Iron Tree

7th Day of Harvest,

766 Karloman’s Peace

Gerwald and Florentin had joined the waiting Dreux and Auriana a short distance from the cave mouth when Ekkehard followed his elder brother out. They crossed over to join the rest of their group wordlessly. When they reached them, Ekkehard noted that Gerwald appeared to have calmed, although his eyes were still bloodshot and puffy.

'No luck then?' Dreux half asked half stated as Ekkehard and Audomar came into earshot.

Before Ekkehard could answer, Auriana had already rushed toward him and embraced him, hiding her head in his chest. He held her tightly and rested his head on hers. She was all that was left of his life before.

'No,' Audomar answered Dreux.

'So,' Dreux began, 'what do we do now then?'

'We find our sister,' Ekkehard said.

'And how do we do that?' Audomar snapped in an exasperated tone. He turned and faced Ekkehard and gestured mockingly, ‘Hmm brother? How are we going to do it?’

Ekkehard had no idea. He had no plan to find her, nothing better than Florentin's suggestion to track down other camps at least. They needed to do it though, he knew that much. His family was falling apart. They needed a purpose, something more than just surviving. Something to hold them together.

Ekkehard looked at the desperate expression on Gerwald’s face.

They needed something to hope for.

‘I don’t know,’ he said, looking back to Audomar, ‘but that is what we are going to do.’

Audomar shook his head. ‘No, we are not,’ he said.

Ekkehard released Auriana and took a step toward his brother. ‘Brother...’ he began to say.

Audomar was on him in a flash. He grabbed him by the collar of his rags and pushed him past Auriana, shaking him.

‘I said no!’ Audomar bellowed. ‘Do you hear me! I told you no. Fucking no Ekkehard. You will listen to me! Do you understand! You will do as I fucking say!’

Ekkehard felt a palpable force begin to constrict his chest and shoulders. His body felt heavy, and there was a knot in his stomach. He tried to find words, to form them in his mouth as he looked into the seething rage of his brother’s face.

None came.

His breathing raced.

His mind swirled, and his vision narrowed.

He was gone. Away from the hills, away from his family.

He was trapped anew in an iron coffin, its metal walls like the jaws of a beast climbing eternally into a sky oppressively devoid of light.

First to greet him was a reverberating all-consuming silence, which only existed to be shattered by a horrific screech. A banshee wail of rusted metal that shook, rattled, and pounded against the walls that penned him in.

Malevolent forces clawed at the walls from the far sides.

Then the darkness shifted, metamorphosing into an eerie, sinister red glow.

Heat, vengeful and angry, began to lick at him, searing skin and adhering his sweat-soaked rags to his body. It was not just heat; it was hatred incarnate, as though born from malice reserved by the universe for him, and him alone. Mercilessly, it cracked and then peeled his skin.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

His mouth opened. He tried to scream.

The air itself turned traitor, choking him, parching his mouth and throat transforming them into a muted desolation. Clouds of steam and smoke billowed, serpentine, as if eager to drag him into the baleful fires that roared below. An acrid scent stung his nose.

Through it all, a distant wail. The sound of children pleading, weeping.

'Cheldric,' his thoughts echoed outward.

An apology to the void.

He was going to be consumed. Swallowed whole by the dread flames that danced in the shadows and by the vile things that threatened to break into his prison.

He deserved it. In a way, he wanted it. He accepted his fate.

He closed his eyes.

A new sound. Birdsong.

Distant and quiet, but there nonetheless.

It was joined by a faint scent. A subtle but sweet floral fragrance.

The heat had faded, replaced by a gentle breeze.

He opened his eyes.

He was still in the iron contraption, but the sinister red glow had been replaced by waves of golden light.

Before him, framed perfectly by utter darkness, was the visage of a cherry blossom tree, its canopy sheltering him. Its trunk appeared to have burst free of the metal floor, which had peeled and bent away from the champion of nature.

The golden light, which seemingly emerged from nowhere, illuminated it.

Pink petals fell, creating a ring upon the black iron void that was his prison's floor.

