The Three Feathers - The Magnificent Journey of Joshua Aylong

by Bolz, Stefan

  “I remember!” Her ecstatic thoughts told him. “I remember it, Krieg.”

  He stood at the edge of the sheer drop, looking down and he felt something that he had felt only once since his days of the Great War: It was fear. It paralyzed him, made his mouth dry and made his heart beat against his chest.

  “Be free!” The faintest thought reached him while he watched her disappear into the clouds. “Be yourself and be free…”

  He looked down into the deep for a while longer letting everything that he felt wash through him, take over and envelop him completely. Then he trotted about a hundred yards back from the edge and turned around. This was it. He would do this or die. The thought of the inevitability of his choice let everything around him quiet down. Without hesitation he jumped forward and began to gallop, concentrating only on his hooves racing over the ground carrying him toward the edge, toward either life or death. Thirty yards to go. He had reached his maximum speed. His powerful muscles pushed him further and further. Twenty yards. He could see the edge clearly before him coming ever closer.

  Ten yards. He reached the point of no return. There was nothing stopping him. And with that thought he jumped.

  He fell much faster than he had imagined he would. He had no frame of reference for falling this deep, this far. Back at the waterfall he had gotten a small inkling. But this was a five thousand foot drop.

  “Just let it happen,” he thought to himself. “Just let it happen.”

  Having reached terminal velocity at fifty four yards per second he had the strange sensation of hovering even though the sound of the wind was deafening in his ears. He could not see anything and part of him waited for the inevitable crash when he would hit the ground. Then he broke through the clouds and for a split second he saw Hollow’s Gate far below him and its beauty took his breath away. And then everything went black.

  9. EAGLES

  Suddenly the ground beneath them gave way and, at first, Joshua thought that Krieg and the Pegasus, together with the cliff behind them, moved away from him. But then he realized that he and Grey were moving away from them! At that moment he knew what the cracking sound was. A large part of the plateau on which they stood was breaking off, taking him and the wolf with it and disappearing into the depth below. And then he fell.

  His immediate concern was for the wolf. “Grey!” He thought frantically as he saw the wolf try desperately to hold on to something and then slide off the breaking rock and fall. Joshua knew at that moment that there was nothing he could do for the wolf. He would never reach him even though he tugged his wings in as much as he could in an attempt to somehow get close to him. The wolf’s weight made him fall much faster than Joshua. He saw him for an instant far below and Joshua thought at that moment that his heart would break. Then the wolf disappeared into the fog and was gone. Out of the corner of his eye Joshua saw the Pegasus break free and the path they came on beginning to crumble. Suddenly there were large rocks flying toward him and his only choice was to unfold his wings and fly, moving away from the falling rocks.

  When his wings unfolded and he flew away from the cliff, he saw the Pegasus and Krieg running along the path as it broke off underneath them. They made it just in time to the second path that lead upward. For a split second Joshua considered flying back toward Krieg but he realized that he would never make it up there again. Then the fog enclosed him and he didn’t see anything anymore. He could hear the wind under his wings but as he made small adjustments, he sailed in almost complete silence. In the distance he heard the rocks breaking off the cliff in an eerie sound as the path to the waterfall crumbled. Then this too quieted down until there was no more sound at all. For a while, Joshua felt suspended as if in a no man’s land feeling nothing but the wind under his wings.

  Then he broke through the fog and as he looked down he saw Hollow’s Gate far below. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. From up here he could see shades of green interspersed with dark indentations. There was a large area to the west that looked like ancient ruins, geometrical patterns of dark color within the shades of green. He saw two great lakes to the southwest that looked like tears of deep indigo, and a massive ice formation reaching up the sheer cliffs in tongs of silver. Just as he began to wonder why he couldn’t see any sign of the falling wolf, everything suddenly went black.

  * * *

  …And then there was nothingness. Joshua felt as if he was suspended in complete darkness. He wasn’t even sure if he was still flying, so still was the air around him. He experienced himself as both tiny, no bigger than a grain of sand, and simultaneously stretched out and completely encompassing the whole world. It was as if his mind expanded many fold in all directions reaching deep into the earth and far into vast space. He knew at that moment with absolute certainty that there was more to him than feathers and skin and bones. But before he could even think about this and as suddenly as the blackness came, it went, and Joshua found himself back in the air over Hollow’s Gate.

  After reorienting himself, he decided to fly as close to the cliff as possible. Maybe there was a fighting chance he could see the wolf somewhere. Part of him was horrified of finding his friend and wished he would be spared having to look at him. He wanted to keep Grey in his memories as he had known him, not as he would see him with his body broken somewhere at the bottom of Hollow’s Gate. Another part wished he would still be alive somehow but that option seemed completely impossible right now.

  It was strange to fly along the massive cliff that spanned from the surface high above all the way down to the bottom, a straight five thousand foot drop. The rock was smooth and had almost no cracks or indentations of any kind in it. From here Joshua could see the cliffs stretching in both directions meeting in a perfect circle far in the distance. The sheer size of it was stupendous. He couldn’t escape the feeling that the circular shape was not a natural phenomenon and that this place was in fact created, formed by something other than what natural laws would allow—a force more powerful than anything he could imagine.

