Chapter 36: Chapter 36: The Place Beyond The Ice

Jolf charged Nom, swinging at him with battle-hammer.

The tentacle's middle section sucked itself in, evading the swing.

The sheriff took another swing, and Nom dodge it in the same way, just bending his body in the other direction.

"Stop!" Quincy shouted. "He's with us."

Jolf stopped swinging and looked at him, dumbfounded. "What?"

"That's Nom, my sous chef," Nay said.

"Sous chef?" Jolf said. "But...but it's a monster."

"He's also on our side," Quincy said. "Now, lower your weapon."

The sheriff complied, still just as confused, though.

"You swing like a blind-folded child trying to hit a piñata," Nom said.

"How do you know what a piñata is?" Nay said.

"I saw it in some of your memories during our Mind Meld."

"You can see see my memories when we do that?"

"Why sure, there's always some cross-contamination that happens during the spell."

"Just how much of my life have you seen?"

Quincy cleared his throat, interrupting them.

Nay gave Nom a look. We'll talk about this later.

Quincy walked over to Nay to examine the Mirkwood Eye. “Where did you get that?”

“It was loot from killing that thing,” Nay said, pointing to the remains of the tode. “It still has two more uses.”

Quincy grunted, touching the chain connected to it. The object looked like it was fashioned from the eye of the monster. It seemed weird it would be carrying around the eye of another one of its kind. And Nay didn’t have time to have the organ manipulated. “You said this was loot?”

Nay nodded.

Seemed like maybe she received loot in a different way than others here. She felt uncomfortable under his scrutiny and changed the subject.

“What was that arrow you shot her with?” Nay asked Quincy.

“A bolt,” Quincy said. “Crossbows shoot bolts, girl. Not arrows.”

“My bad,” Nay said. She corrected herself. “Bolt.”

“It was a Celestial Bolt,” Quincy said. “Very effective against beings from the Nether Realm.”

Lain, cradling Martygan’s head, processed this in wonderment. “Where did you get a Celestial Bolt from?”

“An Arbiter gave it to me as a reward for helping destroy a netherspawn nest in Amethyst Fields,” Quincy said.

Lain was taken aback. “An Arbiter? In our plane?”

“It’s a long story,” Quincy said. “Anyways, it’s the only one I had. I never thought I was gonna have to use it. It was one of my prized trophies.”

“You saved our asses with it,” Nay said.

Nom cleared his throat. “I helped.”

Nay walked over to Nom. “I was afraid I might not see you again.”

“What can I say?” Nom said. “If I’m anything, it’s a survivor.”

“What happened to Mishell?” Nay said.

“I couldn’t say,” Nom said. “Things got a little too chaotic. We were both being swept away on a tide of polliwog spawn –“

“Polliwog spawn?”

“That’s what they looked like to me,” Nom said. “What exactly would you call them?”

“I guess it doesn’t matter,” Nay said. “But you didn’t see what happened to her? You don’t know if she died or not?”

Nay shook his head, ‘No’. “Like I said, I was just too busy trying to stay alive myself.”

“How did you hook up with Quincy?”

“Here, it’s easier if I just show you –“

But Quincy interrupted them. “We need to get all the injured to shelter.”

“And the child back to his family,” Nay said.

“We can do that,” Jolf said.

There was the sound of clanking metal and they all turned to see the Bouldershield Brothers approaching them.

Jolf was helping support his brother.

Rolf was conscious again. He was taking in all the destruction in amazement. Not only was their considerable property damage, it looked like the sky took a shit and rained down mutant tadpoles onto the town. “Oy, this is gonna be a job to cleanup.”

Lain’s eyes went to the sleeping child. “What did that witch want with the child? Why did she want children from this plane?”

Quincy shrugged. “Dark ritual. A toy. A remedy. Who knows. Could have been any number of things.”

Lain shook her head. “I don’t like it. There’s something else to it that I’m going to figure out.”

Nay looked down at Martygan. He looked like a beautiful marble statue while he was unconscious. He was paler than usual but that was no surprise considering everything that had happened to him tonight. “Is he going to be okay?”

“My bigger spells will be off cool down soon,” Lain said. “So I hope so. He seems stable now and I think he’ll be even better when he’s safe in the Lodge.”

“What about getting back to Fort Nixxiom?” Nay said.

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“Since the witch is defeated, it’s not as urgent,” Lain said. “But they need to know sooner than later. And we need to send word out to send more healers to the town.” She looked around. “The townsfolk who were victims tonight will need it.”

“We can send a snow raven,” Jolf said.

“You’d see to it?” Lain said.

“Aye,” both of the Bouldershield Brothers said.

Jolf picked up the sleeping faun child. “Now, let’s get this wee one back in the arms of his mother.”

/////////

As Quincy went to fetch a wagon to help Lain with Martygan, Nay couldn’t ignore the blinking green light in the corner of her HUD.

The Marrow.

Nom grabbed her and started pulling her towards it. “It’s this way. What do you think it is? Another yummy mushroom? Or maybe something interesting, maybe some type of rich and delicious tadpole caviar.”

Nay almost gagged. “I know what it is and I am not excited about it.”

Nom grabbed her again. “What is it? Tell me?”

“You’ll see soon enough.”

As they walked to the remains of the tode, Nom asked, “Why can’t the Gloom Rangers sense it?”

“The Marrow?” Nay said. “Because they’re not trained to. Their abilities seem to be more martial. They’re monster slayers so it seems like all their Delicacy Trees have to do with combat and stuff. Only Marrow Eaters trained to Detect Marrow can sense it.”

