by Cale Madison
***
Night began to fall onto the lands as we trekked along the mountain path. We watched as the sun disappeared over the horizon, casting a haze of red and orange over the ascending trail. Each boulder shimmered in the light as it began to fade, the various peaks and valleys resembled deep wrinkles in the earth. The grizzled terrain appeared aged from centuries of weathering. There wasn’t a single brooch of snow or ice caps in sight, only barren rock. From this height, Avenwood didn’t seem nearly as massive as it felt when we were walking through it. Skalige agreed with me.
We eased our way along a steep crag, one that was scarcely wide enough to stand on. The baron led our expedition, being the slower one. He used one hand to grasp at divots in the flank while the other ran along the mountain’s face. I watched as stones would tumble over the ledge, plummeting for seemingly-endless seconds before clattering along the rocky base, far below. Skalige held his breath as he pressed on.
“Unbelievable,” I called out with a laugh, “the great Baron of the Badlands, Scourge of the Seas with a pet water-dragon is afraid of heights?”
“Not heights, boy,” he snapped, gritting his teeth, “just the fall. Now, stop your yammerin’ before you give me another headache. If I fall, you’re coming with me so I have something soft to land on.”
Once the ridge opened to a pass between two jagged braes, I set our bags down and collapsed onto my back. The heavy weight of the journey was beginning to wither away at my mind and body. Skalige took one look and asked, “So, what, we’re stopping now? The giant doesn’t seem to rest.”
“I’m not a fucking giant, Skalige.” I snapped through panted breaths.
“Have it your way, then,” he said as he peered over the cliff’s ledge at the mountainous valleys below, “I just think we oughta be using our time wisely, while he’s not roaming about. It’s better than we keep an upper hand on the big guy.”
“It’s dark now. We should make camp for the night and continue in the morning. We can’t see the elf traps and we have no torches...I mean, it would be stupid to keep going, right? We can’t even see two inches in front of our faces and the moon’s hidden behind those clouds.”
“Eh, agreed.”
We set up a small, momentary campsite and gathered wood from a few spruce trees nearby to start a fire. I protested to the idea at first, until the baron assured me that giants cannot see at night, so they rest in the mountain tops. Skalige sparked a light against the dry wood and smoke began to form. Once the flames started to rise, he withdrew two loaves of bread from his pack and tossed one to me. I examined the soft bread and distinguished it from any that I had seen before: golden crust with hints of green vegetables deeply embedded into the fluff.
“From the elves,” he said as he popped the cork from the stolen elven wine, “enough to last us a few days. You should try it. Won’t find bread like that anywhere in the North.”
“Generous of them.” I replied through bites, trying my best to not leave a pile of crumbs and to savor every piece. The bread was absolutely delicious, with each bite filling my roaring stomach more and more; the crispness of the crust with the garlic seasoning and tender center instantly made me crave for another helping.
“To think, I could be feasting with my men in the Bloody Eye right now, eating roasted pork on a spit. But here I am with you, hiking a mountain. Seems that elf bread is my only reward, eh? You know what this reminds me of? Caine? Caine, I’m talking to you.”
“What?” I replied, spilling crumbs onto my lap.
“Whew, that’s some strong wine. Bites like a damned spider. Ah, here’s a story for you, my boy. As a young lad, my father used to take me hunting in the woods most early mornings. This was when we moved from Ataman and lived on the Era’Kal border. We crossed through this patch of woods to see if any stags were drinking river water and stumbled across a nest of harpies. Three of ‘em were sunbathing on some rocks and well, they really don’t care for humans, all that much.” Skalige said, lowering his eyes, “Dad shot down two of ‘em, no problem. The third scratched him up real bad and nearly lifted me into the sky with it. I mounted the bitch and ripped her wings off with these two hands...had no idea that I possessed the strength.”
I said nothing, only continued chewing the elven bread.
