A few hours later, after their robes and shirts were dried and put back on, Ulanbek and Murat faced each other in a forest clearing.

“All right, I want you to come at me like you’re attacking an enemy,” Ulanbek said.

Murat’s eyes widened.  “But I don’t attack people first!”

“It’s just for training.  You attack, I defend.”

“But you’re strong!  I’ll get seriously injured if you defend yourself!”

“I’ll just dodge and block your strikes.  I won’t strike back.”

“Then what’s the point?”

Ulanbek smiled and sighed.  “Okay, maybe I’ll try a different approach.  Pretend that you need to attack me in order to save someone.  Like…you said you had a fiancée right?”

Murat gasped and turned away.

“Are you all right?” Ulanbek asked.  He walked up to Murat and paused when he saw the tears forming in his eyes.  “Oh…”

Murat wiped away his tears and sniffled.  “They all died and I wasn’t there.  I couldn’t save any of them…”

“Hey, I’m sorry…” Ulanbek put his arm around Murat’s shoulder.  “That was thoughtless of me to bring up the people from your village.  I’m really sorry…”

Murat leaned into him and trembled.  “I’m so foolish, thinking I could avenge them, when I can’t even do something so simple as this?”

“The training?  I mean, we could try again some other time, if you’re not feeling up to it right now.”

“But…I’ll never feel like I’m up to it.”

“That’s not true.  You were fighting that wolf yesterday.  You saved me.”

“But that wasn’t me!  That was the SIlver Sorcerer.”

“That was still partially you.  And didn’t you say you wanted to experience being like that again?”

“Yes, I did…but without his magic, it’s impossible.”

“Well, you probably won’t be able to perform his healing abilities or use magic for attacking, but you could still do smaller things.”

“How…how do you do it?”

“Hm?  What do you mean?”

“How do you and the others do it?  Just rush headlong into battle without any fear?”

“Oh…well, it takes practice.  I wouldn’t say that I have no fear, but I kind of just push it aside and focus on what needs to get done.”

Murat laughed bitterly.  “Beslan said that too.”

“Did he?”

“Years ago.  He said that everyone feels fear, they’re just better at hiding it so they don’t appear weak.  But why can’t I do the same?  My fear always shows itself, and I can’t do anything because of it.”

Ulanbek gazed down at him solemnly.  “Were you always like this or did something cause it?”

Murat looked up wide-eyed.  “Oh…no, I don’t think it was caused by any specific event in my past.  I think I was just born with more fear than other people.  I mean, the worst thing that has happened so far was my village being destroyed, and that was recent.  Before that, my life was pretty peaceful.  Well, other than being teased by some of the other kids…”

Ulanbek frowned.  “How bad was it?”

“The teasing?  Um…it was just words mostly.  They just made fun of me for getting scared and crying all the time.  But since I was the chieftain’s son, they couldn’t really go too far in their taunts.  But I guess they just ended up whispering behind my back instead.”

“I’m sorry you had to experience that.”

Murat looked downward.  “Yeah, my fearfulness fed into the taunts that fed back into my fearfulness.”  He looked up at Ulanbek.  “Did you ever have to deal with anything like that?”

“Some.  I’d usually just get into a fight with those people.”

“Ah…I could never do that.  Beslan would usually step in and chase them away for me.  But I wish I didn’t have to rely on him to fight my battles for me and could just do it on my own.  And even now, I’m still relying on others to fight for me.”

Ulanbek smiled.  “I wouldn’t mind fighting on your behalf.”  He saw Murat blush.  “Within reason, of course.”

“Yeah, of course.  You still have to find your fellow soldiers.”

“The possibility of me finding them anytime soon is getting more and more remote.  I wonder if any of them are even looking for each other.”

They were interrupted by the sound of moving rocks and turned their heads.

“Those rocks are still at it?” Ulanbek remarked.  They saw some pebbles and stones rolling alongside the river.  “We’ve seen them since yesterday.  I’m seriously curious about this Council of Stones meeting.”  He began to trail after them.

“You want to follow them?” Murat asked.

“Well, I wouldn’t want to put us in any more danger.  Maybe we could just look from a distance.  But…if you don’t want to go we can just return to the cave.”

Murat furrowed his brow.  On the one hand, his fear wanted him to just return to the cave and bunker down until the end of the world.  On the other hand, he too was curious about what a meeting of rocks and stones would be like.  Decisions, decisions.

