In Limbo

 

“In limbo....”

by Michael Courtney Woodard

“Wake up!” came a voice from the darkness. Then came the sound of crackling fire. After that was the cold. “Wake up!” repeated the voice with more urgency.

Bleach woke to the sight of his dwarven friend staring down at him, their faces very close since Bleach was laying on his back and the dwarth was kneeling before him and leaning forward. Goz’s face was drenched in sweat. “What is it?” asked Bleach.

“You are sleeping at a time of great peril and you ask me this question?” Goz stands up and kicks Bleach’s leg. Before Bleach can reply, he says, “In the middle of a war even!?!”

“What war?” complains Bleach, sitting up groggily.

“I considered you my heir and this is the ignorance I am finally greeted with?” asks Goz. “I never bothered talking about it because I thought they told you. What did they do there anyway? Just climb upon each other all the time and do coupling as I have been told?”

Bleach yawned. “Not the dwarven women, though. And what do you mean by ‘heir’?”

Goz growled but before he said anything else, the fire went out. He swore in some formm of Dwarven.

Bleach looked around and was confused. When he’d first awakened, he was certain he was out on the side of the snowy mountain side like he’d been before and that it was night time. But now he seemed to be in a cave. How had that happened? It was roomy in here he was certain, but he wasn’t sure how deep in he was or how far away the walls were. He felt a buzzing in his teeth, too.

A tall figure came walking into the cave and could only seen as a silhouette lit by the dying embers and the starlight behind him. Bleach’s eyes had not adjusted to the dark yet but Goz stepped in front of him protectively. "If I had the strength I would put on my armor and cut you down with my axe,” he said with an angry hiss.

The stranger bumped his head on the ceiling and fell to the ground suddenly. Mostly it was the sound of him falling and grunting as he hit the floor which indicated this to Bleach. The stranger laughed at his own misfortune.

Goz would have leapt to attack it, but Bleach tripped him from behind by grabbing at his ankle. The stranger made a sound of frustration and then laughed. Bleach recognized the laugh. “I don’t see how you mortals can stand to walk all the time... It proves very difficult for me.”

“Don’t wonder much. I had to carry you most of the time we traveled here!” exclaimed another. This one also sounded familiar. He snapped his fingers and a torch he was holding came alight. “Nice, dramatic entrance, elf!”

“And even nicer introduction!” spoke a female voice. The voice seemed to come from Bleach’s wounded ear and a part of his mind he wasn’t used to speaking to him.

Goz pushed up from where he had lain with his face down in the dirt. He looked at Bleach with a sour face. “You had not told me your friends were elvish people.”

An angry sound came from the second stranger’s general area but it wasn’t him. In the torchlight Bleach could see his face and the face of the one who had tripped. It was Buhrne and TImbre. The noise was coming from a blue jay on Buhrne’s shoulder. It lit up into the air briefly to land on Timbre’s head.

“Oh, hello, bird,” said Bleach. “You seem to be talking inside of my head.” He made a frown. “Is anyone else hearing this bird talk?”

“You speak of my wife, young one,” admitted Timbre. “If you have forgotten her name, no matter. Animals need no names.” He frowned as the bird spoke to him in turn. “I apologize my lady.”

“Elven men marry birds?” Goz wondered as he sat up from his spot on the ground. “I do not know how this resonates with my mind.”

“At least our women don’t run at the sight of us!” said Timbre.

Bleach stood up and yawned, spreading his arms out to either side. His back cracked. In fact his joints all seemed stiff all of a sudden. “The elves are shapeshifters, Goz,” Bleach said. His knees popped.

Goz and Timbre stared at him for a moment, forgetting their quarrel. Both swore in their native languages under their breaths. Buhrne made a sound of frustration. “You’re too young to have your joints sound like a kettle of popcorn.”

Goz glanced at Buhrne with disgust. He then looked Bleach up and down for a moment. “So you’re alive, then.” He smiled. “Or you have overcome rigormortis?”

“Stop talking of trivial things!” spoke up the blue jay.

“The bird is right!” Goz exclaimed. “Have you no idea why there would be a war?”

“Again, you speak of war!” said Bleach. “I never heard of such a thing!”

“You have lived in Lover’s Climb? Did they not teach you why it were nmed such?”

Very briefly Bleach explained why he thought so. Goz listened in bad humor and often interrupted with more cursing in his language. Not once did he explain his words’ meaning.

“I explained to you my journey up to your city. Surely you didn’t think my trip were unique. Did you? I finally reached the point where I actually wanted a wife! Now my people will slowly die out with no younglings. Our women ALL lived there on that accursed mountain!” He actually put his hands to his face and began to silently, tearlessly weep.

“I have no idea what is worse,’ said Buhrne. “The boy’s ignorance or the dwarth’s acting.” He smirked.

Goz rose to his feet to confont the arrogant fire mage but Bleach grabbed his arm and restrained him. Goz spat at Buhrne’s feet. “If I only I had my ax!” swore Goz.

“Are you sure you want it?” spoke a voice in Bleach’s head. By the look of it, the others heard it as well. “Don’t worry, I am not there, but I can grant boons when I wish. And only when I wish.” It sounded familiar. The Bleach’s bad ear twitched. “I wonder if the rats will take the bait or decide to flee the sinking ship?” This last was spoken in Raven’s voice, so Bleach was sure only he heard this last messge.

Goz stomped his foot. “Give me my ax!” Suddenly it popped into existence in his hands and hovered in the air for a moment. But when he tried to clasp it properly, he lacked the strength so it felll to the floor at his feet. Again, he swore.

Timbre was about to speak, but the voice said “NO!” Timbre made a face of disgust. “Your woman doesn’t want to be your woman anymore.” There was laughter. “She and I know you hate being in human-like form.”

Timbre frowned. “Are our children, the animals we created when we mated, still alive?” There was silence. The bird chirped at him but the frown grew deeper.

“I don’t want to speak human to the idiot!” came his wife’s voice. It seemed to come from a spot of blank space in the air near her. “Why are my words now heard?” she wondered.

“Telepathy is my game!” said Raven’s voice in their minds. Buhrne scratched his chin. “Oh! Someone is catching on how the game is played!”

“What?” asked Buhrne. “i was just wondering if i may use my fire magic again.” He snapped his fingers and the campfire reignited. He paused for a moment in though. “Very well.” Suddenly a large shadow with no discernible origin appeared on the wall of the cave.