Shadows of the Lithium

It's been two-hundred years since that day in the woods. I managed to survive, hiding in the forests and mountains, trying not to be found. For a while I did try to blend in among the humans; I died my hair black with soot and posed as a blind beggar with a cloth tied around my eyes. My other senses are acute enough that I never had to actually worry about where I was going or who was around me, and it felt good to be among people again. At least for as long as it lasted. Eventually they always discovered my secret and I would be forced to flee for my life. Eventually, about fifteen years ago, I found a group of Lithilium being led by a man named Bloquan.

As far as I can tell I'm about as old as Bloquan is, but I've lived much longer on my own. My seniority means that Bloquan makes sure that I'm never around to challenge his authority. I don't mind really, I prefer the open country to being cooped up inside of a cave all of the time. Bloquan insists that only by bringing all of the humans under our rule can we be truly happy. I don't really see how punishing them does us any good now, but most of the other Lithilium seem to agree with him. I don't believe it, but I don't care enough to openly rebel against him, so I just let the occasional human I'm sent to capture escape.

In fact I'm supposed to be hunting down a human right now. She's one of the last who openly opposes Bloquan's rule. With our superior strength, and our increased rate of healing it didn't take long for us to defeat all of the major kingdoms, so now we're just bringing a few isolated rebels around to our way of thinking. Or, failing that, we kill them.

I sigh and sniff the air, searching for the scent I had been following before I lost myself in memories of the past. Things like this have been happening to me more and more lately, I'm not sure why. It certainly doesn't help me to bring in my quarries.

"There I go again." I shake my head and sniff the air once more. The scent leads west, but it's getting faint. I have to hurry or I'm going to lose her.

I begin sprinting along her trail, my enhanced strength and balance allowing me to easily maintain a pace much faster than any human I have ever seen. I run on auto-pilot as my thoughts drift into the past again. It had taken some time to become accustomed to my new strength. Before I learned to restrain myself I broke several doors, and more than a few cups as I gripped them harder than I realized.

I stumble and nearly fall. Cursing, I regain my balance and refocus on the ground ahead. I run for over an hour. I would keep running, but a new scent distracts me. It's a strong, foul smelling scent, I can't decide what it could be coming from. This new scent is almost on top of the old one, but I can tell that it's just slightly off from the original path. I decide that I'd better follow the the new scent back to where it came from and see if I can find out anything about this newcomer. I begin running back along the path I've been on, this time more warily than before. I'm not following the trail for very long before it cuts off into the woods a little ways and leads into a stink bog.

The interesting thing about stink bogs is that they don't stink at all. But if you dip something into one it will come out covered in a thick sludge that stinks so bad that nothing wants to get near you, and it's very difficult to remove. Now that I'm paying careful attention I can tell where she left the main road, and I can detect the faint traces of her scent not masked by the sludge of the bog.

"So she saw the stink bog and thought it would cover her scent well enough to avoid any pursuers." It would have too, if it had been just about anyone else tracking her, but I'm one of the best. I chuckle softly as I scent the air to confirm that I'm right. The best part is that her detour has slowed her down considerably, but it hardly cost me any time and now her scent is much clearer thanks to the stink bog sludge covering her.

I run on, adrenaline surging in my blood as I feel the thrill that always fills me at the end of a chase. I almost walk into the trap because my senses are clouded by the adrenaline. I hear heavy breathing just in time to throw myself behind some bushes and roll to a stop before I would have entered a small canyon where at least one person is lying in wait to ambush me.

I stand up, taking several deep breaths to steady myself and clear my mind. I scent the air. I can only smell one person, and it appears to be my quarry, but I'm not going to take a chance. I move silently through the trees and up along the edge of the canyon.

I can see her now; sitting on a ledge where she would be invisible to anyone coming into the canyon from this end. Unfortunately for her she is very visible from above. I move carefully, being sure not to dislodge any stones as I move to a place right above her. I carefully judge the distance and then leap.

It's about a ten foot drop to the ledge she's standing on, but I hardly feel the impact as my feet hit the ground and I tuck and roll coming to my feet right behind her as she begins to turn. I grab her wrists and sweep her feet out from under her. She hits the ground hard, but still tries to kick me. I easily sidestep her foot and use her own momentum to pin her feet under my knee.

She continues to try and struggle free of my grip, but even though she is probably quite strong by human standards her strength is nothing compared to mine. I easily hold onto both of her wrists with one hand while I pull a set of sturdy chains out of a pouch sewn into my belt.

