The Land of Broken Roads

Although Socks had chosen a tougher path through the mountains than the canyon stream would have been, when Dirt finally crested the final hill and saw the flat, river-strewn valley below, they were much closer to the ruins than the first time. Solitary and bleak, the off-white tower stood like a skeleton above the dead and silent town in the middle of the valley. All around it, damp greens and muddy browns swirled across the landscape between numerous winding streams and ponds.

“There it is!” said Dirt, pointing with a proud smile. “See, I told you Socks and I knew where it was.”

But despite Dirt’s encouragement, the humans felt no enthusiasm. Their steps slowed and stopped, their feet unwilling to carry them any farther. He didn’t have to look into their minds to guess their thoughts.

Socks stepped up and sniffed the two men, which made them less scared each time, then huffed. They glanced back, hiding their nervousness.

“It’s not completely ruined. There’s still plenty of stuff there, just no people,” said Dirt. “If we hurry, we can sleep in… Um, they’re like this, with soft…” He tried to gesture with his hands.

“Llits. You mean a llit?” asked Marina. Dirt glanced momentarily at her mind to see what she was picturing, and it was indeed a bed.

“Yes, a bed,” he said. “Lots of houses are still fine. There are just no people.”

“I’m more concerned about the people, Dirt,” said Marina.

Dirt shut his mouth to keep from saying anything that would bother her. He guessed she wasn’t really upset about the people, because it’s not like she’d lived there or known anybody. It was just a place she passed through once, twenty years ago or more. She was probably upset about whatever had killed them all.

But looking out across the valley, no goblin armies were in evidence. Some birds floated on the water or flew over the fields, but nothing else moved. If there was any game down there, it was hiding until nightfall. He couldn’t think of anything appropriate to say, so he just started walking again, and fortunately, they followed.

He’d gone about six steps before Socks lifted him up and tossed him onto his perch on the pup’s back. -I smell cattle down there. Let’s go find them.-

Dirt hardly had time to shout, “We’ll meet you there!” before the pup took off at a run.

After several days on his feet, it felt nice to be riding again. Socks was of the same mind and went ever faster, so fast Dirt had to lay down and hang on before they’d even reached the valley floor. He sent a puff of affection and happiness to the pup, and that was easier than talking could ever be.

A sudden leap got a squeal out of him, followed by manic laughter when he lost his grip with his toes and was only able to hang on with one hand until the pup landed again.

The second jump was less of a surprise, but Socks landed in a pond, right in the center of a flock of ducks. The poor birds honked and flapped their hardest to flee while Socks gnashed his teeth at them, but it was just for fun, so he let them get away.

The water was shallow enough for Socks to run through, so he did, splashing the whole way with infectious enthusiasm. From there it was up the muddy bank and into the tall grass, which his long legs had no problem with, and off toward the far end of the valley.

“Was there really any cattle?” Dirt asked. “Or did you just want to play?”

Socks just sent back a puff of amusement.

“Well, either way, I was ready to play. Should I sing a song?”

-Of all the things the humans could teach you, why did they pick how to be noisier?-

Dirt chuckled. “Just think of it as a human howl.”

-Well, it is good at warning everyone to go away.-

Socks carried him over a broad patch of flat, swampy ground, probably half the size of that town, where the water was only a fingernail’s breadth thick and the mud a foot deep. Clouds of insects swarmed everywhere, but the happy wolf scattered them just with the wind of his passing. Larger bugs hunted down the little ones, and birds darted back and forth trying to catch those. Dirt was sure there would be snakes around somewhere hoping to catch a bird, and something else that ate snakes.

Nothing around that ate wolves, though, even little puppy ones. Actually, now that he thought about it, “Socks, how far away do you have to go every couple weeks to keep the Devourer from finding you? Is it bad that we came back here after a few days?”

The pup slowed slightly and started taking an easier path, which Dirt knew meant he was focusing on something else. Probably asking Mother, in fact. And sure enough, a moment later, the pup said, ­-I’ll be fine for another few days but we should move on after that. And we’ll need to go pretty far. A couple days run, and then we can relax again.-

“Oh, okay. Good. I hope I never find out what the Devourer is.”

