Cave Of Forlorn

by R. C. Rutter

The King recognized his confusion. “Don’t fret Antonio. It is not so perplexing. When you understand that…..”

  “Hey, who goes there? Show yourselves!” said the authoritative voice.

  “Who wants to know?” said Antonio in a very commanding response.

  “Rafael, of the Royal Army Guard, 3rd Brigade, Castle Division, Court of the King. Show yourselves or die where you hide.”

  “What? Who? What is your name? Who do you work for again? Court of the what? Division who? Hey, what was your name again?”

  Rafael sounded frustrated. “I am Rafael, of the Royal Army Guard, 3rd, hey, that is all you need to know. Show yourselves or die!”

  “Rafael? I used to own a pig named Rafael.” Antonio said laughing. “Alright, alright, we are coming out. Please don’t hurt us.” Antonio put his visor down on his face, placed his sword by his feet and walked out.

  “Hold it right there. Let me see your face.”

  Antonio walked into the light and lifted his visor. “Satisfied?”

  Rafael let out a yelp and sheathed his sword. He grasped Antonio firmly and gave him a great hug. “I did not know what happened to you. I had to go down to the prison earlier and no one knew where you were, thought you might have been conscripted to join the others in the attack of the cave.”

  “Here, let me show you something.” Antonio took a few steps back and motioned for the King to join him.

  The King walked forward slowly. Rafael stood there in shock at the sight of the King then fell to his knees and bowed his head. “Your Majesty. I had no idea. There have been many changes here.”

  “I am glad to see you Rafael. Please rise. I think under the circumstances we can forgo such formalities. Where does your loyalty reside?”

  “With you, My Lord, always. Like many others, I serve the demons out of fear. To oppose them shortens one’s life considerably.” Rafael smiled. “And my loyalty also resides with my brother-in-law, Antonio.” Rafael nodded at Antonio. “I must be going. They will expect me to return from my rounds soon.” Rafael bowed. “I shall return in two hours time on my next round. I expect that if I was to bring some food with me that would be acceptable your Highness?”

  “Only if you can not arouse suspicion, the risk and ramifications are too great for us to be caught.”

  “By your leave” Rafael said as he bowed and departed.

  Antonio looked at the King. “So there are others still loyal to you. That is good to know. It is far too dangerous to speak about this openly. There are spies everywhere and I have personally witnessed guards taken away and executed just for the sheer act of speaking out loud against the demons. It is impossible to tell whom to trust.”

  The King looked at Antonio and his face softened. “Rest assured Antonio, there is a plan in place. Remember, your loyalty is with the Kingdom, not with me. I am not the Kingdom, the Kingdom is with the people and the people must persevere. Come; let us get some rest until Rafael returns.”

  The two of them walked back to their hiding place.

  * * *

  As Bartholomew approached the campsite, he could smell something cooking. The aroma was overwhelming. He was beginning to think that he really liked this assignment. He looked over at Samuel.

  Samuel was sniffing the air and smiling. “Hey, do you think they will share again? Hate to be rude and refuse their offer.”

  “I am sure of it. They seem to be a gracious and friendly group. Of course, they could all be fooling us.” Bartholomew dropped his voice to a whisper. “Remember how we met the Queen?”

  “Shhhhhh, don’t even go there” Samuel whispered back. “You never know who might be listening and try to gain favor with the Queen by telling on us.”

  “Yeah, right you are. Still, I wonder…..”

  “The only thing I wonder about is you!”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “You are not exactly the sharpest stick in the forest!’

  “Oh, like you have a lot of room to talk. I have not walked directly into a tree. Have you?”

  “You promised never to bring that up again. Besides, I was distracted.”

  “That’s right, you were thinking. Strange sensation, was it not?”

  Samuel was about to respond when he realized they were at the camp. “Hello campsite, good morning!” Samuel yelled as they approached.

  “Good morning” was the reply from Malcolm. “We knew you were on your way so we made extra food. Come join us. Are you hungry?”

  Bartholomew reached for a nearby bowl that was steaming. Malcolm yelped and snatched it away before he had a chance to grab the spoon. “Sorry about that but it is Lydia’s bowl.”

  Bartholomew and Samuel just stared at Malcolm not knowing how to react. Malcolm was stressed trying to think of something to say to explain his behavior but was not having any luck.

  Eric interjected “Lydia has a cold right now and we don’t want anyone else to get sick.”

  That seemed to satisfy everyone. Malcolm gave them two bowls and pointed to the pot on the fire.

  “Lovely, just lovely” said Bartholomew as he filled his bowl. He sat down on a log and was soon joined by Samuel.

  “I trust you slept well?” he said aloud to the group. Tonight you shall have better accommodations with proper beds.”

