Fantasy Flash Fiction: Those Who Are Dead But Cannot Die (Rise)
He reached the gates and raced past the two guards standing nearby. He ignored their pleas as he wove his way through the milling crowd that seemed to grow with every panicked step he took. He tripped a young woman no older than he was and nearly collided with an old man who had seen his better days many years ago. He offered profound apologies as he pressed through the crowds.
He stopped for a moment and jumped, craning his head high enough to spot a large building partially carved into the side of a mountain. He smiled as he sidestepped a middle-aged woman carrying a small handful of frozen fruits in her arms, taking one while she wasn’t looking and stuffing it in his shirt pocket. He made his way toward the building. The din of people talking couldn’t wash out the pounding of his heart in his ears.
He made it through most of the crowd, coming to a stop in the small courtyard in front of the building. He leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees, trying to steady his breath as he looked at the massive building. Sweat dripped from his brow and hit the ground in front of him. He swore he heard the droplets clatter to the frozen tundra, but refused to investigate as he started to run toward the large wooden doors. His eyes were locked on the coiled dragons facing each other with wings spread carved in each door. He kept repeating over in his mind that he had to see the lord.
He was stopped from behind by two meaty hands grabbing onto his shoulders. His feet fell out from under him, and he let out a strangled yelp as his backside hit the solid ground.
He turned with a sour look on his face as he rubbed his jarred body. A stout man stood before him with his giant arms folded across his chest. The long blond hair was tied behind his head in a loose ponytail, and the bleached handlebar mustache matched his bone white leather uniform. The giant man offered a hand to the boy as he laughed. “You should watch where you are going, Hrandikar. You know weaving in and out of a crowd like that is unsafe for you and for them.”
Hrandikar refused the hand as he pushed himself to his feet. He groaned and rubbed his backside as he continued to glare at the large man. “You didn’t have to break my body to make me stop, you know.”
“You looked as if you were in a hurry; I didn’t want to convince you to stop. Why are you running, Hraddy? You don’t run this fast when you are caught stealing something, so it must be important.”
Hrandikar sneered as his cheeks reddened. He shook his head and folded his arms in front of him. “I didn’t steal anything this time, Wulfred; honest.”
Wulfred raised an eyebrow as he tapped his foot with impatience as he pointed to the small lump under the boy’s shirt. “So why are you running?”
Hrandikar twisted his body to hide the fruit as he continued to sneer at the massive man. “Those that die but are not dead are here.”
“You are speaking in riddles, another cover story to make me forget you are a thief?”
“I swore to you; I never took anything today. I was watching Faldakar and his sister playing in the snow out by the Silver Gulley. They said they found something out there they wanted to show me. I walked down to the Gulley and found what they were looking at. It was a dead man. He was frozen solid. His blood iced over next to him and his skin was a dark blue as if he had been out there a long time. I was telling them to come back home when the body groaned and moved on its own.”
Wulfred’s face tightened in disbelief as he made a swift motion with his hand. “Wait for a moment, you are telling me the body moved on its own? You said the man was dead.”
Hrandikar kicked at the icy ground in frustration. He lowered his head and kept his eyes away from the dark nut eyes that glared back at him. “He was, but he isn’t dead now. Faldakar and his sister ran opposite directions. I panicked and came here.”
“You left the kids out there in the wilderness alone?”
The boy looked up with tears streaming down his cheeks. He wiped them away with the back of his arm as he pointed at the southern gates he came from. “I did what everyone told me to do. When I see something that isn’t right, I come back to Grundistad and tell someone who can do something about it. I didn’t want to leave Faldakar behind, but I’m not responsible for them all the time.”
Wulfred looked up and nodded to three guards standing in front of the large wooden dragon doors. They walked down the stone steps and approached them, weapons in hand. Wulfred motioned to the closest guard. “Please take Hrandikar in the hall and make sure he has something warm to eat. I don’t want him seeing our lord until we have a chance to see what is happening for ourselves.”
The guard nodded and took a step toward the boy. Hrandikar took a step back and brought his fists to his face as he yelled loud enough for everyone to hear him. “I am not leaving them behind. You don’t know where we found the body; you don’t know the Gulley as well as we did. You have to let me take you there; you have to let me see Fal – the man one more time.”
Wulfred looked at the guards for some sort of assistance. They offered shrugs and waited for his orders. The guard captain sighed and nodded at the boy. “Fine, you can come along. You are going to stay with us. That means no getting yourself in trouble. If I find out you are lying to me, I swear I will take it out on your hide no matter what our lord thinks of you. You might be eleven, but that doesn’t make you a man yet. Understood?”
Hrandikar nodded and ran past the guards toward the southern gates. He stopped, turned, and yelled at the men still standing their ground. “We have to hurry before something happens to Faldakar. I don’t like not knowing where he is!”
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