Mabinogi Generation 1 - Chapter 12: Turning Point

“’This fight is not strictly about revenge, but for our quest to bring light and order back to this world. Once the order is back in store, we will all prosper and live healthy lives.
To those serious about eliminating the humans from this world, read the next volume.’” I breathed heavily as I quietly shut the book with the others standing and sitting beside me, frustrated.
“Again with this ‘Morrighan is with us’ bull…” Klarrann clicked his tongue in disgust. “It makes me sick, to think she would call us here just to try and kill us.”
“And there’s another book after this based on how it ends…” Kaya spoke in a dead tone, making vocal how we all felt about the task of finding, translating, then having to read it, only to find there’s more.
I turned towards the town again, thinking we’ll have to ask Aeira, the bookstore owner again. Though my eyes lead me to a black and pink dot getting closer and closer… Kristell?
“Taiga!” she called out. I immediately stood up and ran to her. For a priestess or priest to leave their place of worship, I remember one time Endelyon running away from the church hearing Deian had been bitten by a fox on the leg. Something serious must be going on.
“Kristell, what is it?”
“I have a lead… I know where you might be able to find the last book!” she said, leaving us in a brief moment of shock. Sokk stood up and approached her.
“We’ll go to wherever it is, I wanna punch this Mores so hard across the face…” he said, sounding the most irate I have ever heard him. Kristell looked at him, then at me, with worry.
“In Bangor, there’s a man named Seumas. He’s an excavator and I heard rumour he found the book while digging at his site in Gairech. I sent a letter ahead, I think it would be best if you wait a day or so though…”
I turned to Klarrann, our leader, as he scratched his chin pondering what our next move would be. He looked into the fire, looking for an answer. He sighed and closed his eyes.
“No… we need to leave as soon as possible,” he responded to Kristell’s plea for us to wait. “He involved the Goddess, claimed she was with the Fomors, that just doesn’t sit with me.” He stood up and turned his head so he would be facing each one of us at a point of him speaking.
“We leave tomorrow at sunbreak. Bangor is on the other side of Gairech, to reach there and back before sundown, we need to be fast and we need to be careful…” he stopped while looking at Kristell, who appeared surprised, then resolved.
“I’ll be out here again tomorrow before you all leave. I want to help you the only way I know how.” She said, then hurried off the same way she approached us. Leaving behind a mixture of excitement and worry inside me.
Not a single word left any of us for the remaining time before the fire was extinguished and we went to sleep, preparing ourselves mentally and physically for the journey.

---

The morning was equally quiet, not a word spoken, even the air seemed silent. No breeze to rustle the trees we had been sleeping under over the past week or so. Not sure if it was to conserve energy or some other reason, though I felt some electricity between us.
Last time we travelled anywhere, it was from Tir Chonaill to where we are now. Last time, we were attacked along the way and had to rush Kaya to Manus’ healing house. Last time, we dropped our guard and paid the price. Was that on everyone else’s mind, maybe?
“Woah…” Piko uttered.
“’Woah’ what?” I turned around, and from the walls came a pink splotch dragging along something… Kristell?
“Good morning, Butterflies!!” Yeah, that’s Kristell, and a handcart?
“Well, what’s all this?” Klarrann approached her, as pleasantly surprised as I was. Well, I guess we all were really. Kristell wiped the sweat off her face then smiled back at us.
“What people don’t seem to realize about the church is, while we promote peace, we would rather people do tread carefully. Many people come to the church and, feeling an extreme need for inner tranquillity, would leave their weapons behind.”
The cart gleamed at us with the bright refraction of untouched or well-maintained swords and axes. Arrows poked out, giving it a porcupine-ish look. There were maces, hammers, sickles, and small daggers. All of these in guaranteed(?) combat condition with Ferghus a day’s travel away; truly a sight to behold.
“Woah…” we all seemed to let out at once, awestruck by the quantity of weapons displayed before us. At least, I was, the others seemed to wear a more worried expression.
“This is… very impressive but,” Sokk began, and reached slowly for his gold pouch, “how much are you charging us?” Kristell smiled once more, though I could tell this wasn’t a smile because of the question she was asked.
“Just take your pick; I’m donating these to you guys.”
Not sure if it was my imagination, but a thud came as a response to Kristell’s words of donation. Jaws dropping to the ground maybe? I watched the others slowly gather around the cart, like children around a birthday cake, wondering when it’s okay to dig in, or even where to start.
