A Familiar Apparition

12th Day of Autumn

767 Karloman’s Peace

Climbing the mountain had proven more of a challenge than Ekkehard had expected.

At first, Ekkehard had thought he had found a path leading to the distant light. He had followed a trail that wound its way back and forth up the mountainside, narrowing significantly as he climbed higher. Eventually, the path became so narrow there was barely enough space to place one foot sideways before the other. Ekkehard was forced to grip the mountainside firmly with his hands; otherwise, he would surely fall down its steep and deadly slope. To make matters worse, the wind had picked up and carried a bitter chill with it. This made Ekkehard's hands turn numb and his fingers stiffen.

For some reason, however, which he couldn't quite explain, Ekkehard pushed himself to complete the ascent.

Taking deep breaths to steady himself, Ekkehard noted the purity of the cold mountain air. Its scent was crisp, and it tasted of subtle sweetness. There were no sounds around him as he half hung off the side of the mountain. It was as if the whole universe was holding its breath, watching him, waiting for what was going to happen next.

Each memory from Ekkehard’s past had spurred him to climb further. It was as if he believed he could escape the ghosts of those who haunted him if he just reached high enough.

Eventually, the pathway came to an abrupt end. He was faced not with slopes but with the face of a cliff. Ekkehard found himself on footing so narrow it couldn't even be called a ledge, and the heels of his feet hung over the mountainside. A dozen or so metres above him, on the cliff face, he saw the orange glow of the fire that had drawn him here. Whatever was creating the light was blocked from his sight, but he could tell it was just beyond the lip of the cliff edge.

He examined the natural wall before him for a moment, trying to determine if it was climbable. There were grooves and jutting rocks here and there, things he could hold on to, but there were gaps as well, metres of slick and smooth surface that lacked any kind of purchase.

Every time he tried to map himself a route up, he would find it faltered. What was worse, the rock was still wet from the rain, and he knew that if he were to climb, he would surely slip and fall.

He looked up the mountainside and sighed.

As he admitted defeat, Ekkehard became keenly aware of the effects the cold climb was having on him. It was a bitter sensation, and he shivered. His clothes were still soaked from the earlier deluge, and they weighed upon his body almost as much as his aching muscles. It was as if the weight of failure was pulling him back down the mountainside.

He shuffled back along the narrow edge of the trail bit by bit until at last there was room for him to plant both feet again. Then he walked back along the trail that had led him here. Stopping a short way down, he turned and scrutinised the cliffside one last time and hung his head. As he resigned himself to return, the winds picked up and howled, whistling through the mountain range and furiously rustling the forest trees far below.

He would not be able to reach the glowing fire above, nor discover who had lit it. At least it had occupied him for the night, Ekkehard thought to himself, grateful for the distraction. He took some solace in the idea that this journey had spared his brothers from his melancholy and his temper.

Perhaps they had even found rest in his absence.

That would be something.

Ekkehard kept a careful watch on the ground as he began the descent along the winding path towards the forest. He realised as he went how difficult it was going to be to find his way back in the dark. He would likely be stumbling around the forest until daybreak and beyond. He knew that, but it mattered little.

After travelling a few hundred yards, Ekkehard peered over the edge of the pathway. He wanted to gauge how much further the path would run before he reached the trees. The density of the night, however, was nearly impenetrable, and he could not discern treetop from oblivion.

Then, something shifted in the darkness.

Ekkehard froze at the sight.

There was someone else on the path. Someone else climbing the mountainside.

No. Not a someone. A something.

Something was halfway down and moving slowly up the mountainside. Whatever it was, it made Ekkehard turn cold, raising the hairs on the back of his neck and making his heart race in chill anticipation.

It was a shadow.

That was all Ekkehard could see from this height.

It was shaped like a man. Yet, somehow, Ekkehard knew it was not one.

There was something altogether inhuman in the way it moved. It shambled and shuffled as if new to the use of its two legs. Its arms were held out at strange and unnatural angles, as if twisted back upon themselves. Its head lolled as if too heavy for its neck and swayed from one shoulder to the other as it made its ascent.

Ekkehard could not take his eyes off the thing.

