Terra Magicae: Chapter 3

Read Part 2 HERE

Back to ancient times. Back to magical shenanigans.

What new mysteries await? What new exciting characters will we introduce? Will any of them have interesting haircuts?

Read on!

The Characters (so far)

Aržak – A Parthian (modern day Iran) Scholar enslaved by the Romans
Sigeberht – A warrior of the Anglii (modern day Denmark)
Meleke – A merchant from (modern day Guinea/Mali) beyond the deserts south of Mauretania
Euphemia – A Greek woman from Aržak’s slave group.
Chobo – A strange little creature with even stranger hair.

Chapter 3

The Romans seemed unaware of the miraculous events surrounding Aržak and his team. Questions were asked, but to everyone’s surprise, the slaves all showed solidarity and refused to acknowledge anything fantastical had happened.

The whispered voices continued in Aržak’s ear. It would be several days before he dared utter the words again. When he finally did, he saw a little creature, no bigger than a toddler, but with rancid green skin, glowing eyes, and a mouth filled with jagged teeth. Of all these strange features, the strangest of all was his head, cropped with smooth, well groomed, black hair, cut in something of a Roman fashion, with the bangs trimmed nicely around the forehead. The creature was in the tent and Sigeberht had it by the collar, holding it off the ground as it flailed.

The creature barked in a language that resembled nothing Aržak had heard around the camp. In the dream state he heard the whisper, but the words were different. He recited them, and suddenly the little creature’s words were discernable.

“Let me go!” he shouted. “I just want the crystals!”

And suddenly Aržak was back in the tent, in the middle of the night, where Sigeberht was fast asleep, and no creatures were lurking about.

He arose from his cot and took a sip of water from their pitcher. The whispering came back, but again the words were new. He dutifully recited them. This time he wasn’t transported anywhere, but his eyes changed. The tent didn’t become lighter in any real sense, but he saw a strange aura emanating from his hands. Looking around the tent he saw the same aura around Sigeberht and Meleke, and a very faint aura around the other members of their team. Beyond this there was something even stranger; a bright spot, like a flaming hot coal, in a bundle of clothing under the cot of another member of the team, Euphemia.

Aržak crept over to her cot and quietly unraveled the bundle. It was one of the crystals they had been mining. He quickly wrapped it back in the bundle of cloth and instinctively glanced at the door of the tent, to ensure no one was looking in. Getting caught stealing the crystals was a death sentence, not just for the thief, but the entire team.

Aržak gently nudged Euphemia awake. “What is this?” he whispered in Greek, holding up the bundle.

She looked terrified. “It’s uhm—how did you find it?”

“Never mind that. We’re all dead if we’re caught with it. What were you thinking?”

“There’s power in those stones.” She said, determination in her eyes. “I can feel it. Can’t you?”

He could not only feel it, but also see it, however he wasn’t about to indulge in reckless behaviors that would get nine other people killed.

“No!” Aržak said, raising his voice a little. “However you sneaked this here, you need to sneak it back out tomorrow, and we’ll toss it in with our daily haul.”

“I won’t.” Euphemia protested. “I saw what Sigeberht and Meleke did. They’re absorbing its power. We all are, just some faster than others, it seems. This is what the Romans are doing. This is how their priests control the skies and can see into the future and far off lands.”

“And what will the Romans do to us if we steal their power?” Aržak demanded. “You’ve put us all in danger with your fantasies and superstitions. If you won’t bring that rock back tomorrow, I will do it the day after. Think carefully on which of us is less likely to get caught, and as a result, get us all killed in the process.”

With that, Aržak stuffed the bundle back under Euphemia’s cot and went back to sleep.

Aržak watched Euphemia carefully the next day. He hadn’t seen her make any moves that might indicate she was getting rid of the stone, so when they got back to the tent, the first thing he did was check. Relief washed over him when he saw the stone was gone.

Just then Euphemia walked in. “I’m sorry.” She said, mournfully. “I couldn’t do it.”
Aržak looked at her in confusion. “Couldn’t do—you didn’t get rid of it? It’s not here!”

The two began searching frantically under the other cots. Soon after, Sigeberht and Meleke arrived.

“I’ve not be storing extra food, my little friend.” Sigeberht said with a chuckle. “I don’t know what you hope to find.”

Aržak motioned for the two to come closer and whispered to them what had happened.

“How did you find it the first time?” Meleke asked.

“I whispered some cryptic words and I could see it, glowing like a hot coal.” Aržak replied.

“Then do that again.”

Aržak hesitated. The whispering was gone. Did he even remember the words? He thought only for a moment, and they came out, almost like instinct. With the utterance the auras returned as did the bright glowing coal, now coming from their grain storage pot.

Aržak pointed to the pot.

“Who would have thrown it in there?” Sigeberht bellowed. He reached his hand in and immediately pulled it out with a yelp. Attached to his hand, by the teeth, was a little creature, the one from Aržak’s vision.

Everyone in the tent panicked. Sigeberht pulled the creature from his hand and held it up by the back of its neck.

“What is it?” Meleke said, her voice trembling with fear.

“Chobo um’taka chobo!” the creature barked.

“Chobo?” Sigeberht asked.

“Chobo!” the creature replied.

“Its name must be Chobo.” Sigeberht said. With that, the creature settled down a little, but still struggled to get loose.

“Krall zezbit um’taka chobo!” it squealed.

