DarkFyre Ch. 15

There. Thank all known gods, named and unnamed. Rael stumbled toward it with a surge of renewed energy and hope. Silmaria could do naught but follow or be dragged.

Long knives of ice hung down like translucent, frigid teeth at the mouth of the cave. It yawned open in the darkness, invitingly gluttonous. The snow blew right in, littering the floor at the cave entrance in big pillowing piles of freezing white fluff, deceptively innocent. Rael scrabbled his way into the cave, his hand guiding them in deeper until they were past the spray of snow.

Finding a spot that was almost dry, in a rather soggy and slick sort of way, Rael sagged to the stone floor with a deep, shuddering sigh.

Silmaria was so frozen and numb that it took her some time to even register they weren't marching out in the snow anymore. At last she realized she was a miserable and wretched kind of cold, as opposed to near death kind of cold. Rael had gathered her up in his arms, sitting her in his lap to press as close as possible while his hands rubbed briskly up and down her arms and back to try and rub something resembling circulation back into her frozen veins.

"I didn't think we'd make it," Rael said hoarsely into her ear. "I remembered seeing this cave, but that was during the summer months years ago, and I couldn't be sure how far out it was. Or if it would even be here. Cave-ins are known to happen from time to time. We're lucky. Another hour and we would be done."

"Th-Thank you," Silmaria said through chattering teeth as she pressed up against him hard. "For d-dragging me."

"I only dragged you a little," Rael chuckled. "I'm just glad I didn't have to carry you. You don't weight much of a thing, but I feel like my boots are made of stone as it is."

"I never want to do that again," she sighed, burying her face into the Nobleman's shoulder.

Once she was recovered somewhat, Silmaria glanced around the cave. They'd stepped in deep enough to get away from the snow and ice blowing through the cave's mouth. It was a spacious, vast cavern of a cave, an impressive hollow in the mountain leading deep into the core of the peak the Pass was winding around. It was still cold within; the rocky walls glinted with a thin layer of frost from where water ran in drip-drops and rivulets and sheets down the rock face to freeze into dazzling glittering formations. Huge stalactites hung from the high cave ceiling. They were beautiful and strange rocky spires. The wet, drippy fingertips of the mountain, ever searching, always reaching. Smoothly iridescent icicles hung between and alongside their bigger, denser stone cousins. Further back, the cave floor sloped down and away, leading deeper into the heart of the mountain where it was undoubtedly warmer, yet even the thought of moving down, down and deep made Silmaria uncomfortably claustrophobic.

Some places, she instinctively knew, were not meant to be tread.

Rael released her after a while and unslung his packs from his strong shoulders to rummage around inside.

"I can't see a damn thing," he muttered, and pulled out a mostly dry length of wood. He tore a small strip off one of his heavy cloaks and wrapped it around the wood to make a torch. Silmaria made herself comfortable as well, unbundling her things and letting out a tired sigh as the Knight brought out flint and tinder.

"Our food will be gone soon," she said.

"I know," Rael replied.

"What are we going to do?"

A spark caught, and a soft glow came up from the torch. Rael nurtured the budding flame, blowing on it gently, shielding it with his hands and coaxing it into greater life. The flames flickered, swayed, nearly gutted, then at last found a grip on the cloth and wood of the torch, finding enough of a hold to live and then, slowly, grow.

There was a metaphor there, some poetic analogy to their situation, she was sure. But she was too exhausted to grasp at the fleeting thought.

"I don't know," Rael replied. "Not yet. We're safe from the storm for now. That's better than we were half an hour ago. The rest of the answers and way forward will follow as they may. We just have to keep our eyes open and keep pressing forward when the opportunity presents itself."

Despite the wisdom of his words, his relaxed position in such dire circumstances was beginning to grate on Silmaria's nerves. "That's all well and good," she said crossly, "But what if no opportunity comes up before we really do run out of food and starve? A plan would be nice. Some sort of..."

"Shh!" Rael hissed, cutting her off with a sharp motion of his hand. Silmaria obeyed without even thinking. Rael sat stock still, tightness and apprehension writ in every line of his posture. He stared into the gloom of the cave, holding up his torch, the only movement the play of shadows cast by his torch undulating across his strained face.

For the whisper of a moment, a flitter of thought, she had no idea what caused him to go so tense.

Then came the deep, primal, animal rumbling from the back of a cave, all gruff and sleepy and irate. The sound of two handfuls of gravel being scrubbed together. The sort of sound that could freeze anything with a pulse in its tracks, paralyzed and instinctively hopeful that whatever happened, they would escape notice. Let me be lucky, was the prayer in minds small and big alike. Let me be unseen. Pass me over, don't notice me.

Go away. Go away. Please go away.

She said that prayer, too, and she was certain Rael was silently saying it right along with her.

Too late, it seemed. Out from the back of the cavern it loped on lumbering, padded paws, fearsome, rending claws clicking on the wet stones underfoot. Silmaria had never seen one, of course, save once, an old drawing in one of Master Edwin's dusty old encyclopedias. It was bigger than the tome had hinted. A thing more substantial and complete than any book or turn of phrase could do justice.

