39 The Outsider (1/2)

Making up with my friends was the best feeling in the world. Too bad fate couldn't give me even one day to enjoy this natural high. The night after Ty, Arah, and I roleplayed the most famous line from the Three Musketeers, I learned that the war that was coming had already arrived.

As soon as I dropped into the Fayne, Luca clued me in on the big news circling the barracks of Fort Darah.

”A hundred-thousand-strong army just left Spellweave River Valley... It'll enter the Calmlands in a week. They'll take another seven days to reach the western side,” Luca frowned. ”You were right...”

”Did you really doubt what Aura and I told the higher-ups?” I asked him.

That's when I noticed his hands shaking.

”No...” he whispered. ”But I was kind of hoping you were exaggerating... a hundred thousand just feels unreal.”

I placed my hand on his shoulder and squeezed it gently.

”Luca, if we're serious about becoming the clan's heroes then this kind of war is exactly what we need...” I reasoned.

”I-I know...” he answered, his eyes downcast.

I squeezed his shoulder again. ”Why do we fight, Luca?”

Luca's shoulders slumped when he answered, ”So we can earn a wish from the clan leader... so we can go home.”

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”Don't worry... we'll survive...” I slapped his shoulder lightly before I pulled my hand away as I didn't want him to notice that my own hand was shaking. ”I'll figure it out. I'll find the best opportunity for us to make a splash while making sure we stay alive.”

Luca nodded wordlessly. He clasped his hands together to stop them from shaking. I did the same but in a more subtle way as I'd clasped my hands behind me.

Sometimes I forgot that Luca was younger than me. He did kick butt often enough for me to believe he was made of sterner stuff. Tonight, however, he was just fourteen-year-old Luca, a kid who'd experienced too much pain and sorrow.

I heard the rustling of leaves in the wind, and I glanced up and saw the wooden stairs wrapped around the giant sequoia-type tree that led up to the platform housing the Foolhardies' barracks creak as heavy footsteps stomped down them.

A minute later, Edo came into view. Behind him walked a light-footed Aura. They made their way down to the redwood platform Luca and I hung out in.

Our platform was located a little below the halfway point of the tree's fifty-foot height. It hugged the tree's side like a really weird flat branch with wooden railings carved in life-like leaf patterns that really showed off how elven architecture tended to look like it was naturally formed from its surroundings. A redwood bridge with walls of geometric patterns and wooden awnings connected to another platform hanging onto a second giant sequoia. This platform was also connected to a third tree's platform further away, and that platform also connected to another tree, and so on.

Essentially, Fort Darah was a gigantic tree fort that rested on the limbs of dozens of gigantic redwoods in a forest only a day's travel from the western entrance of the Calmlands.

Aura walked over to me and showed me an obsidian orb wrapped in her hand. It was half the size of a regular basketball.

”Whoa... did you get me an anchor?” I asked.

Aura nodded. ”Complements of Great General Darah... she says all hundred-man commanders are provided one right before the start of a large conflict.”

I took the orb from her and hefted it in my hand. It was cold to touch and almost as light as a feather—as if it would fly away if I didn't grip it tightly enough.

”It's like a balloon,” I observed.

”It won't be for long,” Aura offered me a needle. ”Prick your hand on this and drop your blood onto the anchor's surface.”

It sounded pretty morbid but I did as she asked. There was a lingering sting after I pierced my left hand's forefinger with the needle. A bead of blood trailed down the wound and onto my palm which I rubbed onto the orb.

Immediately afterward, the anchor increased in weight until it felt like I was holding onto a bowling ball which I nearly dropped in surprised.

”Dean... careful,” Luca admonished.

”I'll take it,” Edo impatiently gestured for me to give up the orb with the twirl of his fingers. ”Wimp.”

There was a grin growing on his face when he said this, and if I didn't know any better, I'd say Edo was finally warming up to me.

He took the orb from my hands like it weighed nothing on the wide palm of his own hand. Then he dropped it into the bag of holding we'd gotten from Kallista.

It left me wondering loudly what would happen if I appeared inside the bag's dimensional space.

Edo responded with, ”I'll be sure to take it out before sundown, boss.”