Two birds sat side by side upon one of the tree’s branches. One was larger than the other and mostly yellow in colour but for the black at its nape and around its eyes. It looked almost as if the little creature was wearing a mask. The smaller bird’s plumage was a mix of dark blue and black on its upper parts and white-grey on its underparts. Most notably, its tail feathers were a striking red and orange, appearing almost as if it had a fiery rump.

The birds sang to one another.

Ekkehard closed his eyes and listened to the music of the birds.

He felt lighter.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw his brother, still gripping him, still screaming into his face.

Ekkehard balled his hand into a fist and struck Audomar across the side of the head. His older brother was dropped by the blow.

A chorus of gasps emerged from the onlookers.

Audomar rolled onto one side and looked up at Ekkehard. His lip was split, and a trickle of blood ran down his chin. He placed one hand upon the wound and then examined the blood on his fingers.

He looked at Ekkehard again and sniggered a little.

‘We are going to find Gisla,’ Ekkehard said, staring down at his brother.

Audomar laughed a little harder. Then he said, ‘okay.’

Audomar got to his feet, brushed himself off, and turned to the rest of their group. ‘We will do what Ekkehard wants,’ he told them.

Ekkehard was stunned.

Audomar looked back at him and eyed him up and down.

‘I think our brother would like suggestions, Florentin,’ Audomar said, turning back to the others. It was as if he knew that Ekkehard was too surprised to speak.

‘Suggestions?’ Florentin asked.

‘Yes,’ Audomar confirmed, ‘you said we could track down other camps. Elaborate.’

‘I wasn’t being serious,’ Florentin explained, ‘I mean, they have us seriously outnumbered. I’m not sure attacking random hillmen is a good idea.’

‘You’re right about that,’ Audomar agreed, ‘but it looks like we are doing it anyway.’

Florentin shook his head in disbelief.

‘Look,’ Audomar continued, ‘there may be many of these bastards out here, but it seems like they travel in small groups, are unskilled, and from the looks of things, half-starved. We are strong, well-trained, and mostly better equipped; if we are clever about it, we can take them.’

'He is right,' Ekkehard added, finally finding his voice, 'we can't leave these hills without our sister, and this might be our only way to find her.’

Audomar nodded to Ekkehard and turned back to Florentin and said, ‘well then brother, what's our first move?'

‘You’re both mad,’ Florentin stated.

‘Yep,’ Ekkehard and Audomar replied in unison.

Gerwald tapped Dreux on his shoulder and indicated for him to follow. The two headed toward the cave.

‘Where are you going?’ Ekkehard asked.

'We need to keep up our strength,’ Gerwald replied enthusiastically, ‘they have food in the cave, I saw it. Barrels of salted meats, some rice too, I think. You guys figure out a plan, we will grab supplies.'

‘Good,’ Ekkehard said, giving his brother a supportive smile, and turned back to Florentin.

Florentin sighed and shook his head. Giving in, he said, ‘if there are many people living in these hills, there must be signs of life. Tracks, smoke trails, that sort of thing. We look out for them, and we hunt. Try to capture someone if possible; if not, we scout until we find a sizeable community or see signs of our sister.’

‘Go on,’ Ekkehard encouraged his brother.

‘Surely, they wouldn’t have tried to travel too far with captives,’ he theorised, ‘Anyone we come across is likely to be from the same tribe. I am sure the hillmen are just as territorial as anyone else. I doubt they're more than a night’s travel from where we are right now. But it is easy to get lost in hills like these. It could take much longer to find them, and they will be hunting us just as much as we will be hunting them.’

‘Let them try,’ Audomar responded sternly.

Ekkehard nodded at the plan and said, ‘Right then, we eat, we track, we find our sister. Agreed?’

‘Agreed,’ the two remaining brothers said in tandem.

‘Agreed,’ Ekkehard heard Auriana whisper at his side.

With that, the group mobilised.

Some salted meats and stale bread, accompanied by rice that was only slightly gone off, were gathered and served as the group’s meal. What supplies they could carry between them, they took, and the group set off to search the hills.