-Me, too. If he appears then both of us will regret it.-

“Do you think I can learn how to lick wounds?”

-Not until you get better at magic. It’s not something natural for you, so you’d have to figure it out the complicated way.-

“I wonder if the dryads can teach me. They can put wounds back together.”

-Do you really want to find out what method they’d use to teach you?-

Dirt grinned at that. “I’d get to find out what color all my guts are, I bet.”

-And how much blood you can lose before you pass out. And what it’s like to be dead.-

Sure enough, a while later they reached the far end of the valley where a big herd of red-furred cattle were grazing. They weren’t happy about Socks’ arrival and the big males stamped their hooves and snorted at him, even though they were half his size. The others raced to get into a circle, thinking to protect their young inside it.

For a smaller predator, that might have worked. Had Dirt been on foot, a stamping bull would have terrified him. The entire thing was pure muscle, hoof, and horn. For all he knew, it could outrace him even if he used mana.

But Socks had little trouble with them and made it a game. Each time one charged with sharp horns lowered, he deftly stepped out of the way, or jumped over it, or some such thing. The pup was having so much fun playing with the bulls that Dirt found himself laughing uproariously each time one missed. The bulls themselves just got angrier and angrier, and the cows huddled ever close together around their calves.

After a while, they stopped charging, although they kept trying to threaten him with snorts and waves of their horns. Once the game was over, Socks leaped on one and sank his teeth into the back of its shoulders, then pulled it to the ground. Then, in a flash, he ripped its throat out and jumped back to avoid the spurting blood.

The animal heroically regained its feet and tried to charge, but it was done for and only made it a few steps before it stumbled and fell. It wasn’t long before it quit breathing.

Two other bulls tried to keep Socks away from their fallen friend, but a couple threatening barks made them keep their distance. He ripped the stomach open and lifted the rest of the carcass with his teeth to let all the guts fall out, then set it aside while he dug around for the good bits. He always ate the hearts, even though Dirt thought the meat was too tough to be enjoyable, and some bits of the lungs and liver.

-Do you not want any?-

“Not right now. I don’t want to get my pants bloody. I need to ask the humans if clothes can be washed, and how, and maybe get a backpack. I also need to tie the staff on something so I don’t have to hold it all the time.”

-I want a backpack too, so I can carry things.-

“Like what?”

-I’ll know it when I see it.-

After Socks ate all the innards he liked, he got started on the meat. The smell of blood and flesh made Dirt’s mouth water, but the ground was an absolute mess. Dirt didn’t even dare get down and try to cut a piece off with his knife, so he asked Home for some sap and ate that instead.

The remaining cattle found that Socks wasn’t a threat to the rest of them, at least not immediately, and stopped trying to scare him off. Instead, they decided this wasn’t a good place to be and the whole herd shuffled off somewhere else. The ground was so flat there was nowhere to hide, but Dirt figured they were stupid so he shouldn’t expect too much.

After a hot, sweaty nap in the bright sunshine, they took a pleasant dip in a nearby pond. Dirt had to summon more wind to keep the bugs away, and when he pulled his pants back on afterward, they got all wet, which made them cling uncomfortably to his skin, but it did keep him cool for a while as they dried.

Socks didn’t run back, preferring a light trot. -Do you mind if we take our time going back?-

“Not at all. You want to spend time with just me, huh? I like them, but I like this more, if I have to choose.”

-Yes. The humans are tiring.-

“What do you mean?”

The pup looked back to glance at Dirt with one eye, which he rarely did, since what was the point if they could read each other’s minds? Dirt sent him a puff of affection and said, “You can tell me. I won’t be upset at all.”

Socks resumed looking forward and took a little hop over another muddy patch in between tangled grasses. -They smell like fear too much. It makes me want to find out what they taste like.-

“Oh,” said Dirt, but it took a moment for that to sink in.