“Like Epicurists,” Nom said.

“Yep.”

They found the disembodied tode leg inside a shop display in the General Store. It had crashed through the window and landed in a display of candies. It looked like a giant yellow-green ham hock sticking out of a barrel of licorice.

Nom saw the warts and lesions on the thing. “That’s it? There must be some type of mistake.”

“I wish you were right.”

“Well, maybe the meat inside isn’t as bad as the skin looks.”

They both stood in front of the General Store staring at the disgusting tode leg.

“How are we going to carry this thing back?” Nom said. “We’re going to need a wagon.”

“I don’t know about you,” Nay said, “but I’m not going to eat that whole thing. That might be close to a hundred pounds of meat. Technically, we only need a bite of Marrow to get a new ability, right?”

“I don’t know,” Nom said. “Probably. Wouldn’t make sense to have to down all that. That would be sadistic. Could you imagine being in a food eating contest where you had to speed-eat that thing?”

“I wish you hadn’t put that image in my head.”

Nay stepped through the broken window and drew Thorn. She pulled her tunic up to cover her mouth and nose and made an incision in the tough, warty skin of the tode. She tucked the blade between the skin and the meat and started slicing the membrane that connected the skin away.

To her surprise, some of the meat underneath was unblemished and looked untainted. It looked edible. The leg was big enough where she could cut out perfectly round filet medallions. She took out six filets and wrapped them in some paper she found that was meant to wrap up candy sticks.

---

[Quest Completed!]

[Separate The Marrow from The Mewlipped Tode Completed!]

[Congratulations!]

[Reward: Frog Leg Marrow of The Mewlipped Tode]

---

“Alright, the deed’s done,” Nay said. “Let’s get out of here. I’m going to sleep for forever.”

/////////

When all was said and done, when all the bodies had been accounted for, it was discovered that sixteen people, sixteen townsfolk of Lucerna’s End, had lost their lives during the night of the attack. Countless more had been injured, either directly by the tadpole dogs or the tode, or in the collateral damage as a result of the skirmish.

Two more Gloom Ranger healers and a Captain from Fort Nixxiom had arrived to help heal the wounded and investigate the aftermath of the attack. The Captain dead set on looking for clues that would lead to the why of these brazen child abductions.

But two days after the attack the townsfolk were gathered on the edge of the river for the funeral ceremony that was done according to the customs of the human tribes that dwelt in the valley.

Alric was on a podium that had been set up in front of the river. The monk was overseeing the service and delivered the speech for the fallen, not so much because it was a duty as a representative of Veritax, but that it was the right thing to do for a grieving town. He respected the customs of the stitchpeople and did not overstep his bounds as a clergyman.

“The men and women that fell two nights ago were not victims,” Alric said. “They were heroes trying to save an innocent boy who were looking out to protect the people who call Lucerna’s End home. That’s the truth, as confirmed by Veritax.

“Today, we gather here to see that their souls depart on the river to their destination in the next life. The place Beyond the Ice, as your ancestors called it, a place free of pain and sadness and suffering. A place where they will be waiting for you at the threshold, when it is your turn for your soul to travel the river.

“Remember them, and their love, and their valor. You all carry it with you in your hearts, in your minds. These souls aren’t forgotten, but remembered. And honored.

“May they smile under a warm sun and may you see them in your dreams. Na marie.”

The mourners nodded and repeated, “Na marie.”

Nay and her crew, minus Nom, were operating a food table courtesy of Quincy’s Lodge. She had battered and fried up enough slivermoon trout to feed the people attending this goodbye to the fallen. She had also made French fries sprinkled in sea salt from the Vancian sea. They were serving what she was calling Quincy’s Fish n’ Chips and Nay’s Snowslaw Sliders.

The Snowslaw was made from cabbage and shredded beets, carrots and icefield scallions. It was mixed in a mayo-based sauce whose secret ingredient was a touch of winter cider and vinegar. This was added to the grilled burgers made from the meat of Moonglum Farms.

Food that people could eat with their hands without getting too messy. She served the food in butcher paper so people could walk around and eat at the same time.

She had been tempted to imbue the recipes with buffs, maybe something to boost the spirits or give people extra strength, but she had decided against it for two reasons.

One, was what she had previously discussed with Quincy. There were more Marrow Eaters in town because of the Gloom Ranger presence.

Two, adding buffs to the food to numb someone’s pain or grief wasn’t doing them any favors. It would be best to let the townsfolk process their pain.

But Bryja, Ulla and Hilde were all at the table helping hand out food. Bryja was in renewed spirits because her brother had been rescued, yet Nay could tell she was struggling with guilt that so many townsfolk had died or been injured.

It wasn’t her fault or her brother’s fault, but she was sensitive to people’s anger. She was afraid they might blame her family for what befell the town.

It was impossible for Quincy to work, as townsfolk kept coming up to him to hug him and give thanks for rescuing the town. The tale of his coming out of retirement to take up Samuel and Gertrude to slay the nether demon that had terrorized the town was being told by everybody. He was not just viewed as the proprietor of the Lodge, and the town’s favorite bartender, but he was being referred to as the town’s protector.

One by one, the fallen were placed into small boats hewn from winterwood, their material vessels decorated with vines, flowers, jewelry and keepsakes from family members.

And one by one, the boats were released into the icy currents of the river, where they traveled through the winding currents that led out to the Caraxe sea, where they would drift into the setting sun, in the place Beyond the Ice.

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