Darkness Stirs: Book 1 of the Renewed World Saga by Luke Kramarz

Author:Luke Kramarz [Kramarz, Luke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

The scenery slowly changed as they sailed south. All in the party were used to the hulking pines of the northern forests and had been surprised to see them disappear as they’d made their way to the City of the Lake. First, they’d dwindled in size and then, abruptly, they had disappeared entirely into the massive forges and ancient steam engines that powered the city. As they’d left the city and traveled south, the forests had returned but little did they remind Bjorn of home.

These forests were lush, vividly green—so green that it made Bjorn wonder whether there was something wrong with the wood. Day after day the forests grew wilder, and the weather grew hotter. Bjorn couldn't believe that it could be so hot and wet at the same time. Five days out of the city and each warrior would be soaking wet within an hour of sunrise. Hasty shelters were constructed aboard the ships, and all quickly began to shed as many clothes as possible. Unfortunately, for some of the less abashed, this meant that all their clothes quickly disappeared with the heat. That was until dusk set in and the insects came out.

Incomprehensibly large bugs plagued them from the moment the sun fell till the very coldest part of the night, and even sometimes then. All tried every remedy they could think of, but none worked well enough to give them any real comfort. Men slathered themselves in mud and built up smoky fires aboard the ships until they were noticed by the sergeants and quickly stamped out for fear of spreading. It was all to no avail anyway. In the end, there was nothing to do but bear it.

This part of the journey had never been told in stories, and Bjorn chuckled at the thought of his father and other veterans dealing with such trivial problems. The stories always focused on the greatest raids or the most glorious battles. Bjorn and Un spoke about this, and each man wondered if they would remember this time at all when they told this story to their children. After several days and many talks, they decided that it would be better to leave it up to their children to learn of it on their own, lest they decide that adventuring wasn’t for them.

Un's melancholy rose and fell as if his emotions were in a ship of their own, out on particularly dangerous waters. Yet as they passed the first outpost of the Xeles Kingdom, Bjorn immediately saw an even more unwelcome change. The outpost had been smartly placed, straddling both banks at a narrow point in the river. Bjorn couldn’t think of a better place to repel an enemy making their way down the river. Yet, even as he called for his warriors to ready themselves for a fight, he saw that none of the soldiers within were doing the same.

Though the soldiers in the garrison were better equipped than even Bjorn’s men, none even so much as called out for the ships to turn back.

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