by Leah Ward
“Whew, that was close huh?” Edwin said to Lena, relieved they were safe. She barely smiled back at him.
“Alright, let’s get up there.” He said, heavily concerned. He knew she was in no condition to climb, but he didn’t want to leave her behind on the part of the mountain that was just about to crumble away.
“Here,” he said, letting her step into his hand as he lifted her foot as high as he could. Slowly she climbed, never lifting her arms any higher than she had to. Edwin stood below her and waited, just in case she slipped and he needed to catch her. Finally she was just a foot below the edge where she needed to climb over.
Half her body was laying over the top while her legs were still standing on the rock on the wall below. Her foot slipped as she went to push herself over the top. She caught herself with her arms outstretched clinging to the mountain. Edwin heard a stomach-wrenching rip. Lena screamed with pain. Her foot gripped the rock again but she didn’t continue climbing.
To make matters worse, the part of the slab of flat ground on the mountain side Edwin was standing on began to shake violently again. Edwin began climbing as swiftly as possible, terrified that where he was standing was going to be the start of a massive landslide.
It didn’t take nearly as long for him to reach her spot, but when he did he positioned himself directly under her.
“Put one foot on my shoulder!” Edwin said. She carefully slid one of her feet away from the rock and onto Edwin’s shoulder. He climbed up just a little higher, enough for her to push off of him and make it over the top.
“Push!” He yelled, realizing the weight of someone standing on him was more than he had assumed, especially for his body frame.
A chunk of the mountain broke free and slid out from under the wall of rock they were climbing.
“Hurry… Please!” Edwin yelled as politely as he could. Lena pushed with all of her strength left, managed to get one leg over the top and then rolled safely over.
Edwin climbed quickly, and with adrenaline pulsing through him he flew over the top at ease.
He and Lena ran away from the edge and clung to the stable wall of the mountain.
Right beside the wall was a large boulder; at least that’s what it looked like to Lena. What Edwin saw was a large opening to a cave, tall enough for him to walk through.
“There it is, the Seers that made it to this point walked through that boulder and disappeared. None ever came out.” Lena said, pointing. It amazed Edwin that she couldn’t see what he did, and it saddened him to know she was missing out.
“Okay, I’m going to go in there. Sit here, against the wall. I don’t know how long it will take me to get it, or how far in the cave it is, but if I’m not out by sunset then call Satiya and have her fly you to my town where you can find the doctor. It’s back towards your tree home, then basically you follow the river upstream twenty miles and you’ll see the town by then. Okay?” Edwin said.
“I can’t just leave you? What if it takes longer than you think? Or if you need help?” Lena said.
“Well… If something happens… You can’t just sit here and bleed to death waiting?” Edwin said.
“If I leave with Satiya, she won’t know how to get back here. You will be stranded; you don’t even know how to get home if you could even get off this mountain!” Lena said, becoming frustrated. It was such a tricky situation that seemed to be a lose-lose either way.
“Remember, that’s the worst case scenario anyway. I should be back in a jiffy.” Edwin said, trying to remain hopeful and lower Lena’s worry-level.
“Okay, good luck Edwin.” Lena said, just as he was about to walk through the boulder.
“Thank you.” He said, knowing he couldn’t have gotten here without her.
He turned and stepped into the cave, leaving Lena sitting alone. Once he had passed through the boulder, Lena closed her eyes and clenched her ribs. Her blanket-wrap was gradually filling with blood; she had ripped her wound open farther when she stretched to keep herself from falling.
The pain was unbearable and it was all that she could do to remain in control and not burst into tears in front of Edwin. He didn’t need to deal with that on top of everything else; it would distract him from the quest. The quest she desperately needed him to fill, even though she hadn’t told him why.
Once he was out of sight, and the forest below was calm, she sobbed quietly to herself. She put her hands around her knees and rocked back and forth, weeping at the fear and possibility that she would die alone on the side of a mountain.
CHAPTER 17
Then Edwin stepped into the cave, the other side wasn’t exactly what he was expecting. The entrance that was an opening was closed behind him. He turned around and pressed against the now-sealed-up wall. It didn’t budge at all. Determined to continue, he turned back around.
It was dark except for light coming through cracks in the walls. And, much to his surprise, Edwin could only see a dead end in front of him. A dead end, that doesn’t make sense?
He walked further into the cave, and the more he saw, the more afraid he became. Human skulls were lying on the cave floor. A second later he realized they weren’t just skulls; they were attached to full skeleton bodies.
Frantically he searched for a way out, running his fingers along the wall, but there was no other door, nothing to slide or push. As he searched one of his feet slipped into what he thought was a puddle of water, but felt much deeper. He regained his balance and then bent down to see how deep the water was. Sticking his hand in up to his elbow he still couldn’t feel the bottom. He remembered one of his gifts that Lena had told him about, his gills. He thought, maybe I’m supposed to swim down?
What could it possibly hurt? Especially if he had gills and could breathe. Seeing that this seemed to be the only explanation, he sat down and put his leg in the water, still trying to see if he could touch the bottom or not. With his leg in almost up to his hip, he was convinced that he was supposed to swim.
