Tordhir - Lost in the Deep - Part 5
As I began walking again my legs hurt. My situation overwhelmed me. All around I heard faint whispers taunting me, calling for my blood. I could feel that entity, yearning to set its foul claws in me. The worst part was that I couldn’t say if what I heard was real. Maybe those voices were only in my head, could I had turned on myself and a part of me just wanted it to end?
I had failed my companions who lay dead somewhere in the depths behind me. Even if I did make it out alive and survive the journey back home, what then? Would I be able to face them and say that I’d left their loved ones behind? That I didn’t even try to burn their bodies or sing the proper songs of the lost in the hour after their passing?
It might not be real but I could feel the entity’s wet breath all around me. The sweat running down my neck could just as well have been its saliva. Step by step I limped forward, waiting for the moment when it would come. Claws, teeth, or something worse.
I came to my senses when I stumbled and almost fell. Was I sleep walking? The feeling that something was close made me spin around. I felt dizzy. My vision was blurry, like that of a frail human. What I wanted was some stone meditation and to hum in tune with the mountain to regain some clarity. I was too afraid that it would just put me to sleep instead.
I don’t know if stress was finally catching up with me, but my body felt drained and exhausted. The feeling that something was close still haunted me. I wanted to find some place to rest where it felt at least a bit safer. Many times I stumbled but never fell. I wasn’t sure that I’d come up again if I did or if sleep would claim me as I gathered myself. I tried to think of pleasant things but the first thing that came to mind was my straw bed back home. I didn’t need thoughts like that now.
What I needed was fresh air, but there was none to be had. The air tasted stale and beaten. Mariglin once told me about the air vents of the Mother Mountain, if they ever existed they would all have clogged shut since that far away age. Restoring them and everything else within the mountain to a semblance of its former glory would be a monumental task. The enormity of the effort felt oppressive, and here I was unable to even keep my friends safe or find my way back out.
I just wanted to lay down and allow sleep to come. But I had to move on. Even though the air was stale and dead, I could hear the evil in the shadows whispering in the wind. How could that be? After walking some more I stopped for a brief rest, I didn’t sit down out of fear that I wouldn’t come back up.
Instead I leaned against the wall. It felt like just a moment when I closed my eyes. I came to, when my dropped spear crashed to the ground. I looked around, disoriented, and confused, I wasn’t sure which way I came from. Then the Gods from above or below must have blessed me, I saw a small unmarked door.
Compared to the great caverns and corridors the room felt cramped. While spider webs filled the room, it also felt like entering someones home. It felt safe. I wondered if it had been a home, a storage room, a resting place or something else.
There was a part of me that wanted to clear up the spider webs and clean the place, if nothing else out of respect to the ancient builders. I pushed aside that small part of me, as I lay down on the floor and fell asleep.