Soul Caller 1 - Chapter 40 (Patreon)

After their impromptu meal, Merrick looked at Joseph and found the prospector was looking back at him. They had banded together out of necessity, and now both of them were at something of a loss. For the last three days, they'd been trying to kill each other, and as much as Merrick didn't like the prospector, a grudging respect had grown, especially after seeing him fight his way down the mountain. Joseph was clearly skilled, and even though they had been enemies, Merrick found himself strangely reluctant to take up his weapons and face Joseph in battle. He wasn't sure that Joseph felt the same way, but he thought that he might. After staring at each other for a few more minutes, Merrick stood up and grabbed his pack.

"I'm going to leave," he said, causing Joseph to frown. “I’m returning to my village. You can do whatever you want.”

"Wait," Joseph scrambled to his feet, "which way?"

Merrick looked at the prospector who was looking nervously around him and suddenly realized that the man was lost. The people all possessed an innate sense of direction, strengthened by their connection to the Song of the World, but the strangers had no such thing, and without a compass, Joseph clearly had no idea what direction was which. Given that he was in the middle of the forest, it was just as likely that he would end up traveling back to the pass they had just escaped from as he would find his way south to where the other prospectors lived.

Briefly, Merrick thought about just leaving him. Joseph didn't have the supplies he needed to survive, and his only means of hunting were the manatech weapons he carried, whose loud reports would soon undoubtedly draw the attention of the scaled beasts in the mountains. Still, Merrick knew that he had likely only survived thanks to the prospector's help. He was torn. On the one hand, he wanted to return the favor Joseph had done in saving him from the scaled beast ambush, and on the other, he wished the man wouldn't return to bring word of the manastone mine.

Furthermore, Merrick had another problem. Though Joseph had yet to say anything, he could see the faint confusion in the man's eyes as he watched Merrick handle the manatech rifle. Such a thing should have been impossible, and yet Merrick did more than just handle it. He used it with deadly accuracy. According to what Evan had said, it was common knowledge that the natives of this world were not able to use manatech, but that knowledge had been completely shattered by Merrick. There would no doubt be people interested in what made Merrick special, and he had no desire to be hounded by strangers for the rest of his life. If Joseph brought word of Merrick to the people who had hired him, it was likely Merrick would never have another day of peace again.

Deciding that the only way forward was to clear the air, Merrick let out a sigh and spoke in the stranger's tongue, "If we're going to travel together, I need to know more about you."

Joseph's mouth dropped open, and he stared at Merrick in complete disbelief.

"You speak common?" He asked, his voice incredulous.

"Clearly," Merrick replied, nodding his head. "Now, who are you, and what were you doing in that canyon?"

"In that canyon?"

Unable to process what he was hearing, it took Joseph a full minute before he was able to recover himself. When he did, he slowly took a step back, holding up his hands.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't be so surprised after how you handle a manatech weapon, but I don't think I've ever met one of you sav… one of your people who can speak common before."

Realizing that Joseph had nearly insulted him, Merrick shrugged and didn't say anything, simply waiting for Joseph to answer his questions. Clearing his throat, the prospector combed his fingers through his thick beard in an effort to calm himself down.

"My name is Joseph. I'm a freelance prospector employed by Gorgon. They put a team of us freelancers together and sent us to look for the mine."

"Who gave you directions to the canyon?" Merrick asked, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

Joseph just shrugged. "It was just a job. It came through an official prospector request. I just got sealed instructions after accepting the job and led the team through the mountains. We had no idea that the scaled beasts had already expanded so far."

A faint frown crossed Merrick's face as he listened to Joseph.

"Do you know a young man with dark hair?" He asked, describing Vale as best he could.

From the blank expression on Joseph's face, it was clear the answer was no, and the prospector shook his head.

"Sorry, that could be any number of people. I don't know that I've ever run across anybody like that specifically. It doesn't ring any bells, at least."

"And this Gorgon, where do I find him?" Merrick asked.

This time it was Joseph's turn to frown.

"Gorgon is a company. It's a large group of people. It's not one person, but you can find their representatives at Coldwater. They have an office in the town there."

Thinking for a moment, Merrick came up with a plan and extended his proposal.

"I will lead you out of the mountains if you agree to lead me to this Coldwater," he said, causing Joseph's eyes to light up. “You will show me where to find this Gorgon. However, you must swear on your guardian spirit that you will never speak of what happened in the canyon, or of me.”

Nodding swiftly, Joseph agreed.

"Sounds like a fair deal to me. Honestly, I’d agree to just about anything if you take me out of the mountains. I’ve had enough of being chased by scaled beasts to last a lifetime."

“Then we are agreed.”

About to turn and lead the way, Merrick paused and looked over his shoulder.

"What of your companions? The ones I killed."

His expression clear, Joseph just shrugged.

"It was just a random group of prospectors," he said. "I didn't know any of them before we set out for the job. In fact, half of them I would have liked to kill myself. You get me out of these mountains and believe me, you won't hear another word about it."

Walking over to where Merrick stood, he patted the young spirit warrior on the shoulder.

"We have a saying. What happens in the wilds stays in the wilds," Joseph said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Don't worry. Once we leave, nobody will bother you about it."

Somehow, the tone of Joseph’s voice did more to reassure Merrick than even an oath would have and he nodded.

“Follow me.”

Keeping his pace as slow as he could, he led Joseph into the forest, his feet naturally carrying him to the easiest path. At first Joseph tried to walk next to him, but he found it quite hard to keep up. When he finally fell back and followed Merrick's steps exactly he realized that the path smoothed out considerably. The sun had set, bathing the forest in silver shadows that danced along with the waving leaves, but Merrick didn’t stop moving. He wasn’t sure if Joseph was going to be able to keep up, but the bearded prospector turned out to be as tough as leather and when the sun’s rays peeked over the mountains the following morning he was still hanging on.

