The Umbrae forest stands as a vestige of what was once an expansive woodland covering most of Northern Asmeon. Little is known of the forest or its inhabitants, as all who try to venture inside are met with a strong feeling of hostility, a silent warning to turn back. Those who don’t heed this caution are said to be never heard from again.
Probably because of its strong defenses, the forest had been left undisturbed for centuries until a pivotal shift occurred two hundred years ago.
For at this moment, the Astresh King gifted its heir a peculiar creature bought from one of the slave markets. Bearing resemblance to a wolf yet with elongated limbs, a bipedal gait, and short black fur, the creature exuded an aura of silent menace, its golden eyes tracking all who crossed its path.
The gift had been intended as a jest to ridicule the Crown Princess, but instead of showing humiliation, she thanked her father earnestly and kept the creature at her side. As time passed and the two remained inseparable, whispers circulated that the thing must have put her under a spell.
The truth of the creature’s nature would only be revealed during a rebellion that shook the country. As assailants stormed the royal palace, murdering everyone in their path, they were stopped once they reached the princess’s chambers. There they found their demise, as they were ripped to shreds, leaving nothing but some traces of blood.
Unwittingly the King had bought his daughter a Vzugrel, a denizen of the Umbrae forest now known to hold incredible destructive power. They are capable of forming a bond of loyalty akin to that of a Dragon and its rider, the difference being that it can be forced by any human through the simple fact of discovering the creature's true name.
After these facts came to light, Vzugrels became coveted commodities among the rich, sought to be used in their armies and as personal guardians. Their high demand and relative rarity led to exorbitant prices on the slave market, causing the desperate to brave the Umbrae forest in the hope of capturing one and securing themselves a life of wealth. Yet the tally of those who succeeded in this endeavor remains unknown.
~ The History and People of Magic by Sir Rainaldus Gale
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“Therefore we will go and find the Dragon Order, so we can bring back help with us.”
The bags under Warchief’s eyes betrayed how tired he must be. If Lidea were to guess, he had struggled with his nightmares again. She supposed she should feel bad for the man, but she found herself silently enjoying his predicament. From the side of the training field, she had looked on as he spoke to the mass of people that had gathered there. All eager to hear the news that their great leader was going to share with them.
Now having heard his words, even Warchief’s natural charm wasn’t enough to overcome their growing concern. It didn’t help that most of them had already been anxious, barely recovered from the losses they had faced. But Warchief’s sudden decision to leave had only worsened their distrust.
These people were different from the men who had stood beside them, they hadn’t chosen to be here. Rather, they had been forced to flee their home just to survive. Some might even hold a grudge against the resistance, seeing them as the reason their neighborhood had been targeted. Something Lidea couldn’t fault them for.
Their fearless leader’s eyes fluttered over the group, seemingly desperate to find some sort of support as he stood alone before them. Crystal was in the infirmary and couldn’t afford to take a break that didn’t involve eating or sleeping. While Lidea had been perusing over maps of the cave system all morning, and neither Warchief nor Crystal had been ballsy enough to ask her to stand with him today. Despite her agreement with their plan, the tense atmosphere between the three told her that they were well aware of her feelings on the matter.
“We will return. I promise you.”
He spoke with such unwavering trust, and Lidea knew that he truly believed what he said. The problem was that no one else did.
“To what!? A pile of bones?”
A sole voice from the back broke the silence, giving others the courage to chime in and the crowd erupted into chaos.
“You can’t just leave us!”
“We will all perish…”
“What about the wounded!? Why is our only healer leaving!?”
“You are running away because you know that it is pointless! Coward!”
The shouting ranged from desperate, to accusing and angry, and many echoed Lidea’s own misgivings. Warchief had been their beacon of hope, this immeasurable strong man with an inhuman healer at his side. He resembled the heroes of old or the main character of a children’s storybook. But now he was leaving them in their time of dire need. What hero did that?
Holding up his hands Warchief tried to calm the crowd before answering them.
“You will be fine! We are not leaving before the wounded are properly taken care of. Besides Lidea will be here with you.”
His eyes found Lidea’s, pleading for her to throw him a lifeline which she pointedly ignored. Not that it mattered, the crowd’s gaze had already turned to her, and with the pressure mounting, she found herself nodding in silent agreement.
“You leave us with her? The girl that got her whole army killed? We are doomed!”
