Soul Caller 1 - Chapter 41 (Patreon)

Merrick and Joseph had walked all night and much of the day before, so now, after stuffing themselves full of venison, they rested. For Joseph, that meant sleep and upon closing his eyes, he was out almost instantly, his body slackening as he rested his weight against a tree. Within a few minutes, he was snoring, his head lolling to the side in a way Merrick found quite humorous. The prospector seemed to have little regard for the dangers around him, though that could have just been caused by exhaustion, but Merrick still thought it a bad idea. It would not do to be so lax, even if they were out of the greatest danger.

Folding his legs under him, Merrick got ready to meditate. What he really needed was sleep, as it had been almost a week since he had last slumbered. Instead, he had been meditating each night, drawing strength from the Song of the World to replenish the energy he expended during the day, but he was finding that this method of resting had limits, and he was starting to push them. Still, he didn't want to sleep while Joseph was dead to the world, and so he fell into a light trance, practicing his breathing as he attuned himself to the song.

Almost immediately, however, he felt a slight difference in the song’s flow and tempo. The discordant notes brought by the arrival of the scaled beasts had been growing stronger, more insistent, drowning out many of the other sounds and notes that made up the song of the world. Yet now, those discordant notes had begun to change slightly. It was as if a new theme had emerged in the music. It was faint and scattered, but Merrick could sense it clearly as it wove through the rhythms of the earth and trees. Curious about it, he pressed in deeper, surrounding himself in the Song of the World as he tried to latch on to the illusive melody.

As he sank into the energy that flowed around him, he found that he was being swept away by its current, and, unable to help himself, he drifted into a dream. In it, he saw a new memory, one that he had never observed before. From a high view, that of a bird wheeling freely across the sky, he saw mountains below him, recognizing them almost immediately as the mountain range he had just escaped from. There he saw a group of prospectors, nearly jubilant in their excitement, marching south. Moments later, that excitement turned to terror as hundreds of scaled beasts poured out of the woods around them. Despite trying to defend themselves with their manatech rifles the prospectors were slaughtered without mercy in a matter of minutes and the valley and the mountain range fell silent.

From there, the dream changed as time appeared to speed up, seasons coming and going in rapid succession. Summer was replaced with fall as the leaves transformed into a thousand brilliant colors before fading into dull gray that was soon buried by thick snow. Spring followed closely on the snow’s heels, bright green fighting up through the dull white as the cycle repeated. Three times this pattern repeated, but during the fourth, things were no longer the same. As he watched from on high, Merrick saw the land starting to change, the plants withering and dying as the scaled beasts began to construct elaborate burrows throughout the mountains. Large worm-like creatures dug deep tunnels, and more and more of the wolf-sized, six-legged scaled beasts appeared, crawling through the rocks and killing any living creature they came upon.

A feeling of deep sorrow swelled in Merrick's chest as he watched the land being destroyed, until suddenly he heard the clarion call of a loud horn echoing over the mountains. His view shifted, moving further south as he saw an army of humans, with his people scattered sporadically among them, marching towards the mountains. But in his heart he knew it was too late. The scaled beasts had been given too long to prepare their defenses and no amount of manatech fire would shift them from the stronghold they had built. Their grip on the mountain range was too strong, their tunnels too deep. There would be no way for the human army's attack to succeed. Watching the human army march forward, Merrick felt as if he was watching them march to their deaths. Arrayed in front of them was a sea of monsters, many of which he had never seen before, and  with a roar, they suddenly charged out of the mountains like a terrible scaled wave. Just before the two forces clashed, another blast of the horn sounded and Merrick's dream faded, causing him to wake with a start.

[You have seen the past. There is an opportunity to change the future.]

[Ding! Quest issued. Bring the Prospector Joseph safely back to Coldwater, and help him deliver his message to the World Guard Warden garrisoned there. Reward: Minor blessing.]

Taking a deep breath, Merrick took a moment to clear his mind as he processed what had just happened. The sun was high in the sky, and the mountain air was filled with warmth, indicating that summer was on its way. Across the smoldering fire, Joseph had fallen on his side without waking, still dead to the world. Slowly rising, Merrick stretched his body, twisting his waist as he thought about what had just transpired in his dream. As far as he understood it, he had just seen a vision of the past. But not his past, the Warrior's past. Looking at Joseph, Merrick recognized him from among the men he had seen in his dream. The bearded prospector had been walking at the front of the group, a wide grin on his face.

Yet it was clear that every single one of them had died, Joseph included. There had been an overwhelming number of scaled beasts and they had been overrun before most of them could get off more than one shot. Despite accounting for two of the monsters, Merrick had watched as Joseph was crushed by a large scaled beast. Merrick even recognized the spot where the ambush had occurred as one he had considered for his own ambush on the prospectors. However, it was clear that something had changed. Rather than dying under the ambush of the scaled beasts, Joseph had survived. Whether it was because of Merrick's early attack that had sent the prospectors back through the mountains at an earlier date, or something else, Merrick was not sure. But it didn't matter. He believed with all his heart that what he had seen was true and had actually transpired.

Opening the quest window, he read it again. According to what it was saying, the opportunity for a different future lay before him but it also wasn’t guaranteed. The key lay in Joseph’s survival, and Merrick knew that it was imperative that he complete this task. He had been planning on going to Coldwater anyways, as he had a blood debt to settle with Vale, and Coldwater was his best lead for finding the dark-haired prospector who had betrayed him. Yet now, he was realizing that there were other forces at play as well. Forces much bigger than him and his grudge against Vale.

