9 Tales Told in the Dark 22

by 9 Tales Told in the Dark

  He saw a little stand of pines through the snow! There! He could clear the snow and get some pine needles and twigs, they should take a spark! He had his ax, if he could get enough of a small fire, he could cut some smaller branches! He could survive the night, and find the rest of the way through the pass once this storm cleared!

  He was getting so tired now. He knew he needed speed, yet, the traverse the small distance to the wood, seemed to take forever and exhaust him. There wasn't much snow here, the tree's held most of it back. But enough, that he had difficulty finding any needles at all. He was forced to take the fur mittens he was wearing off to try and get together a pile of needles that were as close to dry as possible.

  Considering the need for fire, and fear of what was now a biting blizzard, he couldn't understand why he was so tired! His numb hands fumbled with the fire rocks he had. He scraped his knife against the rock sending little sparks into the small amount of needles and bark he had collected. It looked a few times like something might actually catch, only to die out from the damp.

  He had no idea what else to do at this point! He just kept at it, scraping the knife against the rock and hoping! He was SO tired now, he'd do anything for heat, for flame! Just to feel warmth again. He didn't even notice when the fire rock fell from his numb hands. He was only vaguely aware when the blade bit into his hand.

  He just stared at it dumbly, as the blood oozed from the gash he'd opened in his hand. What a curious thing? He wondered whose hand was bleeding so? Bemusedly he looked at the incarnadine drips appearing on the cold winter snow beneath it. It was pretty really, the way it started on the hand so dark, and then changed to a bright red in the snow.

  He was SO tired now. He really needed to sleep. That was why he had come here, wasn't it? To sleep? So he'd best get on with it really. As he lay his head upon the frozen ground, his last thought before the darkness came was to wonder, “What is the curse if the King isn't sacrificed?”

  The blackness came.

  The blizzard howled.

  The snow drifted in.

  The years passed.

  “Oh come, ON Hunter, it's going to be GREAT!” Amber declared.

  “Couldn't we just stay here in town and drink foreign beer?” Hunter pleaded.

  “First off, it’s not foreign here, we are. I'll tell you what,” she said driving down the Swiss road to their room, “we do the climb up and the cave, and I'll BUY you all the Swiss beer you can drink!”

  “Or, I could not, and just buy myself some,” he retorted under the newspaper that was over his face. The sun hurt at the moment.

  “Just because you're hung over, is no reason to be like that,” she sniffed. “Look it's your last chance to see it. If you don't photograph it while you're right here, you'll regret it the rest of your life.”

  “So I can blame THIS on global warming too? Great! Wake me when we get to our room,” he sighed.

  Ice melted in the late afternoon heat. Its albedo and altitude no longer protecting its permanence. Generations upon generations had trod above this ice, feeling the eternal stirring in them as they did. Man has in him, the power to even shorten eternity.

  Something was there in the remains of the ice. Something old and organic had now been exposed as the ice retreated. Then, it moved! It lurched upright! Its skin like leather stretched over bones! Its hands like claws reached out as if to rend the offending sky it now saw for the first time in millennia! A mouth opened in its face and a silent scream erupted from it. Protesting at the pain and hunger it felt!

  Now Alorg knew what curse was carried if the King was not sacrificed! He now had no choice but to feed this hunger!

  Tanner was looking forward to this. He legally wasn't supposed to be doing ANY of it, but hey, yolo and all. His folks had sprung for the plane tickets, and here he was. They wanted to see him expand his horizons, and he wanted to go hiking a lot. It worked out for everybody in his opinion. His folks loved him a lot more when they weren't talking to him every day.

  He wanted to hike the Alps alone, not recommended, but he was doing it. He wasn't supposed to have a fire going in a hollow that probably belonged to some farm owner, but he had one going. And that farmer probably wouldn't approve of all the Etter Grappa he'd stowed on his hiking rack. But nobody in any authority was telling him 'no' at the moment, so it meant 'yes' to him. Apologize later, that way, you've already done it, which can't be taken away.