The words stung, but how could she blame the woman for saying the exact same as she had been thinking? More protests clamored from the group but Warchief’s easy smile had turned to anger as he cut them short.
“The woman that kept her men alive for years while being hunted by the King. She was outnumbered, didn’t have any resources, and was barely more than a teen, but she still managed! Tell me, what other child do you know that would be capable of doing the same!?”
The crowd grew silent as they stared at her, and Lidea couldn’t help shifting her weight. Uncomfortable under Warchief’s exaggerations. Without her men’s expertise and especially her father’s right-hand man Rhodry, she wouldn’t have lasted a month in her rebellion.
“I’m leaving you in her hands because I know that if someone will keep you safe, it will be her.”
His assurance only reached so far and Lidea understood. She was young, a woman and so utterly human compared to him. After they would leave, Lidea knew that it was only a matter of time before the group would grow disjointed. It would be a miracle if they would even listen to her.
Can I really keep them safe?
It was only when Roland spoke up that the crowd finally quieted down.
“Don’t forget that it wasn’t only Warchief that saved us out of that fire. Lidea and the rest of the resistance group were there as well. She might be young, but she has her father’s bravery, her mother’s wits, and more experience than most of us combined. Above all, we know that she would never desert us.”
Warchief who had first shared a grateful look with the innkeeper-turned-spokesman, frowned at that last addition. Roland didn’t acknowledge him at all as he came to stand beside Lidea.
Seeing his scowl, Lidea suspected that Warchief hadn’t been as bright as to inform him of his plans before this meeting had been called.
Stupid man.
“We will find a way, Roland.”
She barely raised her voice above a whisper but it was enough for the man to hear as he responded grimly.
“Or we die. Those are the only options we ever have.”
“That isn’t an option, just a last resort.”
She corrected him decisively and he stared at her in silence. Staring back, she challenged him to refute her words but the man just cracked a smile before looking back to the group.
“I suppose you are right. It won’t be easy though. We are in a bad state.”
Thinking back to the dragon’s vision, she knew that they all desperately needed some good news. None of the maps had brought her any closer to finding the way out, but she hoped that by entering the tunnels herself, she would be able to recognize the way. It just had to work.
“This is not the place to discuss these matters, but let’s have a meeting at my house tonight. Hopefully, by then I can brighten your day.”
The man beside her stiffened as he looked at her puzzling.
“Did the lady just proposition me?”
Her mind stopped as she just stared at him in disbelief. Her face must have been something as Roland started to cackle, his anger long forgotten. Her cheeks heated as she finally got her tongue to work and scolded him.
“No! Get your mind out of the gutter you old man!”
“You have to be careful of your words, my Lady. You almost made my old heart stop in shock.”
Lidea rolled her eyes at his dramatic antics but couldn’t hide a smile of her own.
“Then you would have deserved it! Now let me rephrase. I want to see you in my office to discuss the future of the group. Nothing more. Is that clear enough for you?”
“Understood, my lady.”
He still grinned but Lidea decided to ignore him, only now noticing the curious glances Warchief pointed their way as he was answering the peoples' questions. Convinced he would be fine from now on, she decided to leave early before he could try and corner her. The man seemed uncomfortable with her being annoyed and had found no better way to remedy that than by striking up conversations and taking every opportunity to try and get her to laugh. She had never known a man to talk so much and it was simply exhausting.
Waving Roland goodbye, she picked up her bag of supplies and walked over to the far-off wall of the cavern.
Arriving at the highest ledge, it took her only a moment to find a small hole, one just big enough for a human to squeeze through. If it hadn’t been for her vision, she would have never considered it as a possible exitway for a dragon. Still, it was the only one that looked remotely similar to what she remembered and if she was right, it would only stay narrow for a couple of feet before opening up to a wider passageway.
Grabbing a spindle of tread from her bag, she found a suitable rock and tied the loose end around it, before attaching the spindle itself to her belt. Once done, she tugged on the line, making sure that her literal lifeline was secured properly. There was no way that she would let herself get lost in those tunnels.
Looking back at the dark hole she was about to enter, her hands grew clammy. She needed to do this. The way out was locked into her memory and nobody else’s. But even knowing so, it was hard to ignore her fear. As she hesitated, she could feel the anxiety within her worsen until she grabbed a hold of herself.