  Eventually he landed. Where the ground met the straight cliff wall, it sloped upward in a gentle curve until the soil touched the stone. It was as if the earth here had been pushed toward the cliff and up at least fifty feet. When he found his bearings, Joshua decided to walk along the cliff for a while, hoping to find his friend and at the same time hoping not to find him at all.

  As he walked along the massive wall, he couldn’t help but feel smaller and smaller, almost insignificant, as if everything he had done and everything that he was amounted to nothing in the end. He had lost his new found friends almost as soon as he had found them. He was at the bottom of an abyss that seemed to hold no hope for ever getting back to the surface. And even if he were to reach it, what then? Emptiness spread within him and he could not remember ever having felt so alone. He walked for hours and lost all sense of time, his thoughts caught in an endless spiral of despair from which he could not escape. That’s why he didn’t hear it at first.

  So deeply immersed was he in his own world that it took him a few moments before the eagle’s cry reached him. He only started hearing it when he heard the second sound: the howling of a wolf. It couldn’t be that far away. It sounded eerie at first but then, before he saw them physically, he saw them in his mind. And what came with the image was the sound of laughter. It was laughter that brought with it the glad realization that the wolf was alive, and Joshua couldn’t help but jump up and fly the last distance before he came around a large rock and saw them.

  Wolf and eagle sat next to each other on a moss covered rock. The eagle was an impressive bird as it was about the same size as the large wolf. Grey gave out howls that, under different circumstances, would have been bone chilling to Joshua. The eagle let out long cries and throughout that, Joshua could hear their laughter in his mind. First he was stunned, watching them in disbelief. Then he couldn’t help but join in. He laughed long and hard and the joy of having found his companion safe and sound swept over hi
m and he laughed until he sank to the ground.

  “Tidings of a red rooster and his companions searching for the cave of dreams have reached us in the deep.” The eagle’s thoughts stood in Joshua’s mind and for a moment he felt as if he was lifted up high into the heavens, soaring there.

  “You know of us?” Joshua replied.

  “Yes we do. Sometimes legends become legends while they happen,” the eagle answered. “There has not been anyone searching for the cave of dreams within this lifetime and many before that one. The freeing of the Pegasus has set in motion an infinite number of possibilities that did not exist before. But be wary. There are forces at work here, my red friend, that will try to stop you from ever reaching your goal and there are forces here and inside the mountain that will do whatever it takes for you not to find what you are looking for.”

  “So, it is real?” Joshua was surprised about his own question. Did he not think his dream would have a chance to become reality? He had to admit to himself at that moment that, for a while now, he did not really believe in his dreams anymore and that he had mainly been on this journey because of his companions.

  “That’s why they are with you,” the eagle interrupted his stream of thought. “They are with you to keep your dream alive within you. Do not abandon it. Do not give in, whatever may occur. Hollow’s Gate, the Great Deep, is what you must conquer in order to reach the entrance to Storm Mountain, the entrance to the dark. For you must first face your nightmares before you can reach the cave of dreams.”

  With that, the eagle jumped off the rock and landed in front of Joshua. He was easily four times Joshua’s size with white feathers around his massive beak and down his chest and light brown wings with dark edges. His eyes, Joshua felt, could see deep into his soul. He was in awe of the eagle but at the same time had the strange sensation that this awe was reflected back to him.

  “Ayres greets you.” The eagle opened his wings and when Joshua thought he would take flight, he bowed his head deep before Joshua. Then he pushed off the ground and with a few powerful strokes of his wings, he was already high up in the air where he began to circle overhead, crying out several times.

  Joshua, stunned and somewhat embarrassed, looked in disbelief from the eagle to the wolf who jumped down from the rock and came toward him.

  “I’m so glad you are alive,” Joshua couldn’t contain his joy. “How did you… how is it possible that you live? And what in all the world does this all mean?”

  “Come,” the wolf replied. “Let’s find some water and food and I will tell you everything I know.”

  As they walked through the green pasture that was dotted with large trees with branches wide and low to the ground, Joshua wondered how he had heard that Hollow’s Gate was a dark place filled with creatures who avoided the light. What he saw now was a lush landscape with hills and valleys and—”

  “Do not be deceived by its beauty,” Grey brought him back. “It is a place of trials and tribulations and its laws are completely its own. A day lasts seven days but one night lasts as long and you want to be as far away from here as possible when the sun sets in the eastern sky.”

  “How did you survive?” Joshua asked.

  As the wolf looked at him Joshua began to see an image of Grey falling through the sky like a stone. He passed through the fog and when the blackness came, for an instant there were memories of the wolf’s companion at his side roaming the ice forests in deep winter. The sting of loss the wolf felt at that moment lingered in Joshua’s mind like an echo deep inside him. Then the blackness was gone and the ground came closer and closer until suddenly there was a pull and a piercing pain in the wolf’s sides. Joshua saw the eagle with the wolf in his talons gliding down toward the ground.