“Take whatever you think you need, I’d imagine you guys would prefer to travel lightly,” Kristell suggested, then turned her back and walked towards a nearby tree. The signal shot was fired, and hands reached in…

---

“Ahh… no more having to skips meals to buy arrows~”
“I’m holding a sword that requires two hands to wield… how kingly…”
“I’m happy enough with this short sword already, nice and fast.”
“Come near me and I’ll just stab you… yes, this is good…”
The satisfied members of our band of butterflies spoke in their own individual worlds behind me as they held and cherished their cost-free equipment. Kids right out of the bakery… sheesh.
Dunbarton was becoming smaller and smaller at our rear as we ventured down the southern path around the Fiodh thicket that would take us to Bangor. Come to think of it, I’ve never heard anything of Gairech Hill, the path that would lead us to where we need to be. Is it seriously just one big hill and at the bottom is Bangor?
“Hey Klarr?”
“What is it, Kitty?” he answered me, by my nickname…
“So, what’s Gairech like, have you ever been there?” He sheathed his two-handed sword onto his back as I asked, then put his hand on his chin.
“It certainly has been a while since we last came here, right Bro?”
“Yeah whatever,” Sokk scoffed back, earning a disappointed glare from Klarrann.
“Well,” he cleared his throat and faced me again, “It’s kind of just a giant hill, and on the other side of it is an excavation site. Past that is Reighinhalt, but we don’t even have to go through that to get to Bangor.”
Reighinhalt? What the hell is that? Why have I never heard of this place before?
“Reighinhalt is just a wasteland; a lot of Fomors hang around there, so we’re going to avoid that…” Kaya answered, seeming to see my confused face, and putting her new dagger on her robe’s belt. “You guys have been there more recently than I have, how’s that statue coming along?”
“Awesome, you can see a good 30% of it now,” Sokk answered, now adding on more confusion to my list. Kaya looked at my confused face and groaned again.
“Do they teach you not history or geography in Tir Chonaill?” she irately questioned me, then took a sigh as I looked ahead to see we were at the foot of the hill this area is named for. “I’ll tell you another time… just remind me to punch Lassar or whoever isn’t teaching you this stuff if we ever return to… Tir…” Kaya paused as we reached the summit and gazed down at the path we would be taking. Well, she would be at least.
From just slighty past the crown, the ground was covered in a veil of wafting white. It was as if looking into a bowl filled only with the steam that would be emitting from stew, except it was everywhere. Like staring into an abyss, except that Palala was proudly burning above us, the fog created an atmosphere of mystery.
“That’s… not right…” Piko remarked as she uneasily gazed into the grounded clouds.
“No… and it’s not safe for us the travel as we are now,” Sokk added on, and then turned his attention to Kaya. “Good thing we have a strong torch bearer!” He grinned. To which Kaya scowled.
“Ugh, fine…” she stood with her staff parallel to the ground for a few moments before the air in front of her sparked into a flame. “Lazy jerks…”
“Wait, why do we need a flame?” I asked as we began to descend into the fog, to which Klarrann laughed.
“We told you there’s an excavation site, right? You don’t want to just fall right into it, do you?” He answered with a question, as if this were a puppet show.
“No, this road is a busy travelling route,” Sokk responded, “Bangor is a mining town, they come across a lot of metal and mineral desired by others from iron to gold and coal to marble. Last thing we want is to be road kill by some random merchant, right?” Fair point.
As we reached the bottom of the hill, our formation began to shift. Kaya stood in the lead with the fire burning bright, Klarrann and Sokk stood side by side to me, and Piko held the rear holding her bow and an arrow already prepared. The smiles and glow of this morning when we received free stuff had vanished and been replaced by tension. The fog had greatly reduced our visibility. Everyone was clinging to their weapons as if the harder they squeeze, a shielded bubble would just magically form around us, or we’d be able to see deeper into the abyss. If all they are worried about is a merchant accidently running into us, why such a high guard?
-fwip-
“Kyaa!!!” Piko shouted from behind as I felt the air briefly move to my right. Quickly we turned around to see she had fallen over on her butt, and a lone arrow stood in the ground in front of her.
“…Piko, why did you shoot an arrow at the ground?” Klarrann confusedly asked her, to which she pouted.
“Why would I shoot an arrow at the ground?!” she quickly jolted back onto her feet and yelled at him. Visibly distressed that she had nearly taken a shot, he laughed and put his hands on her shoulders.