I quickly clamp her hands first and then move to her feet. As soon as the cuffs are around her wrists she stops struggling, but as I attempt to cuff her feet she whips them hard toward my head. I deflect one with my forearm, and easily catch the other.

"Nice try," I tell her as I clamp her feet securely into the cuffs.

She shrugs, apparently accepting her fate, but I'm not fooled; I've brought in too many human rebels to expect one of their most respected leaders to give up this easily.

"Any idea where I could get a horse nearby?"

She just looks at me.

"Yeah, that's what I thought you would say." I can carry her easily enough, I just don't really want her any closer to my head than necessary.

There's no other option though so I sigh and throw her over my shoulders. She doesn't make a sound, even as I walk to the edge of the ledge and step off.

"This one has a very strong will."

I stand in the middle of the canyon scenting the air. Unfortunately it's difficult to smell anything through the stench of my prisoner.

I know that there's a good sized river not to far from here, and since moving water is the only way to get rid of stink sludge I begin running in that direction. I have to get her clean before I start heading back to Lithilium country, other wise someone might sneak up on me and set her free. It doesn't take long to reach the river, and as soon as we do I dump her unceremoniously into it.

She comes up spluttering and I give her a second to take in some air before I push her back under. I dunk her five or six times and then have to lie under the stream myself for a time before I can't detect any trace of stink sludge on either of us.

I haul her out of the river and drop her in a patch of sunlight along the bank, secure the end of her bonds to my belt, and then sit down a short distance in front of her. For some reason Bloquan wants her alive, so I have to make sure she doesn't get sick.

I look at her, lying on the river bank with her eyes closed, her soaking clothes hugging her form, and her hair hanging in tangles around her face.

"She is pretty, for a human."

She opens her eyes and sees that I am watching her.

"Why do you hunt me?"

It's the first time I've heard her speak. Her voice is soft and melodious. For a brief moment I wonder if she's trying some kind of charm on me, but I don't worry about it for long because the Lithilium are immune to every kind of charm.

"Why do you ask?"

She sits up and shrugs her shoulders.

"I ask because I wish to know."

I look at her carefully, trying to decide how sincere she's being. I decide on the truth. "I hunted you because our leader told me to."

"And why does this leader of yours want me so badly?"

"I don't know, and even if I did I wouldn't tell a human."

I don't mean it as an insult, but she obviously takes it as one. "What makes Lithilium better than humans?"

I'm surprised by the venom in her voice.

"I didn't mean offense by calling you human, that is simply what you are, is it not?"

"Yes I'm a human," she says proudly, "but many of your kind use that word as an insult. They feel that the humans are somehow inferior to them."

What she says is true. Partly because of Bloquan's campaign to bring the humans under our rule, and partly because of the way humans have always treated the Lithilium, many of us do have an unreasonable bias against the humans. "I'm not going to argue with you about this, so just know that I am not one of those that thinks that simply because you are human you are not worth noticing."

She seems satisfied by my answer and we continue sitting in silence for some time.

"What is your name?"

The question came out of nowhere and it takes me a second to react. "My name?"

"Yes. What should I call you?"

I don't use my name often, and I'm not sure I want to tell it to this human. "Zaltath. You can call me Zaltath."

"Zaltath."

My name sounds weird to me coming out of her mouth.

"My name's Tealith," She says after a moments silence.

"I know," I say curtly.

I want to avoid any more questions about me so I decide that she’s probably dry enough to start traveling. I stand up, walk over to her, and throw her unceremoniously over my shoulders. I can hear the sound of animals like cows, and chickens, coming from the east. I run in that direction, hoping that they might have a horse I can "borrow", and it isn’t long before I can see the farm ahead through the trees.

I slow to a walk, and begin circling the farm looking for any sign that they own a horse. There’s plenty of chickens, a pig and a cow, but if they own a horse I can’t see any sign of it. Reluctant to make my presence in the area known I decide I will have to do without the horse, at least for now. Turning away from the farm I begin running again, this time heading for home.

-----------------------

“What is it like being a Lithilium?”

We’ve been on the road now for three hours, and I’m growing tired of her questions.

“Indescribable.” I say hoping it will shut her up. It doesn’t.

“Remind me again what abilities you have?” When it becomes obvious that I’m not going to answer she continues, “The rumors say that you have incredible strength. Judging by how easily you’re carrying me I would say that that rumor is confirmed. Let’s see, what else do they say?”

I’m becoming interested in what she’s saying despite myself.

