The Legend Of Black Eyes

I hopped on ahead. My body ached, but I had no other choice but move on. I"ve tried to restore time for my leg, mend it, but everything I tried resulted in me rewinding time to the moment the fox had disappeared. I couldn"t replicate Raiya"s spell, and I was running out of time.

The caves kept rumbling, threatening to collapse at any moment. There was no sign of Raiya or my brother, no matter how far I stretched my senses. All I found were small creatures that seemed to be sleeping or in hibernation. Very few of them moved. And when they did, it was only to go from one tunnel to the other then rest again.

They seemed to avoid one place in particular. Most creatures nested along tunnels. Some even seemed to huddle up in one opening or the other. They all, however, avoided a group of tunnels in particular. There were only two conclusions I could draw from this.

Number one: The creatures avoided it because another creature, possibly stronger and bigger, had made it its lair.

Number two: The tunnel had some environmental detail that didn"t allow them to travel through it.

Bodrick used the tunnels as a secret path to escape from. This only meant that there were tunnels that eventually led out of the cave and toward freedom. In my exhausted state, I convinced myself that the second possibility was the most plausible one. It"s funny how the thought of a warm bed and someone to tend to your wounds makes to jump to hasty conclusions.

So I followed the empty tunnels. They didn"t form a straight path, but rather a serpentine one. If felt like I was navigating through a maze. Only I knew the way out and I was using it.

I would occasionally walk by a tunnel leading to the creatures. I would hear them whisper or lazily moan. I wondered what they were, and why they weren"t alerted by the rumbling of the cave walls. Most of all, I wondered why they evaded this tunnel like the plague.

There was indeed some environmental detail that struck me as odd. Glowing mushrooms, akin to the ones I"d seen back when I fought Lemien underground, grew all over the tunnel walls. Some of them were pulsating while a silver dust cloud formed above their caps.

I hopped on along, accompanied by the sound my crutch made every time it hit the stone floor. The sound would echo through the tunnels, attracting the attention of some of the creatures around me. They wouldn"t move to investigate it though. The more I walked through these "safe" tunnels, the more I wondered if I hadn"t made the wrong decision.

It was then that I heard a different noise ahead of me. I p.r.i.c.ked my ears and extended my senses. I heard footsteps first. Then I felt a person"s energy. Whoever it was, he or she was just at the limit at which I could stretch my senses. They must have been far, but the tunnel carried the sound of their footsteps all the way to me.

Then I started hearing words, carried out by the wind. I couldn"t hear everything, but a word kept coming back: kill him. I guessed it was my brother then. He must have survived and took the same path I did. I was fortunate enough to have him ahead of me. He would take care of any potential threat for me, or die and warn me about danger.

I pressed on, hopping on my crutch. I"d hit my injured leg once and again on the crutch and curse. I almost fell once as I hit my leg a bit too hard on solid wood. The resulting pain almost knocked me off my strong foot.

Going forward was the only thing that kept me motivated. If I"d fallen then, I was sure I wouldn"t get up.

I was exhausted, on the brink of pa.s.sing out. I had lost too much blood, and my body wouldn"t respond as I wanted it to. Then there were my punctured hands. The wound on my left hand had reopened. The crutch was slick with blood, harder to manage. It was an extraordinary feat that I hadn"t fallen down yet.

I concentrated on my faint heartbeat. I would take steady breaths; focus on breathing in and out. I let my body do the rest. It was easier to let my muscle memory do the work, while I fought against my nagging brain that wanted me to stop and take a breath.

I had to stop eventually when I felt my brother"s energy reading closer than it had been before. He had stopped, but not nearly close to any exit. His energy seemed to rise, as though he was recharging it. I stretched my senses farther, to their limit. Ahead of Adwer, there was this other, foreign energy signature.

Something, not someone, was in the next clearing of the tunnels. Although I could barely sense it, its energy reading was close to mine when I filled three heads of my fragment. I had only sc.r.a.ped the limits of that thing, and it was already surpa.s.sing me in might. My brother seemed to be preparing for battle.

The creatures in the caves indeed avoided these tunnels for a very good reason.

I felt something nudge at my consciousness. It felt like you know someone"s watching you from afar, and that someone wanted to speak to you. It was Raiya trying to reach me through our psionic link. I recognized her immediately then opened up to her.

"Are you alright?" she asked as soon as I allowed her thoughts in.

"I can walk," I said. "Where are you?"

"Right behind you," she said. "Your brother"s ahead."

"I know," I replied. "Something else is there too."

"Wait for me," she said. "I"ll reach you in no time."

Sure enough, the witch arrived a few heartbeats later. Her clothes were torn. She was smeared in blood, and most of all, she didn"t have a right arm. She had made a tourniquet out of wood and pieces of her leather armor then wrapped it around her shoulder. She was so pale I felt bad for her.

"What happened to you?" I asked.

"I woke up with a boulder crushing my right arm," she said.

"I"m so sorry," I said. "I didn"t think your spell would be that strong."

"I went overboard with it," she said. "It"s my fault. I was startled when Adwer flanked me. So I put too much energy into my spell."

"Can you sense what"s ahead of us?" I asked.

Raiya nodded. She bit on her lower lip before she spoke next. "I have some very bad news," she said.

"I knew it!" I mumbled. "I knew I shouldn"t have followed this path."

"It"s the only one," Raiya retorted. "The bats in the other tunnels, they"d eat you before you could take a breath."

"So what"s up ahead?" I asked.

"The king of beasts," Raiya said. "I don"t know what it"s doing down here. It never lives in caves."

"King of beasts?" I asked. "Is there a dragon there?"

"Dragons are sentient beings like you and I," Raiya said. She looked offended. "They"re an ancient race that even precedes the Primordials. They"re proud too. You"ll never find one in a cave unless it"s sealed in there with powerful magic."

"What is it then?" I asked.

"It"s called Abrath," Raiya said. "It"s a highly intelligent monster that never forgives anyone for trespa.s.sing into its territory. I"m sure it knows we"re here already. It"s just luring us into meeting it."

"Abrath… I"ve heard that name before," I said.

"There"s a popular song in your hometown about it," Raiya said. "I"m surprised you don"t know about it."

"How powerful is this beast?" I asked.

"It"s not a matter of power," Raiya said. "You need to be equal in strength and knowledge to your grandfather if you want to have a chance against this monster."

"Then it"s a matter of what, exactly?" I asked.

"There is another way to go past Abrath," Raiya said. "And herein lie the bad news. Abrath can and will let you go if you pay the price for trespa.s.sing."

"What kind of price are we talking about?" I asked.

"Now"s a good time to remember that song from your hometown," Raiya said. She chuckled but was abruptly stopped by a coughing fit.

"I never heard of this beast," I said, exasperated. "Just skip the teasing. Now"s not a good time for either one of us."

"You have to give the beast something you cherish most in this world," Raiya said, wiping blood from the corner of her lips. "It could be anything, a memory, a rusted key. The beast knows what you cherish most, so if you try to cheat, it will know."

"What I cherish most…" I said, scratching my head. "So can I give up a memory?"

"Not any memory," Raiya replied. "You"ll know once we get there."

"What about Adwer?" I asked.

"It appears he"s trying to fight his way out," Raiya said. "He"s a dead man already. He just doesn"t know about it yet."