#I imagine Heket have some muscle there

[asavt]

I keep drawing these guys and I ended up doing this a few...days?? A week ago?? Time is weird.

I might actually change the way I draw some of them slightly, but their heights stay the same Except for the Lamb and Narinder, I actually might make them the same height (Probably Nari's, I think it'd be fun).

[the-umiran-amulet]

“Oh my stars I love your parents,” Benny gushed once they left Studsboro. Alastar laughed. “I mean it! They’re so sweet!”

Ma had refused to let them leave until she had made sure they had more than enough food for the trip. Pa had walked with them to the edge of town, giving his sons an update on all that was going on in the area. “Mind yourselves once you get up ‘round the inlet. We heard rumors about a year ago that a tribe of hekets moved into the swamps north of Ashton. From the sounds of things, they’re not very friendly.” Alastar thanked their father, gave him one last hug, and stepped beyond the town walls.

“So what’s a heket?” Benny asked after a few minutes. “I’ve never heard of them before.”

Alastar hummed thoughtfully as he tried to figure out how to explain them. “Imagine a frog that can stand and walk on its hind legs, and comes up about to your chin,” he said.

Benny tilted his head as he tried to picture that. “They sound kind of weird,” he decided after a minute, earning a chuckle from his companion. “Are they usually hostile?”

“Not usually, no. It depends on the tribe. We used to have one living near here that we were on pretty friendly terms with, but they left a while ago. They must have known this other tribe was moving into the area, and decided it was better to pack up and leave before their hand was forced. They didn’t much like confrontation.”

“That’s kind of sad,” Benny murmured. “So how do they usually fight?” He shrugged when Alastar gave him a strange look. “If it turns out we can’t avoid them, it would be better to know what to expect so we can defend ourselves, right?”

“I suppose,” Alastar sighed. “Their favored weapons are spears and harpoons, and they sometimes use bows too. Magic on occasion, though not many of them have the gift for it. One of their favorite tactics is to jump up into the air—I’ve seen some clear twenty feet—and then crash back down on their victims. And they’re solid muscle. It would be a miracle if your spine didn’t snap from that kind of sudden pressure.”

Benny grimaced and shuddered at the mental image that description brought up. “That sounds entirely unpleasant.”

“Very much,” Alastar agreed. “You have to admit though, it’s a very effective tactic.”

“As long as their target doesn’t know to expect it and have a sword waiting for them,” Benny quipped. Alastar snorted back a laugh.

“No, I suppose it wouldn’t be a very wise decision then.”                                          

They made camp for the night. Benny spent an hour giving the twins another magic lesson before they went to sleep, and they reached Tiletown by noon the next day. Cary and Benny wasted no time in asking around about Vitruvius. It was much the same as they had heard in Studsboro—that he had passed through, was planning on continuing on to Ashton, and no one had heard from him since.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he was waylaid by those hekets,” a town guard said upon being questioned. “We’ve had people go missing. Ashton and Conehurst too, even as far as Milltown. We thought maybe they were killing people to get a point across, that this is their territory now, but we never find any bodies. A few guards from here and the other towns have tried to look into it, but none of them ever came back. Same with the two or three knights that came out here from the capital, and then Vitruvius. If I were you, I’d give it up as a lost cause.”

They rented a room at the inn for the night, and after supper, retreated to their room to discuss their plans going forward. “Maybe that guard was right,” Benny sighed. “If no one else has come back, not even Vitruvius, the odds are pretty stacked against us, too.”

“Let’s get to Ashton first before we make that call,” Cary suggested. “Someone there might know more about the situation. Maybe he did return, and just never left. Either way, I wouldn’t write him off just yet. If a volcano couldn’t kill him, I doubt a tribe of heket would manage it either.”

“A volcano??” Benny laughed in disbelief. “I’ve never heard that story before. What happened?”

Cary smirked. “Well, as the story goes, he went to the island past Old West in search of some rare and powerful crystals that only grow in the volcano there, trying to get to them before some rival of his could find them and misuse them. His rival arrived to find him already there, and was so mad that Vitruvius beat him to them that he knocked him off the ledge he was harvesting the crystals from. Unfortunately the crystals were lost, and caused the volcano to blow when they fell into the lava. This other wizard returns to Middle Zealand, spinning some yarn about how it’s ‘such a tragic loss’ that the crystals and Vitruvius are gone. Two weeks later Vitruvius shows up in town, not a single hair on his head singed. His rival never lived it down.”