“Well, they say that you can see things that normal people can’t. They also say that you can smell better than most hounds, and can hear as well as a bat.”

Distracted by what she’s saying I don’t notice that she’s working on picking the lock on her chains until it’s almost too late.

“I don’t think so!” I twist my body so that she slides and the pick is knocked out of her hands, and then reposition her squarely on my shoulders. I can hear her muttering curses to my back as I continue running on. I have to hand it to this lady, she's probably the smartest person that Bloquan has ever sent me to capture.

Almost in-spite of myself I begin wondering what drives her desire to continue holding out against the Lithilium. I try to shake of the thoughts, knowing that this particular prisoner was going to take all of my considerable talents to keep subdued and successfully bring to Bloquan.

I continue to run for hours. This is probably the hardest that I've ever pushed myself, but this is not a prisoner that I have any desire to take chances with. In the two-hundred years since I first became Lithilium I have never found my limits of strength and endurance, but as I run hour after hour without stopping I begin to wonder when both will Finally fail me.

As mile after mile passes under my feet I fall into something of a trance, everything in the world falling away so that it's just me and the movements of my body. I feel my body relax as the cool air of the night rushes over me. I always feel more alive at night. In the years before I joined up with the rest of the Lithilium I had pretty much become a creature of the night. It was the safest time for me to be out and about, my enhanced senses making it easy for me to get around while the humans had very little ability to see.

That had been a hard time for me. Always on the run, never having a chance to relax. When I started hearing rumors of the Lithilium gathering together in one place and uniting against the humans I had a glimmer of hope. Not that I was interested in punishing the humans, it wasn't their fault that I'm the way I am, but because I had hope that for the first time since my transformation I might have a chance to relax.

Once I found the Lithilium however I discovered that I didn't like staying still anymore. I'd spent so much time moving that now that I had a chance to settle down I didn't know what to do with myself. That was why I had gone to Bloquan asking him to give me an assignment of some kind. Personal bounty hunter wasn't exactly the job I'd had in mind, but the more I've done it the more I've come to love the thrill of the chase and the excitement of knowing that the quarry doesn't have a chance.

Distracted by my memories, I don't notice that I'm running into a trap until it's far to late. It was a well laid trap too. I'd been running through a forest for several minutes now, following the only trail for miles around. As I come into a clearing I feel the ground start moving under my feet at the same time that a net comes out of nowhere and pulls Tealith off of my back.

Before I even have a chance to think about what is happening I'm stuck ten feet in the air inside of a net of thick rope and there are about twenty humans standing under me all of them holding spears and looking at me, the fear obvious in their eyes. I quickly scan the area, trying to see what has happened to Tealith. Bloquan will quite possibly kill me if I lose this prisoner to a band of human thugs.

I finally spot her standing just behind the ring of scared men. Another man is attempting to pick the lock on her cuffs. "Great! So these are part of the Resistance. That would be just my luck." Once the cuffs are off Tealith steps forward rubbing her wrists and looking far to smug.

"I guess you're not so smart after all." Her tone makes it plain that she never really believed I would be smart enough to avoid this clever trap that she had obviously laid for me.

I shrug, trying to act as bored as possible with the whole proceedings, while my mind races from possible action to possible action. I could probably get out of this net easily enough, possibly even do so without getting stabbed by one of those stupid spears, but the hard part would be getting Tealith and getting away before one of these idiots managed to stab me.

"We all make mistakes sometimes. Thank you for a lesson I will probably not forget anytime soon." I'm mostly just buying time while I finish thinking, but I figure the longer I can keep them guessing about my intentions and abilities the better.

Tealith's forehead creases ever so slightly and I can tell she's confused by my blasé attitude. "You do realize that there's no way you can get away from us don't you? Face it monster, you've lost."

"There's that venom again. I really would love to know what her deal is with the Lithilium." "Maybe I just want you to think that you have me trapped. How confident are you that I can't get out of this net?"

"Oh I know you can get out of the net, but I also know you won't because you want me too badly. You'll stay where you are, at least until you think you've figured out a way to take me with you when you leave. Why don't we just quit the posturing and you can come with us?"

I'm shocked by her answer. "How does this woman know so much?"

Now I really have to make a decision. As usual my curiosity gets the better of me. "Alright. I'll go with you peacefully."

She smiles and laughs darkly. "You'll understand if I don't believe you."

I attempt to shrug again, not an easy task when you're suspended in a net high above the ground. "It doesn't matter if I understand or not, you won't trust me either way."

"True enough."

