Chương 24: A Gripping Adventure

"What did you call this? A 'Zip - OH'?"

"Right, you just open this here, and it makes fire!"

"My word, would you look at that! A magic fire-maker!"

"No, it's not magi—yes. Yes, it's a magic fire-maker." —The Artificer's Guide to Knowing When to Shut Up The cliff face had once been steep and unscalable. Large rents had rendered the natural defense ineffective. It didn't make our ascent easy by any means, but it was far easier than climbing a sheer wall. Emmie showed me up with her insane upper body strength, scrambling up far faster than I could manage, and I had an extra foot to help me. Hand over hand, I followed the others, bringing up the rear.

I tried not to look down, but failed. Heights were always a weakness, and I shuddered as a pit formed in my belly. If I could see myself, I'd probably gone green.

"You hangin' in there, Logan?" Gene was looking down at me in concern. The old man, who, barely a month ago, I had helped out of an armchair because he was too weak to stand. I grimaced at the irony of the situation and hoisted myself over a chunk of rock.

"Just seeing if I could see the horse," I lied. I wasn't about to give him any more ammunition. I shimmied my way up the crack, bracing against each side, going up one step at a time, until I reached the top. Greg held out the butt of his spear, and I took hold as he dragged me up the final stretch. On the lip of the surviving structure, we could see the extent of the devastation. It was as if a bomb had gone off in the basement of Minas Tirith and blasted the city in an arc around the crater in a stony halo.

"I hope no one was here when that happened," I said quietly.

"Who blows up a perfectly good castle with no one in it?" Greg asked.

"Good point." I backed away from the ledge and got to my feet. I'd had enough of the heights and was already dreading the climb back down.

"Let's check this place out. Maybe we can find some indication of who might have been here." I dusted my pants off and assessed the mess of stone in front of us. A large archway leading into the cliff's face had cracked and fallen sideways, leaving a small opening above the rubble. I was the largest among us and had to clear some of the larger stones to make the hole big enough to climb through. I wormed my way through and slid down the other side. The others followed, and we found ourselves in a small hall.

Water dripped through cracks in the ceiling, allowing faint traces of light to mix with what made it through our point of entry. My eyes slowly adjusted to the dim interior, and I could just faintly make out a door at the end of the hall.

"We need a light. I don't imagine it getting any brighter in here." I took off my pack and set it in the small ray of light coming in from our entrance. Fishing around, I found what I was looking for and brought out a broken candle.

"Well, shit." We spent the next several minutes combing together what we could find to start a fire to light the candle. Emmie volunteered one of her crutches, and I shaved off several slivers into a ball. It quickly caught with our flint and steel, and I lit the candle before the kindling could go out. Armed with a light source, we could finally see the door in detail. It was made of iron, or some other dark metal.

The edges of the doors were studded where they met, but were otherwise unadorned, save for large metal loops that served as the handles. Greg took one in his hand and pulled. The door groaned slightly, but did not budge. He tried the other door, to the same effect.

"It's stuck. Can you help, Em?"

"Yeah. Logan, hold these?" She handed over her crutches and pulled at the door with Greg, both heaving with all their might. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. It didn't budge.

"I don't think we're going to get this open. Not without some tools or something. It's probably been rusted shut a hundred years." Greg sighed and dropped the handle.

"That's quitter talk. Logan, maybe you can hit it with your hammer while we pull and bust it loose?" Emmie pulled again, hopping up and bracing her foot against the opposite door as she tugged. Before I could unloop my hammer, Emmie's foot pushed the second door open, and she fell to the floor in a heap. Gene cackled as warm sunlight poured through the door, rendering my candle useless.

Greg pulled Emmie to her feet, and she dusted herself off, muttering something about 'idiots putting handles on the wrong sides of doors.' I chose to wisely keep my mouth shut. Praise be the wisdom stat. The doors opened to a large circular atrium. Overhead, light came not through the hole I had expected, but through a large crystalline pillar. It acted as a lens, taking light from above and reflecting it around the room.

