Fiction

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It was night; the moon was but a sliver on that cold night, shining dimly among the myriad drops of liquid silver that were the stars. Tiny clouds, black against the midnight sky, quietly floated by. The landscape was mostly flat, except for a few hills scattered around the giant valley. The mountains, barely visible to the east and west in the distance, glittered their caps of ice and snow, offering the moon back its faint light.
The Moark River snaked through the valley, its dark waters gently swished as they ran over the rocky bed. A ways away, the flickering lights of a village could be seen.
Sukira paused atop a hill, looking out towards Vermick’s lights. She was tall for her age of 15, had black hair, and brown eyes.
As she gazed around the valley, her gaze wandered from the Arminad mountain range in the west to the Zorundil mountain range in the east.
“What a beautiful night!” Sukira whispered to herself.
Done her reconnaissance, she looked down to the bottom of the short slope in front of her. The Inulé River flowed into the Moark a few feet in front of her. She gazed down into the Moark’s dark bed. Its glittering pebbles sent ripples of light up to her.
She walked down the hill side and Started to slowly wade across the river, when she suddenly she stopped, her foot had touched something that was quite a bit bigger than the little black pebbles that covered the rivers bed. She looked down into the knee high clear mountain spring water, and was surprised to see a whitish gray rock surface. With her foot, she brushed away the pebbles that concealed the opaque stone. She was surprised that the rock was about the length of her forearm. She put her hand in to the water, plucking the rock from the bottom, sending off a flurry of black rocks swirling up and then down again. It weighed quite a bit, although it seemed almost too light for its size. It was oval, round, and as smooth and as polished as the finest glass.
She walked to the river’s bank, and sat down on a dry patch of reeds and opened her pack. It was full, so she took every thing out and looked through her things, trying to decide how she would fit the rock in with every thing else. She had: a extra pair of clothes, a water canteen, the empty cloth bag were she had kept her food, her unstrung bow in it’s tube, her quiver, a bundle of rags for mending wounds, a wooden jar of healing herbs, her hunting knife, a small metal bowl with a handle that served as her pot, her bedroll, and her short, curved sword.
Her father made her keep her sword with her whenever she was outside Vermick, in case armed bandits tried to attack her. He had paid for her to have weekly swordsman ship lessons, which now, because she had surpassed her teacher’s level, she disarmed him 3 times in her last class, was now only weekly practice.
She took out her sword and hunting knife, and belted them around her waist, and her bedroll she strapped to the back of her pack. She wrapped the stone in the rags, and put it on the bottom, placing her other things on top. She then set out again.
_

When she neared Vermick, the sun was just rising above the Zorundil Mountains in the east. It was a beautiful sunrise, coloured gold, orange, and magenta, with a twinge of purple where the glow of dawn met the dark of night. She entered the village just as people started to come out of their houses.
As she walked down the narrow road, she greeted the villagers. She pasted many houses and many familiar faces before she reached the fountain that marked the center of the village.
The fountain sported a statue of Saokir, the Village’s founder, on his silver dragon Platinum. The water spouted from Platinum’s mouth, her jaws parted mid-roar. Saokir’s sword was paused mid-swing, a Hior’rosic, its face twisted in a vicious snarl, its war axe raised above its head in its left hands, its shield held by its two right hands against its chest, stood in the sword’s path.
Sukira shuddered as she looked away from the four-armed monster. The Hior'rosic’s statue had always sent chills down her spine, especially when she was little. The monster’s face made her seriously hope she would never have to meet one, or, even worse, fight one.
She heard someone call her voice, and turned to see Ishba running up.
“Hey! How are things going?” Said Sukira
“Not too bad. Did you find him?”
“No”
“Oh” Ishba said, her dark green eyes filling with pity for her friend.
“Ya… Father will not be pleased when he hears about it.”
“Couldn’t you just convince him to buy another horse?”
“No, you know how proud he was of having ‘the strongest horse in the whole Moark River valley…’”
“All right already, I heard enough when he talked about his horse to… hmmm, who was it … umm, everyone in the whole village!”
“Ok…I get it… You don’t care about the horse… Oh well… got to go… or Father will come looking for me.”
“Fine with me… be that way if you want.” Ishba said sarcastically as she turned, her golden hair catching the morning sunlight.
Sukira shook her head and sighed.
“Any way,” Ishba called over her shoulder “Gotta go help my mom make breakfast.”
“Let’s go for a little walk later. Gotta catch up on every thing, I’ve been gone almost a week you know.” Sukira said
“Sure. Let’s meet in front of the tavern an hour before sun set.”
“See ya then!”
Sukira turned and walked down the path that led to her house. As she approached her house, her little brother, Bonovir walked up. He had his sister’s complexion, dark hair, and dark eyes.
“Did you find Caesar?” he asked.
“No”
“Why not?”
“Well you see, I followed his tracks all the way to the source of the Moark, and then the tracks ended were he apparently crossed a stream.”
“Did he cross or walk on the river bed?” asked the nine year old.
“I don’t know. He was about a day’s travel ahead of me.”
She then walked past Bonovir, who stood in the middle of the path, obviously deep in thought.
Sukira had left Vermick for one reason, to find Caesar. Caesar was Sukira’s father’s favorite horse, and he boasted that Caesar was the best horse in the whole Moark river valley. Now he was lost, and Sukira had failed to bring him back. But she had brought the stone back, and maybe her father would accept the rock’s value in Caesar’s place. When she reached her house, she found her mother busy making some fruit juice.
“How’s my lil' tracker today?”
Sukira was well known in Vermick as the second best tracker, second only to Kurlin, a tall 16 year old boy that lived down the road. Vermick was different than most of the other villages within the mountain range in that they taught both boys and girls to hunt and track, claiming that it would help them if the crops failed to provide enough food for the families until the next harvest.
“I didn’t find him, mom. He crossed a stream and his trail disappeared.”
“Well, I’m glad you tried your hardest.”
_

Sukira met Ishba in front of the tavern an hour before sunset. They walked and talked until it was dark, talking about all that had happened since she had left. They walked to Ishba’s house, and her little brother almost bumped in to her at the door.
“Dad wants to talk to you.”
“I’m coming… bye Sukira!”
Sukira turned and started to walk down the road. She stopped suddenly when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned slowly, hoping that it wasn’t a bandit. She looked up and let out a sigh of relief when she saw Kurlin’s face.
“Don’t sneak up on me!” She said smiling.
“Sorry.”
“You don’t seem very repentant.” She said, trying to keep a straight face.
She smiled at his hopeful half smile.
“Well, do you have a message for me, or are you going to just stand there?”
“ Oh. Ya. I was wondering if you and Ishba would like to join me… on a hunting trip.”
“What!” She said sarcastically. “The village’s best tracker needs help from us mortals?”
“Funny, But actually, I knew that the crops weren’t quite adequate this year, and our families could use the meat, and if we bring our horses, we might bring in enough extra meat to sell to that guy at the inn.”
“Good idea. Go tell Ishba. We’ll meet at the fountain at daybreak.”
“Ok. See you tomorrow!”
“Don’t be late!”
“Kurlin is never late.”

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