The War of All Wars

by J. Eric Booker

  What his eyesight could not tell, despite all his advantages, which caves were vacant and which were occupied—his brain did reason that if they came across a cave that was occupied, they would try to avoid it and make their way to the next cave as quickly as they could. After all, he had no clue as to how much time they had left until the sun rose.

  Perhaps fifteen seconds after their arrival, Baltor was the first to say using telepathy, I found three caves—two the left and one to the right. So, in my opinion, going left sounds like the most logical choice, as we will have a greater chance of finding a cave void of inhabitants to stay at, from sunrise until sundown, in which I have no idea on how much longer it will be until the sun rises next…

  So are we going to fly on the carpet to get there?

  No.

  Why not?

  Because of the powerful winds blowing every direction, as well the fact that we have no way of securely strapping ourselves to the carpet, I think we should first slide to the bottom of the hill. Once there, cast an invisibility spell on us, climb aboard my back, and I will hoof it…maybe if the winds lighten up, which I doubt, we can try flying the carpet. Okay?

  Okay, she said with a nod, just before removing the dagger from the ice, which action caused them to both to henceforth slide to the bottom—once there, she next began to cast the invisibility spell.

  Once they were both invisible, shortly thereafter, she climbed on his back and held on tight, just before he trudged their way down the valley to the left.

  Because of the pounding winds that never ceased or lessened, as well the slippery ice that was the ground’s surface, he could go no faster than five miles per hour—only five minutes later, the spell ended and they were once again visible.

  It was then that Baltor began to use his master-thievery skills, slinking in the deep, dark shadows all the while avoiding the demon-guards and souls.

  Two tedious hours later, thankfully without any encounters, they finally arrived at the first cave.

  Only seconds before entering the cave’s mouth, however, his “warning senses” revealed that there were “four evil presences inside!” Without a word or even a thought spoken, he began to hoof it for the next cave.

  Once they had begun to near this second cave an hour and fifteen minutes later—although there had nearly been an encounter with one of the roaming guards but ten minutes earlier—he had scouted out four more caves. Four, eight, twelve, and thirty miles away from this cave.

  Because of the very dark skies had only now just begun to lighten, they realized that the sun would soon be arriving, and so Baltor desperately hoped that this cave was empty, or in the worst-case scenario, the very next cave. Upon entering the mouth of the cave—yet without his warning senses not going off this time—he breathed a small sigh of relief.

  He said aloud, although quietly, “Thankfully, my warning senses have just revealed that this cave is empty, unlike the last, which is why we did not go in it. What I need you to do is to stay right here, but just in case my senses prove to be wrong, be ready to run out the entrance—what I’m going to do is to explore out this cave and make sure my senses are working properly. If the sun should begin to rise before I get back, it may be up to you to calculate the direction we need to travel tonight…okay?”

  Okay…

  It took him almost two minutes to explore this cave for traps or creatures, cautiously, as it turned out to be only one single tunnel with many sharp twists and turns that spanned for only a mile. At the end of the tunnel, and without any booby traps or creatures, Baltor happily confirmed that his senses were working properly.

  By the time he had arrived back at the entrance to the cave, only thirty seconds later, he observed that the sun itself was now only a minute-or-so away from entering the still mostly-cloudy skies. He therefore reported to Nemis, This cave is empty and will make us a perfect hiding spot for today, especially after I’ve caused a semi-major cave-in that we can dig ourselves out of tonight.

  Cool!

  He began to chuckle at her “word pun”.

  While squinting her left eye, she asked, What are you laughing at?

  He was about to answer, but became interrupted upon peripherally seeing the top sliver of the sun poke itself above the icy-horizon. He thrust his index finger that very direction—she looked.

  Precisely two seconds later, the blizzard-clouds that covered ninety-nine percent of the skies had already concealed the sun. It also did not look like those clouds would allow it to show again for the entire day.

