Daring Do and the Shroud of the First King

Dust opened her eyes blearily, the early morning glow of sunlight filtering through the treetops as she tried to lift her exhausted, aching body into a sitting position. The lake nearby sloshed a calming melody, and the smell of freshly-cooked fish wafted into her nostrils as she finally laid eyes on a campfire which Leaf must have made recently. Two fish were roasting over the open flame, and Leaf lay beside the fire, scribbling away in an old notebook. Dust’s scarred, bruised lips curled upward into a smile as she watched the young stallion at work.

‘What are you doing?’ She finally asked, her voice cracked and quiet. Leaf tucked away the notebook hastily, throwing down a pencil into one of his bags.

‘Nothing, nothing… Here, let me get you some water.’ He uttered, clambering to his hooves and dashing down to the lake’s bank to fill up a canteen with water. In his absence, Dust crawled forward and checked his book. Inside were a collection of notes, interspersed with intricate sketches and paintings of flora and fauna from exotic places – with plentiful new additions made while on the Isle of Bones. She was about to flip to a new painting which he seemed to have just sketched out in pencil, one of a mare, when she heard him coming back up to the camp through the undergrowth. She replaced the book, and returned back to her resting position just in time. Leaf wandered over, giving her the canteen. ‘Here, drink some. It’s clean.’

‘Thanks.’ Dust wheezed, taking a sip of the water. After the torturous conditions in the Citadel’s mine, this drink of cool water in such beautiful surroundings seemed unreal.

‘So where to next?’ Leaf asked, pulling a cooked fish from the campfire and taking a bite, while handing the other fish to Dust, who took it gratefully and began to eat too.

‘If we’re ever going to get off this island…’ Said Dust, taking a bite, ‘We’re going to need to stop the curse that prevents anyone coming or going.’

‘And how do we do that?’ Leaf asked. ‘Do we know how?’

‘Well, the curse has something to do with that Goddess who keeps appearing on statues and tapestries all over this forsaken place, so naturally, we need to find wherever her presence is strongest here… A monastery, or temple, or something like that.’ Dust reasoned. ‘So we’ll just have to do some searching.’ At this, Leaf sighed.

‘I was afraid you’d say we’d be trekking across an accursed isle full of bloodthirsty throwbacks.’ Leaf murmured.

‘What do you mean to say, Captain? That my mining operation is gone to ruin? Nothing can be done? We must continue our great task with mere shreds of our previous workforce?’ The cold, unnatural, rage-filled voice of the Seabound King echoed around his throne room. He remained motionless throughout, though the very walls shook with his pent-up anger.

‘Sir, we have recaptured a great many workers… Many still scour the mines.’ The Captain standing before his king explained as best he could. ‘Do not worry, my King, we will continue to search for the Barka. We will lay down our lives if necessary for the cause.’

‘It will indeed be necessary.’ The skeletal King murmured, his grim voice spreading throughout the chamber like a low growling. ‘As I will have you suffer for your failure… Just as I did the last Captain of the Guard who failed me.’ His skeletal hoof lifted, pointing weakly over to an alcove in the wall opposite. Within the recess stood a battered and restricting iron cage, in which was crushed the bloated, rotten corpse of the former Captain. The current holder of this post could only remember in half-forgotten nightmares what he and the rest of the Citadel Guard had been ordered to inflict upon that unfortunate stallion; how they had hacked at him with blades and sealed him in his cage… How they had scalded him with burning spears to the point of death, he unable to move or escape… And then left him hanging outside from the citadel walls to be pecked at by the birds until all life left him. The current Captain of the Guard, though not usually known to show fear, visibly shuddered at the prospect of going through such an agonising fate – or worse, knowing the King’s unexpected and violent temper.

‘I will never again fail you, my King… I swear!’ He replied in a stammering, terrified voice. The King sat up slowly, turning to one of his Guard beside the throne and giving an order.

‘You and your brother beside you.. Take the captain and lower him into the fires of the magma below.’ The King hissed maliciously, and the Captain’s eyes widened with horror as he began to beg.

‘Oh my Gracious King, you cannot, I beg you! Please! Do not-‘

‘Silence! You burn for your foolishness, and you are a to be a reminder to the next Captain not to fail me!’ The Seabound King roared, cutting through his Captain’s begging. The stallion simply slumped to the dusty floor, weeping quietly as two of the guard took him by the hooves, dragging him over to one of the grates in the floor and pulling it open. The captain was bound tightly with chains, and then lowered slowly down into the vent below. Steam hissed and the vent glowed brighter with fire as he descended into the boiling abyss, screaming until the last. His charred form was pulled back up out of the vent once the execution was done, and the chained corpse was hanged from the throne room ceiling. The Seabound King merely stared up and nodded, settling back into his throne. ‘A reminder indeed.’

‘How much further, Dust? I’m getting tired of this climbing..’ Leaf gasped out, as the pair shimmied along a narrow rock ledge, following it around the mountainside below a ruined old bridge. They were continuing around the side of the mountainous region that hid the Citadel, catching odd glimpses of ramshackle turrets and plumes of smoke here and there, nestled away in the sunken basin beyond the cliffs.

‘Not much further, I should think.’ Dust called out, clambering along the ledge and then climbing up onto a small plateau, holding out a hoof to help leaf up.

‘Thanks.’ He managed, scrambling up onto the small bit of flat ground as they carried on up a beaten, grassy slope. The canopy above kept the path ahead dim even in the morning sun, and the sounds of exotic animals echoed all around as the two ponies trampled onward. The air reeked of damp soil, moss and the occasional odour of thick smoke, presumably drifting over the mountaintops from the Citadel somewhere below. They passed over a small, babbling river which ran across their path, draining off down a waterfall to their side. A fleshless skeleton lay in the river, clad in rotting, tattered garments of some brown sackcloth. A pendant hung around its neck.

‘What’s this?’ Dust murmured, stopping off to inspect the withered remains. She peered at the pendant as Leaf sat down in a patch of undergrowth, resting.

‘Thank goodness we escaped that place…’ Leaf sighed. Dust wasn’t listening – she had more important matters to attend to. The pendant hanging about the skeleton’s neck was a sizeable likeness of none other than the Goddess; the religious figure which seemed to hold some considerable power on the Isle of Bones.

‘Leaf, look at this.’ She called to him, pulling the idol from the corpse and holding it up. ‘A pendant… It’s a sign of worship. Whoever this was, they worshipped the Goddess.’

‘Do you think that they worshipped nearby? At a monastery, or a shrine, or something like that?’ Leaf asked. Dust nodded, nestling the pendant back between the old folds of clothing reverently.

‘We need to press on. My guess is that this path must lead to some place of worship… If we can find the source of the Goddess' power, we can find a way to get off this island.’ She concluded.

‘But what about the Shroud of the First King?’ Leaf asked, his eyes wide. Dust halted her thoughts. In all the time she had spent surviving on the Isle, and planning their escape from it, their original mission had seemed irrelevant. Finally, she nodded.

‘We’ll find a way to get it. We just need more time.’ And with that, they carried on the upward path, deeper into the jungle which wound its way up between the mountains of the remote island.