Chapter 22

As the companions were walking along the main road that led them alongside the mountain range, Rex enjoyed listening to Charr explain parts they saw. The mountain range was created by the dragon Ragnar and he brought his tribesman with him into the mountains and named them ‘Bohl’ which meant warrior in dragon language.

“Story told by elders say Ragnar make us from ogre for strong and man for other weak things like emotion and brain” Charr said shaking his head, “Bohl no need brain, only need strong back.”

This made Rex and Lizz look at each other and burst out laughing.

“I no understand you two laugh at Charr” he said confused.

“It’s nothing big guy, you do you and we will help fill in the gaps when strong isn’t needed.” Rex added winking at Charr. This made Charr smile and slap Rex on the back, yep, that is going to bruise he thought to himself stumbling forward from the force.

A few hours later they were passing by a rocky outcrop Lizz noticed something off towards the edge of the rocks. “What’s that?” she said pointing in the direction.

Looking in the direction Lizz was pointing, all three could not make it out, because of the large distance between them and the object.

‘Focus Rex’ said Fafnir.

Closing his eyes, slowing his breathing and then opening again, he looked back at the object. This time, using his mind to make commands, he was able to say to himself, ‘closer’ and his sight zoomed in! This was incredible!

‘I find it humorous you need to say anything to make anything happen, but it’s a start.’ Laughed Fafnir.

“Hey, I’m still getting the hang of this” He said out loud.

“The hang of what?” Lizz said startled.

“Oh, just talking to myself.” Rex added quickly. This made Lizz and Charr look at each and then back to him. Rex ignored the looks and continued looking at what had caught Lizz’s attention.

“It’s a handle of an axe sticking out of the ground.” Rex said finally able to focus again.

“It’s ok if you don’t know what it is, none of us can see it, you don’t have to make things up.” Lizz said putting her hands on her hips and scowling at Rex.

“I’m serious, its large, has a metal eagle perched on the end of the handle, the grip is bound leather around a wooden handle, with a two sided axe head on the top with a red jewel between the two axe blades.” Rex replied.

“That sound like Bohl axe” Charr said, “Me would like go look.” He added.

Readjusting his eyes back to normal, Rex looked at Charr and said, “Someone your size, with an axe that size, sounds like a good idea to me.”

Nodding his head Charr took the lead walking towards where the axe was sitting. Since none of them had brought a weapon and they still had a long way to go, Rex definitely thought Charr having one was a good idea.

‘We are a weapon Rex, the sooner you learn that the sooner we will be unstoppable.’ Fafnir huffed, ‘Weapons are barbaric and unnecessary.’

‘Well until I learn to fight like you, the big guy having one may just stop us dying’ Rex said to Fafnir.

This only made Fafnir huff again and say, ‘We train tonight young one, its time you learnt.’

“You zone out a lot Rex” said Lizz waving her hand in his face, “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, sorry just got a lot on my mind, the sooner we get to Balrog the better.” He added.

“You mean home” she said quickly looking at him.

“Yeah yeah that’s what I meant.” Rex added looking away towards Charr. He really needed to learn to slow down and think about what he was saying.

“If there is something you want to share with us, we will listen.” She added sounding a little concerned to why Rex just admitted they were heading towards Balrog, instead of trying to go around her domain like they planned.

“I promise I will explain everything, in time.” He said looking at her.

“Ok, we will drop this conversation, for now.” She said frowning back at him.

‘Feisty one Rex, I like her’ Fafnir said, ‘She could make for a strong mate.’

‘Can we concentrate on training and not trying to match make?’ Rex said to Fafnir.

Rex knew that comment would have made Fafnir smile at him, but if he thought about it, Fafnir was not far from the truth. She was very pretty, intelligent, and perceptive.

“It is Bohl warrior axe!” Charr said picking up the axe and turning it around, this brought Rex back from his thoughts and he realized he was staring at Lizz again. Glad she did not see it he thought.

“Definitely suits you” Rex said. Now that he had a huge axe in his hands, he looked like a formidable opponent now. They spent a few minutes watching Charr swinging the axe in his hands, when suddenly there was a flock of birds took off from the top of the tree line in the distance.

“That be start of Balrog land” Charr said using his head to point.

“We will camp a distance away from the edge of that, and go through in daybreak tomorrow” Rex said looking up in the sky, it was late afternoon and he didn’t want to attempt the forest at night. Plus, with his training session with Fafnir, he wanted to be a little more prepared.

They all agreed that was a solid plan, as they took up their walk again. An hour later they arrived at a suitable camping spot for the night, Charr once again started collecting firewood, Lizz gathered leaves for her blankets and rex headed towards the edge of the woods, no fish around here he thought, must be food in there.

Closing his eyes once more, Rex was going to try using Fafnir’s vision ability to scout if food was available or at least look for anything that may cause trouble. Opening his eyes, Rex saw he was able to zoom in and out again, it had become quite a handy tool.

‘Concentrate on trying to find living beings and look again.’ Fafnir said.

