Day 6 of Midwinter, Sunrise

In the Wild, Emain Ablach

Annwn

I soon found myself lost in the dark. At first, I had just gone the direction Ruadan had pointed. But after a while, I found few recognizable landmarks to guide me on my flight away from the fighting spear and chain people. I seriously never thought I would have to explain my direction in life based on that last phrase. What was I doing in this world?

It was the middle of the night and I hadn’t slept in what felt like ages. Sure, I had passed out a few times while I had been at camp. In retrospect, I wondered if that was when Ruadan had stolen the Stone. Other than that, my only rest came when I stopped to retch. Luckily, the nausea had subsided a bit over the last few miles, as had the pain.

And speaking of the pain, I couldn’t really understand why Cai gave me his Súg. It seemed to have hastened my natural healing. That was one nice thing about this world—the superhero healing. Did everyone here have super healing? I decided to put that on my list of questions for Morias, too…Though, to my knowledge, I was actually walking away from Flamebright, so it was possible I wouldn’t see Morias anytime soon…if ever, given how things seemed to be going.

The hillside reminded me of a postcard, if postcards were like a scene from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” It probably would be beautiful on a sunny day. It would be cool and green, and the hills would probably roll for miles. But right now, it wasn’t sunny and it wasn’t green. Everything on the moonlit hillside was in shades of grey and black. Seeing in the dark wasn’t an issue when I used my new boon, but the boon didn’t change the actual color of things.

Over the last hour the mist had moved in with a vengeance. It was getting hard to see where I was going. Mist seemed to be a thing around here. I had seen it on the water and on the trip south from Mag Mell. Ruadan and I had even encountered some on our trip to the hell-spawn snake lake. The level of mist where I was had recently risen to ludicrous levels. That could mean only one thing…something or someone was causing it.

I pulled out my dagger without thinking, and paid for my inattention. I had to use two hands to fully remove the spear from the seemingly endless sheath. Of course it would transmogrify into a spear! I wondered if giving me that thing was a practical joke on Ruadan’s part.

I turned in a circle, holding the spear out. I couldn’t see anything in the mist and fog…not the moon, the trees, or any of the landscape past an arm’s length. But I could hear footsteps. They were slow and soft, but getting closer.

There came a smoky scent on the wind, as from a fireplace, and I began to see things at the corners of my vision. But when I turned to focus my attention, the movement ceased. All I could see was more grey mist.

In my mind, I knew I was on a hillside, but it felt somehow claustrophobic. I stabbed the the spear into the mist, alternating with swing it around me in wild arcs. After a few minutes, I was panting uncontrollably. My exposed skin was cold from my own sweat in the cool damp air. A chill went through me, and panicked, I started to run.

The footsteps came faster now. I could hear them just behind me. I knew that whatever was chasing me was large because the stride of the thing was longer than mine. I chanced a glance over my shoulder, seeing the same flitting movement just at the edge of my vision.

I couldn’t say how long I ran like this, zig-zagging my way across the wild countryside. The longer I ran, the more erratic my steps became. I stumbled, ran headlong into branches and bushes, and finally, I fell. Somehow, in the minutes or hours of my panicked traverse of the Emain Ablach countryside, I had reached the southeastern coast, and I had plummeted off the edge of a small cliff.

I bounced from rock to rock and ended up wedged in a crevice far up on the cliffside. I could hear water crashing hundreds of feet below. I had dropped the spear during my fall, but thankfully it had somehow stayed close to me. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that, given it was now lodged in my thigh.

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Feeling around, I was sore and tired, but mostly unbroken. I reached down and pulled the spear from my flesh, carefully sliding the long weapon into the comically small sheath. There is probably a joke here somewhere, but the flesh wound killed the mood.

The fog was lighter where I was on side of the cliff, but above me, I could still see a heavier mist. It seemed almost alive, and it appeared to be descending at a rapid rate. I wondered if whatever was following me would be able to descend to my level.

Somehow, I knew staying where I was would be a bad idea. I could see some possible handholds near me. Who knew that I would be doing this much bouldering on a trip to a fairytale world? Shaking my head at my predicament, I began climbing.

