by Joe Sniezek
“Also, there are men moving down there,” Ike said and waved a tentacle towards the valley floor below.
“What?!” exclaimed Wilfer as he ran to the nearest ledge to look. It was quite a distance, but if he squinted, he could see a small regiment heading up the mountain. They had barely begun to climb the slopes of the foothills, but it did look as if they were coming towards them.
“Could that be a coincidence?” Wilfer asked. Ikvig gave a suspicious sideways glance towards Zumi.
“Did you do this?” Wilfer accused her.
“No! I swear. I have been here helping you the whole time. I am on your side,” Zumi said.
Ike wiggled and pulsed more and pointed his tentacle at the lever they had erected. Wilfer realized just how large these poles were. They had erected a large cross on the top of the mountain, and although it wasn’t at the exact peak, it was surely visible from down below.
Wilfer berated himself for that oversight, but there wasn’t much choice. Maybe they could have disguised the cross with some leaves and branches to help it blend, but that would have interfered with their work.
“Time has run out. They won’t be able to stop the water once it is flowing, so let’s hurry,” Wilfer said.
∞∞∞
Ikvig dropped Ike back in the water, they all took their places and got back to work. They pulled as hard as they could for as long as they could. At some point, the horses decided for themselves to stop pulling. They eased back a step and began grazing where they stood. These two horses have never been stubborn before, so they might have strained a muscle the day before. Like the previous attempts, the huge boulder moved only a little bit at a time. There was now a significant yet still narrow gap behind the rock. It was not wide enough for a man to slide down. But they were making progress; the soil and stone behind the boulder were now wet. Sadly, Wilfer was having a hard time feeling encouraged; all that progress would amount to nothing if the soldiers destroyed their rigging or even worse, killed them.
Zumi went to the ledge to check on the soldiers; they were getting closer. They were not quite close enough to recognize faces, but close enough to count the individual soldiers. They were likely close enough to see Wilfer’s rigging and understood its purpose. The soldiers hastened their pace but kept their eyes on the sides of the gully they ascended. The soldiers assumed that the large rock was the main weapon, not the lake behind it. Wilfer hoped he could use their mistake to his advantage, but did not know how just yet.
“We cannot delay. Back for another pull,” Wilfer said to his friends. “Do not look at the soldiers or check their progress. I will keep an eye on them alone, and I will warn you before they get close.” Wilfer hoped that this would help keep his friends focused and calm, but would also help with the distance and time warping nature of this place. Wilfer did not fully understand how it worked, but he knew that multiple eyes watching the same event complicated things.
The horses were very tired now and not giving their full effort; they were stopping before Zumi gave the command. Wilfer called out to her, “Whip their hides if you must.” Zumi looked at him with disgust and shock. “They will heal from a whip but not from death. The soldiers are unlikely to spare them,” he explained and Zumi nodded.
She struck the horses to spur them on. They were too tired to protest but continued pulling. Wilfer looked at the soldier’s progress and was dismayed to see them even closer than he feared. He screwed his eyes shut and silently said, “They are still far away. We have all the time we need.” Wilfer opened his eyes but refused to look at the soldiers again. He just had to believe that his little prayer worked.
Wilfer shouted at his friends, “Pull until your very bones break. This is our last chance, friends.”
Ikvig’s back heaved against the ropes. The horses’ backs were bloodied from the flogging. They strained against the ropes with all their might. The tree trunk used as the lever flexed and made popping and cracking sounds. Suddenly the ropes went slack as the huge egg-shaped rock rolled over a quarter turn. It was now an egg laying on its side. With the sudden release of tension, Ikvig sprung back against the stone and earthen slope and the horses flew forward onto their front legs and necks. Only one of the horses rose again, the other remained on the ground lifeless.
Wilfer eye’s widened in fear as he said, “That’s it. That’s all we’ll get. Just pray that it is enough. Even if we do not survive the coming fight, time may break the dam.”
