Chapter 9: Paul’s great ideas

The two gryphons – the leader and Paul – began to laugh while I stood there like an idiot. Then they went all serious and somber. At that, Paul said something indignantly.

Then they laughed some more.

And that’s about how we found ourselves back in the forest, towing behind two bulky gryphons wielding even bulkier axes. Both of them, and even Paul, hovered above the ground while I had to do my darn best not to step on twigs. Which was just about impossible in a forest, not to mention I couldn’t care less. I’d have to crawl soon because my legs were at the point of falling off.

Therefore the two picked me by my shoulders (god dammit) and we flew within the shadows of trees. At least I didn’t have to punish my legs anymore, so that wasn’t so bad. My shoulders didn’t agree.

I knew not where we were going. But I knew Paul had something to do with it. And whatever it was, I didn’t like it.

In silence we glided through the forest like ghosts until we arrived at a small slate mountain jutting from the forest like a jagged tooth. There we stopped.

“Well, this isn’t ominou-”

“Shh!” Bulky (the gryphon holding my left shoulder) interrupted me, while Hulky glared at me.

They started chattering silently and I pretended I understood everything. I nodded when Paul nodded, looked serious when others looked serious...

Suddenly, Paul and Bulky left, while Hulky and me stayed behind. I could see Paul and his companion disappear behind the bushes and trees; meanwhile Hulky and me started circling the mountain anticlockwise. We would sneak behind bushes, behind rocks, trying to be as silent as possible for causes unknown to me. But, you know, I tagged along.

Took us about ten minutes before we met Paul and Bulky again. They exchanged a few words while shaking their heads. Were we searching for something? And why did we try to be all sneaky?

Paul suddenly seemed to get an idea as he raised his head, first in a silent “ah-hah!”, then he raised his head further, looking somewhere above the trees. He said something before flying upward and through the trees.

Immediately, the gryphons got into a hushed conversation while I just tried to find some nice flat stone to sit on. And I did, behind some huge rock that provided me with more shadowy sanctuary from the harsh afternoon sun that cut through the tree canopy with unforgiving beams of sunlight.

We were just at the beginning – Paul and me, I mean – and I was already so… damn… tired.

How the hell am I supposed to save my brother like this? I don’t know the anything, I don’t know how to fight. If it weren’t for Paul I’d be dead already—and I can’t even thank him for it. Hell, Paul’d probably have a better chance surviving this crazy journey without me.

The rock was cold but soothing against my aching legs and possibly sunburnt neck, though the tradeoff would probably be more aching from my ass and my back, but for now, it’d do.

Hell, I could even-

Suddenly, the light was no more and with it vanished the warmth of day. I was cold and the dull pain was now spread all over my body. Those were the first things I noticed, and it took a moment more to fully appreciate the sudden change of scenery.

I bolted upward.

The pain that was the reward for my effort threw me back down.

“Ugh…” I moaned with my face against the cold and unforgivingly hard thing called ground, and contemplated if getting up would even be worth the effort. With a deliberate and painfully slow movements, I propped myself up with both arms that I gingerly managed to fold under myself.

I finally made it to my legs (with the help of the rock I was so soundly sleeping against) and they didn’t like it in the slightest.

“Paul?” I called out hoarsely since it seemed to me like I hadn’t had anything to drink in ages.

“Anyone?”

Of course, nothing. The constant sound of crickets playing their symphony didn’t count.

“Shit,” I cursed, trembling, and grabbed the back of my head in both of my hands. Panic began to plunge its hooks in my guts, and my body automatically started pacing around while my mind conjured images of demons hiding within the forest foliage.

I was alone, in a dark forest; no supplies, no way back. Barely could see a meter in front of me, making me completely defenseless against the things that could be lurking in the dark of this mythical world. Maybe calling out for Paul wasn’t the brightest idea, but my mind told me there wasn’t much to lose now.

“Paul!” I yelled out, the forest echoing my call for help mockingly.

Without any thinking, I started to run around the damned slate rock hill, trying to find something, someone, anything. Anything good, that is.

I started cursing with each breath I took because there was no one there beside me and I needed to vent my growing fear somehow. I stumbled and I fell, but my whole being was now in instinctual overdrive, the natural fear of dark taking over my senses. I had no problem getting back on my feet now.

Nothing, nothing, nothing.All alone.This is the end.

I am going to die here.

There’s nothing

So cold.

What now?

What now?

With sheer willpower I stopped myself from taking another step, another uncertain plunge into the darkness. I had to think. I had to think hard.

I got myself lost even more than I was before, but not like it mattered. I would probably freeze to death before I’d find my way out of here. I had only a leather shirt and pants on, every other bit of clothing was back in my backpack. Speaking of which, I realized that Paul didn’t have the backpack on when we ventured here.

Useless thoughts aside, the most important priority was to start a fire. I had my axe—I could cut wood. I had my mace—I could rub it against the steel of axe to create some sparks. I had all I needed.

No. I didn’t have light. I could barely see anything.

I started blindly searching for some twigs and dry leaves, crawling around on my knees and arms, using my hands to find things.

Within a few minutes, there was a small pile of what I needed in front of me. I didn’t make the proper preparations for a fireplace.

In that moment, I couldn’t care less if the forest would burn down from my carelessness. All I cared about was to stop the growing cold.

