The Ageless One: Beginnings - The Ageless Author (fox in socks read aloud txt) 📗

at Liri, the color draining from his face.
“What did you just say? About the goblins?”
“They’re like bugs. They…Oh. Right. You don’t like bugs do you.”
“Bugs, spiders…if it has more than four legs it gives me shivers.”
He turned towards the fire and almost shivered right there. The idea of large bugs…
“I’m sure the goblins won’t be too scary,” said Liri.
“I’m not scared,” said Doelan.
“Fine. Oh look! Is that the magician?”
Doelan looked but saw nothing. He was about to ask when he felt Liri flick something off his shoulder. He looked at Liri, a little shocked.
“What was on my shoulder?” he asked.
“Do you really want to know?”
Doelan thought about it. “No,” he said. “Not really.”
Liri giggled a little.
“Gislers, young and old!” cried the voice of an old man.
Doelan and Liri looked to see him. The visitor had arrived, and he stood next to the fire.
He was human, dressed in a white linen robe with one arm fully clothed and the other arm bare, along with the shoulder. He had grey hair, wrinkled skin, and a solemn expression. This really was the oldest person Doelan had ever seen, and he hadn’t expected this. He had been told that older humans were hunched, with their skin hanging as if it was a bag on their bones. In person, Doelan found that this description, though it had some truth to it, was quite exaggerated. That seemed to happen a lot when other gislers described old age.
The old man spread his arms out.
“I come to speak of the goblins wars, and how they ravaged our lands. It began with the eagle men.”
From his pocket the magician took out something which smelled like herbs to Doelan. He threw it on the fire, which blazed brightly! A ball of fire flew up, floating above the rest of the fire, and beneath that a patch of smoke shaped itself into what looked like a castle floating on a nest. It was illuminated by the fire ball like a small sun. Doelan and Liri watched and listened eagerly.
“As many of you know, the goblins never come out during the day. The bright sun is our only protection against them. One day, however, dark clouds obscured the sun in all nations, taking that defense.”
Another cloud of smoke obscured the fire ball, the smoke palace went dark, and small smoke figures flew around it. Doelan wondered how he could see as well as he could.
“The goblins descended on all, and the war was brutal. In the end the spell was broken. Magicians gathered together from all nations, and all together cast a simple spell to make it rain. The black rain was like a poison, but it, along with the clouds, faded away, and once again we were safe from goblin attacks.”
The smoke didn’t imitate rain, but cleared, revealing the fire ball sun, once again shining on the nest palace. Doelan figured that rain, in this form, was asking for a bit much. The next moment all the smoke cleared, but then started forming another figure, like a human.
“Many died in the wars and poison rain, but we won, and all was safe again. But remember, if you go out at night, beware these creatures. They are deadly, and show no mercy.”
The smoke solidified, and even gained color, and Doelan, for the first time, saw what a goblin looked like. It was not very tall, and rather skinny, but as thin as it was it had strong looking muscles. It still seemed as if it could break your bones with ease. It wore a loin cloth and at its side was a sword made from a single piece of metal. It had a large, round and bald head with a thin lipless mouth and two slits for a nose. However its most grotesque features were the ones that gave Doelan shivers.
It had compound eyes on its face, and wings on its back, like those of a dragonfly. Doelan couldn’t remember the last time his skin crawled so much.
“And listen,” the old man continued. “Listen for their screech. If you hear this screech, run!”
The smoke figure bellowed out, and Doelan heard a sound that for a second reminded him of crickets chirping. But this wasn’t chirping, it was a bloodcurdling screech!
It ended, the smoke figure faded away, and the old man walked off, gislers everywhere clapping, except for Doelan. He was panting. Panting hard.
Then he jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder!
“Whoa! Doelan? Are you okay?” asked Liri.
“I’m fine. Uh…everyone’s leaving.”
And sure enough, the rest of the gislers were getting up.
“Are you sure…” Liri began.
“I’m fine.”
“Okay. What did you think of the magician?” he asked as they stood to go with the rest.
“Uh…” Doelan hesitated. “He was okay I guess.” Doelan didn’t want to mention that the goblin scared him. Something about the eyes. Doelan always imagined dark creatures and evil sorcerers grinning menacingly, but what he saw from the magic smoke…it was emotionless.
It was like this creature wouldn’t hesitate to kill you. It wouldn’t take pity on you, nor would it savor the moment before killing you, giving you time. It would just kill you.
Of course Doelan knew he was being silly. He had no idea what goblins were like. What he saw was an apparition, like an artist’s interpretation.
