The travelers continued their way on the path, the lush grass opening to some sparse trees in a lightly wooded forest. At first, Zalan found this shaded area a welcome improvement until he noticed the way that his companions began watching the trees for ambushes, drawing their weapons even though there was no immediate threat. Zalan drew his own sword, just to be safe. When a few minutes went by and a trap wasn’t sprung, they mostly relaxed except for Gorb. Zalan kept his sword out and tried to imbue it with his Elemental Power again, focusing as hard as he could to keep lightning running up and down the blade while also making sure he didn’t trip anywhere.
“Trying to imbue your weapon? Did the siblings teach you about imbuing?” Rep asked him, curious.
“Yeah, this should be so much easier since metal conducts electricity,” Zalan complained, his face strained in concentration.
“Right,” Rep said slowly, not understanding the string of words Zalan said. “Sir Kilile taught us to try and start with a single point on your weapon and to maintain it that way.”
Rep demonstrated by creating a tiny candle-like flame at the tip of his sword and moving it around, trying to keep it lit. He swung it once and it went out, to his disappointment.
“Is that what you’ve been doing?” Zalan said in surprise, lowering his sword to watch Rep try to light another flame at the tip.
“It is already difficult to manipulate your Elemental Power once it leaves your hand,” Rep explained as he slowly moved his sword. “It is best to get an understanding of what it feels like to maintain a small level of your power before you go larger.”
“Like training a muscle,” Zalan said to himself. It should have been obvious, especially when they referred to this Elemental ability stuff as a “mind-muscle” previously.
Zalan pinched the tip of his sword with his free hand and cast out lightning. He removed his hand and focused, able to keep the spark erratically dancing on the tip for all of half a second. He beamed, not having been able to do anything close to that before.
“I think I get it!” Zalan said.
“Well done,” Rep nodded.
The two continued to practice imbuing their swords as they continued on their way. Zalan tried different tricks like holding his sword at different angles or placing an even smaller piece of lightning on the end of the sword, but nothing helped more than simple, rote practice. Rep was making good headway, able to swing his sword once and still maintain the tiny flame at the end of his sword. Zalan admired the progress, until he bumped into Gorb who had stopped walking, his eyes focused on something in the distance beyond the edge of the forest.
“Do you see that?” he asked, speaking quietly.
The other travelers peered out, squinting their eyes as they tried to make out the shape at the distance. It was floating high above the ground, looking like a blimp to Zalan. The circular shaped black object was growing steadily, making no rush to come to the forest, but certainly getting closer. It seemed foreboding, like it was coming with bad news, even when they could not make out any features. Zalan swallowed hard, not sure why he felt so nervous.
“Is it a dragon?” Yelsa whispered.
“We would have seen the wings,” Fran rejected.
“It does not feel like a dragon,” Gorb added.
From the dark circle, two black, opaque spotlights scanned the floor for a moment, then stopped. The other four travelers tensed in fear as Zalan tried to make out exactly what he was seeing.
“Dear God. Here? So far from home?” Rep asked.
“What is it?” Zalan asked, watching the circle emit another two black spotlights to the floor. The spotlights were so dark, it was like a flashlight of shadow, completely overpowering any light it touched.
“Hide. Do not let it see you,” Rep informed him, pulling at his shoulder to move deeper into the forest.
“But what is it?” Zalan asked, reluctantly following Rep. His eyes remained on the thing approaching. Even knowing nothing about it, he wanted it to go away.
“That is the Mind of Madness,” Fran said. The lack of amusement in her voice made Zalan realize how serious their situation was. He turned his eyes ahead and looked for a good hiding spot, joining the others in pushing brush aside in search.
“What is it? What do those beams of darkness do?” Zalan asked.
“They drive you mad,” Gorb replied stoically. “Do not get caught by the beams. Even a small portion of the beam bouncing by you might be enough to affect you severely. Treat this like you are hiding from the sun. Let nothing remain uncovered.”
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Yelsa found herself a nook at the base of a tree and dove in, not even worrying about anything that might already be living inside. Gorb decided to cut down branches of a leafy tree to pile up and crawl under. Fran was using her sword to cut into soft earth and bury herself except for her face which she placed a cloth aside to cover herself in. All three of them moved with such efficiency, it was like watching people prepare for a nuclear strike, each with their own shelter. Zalan looked back at the Mind of Madness, slowly growing larger as it floated in their direction, then back at the travelers.
“What do I do?” Zalan asked Rep.
“Here, this,” Rep rolled over an old log that had broken down into a semicircle. He could crawl under it, but it was decayed and had holes in the top. “Cover the holes. Not a shred of darkness can seep in, do you understand?” Zalan nodded numbly, the severity in Rep’s words were frightening.
“What about you?” Zalan asked.
“I will find something, myself,” Rep assured him, taking a few steps and searching for something more.
