Part Two:

  The Land

  Chapter 14: First Contact

  Corin stepped foot on the land.

  “How does it feel, my boy?” Simeon asked Corin.

  Corin took in his surroundings. “It feels surreal.”

  “Isn’t it amazing?” Livia asked as she wrapped her arm around his.

  Corin nodded as he held on to his wife. “It feels odd being back on land.”

  “Aye, it’ll take some time to get used to the solid ground," Simeon replied.

  “So how long until we get to Belaran?” Nanaua asked. For her, there was no need to take in the moment. They came here for a reason.

  “Oh you’re asking me? I don’t know that," Simeon replied calmly.

  “What? That’s why we brought you here?” Nanaua reeled in surprise.

  “I don’t think I ever said I knew where Belaran was. Khorsor is vast. He could be anywhere. He could be right over those hills for all I know,” Simeon said as he pointed to some nearby hills surrounding the bay. “Or perhaps on the other side of Khorsor, which could take close to a year or several years to cross, depending on what we encounter.”

  “So what then?” asked Livia.

  “Well, it’s obvious! We need to find other furtives and ask for information. I reckon finding a giant should not be too hard. They are, after all, very large," Simeon replied.

  Suddenly, an object crashed in front of them. They all instinctively jumped back, except for Nanaua.

  After looking at it, they realized they were looking at a spear. It had not landed there by accident.

  They turned to look for the source.

  Nearby on a rocky outcrop stood three humans. They were almost completely naked and were covered in various markings. They glared at Nanaua and the rest of the adventurers.

  The middle one lacked a spear, while the two near him held theirs at the ready.

  Nanaua walked to the spear and calmly pulled it from the ground with one hand. She took several steps back and a deep breath. Then she took several steps forward and launched it at the trio. The spear left her hand with blinding speed.

  The spear flew past the head of the middle of the group, so close to his face that he could feel the air blow after it. It flew at such speeds that he did not realize what had happened until long after it had flown past.

  Instantly, the three of them ran away shouting something incomprehensible.

  “I hope they learned that violent threats will not work against us,” Nanaua exclaimed proudly.

  “They could have just been trying to communicate with us,” Simeon said.

  Nanaua looked at him with a confused look and then seemed to realize something.

  “Yes, that could have been a possibility,” she admitted under her breath.

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  “This is not going to be easy,” Zhi sighed in frustration.

  ***

  They spent half a day traversing through the foreign landscape. The terrain consisted of rolling hills that wore on the travelers quite quickly.

  “I forgot how much I hated this part,” Zhi said.

  Corin’s experience was much different than Zhi’s. Everything he saw was new, and it all looked so different to anything he had ever seen. He could not believe that such a different world existed right alongside Trinixo.

  “What kind of tree is that?”

  “Is that fruit edible?”

  “What mountain is that?”

  “What kind of animal is that?”

  “Can we eat it?”

  Corin peppered Simeon with questions as they traversed the foreign landscape.

  “That tree is a roosk tree.”

  “No that fruit is not edible.”

  “I don’t know, it is just a mountain.”

  “That is a mountain lion.”

  “Well yes you can eat it.”

  Corin had spent his entire life confined within the island of Trinixo, and had walked the entire length of it many times. Corin felt confident that even blindfolded he could circle the entire island and end up exactly where he had begun, but this was a completely new experience.

  At the top of a particularly tall hill the group took a quick break.

  From here Corin and the rest could see a vast swath of Khorsor. A sprawling land mass that extended as far as the eye could see and beyond.

  “By Jokasta’s grace,” Corin muttered.

  Livia, who sat next to him, was also enraptured by the view of the land around them. She, like Corin, knew nothing but the small island of Trinixo. The vastness of this land seemed almost incomprehensible to the world that they were accustomed to.

  “If Cyril could see this,” Corin muttered as he held onto the pendant.

  “He’d be so happy for you that you were able to see the world beyond Trinixo.” Livia smiled as she held on to her husband.

  Livia put her head on his shoulders, and Corin put his on hers.

  “He’d be happy because I get to see this with you,” Corin said.

  “So where do we go from here?” Zhi asked behind them.

  She didn’t seem to be so thrilled about the views and was focused on leaving the walking behind. She wanted to know when they could rest for the day.

  “Well we have walked a ways inland now. There are many roads in the interior of Khorsor. We need to find one. It will be our best chance at finding other furtives who might be more keen on talking to us,” Simeon said.

