Onward to Adventure: Chapter 18

Brinvok felt the ashen earth as he knelt down and ran it through his fingers, it reminded him of the crops he was growing back home, he hoped that they would still be alive when he returned.  He glanced at Charred who was staring off into the distance, she seemed to know something he did not.  He stood up and asked her,

“ Will you return home?”

“Yes”, Charred replied, “ I need to make sure my shop has not been totally robbed in my absence, and I must make sure my father is alright”

“Your father, he means a lot to you doesn’t he?” Brinvok inquired, raising a soot covered eyebrow.

“Yes, shortly after I was born, my village was hit with a terrible disease, my mother got sick and my father had to raise me my entire life.” Charred responded still not looking into Brinvok’s eyes.

“Ah well, if he is half as strong as you, I am sure he will be ok”

“Thank you.” Charred said now looking into his eyes,”Now I have to go, thank you for saving my life, perhaps our paths will cross again”

With that, Charred walked away and Brinvok watched her until he could not see her anymore.  Brinvok was glad he had met her, he wished it was on better conditions but he was glad he found someone who was similiar to him.  Brinvok looked up at the sky and saw that it was early morning and the forest in the distance was waking up.  He knew that was the direction he had to go in, Brinvok walked down to the forest and made good progress on his walk home until he needed to stop for the night.  He made a shelter out of branches and leaves as well as a small fire.  As Brinvok sat by the fire he saw a rustling in the undergrowth, he readied his axe, he knew that if it was a threat that he would not hesitate.  Suddenly a small furry animal ran into his camp and charged into him, it was a pigmy mammoth, they are really rare and are often hunted for their meat which was sweet due to their diet of mostly berries, he wondered what it was doing here.  He did not need to wait long for an answer, two hunters charged into the clearing with their bows drawn, they were clearly after this animal.  Brinvok said in a cold voice,

“How can I help you gentlemen? This beast is not for hunting, go home.”

“Oh yeah? What are you going to do if we shoot it right now?” Said one of the hunters who shot an arrow near the foot of the little mammoth who let out a toot of surprise and ran behind Brinvok’s shelter.

“I’ll do this,” faster than either hunter could react, Brinvok drew his bow and shot an arrow into the leg of the hunter, “Leave. Now.”

With that both hunter’s ran away, more like one ran and one limped away.  The mammoth joined Brinvok by the fire that night and accompanied him on his way home.  As Brinvok finally found the city with his new friend by his side he found a familiar stack of hay by the gates entrance and he dug through it.  He found the skull of the Ulurugg, it was a little dusty but it was still in one piece.  He brought the skull to the huntress who gave him only 200 rables, she took 400 off for how late the skull was delivered.  

Brinvok walked out of the city and down a dirt road, it was now dusk and the stars were starting to show in the sky.  The moons were illuminating the sky and casted long shadows in the forest.  Brinvok found his log cabin, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his crops were still green and healthy, it must have rained while he was gone.  His boar was asleep by the door, he was so happy that he was ok that he ran up to him and gave him a big hug the boar buried his face in Brinvok’s chest.  Brinvok introduced his boar to their new companion and the two got along great. However Brinvok now realized how exhausted he was and he crawled into his bed and went to sleep.  At last his adventure was over.

Onward to Adventure: Chapter 17

Shadowbacks always work in pairs, one tends to do more thinking than the other.  Much like the Baolab, they can communicate through telepathy.  One of the Shadowbacks stepped back, not taking its eyes off of Brinvok and Charred.  It raised the spines on its back and it seemed to suck the little light out of the cavern with them.  Thee other seemed to blend into the shadows, it clacked its claws furiously and molded the shadows into a shape, that shape began to resemble a humanoid that he recognized.

“Mother…” Brinvok said as though the wind was knocked out of him.  The apparition slowly walked towards Brinvok, its footsteps made no noise as it moved.  The apparition began saying,

“It was your fault, you killed me Brinny.  If you were there instead of running off like the irresponsible child you are. I would still be alive Brinny”

“There was nothing I could have done, that monster was so powerful, it would have killed me too”  Brinvok said in reply.

