Chronicles of Galadria II_Encounters

by David Gay-Perret

  The day reached its end, and the three set up camp for the night. Glaide wanted to help, and so Paeh taught him to listen to his surroundings in order to find water. The young man expressed his wonder at finding that there were many rivers around, despite the fact that it hadn’t rained for so long – though on realizing that he’d again nearly given away his ignorance, he hastily added that he had traveled very little, and had until then simply used water he brought with him in his gourd. He also remembered that during the journey to Shinozuka he and his friends had been able replenish their water thanks to the many people they had crossed paths with along the way. The young woman laughed aloud, and simply replied that there were mysteries in this world that no one could explain.

  That evening, Tyv proved himself to be an excellent cook, preparing potatoes, beans, and some other vegetables that he carried with him. Glaide, who usually failed at cooking even simple pasta and hamburgers, managed to perfectly grill some juicy steaks. After the feast, he insisted on taking the first watch, though his companions had urged him to sleep through the night and leave it to them.

  The next day passed in much the same way. The three companions spoke from time to time, but then left each other in peace to contemplate their surroundings in silence. The adolescent noticed that he was traveling more slowly than he had traveled with his friends. At that time, though, they had been in a hurry to reach Shinozuka, and now he thought more and more that he would like this journey to last forever; reaching Yzur would mean leaving Tyv and Paeh, and returning to a solitary existence for who knows how long. And the young man was under no illusions: judging just from the number of people traveling to Yzur, he knew that no one would be walking to the mountains that he so hoped to reach.

  A small group of goblins had the misfortune of crossing paths with them, and Tyv insisted that Glaide take part in the combat. The magg invoked protection – as a security measure – and the young man threw himself into the heart of the action. The more experienced protector took the opportunity to give him a few small bits of advice, most notably on how to deal with enemies armed with lances, as was the case here. The boy was actually quite successful: no attack reached the wall of blue. He was careful throughout the fight not to let the goblins surround him, and he always took care to keep his adversaries within his field of vision. Unlike Tyv, who seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, and could see everything that happened all around him, Glaide concentrated on dealing with just one opponent at a time.

  The group set up their camp just as evening fell. Some calculations told them that the village should be no more than a few kilometers away; they would reach it the next day, sometime during the morning.

  The next morning, Glaide, Tyv, and Paeh took their time before heading back onto the road. The couple seemed to dread the approaching separation as much as the adolescent did. However, they had to go, and two hours later the city wall appeared on the horizon. The city had been built on a small hill, overlooking the surrounding woods and forests. It couldn’t have been more than a couple of miles away, but it took nearly an hour for the group to arrive, since they were advancing at such a tranquil pace; they suddenly seemed to have many things to say to each other before they arrived and parted ways.

  The young man commented on how close the mountains that he hoped to reach appeared to be. Instinctively, he compared them to Fyth. These mountains were not as high, with peaks that looks much less jagged, and much less menacing. These mountains gave off an impression of strength, but none of Fyth’s unwholesome atmosphere that had seemed so smothering for the adolescent. “It’s strange,” he thought, “but you could almost say they seem to be inhabited by some kind of benevolent force... They don’t give the impression of being against everything, of fighting their surroundings; they seem to be one with their surroundings, with nature.” The more he looked at them, the more he thought that searching at the base of these mountains would not be a problem. He even felt safe in their presence, as if covered by a protective shadow. “These are much better!” he thought. “Even if it takes days of searching there for me to discover the dwarves, at least I’ll be in good humor!”

  The group arrived at the village around noon. They ate together, and talked for a while longer. It seemed that Tyv and Paeh had decided to return to the south once they had done what they could here. They had been traveling in the north for a long time, and they wanted to renew some old acquaintances. They would first head towards the southeast, then return to Adrish and their families in the southwest for a while. Glaide promised to look for them there, once he’d found what he sought.

  The trio wandered about the roads of what was apparently much more a tiny village than a city; there were few merchants in Yzur, and the inhabitants seemed to take care of their needs themselves. They saw farms all over. The city was a self-sufficient enclave, and it was easy to see that voyagers were rare here. And besides, apart from the rather oblivious Glaide, who would come up with the idea of adventuring so close to the limits of the Known Lands? And to what end? The servants of Baras themselves seemed uninterested in this place. The young man hoped that it would stay that way, and he didn’t want to stay too long in this tranquil little community and risk attracting trouble.

  Paeh and Tyv quickly reached the conclusion that their services were unnecessary here. Having already decided their next destination, they didn’t want to wait around needlessly. They rented horses, and said their good-byes quickly. Though they all felt a tightness in their chests, they contented themselves with soberly saying, “Farewell”, “good luck”, and “until we meet again”. Then, the riders rode off at a gallop, enveloped in a great cloud of dust, leaving Glaide alone.

