Duke Grandfather- The Whole Story

by James Maxstadt

  Round and round we go. The fact was, I was on this trip, we were going after it, and I might as well make the best of it.

  “Hey, why is it named the Forest of Endalaide, anyway?” I asked.

  “It’s an elven word,” Adrian replied. He was pretty good with this sort of stuff and showed much more interest in the world outside the walls than I did.

  “Really? What’s it mean?”

  “Trees.”

  I thought about that one. “We're riding through the Forest of Trees?”

  “Yep.”

  “Are you putting me on?”

  “Would I do that?”

  Well, yes, he would. Of course, he would. “You’re putting me on,” I said.

  “Nope. Trees. Elves are a very literal people.”

  I frowned. “Nope,” I decided. “I’m not buying it.”

  “Suit yourself,” he said.

  I rode along next to him, looking at all the tall endalaides around us.

  Briarwood was the very definition of a small town. It was small for a town the way Lord Pennywithers mansion was large for a house. There were a few cottages, a blacksmith, and a tavern, and not much else. The few people around stopped whatever small-town things they were doing and stared at us.

  We dismounted in front of the tavern and Adrian showed me how to loop the reins around a post so that the horse wouldn’t wander off.

  “Don’t worry,” I told my noble mount. “I’ll bring you out an ale.”

  “Ale isn’t good for horses, Duke,” Adrian said.

  “It’s not particularly good for us, either. But we drink it.”

  He shook his head and entered the tavern.

  “Ignore him,” I said to my horse. “Ale it is.”

  With one last pat, I followed my friend inside.

  Well, this was a surprise. The tavern could have been at home in Capital City itself. It was warm and dry, with a low ceiling that was white-washed between heavy wooden beams. The stone fireplace had a merry blaze going in it, and the bar itself was polished to a high gleam.

  Most promising though, was the large barrel with a tap sticking out of it behind that bar.

  “I’ll take one of those,” I pointed.

  The tavern-keeper was a rotund man, with a neat black mustache and beard, trimmed to come to a point. He wore a clean white shirt, with a leather apron over it.

  He grinned broadly at my order.

  “Man after my own heart,” he said. “Think I’ll join you. And what about you, friend?”

  He looked over his shoulder at Adrian as he put a mug under the tap and began filling it.

  “Make it three,” Adrian said.

  We were all smiling like a pack of idiots. But there’s something infectious about finding a lover of the same thing you are when you’re far from home. For the tavern-keepers part, he was probably glad that he got to serve someone new.

  “Good stuff!” I exclaimed, after taking my first quaff.

  “You sound surprised,” the tavern-keeper said.

  I felt my face grow red. “I didn’t mean any disrespect. I just wasn’t expecting a place like this way out here.”

  His face darkened. “You mean out in the sticks? Away from the big city? Where it’s a bunch of hicks?”

  “No,” I stammered. “That’s not it at all. I meant that…well, it’s….”

  He burst out laughing. “Yeah, I said the same thing when I first came here five years ago. Out from the city, trying to get away from it all. Found this place and fell in love with it. I bought it from the previous owner and have been here ever since.”

  “You got me,” I said. “Nicely done.” I toasted him, and we drank down a little more.

  “What brings two well-bred city folk out to our little town?” he asked.

  “Directions,” Adrian replied. “Specifically, we were told to come here to get them.”

  “Ah.” The tavern-keepers face fell. “More of you, huh?”

  “The others came through here?” I asked.

  “If you mean the ones working for that Lord Penny-whoever, then yeah. A whole bunch at once, then a few here and there. Haven’t seen anyone else in several months now. Until you two that is.”

  He fell silent and took a sip of his ale.

  “You guys want my advice, you’ll turn back. All those other poor souls passing through, and I never saw a single one come back this way.”

  “We can’t,” Adrian said. “But I can have another.”

