The Three Feathers - The Magnificent Journey of Joshua Aylong

by Bolz, Stefan

  “To be perfectly honest,” Joshua replied, “we don’t even know where to go from here.”

  “Ah,” she answered, as she turned some more until Joshua and the wolf were suddenly looking at her rear. They glanced at each other, Grey smiling in his thoughts.

  “Come on,” Grey thought to Joshua as he jumped up the side of the hill and leaped down on the other side. Joshua flew up and onto the back of the large turtle. From there he flew down to stand before her again.

  “If you would be so kind as to tell us which direction to go, we will be on our way,” Joshua told her in his thoughts.

  “The direction depends entirely on where you want to end up,” she answered.

  “I’m not sure,” Joshua replied, “but I think we need to get into the mountain.

  “Porte Des Lioness,” the turtle answered. “There is an ancient entrance. Or at least there was… But you cannot find it, no. Nobody can. The glass is cracked. O I don’t remember. But you must look. And wait. And wait.”

  “I don’t understand. But maybe you can tell us where to go from here.”

  “Yes. I can certainly do that, my young friend. If you take this road for a while, you will come to a point where you can see a tower in the distance. Or maybe you will only see the upper most tip of it. That tower is Refuge. It stands on the edge of the great falls in the center of the Lake of Tears.

  “Refuge?” Joshua asked.

  “Yes,” the turtle replied. “It is… a refuge. Nothing more. Nothing less. Oh… I think I… I just remembered something… Hmm… No. Sorry. It’s not… It’s not coming back that fast. I forgot again.”

  “Do you remember what it is a refuge from?” Joshua asked.

  “No… YES! Wait.” The turtle closed her huge eyes. Her head swayed back and forth, the melody continuing in the background.

  “OH YES!… Sorry, too loud again.” And she continued with a whisper, “It is because it usually gets very cold there suddenly.”

  “What do you mean?” Joshua asked.

  “I recall a deep freeze that happens four times a year. It lasts for six hours more or less during which everything that is outside dies. You must be inside and all the way at the top of the tower… Nothing can survive being exposed to those temperatures…. I think…. Or maybe that was a dream I had. I’m really sorry I don’t seem to make much sense, do I.”

  “It’s okay,” Joshua thought to her. “Thank you anyway.

  “You are quite welcome, my young friend,” the turtle looked at Joshua for a moment, than her head moved towards Grey.

  “And you, gray one,” she looked straight at the wolf. “Do not be saddened. Your companion’s pain left her long ago and she is roaming the ancient hunting grounds free and much contented. Your memory has stayed with her and has not left her for a single moment since. Do not deny her presence within you for if you do, she died in vain.”

  When Joshua looked at Grey he saw that the wolf was stunned by what the turtle had just told him. Then the sense of relief flooding through Grey was so big that even the turtle was infected by it. Joshua was sure her laughter could be heard for miles and miles so loud were her thoughts of joy over the wolf’s expression of his.

  “Thank you,” the wolf thought while looking up to the turtle. “I thank you. So much.”

  “Go now. For it will take you a good while to get to the Refuge and I can feel the cold coming deep inside my bones.”

  Had it become colder already? Joshua thought he had felt a rush of cold air before. Better not to waste any time.

  “Farewell my young friends. Good luck on your travels and may I devote a song in your honor?”

  “You may,” Joshua answered.

  “Two Companions in search of their destiny. I like it.” The turtle closed her eyes, changed the melody into a tune with dramatic overtones.

  Joshua and Grey walked away from her and around a bend in the road that lead through the hills. Just as they were about to disappear from her line of sight, Joshua caught a small fading thought.

  “…Spiders.”

  A blast of cold air reached both of them, ruffling Grey’s coat and Joshua’s feathers.

  “Did you hear that?” Joshua asked.

  “No. What was it?” The wolf replied.

  “I heard the word ‘spiders’.”

  “Spiders? Are you sure?” Grey asked.

  Whatever was left of the thought faded fast.

  “I’m not sure. It probably doesn’t matter.” He left it at that and forgot all about it only a few minutes later.

  12. REFUGE

  They followed the ancient road leading away from the city of light ruins and toward their next destination of which they knew very little. Both stayed within their own thoughts for the most part. Once Joshua received such a clear and strong image of the wolf’s companion roaming the landscape in the ancient hunting grounds beyond the borders of this world that he could not help thinking about his own journey and the path he had taken. Not in his wildest dreams would he have been able to dream up such an adventure. He had been away from his home for less than a moon and already he had seen things that were outside the realm of experience for most of his kind. The hens and other chickens in his pen lived for their immediate surroundings, their life in the flock and mostly for the food. He could not comprehend how he had ever been satisfied with it. It was as if he did not realize what he had missed until he experienced it firsthand.

  On the other side of it, he thought of all the times he had been close to death, how many dangers he had already passed through and how many more most likely awaited him on the remainder of his journey. And the outcome of it was still completely uncertain. Even if he found the feathers, what then? It was hard for him to remember how much they meant to him when they appeared in his dream. One thing was certain: if he hadn’t found Grey and Krieg, he would not have come as far as he did. And even more, the friendship between them was what truly made all this worthwhile. It was more than he could have ever hoped to find.