“We would have ran away, I was too slow on my own, but you could have gotten us out of there. You selfish poor excuse for a son.”

“No!” Brinvok yelled at the shadow, “ I made one mistake, I cannot let this memory define me.  I have put all of this blame on myself. I think I finally understand that there is no point in reliving the pain of that moment.  I Brinvok, have hunted beasts larger than a mammoth but those do not compare to the might of my inner monsters. You embody a moment that has caused me such discomfort in thinking about that I shut it out and did not think about it. Now I smite the”

With those words Brinvok unsheathed his axe and charged straight at the apparition, piercing through its torso.  Brinvok kept charging until he hit the underbelly of the Shadowback, the monster let out a screech and the shadow it created disappeared and all Brinvok saw was the crimson blood of the Shadowback.  After almost penetrating right through the Shadowback, Brinvok turned to the other shadow back who was now trying to escape to the outside world, Brinvok charged after the beast at an alarming speed as he was closing in on it he heard an arrow whisp by and saw it sink deep into the back of the neck of the Shadowback.  This caused the beast to slow down enough for Brinvok to whack the beast in the side of the neck.  It fell with a thud and Brinvok dislodged his axe from its neck.  He turned around to see Charred with her bow drawn, it was her who shot the Shadowback, he looked at her and nodded, she nodded back.  For the first time in a long time, as Brinvok stepped out of the Cavern that he finally felt as though he truly conquered a monster.

Onward to Adventure: Chapter 16

Brinvok drudged up the cavern carrying the woman in his arms, he knew he had to move fast but the extra weight of this woman was preventing him from gaining any real speed.  Suddenly he felt something hitting his back, it was the woman, who then began screaming for him to let her go.  Brinvok ran to the side of the cavern and sat her down against the wall.  

“Who are you? Where am I? How did I get here? Where is my father?” the woman began pelting him with questions, after a few minutes Brinvok finally was able to answer some of her questions

“My name is Brinvok, you are in the Far North in the birthplace of the Guardians, I am not sure how you got here or where your father is.  Now, who are you?”

“My name is Charred, I guess I should thank you for saving my life, the last thing I remember was fighting that Swamp Monger and it knocked my father down and I just….”

“Was immobilized by fear? Yeah, I’ve been there, you can’t let it get to you, now I hate to cut this short but we need to get going, when I killed that monster, the rest of them began bellowing, it stopped a little while ago but I don’t know what it signaled and I don’t want to stay here to find out, sound like a plan?”

“Yeah, it does.”

Brinvok and Charred began running through the cavern, Brinvok had his axe unsheathed incase any monsters jumped out of the holes in the walls.  Charred was slightly behind Brinvok but was keeping good pace.  It felt as though they had been walking for hours, in a nearly pitch black cavern.  They needed to stop to rest, so the two of them ducked behind a large stalagmite to catch their breath.  Brinvok decided to take this time to learn more about this mysterious girl named Charred, she had bright green eyes and hair that was gray like ash.  She had a muscular physique, like someone who has spent almost their entire life doing manual labor.

“So where are you from? I never saw you in my village of Dracoro.”

“I am from Slydrec, it is in the South, we are known for our honey.”

“Ah, so are you a beekeeper?”

“I am, I also work with my father in the iron mine that he runs.”

“You seem very capable of holding on your own, that monster back must have had a tough time getting you down.”

“I could say the same thing about you, I don’t know what could have taken you down”

“It is a long story, it was a monster that used mind control to manipulate me”

“Wow, that seems a lot worse than being taken on physically, something that can get into your head truly knows more about you than anyone else.”

“Yeah, so we should get moving again, I’m beginning to feel uneasy just sitting here.”

As if  on que, the cavern began to shake and two Shadowbacks walked down the cavern, they appeared to be looking for something, or someone.  Brinvok grabbed Charred by the hand and crawled along the edge of the wall, in the shadows out of the line of sight of the two monsters.  Suddenly, Brinvok felt the cold rush of air, and saw the opening of the cavern, he saw this as their chance to make a break for the outside.  When they began running, Charred knocked into a stalagmite and toppled it over.  The two Shadowbacks glared at Charred and Brinvok with their orange eyes.