Bringing his breathing deliberate again, Rex focused on trying to concentrate on images of deer, elk and other things that would be edible. With what seemed like the change of lens across his eyes, his vision changed to picking up heat signatures. ‘This is awesome!’ Rex thought.

Scanning his surroundings, he was able to pick up signatures that looked like rabbits with a deer not too far away. Now how to get them Rex thought.

‘Stalk it and catch it, how else do you think it’s done?’ Fafnir growled.

Right. Stalk. Walking into the forest, Rex slowed his steps down as he got closer to the deer, avoiding any branches and trees that may spook the animal.

‘This is close enough, any closer it will smell you.’ Fafnir said as Rex got within 10 feet of the deer. ‘Catch it and suffocate it.’

‘I can’t run that fast’ Rex said to himself, the deer already had a 10-foot head start on him anyway.

‘Jump fool’ he growled at Rex.

Far out I cannot jump that far either, he thought. ‘Jump before it runs!’

Scowling, Rex sucked in a deep breath, slowly rounded the tree and leaped at the deer. Rex saw in slow motion as he crossed the gap between himself and the deer quite quickly and easily and just as the deer was able to look up at him, he was already on top of it and tackled it to the ground.

‘Stop it breathing fast, you will damage the meat if it bucks too long and will make it tough’ Fafnir said. Was he growling like a lion with this hunt? Rex thought to himself, he is enjoying this. He quickly clamped his hands around the deer’s windpipe, draining it of air and life.

‘It has been a long time since my last hunt. You were slow and sloppy but got the kill nonetheless so is still a successful hunt.’ Fafnir said.

Picking the deer up and throwing it over his shoulder while shaking his head, Rex’s new growing strength also kept surprising him. He could get to used to this he thought. He was strong, he was fast, could see over great distances now and even see lifeforms in infrared vision, he was a little excited to what other gifts he now shared with Fafnir.

‘You will learn some tonight’

Dropping the meat next to the fire, Charr and Lizz both jumped up. “That is big kill prince. I no see knife or arrow mark. How you kill?” he added inspecting the deer.

“With these” Rex said casually, bringing his hands up in front of him and shrugging.

“You never cease to amaze me” Lizz said looking at him, “You are really something else.”

Once Lizz said that it made Rex go red and hot in the face, so much so he had to turn away from her.

Grabbing Rex’s shoulders and laughing, Charr boomed out, “Let us carve and eat!”

Using the axe he had found Charr skinned the animal and then starting cutting the animal up into portions, teaching rex the process of skinning and dealing with a kill, for a large man who didn’t sound smart, he really knew his stuff about this. It started off a little gruesome with the blood and innards, but he slowly started to get accustomed and shortly after was not bothered at all.

In the next hour, the animal was ready to be cooked, Lizz was making a little fireball she in her hands to throw into the fire to get it going, this time she seemed to be struggling. “I don’t understand, usually making a little fire isn’t too bothersome, it feels like every time I touch my mana pool, it gets drained away before I use it.”

“Balrog consumes flesh and magic, the woods here are no doubt helping her drain young one’s magic. Put your hands on the wood and concentrate on heat, burning raging heat.’ Fafnir said.

Nodding, Rex told Lizz, “Lizz stop, let me try” before picking up a plank of wood. He looked at the timber intensely, and did what Fafnir said, thought of fire. Nothing was happening, Rex was starting to get angry and a little embarrassed seeing as the other two were looking at him. ‘Light damn you!!’ he yelled to himself getting quite infuriated, soon after he felt an inner warmth that filled his body and exited through his hands, this turned into heat once it touched the wood which caused the timber to start smoldering. Not seeing any fire on the wood yet Rex went ballistic, throwing the smoldering timber down into the fireplace. This sudden movement from Rex made his companions jump up in surprise.

“I tried, didn’t want to work for me!” Rex growled angrily before turning away. Just as he was about to walk off, a hand touched his shoulder and said softly, “Look again.”

Sighing, Rex turned around and looked at the fireplace, it was lit. “The coals on the timber from where you touched it plus a little help from Charr and we have fire. Not bad.” Lizz said smiling at him.

Seeing Lizz smiling at him seemed to melt the anger he had felt before very quickly, she was right, he did not make fire, but he as a big part, so close enough Rex thought.

‘You need to channel that anger properly, we have a lot of work to do tonight’ Fafnir said.

A problem for another time Rex thought to himself, sitting down between Charr and Lizz, cooking up the meat throwing in a few herbs Lizz had in her bag for flavor. This trip was not too bad so far Rex thought.

Soon the 3 companions were eating their fill, talking about their hometowns and laughing and joking. They were becoming remarkably close friends quite quickly.

When it was time to retire to their bedrolls for the night, Rex noticed that unlike last night, they were sleeping right next to each other, not spread apart. Chuckling to himself, he slid into his place at the end, with Lizz in the middle and Charr on the other side. Soon after he closed his eyes and drifted off.

‘Time for the real work to begin’