The Undertaking

Part 1

As the sky rumbled and the rain fell, I could feel the water run down my face andcreep into my mouth leaving a salty taste from my own tears. They are all gone. Thinking tomyself as wandered through the red stoned canyon. It was hours after the sun had set, andsoon after that, that my friends and mentor were attacked. The attack was swift andgruesome as the red ones sucked the essence out of their prey. It was only because I was inthe trees on watch duty that I was not spotted, but it was because of my own failure to seethe enemy that allowed them to kill everyone. After they had left, I stayed in the tree forhours before climbing down to see the camp in shambles. I had grabbed a pack and found aweeks' worth of food and water, and a dagger in the carnage. Home was too far away so theonly option was to journey to our destination in hopes of finding others there.I was jutted out of my horrible memory by a root in the ground tripping me andmaking me slip on the slick rocky ground. Looking to the left I could see a small concave inthe canyon wall and over it was a small oak tree providing more cover. I crawled under itfinally getting some shelter from the rain. I leaned back against the cold wall. This will haveto do. I tried to close my eyes, but I could not force them to close."You're being stupid, just because they attacked during the night does not make it aregular event." I mutter this trying to reassure myself, and while this was true the Red Onesdid only ever attacked during the day, closer to late afternoon, our group must have beentoo tempting to pass up, as there were quite a few more of us then what the Call wouldnormally have.Every year apprentice mages would be taken through the canyon and brought to theAvarosian caves to answer the Call. A normal group would consist of about three trainees,ours had seven due to an increase of mage deaths this past year.After an hour of trying to stay awake I finally fell into a light slumber. I woke up tothe sun in my eyes and a giant spider on my left shoulder. I almost screamed but managedto stay calm as I slowly made my way towards the direct sunlight. As soon as my shoulderspassed into the sun the spider cringed and jumped back into the shade and began climbingup the tree and back to its nest. I squinted, now, where am I? I then remembered what ourmentor had told us about the canyon and how the bright orange stains in the rock alwayspointed to the north, and that we would have to go against the pattern and go south.Looking to the left I saw that the orange was pointing towards the lefts, so heaving mybackpack up onto my shoulders I began to walk right, as if I were going against the currantof the canyon.I continued to walk for two hours with no signs of life anywhere. As the sun reachedits peak, I could begin to feel the rays of heat coming down onto me. Because of the angle ofthe sun it was able to shine on the canyon sides making them heat up as well. I reachedaround to grab the canteen from my pack. Taking a sip of water, I rounded a corner only toreach a giant split in the stone. It had to have been at least ten feet wide. On the other sidewas a giant opening with six different paths to choose from."Great, even if I do somehow make this jump, I could still take a wrong turn and die."Looking down the chasm I could see no bottom. Looking at the other side I noticed a smallledge, about two feet wide, fifteen feet below the top of the cliff. Though it was small I didsee a couple hand holds that I could grab if I made the jump. Though that was a big if. Youcan do this... and if not well hopefully ill land on something sharp and ill die quickly." Takingtwo steps back I took a deep breath and started to run.As I began to sail towards the cliff side, I had a startling realization that I had jumpedto hard. I slammed into the rock wall two feet above my intended target. Sliding down I feltmy feet hit the small platform. I could feel my backpack weighing me down as I beganfalling backwards. My hands flailed around for a grip. Just as I was about to go over my rightfingers caught onto a hold. I held on for two second before I was able to balance myself onthe slab.Alright, phase one complete, let move on to phase two. Looking up I was able to spota path I could take to the top. By the time I had heaved myself over the cliff face my fingerswere raw and I felt a dull ach in my chest, most likely a broken rib from slamming into thehard rock surface.Standing up I brushed myself off and walked towards the many paths that I had tochoose from. Three of the six paths had the orange stains pointing towards me, so I knewnone of those could be correct. Looking towards the one in the middle I saw no signs ofheavy travel. Looking to the one on the far right I noticed a marking in white. There you are.Slightly grinning I confidently strode down the path before me.