by Kaden Reed
From constant practice with the various weapons he used for hunting in the forest around his village, he zeroed in on the faint outline of the rope swaying gently back and forth in front of him. When he felt it was right, he let the stone fly. It flew out in a gentle arc and the length of leather trailed behind it, slipping through his fingers until he snapped it shut and pulled. The stone on the end of the leather curved backwards and spun around the rope a couple of times before coming to a stop.
Winding up the leather cord quickly to pull in the rope, Briar reached out and grabbed it when it came within reach. Clay unwound the makeshift stone and leather cord and wound them both tightly around his arm and tied them off to prevent tangling.
Briar was pulling the length of the rope that went below the ledge and coiling it on the stone beside them. “Let me do that,” he said as he pulled the rope from her hands, “you put your harness on and get ready to climb out of here.”
“No!” forgetting the need to be quiet, Briar practically yelled at him in her vehemence, “you have to go first! It is my fault we are down here. I never should have insisted we explore this place.”
Taken aback by the anger in her voice because Briar rarely ever let anger or fear show, it took him a shameful second to realize her shoulders were trembling. Once the young warrior noticed that, he could just make out the muffled sound of barely restrained sobbing starting to overtake her.
“It will be okay,” he said as he reached out and ran his hands across her cheeks, brushing away the few tears that were making their way down her face, “you have always been the faster climber. You need to go first. I will be right behind you. I promise.”
Briar stared into his eyes for a moment, before she finally nodded. With renewed determination, she started winding the rope around the loops in her harness. When she was done, she looked back at him and met his eyes again, “you promised Clay.”
Touching the Sorah around his neck, he inclined his head in her direction, “upon my honor as a warrior of the Telenor Tribe and as your future husband, I promise- to keep you safe,” the last part was muttered under his breath so Briar wouldn’t hear. If she did, he had no doubt that she would unfasten herself from the rope with the idea of making some sort of heroic last stand with him.
Thankfully, Briar gave no signs of hearing though, and she jumped off the edge of the ledge, holding onto the rope. Swaying back and forth from the momentum of climbing, she slowly, but steadily made her way upwards.
Clay watched her for a few seconds, satisfied that she wasn’t in trouble, then pulled out the last two of his glow potions. Shaking them alight, he threw both along the wall of the path leading up to the ledge he was on. The sounds of their pursuer in the distance were getting louder as the seconds ticked by. The first glow potion impacted the wall about ten yards down the path with the second about ten yards beyond that.
If the monster appeared before he was ready to take his turn on the rope, he wanted to be able to put arrows into it from a distance, rather than waiting for it to reach the ledge he was on. The young warrior pulled his bow from his shoulder and loosened the arrows in his quiver and his short blade in its scabbard. Satisfied that he was as prepared as he would ever be, he looked back at Briar to see the progress she was making.
Climbing up a rope is difficult in the best of times. With no way of steadying the rope, it was left to sway back and forth, which Briar was having to fight the effect of while she was climbing. To top it off, they had both just finished the ritual of the Sorah and had been running off and on for almost an entire day with little to no food. That was before they came down here exploring. Clay knew he was practically exhausted. Though, watching Briar fight for every hand up that rope filled him with pride and love, the likes of which he had never experienced. His heart was filled, and warmth spread through his limbs. At that moment, the warrior knew he was exactly where he was supposed to be and there was no way that whatever nightmare was coming their way, would ever lay a finger on his Briar.
With grim determination, he turned back down the path towards the sounds coming in his direction. Clay could just make out the soft scratch of leather on stone that accompanied the scraping of something dragging. He knew that whatever it was, it was close now.
He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him at first, as he noticed a slightly lighter shade of gray in the distance. It wasn’t until the light of the glow potion started illuminating the thing that details gradually started to become apparent.
Whatever it was, it was big. Bigger than big, more like huge. It looked like it was probably over a yard taller than he was and had arms as thick around as his thighs. It looked like it was dressed in furs from its head to its feet and had bony protrusions coming out of the top of its head. It wasn’t until it came a little closer that he could tell its skin was a deep red.
Estimating the creature to be about thirty yards from him, the warrior nocked an arrow and drew. Thirty yards was at the extreme range of his bow, but he knew he didn’t want to let this thing get any closer. It was so huge, Clay doubted he could win in a close-range fight.
Lining up his shot, he let it fly. Not waiting to see if his first shot landed, he immediately drew and loosed, two more arrows in quick succession before his first one reached its target.
The creature paused its plodding gait, looking down at the small piece of wood that flew out of the darkness to hit its left arm. Staring at it curiously, it appeared to not know what it was. When the next two arrows hit in rapid succession, it began bellowing furiously. Apparently, it made up its mind that whatever it was that was sending sticks at it, it didn’t need to understand it, it needed to be beat it to a pulp.
At the sound of its deep roar, Clay fumbled the next arrow he drew from his quiver and it went sailing off into the darkness, way off target. Cursing himself, he pulled another arrow out and let it fly at the creature. Which appeared to be quickly closing the gap as it slowly built up speed running towards him. Although he managed to hit it with arrows two more times, it showed no signs of noticing them, let alone actually slowing down.
