The Forgotten Land of Myria

ROY

I’ve always hated mountains. They are nothing but endless slopes of hard rock--that either burned or froze you--and mounds of bug-infested trees with the occasional bear or mountain goat.

However, these mountains didn’t have any trees whatsoever, and the sun didn’t burn the rocks. It hid behind a thick clump of red clouds that made me nervous just looking at them.

They laced themselves in rings around the mountains, curling upward to the peaks. One detail about them that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, was that I had seen them before. Not in real life but in a dream, back in the hospital. Identical ones.

Another weird thing was that there weren’t any trails. They seemed completely untouched and I wasn’t the only one who noticed. The nearest mountain was the largest one, that stood right in the middle, and as we approached it we all had the same question.

“How in the heavens’re we s’posed to climb this?” Jardious blurted it out. Eleazar knit his eyebrows.

“The same way you climb any mountain,” he responded. “Considering you reside in Timbervale, I take it you have seen plenty of them.”

Jardious rolled his eyes and stiffened his frown. “Don’t play those jokes on me, grandpa, you know exactly what I mean. How’re we gon’ take the stallions with us?”

“We aren’t.” Eleazar winked, and everyone protested at once. I held my grip on Brave’s reigns, not ready to let him go.

“We can’t just take them back,” I jumped in.

“I agree with the boy.” Jardious nudged me like he was trying to persuade Eleazar. “They’re gifts! We can’t give them back!”

Eleazar rubbed his forehead. “Well unless you are all willing to tie them to your backs and carry them the whole way, I suggest you do just that.”

As he said this, Eleazar unbuckled his saddle and it slipped off the horse’s back, thudding onto the sand.

“So how do you suppose we climb it, Ez?” Safira asked, still mounted on her horse, as we neared the foot of the mountain.

“I found some rope in the supply crate,” Livia said. She grabbed the coil of rope and swung it over her shoulder. Ada slid off her horse.

“We can use my grappling hooks,” she smiled enthusiastically.

“It was one of my gifts.”

“How many hooks?” Sky asked.

“Six.”

He looked up, counting the bumps on the face of the mountain.

“I don’t think that’s enough to take us all the way...”

“We won’t have to go all the way,” Angus called out from behind us. He was setting a bucket of water for his stallion and fiddling with that precious golden medallion of his.

“Look.” As he approached us, he pointed at a small slit that started halfway up the mountain, right around where the clouds began to form. “We hadn’t seen it before. There are tracks. They just seem to start halfway up, the illogic of which should give us pause--at least we only have to climb halfway.”

“That settles our hook problem,” Sky added.

“Brilliant!” Eleazar exclaimed, like we had finally said something he agreed on. “So we’re all set?”

“Not quite,” Leof said. Eleazar threw his hands up, stomping his feet like a nine-year-old who had just had his game controller taken away.

“Aww, come on! Strap it to your back if you’re so worried about it...”

“We can divide the contents of the crate,” Livia stepped in, holding black empty pouches. “Lord Tash was quite thoughtful!”

We each packed our pouches with whatever we thought we needed--since I didn’t know jack about those items, I stuffed random bags that looked, and smelled, like food.

Once we were finished, I fed Brave some more water. I stroked his mane and he pulled away like he knew what was coming. “You’ve been great. You’ve been brave.” Finally, I pulled off his saddle, and, with a tap, all the stallions were off and back in the Trenches.

“Now wait a minute,” Jardious scowled, and Eleazar rolled his eyes, impatiently.

“What now?” he groaned.

“Look at me height, grandpa! There’s no way I’ll be climbin’ that thing!”

“My god, are all grogans as whiny as you about every last thing?” Eleazar’s hands fell to his side. “I’ve yet to know, why in the heavens did your people choose to live in the mountains then?”

Jardious kept a stern expression and Eleazar finally gave in to his insisting. His eyes peered around, like he was examining us all carefully.

“Eulisses!” he finally called out. “You’re quite the tall one. Would you do us the favor of carrying our little friend?”