It took up the whole cave. It took up the entire world. Its head alone seemed bigger than her whole body, surely. Thick, shaggy fur bristled, making it seem even larger if that were conceivably possible. The thick belt covered more raw muscle and mass than any creature ought to have possessed. Claws and teeth like nature's most cunning and cruel swords were arrayed with more deadly promise than any battle-ready battalion.

The bear snuffed at their scent, and that terrifying maw opened, slavering.

"Get back," Rael told her in a voice of calm deathly and desperation. He was moving slowly, ever so gradually, doing everything not to spook the monstrous beast before them as it shuffled back and forth and trying to decide just what it wanted to do about these two annoyances. The Knight held the torch extended between the bear and themselves, and his free hand slowly edged toward his greatsword.

Silmaria couldn't even begin to dare to think of moving, so great was her fear.

The bear's eyes were not happy. It was very obviously irate over having its den disturbed. Worse, it had the look of an apex predator in need of a good mid-winter meal. It exuded hunger in the way only a wild, unstoppable force could, that palpable sense that at any moment, the precarious balance would tip and it would decide that yes indeed, they were worth the effort of breaking in half to be its next meal.

The moment came. The balance tipped.

With a roar that shook the roots of the mountain, the bear charged.

Rael and Silmaria scattered. Rael let out a shout of his own, a battle cry of challenge as he rolled to the side and out of the bear's path. He circled frantically, waving the torch before him with one hand as the other clutched his greatsword, trying to wrest it from its sheath. The flames danced, weaving back and forth.

The mountain bear roared and growled and huffed, slapping at the fire with a bruiser of a paw. Rael jabbed the torch into the huge paw. The bear let out a scream from a wide, vicious maw, teeth bared in a rictus of death. It swiped again, knocking the torch from Rael's hand and sending it spinning along the floor.

Silmaria huddled against the wall, horrified, as Rael squared off with the bear. He leaped back, circling as he went, always facing the angry mass of killing flesh that was the bear. At last the Nobleman got his greatsword free, and the steel flashed in the flickering light of the torch. The bear came forward again, a charging mountain of claw and teeth and predatory muscle. Rael lunged to the side and brought his greatsword up in a cut across the bear's shoulder. The animal bellowed out a cry of pain and rage and followed, swatting at the Knight. Rael rolled beneath the enormous paw, claws raking through the air just above his head, and came to his feet at a run, the bear already circling and chasing.

The Nobleman spun, his greatsword whipping out in a slash that would have cut a man in two. The blade caught the bear across its chest as it reared on its hind legs, and though it bit deep, the blow didn't stop the beast. Rael leaped aside as the bear came crashing down to crush him beneath its fearsome weight.

So it went, back and forth, Rael straining desperately to stay one step ahead of the beast as it charged and reared and did its best to eviscerate him. He cut the bear, again and again, and each cut seemed to only make the beast more determined to kill. Blood lust and rage and madness danced in those small black eyes, and blood flecked the foam dripping from its toothsome maw.

Rael lunged in to rake a cut across the bear's leg, and before he could leap aside, the bear struck, smashing a glancing blow into his right hip. The Nobleman was lucky; the bear's claws found no purchase in him, but the swat was powerful enough to send him tumbling back hard. The back of his head cracked resoundingly on the stone ground.

Rael's vision went hazy, blurring violently. The world gave a sickening sideways lurch as his equilibrium struggled to adjust. He tried to scramble to his feet, but his body wouldn't cooperate. He was moving slowly, far too slowly. He was struggled up to shaky feet, trying to shake the cobwebs, but the bear was already closing for the kill.

Rael saw his death, and breathed despair.

The twang of the bow. The firm, meaty thunk of an arrow burying deep.

Silmaria stared the bear down. Rael gazed at her, stunned. She wasn't stupid, or foolish; fear was naked and screaming unashamedly in her wide green eyes. The bear reared on its hind legs, and let out that mountain-shaking roar. Silmaria didn't flinch. She armored her fear in desperate, stubborn courage and stood her ground. She drew back another arrow, the fletched feathers brushing the short velvet pelt of her cheek, and loosed it. It blasted into the bear's ribs, the shot as clean and sure as the first that scored its shoulder. The monstrous animal went mad with pain and killing rage.

Before it could charge her, Rael exploded into motion, slashing again and again then rolling under the bear's deadly swiping paw. His hip and right leg were numb. He didn't let it slow him. The Nobleman's face was drawn into a snarl, his teeth clenched and bared, and his silvered eyes reflected the feral, wild bloodlust in the bear's. He was frightening to behold as he lashed out, his greatsword working fiercely and tirelessly.

The bear was slowing. Rael had cut it in a dozen places. None of them were deep enough to bring the beast down, but its blood was flowing and seeping away, taking its terrible strength with the warm red rivers spattering the chilled cave floor.

