Chapter Three - That Way, Madness Lies
By Peeling

Reprinted with permission.
Added 07/20/2002.

"So, let's recap. You were hungry – no, fine," Tanya held up a hand in acknowledgement as Choth looked like he was about to interrupt. "We were hungry. So I – in a quite dazzling display of ballistic prowess, by the way – filled that dozing shreth full of arrows." Tanya ticked off a point on one of her fingers. Choth nodded soberly.

"Yes," he said, "although I do remember seeing several stuck in the dirt later. Someone else's, perhaps?"

"Unquestionably" said Tanya, waving dismissively. "Now, I seem to recall you saying something at that point." The swish of tall grass against their armour gave way to the crunch of loose stones underfoot, a narrow path winding its way down the sunlit hill ahead of them. A gentle breeze blew from the north, setting the grass in lazy motion and bringing with it scents of ortha-flower and stonewood from forests on the horizon.

"I believe," said Choth, brushing burrs from his chain-mail kilt as he walked, "my exact words were: 'I think there are some more under that tree'."

"Are you sure?" asked Tanya, peering up at his face in feigned puzzlement, poised to tick off a second finger. "You didn't say 'a lot more', or possibly 'much, much bigger ones'?" Choth contemplated this for a moment. Warmtide sunlight winked off the lifestone in the field behind them.

"No, I don't think I did. Do you think that was significant?"

"Ah ah ah," admonished Tanya, indicating her two extended fingers. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Now, where were we?"

"We were getting to the part where the enchanted bow you bought from that nice Tumerok in Arwic stopped being enchanted. Which reminds me, you still owe me thirty gold pieces..." Choth abruptly realised he was talking to himself. He turned around, and saw Tanya poking an arrow into the greenery beside the path.

"What is it?" he asked, one massive hand resting lightly on his sword hilt.

"A body." All humour had left her voice.

"Anyone we know?"

"I don't think so." Tanya straightened up and looked around, shading her eyes. Choth did the same.

"There" he said, pointing. Another sprawled shape, almost hidden in the grass a few yards from the other side of the path. Tanya jogged over to examine it. She frowned, then looked bemused.

"Well, that's a first" she said.

"What do you mean?" Choth continued to scan the horizon.

"Twins."

Satisfied that there was no immediate threat, Choth moved to her side and knelt down for a closer look. The body was that of undoubtedly the oldest, scrawniest, scruffiest human he had ever encountered. What little of him wasn't scraggly white hair was mostly grime-filled wrinkles, and the rest was a cloth jerkin and hose that looked as if it had started rotting before its wearer had. The smell was – unique. Flies had begun to congregate, but were struggling against a tide of fleas travelling in the opposite direction.

Swatting them aside, Choth found the likely cause of death: the man's skull had been crushed.

"There's another one like HIM?"

"Yes; right over there. You know, I think it's the same person."

"It would have to be."

"But why?"

Choth stood up and wiped his hands distastefully.

"Perhaps he came back for his parasites."

"You're revolting. I thought Lugians were supposed to be dignified."

"It's your chaotic human influence at work. I'll probably have to meditate later while you’re cooking supper."

"Oh no, not a chance" said Tanya, eyeing the corpse with revulsion. "I killed that shreth; you can cook it. If we can find it." It was her turn to find herself talking to thin air. Choth was a few yards away on top of a slight rise, watching something Tanya couldn't see.

"Come and look," he said. She joined him. A couple of hundred yards away a crazy scarecrow figure with wild white hair was pelting down the hill slope away from the lifestone, something clutched in his right hand. He either didn't see the two of them standing there, or simply chose to ignore them. Suddenly he halted as if unsure; for a moment he looked ready to fight, then he relaxed and just stood, like a giant dandelion-clock, staring into the valley below. Choth and Tanya both turned to look in that direction, but could see nothing.

Then he was off again; sprinting with startling speed. They looked at one another, shrugged, and took off after him.

"I never did like shreth meat anyway" shouted Tanya cheerfully, her long dark hair streaming out behind as she ran. Choth thundered alongside, his huge strides keeping pace with her.

"Nor me. Tough and tasteless," he called back.

"Too much like cannibalism?" She laughed and put on a burst of speed. Ahead of them the figure stopped again. They jogged warily to a halt a few feet behind him.

"Hello?" called Tanya. There was no response. She walked slowly closer, circling around in front. Choth did the same on the other side.

The man was an even sorrier sight upright than he was as a corpse. The object clutched in his hand might, if one were generous, have been a dagger once upon a time. Now it was little more than a rusted stump. His clothes were indeed rotting off him, and his hair – defied description. He was very, very old.

"What's your name?" asked Choth, speaking loudly and slowly. Not a flicker. Beady eyes squinted straight ahead from a fantastically lined face, and his toothless mouth hung perpetually agape. Then he moved – striking an absurdly aggressive pose and brandishing his stump of a dagger at them. Tanya and Choth looked at one another.

"I really don't have the heart," said Tanya. "He's all yours."

But the man didn't seem interested in them. As if responding to some inner compass, he turned slowly on the spot – and ran, accelerating away with eerie speed, heading for a nearby patch of woodland.

"He can certainly move for a man of his age," shouted Tanya breathlessly as they sprinted after him. The man reached the edge of the wood and smashed headlong into the first tree he encountered. Tanya winced. "Doesn't steer too well though."