Holding his breath, he mustered up the courage and pushed himself off and into the murky, chilled water. His head went under, but didn’t stay under; he began to float back up against his will. The backpack was keeping him afloat, and in a hasty decision, he decided to leave it behind on the ground near the cave entrance.
Pushing back off from the cave’s ground; he thrust himself down under the water. Unfortunately it was incredibly dark and he had difficulty seeing anything. When he needed to take a breath, he slowly tried to breathe in while under water. The cuts on his ribs formed like magic, and within a few seconds he was breathing at ease using his gills.
He swam down, squinting to see but it was no use.
As if a light switch was turned on, the walls of the underwater cave started to glow. They were lighting the path for Edwin. Foot by foot they lit up, making the water clearer, guiding him through the strange tunnel.
The walls of the underwater cave had writing on it, like water used to not fill these walls. It was too difficult to tell what the drawings or markings were of, because of the water blurring his vision. Nonetheless it was beautiful underneath.
He swam and swam, realizing that no Seer without this ability, or some form of magic, would be able to hold their breath this long. They would surely have drowned.
It made Edwin feel important though, like he was on his path to destiny – that he was meant to do this.
Soon the cave walls stopped traveling horizontal and became vertical. Edwin saw a light at the top of the water when he looked up, and he swam directly towards it.
When he reached the top, he poked his head up slowly; afraid of what might be at the surface waiting for him.
He swam to the edge, where the water met land, and climbed out. The cuts on his ribs slowly sealed up, and his sides were back to normal as if nothing had happened.
The walls were still glowing, and had more markings on it, resembling pictures. Walking through, it was like a timeline of events. There were two people, a man and a
woman, walking through the forest. They climbed a mountain together. Then, they were in front of the cave; the very one Edwin was standing inside. Another man came into the picture; Edwin figured it had to be Nefarious. The man lifted his hand, and burned the man and woman to ashes.
It was extraordinary to see the fates written along the walls. The legends had been precise all this time, depicted on the walls before any of it had actually happened – like a prophecy.
Edwin came near to the end of the tunnel, and noticed the pictures continued. They continued past what Edwin had been told about the legends. There was a boy. A boy who had the same drawings as the man and woman, traveling through the forest and climbing the mountain, except this boy went into the cave, and came out with the book in hand. Is that… Me? Edwin thought.
The drawing was remarkably close to perfection, Edwin’s dark hair, small frame, green eyes, it was an exact match. Then he realized what it all meant, he was the legend all along. No one knew that he was supposed to retrieve the book when his parents would be killed. The only way to know would have been to travel into the cave, study the walls, and know who the people were in the pictures.
The timeline ended just as the cave walls did. Luckily, before Edwin walked any further he noticed that the ground dropped off. There was just enough light from the glowing walls to tell. Once he stepped to the edge, a bright flash came across his eyes and lit the entire cave. A huge drop off was below him, and the next part of the tunnel entrance was across the seemingly bottomless abyss. There was a fifty-foot gap in between to get across. Edwin thought a moment that maybe there was a secret way over, like a swinging rope hanging from the ceiling. Yet, he saw no rope, no secret bridge, no other way possible rather than jumping.
Once again he realized that no Seer without the gift of jumping would ever be able to cross a gap as wide as this one.
Edwin remembered that his jumping ability only worked partially. It worked when he ran and scaled the dragon and it worked when he ran to catch Lena, but not when he jumped for height to save Lena from the monstrous bird attacking her.
Wait! That’s it! Edwin thought, it works if I get a running start!
He backed up far enough to where he would have plenty of space to gain speed. His heart was fluttering uncontrollably and his wet clothes were making the nervous chills running up and down his spine that much worse. He couldn’t remember the distances he had jumped before to make a comparison of what he was about to attempt, which frightened him the more he thought about it.
Slowing his breathing he mentally prepared himself that this was something he had to do. He bent his knees slightly, bounced back and forth on his toes shifting his weight, and darted toward the jump. Sprinting full speed along the cave, he pushed each foot harder off the ground with each step, staying nimble on his toes. His knees rose higher, his strides became more of a bound, and just as he reached the edge of the tunnel he leapt into the air with every fiber of his leg muscles.
He went soaring across the gap, his legs flailing as if he was still running, and his arms stretched forward, desperately reaching for the landing. The three-second jump felt more like a five minute frame by frame of the epic bound.
With a hard ‘thud’ Edwin crash landed on the other side and rolled across the ground. He had made the jump.
He picked himself up and brushed the dirt off his clothes. They were still wet and now had clumps of mud stuck to them.
Proud that everything was going rather smoothly so far, he continued through the tunnel, trying to hurry so that he could get back to Lena.
Lena’s head wobbled on her shoulders. Her vision occasionally faded to a faint grey, but she shook her head each time hoping to rid it away. So far it had worked. She tried not to think of how much blood she was losing, or of how long Edwin had been gone.
She clenched her sides, groaning. The pain wasn’t subsiding no matter how she laid, or how much pressure she applied. The medicine didn’t soothe her aches, and she couldn’t imagine any suffering worse than this.
