Gateway to Astria - Part 1

by Isaiah Gray

  ~*~

  A breath a fresh air filled my lungs as we exited the foul cloud. As soon as John got out, Misty sprung from his arms and started rolling around on the ground excitedly.

  “She was stuck in there...” John said, smirking towards her. Misty turned to John and jumped up on her hind legs and barked. He got down on his knees. Misty climbed on him and started to lick his cheek. He laughed until Misty stopped. Then the little puppy came over to me, looking me in the eyes. Crouching down to her level, I put my forehead to hers as I scratched her ears. Her little puppy grunts of satisfaction made me smile.

  “We’re keeping her right?” John said.

  I glanced up at John as Misty hopped up into my arms. “Of course! We couldn’t just leave her.”

  We sat there for a little bit, playing with Misty. She looked as comfortable as she could be, which I suppose after being in there for so long any sign of life would be exciting.

  After a short while, the image of Resh slashing the images of my dad came into my mind. I knew it was him, it had to be. I recalled the picture of his silhouette as he walked away. Being too stunned before, I hoped now that I could remember some details to maybe help me figure out what state he was in. The image was vivid. His clothes had changed, I could tell that even though he was shrouded by the dense forest of air, He was wearing a sort of robes. He was hooded also, as I remember not being able to see his eyes, even when he was close. and He did indeed have his wings. There was no doubt in my mind that it was him. But why didn’t he respond to me? Was he just an illusion or was it actually him?

  “John?” I piped up. “What did you say the mist’s effects were on you? The rumored ones?”

  When I said “mist”, Misty turned her attention to me. Looks like she was learning her name already!

  “Uh... Let’s see.” John said, thinking for a while. “There was hallucinations, visions, mirages.”

  I counted along on my fingers. He mentioned three things before.

  One.

  “There was bringing out your true self.” He continued.

  Two.

  John thought for a few seconds, then announced his answer to me triumphantly. “Making you the person you were!” I could hear him faintly mutter “yes, I remembered” to himself after.

  Three. Was that what hit Resh?

  “Why do you ask?” John piped up, snapping back to reality.

  “I think it got to Resh, possibly more than either of us.” I said looking down at and petting Misty. She watched me as I talked and then looked at John for a response. She looked to be was making a habit of watching whoever was talking, her gaze following whoever's lips were moving. She was loving the sound of our voices.

  “So what do we do?”

  I shrugged back to him. “Resh has a way of finding his way to me; let’s give him time.”

  So we waited...

  and waited...

  and waited...

  But he never came. As time went on I grew more and more fearful that Resh wasn’t going to come out anytime soon, maybe not ever.

  “Natalia?” John piped up.

  “What, John?” I retorted back.

  “I don’t think he’s going to come out anytime soon...”

  No. He will come. “He has to come!”

  “Natal-”

  “He has to come!” I snapped back. “I swore, the day I met him that I would stick with him through thick and thin. And if this isn’t thick and thin I don’t know what is.”

  I turned to enter the mist and try to find Resh. Misty – who had been watching our conversation from my lap – rolled off when I got up. She ran over and grabbed my pant leg in her mouth and pulled back. I felt like ripping it out, or shouting at the dog, but something stopped me when I looked at her. She looked worried. I never noticed if dogs ever expressed emotion through their face; I sure was noticing it now.

  “Natalia, you’ll just get lost.”

  “We know how to get out don’t we?”

  “But you know how far we walked! You could try and find him for ages and he could be out by then.”

  “Then what do we do?!” A tenseness built up in my body; it made me jittery, not knowing where he was.

  “Ever think he could have gotten out already?”

  “He would have waited for us!”

  “Well what if he didn’t? What if he was in the position we were in right now! Hmm?”

  I sighed. John was right, but it didn’t feel right. If John was wrong I’d be leaving him out there all alone.

  “Natalia.” John said, setting a hand on my arm. “Our best chance is to keep moving forward.”

  I sighed. Every bone in my body was screaming to go in and find him. He’d be worth the risk, but John had a valid point. The best choice was to move keep moving forward.

  “Alright.” I finally agreed. Misty yipped in satisfaction and let go of my pant leg, making me smile.