  He closed his eyes, and in his mind’s eye, he tabulated the sun’s movements within those two seconds, and gauged it on the landscape all around he remembered in vivid detail like a roadmap. A route was quickly drawn for them to go that night, which was down the first of two valleys to their left.

  Once known, he turned around and said, Follow me, Nemis.

  Okay.

  As the two began to stroll their way to the cave’s dead end, Nemis asked, I read your thoughts while focused on calculating the sun’s movements, but you never answered my question—why were you laughing?

  Baltor abruptly shifted to verbal speech, as he answered, “Oh, ha ha, just at your word choice of ‘Cool…’ Very-very-cool around here…don’t ya think?”

  “Ya, it is…hee hee hee!”

  Soon after, the two arrived at the dead-end—after Baltor turned around, he ordered, “I want you to wait right here and start getting us set up here for the day. As for me, I’m going back up a thousand-or-so feet and cause a cave-in—you’ll be safe here. Tonight we’ll just dig our way up, before we leave…okay?”

  “Okay, Baltor. Perfect plan as always…”

  “Thanks.”

  In the next moment, he proceeded to make his way up to that point in the cave, and after unsheathing both swords, he began to stab them both—strategically—into the cave’s ceiling.

  Ten-or-so seconds later, a massive cave-in occurred, and their only exit was now solidly blocked off with snow and ice. He proceeded back down the tunnel.

  After sheathing back his swords, he walked through the pitch-darkness until arriving back at the dead end, observing that Nemis was sitting down on the still-rolled carpet. Her back and head leaned on the wall.

  Once there, he stated nonchalantly, “Just so you know, I’m back…”

  “I know—I can see you.”

  “Oh yeah…I forgot.”

  Nemis lightly giggled for a few seconds.

  “Now what are you laughing at?”

  Shrugging her shoulders, she sang, “No-thing…”

  “Oh.”

  “Oh?”

  Baltor sighed, before answering, “Okay…well, anyways. I wish there was a way we could make this waiting period in the dark more comfortable for the both of us, like a wood fire, or a comfy couch, or a lush pillow, or something, but we have none of those luxuries…just that thin carpet.”

  “Well, actually, there are two ways we can be a little more comfortable,” Nemis suggested, sounding a bit mischievous in her tones.

  Baltor asked, “How so?”

  “The first way is the crystal on my staff, which can produce a magical light we can see by. The second way is…”

  When Nemis did not answer, nearly ten seconds later, Baltor asked, “The second way is?”

  “Baltor, I don’t want you to think I’m being fresh or anything, but…”

  “But?”

  “Well, we can become each other’s warm pillow, by holding onto each other while we wait for sunset.”

  A few seconds later, he took a deep breath through just his nose, before stating aloud, “Okay…to both ideas.”

  “Really?” she asked with a bit of disbelief.

  “Yeah, but I have a condition with the second idea,” he muttered.

  “What?”

  Perhaps five seconds later, he cleared his throat and answered, “We can’t get fresh with each other again, no matter what, and I know that you know what I me
an. I really don’t mind the one time we did get fresh, because it was…what’s the word…umm, ‘not planned.’ But we’re in hell, and this is the last place I want to be having a romantic fling with anyone…even someone who I’ve come to trust and respect, and to really like.”

  “Yes I do—I not only understand, yet agree,” Nemis said with an understanding smile on her face, which face became revealed because of her now-illuminated staff.

  After clearing her throat, she leaned her staff on the wall in arm’s reach—he joined her on the carpet two seconds later. They began to snuggle their bodies up against each other…

  Once both were “nice and comfy,” a half-minute later, she sighed aloud, “Not so bad…right?”

  “Right,” he answered with a smile.

  Returning the smile, she looked over and gently said, “I want to thank you…”

  Looking back, Baltor asked, “For what?”

  “For trusting me.”

  “You’ve earned it…if you were going to try and stab me in the back, you could have done so many times since we first met….how long ago was it when that happened?”