Confirming Wilfer’s theory that the soldiers thought the rock itself was the weapon, they scrambled hastily out of the way as the stone shifted. They were still far away, but the stone would have picked up tremendous momentum had it continued rolling. Emboldened by the stone’s stoppage, the soldiers patted each other on the back and celebrated their good fortune and continued up the mountainside.
∞∞∞
“What now?” Zumi asked.
Wilfer answered with false confidence, “Now, we dig. We keep going until that gateway is under water.” Wilfer grabbed a stick and handed one to Ikvig and one to Zumi. They did not have proper shovels, but they could use the sticks to loosen the soil and rubble in hopes of causing an avalanche.
They picked at the soil and rock, but it was slow going. They were only able to loosen a handful of dirt at a time as the soldiers grew dangerously close. When they were in range, Zumi fired a bolt from her crossbow at an approaching soldier. It sunk deep into his shoulder. Likely not a fatal wound, but that soldier would not fight in this battle.
Ikvig took her cue and heaved several melon-sized rocks down the mountainside at the troops. The high ground did most of the work; a short throw continued to bounce towards them with lethal force. Most rocks struck nothing, but one soldier’s knee was smashed; he did not continue his climb. These were small victories however, there were more soldiers than arrows or rocks.
The enemy was now within striking distance, and the time for digging was done. It was time for fighting. Being outnumbered, the usual technique was to stand back to back and make a final stand. But the treacherous mountain terrain could still be used to their advantage. Zumi yelled, “Scatter” as she ran back into the meadow towards the horses. Ikvig remained on the rocky slope of the glacial dam and Wilfer stood at the water’s edge by the side of the dam. He hoped to block the narrow passage into the valley.
Whether the troops suspected a trap or they had the confidence to be patient, they did not rush to attack. Wilfer and Ikvig found themselves facing only a few soldiers at a time. Ikvig threw stones and swung his hammer at any opponent that came within range, but he spent most of the time hiding from arrows behind the scattered rocks and in crevasses. Wilfer held the soldiers off by using his advantageous elevation; the slope below him was steep and the soldiers had to climb up on hands and knees. That left them vulnerable to a slash from Wilfer’s sword, a kick to the head, or even a tumbling rock.
Despite the favorable terrain, Wilfer was slowly tiring. His breathing grew heavy and his movements were slow. It felt like his sword and boots were made of lead. From the corner of his eye, he noticed several soldiers scaling the sides of the ravine attempting to circle around him into the valley. Only disappointingly small rivulets of water seeped from the dam where the rock had previously been. It would have to be enough, he thought as he called out a retreat to Ikvig.
Ikvig nodded and slowly backed away between rock throws and hammer swings. Eventually, he made it to the far side of the dam and he scurried into the shrubbery.
Wilfer was stuck, unfortunately; he could not safely turn and run. He waved to Zumi, who was guarding the horses with her crossbow. She rode over and once again rescued him on horseback. He jumped on the horse as they rode up the mountain valley.
As they galloped away, Wilfer felt a shift in the ground beneath. Thunderous rumblings echoed through the valley. The entire earthen dam had given way at once. A wall of water and spray crashed down the mountainside, sweeping away earth, stone, and tree. The deluge swe
pt most of the troops away, but several remained above the lake. The earthquake knocked them to the ground, but they slowly picked themselves back up.
Twenty-Three
Wilfer and Zumi jumped to their feet, ready to run. The few remaining soldiers were heading towards them. “I have one crossbow bolt left,” Zumi said with a frown.
“Save it for the last resort,” Wilfer said and Zumi nodded. “We can use it as a bluff. But some of the soldiers had bows, so let’s not give them any ideas.”
The one remaining horse would not rise beyond lifting its head. Wilfer and Zumi did not have the time to check on it, so they had no choice but to leave it and hike further up into the valley. The nearest soldier was only a hundred yards away from them and rapidly gaining. Before Wilfer could worry about them, he felt the ground beneath him shift. The entire valley floor began sliding. The top layer of soil liquefied and poured down to fill the void left by the departing water. The soil flowed unevenly, in rivers. Some areas moved at great speed while other areas only slowly. As deadly as this situation was, it helped Wilfer and Zumi by sweeping away all but a single soldier.
