JIGSAW: Chapter Six

By Reanna King

CHAPTER SIX

"Have fun and try not to hurt yourself!"
-- Ga-ai'kale Jallen, "How to Turn a Spoon into a Sex Toy"

“Kao?” Geddon said. “Are you really him?”

Tione recalled the story of the student who was kicked out of the Sela Magic Academy for using Forbidden magic. This was him?

“Oh, come on!” Kao said, crossing his arms behind his head lazily. “You’re making me sound like some kind of celebrity.”

“And you’re still practicing Forbidden magic, I see,” Geddon squeaked, stammering occasionally.

“Spells shunned by even their own creators…” Kao chuckled. “What else could be expected of a demon?”

“Demon?!” all four travelers more or less said in unison.

“Oh please, I won’t hurt you. Why would I bother to save all your lives twice?”

There was a short pause. Twice? Tione knew Kao had killed the monster that had crippled Aleric, but she couldn’t remember having seen him before. “Twice? What are you talking about?”

Kao walked over to where Tione, Geddon and Shani were standing, stepping around the dead monster at his feet as if it were nothing more than a root or mound of dirt, his waving cape adding to his swaggering step. “Didn’t you, for even a moment, wonder where the hole in the doors of Oh’s temple came from?”

When Tione had noticed the hole, she had only briefly wondered about it, but never thought anything of it in all the commotion.

“You…” Aleric muttered. He sat up a little, wincing at the pain that obviously followed. He wiped a smear of blood off his face with his shirt. “You were one of the demons we saw in the temple earlier, weren’t you?”

Kao looked down at Aleric and nodded. “Yes… I became a demon twenty-five years ago. I’ve become pretty popular with Émigré, queen of the demons, and have since become her adviser. The demon you saw with me was Sarus, her general.”

Tione nodded, but was unsure why. She still had questions as to the conversation she heard in Oh’s temple. She did remember hearing stories about a Silver-something and demons dying a long time ago. She must have once known the details of the story; she could feel them in the back of her head, but whenever she thought of it, all she could picture was drab grayness and black smoke. … Where did that image come from?

Kao rolled up his dark purple sleeves. “Anyway, it appears your friend needs healing…” He knelt down next to where Aleric was sitting, surveying the damaged leg.

“Not to sound ungrateful…” Aleric said nervously, “but exactly why are you helping us anyway?”

Kao looked up again. “Haven’t you noticed this?” He pointed to the medallion on his chest.

Tione had forgotten about it. “You…”

Kao nodded, smiling broadly enough to show his fangs. “That’s right, kids—you get the pleasure of traveling with me. You won’t have to worry about little annoyances like that…” he nodded towards the monster’s dead body. “… but first I get to take care of your friend.” Smiling, he rubbed his hands together, looking directly at Aleric. “I’m going to move your leg so that it heals right. It’s kind of a slow process and it will be very, very painful.”

Aleric retreated his face a few inches from Kao’s. “I wish you wouldn’t smile when you say things like that. Don’t you have spells specifically for broken limbs and stuff?”

Kao nodded, his tall dark bangs bobbing slightly. “Yes, but it’s just beyond the level of magical power I can provide; I’d need to sacrifice a living thing to my Queen in order to borrow enough power, like I did earlier with the Madas Beast. I offered up its own life in order to cast the spell that killed it.”

“That’s a little cruel,” Shani murmured.

“I’m a demon, not a doctor,” Kao smirked, shifting part of Aleric’s leg a little.

“Gah!” Aleric grunted, gripping the soft ground.

Tione turned her head away, trying to review everything she had learned in the past few days. She could now connect Kao’s presence to the fact that Gramma Jirae had wondered if Tione was going to try and see Émigré. Still, there was one vital bit of information she didn’t have: the purpose of the quest that she and seven other people were to fulfill. “Geddon,” she said. “Do you know why all of those demons died long ago?”

Meanwhile, Aleric was tearing up the grass nearby and muttering curse words under his breath. Kao’s actions were causing more blood to well up, staining the leg of his pants and the ground beneath him.

Geddon turned to Tione, a bit pale. “Er… yes, it’s an important part of Selan history. However it’s a long and complicated story. Perhaps we should reach Cognito, and then I can tell the story in detail once we’ve had the opportunity to relax a little…” he said, untucking his cape from his tunic.

