Untimely Meetings
Krenan Telmor was sure he'd come the right way. He'd been making the journey to Darroch for the better part of twenty years, and it had always been here before.
Once a week, every week, he would rise early and take all of the items he'd collected from the woods around his cabin and trek into town, carefully snaking around the Ysmitu Bogs and the Palvern breeding grounds. His first few years in the Wilds had led to a number of almost-drownings at the gripping hands of the sticky Ysmitu tar, and though he had only seen a full-grown and angry mother Palvern once, talon claws extended and and poisonous darts engorged and ready to fire from her wingtips, that had been more than enough.
A man learned quickly in the Wilds that survival depended on focus, concentration and the ability to not be stupid on a regular basis. Of course, not being exactly a man gave Krenan an edge, but not one so great it could save him from his own stupidity.
He had to wonder if that was what had been brought to bear here as he pulled his thoughts back into the present moment and swept his eyes over the landscape in front of him – if billowing whiteness could be called a “landscape”. Darroch's first guard tower should have lain here, at the first bend into the city from Silvana, the closest town and the only roadway out of the Wilds and into civilization, and it was that knowledge which concerned him most. Wrong turns on the road were impossible; there were no branches, no forks on the way from Silvana to Darroch. Dense forest lay along the route on both sides, forest that had once been home to roving bandit gangs, though most of those had long gone in search of greener pastures. The few that were left knew him on sight, and were more than a little afraid of the towering Treth. He was typically gentle, but bandits fell well outside the typical.
Nothing was falling into place.
Krenan found that he could often solve problems by not looking at them, but instead by skirting around their edges. His mind knew far more than he was aware of, and unfettered by his conscious drive to find the most obvious solution, it would take the reins and discover what he had been missing.
When it came to the disappearance of Darroch, it seemed that even his mind was confused.
He drew in a deep breath and took several steps forward, placing himself only two paces from the end of the Darroch road. In the absence of gleaned knowledge, he would have to gather empirical data, and that meant getting closer to his objective.
At five paces, it had been obvious that the oddity in front of him was wide-ranging, but at two it was apparent that it was far worse than he had realized. A razor edge marked the end of the road, and leaning forward to peer down, he could see rock and soil cut away along a flat surface, as if a giant knife had carved out a part of the world itself. In front of him lazy clouds of white mist puffed in and our of existence, but there was no sound and no motion of living creatures. No birds flew beyond the edge, and those above him circled in place or shied away; nothing wanted to cross the boundary. He had hoped there might be some sort of physical explanation for such a phenomena, but it appeared his past was coming back again to haunt him.
This was Possibility at work.
“Hello!” He called, hoping for an echo, but received nothing. His voice cut off as it met the rolling white wall.
“Hello,” a voice said from behind him, and it took everything Krenan Telmor had not to jump, a move that might very well have cost him his life.
Spinning, he pulled a hunting knife from his belt and dropped into a crouch. There had been no one behind him when he left Silvana, and he had heard no one approach during his study of the cloud.
The being behind him was like none he had even seen, and certainly didn't seem threatening, though Krenan kept his knife at the ready. Palvern cubs looked innocent and cute, but grew up to be poison-spitting monstrosities, and he would take no chances.
He wouldn't describe the creature in front of him as cute, but there was serenity about it, a peace that he had to envy. Standing taller even than Krenan, the form he faced appeared male, and had many features that were traditionally Treth, including longer than average arms and an impressive width at the chest. It was the creature's face that set it apart; a wide mouth split the bottom half, but it was cocked to the side instead of in the middle, and only a bump of a nose served to offset that strange feature. The eyes too were odd, glittering onyx pebbles set deeply into sockets. The face gave the thing a slight cast of madness, a cast only reinforced by its red-tinged skin.
“What are you?” Krenen couldn't help himself. He knew that such a question was impolite in the extreme; the Alliance had dozens of different races which had intermingled over the years, and asking about one's parentage or origin was frowned upon, but his common courtesy was running thin.
“Aldreth, the Untimely,” came the reply, and the being seemed confused when Krenan didn't immediately react.
“I'm sorry?” His voice was tense; his own confusion was getting the better of him.
“Don't be. It is a burden I bear, and one I will never escape. I have come to terms with it, and so shall you. Now, why have you called me?”
Krenan could feel his jaw drop open. Called him? What in Tynndir was this Aldreth talking about? “I didn't call you.”
Aldreth checked a large silver device on his wrist and then looked back at Krenan. “Certainly you did. Your destruction of this city was felt across the Planes, and I have arrived just after the moment of prevention, as was intended.”
His destruction?
“Aldreth -” he began, but the other being cut him off.
“Ald, please. We are going to be together for some time.”
“Ald. I have no idea what you're talking about. I just arrived here myself.”
The creature who called himself the Untimely smiled slightly, or at least Krenan assumed that the expression had the same meaning as his own, even coming from the side of Ald's face.
“Of course you did.” Ald's voice was quiet. “Now, come with me and we shall discover the truth of this.”
And with that, Aldreth the Untimely stepped out into the mist.
- D
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