Chapter 3 - Bears can't talk

Everything was dark, and only the snapping and popping of the fire pierced the shadows. Soon, Yu located the fire and stared into it, feeling its warmth on his face. He was so tired.

A female voice emanated from the darkness. "He's in here." she said. Yu heard a door creak closed, but he could see nothing but the fire.

A deep and calming voice responded "And where did you find this one?" It asked. Its voice also had a playful tone, almost aloof. Yu could make out the shape of a creature walking towards the fire. Its outline was only slightly visible.

A blue sprite leapt from the flames, and hovered beside the fire. It was a fairy. Fairies were creatures of legend. Few even believed that they existed. "One of our fishers found him by the river. We're not sure where he came from. We've never seen this one around here before." The sprite said. Yu figured out that the female voice belonged to the sprite, but to whom did the male voice belong?

"The river? Could've washed down stream I suppose. Not likely that he'd live through the falls to the north though." The deep voice drew closer and as it came into range of the fire its outline took form. It was a bear. A huge brown bear was walking straight towards Yu. This wasn't right, Yu thought. Bears can't talk. He tried to open his mouth to voice his protest of the situation, but he found that he could not speak. No doubt the fairy had put a spell on him. Perhaps the fairy had put a spell on the bear as well. Yes, that makes sense.

"He seems to need your services more than my own, why call me?" The bear said.

"He was carrying this." The fairy said. She opened her hand and a flame darted out of it and formed a flaming bird that hovered just above her palm. "When I heard that you were passing through, I thought that you may find that interesting."

"Indeed I do." The bear said. "This little one was carrying that? Interesting indeed. I wonder how he came upon it." The bear was getting closer to Yu and seemed to be examining him. Yu didn't care for this arrangement at all. He hadn't ever met a bear before, but he had heard that they were bad news, and he didn't want one close to him, not even a calming talking one. He attempted to move, tried to get farther away from the creature, but he found that he was immobilized. The fairy must have cast more than just a silencing spell on him.

"He was clutching it in his hand, so hard that it left an imprint in his palm." The fairy said.

"Hmmm, and he was just lying there, in the river? How long has he been like this?" The bear was only a few feet from Yu now and Yu smelled the sweet smoke of pipe tobacco. Was the bear smoking a pipe? This was madness.

"Three days since we've found him. Who knows how long prior to that. I've tried to treat him, but he hasn't responded to anything. I don't know what to make of it." The fairy spoke softly, seemingly ashamed of her lack of ability.

The bear let out a puff of smoke and turned to Yu and stared for a moment. This was too much. There were talking bears, silly sprites, fire birds, and darkness. Talking bears? Smoking talking bears? "It doesn't make any sense at all and I'll not stand for it!" Yu thought to himself. He stared at the bear and tried with everything he had to speak. He opened his mouth and let 3 weak words escape. "Bears can't talk" he said. Aha! He had broken the fairy's spell, soon he'd figure out how to move.

"Hmmm?" the bear said, as he paced towards Yu, bringing his massive snout close to Yu's face. He stared at Yu and seemed to smile. "Of course they can't, and if they could, they certainly wouldn't have anything of importance to say." The bear seemed pleased with the irony of the situation. "Of course importance is subjective, and I suppose a bear might find another bear's banter quite pleasing, don't you suppose?"

The bear's logic was spot on, but Yu wouldn't accept it. He mustered everything he had and said once more "Bears can't talk!" He was louder this time, but still only a bit above a whisper. Yu tried hard to move and managed to wiggle a little bit.

"He seems to be coming around." The bear said. "Muttering something about talking bears."

Yu realized that he was in the process of waking up from what seemed to be a dream, but he was aware of the sounds around him, and his mind must have struggled to make sense of them and created the scene in his dreams. He slowly opened his eyes squinting as the bright sunlight hit him. He was in a room with a fireplace and a large window that was facing the direction of the sun. He didn't know what time it was, but it was bright outside. There were two people in the room other than him. One was a woman slightly younger than Yu's mother, and the other was a tall and slender man. Yu identified the two as the sources of the voices that he had heard.

The man was standing over Yu, and to his surprise the man was dressed like Nameless, but his robe was a deep blue color trimmed in silver and gold. Yu had never met a Suun monk before, and now he had met two. Amazing. The man's head was covered with a hood, but in the daylight, Yu could make out his face beneath the hood. He was bald, and seemed to have runes tattooed on his forehead. The lines formed an intricate pattern on his face. Yu thought of the runes on Nameless' arms and realized that these tattoos were probably also magical runes.

"Where is everyone at?" Yu asked. "Where are my mother and father, and Tom?"

"We're wondering the same thing. We found you out by the river. Where are you from?"

"What do you mean? I'm from here, I'm from Stone's Crossing." Yu responded. The question was silly.

"Stone's Crossing?" The man said. "That's 100 miles from here. How did you get here?"