  Joshua was so deep in his thoughts, that he didn’t realize the landscape had changed almost completely in the last two hours. Despite the significantly colder air, the land before them was lush and green. It felt almost tropical. Behind a hill in the distance, the upper part of the Refuge was clearly recognizable as a cylindrical structure reaching high into the sky. The visible upper part was almost completely made of glass.

  The path they were on went steadily up hill and was dotted on both sides with large egg shaped boulders. Thick dark green moss grew on them. In between the oddly shaped rocks stood several trees. With their stems broad and short and their thin, long branches thickly layered with moss and algae, their bizarre shapes were reminiscent of extraordinarily large…

  “SPIDERS!” Joshua’s thought must have startled the wolf as he, letting out a yelp, jumped to the middle of the path and away from one of the trees. As they both looked at the trees they had to admit that there was a very close resemblance in their shape to actual spiders. Some of the trees were half buried in the ground with only their branches sticking out like thin long legs.

  “They look like attack spiders.” Grey’s thought provoked more than mere discomfort in Joshua. In fact, he had to muster a great deal of self control in order not to follow his instincts and begin to run. As they walked past the eerie looking trees and equally disturbing egg shaped boulders, they reached the top of the hill. From here they had an unobstructed view of the Refuge. It was embedded in a magnificent landscape. With the sheer five thousand foot high wall that extended high into the sky as a backdrop, the tower, built into a massive boulder, sat near the center of a large, tear-shaped lake. The sun hitting its surface brought out the deepest cobalt blue that was reflected in the upper part of the tower which was almost completely made of glass. There was a second, similarly shaped lake behind the first one. Joshua saw large openings in the middle of each lake where the water disappeared. The path toward the lake lead through a lush green hilly landscape
that was dotted with the now familiar egg shaped boulders interspersed with the strangely shaped trees. In the distance, where the land met the massive walls of Hollow’s Gate, they could see what looked like tongues of ice that had crawled halfway up the sheer cliffs.

  As they began their descent into the valley the wind increased, bringing ever colder air from the lakes toward them. The force of the wind gusts was so strong at times, it felt like something was pushing them back, unwilling to let them come closer. When they were half way down the hill, Joshua looked back. What he saw made his skin crawl.

  “Look!” He thought quietly to the wolf.

  When Grey turned around, he let out a low snarl. The coat around his neck stood up. Joshua could sense utter terror in the wolf. From here, the trees looked even more imposing, like huge spiders that were crawling out of the ground and toward them. But what they didn’t see before when they walked down the hill were the small openings covered by grass and soil from one direction but now visible as holes in the ground. The holes were about six to eight yards in diameter, covering the landscape as far as they could see. There were hundreds of them.

  “Joshua,” Grey thought.

  “Yes,” Joshua answered.

  “We should hurry.” The wolf turned around and began to trot. Joshua had to make an active choice to turn his back to what he was looking at. Fear spread inside his chest as he started to fly and run down the path and toward the lake. The further they came the colder it got. Joshua’s eyes began to tear and when they reached the shore of the lake, he couldn’t feel his talons anymore. They saw a small dam built into the lake that spanned the distance between the shore and the large tower. They had about 300 yards before they reached the large boulder and then up what looked like stairs built into the rock leading to a small platform and a massive door.

  Joshua heard the noise when they first stepped onto the stone dam. It was the sound of cracking ice. The lake began to freeze. The cold air suddenly hit them full force. Breathing became difficult for Joshua as they made their way across the narrow dam. He saw the edges of the lake turn into ice and the ice moving in their direction from all sides. The area where the dam met the shore was also already completely iced over and when Joshua turned his head for one second he saw that the ice extended up the hill from where they had come.

  And then, suddenly, the sound of the freezing water was overpowered by yet another sound. It was the sound of hundreds and hundreds of feet crawling over a glassy surface, creating a wave of noise of otherworldly proportions coming from behind them. This time it was Grey who turned his head. What he saw was beyond anything he could possibly describe.

  Out of the holes in the ground came the spiders. First dozens but then hundreds of them, their bodies covered in long hair, they came crawling with immense speed down the hill and toward the tower. They must have been three to four feet wide and at least three quarters the height of the wolf. The sound was deafening and so terrifying Joshua flew higher and faster than he ever thought he could. When they reached the other side of the dam and the stairs, the spiders had reached the ice covered lake. The wolf ran up the stone steps, taking three or four at a time. He arrived first at the plateau with the large door.

  As Joshua flew up the stairs he heard the wolf in his thoughts.

  “The doors, Joshua. The doors are closed. We can’t get inside!”

  Joshua reached the plateau. Behind him, the ice crept into the boulder. The spiders were about half way across the lake. And Joshua felt suddenly that this was it; that this was the end of his journey. It was either the spiders that reached them first or the ice. It did not matter. He didn’t think his end would come like this. He was always convinced it would be from a predator, like a fox or on owl. But not a spider four times his size or temperatures that could freeze one’s breath and turn it into icicles in a matter of seconds. Grey and Joshua looked at each other, for an instant wordlessly acknowledging their friendship to one another. Then they turned to face whatever it was that would reach them first.

