The giant skeleton of a bear drew her attention first. The bone seemed fused to stone, merged with time and gravity. Due to the grayish color of both surfaces, there was little to tell them apart from far away, but the rock in the form of a bear skull was a dead giveaway. She giggled in the cold air. The winter winds have descended already, but she was ready with an item to keep her warm. A glowing orange stone on a gold chain around her neck produced radiating heat around her.
The skeleton sat against a cliff facing the sea. There was no indication how the creature died, but looked peaceful gazing into the distance with empty eye sockets. There had to be a reason why this giant corpse ended up here, but the girl was to excited to speculate.
There was no easy way to approach the giant structure. The rib cage twisted up with time forming a makeshift staircase up the cliff. Upon closer inspection, the bones and rocks were both chiseled out. Someone would be upset when their hard work disappeared, but she needed to take this skeleton with her. A flicker of light appeared inside the left eye of the bear skull for a moment before it faded out. It couldn’t be. She didn’t even start the spell yet.
The girl rushed up the staircase to find a mechanism blocking her way. It was a gate working on absurd physics where it closed more the closer she got. The only way around it was to climb on the outside and swing into the opening when open. When she got past the bone-gate, the girl wondered who made it. The light in the bear’s skull returned without fading. Did someone make this dead warrior into a dwelling? They had to be desperate to do so, but maybe it was a knack space for a home.
The carving of steady footing in the bone surface was indication of how long this person had been there. It was a pity all of this would be undone once the creature came back to life. It needed to happen. The girl had been searching for just one of these creatures after finding a claw of Marmut, the last life-giving charm that worked specifically on the members of the giant bear-warrior tribe. This was the last chance to protect what little remained of those big fluffs.
Upon approach, she noticed a string stand out as a trap to alert the resident of the skull, but it was too visible and easily avoided. The girl smiled at bypassing the makeshift tether, only to realize she’d been outsmarted. Right past the string was a weight-loaded branch which threw a net over her. As a bonus feature, the sound of dried wood clacking together drew the skull squatter out of the bear’s head. It was a man, dressed in a uniform of nightmares.
The Semsem Brigade was the main army of their worlds, motivated by pure greed. They hid that craving in code of honor broken time and again. In that moment of stunned silence, the man drew a shard bone from his belt, and attacked, but the girl was not so easily taken down. At her vocal command, the stone that kept her warm around her neck fractured to cast a gout of flame forward. The man dodged into his dwelling to avoid the blast, but his net burned down to ash. He peeked out when the fire dissipated.
“Enfirth,” he called out. “What do you want from me? I’m just a deserter! I no longer serve the Semsem!” That was a great relief for the girl, but the uniform scared her mind back to the first raids, a time when Semsem gathered soldiers from all countries by force. She was young when her father had to leave her to fight. The girl calmed herself and switched out the fractured crystal. It was nothing more than glass after the contained soul was released.
“Come out, soldier,” she spoke. “I have no issue with you if you’re no longer under Semsem command.”
“What do you want here, Enfirth?” He asked from inside the skull. “I have nothing of value. I lead a quiet life. Leave me be!”
“I can’t do that,” the girl replied and sat at the edge of the carved path to the skull home. “Talk with me, soldier.”
“Fine,” he said retreating inside. “Come in.”
When the girl walked through the opening, he still had his hand on the bone dagger, just in case. She had to be careful with him. No man of sane mind decided to live inside a carcass of a fallen beast. It was difficult to imagine a person who’d leave the Semsem Brigade. Though it required people to put their lives on the line, being on the payroll ensured survival beyond the battlefield.
Walking into the makeshift cave, the girl had to avoid uneven patches of bone where the soldier did not carve a surface. He sat in his corner beside a flame, and motioned to a carved step by the skull’s left eye socket. It was comfortable, almost unbelievably so, but had a hole carved in the middle. When she found his eyes, he confirmed the suspicion.
“That’s the toilet,” he said. “You wanted to talk, then talk, Enfirth.”
“The name’s Pira,” the girl said. “What’s yours?” He turned to the eye socket window carved by hand and looked out into the night. After an extended pause, she stood up from the carved utility and crossed his line of sight.
“I don’t have a name anymore,” he said and draped a fur blanket over his shoulder. His mind felt tested, as if he was the only surviving member of his battalion.
“If you don’t tell me, I’ll have to make one up,” Pira said and put a finger over her lip to think. “You’ll be Witness, Witt for short. How’s that?” He shrugged and looked away from her again. Being there must have reminded him of something from his past.
“Well, Witt, I hate to say this, but you’re going to have to vacate the giant bear carcass,” she said. In that moment of her relaxation, the man charged her and severed the chain around her neck. The broken chain would mend magically once the ends met, but that principle made it weak to being pulled apart. Though the gem was not the only magic Pira could do, it was the strongest. Without it, Witness had the advantage. Damn Semsem and their rigorous training regimen. It was their fault.
“Why?” Witt asked. “What do you want here? Tell me, or I’ll throw your nexus out of the eye!” Pira put her arms up to calm him.
“It’s easier if I show you,” she said and reached into her round satchel no more than six inches in diameter to find the claw of Marmut. The contents were miniaturized and reduced in weight while inside the confines. “It’s called the claw of Marmut, and with it this bear warrior can live again.”
