{"id":4474,"date":"2016-11-28T00:01:34","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T05:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tellest.com\/?p=4474"},"modified":"2016-12-12T09:02:34","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T14:02:34","slug":"golem-maker-hills-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/golem-maker-hills-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"The Golem Maker of the Hills, Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Golem Maker of the Hills<\/strong>
\nA Story by Aaron Canton<\/strong>
\n-Part Two-<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cYour name\u2019s Grannick?\u201d Laika tossed her ball to her golem, then looked back at the mercenary. \u201cThat\u2019s a really cool name!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c…thanks,\u201d growled Grannick in his usual guttural tone. Even his voice sounded odd in his ears. When he was on missions, he could go for weeks without seeing or talking to another person. That usually suited him fine. While he had no real objection to companionship, he had never been good at idle conversation, hence him spending most of time in the wilderness. But now there was a little girl who seemed to have somehow obtained the gold he needed, and he had to admit he had no idea what to do.<\/p>\n

Stealing the gold wasn\u2019t an option. As long as Laika kept the golem animated, it would surely resist him, and it was so heavy that not even he could wrestle it into submission for the entire three-day trek out of the mountain. And while he knew he could threaten her to make the golem serve him, he would not terrify an innocent child. He would\u2014<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019re you doing all the way out here?\u201d Laika chirped. She wore a rough brown dress, and her long blonde hair was tied in braids. Her shoes had the scuffed, ancient look of old hand-me-downs. \u201cAre you lost?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d said Grannick.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust passing through?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laika wrinkled her forehead for a moment before gaping. \u201cThen are you a mountain climber<\/em>?\u201d Her mouth turned up into a big grin, and the golem\u2019s ball soared past her face unnoticed as she smiled at Grannick. \u201cThat would be so cool!\u201d<\/p>\n

Grannick felt a stronger sense of unease than when he\u2019d battled the wolf. \u201cNo,\u201d he repeated, struggling for the right words. \u201cI\u2019m…a mercenary. I\u2019m looking for\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBandits<\/em>?\u201d\u00a0 The girl gasped, then scurried to a nearby tree hanging over the mountain stream and broke off two branches before tossing one to the golem, which raised it as if it was holding a sword. \u201cI like playing bandits. I beat Goldie two out of three times!\u201d<\/p>\n

She paused expectantly, and after a moment, Grannick realized he was supposed to say something. \u201c…good job?\u201d<\/p>\n

Laika beamed at him before turning back to her golem. \u201cEn garde, bandit scum!\u201d she chirped, and the two swung sticks at each other in something Grannick supposed might have been a child\u2019s impression of how sword-fighting was supposed to work.<\/p>\n

He waited for a few more moments, but the girl seemed absorbed in her fight, so he finally called, \u201cWhere did you get Goldie?\u201d It wasn\u2019t a great question, since he knew<\/em> where the gold had come from, but the only other thing he could think to offer was a critique of her sword-fighting skill, and he was reasonably certain that calling out her bad form would not help him. \u201cDid a wizard make him for you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNope! I made him!\u201d Laika jabbed her sword forward and poked Goldie\u2019s nose, leaving herself so open that a trained fighter could have cut her in two with a single swing, though Goldie only jumped back and held his \u201cnose\u201d between two golden hands. \u201cI was out playin\u2019 one day an\u2019 I saw a big wagon lyin\u2019 there! So I went to see if anyone was in it, and nobody was, but there was lots and lots of gold! And I really wanted a shiny friend. Lorelei Potrick has this doll with gems for eyes, and she\u2019s always makin\u2019 fun of me cause I don\u2019t have anything like it…\u201d<\/p>\n

Grannick forced himself to nod occasionally. \u201cThe golem,\u201d he interjected as soon as Laika stopped talking to take a breath of air. \u201cHow did you make him?\u201d<\/p>\n

Laika shrugged. \u201cI just made it. I\u2019m good at making stuff move around. Like…\u201d She waved for Goldie to stop poking at her with the branch, then quickly gathered up a double-handful of mud from the river\u2019s bank and spread it on the ground in the rough shape of a person before laying her hands over it. A faint shimmer arose from the mud, and after a few seconds, it wiggled its arms and legs, then heaved its body up and took two unsteady steps. \u201cSee?\u201d<\/p>\n

Grannick\u2019s eyes were wide. He had seen a few people touched by the Strain before, but never so young and not to that extent. Golem-making was usually the province of ancient wizards with countless artifacts and charms to focus their power, not to mention acolytes to help out where needed. He doubted the girl even knew what a magic artifact was.<\/p>\n