Even so, something about those eyes. Those big compound eyes had disturbed him.
But he wasn’t going to tell Liri. “I never knew about the black rain,” said Doelan. “Did you know about it?”
Once again, Liri had that impatiently exited look. “Did I?” And of course Liri would tell him everything he knew about the subject. Doelan smiled, happy to listen and to talk about something else.
…
Back at the orphanage, Doelan couldn’t sleep. He huddled up in his blanket, looking around. In his bunk, surrounded by sleeping gisler children, he watched. He remembered what the magician said about goblins coming out at night. He knew he was making a fool of himself.
After all, he thought. Goblins have never come into the village before. Why should they now? That didn’t stop him from watching for them, and listening for their shrieks.
He tossed and turned. He heard the gisler in the bunk above him groan. He knew he needed to stop, or he’d wake his bunkmates up. He kept thinking, this is stupid, this is stupid, this is stupid. Then he turned over and quickly hid under covers!
He had seen something in the room!
He stayed underneath the blanket. It was hot, or at least it felt hot, but he didn’t dare come out, for he was certain that he had just seen a goblin! Right there in that room!
Still, he didn’t hear anything. Cautiously he peeked out. He saw nothing. He poked more of his head out, and still nothing. Maybe he had imagined it. That was probably the case. He still saw nothing.
A little relieved, he stayed still, hoping to get some sleep. He still knew he was being silly. There was nothing out there. Nothing.
Slowly he closed his eyes, and managed to get to sleep.
His dreams were not pleasant.
…
The last thing Doelan can remember is running. He’s running away from the cottages screaming! It’s something about goblins. He sees them…or he had seen them. He isn’t sure any more. But he has to run. He has to.
Gislers call after him, but he runs. There are goblins! He knows it! He can’t see them clearly but they’re there. He runs. He runs!
That’s the last thing he remembers.
…
Doelan woke up in a not so comfortable bed. He knew immediately it wasn’t the same bed he usually slept in. This bed was from the doctor’s wing from the orphanage. He knew it hadn’t been a dream. He really had been running from something. He looked around for a second, seeing the stone walls, more uncomfortable beds, and the gisler nurse, who of course looked fifteen. The petit, fussy red head girl in a white uniform was actually twenty five, but Doelan was too groggy to feel weird about it. He turned over and tried to go back to sleep.
Though he wondered what happened to him.
…
Much later Doelan’s head was better, though it was still throbbing a little. The nurse had spoken to him earlier, but with his head still pounding they didn’t talk much. All he knew was that he had run off, and had been found after that, past the edge of Halhor. How much later he didn’t know, for in the end the nurse had let him get some rest. He watched that same red headed gisler nurse scold another boy across from him. Doelan was still a little out of it, but he was back to normal enough to find the scene strange. The boy would turn fifteen soon, and be a man, so he looked the same age as the girl, but she was scolding him like a child all the same.
He knew that these thoughts kept his mind off of his throbbing head, if only a little bit. Even thinking about his head was better than thinking about those…creatures. He needed something else to think of fast! He got it, but it directed him back towards his head.
“Hey Doelan,” said Liri’s voice. “How’s your head?”
“Fine,” he said unenthusiastically as he turned over. “Fine. Hello Liri.”
“Hello,” said his friend with a concerned smile.
There was a pause for a moment. Doelan leaned back and closed his eyes and Liri just looked at him awkwardly.
“The nurse told me,” said Doelan, still with his eyes closed, “that I was found outside the village, knocked out. That was after they attacked me with questions of where I’d been.”
Liri laughed, and then tried to cover it up with a cough.
“Don’t worry,” said Doelan smiling, his eyes. “I meant it to be funny.”
Liri smiled back. “I see. Well, you really were found asleep you know. I was worried, and I was also wondering where you’d been.”
Doelan sighed. “I don’t know why everyone keeps asking me that. How long did it take them to find me anyway? An hour?”
“You mean you don’t remember?”
Doelan opened his eyes and turned on his side. It took him a second to get comfortable again, and another second to rest his throbbing head on the pillow properly.
“I don’t remember much, no. The last thing I remember I was running away from the village but…” he didn’t want to tell Liri he had been scared of goblins. He was too ashamed. He figured he had probably imagined them anyway. “That’s all I remember.”
“You just ran off and can’t remember why?” asked Liri, who sounded as if he almost didn’t believe what he was hearing.
“I can’t explain it,” said Doelan. “It doesn’t make sense to me either. I don’t know why I ran off, and I don’t know why I collapsed.”
Liri swallowed nervously.
“What?” asked Doelan.
“Um,” said Liri.