Captain Black Shadow

by Janina Franck

  It took them almost an hour to reach the tree line. Until then, they had been walking over sharp rock, devoid of any plant life to soften the jagged, uneven surface. Even through his boots, it hurt Griffin’s feet. He was glad Aestiva, with her far more sensitive paws, didn’t have to endure it. The cat had decided to ride on Ryo’s shoulder instead of Griffin’s, probably because it was easier for her to hold on to his broad build. If any of them had been barefoot, their feet would likely be nothing more than bloody stumps now. Bits of all of their footwear had been grazed or cut off by that little bit of walking. It was like walking on glass shards. Griffin didn’t dare think about what would happen if one were to walk the island’s entire perimeter over these things.

  The trees didn’t give more reason for joy, either. The ground changed. Instead of sharp rocks, it morphed into something that was presumably earth covered in leaves, grass and other things. Especially roots. They rose out of the ground in small bends on an irregular basis, creating dangerous traps for tripping, barriers for passage, and, occasionally, almost inviting arches at head height. It was dark between the trees and the mist hadn’t lifted. It was surreal. Griffin was reminded of one of his nightmares as a child: a misty forest he had to pass through, with creatures waiting inside for him to enter so they could devour him.

  Selene, of course, didn’t hesitate to walk on. Everyone else followed. Griffin took one last look back to where the Bat lay, but he could barely make her out anymore. With a sigh, he, too, followed his captain into uncertainty.

  The trees looked normal. Well, normal, except that they should have all grown in different temperate zones. Griffin recognized some kinds from Kyalta, but also some from the Falicia Islands. He also thought he could see some trees that were supposed to grow only in cold regions, but he had no way to be certain.

  A few times they had to climb through and around roots, making it impossible to be certain what lay ahead of them. There was no path, no direction. The cover of leaves and needles was so thick that soon no light shone through. Selene had Ryo and Maco carry oil lamps. But the circumstances put them at two disadvantages: they could neither see the volcano to ensure they were on the right track nor be certain they would have enough light for the entire journey. They needed to use the lamps sparingly. Only the ascending ground indicated that they might be going in the right direction.

  Griffin didn’t like the darkness or oddness of the forest. Not at all. Shuddering, he craned his head around, jumping at every odd noise, imagining shadows dancing around them with horrible grins, just waiting for them to step into a trap. Aestiva sent him reassuring emotions, but they didn’t help at all. Griffin was shaking, and he was certain that should anything jump out from the brush at him, he would scream.

  In the scarce light of the lamps, the branches reaching across their path seemed to Griffin like spidery arms or giants going to grab or stab them. The bark looked like skin covered in awful, badly healed scars. It was dark… So many shadows… So many holes from which things could jump out…

  In his fear, Griffin had problems keeping up with the others, and was being left farther and farther behind. The boy could barely make out anything now, but he wasn’t sure whether that was a good or a bad thing. At least with the light near, he would have been able to see whatever was about to consume him, but this way, he wouldn’t have to stare into the eyes of his doom. It was likely to be a sudden, hopefully painless, death, which seemed preferable.

  They walked for hours without break. Griffin couldn’t say how much time had passed. It might only be noon, or it might be evening already. There was no way to tell. Right now, he could still see his friends and their light ahead of him. He wanted to call out to them, but his voice failed him. The fear ran too deep. What if a monster heard his shout and was attracted by the sound? There was no other noise after all. No birds sang in the trees; there were no animals to be heard. Not even wind making the leaves rustle. Only their footfalls were breaking the silence.

  Griffin was exhausted. He wished he could ask Selene for a break, but she was so far away… If anything were to snatch him from the darkness now… would they even notice? Or maybe they would notice his absence when they made camp for the night. Or perhaps not for quite another while. There was no way of knowing. But… what was that feeling? Griffin sensed a presence behind him. Nervous sweat covered his entire body within seconds. Was it one of the monsters? Had they finally come to get him? What should he do? What could he do?

