The intruder watched her as she ran through the forest, stumbling over herself. He shook his head. This was no challenge. Stop wasting time, said the voice impatiently. The intruder took off and within seconds, he had cut off Iolana’s path.
“You can’t escape,” he said simply.
She flew into him, kicking and punching with every bit of energy and anger she had. It did nothing to him. He didn’t even bother to shield himself from her attack. She backed away, bruised and broken of spirit, tears rolling down her porcelain face.
“What kind of monster are you?” she cried. “What do you want?”
“I only wish to make the world a better place,” said the intruder. “And to do that, I need to find your brothers.”
Iolana wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at the man. He was much bigger than her, there was no way that she could escape him. His hood was pulled back and she looked upon his face.
“What happened to your eyes?” she said.
“Childhood tragedy,” replied the man. “The doctor said I’d never see again.”
“You’re blind?”
“I do not see in the way you mean. But I would like to think that I see things much more clearly than most.”
“How can you do this if you cannot see?” asked Iolana.
“Let’s just say things have a way of speaking to me.”
Iolana continued to look at the man who killed her father and noticed that he carried no weapon.
“You have no weapon.”
“Yes.”
“I will take you to my bothers,” said Iolana with venom in her voice. “And I will watch them kill you.”
“That is very unlikely,” said the man.
Iolana turned around and began to walk toward the Glass Desert. We will avenge you, father.
The intruder followed behind her, fully understanding why this woman led him to her brothers. She deemed him incapable of harming them. That’s fine, he thought. You will see your error in the end.
• • •
The sun was ablaze above the Glass Desert, but the wind helped to cool their heads. Iolana had never wished ill upon another creature in her life, but she relished in the possible ways this man might die. She wanted it so much, she didn’t even care for her life. If I die of thirst, she thought, so then will he. If a poisonous snake kills me, he will die as well.
“How do you live with yourself?” she said to him. “A murderer of innocent men.”
“I have never harmed anyone who is innocent,” he replied.
“My father was innocent,” Iolana said through her teeth.
“Your father was guilty of heresy against the Holy.”
“You are mad,” she said, hoping to anger him. “You are a fool, and your holy is a tyrant.”
“The Holy is the only good thing this miserable world has ever known. You should repent to him and throw yourself upon his mercy now, before you end up like your pathetic father.”
Iolana spun around and spit in the man’s face. “I will never bow to a tyrant. Never.”
The man wiped the spit away from his face and then grabbed Iolana, throwing her to the ground just as a gigantic claw came groping over a dune. The man grabbed hold of it and held on tightly as it carried him through the air. He let go of the claw as the crab raised him over its body, and he fell onto the giant creature’s shell. Iolana rolled over on the desert floor to see the man hanging onto the crab’s shell. The man held on with one arm and began to pound at the shell with the other. The creature spun wildly, trying to shake him loose, but he would not release his grip. Finally, after minutes of pounding at the shell, it gave way and the crab fell to the ground, broken. The man got up from the carcass and regained his bearing. Iolana looked at him in horror.
“How did you do that?” she asked.
“Keep walking,” said the man. Iolana looked around, unsure of which direction to head in. “You don’t know where you are.”
“I don’t know where my brothers are,” she admitted. “I just knew that they were coming this way.”
“Then it is no longer necessary for you to lead. Follow me.”
The incident with the crab had renewed her fear in the man and she was no longer sure that she wanted him to find her brothers.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“I’m a messenger.”
“And who do you carry a message from?”
Tell her nothing, said the voice.
“Keep walking,” said the man.
“No,” said Iolana. “You’ve killed my father and search for my brothers, most likely with the intention to kill them. I won’t follow you. Kill me if you will, but I won’t follow you.”
“Have it your way,” the man raised his hand and a cool blue light came forth from his palm. Iolana tried to avert her eyes but, too late, found herself unable to move. The man walked over to her and picked her up at the waist, throwing her over his shoulder like a child. The man walked on as images flew through his mind of another giant crab, a hole, a small man and a dark passageway. You must hurry, said the voice in his head.
An hour passed and the man came upon the carcass of a different giant crab. Large birds sat upon its carapace, picking strips of its flesh out from the cracks in its shell. The man shooed the birds away and walked to where the crab’s shell met the dune. He sat Iolana, still paralyzed, onto the sand and began to dig at the side of the dune.
He’s going to bury me alive, thought Iolana. She struggled to free herself from her invisible prison, but it was no use, she couldn’t move a muscle. The man dug for a while and after he had made a sizable hole, he began to throw punches at the bottom of it. Iolana could see into the hole from where he had left her and after a couple of swings, the man had punched the bottom of the hole out, revealing empty blackness. He began to widen the gap he had made and after a minute, Iolana realized that she wouldn’t be the only one going down there.
“Hello,” came a voice from deep inside the blackness. “Did you forget about the passageway? Did you find Tenturo?”
“Yes, Padre,” said the man, smiling. “Why don’t you come out and say hello?”