Tione nodded. “We’ll stay there long enough to decide what we need to do next.”

“Don’t forget,” Aleric grunted, still being tended to by Kao. “We also need supplies, Miss All I Need Is This Spoon, Book And Map. … Aagh!”

“Shut up or I’ll shove this spoon in your ear.”

Kao chuckled. “If you’re going to do something like that, do it now, before I heal him,” he said playfully. “I’m sure he’d appreciate that.”

“What are you getting at?” Tione growled.

“Oh, nothing,” Kao said, not bothering to look back at her. “Anyway, I’m ready to heal you.” He knelt over Aleric and placed his hands close to the bloody wound—less than an inch away. “Don’t move,” he whispered, glaring at Aleric through closed eyes, “or your leg might heal crooked. Then I’d have to break it and start over.”

Aleric shivered.

Kao smirked, emphasizing his face’s angular features, as a bright blue light radiated from his hands. “Sukri Sethu Shifti.”

Aleric gritted his teeth as the blue light intensified. He squinted at the slowly closing wound, digging his fingers into the ground.

By now Tione had sat down on the grassy ground. She’d already seen healing spells performed a few times on her journey, but it was always interesting. It didn’t look like a reversal of the injury or even an accelerated period of healing. It was if the flesh itself became alive and pulled itself together of its own will. From her own experience, there was both a tingling and a stinging sensation, as if there were tiny creatures embedded in her body, scurrying around restoring her damaged body. Tione’s previous wound was nothing compared to what Aleric had suffered. What was he feeling? The combed through the long grass with her fingers as she watched.

Kao turned his gaze from the wound to Tione, and then to Aleric’s face. “What does it feel like, Aleric?”

Tione’s breathed in sharply. Did Kao know what she had been thinking? She suddenly got the feeling that her mind was being probed into. But then, it could be that she was just being paranoid. When she was young, she was constantly afraid that people could read her mind. Her mind felt open and exposed. She got this same feeling now.

“Feels like dozens of worms holding tiny daggers are squirming around in my leg,” he grunted, pounding the ground with his fist.

“I see,” Kao mumbled, sounding oddly interested. He looked down again just as the wound closed and the skin began to return to its normal color. Shortly afterward, the blue glow faded and the blood that had dried onto Aleric’s leg crumbled off.

Aleric moved his newly healed leg slightly. “Wow… that worked real good!” he grinned, holding out his right hand. “Hey, thanks.”

Kao shook it lightly, then stood up, straightening his tunic and shaking dust and grass off his cape. “Well… it looks like I’ll be with all of you for a while. I’ve introduced myself. Aside from the prince over here…”

Geddon blushed, inexplicably. It seemed that he got shy and nervous whenever someone was paying attention to him.

“… I don’t know any of you.”

“Ah!” Shani said. “I’m sorry. It was rude of us not to introduce ourselves!” He bowed deeply. “I’m Shani, Geddon’s apprentice.” He gestured to Aleric, who had meanwhile stood up and dusted himself off. “This is Aleric, from Florda.” Finally, he gestured to Tione. “And this is Tione, from Sheste.”

“Tione…” Kao murmured. His mouth curled again into a grin. “Cute.”

“Huh?” Tione asked, startled by his comment.

“Come here…” Kao grinned, making a grab at Tione’s arm.

“Eh?” Tione sidestepped him.

“Come on, it won’t hurt,” Kao persisted, pulling on her skirt.

“You’re asking for it!” Tione punched Kao in the face in a surprisingly quick movement. The demon froze, and Tione raised her fist, which was still holding her spoon to the sky.

Shani clapped, but Aleric muttered, “The spoon didn’t even touch him…”

“Ow…” Kao rubbed his head softly, recoiling slightly. “I was only kidding…” He looked at Tione, laughed weakly and straightened himself up again. “Kidding…” he repeated.

“You’ve got a sick sense of humor,” Tione muttered, putting the book away. She shot Kao a glare. He actually made Aleric seem relatively easy to get along with. What was up with the “creepy demon” attitude that Kao seemed to put so much effort into maintaining? No, that wasn’t quite right—Kao put very little effort into it. The fanged smirk that he seemed to love flashing so much didn’t even seem well rehearsed—it seemed natural.

Aleric interrupted her thoughts. “Hey… where’d the dog get to?”