Apparently unhurt, the man pushed his way around the tree and ran on. Choth and Tanya paused before following, readying their weapons. The cool shade of the woods could be home to all manner of creatures in the heat of the afternoon, and one visit to the lifestone was enough for the day. They moved cautiously, stepping between shafts of hazy sunlight, following the trail of destruction.

They found him standing, once again completely at ease, in a small sunlit clearing deep inside the wood. Blood trickled down his forehead and chest from numerous collisions, but he seemed oblivious.

"Who ARE you?" demanded Tanya. She walked up to him and waved a hand in front of his face. She might as well have been invisible.

"I think he's insane," said Choth.

"No kidding," said Tanya, and had to dance back out of range as the man blindly brandished his dagger again. This time he turned only a little, and sprinted past Tanya to the edge of the clearing. There he stopped, and began – well, fighting was too kind a word for the laborious, aimless swinging motion he was executing. Choth cleared his throat.

"Tanya..."

"What is he DOING?"

"Tanya?"

"Hey, lunatic old man!"

"Tanya!" She rounded on him.

"What?" she demanded.

"There's something in those bushes." She looked over her shoulder. The leaves were indeed stirring, in a way suggesting substantial bulk. The old man swung away regardless.

"Oh hell."

The foliage erupted in a snarling blur of teeth, spikes and hooves; the old man was knocked flying, and crashed to the ground yards away in a boneless heap. Choth's sword was already in humming motion as he charged the shreth, Tanya's arrows flashing past him to bury themselves unerringly in its body and chest. It screamed and whirled towards her, as Choth had expected, and his whistling upward stroke removed the top half of its head as it lowered it to attack. It toppled jerkily to the floor, its remaining lower jaw working urgently. Hooves drummed, and then were still. The woods were silent. Tanya and Choth stared at each other, holding their breath, listening for anything attracted by the disturbance.

After a minute or so, a bird began calling, followed by several more, and the tension dissipated. Tanya ran to the old man and knelt beside him.

"Is he dead?" Choth asked.

"Not quite. Quickly, you're better with healing than I am."

Choth sheathed his sword and ran to her. The man was very close to death, but Choth had worked with less in the past. He brought out his healing-sticks, polished marble rectangles well worn by use, and rattled them gently against one another down the length of the man's body. Cool sparks of electric blue showered from them, and he felt the familiar drain as the stones channelled his vigour. The man twitched. Choth could hear broken bones moving, resetting themselves, and feel the body's relief through the healing-sticks. They drank his strength hungrily. A few more moments and it was done. The man's breathing was deep and regular.

Choth sat back and passed a hand across his face.

"I think," he said, "I shall have some of that shreth meat after all."

Tanya nodded, laid a hand briefly upon the back of his bowed head, and went over to the animal's corpse, unsheathing her belt-knife.

"Our crazy friend found us a nice big meal, at least," she said, eyeing the massive shoulders and broad back of the beast.

The man sat up. One second he was fast asleep, the next bolt upright, his legs crossed. Choth jerked his head up and stared at him. Then he seized the man's chin and turned his wizened face to the light, peering intently into the tiny black eyes.

"Tanya," he said, and something in his voice made her spine prickle. She started over, but Choth held out his other hand and stayed her.

"What's the matter with him? Why is he like this?"

"There's nothing here that remembers being a man. The body lives as eagerly as any, but... it is empty."

Tanya shivered, though the sun still beat down strongly upon the three of them.

"What could do that to a person?"

Choth shook his head.

"I do not know. But I have heard of this. I have never seen it before, but it must be. It is as my old clan chiefs described." He released the man, who at once rose to his feet. Choth stood too.

"There is nothing we can do for him."

"There must be! Some other healing – the Tumeroks know more than anyone, perhaps they could… We can't just leave him to die again!" Choth's face was bleak, and her words trailed off. The man stood peacefully in the sun, but then, he would stand as calmly in pitch darkness, or torrential rain, or with a pack of hungry animals picking their way through the trees towards him. And he was so OLD...

"How long..." She could not finish. She lurched to the side of the clearing and vomited.

"Perhaps it is best not to know." Choth walked to her and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him with tear-filled eyes, and he was struck by just how young she really was. A fearless warrior; someone he was both proud and humbled to journey with, and yet she was only a child. For an instant he considered pulling her to him and comforting her as a father would his daughter. He could see in her face that part of her desperately wanted him to.

But he did not. Though it cut him more deeply than he could believe, he turned away, and the moment passed. Perhaps she would hate him for it, and perhaps their time together would be shortened, but she deserved more than to be his ward. She had earned his respect, and he would not take it from her now.

The two of them watched the man for a little while. He didn't move. Eventually Choth spoke.

"We should go. Leave the carcass – we shall eat at an inn tonight."

Tanya shook herself and wiped her eyes.

"Yes, I think I'd like that." Her jaw clenched briefly. Then she strode across the clearing. She murmured something Choth didn't catch, hesitated, then reached out and gently took hold of the man's hand, the one holding the ancient useless dagger. With some difficulty she prised it open, taking the shapeless weapon and tucking it into her tunic. The man gazed straight ahead, expressionless. She took her belt knife and laid the hilt in his empty hand, folding his fingers around it.

For a moment nothing happened, and then the loose fist tightened. Tanya searched his face for any sign of recognition, but there was nothing. Just a body and its instincts, nothing more. She turned away and walked back towards Choth, jaw set and eyes brimming. But when she spoke, her voice was level.

"It is a good knife. It will last him well. Perhaps long enough to see him home."

Choth watched a moment longer, then turned away, and they walked together in silence out of the woods.