The Eye of Tanglewood Forest (Haymaker Adventures Book 3)

by Sam Ferguson

  “Why didn’t you then?” Jonathan asked.

  “Because, I saw a younger version of me standing there in that cabin. I couldn’t take the book from you any more than your Memaw could talk you out of going. No one said it, but we all knew it. Our choices were to admit we had lost the argument and let you come along, or keep you at home only to find you running away from home again to chase after us a day or two later.”

  Jonathan smiled wider and nodded. As he thought about it, he realized that he had come this time more because of his craving for adventure than he had even for Miranda. If he was really honest with himself, he had been planning on going north into Tanglewood Forest as soon as he thought Memaw and Pa would handle his absence without worrying about his life as much as they had when he had gone after Jason.

  This wasn’t to say that he hadn’t been eager to help Miranda, for he truly wanted to help her then, and now, but there was something else that was propelling him forward. Something that he was only just now allowing himself to realize had been there all along.

  Thinking about it all, he recalled the encounter with the nymphs and how neither Ziegler nor Jason had been overpowered by the creatures’ spells. Ziegler’s love for his late wife, and Jason’s love for his fiancée had made them impervious to the nymphs’ illusions, while Jonathan had been easily overtaken. Perhaps Jason had been correct before when he talked about things changing. Certainly, as Jonathan went over everything in his mind now, things felt different. He still cared for Miranda greatly, and he still wanted to rescue her father, but now the intensity was different. Yet, even with the diminished yearning for Miranda, Jonathan still had the same desire to be out on this very quest. The idea of rushing down into Lysander’s Peril had him anxious, but not in a nervous way. No. He wanted to discover what all the other expeditions had failed to find. He wanted to open Lysander’s history and learn what had really happened.

  Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that perhaps he was being careless with Jason and Ziegler, letting them follow him down into the canyon.

  “There’s more to it than that though,” Jonathan stated dryly.

  Ziegler nodded. “Survivor’s guilt,” he said. “You start to question whether you were ever really on a quest worth pursuing. You wonder whether those who died around you should have lived, and perhaps you should have died. You might even start to think that had they never met you, they would all have been better off.”

  Jonathan frowned, trying to hide the sadness that threatened to rise up inside him. Ziegler knew exactly how he felt. “So you understand then?” Jonathan asked.

  Ziegler nodded. “And even if I didn’t, you sometimes talk in your sleep,” Ziegler said with a wink. “I have heard you whisper the names of those we have lost on more than a couple of nights while I take watch. I’m sure your brother has too. I share the same guilt.” Ziegler lifted the front of his shirt to show the skull tattoos on his body. “I hear them in the daytime too. We all have our own demons to fight, Jonathan. You just have to continue to live as best you can, and try to honor those who have gone before you.”

  “What about now?” Jonathan asked. “I can’t let you go with me to the bottom. What if the rope fails us? Or what if there are creatures down there that will snatch us up before we reach the bottom?”

  Ziegler shook his head. “The problem here is that my ghosts demand that I do my best not to let another person die under my command. That means I am not about to let you, your brother, or Raven die if there is anything I can do about it. So, we’re going with you. We all go to the bottom of the canyon, or none of us go. That’s an order. I won’t lose another person under my command. Not one.”

  Jonathan nodded. “What were the other things you wanted to tell me?” he asked, trying to change the subject to something more comfortable.

  “The second thing you should know is that the king wanted to pull you into officer training right after the war. He wanted to prop you up as the hero of the Chamdrian Peninsula. You would have had a small manor, servants, and command over a whole legion.”

  “I never heard anything about that,” Jonathan said quickly.

  “That’s because I quashed it,” Ziegler said flatly. “You are great, make no mistake, but I couldn’t stand idly by while the king turned you into a show horse and set that kind of weight on your shoulders.”

  “But, that should have been my choice,” Jonathan protested as he pulled away.