You will be fine!
Quickly lighting a torch using her fire steel, she entered the darkness without giving herself time to think. At first, the anxiety lessened, the light of the cavern and the lit flame illuminating the narrow part of the tunnel completely. That was until it widened up, as she had seen happen through the dragon’s eyes. Suddenly her bubble of light didn’t even reach any of the tunnel walls, and she started to hyperventilate.
You are fine. You are on the right path!
The feeling of success helped her manage her breathing as she moved sideways until the light of her flame reached the left rock wall. In her vision, the dragon had gone straight before taking a sharp left turn. It was just hard to know exactly how far the dragon had traveled before it did so. All the walls looked the same and it was hard to estimate the speed of a flying creature. Lidea just hoped that something would trigger her memory.
Studying the rocks, she passed several branching paths. Each time coming to a standstill as she carefully looked for any resemblance to what she remembered, only to pass by as nothing came to mind. The tunnel sloped down and she descended deeper into the ground, feeling more hopeless as time went on. Then it ended unceremoniously.
Thinking she must have mistaken herself, she retraced her steps, this time focusing on the other cavern wall. Only to get back to where she started.
This was a stupid idea. You will never find the way.
Her chest felt tight and her body tense as she pushed herself to go back and forth over and over again. Her mind getting more frazzled each time she reached that wall of stone that marked the end of the tunnel. After the fourth time, she just stood there, staring incredulously at the granite in front of her. Had she even gotten the right tunnel entrance?
Letting her forehead rest on the rock, she whispered a curse. Without the help of the dragon’s memories, she could wander in this maze of stone for months or even years. She didn’t have that kind of time.
They will all die.
Turning back Lidea paused, unsure of what to do as she stared into the darkness. She was vaguely aware of her breath hastening, a sign that the panic had taken hold of her body but there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Feeling light-headed, the cavern wall faded away and she found herself standing on the Great Market. Before she could question what had happened, her attention was grabbed by a body slightly swinging in the wind. Her father hung there, the noose around his neck as crows were picking off pieces of flesh from his face. She wanted to run towards him and shoo the birds away but was stopped as a voice yelled.
“Watch out!”
Someone slammed into her and she fell to the ground, her fall softened as she landed on a field of fallen soldiers. Looking up, she saw Rhodry standing there, a sword meant for her piercing his chest as blood dripped from his mouth.
“I’m sorry…”
Tears pooled in her eyes as she tried to get up and hold him, hoping her touch would somehow heal his wounds. But two pairs of hands stopped her as they roughly pushed her back to her knees, one grabbing her hair to force her to watch as the King’s soldiers lined up every surviving member of her rebel party.
“Watch closely Lidea. This is all your fault.”
Valerian's words cut through her as she saw Gideon being brought forward. Rhodry’s son looked mangled, his body bloody and battered from the battle he had barely survived. He grunted painfully as he was forced to his knees.
“Please stop, I’m sorry…”
Lidea begged but it didn’t matter for she could not change what had already happened. With horror she watched the soldier raise his axe high before cleaving Gideon's head cleanly off his shoulders.
“Was it worth it, Lidea?”
Valerian sounded disgusted with her, but she didn’t respond. Too lost in her tears to even notice how the hands disappeared until a voice echoed in her mind.
“I’m not just going to sit here and wait for my death!”
Looking up she found herself back in a tunnel, one lined with skulls, as Firon passed her to storm the soldiers guarding the barrier. Although he put on a brave fight, he was simply too weak. As Lidea watched how he bled to death, a nagging sensation told her that something was off about this. His death was different from the others, it wasn’t real.
“Get a hold of yourself.”
She stammered out the words, hoping they could bring her back but instead, she was confronted with Cedric’s scene of death. Lost in the same maze of stone as her, he desperately tried to find a way out when a caving crushed him.
“They aren’t dead.”
Some strength returned to her voice, as the scene changed again. This time it was Taylor who lay back in his sick bed. His extremely emaciated frame shocked her as he stared forward, seeing nothing at all.
“You let us die.”
His words sounded fragile, but there was scorn in his normally gentle eyes. The scene felt wrong, Taylor wasn’t the type to condemn her like this.
“I didn’t.”
“Yet.”