  Bartholomew hesitated for a second looking at Samuel “And a campfire perhaps?”

  “Yes, yes, we must make sure you have a campfire, too important to forget.”

  “That shall be good” said Eric. “Tell me, where are we?

  “Why you are in the Land of Lorne, ruled by King Lorne for many centuries.”

  “Ah, I see.” Eric pondered for a moment. “So, tell me, this cave is known as the Cave of Forlorn. Named after the King?”

  “Well, kind of. The King gave us protection in exchange for part of our harvest each year. You always set aside the proper amount and put a sign on it so no one would take it by mistake and use it. The sign said ‘For Lorne’ and you would see the signs everywhere. After the King’s death, it got shortened to Forlorn and has been that way ever since.”

  “Yeah” chimed in Samuel, “And it worked to our advantage, keeping out the curious. That and the reputation that anyone who came into the cave never came out again, well, that really kept away the curious.”

  Bartholomew sighed. “The reason no one ever came out again was because no one who ever came here wanted to leave again. They all found their own little space to live peacefully. Well, anyhow, it used to be that way.”

  “BARTHOLOMEW!” Samuel yelled. “You are putting us in danger!”

  “Relax, why don’t you? Did you hear the Queen telling me to be truthful? I sure did and that is what I will do.”

  “What? You are actually going to do what you were told? Since when?”

  “You think you are funny, don’t you? I can follow directions with the best of them.”

  “Sure you can, except when it comes to archery.”

  “Hey, that is low, you promised to never bring that up again.”

  “I did but I was not the one to shoot the instructor.”

  “Well he said ‘hit the biggest target’ then he bent over. Not my fault.”

  Bartholomew realized that everyone had gathered around and was listening to the two of them. He poked Samuel in the side and nodded towards the group.

  Samuel cleared his throat. “Oh yes, where were we? Bartholomew?”

  “It was some time after the King died that the Queen shows up one day and pronounces herself ‘Queen.’ With no one to oppose her and no one powerful enough to engage her in battle, she became our Queen. We have been servants to her ever since.”

  “Honestly Bartholomew, I have never heard you speak like this!” stated Samuel.

  “Well, I have not felt this mentally alert for centuries. I think it might be something in the stew.”

  “No, not the stew” said Eric wisely, “but rather your elixir.”

  “Can’t be th
e elixir, I drink that all the time and I have never felt like this.”

  “Exactly, that is my point.”

  “Wait!” said Samuel exasperated. “Do you mean that the Queen is drugging us with the elixir? Why would she do that?”

  Bartholomew just looked at Samuel. There was no need to say anything. It was too obvious.

  Samuel looked stunned and finally said “Oh, I get it.”

  Bartholomew got real serious and whispered “Now the question is what are we going to do about it?”

  “Opposing the Queen is going to be very dangerous. Maybe work out an agreement with the strangers here? We go with them?”

  “Done, if they leave, we leave with them. Someone here has to have magical powers. I bet they are strong enough to fight the Queen. After all, they opened the door.”

  “We are supposed to figure out who that is. If we tell the Queen, she will kill them and us too. Not good, not good at all.”

  “Yeah, she will kill us or worse!”

  As soon as he said that, Seth interrupted. They had not realized that he was standing right beside them. “Alright, just what exactly does that mean?”

  “What? Means what? What means what?” Samuel had this perplexed look on his face.

  Bartholomew just looked at Samuel and shook his head. “Were you not even listening? Can you really be that dense?”

  “It is easy. I just pretend to be you. Being dense comes naturally!”

  Bartholomew shot him a dirty look. “Well, we will help you escape and you must take us with you.” He watched Seth’s face for any sign of acceptance, trying to read his reaction.

  “No, what I am asking about is “Or worse! You will be killed or worse! I keep hearing that and I can’t figure out what would be worse than being killed!”

  “There are many things but being controlled by someone else is worse than being dead, having to do things that you would never contemplate let alone execute because it is against your morals and principles.”

  “Yes” Samuel chimed in. “All that is against your will and you are powerless to do anything about it. Is it good to have a voice and be able to speak your mind without retribution.”

  Bartholomew sighed. “I guess this makes us ‘or worse” only we did not know it because we were drugged.” His eyes got real big and his voice became excited “Can you fix us some more stew? Lots of it? We need to feed all of our people. Free them all.”

  “First we need to know who is the powerful one who opened the door?” Samuel asked.

  Seth started to speak then caught himself. “You almost had me there, great story, and great ploy, all to find out who has magical powers. Nice try but it won’t work!” Seth turned and started walking away.

  “Wait, it is NOT a trick!” was the exasperated reply from Bartholomew. “We are telling the truth. It is not trickery.”

  “Then it should suffice that you can travel with us. There is nothing to be gained by revealing the identity. I shall tell the others.”