  The shadow that suddenly blocked the sun became larger and larger and Joshua looked up. Blinded by the light he saw a blurry silhouette coming toward them. He could make out a dark figure and massive wings pushing the air. And then Krieg landed next to them.

  “Step back from the door,” he told them in his thoughts. And before Joshua could react, the war horse kicked the door several times until it flew open.

  “Get inside!” He commanded them.

  And when Wind landed on the ice covered plateau, Joshua flew through the door. He was followed by Grey, Wind and Krieg.

  “Go up the stair case!” Wind’s thoughts reached them. “It’s not over yet!”

  Krieg kicked the door from the inside and it shut, the sound echoing through the large space. As Joshua ran and flew up the massive stair case that went up along the walls he heard the spiders on the outside. For a moment he took in the scenery: a wide spiral staircase of massive proportions made of stone and reaching ever higher inside the tall tower. As Krieg passed Joshua he stopped briefly.

  “Fly onto my back,” he told him.

  Joshua did so without hesitation. As they raced up the stairs, Joshua saw the ice crawling up the walls toward them. The stone stairs far at the bottom were already completely covered. They had to reach the top of the tower before the ice overcame them completely.

  “You have wings!” Joshua couldn’t help but think to Krieg.

  “Yes, my friend, I do.”

  For a brief moment, and cutting through all the fear, he felt utter joy to see Krieg alive and well. Then he looked behind him and saw that the ice had almost caught up with them.

  “We’re here!” Grey’s thoughts reached Joshua. And with that he disappeared through an opening in the ceiling. Wind followed and then Krieg with Joshua on his back. This part of the tower was completely made of glass interlaced with thin, carefully crafted bars that made up the structure into which the glass was built. As they stood in the large space that was easily fifty yards across and at least twice as high, they could see the ice crawling up another ten yards on the glass before it stopped. At the same time the spiders reached the top of the tower. For a moment all was quiet except for the eerie crackling of the ice outside. The spider’s bodies, tugged against the glass, blocked most of the light. Here and there a beam of sunlight came through the small spaces between them, illuminating parts of the floor.

  The group stood huddled together in the middle of the large dome. Joshua saw that Grey’s fur coat was covered in ice crystals. Parts of the wings of the Pegasus were frozen as well. And as he looked down on himself he saw that a fine layer of ice covered his feathers. They got here not a moment too soon. The joy over seeing Krieg again was overshadowed by the terrifying thought that they were surrounded by hundreds, maybe thousands, of large spiders. The relief he felt when they reached the tower room was short lived. What if the spiders found a way inside? The door at the bottom was probably still open even though Krieg tried to close it shut.

  “They will not harm you.” Wind’s thoughts reached him like clear water bubbling to the surface of a well.

  “What do you mean?” He asked.

  “They will not harm you in any way. They are not here for you.”

  Joshua didn’t understand.

  “Why are they here then?” He asked.

  There was a pause while Wind looked at him, her eyes kind and her presence warming his mind.

  “They are here to seek shelter. The ice comes from deep within the earth, taking everything in its path. The spiders flee from it to the only place they know will save them: Refuge. If you were to look outside now you would see that none of the ones below us have survived. They all died in search of a place where the ice could not reach them. They were not after us.”

  “So, closing the doors killed them?” Krieg asked into the silence.

  “No. Even inside, just below the floor, they would not be alive right now.” Wind held Krieg’s gaze. “T
here was nothing you could have done.”

  “What happens now?” Joshua asked, not sure what exactly he meant.

  “Once the ice melts, the lake will take their dead. The ones that survive go back down deep into the ground.”

  “Until next time?” Joshua asked.

  “Yes. Until next time,” Wind answered.

  Joshua nodded slightly. He had seen so much death in such a short period of time and each one touched him anew, each time it was as if part of himself died as well.

  “Death is just a part of this world,” Wind thought to him. “It is neither good nor bad. It is.”

  “I don’t like it!” Joshua was surprised about the strength of his reaction. “Why is there life when it ends in death anyway? Why go through all this when the outcome is certain and inevitable?” Joshua was suddenly overcome by a wave of emotions of desperation, fear and a sense of loss that he couldn’t comprehend.

  “Joshua!” Grey’s thoughts stood clear within his mind. “It’s the spiders. You are experiencing what they are feeling. It is their thoughts that you are hearing.”

  Joshua realized at that moment that the wolf was right. He could feel it now. It was all around him. The spiders that had made it up to the top mourned the death of their brethren below. Suddenly Joshua saw the outside of the tower through their eyes. It was covered in the frozen, crystallized bodies of the spiders. One by one they fell off the ice covered walls as it began to melt. It was an image of utter horror.

  “There is nothing you can do for their bodies,” Wind thought to him. “But there is something you can do for us and for yourself and for them and that is that they are not excluded from our thoughts. That they are in our thoughts. That will accompany them to wherever they are going and to whatever awaits them next.”

  As Joshua thought about this, trying to comprehend what he had just heard from Wind, Krieg came over and lay down across from him and the wolf. The three of them looked at each other for a while.