At a signal from her two of the men break formation and begin lowering me slowly to the ground. The rest of the men keep their spears pointed squarely at me as I descend. I roll my eyes, not that any of these humans could have seen it in this dim light. I'm a man, or whatever I am anymore, of my word. When I say that I'll go peacefully I mean it. Not that I can blame Tealith, I would probably act the same way if I were in her position.

As my net hits the ground, rather hard in my opinion, I deliberately hold as still as possible trying to prove I have no intention of pulling a fast one on them. I'll go where ever it is they want to take me, but once we're there all bets are off. Two of Tealith's men, possibly the same two who lowered the net, approach me trembling. I can smell there fear, and would have loved nothing more than to make a sudden move just to scare them stupid but decide that would probably an unwise decision.

The men carefully bundle the net together. I have to laugh a little at how scared they are as they try as hard as they can to go through the he entire process without touching me even the slightest amount. They finally get the net secured around me, another useless precaution in my opinion, and run a sturdy wooden poll through looped rings on either end of the net.

"Search him," Tealith orders two other soldiers, who quickly move to do as she says.

They take off my belt, which carries practically everything I own, and take it to Tealith who inspects it curiously.

"This is an interesting piece. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it."

"I made it, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't do anything to damage it," I growl. I can put up with a lot of things, but I don't like it when people mess with my stuff.

Tealith laughs and then ties the belt around her own waist. "Your generosity is appreciated."

I would have loved to tear my way out of this flimsy net and take the belt back right then, but all of the spears between me and Tealith meant I probably wouldn't be able to get to her without getting myself impaled, and right now my life was worth more to me than the contents of my belt. At another signal from Tealith four men pick up my net using the wooden poles, and we set off.

We move as quickly as the little company can push themselves. It feels like we're barely crawling, especially compared to the speed at which I had been traveling before we were so rudely interrupted. I'd forgotten how slow humans really were, especially when they travel in groups. As the sun begins to come over the horizon I begin to think that it's going to take us several days to reach wherever they're taking me.

I look around at the motley group around me. As far as I can see the only thing even remotely uniform about what these people are wearing is their armor. They all have the same metal cap, rounded so it will stay on their heads, but barely coming to the middle of their foreheads. They also have a chain-mail vest to cover the most important parts of their body, but that's the extent of their armor.

Suddenly the whole company comes to a halt and my net swings wildly back and forth. I try to look around and see where we're at, but before I can get a good look at anything a blanket is dropped over me and my net. "Smart. They don't want me to know the way to their headquarters. Maybe these people do have brains after all!"

I'm certain though that if it hadn't been for Tealith they wouldn't have thought far enough ahead to take a precaution like this. I really want to know what's going on in that woman's head. Every time I think I've learned everything there is to know about humans I meet one who throws it all out the window. I listen carefully, hoping to here something that might give me a clue to how to get inside of the hideout, if I bring back that information Bloquan might even forgive me for not having Tealith with me.

The blanket they threw over me blocks out most of the light, but I can still tell that we've moved out of the open air by the slightly more musty quality of the air as well as the way that sounds are subtly bouncing back at me. Based on the quality of the sound I'm hearing we're inside of a man made building, not a cave like I was expecting.

We walk for a lot longer than I expect, making several turns until I've completely lost my sense of which direction we came from, which I suddenly realize, was probably the whole point. This woman is a lot smarter than I gave her credit for. It makes me wonder if the stink bog episode had been a deliberate move to make it easier for me to catch her.

My train of thought is suddenly disrupted as I'm dropped hard to the floor and the blanket is ripped off of me. I'm blinded by the sudden shift from darkness to the brilliance of the well lit room. I blink several times, trying to help my vision adjust as quickly as possible. One of the only draw backs to the Lithilium's enhanced sight is that it leaves us vulnerable to sudden flashes of bright light.

I can hear people talking and roll onto my side so that I'm facing them. One of the voices I'm pretty sure is Tealith's, but the other is a voice that I don't recognize.

"He's not exactly what I was expecting."

It's a man's voice. I still can't see him, but based on the timbre of his voice I'm expecting him to be a fairly large man. Tealith laughs, but it sounds forced in my ears.

"He's one of them, what else would you be expecting?"

My vision has come back enough that I can see as the shoulders of one of the silhouettes in front of me rise and fall in a shrug.

"I don't know, but it certainly wasn't this."

The silhouette of Tealith shakes her head. "They're all the same to me." The bitterness in her voice is unmistakable, and again I wonder what the Lithilium did to her.