“I’m just joking, things just felt a little too serious to really be us. Now then…”
-fwip-crack-
“It seems we’re under attack,” Sokk stood with his blade raised in the air as two pieces of what once was an arrow hit the ground.
-fwip-
An arrow flew way over our heads and fell far behind where Kaya was standing.
“By a lone archer?” Kaya questioned with her usual annoyed expression. Sokk shrugged as another arrow hit the ground far to our left.
“Whoever they are, their aim is worse than Piko’s.”
“Hey!!”
-fwip-
To all of our surprise, the large brimmed black hat Kaya has worn since our voyage began flew off her head and into the ground. With her height suddenly diminished by the lack of headgear, her temper began to grow.
“That one was way too close…” she muttered angrily as she turned in the direction the arrow came from. “Piko, shoot them…”
“Eh, but, I don’t know where they are…” Kaya’s glare intensified to one that radiated with unconditional hatred. “Scary…” Piko whimpered back as she drew back the string on her bow, shortly after, releasing it into the unknown. And there was silence.
We held our breaths, believing the arrow had landed its intended target as the spaced out arrows seem to have come to a halt. Unfortunately, we were right to assume so.
From the fog, we saw a large and wide figure begin to cut through, with several lesser figures at its side. As it got nearer, the ground beneath us quaked with each step, and the smaller figures at its side soon became apparent that they were not of flesh, but strictly of bone. The confident grins on Klarrann and Sokk’s faces along with the rage on Kaya’s were soon replaced with unpleasant surprise, while Piko ran to stand behind them. The larger of the approaching figures stood with an aggravated expression and an arrow in its left shoulder.
“Humans…” To be honest, I didn’t understand it clearly at first. It sounded mostly like it was growling… or was that its stomach? “Welcome to the point of no return, you’re right where we want you!” It began to laugh as it raised its fists to the sky.
“A trap… huh?” Klarrann nervously smirked at the opposing force, and then glanced at Sokk as if looking for approval. Again with their wordless exchange of thoughts, I looked over at Kaya who had just pushed the arrow completely through her hat and irritatingly stared at the holes added to it. Piko was just shivering and whimpering. I never thought I’d see such a difference in mindsets being ambushed.
Unamused by our lack of attention to them, the opposing big guy lowered his arms with furled brows (or lack of) and gritted his teeth.
“Do you not fear us? Do you not see that only pain and sorrow awaits you??”
“Kaya, come here, you’ll get a kick out of this…” Sokk invited Kaya into the huddle he and Klarr already had. The confusion between me, Piko, and the guys who probably wanted to kill us increased. Well… confusion was the right way to put it for Piko and I, I’m pretty sure those other guys were just getting angrier.
“Ahahahahaha!!!” Kaya suddenly broke into full out belly laughter, while Klarr and Sokk tried to hold back their chuckles. Finally, the big guy snapped.
“We are here to kill you!! We tricked you into coming out here so we could ambush you! Do you not understand death awaits you?!”
“F-first off,” Sokk stammered a response, “First off, we’re Milletian, which means we can’t die even if we wanted to.”
“And yes, you certainly have closed off the road… but why would we want to turn back now since Bangor is practically a throw-stone away?”
…that’s a great point. I can almost see the silhouette of the dragon statue from here. I looked over to Piko who was just mere moments ago trembling, but was now curiously and worriedly looking at the brothers and Kaya, as if she knew what was coming next.
“Tell you what, big guy,” Klarrann started, “we’ll fight you if you beat us in a race!”
Almost immediately, as Klarrann, Sokk, and Kaya crossed quickly past me, I felt the fabric of Piko’s mittens as she grabbed my wrist and took off. I was basically as dumbfounded as our would-be ambushers. Normally a situation like that would end with, of course, a battle.
“We’re running away??” I questioned as I regained footing.
“No, we’re racing them!” Sokk yelled back. Yeah, we’re running…
As we hastily bolted through the valley, the fog began to lift around us revealing a dreary brown plain. The ground that was once green aside the beaten path became dirt incapable of growing grass and soon opened into a field. I turned around briefly to see if our would-be pursuers had taken chase only to be greeted by the fog that had consumed the area.
“We’re almost at the Dragon Statue, we should be able to just relax there for a while…” Kaya broke the silence of our run.
“That’s great!” Piko replied, “Taiga, wait till you see the statue it’s--!!” with that her grip on my wrist loosened and she collapsed to the ground. Honestly… tripping at a time like this.