  That got the smiles going again, so we drank and chatted. After a couple, I remembered my promise, but Adrian, backed up by the tavern-keeper, convinced me that my horse was better off without any.

  “He’s a good horse,” I said. “He needs a name.”

  The tavern-keeper nodded sagely. “He does. A good horse needs a good name. What will it be?”

  “I’m not sure.” I thought for a minute. “Say! What’s yours?”

  “Mine? My mother named me Salvador, after my grandfather on my father’s side.”

  I puzzled that out for a second. “Well, that’s a fine name. I’ll call him Sal, after you, and think of your most excellent ale whenever I have cause to call him by name.”

  Salvador drew me another ale, with tears in his eyes. “On the house,” he said. “For the honor.”

  It was a good way to pass the afternoon, but eventually we needed to get back to business.

  “So, these directions,” Adrian said. “Do you have them?”

  “Oh, for sure,” Salvador said. “Easy really. Behind the tavern is a logging trail. It heads deeper into the forest, for loggers to….um…well, log I guess. Follow it, until it comes to the stream.”

  “Then?”

  He shrugged. “No idea. That’s all I know.”

  I blinked to clear my vision. “Seems vague,” I said.

  Salvador shrugged again and took a long drink.

  Adrian and I matched him, which drained ours. We thanked our host, made our way to the door, opened it on the third try and exited to a deepening gloom as evening started to fall.

  “Can we find the trail in the dark?” Adrian asked.

  I was busy trying to figure out the intricacies of Sal’s reins. If I un-looped it here…no, that would loop it there…maybe if I…

  “What?” I said.

  “Dark.” Adrian repeated. “It’s falling fast. Can we find the trail in it?”

  I snickered. “We’re in the woods. I couldn’t find a trail in broad daylight.”

  “Maybe we should stay here tonight,” he said.

  “Capital idea! Since we’re not in Capital City.” I found that very funny. Adrian snorted at it, too.

  “We need to take care of the horses, though,” he said.

  “Very well.” I took a step back. “Take care, Sal!”

  A kind young man came and took our horses, telling us that they would be stabled behind the tavern for the night. Adrian was on the ball enough to give him a few coins for his trouble.

  It was a much more pleasant night than sleeping in the woods would have been. Although morning rolled around much too early, bright, and loud for me, we bid our host a second goodbye, located the trail and headed deeper into Endalaide.

  The trail was broad and easily followed, although we never did see any loggers or anyone else. The day was comfortably warm once the fog in my head cleared a little, and I was even enjoying riding slowly along on Sal.

  Then I felt a stabbing pain in the back of my hand. I looked down to see something attached to me. Something with big wings and skinny legs.

  “Ahhh! Get it off!”

  Adrian spun around in his saddle. “What? What is it?”

  “I don’t know! Some kind of miniature bird vampire thing! It’s sucking my blood!”

  Adrian drew rein and let me catch up with him. He reached out and slapped my hand hard, leaving a bloody, squished mess.

  “It’s a mosquito, Duke. We have them in the city, too.”

  “Yeah, but not t
hat big,” I replied, wiping the back of my hand on Sal’s saddle blanket.

  It itched for a few minutes, but then stopped. I might have over-reacted a little, but we’d see when Adrian got bit and lost a pint of blood.

  The sun was crawling its way further up into the sky when we first heard the water. It came to us through the trees, burbling and splashing. A few minutes later and we came to it, a fast-moving stream, its waters rushing among large rocks. And it was here that our trail ended.

  It ran directly into the stream, and on the other side was a rock wall. We couldn’t see it because of all the trees around, but our path led us to a mountain. I always thought that mountains began in foothills and gently scaled up, until they grew into sharp, towering peaks. But not this one. This one was suddenly there, like someone plopped it down in the middle of the forest.

  The stream was running from our right to our left, and in both of those directions there was no further sign of our trail. Dark, heavy vegetation grew everywhere, promising scratches and perhaps a poked eye to anyone who tried to penetrate. Yet, in front of us was only the rushing water, a narrow strip of cleared ground on the far side, and the wall of solid rock.

