Special Challenge 237

The following passage is excerpted from “Army of Misfits,” book IV of Crystalwizard’s Sojourn Chronicles.

The Challenge is to give the narrative character a name and to write either a beginning or ending — or both, if you like. Winning entries will get an early publication date as Challenge responses. Complete entries — with both a beginning and an ending — will be eligible for the Second Quarterly Review.

Please send entries to Ye Copy Editor.

The Furies

by Crystalwizard

The forest was hot, the smell of rotting leaves nearly overpowering. A lone man struggled through it, his resolve wavering slightly. He was tired, unused to such exertion, and beginning to regret talking down to the wizard. He paused and wiped the sweat from his face.

He pulled his pack from his back and let it fall to the ground with a thud. “At this rate,” he muttered, taking the pyramid out of his pocket again and studying it, “I might reach the summit in a year or three.”

He sank down to the ground beside his pack and sat there, breathing heavily, listening to the forest around him. I wonder where he sent everyone else? he thought, remembering the very crowded room he had occupied just moments before he found himself alone on the beach. Thirty men do not just vanish into thin air. He shook his head. “Well no help for it now, this thing won’t take me home unless I find him first.”

He put the pyramid back in his pocket, stood and picked his backpack up again with some difficulty. “I swear this thing has gotten heavier,” he grumbled, struggling to get the straps over his shoulders again. “Probably materialized a load of bricks in the bottom for good measure.”

He got the backpack in place at last, straightened it and set out once more through the forest. High above, the mountain peaks seemed to laugh at him, and he felt a slight shiver run up his spine.

Night found him collapsed on the ground beside an ancient stump, fainted from exhaustion and the heat of the day. His mind was in a turmoil, his dreams chaotic and frightening, his emotions badly frayed.

He woke with a start and stared at the lights that whirled around his head in hypnotic patterns. He blanched. Tales his nurse had told him when he was just a boy rose in his mind and became terrifyingly real. He whispered the first words of an ancient chant then stilled, unable to speak as the lights drew apart and the forest began to glow softly.

“Mortal man,” the words sighed on the breeze as the glow swirled, then solidified into a tall, dangerously beautiful woman.

“Driven it seems,” a second woman appeared beside her, glowing in shades of rose.

“The forest is not safe for one such as you,” the first woman intoned, her voice echoing faintly through the woods around him.

“He is alone,” a third woman observed as she stepped into view.

“Leave him be,” the second woman said, watching the man who was staring at them.

“He would be interesting to enjoy,” the first woman remarked, a wicked smile playing about her lips.

“He follows the others,” the third woman stated.

“He is a human,” the second woman chided the first. “You would tire of him rapidly.”

“What shall we do with him?” the third woman asked the first two. “He trespasses.”

The man watched them in fascinated horror. The urge to flee tugged at him but his legs refused to move. His mind raced, remembering stories he had always laughed at, of talking trees, and spirits that lived within them. Of creatures born in legend and song. He swallowed and tried to speak, but found his voice fled beyond his control.

The three women looked at him then the second laughed, her voice echoing through the forest. “I am amused,” she declared,. “Look, he is frightened. Humans are such pitiful creatures. Send him up the mountain to join his quarry, my sisters.”

“Perhaps we should simply leave him for the wolves?” the first one suggested. “They would enjoy a feast.”

“The forest would smell for days,” the third objected. “It already fills with his stench. Let us dispose of him quickly.”

The man fought desperately to force words from his lips then shook his head.

“Oh send him up the mountain, sisters,” the second woman repeated. “He’s hardly a threat.”

“Very well,” the first one replied, “but if Zvothra is displeased, you will answer for all three of us.” She looked at the man then pointed at him. “We will aid your journey, human,” she told him, “but be warned. The fate of the world lies in the balance. Do anything to tip that balance wrongly and all will be on your head!”

She gestured and the man gasped. The world spun around him, tipped sideways and he fell. Stars rushed up to meet him, then fled past. Colors swirled through his mind and exploded behind his eyes. A massive face, framed with lighting, eyes blazing with power, regarded him for a moment then he crashed face first into the grass and lay there stunned, truly terrified for the first time in his life.

Copyright © 2007 by Crystalwizard