There is a tale that they took their time in painting me just so they could spend more time with me.”
I raised my hand. He stared at it.
“Does this have anything to do with the battle?” I asked.
“I’ll get to that. I just thought you might want to know how adorable I was. Around the time I was so adorable a mighty and evil king came over the mountains to our little kingdom. Before that we had no idea there were any other lands out there. We believed that we were everything. This king threatened us. He said that since he was stronger and had a larger army he would control us. Naturally my father stated his claim to the land and told the evil king to leave. He promised to be back in thirty seven years with an army to destroy us for our lack of cooperation. Today marks thirty seven years since I was last adorable. You may wonder how that is.”
He waited for me to ask. I didn’t much care.
“You see,” he continued, “after that my parents didn’t have time to spend with me because they had to grow an army. But as I said we are a small country. These tents are the entirety. Over the next thirty seven years we had gotten the army together. But now I realize that we never trained them. They are sure to lose.” He sat back down on the cot.
I cannot say how much I wanted to leave that tent and find a people that could help me more. But once again I said that I would help and I will not go against my word.
“Did you say that you have been living in tents your whole lives?”
“Yes.” The king said simply.
“Alright,” I said, shrugging, “so why thirty seven years?”
“We have no idea.”
The king looked around to see if anyone else knew. No one did.
The guard who led me to the tent rushed back in.
“They are here.” He cried.
Everyone leapt from the cots and started running around like mad. Lanterns hit the floor and cots went flying.
“Stop it this instant.” The king screeched. It was the first time he looked to be in control. Everyone froze. “We will fight as we planned. Someone go tell the army their time is here. And guest,” he looked at me, “I have an important job for you.”
I nodded, expecting to be asked to lead the army again.
The king looked to a young woman sitting beside him. She looked to be in her early twenties like me. She had brown hair that hung in a mess down to her shoulders and bright blue eyes. “Now Ramonia, I want you to go with this fellow here.” She shook her head violently. “Stop it. He’s smarter than all of us put together. He will keep you safe. By the end of today you might be the only one from my kingdom left. Tell others you meet about us. They will surely want to hear about my being adorable.”
She nodded slowly. “I will go, but only because I know you will be safe. We will hide out until the battle is over and then return in time for the victory celebration.”
They hugged. She then led the way out of the tent. I took a final look at the king.
“Make sure she lives.” He said through tears.
“I will.”
The lightning was right above us. Ramonia ran through the camp towards a small pass between two mountains. I kept up the best I could but stole glances at the tents to see what was happening. The army formed into a line. There were about fifty people in all. I looked up to the mountain they were facing and my heart dropped. There were so many people wearing blue running down the mountain that it looked like a tsunami coming to destroy everything. I ran a little faster.
Ramonia turned up the side of the mountain on the right. I could tell that she was heading towards a small ledge several hundred feet up. My eyes kept darting back. The small line of an army stood their ground as the approaching doom came down on them. The mountains were doing their part as well. The largest one was a volcano. It spewed hot rocks and ash down on the fighters as the lightning struck anything it could find.
It was a sight to behold. And I would have much rather been watching from someplace safe. I looked back up to see Ramonia holding her hand out to me from the ledge. I grabbed it and she pulled me up. There was a small cave there that couldn’t be seen from anywhere below. It just might save us.
She didn’t want to go in. She watched in horror as the blue wave met the small black line. In an instant the line was swallowed whole. The tents were next. Even with the rocks and lightning the advancing army destroyed the tents in seconds. I pulled Ramonia away from the edge for fear of us being seen when the worst sight of all hit my eyes. The volcano had let loose a great pyroclastic flow that shot down towards the battle with great force. I wanted to run for the cave’s entrance to avoid the sight that was sure to follow but couldn’t take my eyes away long enough.
The hot cloud of dust and ash covered the whole scene. It filled the pass between the mountains and rose up. I pulled Ramonia into the cave and we ran. Thankfully it was more of a tunnel. Fifty or so yards in we looked back to see the entrance disappear. We stood still in the darkness, listening to see if we were safe. We could hear something coming toward us and we ran through the dark as fast as we could. A light flickered on. Ramonia lit a lantern. She kept it up high. The lantern swung from side to side and the light did the same. A few minutes on and Ramonia stopped.
“I think we are safe here.”
I listened closely. I think she was right.
“Now then,” she said, “I am Ramonia. Do you have a name?”
“Yes I do. It’s um, I think it’s – I know I knew it this morning.”
For the life of me I could not recall my own name. The memory that it came with had left. I thought and thought but I could only remember one thing.
“I think there is a Brickem in there somewhere.”
She put out her hand and I shook it. “It’s nice to meet you Brickem. Now we must continue on. I know this tunnel well. I roamed through here when I was a child. You are safe with me.”
“Look, I’m sorry to have to say this but I don’t think we should go back. I’m almost certain there is nothing left now. We should get as much distance as we can.”
“Do you know how many times this happens? Why do you think we live in tents? The volcano destroys everything all the time.”
“But what of the army? Surely they destroyed everything?”
She shook her head. “My father once jumped into the volcano and lived. He can survive an army.”
That about settled it, I wasn’t going to try and convince her everyone was dead. She knew more about their abilities than I did. And how was I to complain about people living through a battle? I lived through things I shouldn’t have as well.
There was something odd about that tunnel, not that the idea of something being odd could throw me anymore. But there was definitely something odd that could be felt, something deep within its depths that had been kept hidden for all eternity. We were heading straight to it. It was the same sort of feeling that I had about jumping off that cliff, a very sudden and very real knowledge of what was to come and what I had to do.
“Do you know where this tunnel leads?” I asked Ramonia.
“I was never aloud very far from the entrance.” She said.
I was hoping she had some knowledge of where we were going, but apparently not. We were walking blindly into the unknown. And with every step I felt more convinced of impending danger.
6. The Lake and the Lake Monster
The tunnel curved this way and that, leading us into the heart of the mountain. It was a jagged hike with rocks protruding every which way. The small amount of light available to us caused shadows to appear. They mixed with my feelings of danger and materialized into monsters. I was certain each one was real before I told myself that they were only tricks of light.
Ramonia led the way fearlessly. There was no hesitation in her. She effortlessly steered clear of the rocks and jagged edges of the walls. She didn’t stop for anything and I found it hard t
o keep up. I stumbled on the floor and thumped against the walls. Luckily there was still no pain felt. I presumed the mishap on the ship was a fluke. I trusted that it wouldn’t happen again.
The princess was hard to talk to. She answered most of my questions as fast as she could with only a few words. I avoided anything about her father or the tiny kingdom for fear of making her sad. I did ask her about the mountains and if she knew anything about where we might be going. There were no tales of what was ahead from any of the people that journeyed in here before us.
The tunnel sloped down. It was a chore just to stay going slow. I lost control at one point and sped down the slope until I hit a large rock that knocked me to the ground. Ramonia helped me up and we carried on.
A cool breeze hit us. We were coming up to an exit. I didn’t know if I should be scared or relieved. The feeling of danger kept its grasp on me.
“I think we are getting somewhere.” I said.
“I don’t think we should be near the other side yet.” She said warily.
“Maybe we walked longer than we thought we did.” I said brightly.
“Doubtful.”
I wasn’t fond of her mood. Up to that point the only full conversations I remembered were with overzealous individuals like her father or the clockmaker.
“Well if there is a chance then I’m going to hope we find a way out.” I said confidently.
She didn’t say anything to this.
A dark aperture appeared a little ways down. The breeze grew strong
A Translation of Inspiration Page 7