Collection Of Horror Tales - Chapter 17 The Forbidden Mountain Pt. 2

An old man was silently awaiting our arrival. We found it a bit weird, but on second thought, it would be quite suspicious if he had no information of foreign people in his territory. He was just standing there and not saying a word, while we approached. He had long white hair and a staff to walk on. His clothes were those of a traditional native shaman.

I as the representative of the troupe took the initiative to step forward and state our objective.

“Ohh wise shaman, forgive our invasion into your tribes territory. Please be aware, that we come in a peaceful mission.”

He answered in broken Spanish, which actually surprised me, considering the fact that they were usually way to proud to learn our language. “What mission?”

“We are a declaration from the Spanish government and are here to offer you a treaty of trade and peace.”

“Me have to thinking about” he answered, we interpreted his broken Spanish, as something around the lines of “We will think about your offer, please wait for our decision”

After he said that he turned around and just left towards the accumulation of tippies that were laying in silence.

We were pretty surprised by his answer, nevertheless we still settled somewhere near their tribe to stay for the night. After all we came in a peaceful and diplomatic mission and that required at least some patience.

The night started out as usual but became unorthodox pretty fast. Just when we started to fall asleep the first predators started to target our tents. Scary big cats that shouldn’t be local here as well as horses, buffalos, snakes and bears a wide range of animal with many not native to the area we are located in. The attacks were scary in the darkness of the night. Even though we had Mother Nature stand against us, we could hold our own thanks to dutiful guards and quick reactions from the team. We did have quite some casualties in the first wave of attacks. Three guards as well as the biology specialist Dr. Evergreen and the representative of the Spanish crown lost their lives in that faithful night. After the first wave we had finished to manage solid line of defence that could work with some fire to scare of the animals. In the end, the result of the battle wasn’t as bad as we expected, but still nobody was able to sleep that night. Furthermore the death of the biologist and representative of the crown left us without possible explanation and guidance.

Because we were fully aware, that this mission would put our life in danger, we still made our decisions, about the next steps in the name of the quest given to us and took the deaths of our comrades as their final contribution to the greater good. Under my leadership we made our way again to the tribe to receive the shamans’ final answer.

The moment we arrived at the camp of the tribe, the old man, who was disturbingly the only living being we have seen so far of the tribesmen, was standing in the same spot that he stood yesterday. I couldn’t even begin a diplomatic discussion, as fast as he started to speak.

“I am sorry my foreign friend. We wish that u would no longer stay in our territories. Otherwise we can’t guarantee your safety.”

I was dumbfounded. For this our comrades lost their lives? Not even reasoning. I became slightly angered and said:” Shaman of the Modoc tribe, could you please elaborate on your reasoning?”

But the old man already turned around and was walking into the morning mist surrounding the mountain. Only a lingering “It’s for your own good could be heard.”

I couldn’t deny that the unreasonable rejection triggered me. This senile old man thinks he could threaten us? Laughable. I looked into the eyes of the group and saw the same rage in them. “Friends” I said, “are we really going to fail our mission like this? We have comrades, that lost their lives for this, and this grumpy old grandpa doesn’t even want to hear our point of view? I won’t take this! I will get a proper answer out of him and if you’re with me in this, you can stay with me and get the answer our dead comrades deserve tomorrow. He said it’s for our own good? Phha, I bet, he only wants all the resources for his tribe alone. He wants to threaten us? Phha, we have a group of experienced explorers, while he is only a dying man. I say we stay!”

By the time I finished my speech, I saw the same fire burning in their eyes, that was burning in my heart. We all came to an agreement; to stay