“What is it saying?” Euphemia asked?

“How should we know, you fool?” Meleke sniped.

Aržak remembered the new words from the dream and uttered them.

“Pente’igum zha wata…let me go! I just want the crystals.” He heard the creature say in clear Aramaic, Aržak’s native tongue.

“Can you understand me?” Aržak asked in Latin.

“Yes! Yes! Finally, someone who speaks normally.” The creature replied, again in Aramaic.

“Are any of you hearing him speak in Aramaic?” Aržak asked.

Sigeberht, Meleke, and Euphemia looked at each other and shrugged.

“Who are you? What are you?” Aržak questioned, this time in Greek. To his great surprise, the creature understood that too.

“I don’t have a name. They didn’t give me a name. If I eat enough crystals and grow strong, then they’ll give me a name.”

“You eat the crystals?”

“Aržak, are you conversing with it?” Meleke interjected, “Switch back to Latin, at least let us know your half of the conversation.”

“What is that one saying?” the creature asked.

“How queer.” Aržak began. “It seems to understand me, speaking any language, but doesn’t understand Meleke’s Latin. And I can understand it, but none of you can. Strange mysteries are afoot once again.”

“Listen, little…man? How did you get in here?”

“I dig really well. They want to fight and kill you pig skins, but I think we can just dig and steal the crystals from under you.”

Aržak paused, afraid to ask the question. “Who are they?”

“Zarl’s Thornskulls.”

Aržak stared, confused. “Did the magic stop working? What language was that?”

“Zarl! The big chief of the Thornskulls! They came here from the other world.”

“They came? But you didn’t?”

“No. I was born here. That’s why I’m so small. No big magic in this world, so I’ll eat all the crystals and grow big. Bigger than all of them.”

“What in the hells is he saying?” Sigeberht demanded.

“Patience.” Aržak cautioned. “He says there are others, lead by someone named Zarl, from another world. Maybe he means another land beyond this one? They want to kill the pig skins, which I assume he means… those of us who don’t have moldy looking skin.”

“That might explain the giant walls and thousands of soldiers stationed here.” Meleke mused. “The Romans finally met their match.”

“I say let these Zarls kill the Romans.” Sigeberht barked. “They deserve as much.”

“They may not know us from the Romans.” Meleke said. “We could all be in danger.”

“Whatever is out there is better than what’s in here.” Sigeberht said, forcefully. “I’ll take my chances. Ask this little Chobo how he got in here. Maybe he can get us out the same way.”

“Little… Chobo.” Aržak began.

“Crystals?” the creature asked.

“Chobo.” Aržak repeated.

“Crystals?” the creature asked again.

“I seem to have figured out what ‘chobo’ means.” Aržak laughed. “Chobo is your name now, I can’t keep calling you little creature or little man. I’ll make a deal with you. You can have the crystal, if you show us how you got in here.”

“Great!” Chobo exclaimed and renewed his struggle to get out of Sigeberht’s grip.

“Let him down, Sigeberht. He’ll show us how to get out of here in exchange for that crystal.”

As soon as Chobo touched the ground he began darting for the tent exit. Meleke acted swiftly and nabbed him.

“No!” Aržak exclaimed. “We had a deal.”

“Yes!” Chobo began. “A deal! I’ll show you.”

“You can’t run out in the middle of the day, you fool. The Romans… the pig skins with the… metal skins, will catch you.”

Chobo grinned, exposing his sharp teeth. “Metal skins wouldn’t catch me. I’m too fast. They would catch you though. We’ll wait until the big sky fire goes away. Pig skins can’t see without the bright fire.”

When nightfall came, Aržak followed Chobo through the camp, evading the guards, to a group of supplies tents fifty feet from the wall. Chobo lead Aržak into one of the tents. Once inside, they moved some pots around, and pulled a straw mat aside, revealing Chobo’s tunnel.

“See! Chobo knows how to dig. Now, give me the crystal!”

“Not yet.” Aržak cautioned. “If this tunnel leads out, clear of the walls, it’s yours.”

Aržak followed Chobo into the tunnel and when they emerged, a hundred feet beyond the wall, they found themselves sheltered behind a large stone, blocking the view from the fortress.

Aržak happily handed the crystal to Chobo. “Thank you, Chobo. Now I can—” before he even finished his thought, Chobo had munched down on the crystal, pulverizing it to dust. He wasn’t sure what he expected to see, maybe a glint in Chobo’s eyes, or some other manifestation of the magical energy, but nothing happened.

Chobo frowned. “Still not enough crystal, I guess.”

“Chobo” Aržak began. “Tomorrow night I’ll come through here with my people. We’ll steal as many crystals as we can to take with us. If you make sure this tunnel stays safe, we’ll leave the crystals with you. Is that a deal?”

Chobo rose to his feet and began dancing a happy jig. “Chobo will uphold his end of the bargain.”

Just before dawn, Aržak returned to the tent. He woke Meleke and Sigeberht. “Tell everyone you can trust that we’re leaving tomorrow night.”

EDIT: On principle I don’t want to edit the content of these chapters after they go up. It’s part of the experiment to see if I can write something without having to go back and rework things. I want to be stuck in the hole that I’m digging. However, if I spot a typo or grammatical error (or someone spots it for me), I will fix it. So, when you see “EDITED” nothing in the story changed.

EDIT (2024-10-02): Circled back to add links to previous chapters to all these older entries.