The Witch’s Nightmare
If one could fly high enough and somehow get rid of all the fog, they would see that Oldham’s Bog was located inside of a great maze. The most harmless place in the maze, being the outer ring, was the place where Riverpaw and Evercloud had begun. Some didn’t even consider the outer ring to be part of the maze, given its docile nature and the fact that it was impossible to move further into the maze unless one knew exactly how. The inner portion of the maze, however, had a much different reputation.
In villages around Ephanlarea, nasty old men would scare children with tales of what they called the Witch’s Nightmare. Mind yer elders, they would say, or the witch’ll getcha and putcha in her nightmare. They’d make up stories of trolls and goblins and any other nasty things that they could think of to scare the children. The truth was that no one who had ever entered the Witch’s Nightmare had ever returned to tell the tale, so no one really knew what horrors lied in wait.
It was also said by the nasty old men of Ephanlarea that the witch herself lived at the center of the maze. The old men would tell of a large black castle, covered with the slime of the bog. They told of how it towered into the sky, blotting out the light of the moon, creating a darkness that none could escape. Even the evil creatures that inhabited the Nightmare dared not go near it. They said that the witch was a tall, thin woman, with fingers like razors and eyes like ice, quick as lightning and just as harsh. She sat upon a grotesquely decorated throne, a tyrant over the souls of children who had misbehaved. Unfortunately for Evercloud and Riverpaw, these fairy tale descriptions paled in comparison to the cold truth.
It was inside the Witch’s Nightmare that Riverpaw and Evercloud had found the Tree of Death, and it was also there that they had suffered such a tragic miscommunication with their guide, the vulture. When the fingers of the bog had reach
ed out and captured them, they were brought to the witch’s home. Black, covered in slime, oozing and dark were the walls, ceilings and floors of the witch’s den. The den was at the center of the maze but it was no grand castle, reaching into the clouds. It was a pit, reaching instead into the bowels of the earth. Far below the waters of Oldham’s Bog, Riverpaw and Evercloud lay upon the floor of an oozing cage, trapped.
Evercloud scrabbled on the floor in the darkness, searching for Riverpaw, but everything that he touched was cold, wet and slick.
“Riverpaw,” whispered Evercloud. “Where are you?”
“I’m over here,” Riverpaw answered. “I can’t move.”
Evercloud crawled in the direction of the voice and finally he found Riverpaw’s fur. “Are you hurt?”
“No, I think that I’ve been bound.”
Evercloud kept feeling around and sure enough, he felt slimy vines around Riverpaw’s legs. Evercloud used his claw and began to cut away the vines.
“Don’t move,” he said. “I’ll cut you out.”
Evercloud freed Riverpaw and they got to their feet only to bump their heads upon a slimy ceiling. They crouched back down on the floor and tried to move forward. It didn’t take them long to realize that they were in some sort of cage. The cage was made of the same vines as Riverpaw’s bindings, so the two of them began to cut their way out. Something screamed in the distance. It was sharp and brutal and only came once, then silence.
“What was that?” whispered Riverpaw.
“I don’t want to find out,” said Evercloud. “Keep cutting.”
Finally, they freed themselves from the cage and crawled outside of it. They were still in total blackness so they stood with caution. This time, they were able to stand completely.
“What do we do now?” asked Riverpaw.
“Feel for a wall, maybe we can follow it out of here.”
They groped for a wall and when they found one, they began to move along it slowly. The wall was smooth and slimy, like everything else. Something dripped upon Evercloud’s head and he jumped.
“What?” said Riverpaw.
“I don’t know. Something dripped on me.” Evercloud’s heart was beating furiously. Scared, he had flattened himself against the wall, and as his heart rate came back down, he tried to move back away from the wall to find that he was stuck. The blades of his claw had punctured the wall. He wrenched them out and noticed that a faint light came from the holes he had made.
“Riverpaw, look.”
Riverpaw saw the light and started clawing at the holes, trying to make them larger. They widened with ease, seemingly made out of the same vine like stuff that everything in the cage was made of. He ripped a hole large enough for them to move through and they moved out into the light.
They found themselves along the wall of a large pit that descended, in steps, down to the center. They stood on the top ledge. Above them, the wall shot straight up a great distance. It was still very dark but the pit was open to the sky, allowing moonlight into its depths. They looked up at the moon far above, neither of them ever having seen it seem so small.
“Do you think we could climb out?” asked Riverpaw.
Another scream came and they looked across the great pit. Far on the other side was what looked like a giant green starfish, writhing against the wall. The creature was at the top ledge, just as they were.
“That thing’s got to be ten times bigger than you,” Evercloud whispered to Riverpaw.
They stood motionless and watched it as it moved against the wall of the chamber.
“Wait,” said Riverpaw, “it looks like it’s moving away from the wall.”
“We need to go back into the tear we made in the wall, Riverpaw.” The giant starfish pulled further away from its place along the pit wall. “Get back into the wall.”
They rushed back into the darkness and watched the giant thing from the rip they had made. It wasn’t a starfish at all, and what they had seen of it were just its legs. It was the witch.
