The Stone Of Death ☑️

VI. The Stone Of Death

I was descending the rocky way to the Green woods. The night had arrived already, but it didn't feel as spooky as in the Black woods. I could wait until dawn, but I had to do this now. Besides, I didn't know what kind of things were around here.

When I finally arrived, I was horrified to find everything destroyed. The grass and flowers were now ashes, and all the houses were burned. The only things that were alive were the brilliant fireflies that flew peacefully all over the place. One of them was flying around me, then another, and another, until there was a group of them that formed a ring around my waist. I was surprised to see this as it had not happened before. These fireflies lighted my way up and I was thankful to count with their help. Looking straight into the mountains far away, and taking a deep breath, I started running.

I must be there now, the sooner, the better. Some meters away, I heard an horrifying and loud cry nearby. I stopped to look around what it was. It wasn't a cry of a child or a woman, but the one of a creepy creature. I heard the cry again, and louder. It sent chills down my spine, it was so creepy. The fireflies around my waist started blinking quickly, like they were telling me to keep going. With fear, I ran as fast as I could.

After some time running, the ring of fireflies around my waist was disintegrating and flying to the right. I didn't know why but I guess they wanted me to follow them. They took me to a lake with a little wooden boat. It was the lake Theo had mentioned. I climbed onto the boat and started rowing.

The fireflies were fast too, they kept following me and lighting my way. The wind blew on my face as I rowed quickly. After I saw a big rock I quickly turned left to avoid it.

After some more rowing I arrived to the mountains, finally. I got off from the boat and looked up to see the brilliant moon and a nice halo around it. I could also see a weak orange light around the dark sky. The sun was about to arrive. I looked up to see the tall mountain in front of me. I took a deep breath and started climbing.

With my hands I took the little rocks that jutted out from the mountain. It was tiring. The fireflies were with me at every moment, like telling me to keep going up. When I grabbed another rock, it dropped and I almost fell. Now there weren't any rocks nearby. I took out the sword and stabbed it on the mountain. I kept going up with the sword. But after many holes that I had made to the mountain I could hear cracking sounds, like part of it was going to fall. I accelerated the pace, but suddenly parts of the mountain below me were falling.
I jumped and grabbed the top of it and finally I was on top.

From there I watched the first ray of light, the sun rising slowly. After many days without looking at it, it was beautiful. When the sun illuminated all the place, the fireflies disappeared, not before thanking them for helping me.

Now I wondered how I was going to go down. To the left there was a rocky slope near the edge of the mountain. I got near it and I descended all the way down. The slope arrived to an end and I fell to the grass, but I landed safe.

Now I was to the opposite side of the mountains. Theo had talked about a large rock structure with an arc form. He said that it was a bit further. I ran through the many trees that were still alive. Perhaps the Red Fairy forgot to destroy this place, but she was going to do it soon...

Going straight, I found a dead end with a cave. Theo hadn't mentioned any cave, nor it appeared on the map. I didn't know if this was the correct way. I looked around to see if there was something else far away, but I could only see empty spaces with grass. I had no option but explore inside the cave. Anyway, if I didn't find anything, I could keep exploring, but I had to do this quickly.

I threw away some rocks that blocked the path. They revealed a quite small crawlspace. I knew I was going to soil my clothes but I didn't care. I crawled inside to a closed space with corridors. My head almost touched the ceiling. I followed the maze-like corridors until I arrived to another dead end with a wall. I sighed, believing that there was nothing to do here, but I was wrong.

There was a little hole among the rocks of the wall. I peeked through it and I could see the other part of the cave; it was more open and it had torches on the walls. They weren't lit, though.

I had to get there. I kicked down the wall of rocks and I could pass through. I turned left to a corridor and there it was. The large rock structure in form of arc, and the Stone of Death in front of me, floating with a brilliant blue aura. The stone looked painted with different brilliant colors. It wasn't that small as Theo had described it.
I finally had found it. I put it carefully in my pocket.

On the walls there were some carvings, like letters in some language I couldn't understand. But it wasn't time to stop and inspect them, I had to get outta here now.

I went back to the open area where I entered the cave from, and I was horrified by what I saw.