“I think he disappeared when the monster attacked,” Shani said quietly. “I haven’t seen him since then.”

“Excuse me?”

Everyone looked down the hill they had come out of the forest at the top of and saw a young woman dragging a cart behind her up the hill. The bright orange dress underneath her slightly worn apron shone in the sunlight that filtered through the lazy white clouds. She appeared to have been walking for quite a while; her rounded face was bright pink and she was panting from her trip up the hill. She was looking at all of them with mild curiosity.

Sweeping a lock of her shoulder-length, sandy brown hair out of her eyes, she said, “Excuse me… I don’t mean to trouble you…”

“Ah! Let me help you with that!” Aleric was quick to dash down the hill to the girl and help her pull the cart the rest of the way up the hill.

“Amazing…” Geddon mumbled. “His leg should still be really sore, but he looks like he’s good as new!”

“You’d run like that if you were motivated like he is,” Tione muttered, rolling her eyes.

“Oh! You mean doing a good deed?” Shani asked.

“No, that’s not what I mean…” Tione watched Aleric and the girl reach the top of the hill, letting go of the cart once they were sure it wouldn’t roll down.

“There you go,” Aleric said, smiling slickly. “I was just standing here, minding my own business, you see. I wasn’t expecting to see such a cute little angel in a place like this. Would you be kind enough to give me your name?” He half-bowed, never taking her eyes off her.

The girl’s eyes widened, as her gaze shifted beyond Aleric to the lifeless, bloody body of the Madas Beast behind him. “Th… that…!” she exclaimed in shock.

Aleric shifted his weight onto his right leg to try to move his face back into the girl’s unwavering gaze. “We had a slight problem on our travels,” he murmured complacently, running a hand through his blond hair. Finding his fingers impeded by tangles, he yanked his hand away. “Nothing to worry about.”

“He was nearly killed,” Tione muttered.

“You defeated a monster like that?” the girl marveled. Her awe-struck face changed to a joyous one. “Oh! That must mean that you are heroes journeying to Cognito to compete in the Heroes’ Contest!”

Tione was about to ask what she was talking about when Aleric spoke up.

“The Heroes’ Contest… Cognito is the City of Heroes and is home to the largest number of worshippers of Merid, the god of heroes. The contest is held every year during the Festival of Heroes.” He looked back at his companions. “I’ve been there a few times… I’m assuming you’re from Cognito?”

She nodded. “My name is Lime Green, and—”

Kao raised a dark eyebrow. “Lime Green? Are you from Nai? That’s the village that has the tradition of naming their children after colors, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Lime said. “That’s where I was born. But now I live in Cognito, just a few miles from here. I live there with my father, who sells firewood. You see, this is the nearest forest, but it’s at the top of this hill, and that’s why I’m here.”

Shani stepped forward. “So you came here to chop wood, right?”

Lime nodded. “Yes. We suddenly started running low, since so many people are here for the festival. Everyone is here to see the legendary spoon and the legendary sword—”

“Legendary spoon?” Shani quickly interrupted.

“Legendary sword?” Aleric asked. “I never heard of a legendary sword in Cognito…” he muttered.

“Oh, you must see them!” Lime smiled. “After I’m finished here, I’ll take you into town! First, I have to fill this cart with wood…” She gestured by pulling up on one of the cart’s handles.

“And you were sent to do this all by yourself?” Aleric asked.

“Well, I usually go further into the wood to find trees that have already fallen. Since it recently stormed, I figured there would be plenty of fallen trees to chop up into firewood.”

Aleric raised a powerfully built arm into the air. “No worries, Lime! We’re gonna help you out!”

“… we are?” Tione muttered.

“Oh, yeah!” Aleric flashed Lime a wink.

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“I’m telling you, work like cutting wood is no good if you use magic!” Aleric insisted as they walked down the hill with Lime with a cart full of cut wood.

“To think I walked into the woods and met, of all people, magicians who would help me get firewood for my father!” Lime smiled, apparently oblivious to the conversation behind her.

Aleric sighed, lagging slightly behind the rest of the group.

Tione slowed her pace a little. “What’s wrong now?”

Aleric scratched the back of his head, diverting his eyes into the sunny sky. “Having Kao cast some silly spell to cut the wood totally defeated the purpose of—”

Tione rolled her eyes again, letting a small smile creep onto her lips. “You player! You’re not even a smart playboy.” She pointed ahead of them at Lime. “Look. She’s hauling that cart down the hill all by herself. What do you think you should do?”