“We could follow them for a bit, I guess,” Murat said.  “If it starts seeming too risky, we’ll just turn around and go back.”

***

Ulanbek and Murat followed the pebbles and stones up a hill, being careful to keep a safe distance so they would not be noticed.  They saw the rocks go through the gaps between a group of tightly packed boulders.  After the last pebble made it through, they went up to the boulders and looked through the cracks.  There was a circular area below them that resembled an arena.

Stones of every size gathered in concentric rings, vibrating in unison.  A lumbering sound interrupted the vibrations.  A thunderous step shook the ground.  Ulanbek and Murat gripped the boulders to keep themselves steady.  Another step, then another.  They looked in the direction of the sound and their eyes widened.

Into the arena stepped a giant made of rocks.  His face was chiseled, shoulders craggy, torso wide as an ancient tree.  Dust fell from his limbs with every step he took.  The concentric rings of stones vibrated in veneration.

“Is that the King of the Mountain that the Silver Sorcerer mentioned?” Murat whispered.

“Seems like it,” Ulanbek replied.

The rocks began to vibrate in a different rhythm.  More steps came from the side of the arena.  Ulanbek and Murat turned their heads to look.  Their eyes widened.

The new figure entering the area was as tall as the King of the Mountain but appeared to be completely opposite.  It looked like a woman carved from wood.  Her hair was made from swaying branches, filled with leaves and flowers, styled in an ornate updo with wisteria dangling from the side.  She wore a long gown with the texture of mossy bark.  When she stepped forward, her gown moved like gossamer.

Murat’s eyes widened and he whispered, “Oh…I think that’s the Queen of the Trees.  We have a lot of stories about her, but I never thought I’d see her in real life.  She grants wishes in times of need.”

“What kind of wishes?” Ulanbek whispered back.

“General stuff.  Like, if there’s a drought and people wish for rain, they can make offerings to her and she’ll make the rain clouds appear.  Or if someone has a family member who is ill and needs to be healed, they can ask her for help and she’ll heal that person.  These are all folktales that have been passed down generations.”

“Are there any wishes she doesn’t grant?”

“Probably.  If someone wishes someone else harm, I don’t think she’d grant that.  At least not in any of the stories I’ve heard.  She only does good deeds.”  Murat furrowed his brow.  “I guess that means I can’t ask her to help me avenge my village.”

Ulanbek raised his eyebrow.  “Would you want her to?”

“No.  It is not a good use of her magic or time.  I’d be too ashamed to ask her for something like that, anyway.”

“What about the King of the Mountain?  Is he also part of your folklore?”

“Um…not really.  I haven’t heard too many stories about him specifically.  We do have stories about ogres that live in the mountains, so maybe he’s just one of those.  Usually, those ogres snatch a maiden from a village and some big strong hero has to go rescue her.  And after the hero defeats the ogre, he and the maiden get married, even though they barely know each other.”  Murat frowned.  “Actually, I’ve always wondered about those types of stories.”

“Wondered about what?”

“Why is it always a maiden that gets snatched by the ogre?”

Ulanbek gave him a curious look.

“To be honest,” Murat continued.  “If an ogre decided to snatch me from the village, I would be just as helpless.  If the Silver Sorcerer wasn’t there, or Beslan, or…you…”  

Ulanbek blinked a few times.

“And the other thing I wondered about is why the hero and the maiden always get married so quickly after the ogre is defeated.  I was engaged to Nadya for years and even though I was generally looking forward to marrying her, I was also really nervous about it too.  If our families hadn’t arranged our betrothal for us, I don’t think I’d even have the courage to ask her on my own.  And I didn’t ever feel like I was ready.  Of course, now it doesn’t matter…”

Ulanbek gazed at him.  “Are you all right?”

Murat exhaled.  “Yeah, I’m fine.  I brought it up myself.  Um…do you have folktales like that too?”

Ulanbek chuckled.  “Some.  We have a lot of different folktales.  The women in our stories seem to be stronger though.”

“Really?’

“Yeah, our culture - my original culture, not the Saradeyan one - is nomadic.  Everyone has to pull their weight to ensure our tribe’s survival.  If one of our maidens was snatched by an ogre, she’d probably wrestle him to the ground.”

Murat’s eyes widened.  “Wow…”