Zalan wasted no time, using his sword to cut down a branch and pull off leaves to stick on the holes and glue with mud created by a creek nearby. He kept throwing glances at the Mind of Madness’s approach, it had come close enough to make out a few features. It was like a giant gray head with no mouth. Its eyes were a deep, soulless pit. There were ridges running along the top of the head like tiny rock formations, but it made the Mind of Madness look as though it were perpetually enraged, searching for something to destroy. Out of the dark abyss of its eyes emitted the black spotlights, sucking away all the light on whatever it gazed upon. Zalan redoubled his efforts, actually breaking a sweat in trying to cover his log.
Finally, when he decided he had done the best he could, he looked to Fran to ask her to put a tiny flame above it to make sure no light got in, but she was gone, buried underground. In fact, everyone was already hidden away except for him. He quickly scrambled under his log and pressed himself close to the ground. It was dark inside, but he could see that there were still small holes perpendicular to the ground. The light filtered in like rungs of a ladder, ready to be climbed.
There was very little time. It was almost here. He grabbed mud from his constricted position and stuck it into the holes from the inside as fast as possible. There were still threads of light shining across, but Zalan decided that it shouldn’t cause any issue unless the Mind of Madness lowered itself all the way to the ground. From what he had seen, it didn’t give any indication of doing anything but float and blast darkness from its eyes. There was no danger from any light creeping in from above, and no worry about it coming to target him from the side.
The Mind of Madness was close now and they could do nothing but wait.
Zalan couldn’t hear the Mind of Madness approach, it was silent in its movement, but he felt it. He knew, without a doubt, that it was floating right above them. Its soulless eyes scanning the area for intelligent life. An ominous silence hung over the area. The Mind of Madness wasn’t moving on. Zalan crushed the dirt under his palms tightly as he tried to escape its mere presence.
Then, in an instant, the area felt darker than night. The jet-black spotlights from its eyes immediately snuffed out any light from all directions. Zalan couldn’t see a thing. But he felt terrible suffering. He curled up into a ball and began hyperventilating, panicking. He had no idea where the feelings came from. He was in so much pain, it was excruciating. He was twitching on the earth, shivering madly from the sensation.
What he did not know is that while he had sufficiently covered himself from being hit by the dark spotlights, the creek nearby reflected the darkness just as it would reflect the light. The reflected beam had struck him in the side through one of the tiny holes he hadn’t covered properly. He only tasted a tiny modicum of the beam. It was a speck of the spotlight’s power, but it was enough to affect him seriously.
Then, mercifully, the Mind of Madness stopped its beam and moved on. Immediately, Zalan stopped his panicked breathing, but his heart did not slow at all. He continued to curl tighter into a ball under the log and thought of nothing except desperately wanting to be home. He thought of his mom. It made him feel worse.
It was a few minutes before Gorb emerged from his hiding spot first, looking around to ensure they were safe. He saw the back of the Mind of Madness, slowly drifting away from them at a distance.
“It has moved on. Is everyone all right?” Gorb asked.
“I seemed to have jumped in with some bitey ants,” Yelsa emerged from within the tree, presenting the series of small bites on her forearm.
Fran emerged from the ground and Rep came out from under bushes and a blanket from his pack. Rep immediately looked around with urgency when Zalan wasn’t standing among them.
“Zalan? Zalan!” Rep called.
“Not so loud, it is still close by,” Gorb warned, looking over his shoulder vigilantly for the Mind of Madness. It continued drifting away.
Rep ran to the log, the surrounding area littered with dead bugs, wilting flowers, and immobile butterflies that had been gazed at. Rep tossed the log over, gasped, and held Zalan up as his friend experienced immense pains. Zalan groaned in agony.
“It hurts! I don’t know where it got me, but it hurts!” Zalan yelled, his eyes redshot.
“It is a mental pain,” Rep said solemnly. “It is not a wound on your body, but it hurts all the same.”
“It hurts!” Zalan repeated, clutching his chest like he was trying to remove his heart.
The other travelers stared awkwardly, not knowing how to handle this. They kept shifting uncomfortably in place, uncertain if there was anything that they could do to help. They let Rep handle it just by being close to Zalan. Rep looked up at them compassionately.
“Imagine he was hit with the full blast of the Mind of Madness. From what little we know of the creature, we should consider him to be experiencing great grief. Perhaps, he is grieving the loss of someone close and we should treat him as such,” Rep suggested.
That made it much easier. Zalan’s companions no longer had to temper themselves by remaining a respectable distance away. They had not experienced the darkness of the Mind of Madness themselves, but they had heard tales of what was happening to Zalan. The attack had exacerbated whatever had been toiling away inside of him, creating a terrible ball of anguish to fester until the power passed. If it did not pass, he would certainly be driven mad.
Fran lit a small flame in her palm to hold near Zalan, hoping to warm his body and his soul. Gorb kept a warm breeze going through him to soothe him. Yelsa knelt down and put a waterskin to his lips to help him drink something. Rep continued to embrace him as Zalan grit his teeth, experiencing the agony that the tiny shred of the Mind of Madness’s darkness sent through him.