The Iron Forest: Ancestor's Legacy

Victor woke from Sana, who was running her fingers through his dark hair. He felt groggy, as if he just fell asleep, but the sight of her made him smile and wish for many more mornings like this. Except for the crashing and slamming in the next room. Through the wall, Jinlin cursed and shouted.

“It’s almost daylight. We’ll be heading out soon, so get as much to eat as you can—never know when our next meal will be,” she said in a soft tone. Her hair hung over her shoulders, leaving a veil of brown, silky strands over half her face.

He stretched, watching her leave.

She left him there with two women on his mind. Teresa occupied his dreams and memory while Sana occupied his reality. Feelings of love and loss still reverberated when his thoughts focused on his former partner. But that ended thousands of years ago. Sana was there, at his side and in his heart. She had a strange combination of elegance and strength, with a tender touch that let him know he was not alone.

He followed Sana’s suggestion and ate as much breakfast as his stomach allowed, while she and Jinlin argued about the best route to the Iron Forest. The wizard had plenty of knowledge about the countryside, but Sana seemed to have a better grasp of the dangers that opposed them. Both agreed the Chotukhan will be out there searching for their fugitive queen.

They talked on after they ate, of what to bring and how best to prepare for the long journey in such a short time.

“It’s too cold to travel at night. If we fail to spark a fire, we’ll freeze to death by morning,” Sana remarked.

Jinlin nodded. “If that’s the case, we’ll have to travel through the woods as much as possible. The less we see of people, the better chance we have to avoid Chotukhan patrols.”

“What is all that stuff you’re bringing?” Victor asked, gesturing at a satchel beside Jinlin.

“Trinkets, my boy. Things that will help us get where we’re going.”

“Magic,” Sana blurted out with a tinge of indignation.

Victor chuckled. “You mean tricks.”

Jinlin grinned. “I see no difference. Something that can be explained is called science. Other things without explanation are called magic. Somewhere between the two is technology. Either way, it is all a matter of perspective.” He pulled out a silver disk and held it up for Victor and Sana to see. “Is this science or magic?”

Before their eyes, two more Jinlin’s appeared. Each one mimicked the other. Sana backed a step, but Victor remained still.

“In my perspective, it is all a trick—an illusion.” He said with a knowing grin. “A holographic projector. Very clever. We use them to communicate with each other to give a sense of presence.”

Jinlin nodded. “But to others, it is magic.” He donned a glove and lifted his hand toward a metal bowl sitting on the dining table. It shuddered and lifted upward with a slow, steady spin.

Sana swept her spear beneath the bowl to see what force suspended it in mid-air. The wooden shaft passed clean, but the steel head slammed into the metal with an unknown force. She pulled and tugged, but her spear wouldn’t budge.

Jinlin lowered his hand to release the bowl and weapon in a metallic crash.

Sana looked dumbfounded.

“So, the Shainxu use technology from my time. Where do they get all this stuff from?” Victor asked.

“The Iron Forest has a bounty of useful artifacts buried beneath stone and soil. The challenge is figuring out what it does and how it works—not an easy task, given the fact the relics have been lost for thousands of years.”

Curiosity must have overwhelmed Sana since Victor saw her pick up a vial of clear fluid. The top had a cylinder with a button affixed in the center.

Jinlin lurched forward and snatched it from her hands. “Charred circuits! Don’t touch things you know nothing of.”

“What is it?”

The magician placed the vial back in the satchel with utmost care. “A deadly concoction that will eat the flesh from your bones. Get enough of this on you and it will eat the bones as well.”

“Let me guess… a mixture of ultra-concentrated sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide,” Victor said in English since he didn’t know the words in Sana’s language.

“Very good, my boy. You are correct. A blast from this stuff will stop someone cold while making his friends think twice. I prefer to use this as a last resort, since it can be just as dangerous to the user as it is to the recipient.”

“Do you have any hand grenades?” Victor asked, excited.

“Any what?”

Victor sighed. “Never mind.”

*****

Sana tuned out the two men as they talked in a language, she knew nothing of. They seemed to enjoy panning over the different items in Jinlin’s pack of magic devices, and she enjoyed seeing Victor excited over the relics of his past.