-I didn’t eat them for your sake, but for the first couple days, it was hard. That’s one reason I ran off to find some cattle. And it was nice to kill all those goblins. When something around me acts like prey, I want to bite it. I look at them and they shy away, and it makes me want to chase them. I sniff them and they freeze, and it makes me want to growl and watch them run.-

“I had no idea. I’m sorry, Socks. We didn’t have to hang around them if it was hard for you.”

-No. You must be the best human, and I will be the best wolf. Where else will you learn, if not from humans? And besides, I could see how much you wanted them to like you.-

“I guess I could have told them not to be scared.”

-You did, several times.-

“I could have told them not to be scared, or you might eat them.”

That got a huge burst of amusement from Socks, so much he might have guffawed if he was human. Instead he just ran a little faster, his mind sparking with good humor. -That seems unlikely to work.-

“You never know until you try!”

-Don’t. I was more relieved than they were when they finally dared scratch my fur.-

“Well, thanks again for being so patient. You were right. I really want them to like me, because if I can be their friend, then maybe I can be friends with any other humans, too. And if I can’t, then I don’t know what to think.”

-I am older than you. It is important to be patient with the young.-

“I’m thousands of years old, and you’re still a baby!”

-Oh? Were you one day old when I found you, or two?-

The run back was full of banter and joking, and it seemed like all the funny things they’d wanted to say over the last several days were now coming out. The sun edged down toward the horizon, casting the valley into the gold of early twilight. Birds flew everywhere, white cranes and black ducks, sparrows and songbirds of every variety. Skinny little ones with long legs that liked the water and bright red ones with black heads that liked the grasses. Dirt had never seen so many in one place.

Other things crept out of their holes as well, tiny fearful beasts that snuck through the grass or crept up to the water for a sip. When Socks and Dirt realized they weren’t going to make it to the tower before nightfall at this pace, Socks used ghost sight to find the humans. His mind filled with the lightless grays and blacks of the spirit world, as he perceived it, and searched high and low for their echoes.

As always, Dirt had to quickly close himself off because there was simply too much for him to process. Socks could view almost the whole valley at once, but that meant looking at every part of it all at the same time, and Dirt’s little human brain simply couldn’t handle it. Mother and Father could look even farther than that, although Socks wasn’t quite clear on how they did it or if they used something else.

But Socks found them, and the way he showed it was sprinting forward as hard as he could, running so fast Dirt didn’t dare lift his head lest the wind yank him away.

“What’s going on?”

-There are some goblins hunting them. I don’t think they realize yet.-

“Really? Where did they come from? I didn’t see a single thing!”

-The goblins must have been in the mountains. I smelled some around but I thought they were far away. The humans haven’t made it very far yet. They aren’t even halfway to the tower.-

Socks ran faster than Dirt ever remembered him going, so fast he had to use his claws to dig in the dirt to propel himself forward. It wasn’t even a run anymore—each time a paw hit the ground, it may as well have been another leap.

Even at such a pace, it still felt slow.

-They are fighting now.-

Socks couldn’t go any faster, and despite the speed it felt like an eternity. Dirt counted every breath, every heartbeat. Ten. Fifty. A hundred. Two hundred. Were they even still alive?

Another fifty breaths. Dirt was sure they were dead, and Socks was watching the path too closely to want to talk.

Ten more. Eleven.

And then they were there. Socks skidded to a stop with a goblin in his teeth and tossed Dirt next to another one with his mind.

“Boy?” said a goblin. “Me—”

Dirt crushed its skull with the staff, even though it blocked with both arms. Home simply broke those too.

There was only one more, and Hèctor was the one who killed it with a deep gash to its neck. “Boy, boy, boy, wah-mee!” he shouted at its dying corpse. Then, in his language, “Die and go to infern!”

“Are you okay?!” Dirt shouted.

Hèctor said, “Ignasi took a bite on the arm, and Marina on the stomach. The rest is bruises.”

“Oh, thank Grace!” said Dirt, not knowing their word for Grace. Or his, for that matter. What did that mean and why did he keep saying it?