  While one part of his mind began to tabulate the exact figure based on the seconds since he met her, still another part pondered all their shared-adventures and close calls to death, so far!

  Only three seconds after he had asked the question, Nemis answered, “I have no idea. But does it really matter?”

  Baltor laughed, “No, I guess not.”

  “Hey.”

  “What?”

  “I got an idea.”

  “What?”

  “Since the you and I have at least a few more months of nights spent together in isolated caves—perhaps even years with our current speed—until we reach this Arch-Devil’s palace on the other side of this world, why I don’t teach you the ways of magic?”

  Without waiting for an answer, she added, “You obviously have some in your blood, or you wouldn’t be able to teleport around like you do—that’s magic in itself…and in return for me teaching you, you teach me your fighting skills, so I can be even more effective in combat as well. Okay?”

  While stroking his braided goatee, Baltor answered, “Hmm…now that’s a splendid idea, Nemis! You want to begin right now?”

  Shaking her head, she answered, “No…actually I don’t want to start tonight. I just want to relax…we’ve done so much running around, and hiding, and battling, that I just need to take a mini-vacation for tonight…and just relax.”

  “Okay. Tomorrow night for sure, we begin.”

  Clasping him just a bit tighter, she replied, “Deal, my friend.”

  He chuckled a few times before confirming, “Deal…my friend.”

  She could not help but release a deep sigh of contentment. A moment or two later, she said, “Right now, I want to know something personal about you. And in return, I’ll tell you something personal about me. Okay?”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Tell me about your wife.”

  After spending nearly a half-minute to formulate the right words, he answered, “She…she was the most wonderful person I’ve ever met! From the first second I saw her eyes, I was in love…her name’s Brishava.”

  While pulling out a nutritional packet out from her pocket, she exclaimed, “Wow…that is so wonderful to hear, including her most-beautiful name. Tell me about Brishava…what did she look like?”

  He released a little sigh, before answering, “Her physical beauty was unmatched by any other woman I’ve seen, though I must be honest when I say that you are right up there with her on the beauty-queen chain.”

  Throwing him a little wink and smile, she replied, “Ahhh…why, thank you, good lord.”

  “Brishava had raven hair, doe-brown eyes, totally-kissable lips, and a body that was picture-perfect!” Upon having finished saying that statement, he could not help but chuckle aloud a few times.

  “And her personality?” she asked perhaps ten seconds later, just before she began to suck the packet down.

  “Again unmatched. For ninety-nine percent of the time we were together—forty-six years, seven months, and five days—we were symbiotic and mutualistic toward each other, instinctively knowing the other person’s wants and needs and fulfilling them. Thankfully, there were only a handful of occasions we disagreed and-or argued. ‘Soulmates’ is what we called each other…sent to the other by God.”

  Nemis could not help but release a deep sigh, before saying, “Wooow…that is so incredibly romantic!”

  “Unfortunately, she couldn’t beat her family curse,” Baltor revealed, now with grief in voice and face. “Eight years before she died, a little less than a century and a half ago, she contracted the same illness that took her father and grandfather’s lives. As those final years passed, she rotted away, horribly…there was nothing anybody could do to save her, not even me…it was such a horrific loss to the entire empire—to me—when she died in the night!”

  After releasing a deep sigh of his own, perhaps the greatest he had taken since before her death, he concluded, “Ever since, although tens of thousands of women have thrown themselves at me, and on many occasions literally, I have never even passionately kissed another woman’s lips; that is, until your lips came around.”

  “Really? Wow! Now my lips feel oh so very special.”

  “Hey, now. I’m just saying the truth.”

  “Thank you for revealing that extra bit of personal info to me!”

  “You’re welcome—one more thing I should say, Nemis.”

  “Yes?”

  “The night before she died, she told me that I could be with any other woman during the course of my life, but that I would—upon my death—once again belong solely to her. I hope this doesn’t become a problem later down the road…that is, once this is all over.”