  “Did the eagle see you?” Joshua asked. “How could he see you and fly down to catch you so fast?”

  “It has to do with the Gate of Time,” Grey replied.

  “The Gate of Time?” Joshua asked.

  “Time down here flows slower than on the surface. A week down here is but a day above. The Gate of Time lies in the middle between the two worlds. It is an area you pass through to reach the bottom. It is an area where time does not exist, where the past and the future are equally balanced in the present.”

  “I’m not sure I understand,” Joshua must have shown his confusion for Grey stopped and turned toward him.

  “The eagles have their nests right below the Gate. They see through it and beyond. When I fell, Ayres saw me coming toward it. But because time flows differently above it, he saw me as if I fell very slowly. He recognized me and when I passed through the Gate, he caught me and brought me safely to the ground.”

  “How do you know him?” Joshua asked.

  “That, my friend, is a long story and one I am more than willing to share—after we eat.”

  And that was that. They walked a little further to a place where water ran over a few large rocks to create a small pool at the bottom. Grey left for a while to look for game. The earth around the pool was soft and there were berry bushes at the edge of the water. Joshua, for the first time in days, could still his hunger completely. And weren’t there the nagging concern for Krieg and what was to become of him, he would have been content.

  10. MIRRORS

  “You don’t have to hide your food from me,” Joshua thought to the wolf when he came back. “I don’t mind you eating in front of me. You can’t be different than what you are.”

  “And you can’t help feeling uneasy. So, I eat away from you and then I come back,” the wolf replied.

  Joshua, as usual, could not escape the wolf’s logic. He knew better by now not to argue especially when it was clear that Grey was right.

  “I have so many questions,” Joshua thought.

  “I’m sure, in time they will be answered,” Grey thought back. “But what of Krieg and the Pegasus?”

  “Last I saw, they had reached the steep path that lead to the surface. I know nothing beyond that,” Joshua answered.

  “At least they are safe for now, it seems,” the wolf thought.

  But his concern betrayed him and Joshua knew that this was a mere hope the wolf held and not a certainty. For a while there was silence between them and all they heard was the chirping of the insects and the soft breeze rustling the tree tops and the grasses in the fields.

  “How do you know this place?” Joshua wasn’t so sure if he wanted to know the answer but he asked it anyway.

  “I don’t. At least I don’t remember. Wolves and eagles have always formed close bonds with each other throughout the ages. I have known Ayres since I was a cub. We both came from the Ice Forests and in our youth there was a time when we hunted the great white tundra together. No game was too big for us. There were huge buffalo that provided food for a moon for both our families. Once we left the days of our youth behind, Ayres answered the call to become the Guardian of the Gate. He has lived down here since then. It is a solitary life but one that can bring great joys to those who fully embrace it. Sometimes what I believe to be my own memory turns out not to belong to me, but to him. But it is clouded and inaccessible most of the time. Once in a while I get a glimpse into what I know are not my own thoughts, but the eagle’s.

  “It looks like you have questions of your own,” Joshua thought to the wolf.

  “I do indeed,” the wolf answered.

  There was a pause when Joshua looked at the wolf. He saw something in his eyes that at first he thought not to speak to him about again.

  “Grey.”

  “Yes.”

  “You think about your companion often, don’t you?” Joshua realized that he probably should have left it alone but now it was too late to take it back. “You don’t have to say anything, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to burden you with my questions.”

  Grey looked at him. “I think of her all the time, Joshua. I think of her when I first awake and when I go to sleep at night. I see her in the water and in the clouds in the sky. I see her e
verywhere. And yet, she seems so far away and unreachable and sometimes I think not to live if I were to continue to live without her.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Do not be, for you are a good friend and friends like you are harder to find than you think. It soothes my pain and helps so it does not devour me from the inside and feed on itself.”

  They looked at each other for a moment longer. Then Grey let out a long yawn and slumped to his side. Joshua looked up into the sky. He realized that there were neither clouds nor fog. Strange, as from above you could not see down here at all. And while he wondered why this was, he suddenly became very tired and he fell into a dreamless sleep from which he woke with the sun in his face, warming his feathers.

  * * *

  When he opened his eyes, disoriented at first, Joshua saw a shimmering in the distance as if the light and air played a trick on his eyes.

  “Grey,” he thought as he couldn’t see the wolf anywhere.

  He looked around. All was quiet. The image of a clear brook came into his mind with the wolf jumping in looking for fish until he finally caught one. That’s when Grey came around a small hill toward him. When he arrived he shook himself, spraying water everywhere. Joshua smiled in his thoughts.

  “How far away do you think this is?” Joshua looked in the direction of the shimmering air.

  “About two days, maybe three. Hard to tell from here. If we climb further up somewhere, we might get a better idea,” the wolf answered.

  “Maybe we should go there,” Joshua thought.

  “What makes you think that?” Grey answered.