  Seth took about ten steps away then turned back to them. “Tell your friends to come out of the trees. I believe a bowl of stew is in order.” Seth joined his friends. They gathered around him as he told the news. Erica glanced up once and waved her hand. Ten large kettles of stew appeared and the aroma was everywhere.

  It was not long before the rest of Bartholomew’s clan emerged from the trees with their nostrils flaring. They were all very quiet as they were handed bowls and spoons and sampled the meal. Their facial expressions changed from hardened to serene as they enjoyed the repast.

  Malcolm suddenly stood up, said nothing, left the group and walked over to the trees. All the clan members watched as Malcolm lifted his hands and placed his palms on two trees. He stood there for several minutes then returned, walked directly to Seth and whispered in his ear.

  Less than a minute later Seth was walking away from Eric and proceeded directly to Bartholomew. “Two of your clan members are still in the forest. They chose not to join us. Why is that?”

  Samuel grimaced. “Must be Sacco and Vincente” he said without even looking around to see who was missing. “Always had a bad feeling about the two of them, anytime there was trouble, you could count on seeing them in the middle of it.”

  Seth looked perplexed. “I thought there were no problems here, everyone got along?”

  “Sure we do!” said Bartholomew. “As long as this empty-headed buffoon listens to me, all is fine.”

  “Yeah, last time I listened to you, we blew up the tree house. Would not have been bad except we were in it.”

  “I thought we agreed not to bring that up again.”

  “You agreed. I didn’t. Probably talking to yourself again.”

  “Well, being around you, sometimes that is the only way I can get an intelligent answer.”

  Seth was getting tired of this. “If you two don’t mind…..?”

  Bartholomew stood up. Samuel quickly did too and promptly told Bartholomew to sit back down. “As the Sergeant-At-Arms, it is my duty to enforce the laws. I will take care of this.”

  Bartholomew heard the determination in his voice and sat down.

  “May I borrow your wolf?” asked Samuel. “It will be more efficient and now is not the time for delay.”

  ‘You are asking permission to borrow me? No one owns me!’ was the loud voice inside Samuel’s head. ‘I will assist but next time ask me directly!’ His face went white as he realized what just happened.

  Shabb walked over to Samuel and sniffed for a few seconds. He then turned his back and looked at Samuel expecting him to climb up.

  Samuel realized this would not be easy. He was standing next to Shabb and his eyes were about halfway up Shabb’s side. He could not even reach the top to grab on. He cleared his throat which was the clue that he needed help. Seth gave him a boost.

  “Well, Shabb, can you follow their scent? We must catch them quickly before they endanger us all.”

  Shabb took several steps sniffing the air as he moved. He was detecting too many scents of the clan members so he moved into the woods. He quickly dismissed all that led into the campsite. After about a minute he found the scents of the two that had gone in a different direction.

  Samuel could feel Shabb’s muscles tighten so he grabbed a fistful of fur and hung on. Shabb bolted in the direction of the scent.

  “Well, Shabb will find them” said Eric. “Now, we need to come up with a plan. Obviously the Queen is not going to be very happy about this. You need to tell me everything you can about her and this land. No detail is too small.”

  Bartholomew cleared his throat. “Okay. Well, you know how the Queen showed up one day and took over. Rumor has it that she was from the land over the mountain range. This I learned from her housekeeper. It was a few years between the death of the King and her arrival so we don’t think she had anything to do with it.”

  “She has been here for eighteen years now. At first she was very friendly and approachable. It was like she was relieved to leave behind wherever she same from. As the years past, her heart hardened until she is now like this, very paranoid and very controlling.”

  “And what of the army? Who protects her?”

  “We do. Well, it is not like we are soldiers or anything. We like to think it as more of a ceremonial position than a fighting force. After all, we have no weapons to speak of and certainly very little training. Our ancestors used to hunt but we have not done that for a long time. With the elixir, we have lost a lot, it seems.”

  “Interesting. What do you know of her power? Can you give me examples of some of the things she has done?”

  “She has kept us protected here for many years. She rarely lets anyone leave and only then it is to get some supplies that we cannot find or make here. When you saw me, it was only my second trip since I became an adult which was a long time ago.

  “Mind you, we do have people trying to find us. They are determined. There are many rumors about all kinds of gold and diamonds here. Th
at is when she hired Cerberus to scare away anyone that came close. Quite effective mind you. Well, at least it used to be.”

  “Good point” said Eric. “Now that you mention it, I can’t say I have seen Cerberus since we arrived here.”

  Everyone started looking around but the creature was not there.

  Bartholomew looked perplexed. “Would you hang around if you were the guard? Instead of chasing away the visitors you lead them right here? Now you have to explain that to the Queen who does NOT have a sense of humor?”