Chapter 5
Stormy Nightmare
The storm was relentless as the night went on. Winds blew hard and rain struck the earth with intensity that few storms do. The lightning and thunder came and then faded off, but never completely left the river valley. In spite of the noise, everyone eventually fell asleep.
Sleep led to dreams and dreams led to visions for his parents struggling in the storm. Jolting awake, Thorik woke up from a nightmare and raced into his grandmother’s room. Her eyes were open but she was clearly sound asleep. “Granna! They’re in danger! We need to leave to save them.”
“What’s going on?” Brimmelle yelled from his room.
Thorik turned and raced to his uncle’s bedroom. “I know this sounds crazy, but I had this dream that my parents are in great danger and I need to save them!”
“Of course they are. We’ll leave once the storm subsides.”
“No. We need to leave now.”
“Thorik Dain, my sister left you in my control and I am not allowing you to race off in the middle of a storm because you had a dream. So get back to bed before I tie you to the bedposts!”
Thorik wiped the tears from his face and ran back to his room. He could only hope that he was wrong. Unfortunately, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. It seemed so real. And after a few hours of tormenting himself for not doing anything to help them, Thorik gathered his items along with some of his grandmother’s baked goods and put them in his backpack before sneaking out of the house and to the river.
Dark clouds and heavy rain limited his vision until the storm began to lighten up a bit. He took this as good sign as he jumped into a rowboat and made his way across the river to the other side.
Knowledge of the Spirit Peak’s location was simple after all of his map making. The challenge would be finding it at night. Distant lighting assisted him as he made his way on foot through the open forest, toward the Eldoric Mountain Range.
By the time he reached the point he was looking for, morning light was starting to shine upon Spirit Peak. Again, this appeared to be a good omen as the sun pierced through the clouds and brightened the peak for him to view. He was feeling fortunate in spite of having been walking in the rain all night.
Closing in on the tall column of rock known as Spirit Tower, he began to grow concerned. He had never traveled beyond this point and needed to determine which way to proceed. The hillsides were steep and the ground was loose. It was obvious why his parents didn’t want him to climb these mountain foothills. “The ghost will point the way,” he said to himself. Glancing about, he continued to hike past the peak. Frustrated at having no path to follow, he eventually glanced back at the peak and noticed that he was now in the shadow of rock column. “Perhaps the peak is pointing the way.” He had no better plan, so he went with it.
Moving as quickly as he could on the wet mountain foothill terrain, he again started to struggle. “How do I go in the direction of the peak’s shadow if the sun keeps moving?” Continuing to modify his search, it wasn’t long before the peak was going in a completely different direction than he was originally heading. “This is insane! I have no idea which way to go!” To add insult to injury, the rain started up again.
With a lack of options, the young Num headed uphill in order to get a better view of his surroundings. It was during this climb that he slipped and began to slide down the mountainside. Tumbling and rolling on rocks, muddy ledges, and bushes he finally came to a stop.
Looking up, he was inches away from a dead carcass. The smell was awful, and the animal’s skin had been stripped off while its head was hanging limp to one side. It was a dead Grazer.
Initially the sight struck fear in the youth, but it quickly turned to excitement. Gathering his footing he searched about for a potential second carcass, and to his luck he found the old bones of a Grazer several yards away from him.
Heading past the second body, he again searched for another. His assumption was correct. “The Grazer’s path that we are looking for is not the path created from the animals walking. It’s is a path of dead Grazers.”
Continuing to follow the trail of bones and flesh for most of the day, the path ended at a cave entrance which, from the correct angle, appeared like the mouth of a giant face. “This must be it.”
With the storm increasing again, the idea of getting in a cave seemed very welcoming. At least it did until he was a few dozen yards into it and began smelling dead flesh. Perhaps it was more Grazers. “What’s been killing these Grazers?” he muttered to himself after realizing that his single focus of finding his parents had prevented him from seeing the obvious. “There is a creature here that is killing these animals and most likely lives in this cave.”
His heart raced as he stopped mid stride and listened to the noises within the cave. All seemed quiet. Then with a glance back at the front entrance to the cave, Thorik could see several eyes trained on his position as a pack of grey wolves prepared to attack.
Thorik bolted deeper into the cave, hoping to find something to save from being eaten alive.
The wolves gave chase into the cavern after the Num. It wouldn’t take long for them to catch up.
Thorik’s heart raced with panic as he ran for his life further away from the mouth entrance. Hearing the wolves snapping at his heals; he made a leap up one side of the cavern to a small ledge. Grabbing it with both hands he swung his legs up onto the rock shelf before rolling up onto it.
The wolves attempted to run up the side of the wall in fruitless attempts to reach him. He was safe and yet he was trapped. It would be a long night for the young Num as he waited out the wolves.