The pit walls were filled with smaller areas, “cages”, just like the one Riverpaw and Evercloud were in now. These cages within the walls were all filled with the unfortunate creatures that the bog had taken prisoner. The screams that they had been hearing were the cries of those creatures that the giant witch had chosen as her next meal. They watched from the darkness as the witch slithered down to the center of the pit. Her giant tentacle legs that had looked like a starfish, carrying her gelatinous body down the steps. She was a terror to see. The flabby torso of her body sat atop the tentacles, covered in arms that would have been considered human, if there had only been two of them. Her face might be considered human as well, but her mouth was gaping like the snare of a Venus flytrap; like the hem of a garment that someone forgot to sew shut. However, what stood out most upon this ghastly monster was her hair, if it could even be called that. As upon her head sat a nest of fire that lit the pit walls red. The very sight of her made both Evercloud and Riverpaw tremble. As she slithered to the bottom of the pit, she sang rhymes only the blackest souls could ever know.
The hammer cracks, the hammer breaks,
The hammer splits ‘em narrow.
The bones of legs and arms and head,
For sweet and tasty marrow.
The witch reached the bottom of the pit and stood upon a bone-covered platform. With her serpentine legs, she reached underneath it and pulled out a hammer that, in comparison to her size, was tiny.
“That must be the hammer we need,” said Evercloud.
The witch stopped singing and stood still. “I hear voices and whisperses.” The witch’s voice was both a low and high in pitch, discordant and petrifying to hear. She turned her massive head around, scanning the walls. Riverpaw and Evercloud tried to close the rip as much as they could, hoping she wouldn’t notice them. Holding their breath, they peered out of the crack that was left. They had apparently gone unnoticed and the witch began humming again and moving up the steps of the pit. She returned to the hole in which she came from and inserted her grotesque body back inside, again creating the appearance of a giant starfish upon the wall.
“How are we going to get the hammer?” asked Evercloud.
“We watch and wait, and hope that we’re not next,” answered Riverpaw.
In no time at all, the starfish began to pull away from the wall again and Evercloud and Riverpaw tried to close the rip and hide. The witch moved back down the steps as the frightened travelers watched her every move. She reached her platform and placed the hammer back underneath it. She then laid herself down and began to fall asleep.
Riverpaw and Evercloud watched her silently, unwilling to do anything that might interrupt her slumber. After a few minutes, Riverpaw looked at Evercloud with a look that suggested he might say something, but Evercloud shook his head violently and Riverpaw understood. They were trapped and too frightened to move, so they did the only thing that they could, they waited.
Time moved so slowly that it felt like torture and every time the witch moved an inch, their hearts jolted with shock. They had been so scared for so long that their bodies were becoming exhausted and their minds were becoming paranoid. Evercloud’s mind began to tell him that they were going to starve to death, and even if they got the chance to escape, their bodies wouldn’t have the energy they needed to be successful. As slowly as he could, he began to take off his pack and open it. Riverpaw looked at him in horror, trying to will him into silence. Smoothly and silently, Evercloud produced some cheese and bread from the pack. He broke the cheese and handed the majority of it to Riverpaw. Riverpaw took it in his mouth, chewed and swallowed it, never making a sound. Evercloud did the same with the small amount of cheese that he had kept for himself. They both looked at the bread. Evercloud reached for it. Riverpaw shook his head. No, he mouthed. But Evercloud wasn’t looking. He picked up the bread and began to tear it. The crust cracked and Riverpaw cringed. They looked out at the witch but there was no movement. Evercloud handed
the large piece to Riverpaw and he ate it whole, afraid to make noise chewing. Evercloud chewed his carefully and slowly. They had eaten without incident, and silently breathed a sigh of relief.
However, it’s always the one thing that we never take into account that ends up being the most important thing of all. Unfortunately for Riverpaw and Evercloud, their stomachs didn’t understand the importance of silence in this situation. Their stomachs had again felt what it was to digest after long fasting, and they voiced their opinions for it to continue. The two travelers looked at each other wide-eyed and terrified as their stomachs began to gurgle for more food.
“The witch stirred and opened her eyes. “Time for more foods.”
Riverpaw and Evercloud stared, motionless and with bated breath. The witch slithered off the platform and began to climb the steps, thankfully, away from them. She reached the wall across the pit and tore into it, directly next to where she had been before. Again, screams blasted the air.
“She didn’t take the hammer,” said Riverpaw. “This is the only chance we’ll have.”
They slid out of the tear in the wall and began to descend the stairs without caution. Across the pit, the starfish writhed in the darkness. They moved as quickly as they possibly could down the giant stairs, trying to be quiet, but speed was the priority. Nothing mattered but the hammer. They reached the platform and Evercloud turned to Riverpaw.
“Get the hammer,” he whispered. “I have to find the candle and the matches in my pack. When you get back up here, we can light the candle.”
Riverpaw nodded and dove under the platform. Evercloud began to dig through his pack. It was making a lot of noise, but he couldn’t help it and he didn’t care. He felt the candle at the bottom of the pack and took it out. Now he had to find the matches. Riverpaw poked his head up above the platform with the hammer in his mouth. He climbed up to where Evercloud searched.
“Let’s go,” said Riverpaw, with the hammer still in his mouth.
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