Chapter 8
As Nis awoke the next morning, his nose was greeted with the fresh smell of birch wood and pine. And as he opened his eyes he saw a low mist covering the camp. Light was just returning and the frost still clung to everything like a lingering cough after an illness. The fire had gone out, and he could see Leana was still fast asleep. He began to prepare things for the journey, if for no other reason than to shake the cold from his body. It was so quiet, he didn’t want to break the silence, he had had no dreams that night, and he did not want to end his peace now.
He decided to wait on waking Leana till he was all packed up, and so commenced packing. “Good morning, are we going already, what about breakfast?” Nis jumped, and turned to look, Leana had already gotten up and was rolling her bedding, and the mess on her head hiding her face. “Well I guess theres always lunch, and hopefully we should be to the bridge by then, it can’t be much farther.” Her enthusiasm threw him off balance, he hadn’t even heard her get up.
They ate a small breakfast as they packed, and then headed off deeper into the woods. Nis hoped they wouldn’t be in here much longer, he had begun to feel very cramped, as if the trees were bending in around him, trying to smother him. This forest reminded him too much of the one near Strim, and he began to feel very tense. Leanas silence didn’t help either, for once he wished she were her hyperactive self, but here even she seemed subdued. On they went, and darker it got, or so it seemed. The trees fading to a dim tarnished green, and only an occasional beam of light cutting through the canopy and striking the ground with an almost observable force. Nis wondered how Leana could see where they were going, he definitely couldn’t. It was all he could do not to trip over every root hidden in the dark.
After what seemed like several days in his mind, Nis realized he could hear the sound of the river again. It grew louder and eventually, what he heard was a roaring torrent the likes of which he did not ever remember hearing before. And then a brightness shocked his eyes, as they adjusted he found himself leaving the forest behind, and in front patchy snow covered meadow greeted him. “There it is, look, thats it!” Leana squealed excitedly. It seemed with the return of the light so too did her unrelenting energy.
Nis looked in the direction she was pointed and saw it, a great stone bridge. It looked as if it had been carved from a single piece of granite, yet it spanned the now deep, exceedingly wide and wildly flowing river, if it could still be called a river. The other side was barely visible, fanding in the mist.. The bridges width was enough that several large traveling wagons could sit side by side on it and there would still be room to enough to walk between and around them. How could such a bridge come to be? He wondered. Leana wasted no time, though her eyes were filled with wonderment, and hurried excitedly toward the bridge. Nis didn’t even notice till she was almost thirty paces away, and began jogging to catch up.
Soon they were at the bridge, and it was even more grand than it had looked from the distance. Now finely chiseled artscapes adorned the bridge walls, the walking aria, strangely absent of snow, was also carved, but slightly differently. If nis had not known better, he would have proclaimed it a wooden floor. The stone was carved to mimic all the nuances of wooden beams, down to the ring lines and knots in the wood.
The sun was high in the sky as they crossed, the bridge did not have a cover and was open, Nis liked that. There were few clouds in the sky, and the air didn't seem as cold. In fact as they traveled farther along the bridge, the air grew warmer and warmer until it felt like a summer breeze. The carvings sprawled onward, an inconsistent pattern. Nis knew it must have some meaning, but he did not know what it might be.
“These tell the story of the making of the four gates, but its not a language I know, I just know what's there from books.” Leana said. Nis looked at the walls now with a new eye, and wonder filled him as he thought of just how old this bridge must surely be. The deafening roar of the waters below must be older still. He wondered in awe. At one point Nis took a moment to look over the side, curious of the churning flow below. White foam, and splatterings of greyish green blue stared back at him. for such a wide river, he saw surprised that it was so turbulent. He also started to feel dizzy at the height he was from the water, large boulders looked as pebbles, and wind from down below fluttered up and caressed his face before moving onward towards the sky. It carried with it the smells of fresh rain, and dampness.
They continued onward, stopping for lunch at the midway point of the bridge. It was brief but Nis was glad for the stop, the bridge seemed to go on forever. He knew that it was large from the stories, but he never imagined it would be this large. As they began again, Nis became aware of a faint line of smoke coming from the far end of the bridge. It began to worry him more and more the closer they got to the end of the bridge. The smell of burning wood began to overtake that of the crisp watery mist below. Nis felt his heart beat faster, he almost wished for more of Leana’s talking right now but even she was quiet.
