Neytopia › Part 2: Noon › Chapter 27

Everybody is looking for something

The raven saw his life in dreams: the village on fire, the death of his wife and unborn child, the hunger when he was petrified, the fall of the forbidden city and everything else he had pushed to the bottom of his mind.

The giant dreamt of a ship carrying him away into a storm. He couldn’t move to scream at the men and women in robes watching him in silence. There was a woman, her face was familiar. Before he could figure out who she was, he woke up to find himself being hauled across the mountains in a huge stretcher, his wounds covered with bandages. The raven was was also there, in another stretcher.

The raven woke up with the dreadful feeling of familiarity. Yes… They were the barbarians, taking him to their camp to become a fighter-slave. This was his chance to kill the old woman, she had to be there. His high fever caused him wild hallucinations so he started yelling,

Come at me, bitch! You took my family, you took my land, you took my wife, you—

He passed out. The people carrying them up the mountain often stopped to hide, sometimes for hours. They hid behind trees and rocks or covered themselves with leaves and bushes. The trip took a whole day, and the people carrying them used no torches even through the moonless night.

Finally they reached a small plateau where they camped. They built tents for the giant, for the raven and for his band. Most of the people who had helped the raven and his people headed to the mountain wall and there entered through an almost invisible gate. Outside they left only some guards and a nurse to look after those who were injured.

The raven rested for eight days, until he was able to sit up straight. The first thing he saw when he woke up was the nurse, sitting asleep in a chair next to his bed. He tried to say,

Wh—

But he stopped to cough, his throat sore and completely dry. She helped him drink some water.

What is this place?

Without word she went outside the tent to fetch a man, who greeted the raven,

Greetings stranger. How are your wounds?

The raven shrugged his shoulders. The man came closer.

May I?

The raven said nothing, so the man looked under the blanket covering the raven.

Aahh, you’ll be fine, you’re a tough guy.

The raven smiled and asked,

Why are you doing all this for us?

You see, it’s not every day that a—The man could not find a suitable word to describe the raven—uhm, hero and a giant defeat a whole town. Maybe where you come from this is normal, but around here…

Why are you healing us, where’s the catch?

The man smiled and said,

Surely you don’t believe that everyone in this world always has an ulterior motive.

The raven stared at the man in disbelief. The man conceded,

Ok, ok. But before I tell you what we’re after, let me tell you a short story.

The raven sighed,

Fine.

The man rubbed his hands and started his story,

We are the people from the city under the mountain, the rightful masters of the North. We have inhabited the mountains for centuries. The founders of this land fled from the town you just destroyed and from other towns like it, knowing what the crazed zealots would do to them if they stayed.

See, the bravest men on this Earth traveled North centuries ago to build a city on the edge of the world. The most talented artisans, craftsmen, artists and warriors gathered there. They established their moral, technological and military supremacy over the whole continent. However, excellence is the father of envy. Soon tribes rallied to weaken the empire, attacking their frontiers and their sources of food and water.

Rebellions followed conspiracies to overthrow the government and impose a degenerate democracy. But these were men of conviction, determined to protect their state and way of life. They crushed rebellions, revolts, foreign tribes and everyone else who stood in their way. Then one day, a single stranger came from the South and told a story about a ‘Greater man’ who had given to him the Divine laws.

Short he may have been, but he was persuasive. Powerful lieutenants across the empire converted to his religion, and soon the whole empire fell to the charm of the Greater man and his promises of an afterlife. The stranger became king and lived a long time with honor, conquering the last remainders of free territory up north. But then something happened, he lost his mind and the purges began.

He exterminated entire ancient bloodlines or even worse, humiliated them with slavery. Others he banished, forcing them to abandon their homes and positions which he filled with his own lackeys: mediocre and petty men with no talent nor honor. And so it has been for centuries, because the king still lives, now a fossil kept alive by his sheer will to power.

The man fell silent for a few seconds.

It’s time you know who I am. I am the leader of the people under the mountain, rightful heir to the North and last descendant of the first northerners. My people has lived hiding in the mountains since we were banished. The king doesn’t know we’re here. We are waiting to—

The leader stopped when he realized a young boy had been listening from outside the tent. The boy was about eight years old, and he said to the raven, excited,

But we’re going to take the North back! Take the North back! Take the North back!

The kid ran in circles inside the tent. The leader reprimanded him,

What I have told you, son?

The boy ran outside the tent without listening to his father, still shouting,

Take the North back! Take the North back!

Come back, hey, come here!

The leader left to chase his son, leaving the raven alone. Soon enough the nurse came back and spoke to him,

We all heard the tale about how you defeated the people in that town. Tell me, did they really make their children fight?

Yes, we didn’t want to fight them but we had no choice. For some reason they thought that my friend the giant was some kind of god. They—

He stopped. Something was wrong. He saw it in his mind, clear as day. A port city filled with large ships, thousands of barbarians waiting while they got fat with cheese and wine. And up North, the king, barely more than a skeleton, but with hosts of soldiers patroling everywhere, like ants covering everything he could see, all the ground—

The nurse finally succeeded in waking him up. He embraced her, sweating. She whispered softly while she caressed the raven’s hair,

Shh… It’s ok, it’s just a nightmare.

So you won’t talk to me but you let this whore touch you!?

The girl from the raven’s band had come inside the tent and witnessed the whole scene. She dropped a bunch of wildflowers on the ground. A bandage covered her right cheek and tears rained from her eyes.

You think I’m ugly, don’t you?

The raven replied with indifference, without looking at her,

Meh. I can’t give you what you want, little girl.

Right, but it’s not the same with her, isn’t it?

The raven said nothing. The girl insisted,

Isn’t it!?

She ran away crying. The nurse said,

You know… While you were in bed she was by your side the whole time.

She’s just young and confused, that’s all. I freed her from a horrible place, and now… I don’t know.

The nurse stood up and said,

You were right, by the way.

About what?

Everybody is looking for something. You probably suspect already what our leader wants from you, what we all want from you. You must help us take back the North.