“Haven’t you seen enough war?” He asked. “Why bring back the beast only to use it as a weapon? I don’t understand Enfirths! You have all this magic and yet you still behave like children!”
“We’re just people, Witness,” Pira replied. “We just have perks. Ultimately, these special features make us stand out, but we don’t seek fights.”
“Once you become invested in war, it becomes all you do,” Witt said.
“Is that why you ran away?”
“I was a casualty of war,” he answered. Pira didn’t understand. He had no scars or maiming wounds. In fact, he looked brand new. “I died.”
“You saw Marmut?” Pira asked. She had the claw, but that was nothing in comparison, a piece he cast off while still alive. It was hard to imagine the giant bear ever dying given one shed claw from him could bring this son of Marmut back to life. “What was he like?”
“When I died, I woke up on the flatlands,” Witt said lowering the nexus in his hand away from the skull’s eye. If there was any time to get the pendant back, it was now, but Pira gave him a moment. “There was nothing in the distance until I noticed the bear. It stood on hind paws, clasped his arms behind his back and approached. To my surprise, it turned out to be Marmut, the giant bear of olden times. I ran, but every two steps away from him turned into two steps toward him. He was death himself, inescapable and persistent.”
Pira sat down on the toilet again, entranced by the story. The only tales of Marmut she heard was his part in battle of the giant bears. After Semsem Brigade subdued those territorial beasts, Marmut died of his own will to prevent his body being used to revive the enemies. From that point, he was said to walk in limbo, the bridge between life and the natural order, only returning to life those who would be needed in the future. In the human and Enfirth minds, Marmut became the herald of life and death.
“When I gave up running he was already beside me,” Witt continued. "His immortal frame towered above me. He identified me by scent and licked my face. When I asked why he did so, he replied that he was sampling my future, and what it could amount to. Not long after, one of these claws pierced my chest. Rather than pain, I felt pressure of being back inside my body. I was still on the battlefield, among the dead. Fear of death gave me strength to escape.”
“Wow,” Pira said. “You actually saw him. You must play an important role in the future. I wish I could know if I did, but maybe this encounter is meant to be. Join me, Witness.” She held out a hand in his direction.
“That’s not my name,” Witt said. “My name’s… Never mind. I’m no longer that person, no longer a soldier for Semsem. I’m nobody, Pira.” For the first time since she met him, Pira felt bad for the man. As far as the world was concerned, he was dead. Any semblance of him remaining forgotten hinged upon keeping out of the public eye. This was the moment he had to choose if Marmut was right to bring him back.
“Come with me and become someone new,” she said keeping the hand out toward him. “You know, I never said that I wished to bring this giant bear warrior back to life for battle. We seem to have one thing in common, Witt. We both ran away.” His head lifted in surprise.
“Why then?” he asked. “Why bring a warrior back if not to make him fight again?”
“Not all warriors are so by choice,” Pira replied. “It took me years of infiltration to find a claw of Marmut within the Enfirth School, and another year to steal it. I’ve been searching for this lone bear giant ever since then. You either come with me now, or become an enemy standing before something I’ve wanted for a very long time. Choose wisely, Witness. You may have my nexus, but that is not the only magic Enfirths can do.”
The principle of the nexus was trapped magic. By replacing gems loaded with different forms, no Enfirth ever had to use up their own time-replenishing life-force. In truth, the trapped magic had to come from somewhere, but that was the industrial nature of magic hidden from common folks. Each gem had a different nature, ranging from fire-making to healing. Some Enfirths even told stories of souls trapped in gems, creatures of old invoked to grant power. It was well and good until they cracked open to release those very ancient beings upon the world.
“Ok,” he said. Pira smiled and stepped closer to retrieve her gem pendant on a gold chain that mended itself. “What do you have in mind? Where are we to go? Both worlds are in disarray. There is nowhere to run.” He handed over the chain.
“I’ve got a few friends in the worlds,” she said. “Have you ever been to Naera?” Witt shook his head.
“Since I was a soldier,” he said. “I figured one of those days we would be going there to fight. In the end, I died on Kliro.”
“It’s a great place,” Pira said. “And I have a buddy there that owes me a favor, but first, let’s bring this bear back to life. We should clean this place up first. Dump your stuff out of the eyes, we can get them later.” In a few minutes of cleaning, the enclosure looked more like the inside of a skull, with holes carved out to connect to the eye sockets.
“Let’s agree not to tell this giant bear about me living in its dead skull?” Witt asked.
“More so, don’t tell him you carved his left eye into a toilet.”
“How do you know it’s a male?”
“I told you,” she replied. “I’ve been looking for this bear for a long time. He was like us, died in a time of war, but did not want to be there. He’s known in history as the only soldier to be cast out of his tribe. I do hope he’ll like me. I’ve always wanted to be friends with those big, cuddly warriors of legend.”
“Right,” Witt said with a hesitant look on his face. With most things gathered up or dumped out of the eyes, Pira and Witt headed out of the skull using the path carved into the side.
“Great job on that gate by the way,” she said, testing each step like before. Bone wasn’t a strong support when the structure was messed with.
“What gate?” He asked. It wasn’t him. Then who did it? Witness motioned down the remaining few stairs just as a gout of green flame burst out from the forest and hit beside the entrance. The whole skeleton was about to snap off the rock thanks to that shock. As for the green fire, Pira was certain the Enfirths had come looking for their stolen property.
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