  He felt nicely warm right now, between the fire and the brandy, he was feeling very little pain at the moment. This was what he wanted out of life, a full stomach, a warm buzz, and a clear night that was completely different than any other night he'd had recently. Assuming he would at some point get strong-armed into children, it would be something to tell them one day.

  But even a lovely comfortable spot of grass under the stars cannot do everything for you. Sometimes a man needs to stand on his own two feet! He needs to get up, so he can find a well-placed bush some distance from where you plan to set up your sleeping bag so you can water said bush. Tanner got unsteadily to his feet and wandered off to find one.

  Here it was the Zen-like state of bliss that comes from holding it in for a while. The blank stare seeing little and taking in even less, into the middle distance of the night. Here, was a foul smelling section of the night unfolding itself from the darkness. Here was a downed pine limb crashing down on the back of Tanner's head. Here was Tanner lying in a heap, an even darker shade of black spreading out around him.

  Here was the sound of a fire crackling as it burned down. Here were the sounds of the grunting mastication of flesh.

  Hunter woke up to take in his new surroundings. They were in the hotel near the glacier, which would be their base for the next day. The first word that came to mind was “quaint” because it sounded nicer than “antiquated”. But, he figured it would leave one of those warm memories, that time would cause them to cherish, rather than remember that there were only five minutes tops of hot water in the shower.

  Even then, he wouldn't mind, and he felt fine today and was feeling more willing to humor the woman who barring unforeseen circumstance would be his wife soon. His main problem with this entire tour of Europe is his own discovery that the beer that they got FROM Europe in America was a very small tip of the iceberg. Everywhere he went were these AMAZING brews that THIS was his one and only time to EVER taste! He had almost no memory of Belgium whatsoever, Amber promised him he'd enjoyed it immensely.

  Well, he'd been so hungover when they got here yesterday, he'd barely imbibed at all, opting for an early bedtime, which in your twenties is usually more than sufficient. So today, fit, and rested, he was indeed, willing to go hiking, as soon as he got a blisteringly hot shower to wash a couple days of road grit off that was. If the hot water lasted longer than five minutes, this place had already scored on yelp.

  He was going to be disappointed today, though, the elderly hotel water heater was only feeling capable of warm at best. Still, a warm shower was better than no shower at all, so he relished it. It put pressure on the kitchen though to save that good Yelp review, which he considered unfair to the staff. Stepping out, he noted to himself, that at least the antique fixtures were pretty to look at, if not cutting edge in comfort.

  He stepped back into their room and looked around. He wasn't really expecting a note at this point. Amber had more or less gotten used to the idea during this trip, that he'd get breakfast when he got it. If she wanted to be an early riser, that was fine, but that was no reason to drag HIM into HER mania for mornings.

  Downstairs was equally quaint, Amber was drinking coffee waiting for him. “Well look at this! You can look human when you want to! ” she said happily.

  “Har har, how's the grub,” he asked sitting down.

  “Well firstly, the coffee is divine, the muesli with yogurt was delish, but since I know you're a savage, they also send eggs toast and enough meat to give a lesser man a heart attack. I have every faith in you that you'll be fine,
” she said still smiling.

  “Good, good, if I'd known those were the options available, I'd have just had you order for me, “he smiled back. “Is that what you had?”

  “Yep yep, I ate all the muesli and yogurt to make sure the rest of the Neanderthal diet would actually pass out of me one day,” she replied.

  Catching the eye of the waiter and calling him over he said in broken German, “Same as she had please.”

  First, on their agenda today was seeing the glacier. Which while he wouldn't let her know it, he was quite looking forward to. She had been right, it was the last chance to see it probably. Now with a full meal and a shower under his belt, he was actually impatient to be getting out and exploring some.

  They were driving up to the parking area Amber as mused, “I'm glad we have a place to stay here for a bit.”

  “And what is wrong with the rustic hotel with the great big meaty breakfasts?”

  “Have you ever known a hotel to give you an honest to god feeling for what it's like to live somewhere?” she demanded.

