The Bedlam Realm, Kingdom of the Dragon circa 1.337.958 Unmei Period
The Knight Gonkuro had severely undersold the Squires on the severity of the weather of Bedlam. The first few nights were the worst, the storm that soon rolled across the lands was far fiercer than what they had all collectively experienced during the march. The three of them were held down in a small cave a few hours after the start of the climb but the quickly rising water forced them up even higher, or else they would be drowned. The winds raced through the storm, throwing much of the water directly into their faces, the fall was so dense Yad found it difficult to see a few inches in front of himself. Turning to look down was no different, the only indication that the kid and Eric were still with him was a dangling cord that disappeared into the raging storm. Sometimes, quite often, it would suddenly go tight, and he would feel a sudden pull, signaling to him that Bill had fallen again, lost his footing, or was simply blown away, his weak frame too frail to hold his own. But, like always, the cord would go limp again as Eric secured them and Yad moved onward.
The sky quivered and a bright flash of light brought a lightning bolt down some few hundred meters ahead of him. The side of the mountain shook violently and cracks splintered down the side. Yad stopped and tried to peer into the rainfall, his hair stood on end and another flash illuminated the sky, it was brief but long enough for him to make out large chunks of the mountain falling toward them. He screamed as hard as he could for his fire team to move but his voice was lost in the winds, with the kid’s dark hair beginning to break into view. Yad braced himself and called forth his oldest companion, the Familiar Kālbeth. The Chimera creature crawled from the abyss, grafted onto Yad’s back, and lunged forward, shattering the debris into smaller pieces, pieces Yad prayed didn’t hit the others on the way down. When he heard no screams and felt no sudden pull, he dismissed Kalbeth and continued their treacherous climb.
They came to rest twice more, each time on thin ledges, hugging the wall to give their arms some form of relief. The temperature was nearly freezing, which meant they were getting higher, but it was hell on their bodies in combination with the rainfall. Even Yad began to feel a slight numbness in his hands and the kid was already shivering. They needed a cave or shelter, and while he would, if need be, Yad did not relish the idea of being forced to carry a corpse all the way up and down a mountain. With numb hands, Yad began the climb once again and the others followed up, and after a few hours, the impossible seemed to happen. After a day and a half of climbing through a storm from the pits of hell, the waters receded, and the rainfall surrendered the grey clouds to a warm sky. Yad was hesitant to believe his eyes as if the storm was tempting them with good fortune only to rob them of their hope at the last minute. But it was no trick as far as he could tell. The suns began to shine and feeling returned to his limbs. The good blessings only seemed to grow, as with a clear sky Yad spotted what he thought was a cave entrance off to the right. After signaling to the others, they all eagerly agreed to shelter there for the day at least.
At the start of the day, the rain was so dense it was difficult to think. But now, it seemed almost peaceful looking over an ocean that Yad knew used to be a rich valley. But the temperature was still rising, more than a break in a storm. This was something else, the suns climbed higher and higher until Yad’s skin was dehydrated and he soon found himself missing the flood. And then the wind seemed to come to a standstill, unnaturally so, he had only ever experienced something similar once before.
“Mars.”
“And this world was a barren desert?”, the trio was perched inside an enclave cut into the face of the great mountain that only seemed to grow the more they climbed. Yad lifted a pouch to his parched lips and choked down a few sips, “Still, doesn’t make sense for a heat wave of this level to be here, Bill. Especially on a mountain.”
The kid shrugged his shoulders and fell back on dirt and rubble, “I dunno, but last time it got this hot and dry, we had a full-blown sandstorm on our hands.”
“What do you think Eric?”
“I told you my name is Emeric.”, he said from the ledge, peering over the side down and around where they currently were, likely looking for their next starting point. “And don’t worry about it, this Realm has all kinds of queer attributes, it belongs to the Archdragon Knights after all. If it does not hinder our journey, it does not concern us. After everyone rests, we keep moving. What’s our food situation looking like?”
“Not good.”, Bill said, leaning forward to lay out what remained of their ration packs from Gonkuro and his Knights, “Whatever wasn’t blown away in the storm was soaked and turned to mush. And by now,” Bill raised up one of the cylinders and poured out the power inside, “dried out by these raging suns. We will need to go hunting or we won’t be making it to Einw anytime soon.”
“Didn’t exactly see a lot of good game on the way up kid.”
