~
As we travelled the following morning the trees started to thin and eventually gave way to a vast area of grass lands. A prairie that ran into the distance where it eventually rose upwards into the foothills of the Tolle’Ambrunista. The winds blew the strands of tall grasses in waves of movement looking like a colourful seascape on which we were afloat. The waves could be seen washing against the land in the distance. Looking beyond the point where the prairie ran up against the foothills, the mountain peaks nearest to us were comparatively low and either completely covered in some greenery or topped with a rocky outcrop, looking like an old man’s bald head where the upper slopes were too steep for any kind of growth to take root. Beyond these lower summits though could be seen the higher mountains some of which still had snow-capped peaks.
Łĩnwéé’s step seemed to pick up, I suspected that this was partly due to the feast we enjoyed last evening, I had never seen someone eat quite so much of anything as Łĩnwéé tucking into the wild boar. But also I felt that seeing the mountains of his homeland once more added to his raised spirits.
We crossed the grasslands swiftly in one day for there was nothing to hinder our passage and entered the foothills of the mountains in the late afternoon. The going remained quite easy the growth here was comprised mainly of rough bush, gorse and heather mainly but the bushes were not too numerous that they posed any barrier to our passage. My calves began to complain though because of the steadily steepening uphill slopes. The temperature was dropping as we walked and we kept an ominous eye on the snow-capped peaks above our heads in the distance.
At one point Serinae stopped us with a raised hand, she was looking towards the mountains.
Jon asked her what she saw.
She pointed. “There high in the sky, that dark cloud.”
I followed her gaze and sure enough high against the blue sky there appeared to be a grey coloured cloud. But it was behaving unlike any cloud I had seen, instead of moving steadily with the wind, this shape moved erratically, moving first one way then another, both with and against the wind. I was reminded of a flock of birds, but this flock must have been thousands in number.
Tnie had removed his spy glass from its case on his belt and had it held up to his eye. He lowered it and squinted looking towards where we could see the cloud.
“Can’t see much from this distance, it looks like a slightly larger cloud from here.” he exclaimed.
Łĩnwéé, who with his eyes could also quite plainly see this thing said, “I have lived out m’ life in these ‘ere mountains, ne’er have I spied anything liken t’ this before, it dunny bode well I fear.”
The cloud finally moved away from us and was lost in the haze. Thus losing interest we moved on. The mountains seemed to close in around us as the path narrowed and wound its way forward around the foothills, all the time climbing steadily. On occasions the path seemed lost to us altogether because of a landslide or just the loose scree that lay about, sometimes this was in great piles as if a mountain river had washed the rocks to this point and piled them up like a dam. On more than one occasion, one or two in our party lost their footing on the loose stones and found themselves sliding downhill for several metres before they could recover their balance and climb precariously back up to the path. The area was desolate, nothing grew here, mainly I suspect because of the unstable ground, but also as we found out because of the terrifying wind that sometimes blew in the area. It seemed that the wind itself fought against our presence in the mountains for on certain occasions it blew so strong that making any headway at all was impossible. At these times the only thing we could do was to sit out the cold driving winds by hiding in an alcove or on the leeward side of a large boulder.
On one such occasion Łĩnwéé managed to guide us into a cave. Once inside we were thankful to be out of the full force of the wind, but we still had to huddle down as best we could to avoid the maelstrom of small rocks and debris that the icy wind was trying to hurl at us. We were stuck inside the cave for all of that afternoon, the whole of that night and half of the following day, unable to venture out. I asked if this kind of weather was the norm in the region. Łĩnwéé said that it was always windy here because of the grassy plains below. These would be heated up by the sun and the cold air would rush down from the mountains sucked in by the vacuum left by the hot air rising from the plains below. But he added that he had never before experienced such strong wind and for as long a period of time and did not view it as a good sign.
When the wind did eventually die down having spent itself, we made ready to leave our shelter. As I was packing away my things I heard a strange chattering noise, it appeared to be coming from outside the cave. I did not take much notice of it to start with but after a while the noise got louder and more frequent. It seemed that everyone heard the noise for now for we all started to look anxiously toward the entrance of the cave where the noise was coming from. Then strange shadows started to flit past the mouth of the cave, singularly at first but then more and more until there was more shadows cast around the mouth of the cave than beams of sunlight. I began to feel grave misgivings about this as did all my companions judging by their anxious glances toward the entrance of the cave. Serinae drew her swords and motioned for others to do the same. Just as this was done an almighty screeching noise filled our ears and a black shadow blotted out the light streaming into the cave from the noon day sun. I started to take a step back and caught my foot on a rock, stumbling to the ground I looked toward the mouth of the cave just in time to see what looked like an enormous featureless face its mouth open wide and screaming the most hideous din as something dark and moving was expelled. Before I could shout a warning all hell broke loose, I felt something brush past my cheek and I brought my hand up to the place only to feel wetness there, when I took my hand away there was a smear of blood on the back of my hand. By this time Serinae and my companions were waving their hands and swords around in the air at many black shapes moving around the cave at a great pace. It turned out not to be a single large creature attacking us but many hundreds of individuals flying about. At first I thought they may be enormous bats, but as I moved to try and stand someone pushed me back down again and a black shape fell to the floor in front of my nose. I stared in fascinated horror at the creature that lay before me. It was completely black and covered in a smooth skin with leathery wings like a bat, but its eyes were blood red, where I would expect a nose there was a long beak like protuberance, half opened to reveal rows of long needle sharp teeth and lolling out of its mouth was what appeared to be its tongue only this tongue ended in a bony tip that looked like the blade of a dagger. Its body was small in comparison to its head and wings. Each wing had a single curved claw at the joint. I tried to stand again but someone shouted just audible above the cacophony,
“Keep low and try to make your way out of the cave!”