It was growing clearer that there was a world spanning battle underway, one that the Warrior had played a significant role in. Now that he had inherited the Warrior’s blessing, it seemed inevitable that he would be drawn into this conflict, and already he could feel the tendrils of the maelstrom grasping at him. To his surprise, however, that thought didn’t strike fear in his heart like he assumed it would. With power came danger, and the opposite was true as well. Merrick firmly believed that danger contained the path to growing stronger, and as long as he lived, he would be able to overcome any challenge. In his mind, his time in the canyon had proven that. Plus there was still time.

The scaled beasts had not yet entrenched themselves in the mountains, and if his dream was accurate, it would take them multiple years to establish their base. If they were successful in establishing themselves there, they would be impossible to shift. But if Merrick could bring the forces of these humans against them before they had the chance to dig their deep tunnels, there was a chance he could prevent the land from dying. This was the thread, the theme, he had discovered in Song of the World. It was a small chance, a tiny change in the direction, a tiny ripple in fate. But even something so small as one man's life or death could have tremendous impact.

Taking some of the venison they'd cooked the day before, Merrick bit off a chunk and chewed it slowly, his mind turning over his plans for the future. It was nearly two hours before Joseph awoke, sitting up and looking around blearily as he tried to make sense of the world in his dazed state. When he saw Merrick, he jumped up with a start before remembering everything that had happened.

"Whoa, that startled me," he said, shaking his head. "Has anyone ever told you that you look scary? Waking up like that can’t be good for my heart. Good to get some sleep, though."

Ignoring the man’s blabbing, Merrick stood up and walked over to him.

"Are you ready to go?" Merrick asked, handing Joseph a slab of roasted meat.

With a grimace, Joseph took it. "Tired, sore, and ready for a real bed. As ready as I'll ever be, I guess. At least I'm not going to go hungry."

As Joseph wolfed down the meat, Merrick packed up his few things, sliding them into his pack. More than once he had caught Joseph looking at it curiously, but he didn't explain what he carried. The Warrior's memories gave him an accurate assessment of just how valuable the manastones that he carried were, and as friendly as Joseph currently was, he didn't want to tempt the man with the fortune that he carried on his back.

"Let's go."

Leading the way into the forest, Merrick walked the first two miles to allow Joseph the chance to warm up, and then broke into a jog. Having learned his lesson the day before, Joseph kept in step with Merrick, following closely behind and trying to match his foot placements as accurately as possible. They ran together, covering considerable distance as they snaked their way up the mountain. Rather than take the lower saddle, Merrick was heading for higher up on the peak. It seemed counterintuitive at first, but he knew that the path down the other side would be easier from the top. How he knew that, he wasn't sure, and assumed it was a function of the Land Strider skill. A few hours later, as they crested the peak of the mountain, he found that his instinct had been right. The saddle of the mountain led to a sharp cliff that fell close to four hundred feet straight down and would have been impossible to climb, while a small game trail wound its way down from the peak of the mountain into the valley below.

Pausing at the top of the mountain, Merrick surveyed the land laid out before them. It was just getting to dusk and the sun was low on the horizon, casting its rays across the landscape, shrouding the valleys in deep shadows. In the far distance, Merrick could see a peak that rose higher than the others, piercing into the sky. Lifting his hand, he pointed with his finger, drawing Joseph's attention to it.

"That is the Sky Mountain tribe. Those are the hunting grounds of my people. If we keep up a steady pace, we should be there within a week."

Surveying the land between them and Sky Mountain with a skeptical eye, Joseph nodded.

"I'll follow your lead," he said. “You move a lot faster than I can, and somehow, your paths are better too. It took us almost a month to cross this area on our way out to the canyon, but if you say a week, then a week it is.”

They still had numerous mountains to cross, but now that he could see his home, Merrick wasn't in as much of a rush. He knew the value of taking his time in the wilderness. One wrong step could spell disaster, and so better to take things slowly and steadily, ensuring a smooth trip. Over the next few days, they continued to travel, resting at night and hunting for game as they needed it. Merrick avoided killing any more deer, and instead would dispatch rabbits as he found them, hanging them on his belt or from his bag until they made camp, and then skinning and cooking them. Joseph proved to be more than adept at handling the rabbits' bodies, and soon they fell into a natural division of labor. Merrick would do the hunting, and Joseph would prepare the animals, occasionally taking out small pinches of salt from his pouch to flavor the meat. At first, Merrick preferred the natural taste, but soon he grew to appreciate the flavor that the salt added, and began to look forward to Joseph's cooking.

They were out of the most dangerous parts of the wilds, and so when Merrick found fruit trees along the path, he stopped to pick some of the large apples, testing a small piece before consuming a dozen of them. After waiting a while to ensure they were not poisonous, Joseph ate some of the apples as well, and from then on they consumed any fruit they found, finally getting some variety in their diet. The terrain they were covering was still rough, but they made good enough time that Merrick didn't feel the need to continue traveling at night.

In the evenings, when they would set up their campfire, Merrick would casually ask Joseph questions about the other worlds he had been to, and the town, Coldwater, where they were heading. The memories he had inherited from the Warrior were filled with sub context and information that lurked under the surface, but much like the way he had learned the human's language, the more he listened to Joseph speak, the more clearly the information hidden in the memories emerged. It was as if he was unlocking his access to the information by providing slight context clues that put the information in proper perspective, allowing it to slot into place like a puzzle. He tried to keep his questioning innocuous, but soon it was clear to both him and Joseph that he was rapidly devouring the man's stories and information about human society. Joseph didn't seem to care, and rather seemed much happier to talk than sit in silence, and so continued to pretend that he didn't know he was being pumped for information.