Ludo woke up many hours later with a loud yawn. His muscles were sore from the giant battle the day before and his back hurt. After stretching a bit, he looked around and saw that Poghos was nowhere to be found. Scared that he might have ran off during the night, Ludo ran outside the tent and saw Poghos standing very still at the edge of the cliff. Every few seconds a wave sent water above the cliff which landed all around Poghos. Before Ludo could ask him about his strange behaviour, Poghos turned around with a long frown. He tapped Otar’s staff three times on the ground and looked at Ludo with a cold look.
“You’re late. How can both of you talk big yesterday yet sleep like rocks?”
Poghos pointed the staff at Althea’s tent. Ludo slugged his way towards it and called out for her. It took multiple times yelling her name for her to finally reply back and even more time before the two of them were ready to leave.
“Alright you two.” Poghos said loud and clear. “You have to be aware that the place I’m taking you is well hidden, so don’t go wandering off.”
“But couldn’t we use your map?” Ludo then grabbed the map that he and Althea had used a few days before to find the giant’s lair from his bag.
“Don’t talk nonsense, boy. True secrets are never written down, they are kept within our mouths.”
Poghos said nothing more and began to march the opposite direction from Ludo and Althea. They looked at each other and then followed Poghos close behind. It was almost noon and to avoid the scorching sun, the three through the shades under the trees. The river continued to violently roar to their right, Ludo feared that the water might finally escape its prison and begin to flood everything around him, thankfully it was only ever an irrational fear as, after a few hours of marching, stopped atop a small hill to rest and drink.
“So, how much are they paying you two for the giant?” Poghos said after taking a big gulp from his flask.
Althea and Ludo looked at each other before whispering with each other.
“Do we tell him?” Althea said.
“Why not. He is helping us already and we saved his life. We should trust him a little.”
“I don’t think we should.”
“You really don’t trust people. I think its alright.”
Ludo separated from Althea and looked at Poghos.
“They are paying us five gold coins.”
Poghos spat his drink and had a coughing fit. After a few seconds of he finally regained some breath and looked at Ludo.
“Five gold coins? Thats a lot for you two. At your age I was still learning the basics of magic.”
“Well, two of those are going to Walter.” Althea mumbled.
“Right, I almost forgot why you two are in the middle of nowhere with an old man like me.”
After that the conversation died out and they quickly packed up and continued their march with what little sunlight they had left. Afterwards they set up camp and ate a modest dinner before retreating to their slumber.
The second day of travel arrived with the distinct singing of mockingbirds and the clicking of large dragonflies. The three observed and hid from a Comebres, a large bear-like being that feasted on people but thankfully it never saw them. Around the afternoon, they came upon a large hill with a forgotten byway overwhelmed by the aggressive growth of the forest.
Ludo climbed the slope first to scout ahead. The slope itself was rugged but not unwieldy and it didn’t take long for Ludo to reach the top. The top of the hill itself was devoid of trees and bushes, the clear sight let him see most of the world and what a sight it was, to his right he could see the never ending forest disappear in the horizon with an obvious gigantic fissure that was the empty river. To his left, the forest ended and its wake was an ocean of green, a grassland that went as far as his eyes could see.
They were far away from where they had originally climbed the empty river but that did not bother him in the slightest. Althea and him took out a giant just a few days prior, what else could there be to challenge them. That was what Ludo thought until he felt an uneasy feeling creeping up his nape, followed by an unnatural cold engulfing his whole body and the unsettling feeling of something looking right at him. His head moved automatically to the grassland and what had been a beautiful view just a minute ago now filled him with an indescribable horror.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
There he saw it, standing at a long distance away, the outline of someone or something. Despite how far away the figure was, Ludo knew it was watching him, staring at him. The thing readjusted and now Ludo could make out that it was a man on a horse. This new sight made him ill, the world spun uncontrollably around him, he wanted to scream but no sound came out of his mouth. He could not feel his legs and collapsed on the ground, the dizziness grew worse and he vomited. Ludo could barely keep his eyes open and in a last ditch effort, he took unsheathed Glass Guardian but he was too weak and collapsed soon after, not before hearing someone call his name name over and over again.
“Ludo!? LUDO!”
Ludo woke up to the sun shining brightly above. It was oddly peaceful, he could see nothing but the clear blue sky and the only thing his ears picked up was a soft wind blowing around him. Then, the memories came flooding back, he was with Althea and Poghos, they were returning to Balessia and he climbed a hill and finally…
He felt like he would choke on his own spit as he remembered that figure from earlier. Jumping back up, he quickly realized that he was still on the hill, but there was no figure to greet him in the distance, it was as if it never existed.