Screaming in wordless fear and fury, both combatants locked eyes with each other. It was immediately apparent to Clay that this monster had at least a modicum of intelligence as it seemed to show some sort of recognition as he saw his foe for the first time. The thing was so close now, the warrior knew instinctively he would only get off one more shot before he had to switch to his short blade. However, none of his previous shots appeared to have even discomforted it. All he could tell they accomplished was push it from curiously annoyed at his first arrow, to its current, ‘I’ll kill everything in the world and make sandwiches from their remains,’ level of angry.
At a loss as to what to do, he drew back on his last arrow and looked at the raging nightmare coming towards him. Its head was unnaturally tiny and bobbing up and down irregularly on such a massive body, as it was running towards him. Taking two quick breaths in succession and holding the last one, he lined up his arrow and let it fly.
Immediately dropping his bow, he pulled his short blade as his arrow soared through the air. Through sheer dumb luck, his arrow found the huge creature’s left cheek and buried itself deep. Watching the monster stumble around screaming in pain and rage, the warrior took a few steps back onto the ledge, expecting the monster to fall down and die at any second.
When the thing started shaking its head trying to dislodge the arrow, Clay began to realize how much trouble he was really in. Disbelief worked its way into his mind, “why can’t you just die already…”
Knowing that whatever this thing was, it could apparently take an arrow to the face and be only inconvenienced, he looked back at Briar and only saw her legs below the top of the ledge. She will be out of range of this thing soon. He just needed to buy her more time. Bracing himself with that knowledge, he readied his short blade and watched the creature spinning in place, trying to pick at its face to get at the arrow.
The warri
or waited for the creature’s efforts to turn its back towards him then charged. Knowing that he had to finish this monster off quickly he ran up to it and he brought his short blade down on its leg as hard as he could, aiming for the hamstring, or at least, where one would be on a human. His blade found cutting through the dense muscles of the creature’s leg with difficulty.
The monster bellowed as the blade bit into it. Reaching down to its leg, it swung it’s arm in a casual backhand. Clay barely managed to keep ahead of most of the blow but with a flick of its wrist it managed to clip his shoulder hard enough to send him stumbling into the wall.
Clay’s breath rushed out of him as he impacted the wall. Seeing black spots in his vision, the warrior lay were he fell, trying to get the blessed air back into his lungs. With his head swimming, he lurched to his feet and stumbled a few steps until he was able to make out his surroundings.
The monster was clutching its leg and looking at him with pure hatred contorting its face as it met the warrior’s eyes and started bellowing. Clay was way beyond any semblance of self-control by this point, and he started yelling right back at him, “go lay with a goat, you ugly bastard!”
He didn’t know if it knew what he was saying but it probably got the idea that it was an insult because it charged right for him. Realizing that he quite literally had nowhere to go, Clay readied his short blade and hoped that he would be quick enough to get past the brute when he struck.
The monster seemed to have made the decision to skip any pretense of feints or finesse and go right for the ‘bury it into the stone’ approach, when it fully extended both arms above its head and swung them down at him when it got close.
Seeing the blow coming, he dodged to the side and struck with his short blade in its side. Yelling in pain and anger, the thing spun faster than something that large had any right too, and kicked out with its foot, catching him in his right leg.
With a loud snap, the force of the kick sent the warrior flying a few yards. The wave of pain that swept over Clay was so intense that he almost didn’t realize when the monster stood over him and raised a foot, intending to smash him into the ground. Acting purely on instinct, the warrior readied the short blade that was miraculously still in his hands and stabbed upwards into the foot above him.
The creature cried loudly and jerked its foot back so hard that it stumbled several yards away and fell over with a loud crash.
Both combatants lay where they had fallen, groaning in pain and holding his injuries for a couple of short minutes before Clay pushed himself into a kneeling position. The monster was rocking back and forth holding its side and foot while crying loudly a few yards from him. Watching this display reminded the warrior of a child that stubbed its toe for the first time.
Unbidden, a wave of pity for this creature welled up inside of Clay. He had no clue how long it has spent down here or whether or not it was alone, but maybe trying to kill it as soon as he saw it wasn’t the best choice he had made. Perhaps it was just lonely and was attracted by the sounds of something new.
Looking back at the rope, he saw that Briar was out of sight. Clay crawled over to the edge of the ledge and he could make out Briar just about to the edge of the hole up above. While he rested there, she managed to get ahold of the roots from the tree and pulled herself out. She immediately unfastened herself from the rope and looked back down to see him lying on the edge of the ledge below.
“I’ll be right up,” the warrior said, biting back cries of pain while grabbing the rope and feeding it through the loops on his harness.
“What happened to the monster? Are you hurt?” she called down to him in concern.
“It is still here, but it is hurt. I don’t think we have anything more to fear from it tonight,” he said while gesturing further back into the ledge, out of sight of Briar from above. The creature was sitting with its back to him a ways off, soft snuffles coming from it. “I’m going to need your help getting out of here though, I think my leg is broken. Can you loop the rope over something to make a pulley?”
“Give me two seconds,” she called down before disappearing from sight.