  “New York,” he retorted quickly.

  “Bull, that hotel room was twice the size of an actual apartment, AND the hot water heater worked,” she sneered.

  “True, that couple we met at that club was nice, but you had to turn sideways to stand and talk in their place,” Hunter had to agree.

  This trip was their “pre-wedding moon” or something, he forgot what her dad called it. He was some Silicon Valley tech geek from the 90s. Technically Hunter was a tech geek as well, but he wasn't so old and crusty about the whole thing, or for that matter, rich about it. Her dad had asked one thing before giving consent to them getting married, “There's time enough for setting up house and all that crap, but go travel a bit together before you do. Trust me on this, you're always going to feel too busy after.”

  Hunter hadn't needed to be talked into it too hard. He worked at her Dad's company, so this was his boss telling him to take a couple of months off. Amber hadn't needed to either, she had always liked to travel, and had always gone with her Dad on business, or on those very few and far between vacations he would take after a new product release was finally done. She suspected Hunter was going to end up just as bad, so she viewed it as a last chance for unfettered wandering.

  Amber had read something about disappearing glaciers in Europe, and suddenly the Swiss Alps had shown up on their agenda. Hunter did some amateur photography, he had chips upon chips full of great stuff shot already on this trip, and the Alps despite the smaller amount of snows left now, were still amazing to look at, so he really didn't mind that either. Hunter didn't mind many things as long as he was allowed to kind of drift through life. He saved all of that drive and irritation for designing code and programs, doing that he was a highly irate laser. Once he was out of the office, he was as easy going as your average beach bum with his pot supply secured.

  “So, what are we doing instead, since I don't see tents and sleeping bags?” he asked.

  “My dad arranged it, he rented a little farm that was laying vacant, for us for a couple of days. After we see the glacier, we can go back down and get some food and supplies, and we can stay there. We'll be like a married Swiss couple!” Amber enthused.

  “How in the hell did he manage that?”

  “He knows somebody on the travel agency I guess. These farms up this high aren't real big money makers. You know how it is, you get an education, you get a good job, but you don't want to sell the old place, cause family,” she enthused.

  “Well they should at least have a fireplace, so I guess we won't starve, or freeze.”

  “That's the spirit champ!” Amber said tapping him on the shoulder with her fist.

  The drive up to the parking area for the glacier was quick, and Hunter had to admit, gorgeous. The mountains themselves were breathtaking. No sooner did they get the car parked, then Hunter had the camera and tripod out, testing out settings on it to compensate for the brilliant sunlight they were getting.

  “Aren't you glad we came now,“ Amber asked sliding up next to him.

  “Would saying I was, be admitting I was wrong?”

  “I suppose it would be,” she replied cocking her head.

  “Then, sorry, due to excessive masculinity, I am unable to do that,” he grinned.

  “Coward,” she smirked.

  Eventually, Amber got tired of waiting and convinced him to at least pack up the tripod so they could take the tour of the ice cave. The ice cave was actually an ice tunnel, carved out of the glacier, with planks laid down for tourists to walk through. There were also lights, so this did not exactly count as a wonder of nature as much as it was a wonder of persistent engineering.

  “Why in the hell are there blankets on the glacier?” wondered Hunter as they hiked up to the cave.

  “I think they're trying to slow down the melting,” another tourist who was in their group answered in American English.

  They both turned and saw a man around their own age, dressed in khaki pants and a long sleeve turtleneck. He had blond hair and a deep tan, and a bright smile. “Hi, I'm Dan, fellow American,” he said cheerfully.

  “Oh Hi! Hunter, and Amber,” Hunter said introducing themselves.

  There was a long wooden bridge over a ditch leading up to the cave in front of them. It consisted only of three boards laid down and no handrails. It wasn't particularly deep, but one couldn't help but get a slight feeling of vertigo as they started over it.

  “Geez, no expense spared on this thing huh?” Hunter said as they started over.