Zumi was caught in a narrow but swift flow that pulled her along for two hundred paces. When the flow stopped, she was buried thigh-deep in the sand. When it stopped, the liquefied soil hardened back into ordinary soil; Zumi could not pull herself out.
The soldier ran towards Zumi with sword drawn. He was roughly the same distance from her as Wilfer was, but he was running along the slope and Wilfer was running down. Wilfer had to be careful; if he ran too fast, he might cause another slide which could bury Zumi or himself.
When the soldier reached her, she screamed. The soldier leaned over her with sword drawn to slice her neck. Wilfer, seeing no option, leapt down the hillside and sunk his sword into the base of the soldier’s skull. His sword pierced the neck with sickening ease, sliding smoothly between the vertebrae.
Having removed the threat of the soldier, Wilfer used his sword and hands to dig Zumi free. She helped to dig with her hands and wiggled and thrashed her feet as much as she could and was soon free.
They carefully walked back to the opening of the valley. They remained alert for any stray soldiers but found none. However, they did spot Ikvig on the far side of the now dry lake bed. They shouted, waved, and pointed to where they were going, and Ikvig waved back and met them at the fallen dam.
All residual landslides had stopped. Now safe, the three of them looked down the mountainside to see that the water had reached the valley floor down below. It filled the low lying area in which the gateway was located with a frothy brown water. The new lake was deep enough that whole trees floated in it, and the gateway was now fully submerged.
Wilfer let out a long breath and said, “I guess we did it.” Ikvig laughed with happiness and patted Wilfer on the back.
Zumi said, “It looks like we did,” and gave an exhausted smile.
“The gateway is blocked. They won’t be able to move many soldiers through it now. Only a few good swimmers,” Wilfer said.
“Will the water drain into your realm?” Ikvig asked, but he was too tired to be truly concerned.
“Eniyan said that people may pass through, but air and water do not. It’s like two bubbles of air underwater,” Wilfer explained.
“So we won?” Zumi asked, not really listening to Wilfer’s explanations.
“We won,” Ikvig said.
Wilfer frowned and assessed the damage they had caused. The mountainside had been scraped clean of trees and dirt between the alpine lake and the valley floor below.
Wilfer said, “I didn’t think it would all go at once. I was expecting a slow stream or river at worst. I thought it would take a few days to submerge the gateway. I would have done thing differently if I knew this would happen.”
“In some ways, it’s better. A small or large river would not have eliminated those troops who came up here to hurt us. This way we’re safe,” Zumi pointed out.
Ikvig inhaled sharply, looked at them with tears in his eyes, and said, “Where’s Ike?”
Wilfer’s heart sank as he remembered that the squid had been in the lake. There was no way the squid had time to exit the water as it exploded past the dam. They scanned the shoreline for him in vain, but he was nowhere to be found. Either he has been washed down with the water, or he escaped the lake only to be buried in the shifting sands.
“Don’t worry just yet, Ikvig,” Wilfer lied out of kindness, “Ike is very resilient. I think he could survive something like that, no problem.”
“Maybe,” was all Ikvig said. He grew quiet and looked sadder than Wilfer had ever seen.
“Ike doesn’t need air to breathe,” Zumi added.
“That’s true,” Ikvig said, cheering up only slightly.
“And no bones to break. Remember the arrow he took? Didn’t hurt him a bit,” Wilfer continued to encourage his friend.
“Hey yeah. You’re right. Ike is fine. He must be. We will find him again,” Ikvig said as he pounded his fist into his palm with determination.
Now was Wilfer’s turn to feel doubt. Going down to that newly flooded valley floor was not a wise idea. Wilfer thought of the many lives they had taken today. He thought of the extensive damage to the land. He never stopped to count, but there were at least a dozen troops who had come up the mountain; all had perished. Many more dozens of soldiers were in the camps on the valley floor. Surely, they drowned; the water came too furiously for anyone to escape. He was sure many bodies could be counted among the floating debris. The water would soon spoil and disease would spread. This region of the valley may not be habitable for quite some time.