Bria reappeared a few moments later, just when he was finishing up his preparations with his harness, “good to go up here! How about you?”
“Just finished. Bring me up,” he called to her.
When he started to feel the rope grow taught and pull him from the ledge, he looked over at the monster. It was still rocking back and forth, crying softly, further back in the ledge. He felt another twinge of guilt for what he had done to it.
The pulley system was really slow but at least he didn’t have to worry about his injuries. The slow jerks upwards and the swaying of the rope lulled his mind to numbness. All he wanted to do was get back to the village, eat a good meal and sleep for a week.
Briar would be busy making preparations for the marriage ceremony and their healers were pretty good. They would probably have Clay back on his feet within a few weeks. Resting his head against the rope, the warrior started to fade in and out of consciousness.
The sudden jerk on the rope startled him awake sometime later. Clay noticed he had just made it passed the ceiling of the ledge he had started on. Looking up he called to Briar, “what’s going on? Is something wrong?”
He could hear grunting from above then Briar called back, “I don’t know! The rope just won’t budge! I think it must be stuck or something.”
Frowning he looked around at what it could have gotten stuck on. Seeing nothing near him or the hole he looked down and that’s when he knew, he was totally screwed.
Looking up at him with a curious expression on its face was the monster, he could see that it had a length of the rope gripped in its over-sized hands.
Curious was good though, he could work with curious, “hey big guy, can you understand me?” Seeing the blank look on the creature’s face he continued anyways, “sorry for hurting you. It was a misunderstanding. I would want to meet anyone that came to my home uninvited too.”
The creature just continued to stare at him with the same blank expression on its face. Not knowing what else to do, he started talking to it again, “we can be friends if you want?”
As he talked, the thing shifted its weight from its uninjured foot to its injured foot and grimaced in pain. When it looked back up at him, he saw the glimmer of anger flash in its eyes. It started pulling on the rope as anger quickly gave way to rage and started wordlessly bellowing up at him.
Beginning to panic, Clay realized his mistake and pulled his short blade out. Hacking the rope underneath him so the monster couldn’t pull him down, the warrior yelled up to Briar, “big problem! Huge problem! Pull as hard as you can!”
He was cutting furiously at the rope below him, then with one final jerk from the monster below, Clay heard a crack from above him and then a moment of weightlessness. Before they both knew what was happening, the warrior had already fallen passed the monster on the ledge. He saw the rope slip from its surprised grasp and heard the shout of denial echo down into the abyss from Briar above.
Time seemed to slow down to a crawl when the shock of the sudden knowledge that there was no way out of this one slammed into him. Anger, despair, grief and then finally resignation washed over Clay in quick succession. His thoughts drifted back to Briar when they were kids. Having been only one year older than her, they were fast friends from the very beginning. The adventures and mischief they got up to as children was still talked about in Telenor.
By the time he was ten, his parents already assumed they would marry one day. Although, they didn’t want to get married because they both wanted to be explorers. At the time, they thought married people never went anywhere or did anything fun. The young fated couple made a vow back then, that if they were to be married that they would never cease exploring the world around them.
He could see the faint traces of the glow potion they threw down the well, rising up to meet him. A tear started to make its way down his
cheek at the thought of the promise of their shared future that was suddenly stolen from them and he wished dearly that Briar would be spared the agony that was a widow’s due when a warrior failed to return home. “I’m so sorry Briar. So very sorry…,” a sob caught in his throat as Clay whispered his last words into the darkness.
As he fell, the rock that he tied to the line of leather that was still strapped to his arm, began to emit a bright blue light. Looking at it, he could clearly make out the intricate angular designs that were carved into it. The stone started to crumble apart while he stared. As the light brightened with each fracture, a soothing sensation entered his mind and a feeling of peace extended itself through him. It was the last feeling he experienced before his body crumpled into a broken heap at the bottom of the cavern.
As blackness stole over his vision, a deep sonorous voice whispered in his mind contentedly, “Now… you… are… mine… forever…”
Chapter One
The Calm
The 442nd Year of the Arathmis Cycle, also known as the Age of Khanri
Waiting for something to happen is a special sort of purgatory. The anxious dread and fear that mixes in my belly as I wait for the message that will either impart me with an elation as high as the tallest tree in the forest or bring crushing disappointment - again. Pondering the ‘what ifs’ that a message might contain has kept me amused for a short time. Unfortunately, that time has long since passed and all that remains is the pressing need for this calm that brings the storm, to finally be over. Like a boulder rolled into a river diverts the course of the currents, this letter will bring to my life momentous change - or not. Waiting is a game that tempts madness.
“This has to be our turn,” my friend Marty announced to the room, interrupting my thoughts as they circled the drain of despair, “it has been a whole year. How long are they going to make us wait?”
Letting my head rest back on the cushion I was laying on, I stared up at the crumbling plaster ceiling. The slats showing through in spots with bits of plaster hanging on by fibers, desperately trying to delay the inevitable plunge. The detritus of their fallen comrades littered the stained threadbare rug around us. “It will be here soon,” I responded with a bored affectation that had to be forced due to the butterflies in my stomach, “the mail will probably be here any minute now.”
