VII.

That night dreams of relevance and dread filled the mind of Aotrys as he slept around the others in the convey who had found a spot to camp outside of the town’s gates.

He swung restlessly as nightmares plagued Aotrys’ sleep, visions of unearthly things with a touch of familiarity.

In his dream there was darkness all around him, like tidal waves that have been drowned out by the night’s sky. Aotrys was sitting on a throne that was course like stone and a path was laid out in front of him that looked like a carpet sewed together by the corpses of a thousand dead warriors who held from opposing sides.

In the mound of corpses there stood a figure, a young man who shared the same face as Aotrys and wore the mark of the bear same as him. The man who looked to be a reflection of himself was standing in the wake of the corpses wielding a longsword and was smeared with blood from his boots to his temple as if he killed a great deal of man. The figure, the man, had Aotrys’ eyes. “Was it me?” Aotrys questioned just as he was jerked awake by his brother in arms, Braqken.

“What ails you, my friend?” Asked Braqken, crouching over his friend with a tumbler of water in his hand to give to Aotrys.

“Nothing,” said Aotrys as he wiped the cold sweat from his temple “just a damned nightmare is all.”

“So be it, but just so you know that Markus and the man who rode with us have already made their way to the apothecary who you met yesterday.” Spoke Braqken after handing the tumbler to Aotrys, trying to give him some resolve to the terror of his dreams, “I’d recommend that you go join him in case we need a grave this morning.”

 The convey was all huddled around the fire to escape the morning dew that had elapsed over the wide stretching fields that surrounded the small town, the men had never seen anything so beautiful and peaceful, as if one could get lost by simply staring too long into the distance. No monsters hiding in the bushes, no frostbite to take hold of you and no need to mark the trees around you so that you know the way to get back your home.

For a moment Aotrys was able to forget the nightmare of his past rest and could enjoy the site of the fields around them, where villagers slowly made their way towards their duties in the field. The group’s leaders, Petyr and Brokenbjorn were conversing with the others around a fire while they prepared their meals from fresh produce offered by the village. Aotrys decided not to join the men around the fire, it wasn’t his time to rest quite yet.

Unlike the day before the town was quite lively with its people filling up their tables that stood on the sides of the street and the ones who walked by it were eerily deciding where to go first. A “market” was what this was and Aotrys had never seen fruit so bright and meat so red, as if the cold had never even come close to it. Aotrys was starting to develop an itch around his joints and felt that his pelt was becoming too much of a nuisance in this warmer climate and took the time out of his morning to try and find a vendor that would trade the bear pelts for some breakfast and a clean shirt for him to wear. Surprisingly for him, bear pelts were quite expensive and sold enough for a full meal and a new shirt and vest for Aotrys to wear comfortably.

When Aotrys arrived at the apothecary’s domain he noticed how he almost fit into this small town, his clothes matching the others who lived here, and his short hair was finally able to not stand out as much. The leather vest made it much easier to move his arms around in and the strap of his longsword sheathe did not pester his shoulder blade as he walked. Since he knew that Zoran and Markus were already there he didn’t hesitate to open the door and enter the apothecary, Gabriel’s, domain. The guardsman was laying on a bedspread on the floor of the main room, surrounded by a concerned looking Zoran, Gabriel and Markus who had also ditched his wardrobe for something more comfortable, a silk black cloak and a pair of leather boots that reached all the way up to his knees.

“What of the young man, will he make it?” asked Aotrys, surprising the others by his entrance.

Gabriel took his eyes off of the white veins of the young man’s body and focuses his attention to Aotrys to tell him of the man’s fate;

“He is on death’s door, no doubt, but there is a remedy that could give him so more time on this Earth.” Spoke the apothecary.

“What’s the remedy?” Asked Aotrys.

“As I was telling your friends, there’s a fungus deep within the caves that lay outside of the town, filled with antigens that can battle the affliction that this young man has.”

“How do you know it will help if you’ve never seen it before?” questioned Aotrys, who now stood beside Markus.

Gabriel pointed over to a stack of books in the corner of the room, “there was much to find, but most of them point to a fungus that can battle the symptoms that he see here.”

He continued, “someone needs to go into these caves and find the fungus before too long, the air produces strong visions that will consume your thoughts and eventually drive you mad if you stay in there too long.”

“Are you up for it?” Asked Markus.

Being who he was, Aotrys had an image to uphold when it came to courageous opportunities and he wanted to also lead by example. If finding this fungus insured that the young guardsmen may live and that the bound between their convoy was kept, it had to be worth it.

“How will I know what it looks like?” Asked Aotrys.

Gabriel pulled a sketch out of one of the books that laid in the corner of the room, where he passed to Aotrys and showed him the sketch of a prickly mushroom that was slated black and had tines hanging from its ridges.

An odd mushroom and a chance of permanent insanity wasn’t exactly appealing to Aotrys, but it was worth a shot.

“And this fungus, it will easy to find I hope?”

Gabriel responded to Aotrys;

“Once you enter the mouth of the cave it will be wherever the light doesn’t touch the walls.”

Aotrys agreed to the task and left Gabriel and Zoran to tend with the young guardsmen, then left from the apothecary’s home with Markus who led him to the entrance of the cave that was only a short journey from the apothecary’s home. The cave sat in middle of a broad field mostly concealed by the grass and curvature of the land, the only signifier that it was there was the course rock that sat around its entrance like markers into a completely different world. When Markus arrived at the entrance of the cave with Aotrys he passed him a torch, a leather glove and bag that he explained was used to contain the fungus once Aotrys managed to find it in the depths of the cave.

“Make sure not to dwell once you’re in there, the apothecary spoke of the horrors of the mind he used to face when he was young enough to venture out.”

Aotrys thanked Markus for his warning and tucked the glove and bag into the strap of his belt.

“I will be here once you get out, hopefully I won’t need to be the one to drag you out of there.” Said Markus, concerned for the job ahead of his friend.

“Thank you, my friend, but that won’t be needed.” Aotrys said to Markus as he placed a hand on his shoulder, then made his way into the mouth of the cave.

The stone of the cave was course and dry enough to ignite the torch that Markus gave to Aotrys, and thus he went into the darkness of the cave. The seed in his mind cracked further as the fear of the unknown spread throughout the warrior’s mind. The cave itself was covered from top to bottom with sharp stone that made it difficult to maneuver and almost impossible without a light source. There was remnants of old torches and pieces of fabric scattered throughout the cave floor to suggest that there had been previous adventures who had tried their hand at venturing the cave. Why would anyone ever venture down here? Aotrys wondered.

Thankfully for Aotrys there were no corpses of poor souls who managed to meet their fate down in the darkness of the cave, but the cave was beginning to grow more open as Aotrys ventured further. The torch made maybe a little while longer until it began to dim into a small flame, Aotrys would have to turn back then or face the potential of having no way of returning.

There was an opening at the edge of the open area that Aotrys was in, more sharp edges and the cold of the stone that radiated off of the walls like the staleness of snowfall. Aotrys picked up a burnt-out torch from nearby and position himself above the opening but could only see part way down. After lighting the burnt-out torch that he found he dropped it down the crevice until it reached the bottom of the opening. The dim light was laying on a flat surface at the bottom of the crevice and the walls looked manageable to climb. Aotrys proceeded to drop his torch down the opening until it reached the bottom of the crevice and proceeded to climb down the ridges of stone until he reached a part where he had to jump if he wanted to get to the bottom of the pit.

Next Chapter: Journey into darkness