Shaking like I had parkinsons, my hands tugged against the straps of my mace and axe, until they dropped to the ground.

“Dammit,” I hissed, and almost screamed in frustration as I tried to pick them up and failed. When I finally did, I sat down in front of the miserable pile that would be my campfire, and propped the ball of my mace against the ground while trying to rub the blade of my axe against it.

Of course, that didn’t work. My hands just shook too much.

So I tried it the other way – rubbing the mace against the axe – which did result in a few sparks, but not nearly enough. At that moment, I felt angry beyond measure, sad, frustrated, and worst of all, helpless.

I rubbed and rubbed, the clinking of iron against steel sounding in desperate quickness through the night.

The frustration and helplessness built up, tears started streaming my cold face, and soon enough I wasn’t even rubbing the two weapons against each other, just pounding them into the ground with ferocious anger.

With a thousand curses at the tip of my tongue, I jumped to my feet and childishly threw the weapons against the rocky mountain to my right, where they clinked and bounced off into the darkness and out of my sight.

“No, no, no, no!” I immediately fumbled toward the place I heard them fall to.

Next thing I knew, I fell and bounced against the side of the mountain, trying to catch onto anything. Then, I tumbled down for way longer than I should’ve.

I cried out in pain as I landed awkwardly on my lower back. Wherever it was I fell, there was no light here, and the sound of my own cries echoed even more in here.

I rolled over onto my side, at least confirming that I hadn’t broken anything. That would’ve been really bad. My rump still hurt like hell, though.

Forgetting the cold due to the pain for a while, I managed to get up tenderly while spitting words of hate and clutching my back like an old spiteful senior citizen. Unlike what I presumed was outside (perhaps I was in a cave of sort?), the temperature was actually higher in here, wherever the hell here was.

“Hello?” I whispered. “Anyone there?”

I need light now more than ever.

But I didn’t have anything on me that could produce light. So, instead I reached around me, trying to find a wall to lean onto, when I bumped into something with my feet. It clinked against the stone floor.

With more cursing and increasing pain, I reached down and found what seemed to be my mace. Perhaps my axe was here, too? Shuffling my feet around soon enough I did find the axe. Man, had I fallen onto any of those weapons…

I awkwardly holstered the mace back onto the strap above my belt, but I held onto the axe with my left hand. Should I trip and fall, I could at least throw the axe away instead of falling onto it. Hopefully.

After perhaps half a minute of flailing my arms and the axe around, the weapon clinked against something hard, I approached it and finally discovered a wall. I took the axe in my left hand while I used my right hand to feel against the wall while walking forward and carefully stepping with each foot ahead, trying not to fall into a pit or something.

I shivered, sometimes outright trembled, and it wasn’t because of the cold. The situation that yours truly found himself in? Yeah, not good.

The wall started to curl to the right, and as I went, the cavern seemed to get a little brighter, until finally I saw a lone torch, almost burned up, far ahead of me. My mouth spread into a grin and my eyes took in the light, hungered for it and devoured every bit of it. Carelessly, my limping walk turned into a limping stride toward the glorious light.

At last I reached it, and promptly fell beneath it without a care in the world. I let the axe go and it landed somewhere in front of me.

Time was irrelevant. My body just basked in the light and warmth of what seemed to be the only source of said light and warmth around. I lay on my chest – very uncomfortable – but I didn’t dare to move, as the pain above my ass started to recede while not doing anything. I just looked at the wall opposite of the torch.

*Clink!*

The axe came into my view, its blade dangerously close to my face.

What? I turned my head ahead, then up.

In front of me stood a dog on its hind legs, its fur dark red-brown in the orange light, and it wore some kind of loose clothing that looked hand-made, or rather, paw-made in its case.

“What the fu-” I couldn’t finish the sentence as it suddenly barked and reared back, falling into an aggressive stance, its claws bared and ready to tear. My first urge was to get up as fast as I could, but when I tried, the pain in my lower back flared up again and mid-way to standing up I had to fall against the wall, leaning while yelling about “things”.

The dog hissed something, and I immediately knew that it spoke in Universal by the sentence structure and some words that I had heard before, but I still couldn’t understand shit.

“Hello,” I hissed back, the most appropriate word I could find.

It started to mumble, and obviously questioned me about something.

“Tree,” I replied, now fully standing and leaning against the wall with my right shoulder, my right hand close to my mace.

“What?” Now that I understood.

“Flower.” Paul taught me really useful things.

The dog started to frown, then it asked something again that sounded similar to whatever he asked before.

“Sun.” Fucking hell, Paul.

Boy, did it get angry. I mean, he got angry. His voice was clearly that of a male. Anyway, he bared his fangs at me, and his eyes shone with frustration and anger. He spat something, to which I replied while already unstrapping my mace silently, “Moon.”

It sounded more like a “moo!”, though.

He charged me, clearly blinded with hatred. My mace was already in the way of his head, and he didn’t see the flying piece of iron until it was already too late. There was a searing pain in my left hand, which I was using to defend myself from the onslaught of claws, followed by a cracking sound. His momentum still carried his body forward, and it threw me down onto the floor, my rump first. “Pain” didn’t begin to cover it.

“Oh my GOOOOOOOOOOO-