  He stayed for a moment to watch his friends disappear into the distance. He, who was habitually so emotional about separations, contented himself with simply watching them in the distance, an absent air about him. He knew that finding Tyv and Paeh again would be extremely difficult, and he felt his chest tighten again. However, he forced himself to smile, thinking all the while that he was starting to toughen up. Then, his gaze fell on the gloves. Yes, he would count on seeing them again, and showing them that their gift had been useful to him. He thought for a moment about the joy he would have at again meeting the friends that he had made and lost. Would his life always be like this? Running this way and that, always searching for shadows? Coming across amazing people, only to leave them again? Perhaps...

  He let down his cape so that it enveloped his body, burrowing his face in the material up to his nose. Then he began walking, moving faster and faster in the direction of the mountains.

  Chapter 4

  YZUR rapidly disappeared from view. Glaide moved ever faster forwards, sporting a huge smile, the sun warming his face. Actually, it wasn’t so bad to be alone from time to time. After a few hours of walking, the path – which up until then had been of dirt, with a few tufts of grass here and there – began to become pebbly, and after a few more kilometers, there was no longer any trace of dirt among the pebbles.

  The impression of safety that emanated from the mountains didn’t stop as they grew taller; in fact, the closer the adolescent came, the more confident he felt. However, the sun was already starting to set, and it would be impossible to sleep among those peaks that same evening.

  Taking advantage of the last rays of light, he spotted a promontory that he climbed up. He found a position high up, facing the only route for accessing his position: a relatively abrupt slope that would take a bit of climbing to scale. In that way, any potential aggressor, unless he could jump twelve feet in the air, would have to climb up – and at the same time, make a good deal of noise. “Noise that, I hope, will wake me,” thought Glaide. He ate his supper rapidly. The shadows around him had begun to disquiet him, and, not wanting to panic, he forced himself to lay down immediately after the meal. His cape proved itself to be an excellent pillow, and a reliable blanket at the same time.

  The young man awoke suddenly during the middl
e of the night. The noise that woke him wasn’t coming from the slope, but rather from below his perch. Still half asleep, he approached the edge of his hiding place – trying to be as inconspicuous as possible – so that he could see what was there. He had to suppress a cry of surprise when he discovered the procession of hideous creatures who were occupied with parading back and forth under his promontory. They carried torches, and the shadows they projected created patterns on their faces, making the members of the procession even more monstrous. Some were orks – both the black orks, and the weaker variety – while others seemed to be more animalistic in appearance. Glaide recognized two or three minotaurs, accompanied by chimeras. There were also some smaller monsters, with the upper bodies of humans, but with horns on their heads and the feet of goats. All in all, the group had to be made up of thirty or forty creatures.

  The young man froze in place as though petrified, hoping against hope that he hadn’t been seen. What did all of this mean? What were those things doing there? Were they searching for him? He wasn’t sure. The group didn’t seem to be looking for anything; they seemed to be headed somewhere. None of them spoke. The monsters stared blankly in front of them, their faces completely empty of expression. The noise that had awakened Glaide had been the scraping of boots, the ringing of swords, and grumbling. But where were they going, then, marching east like this? There were no more villages in this direction, only the mountains. Suddenly an ork lifted his head. He scanned the horizon with his evil yellow eyes, made a sign with his head, and so commanded the procession to turn towards the north. They passed over a hill and disappeared from view of the boy, who rolled onto his back, breathing rapidly. He knew he had to lay perfectly still for now: his enemies were still close. As he waited for them to move out of hearing distance, he gradually relaxed without even noticing, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

  Glaide woke with a start. The sun had just begun to rise, and it was chilly. Remembering what he had seen, he quickly checked to see that there was no longer any danger. Then, he wrapped his cape around his shoulders again, and descended the slope, looking for any traces of the creatures that had passed below his lucky hiding place. However, he found nothing.

  “What does that mean, then?” he asked himself. “I’m sure I wasn’t dreaming. I saw them; they were right there!” He followed the path that the procession had taken, but he could find no trace. He exclaimed aloud, “Right, I must be going crazy then. Unless...” He let that word hang in the air. An icy shiver went down his spine, then he added in a whisper, “Unless what I saw didn’t really exist...” Slowly, Glaide lifted his eyes towards the hill where the monsters had passed. “Unless they were...” Here he swallowed painfully. “they were ghosts...”

  The sun was up, but its rays couldn’t warm the adolescent. He felt icy cold from fear. He forced himself to speak aloud, gradually mastering the trembling in his voice. “Right, of course! I should have expected something like that! In the middle of all of these sorcerers and monsters, all that was missing were ghosts. And I suppose, vampires and zombies, too! That would explain why they had such blank expressions, though. I suppose that every night, they follow some predetermined path, perhaps repeating what they were doing when they died. If it happened just after the hill that they passed over, then if I would have followed them, I would have seen them disappear. Or perhaps I would have seen them confront other ghosts, the enemies of their day, locked in eternal combat...” Glaide shivered. All of the creatures that frightened the children of Earth, that we never stopped claiming didn’t exist, took on a form of their own here. Anything was possible... Absolutely anything.

