The trio worked fast, fear and anxiety speeding up the process. Kahi dug two graves while Kenu and Dante recovered the bodies. They found a cliffside edge giving an incredible view of the surrounding area. It was a beautiful outlook over the forest, or it might once have been, if the forest weren’t a grey husk of death and decay, like it was now. Perhaps it would one day return to its original beauty and the two soldiers could enjoy the magnificent sight together.
Afterwards, they made haste, with night snapping at their heels, towards a cave that Dante spotted while carrying the bodies. Setting up a quick fire with the recovered gear they located from their camp the night before, they sat in the cold cave trying their best to forget the events of the day. After treating their wounds and cleaning up, they finally settled down around the fire. All silent as they sat across from each other, Kenu and Kahi on one side, Dante on the other. Just waiting for someone to spring the question.
Kenu decided to bite.
“What the hell is going on?”
A brief pause as Dante took a deep breath. The siblings leaned forward expectantly.
“Honestly?” He mirrored them, leaning forward, looking them in the eyes. “No clue.”
“What do you mean no clue?” Kenu’s voice raising a notch, her glare bore holes through the bright blue eyes of Dante’s bored stare.
“Why did you take us from Ledan?” Kahi chimed in, trying his best to calm the situation.
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“I took you from Ledan on the Kings orders. He sent squads out, like mine, to every village we could reach, to gather warriors.” He leant back against the cave wall. Hand reaching up to touch the makeshift bandage that now wrapped much of his scar. After a light wince he continued. “We had to gather two strong able-bodied people and proceed to march them as far away as we could.”
The two siblings watched him intently.
“And?” Kenu asked expectantly.
“And what? That’s it.”
“What do you mean that’s it?” Her voice rose again.
“I mean that’s all we were told. Find two able bodies and start marching.” Dante replied with a shrug.
The interrogation paused as the two considered their next line of questioning.
“March them where?” Kahi asked, folding his arms.
“And why?” Kenu added.
“I asked my commander the same thing. March them away. Just away, even to the corners of the earth if we had to.” Eyes glazing over as he recalled the memory “Although he did mention something called the Aeternum Coniunctum.”
“That’s a folktale. Nothing but fiction.” Kenu said shaking her head, remembering the stories she was told as a child of three giant rings that held reality between its links.
Kahi stayed silent for a second. The things he saw today. The dream he had. It made him think anything was possible at this point. He closed his eyes as he tried to remember the story.
“That place, the Aeternum Coniunctum, in the tale it could only be reached by finding the place where reality distorts at the edge of the earth.” He flicked his gaze onto Dante. “That’s why they want us, and you, as far away as possible from where we call home, so that we might find the edge of reality.”
Dante grunted in agreement. They caught on fast.
“As for why?” Dante leant forward again. “There’s a war going on. And it’s not between men.”
“What does that mean.” Kenu spoke for them both.
“It means what we just saw was a scouting party.”
The cave felt ever so slightly colder. Those giant beasts. The fog that spreads death. It was nothing but the start. Kenu felt the parasite wriggling uncomfortably beneath her skin.
“And we just announced our arrival.”