  The adrenaline shooting through his body as something brushed over his back gave him the answer: he ran. He raced as fast as he could without falling over roots. He didn’t dare to stop until he reached his friends. Or rather, that was when he finally tripped, crashing into Ryo.

  “Hey, you okay, buddy?” he asked anxiously. “You’re as pale as a sail!”

  Griffin was only able to stammer, but not actually pronounce coherent words. Ryo patted him on the back.

  “It’s alright. I know what this place can do to ya.”

  Indeed, even on Ryo’s face, Griffin could make out some traces of nervousness. The others weren’t spared from it, either. Even Selene, though she tried to hide it under her mask of indifference. The way her eyes flicked around the trees betrayed her. All of them were tense. They all felt that something wasn’t quite right with this place, but none of them were able to put a finger on it or shake off the feeling. Sure, there was the thing with the trees that weren’t supposed to grow beside each other, but that was truly only a small detail on a bigger spectrum. There was something… odd about the way the forest seemed to close in on them. The mist still lingered close to the ground and wafted around them as they walked. The uncanniness of this place was almost too much for Griffin to bear. Maybe being conscious of that fact made it worse, but how would he know? It wasn’t like he was able to change it.

  They continued walking for a while, staying close together to ensure no one got left behind.

  Eventually, Selene stopped.

  “I think this is as far as we can get today. We’ve been walking all day, so we need to sleep to replenish our strength. Maco, Joe – fire. Griffin – food. Ryo – set up camp, and I’ll sort out the order of watch.”

  They nodded and turned to their individual tasks. Everyone was grateful for this break. Nevertheless, it was clear that none of them wanted to still be stuck in this place. It was bigger than Griffin had anticipated. For how long would they have to march through it? Two days? Two weeks? He didn’t dare speculate.

  There wasn’t much talk that evening. Everyone was occupied with their own thoughts, listening into the night, wishing desperately for any normal sound that ought to be heard in a forest. But there was nothing. Only the crackling of the bright fire gave them a vague sense of relief and comfort.

  Griffin was on watch duty first, which was just as well. He wouldn’t have been able to sleep in any case. He noticed the others having the same problem; they all tossed and turned, and occasionally lay there with eyes open, staring at the impenetrable cover of leaves. Not even Selene had dared to touch the trees let alone climb one to see if she could see above the forest to spot the mountain.

  Staring into the flames, Griffin wished he could just be at home or on board the Bat. Why had Selene taken him along? He would have been better off in a safe, certain location rather than this uncanny hell-wood. Even the trees looked dead; they looked like they were petrified.

  Griffin would give anything at that moment to lie in his bed while having his mother read him a bedtime story by candlelight, the way she’d done when he’d been a child. But so much time had passed since then, it felt like another life. It was almost as if the day he had first set foot onto the Bat, he had been reborn. But he wouldn’t mind going back to his boring, safe life now and then. Especially in moments like these.

  Griffin sighed. Aestiva came and lie on his lap, purring as always, reassuring him that it was okay. It was okay to be afraid and okay to wish to be elsew
here. Tiredly, Griffin petted her. She was doing better now, but it was good that she didn’t have to walk herself. Otherwise, the exhaustion might have been too much for her.

  When his time was up, Griffin woke up Joe to take over guard duty for him and attempted to sleep himself. It didn’t pose much of a problem, despite his situation and ever-present fear. Perhaps he was too exhausted from traveling that day to keep his eyes open any longer.

  He didn’t have any dreams that night. It was a deep, but not very restful sleep. Out of all of them, Griffin appeared to have slept the best that night. Even Selene didn’t seem up to her usual spirit. Her eyes drooped again and again, and a couple of times Griffin thought she might fall asleep standing.