“My father said we could sell the wings in the open market for a hundred marks. He told me, ‘Son, you’ve done a brave thing today...tonight, you can drink wine with me and your ‘ma.’ Now, can you believe that load of shite? I save the old prick’s life and he repays me with one glass of wine. Isn’t that absurd?” he said, guzzling nearly a quarter of the bottle.
“But how was the wine?” I smiled.
“Not bad, to tell you the truth. Not bad at all.”
I took another bite of the bread and began to unravel my competing tale, “All right, I’ll match you a hunting story, then. No harpies or sirens in Mercia, but we did have wolves. Lots of wolves. My father took me along the coast one day. We were tracking a doe that wandered onto our farm. We wound up at this clearing in the woods, just beneath a steep ridge, where we found a small wolf cub all by himself.”
“Don’t tell me you went down there to pick it up.”
“That’s exactly what I did. I ran down, being the young, foolish little shit that I was and scooped up the cub. I guess I thought I was saving it. Anyway, the cub’s mother jumps out and claws my shoulder. That’s how I got this scar, right here. I dropped the little pup and my father tangled with its mother. I was scared out of my mind, Skalige. I didn’t know if he would die right then, but I picked up his bow and shot the wolf through her heart. If I had missed or hesitated for one second, he would’ve died right then and there.” I explained as I poked the dwindling fire with a charred stick. “Funny how little moments like that can change a life.”
“Caine,” Skalige said, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder, “you’re still a foolish little shit. You’re aware of that, aren’t you?”
I snatched the bottle from his hand and downed a few sips, “We kept the cub and named it Luna, after my great grandmother. Raised it until it grew of age that the wild began to call it back, so we had to set it free.”
“Aha, Luna! Strong name for a wolf pup!” my companion jested, “I’d have called her something a tad more original like ‘Wolfy’ or ‘Howler’.”
“Nobody can blame you for not being the creative one in your family.” I said, half-listening to my own words as they escaped my lips. The baron suddenly stopped chewing and began staring into the flickering of the firelight.
After some silence, he whispered, “No, Abby was the creative one. She used to write plays and perform for me and her mother. Every damned night, she’d leave us tickets at our door and make us gather in the dining hall. Couldn’t sing, couldn’t act, but she put her whole heart into every scene. Didn’t understand half of the shit she wrote, but I was still clapping at the end. God, I miss that...if I could do it all again, I would’ve applauded harder and been there every time.”
We finished the bread and sat there in silence, staring into the dying embers. The heat of summers provided enough warmth at night; the fire was only for protection from wolves and other nocturnal predators as slept. The singing of kookaburras and owls rang out through the darkness, echoing into the hills around us. I decided after a few minutes of silence that I should tell him the truth about what happened earlier.
“I didn’t say anything about this back there,” I said as I retrieved the black box from my pocket to show him, “but it’s the reason that you found me in my condition.”
“What’s that?” he asked, admiring the container after I presented it to him. The golden inscriptions flickered against the light of the flames as I passed it over to him. He read the scrawls, opened the lid but found nothing...no smoke, no visions of an apocalypse or anything irregular. Just a black, empty bottom.
“This empty box is why you passed out?” he asked in disbelief.
“I found i
t in the forest. Aketa’s pendant was wrapped around it, buried underwater. When I showed it to the elves, they turned on me. Luckily, the giant appeared before they attacked me.” I explained, “When I opened it at the woods’ edge, I had this strange vision where everything was on fire. I could see all cities from Villaneuva to Mercia, from Tuskan to the Twin Cities...monsters, creatures I had never read about or seen before, awoke and slaughtered everyone. Your home...destroyed...my home as well. I saw these shadowy, strange looking men dressed in black and a moon, the color of blood.”
“Strange premonition...”
“I think it might’ve been a warning from the Gods or from someone who wants it to be changed. I’m not sure. I don’t know what to make of it.” I said, tossing the last piece of bread into the fire. I had suddenly lost my appetite.
“I’ll have someone study it when we return to the palace. One of those pale, book lovin’ maesters would kill to get their hands on that. You might have just made some poor sot’s day, Caine.”