Eulisses nodded quickly. He rushed towards Jardious, kneeling at his side, and Jardious climbed on piggy-back style like Banebee on Eleazar.

Eulisses had good intentions, but you could tell he struggled, as he hobbled around, his face paler than ever, trying to find his balance. Jardious didn’t seem happy about it. He desperately looked towards Sky, hoping he’d come to the rescue. Instead, he gave Jardious a mock shrug and the grogan grunted as we approached the mountain. Because there were only six hooks, he had to climb two at a time. For some stupid reason, Eleazar suggested Safira and I went first. How neat.

I was fastening the rope around my waist when Livia came up to me. “This is where your training pays off.”

I grinned, picturing the rock wall back in Timbervale, trying to convince myself that it could compare to this. Safira’s permanent frown instantly wiped the grin off my face as she tied her rope to my waist as well.

“Just in case you slip,” she spat.

I didn’t even know where to begin. Meanwhile, Safira had her back to the wall and arranged the rope around her legs in a sort of S shape. I did the same and realized it was quite trusty. With a push of my legs, we were off.

My gloveless hands were almost fully white and a bit blistered. Still, I kept a firm grip as my feet slid down the ropes repeatedly, and I saw myself being lifted higher and higher off the ground.

We were climbing at quite a speed, but I soon began to crave some more Phoenix Tongue elixir because I was starting to feel cold again. White mist huffed out of my mouth with every breath and I wished I had stuffed my skincoat in my pouch. I could hear Safira humphing a few feet over me, and the casual dumb thought came to me: Maybe if I treat it like a competition, we’ll get there quicker.

I pushed the previous thoughts to the back of my head, and tried to concentrate on the climb, ignoring the burns on my hands as best as I could. I inched my way closer to Safira, and she obviously felt the pressure. Her movements got heavier, and I started to think she was kicking rocks on me on purpose. I strained, and she humphed. I was now at her waist. She looked down again. Frowned. I smiled. More rocks on my shoulder. We kept the rhythm until, like she had predicted, I slipped. We both lost a few feet and my hands gave way.

I shut my eyes and winced, as I felt her grab my forearm. I fastened my legs to the ropes once again and pushed. Safira grunted. My loose arm grasped the rope and tugged as she disappeared over me. We had reached the tracks.

We stopped at the start of the trail to catch our breath, and waited in silence (of course) as the rest of the gang climbed up. At one point, I tried asking her something about trials and her guild but she just shrugged.

It was no wonder we couldn’t see the tracks from down there. It was extremely narrow and barely fit Eulisses and Angus--the thinnest of us--standing side by side. Once everyone was up, we took some time to rest. I found myself wandering around, lost in my thoughts, until I decided to join Eleazar, who was sitting at the tip of the tracks with his feet dangling fearlessly over the edge as he nibbled a kithelite.

“Some view, huh?”

“It’s even better from the ground,” he said, patting a spot next to him. “Have a seat.”

I peered over the edge, saw how high our climb had been and found myself shaking my head in disbelief.

“Oh please,” he made his usual mocking face, clicking his tongue between his teeth. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of heights!”

Since I didn’t answer I found myself being pushed off balance, and--just before free-falling to my death--yanked back, and planted down next to Eleazar.

“See?” he said calmly. “Not so bad down there...what?” He seemed surprised that I looked completely petrified.

“Is this normal to you?” I whimpered.

“What?”

I meant to look mad, but I couldn’t help laughing. “Next time, give me a heads up.”

“That just takes away the fun!”

Banebee had pounced on Eleazar’s shoulders and, as he fed him bits of fruit, studied me through squinting eyes.

“So, tell me about it,” said Eleazar, though I hadn’t said anything.

“Tell you about what?”

“How’ve you been sleeping lately?”

“Fine, I guess,” I cocked my head, a bit confused.

“Your dream. Tell me.” How did he know about that?

It had been bothering me.