“Piko come on…” I reached for her hand which she using to firmly grasp her side… and I saw something poking out of the ground. We had not escaped them at all…
“Guys, wait!! Piko’s hurt!” I called out, stopping them in their tracks. Sokk was at her side almost instantly, Klarrann soon after. They exchanged glances, both serious, but both looking very sure of what they had to do. Klarrann lifted Piko onto his back, Sokk and Kaya, who had just re-joined us, stood in front of me.
“Looks like we’re going to have to fight after-all…” Sokk flatly said as he reached to draw his short sword. Kaya glanced down at me and motioned I should join them. I reached for my dagger and jumped up next to her, while Klarrann ran off carrying an injured Piko.
And there it came again, the shaking of the ground growing louder and louder each time. Once more the big guy emerged from the fog, except this time extremely irate. The skeletal warriors soon followed. Though unable to actually form one, I’m pretty sure the lone archer among them was grinning. How I want to bash it’s skull in…
“Cute try, milletian scum, but here is where you shall—“
“HEY!!!!!” A scream called out from behind us. The big guy paused in reaction, arms all the way up in the air. Suddenly, he dropped an arm while raising the other to his head, a rock hit the ground just in front of him.
I turned around… and saw miners approaching, menacingly holding rocks and their pick axes. I was almost intimidated myself until I saw Sokk looking at them with a confident grin, then back to the foe. We were not the miners targets, the skeletons and the big guy certainly were though.
“What the hell did I say about attacking travellers?!” the miner in front launched another moderately sized rock at them, landing a strike that broke one of the skeletons’ arms.
“Rocks are the best you can muster against—oww!!” the big guy tried to reply before a rock landed on his head. And suddenly all hell broke loose as the miners were just constantly picking up and throwing rocks at them.
“You do NOT attack travellers around OUR work area!!” the lead miner shouted as he threw more. His employees(?) entertained but very focused on just throwing more. The unexpected onslaught went on for what felt like a while before finally:
“Ugh, fall back!! Dirty humans…” the big guy called out to (what was left of) his troops and retreated back into the fog. With a laugh, Sokk put his sword away and turned around to hug the leader of the miners.
“Seumas, you glorious workaholic you!!”
“Heh… I did nothing…” wait, did Sokk call him Seumas?
“You’re Seumas?” I asked, to which he faced me and nodded. Wow, I guess we don’t have to go all the way to Bangor after all.
“Any ways, I think you should follow me over to the statue, it’s far too dangerous even here. That ogre could return at any moment…” He looked down at me and smiled. “I’m sure your injured friend would like to know you’re all doing okay like she is.”
“You look quite relieved, Kaya!” Sokk practically announced to the rest of us after looking to see how we were doing. Kaya simply returned with a flustered look and glancing to the ground.
“You’re my teammates… of course I’d be worried if anybody here got injured…”
“Come, this way.”
Seumas lead us past several make-shift huts and sheds built on barren but stable ground. The fog had begun to lift making the jagged twists and turns of the dragon statue easier and easier to see. As far as dragons go, I’ve only seen pictures of them (most of which were drawn by Deian) but this statue felt much more intimidating than any mere picture I have looked at. The statue itself was sitting in a massive hole in the ground, half covered still by dirt and rock. The hole it was sitting in had a set of bridges built across and into it to allow the workers easy access and letting travellers across to see progress. I could almost imagine this statue was alive at some point and torched half of Gairech so that none of the ground would be as fertile. There were not many workers here, but enough to say a lot was going on at this site. The sound of pick axes slamming against bedrock reverberated from the deep hole the dragon sat in, workers were removing carts of dirt and rock from the hole, while others were on standby with lumber waiting to see what it would be needed for.
“Cyrus!” Seumas called out to one of his younger workers as we entered farther into the work zone, “I need you to bring me the book please.”
“Taiga!” I heard Piko call me from ahead. She was lying down on a table and slightly propping herself up with one of her arms so she could wave to us with the other. As energetically as ever, her smile beamed at us while the acting medic tried to get her to stay still.
“Miss please, your wounds! You need to keep still!”