  “Huh,” Adrian said. “Not what I was expecting.”

  “What now?” I asked.

  He shrugged and climbed down from his horse. I did the same and stood holding Sal’s reins loosely while looking about.

  Nothing. There was no visible way forward, and yet, if we went back, where were we? Back at the tavern, and while that had a certain appeal, it wasn’t our mission and would put us no closer to getting the cup and getting back to the city.

  No, there must be a clue. I looked around more carefully, determined to find something.

  “Hey,” I said after a minute. “What’s that?”

  I spotted something on the rock face across the stream. It wasn’t large, but it seemed like letters carved into the stone.

  “Good eyes,” Adrian said. “Let’s go see.”

  We took the horses and waded through the rushing water. I kept waiting for it to suddenly rise and sweep us away or something, but nothing of the sort happened. We got our feet and legs wet, the horses didn’t seem to care one way or the other, and then we stood on the other side.

  “Say friend and enter,” Adrian read. “Weird. What do you think it means?”

  “Friend!” I said loudly.

  There was a groaning noise and part of the rock wall swung inward, revealing a dark tunnel leading away under the mountain.

  “How did you know?” Adrian asked me.

  I shrugged. “Seemed kind of obvious.”

  “Too obvious.”

  The horses didn’t want to go at first, but Adrian had read something years before and we decided to try it. We took spare shirts from our packs and tied them around the horse’s heads, blinding them. When we took the reins and started forward, they followed us without hesitation, their hooves ringing in the tunnel.

  “Nice job,” I said. “But where are we going.”

  “No idea. But since it’s the only way forward, on we go.”

  We took three, maybe four steps, when the grinding noise occurred again. I spun back around, only to see the door that we opened swing closed with a boom, sealing us into total darkness.

  “Friend!” I cried.

  Nothing. The door stayed closed.

  “Friend! Friend!”

  Still nothing.

  “Uh, Adrian?”

  “Yeah?”

  “The door won’t open.”

  “I see that. Well, I don’t see it, but the fact that I can’t says it all.”

  “Ha, ha. Now what?”

  “We go on. What else can we do?”

  I sighed. “Alright.” But then a thought occurred to me. “Wait a second,” I said.

  I turned back so that I thought I was facing the door again. I spread my arms wide, making sure to keep hold of Sal’s reins.

  “Enemy!” I shouted.

  The door remained closed.

  “Enemy?” Adrian’s voice came out of the darkness.

  “I thought maybe the opposite.”

  “Mmm. Come on.”

  I’ve never liked walking through darkness that was too deep to see, and avoided it whenever I could. Not that that’s news. Who doesn’t? But we had no choice, really. It was either that or stand there near the door we couldn’t open until we dropped dead.

  “We better not fall in the hole,” I said.

  “What hole?”

  “There’s always a hole.”

  Adrian laughed, but we did slow our pace.

  The trip took forever, or maybe it was over very quickly. It’s kind of hard to tell when you’re walking in what you hope is a straight line through the pitch black, sure that every step is going to be the one that tipped you over the literal edge.

  I did retain enough of my faculties to notice the strain in my thighs though, which told me that we were almost always heading up an incline. Wherever we were going, it was up.

  We heard the exit before we saw it. A loud, roaring noise gradually filled the tunnel, growing louder as we advanced. The horses shied away, but gentle tugging on the reins kept them moving.

  “What is that?” I yelled to Adrian.

  “No idea!” he shouted back.

  Then we exited the cavern and stood in a place of wonder.

  To our left was a huge waterfall, cascading from a cliff that stretched above our heads, and crashing to a pool far below. The path we followed through the tunnel continued, bending to the right, out of sight. Below us, a large bird circled through the mist of the waterfall. It was a strange feeling looking down on a bird in flight.