He didn't know what to do.

There was no other way down. If Ekkehard kept going, then in a few hundred metres, he and the thing would meet. He didn't want that. Ekkehard knew without a doubt he did not want to come face to face with whatever was coming his way, but there was nowhere for him to go.

‘I could hide maybe?’ he thought to himself, ‘Wait until it passes.’

Then the creature stopped.

Had it somehow become aware of its observer?

Had it heard the thoughts racing around Ekkehard’s head?

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The creature's torso craned back, and the lolling head tilted until it was staring straight up towards Ekkehard.

Two glints of silver where the creature's eyes would have been interlocked with Ekkehard's gaze and held him there for a moment. Ekkehard felt his body sink into ice water. There was malevolent resentment in the creature's gaze.

Ekkehard held his breath.

The wind died.

There was nothing but silence as the two beings gazed at one another.

Then came the slightest sound. It was strange and alien, and Ekkehard couldn’t quite make it out. He focused, listening carefully, until he detected a soft wheezing carried in the air.

As if the being was infecting him, Ekkehard felt a chill assault his lungs, forcing him to inhale sharply, breaking the quiet.

There was a loud snapping sound as the creature reacted, suddenly bursting with life and movement. It had dropped onto all four limbs as it raced up the pathway, rushing forward like some strange amalgamation of wolf and spider, closing the space between it and Ekkehard at speed.

Ekkehard panicked and stumbled backward from the edge, unsure of what to do. Getting up and looking back down at the creature, he saw its rapid pace as the thing climbed ever higher. Instinct kicked in, spurring Ekkehard into action. He turned and ran.

He sprinted as far as he could until the pathway became too narrow once more.

The creature was still chasing, and he had no choice but to brave the tight walkway once more. Grabbing tightly to grooves in the mountainside, Ekkehard shuffled along until he reached the end of the path a second time.

Looking up at the unassailable cliff face, he realised he was trapped.

He risked a look down over the edge of the narrow ledge but there was nothing to see but a sheer drop.

He looked back down the path he had just come, but there was no way past the creature.

Back up the wall? There was no way he could climb it. Was there?

A guttural, ravenous hissing echoed through the mountainside as the creature neared. It panted like a wild beast, laboured breathing mixed with a rabid, ravenous slavering.

He looked up the cliffside once more.

No choice, he thought to himself. Climb or die.

Ekkehard began to climb, gripping whatever protrusions and indents he could find as he hauled himself up away from the ledge and beyond the creature's reach.

His fingers screamed in protest as he pulled himself up from one handhold to another, his feet slipping off the slick stone here and there. Yet he climbed nonetheless, fear pushing him to move quickly.

Soon he wasn’t even looking for holding points, relying on instinct alone each time he reached into the darkness, pulling himself further upward until he was halfway. Then, nothing, his outstretched hand slipping against smooth rock time and time again as he searched in vain for new purchase.

He pulled himself closer to the mountainside, resting his face on the stone. His heart thudded in his chest so loudly his ears and eyes throbbed in time with it.

He was hanging awkwardly. One hand was outstretched, holding a stubby bit of stone, while his other hand was pushed against the stone by his chest, tightly gripping an indent in the cliffside.

Painfully craning his head backwards, he looked up to try and find a route upward. The next gripping point was over a metre up, and he couldn't see anything but smooth, flat rock between his current position and it. It would be too far to jump, even if he hadn't been awkwardly contorted as he was.

Ekkehard felt something thud against the cliffside, causing one of his feet to slip from its foothold.

His heart raced and his body tensed as his leg kicked and scrambled to regain purchase. He dug his fingers so tightly into the wall he feared they might break. He pulled himself closer and fought to finally replant his foot.

Secure at last, Ekkehard risked a look down.

In the darkness below, the creature had slammed itself against the cliff's edge. Clawed hands began to clamber up the wall, sending shadows of snapping bones lurching upwards after him. Something like a great maw of teeth, dividing the thing's face vertically, snapped at him.

Then, terror drove Ekkehard.

Turning from the creature, he looked to the distant jutting rock a metre above him.