Aleric glanced briefly at Lime, then at Tione. “Y’know, for a city girl, you’re pretty sharp. See ya!” He ran up to join Lime.

Tione watched him run ahead. Why had she even given that kind of advice? Why not? She let the idea escape her thoughts as her eyes narrowed. “You’re welcome!”

“Why don’t I help you with that?” Aleric asked, taking one of the cart’s handles. Tione watched him proceed to chat it up with her.

“Why did he only take one of the handles?” Tione wondered aloud.

Kao looked back over his shoulder at Tione, winking knowingly. “If he offered to take the whole thing, she might have thought him to be chauvinistic… like he didn’t think she could handle the slightest bit of work.”

“So, you’re not some rich merchant’s or mayor’s daughter who can give us a preferential look at this legendary sword, are you?” Aleric asked, his mouth molded into an innocent grin.

“Oh, no, silly!” Lime giggled. “But you don’t even have to get special permission to see it close! Both the spoon and the sword are stuck in columns of stone. You can try and pull the spoon out, if you want!”

Aleric’s smile started to fade until he consciously perked it back up. “What about the sword?”

Lime looked at Aleric for a moment, then threw back her head, roaring with laughter. “You’re so funny!” She slapped Aleric’s back. “You’re going to make me drop this cart if you’re not careful!”

Aleric looked at Lime, puzzled. “Something wrong? What’s so funny?”

Kao chuckled behind them.

Lime turned back to Kao. “Aleric sure is funny! Having him around must be really entertaining!”

 Kao covered his mouth with his hand, guffawing. “You have no idea…”

“Hmmph,” Aleric grumbled, continuing to push the cart but wearing the piercing stare of someone thinking very hard about something.

“Don’t think too hard, Aleric,” Tione called up to the front of the party, seeing Aleric hunch over in contemplation. “You know what happens when you walk and think at the same time.”

The only reaction she seemed to receive from the comment was a light chuckle from Kao, who was walking just ahead of her. Even Aleric was either oblivious to or had chosen to ignore Tione’s insult.

“…and that’s how I defeated an entire Analerna crime gang using only a broken sword, a cartful of pawnapples and my bare hands!” he was saying.

“What happened to the orphans and the crippled old lady?” Lime quickly asked, clearly engrossed in Aleric’s tale.

What was the point of making fun of Aleric if it didn’t bother him or entertain anyone else? Tione sighed, placing her hand in her pocket to pull out the book. Lately it seemed as if she was the odd one out in the party. What could she possibly bring to a quest that seemed so important? She had the least to offer of any of them, and no one seemed to talk to her much. Even Kao, a demon, was fitting in better than she seemed to.

 “Is Professor Nettik still eccentric as ever?” Kao was asking Geddon.

“I… I wouldn’t say eccentric… he is unusual, however…” Geddon answered. “He still makes students who misbehave wear that bucket with holes cut into it on their heads.” He laughed lightly. “I wonder where he ever got that idea.”

            “Did you ever have to wear the bucket?” Kao asked in a strangely secretive tone.

            Geddon blushed bright red yet again, shaking his head. “N- no, I never did!”

            “How about you, Shani?” Kao jabbed Shani lightly with his elbow.

            “Nope!”

            “I see…” Kao murmured, looking ahead. After a few moments, he muttered, “That bucket smelled awful.”

Tione returned the book to her pocket, sliding out the map of Jigsaw between two fingers. With a flick of her wrist, she unfolded the yellowed piece of paper. How much of it would she get to see on this journey? In her lifetime? From the map, they had barely moved in relation to the size of the entire kingdom. With so much to see, it would be a waste to travel nonstop clear across an entire kingdom without enjoying it, as Aleric seemed to have.

“Great Sofia!”

Tione noticed for the first time a shadow on the map she held. She looked up to see that Kao had slowed his pace and was craning his head to look at it.

“Tione,” Kao said, frowning slightly, his eyes narrowed in interest. “Where did you get something like this?”

Tione gulped, feeling apprehensive for some reason. The demon’s serious tone and the idea of possessing something that could bring even Kao down from his usual calm and cool conduct sent a tingle through her body. “It was in the book that great grandmother Elin gave me…” she said quietly. “Isn’t this just a map?”