Onward To Adventure: Chapter 15

“Well well well, we have a lively one don’t we”

With that, footsteps shook the entire volcano and even the Guardians seemed to be nervous as the footsteps became louder.  Suddenly, at the top of the volcano stood a being so mind-bendingly large that it covered the entire mouth of the volcano, its voice, or voices spoke in a weird harmony that sounded both terrifying and mesmerizing.

“Yes master, it seems as though she wasn’t killed at all, but knocked out” the Swamp Monger gurgled out.

“You know the rules, the ritual will not work if live animals are put in, cave her skull in and be done with her” the “Master” said

“Well, I’ve always like playing with my catches and you’ve been fun, but this is how it ends” the Baolab turned to Brinvok and scooped him up with its inner arms and began squeezing his skull.  Brinvok felt the increasing pressure on his skull and was now experiencing a whole new world of pain, he had no idea what to do and began panicing that his life is now over.  Suddenly, he had an idea, he forgot about the knife he kept in his boot, he unsheathed the knife and dug it deep into the chest of the Baolab and it immediately let go of Brinvok who then rolled under the Baolab and grabbed his axe that was clutched in the beast’s tail.  He then bolted up the wall of the volcano to where the Swamp Monger stood with the girl.  

The beast had her underneath one of its heavy feet and began to squeeze her between it and the ground.  Brinvok felt that same fear he felt when he lost his brother and mother, that fear of inaction that in the end made him do nothing, that guilt then he realized, he carried with him since those days.  That is why the Baolab used those memories to immobilize him, eventhough he pushed those memories and feelings down, they still were left unresolved in his brain that made him into the hardened man he is today.  Now when faced with a similar dilemma, he finally realized this.

“I will no longer, be a slave to my past!” Brinvok yelled in such a voice that startled the Swamp Monger. As Brinvok unsheathed his axe and charged towards the monster catching it off guard, he landed a blow in the monster’s leg which made it move it from the woman who was now unconscious.  The Monger swung its big meaty hand at Brinvok who dodged the swipe.  The beast limped towards Brinvok, it snapped its beak and roared in a frenzy, Brinvok saw his chance and lodged his axe deep in the side of the Swamp Monger.  The heathen fell to the ground and breathed its last.

Brinvok then ran to the now unconscious woman, he began to try to wake her up but suddenly a chorus of roars, squawks and moans echoed in the volcano.  He knew that he needed to get him and this woman out of here and fast, so he did his best to pick her up in his arms and began running down into the darkness of the cavern.

Onward to Adventure: Chapter 14

The cave was dark and smelled like rotting flesh.  What Brinvok found astounding is that despite the ungodly smell in the cave, it was spotless, there was not even cobwebs on the corners of the tunnel.  The Baolab seemed transfixed by an unknown force deep within the volcano.  The smell began to grow stronger and stronger as they ventured farther into the lair.  

Brinvok looked forward down the passage and flickering in the distance was a purple flame that while faint seemed like a beacon in the darkness of the cave.  He then looked up into the eyes of the Baolab and saw that its eyes were radiating the same purple as the light.  As the beast marched onward the flame grew in size and intensity until it appeared to be the size of the tunnel.  

Is this some weird suicide pact? Or perhaps I will just be thrown into the fire as some sort of sacrifice.  Brinvok thought these questions and many more as all of a sudden they were answered.  I was not that the fire was as big as the tunnel, the fire was bigger than the tunnel and was at the end of the tunnel in a big central chamber.  There was thick purple lava at the bottom of the chamber that erupted purple plumes of purple fire up into the air and back down again.  

“It is as if the volcano wants to erupt again” Brinvok said aloud.

“More like, we want it to erupt again, and we are doing everything we can to get the volcano to erupt again”  the Baolab said to Brinvok in such a way that sounded like he had just snapped out of his trance.  

‘How many of you are there…?” Brinvok began asking but trailed off as he saw hundreds of other Guardians lining the walls of the chamber throwing things into the fire.  At first Brinvok could not make out what they were throwing in, but as he strained to see he saw that they were throwing rocks mostly into the lava, as if they thought that they were raising the level of the lava which could be true, Brinvok pondered.  He also saw them throwing animals, livestock mostly into the lava.  

