Chapter 10
As he walked through the forest, he s.h.i.+fted back to his human form. He shrank to a tall but human size and his bark peeled off, revealing his human skin, as if it had been there all along. His deer skull head s.h.i.+fted back to the dimensions of a human skull and flesh and skin grew out until he looked presentable to any regular man or woman.
The knight encampment was a pitiful sight. When Li burst out from the forest, kicking his boots on the worn dirt path to get off mud and leaves, he saw that the knights on guard duty had left. In quite the hurry, too. Their swords had been dropped on the dirt path. Recently, too, by the looks of how little dust covered the s.h.i.+ning steel.
Li hurried to the encampment and saw that the knights had all peeled their armor off, tossing it every which way, gauntlets, helms, greaves all littering the ground. The fire had been put out and the pot of stew that had once rested atop it was upturned, spilling its savory contents all over the gra.s.s.
Li explored the camp and found the knights. They were unarmored and unarmed, huddled together behind several tents. The moon was bright enough that even without Li's night vision, he could make out most things clearly. All the knights were terrified, shaking in their boots.
"What's going on?" said Li as he walked up the ring of scared knights.
"What are you doing!?" said one of the knights as he looked up at Li, the whites of his eyes
prominent. "Get to cover!"
Li arched a brow. "For what?"
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"There was an earthquake!" continued the knight, his tone urgent and hurried. "And Alexandre reported that he witnessed a star stone! If you do not take cover, the fire wave may yet take you!"
"Seems like a crock of s.h.i.+te to me," said another knight. He squatted behind the tent with his arms lazily crossed. He had a grizzled look about him. Straight and unyielding posture. Cracked lips twisted into a permanent scowl. "G.o.ds know Alexandre sees all kinds of rubbish with how much hooch he drinks. And if he really did see a star stone, the fire wave would have melted us all alive long ago. And cover? Fat lot of good these tents would have done."
"But you cannot deny the earthquake happened! The land buckled like an unyielding steed."
"And now it shakes
Li understood now. The [Fist of Ymir] had momentarily flashed a ma.s.sive stone-like structure in the sky, visible even from the camp, and with the ensuing earthquake coming from its impact, these knights thought a meteor had struck, hence all the cowering. But it wasn't his job to tell the knights had really happened. All he really cared about was Old Thane who was notably absent from the group of knights.
"Tell me, where did the old man go?" asked Li.
A knight, the one that had urged Li to cover, answered as he scratched his blonde curls. "I truly am sorry, but he walked out of camp when the earth started shaking. I tried to tell him to stay in cover with us, but he was convinced that being out in the open was safer. Very stubborn man, he is."
Li didn't worry much about Old Thane's safety. The earthquake itself wouldn't have done any real damage to the land and the [Fist of Ymir] wasn't a meteor, despite how similar it seemed. There would be no fiery shockwave to worry about.
"Stubborn, that he is," said Li. "Well then, I'm off to keep track of him. Stay safe out there, all of you."
"Much thanks, stranger," said the knight. Upon seeing Li so calm, the knight regained his composure and called out to the rest of his companions. With his composure back, it was evident from the way his voice projected so powerfully that he was their commander. "Arm yourselves again, men! We move out quick, while the moonlight still s.h.i.+nes, and hunt these bandit sc.u.m. No doubt they will be cowering from the earthquake!'
The knights let out a rousing cry as they scrambled to pick their armor and swords off the ground.
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Li found Old Thane standing smack in the middle of the road, past the knight encampment. He had planted his feet wide apart and was taking in heavy but slowly regulated breaths. One arm securely held his wagon of berries while another was out in front of him with palm open to balance himself. It looked a little ridiculous, like he was doing yoga, and that image brought a tiny smile to Li.
"Old Thane," called out Li.
"Oh, Li, is that you?"
"Good to see your hearing's still fine. Who knows what I'd do if you were blind and deaf. What're you even doing out here?"
"Waiting out the quake. Always best to wait out a quake in the open and alone where bodies can't pile atop each other. Those poor young knights. Thought the quakes were from a star stone and stood there shaking like fools! Southern pups have probably never even seen a proper star stone, but I have, and let me tell you, lad, you're dead before you can even feel the earth shake."
Old Thane shrugged. "And I suppose the quake was also a good excuse to get past the knights while they cowered."
"Smart. Well, earthquake's over, old man. You can stop the yoga now."
"Yoga?" Old Thane shook his shoulders and stood normally. "Sounds foreign. Some kind of Eastern practice?"
"You could say that." Li figured it wasn't worth trying to make up an explanation for what yoga was.
"Interesting! You should tell me more when we're done buying our herbs!"
"You sure you still want to go? You're not too shocked or anything, right?"
Old Thane laughed. "Normally, I would consider an earthquake a bad omen, that is true. But that it came right after you said so resolutely you would deal with those bandits eases my mind."
"You think the earthquake came from me?" Li knew that it was obvious for Old Thane to correlate the two. It was far too suspicious that he had made a grand speech about securing the future of the farm and then right after, an earthquake pops up.
"Mark my words, Li, I do not question your origins or strengths and what you can or cannot do. I understand what it means to be different. I will only expect of you what I would expect from any old regular lad. And if that earthquake did come from you, then all I can say is that I am glad to have a capable young man such as yourself defending the farm," said Old Thane with a smile. "But enough, we can talk of this later. Right now, we should think about what we set out to do in the first place."
"You're d.a.m.n right, old man."
And so Li and Old Thane started travelling once more, as if nothing had happened, with Old Thane tugging the wagon along and telling Li a stories about his adventuresome past.