The Dark Age Chronicles: The Fall of Night. -
The Hunting Trip.
Ihloden gazed in horror andfascination at the creatures that stood below him. The tree in which he hadclimbed was constantly blocking his vision with its branches. He snortedquietly in anger and the tree whispered back in an annoyed voice.
‘Youmust be careful. Those are Karvaahs! They will kill you if they replace you. Youmust be protected.”
Ihloden looked at the treein surprise; he did not know that he projected his displeasure. His mind sentas apology back to the tree, but still tried to peer over the branches. TheKarvaahs moved towards the cave. Their skin was milk white while their hair wasas black as a Raven’s and fell to their shoulders. They were naked except for ablack metal mask that covered their noses and mouths. Their bodies wereperfectly proportioned and their muscles were well defined. They also had nogenitals and their buttocks were just a smooth sheet of skin. Ihloden stared atthem in amazement as they entered the cave; how did a race like that eversurvive? The Karvaahs slipped out of the cave and was now looking about in whatseemed like confusion. But their eyes said different. Ihloden saw the coldnessin them and knew that they were methodically scanning the forest around themlike he did when he was hunting. One of the Karvaahs turned to the other andIhloden saw a small square of metal rise of the skin as if it moved throughliquid. A series of other small squares immediately followed it and raced insequence across the Karvaahs chest. The whole line of metal squares then sankback into the white skin. Ihloden’s jaw dropped. The Karvaah that was facingthe first one grew a huge triangle of metal in his chest. As that sank back ,the other one raised small circular metal studs out of his arms and as one wentdown, another came up, so it rippled down the arms. As the Karvaahs continuedthe strange signals, Ihloden realized what it was that they were doing. Theywere talking! He watched in fascinationas the Karvaahs finished their speech to each other and then headed into thetrees. He was so shocked at what he had witnessed that he just sat in the treefor a while. He could not believe what he had seen. It was impossible forcreatures to grow metal out of their skin like that, like it was natural tothem. How did they eat, or pass waste or anything like that? The tree brokeinto his thoughts.
“You cancome down now. It is safe,” it said.
Ihloden shook himself out ofhis stupor and slid down the tree. The huge feather was still in his hand. Helooked at it and shook his head. Too many strange things had happened in ashort time. He set off to replace his way back to his camp. He strode about in adaze, his mind running on the Karvaahs and unable to grasp the fact that acreature that could produce a feather of that size actually existed. He walkedonly simply aware that the massive power of the Land was guiding him back. Hefinally found his pack and carefully tucked the huge feather into it. Then heslung it over his shoulder and set off on the long journey home.
He stepped out of the woodsand began to trekking back through CloudWood, with his face set towards LowerBehurd. It was long past noon with the sun was low in the sky. He got aboutthree hours distance from the cave site before he had to stop for the night. Hehad an uncomfortable night. He kept waking up thinking that the Karvaahs werearound him. All he saw were shadows and black gloom. When he did fall asleephis dreams were haunted by the white skinned creatures and the shadow of abeast that had huge feathers. He was awake long before the sun had risen and bythe time the rays were filling up the forest, he had left CloudWood shrinkingin the distance.
He walked the distancebetween CloudWood and Lower Behrud as fast as he could; only taking breaks whenhe felt like his legs would not carry him any longer. He felt a fear in hischest that just made him want to get home.
The sun was just past itsheight when Ihloden entered the Forest of Lower Behurd. Once inside he breatheda sigh of relief and the fear lifted from him. He looked around and began tothink of getting some game, to show for his absence.
“To your left,” The trees whispered, “Deer.”
