Southwind Knights

Chapter Three, Part 2

The mountain range itself was like a massive drake lying supine across the world. It stretched wide and low. Smoky fog emitted from its crest and rolled down its sides. The company filed by like ants in its wake, making for the narrow valley that gave entry into the Cove. As their necks stiffened from staring up at the peaks, they found themselves immersed in a thickening mist.

Asher took to squinting at his feet because the wind was growing violent and it stung his eyes. The grass gradually thinned into rocky, barren dirt. The fog became impenetrable, and a shiver passed through the company as they found that they had arrived.

The boy’s ears strained for a sign of danger. The only sounds were of flapping cloth, howling wind, and the occasional rock clatter. Asher hunched his way forward, and he learned the true terror of the Cove: total vulnerability. The wind was deafening, the descending fog blinded them, and they were muted by their self-imposed silence. Death had but to reach out its hand and take them. All they could do was trudge onward.

This dream within a dream went on for countless heartbeats—Asher couldn’t tell how long; time was slowed by fear. But eventually the wind gentled, the air thinned, and Galen halted the march. The Healer peered into the gray for a few moments as the soldiers roused from their daze and exchanged looks of trepidation.

Galen altered their course a few degrees to the west, and they continued on for a spell before the mist yielded some meaningful visibility. They had made it out of the valley and into the Cove proper. There was grass underfoot once more, and when Asher risked a glance up behind them, he could make out the dark, broad walls of the ominous Dragoncliffs.

To everyone’s credit, no one fled or made a sound other than the soft tinkling of chain mail. The mist continued to thin until a tree line appeared ahead. With their cover gone, the urge to run kicked in. This last stretch before the woods was the most exposed, and they somehow maintained a patient pace for half the distance before breaking down. Galen tried to slow them with gestures, but as the company reached the last hundred yards, the march morphed into a sprint, and the soldiers, led by Victor, hurried past the wildly gesticulating Healer and finally, at last, into the thick blanket of foliage.

Under the tree cover, they all spun around and peered into the open. They panted and dared to whisper, expecting a drive of dragons to descend, but there was only the rustling leaves and their hearts drumming in their ears. Asher gazed over the shifting fog and still cliffs. Maybe the dragons were asleep.

Convinced that death was not imminent, the company crept into the forest, with Galen remaining at the tree line. Victor allowed a short rest. They huddled up under the canopy, mending the pieces of their fractured courage. When it was time to continue, Galen rejoined them. He didn’t mask his disgust.

“Keep the silence,” he whispered to them. “A unicorn won’t let a man come near, and it absolutely cannot be caught unless it allows. When the time comes, don’t harm it. Subdue it, we’ll take a bit off the horn, and we’ll leave this forsaken place.”

Victor nodded his approval. Galen glared at him before turning and carving out their path into the woods. The company marched on.

As they made their way and forgot their fear, Asher studied his new environment. Even Southwind’s woods, he learned, were deficient. This one was thick with every sort of flora, from flowery grass to dense shrubbery to trees of every size, and he was familiar with none of them. Every growth was different, lush, and colorful. Though he couldn’t pinpoint what, there was something odd about the forest.

High-stepping through, he kept alert for any signs of a unicorn, whatever those may be. Hoof prints and piles of dung, perhaps. But there was nothing at all. And then it hit him that the woods appeared to be entirely devoid of animal life. There were no birds or squirrels or chirping cicadas. Not even a scurry in the corner of his eye.