Suddenly, Brinvok’s concentration broke as he heard the scream of a young maiden.  He looked into the direction of the scream and saw that a Guardian, a Swamp Monger had a woman by her leg and was about to plop her into the lava when suddenly a deep booming voice that seemed to resonate within the volcano saying.

“Well well well, we have a lively one don’t we”

Onward to Adventure: Chapter 13

Several days had passed in similar fashion as the first, sleeping during the day and moving under the cloak of night. The two rarely talked after that first day, spending sometimes hours with just their own thoughts.  The air grew gradually colder and colder. The animals they saw changed as well, they became animals the likes of which Brinvok had never seen before.

Suddenly, the snow began to fade to a hard volcanic rock.

“This must be the Far North,” Brinvok pondered “I had only heard legends of this place, the birthplace of the Guardians”

The air seemed to smell of evil, as if it oozed out of the ground, infecting anything that tried to grow there.  There was a massive volcano that loomed over the entire area, when the sun passed behind it the land had the appearance of night.  Brinvok thought back to the legend that his father used to tell him when it was time for bed.  The legends told that at one time many eons ago, the now massive volcano was once a tiny hill.  One day, the earth began to shake with such force that the hill split down the middle and out crawled the Guardians, beasts that devoured anything they could and ruled over the other beasts with an iron fist.  That was until man crawled from the caves and fought the Guardians back from whence they came.

Now Brinvok was faced with that very legend.  The volcano oozed not lava, but a thick black substance that reminded Brinvok of blood. When light reached the liquid, it did something that baffled Brinvok, the liquid retreated back into the volcano as the light seemed to chase it back up.  

“What is that stuff?” Brinvok asked the Baolab,

Startled, as he was not expecting Brinvok to speak replied “Oh um that? You will find out in due time”. This was followed by a series of low chuckles that never failed to run a chill down Brinvok’s back.

The creature placed Brinvok on the ground and pushed a large boulder out of the way which revealed the large maw of a cave, the Baolab motioned for Brinvok to walk in.  The Baolab followed behind Brinvok as he entered into the volcano.

Onward to Adventure: Chapter 12

It was now sunset and the Baolab began to stir, it let go of Brinvok in order to stretch itself out, its four arms flailing to and fro.  Brinvok dared not to run away, he knew that the beast would surely catch him and would probably do unimaginable things to him if he ran, so he stood up and too stretched out his limbs.  The Baolab looked down at Binvok and exclaimed,

“We must move soon, they grow impatient.”  It leaned down closer to Brinvok, he could feel its hot breath on his face as it said “They are dying to meet you,” and with a slight pause he said “Or perhaps you’ll be the one dying when you meet them,”  the Baolab said  with such malice that Brinvok could feel it seep out of his mouth and into his nostrils.  

The creature carefully grabbed Brinvok with its smaller set of arms and carried him like an infant, it glared down at him and said mockingly, “How funny is it that someone who is known for slaying what he deems as ‘monsters’ but now, they are in my arms like a small child.”  B

Brinvok retorted, “What do you mean? You are monsters, you slaughter those who have done nothing to you.  You chased us back into the caves we emerged from all those millennia ago.”  The anger leaked from his mouth as he said this.  The monster set his eyes on Brinvok and snarled back in a voice that shook Brinvok down to the core, “Humans are no different then are they? They hunt not just our kind but their own, now that is something that we would never do, we were here when your kind crawled out of the filth and slowly drove us to the corners of the earth.  How dare you, who is held against his will and surely going to die tell me about how your filthy race has a sense of morales.”

Brinvok was speechless, he felt that this monster was insane, that it was thinking some dogma nonsense that these monsters were somehow in the right in all this.  

“That could not be right could it?” He thought as he gazed into the night sky.  The spiraling nebula in the sky seemed to put Brinvok in some sort of cosmic peace.  He knew that no matter what happened to him on this ‘adventure’ that the nebula would still spin and the sun would rise the next day.  He became drowsy watching it spin and eventually through sheer exhaustion, he fell asleep as the Baolab walked further and further to his unknown destination.