She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the rock, trying to hold on and keep a grip on staying awake. She had to know if Edwin retrieved the book. She had to…
Walking through the cave, the walls had the same drawings as the one before, like the makers of it had replicated everything. Edwin figured it was for effect, repeating over and over.
He continued through the tunnels where they twisted and zigzagged making him feel like he was walking in circles. They seemed to be never ending and Edwin felt like he had been in the cave for hours.
While he walked, he thought of Lena. He wondered what she thought about the kiss they shared. His mind traveled to how he knew he would have to eventually leave her, unless she left her house in the trees, but even then where would she go? Agmund most likely wouldn’t let her live under the same roof, knowing they were a couple. Or were they a couple? No, of course they weren’t.
Edwin’s mind hurt from thinking. He had bigger problems to worry about, and if he didn’t hurry and accomplish them, Lena would bleed to death waiting for him.
“When does this tunnel ever end?!” Edwin said frustrated, thinking out loud. Just as he did, he felt a sudden wave of heat pass through. The further he walked, the hotter the temperature in the tunnel seemed to climb. It was to the point that Edwin was sweating from the humidity. He coughed, finding it extremely hard to breathe. When he did breathe, it didn’t feel like oxygen filling his lungs, but rather smoke. He felt like he was being smothered.
He fell to his knees, and when he did, he noticed it was much easier to breathe. His lightheadedness subsided and he army crawled towards the rising temperature. He finally reached the end of the never-ending-tunnel. His arms collapsed from the struggle, and he barely could lift his head to look up. Once again, he saw another obstacle that was put in his path. This time there was no abyss and no water, but a burning inferno that he assumed he was supposed to pass through.
Smoke filled the air except for the bright orange flames. Through the thick flames flickering he could see that on the other side of the massive fire was the entrance to another tunnel.
Not again, Edwin thought. He was ready for the obstacles to be over, and the book to be in his sight, and more importantly – in his hands.
He knew that he wouldn’t be able to jump over; he barely even had enough oxygen in his lungs to breathe shallowly. Instead, he decided he might be able to freeze the fire over, just as he had before with the lava. Hopefully it would take the same effect and allow Edwin to walk across.
From his lying position he held his hand up, palm out, and blasted a solid layer of ice. Inch by inch it covered the fire, freezing the flames in midair. Slowly Edwin rose to his feet. He was able to breathe better and he wanted to get a better view of the miraculous event-taking place at this very moment.
The ice was like venom in the bloodstream, gradually making its way through, taking over, and then conquering its victim. It continued to creep and spread, and in less than a minute, the inferno that was blocking Edwin from his destiny was frozen solid.
Edwin stepped onto the ice finding it incredibly slippery to walk on. Losing his balance several times along the way, he had made it halfway to the other side when a flame to his right shot through the ice and started melting what was around it instantly.
It was as if the fire was alive, and was not giving up. Edwin picked his pace up to a sliding run. It wasn’t a full sprint, but it was slow enough to where he could keep his balance and control falling.
One by one, individual flames burst through the ice, breaking free randomly like a minefield. A few came through under Edwin’s feet, which he jumped over, and narrowly escaped being severely burned.
Edwin lifted his hand and threw out more ice to cover the broken pieces and refreeze the flames but it was impossible to contain. His magic was only strong enough to hold off the fire, not completely douse it.
Finally the end was coming closer. Just a few more
steps… A huge bound… And Edwin soared into the next tunnel running full speed.
He didn’t slow down either, he charged through, knowing the sun was to set anytime now and Lena would leave him behind.
Running through the tunnel gave him plenty of time to think, one of the things he didn’t necessarily want to do at the moment.
The cave writings and pictures were a reminder to him every step of the way that he was the part of the legend, not just the heir. This was meant for him all along. Maybe that’s why the birds attacked him that day, so that he could ask Agmund, and then learn about the cave. Maybe that’s why he had survived every terrible scenario he was faced with the last few days. Maybe the repetitive drawings were to push him to finish the quest, to remind him that he couldn’t quit, not now.
Everything made sense and the pieces started to fall together. Like how every obstacle was difficult, but easy enough for him to pass because of his powers - he seemed to have the exact powers needed to continue. He felt magic run through his veins, he felt accomplished, and he felt proud. He couldn’t wait to get back home to tell Agmund of his quest, and what he discovered.
Agmund… These thoughts were the opposite of the happy ones he was just processing, but what his mind inevitably trailed to. He thought of how disappointed Agmund would be. He thought of what Agmund was doing, was he continuing his day like normal? Could he eat knowing Edwin was gone? Could he sleep? Was he devastated? Did he think that Edwin ran off into the forest and had died? Was he out searching for him?
They flooded his mind; one by one the questions kept popping up, no matter how hard he forced them away or tried to repress them. Questions he couldn’t answer.
Edwin was so deep in thought that he didn’t even notice he was now able to see his breath as he ran. Bringing him out of his trance he realized his body was freezing. He stopped running to wrap his arms around himself, rubbing his hands up and down on his forearms to generate heat. His back had a dull pain in it from the extreme cold, and his muscles became tense and tight.