  But for all that, it was beautiful, and was one of the most stunning sights that I ever did, or would, see. The peaks all around us, stark and barren, yet with their own majesty. The gray clouds above, looking as if they would hang up on those peaks and be stuck there for braver souls than me to climb into. The waterfall crashing to the earth below with tremendous force. It was all incredible, and made me feel small. For the first time in my life I was glad, for a moment or two, that I left the city.

  That couldn’t last, of course.

  After standing in awe for a few more minutes, we wound our way along the path, keeping the horses’ heads covered. The path seemed secure enough, but neither of us were accomplished enough riders to chance it along here. On our right was a sheer rock wall, on the left, a drop to nothing. No, better by far to walk.

  We turned the corner and the noise of the waterfall diminished behind us, became more of a background noise, and we could talk if we wished to. But we were both still too astounded by the scenery around to do much of that. Instead, we walked along slowly, our eyes never resting on any one sight for too long.

  Maybe that was why we missed the giant. But she didn’t miss us. Or, more accurately, she did, but only because she meant to.

  The rock she threw shattered against the wall behind us. The path ran straight for a good distance in this section, and she waited until we were well along it.

  “That was a warning only,” she shouted.

  It took us a second to find her. Her skin was a mottled gray and brown, and the hide she wore was gray as well, from what animal I had no idea. But she stood on another path, one that wound along the mountainside across the deep valley from us.

  “Keep going forward,” she ordered, and then reached up and tore another huge stone free of the cliff wall above her.

  “What do we do?” I asked Adrian, not taking my eyes off her.

  The second stone slammed into the path behind us, closer than the first, and we both threw our arms up in front of our faces. By the time I looked back, the giant had yet another stone in her hand.

  “The next one hits home!” she yelled.

  There was nothing else to discuss. Unless we suddenly sprouted wings, we were well and truly stuck.

  The path continued around the corner and she kept pace on the ot
her side of the deep valley that separated us, never letting us get out of range of her rocks. When we turned the corner, we saw that the path looped around and was the same one that she stood on.

  We walked and she did the same on her side, until we came nearer to one another, and I could see her more clearly.

  She was enormous. Bigger than any minotaur, troll or ogre I ever saw in the city. Standing nearly ten feet tall, she towered over us with muscular arms and legs. Her hair was a dark gray color, slicked back with grease or fat, and tied into a tail. Dark eyes watched us from features that might be almost pretty if they weren’t scowling down at us from so far above.

  My initial thought was that when were close we could try to take her on. Adrian and I were a great team, and there wasn’t much that we weren’t able to accomplish. But there were two problems here. One, was that we were standing on a narrow path, with no room to get next to each other, so in effect, we could only attack her one at a time. And two, I had zero confidence that even if we could attack her together that we’d stand any sort of chance.

  For the moment, we needed to go along with whatever she demanded, and hope that she was a reasonable giantess, if such a thing existed.

  “Follow me,” she said, and turned her back to us.

  Adrian glanced at me, but I shook my head.

  We followed along, running a couple of steps whenever she glanced back and snapped, “Keep up!”

  The mountain peaks still towered around us, the sky was still breathtakingly high and beautiful. At one point, I might have seen a group of goats, standing improbably on a sheer rock face, but I’m not really sure if that’s what they were. Do goats live in mountains?

  Regardless, at this point, it was on lost on me. Nature sucked. Back in the city, I could handle anything that was thrown at me. But here? Steep rock faces, narrow trails and a rock throwing giant! I knew we never should have left.

  We followed along, the trail curving and winding, until we came to a cave. The path led directly into it, with no way of going around it, or over it, unless maybe you were a goat.

  “Inside,” the giantess said, and stepped in herself, the gloom swallowing her.

  Again, Adrian glanced at me, and again, I shook my head. We might not be able to see her, but I was betting that she could still see us. If we tried to run now, boulders would rain down from above.