“You said it yourself though, I’m recovered!” That fast?! Oh, wait, we’re Milletian, of course she’d recover faster than normal. We sat over at the bench she was previously lying down on and waited for about 6 minutes more before Cyrus came running back with the book we had come all this way just to recover. It was slightly less dusty than I imagined it would be, I thought it was pulled up out of the ground…
“I hope it would be helpful,” he said, but then looked at us with a worried face. “To be after this book and attacked by Fomors, you guys make some serious enemies…”
“Unfortunately, we’re going to have to either face him tonight or tomorrow on our way back…” I replied. With a little bit of luck, they’ll just let us stay here. Palala was already quite low at this time of day.
“I think I might have a solution for you guys…” Seumas responded with his hand on his chin.

---

A hot meal and some time passed before the night and the stars were upon us. Seumas told us it would be a bit of a walk over, but not nearly as far as the distance covered from Dunbarton to here. Piko, who hasn’t completely recovered yet, was leaning against Klarrann the entire time. Seumas lead us a little bit north of the workplace and slightly into some brush, holding a lantern with one hand and pick axe with the other.
“We’re here,” he suddenly stopped and pushed some branches out of the way. “This should get you to Dunbarton in much less time than a day’s travel.”
On the other side of the brush in a small clearing was a stone altar with a large drop-shaped stone suspended by chain attached to two larger stones. Something about it felt out of place, but at the same time it was very out of sight
“Umm… what is this?” I asked him. Seumas smiled and put his hand on it.
“This is a moon gate, an old relic from the battles of Mag Tuireadh.”
“Then this…!!”
“Yes, something designed by druids long ago but lost to time. Except this is going to get you home.”
Adopting the confidence Seumas was exhibiting, we all turned to face the moon gate for a few brief moments. Until we saw it was doing nothing.
“How does it umm… how does it work?” I asked, seeing if anybody had even the slightest clue. All around were dullard expressions, apparently the confusion I had was mutual. Sokk had his hand on his chin before finally speaking up.
“From what I’ve heard, a strong magic user can activate this and use it to travel or send others anywhere on Uladh.” That’s… pretty strong. “The reason they’re called moon gates is because it takes the least effort to activate them at night since Eweca provides a substantial amount of mana.”
“Then, the person who can probably do it is…” we all, save for Seumas, turned to Kaya, who looked as listless as ever. She sighed and then approached the gate and stared at it for a while.
“So… what do I do then? Click my heels together while saying ‘there’s no place like Dunbarton’?” she sarcastically cackled.
"Yeah, go for it," Sokk almost immediately responded then ran up to the gate. "Better yet! Give it it a biiiiiig hug with all your might and love, it'll absorb some of your ma--"
"YOU DOOFUS!!" Kaya's shout broke through the forest shortly before she launched a bolt of electricity at him. I almost swear I saw Sokk grin as he stepped out of the way and the bolt seemingly vanished in the presence of the gate. Along with this vanished Kaya’s explosive anger as she and the rest of us were now captivated on the gate wondering what happened to Kaya’s lightning bolt. Suddenly the wind began to pick up at our backs…
The large stone in the centre began to light up in the colour of Ladeca and become airborne. The chains held it grounded though to the side rocks which also began to illuminate through the writing engraved onto them. The wind became cyclonic as I saw the altar begin to open up.
I mean it, like, there’s a hole where there used to be solid ground. Also, the gate was becoming bigger… wait no, I’m being sucked towards it!
“What’s going on?!” I tried to scream over the wind.
“The gate is active! We’re going back to Dunbarton!”
“What?! How do you kn—“ I wasn’t able to completely voice my concern as I lost my footing and flew towards the gate. My first instinct was to close my eyes and brace for impact with the altar, but I was instead greeted with a feeling I never quite felt before. For a brief moment, I was aimlessly flying, or at least that’s what I’d like to say. I was not touching ground, I didn’t feel like I was going anywhere, but I was definitely going somewhere. I know that doesn’t sound like it makes sense, bear with me, I’m 13. It was somewhat short lived, this feeling of… whatever that was, before I felt cool grass rubbing against my face and hearing a collective “Oof!” from the others who had apparently crash landed.
I opened my eyes to see we were atop a hill over-looking a pretty broad basin. In the middle of it all, a large area sealed off my massive walls, but full of life. Was that really Dunbarton? The others had already gotten up and dusted themselves off. Book in hand, I stood up as well and turned around to see an identical altar to the one that we had travelled through moments earlier as it returned to its dormant phase. Well… at least now we know of a faster mode of transport than foot.
But here it is, this book will hopefully answer us what greater things Mores has planned. We agreed to hand it over the Kristell the next morning and began to walk to the location we had previously set up camp to retire for the night.