War of the Wisps

The smell of rain still filled the air as morning came to the valley. The sun peaked across the mountains in the east, tinging the fog that filled the valley gold. One of the valley’s dragons glided high overhead, flying to the western slopes. A figure in a heavy cloak trudged up the slope of the mountain with a bow in hand, scanning the ground as he walked. He made no sound. In fact, the only sounds were the breeze passing through the needles of the trees and the birdsong filling the air with it. Almost the only sounds, anyway.

“I know you’re there, Peter,” the figure said over his shoulder. The young man didn’t raise his voice, but the slight rustling behind him stopped. “I told you to stay home. Pa could use you out in the fields.”

“I’ve been stuck at home while you go out and do things all winter. Thought I’d come with you this time.” A younger boy emerged from the trees behind the first. He wore a similar woolen cloak and caried a small bow. Both had hair that was the same coal black, though the elder wore his down and had the beginning of a beard, while the younger’s was a wild mess, sticking out in all directions.

“Go home. I don’t want you scaring away the game.”

“Oh, come on, Andrew! I’ll be quiet as a mouse, I swear.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying!”

The young man stopped and turned to face Peter. “You’re never quiet,” he said, crossing his arms. “Go home and help in the fields. They could use the extra hands. You’ll just be in the way up here.”

Peter walked up to the other boy. “I can be quiet.”

“You’re not being quiet now.”

“I’ll start when we get close to the game.”

“Then we won’t get close to the game.”

Peter had no response to that. Andrew turned and started heading back up the mountain. He couldn’t hold back a groan at the sound of footsteps behind him. “Go back!”

“No. I want to learn to hunt. Besides, I did get Pa’s permission.”

“He didn’t tell me about that.”

“It was after you left this morning.”

“Of course it was,” Andrew muttered. He looked down at his little brother. He’d been hunting by the time he was Peter’s age. And at this point he doubted he could get rid of Peter. “Promise to keep your mouth shut, then,” he said. “And don’t to anything I don’t tell you to. You’re just watching this time.”

“I can shoot.”

Andrew snorted. “Off to a good start, aren’t we.” Peter grinned, and the two made their way further up the mountain. Andrew led them across the mountain, rather than strait up. The mountain rolled, steeper at some points and almost flat at others. He was hoping they’d be able to catch a herd of dear in one of those flat points. Of course, if he saw tracks before then, he’d follow those.

The sun rose higher with them, and it was nearly noon when they arrived at the first mountain prairie. Tall hardy grass shot up all along the mountain here, out competing pines and spruce surrounding the prairie. To the right, the mountain continued to stretch up into the sky. The chattering of squirrels and other little creatures joined the birdsong. Andrew waded into the grass, Peter still on his heels.

“What exactly are we looking for today, anyway?”

“Shut up.”

“How am I supposed to learn, then?”

“You promised to be quiet.” When no response came, Andrew glanced back at Peter and found the boy just grinning at him. He hadn’t promised, had he? It didn’t matter at this point. The whole day would be wasted if he made an issue of it now. He returned to hiking through the grass, where he found signs that a herd had been through.

He gestured for Peter to come closer. “Deer,” he said. He pointed to the flattened grass and droppings in the area. “Passed through here last night, probably.”

“Why not stay and graze?”

“Would you stay in a place this open with Dragons flying around?” Peter’s grin returned. “Right. That was a stupid question. The deer are smarter than you, though, so they won’t stay here long. But we can follow them.” He pointed west, going downhill, toward the next mountain.

“Lets get going then,” Peter said. He started off in the general direction Andrew had indicated.

“Hold on! You’re supposed to follow me!”

Peter paused and waited for his brother to catch up.

It took them less time to catch up to the heard than it had to find their tracks. They were moving slow, grazing on what grass they could under the trees. It wasn’t a big herd. There was one big buck twelve-pronged antlers longer than Andrew was tall. Two does followed him, along with half a dozen adolescent foals.