  “Well, they don't know how much glacier they're gonna have, so they build it new,” Dan answered.

  “Oh?” asked Amber, “you know a lot about this?”

  “Oh yeah, this is the main thing I'm here to see. I mean it's recreational, but it's in my field,” Dan responded.

  “Oh, what's that?” Amber asked making conversation to keep her mind off the lack of railing.

  “Climatologist, I'm part of the vast liberal conspiracy to save the planet. You guys?” asked Dan smiling at his own joke.

  “I'm a computer geek. Amber moves little piles of money from point A to point B so as to avoid being in the family business, which is computer geekdom,” Hunter responded.

  “Fool that I am, I'm marrying back into it,” Amber added.

  Their conversation ended as they entered the “Ice Cave” itself. It basically consisted of a walkway that one could go single file along going through the heart of the glacier itself. It sounded mundane to describe, but the way the light hit the deep blue walls of the ancient ice was actually breathtaking in person. Hunter had his camera, handheld, and was taking numerous shots as they went through it. Amber and Dan made light conversation. Hunter sometimes joined in, but right now, he was just happy to be capturing this in pixels.

  Once they were outside, they walked around a bit, so Hunter could get some more shots. He wasn't terribly surprised to see that Dan was shooting some of his own. With his job and all, especially if he ever taught, the shots would go well into a slide presentation. But eventually the afternoon was moving on, and all three of them went back to the parking lot together.

  “Hey Dan, not to be too forward here, but you're the first American we've been able to talk to in forever. We're about to get dinner, want to hang out with us for a while?” Hunter asked.

  “Hey, that'd be great! I'm traveling alone, and my German isn't perfect. So it's a break from eating alone,” Dan smiled.

  “Cool! ” said Amber. “I saw a cute little restaurant back in Andertal. We've got to get supplies too while we're there, say around six?”

  “See you then!”

  Amber and Hunter checked out of the hotel and went to town to get supplies for a few nights before driving their little rental to the restaurant. Dan was waiting for them in front of the quaint little chalet that Amber had spotted.

  “Gods are we late?” asked Amber as they got out.

  “Oh no, I'm just perp
etually early. Being late gives me panic attacks, so the best way to avoid it is...” Dan raised his hands in a shrug as he trailed off.

  “Makes sense to me, let's get some grub!” Hunter enthused already heading for the door.

  The food was delicious but heavy. Sausage figured heavily into the cuisine, including the vegetable dish. The beer was also good, but considering how much Hunter had tossed into the rental, he could afford to go easy on it. Dessert was also heavy involving cakes and cookies. Even with the added appetite of youth and activity, none of them were moving fast by the time they were sipping coffee and waiting on the check to come.

  “So what are your plans?” Amber asked Dan

  “Back to the hotel I guess, not an enormous nightlife around here,” Dan shrugged.

  “Bogus, dude, we got masses of beer and wine in the car, and the use of a little farm for a few days, at least come on out for the night,” Hunter said. “You'd be doing us a favor, apparently it isn't lived in much, I could use a hand getting it livable.”

  “Yeah please, I love Hunter, but I think we've told each other every amusing anecdote we've got on this trip!” Amber added.

  Dan thought about it for a moment and then said, “Well if you're sure I won't be in the way...”

  “Really, buddy, if anything, I could use someone to help me out. Her Dad rented the place for us from some work buddy, and he said his family hasn't even used it in a couple of years, they just have someone go up once in a while to check it.”

  Dan smiled and said, “Well it beats TV shows where I don't understand what they're saying, so yeah, sure!”

  “Are you sure you know how to get to this place hun?” Hunter asked as they drove down the dark dirt lane.

  “You've asked me that half a dozen times now!”

  “Well it's just that we're leading the way, and we're miles from anywhere, and we have company in the car behind us, and none of our German is very good, we're going up mountains which often have cliffs, and now we've turned on to what appears to be a goat path. So, color me hypercritical if you want buuuutttt....” Hunter said, but he was smiling when he said it, so she could tell he was kidding, a bit.