  I never thought about where we would go if we ever got out of the mist, and what we were faced startled me. There was a large crack that rose up the side of a large rocky wall going as high as to the rooftop of the cavern. The crack started wide enough for a semi to fit through, but slowly narrowed to a point as it rose higher. From inside was the warm, flickering glow of fire inside. I took a glance back at John to see him slightly shaking. “Hey…” I started. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because you have something I don’t...”

  “Which is what?”

  “I’m not sure, but it’s special, and if anyone is going to be fine, it’d be you.” I proceeded to make my way towards the entryway.

  “Thank you, Natalia.” I heard John respond.

  I took a glance back and nodded to him before continuing. Misty ran to John and wove in and out of his legs, gave a soft yip, and then skipped off after me.

  The entrance led us to a long winding staircase. The warmth of the wall torches dimly lit the unnerving setting before us. Every few feet there was a section of the wall where a skull made its home upon a shelf that jut out from the rocky surface. Above this was a single phrase or sentence. What the phrase was, I could not tell as each was a different language. That is until I reached the final one. The letters were arranged in a way I understood.

  “La voce d'oro” I read aloud.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” John said. Misty also craned her neck.

  “The Golden Voice.” I muttered. “We’re definitely in the right place.”

  The stairway mouth opened to a series of tunnels. A lot of them looked like they intertwined. But some split apart separately.

  “Split up or stay together?” I asked. I would rather stay together, but I would leave it up to John.

  “Split. As long as we don’t attract attention, we can search faster.”

  I nodded. If it would increase our chances of finding Resh, maybe it would be a good idea.

  “Fine. Who’s taking Misty?” I asked, looking down at the pup.

  John was about to raise his hand to volunteer to take her, but before he had the chance to puppy dove behind my legs and peeped out in between them. John grinned. “I think that’d be you.”

  At least I’ll have a little bit of company. I thought, bending over and giving her head a rub. As much as I didn’t really think it was a good idea to be bringing her in with us, it was better than leaving her alone again after the mist. I nodded back to him and turned, making a clicking call for Misty to come along, which she did as I entered one of the tunnels. Looking over my shoulder, I saw John draw his sickle and then duck into one of them as well.

  I sighed and walked forward. Slinking behind me, Misty gave off a few grunts and whines here and there. Her tail tucked under her body more and more as we ventured further into the cave. I hushed the pup softly and gently. Both of us crept down the dark and winding hallway. The same daunting decors dotted the entire pathway. Flags of various colors – all bearing the emblem of the
Golden Voice – were hung every now and then. The only source of light is the faint torchlight. As we walked on, I became more and more resistant to the fear the tunnels seemed to be inspiring.

  For once, I didn’t know what was going on with me. My head was so filled with emotions and confusion, I can’t tell them apart. Maybe it’s because they are the same thing, or maybe it’s worry for Resh. Whatever it was I hated it, and I wanted out. Badly.

  We came to a corner. Two distinguished voices were just around the bend. Misty heard their mutters and growled softly. Shushing her quickly, I heard the voices stop. Then I heard footsteps, and they were coming closer. I reached to my side for my handgun. Pulling it out, I quickly turned is to silenced mode. I did it just in time, as I could see the toe of one of them peek around the corner. One of the two men was shushing the other as I tried to think of what to do.

  Making up my mind, I aimed and put a bullet into the foot of one of the men. He bent over in pain. I kicked him in the head, sending him unconscious into the wall. The second man grabbed the ankle of my outstretched leg and lifted, flipping me onto my back. Jumping on top of me, he wrapped his hands around my throat, grabbing me in a choke hold.

  I tried to get out of his grip, or at least stretch for my gun. It was slightly out of reach.

  I tried harder and harder to reach, but focused my gaze on the man trying to kill me. Then the gun moved right into my hand. Not able to guess what it could have been, I glanced over at it to see Misty. I grinned widely at the pup and turned my attention to the man on top of me. Putting the barrel to his head, I pulled the trigger. The dirt-covered wall became stained with the blood from the man’s skull. His body fell as limp as a piece of string. Rolling the body off me, I turned to Misty. “Misty, I love you.”

  Little Misty panted and had a little hop in her step. Wagging her tail as she followed me along, we bounded the corner. I stopped when we did so. The room we entered was not lit the same as the tunnels, but lit with a light blue, just like above. It was just as dirty, just as filthy, but blue fire lit this room and this room alone.

