Chapter 13: Anji's Trek

Anji stumbled through the darkness under the trees, automatically gripping her sword in one hand, her shield on her other arm. She tried to raise it over her head to ward of the driving rain, only to realize that her left hand was firmly twined in somebody's cloak, dragging whoever it was along with her through the storm. She finally halted as her companion fell to his knees, realizing only then that a low stone wall to her left offered some shelter from the storm. Sheathing her sword, she used her free hand to wipe rain from her eyes before turning to her companion.

"Burdock?" She hardly recognized the tattered form of the magic user, and he stared back at her with a vacant gaze. "Are you all right?"

She realized that it had been a foolish question. The Quarterling magic user was practically out on his feet, the only expression on his features one of complete, blank incomprehension.

The only light amidst the storm was from frequent flashes of lightning, both near and far, and by the flickering gleams that made it through the driving rain Anji was able to make out that they were surrounded by the tumbled ruins of long abandoned buildings. Most of them were only scattered piles of stone blocks, half sunken into the ground and long since eroded almost smooth by eons of exposure to wind and weather. Still, here and there a few ragged remnants of walls and roofs still rose up among the tangled greenery.

"C'mon, we need to get under cover before this damned rain drowns us." She led the dazed magic user to where a gaping hole led under a pile of stone, hoping that nothing lurked there to contest their passage. She had to duck her head to enter the dark refuge, but to her relief nothing awaited them but a nasty stench of moss and mold. A nearby lightning strike gave her a momentary glimpse of a roughly square chamber, and she was able to make out a few scattered chunks of blackened wood by the far wall where someone long ago had tried to build a fire.

The wood was moldy and damp, and for what seemed like hours her efforts to kindle a fire met with no success. Anji leaned back, taking a deep breath before trying one last time to start a blaze. This time her efforts met with some success, a tiny spark glowing for an instant before dying.

"Burn, damn you!" Her next try brought forth a slightly stronger spark, and this time she was able to nurse it into precarious life. Tiny slivers of wood, carved laboriously from the driest chunks of wood, caught and soon a small fire blazed amidst the darkness. Larger fragments, fed cautiously into the fire, soon had a fire going that pushed back the encroaching darkness. This necessity taken care of, Anji turned her attention to her companion.

She coaxed the fire into stronger life, and with its light was able to cast about for more wood to keep it going. The smoke from the fire was no problem, even here in the ruined room there was enough wind gusting into the opening in the outer wall to keep it cleared away. Burdock huddled close to the flames, close enough that Anji had to be careful to keep a spark from catching in his now ragged cloak.

She could tell that the storm outside was gradually slacking off. The flashes of lightning that illuminated the jungle and ruins became less frequent, and the storm was definitely moving away. She ventured outside their retreat long enough to pick up a few dead branches scattered by the winds, dragging them inside to where she could feed them into her fire. She still had her sword and dagger, and they made easy work of stripping off smaller branches to feed the fire.

Burdock's eyes blinked open, groggily scanning their surroundings as though he wasn't sure of just what he was seeing.

"Wha ... Anji? What happened? Where are we?" The words were mumbled, as though he didn't quite have control of his mouth. He groped for his staff, which was still hung from his belt.

"Good questions," she answered. "As to just what happened, all I can guess is that things really went crazy when the Gem of Brightness was knocked clear of its container. The castle is gone, wiped out by that sphere of darkness when it got loose from its binding spells. Where are we? That's another thing I'm just guessing about. Somewhere out in the wilderness, I have no idea just where. The storm that was kicked off by the black sphere is starting to fade, so by tomorrow or the day after we should be able to start heading back toward Pordigran."