Astet laughed. “That, I will grant you, is one of your skills. I would lose patience, break character and smite those two buffoons.”
“Well, I guess it’s good that I took on this task.” Bess grinned.
“So you are to be a goddess pretending to be an archdemon pretending to be a human?” Astet shook her head from side to side. “Those tangled chains of lies again.”
Tal Gor tossed restlessly on his sleeping mat. He was still a bit freaked out by his nocturnal experience. Once he had woken from dream walking last night, he had put the talisman on a small tray beside his bed and prepared to bandage his hand. However, he had quickly discovered that the cut was healed and that the palm of his hand was now scarred with what appeared to the same image as the talisman. The ridges of the scar appeared well healed, as if he had had it for years. He shook his head and looked at the talisman. The formerly worn imprint on the stone appeared new and fresh in the candlelight of his tent, rather than worn and old, as it had before his dream walking.
Tal Gor had hurriedly left his tent to tell Horrgus about his experience, but the old shaman had been passed out drunk on his cot. He had then gone to the main fire, where several warriors were still talking and drinking, and tried to tell them about his dream trip, but they had all laughed at him. They insisted he had fallen asleep and had a normal dream, and that he should go back to bed.
It was late and he had been tired, so he had gone back to bed. He needed to think about the events anyway. He supposed it made sense that none of the younger warriors would believe him; he could not really believe it himself. Tal Gor finally sat up. The light of predawn was seeping in through the loose closure of his tent flaps. He crawled over to the water bucket; the tent was so small there was no real point in standing up to get to the leather bucket’s tripod.
He grabbed his washrag and dunked it in the water to wash the sleep from his eyes and the dried sweat from his body. As he was doing this, his left hand began tingling.
“Greetings, Tal Gor El Crooked Stick!”
This was weird; Tal Gor could hear Lord Tommus in his head!
“Are you ready to hunt? You may select a total of twenty of your best hunters to join Commander Vespa Crooked Stick and her hunting party. Since the party flies, we will bring D’Wargs for your selected hunters to ride on the hunt.”
“Hunt? Ah, I had no idea it would be so soon — I need to gather hunters!” Tal Gor exclaimed in his head.
Lord Tommus grinned in Tal Gor’s mind. “Our hunters are gathering now. They have not been hunting in a very long time and so are anxious to enter Astlan. Make sure you have a good-sized fire going and make room around it for us to come through. I will be reaching out to you shortly to open the gateway!”
Tal Gor raised his eyebrows in surprise, scrambled from his tent, and hurried quickly to the main campfire, where the band was gathering to break their fast. “Everyone! Listen!”
“Still talking to your dream gods, Tal Gor?” his brother Fel Nor teased him with a broad grin.
“It’s no dream! Lord Tommus and his D’Orcs want to hunt! They are coming soon and twenty of our best hunters are invited to hunt with them!” Tal Gor exclaimed.
Horrgus turned and gave him a bleary eye. “What are you babbling about, boy?”
Tal Gor quickly recounted his experience last night for the tribe members who had been in their tents when he had told people last night. He could see people rolling their eyes at his story. Clearly, no one believed him any more today than the group late last night had.
Sal Gor, his father, shook his head. “Tal Gor, did you hit your head or something? You are making no sense.”
“It is real, father, I swear! You will see shortly when Lord Tommus brings his hunting party here! They are also going to bring D’Wargs for our hunters to ride today.”
“D’Wargs?” His older sister Soo An asked.
Tal Gor shrugged. “I assume they are demon wargs. All I know is that the hunting party will be flying and so they need to bring flying mounts for our hunters!”
Bor Tal, his oldest brother walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “We need to check you brother, perhaps you were bitten by a viperclaw? Its poison causes false visions.” He gestured to Tris An, his aunt the band’s healer, to come over.
“I was not bitten! I am telling you, Lord Tommus is the ruler of Mount Doom and the heir to the mighty Orcus!” Tal Gor tried to explain. At this point, even Horrgus was rolling his eyes in disbelief. Tal Gor shrugged off his brother’s hand and marched up to the main fire.
“You need to listen! Lord Tommus will be coming soon, and his hunters shall hunt. We have an invitation for twenty hunters to join them. This is something that hasn’t been seen on the plains of Norelon in thousands of years!” Tal Gor told them, turning around to face the gathering band. At this point most of the band had come out of their tents to see what all the commotion was.
Horrgus shook his head and then winced. He came over to Tal Gor. “Come, boy, let’s go back to my tent with Tris An so we can take a look at you for bite marks.”
“Why don’t you believe me?” Tal Gor asked, annoyed.
“You do understand this is a bit farfetched, yes?” his father asked him.
“No. I am a shaman and I am sworn to Lord Tommus, see?” Tal Gor stuck out his palm for people to see the scar. Horrgus stared at it, as did Soo An. His father also came closer to look.
“That’s a fully healed scar!” Horrgus said, rubbing it.
“It looks like it’s been there for years,” Soo An added. “But I’m sure I would have noticed you getting that scar. It’s also an odd scar.”
“It mirrors the image on the Talisman of Tommus!” Tal Gor said.
“The Talisman of Tommus?” Horrgus asked.
“Well, it used to be the Talisman of Orcus, but since Tommus replaced him...” Tal Gor trailed off.
Horrgus shook his head. “You know those stories are myths? I know you’ve always been fascinated with the dead god and tales of glory, but at this point they are just tales.”
Tal Gor shook his head. “No, they are real, and there is going to be a hunting party, today!” Tal Gor could see several heads shaking in disbelief. They thought he was crazy. Suddenly his hand ached.
“Ready to open the gate?” Lord Tommus asked in his head.
“I am not having a lot of luck getting others to believe me, My Lord,” Tal Gor replied.
He felt the demon lord grin. “Their belief is not necessary; reality should be sufficient. Go to the fire and thrust your hand with the scar into the flames. You won’t get burnt.”
“Boy?” Horrgus asked the zoned-out Tal Gor.
“He’s coming. They are coming, now you will see!” Tal Gor shook off their concerned hands, ducked around them and walked as quickly as his leg would let him to the central fire. He thrust his left hand into the flames.
“Tal Gor!” His mother yelled, thinking he had lost his mind.
“Lord Tommus, Master of Mount Doom, come now, enter our world of Astlan! Bring forth your hunting party!” Tal Gor shouted. His brother Bor Tal moved towards him to pull his hand from the fire; yet even as he did, the large campfire burst into twice its height, completely engulfing and obscuring the grate with the porridge pot on it.