“Oh, I want those Antlers,” Peter whispered. Andrew, seeing the buck’s ears twitch, resisted the urge to slap his brother. Instead, he put a finger to his mouth for silence, and drew an arrow. He drew back and readied to loose it at the buck. Peter did the same. If they both hit, it might ruin some of the meat, but he’d talked about his hunts with some of the older villagers enough to know Peter was aware of that.

“Only if I miss,” he whispered, even bellow his breathing. He saw his brother nod in response.

A noise split the air overhead. Then a shadow passed over the trees and another dragon answered the call off in the distance. The deer froze at the sound. Andrews grip on the arrow failed. It thudded into the trunk of the tree just past the buck. The animal wheeled, bleating in terror. A part of Andrew wondered if the animals thought the attack had come from the dragon. But there was no time to muse over it as the animals began running, zigzagging very close to the boys.

He started to move, then watched in horror as Peter rose, bow at the ready, and shouted a challenge at the old buck.

Sensing a threat to his herd, the animal lowered his head, ready to gore Peter. Peter fired the arrow, missing, and Andrew dived at his brother, dragging them both to the ground. The animals leapt over the brothers and continued off down the mountain.

Andrew rolled off his brother, and the two laid in the duff, panting.

“Well that was fun,” Peter said.

Andrew raised his arm then slammed it back against Peter’s. “What sort of idiot jumps in front of a twelve-prong buck? He could have gored you!” he shouted.

“Ah! Sorry! I thought I’d hit it.”

“You need to think before you do things!” Andrew went on. “Imagine if it had? How would I tell Ma and Pa about it. How would I tell the girls?”

“Sorry,” Peter repeated. He sat up. “Can we still go after them?”

“They’ll be long gone,” Andrew said, sitting up as well. “Even if we could, they’ll be on their guard against us for ages. We probably won’t even see them again.” Overhead, the grey dragon was still visible flying southwest. Andrew saw the second over the circling over the mountains in that direction.

“So what do we do now?” Peter asked.

Andrew stood and brushed himself off. “Let’s head back to the prairie. Maybe we’ll find traces of some mountain goats, or something else we can bag.”

Peter jumped up and followed Andrew back the way they’d come. The dragon’s continued their calls to one another, the sound fading as they flew farther. Peter looked up at them as they hiked up the mountain. He didn’t notice his brother stop, and both stumbled as Peter collided with him. “Hey, what—”

“Is that a fire?” Andrew asked. They were back at the edge of the mountain prairie. At the far end, up the northern face, a red light glowed under the trees.

“Maybe,” Peter said. “But there’s no smoke.”

“It could be caught under the trees,” Andrew pointed out.

Peter walked past him now, squinting at the fire. “I don’t think so. It’s not moving like fire.”

“What ever it is, I don’t like it. We should head back to the village and hope that—”

“Someone’s in there.” As soon as the words had left his mouth, he shot up the hill like an arrow. Andrew blinked. He squinted into the red lights but couldn’t be sure if he saw movement. Then, realizing his brother was already halfway up the mountain, he ran after him.

“Hold on!” he yelled. “We just talked about this!”

Ahead of him, Peter stumbled. He caught himself though, and kept running. Now that he was closer, Andrew could see the small figure in with the red light. A girl, maybe ten years old with a wide brimmed hat, a giant travelers pack, and a red braid. She was behind it, though. Or them. There were two orbs of glowing red smoke. Wisps. “Of all the rotten—”

Then their influence slammed into him like a wall. He could feel his own frustration mingling with the rage the two balls of magic were throwing off. The two feelings were separate, but they were the same. Andrew clenched his teeth, trying to maintain control of his thoughts, knowing he just had to catch up to Peter and pull him out of their range. Of course, he’d never gotten so close to the creatures before. He didn’t know how close one had to get be driven mad. The girl was close to them, very close. It was probably too late for her.