I had dabbled in gemcutting years ago, and I couldn't imagine the skill needed to facet something so perfectly to draw in the light like this. Below the crystal was a tree. Well, I'll be damned. It really is like Minas Tirith. Standing on a small mossy mound was a gnarled, winding tree resembling an oversized bonsai that had been meticulously cared for. It stood about fifteen feet tall, the trunk's base easily three feet in diameter.

Water ran in a shallow moat around it all, with a single bridge leading to the center. The exterior stone walls were intricately carved. Next to us was a depiction of the valley, our current location displayed as a beautiful cathedral. A river flowed through the center of the valley, and a great forest was represented on the other side. It did not reach nearly as far as the forest today. Above the valley, over the mountains, a circle of light slowly worked its way across the landscape.

The master craftsman who had created the crystal above had created a sundial effect that displayed the time on the mural. Far to the north, on the opposite side of the valley, was another cathedral. This one was different, though. It was dark and jagged, as if carved angrily.

"If only it were easier to get up here…" Emmie craned her neck, looking up at the ceiling.

"This would make a really cool house."

"Not impossible…" Gene scratched at his chin.

"We could fashion some stairs, or a lift, maybe." I pulled my gaze from the mural and approached the room's centerpiece. A short set of stairs led down to the recessed area, and upon reaching the bottom, my blood ran cold. What I had taken for rubble revealed itself to be anything but. Bones. Skeletal remains lay prostrate, folded over on knees with arms outstretched toward the tree in the center. Several of them lay in that same position, just out of view from the entrance above.

"Hey guys… You might wanna see this," I called up to the others.

"Whatcha got? Anything good—" Emmie cut off as she looked over the small ledge at the remains below.

"Oh." She uttered the word almost too quietly to hear.

"This place gives me the creeps." Greg grimaced and gave a wide berth to the skeletons.

"Look closer." I pointed at the nearest one.

"I'd rather not." He took another step away.

"No, really. Look, these aren't humans." I knelt next to one and cast [Inspect]. > Sloan Skeleton > Skeletal remains of a creature that died long ago.

"Interesting. My inspect skill says that it's a Sloan. Whatever that is." I looked over the body, noting its anatomical differences. The creature was tall, most likely standing nearly eight feet. The bones were long and slender, appearing fragile. The outstretched arms were about four feet long, ending in spidery, clawed hands. Its skull was what set it apart completely. A hinged jaw sported nasty, sharp teeth that were meant for one thing, and it wasn't vegetables.

"Ick." I got back to my feet and approached my original target, the tree. The moment my foot hit the ground on the other side of the small stone bridge, I felt a presence. A warmth emanating from the tree became visible once I had disturbed it. A shimmering sphere of energy around the small island came to life, sparkling against the sunlight from above.

"Maybe we should wait before we—" The voice came from behind, but it was too late. I had no way of knowing that my presence would trigger what I was feverishly praying was not a trap. The sphere grew, enveloping me, and an aura pulsed. The limbs trembled with the wave of energy, and leaves sprouted right before our eyes. Another pulse echoed, and then another. Fruit appeared on the limbs, as though we were watching a time-lapse of a plant growing.

Like a dying heartbeat, the tree pulsed again and again, fading to almost nothing. Silence fell for a moment, then an overwhelming pressure accompanied a final pulse. It blasted from the trunk and knocked me onto my back. CRACK! The tree split in two, giving its life with the final beat. Light spilled from the crack in the trunk, and I crawled back to see what was glowing.

"Logan! Be careful!" I ignored them, as the danger had passed. This looked like the glow of a… Yes! It is! The soft and wondrous glow of a massive concept greeted me. > Greater Concept of??? I reached and plucked it from its splintered wooden cradle. The moment my hand closed on the orb, a thick vine shot out and wrapped itself around my arm. I screamed and tried to pull away, but was stuck fast. Behind came the sounds of bone scraping stone.