“What are you going to do?” She asks curiously with a tremor in her voice.
“Watch,” he tells her and sits down to chip the obsidian rock so that one edge is razor sharp. He proceeds to cut parts from a section of fur to wrap around his feet before cutting a long section that he ties around his waist to keep the toga closed without constantly having to hold it. She watches intently before asking if he would do the same for her, handing him her fur. She sits next to him in her semi-dry nightgown, which isn’t as revealing when dry, as he makes the robes.
They trade stories about the homes they knew before. Well, mostly Mai talks and he listens, sometimes wishing that she would just quit talking. During the conversation, he notices that she has pierced ears with two earrings in each ear. They appear to be tiny diamonds and emeralds, thinking those might come in handy should they need some money.
It takes the rest of the morning to finish both outfits, by the time he’s done, the sun has moved behind them, casting a shadow over the cliff wall. He tells her that they should get some firewood for the night in case it gets cold. She agrees, and they head down the rocky slope to the meadow. Turning around to help her off the rocks, he notices the cave has disappeared.
“Look!” he says as she turns to look back at the cave entrance.
“Where’s the cave?” She asks nervously.
“I don’t know,” Mashaun replies.
He goes back up the rocks to where he thinks it is and reaches out to touch the wall, and his hand disappears into the cliff face. Stepping forward, he is back in the cave, turning around, he sees Mai scrambling up the rocks, yelling for him. He steps out of the cave, and she stops.
“Where did you go?” She asks.
“Back into the cave. The wall, it’s not real, it’s an illusion!” He says excitedly.
“A what?” She replies.
“An illusion, something that appears different than it really is. I have seen magicians create illusions. I have even seen three dimensional holograms, but nothing even close to this,” he admits a little excitedly.
“A hologram?” She inquires.
“Never mind, I’ll tell you later.”
Both of them stare at the rock wall then look at each other as though each wants to say something, but don’t. Mashaun stacks up a few rocks into a small cairn to mark the entrance before going to gather some firewood and dried grasses from the meadow, telling her to stay away from the forest edge, not knowing what’s out there. After several trips to the entrance with armloads of wood, Mai goes into the cave and proceeds to shuttle the wood to the back of the cave. Mashaun continues to gather more wood and some dry grasses along with some rocks to make a fire ring. He plans to use the hot rocks to help stay warm by putting some under the furs.
“OK, how are we going to start the fire?” She asks curiously with a tone of skepticism.
“Watch,” he says, finding two rocks that would spark. It takes some time, but he gets a small fire going and slowly nurses it up to where it is putting out enough heat for both of them. With the coming of night, the light gives way to the darkness as the flickering flames keep the shadows of the night at bay along with the chilly night air. The perfectly designed room amplifies both the light and heat to the center. Warming the room faster than expected, shortly they have to remove some of the wood from the fire to cool it down.
“Look, the walls! They’re changing,” she says, startled.
CHAPTER 2
Dalistra
Parts of the wall have pictographs that are just a couple shades lighter. They don’t look drawn or carved but actually part of the wall. In the flickering light of the fire, they appear to change from one scene to the next like flipping through a book. Running their hands over the pictures, they are smooth as if there is a thin veneer over the entire wall covering the pictures. They continue to fade from one scene to the next telling different stories. One depicts life and death of humans hunting animals, some familiar and some not so familiar. Others show people dancing around campfires, with ruined castles in the background. The scenes continue, never repeating itself.
The most unsettling show is one of two people sitting around a fire with five bed-like pedestals arcing around them in a large semicircle. The first two are empty and missing the furs while the other three show each with a different color of fur on the beds. They stare at the images, then look at the room and back at the images. The flipping pictures show what they did earlier, including them looking at the wall, continuing to where three people, two men, and a woman, are being forced to walk with their hands bound behind their backs, surrounded by armed figures with swords, while a man and a woman dressed in furs appear to be hiding behind a flat wall. They look at each other and around the room and, in unison rush to the only flat wall in the room, the map. Mashaun reaches out and warily touches the map, running his fingers down the roads and rivers, but it is solid.
Remembering how the cliff face looked real but wasn’t, Mai picks up one of the sticks by the fire and yells at Mashaun to move as she lobs it at the wall, hoping that it doesn’t bounce back. He sidesteps as it flies past him and through the wall. His perception of the map changed, and they step through the illusionary wall. They stand in a dark, narrow hall that is probably only about seven-feet tall. The illusion prevents the fire light illuminating the hall, but it reveals the backside of the map, which has more details, more cities, caves, colors, and symbols that look like a form of writing. On the left side of the map, the writing looks like old Chinese, which is different from the upper right and lower right.
He tells her to wait and leaves the room to get a couple of burning sticks. He has no problem going back through the map with the torches, realizing it is only an illusion. The hall is short, only about fifteen feet long with an arched ceiling before opening into a square room about twenty feet wide and fifteen feet deep. Following the wall, they come upon an ornate metal torch with a softball-sized sphere on the end. When Mai touches it, the sphere begins to glow, illuminating a section of the room. They find a sphere in each corner, lighting up the entire room in a soft light.