Silmaria put another arrow into the huge predator, catching it in one of its rear legs this time.

The bear had enough.

With a great huff it turned away from Rael to charge the small, determined Gnari. Rael saw the bear's focus shift. He screamed a curse and lunged into the bear's path with his blade leading the way.

Rael's greatsword plunged deep into the bear's chest, sliding through meat and muscle with all the warrior's strength and the momentum of the bear's charge behind it. The terrible animal's roar was a wet gurgle and blood spilled from its gaping maw. The steel had at last punctured one immense lung. The blow was mortal.

But not immediate.

Even with its strength fading by the moment, such was the bear's power that when it struck out and caught Rael in his left side, it still sent him tumbling back. This was no glancing blow as it had been before; the brutal hit caught Rael full in the side. The force was immense, and the claws raked him full, slashing across his side and ribs and gouging him down his belly. With a strangled cry, Rael went bouncing along the ground. His sword slipped from unfeeling fingers.

"No," Silmaria breathed. The bear shuffled forward on heavy paws toward the bleeding and broken man. The Gnari pulled the bow taut, and held it for the barest moment. Her breath release, and she let the arrow follow.

The shaft snapped through the air. It slammed into the beast's left eye, buried deep into its brain, and the bear at last slumped to the floor, quite dead. The pile it collapsed into was no less intimidating than it had been in life.

Silmaria dropped the bow and quiver and scrambled to Rael's side. The Knight was sprawled in a heap, face down and unmoving. Silmaria felt sick. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking as she struggled to turn him over. Gods, he was so heavy, how could he have gone flying, weightless and airy, cartwheeling and spinning like a doll with its strings cut, when he was so damnably heavy?

At last she got him rolled onto his back. Silmaria was surprised to find him still conscious, barely. He stared up at her as she cradled his head in her lap. His silver eyes were hazy and hollowed. Blood smeared his face from an impressive cut at his hairline. She wiped the blood away as best she could and pushed the tangle of his burnished copper hair where it stuck to his face. Though he was fair skinned to begin with, now his skin looked drained of all color entirely, taking on a sallow and sickly appearance.

"Gods...oh gods, no," Silmaria whimpered. Blood was already spreading, soaking into the thick layers of his heavy tunic, an ever expanding stain of life and death, one and the same and so very different. His breathing was labored and he was sweating profusely.

She put her trembling hands to his chest, trying to stem the tide of his blood. "No, no no no! Don't go Rael. Please don't go! Don't leave me alone in this awful place! You promised!"

"Know...promised," Rael gasped softly. "Meant...promise."

"Don't talk. Don't talk, it's okay. It's okay! Just hush now, hush, you're going to be okay," Silmaria told him, trying to convince him, praying she could convince herself.

"Sick soon," Rael murmured, his words a thin whisper now as his strength faded. Every word was a struggle, but try as she might to quiet him, he wouldn't stop stubbornly getting them out. "After... hurt... sick. Crazed. Not... self. Hurt. Don't... let... hurt."

"I won't. I won't let you hurt," Silmaria said through her tears. They ran down her face unchecked, falling warm on his upturned face and mixing with the blood there. For once, she didn't care that he saw her cry.

Rael's head shook, barely.

Silmaria cradled his head and rocked him softly. She repeated a litany of comfort, telling them both that he was going to be okay, over and over, again and again, an empty, shaky promise and prayer made of weakness and strength and bleakest hope.

Rael's strange, ethereal silver eyes fluttered, sagged shut, and he was gone.

***

So a brief little note. I've received some feedback in the past that my chapters are shorter than some readers would enjoy. I'm sure this will be the case for this chapter, for those particular readers. I hear you. I understand. I read each and every piece of feedback I receive, and reply to most of it. I sympathize with your frustration on that issue, and when possible, do give an honest try toward putting out lengthier chapters.

That being said? I post shorter chapters at times, for various reasons. Sometimes because I want to release a chapter in a semi-timely manner, and I'm already stretching the definition of that with the length of chapter I have. Sometimes, it's because if I were to not end a chapter where I choose to, the chapter would end up being crazy long by the time I reach a stopping point I deem acceptable.

And then there's times like this chapter (which actually happens to also fall into the above categories as well), where I end it at a certain point because it's just too deliciously evil not to.

If you think my chapters are too short, then I understand that. I value your opinion, and your readership, I really do. But sometimes, it's just not feasible for whatever reason for me to write out a longer one this time.

If it truly brothers you, I suggest letting two, perhaps even three chapters accumulate before you read further. This may take two or three weeks, I realize. But the truth is, if I write out a single chapter of that length, that's going to be about how long it takes me to release that single beefed up chapter. So in the end, it's about the same.

Thank you, sincerely, to everyone who has continued to read my work and support it. Please continue to send me feedback! It motivates me. It makes me better. It shows me that there's enough interest in this yarn to make it worth spinning the whole thing out. And it keeps me honest.

On to the next!