Rivalry Of The Gods

“And so, our Lord ascended into the celestial plane, casting off his earthly essence to guide us in our time of need. Shattering the center of the world, to protect us against the threat of the north, that had always plagued our lands. Their jealousy becoming their downfall, as the one blessed by fire, purged the heathens from our lands, casting them back into the north. May we forever walk in the light of our deity.”

-Arch-prophet Vanaris, Year 1 AtS, during the Summer Solstice, The Holy City Of Emberstone

o.O.o

The Dreamlands were where all those who were magically apt went after falling asleep. The realm was considered a conundrum to many scholars and mages. Why did one connect with this realm when one went to sleep? A question that had eluded many clever minds throughout the years. Theories talk about it being the foundation of magic, where mana originated, and was renewed when used. No hard evidence have ever been provided for such a claim though. Possibly because there were never any interactions between sleeping magic-users, the Dreamlands functioned separately from each other. Many advanced mages used it as a means to repeat what they had learned over the day, as form of studying while resting. Others who were not as skilled, used it as means of relaxation, forming their own dreams, with mixed results sometimes.

For Vess, it was a pain in the ass. In the Dreamlands you couldn’t escape your bad memories, even if you wanted to forget. Just thinking about it brought them upon. Like there, he was being ten, getting beat up by Gilbert again for not giving the big bully a share of what he managed to steal from a shopkeeper the other day. Ah, and there, he was punished by the so called patron of the little shack all the orphans in town had to share. For not tying his shoelaces, properly.

Vess laughed out loud. He didn’t even remember having shoes back then, freaking piece of alcoholic trash.

And then, there was that day. It had started like every other day, except for two things.

One, Gilbert had finally crossed the line, and was going at Vess with the intent of actually killing, over some minor detail where Vess mentioned Gilbert was the equivalent of rat shit something or the other. The two boys, Vess barely fourteen years old, Gilbert sixteen, fought it out in the streets of the village. Fights between orphans was nothing new in the small town, so no one even batted an eyelid when Gilbert pummeled Vess into a pulp nearby the town well. Vess tried to fight back, but Gilbert’s two years of maturation, really tipped the scales in his favour.

Two, as the bully proceeded to tear Vess a new one, an entourage of men, clad in black cloaks, riding on horses had entered their little village. This was not at all interesting to Vess, or Gilbert at the moment, they were far too absorbed in greeting each other with their fists.

Young Vess, realising he was actually in really deep shit for the first time in his life, not counting the one he almost fell down in town’s well when he was out for a night stroll taking a pi...but that’s not important. Anyway, Vess realising that he might actually die, started to hyperventilate, his head burning as if he had a fever. With the last of his strength he grasped Gilbert’s hands, that had started to go for Vess’s throat, digged into them with his nails, and proceeded to burn their skin off.
Full of adrenaline,

Gilbert didn’t notice straight away, but even in his rage, he could soon smell something cooking, and it wasn’t chicken. With a scream, the bully had released Vess, who was now gasping for air, his head throbbing with a sharp pain.

The commotion had caught the attention of the entourage, and when the leader approached the two boys, he immediately dismounted from his horse. He went over to the confused Vess, who at this point was staring at his hands, while Gilbert was still roaring in pain on the ground.

The leader asked Vess, what had happened, and brightened up when Vess told him he had somehow had set Gilbert’s appendages on fire. He enquired if Vess had any parents that he could have a talk to, Vess only shook his head, still confused over the situation.

If he had smiled before, he grinned now. The man in the black cloak bent over to Vess and asked him, if he wanted an opportunity out of this dunghole. Vess had nodded ever so slightly. “Excellent”, the man had replied, you’ll do well with me, my boy. Do as I tell you to, and you’ll be living a far better life than scrounging for breadcrumbs in the streets.

The memory faded as the man helped Vess up on his horse, and the dreaming Vess started stirring, meaning it was probably time to wake up.

The sunlight shone brightly in Vess’ eyes as he awoke well-rested from his slumber, thankful that he managed to make it through the night without any mishaps.

His stomach growled once again for food, and he got up from his improvised bed to remedy the problem. While he continued walking in the direction he set for himself, he was at a constant vigilance for any kind of edible berries and roots, luckily managing to find some along the way that sated his hunger for the time-being.

Finally, after walking for almost two more hours, it seemed like the forest started to thin out, and Vess could soon make out the end of it. He let out a sigh of relief. Even though he had started to like the wilderness from his stay with the retired hunter, it was nice to know he wasn’t trapped in it entirely.

By the end of the forest, he saw a road stretching far across the land, not far from where he was standing. Not seeing any specific signs or landmarks, only flat terrain until another mountain range towered way off in the distance. Eagerly, he picked up his pace until he got on the road. As he planted his feet on the dirt-road, he took a moment to stretch his whole body. When he finished he spoke up loudly.

“Alright! Now, where in the two hells am I?”

The road was just like any other dirt-covered route he had travelled on in the past and didn’t really tell him about his location, his attention however was soon drawn to the fresh wheel marks in the ground. Looking around, squinting, he could make out some form of carriage further down to the road, which seemed to be driven by animals, presumably horses.