Ihloden jumped at theirunexpected intrusion. But he grinned none the less and moved quickly to slipout his quiver. He bound it about his waist, strung his bow and slipped a knifeinto his belt. He stowed his pack in a tree and then began to stalk left throughthe forest. After a few minutes of careful crouching and scanning; he finallysaw the group of deer. He smiled and knelt behind some bushes. He could see thedeer’s fur from where he was hiding. The wind kissed his exposed chest as hefitted the arrow into the string. He raised the bow silently and aimed true. Asoft twang from the bow sent the arrow straight into the head of the largestdeer of the pack. Screams erupted from deer as their dead kin fell among themand they scattered. Ihloden leapt up and took down three more before the restescaped beyond his bow’s reach. All the deer had been struck through the headand had died instantly. He gave a whoop of joy and went to retrieve his deer.The trees rustled and he felt their displeasure at this killing. But he justgrinned, they were vegetarians anyways. He set to the heavy task of stringingup the deer and carrying them to a nearby stream to cut them up. He went backto get his pack and took out the harness that he used to carry game. He stackeda deer on it, then tied the straps around him and walked backwards all the wayto the stream. He repeated the journey till all four deer were lying neatly onthe bank. He then set down his pack that came with the last deer and took outhis assortment of knives. He chose three, struck them into the ground andplaced the rest back. He went to a deer and with swift motions cut the stomachopen; cleaned out the guts, entrails and removed the genitals. Then he skinnedit and cut up the meat and stored it in a neat pile on the harness. He was onhis last deer when the trees hissed at him.
“Run!Hide! Ihloden!”
Ihloden looked up and saw aflash of orange fur. He gasped and jumped up.
“In here!”abush called out.
Ihloden took one look at the thorns on thebush and decided. He leapt into it and buried himself in the thick leaves.
A huge orange cat almost aslarge as he was, stalked into view. Ihloden held his breath as the Fangorsniffed his deers. The beast snorted and then went to the water and drank. Itseemed like an eternity before the beast lifted its head. Ihloden held down thedesire to whimper. The bone spikes that ran along the middle of the back anddown the tail of the Fangor were wickedly sharp. The cat swished its tail andsniffed the air. Suddenly it turned around. It raised its nose high andsniffed. Ihloden stiffened. It had smelt him. The blood on his hands wasreeking and the stench was clinging to him. The cat’s eyes focused on the bush wherehe was hiding. Ihloden saw the red iris of the cat expand and shrink as itspotted him. He clenched his jaw. No thorns in a bush can stop a Fangor. Thecat crouched and a smile seemed to play about its lips. It began to slowly movetoward him. Ihloden felt his throat tighten; he was staring his death in theface and he could do nothing about it. The cat crouched and readied its hindlegs. It was going to pounce on him. Hisbreath began to come rapidly and as the beast sprang he closed his eyes.
He expected to feel hard teeth andexcruciating pain, but instead a howl of pain ripped through the air. It wasn’thim. He snapped his eyes opened and almost screamed. A huge steed was standingin front of the bush. The horse was taller that he was by far. He pushed furtherback into the bush, ignoring the pain of the thorns sticking into him. The steedlooked back at him and its mane and tail of fire filled his vision. There was akindness in the steed’s eyes and he knew that it had come to save him. TheFangor was crouched with most of its fur burned off. It got up back and thehorse whinnied; flames shot out of its nostrils. But the sound of the whinnywas like wind rustling through a thousand trees at the same time. It wasdeafening. The steed stamped and flames shot out from under its hooves. TheFangor gave a nasty look at Ihloden and then ran off into the forest.
The steed looked back at Ihloden and tossedits fiery mane. It then raced back through the forest. Ihloden tried to get up,thorns tearing into his skin, to see where it went. He saw the steed race outof the forest. He struggled out of the bush and followed after it like a man ina trance. He came to the edge of the tree and looked into the open space ofplains beyond. Outside in the plains a tall man stood. He was wavering likesmoke and his black hair was moving as if it was being tousled by the wind. Theman reached out his hand and touched the muzzle of the horse. He was tallerthan the steed. He stroked the muzzle affectionately then looked at Ihloden. Heraised his hand in greeting, turned and walked away; the steed trotting besidehim. Then without any sign they vanished into the air. Ihloden began to shake.He went back to his kill site and finished skin the last deer. He then piledall the meat onto the harness, secured it well, gathered his pack and ran forhome.
Ihloden emerged from the forest hours later.In his fear he was gotten lost; everything had seemed strange to him. Theburden of dragging the deer was nothing; his fear had given him strength. Whenhe saw Nurilah in the field outside her house, he simply dropped the harnessand screamed. Nurilah came running to him and he collapsed in her arms. He wasshaking so badly she had troubling holding him.