They had crossed the valley in a single night and were now climbing up the mountain on the other side, but it was clear to Merrick that Joseph had reached his limit. Stopping at a small outcropping of trees, Merrick gestured to them.

“Let’s make camp here. I’ll go hunting if you start the fire.”

“Are you sure we can afford to make noise?” Joseph asked, giving the rifles on Merrick's back a skeptical look.

“I won’t use my rifle,” Merrick replied, patting the handle of his spear. “I’ll be back soon.”

On the way through the valley Merrick had realized that it was chock full of animals, likely driven out of the mountains by the presence of the scaled beasts, so he was confident in being able to find food quickly. Leaving Joseph to set up camp, Merrick headed back down the mountain until he came to a wide meadow they had passed by earlier. There was a group of deer feeding in the dawn light, and Merrick crouched at the tree line, watching them. He was interested in a doe who looked to be about six years old and was walking with a slight limp from a set of claw marks on her haunches.

Lifting his spear in his hand, he shifted his grip as he got ready to throw. With a swift motion he stood and hurled the spear, dashing forward as soon as he let go of it. Like an arrow it stabbed deep into the deer’s side, piercing into the doe’s heart and knocking her from her feet. Merrick was moving so fast that he got to her before her body hit the ground and he grabbed his spear, pulling it free as her body crushed the tall grass. The other deer stared at him in surprise before turning and rushing away, and Merrick just watched as they vanished into the trees. Slowly but surely he was starting to become accustomed to the blessings he had received and was realizing that his body could do considerably more than he thought.

What he had just done was a combination of a move he had seen in the Warrior’s memories and the blessing of Snake. By tying in with the Song of the World, he was able to maximize his explosive speed, focusing it into his legs to cross considerable distance in a flash. Quite pleased, he bowed his head to thank the spirits before cutting into the deer’s corpse. After dressing the deer, he found a tree to hang it on for a quarter of an hour and then cut large chunks of meat from its sides and haunches.

He hated to waste any of it, as that was disrespectful to the doe, but they didn’t have time to process the hide or all the meat, and he didn’t want to be burdened by dragging the raw and bloody material all over the mountains. That would be asking for trouble, and trouble was the last thing he wanted right now. Gathering the meat, he returned to camp where Joseph had gotten a fire going. It didn’t take long to cook the venison steaks, and both men ate as much as they possibly could, filling their stomachs until they were slightly uncomfortable. There was still some meat left so Merrick cooked it up in an effort to make it last a bit longer before it spoiled. He judged that it would last two days in that state, which meant they wouldn’t have to stop and hunt. When they were done eating, Joseph leaned back against a tree and picked at his teeth. Noticing that the prospector kept looking at him, Merrick raised an eyebrow.

“Do you need something?”

The food had revived Joseph’s spirits considerably, and he matched Merrick's rough tone with a smirk of his own.

“Just wondering where you learned to talk like that. You speak better than I do, and I grew up on common. Or do all of your people know how to speak like that?”

Shaking his head, Merrick grinned, showing his canines.

“Not that I know of. I’m unique, one of a kind.”

“I can see that. Where’d you learn it?”

“From listening to other prospectors,” Merrick said, shrugging.

It wasn’t quite the truth, but it wasn’t a complete fabrication either. While most of Merrick's knowledge of common had come through the memories his guardian spirit brought, he had refined his understanding of the language by listening to Evan and Dugan talk during their trip to the canyon. At first, his understanding had been basic, but the more he listened, the more familiar the words and phrases had become until he seemed to know it even better than he knew his own tongue. Seeing that Joseph was still curious, he changed the topic, not wanting to accidentally reveal anything.

“How’d you end up being a prospector? And what brought you to this world?”

His first question was only there to mask the second, and when Joseph gave him a surprised look, Merrick knew that he had asked the right thing.

“You know that I’m not from this world?” the prospector asked in reply, scratching at his beard. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you know that. After all, you know common and can use manatech, which is strange enough considering you’re not human. I’m from Baslear originally, and this is my fifth world. As for how I ended up as a prospector, it's the usual story. I was recruited into the World Guard, and sent to Hammerkell to fight against the scalies there. When that world fell my unit was all but wiped out and I ended up getting my discharge. After that I wandered around, trying my hand at different things until I saw a flyer for a job scouting for a prospecting company. I like being out in the wilderness, and my skills were a good fit so I’ve been doing it ever since. Shame the scalies got here so quick. Normally they wouldn’t be here for a good few years after we arrived but they seem to have made the first move this time.”

Listening to Joseph talk, Merrick's mind was busy trying to match up what he was saying with what he had seen in the Warrior’s memories. It appeared that the strangers, who called themselves humans, and the scaled beasts, or scalies, were in constant competition for worlds, taking control of their resources and using them to fund their war efforts.

“Did you only arrive recently?” Merrick asked casually, picking up a stick to put in the fire.

“Last year with the third wave,” Joseph replied with a nod. “But now that the scalies have moved into the mountain range, things are going to get pretty hairy. The World Guard will be deployed and the conflict on this world will grow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a world this rich get sucked into war this fast. It's going to be a wild time, that’s for sure.”

Nodding, as if he understood what Joseph was talking about, Merrick changed the subject once more, hoping to get as much information from the bearded prospector as he could.

“You said you are from Baslear? I think it would be interesting to go to different worlds. What is that world like?”

“Oh it's grand,” Joseph said, his eyes lighting up. “Mountains like you’ve never seen, all floating over an endless plain of grass. From the way you move, you’d be right at home. And maybe you could see it. Once they connect the gates, you’ll be able to come and go from this world as you please.”