Excited to see a sign of intelligent life he started running to catch up to the carriage.

When he came into earshot of the wagon Vess called out to the ones inside it, asking for them to stop and for directions, hoping that he could tag along to the closest village.

The carriage did stop, however Vess couldn’t believe his eyes as when one of the horses dragging it, turned around to get a look of what had called out to them.

It was certainly horse-like, but it seemed ridiculous small to be pulling anything big like the wagon, and its features was, well, wrong. Its eyes too big for its head, and with a buzz-cut for a mane. It looked like some bad joke the old town-fool would try and pull to get attention on a boring day.

What in the Gods are that? he thought to himself.

He couldn’t ponder the question however, the horse that had met his gaze, had turned seemingly pale, and whinnied loudly, and the wagon picked up speed as the animal ran away.

“Wha..? Wait!” Vess shouted after them, taken aback by the situation. He tried running after the carriage, pleading for it to slow down, but to no avail. Soon the wagon was far away on the road.

Vess halted to catch his breath, his lungs burning as fiercely as wild-fire.

Why...why did they just take off? And what in the name of the Two Deities was that...thing…? He played it off as his eyes playing tricks on him. Pissed off now, because he had been ditched by the persons driving the wagon, he angrily continued down the road. Even if the driver didn’t want him on board, he figured that it should still head for a town. He only wished that it wouldn’t be too far to travel on foot there.

It wasn’t quite yet noon, but Vess already felt hunger creeping up on him again. Ever since he had made his home in the stronghold, he had been accustomed to three to four large meals a day. Spellcasting did take a toll on the body’s reserves after all, and he had to eat a lot, since he had had obligatory training every day.

Gritting his teeth, he quelled his basic need for the time being, and walked towards what he hoped would be civilization, while sulkily kicking small rocks on the way.

o.O.o

“Is he finally on his move?”

“It would seem that way….”

“Took him long enough, didn’t it?”

“Agreed. What do you think he’ll do next?”

“I don’t know, personally I hope he will have a run in with the locals. That would be so deliciously chaotic.”

“Careful there, chaos isn’t your domain.”

“Hah! Like I care about that mishmash of a creature.”

“Still, it isn’t something you should delve too deep into.”

“You think I’m scared of that buffon, huh? You wanna fight? I’ll beat you to a pulp, bitch!”

“....whatever, idiot.”

o.O.o

As Vess traveled the road with his head hung down, clutching his aching abdomen, he thought how lucky he was, despite the situation. Because he had managed to find all kinds of different pebbles on the ground. Small pebbles, big pebbles, medium-sized pebbles, flat, thick, round, squared, triangular, his feet never got any rest, as he continued to show them the tip of his shoes with great vigor. How lucky he was indeed.

Taking a break from the booting, he looked up into the sky. It was early evening, and the sun had just set on the horizon. He had gone almost a full day without food.

I wish I could just conjure up food whenever I wanted to, now that would be useful magic! he thought to himself. Not that he completely abhorred his combat magic, but it wasn’t completely practical in this situation.

It was now almost utterly dark, the moon not gracing him with its light as much as yesterday. Sighing at his diminished vision, he pulled out his dagger. Concentrated on it for awhile, while uttering a few words.

The weapon soon started glowing with a comfortable light, and Vess held it in front of him, like a torch. Now, that is practical, however, he thought, while smirking. He really enjoyed these little cantrips. They didn’t take any serious toll on his mind and he could cast them without having to balance two different sources of power. It was something he had learned in secrecy while coming over a book in the stronghold’s library. Just a few small spells that could help him on his way, when training was just a little bit too tough. It kind of baffled him why they wouldn’t teach those spells to the initiates, they were ever so useful.

Now with his improvised night-light, he continued walking down the road, until he thought his eyes played tricks on him.
In the distance there were definitely something that was lit up, and that definitely something could surely only mean one thing. A village!

Vess sighed with relief. He would finally be able to: get to sleep at an inn, get some supper into his stomach, and then the next morning start searching for some traveling equipment.

He reached for his pouch he kept secured at his belt, the gold coins jingling inside as he shook it. It wasn’t much, but as long as he wasn’t screwed over, he could surely afford what he needed.

Dave had really helped him out with the value of money, something the organisation never thought to do, but Vess hadn’t questioned their decision. He had been saved from a life as a street rat after all. The old hunter had thought it was odd though, and had quickly bashed his own knowledge into the kid, so that he would have a chance to survive in the world, as the old man had said. Vess did admit, haggling could be kind of fun, when you got good at it.

Putting back his pouch into his pocket, Vess picked his pace up and continued walking towards the town.
Thirty minutes later, he arrived, almost at its gates. Or would be gates, if there had been any. He judged the town to be quite big actually, way too big for it not to have gates and stationed guards.

He shrugged. Well, at least he didn’t have to speak to any boring soldier, asking him what his business was so late at night.

