Soul Caller 1 - Chapter 2 (Patreon)

Holding a boulder above his head was hard work, and under the bright morning sun, the burning in Merrick’s arms soon became unbearable, and he knew that he had held on as long as he could. About half of the others had dropped their boulders already, so he tossed his to the ground, and retreated from the line, shaking his arms to try and get the blood flowing in them again. One by one the others dropped their boulders and retreated as well, leaving Maro, who was blessed with uncommon strength, standing alone. When it became obvious that Maro wouldn’t have trouble remaining there for some time still, Elder Gorrick walked up to him and gestured for him to drop the boulder.

“Praise Bear, you have been blessed with strength. Retreat.”

With a thud, the boulder Maro held up crashed to the ground and he bowed his head, stepping back under the jealous looks of his companions. Even Merrick couldn’t help but look at his friend with a bit of envy, wishing that he had been blessed with a bit of Maro’s strength. Elder Gorrick lifted his hands and called for everyone’s attention once more, announcing the start of the next test, the test of cunning. Favored by Wolf, cunning was necessary to ensure that the warriors were able to work together, anticipating each other’s moves during the hunt.

For this test, the young ones were arranged in a circle, and one of the elders stood in the center. As the elder moved through the tribe's martial forms the trainees had to follow along and copy the move perfectly and those who failed were tapped on the shoulder and removed from the circle. Merrick, who preferred running to practicing the forms, did not fare nearly as well in this test. The forms followed the movements of the five great spirits, but few of them felt natural to him and he hadn’t been practicing on his own so he wasn’t surprised when, during the Falcon form, he was pulled out of the circle. Walking over to the group who had already been disqualified, Merrick joined Maro who had been too slow to complete his moves and they watched as the others finished up the test.

After the final trainee failed, the elder called them all forward again and they began the third test, the test of courage. The great spirit Jaguar was known for her fierce courage and willingness to face off against creatures twice her size, and the test reflected this. All of the trainees were ordered to line up and face a warrior of the tribe. These warriors were all veterans, their scarred bodies a testament to the many battles they had fought on behalf of the tribe, and even standing close to them caused Merrick’s nerves to jump. The woman who faced Merrick was familiar to him - she was a friend of his sister's. For a moment, he wondered if his sister had asked her to deal with him specifically for this test, but then the test began and he had no time to think about it. At first, the warriors just stood there, staring with their dark eyes at the trainees before them, but after a few seconds everything started to change.

It was like a wave of dread began to spread, setting the hairs on Merrick’s back dancing and gripping his chest. He had been in enough dangerous situations out in the wild to know what killing intent felt like, but never had he felt it so strongly. Never had it been so bloody, even when he had encountered vicious beasts. The intensely murderous aura that only a true warrior could produce hit the trainees as the warriors stopped holding themselves back and Merrick instantly felt his stomach curdle.

Down the row, one of the young trainees let out a shriek and fell to the ground, while others backed up rapidly as the pressure grew. Merrick did his best to grit his teeth, though he had never in his life felt so afraid. It was a fear that crawled up his spine, hardwiring itself into the back of his head and made him want to flee. Yet he knew he could not. This fierce struggle between his feelings and his reason was what the test of courage was all about. How well could he face overwhelming odds? And overwhelming they were - the woman in front of him could snap his body in half with a casual gesture. That he had no doubt. Worse, the longer the test continued, the more likely it seemed that it would happen.

The minutes ticked by as sweat began to bead on Merrick’s skin, running in rivulets down his body, but he forced himself to remain standing, refusing to give in to his instincts, which were screaming at him to flee. When the feeling finally grew overwhelming and he finally stepped back, unable to maintain his position, he realized that everyone was staring at him. In his muddled state, he looked around, realizing that the other trainees had all stepped back at some point earlier, and only he remained. The elder was saying something to him, but far from feeling happy about his success in the test, Merrick couldn't help but feel shaken still by the immense pressure he had withstood.

That shaken feeling remained through the next test, the test of agility, and Merrick felt like he did poorly. Once again, the warrior trainees formed a line and stood in front of various warriors who were assigned to them for the test. Just like before, the village’s warriors released a hint of their murderous aura, but this time they also attacked. Using their hands and feet, the warriors sent a flurry of blows at the trainees, who were forced to dodge this way and that, scrambling to escape. Merrick should have done well, given his speed and flexibility, but he was still shaken from the test of courage and he was soon tagged out. He had managed to last longer than about half of the others, but he couldn’t help but feel disappointed in his performance.

“It's not fair,” Maro grumbled when Merrick joined him at the side.

“What’s not fair?”

“How am I supposed to dodge when I’m twice everyone’s size?”

Rolling his eyes, Merrick suddenly felt better. His big friend was as slow as he was big, and had been tagged out almost immediately. Suddenly Merrick didn’t feel so bad about his own efforts. Patting Maro on the arm sympathetically, Merrick waited with anticipation for the fifth and final test, the test of swiftness. This was Snake’s test, and was the test that Merrick had been waiting for. He had not expected to place first in the test of courage, and had always thought that it was in speed that he would shine. After all, he had been training for this test for years. He had always felt a connection to Snake, and running was as natural as breathing to him. When the test of agility ended, Elder Gorrick pointed down the mountain to a large rock formation that looked like it was balanced on the edge of the mountain.

"This test is simple. Run down there, and run all the way back up. If you stop running, you are disqualified. The winner shall be the one who arrives here first."

