socks felt weird and were probably a little too tight, but they’d be fine. The thin leather shoes were loose on his feet, making an odd contrast. The socks squeezed his toes, but slid around inside the shoes.

He rose to his feet. “How do I look? Can you comb my hair again?”

“You almost look like you came from a womb, not a seed,” said Ignasi.

Marina gave him a half-hearted smile and quickly combed Dirt’s hair. “I’m pretty eager to get moving now, if you don’t mind?” she said.

“Nope. Thank you. Go ahead. Socks, can you wait for a little bit so I can warn them about you, so they don’t all scream and run away?” said Dirt.

In answer, Socks leaned down and gave him an encouraging lick. -I will wait unless you get into trouble,- he told Dirt. -But not for long. I smell food in there, and many other things.-

“I know, but you’re big and scary. Just try not to kill anyone until I get a chance to make friends. It worked with Marina and Hèctor and Ignasi.”

“What are you doing?” said Hèctor. “Come on, get moving.”

“Okay,” said Dirt. “I’ll see you soon.”

He turned and ran to the wall. With each step he inhaled a bit more mana until he was full, his body protected and muscles strengthened. He gripped the staff tighter and held his knife with the other hand so it wouldn’t come out.

Then he jumped right over the wall, soaring over the wide area atop it where people could walk, and coming down on the other side right into a tile roof that shattered under his feet. The hard tiles flew into tiny bits and exploded everywhere, but he didn’t go all the way through the roof. He caught on a crossbeam and had to carefully extricate himself without ripping his pants. It took him a moment, but there was no one in the immediate vicinity to mock him.

When he slid off the roof and finally landed on the stone walkway leading to the building he’d damaged, he closed his mind-sight. The city inside the walls was dense—that was the most interesting thing. All the houses were built so close together they made one long building that ran up either side of the road. Ahead, he could see some open areas, and a small alley to his left led to a fenced area that might be a little pasture.

This was something new. A completely new place, with humans inside to meet. He dusted himself off, let a sincere and eager smile break out on his face, and started walking up the road in the direction the women had gone.