Daylight began to break as Sana donned her wolf skinned cloak while Victor and Jinlin applied layers of robes and bearskins to defeat the frigid mountain air. The garb would be heavy, but worth every pound since Victor told her he hated feeling cold.

Red warning lights flashed with an ear-splitting siren.

“Charred circuits!” Jinlin scowled before running to the room containing his pet Destroyer; Victor and Sana followed.

A long bench stretched from one wall to the next, containing a variety of equipment that hummed and flashed with tiny blinking lights. A spider’s web of cables and wires spread across the bench over broken magical artifacts and thousand-year-old tools.

The wizard wiped away a mass of cables and tapped on a rusted keyboard with his bony fingers. A holographic display appeared, showing trees and rocks that seemed to go on forever. He tapped a few more keys, and the display shifted from one side to the next. It stopped with a slam of Jinlin’s fist.

“What is it?” Sana asked, looking at the screen.

“We have visitors—unwelcome ones.” Jinlin zoomed the image until a man crouched behind a tree came into view. Reaper armor and a tunic of white and black became clear, showing the typical garb of a Chotukhan soldier. Several more men walked past the screen holding swords and bows with nocked arrows.

Jinlin turned toward Sana and Victor. “There’s an exit through a maintenance tunnel that should hide our escape. But first, let’s see what our friends want. Perhaps they will move on without a fight.”

Sana followed Jinlin up a ladder on the other side of the room. Victor behind her. The old man pushed and shoved with his thin frame to unseal a hatch with no desire to open. Sana swapped positions and pushed: the metal groaned with reddish-brown dust raining below. Sunlight burst through the opening, making her blink against the bright light.

The concrete building had a rooftop that was more of a balcony. A knee-wall surrounded the surface, laced with more cables and pipes that stretched toward a litany of machinery. Jinlin held out his scrawny hand to keep her out of sight before shouting, “You men are trespassing on my property.”

Birds took to the air from the man’s amplified voice. It didn’t come from his mouth but reverberated through cone-shaped boxes mounted atop the building. A moment of silence occurred before one of the Chotukhan soldiers replied, “We’ll have none of your trickery, wizard. Your house is surrounded, and you’re outnumbered—hand over the queen and we’ll let you live.”

“I see no queen here.” He squinted. “Just a bunch of dead Chotukhan soldiers if you don’t get off my land.”

The soldier waved his hand: Archers stepped forward and let loose a trio of arrows that whistled through the air towards Jinlin’s chest. He distorted when they made contact. “Oh, you will have to do better than that.”

He thrust his arms forward to give off a brilliant ball of green crackling light. It hit and consumed the Chotukhan soldier, who jerked and twitched to the ground. He let go another plasma ball, and another. Each one taking a soldier out of the fight.

From her hiding spot, Sana grew tense. The Chotukhan soldiers’ numbers were still too many, and it was only a matter of time till the place became overrun.

Sana turned to Victor who was watching with amazement at the wizard’s skill. “Victor we—” A tap on her shoulder with a stick-like finger turned her around.

Another Jinlin was waving towards the access hatch. “Time to get out of here.”

“How did you do that?” Victor asked, keeping his eyes on the rusty ladder so as not to trip. Sana was close behind him now.

“Another time, my boy. Right now, we need to get far as possible from this place.”

The door of black iron and rivets looked solid. Victor tried to pry it with his sword while Sana inspected it, but even after pushing with all his strength it didn’t budge.

Jinlin strolled in front of them, shaking his head. “I expected you two to be smarter than this.” He flipped a large bronze switched that burst into a small shower of sparks. The metal heaved against its own weight with actuated hinges.

Victor rolled his eyes when Sana laughed.

Beyond the door, a system of tunnels carved into the hillside disappeared into darkness. Victor pulled out his flashlight to illuminate the way. Jinlin looked at the device with approval and gestured for Sana to follow him, allowing the wizard to protect the rear.

The tunnel seemed unending until another door blocked the way, but this time there was no switch or mechanism to open it.