“Ihloden,” she said roughly, “hold yourselfman! What happened?” He didn’t answer. “Ihloden!” she said. He looked into hereyes but he was not seeing her. The things he had witnessed in the foresthaunted his thoughts till he was sure that they were all set to jump out andcapture him once more in their magic. Nurilah saw the unseeing look of horrorin his eyes; she sighed, picked him up bodily and carried him to her house. Sheset him down on her hard bed then went out and fetched his catch. It was whilebefore she returned. When she did, she found that Ihloden was staring intospace, rocking to and fro with his arms around his drawn up knees. His arms andface were still covered in deer’s blood. Nurilah shook her head, quickly pouredliquid into a cup and brought it to him.
“Drink!” she commanded. He looked at her, thenthe cup and slowly reached out and took it. He raised it to his lips and drank.He suddenly pulled it away and sputtered.
“That’s terrible!” he cried,as the cloudiness of his mind became suddenly clear.
Nurilah smiled, “I know,” then paused, “Whathappened Ihloden?” Ihloden took a deepbreath and felt the fear rush in to cloud his mind. He shook his head.
“I…..I went to hunt and I walked to theKrogas. I was searching and I found a cave,” he stopped. Nurilah came, sat besidehim and began to wipe the blood off his face and hands.
“Go on,” she said gently.
Ihloden swallowed, “I foundeggs in the cave and there was one of them that was…. different.”
“In what way?” Nurilahasked.
“It was shiny,” Ihloden replied, his head turnedto the side as he envisioned himself back in the forest, “It broke to pieceswhen I touched it. There was a huge feather too, longer than my entire arm. Sostrange.” His voice took on a dreamy edge as the memories flooded his mind.“Then the Karvaahs came,” he continued, “I ran up a tree and they looked intothe cave as well. But they did not replace anything. They left and I came home. Ihunted some deer and while I was cleaning them I got attacked by a Fangor.”
“A Fangor!” Nurilahexclaimed.
Ihloden nodded, “Then a hugesteed of fire came and rescued me. Then the steed went to a man that was almostten feet high. Then they both disappeared.” Ihloden voice was shrill as heturned to face Nurilah, “I am going crazy, aren’t I?” Nurilah’s eyes werefilled with tears.
“It is often that one hearsof legends, Ihloden. But very few live to see them come true.”
“What do you mean?” Ihlodenasked.
“The time that Lyficen never wanted to see,has come. The Griffin that he wanted dead has been born. Oh Lyficen, thy daysare numbered!” Nurilah said with joy written all over her face.
“Griffin? You mean theGriffin of Legend! That was his egg?” Ihloden asked in awe, “Are you sure?”
Nurilah smiled and chantedsofty,
“Egg of shining gem so bright,
In it lays the beast foretold,
Arise! Arise! Your foe to strike!
And end the reign of darkness bold.”
Nurilah smiled again, “Noris it very often that one sees that the Winds of Cysia.” Ihloden looked at herconfused.
She laughed, “You didn’t realizethat the steed of fire was one of Evanshna’s steeds?”
Ihloden surprise changed into shock,“Evanshna? The winds of Cysia that you told me about? I didn’t believe what yousaid. How can the Winds be people?”
“Cirvan made them so. Andwhat Cirvan makes no man questions,” Nurilah said seriously.
Ihloden shook his head,“Mother and Shila will never believe this when they hear it.”
“For they won’t hear it,”Nurilah said quietly.
Ihloden flung back as ifstung, “Why not?”
“You said it yourself, theywill think that you are crazy. Or they will just put it down to your drinking.Either way this it too valuable information to be taken as a joke. A slip ofthe tongue about this to anyone and Lyficen’s hoards will be down here in aflash. This village cannot stand before him,” Nurilah replied harshly. Ihlodenfrowned.
“I will not lie to them. Whywill Lyficen come here anyway?”
Nurilah sighed “Have you notbeen listening to me? That Griffin is death to him. He cannot die unless thatGriffin kills him. If Lyficen knows that it is here he will send his forces tokill it and then Cysia will never be free again.” Nurialh paused thencontinued, “You must protect this knowledge. It is our only hope.” Ihlodenfrowned harder then sighed and nodded.
“I better go now,” he said tiredly, “thanksfor listening.”
“Anytime,” said Nurilahsounding relieved, “I sent your catch to your house already. But you betterclean up before you go home. Your mother will not like you coming home smellinglike dead deer.”
Ihloden smiled grimly andtrudged to the large bowl at the back of Nurilah house. His mind was troubledas he washed out the blood. He then waved good bye to Nurilah and set out forhome. His heart was heavy, it seemed like the whole world had fallen and healone was left to hold it up.
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