  Soon after breakfast they got underway again. Their steps were hesitant, charged with the feeling that they should not be here. The forest had morphed along the way into something that felt like a large, frightening entity. The trees were no longer familiar, their branches more twisted, spiraling around one another, sometimes jagged like lightning, and sometimes splitting apart into something feathery. Their leaves were dark, almost colorless, and the odor of the forest was that of decomposing wood.

  Lost in his thoughts about trees, Griffin tripped and fell again. It seemed almost as if a root had purposefully lifted itself off the ground and wrapped itself around his foot to make him fall. But what was far more concerning than that was that when he looked up, his friends had disappeared and with them the light from the lanterns, even though he had been right next to them only a few seconds ago. Now he was left alone in total darkness.

  Griffin got back up and stared into the darkness. Surely, he ought to be able to make out the shining light of the lamps in this blackness? But nothing. Not a single glimmer. They’d simply vanished. Or perhaps the lamps had fallen to the ground and gone out.

  “Hello?” Griffin asked the darkness hopefully. “Aestiva? Ryo? Selene?”

  After every name, he paused, listening desperately for an answer from the void. The darkness seemed to swallow his words. There was no echo, no resonance – he might as well have been speaking into a padded box.

  “Is anybody there?”

  Griffin could hear his voice pitch higher and begin to shake. The boy dropped to his knees and held his head in his hands. What had happened? Had he knocked himself out without noticing? Yes, that must be it! When he’d fallen, he must have knocked his head and fainted while the others had continued, not noticing his absence. And when he had woken up, he’d somehow believed that it had only been a mere couple of seconds rather than hours.

  But what should he do now? He didn’t know where he was, nor how to proceed, or even how to get back to the Bat. Besides that, he was caught in pure darkness and too afraid to move even an inch. Who knew what kind of beasts were watching him right this second, preparing to pounce on him with bared teeth and claws? His mind’s eye had already created images of a giant feline that had been stalking him since the moment he had set foot on Ignya.

  No sound disturbed the forest.

  Or perhaps that wasn’t it at all. Maybe he was dead, and this was the afterlife or the transition in between. The world around him stood still. Nothing he sensed felt like real life. There was no sound, no wind, no smell, no light, nothing. The ground didn’t feel real. Well, if he was dead, then the only things he had to worry about were soulsnatchers, spiritual demons that devoured the souls of people when they died before they could ascend to cloudland. And they would get him a lot easier if he remained here.

  Repeating a mantra over and over in his mind, Griffin did his best to gather all his remaining willpower to escape his paralysis.

  I’m dead already. Nothing can hurt me now.

  I’m dead already.

  Nothing can hurt me now.

  Slowly, but steadily, he got back to his feet and placed one foot in front of the other. The world around him lit up. It started from where he’d placed his foot, as though a pale, icy blue glow rippled out from him to the rest of the world. It spread quickly, running through the ground, the roots, the leaves – like a tidal wave – until the whole forest was shining blue. Griffin spun around in wonder.

  It looked ghostly, but in a beautiful way. The eeriness had faded.

  Now that he could see that there was, in fact, no monster behind him, Griffin felt a lot better. The mist had dissipated, but his companions were still nowhere to be seen. Based on what he could see now, he thought he knew which way they had been walking earlier. He decided to continue that direction as well, regardless of the fact that he was dead. Maybe he could see them one last time before ascending into cloudland. Besides, he had no idea which other direction to take, so what did it really matter?

  More content with his situation than before, Griffin walked on. He tried to float like a proper ghost, but he wasn’t entirely certain how to go about that, so he stuck with what he knew.

  After several hours without taking a break, he was exhausted. His legs and back ached, and he suffered from hunger and thirst. Luckily, Selene had made him carry some provisions, which must have crossed over with him when he had died. He did find it a little strange that he felt tiredness, pain, and hunger even as a spirit, but he figured it had something to do with the memory of being alive. If it wasn’t for the constant glow of the forest, Griffin would believe himself to still be alive.

