Eritance - Chapter 14

We walked for around an hour stopping at every large tree that we could find. I would climb up the tree and try to spot a village or a sign of civilization but so far, we weren’t having any luck.

We continued the search for hours. Our search lasted well into the evening. At this point we were both tired and hungry, not having eaten since the day before. “Let’s go back to the river” Ciara complained. “I’m tired, and I at least need a drink of water to go on”.

I didn’t want to give up, but there wasn’t really a choice at this point. “Okay- “I started to say but in the dim light from the stars I saw a massive tree. “Wait. Let me just climb this one last tree. This one is much higher than all the other ones. This might be our lucky break” I said to her. “Ugh. Fine. Hurry back though. I don’t want to be left alone in the darkness down here” she grumbled.

The tree really was quite large. It stood at about 20 meters in height and was ten times as thick as I was. I immediately began to climb the tree as fast as possible. I had a wonderful feeling about this tree, surely there were other travelers nearby or a village or something. However, I was quite disappointed when I reached the top.

Nothing could be seen. Even though it was night time, the starlight allowed me to see for a quite a distance from the top of the tree. On top of that, village fires or campfires should stick out like a sore thumb in the night. However, nothing could be seen except for an endless number of trees around us.

I clicked my tongue and, with a sigh, climbed back down the tree. “Alright, let’s go. I didn’t find anything” I said as soon as I got to the ground. However, when I turned around I didn’t see Ciara anywhere. “Ciara, where are you?” I called out with alarm. I wasn’t alarmed because I was worried about her. However, if she was missing, there must be a reason for it. I really hoped it meant that the orc chieftain hadn’t found us already. It should have been impossible for him to find us so quickly.

I immediately raised my guard and tried to be as stealthy as possible to go investigate where I had last seen her. Slowly I crept through the forest, back tracking the way we had come, but there was no trace of her.

Confused, I decided that staying on this path would no longer be safe struck out in a different direction. As soon as I set off though I had a strange feeling and spun around. Just as I did, a shadow swooped down from the trees and struck me in the head with a heavy blow. My consciousness faded, and I slumped down to the ground.

Sometime later I awoke. My head was spinning, and I had no idea where I was. “It’s about time you woke up” came the familiar voice of Ciara. “I’m never going to forgive you for leaving me to be attacked” she said.

“Ciara? How are you— where are we?” I asked, my head still throbbing. “Well, it appears we are in a cell of some sort. I don’t know anything besides that. You weren’t the only one that was ambushed. I only awoke a few minutes ago” Ciara responded.

We had to find a way out of the cell. I wasn’t sure who or what had kidnapped us, but the only way to survive was to find a way to break out. The first step would be to get rid of the chains that were tying us to the wall. I figured that with my increased strength I would have a good chance of breaking them. However, try as I might, I was not able to break the chains.

After struggling for a few tens of minutes an unfamiliar voice suddenly echoed from outside of the cell. “Try as you might, you will not be able to break these shackles. They are imbued with a special strengthening magic. Not even an elder spine bear could break these chains” it said.

“What do you want from us?” Ciara snapped back at the voice. “Why are we here? Let us go!”. The voice calmly responded “You are not in a position to be making demands. I will ask the questions. Why have you trespassed on our sacred lands and desecrated our holy site?” it inquired with a hint of anger.

“We didn’t know this was your territory. We had no intention of disrespecting you. We fell into the river after being attacked by an orc chieftain. We’ve been trying to find our way for sometime now.” I replied.

“Hmm, an orc chieftain you say? Such a weak being was able give you that much trouble eh? The tribes of man really have fallen quite low” the voice said. “Suppose I believe you, that this really is an accident. You still desecrated our holy site. That cannot be forgiven”. “What holy site? We really didn’t mean to do anything to offend you” I cried out. “There must be some way we can work this out” I said.

“Hmm. I suppose there is one way. If you can defeat one of our warriors in combat, we will allow you to live” the voice said. “Fine. Let’s do this” I replied. I figured, no matter what kind of warrior they bring out, fighting him would be better than dying in a cell.

“Excellent spirit, no hesitation at all, although if you knew who we were. You would not be so eager to face one of our warriors, son of man”. With that the door opened and several figures with masks covering their faces came in and undid my shackles. I was then dragged to a large enclosed room through a stone hallway. “It seems we are underground” I thought to myself.

I was handed a sword and the figures left through a different door. Both the door they left through and the one behind me closed after they left. I was standing alone in a room lit by torchlight.

After waiting one or two minutes, a door across the room opened. A figure slowly walked out of the room. “This must be the person that I will fight- “I thought. “Wait a minute, I’m fighting a girl???” I inwardly thought. “This will be easier than expected” I thought while imagining someone like Ciara fighting a newly enhanced me.