“Well, no, but this is something.” Bill climbed to his feet with a bit of exertion and stumbled to the back of the dark cave, hand tracing the wall for support, “This cave tunnels out.”
Yad sat up and Eric turned from the ledge, “What?”
Sure enough, Bill was right. It was so dark the trio originally assumed it ended, but it led into a small tunnel. Eric laid his arm out and caught a faint draft, meaning the tunnel eventually led back out to the surface. They began to debate amongst themselves about what to do next when a screech cut through their dialog and forced them all to the ground, instinctively covering themselves. Bill pressed himself to the jagged cave wall, “What was that?!”
Yad inched forward, Eric behind him, and came to the cave entrance, he didn’t poke his head out, but he listened. There were many sounds in their strange land he was not yet familiar with, but he knew the sound of beating wings, “Whatever it was, it was big. And sounds hungry.”, he held up his hand before Bill could ask, “No, we can’t hunt that thing. I mean, maybe I could, but not like this, not here. I’m far too weak and we have no weapons.”
“Well, I guess it’s settled.” Eric pulled Yad back from the cave entrance, “Unless we want to take our chances climbing with whatever that was, we embark into the cave. For now, let’s all get a little bit of rest, and we can start at nightfall.”
“Agreed, I’ll take first watch. If something does creep up on us, I think I’m our best shoot at killing it, no offense. To either of you.” Bill had no argument and Eric reluctantly submitted, nodding off in the dark corner a considerable distance from the other two.
Yad fell on the left-most side of the cave, resting on some slightly softer patches of dirt and rock. His body ached all over but already he felt himself starting to heal, “You better sleep while you can kid. Eric will likely want to tunnel all night.”
“I’m ten-and-seven years, Yad, I doubt you are much older. Not significantly enough to warrant calling me ‘kid’.”
“Sure, but you are small.”, He smiled to himself, “Why are you so small? Is this a Martian thing?”
Bill sighed and stretched himself out even further, “I don’t know much about Martians. My mum called Mars a melting pot, all kinds of aliens used to live there, from Midgard to Azoball, she used to say.”
“Used to? What, did they all leave or something?”, no response came, and a sort of sadness fell over his face. Yad dropped the subject, “Ten-and-eight.”
“What?”
“You were right, I’m not much older than you at all really. But you are rather small.”
He nodded, “Is being this, er, big normal for all Sarkarians?”
“Well, I guess it is. To a degree.”, Yad said, “My House resides in a Universe set aside from Yggdrasil, so we do things a little differently. But believe it or not, I was considered the runt of the litter.”
Bill was quiet for a moment, before he responded softly, “I understand, really. My kinfolk isn’t this small, mum said I was fine just the way I was but when I saw the other children, I knew. I was the runt, I got sick a little too often, injured far too easily, and no matter what I tried I never got bigger or stronger.” He paused for a moment, “If Emeric hadn’t decided to team with me, no one would have. Wouldn’t want dead weight slowing you down, you know?”
Yad’s previous cripple remarks stung him, an insult once reserved solely for him, “Well, I guess we are a bit of a match made in heaven, a couple of defects hanging in there together.” Bill smiled at him, and Yad considered giving him less of a hard time, “Is that why you joined the Order? To get stronger?”, the look of darkness crossed his face again but before he could answer the cave shook and a giant bird-like creature slammed into the opening. Bill yelled and Yad jumped forward and punched the side of the long beak as hard as he could, sending it against the side of the cave, just missing Bill by inches. Eric was up and threw Bill deeper into the cave before following, Yad punched the beak once more before kicking it back, forcing the creature to regain its stability and release another blood-curdling scream. Yad didn’t wait for it to reposition and made a mad dash for the tunnel entrance, tumbling into Eric and Bill just as the tip of the beak broke through, unable to reach any further. Eric sorted them out and they took inventory, Bill lost his pouch of water, but it was already empty, and all the ration packs were gone, but they were alive. Eric sighed and stood up, “Forward.”
The inner network of caves soon opened itself up to the trio, large enough for them to walk standing straight up. The darkness soon consumed them, pushed back only by a small flame Yad conjured with his right hand. He was the only one on the fire team to have received so form of formal training in Majik, even though his Understanding was still elementary. But his humble flame was more than enough to light their way forward. Their pace was drastically reduced from their climbing speed, now being forced to toe the surrounding area for uneven cave structure, or else they risked series injury from a trip or fall. And this was how it was for a few hours, the three of them slowly making their way through the caves, illuminated only by Yad’s flame, peering endlessly into the pit of darkness ahead of them. With every step, Yad prayed some horrible monster did not emerge from the shadows, he was in no position to fight anything. His hasty escape from home followed by the serval day-long journey to Bedlam was already pushing him to his limit, and this journey was far past it now.