His heartbeat thundered in his ears, frantic breaths flaring his nostrils as he clenched his jaw to stifle a cry.

Without thinking, he pulled himself upward with all the strength his body could muster and jumped.

He reached one hand out and gripped.

He caught something. Something firm and strong.

He didn’t wait to steady his grip. The thing was closing in on him fast; he pulled himself mindlessly toward the next purchase point. His feet kicked frantically against the smooth surface of the cliff in an attempt to push himself further up. Then he reached for the next hold, and then the next, until at last he gripped the cliff edge and began to pull himself over its lip and into the orange glow of firelight.

He scrambled frantically away from the edge until he found himself on his back, gasping for air as his muscles ached and protested from the strain of the climb.

Feeling safe for just a moment, he found himself looking up at the tranquil stars above and felt the briefest sensation of calm.

Then the clawed hand of the creature at his back thudded onto the cliff edge, talons digging into the stone. Ekkehard rolled further from the edge as he tried to get back to his feet, stumbling as he went.

As the creature began to pull itself over the edge, Ekkehard found himself entranced, unable to look away from it.

For the first time, Ekkehard saw the face of the thing.

It was the face of a man.

A dead man.

Its features were pale and bruised. Its eyes were sunken and clouded. Yellowed fangs were bared as the creature reached out a murderous hand. Yet, despite the horrific, unnatural visage of the creature, Ekkehard couldn't help but notice a familiar set of features on the beast: the shape of its jawline, the height of its cheekbones, the way its black hair fell. Ekkehard saw in this creature the face of a brother.

'Aldedramnus?' Ekkehard asked the shadow.

Before the creature could answer, however, its clawed hand reached the glow of the orange light. The moment the light struck its flesh, the entire being dissipated instantly into the night, as if it had been nothing but a trick of the shadows.

Ekkehard blinked hard.

His eyes darted from side to side as he repeatedly inspected the spot where the creature had just been.

It had just been there, hadn’t it?

After a moment, Ekkehard tentatively crawled toward the cliff edge and, taking a deep breath, peered over.

There was nothing.

Nothing but lifeless darkness.

He had been half-expecting the creature to be lying in wait to drag him back down. Yet, there was no sign of the beast or anything else; he couldn’t even see the pathway below.

'Am I going mad?' Ekkehard asked himself aloud.

A sound, like a soft whisper, came from behind Ekkehard and he almost leapt off the cliff in fright.

Spinning around, Ekkehard saw it was just the whistle of the wind passing through the cave at his back. There was a large opening in the mountainside, from which the light he had followed emerged. There was no sign of the source, and whatever fire made the light must be secluded within, Ekkehard concluded.

His heart calming and his jaw loosening, Ekkehard finally began to regain some measure of control over his senses, and he inspected the cave entrance. It was large; large enough for three men to enter shoulder to shoulder.

Whatever was casting the light, it was hidden behind some bend deeper in the cave. It must be a big fire, Ekkehard thought, for its glow to reach so far.

A significant camp then. That was good. Better chance for supplies.

More likely to find a fight, though.

Yet, whoever was within hadn't seen fit to post a sentry. So, maybe they were not the most prepared of foes.

That was good too.

As Ekkehard began to make his way into the cave, he reached for the dagger sheathed on his belt, only to discover it was not there. It was then that he remembered he had dropped it in the pond, back in the woods.

He was unarmed. That wasn't good.

Still, he had come too far to turn back, and he decided to make his way through the opening, hoping to take any inhabitants by surprise. With each step he took into the cave, the warm glow of his guiding light began to recede farther and farther within its depth. Ekkehard shivered as another cold mountain wind rushed past him.

Then, the light went out and the darkness closed in.

His pupils dilated. His muscles froze. His body refused to take a step further into the now lightless abyss before him.

Ekkehard unblinkingly stared into the abyss, unable to move.

'What are you doing?' Ekkehard asked himself. 'Get ahold of yourself already.'

Stuck still in the void, Ekkehard was forced to watch the shadows of nothingness dance before his eyes as scenes of his past were once more played out before him.

‘Leave me be!’ Ekkehard screamed.