When Leon finished conveying his words, Dimples frowned. “What do you mean?”
Gus spoke to Dimples, but his eyes moved to Leon, “I’ve had months to sit on my haunches with nothing but this Blade. In that time, I did a lot of thinking, and not all of it was good. I did my fair share of whimpering over past mistakes, crying over spilled milk, and so on, but not long before Ben came to bring us here, I came to understand one small truth.”
“Yeah? What’s that?” Leon asked.
“There are some things you can’t control and other things you only think you can. When bad things happen, I mean, really bad things, things that cut a man to his core, it’s better for that man to consider what he ought to do in response, and to do what he can, rather than chew on why it all came crashing down around him."
He paused for Leon to finish translating for him and switched his focus back on Dimples.
"You just keep taking care of little Shana, son, even if you aren’t sure you’re doing it for the right reasons just yet. She'll wake up sometime soon, and when she does, you make sure you're there to give her your Blade. She'll be okay, you'll see.
"But when we come up out of this hole, you leave behind all that guilt you been carting around. That goes for the rest of you too. I don’t know the whole story on what all has happened to some of you,” he glanced at Leon, “and maybe I just as soon not know all the details. But you folks are all young, with lots of life to live. When you bungle things up, which you will, or things get bungled up by some other knucklehead down the line, you just remember how you got that Blade at your side, how it straightened you out when you were warped. Knowing who you are, and what you aren’t, will put your head back in the game.”
Dimples straightened to stand tall as he slid Shana from his back and cradled her in his arms. With mute tears rolling down his cheeks, he gave Gus a small bow.
“I think we see a light up ahead!” Reed exclaimed. He and Ethan had been walking out in front of the rest of the party for most of trip. They had just reached a quarter-turn in the path.
“I see it, too!” Daz called back a moment later, as he was next to make it to the turn.
As Leon came around the bend, he saw the light as well.
Who could have ever thought such a small sliver of brightness could ever be so beautiful!
It couldn’t have come any sooner. The last of Dimples' torches wouldn't have held out much longer. Thankfully, the light continued to grow as they marched forward.
# # #
When at last Leon and Kyra stumbled out into the searing light of day, the sun was shining down directly overhead.
The mountain air was sweet and cool with the added flavor of the promise of freedom from the cave. Leon took a minute to allow his eyes to adjust before he followed the banks of the stream out to the edge of a waterfall. The roar of the rushing water cascading down the mountainside muted all other sounds, and the sight below left him speechless. From the tip of that ledge, he gazed out in wonder at a majestic valley of woods, meadows, lakes, and streams.
On all sides, the valley was framed by tall mountain peaks. Those peaks reflected sunlight off snowcapped ridges and added to the brightness of the clear skies above. The cliff where Leon and his companions stood, abruptly ended, on a near-vertical angle, dropping several hundred feet into a blanket of tall, sturdy evergreens. Amongst those trees, on a small rise, off to the right, Leon could just make out crumbling remains of yet another ancient city peeking up through the canopy.
Dimples, still holding Shana in his arms, pointed further down into the valley. "Look, are those Aurochs moving through those clearings way out there?"
Sure enough, there were some sort of large beefy creatures grazing on chest-high grasses within large, verdant fields. The snow Leon saw falling on the east side of the mountains hadn't yet found its way into the sheltered floor of the valley below.
Ahab and Westley took to the air to explore their new habitat. Merle took a seat at Leon's side. He wasn't even looking at the view below, and, if Leon didn't know better, he would say the War Hound pouted while his friends rode the wind to the forest below, dodging and diving, like two tiny treetop fliers, as they moved out of sight for the time being.
Gus finally found his voice. "If I had known it woulda been this pretty, I'd have cut me a hole in one of them trees years ago, just to have popped in for a glimpse of paradise, if for no other reason at all."
"Well, I admit, it's pretty up here, on a vista that grants us an unencumbered view for miles around, but the question is…what's it going to be like down there?" Ethan replied.
Leon grinned at the two older men's banter,. "You're both right, you know? Looking out onto this world for the first time can steal your breath away with beauty, but if you know what you're looking at it can also give you an anxious twitch, all in one glance.
"We must have come almost straight through that mountain back there with less of a drop in elevation than I suspected. Let's take an inventory of what we've got before we try and find our way down. I've got a ton of pottery, some jerky, some water, and a rope. How about you guys?"
Leon repeated himself in common Fayden for the benefit of the others in their group and soon people were rummaging through their things and calling out the various tools, equipment, and weapons they were carrying.