“Way to go, Mai! Let’s see what’s here.”
There are several racks of different weapons and shields. Swords and spears of various sizes line the first two rows, while round, square, and oblong shields are on the third row. Along the sidewalls are various pole arms, and hanging on the back wall are various bows of different sizes.
“Wow! A weapons cache,” Mashaun exclaims.
Mai looks at him with sad, almost teary, eyes.
“What’s wrong?” He asks her with some concern.
“I thought this is a dream, but I would never dream of something like this,” she says, pointing to the weapons.
“You thought that I am part of your dream. I thought you were part of my dream,” Mashaun replies as he scans the room.
“This has to be a dream, but it must be yours,” she softly says.
“Maybe it is, but I hope not,” he replies.
“What?” she says surprised.
“Never mind,” he replies.
“This has to be a dream,” she mutters as she slides down the wall to a sitting position with her head in her hands. “I’m a third-year medical student. I’m a good student getting good grades. I have always lived in a city. I don’t like the country, and I abhor violence of any kind,” she says, almost crying.
Looking at Mashaun through her watery eyes, she continues.
“What are you, twenty-five? I thought the man of my dreams would be. . . Older and not so average, no offense,” she offers.
“None taken,” he replies, knowing that is how he feels about himself anyway.
“This is not a dream. . . It’s a nightmare,” she says at last.
“Yes, I am twenty-five,” he says. “But you fit the girl in my dreams, long red hair, green eyes, but Asian. The three don’t exactly go together if you know what I mean,” Mashaun curiously states.
“Don’t worr
y. The red hair is from a box. My mother is Irish, and my father is Filipino. So I must be part of your dream,” she tells him. “I don’t know,” he replies. She hears the uncertainty in his voice. He was secretly hoping that her red hair was real.
Remembering the wall, he tells her, “We better do something about the fire before someone else finds this room.”
They both rush out of the room to snuff the fire before scattering the wood and rocks outside the cave entrance, also kicking over the cairn. Just as he enters the cave, he hears the creaking of metal and wood. He sees a wagon with a dozen or so warriors on foot coming out of the forest. Under the light of two full moons, the soldiers look like the pictures on the wall. Wearing leather armor, brandishing small round shields, with short swords, and bows. The two lead horses carry a man wearing metal armor that chinks as he rides and a woman in a red cloak, carrying a staff. As the wagon passes beneath the cave, it is really a cage on wheels with two ragged humans curled up on the cage floor.
He runs back and quickly starts throwing the remaining wood into the stream. Mai looks at him strangely.
“They’re here!” he tells her, running to the stream with an armload of wood.
They get rid of all traces of the fire except the black spot where it was, “with any luck they won’t see the black spot in the dark.” Using a small shield, they get some water and try to clean it up, hoping that whoever they are will not notice. Returning to the passage behind the map, they feel safer in their hidden room, watching the entrance until sleep finally overtakes them. That night, Mashaun dreams of a woman in red next to a man holding a rope attached to a disheveled teenage girl on her hands and knees. He wakes up just as the man is about to slit her throat. He shakes his head, trying to clear the image. It seemed so real that it scares him, especially after the wall showed them the room and the armed men. He does not fall back asleep the rest of the night. Anytime he closes his eyes, the scene plays over again and again in his mind, each time seeing more of the abuse before her demise.
Hearing a commotion out in the large room, he crawls to the backside of the map, remembering the pictures. He does not feel it necessary to grab a weapon. Mai wakes as he starts to leave. Putting his finger to his lips, he crawls up the hallway, confident they can’t see him. Not making a sound, Mai peeks around the corner to see everything just as the wall predicted. There are three figures—a large muscular man, a small, dark-skinned man, and a tall, slender teenage girl who appears to be the youngest of the three. Mashaun sees the girl of his vision escorted out by a group of soldiers. Two people stand studying the map while talking. Mashaun stands next to the backside of the map. They are the other two from his vision. He shakes his head in disbelief. He can hear them talking to each other but their words are foreign, which doesn’t make any sense. He understands Mai, and she can understand him, so why not them
The muscular warrior is wearing a chain tunic and coif, carrying a sword, and standing a good head taller than the woman. He says something, pointing to the two empty beds without furs. The woman wearing a blood-red leather pantsuit with a matching bustier and cloak is holding a red stone staff carved out of a single piece of stone. The top splits into six prongs curving up, creating an oval birdcage with a couple of prongs missing on one side. Everything plays out like the pictures on the wall, and they look just like he dreamed. She says something, looking scornfully at the man as he bows his head. Her sharp words send the man backing away as he answers her in a trembling voice. Mashaun sees real worry and anger on her face as the warrior hurries down the hall. She turns to faces him, barking a few words the man sprints down the hallway.
She goes to the wall where the pictures are and starts attacking the wall with her dagger. He hears the clanging of metal on stone as she furiously stabs and strikes the wall until the blade finally snaps in half, before storming out of the cave. Mashaun can tell that something is seriously wrong and it greatly upsets her.