Vess went on his way into the town. There were some street-lights lit up every here and there, courtesy of the town’s local mage, probably.

He dispelled his own magic and put his knife away into its sheath. Wouldn’t want to be known as someone who waves around glowing weapons in the middle of the night.

The streets were all but empty, Vess could hear faint voices that sounded like someone laughing. Hopefully at a tavern, he thought, as his stomach reminded him of his plight, while walking the on the paved ground.

He tried to localize the voices, and was a little surprised when he noticed something further down the road. It didn’t look like a person. He rubbed his eyes, thinking it was the fatigue, but there it sat. One of those weird horse-like creatures that he had encountered earlier, was now laying on a bench by a streetlight, seemingly laughing out loud.

One of Vess’ first thoughts were something in the way of, who let their horse out? His other thoughts were dedicated to deduce where the hell he was, where horses seemingly roamed freely during the night, while laughing to themselves.

You didn’t prepare me for anything like this, Dave, he thought as he continued to stare at the laughing equine from the shadows. Also, is that a freaking bottle beside him?

Vess’ suspicions came true as the horse actually lifted a bottle with its hooves to its mouth, and drank from it, audibly.

Yepp, that’s it, totally got it now. I’m either delirious from all the food, or I’ve hit my head so hard that I’m making stuff up, or I’m in the Dreamlands and haven’t woken up yet!

He pinched himself hard. Ehh, nope, alright, I’ve pretty much ended up being a vegetable then, lovely.

Now it was his belly that argued for the opposite. I guess technically you wouldn’t feel hunger like this if you’re delirious. But then it would mean…

He continued to observe the creature as it drank from its bottle, which clearly by this point must be an alcoholic beverage, since the horse swayed very familiarly to Vess.

Heh, how nostalgic. Reminds me of Ol’ Greg, he used to have the same obnoxious laugh when he had really hit the liquor. As much as Vess delighted in remembering his old patron, his full attention was still on the horse on the bench, who now had opened its eyes.

They were way too large for its head, Vess confirmed. If it really wasn’t a dream or some joke, then it still felt like it was very unproportional in comparison to regular horses. And he was pretty sure as well, that their legs don't bend that way normally, or their hooves being able to pick stuff up either for that matter.

Also the fact that, since its behaviour resembles that of a person, it can’t just be a simple horse. It has to be intelligent, if you can call any drunkard intelligent that is. That was beside the point however. If this horse here acted like a person, then that should also lay claim that there be more, probably them also sporting some higher brain-activity.

So, horses that acts like humanoids, fancy that! He knew by the history lessons he had to take, that his wasn’t the only sapient race. There were tales of short and crafty men once living in the mountains of his homeland, renowned for their excellent craftsmanship, but not much was seen of them since the Sundering.
Also, the Emerald Forest which stretch far and wide across the two borders, also had tales about them of mythical beings, called dryads, that would help lost travellers on to the right path.

So conceivably, it wasn’t impossible for horses to be sapient then, right? It just seemed to be quite silly though. It also raised a previous question he had asked himself.

Where the hell am I? I must have wandered off quite far in my sleep if not...wait, that could be it. He remembered a lesson from his magic teacher, that, before the sundering, there were a lot more variations of magic that welled up from the land’s core, which in turn was used by sorcerers and druids of old. After the Sundering such practice of magic was deemed heathenous and banned by the followers of Riful and Vayne, the elemental gods of ice and fire, and it was lost to time. One could still find such magic, where it was the strongest, presumably near old ritual grounds. He could accidentally have stepped into an area particularly filled with old magic, and been perhaps transported somewhere else? That could potentially mean that he was very, very far from home.

Seems highly unlikely, although it’s not like I have a better explanation. I mean, what are my options here? I’m either crazy, or very unlucky, judging by my guts, I would probably say the latter.

Vess decided that future speculations would have to wait, he had to think of the now instead. Alright, he thought, what should I do? He turned towards the horse, who he thought was a stallion by the looks of it. He was still on the bench, now singing some weird tune, Vess never heard of.

Alright, fuck it, here I go. With that, he casually strolled towards the colt sitting on the bench, and proceeded to sit next to the feller.

The stallion stirred as Vess sat down, stopped his merrily singing and opened his eyes to see who it was. The horse blinked a couple of times at him, then grinned and offered Vess to drink out of his flask.

Strange drunken horse offering me to drink from his pouch as soon as he saw me, yup, I have no idea what I’m getting into. Vess, with nothing better to do, took the pouch in his hands and lifted it up to drink.

He had expected it to be some kind of bitter ale, but it actually turned out to be very sweet, still alcohol though, and gosh was it potent, he still drank some more though.

The horse looked at him with hazy eyes, while talking to him in a way that seemed friendly.

Vess lowered the pouch from his mouth, “I’m sorry, what was that?”

“oO.oOO.o” the horse responded, but it came out as regular whinnying.

Vess blinked once, then twice, “oh, language barrier, huh? Well, I’m fucking screwed then, haha.” he laughed out loud, then he took another big swig of the sweet beverage.