Kao stopped walking. “Hey, everyone!” he called ahead to the rest of the group. “Hold up a second!”

Geddon, Shani, Aleric and Lime looked back, concerned—except for Aleric, who seemed annoyed. The steady, rhythmic squeaking of the cart’s wheels halted, and a few of the logs inside clunked against each other from the sudden stop.

Tione scanned the map as Kao called the others over. Besides obviously being very old, there didn’t seem to be anything remarkable about it. It had clearly seen better days—besides being yellow and a little brittle, the paper was dotted with stains and smears. In the upper-right hand corner there was a hole the size of her little finger with burn marks around it, and the many creases suggested that it had once been crumpled.

“Prince,” Kao murmured. “Look closely at Tione’s map.” Kao took hold of Tione’s forearms and shifted them so that Geddon could see the map right side up. In her curiosity, she didn’t bother to take offense. Instead she joined everyone in trying to figure out what Kao was referring to.

Geddon perused the piece of paper carefully. He squinted at it, leaned in closer and looked at it from different angles, and finally shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

“All right, Kao!” Aleric demanded, trying to get a better look while keeping his grip on the cart. “Tell us what’s so special about this map!”

“Well, er… look,” Kao said, sounding slightly flustered for the first time. He pointed at an area in western Jigsaw at the southern edge of what appeared to be a mountain range. “Here, in the Silver Mountain range… this is Mount Rahler. Inside that mountain is Kelorin, the city where demons dwell.” He moved his finger northwest. “This is Silver City.” He pointed out the two large, wide bodies of water that jutted out into the Garro Sea on the northern coast of Jigsaw. “These are the Eastern and Western Peninsulas.” Kao paused shortly, then finally pointed to another place on the map. “And this is Sela.”

Tione followed Kao’s finger until he was finished, trying to glean some meaning from his words. She narrowed her eyes at him. “What’s your point?” she asked impatiently.

Without another word, Kao grasped the top edge of the map and turned the paper over. On the opposite side were dark marks where black ink had bled through to the other side. “This map has become inaccurate since it was first created, and has hence been altered. Jigsaw’s Eastern and Western Peninsulas had their names switched around when Jigsaw was invaded by the northern kingdom of Theed over a hundred years ago.” He began pointing out the ink markings on the paper, where things had been crossed out, corrected and added. “Kelorin was founded far before that, and Silver City no longer exists. See? It’s been crossed off the map. More importantly… this map predates even the capital city of Sela!”

 “Meaning that this map is at least five hundred years old! By Noll’s wings…” Geddon uttered.

Where had Elin gotten such an old map? As Tione folded the map back into the book, she tried to think of a possible explanation. Maybe it was just handed down from her ancestors, and Tione was just the newest person to receive it.

“Something doesn’t make sense here,” Aleric pointed out. “Why would Tione’s great grandmother send her off with a map that probably by now has a ton of inaccuracies… especially when Tione is so inexperienced in travel she wouldn’t know Mount Laviri if it fell on her!”

Tione dumped the book back into her pocket and shoved her way over to Aleric, keeping her footing on the hillside. “Would you recognize my fist if it hit you in the face?” she growled, practically bristling.

“Hey, hey.” Aleric maneuvered to the other side of the cart. “Put away the scary face, I was kidding. We’re all hungry and tired, and a little cranky. Let’s—”

“Aleric, the cart!” Lime cried as the cart full of wood began to roll forward.

“Oh, shit!” Aleric pushed the cart back, but the handles were torn from Lime’s hands as it began rolling down the hill, threatening to run over him. Aleric quickly leapt onto the cart, scrambling over the pile of wood and tumbling over the other side onto the grass.

“You idiot!” Tione yelled, watching as the cart barreled down the hillside, its wheels creaking and wobbling.

“The cart…” Lime said, clutching her dress anxiously. “It’s headed for the city… someone’ll get hurt if no one stops it!” She looked imploringly at Aleric.

“It’s just a cart full of wood,” Tione countered. “It’s not gonna—”

Lime dropped to her knees. “I can just see it…” She covered her face with her slender hands. “A little girl with her little dolly… she’d be no match for an out of control push cart…”

“Hey, hold on…” Shani said.