  Ziegler shook his head. “Live your life, Jonathan,” he said. “Take joy in your youth. Grow up in Holstead. Be a farmer. Go walking in the woods without a care in the world. Spend time with your family, for your grandparents are old, and will not live forever.”

  Jonathan’s anger left quickly, seeing now that Ziegler had meant only to shelter him from a restrictive life of service. Still, in a few more years’ time, a life as an officer wouldn’t be so bad. Jason was engaged, and Jonathan had no intention of staying in Holstead forever. As if Ziegler was hearing Jonathan’s thoughts, the large man laughed and nodded his head.

  “I know that look too,” Ziegler said. “The third thing you need to know is that I convinced the king to hold onto the position meant for you, in case you decide you want it later on.”

  Jonathan gave a half smile. “So I can still go to officer training then, and have the manor and everything else you said?”

  Ziegler nodded. “Upon your twenty-first birthday, you will be given an offer from the king himself. Should you refuse the offer, then I imagine the king will let the matter go, but if you accept it, then you will have everything I just said.”

  “Assuming we live until your twenty-first birthday,” Jason said as he came up behind Jonathan.

  “You heard all that?” Jonathan asked.

  Jason nodded. “I already knew about it. Who do you think Captain Ziegler turned to for advice on the matter?”

  Jonathan backhanded his brother’s chest. “You could have told me.”

  “What, and let you run around with a swollen head? I don’t think so.” Jason turned to Ziegler. “You shouldn’t have told him. Now we’ll never hear the end of it. He’ll be lost in daydreams of glory and prattling on about how he can command more people than you and bragging about his superiority. You should have kept it quiet.”

  Ziegler opened his mouth, but Jonathan spoke first.

  “Did you get an offer from the king?” Jonathan asked.

  Jason smirked and shook his head. “See, it’s starting already.”

  “In any case,” Ziegler said with a tone that quieted the two brothers before they could escalate further, “you aren’t going down there alone. We’re all in this together, to the end.”

  Jonathan nodded and let the topic drop after that, turning to focus on his backpack rather than responding. Despite his protests, he was grateful to have them along with him.

  Soon they were following Ziegler along the edge of the canyon, looking for a place to make their descent. Rather than climb the cliff face from the top, they walked until they found a narrow ledge that sloped downward. It was steep, and they had to hug the cliff face, leaning into it for extra support with each step, but it would preserve what little rope they had.

  Unlike the rest of Tanglewood forest, the land above was predominantly sage brush and open dirt, bleached and parched by the sun. The rocks of the canyon ranged from a pale beige to bright orange, and sometimes even red colors. Ziegler said the change in color and the lack of vegetation compared to the rest of Tanglewood Forest was due to the battle between Lysander and the demons, which had left this area permanently scarred. There were scores of small lizards darting about the rocks. A couple of times they spooked Jonathan because they would jump out from around a rock unexpectedly, but they were otherwise harmless. The sight of their long tails reminded Jonathan of the Kigyo he had encountered before, and sent shivers down his spine. He was more than a little happy that they had not seen any snakes along the canyon so far.

  It took several hours t
o descend a third of the way to the bottom. By then, the sun was nearly directly overhead and the wind had picked up, assaulting Jonathan’s eyes with bits of dust. They had made their way to a small landing of sorts, a pad of solid rock the jutted out over the chasm. Beyond the landing, their trail ended. A strange pine tree grew defiantly from the rock, bending out and upward like a thick letter J stretching up for the sun. Ziegler attached the rope to this tree and began to make preparations for the more dangerous part of the descent.

  “Will the rope reach the bottom?” Jason asked.

  Ziegler shook his head. “No, but it will get us close. Perhaps we’ll get lucky and we can drop into the river. However, from what I can see, I think we’ll have to climb the rest of the way down from the end of the rope. I can’t quite tell from here though.”

  Jonathan took in a breath and shook his head impatiently. He walked up to the edge of the pad and leaned over. Ziegler reached up to put a hand out in front of him, but Jonathan waved him off.

  “I’ll go first,” he said.