She was suddenly surrounded by hundreds of corpses that stared at her with accusatory glares. All of them were people she knew. Her fifty-two comrades, the ones who had died due to her mistakes were this time accompanied by those who weren’t dead yet. The guys at the resistance and the citizens who had so recently joined them.
“You killed us!”
Their voices resonated through her body and the light of her flame seemed to grow dim. Shivers ran down her spine and she desperately tried to hold on to her rationality as she realized that all she was seeing was conjured up by her own mind. She couldn’t let these hallucinations win.
“You are not dead. This isn’t real.”
As if it were a protective spell, she uttered the same words repeatedly while forcing herself to walk forward. Her resistance seemed to enrage the apparitions as they blocked her way and screamed in her face.
“It is your fault that we died!”
For once the accusation didn’t fill her with guilt, rather, she grew angry. Yes, she had played a role in their death, but dammit she hadn’t caused it!
“It is not! I was the fool trying to keep you all alive!”
She screamed back at them, angry tears rolling down her cheeks as she stared them down.
“I never wanted anyone to die!”
Seeing her friends and comrades in front of her, those whom she had already lost and those that she might lose soon, she couldn’t help but feel furious at how unfair it was. Once more, she had to lead people in an almost impossible situation. How was she supposed to save them?
Then the cave was empty and silent but for the sound of her harsh gasps for air. The hallucinations sudden disappearance left Lidea feeling confused as she looked all around, expecting them to return but they didn’t. She didn’t understand what had happened but was glad for the reprieve anyway. With them gone, she wanted nothing more than to leave this darkness behind.
As she wanted to start running back, she noticed that the tunnel she was in sloped upwards and was narrower than the one she had been in before. Had she wandered while she was out of her mind? Her heart started to accelerate in fright but she calmed herself as her hand found the spindle safely attached to her belt. Relief flooded her mind as she smiled at her foresight.
Let’s get out of here.
As she started to follow the tread back towards the cavern, her fear started to fade, making place for frustration. She knew that it made no sense to keep trying and find a way out if the dragon’s vision was of no use. Still, it felt horrible to return without a solution, and she couldn’t help but feel as if she had failed them.
“Bloody dragon couldn’t just have left me a map.”
She didn’t pay much attention as she walked on, passing branching paths on each of her sides. That was until one of them made her pause. It was bigger than the other offshoots she had seen but that hadn’t been what caught her eye. All the stones surrounding the entrance had become darker in color as if covered by the soot of an open flame. Hope sparked inside her as she realized that there was only one being that could cause such a thing. Unreeling some of the tread she found a stone to tie it to before following the branching tunnel.
Once inside she could see spots of soot on the wall as the path went straight before turning to the right after which it started to go up once more. Her newfound optimism was crushed when the tunnel rapidly started to narrow and she couldn’t see any soot anymore. This time, however, she wasn’t ready to give up yet. Backtracking, she let her eyes carefully wander over the whole cave wall. Finally, she could see another bigger off-shoot going diagonally up into the ceiling. It was something she had been prepared for, having brought rope and a couple of climbing hooks from her great uncle's basement. Still, she wasn’t too enthused by the idea of making her way up in the dark.
As both her hands would be occupied, she would need to put out the torch and attach it to her pack during the climb. Looking further ahead, she doubted that she could lighten it again once she had made it into the tunnel. It was hard to see just how steep it actually was, but she suspected that she would have to continue scrambling upwards and would rather have her hands free for it.
Breathing in deeply, Lidea prepared herself mentally as she grabbed the climbing hooks and all the rope she had. Using a piece of the rope, she tied all but one of the climbing hooks into a loop and attached it to her belt. The rest of the rope was then attached to the last climbing hook before she started swinging it up into the hole. It took a couple of tries before she finally got it to bite and she tested out its attachment by hanging on to it with her whole weight. The hook slipped down until it found a more stable anchoring point, and she got off when she was convinced it wouldn’t move anymore.
Nerves made her whip from one foot to the other while she studied the path forward. Lidea knew that the sensible decision would be to turn back and get help. She couldn’t have walked more than a couple of hours and it was decidedly safer than doing this on her own. But staring at the hole above, she didn’t move. She just had to know.
Moving closer to the rope, she held up the torch to take one final look before making a decision and putting the flame out. An impenetrable darkness fell over her, feeling almost suffocating but for once she stayed completely calm. There were no images, no memories floating through her brain, just serenity.