As they finished the bridge and crested a hill at its end Nis’ heart froze mid beat, the small village that had been there, that was supposed to be there, was a smouldering waste of half burned planks. Bodies lay half burned in the streets, many with fatal wounds that would have done them in even if they had not been burned. Congealed blood mixed with ash around them, contrasting the horrid scene with what almost seemed like small patches of pink daisies. There was no movement, no life was left here. Leana seemed just as stunned as Nis was, and then panic struck him like a bolt of angered lightning.
“Nis wait! Where are you going?!?” Leana cried as Nis began running as fast as he could away from the town desperate to find somewhere to hide. But it was no use, this side of the river was quite barren of plant life let alone trees. Everywhere he looked there were only rocks and hard ground, and not a one big enough to hide behind. He continued to run frantically, this way and that. Finally Leana caught his arm and pulled him around to face her. “Whats wrong with you, your running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Of course I’ve never seen that but I’ve read stories, and you are acting like that!”
He heard her words and was momentarily distracted from his panic attack. And with a strange expression on his face frozen halfway between panic and confusion he said the only words that came to his mind, “You read about cutting off chickens heads?!?” It was a perfectly sound question to him at the time. She had said that she read a lot of books after all.
“What? No you,” she paused confused at the question at first but then stumbled onward with, “I think you need to sit down for a second you're kinda scaring me.” as she said it she reached out a hand and placed it gently on his shoulder. As she did calm began to return to Nis’ mind, he still felt himself shuttering, but his mind was returning to him.
“I’m sorry, its just,” He paused, he had told no one except the lodge master what had happened. Even the lodge master only knew the event though, no one knew the details of what had happened, except him. So he hesitated in telling this girl about what gave him nightmares every night, about what horrific visions of carnage he witnessed whenever he looked into a fire. But something seemed different about this, she was seeing it, he didn’t have to describe anything, “this is what happened,” to late to take the words back now, “to my village. This is why I must find Shathgrim, because the one of the gates has been opened.” Hie words trembled as they left his mouth.
Leana recoiled, the look of shock and surprise plane on her face. As quickly it flashed across her face it left again, “Well that explains your urgency, we should keep going, we shouldn’t stop here, but lets at least go through the town. Maybe someone is still there!” She continued to coax him for a few minutes until finally his heart began to beat slower, and he found himself able to function somewhat normally again. He felt cold sweat rolling down his neck, and the air that came into his lungs seemed colder than it had before.
As they began back toward the town he felt the horror creeping back in, but he fought the fear burying it deep. I can lose it again when we are camped for the night, perhaps when Leana is asleep or something. He wondered why he would care if she knew, but he didn’t have time to wonder about it long. His thoughts were lost as they entered the town though, from this close the destruction was accompanied by the stench of death. The gouges and rips in the figures that had once been people shouted of the condition in which they died. There is nothing here, he thought and then aloud, “Nothing except death.”
“It can’t hurt to look, and we have to walk through this place anyway. We might as well see if there's anyone left, maybe someone who can tell us what happened.” Leana said with an overly exaggerated cheery voice. Apparently the turn of events had gotten to her in some way, but Nis could not worry about that now with everything else whirling around his mind. He pushed it into the rest of the tornado of thoughts as they continued silently through the town.
The wreckage and carnage passed by slowly as they walked. Many of the buildings were nothing but empty frames, bits of wood still clinging together as though with some intent that they would have someone to rebuild them. Doors lay charred and broken in the streets, some riddled with holes from unknown weapons. Random cracks and pops called out from inside some of the buildings, the fires inside still warm and feeding. The bodys though, many were disfigured and dismembered beyond recognition. It gave Nis a sick feeling, next to him he heard Leana wretch. They paused momentarily for her to recover, almost out of this hell, thought Nis.
As they started again though, their steps were cut short. From inside one of the charred buildings Nis though he had heard something and Leana confirmed it with the question, “Did you hear that?” They approached the building cautiously, whatever had done this could still be there. This was one of the few buildings that didn’t have much damage to it. The door was still attached to it, albeit hanging only by one hinge. The two companions looked at each other as they approached the doorway, silently Nis took the lead and entered the dark opening.
As he eyes adjusted to the darker lighting inside the small dwelling he saw a figure scrambling towards a corner of the room. He closed in on it with caution, and as he did so he began to hear it whimper. It was not so dark that he could not see, and by the time he was within arms reach of the thing he saw it for what it was. A child sat clutching its knees and hiding its face from Nis.