Within moments, the fog had surrounded me. I could hear an ominous scraping and clicking to both my left and right. I climbed faster, unsure if I was climbing up into the jaws or talons of whatever crazy monster roamed these hills.

A rock fell from above and crashed into my skull. I saw stars when it hit me, and I’m pretty sure I actually heard a “bonk” noise. I managed to not only keep my footing and handholds, but also to dodge out of the way of the next rock that came crashing down. I needed to climb faster if I was to avoid getting hit with any more.

I chanced a one-handed grip for a moment while I fired an energy blast at where the rock had tumbled from. I heard it hit something other than stone and, for the moment, it appeared I had a reprieve from the falling rocks. I quickly scrambled further up the side of the cliff.

As I climbed, I heard the rattling of something in my cloak. What was that about…possibly some debris from my tumble off the cliff? Not something I could do anything about now. Nearing the top of the cliff, I slowed, expecting to see a Fomorian or floating hag. There was nothing there. Only mist. The sound of the waves continued to crash far below. I realized how lucky I was that I hadn’t fallen to my death. I wondered if that is what the creature chasing me wanted—a self-induced, panic-stricken fall to my death.

I started to pull myself up onto the edge of the cliff, and that is when I saw it. A grey-cloaked figure, taller than a Fomorian. It appeared to wear the mist as a part of itself. The fog was its cloak. There was darkness at the figure’s core, and it had eerie, glowing eyes. Always glowing eyes with these creatures!

It lunged at me in what I would thought of as the Ghostbuster librarian charge position. I braced myself for impact and wrestled my right hand free just before the creature hit me. I held tight to the cliff with my left hand and used my right to grasp the neck of the creature. We stayed like that for a moment, me poised on the edge of the cliff and the strange grey man hovering near me, attempting to use its momentum to pry me off the side.

It slashed at me with unseen hands. I could see the cloak rise to either side of my face, but it appeared the mist itself was cutting my flesh. I turned my head in a reflexive dance in order to protect my eyes, but it was soon clear that I would lose this fight. My feet were slipping.

I began charging the energy in the hand that was holding the creature, but just as I thought I would blast this creature away, his neck began to turn incorporeal. My hand was sinking into the creature.

My right foot slipped off the rock that had been holding half my weight and I fell back a few inches. I was close to falling entirely when a strange thing happened. From out of my cloak slithered a small, serpent-like creature…the oilliphéist wyrmling from the Brood Bone. It must have broken when I fell.

The little red serpent lunged at the grey man, burying its tiny teeth between the creature’s glowing eyes. At the same time, it curled itself around, opening the tail stinger and stabbing that, too, into the face of the cloaked figure.

There was an eerie howl of pain as the grey man let go of me and evaporated into the mist. The little snake dropped to the top of the cliff edge just in front of me. I hurled myself the rest of the way up and over the edge, being careful not to land on the little oilliphéist. I lay there a moment, trying to catch my breath, worried that at any moment the grey man might come back, but too exhausted to move.

Gradually, the mist appeared to lesson, and the sky began to brighten behind the hills I had frantically run down. I felt a slight weight land on my chest. I slowly tilted my head to see the baby oilliphéist perched there, looking at me with its red Sauron eyes.

I thought back to what I knew about snakes on Earth. Apparently baby venomous snakes were more deadly than adults, because it took time to figure out how to portion out the poison. When babies struck, they would inject all their venom into their victim. Would the same be true here on Annwn? I didn’t know, but did my best not to move. Just in case.

“Hey buddy.” I used my softest voice to address the serpent, and was careful not to move. “Thanks for your help back there.”

The creature cocked its head and looked at me. Then it curled itself up and closed its eyes.

“Yeah…” I sighed and let my head fall back to the grass of the ledge. “I’m tired, too.”

I couldn’t remember the last time I had truly rested. I’d been too busy falling off cliffs, getting stabbed with spears, or having my ribs crushed by giant snake-demons. It had been a long two days.

And just like that, as the mist dissipated with the rising of the sun, I fell asleep on the southern cliffs of Emain Ablach with a baby oilliphéist resting on my chest.