“I was in a dark forest...” Once I began speaking, Eleazar closed his eyes, “I could hear the shriek of beasts, and a large circle of fire was burning brightly, surrounding the trees, and--”

The scene came into my mind and my jaw tightened. Hot tears were beginning to form in the back of my eyes, like I was looking into the fire.

“And Alice was in it. She was inside the circle, struggling to get up, she didn’t have her wheelchair, she was in pain, and she...”

I gulped the sobs and held them in my throat.

“She was in pain and she had chains around her. And standing behind her was a man with a--a large red cloak, and a hood that covered his face. He seemed to be controlling her. He’d raise his hand and so would she, like a puppet.”

I turned my face away and bit my tongue hard. My fist met my cold sweaty forehead. Eleazar patted my shoulder gently.

“Go on,” he whispered.

“He--it seemed like he noticed me. He turned directly to me and said these words: ‘You’re too brave, young hero. Your courage will be your peril.’”

Eleazar nodded thoughtfully for quite a while. Finally, he asked. “Did all of this look real?”

“Yes.”

“Well it wasn’t.” Eleazar was stern. “How frequently have you had this dream?”

“Every night since the murcat attack.” Eleazar nodded some more. “But then who was that man?” I asked impatiently, trying to hide the anger raging through me.

“That was Iyassu.”

“You mean Theon’s puppet?”

“His current body, yes,” Eleazar corrected. “Since Theon has embodied him, that was Theon himself talking to you, and that tells you one important detail: Don’t listen.”

“Remember what I said earlier: Theon’s weapon is the mind. He thrives most off of people’s weaknesses. In this case, he has targeted your weakness and is toying with it, thus making you vulnerable.”

“Vulnerable to what?”

“Vulnerable to control. If Theon can find a large enough gap, he can take full control of your mind, like he has done with the millions of lives that are enslaved by him.”

That took a while to process and suddenly I felt much more scared than brave.

“But how can I make myself...not vulnerable?”

“Simple,” Eleazar tapped two fingers on his temple. “Make of your weakness, your strength. Make it your ambition--which it already is--and do not, by any means, make it a reason of doubt. You must trust yourself completely, and not let anything give you an excuse to fail. By doing so, you will close any outside entrances to your mind.”

I felt my shoulders relax, as I thought it through. Throughout the entire conversation, my fists had been clenched so tightly blood was slipping through my fingers, and I had just noticed.

“So as real as it may seem--and as hard as it can be--pay no attention to these visions. Remember: They’re just visions.” Eleazar patted my shoulder once again and Banebee gave me a little nudge of reassurance.

“Kupa!”

Just as we had finished, we found Safira standing behind us with her hands on her hips, pretending I wasn’t there.

“I think it’s time we get going, Ez. Unless you’re planning to make camp again,” she muttered under her breath.

“At your services, Lower Warden Safira,” Eleazar mocked a salute, and Safira marched off.

“Does she even have a sense of humor?” I asked. “At times yes,” Eleazar said with a wide grin on his face. “Most of the time, however, she’s more worried about how we will survive, if we’ll get the job done, and other boring nanagies.”

I chuckled.

“But in all seriousness, she is a very special person, Safira,” Eleazar said. “She’s just--cautious. Of course she has her reasons for it.” He winked, then suddenly widened his eyes examining me. “Oh! I almost forgot,” he said, reaching into his robes. “Hold out your hands.”

I did as he said as he pulled out a green flask, pulled the top off and poured a few drops on my bleeding hands.

“That should close those little cuts. We don’t want any more blisters.”

As soon as the blue oily liquid touched my hands I felt a burst of heat rush through my body. It wasn’t a heat like the Phoenix Tongue elixir, not at all. This one was much more intense, almost unbearable. Fire was pulsing through my veins, spreading through my chest to my head, and then down to the tips of my toes. I winced and Eleazar patted my back.

“Just breathe,” he whispered.

“Well, indeed we must get going before we hear some more from our captain.”

“Right,” I laughed.