As Leon rifled through his packs, he opened up Ferschall's pottery bag for the first time. Inside were stacks of plates, wrapped individually, in leather bundles. Despite his best efforts to care for that pottery, even the ones on top looked cracked or broken. As he rearranged a couple of the rare exceptions that were still whole, a small watertight bundle of leather slid free from under one of the plates. It fell to the ground at his feet.
Picking up the bundle, Leon opened the sealed flap and looked inside. Lying within was a letter, stamped with wax. Resting next to it was a signet ring. There was a symbol of a Blade carved into the face of the ring. It matched the seal on the wax. He pulled out the letter and handed it over to Kyra. "Can you read what this says?"
"Yeah, it says it's to you."
Leon felt fascinated as he asked her to open it and read the letter. After a quick read, Kyra looked back at him with a sad look in her eyes.
"Well, what does it say?"
"The first page looks to be some sort of reference letter. It describes you, who you are, what you look like, and something about how you are from the remnant. It's hard to make out in some places because the leather holding it wasn't as waterproof as it looks.
"Then on this second sheet, Ferschall says you are to take this letter to the Chief Elder in Hollinger if anything should happen to him. It looks like some water got on this one as well. Only the damage is worse. I can't make out what it says there in the middle, but it's something about how the binding between the plates is key? I'm sorry, I can't make out the rest."
Leon frowned. He might never know why Ferschall valued his pottery so highly, but now he knew it had something to do with the colorful grout that held them together.
At least I don't feel so bad about breaking so much of his pottery.
He decided he would keep the letters, at least until he could read them himself.
Reed stepped up to his side, he reached into his pack and pulled out a small branch. He held it out for Leon to see. "This may not work out at all, but then again, it could be useful, too…to some of you at least. I won't be using it again."
Leon took a closer look at the branch Reed held in his hand. Its bark was silver, and the end that had been cut was wrapped in wet linen."
"A cutting? From the Royal?"
Reed continued in Fayden, "I took it after you left. The tree didn't seem to be dying as fast as the one we entered through. I just thought that maybe if I was able to regrow the tree, you might someday be able to get a message through to Gus and Ethan." He smiled. "I guess it's kind of a moot point now, though."
Leon didn't know what to say. Everyone else, himself included, had bee
n fighting the feeling that they weren't going to make it off that mountainside in the last moments of the fight while Reed had somehow managed to think ahead, preparing for their eventual escape. "Reed, even if we never use that tree, I want you to plant it when we get wherever we are going. I want you to make it grow. That way, when it's nice and tall, it'll be a symbol. Every time one of us looks at it, it's going to remind us to never give in, never give up!"
Leon turned back to the valley. It was large and wild and full of risk. He reached down and touched the hilt on the handle of the Blade at his side. A gentle pulse tingled in his arm and a warmth lingered in his fingers.
Others in the group continued to call out items they had on their person, which they thought might be useful on the next leg of their journey, but Leon stopped paying attention. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, savoring the mountain air once more. When he opened them, Kyra was at his side. Her blue-gray eyes sparkled in the sun, and her smile was full of promise.
"You ready?" she asked.
"Yes," Leon answered. He grabbed her hand to give it a squeeze as he turned back to the group. Everyone was done with their gear, and they were all waiting, looking to him for some reason. He smiled back at them with genuine confidence. "Tomorrow isn't promised, but we've got a chance down there. It's going to be a long winter. Let's go find a warm place to weather the cold."
About the Author
DN Woodward, or Danny as his friends know him, is a native Texan who still resides in the central Texas area. He has undergraduate and graduate degrees in Ecology and Aquatic Resources, though he can’t remember the last time he was able to apply all that biological knowledge to anything deeper than his tomato garden. Instead, he’s had a career primarily focused on helping oil companies clean up environmental messes with heavy equipment. When he isn’t selling cleanup services, he enjoys raising cattle. Yep, he has a hobby business on the weekends where he hopes to someday raise a show steer so fat and meaty that one of his three kids will waltz away with a giant blue ribbon at the Houston Livestock Show (his wife still laughs at him for this, but a man can dream). Writing was initially another hobby in a long string of hobbies which he started a few years back, but during the pandemic it somehow morphed into a habit he can’t seem to kick.
If you’re interested in learning more about Leon and his future adventures, or you just want to reach out and connect with Danny, you can visit his website at www.dnwoodward.com.
In addition to new updates on future books you will find a free giveaway for a map of Fayden! Also, if you enjoyed the story, please take a moment to leave a positive review on Amazon. Thanks in advance!
A Choice of Blades: The Blade Remnant, Book One Page 43