Chronicles of a So-called Fire God (Abridged)

7. Crazy, Scary Horses

We set out to leave the man in the chair, his worldly goods now in our possession. Lestergrad stayed a moment to pay his respects and ask for the dead man's blessing in taking the items. I'd swear on the name of any god or goddess that I saw the desiccated hand of the man move in acknowledgement of the request. It was only a flicker of movement, and it could have been mistaken for a trick of the eye, but I saw something. From the look on Torq's face, he saw it too.

"Did he ju-" I started to say. 

"The dead respect a kind request made with good intentions," Lestergrad said. Then he walked out of the room leaving myself and Torq staring at the man in the chair. 

Still looking at the man I nodded to say thanks for the items I now possessed, and backed slowly out of the room. I still expected him to rise and come stumbling after us to reclaim his items, possibly with a few undead friends to help him, but he stayed resolutely in his chair. Torq closed the door as we all headed for the stairs and daylight. I'd not realised I'd been holding my breath until the chill hit me when we reached the crumbling courtyard. It was good to breathe the fresh air. 

My joy was spoiled when I opened my eyes to see Renkle flying nearby. He seemed excited, his eyes sparkled, he had a manic grin covering most of his face, showing rows of sharp, pointy teeth I'll add, and he was clapping like a fool.

"Do you have it? Do you have it?" he squealed.

"Do we have what?" I replied. 

"Do not toy with me human! Do you have the Herald?"

Renkle was not impressed and his happy face quickly turned to a grimace. Although, it was hard to tell the difference really. 

"We have some items that we believe are what we came for," said Lestergrad. "Whether we have your 'Herald' remains to be seen."

"I'm able to pay a handsome reward," said Renkle.

"I have no need for your money, Renkle."

"Who mentioned anything so vulgar." Renkle waved his hands to dismissing the thought entirely. "No, I offer rewards far greater."

"Even if we wanted to accept your offer, we can't," said Torq. "Our quest was on behalf of another who is paying, quite well I'll add."

"Once we have fulfilled that obligation, you're more than welcome to negotiate with them once we have completed our task," I added.

Renkle cocked his head, obviously considering my counterproposal. "Excellent idea!" he replied. "I need it quickly though, where is your benefactor?"

"In Grennis," I replied.

Renkle seemed upset by this information. "But that'll take days! I'll have to arrange something better for transportation than those mangy nags you have," he said while pointing at our horses. He then promptly disappeared. 

"Let's get moving, "said Lestergrad, "I think we've seen the last of him for a while."

We all agreed and started to pack up our campsite. Very soon we were on our horses riding away from the courtyard of Derno Keep. I thought of what Renkle had said about our mounts and reflexively gave mine an affectionate pat near its head. The horse shook its head and flicked its ears in response; I couldn't tell if that was a 'thanks' or a 'get off me' type of response, I took it to mean 'thanks'.

An hour after leaving Derno, a tremendous roar of hooves galloping towards us filled the air. Looking both behind to Derno in the distance and ahead to the forest of trees still some distance away, we could see no one. It would be hard for someone to surprise us out here in the middle of the meadow we were currently in. 

One by one three dark, black horses popped out in front of us, blocking our path. These horses were not of this plane. Their eyes were smouldering, red coals and their manes and tails were burning flames. These were flamenags. 

"Renkle! Is this your doing?" I shouted to the sky.

"Of course it is my friends," he said. He too then popped into view.

The flamenags were stamping their front feet at the sight of Renkle, clearly they were excited to see him. My horse started to rear up at the sight of the commotion and I struggled to calm it down. The fact that the manes of the three flamenags flared when they were excited did not help.

"I thought you were going to wait for me?" said Renkle. "I only went for some transport," he pointed at the flamenags.

"You want us to ride them? What about the flaming manes?" I found the prospect quite worrying.

"They can tone it down. You won't get burned," he said. Then much quieter, as if I couldn't hear, he added, "Much."

"These fine beasts will get us all to Grennis in a matter of hours rather than days. There is one for each of you," said Renkle.

"And our horses?" I asked.

"Wizbang, if we are to take this option then I will be able to give them some guidance," said Lestergrad.

Again, Lestergrad used that name for me 'Wizbang', I looked at Lestergrad, his expression hardly ever changed, and this occasion was no different. I would have to discuss his apparent dislike of me at a later point.

As Torq and I mounted our scary horses, they did indeed tone down the intensity of their flames. Now they were more nag than flame. I could hardly feel any heat from the mane of my beast, it was there, but I would have to sit here for a week or more to get even a red mark. Their control was impressive.

Before mounting his own flamenag, Lestergrad was talking to our horses. He went to each in turn and spoke very gently to them. Once he finished, they each went off on the trail, avoiding any contact with the flamenags, and then they disappeared into the distance.

Once we were all each mounted on our flamenags, they lifted off into the air at a frightening speed. The roar of the wind as it passed my ears was deafening and I could not hear what Renkle was saying to me. Ahead I could see he was pointing to a shimmer in the sky, what looked like a gate or portal. It swirled and pulsed with greater ferocity as we approached. A moment before we reached it, Lestergrad's flamenag stalled in mid-air, as if hit by an arrow directly to its heart. Time seemed to slow as I watched. The flamenag fell over and over towards the ground, Lestergrad was clinging on as the beast fell. They passed through a cloud and were lost to sight. I would never now have the chance to right the obvious wrongs between us.