  Ziegler was about to protest, but Jonathan took the rope in hand. “I’m lighter than you or Jason, and you two are stronger, you can catch the rope in case the tree comes loose.”

  Ziegler looked to the tree and shrugged. “It looks as solid as any tree, but all right.”

  Jonathan guided the rope around his back. His left hand would hold the rope in front of him, his right would be close to his hip, just behind it to act as a brake. Each of them were already wearing gloves to protect their hands. The dangerous part was that none of them had any type of harness. They would have to rely on their strength.

  “Just remember, don’t let go. Keep some pressure on with your right hand at all times so you don’t go too fast.”

  Jonathan nodded and then slowly leaned out over the edge. Just then the wind picked up and he had to brace himself with his feet to keep from swinging out to the right. He took in a deep breath and looked back to Jason. “Remember when we used to go climbing out back behind the house?”

  Jason nodded. “Those were pine trees, and even then you fell a few times.”

  Jonathan smiled. “Imagine Memaw’s face if she could see me now.”

  “I’d rather not,” Ziegler cut in. “That grandmother of yours was able to make Moose put out his cigar. I don’t want to invoke her wrath for letting you climb down a cliff. Let’s not even mention her name, all right?”

  “Now who’s superstitious?” Jason asked.

  “I said I don’t believe in omens, but I do respect things that can harm me,” Ziegler said quickly.

  The three shared a laugh and then Jonathan grunted.

  “All right then, I’ll let you know when I’m at the bottom.”

  Jonathan looked down and gave a rather large push with his feet. He flew out into the air and all at once any trepidation he had left him. Instead of fearing the possibility of falling, a great big smile crossed his face as he swung back toward the rock face. The danger was still there, but he didn’t notice it anymore. Each successive push with his legs he jumped farther and farther, extending the time he fell through the air. It was almost as if he was flying. He forgot about all else, ignoring Ziegler’s warnings above, and continued down as fast as he could leap away from the rock wall.

  When the wind picked up again and blew him to the side, Jonathan let out a shout and laughed as he came crashing into the wall. His feet hit the stone, but his momentum drove him sideways until he bumped the cliff face with his hip. It took him a few moments to right himself, and then he launched out again and again. In a matter of seconds he was at the end of the rope, some two hundred feet below the ledge. The large knot that had been tied just two feet above the end of the rope snapped Jonathan back into the reality of the situation.

  He looked down, and saw that he was still well above the bottom. There was at least another hundred feet to go. The river offered no solution either. From his viewpoint, Jonathan could see big, jagged rocks poking up from the water, and the river itself was narrow here. There was a rocky beach of sorts directly below him. If he dared drop to the water, he would splat onto orange and red stones instead.

  Jonathan then started to look around for another ledge to get to. There wasn’t one. There was only the cliff. He shifted his feet around until he found a couple of footholds, and then he looked for a way to climb down the stone. There was a vertical crack in the wall a couple of feet to his right. He would have to aim for that and use it to guide his climb.

  He reached out with his right hand and as he did so the brunt of his weight shifted to hang from his left. Knowing that he couldn’t sustain that kind of effort for long, he dug into the footholds with his feet to bear his weight. Once he established a firm grip on the rounded edge of the crack in the wall, he let go of the rope entirely and began climbing down.

  He could hear Ziegler shouting at him from above, so he called out as soon as he found a secure hold to stabilize himself enough to lean his head back from the wall.

  “The rope ends above the bottom by at least a hundred feet!” Jonathan shouted, his words echoing several times throughout the canyon. “We have to climb down!”

  “All right!” Ziegler shouted down. “Be careful, we’re right behind you!”

  Jonathan then turned his attention back to the task at hand. Unlike the rappelling, which had been extremely fun, he found climbing to be both tedious and terrifying. His arms started to shake after only a few yards, which sapped his confidence as much as it warned of his weakening grip. At one point, his left hand slipped out of the crack and his arm flew out to his side when a foothold crumbled beneath him. From that point on, he made sure to test each and every point of contact before moving to a new one, always ensuring he had three points of contact.