  Nemis sighed aloud, “No it’s not…not at all. Especially since you, as an immortal, will far outlive even me. Perhaps forever?”

  “Perhaps…I may not die of old age, but as you’ve clearly seen, I can be burned. I can be stabbed. I can be hurt. And there are so many other ways to die.”

  Nemis could not help but release a deep yawn. She asked, “Do you mind if I get some sleep? Though I don’t need it, it is good to let the conscious mind drift every now and then…you should get some shut eye too, but that’s up to you.”

  “Sure…sounds like a great idea. But if we both go to sleep, how are we going to know when the sun is down?”

  “I’m about to cast an ‘alarm spell’ on my staff, Hun, which will cause the crystal to light up when the alarm goes off…how long until the sun sets?”

  “Eleven hours, fifteen minutes, and thirty seconds—mark.”

  “Okay…I’ll set the alarm for eleven hours.”

  “Sounds good.”

  After causing the staff to appear in her hand, she began to chant. For the very first time, Baltor tried to focus upon and visualize her incantation inside his head, but the words remained “alien,” and he was unsuccessful.

  Five seconds later, she stopped chanting, and said, “Okay…set.”

  “Perfect…thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. Good night, my friend,” she said as she extinguished out the light in her staff, which enshrouded them in “blackness.” She nuzzled her face deep into his shoulders—strangely, she realized just then that his new armor was not cold and hard against her delicate face, but warm, soft and comfortable like a nice, fluffy pillow. She did not complain.

  “Good night, my friend,” he replied just as sleepily, only a few seconds after she had spoken.

  With that, the two closed their eyes, allowing their conscious minds to drift away and fall asleep….eleven hours later, but what felt like eleven minutes later, he awoke to hearing Nemis saying, “Baltor, time to wake up.”

  After cracking open his heavy and tired eyelids, he saw with dismay that her staff was ever-so-brilliantly lit up—she had already risen to her feet, stretching all her
limbs out.

  He rose to his own feet only a second later, but of course, there was no need for him to stretch. Instead, without a word spoken, he walked up to the location where he had caused the cave-in, just before beginning to dig—with his hands—through the packed ice, in order to make a tunnel just big enough to crawl through.

  All the while, Nemis had not only begun to roll up the carpet yet place it in her pocket. Once done, a minute later, she made her way to Baltor’s crawling-on-all-four position in his mini-tunnel…upon arrival, she assisted by moving the large chunks of ice he gave her behind them.

  Six minutes later, they arrived on the other side—as they came to discover, the winds were no less tumultuous than the night before.

  Baltor was the first to state using telepathy, Looks like we’re going to keep hoofing it…climb aboard.

  Okay.

  Once she had climbed on his back, he made his way through to the exit of the cave at top speed, and exited—like the night before, due to the ripping winds and the slippery ground outside, the fastest speed they could go was five miles per hour.

  Nearly a dozen times throughout this first night of traveling they had to hide, as enemy guards passed near their location, or souls flew out of control through the air!

  Eleven hours and twenty minutes later—all of them grueling and bitterly cold—they arrived at the mouth of still another cave, a little over fifty-five miles from their starting point…out of the ten caves they had passed since the start of this journey, seven had been occupied, including the last three.

  After entering this uninhabited cave that in turn revealed three different tunnels, he chose the tunnel on the far right. This straight-and-narrow tunnel, after sixty feet of descending at a thirty-degree angle, abruptly transformed into a Y-intersection—he chose right.

  About nine hundred feet down, this now zigzagging tunnel came to its dead end. It was here that Baltor said, “This will be where we make camp for today.”

  “Okay,” she replied before climbing down to her feet.

  While she began the process of pulling out the carpet and unrolling it against the wall, he headed up to the entrance to this tunnel, and again carved out the ceiling until the cave-in occurred.