I blink a few more times and the whole room finally comes into full focus. It's a large rectangular room with no windows anywhere. It's hard to tell if the walls are the result of carving in a naturally formed cave, or if this is a room inside of a man made building. There are torches spaced evenly around the room, as well as a pair of roughly crafted chandeliers hanging from the ceiling to provide all the light that had been so effectively blinding me.

Now that my eyes have adjusted the room doesn't actually feel that bright, but after the extended absence of any light my eyes had not been prepared for the amount of light they had faced. The man speaking with Tealith was large, though not actually as tall as I had thought he would be. He had the broad shoulders and beefy arms of a man accustomed to lots of hard work.

He sees me looking at him and shakes his head again. "I'll never understand these creatures." He turns back to Tealith before asking, "What are you going to do with him now that you have him?"

Tealith shrugs. "I don't know yet. I'm still deciding whether I want to just kill him outright, or if I'll try to get some information from him first."

At this point I decided that this conversation was going down hill way to fast for me. "Hang on a second! I thought the point of bringing me here was to take me prisoner. If you're just going to kill me why did you go through all of the trouble of lugging me here first?"

It was a good question in my opinion, but apparently the man thought differently. He takes one step forward and then kicks me savagely in the side with his armored boot. In fact, close up it looked as though all this man wears is armor. "Don't you ever talk like that to Lady Tealith!"

I roll a little inside of the captivity of my net. Even with my extreme strength and pain tolerance that kick had hurt. I shudder to think what a kick like that would have done to a human. I try to continue breathing normally, hoping not to reveal how much that had hurt me. Not that the pain would last. I knew from experience that a hit like that wouldn't even leave a bruise on me, Lithilium's bodies heal to fast for that.

Tealith looks on silently, her expression cold, and I decide that maybe it's in my best interest to remain silent after all. One of the talents that has kept me alive for so long is an ability to accurately read a situation, and then form an effective plan of action. I'd learned from many unfortunate experiences that while I could generally talk my way out of most situations, sometimes the only smart thing to do is close you're mouth and keep your eyes and ears open instead.

The man returns to his place next to Tealith and sneers down at me. "I say we just kill him now and get it over with."

Tealith continues to stare at me in silence, her face thoughtful now. "No," she says at last, the words coming slowly as she's thinks through what she's saying. "We've been looking for opportunities to learn more about the Lithilium, and this prisoner might be the best chance we'll get."

The man grimaces. "I don't know, it seems like more trouble than it's worth to me."

"And that's why I'm the leader here not you Grodun," Tealith replies with a weary half smile.

I notice the lines around the man, Grodun's, mouth deepen as she speaks. "So there's some jealousy there. I might be able to use that."

I don't get any more time to think about it though because at a signal from Tealith Grodun gathers together the ends of my net and begins unceremoniously dragging me from the room. I tuck my chin to my chest, doing what I can to keep my head from bouncing along the floor. We get out into the hall and I can see the guards on either side of the door we've just come through.

I'm hoping that Grodun will enlist some of their help carrying me wherever they're going to try to keep me locked up, but no such luck. Two of the four guards do break off at his signal and follow along behind us watching me carefully, but they show no indication that they plan to help transport me in a more dignified manner. Things only get worse from there.

As we walk along passage after passage anytime another human meets us along our way they try to give me a savage kick. The first time it caught me off guard and their foot had connected solidly with my ribs. After that I was able to slightly move away from the blows at the last second. They still hit me, but at least this way they didn't hit me as hard. The last thing I needed right now was to have some stupid human break one of my ribs with a lucky blow and then have to recover from that before I can think about escaping.

It took far longer than I would have liked to reach the cell they'd prepared for me. Apparently at least part of this hideout was in fact underground, because my cell was three walls of solid rock and the last wall was made of thick metal bars anchored into the rock in the ceiling and floor. Grodun pulled the key to the door out of a pocket and proceeded to open it.

Before I knew what was happening I had been seized from behind and hurled as hard as the two guards could throw me into the cell. I throw my hands above my head, narrowly managing to avoid smashing it on the stone wall. I roll over quickly, just in time to see the door close and lock behind me.

"Sleep well, monster." Grodun's sneer and mocking tone of voice left me with no doubt that he'd be happier if I froze to death than if I actually got a good nights sleep. The two guards laughed and positioned themselves on the wall opposite the door of my prison as Grodun turned and walked back the way we had come.

"Well this has been an interesting day. I wonder what tomorrow will bring."