"Where are my mother and father? Where is Tom?" Yu asked. Suddenly, Yu remembered what had happened. It had seemed like a dream. The skeletons, Nameless, Commander Tigh, and that man...that vampire. He burst into tears.

"You're upsetting him!" The woman said.

"I didn't do anything but ask him how he came to be here." The monk said.

"I...I don't remember." Yu said. "The skeletons, and the vampire...they were attacking, Commander Tigh...and the monk!"

"You're not making any sense boy. What is this about skeletons and vampires?" The man asked.

"They attacked stone's crossing. They killed Commander Tigh, and a monk, like you." Yu said.

"I'm not a monk, boy. I am Carrath, the high priest of The Order of Suun. What was this monk's name?" Carrath asked.

"He said that he didn't have a name. He called himself Nameless."

"Ah, the monk without a name named himself Nameless. Even a man named Nameless has a name, regardless of his position on the matter. Where is Nameless now?"

"I told you...the vampire killed him...they killed everybody."

"Almost everyone...it would seem. How did you come to have this?" Carrath asked. He dangled the Nameless' amulet from his hand.

"Nameless gave it to me. He said it would protect me." Yu said.

Carrath laughed. Not the kind of laugh that that followed humor, but the kind of laugh that followed irony. He seemed to turn inward, muttering to himself. "Is that what is is then? A high price to pay indeed." The priest's tone had turned cold as he seemed to struggle with something internally.

"I knew Nameless. He was a good friend of mine. Tell me more about his end." Carrath said.

"That's quite enough!" The woman interrupted. "He's been through quite enough, don't you think? Don't press him for details on whatever it was that sent him into a slumber for 3 days!"

"I'm sorry miss. Its important that I know what happened." Carrath snapped back.

"You...you priests, don't you already know what happened. Why don't you ask your dragon what happened? Shouldn't you have known it was going to happen before it happened?" The woman said defensively.

"Yes." Carrath said quietly. "I should have. I didn't understand it at the time. I need to find out more." Carrath repeated the question to Yu. "Tell me what happened there in Stone's Crossing."

Yu recounted the story of the day, stopping at points when it became hard. He fought through tears to tell the story, but he managed to tell it all. Yu told everything from Nameless' arrival, to the dead horseman, and the skeleton's assault on Stone's Crossing.

"Boy, you're in Plains End. 100 miles north of Stone's Crossing at the edge of the Southern plains of Quaal. I don't know how you got here, or why you were spared from the destruction." Carrath said.

"The amulet..." Yu started.

"The amulet has no power, its just a symbol of our order. Nameless probably gave it to you to make you feel safer." Carrath said.

"Then...why?" Yu asked.

"I don't know. I need to meditate about this at the temple." Carrath started to walk out of the room.

"Wait!" Yu yelled. "Take me with you, I want to be a Suun monk. I want to be like Nameless. He saved my life! I don't have anything to give. I can give my name! Like nameless did! Please, take me with you."

Carrath turned. "You've given quite enough. You'll come with me, don't worry about that. I need to inform the king, have him send soldiers to see if there are any survivors to the south. If your parents or friends are there, the king will not leave them." Carrath turned to the woman. "I need to make preparations to travel back to Gariste. I only have supplies for one. Take care of the boy until I return." He tossed Nameless' amulet to Yu. "I believe that this belongs to you now." He said as he left the room.

Two days passed as Yu sat and waited patiently for Carrath to return. The woman was kind to Yu. He had learned that her name was Lanna. She kept him well fed and brought him clean clothing, and also provided light conversation on the subject of life in the village. A fisherman or farmers life sounded very different from the lives of the traders in Stone's Crossing.

Yu didn't seem to have any physical wounds, but he would often wake up screaming from a nightmare about the night at Stone's Crossing. The vampire filled his thoughts. The cold eyes and darkness that seemed to surround him chilled Yu to the bones. He hoped that he would never see that creature again.

On the third day, Yu felt well enough to get out of bed and he took the time to wander about the village with Lanna. The plains were beautiful. He thought back to Tom's description of the plains. "They just go on forever, they're nothing special." Tom used to say. Indeed, they stretched forever to the south. Yu could see the mountains rising in the distance, but he couldn't make out where the Ulmach pass was. The mountains seemed so small from where he was. They seemed so far away. He wished that he could be back there, sparring with Tom outside of the gates. He missed his mother, and his father, and everything he knew.

Carrath came for him on the fourth day. He had bought supplies for the trip to Gariste, and he had bought a horse for Yu to ride. "Gariste is 150 miles to the north along the river." Carrath explained. "It will take about a week to get there if we ride slowly. Do you feel like you're up for the ride?"

"I'm ready." Yu said.

Yu said his farewells to Lanna and thanked her for her kindness and then Carrath helped him onto his horse. Yu had never ridden a horse before, but he had seen the riders passing through Stone's Crossing do it. He kicked his heals into the horse's side and the horse took off. Yu struggled to hold on, but lost his grip and fell off the horse. Carrath chuckled at the boy's folly.

"Maybe more like two weeks." He joked.