But the three of them didn’t share his relief. Ignasi looked worried and he yanked a cloth from his backpack to try and staunch the bleeding on his forearm. Marina looked pale, her eyes bleary, her lips taut. Her hands trembled. She looked down at her stomach and Dirt saw a tear drip and fall.

All three humans had the same thought, when he looked at their minds for clarification: She is going to die. Ignasi will lose his arm.

The humans had killed at least five other goblins, judging from the corpses. It wasn’t even a big group, and if Ignasi and Marina just got bit a little, they were both fine.

“Looks like you would have been fine without us,” said Dirt, trying to find something conciliatory. Why did they think she was going to die? She wasn’t even bleeding that much. Dirt had had worse.

“Barely,” spat Hèctor. “I wish you had not ruined my sword.”

He discarded it, tossing it on the ground. The blade was broken, about a handspan up from the hilt.

Dirt said, “We didn’t break it. Socks threw it to you in one piece.”

Hèctor glanced at Socks, clearly trying to decide how much he dared say. “I can’t imagine what you did with it. I have never seen a sword so abused. We can discuss it later, if you wish. If it even matters.”

He pulled a length of cloth from Marina’s pack and gestured to her to lift her shirt, which she did, just under her breasts. The bite on her side was bad, but the goblin hadn’t taken a chunk out. It got its teeth in, was all.

“How bad is it?” she asked, her heart breaking. Dirt saw even her desperation slipping away into black despair, and quit viewing her thoughts.

Hèctor stuck a finger into one of the tooth marks, all the way up to the first knuckle. “They got all the way in. I’m sorry, Marina.”

She looked away. Her chest shook with sobs she repressed.

“I’m confused,” said Dirt. “It’s not that bad.”

Hèctor scowled. “Goblin bites always fester. Soon those tooth cuts will turn red. Then they will fill with pus. Then they will turn green. Then her insides will rot, and she will die in horrible pain. We will wait with her until the pain is too much, and then end it for pity’s sake. If we are lucky, we can make it to the tower and she can die in a bed. Ignasi will survive, but we will have to take his arm off. It is that bad.”

The Home-staff twitched toward Marina, and Dirt looked carefully at it to see the white threads pointing at her again. “Oh, you want to touch her again?” he asked, in his language. The staff twitched again.

Dirt looked up. “I think you’ll both be fine,” he said. Ignasi gave him a half-hearted smile and Marina tried to do the same and failed.

“Ignasi, ask Socks nicely if he’ll lick your arm. He’s friendly. I promise. You’ll get better if he does,” said Dirt.

“And Marina…” Dirt looked at the staff again. The white threads were all gathered toward the top of the staff, bunches of them. “Can you lay down?”

Hèctor said, “Dirt, this had better not be a game or a trick.”

Socks huffed and gave just the barest hint of a growl. -The stupid human should shut up if he wants our help.-

Dirt grinned and said, “Socks says, ‘shut up, stupid human.’”

“Boy—”

“Hèctor, are you a slow learner? Marina, will you please lie down? And Ignasi, better ask him fast while he’s in a good mood,” said Dirt. He gestured at the ground, inviting Marina to hurry up and place herself upon it.

Marina put her hand on Hèctor’s arm to calm him down, then lay down without a word where Dirt had indicated. She cleared her clothing out of the way of her wound, which dripped lines of blood that gathered under her side and started to pool together. She closed her eyes.

“Okay. Don’t move. It usually doesn’t hurt but it does feel weird,” said Dirt. Then he knelt beside her and lay the staff against the wound. She hissed faintly, but he was being gentle so it was probably surprise.

The threads plunged into her skin and disappeared. They pulled the staff tighter against her, and that did look like it stung. She grit her teeth and didn’t say anything, though.

Dirt carefully let go of the staff, letting the other end rest on the ground while it did its work. He stood and gave a scolding look at Ignasi and pointed at Socks.

But Marina gasped, and Dirt looked down again to see the Home-staff changing shape, twisting and spreading out on the ground searching for something. One of the root-like vines found a clump of grass and a moment later, Marina vanished completely. The staff turned straight again and clattered to the ground.

“Oh,” said Dirt.