  He continued down as best he could, careful to keep his eyes focused on the cliff face immediately around him so he could quickly spot new hand or foot holds and not get distracted by the ground below. At one point, he slipped the four fingers of his right hand into a crevice and squeezed to put pressure against the stone as he moved his left hand to another hold. While his left hand was still moving, a strange sensation slithered out across Jonathan’s hand and wrist. He looked to his arm and saw a black snake with yellow bands coming out from the crevice. It took every ounce of focus to keep from letting go and shaking the reptile off of him, but he managed to hold still just long enough for his left hand to reach its destination. By that time the snake was near Jonathan’s elbow. From head to tail it was not as long as his forearm, but that didn’t reduce his fear of the creature any.

  He gripped the stone cliff hard with his left hand and then flung his right arm out of the crevice. The banded snake fell downward, curling and turning in the air as it sped toward the canyon floor. Then, a few moments before it would have otherwise dashed itself on the rocks below, a hawk dove in out of nowhere and snatched the snake up in its talons.

  The bird called out with a high pitched screech and then broke its dive and began flapping as it ascended from the canyon.

  Jonathan resumed climbing down. Thankfully there were no additional snakes, and he was able to make it to the bottom without incident. Once he stood upon the solid rocks at the bottom he called up to the others. Jason was the next to climb down the rope. Jonathan watched for a bit, but then decided it would be best to scout the immediate area. After all, Ziegler had already mentioned that he knew of others who had come searching for the bow. Perhaps there was something else down here as well.

  First he walked to the water’s edge. Toward the middle of the fast-flowing river the water was green and murky, crashing over and around rocks jutting up from below. Near the edge though, he could see into the clear water. He bent down and placed his hands in the water for just a few moments to ease the cramps and spasms from the climb. As much as he was used to doing farm work, his hands had never been worked quite like this before. He then turned and looked upstream. He couldn’t see the waterfall anymore, for there w
as a large bend in the canyon that blocked his view from this point. Downstream he could see what looked like a kind of cave on his side of the river.

  Jonathan walked over the rocks and made his way to the opening. The cave entrance was about ten feet wide and eight feet tall, allowing not only for easy access, but also for a good amount of light inside the cave. He cast a glance back to his brother, who was still making his way down with the rope. Jonathan then went into the cave. The rocks along the walls were smooth and cool to the touch. Bits of moss clung to the sides near the entrance, but not further inside. The floor here was made of small gravel and patches of fine sand. There were not tracks of any kind to be seen. Everything pointed to the cave being empty. He continued in for twenty yards before the tunnel curved to the left. Jonathan followed the curve and then stopped abruptly.

  It was a dead end. The orange and red stone walls met here and formed a small chamber. There were no other tunnels.

  There was, however, a skeleton. Next to the skeleton was an old, rusted sword. The handle had long ago rotted away from the metal tang. There were no clothes or armor anywhere to be seen. This told Jonathan that the remains were extremely old. Leaving the remains untouched, Jonathan turned around and walked out of the cave. He then continued alongside the river for another hundred yards or so before deciding to go back and wait for Jason.

  When he made it back to where he had climbed down, Jason was already on the ground and dusting himself off.

  “Where’d you go?” Jason called out.

  “Just thought I would check ahead a bit,” Jonathan replied. “Looks pretty peaceful down here.”

  Jason nodded and pointed up above them. “Ziegler won’t be long.”

  Jonathan looked up and saw that Captain Ziegler was making incredibly quick work of rappelling down the cliff. Each of his leaps were easily twice as far as Jonathan’s best jump. For a second, Jonathan thought he should shout up and remind Ziegler that the rope didn’t reach all the way down, but he needn’t have worried. Ziegler stopped rappelling at the perfect moment and then seamlessly transitioned into free climbing down the cliff face. What had taken Jonathan a lot of concerted effort, Ziegler did within a few minutes. The big man made a point of showing off just how good he was by dropping the last several yards to the ground.