  Leaning against one of the trees, he watched the glow for a while. It seemed to be almost pulsating, like the heartbeat of a living being. Griffin felt for his own heartbeat. There it was. As strong and steady as ever. Did spirits really have a heartbeat? What would they need it for? Did they need to keep breathing like he did? He attempted to hold his breath but had to give up after less than a minute.

  Griffin sighed. He wasn’t dead at all, was he? Somehow, the realization was less of a relief than it should have been. Sure, he didn’t need to worry about soulsnatchers anymore or the way to cloudland, but instead he would have to be afraid of everything else again, death included. But the forest’s light still helped. It felt more secure, less scary. More like something he could handle. But the change in situation only rendered his need to find his friends more urgent. What had happened? Why and how had they gotten separated? And why was the forest so different now? Had he perchance stumbled into a parallel world?

  These reflections would get him no further. He needed to keep moving to find his friends – or just someone at all. If he made it to the volcano, he could wait for them there. Sooner or later, that was where they would end up. If he made it to the shore, he would be able to follow the coastline to the Bat. Either way, it meant he would be reunited with someone.

  With another sigh, Griffin set himself back in motion. He didn’t like being here on his own. He was still afraid of what fate might hold in store for him, but at this stage, he was so utterly mentally exhausted and drained that resignation took over. He might as well do all he could to find a way out of this situation, even if death seemed the most probable outcome.

  Nobody would come to save him this time.

  After a short time wandering through this mysterious land, Griffin finally heard a noise caused by something other than himself. He stopped dead, mid-step, and listened intently into the glow, hoping to hear it better. He wanted to be certain that his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him again. There had already been several times when he had thought he could hear his name being called out by Skip or Ryo, even Selene – and his mother! But all of those instances had been wishful thinking with a pinch of overactive imagination and stress.

  This time, the noise continued. It was real. Like a siren, it only stopped for short moments. A howl. Griffin didn’t care anymore whether or not it was a wild hungry beast; he wanted to get closer, to see it with his own eyes and ensure that there was indeed another living being in this odd world.

  He fought his way through the brush toward the sound. It was farther away than he had anticipated. He was rushing on for what felt like hou
rs. The howl never stopped for more than mere seconds. Finally, he was close enough to see the cause: a troll was curled up in a ball on the ground, whimpering, and howling in desperation. Its eyes focused on nothing; they swept over the trees as though they weren’t there. The howl itself was as ear-shattering as it was heart-breaking. Griffin had to cover his ears, but the sound remained just as penetrating and painful. His head felt like it was about to explode.

  “Maco,” he shouted. “Maco, calm down! It’s alright!”

  The troll didn’t seem to hear him. Griffin couldn’t even hear himself. The howl was so loud, it drowned out all other noise. The boy edged closer so Maco would see him. He tried to smile reassuringly, but Maco didn’t react, not even when Griffin placed himself in the center of his vision. The gaze went right through him. Griffin touched him on the shoulder and instantly the howling stopped.

  Despite ringing ears, he managed to say, “Everything’s okay now, Maco. There’s no need to worry. We’ll find the others, alright?”

  Just as he finished his words, the troll’s tusks slammed against his forehead, throwing him back several feet. Dazed, Griffin stared wide-eyed at the creature unfolding itself before him. This was not the gentle Maco he knew. Standing up straight, it was about a foot taller than Griffin, with mad eyes and the expression of a ferocious wild animal. Its nose flared, and it charged toward Griffin without even looking at him.

  Griffin managed to jump aside the last moment, causing the troll to run into a tree, thoroughly crushing it. It punched the plant repeatedly, bit it, headbutted it and let out a tremendous roar. Griffin watched from the ground in terrified fascination. It wasn’t until the troll turned to him, its nose sniffing for his scent, that he realized he needed to escape. But running away was not an option. Not with the kind of speed the troll had just displayed. Climbing a tree also did not seem a wise idea.