Lidea attached the now unlit torch to her pack before taking hold of the climbing line. The first step was straightforward enough, as she climbed up the rope until her hand reached the cavern wall. Clamping her feet around the line, she used one hand to feel around until she found something to grab hold of. After she repeated the same with her other hand, she then started to pull herself up onto the ledge slowly.
As she had predicted, the tunnel was too steep to walk as it was just shy of being completely vertical. Feeling around until her feet had found a proper foothold, she paused to give herself a breather and rest her arms. She didn’t know just how long the cave would continue on for but hoped it would go straight up to the surface. There was no way that she would be able to assess any offshoots, but she figured that as long as she went up, she was going the right way. Before continuing, she also considered retrieving the line but didn’t feel confident to do so in the dark. Hopefully, she wouldn’t need it anymore until she returned.
Decisions made, and mentally prepared, she started to climb. Despite knowing that she needed to conserve her energy, she found herself accelerating. Growing more excited the longer she went up until she felt the path become slightly more gradual. Only pausing when she noticed that she could see the slight outline of her hand. Looking up, there was the faintest beam of light coming down from somewhere above her.
She had found it.
Throwing any caution to the wind, she started climbing as fast as she could until she reached the top of the tunnel. With her hands on the ledge, she pushed herself up one last time, her body shaking in exhaustion, before rolling onto the floor of yet another cave. This one bathed in sunlight.
“I made it..”
Breathing heavily, she started to laugh. Feeling the anxiety and pressure melt away. They were going to survive.
Resting for a bit, she finally got up. Her body straining with every step she took, as she made her way to the entrance of the cave. The sounds of birds greeted her, and she could smell the forest even before entering it. Tall pine and oak trees towered over her and sunlight dappled through their great canopies. A feeling of familiarity spread through her as her eyes traveled over the sandy path, seeing a great chestnut tree at the end of it. Its mighty arms had branched many times and formed the perfect target for some adventurous kids testing their climbing skills. Valerian and she had played here often, as it was within the king’s hunting grounds right outside of the city.
How had they never found this cave?
Turning back to where she had come from, she almost caught a scare as the cave had vanished. She instantly calmed as she saw the tread that connected her to the underground refuge hanging mid-air before disappearing into nothing.
Another barrier.
That answered her question.
Taking one final look at the forest around her, she returned following the tread. The cave reappeared and as she found the hole she had exited from, her eyes fell onto the cave wall behind. Names had been carved upon the stone, one of which she recognized as her great uncle’s. Daevys Chasseur had been here and had scratched his name upon that wall who knows how long ago. Would Warchief and Crystal manage to meet him? Possibly, but doubtfully as he would be over a hundred years by now.
Focusing on the tunnel, she unhooked the spindle of her belt and tied it at the entrance just underneath the ledge. This way, it would be out of sight for anyone entering the main cavern until they peered down the hole. Probably an unnecessary precaution, but Lidea couldn’t help herself from being overly cautious.
Feeling satisfied, she then started her way down. Scared for her body to cool down and become stiff before she would make it back. The climb was easier now that she knew what lay ahead, but descending into the darkness still unnerved her.
It was why she uttered a big sigh of relief as she jumped off the rope, her feet landing on the tunnel floor. With quick efficiency, she lightened her torch again and continued following her tread back. This time no ghosts or memories haunted her and she made it into the main cavern with no accidents. Breathing slowly she looked over the shelter that had been so deserted when she had first woken up here. Now it was full of energy, and she could see people walking over the streets and between the houses.
They will be okay.
She almost teared up at the thought. But was distracted as her name echoed through the cavern. At first, she thought she had imagined it, her hallucinations fresh in her mind, but then she spotted a small figure waving from the highest level on the opposite side. Having noticed him, he seemed to yell even louder this time.
“Lidea!! Office!”
The person was too far away to recognize, even by squinting her eyes, but she knew that voice and the urgency within it made her fear the worst. Warchief wasn’t one to fuss without good reason.
“Coming!”
She didn’t know if he could hear her, but it didn’t matter as she was already running. Weaving up and down the twisting road, as her muscles screamed. Her thoughts concurred up all the possible reasons why he might be this worried. None of which would be good, and all giving her the rush of energy to run back up the hill towards the main building.
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