The morning brought a heavy dew on the razor-sharp grass. The sun was slowly rising in the east, and it bathed the sky in a beautiful pink canopy reaching across the sky. Birds chirped in the trees and the fresh scent of the flowers opening up to receive nourishment from the sun's radiant beams or warmth.
As we packed our supplies back up that we had used the night before, we began to discuss what we would do from here. Stell thought that we should continue north towards Diamond Shell Crossing. Kade insisted that we travel east an extra five days to travel across a bridge that may or may not be controlled by Dark-Eyed-Ones.
"I'm not going along that chasm, Stell!"
"There is no way we are walking five days just to get to a rickety bridge that spans the river you say you can't see the other side," Stell argued back.
I had never seen Stell like this. He usually was the most easy-going person you could meet. There was some way that Kade seemed to be able to get under my big friend's skin. The worst part was that I couldn't take either side. They were both my friends, so I had to let them hash it out in their way.
"You don't know what's down there, though," Kade said with a shudder. "There are things down there that peel the skin off you before they even eat you. there are things that will lure you into their mouths without you even knowing."
"How do you know what they can do if no one has ever come back from the chasm?" Stell asked.
"There is a spot that angles into the chasm and leads to the bottom. At night, creatures from below come up and out the ramp and feast on nearby herds or villages. Some stories would turn your blood to ice."
"You will be with us, Kade. We won't let anything hurt you."
"There are things called crystal crypt crawlers that scale the walls of the chasm. They hide along the edges of the chasm to ambush travelers trying to travel to the crossing. They pull the travelers of the cliffs to their death if you're lucky. If you don't die, the crawlers swarm you and wrap you in some silk pod and inject eggs into your head. Once the eggs hatch, they grow into the brain, taking over the host and forcing them to attack their people," she said and went silent.
That sounded horrible, but the idea of walking five days to have to turn around sounded worse, possibly. For one thing, we had no idea how long we had before the event or where it was even going to take place. I knew Kade was scared, but I knew in my heart that Stell and I could protect her.
"You're going to have to trust that we can protect you, Kade. We have no idea how long we have to make it to where we need to be or even where it is. If we waste more time, it might end up being too late for everyone," I said. I hated to push her into something she didn't want to do, but what choice did I have. For all, I knew even this deliberation could be costing us precious time.
A loud rumbling sound started to come from the south. We all turned around to see undulating black clouds rolling in the sky. Lightning crashed down and caused us all to nearly jump out of our skins. We could see a white sheet of rain approaching fast. The clouds rolled towards us like an inexorable tide.
"We have to move!" Stell bellowed.
We got our packs on and pulled our hoods up over our heads. They were still that grass green, and Stell said that it would be fine, and they would keep us dry. We began to start heading north towards the chasm, but the rain caught up with us in a matter of minutes.
We continued for the rest of the day, and the rain persisted. We could barely see in front of ourselves, and we finally came to a large rock formation. It was nothing special, but the area that was sheltered from the rain. When we finally got into the opening, we noticed a door.
"Have you ever been here before Kade?"
"No, I've never even seen this rock before, and I have traveled this way before."
"What should we do?" Stell asked.
"I think knocking would be polite."
a deep voice said from the other side of the door. We all jumped back from the door, as we did, the door swung open.
There was nothing through the door, just a black space devoid of light or color. I felt something warm wrap around me and looked down to see Kade's arms wrapped tight around me. She was trembling, so I put an arm around her for comfort. Stell was rubbing his head. When he had jumped back, he must have hit his head on the ceiling.
"There is nothing in that door."
"Every time I look right into it, I feel like I'm getting sucked into it," Kade said with a whimper.
"It does smell like something, but I can't tell if it's good or bad," Stell said. He was right, as I listened towards the door, all I got from it was a single note, a humming sound that vibrated from the door opening. Just then, Meso appeared from nowhere near Stell.
'It's fine, he can't hurt you, but don't trust him,' -Meso.
Kade gasped for air beside me, and I held her close to me until she got her balance again. Meso always drained her when he appeared, but he was nice enough to appear away from her. Kade coughed and pushed away from me. She looked up at me and smiled.
'Thank you.' -Kade.
"Do you plan on letting all the cold air in?" the deep booming voice rang.
