At last, a broad clearing was formed around the body of the fallen Jaghun. Lee and his companions backed away slowly, giving Gunther a wide berth now that their task was finished.
“No worm shall gorge upon the body of my friend,” Gunther managed to stammer angrily, as he started laying dry branches and brush around the dead Jaghun. It was as if Gunther had forgotten about their very existence. “You have a good servant before you. Loyal and of honor, a triumph of Your creation. It is a loss and tragedy that such should ever fall in this world.”
Gunther proceeded to ignite a fire, using some metal and flint that he retrieved from a leather pouch at his waist. Before long, the flames engulfed the body of the Jaghun as night settled in.
The air was filled with the pungency of burning flesh as the Jaghun’s physical remains were consumed. The woodsman’s dark outline stood motionless before the fire, as he silently gazed into its blazing depths.
After a little more time had passed, he turned and strode back towards Lee and the others, who had continued to remain respectfully quiet from where they observed the woodsman.
“It is my way,” Gunther said, as if feeling the need to explain himself. “I will let no friend be put into the ground to be the food of worms. Those of the elder days of Midragard knew best.”
His voice was choked with emotion, barely steady in its thickly bitter tone. He continued somberly, almost as if giving them orders, “We must go now, back to my dwelling. The leader of the Trogens will return in time with many more. You may trust me, or you may await the return of the Trogen leader. It is your choice… but for my part, I am going.”
Lee looked to the others, their faces largely obscured in the deep gloom. Inside all of their heads, derivatives of the same rationale were likely proceeding.
Gunther had come to their aid, as had his creatures. All four of them had seen that the beasts were clearly under his control, trained and disciplined. Lee knew that they did not have any ties or allies within the new world, but they had already experienced their share of dangerous enemies.
While still a risk, their agreement was unanimous.
One by one, the others nodded to Lee. He turned back to Gunther. “Let us gather our things, we will follow you.”
“Be quick, then,” Gunther replied tersely.
Gunther waited a few moments as the four gathered up their packs and new weapons, and returned to stand around him. The light of two bright, rising moons was already cutting through the branches of the trees, casting enough illumination to see the forms of the things around them.
“We are ready,” Lee informed the woodsman softly, knowing that the man was bearing incredible pain inside. The others stood silently, clearly not wanting to utter a word and content to let Lee do their speaking for them.
The woodsman remained quiet for a few moments, a pensive look crossing his face as if belatedly remembering something of importance through the morass of powerful emotions that he was feeling. His large hands then untied the bindings on another small leather pouch tied to his belt.
He brought out three amulets suspended from leather necklaces. Wordlessly, he handed one each to Lee, Ryan, and Lynn.
They stared in silence down at the small, blue stones in their hands, set into a metal encasement that framed the shape of the gems. Lee studied his own amulet, fingering it gently. The shape was that of a vertical line, with two lines coming off of it to the right, like an “F” in form, were it not for the diagonal slant of the extensions.
Gunther then transferred an amulet hanging from his own neck over to Erin, which held a blue stone identical to the ones that the others had been given. She took it hesitantly from the woodsman.
Looking back to the others, he said a few words aloud, in a language that was completely unintelligible to Lee. As confused looks came over the others’ faces, Gunther then took up the amulet that Lee was holding, and guided it up around his neck.
“I believe you can understand me now,” Gunther said. As Lee slowly began to nod, looking in wonderment from the amulet to the woodsman, Gunther then added, “But your friends cannot. Ask them if they know what I have just said.”
Lee turned to the others, and from the looks on their faces his question to them was little more than a formality. “Did you understand what he just said?”
The other three shook their heads, all looking at Lee with bewildered expressions.
“No, not a word,” Lynn replied in a low voice.
“And I do not know what she just said,” Gunther replied. “Have them put the amulets on now, and they will come to know the gift that they bring to their wearer.”
“Put the amulets around your necks,” Lee conveyed.
As the others slipped their amulets over their heads, Gunther asked, “Now do you understand my words, once again?”
The other three appeared startled, a couple of them flinching, abruptly hearing Gunther’s words in their own language once more. They looked to each other in astonishment.
Gunther then read the question still unspoken, perched on the tip of Lee’s tongue.
“When you speak, I can understand you, just as when I speak, you understand me,” Gunther stated.
The others nodded slowly in response.
“Now you all know what these are used for,” Gunther stated. “A very important gift, one that I suggest you take very good care of.”
Lee could barely comprehend what was happening, though he could not deny the stark evidence of his ears. The amulet at the end of his neck, while indeed a beautiful stone, looked to be nothing more than that.
“You have quite a benefactor, who desired that I watch over you, and convey the amulets to you,” Gunther said, though his words drove the mystery even deeper. “I will tell you more later, but it is best that we get moving.”
Gunther turned without another word, and went over to where the makeshift funeral pyre had blazed so recently. He kicked dirt over the ashes and embers, stomping about the area. Once finished, he strode past the four exiles, the remaining Jaghuns loping off into the forest just ahead of him.
Lee and the others stood dumbfounded for a moment, and then started off after the woodsman. His large form was easy enough to make out in the moonlight.
“Keep pace with me, and do not fear. The Jaghuns will scout for us,” he muttered back to them, after he had taken a few more strides.
His long stride and brisk pace had the others quickly scrambling to keep up. In the sparse bits of moonlight that reached the ground through the tree cover, they all had to carefully watch their steps.
Lee found that it was no easy task trying to keep their footing, while maintaining the pace silently demanded by the stoic woodsman. More than once, they stumbled on uneven ground, branches, and other small obstacles such as thick tree roots.
Lynn tripped over one such surface root extending off of a very old tree. She fell heavily to the ground before Lee could react, and needed a moment’s help to gather her items and get back to her feet.
Despite the difficulty hiking in the night, Lee felt much safer to be in the big woodsman’s presence. He was highly relieved that he no longer had to worry about the four-legged ferocities accompanying Gunther. For the first time, he felt relief that the creatures were nearby, evidently warding them as they trekked through the dark woodlands.
DRAGOL
Dragol and the surviving Trogen warriors, with burdened, simmering hearts, returned back to the sprawling encampment where the reconnaissance and sky steed contingents delegated to assist the second Avanoran force were based. There was little permanence to the design of the camp of scouts, as it had to maintain fluidity with the continuing movements of the invasion force that was now marching deeper into Saxany.