The draft of faint wind they had been following grew limp, Yad feared the worst until the sound of running water bounced off the walls. He increased his pace against Eric’s warnings and slowly the darkness surrendered to a cool light as their cave trail emptied out into a vast cavern, the bottom of which contained a great body of sea-green water. Yad cried out and Bill joined him, their celebration bounced around the walls, sending an echoing throughout the structure. They slowly made their way down to the water, but Eric remained unconvinced of this gift, “Careful? Of what? We have been wandering around the dark for hours now, if there was something in here it would have gotten us already.”
“We climbed the mountain for days, yet we only just learned of the winged creatures hours ago as well.” Eric shot back, dropping down from his ledge to join the others near the shore, “My point is, we should always be on edge. This could be a trap of some kind.”
Yad ignored his ramblings. Eric was right, there could be something out here, but the fact is they haven’t rested properly in days, let alone in water that wasn’t freezing cold, borderline acidic. The greater risk was to encounter an enemy while exhausted than to encounter one while well rested. Bill seemed to agree and was already down to his undergarments, submerging his body in the water. As he surfaced again Yad noticed his hair wasn’t black, but rather a dark shade of purple, shining under the filtered rays of sunshine that invaded this place through a peak at the climax. Yad stripped and jumped in as well, re-emerging with a yell as the cool water washed over the cuts on his skin, washing away all the dirt of their journey so far, “WOAH, this is amazing.”, he turned back to face Eric, still standing with a look of disapproval at the two of them, “Come on Eric, just five minutes to clean yourself up and we get back to tunneling.”
Although reluctantly, Eric gave in and joined them in the waters, visibly shivering as it washed over him. The three of them sat in the water for five minutes, which turned into ten minutes, and that into thirty minutes. After an hour had passed, Eric must have finally worked up the strength to escape and slowly sloshed his way back to their garbs.
“What is that?”, Yad called out as Eric turned, revealing an elaborate seal of some kind with words in a tongue he did not know. He wanted to say it was a tattoo of some king but the imprint and style of it seemed more like a brand almost.
“It’s a slave’s mark.”, Bill answered, standing up to wipe water from his face, “Mars had a successful slave trade, they brand them like that to mark their property.”
Eric had reached for his stuff and begun pulling on his pants, “Balthazar speaks the truth. It is a Slave’s brand, my brand.”
“Want to talk about it?”, Yad ventured.
“No. I do not.”
Understandable, Yad thought to himself, if he was a slave once, he doesn’t think he would be interested in divesting the details to people he hardly knew either. He turned back, “Let’s go, Bill. We’re heading out.”, Bill nodded and began to slosh his way over. Yad pulled on his pants but stopped as his hair stood on the ends. A low but audible cracking sound drew all their attention to the cave mouth they had entered from, where an insectoid creature slowly crawled out, making its way onto the wall, and going up and up. Its large pincers clipped together, louder this time, as its eight limbs pierced the stone. A whistle from Eric and Yad turned to see two more creeping out from another cave mouth behind, “Balthazar, we are leaving. Now.”
“Yea don’t need to tell me- AHHHHHH!”, Yad whisked around to see Bill scream as he was dragged out of the water and down an ominous cave, some gooey green substance got ahold of him by the leg.
“BILL!”, Yad yelled, and a scorching hot sensation consumed his left arm as the green substance got ahold of him and launched from the mouth of the creature on the ceiling. He could feel it breaking down his skin and quickly grabbed hold of a stone to prevent it from yanking him away as well. Eric was set on by the two behind them, Yad raised his hand to conjure flames, but his body jerked down as another creature got ahold of his leg, more were emerging, their humming and pincers clamoring soon filled the area as more burning sensations covered Yad’s body before he could scream. Another, on his other leg, and finally his last arm. They swarmed him as his vision of Eric’s body was blurred out, the creatures were now vomiting this substance onto his body, and he could feel it starting to harden. He wanted to fight, he wanted to call forth Kalbeth, declare his House words, and tear them limb from limb. But his will melted away with his sight his last thoughts drifted, like fog on the glass.