The quietness of night was strangely welcoming. Even in the foreign wilderness, among predatory beasts and giants, somehow I felt right at home. Shining in the sky like the bright beacons of angels, the stars were gracious enough to cast a milky glow across the jagged hills around us and give us visibility in the dead of night. This empty, fathomless infinity above us made me feel less significant in the world. I understood my place as a single cog in this working machine of the Gods.
The baron sat across from me, examining the sleekness of his sword in the light of the deteriorating flames like a child with his first blade. He pricked the edge of his middle finger, drawing small droplets of blood that dripped onto the rocks. A light, patchy scruff was already starting to come in on his cheeks and jawline. From where I sat, the disfigured half of his face was concealed in shadow. As his eyes raised and flashed in my direction, I looked away to avoid answering why I had been staring at him for so long.
The fire began to die out, so I left for a moment and returned with more wood to keep it alive. Starving flames licked the fresh sticks and broken tree limbs. Thunder erupted in the far distance, slightly alarming me, given that we were nowhere near proper shelter for a storm.
“Not even close to us. Hear how it echoes? It’s moving away from us.” the baron explained to me, maneuvering the fresh logs with a poker, “Abby was always scared of lightning. Her and her mother.”
“Deadly strikes of fire in the sky? No wonder.”
“She said that they looked like fingers of the Gods, thrashing around. As she puts it, they only wanted to hold our hands. Sweet little bugger.” Skalige said with a hearty chuckle, attempting to hide the buried pain, “That’s how I’d want to go...struck by lightning. In the blink of an eye, you’re gone. No pain, just immediate death.”
“Sometimes, it’s not so immediate. I’ve heard of men being struck in the middle of fields and crawling for miles to the nearest town. That’s how you’d want to die? Really?”
“Actually, now that you mention it,” he said, turning to face me with a smile, “I’d always seen myself giving my last breath to protect my family. It was never an option to me. I could see that...fighting to the tooth and nail to keep them from harm. Sword in hand and blood on my armor. Yeah, that sounds delightful. My father died in the Five Years’ War and his father fell in the Battle of Taewe a decade before. You saved my life on that tower, Caine. Don’t mean to gloom our pleasant evening, but just know I’m indebted to you for that.”
“Is that why you came to Tuskan? To repay this debt?” I asked, watching his scarred eye twinkle in the light of the fire.
“Nah, I’ve come to take all of the credit, of course. I want my name to be sung by those cockless minstrels for thousands of generations. If we lose the war, and my name burns along with the Isles, at least I’ll have that. You’ve had your chance, Caine...time to stop being selfish and let someone else revel in the fame.” he said, snickering under his breath as I sat quietly and smiled.
“Skalige.”
“Eh?”
“If I don’t make it out of here tomorrow...if something happens...swear to me that you’ll tell Aketa…”
“Stop, Caine. Not another word.” he snapped, turning his head towards me, “Don’t talk like that. We’re here on a mission and I’m not leaving you behind. You can tell her whatever you want yourself. Don’t put that load on me. Want to know how many battles I’ve fought in, where a soldier’s clung to my wrist, pleading, ‘Baron! Baron, please! Tell my beloved I love her! Tell her I’m sorry for ploughin’ all of those strumpets! Tell her they truly meant nothing to me!’ By the Gods, this just made me sad. Making me relive old memories...here, have the rest of the bottle, you depressing sot.”
I made a bed out of grass, using our food pack as my pillow. Skalige laid down on the steep cliff, choosing to rest his head against a hollowed log. As I shut my weary eyes, readying myself for a deep sleep, I heard the baron whisper, “If I wake up and you’re cuddled up next to me, I’m tossin’ you over that ledge.”
“How else do you expect me to stay warm?”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
***
I awoke to loud noises and jolting quakes in the mountain. My eyes opened to a clear sky and a rising sun in the east. Small pebbles began rattling beside my face. Each tremor became louder as, in my early-morning daze, I slowly realized the situation: the giant was climbing down from the mountain above us, sliding with determination.