“Her mom will come home… her little daughter’s dolly clutched in her hands, stained with her mother’s tears…”

“Say no more!” Aleric turned to Lime, his hands clutched into fists. “As a good man, I cannot allow something like that to happen!” He pulled himself to his feet and took off down the hill after the speeding cart at an impressive speed. “I’ll save you, little girl!”

Tione watched Aleric dash down the hill. “He’s fast, I’ll give him that much.”

Geddon shook his head. “This can’t possibly end well.” He turned to his apprentice. “Come on, Shani. We’d better follow him!”

Tione felt Kao’s gaze over her like a cool shadow. “Shall we go see what ensues?” he asked.

She sighed, feeling a little exasperated, and followed after Geddon and Shani, scooping up the smaller pieces of wood that had been bounced out of the cart. Besides, someone had to be the one to hurt Aleric if he didn’t end up hurting himself. She could still see him, far down the hill; the sound of the cart rumbling down the hill had become faint. It looked like Aleric was actually gaining. From the foliage of the trees around it, the city of Cognito emerged as she ran further down the hill.

From Tione’s vantage point, Cognito appeared as a large town with irregular borders. No fences or walls marked its edge. She was close enough to see that most of the city’s streets were cobbled, culminating in two large plazas near the city’s center. Wide streets spread out in concentric circles from there, connected by smaller paths and alleys barely visible through the crowded buildings. Between the two plazas looked to be a great shrine.

Funny how you can never seem to run as far as you think you can, Tione thought to herself, gripping her aching side. For a moment, her pace wavered and she slowed down to keep herself from stumbling and falling down the hill. Besides her increasing fatigue, her dress was hardly designed for running in; the contents of the apron-like pocket at the front thumped against her legs, reminiscent of her pounding heart. The stand of trees that she could now see surrounding Cognito was still hundreds of feet away and Geddon and Shani were resting just up ahead; it was time to slow down.

At about that time, Kao caught up with her. He sidestepped toward her while maintaining his pace until he was only about a foot to her right. “Let’s surprise them!” he grinned, wrapping his left arm around her waist.

Tione turned to voice some kind of protest, but before she could a glittering flash of gold and silver blinded her and she got the sensation of being pulled forward at a frightening speed. Her stomach lurched, her ears popped, and the bright flickering faded.

The hand around her waist slackened its grip and Tione crumpled to the ground, her head spinning to the shimmering dots swimming before her eyes. What had just happened? She looked around, disoriented. There were Kao’s feet next to her… She looked up and saw the hill she had just been running down. Had Kao magically teleported them there? In retrospect she didn’t see how it could have been anything else.

Kao, the cart’s going to crash right into us… Tione thought to herself. Wait a minute, she thought. He wasn’t going to try and stop the cart himself, was he?  What a showoff! She looked up at the demon beside her to see how he intended to stop the cart, which was rattling and shaking loudly as it sped toward them.

With a flick of his wrist, Kao thrust his hand out, palm up. He had scarcely opened his mouth to speak (to cast a spell? To say something clever?) when Tione’s view was blocked by what appeared to be a mass of tanned leather.

Tione shook the last bit of dizziness out of her head and stumbled to her feet in time to be struck on the head by something hard and fairly large with a dull thump. It wasn’t until Tione was back on the ground that one thunderous crash followed by several smaller ones registered in her ears. She looked up, past pieces of wood that flew past her, to see a huge tower of a man standing over the pieces of the broken cart, brandishing a greatsword. She rubbed her head where she had been hit, trying to make the green and red spots dancing in front of her eyes go away.

“Hey!” Kao shouted, his normally composed voice becoming loud and harsh. “What did you do?” The long bangs that normally hung coolly by his cheeks almost seemed to bristle and his long demon ears turned expressively downward.

Tione stood up, half expecting to be struck again, having a small amount of difficulty keeping her balance on the uneven cobbled street. Despite the fact that her head was still spinning, she looked at Kao and the man who had just arrived on the scene, who was wearing heavy, thick boots, studded leather armor and worn work gloves. 

The man picked a large splinter out of his dark blond hair, leaning on the large sword that he had used to destroy the runaway cart. “Why, I’ve just now saved this young girl!” he proclaimed, turning his squared, chiseled face to Tione. His body mass must have been at least twice hers. She was almost intimidated by him until he said, “Why, young girl! You’ve been injured!”