“So, what’s the secret to this?” Victor asked, feeling around for a lever or latch.

Jinlin pushed him aside. “No secret, my boy. It’s just stuck.” He placed a silver puck on the heavy wooden structure and tapped one of three buttons at its center. “You might want to stand back.”

Beep. Beep. Beep… The device exploded, sending shards of wood everywhere. A shock wave expanded, throwing Sana off her feet.

Victor wordlessly, helped her up while glaring at Jinlin.

Before them was a sparsely wooded area bordered with massive stones and a frozen stream that began as a spring trickle. They moved along in as much silence as their feet could manage through the dry branches and hardened snow.

Jinlin stopped and turned back toward the tunnel.

“What are you doing? It won’t take long till the Chotukhan will know where we are,” Sana said, stopping.

“I’m sorry, but there is something I need to watch. This won’t take long.” The wizard moved to sit on the closest boulder.

“What? You got to be joking,” Victor muttered.

“Wait for it… Wait for it.” Jinlin began tapping his finger on his knee.

A massive cloud of fire rose to the sky beyond the tunnel. It was silent, at first, until a wave of ear rattling thunder and wind rushed them.

“Jinlin, that was your house?” Sana asked, brushing dirt from her cloak.

“It’s just a house.” Jinlin smiled. “Better to deny the Chotukhan what was in there than keep it. It can all be replaced… except the Destroyer. I don’t think I’ll be seeing any more of those anytime soon.”

Victor grunted. “Judging by the size of the blast, I’m sure you took a few Chotukhan soldiers with it.”

*****

Victor felt signs of exhaustion as he, Sana, and Jinlin continued northeast through snow covered pines and higher into the mountains. The rocky trail helped hide their tracks. After a while, the rocks became more of an obstacle, forcing them down the ridge and back into the forest. The trail widened, allowing them to walk side by side. Although a cloudless day, it was cold, but their rapid pace kept them warm.

Darkness took over with the sun sinking behind the distant mountains. Little sleep the night before and a long march over rugged mountainsides led to a unanimous decision to halt for the night.

Smooth stones bordered the campfire with more built atop to help eliminate the light. It had the ability to keep warm yet not give away their position. They spent a few minutes soaking up the heat before Sana grabbed her spear and headed into the darkness.

“Where are you going?” Victor asked.

She turned and smiled. “I’m hungry. It’s time for us to eat.”

“I can help.”

Sana held up a hand. “Please, keep Master Jinlin company. I’d rather do this alone.”

“You sure?”

“Two of us will make too much noise. I won’t be long.”

The fire popped and spit from a partially wet log. Victor poked the coals to expose some fresh flame for added heat.

Out of nowhere, the wizard chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Victor asked.

Jinlin leaned closer. “That woman has been gone for five minutes and you haven’t taken your eyes off of where she left.”

“That’s not true,” Victor denied, making a point of looking away from the dark forest trail that Sana took. “I just worry about her, that’s all.”

“Sounds like love to me.”

Victor sighed. “Of course, it is, but no matter what, she seems to keep a certain distance—an unbreakable barrier.”

“She still morns a great loss.” Jinlin rested his hand on Victor’s shoulder. “But I can see in her eyes and the way she brightens when you’re around, that you hold a special place in her heart. You have nothing to fear.”

With that, the wizard wrapped himself in a fleece blanket and rolled with his back to the fire.

I hope you’re right, old man.

Victor poked the embers, watching sparks dancing upward.

“Is he asleep?” Sana asked, appearing at the edge of their camp.

“It sounds like it.” A grinding sound came from the wizard, whose wide-open eyes stared toward the night sky. He looks dead, actually.

Sana handed him a cloth full of red berries before she sat next to him with her legs crossed.

They ate to the sounds of night and the old wizard snoring.

The fire burned tall with an addition of fresh wood that Sana put on it. Victor found it hypnotic to watch the flames dance against the darkness. When Sana’s head came to rest on his shoulder, he wrapped his arm around her waist. He worried it would scare her away, but instead she shifted closer and place her hand on his chest. If only this would last forever.