  “Those weird marked men keep stalking our steps,” Nanaua growled as she looked at a rocky formation.

  Corin looked over to the area that Nanaua was looking at. He struggled for some time, trying to see what she saw, but suddenly he saw them. They were still, making it hard to distinguish them from their surroundings. Like Nanaua had mentioned, they were interested in the activities of the group. Corin marveled at how well they blended in with their environment.

  “Yes, I’m afraid they have been following us the entire time," Simeon replied.

  Nanaua picked up her pike.

  “We don’t need to do that. If they meant to attack us, they had plenty of opportunities,” Simeon said.

  She still held onto the pike with an iron grip, moving her eyes from Simeon to the marked men.

  “Darling, if they threaten us, we will deal with it,” Zhi said, and Nanaua finally let go of her pike.

  Corin continued studying the men. They seemed to be as interested in the adventurers as they were with the marked men.

  The group continued on their trek down from the hill in the hopes of finding a road. Corin slipped and fell on his bottom. When he stood, his pants tangled with a broken branch and ripped a large hole in them.

  “Oh great,” Corin said as he looked at the large tear in his pants.

  From a distance, the three marked men could be heard laughing at his expense.

  “Really?” Corin shouted in their direction.

  Closer to him, Corin could hear Nanaua and Zhi struggling to stifle their laughter as well. He glared at them.

  Livia came over and helped stitch up his pants before the group once again continued moving. After several hours, they finally encountered a road but were unsure of which direction to follow.

  “Which way do you think we should go?” Zhi asked Simeon.

  “I’ll say this way.” Simeon began following the road that would lead south.

  After several steps heading in that direction, the group heard a loud commotion.

  “WAAAAHHHH!” one of the marked men shouted as they jumped in front of the group.

  “Oh, these fools again! That is it!” Nanaua shouted as she grabbed her pike.

  The three men jumped back upon seeing the pike but kept raising their hands, impeding the group’s way, and shouting words that none of them understood.

  “Simeon, I don’t suppose you understand what these men are trying to say, do you?” Livia asked.

  “No, not exactly," Simeon replied as he looked at them with a puzzled expression. “Most furtives on the continent speak the common tongue. It’s quite rare to find a group like this.”

  The three men stared at the group without moving. It was clear that they meant to impede the adventurers’ path.

  “We don’t mean any harm,” Corin said to the men. “We want to continue on.”

  He grabbed his blade and placed it on the ground.

  The men looked at him, puzzled but standing still.

  “I don’t think they consider us a threat,” Livia stated.

  “Are we not able to go that way?” Corin asked as he pointed behind the men.

  One of them moved to Corin and stood in his way. He pointed behind Corin to the opposite side of the road.

  “They definitely don’t want us going that way,” Corin said, “but why?”

  “Hmm. Let me see something,” Simeon said as he cleared his throat. “Gulkharante?” Simeon pointed behind the three men.

  The three men’s excited expression seemed to be an indicator that Simeon had said something they understood.

  “I see,” Simeon said.

  “Well? What is it?” Zhi asked.

  “If I understand them, correctly these men are warning us that this path leads to a giant.” Simeon added nonchalantly.

  “Are you serious?” Corin asked.

  “I believe so. I have heard many names for the titans being used before. Vorletes, Airofieros for example for dragons. Belrodins and Gulkharantes for giants. Ozaitios and Koorobs for leviathans. There’s a lot of different names for the titans," Simeon replied.

  Aside from Simeon, the rest of them were too terrified to say anything. Nanaua put away her pike and bowed her head. Corin picked up his blade.

  “So it seems we won’t be going this way,” Livia said.

  “They probably saved our lives,” Corin said, still in shock.

  “Yes, of course, they did," Simeon replied. He stopped to take off his bag, searched inside, and found a handful of sharp metal arrowheads. He grabbed them and placed them in front of the three marked men. As he stepped away, he bowed to them.

  “Undaumu,” they said to Simeon as they grabbed the arrowheads, bowed, and left.

  Simeon turned around, grabbed his bag, and walked away. The group was behind him as they followed the different path.

  “Why do you think they helped us?” Corin asked Simeon. “It’s not like helping us benefited them at all. They could have left us to die.”

  “Though we may lead different lives to them, they still experience the same torment at the hands of the titans. It is a shared experience among furtives. They don’t need a reason to help us. Some cannot stand idly and watch others be trampled due to the whims of those who are powerful," Simeon replied.