Tione curled her hand into a fist. When she thought about it, she was still a little confused as to exactly what had hit her on the head. Most likely it was a piece of wood, but it could have been him. “Yeah, I wonder who did it!” It wasn’t bleeding, but it still stung.

“Tione!” Aleric came running down the hill followed distantly by Lime, Geddon and Shani. Aleric was holding his side with one arm; the other was swinging loosely at his side. He slowed down as he jogged his way, panting, into the stand of trees at the city’s edge and walked over to where Tione was standing.

Emerging back out into the sun, Aleric interrupted his rough breathing long enough to swallow. “For the sake of my manhood…” Aleric puffed, “tell me you didn’t actually run all the way down that hill.”

“By ‘manhood,’” Tione said, “do you mean the oh-so-crushable thing that guides your every action?” Smiling faintly, she stepped past the hulking man who had begun arguing with Kao.

“You saying you wanna fight me, pretty boy?”

“You know what they say about men who wield big swords…” Kao smirked, flashing a single sharp fang.

Geddon, Shani and Lime stumbled out of the shadows, all looking fairly surprised to see Tione, Aleric, Kao and a man who looked intimidating enough to make an ilmy’s fur turn white surrounded by the remains of a destroyed push cart.

“Horme!” Lime gasped. “D… did you do this to my cart?”

Horme took his hand off the hilt of his monstrous sword. “Lime…” His lips turned up into a sly smile. “Have you made up your mind yet? I’ve been waiting for your answer.”

“Remember,” Lime said, “if I can find a group that can beat you and your men in the Heroes’ Contest, you—”

Horme’s huge body shook with laughter. “Of course, of course! But…” He scanned the strange people of party that had so suddenly come down the hill into town, “I hope you don’t mean to tell me that these are the heroes that will defeat Horme’s Heroes?”

Tione found herself glancing back and forth between Lime and Horme. Just what was going on? Apparently a bet that Lime could beat Horme’s team in the Heroes’ Contest. What was at stake?

“That’s exactly what I mean to tell you,” Lime said.

“Lime!” Geddon murmured. “What are you—”

“Team, nothing…” Kao said with an aloof grin. “Alone, I could completely destroy—”

Tione grabbed Kao’s shoulder cape and tugged down so that she could whisper into his ear. “We know you could. Just shut up!”

“Fine,” Kao shrugged. He stepped back and put his hands in his pockets.

Tione whirled to face Horme. “That’s right! We’re the heroes that will defeat you!” She pointed at Horme, who looked amused and interested.

“You?” He raised a thick eyebrow. “Putting the question of how you could possibly beat me aside, what name does your team go by?”

Oops… Tione swallowed, trying to suppress the lump in her throat. “We…” she tried to make her pause seem like a dramatic one, but it didn’t sound very convincing. “… are…”

Aleric stepped forward with a stunning smile. “The Fighting Phorvas!”

Horme’s smug smirk dropped into a small, puzzled frown. “Interesting,” was all he seemed to be able to say. He straightened up. “Well, Phorvas,” he chuckled. “I’ll see you in two days at the starting line.”

“T… two days?” Shani muttered.

Horme dug a coin out of his pocket and flipped it Lime’s way. “That should take care of the cart.” He turned and walked down the street, laughing.

“Fine!” Tione yelled. “You leather-bound son of an ogre!” She erupted into a bout of high-pitched laughter, watching him disappear into the crowd. Her cackling faded as soon as she lost sight of him. With speed startling enough to make him go wide-eyed, she whirled around, took hold of the strap of Aleric’s satchel and pulled him forward. “We’re Phorvas?!” she hissed.

“You gotta stop grabbin’ people!” Aleric pointed out.

“You named our team after living blobs of jelly?!”

“The Phorva!” Aleric said enthusiastically. “A creature that is so basic that it can breed with anything and adapt to any situation! With its shapeable gelatinous form, it can do and become almost anything it wants!”

 “Shape this!” She bopped him lightly on the head.

Lime cleared her throat. “Well, that’s wonderful!” She clasped her hands as if in prayer. “Why don’t you all come back to my father’s house so you can eat and rest, and then you can go register for the contest!”

“Eat?” Aleric asked.

“Of course! You must be hungry, and I’m sure my father wouldn’t mind having all of you at dinner tonight!”

They all decided that despite all the questions they had, it would be better to ask them with a full stomach, so they decided to follow Lime to her home.