Benny fell back on his bed, gasping for air as he cackled. “Oh my stars, I wish I could have been there to see that!”

Cary chuckled. “I can only imagine how entertaining it must have been to witness.”

“I wonder how he survived falling into the volcano like that…”

“You’ll have to ask him when we find him.”

Benny was still giggling about it as he fell asleep. He’d never had the pleasure of meeting Vitruvius, but now he couldn’t wait to do so. The wizard sounded like such a character.

They didn’t stick around in Tiletown very long after waking, taking just enough time to eat breakfast before hitting the road again. Ashton wasn’t much further away, not quite half a day’s walk to reach.

Their investigation proved a little more fruitful once they arrived in Ashton. As Cary had suspected, the townspeople there had a few more answers. Vitruvius had indeed left to try to handle the heket matter, and had never come back.

“I don’t advise going after him,” they were told. “There have been enough people lost to those creatures over the past year. Don’t add to their numbers.”

Cary, of course, wasn’t to be deterred. Especially not after someone had let slip that the heket village was in the middle of the lake between Ashton and Conehurst. Benny followed as Cary left town once more. “You’re actually going through with it then?” he pressed.

“You don’t think we can take them?”

Benny took a moment to think it over. He’d never so much as seen a heket before, but the twins clearly had some experience with them. Enough that Cary was pretty confident that they would get back out of there alive, and with Vitruvius. “All right,” he finally agreed. “Sounds like fun! What’s the plan?”

“How good are your illusions? Think you could hide a boat in the middle of a lake?”

Benny hummed as he thought. “Us and the boat? No problem. Hiding the ripples will take a bit more doing, but I think I can manage. Where do you plan on getting a boat, though? I mean I’m pretty sure you don’t have one hiding in your pack.”

Cary chuckled. “We’ll ‘borrow’ one of their canoes. I’m not very familiar with this area, but they’re bound to have a hunting party out. You hide us so we can approach without being seen, and I’ll use my bow to take out any sentries.”

“I don’t know how big this lake is, but I can only hold an illusion like that for a few minutes. They’ll see us eventually. What then?”

“You’re a battlemage. You must know some sort of offensive spell that can cover a large area. Although preferably one that won’t use up too much energy.”

Benny conceded the point with a shrug. He knew several, in fact. “And you?”

“I’ve got my sword, and the handful of spells you’ve taught us so far. With at least some of the hunters gone, there won’t be as much of a fight. And once we find Vitruvius, he should be able to help too.”

Benny nodded. “We better not waste any more time then.”

“Follow me, and don’t speak. Try to move like I do. There’s no telling where that hunting party could be, and I’d rather not alert them to our presence.” Benny nodded his understanding and made a motion as if he was locking his lips, giving Cary a smile. He watched in amazement as Cary stalked ahead, quiet as a cat on the prowl, and winced as his own footfalls crunched dead leaves and twigs with every step. Cary glanced back at him. “Watch where I step,” he spoke quietly. Benny paid close attention as Cary nearly tiptoed across the forest floor, somehow finding places to put his feet that held little debris to make noise with. He began to follow again, this time with more success. He couldn’t hold back his ecstatic grin. He’d get the hang of it yet!

Finally they reached the edge of the lake. The ground was muddy, slowing their progress as Cary looked for places to put their feet that wouldn’t leave deep footprints behind. Benny was doubly glad that he’d gotten a pair of boots for this journey—the mud would have pulled any shoes right off of his feet. They painstakingly made their way around, and after an hour, they finally spotted a pair of canoes. Benny held back a sigh of relief. Cary gestured for him to climb in first, then pushed the canoe off the shore and into the water, hopping in after him. Benny wasted no time in casting an illusion to hide them as Cary grabbed the oars and began to row toward the island they could just see through the mangroves.

Cary handed him the oars as they began to draw near, taking his bow from his back and drawing a few arrows. Benny hardly dared to breathe as one sentry standing atop the mud wall toppled over, then another. He slowly steered them around the island, looking for a good place to ground the canoe as Cary continued to shoot down lookouts. By now the village was alert, knowing that something was shooting down their sentries, though no matter how much they looked, they could see nothing.

Cary hopped out once the canoe hit dirt, pulling it aground and helping Benny out. “They’ll see the boat as soon as we get just a few steps away from it,” the mage whispered. “Are you ready?”

“I was born ready. Let’s move.”