I look at Stell, and then Kade, and then shrugged.
"What's the worst thing that could happen?" I said.
As we all walked forward through the doorway, it was like walking through liquid metal. The blackness encompassed us, and I felt a small warm hand slip into my own. It was reassuring to feel Kade's soft hand in mine, and my heart quickened.
After walking for what seemed an hour in the eternal darkness, we emerged in an entryway. The room had a window that appeared to have the night sky behind it as I walked over to look outside. How was that possible? It was the day when we came into the cave. How could it be night already? As we all went into the room, a very different voice greeted us compared to the deep and booming voice that had spoken to us before.
"Well, it seems you lot have finally decided to come and join me."
He had a wiry beard and was wearing a tattered patch covered robe. The man also wasn't wearing any shoes. This scene was getting stranger by the second.
"Don't just stand there, you numbskulls come in and make yourselves comfortable. Please don't touch anything on my shelves. There are dangerous things inside of some of those objects, and they make a big mess when they get free, and It doesn't like that. So keep your hands in your pockets. So you don't accidentally get eaten by a dragon or a Fistaborah."
The agile little old man said as he zipped out of the room. In mere moments he was back with a steaming kettle of what seems to be tea of some sort.
"I see you good folk have seemed to have stumbled on one of my doors. They are spread abroad, far and wide. Not easy to find. What may I help my good travelers and their strikingly beautiful little summer rose of a miss?" the strange old man asked.
"I'm not sure how about we start with names?" Kade asked.
"That sounds like a fine place to start, I am Bargailius of The Great Collection, " Bargailius announced with a flourish of his hand towards the sky.
"I'm Kade, and this is Dak and Stell. What do you do here, Mr. Bargailius?"
Kade seemed to be getting a lot more out of him then either of us could have, and he explained to her about the different places he went to find particular creatures or items to had to his ever-growing collection.
As they did, I looked around the room. Shelves were lining every wall with things I could hardly even believe could exist. Some had jars filled with clear fluid and strange creatures floating dead inside them. At the same time, others carried row upon row of crystal vials filled with different colored liquid. Then a red bottle caught my eye. There seemed to be a snake wriggling around inside the bottle.
I stared at the bottle for a while then started looking at the other oddities on the shelves. Then I began to get a weird feeling that something was watching me. It was was like someone coming up behind me and placing there hands on my shoulders, but when I turned around and looked, no one was there. Stell gave me a weird look, and I just shrugged.
'Feels like someone had their hands on me!'
I sent the thought to him, but he gave me a look that said, relax, then I heard another sound in my head.
'Hello.' -Female hissing voice.
I was surprised, what was that voice? Where did it just come from? I looked around, but there was no one else in the room but the three of us. Stell was ignoring me at this point, he was trying to listen to Bargailius, and I was distracting him.
'I'm over here, silly boy.' -Female hissing voice.
I turned to see the snake staring at me through the glass directly. Can this snake talk? I was beginning to become worried, but I kept my outward composer calm.
'How are you speaking to me?'
'The same way you speak to me.' -Female hissing voice.
'Why are you in that jar?'
"This thing thinks I am some trophy to beheld on a wall. Be careful with this one boy, or you might find your self trapped like me.' -Female hissing voice.
As I stared into the jar, the world seemed to melt away. Slowly the noise from the background faded away, and all I could feel was a warm longing feeling inside my soul. A sense that invaded my soul and set radiant vibrations coursing through my body
I could feel her presence inside the bottle, and it felt like I could fell she was in pain greater then I could ever imagine. Those eyes dug into my heart and soul, begging to be set free. My heart quickened as she began to give me a feeling of longing for companionship and a friend. Those eyes asked me if I would like to help her from this wretched state and pull her from this never-ending tormented agony.
I could feel her eyes call to me in a voiceless cry begging to be left free from her eternal prison of glass solitude. I began to rise, still staring with eyes locked on the small seductive serpent. As I did, I felt a pull trying to make me sit back down and muffled voices around me, but none of that mattered. My beautiful queen needed my help to free her! She must not be locked away in that evil red prison.
I started to move towards the shelf to release my captive queen so that we may rule side by side, but as I reached forward with my arm, the world went black.