A grumbling echoed among all of the trainees, and a few of them glared at Merrick, who simply grinned back, showing his canines. They knew that he would outrun them, and he knew it too. As the command was given, he sprinted down the hill, laughing as he dodged past his friends who tried to block him in a vain attempt to keep him back. His feet pounded against the trail as he careened downhill, moving faster than ever. Despite his reckless speed he wasn’t afraid. He knew this trail from running it a thousand times before. He knew every dip and twist, every rock that stuck out of the ground. It was like an old friend. He had run every trail in this mountain more times than he could count, and now it was going to pay off.

Yet, as he got halfway down the mountain, as he ran around a bend on the steep edge, something strange began to happen. He felt a shift. The song of the world that resonated so strongly in him when he ran suddenly faltered and a piercing scream that shook him to the core rang out as the air was rent. Though he could not see it, he knew that the sky itself was being torn, like a blade had cut through the firmament. The aftershock of this rolled across the mountain, shaking his equilibrium and throwing him off balance. Missing a step, his ankle twisted and he tumbled to the side, his body going out of control. His friends were far behind him, unable to see him, and though a warrior stood a bit further down the mountain, ready to assist if something happened during the run, she was too far away to stop him. Slipping in the brush, Merrick realized that he wasn't going to be able to stop his momentum as he rolled over and over. Up ahead, a small cliff plunged deep into the canyon below, a faint ribbon of water at its base. Tumbling over, Merrick tried to get his hands under him but wasn’t able to catch himself as he fell toward the edge. His mind whirled as he tried to find purchase, but there was nothing to be grabbed. It was as if he was being pulled over the edge of this cliff, dragged by an unseen hand down into the abyss.

Hearing a faint shout, he tried to gather his wits, but there was nothing he could do. Suddenly, the feeling of freedom became real. Just as when he launched himself into the air, soaring to a tree branch as a springboard to launch himself further, he felt free. There was nothing holding him down, nothing supporting his weight, just empty air on all sides as he plunged deep into the canyon. Millions of thoughts flashed through Merrick's head: ideas, scenes, and memories, both his and not his at the same time. It was as if his entire life had played before him in the few brief moments that he was airborne. But it wasn't just his life; he saw something grander, something greater. A life similar to his, but full of hardship and tragedy. A life that stretched far beyond the lands he knew, extending into unknown places high above the stars. He saw strange creatures, strange people, and even stranger devices, understanding little of it.

He plunged down into the canyon, his mind completely blank as wave after wave of energy slammed into him. He had no idea how much time had passed before he plunged into the icy depths of the river. He knew, in some part of his brain, that the chances of falling from such a height and hitting the river were astronomically low. But before he could be thankful, the air was driven out of his lungs, and his thoughts blacked out instantly. He sank into the cold depths of the rushing water, rapidly washed downstream through the thin canyon at the edge of the valley and a long time later, when he awoke, he knew he was in trouble.

Deep coughs wracked his body as he spit up the water he had swallowed, vomiting everything in his stomach onto the coarse sand and mud of the shore he lay on. Behind him was a wide lake and as he finally mustered the strength to sit up, he rubbed his eyes, blearily trying to make out any landmark that looked familiar. But there was nothing. Instead of his familiar mountains and valley, he found himself surrounded by dense, jagged rocks and thick trees. The lake before him had no visible outlet, but the steady pound of the waterfall in the distance alerted him to how he had arrived. None of the land around him was familiar, which meant he must've been pulled far downstream.

Struggling to get up, Merrick crawled his way further up onto the bank, pulling his legs out of the shallows, feeling the cuts on his hands and legs as he gingerly made his way away from the water. After catching his breath, he checked his body over. There were no broken bones, but he had a nasty laceration on his leg and bruises all over his body. His body shaking with pain, he rested in place, feeling like he never wanted to move again. It took him a while before he was ready to move and once he did, he peeled off the ceremonial buckskin shirt, now ripped and torn from his trip down the river. He winced as the stiff fabric scraped across his arms, and pulling free from the sopping wet buckskin he draped it over a nearby rock. It wouldn't dry like that but until he got a fire going, that was the best he was going to get. His head was feeling a bit clearer now, despite his pounding headache, so he began to look around, taking stock of the situation.

[Skill: Warrior’s Observation - Unlocked]

Stunned by the voice in his head, Merrick looked around wildly, nearly falling to the ground. There was nothing, simply silence. A deep, unending silence that he had never encountered before. With growing horror, he realized that the song of the world was gone and nothing but silence replaced it. Never before had he been without the song of the world. Never before had the mountains and streams, the trees and the leaves above, and the grass below not spoken to him. And now, in the deafening silence, all he could hear was himself. His heart beat loudly like a drum. He heard the throng of his blood pumping through his veins. He almost felt that if he listened closely enough, he could hear the thoughts rampaging through his head.

[The path of the warrior is long; the path of the warrior is hard. Remain true to yourself, and you will see victory.]

Once more, the strange voice spoke, filling the dreadful silence. The words echoed in the void, beating against his mind and searing themselves into his soul. Something seemed to snap inside him, and he let out a strangled cry, feeling a deep pain in his heart. He was completely confused as to what was going on, but the pain soon began to fade away and mercifully, the song of the world began again. Though it was faint, he could clearly hear the song of the land starting to fill the void that had been created in his heart and mind. Whatever it was that had disrupted the song, whatever it was that had gotten in the way was gone. His thoughts racing, Merrick sat down, his breath coming in gasps as he stared in amazement at his hands.