“I don’t know if it was worth it,” Wilfer said quietly.
Zumi said. “Of course it was. We won.”
“We did,” Wilfer said, “But at what cost? We have taken many lives today.”
“It was necessary,” Zumi reassured him.
“Some people believe that there is a balance to things. Each life you take will be a life taken from you somehow, in some way,” Wilfer said.
“Do you believe that?” Zumi asked
“Who can know the truth of these things? But I try to act as if it’s true.”
“Many things have been taken from you already, Wilfer,” Ikvig said.
“That’s true. Everything you’ve ever had has been taken from you. You’re a man without a home. You lost a good friend,” Zumi said.
“Perhaps the scales are even now. Or perhaps the cycle never ends,” Wilfer said. He remembered similar thoughts when the giants battled the men. The wheel of fate never stops turning.
Wilfer shook his head to stop that train of thoughts. Maybe this was just the anticlimax after a battle. He felt lost and confused. Wilfer wished that they had some beer at that moment. He wanted it for celebration but mostly wanted it to numb himself and to find sleep. Wilfer always felt better in the morning, no matter what happened during the day. But since there was no beer, no feast, or no celebration, it was best to keep moving.
“Let’s go,” Wilfer said to his friends.
“Can we wait until morning?” Zumi groaned.
“We have to go now. At least a little way; this valley is unstable. We could be buried in our sleep,” Wilfer said.
“Good point,” Ikvig nodded, “We will find solid ground.”
“We don’t know if our enemies know we’re here. They may be coming here right now to slit our throats,” Wilfer said.
“You’re right, we need to find better shelter,” Zumi said, “I’m not sure the horse can make it though.”
“He’s in danger here too. Let us lead him to safety, or at least show him the way out.”
Zumi loaded most of their gear on the horse. What was heavy and cumbersome for them to carry on their backs, was only a light burden for the horse. Having difficulties motivating the horse, she said, “He’s looking for his friend.”
There was only one route out of the alpine valley. One side of the val
ley held shifting sands and sheer cliffs. The opening at the bottom of the valley had been blasted bare by the water. It was impassable. Wilfer decided to climb up and out the other side of the valley. They went up towards the peaks then followed the slopes out and away.
Ikvig spotted a suitable resting place high up the mountain. They allowed the horse to graze on the few leaves and tufts of grass that managed to grow from underneath the pines.
Zumi asked her friends, “Should we set him free?”
“No. We’ve made that mistake before. And now that he’s been through so much, sending him away would feel like losing a friend. We will protect him,” Wilfer said.
Zumi smiled and sorted through their packs in order to make camp for the night. As they ate, rested, and recovered, she casually asked, “So where are we going?”
Ikvig shrugged and said, “To finish what we started.”
After a moment, Wilfer said, “We need to think of the next step, even if that step is to leave this all behind.”
They sat around the fire, allowing the flames to lull them into a relaxed trance. At that time, Ikvig said, “How can we stand by a horse and yet abandon Ike? Does Ike not need our help and protection? If Ike has found his end, then I’d like to give him a proper burial. Do we not owe him that?”
Wilfer and Zumi both nodded. It was difficult to argue with that, but Wilfer did caution, “The lake is our most dangerous option. Surely they army will linger around the lake. Maybe even sending down divers.”
Zumi wondered, “How do we find Ike once we get there? Can you call him, Ikvig?”
Ikvig sighed and looked off into the distance. “Not from here. I’ve tried. But I think I can from the water’s edge.”
∞∞∞
The route down from the mountain was steep. Stealth was paramount, so they progressed slowly and carefully chose the safest route. Also, their bruises have not yet fully healed and the horse limped. However, it was eager to get down off the mountain; that type of horse was far more comfortable in the grassy fields of the plains below.