  He began walking again, not really knowing what to do. Facing orks was one thing, but facing ghosts was another entirely. The place where he now found himself, far from all civilisation, seemed to favor strange phenomenons, or at least, phenomenons that were stranger than those found in the rest of the Known Lands. He suddenly and ardently wished to turn around, and forget all about the dwarves. But the light of day gave him courage. Little by little, he persuaded himself that he had to continue. If he quit at the first sign of difficulty, then he wasn’t worthy of the school of Iretane. “On the other hand, though, if I’m killed, that won’t be very helpful either,” he grumbled to himself. Nonetheless, he resolutely continued on his way.

  The day advanced. Glaide tried to think as little as possible about the approaching night. He had never imagined experiencing such dread at the thought of mere moonlight. However, the mountains were still far off, and the day reached its end before the young man could reach them. He let out a curse – with feeling – as he realized that he had not yet drawn close. However, he could feel their benevolent aura, and wondered how far away they could really be. He would have liked to continue traveling, all while gazing at the setting sun, and the shadows it attracted, and which were gradually taking possession of everything around him, but recent events dissuaded him from that course of action, and he contented himself with finding a new safe place. Again, he chose a small promontory that drew him and hurriedly climbed it, though it wasn’t as high as the previous one, and one could reach its top from several different routes.

  Glaide decided not to sleep that night. He had tried to stay up all night a time or two before with his friends, but he had never yet succeeded. However, in the current situation, it was not so much a game as a question of survival. He sat down – still wearing his cape – drew his sword, and leaned it against his shoulder, point down. If he began to fall asleep, the blade would fall to the ground and wake him. The idea pleased him, and he prepared himself to spend a long night awake. When his head began to droop an hour later, he was vaguely conscious of his sword falling, but it made no sound as it struck the thick grass – a detail the young man had entirely overlooked – and he fell into a deep sleep.

  He passed a peaceful night. In the early hours of the morning, he stretched and yawned for a long moment. It was then that he noticed his sword on the ground. He jumped up with a bound, immediately realizing what had happened. Again he swore, angry with himself for having sabotaged his own plan, and furiously sheathed his sword. However, the most important thing – as he was fully aware – was that he was still alive.

  A few miles farther, the mountain chain became more distinct, and Glaide could distinguish the peaks from the foothills. He noticed one thing above all else: the general shape of these rocky protuberances. Actually, they seemed to contrast with the mountains of Fyth in every way. Where the latter bore towering peaks with a tormented appearance to them, here the main thing was not the height of the peaks, but the great width of the chain. He could distinguish impressive cliffs and deep and profound valleys that cut deeply into the mountain range, dividing it into many individual summits, of which, more seemed to be plateaus than peaks.

  The young man arrived at the end of the first step of his quest.

  The path before him disappeared outright, with the rocky ground of the path giving way to dirt, blanketed in shrubbery and a carpet of low grass. It was as though he had come out of a desert of sand to find himself in a prairie, with a perfectly defined border between the two. He had left the paths of the Known Lands – and at the same time, those of humans – to enter the territory of the dwarves.

  The moment he placed his foot on this welcoming expanse, the adolescent – strangely, and without knowing why – felt that he was alone. Alone as he had never been before. Not a single bird sang, and not a single branch in the trees of the surrounding area creaked. He knew that here, he would not have to dread ghosts. The impression of isolation that this place gave off was comparable to what one would feel in the immense silence of space.

  He felt his chest tighten, prey to a sudden melancholy. He fell to his knees. The images of everyone he had encountered up until then, from Drekhor to Rozak to the Guardian and his friends, overwhelmed him. His mind was filled with turmoil; he became subject to a sadness as incomprehensible as it was brusque and violent. He didn’t dare to say a w
ord, for fear of breaking the peace surrounding him. However, he needed to speak, to hear his own voice. He stayed there, though, curled up into himself, shaken from spasms and sobs.

  It took an hour. An hour in which he used a supreme effort of will to recover his spirits and to set aside the emotions this strange place had brought to the surface.

  Finally, as the sun began to set at his back, Glaide got up, filled with newfound strength. “I’m beginning to be sick of all of these bizarre places,” he groaned to himself. “First the eternal twilight of the Forest of the Worlds, and the ghosts, and now these mountains... I should just go to sleep. Tomorrow, I’ll go and search for these dwarves. I’ll have to find some way to put them in my debt. Hmmm... Though that’s certainly no given.” He couldn’t help smiling a little as he laid down in the fresh grass and rested his head against a stone, all while trying to ignore the silence around him. Just before he fell asleep, the thought crossed his mind that this place was dead, even if it was filled with verdant nature. Yes, it was the silence of death that reigned here.

  Chapter 5

  GLAIDE began his wanderings during the morning. He tried to forget the solitude, and to concentrate on the ground, searching for any trace or clue to finding the dwarves. He drew farther from the border, pressing deeper into the territory. He travelled through the woods without crossing a living soul, and wandered many miles in every direction, and yet, when the day reached its end, he had not made even the tiniest amount of progress. However, he was confidant: tomorrow he would inspect the foothills of the mountains, and he was sure he would find an entrance – or something like one, at any rate.