Tione walked at the rear of the party with her arms full of firewood, exploring the street with all her senses. All of the streets were cobbled rather unevenly, and except for the occasional main street, they were all narrow and packed with buildings. Besides all the shops, inns and houses, it was impossible to go far without having to walk around a stall or kiosk. Unused to being in such large crowds, the loud murmur of the crowded streets of Cognito made Tione feel a little disoriented. Every couple seconds, she found herself turning her head to identify the source of a laugh, a shout, a crash. The noise of the city somehow combined with the smells of things like bread, fruit and cheese to make her begin to feel dizzy again. Her mouth watered. Her stomach had stopped gurgling hours ago; it now ached from hunger. On top of that her legs and feet hurt from traveling so far. Was this an aspect of adventuring that she’d just have to get used to?

“Uhn…” she muttered, fixing her grip on the pile of firewood. She bowed her head, watching her feet tread over the ground. A brief glimpse of a dog reminded her of the puppy that seemed to have gotten lost somewhere between here and Temple Oh.

This was the first town she had been in since she had left Sheste. It was so different from her hometown in every way that the reality of her situation suddenly hit her in a way that climbing a jellybeanstalk, seeing a giant’s castle and being attacked by a dragon somehow couldn’t do.

Tione lifted her head abruptly at the sound of a loud crack, almost running into Geddon’s back. Aleric was now standing beside her; she hadn’t noticed. More importantly, an angry-looking girl with short red hair was storming away from him, her red cape flowing indignantly behind her.

Tione turned narrowed eyes at Aleric. “You just got slapped, didn’t you?”

Aleric rubbed his cheek. “What a weird girl,” he muttered. “I only asked her about the town’s legendary sword.”

From the front, Lime looked back. “Oh, dear…” she sighed. “When you said you didn’t know about the sword, I thought you were joking. It’d be best if you didn’t ask anyone about that sword. Come with me now, and I’ll do my best to explain it to you once we get home.”

“Why can’t you tell us about it here?” Shani asked.

Lime turned and resumed her pace. “Come on.”

Their destination turned out to be on one of the main streets of Cognito. Through the constantly shifting crowd and over the rooftops the spires and towers of a great cathedral could be seen.

“That’s the Temple Square, where the Temple of Merid is,” Lime smiled as they approached the house. “Temple Merid is the starting and finishing point for the Heroes’ Contest. On the other side of the church is the Park Square.”

Tione looked down the wide street into the Temple Square. There was a stone column barely visible in its center.

“Would you like to come around to the back of the house to drop the wood on the pile?” Lime asked politely. Juggling her armfuls of wood, she managed to undo a latch on a crude gate next to the house, which swung open with a cheerful creak. Tione followed as Lime led the way into the shade by the side of the house.

There was a large pile of wood behind the house. After unloading all of the wood they had cut and dusting themselves off, Lime led them into the house through the back door.

“Father?” Lime called, still dusting off her dress. “I’m home!”

Tione walked into the dimly lit home, followed by her companions. The back door led into a small kitchen area centered around an uneven table with six chairs crowded around it. Warmth radiated from a stove nearby, fueled by wood from a wicker basket that hung on a hook next to it.

“Sit down if you like,” Lime said. “I’ll make you all something to eat in a moment.” She walked into the next room. “Father?”

Tione sat down between Aleric and Shani. The voices fade after she heard a male voice greet Lime from the other room. She fished the dragon’s tooth out of her pouch and fidgeted with it as she turned her gaze to Geddon. “So, Geddon… would you mind telling us about what happened to the demons?”

Geddon sighed, bowing his head. “As much as I disapprove of the demons’ actions, I feel that what happened to them was cruel and unjust. However, I feel that I am unqualified to tell the story with adequate accuracy.” He turned to Kao, blushing. “You might know the story better.”

Kao nodded bitterly. “I do. While I hadn’t yet been born, I am familiar with the tale of the betrayal of the demon race by the Silver Tribe that took place approximately five hundred years ago.”

Aleric leaned forward. “Five hundred years ago…” Aleric murmured. “A lot of important things happened then, right? What’s the significance of that time?”

Kao turned to Aleric. “Nothing, inherently. And while the deeds that were accomplished during that time were and still are important to the land of Jigsaw, the story is not well-known.” He smiled faintly. “By the time I am finished with my story, you will understand the purpose of our quest.”