So I started to crawl forward towards the cave mouth, but I thought again of the face I had seen and hesitated, but all I could see was just a glimpse of daylight beyond the hundreds of flying creatures amassed around the entrance and inside the cave.
Eventually we all managed to get out, bloody but alive, the creatures did not pursue us and it seemed that actually they were not in fact purposely attacking us, but our wounds were purely from so many flying around in confusion at the intruders in the cave which I supposed may have been their roost. There were just so many collisions that wounds could not be avoided. So we all fell onto our knees outside the cave and looking up we could see that still many hundreds of these beasts were still arriving, flying from somewhere higher up the valley. So we beat a hasty retreat getting as much distance between us and the cave as we could before we thought it safe to sit and rest and tend to our wounds. All of us were bleeding from any uncovered areas of skin, but luckily all the wounds were superficial none very deep. As we sat recuperating I happened to look up to the mountains above the cave where we were. There high on a crag stood a dark fig
ure his arms raised above his head, to my great surprise the figure seemed to waiver and flicker then disappear.
“What in the Makers name were those things,” Jondris asked.
No one seemed to have any idea, until Łĩnwéé who knew these mountains told us that they were Sabre Tongues. Normally these creatures did not present much of a threat as long as one was armed with a stout weapon, but in such great numbers they were a very real danger, they are agile beasts quite capable of dodging sword swings and even arrows. What he found odd was that they were normally solitary and would not attack something as large as a person. But when in such great numbers there was not much chance of you surviving if they decided that you looked like a tasty meal. He went on to explain that they are, or were quite rare in the mountains and weren’t normally found this far north for they normally roosted in trees.
We found ourselves sleeping in the open that night, we took it in turns to be on lookout as we feared the return of these creatures. The following morning we did hear them again but from a distance, probably they were leaving their roost, possibly to hunt. We were fearful that they may again appear amongst us and maybe this time they would attack instead of just returning to their roost for the night. But we glimpsed the black cloud of the beasts below us in the valley heading for the grasslands we had crossed a few days earlier. I wondered if these creatures were the reason for the lack of any animals or birds that we experienced.
Łĩnwéé told us that he thought it was his imagination at the time but during the period of the night that was his watch his night vision, for all Grûndén have excellent night vision due to their being in the dark so much underground, enabled him to see what he thought was a dark figure in robes standing higher on a cliff edge overlooking our camp. Although the cloak it wore may have been dust blown up by the wind and its arms outstretched may have been a trick of the light upon cracks and fissures in the rock wall.
I excitedly said, “I too saw something similar, earlier after we escaped the cave with the Sabre Tongues. But I thought I had imagined it because the figure waivered and disappeared.”
Łĩnwéé quickly said, “by Øédréll’s beard, there be only one race who can come and go like’n that, the Old Ones. But I ne’r seen any o’ them ever ‘round these ‘ere parts.”
But then Serinae added, “I don’t think it was your imagination either of you, I also don’t think that a Keeper is following us either, why would they? But I do feel we have been followed for much of the journey since we left the beach and headed inland. I do not know by who but I feel that this is not a friendly presence. At best someone is watching us trying to find out what we are up to, at worst someone does not want us to be successful in our venture. One thing I am sure of is that we will find out one way or the other before this journey is through.”
I remembered Łĩnwéé mentioning these people before. “Old ones? Keepers? Who are they?” I quickly asked when I could.
Serinae looked at Łĩnwéé, when he didn’t respond she answered. “The Keepers are a race of people Mini. Many include them under the banner of the Elder Races. The story goes that they never came to live in the world but stayed within the city in the voids. I have never seen one so I don’t know for sure, they may just be a myth. As for Old Ones, well that’s just the name the Grûndén give to the Keepers. Out of all the elder races the Grûndén have more of a history with them.”
Another race? This was something I found hard to believe, certainly my education was being extended being with Serinae, she knew so much. “Do you think the unusual presence of the Sabre Tongues has anything to do with the Keeper that we saw?” I asked.
Serinae thought this was possible but would not elaborate on her thoughts, something was holding her back from saying any more, I guessed she suspected more than she was willing to let on, but I did not press her further.
Instead we pressed onwards, deeper into the mountain passes. We travelled in silence for the almost constant chill winds that blew kept our hoods up and our mouths closed. The higher passes were cold and another danger presented itself, for many of the rocks over which we trod became slick with ice and it was necessary to concentrate on where we placed our feet, a fall here would not bode well for the unfortunate victim.