Peter barreled up the hill. The girl didn’t seem to notice him till he was almost upon her. She looked, and her face twisted in rage. “Peter, stop! It’s too late!” The girl raised hands, and Andrew thought she would strike Peter. Instead she held them out in a defensive gesture. “Wait, stop! You’ll startle… them.” Even as she spoke, the puffs of crimson smoke shot up then disappeared into the trees.”

“Are you okay kid?” Peter asked, knelling next to the girl. “I’ve never seen anyone get that close to a wisp before.”

“You absolute moron,” Andrew shouted at Peter. The Wisps’ influence had faded, but it had left his frustration boiling, and he found he couldn’t hold back as he continued. “Not five minutes ago we talked about you thinking before you acted. Now here you are, running at wisps without any idea what to do when you got here. You could have ended up melted, or driven mad! Not that you aren’t already insane!”

“This kid was in trouble,” Peter objected.

“For all you know, she was already lost!”

“I’m right here, you know!” The girl said. “And I’m a dwarf, not a child, so I’d appreciated it if you would stop calling me ‘kid.’” Both brothers staired down at the girl. She sounded like an adult. As Andrew had the thought he realized she wasn’t quite so childlike as he’d assumed. She still looked young, probably not much older than the two of them. But the illusion of childhood came mostly from the fact that she was barely as tall as his waist.

Her face turned red. “And I wasn’t in any danger. You two just ruined an experiment of mine.”

“Experiment?” the brothers repeated in unison.

“Yes. Experiment. I was trying to see if I could influence them the way they influence others.”

“You can do that? That sounds amazing!”

“That sounds insane. We can’t affect them that way.”

“I’ve seen it happen. Once. I saw those two wandering the mountain while I was traveling, so I thought I’d try repeating it.” The Dwarf girl paused. Then she shot a vicious glare at the boys before adding, “and I think I almost had it when the two of you came pelting up the mountain.”

“Sorry,” Peter said. “I thought the wisps were doing something to you.”

“I’d gathered that.” The girl sighed and shrugged. “I can’t blame you. I probably would have thought the same if I’d seen it myself.” She smiled and stuck her hand out to Peter. “It was very brave of you to run at wisps like that. My name’s Anna. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Peter. And this is my brother Andrew.” Anna reached out to take his hand as well.

“You said you were travelling?” Andrew asked.

Anna nodded. “I’m trying to get to Woadrok, but our underground road is blocked off. There was a landslide.”

Andrew frowned. He’d never heard of a Dwarven tunnel collapsing. Even if it had, why wouldn’t this girl wait for the repairs? It would be a lot safer than traveling the mountains on her own. He wondered if she might be running from something. Or from someone.

“What are you heading to Woadrok for?” Peter asked. “Neither of us have ever been that far. Is it about the wisps?”

“Kind of,” Anna said. “I was hoping to look through their library. I haven’t been that far either. Just to the south end of the valley mountain tunnels.”

“That’s around Belmont, right? What are the dwarf cities like?”

“Um… Compact, I guess. I’ve been to Belmont, once, and it was very different from the underground cities. It’s not that different from our overground towns, though. I grew up in one of those.”

Peter opened his mouth to ask another question, but Andrew squeezed his shoulder and spoke first. “Well, we’re glad you’re alright, miss Anna. But we should probably get going before Peter talks off both your ears. Besides, neither of us will get very far if it gets dark on us.”

“We can talk longer,” Peter said. “Besides, there won’t be game anywhere nearby after all the noise we’ve been making.”

“Which is why we’re going to have to travel a bit farther if we want to bring anything down today.”

“Wait!” Anna said. “I’m sorry to bother you, after all of this, really. But… While I was catching up to those wisps, I think I’ve gotten myself lost. Would you be able to take me somewhere I can get my bearings?”

Andrew looked back at the strange dwarf. Even if she didn’t have a great sense of direction, south toward Belmont and the path out of the valley should be blindingly obvious. From this prairie, it was just possible to make Castle Belmont as small squiggly line at the base of the far mountains. He opened his mouth, the word No already on his lips.

“Of course,” Peter said with a grin. “We can take you to our village at the base of the mountain. Why not?”