“What did they say?” Mai asks when he returns.
“I could hear them but couldn’t understand what they were saying. However, the one in red is upset about the two missing furs. Then she went and attacked the wall. I want to have a look,” he says as he turns to leave. By the time she asks him not to go, he is already heading down the hall.
There are no marks on the wall where he thinks she was standing. It takes a moment for him to see that the pictures are different, not of a map, but of a cage on wheels surrounded by many figures lying on the ground with arrows sticking out of them. The other pictures are unchanged, but this one section has changed, and the other sections are blank. Shaking his head, he hurries back to the safety behind the map.
“What did you see?” He briefly describes the picture to her.
“Oh, what are we going to do?” She asks trembling.
“First thing is to find some weapons. I advise you to do the same.”
Something tells me that it is dangerous out there, so you might want some protection,” as he goes to look at the bows. His thoughts flashed back to being on the school’s varsity archery team and the times he went bow hunting as a teenager. But, that was a long time ago.
It takes a while for Mai to come to grips with what he said. She knows that he is probably right, but she just wants to wake up from this nightmare. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she starts the task of hunting for a suitable weapon.
There are long bows, and short bow, Straight bows, and curved bows hanging in neat rows with a quiver of arrows by each one. After examining several bows, one catches his eye. The tips curl back toward each other as the limbs change hues in the dim light as he moves towards it. White bone is running from tip to tip and down through the middle, sandwiched between two pieces of dark wood, ending at the beginning of the curled bone tips. Thinking it looks familiar but not knowing why he gently removes it from the wall to examine it more closely.
“TSAO KUVJ QOVB!” a female voice says with a commanding tone. Startled, he drops the bow as it bounces and clatters on the floor, turning to see Mai looking at some daggers.
“What?” he asks.
“I didn’t say anything,” she says, looking at him.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” she replies, a little annoyed.
He picks up the bow and again hears, “TSAO KUVJ QOVB!” Again, he drops the bow and turns around.
“Did you hear that?”
“What? You dropping things again?”
“Someone said something. You didn’t hear it?”
“No, I think you’re hearing things,” she answers. He’s losing it already, she thinks, shaking her head.
Looking mystified, he picks up the bow. Again, he hears “Tsao kuvj qovb!” This time, he holds on to the bow and looks around.
“What? Who said that?” he asks.
“Kuvj tywb uaz lamw.”
“What? I don’t understand?” he says with a confused voice.
The seconds slowly tick away as he continually looks around the room. “Where are you?” he says, getting a little irritated.
“Nioby rua hvaju txisah. I mean, in your hand, idiot,” the voice says vehemently.
“WHAT!” he exclaims as he almost drops the bow again.
“Did you say something?” Mai asks, looking up from the row of daggers and short swords.
“Uh, no,” he mutters.
He looks at the bow and whispers, “What, how?”
“Haven’t you ever heard of a spirit weapon before?” she says, a little condescending.
“Uh, no! Why, are they common?”
“Well, put me back on the wall and be on your way. You obviously do not know how to handle such majestic beauty, artistry, and talent. So just put me back and be on your way,” she tells him with an authoritative tone.
“I know how to shoot a bow. Just give me a chance to prove it,” Mashaun whispers in his defense, but not knowing why.
“Well, you do have a gentle grip, and I sense honesty, a survivor. . .
but a bit insecure. Umm. OK, you get just one shot. . . literally; if you survive then I will decide if you can remain in my company.”
“If I survive!?”
“That is what I said.”
He takes the quiver of arrows off the wall and straps it to his belt.
“OK, what do you want me to do?” Mashaun whispers.
“For starters, get me out of this room,” she commands.
“My name is Mashaun. What is yours?”
“If you must know, it is Dalistra,” she says with a pompous tone.
Mashaun tells Mai that he is going to make sure it is safe and will be right back. “Besides, I want to try out this bow.” She looks up concerned, asking about the armed men.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be careful, and I’ll only be gone a minute or two,” he tells her as he leaves.
Mashaun walks into the hall to the map and stops, looking around to see if anybody is in the cave, before passing through the wall into the large cavern. Checking out the water room, he asks Dalistra about the test.
“Go to the mouth of the cave,” Dalistra tells him. Stopping just short to the entrance, he can see the wagon with several people in the cage. Several swordsmen are searching the tree line while a few more are on guard.
Dalistra let-outs a long sigh when he scans past the wagon. When Mashaun asks what’s wrong she tells him that she has been in the room too long.
Mai looks around at the room and listens to the stillness as the fear of being alone creeps into her head. She rushes out into the main room, where she can see Mashaun and calms down as she runs to catch up.
Hearing footsteps behind him, he turns seeing Mai coming down the hall. Putting his hand up, he tells her to stop before turning his attention back to the meadow.
“By the way, how do you know my language?” he asks Dalistra.
“I speak many languages, including yours,” she responds.
“Oh,” he says standing at the cave entrance.
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