But Laika didn\u2019t seem to notice his awe. \u201cMost of the ones I make real fast fall apart quick, though. They\u2019re boring.\u201d She stuck out her tongue at the mud golem, which was already crumbling away. \u201cBut I bet Goldie\u2019ll hang around longer!\u201d She turned back to Grannick. \u201cWanna play catch with him?\u201d<\/p>\n

The mercenary looked at Laika blankly. \u201cUm.\u201d<\/p>\n

She pressed her hands together. \u201cPlease? I\u2019ve really wanted to show Goldie off to someone ever since I made him!\u201d<\/p>\n

Grannick moved opposite Laika as his mind worked. Something about what she said seemed off, but while he could identify a single shadow out of place on a battlefield\u2014indicative of an ambush\u2014talking to children was not his forte. He cursed to himself that he ought to be capable of getting past a small girl, but it had been so long since he\u2019d interacted with children that he didn\u2019t even know where to start. If her parents had been with her, then maybe\u2014<\/p>\n

But even if her parents weren\u2019t present, they were surely in the vicinity. He\u2019d been mountaineering for years and still found it challenging to get to this valley; there was no child alive that could reach it unassisted. If he could get in touch with them, he could explain the gold golem really belonged to his employers, and they could surely convince their daughter to give up her new toy. \u201cI\u2019d like to,\u201d he slowly managed. \u201cBut we should ask your parents first. I\u2019m sure they wouldn\u2019t want you playing with a stranger…\u201d<\/p>\n

He trailed off. Laika looked down, wringing her hands together in her dress, and then Grannick realized what had disturbed him. She had made it sound like nobody<\/em> knew about Goldie, not even her parents, which was odd. \u201cUm…\u201d he said. \u201cI mean…\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s okay.\u201d Laika looked up at him with a fake smile. \u201cI gotta go home for supper soon anyways. Nice meeting you, Mr. Grannick!\u201d She hurried to Goldie and murmured a few words into its \u201dear\u201d before sprinting along the river bank, the golem following on her heels.<\/p>\n

Grannick hesitated for a few moments before pursuing them, moving as silently as he could without losing speed. He wasn\u2019t the stealthiest individual around, but he\u2019d done a few infiltrations before, and he knew how to move his body so his armor didn\u2019t clank, his footsteps didn\u2019t scrape on the rocks, and his war hammer didn\u2019t smack into his armor despite its best efforts. And so he ran, slipping between the plentiful rock outcroppings and the rapidly lengthening shadows, and before long he followed the girl around the bend of the mountain and stood on a ridge overlooking a meager village.<\/p>\n

About one hundred wooden buildings had been erected between the banks and the slopes of the surrounding mountains. They were much nicer than Grannick would have expected given the remote location; he\u2019d stayed in crude huts built by mountain-dwellers before, but these buildings were perfectly straight and had smooth, finished walls he\u2019d never seen that far off the main trade routes. Somehow the town had managed to attract artisans to build their homes. They\u2019d attracted actual merchants too, given the brass doorknobs, silken clothing drying on a line, and other luxury goods scattered about. And then there was an actual inn, a two-story building with a tavern and attached stables, in a town so distant from civilization he doubted it was even on a map. Compared to a city like Atalatha, or even a prominent town on a trade route, it was nothing, but it put every other rural hamlet Grannick had ever seen to shame.<\/p>\n

But before Grannick could do more than note the village\u2019s strange wealth and wonder if it had been obtained through trade, outside assistance, or open banditry, he saw Laika and Goldie stopping behind the most distant houses. Laika hugged her golem and then waved goodbye while Goldie slipped into a little cave formed by the mountain. Once he was hidden, Laika headed to one of the nicest houses in the village, larger than its neighbors and with a sizable shed built in the backyard. But before she knocked on the door, she had to visibly steel herself, and her smile was almost gone by the time she raised her hand.<\/p>\n

Grannick frowned. Though he rarely dealt with children, he thought she looked much less happy to come home than he would have expected. And now that he thought about it, the girl\u2019s golem talents might explain the village\u2019s wealth. What artisan wouldn\u2019t take a trip into the mountains if they might get a golem\u2014the kind you never saw outside archmage\u2019s laboratories\u2014out of it? Maybe that had something to do with Laika\u2019s unhappiness?<\/p>\n

A few more moments passed before Grannick slowly descended towards the village. He still had no idea what to do, but it was increasingly obvious that he had to do something<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Golem Maker of the Hills A Story by Aaron Canton -Part Two-   \u201cYour name\u2019s Grannick?\u201d Laika tossed her ball to her golem, then looked back at the mercenary. \u201cThat\u2019s a really cool name!\u201d \u201c…thanks,\u201d growled Grannick in his usual guttural tone. Even his voice sounded odd in his ears. When he was on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[145,146],"tags":[273,525,1454,149],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Short-Story-Panel.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1UVey-1aa","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4474"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4475,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4474\/revisions\/4475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}