  There were shelves of vials and liquids all around the room. A table full of what tools used to operate or torture lay there. But in the middle of the room, What I was looking for lay still on the table.

  “Resh!” I exclaimed. He lay strapped onto the table with leather.

  “Hey.” He said, He looked fine, a bit bruised from what I could tell, but that was all. The only noticeable difference was he was down to just a tight white T-shirt and blue jeans.

  “You got out of the mist alive!” I exclaimed with a hushed voice.

  “Apparently...”

  “Apparently? Do you not remember or something?”

  “Exactly.” Resh said, shaking his head.

  “Then you don’t remember saving me?” I said, something about what he just said made my heart drop. I couldn’t tell what it is though.

  “Oh? Well, that must’ve been mighty heroic of me...”

  “Well yea it was! How did you end up here? Don’t remember?” I asked.

  Resh nodded to me. That’s when Misty gave a satisfied puppy grunt. Resh tried to raise his head to see, but he was restricted by his bindings. Quickly undoing them, He was free as Misty jumped up onto the table and onto Resh.

  “Oof!” Resh exclaimed. “Who’s this?”

  “Misty! John found him in the-”

  “Mist?” Resh said with a smirk. He ruffled Misty’s fur and scratched her ears gently. Misty happily wagged her tail and licked Resh’s cheek once. Resh grinned and waved his wings ever so slightly. Misty became intrigued his wings, startling her as her eyes widened.

  I chuckled a bit and nodded. “Resh, when you saved me from the... hallucinations. You were wearing something different.”

  Resh nodded and glanced over his shoulder. The same set of robes he was wearing in the mist were laying on a table. Turning back to me, he gave a large sigh. “You know what I’m going to say.”

  “It’s not the time.” We both said in unison, both nodding and chucking as well.

  Checking over my shoulder to make sure nobody was coming; I couldn’t see or hear anything. Resh looked at me with seriousness. “I promise I’ll explain, Okay?”

  “Fine.” I said, it took a few moments of silence before I wrapped my arms around Resh, gripping him tightly in a hug. “I thought I’d lost you.”

  Resh chuckled and wrapped me in his wings as he knew I loved. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  It reassured me when I heard him say that. It felt good to have him back.

  Voices started to mutter and shout down one of the tunnels. Slipping out of our hug, I grinned and pulled out my holstered weapon. “Alright. Let’s find John and finish this.”

  Nodding back to me, Resh hopped up and grabbed his weapon that lay next to his robes, but left he set of clothing there.

  Something intrigued me as Resh got up, whenever he moved, a thin cloud of mist lagged behind his head as if his head was still offering refuge to it

  “Resh?”

  “Yea?” He responded. I took a look into his eyes, their bright blue color still glistening as usual. But as he turned his head to the tunnel – leading deeper into this cryptic place – and then back to me, his eyes seemed to turn to a murky gray as if they mist itself was filling his eyes. As soon as it dispersed, his perfect blue eyes were replaced by a deep thick orange. That was the last thing I expected.

  Resh lost control after that. Faster than I had ever seen him go, he zipped off the hallway, almost running along the wall as he bent around the curve. At first there was nothing, and then there were screams. Not a battle cry, not a warrior's yell, but screams of pain.

  “R-resh?” I hesitantly called his name. I wandered my way around the corner to see the entire hallway strewn with bodies. Only a single fatal slash to each. Each one was different. I couldn’t even imagine what happened. It struck me hard and disturbed me. Not because they were dead, but because of who did it. I’ve been with Resh for two years now, and all this time, in all the different things we’ve done, all the assignments we’ve taken on, through everything I’ve not seen him ever kill a single person. That oath he told me earlier today. I will never let death claim someone at the will of my hand. Not again. Those were his exact words.

  As I stepped over the dead bodies. What is happening? Resh has taken on a horde of warriors before without even a weapon. He used his bare hands and tactics to trick the soldiers into hitting their teammates. He injured them still, though rarely. Looking back, I should have been able to see he was administering self control beyond what I thought was even physically possible. What is the mist doing to him? I thought. I needed to find him before something bad happened.