“Skalige! Skalige, wake up!” I shouted to the baron, who stirred for a moment before opening his eyes. He looked up and darted away in a panic as the titanous monster descended closer. We snatched up our armor and food, then ducked for cover along the mountain trail, a great distance from the giant’s downward path. He slid past us without notice, planting his feet onto the valley below and casually lumbered off into Avenwood again. Skalige and I both breathed a heavy sigh of relief before he asked, “Can you imagine if we hadn’t woken up?”
“Your welcome, by the way. You could sleep through a hurricane.”
“At least we know which mountain’s his.” he replied, “So what’s our plan?”
“If Malachi’s still alive, I’d wager anything he’s up there. The giant was carrying a small cage that he kept on his belt. I’m guessing he keeps some survivors for later and he stores them away in the peak. It’s a small chance, but if the prince is dead, we at least need to bring proof back to Darius. We search the peak, see if there’s a cave and return before it does.”
“It’s not the worst plan you’ve ever had,” Skalige said, “but we don’t know how long he’ll be until he returns? From what I can see from here, the hiding spots become fewer and fewer the higher we climb. It’s a haul getting to the very top.”
“Either we take this risk or not. I’m certain that we’ll find something, wherever the giant’s hoarding his treasure. Are you coming with me or staying down here?”
Instantly, the baron raised his open palm to slap me. He halted and said, “See that? That’s how close you just came to getting woken back up again. I’ve stuck by you this long, haven’t I? They’re already not too fond of me in Tuskan, anyway. I won’t leave my only friend in a thousand miles.”
Armored and prepared, we then began our climb. The granite range cascaded for miles in each direction with an amber-colored glow from the blaze of the easterly sun. Like the spine of Gorgon, the rising peaks jetted towards the sky but fell vastly short. Skalige was not lying when he said that we had less chances of hiding, should the giant return. All that lay ahead of us was a straight-shot to a cliff’s ledge sitting below a cave’s mouth. My companion climbed beneath me, struggling with his weight, while I leapt between crevices and nooks with ease. My hand gripped stone edges and my foot balanced gracefully on protruding rocks, embedded into the side of the mountainous dome.
“You good down there?” I called out.
“Eh, it’s not drinking Dolce Tero on a beach but it’ll do
for now!” Skalige answered, grunting as he lifted his heavy body to maintain with my speed. We struggled to climb higher, our armor weighing us down immensely with our swords clashing against the stone beneath us. Gusts of wind became our greatest foe as they whipped along the mountainside, angrily tugging at our legs and arms. Eventually, I lost all recollection of time within our endless hours of scaling this perilous cliff.
Vultures and hawks circled in the sky beneath us, scanning the desolate region for signs of death. As I stopped to wait for Skalige, who would frequently fall behind, I glanced down at the large footprints and pathways of the titanous beast in the valleys below. My fingers wrapped tightly around each crevice in the mountain, clinging with every ounce of strength that I could find.
“I’d better get half of what you’re making from this.” he snapped through gritted teeth as he gripped another rock. I could hear his frustration, so I decided to play along.
“You know that I’m doing this for the adventure, right?”
“The adventure...the bloody, fucking adventure, he says...” Skalige replied, laughing for the next few minutes. I could see our peak’s ledge, just barely out of reach. My climbing companion shouted in aggravation as he realized how far behind he was from my position and tried to climb faster. My hand grasped the next nook and I cautiously scaled the hillside, careful not to move too quickly with the deadly fall behind me. My deceiving mind imagined myself losing my grip and plummeting to the sharp rocks below, baking in the hot mid-day sun before becoming discovered by the giant on its return home.
Suddenly, Skalige’s foot slipped.
I heard his short outcry and turned to see him holding onto a crevice with one hand, his two feet desperately trying to catch a divot in the mountain. Pieces of loose rock fell for what seemed like minutes until they bounced along the ground, far below. I could see the terror on his face and the fear behind his eyes.