“Ludo!? Are you alright?”
Turning around, he saw Althea with a small bag. She let it drop to the floor as she ran towards him. Althea then called out for Poghos, who appeared a few seconds later. Poghos rushed to Ludo’s side and between him and Althea they began to check him for any possible ills he might have. After an awkward session of Althea constantly asking Ludo about his health and Poghos examining his body in case of any wounds they finally settled down. Poghos offered Ludo a slice of bread and some wild berries Althea had gathered which Ludo quickly ate.
“By the goddesses, boy. You scared us both.” Poghos said.
“What exactly happened?” Ludo said after eating a piece of bread.
“You went up the hill to scout ahead and then you became silent all of a sudden. We called out for you but you didn’t respond.” Althea said.
“I’m sorry, I must have given you quite a fright.”
“Don’t joke around like that, I thought you had died.”
“Maybe he did and he came back as a ghost.” Poghos snorted.
Althea punched Poghos in the shoulder and scolded him over that joke. Ludo tried to calm them down but Althea stopped him.
“It doesn’t matter Ludo, you need to rest.” Althea said as Poghos grumbled something under his breath.
Ludo, however, was restless. He still looked over his shoulder in case that figure appeared again. An uncertain feeling began to rise within him. Was that even a man? Why did he feel that way? Was he the only person who could see it? So stupefied was he with these questions that he had not noticed that Althea had taken notice of his troubled face.
“What’s the matter?” She asked, sitting closer to him.
“I.. Um,” Ludo stopped in his tracks, not sure if he wanted to tell her. His mind went back to that day in the dungeon and how much of a disaster that was. The words of Auria came knocking back about how dangerous the people in this profession were. But after everything else, this was not Bergmann or Liam or any self serving person. This was Althea, who had been forced into working as an adventurer for reasons beyond her control. With that in mind, he decided it was for the best to tell her.
“When I got here, I saw something.”
“Something?” Althea said, one of her ears twitched with curiosity.
“A shadow far away.” Ludo pointed at the grassland behind them. “When I saw it, I felt like my life was being sucked out of my body.”
Just remembering it made Ludo’s skin crawl and again his mind flooded with questions about what he had just seen. He tried to rationalize what he had seen, thinking of what monsters could inhabit the world.
“Do you think it might have been a ghost?” Ludo said.
“That’s impossible.” Poghos said from behind them. “Although ghosts don’t make you act that way. What you’re looking for is a wraith which feeds on your negative feelings, making you depressed or manic, but they’re rare to come by, especially out in the open.
“But it could be a possibility, right?” Althea said.
“Could be, if thats the case, we better keep guard.”
Following Poghos advice and on Althea’s behest, Ludo agreed to rest for the day. It was for the best as he noticed just how weak he had become. Despite resting and eating, he could barely muster enough strength to sit upright. At those times, Althea kept close by, nursing and keen on helping him with anything. Her actions and attentiveness was a new side of her that Ludo had never seen, a side he considered rather adorable. Eventually day turned into night and the camp was set up by Poghos and Althea while Ludo rested and sulked due to his inaction.
Ludo woke up the next day reinvigorated. Filled with energy, he was not shy about helping Althea and Ludo pack up their stuff before marching off for the day. They descended down the hill and into the forest. As they progressed parallel to the Empty River. Ludo called out for Althea.
“I’m sorry for what happened yesterday.” Ludo said. “I know that we are running out of time yet we wasted an entire day due to my recklessness.”
Althea smiled. “Don’t worry, you have helped me all this way, helping you yesterday was the least I could do to pay you back for your help.”
“Don’t worry about that, I’m doing it to help y—”
Before Ludo could finish, Althea ran off forward. Despite her weird way of ending the conversation, he let out a sigh of relief as he felt that at least Althea was not resentful of what happened the day before. The moment of levity was short lived as Ludo kept an eye on his surroundings with his magic eyes in case the shadowy figure appeared again.
He would not see the figure the entire time they walked and after a long while, Poghos finally turned towards the Empty River and raised his staff. To the naked eye, he looked like a crazy person but with his magic eyes, Ludo could see a weird bubble around him. The bubble continued to continuously change color and grow larger, almost engulfing Poghos completely until it suddenly disappeared. Then, Poghos turned around at them with a satisfied smile.
“The crossing is here.”