Wilden /The Dragon Heart Stones

Chapter 4 : The Secret

The giant yielded Eric effortlessly up the three flights of stairs to Hitherin's room. They entered the large chamber, Eric spied a second giant slightly shorter than the first, standing upright and rigid beside Hitherin's excessively large rounded bed, which was centred at the furthest wall. Eric felt the swaying stop as the giant halted beside the bed. He went down on one knee and arched his back to reach further down to swing a barred iron cage door open. After pulling the satchel off Eric's back and tossing it aside, he pressed Eric into the metal enclosure. He flipped the door closed. His bulky fingers fumbled at the key in the padlock for some time, he groaned until eventually, it clicked secure.

"Our lord has a new play thing I see." The shorter giant remarked.

"Mm." The larger giant throated like a distant roar.

He raised himself up,

"Come." He ordered.

Both plodded out and closed the door behind them.

As their solid thumping footsteps dissipated, the silence of the room fell on him. Eric's hasty breathing gradually slowed to a regular pattern as he sat crouched inside that barred pen. His eyes moved across the room to scan the brazen objects contained within. Elk and hog head trophies boasted upon the walls with large oil paintings, where Hitherin was the centre of attention in all, held offset between them.

 A story of dragons slain was decorated and stretched across the ceiling.

But Eric's mind was too confusingly distracted by his sudden change of circumstance to follow the tale.

He attempted to stand but found the enclosure too low for him to do so, and it was too short for him to lay completely stretched out too.

He found himself shifting his weight continually to find some form of comfortable position. Ultimately, he ended on one side with his knees bent, staring and the grainy textured rock wall behind.

His mind traced the events that led him to that depressing coop, and he wished with all his broken heart to be back on The Calm with his father and brother's smiling faces peering back at him. The world did not make sense any more. Before, it was simple, comfortable with a predictable sense of security. But the last few days flipped that all upside down into a mangled mess of confusion that bore and ugly contempt with it.

Eric heard Hitherin enter the room but did not turn to see him, but listened to him fumble around chaotically before he went into the bathroom to clear his throat and sinus before climbing into bed.

Hitherin showed Eric no acknowledgement before he dropped asleep immediately. No conscious thoughts seemed to bother his mind and keep him, as it did with Eric.

The next morning, Eric awoke to the giant's clumsy effort to unlock the cage.

Eric squinted to see Hitherin had already departed.

"Come." The giant waved the order as the lock gave way.

Eric climbed out. The giant positioned himself between Eric and the door to prevent his escape, and palmed toward the bathroom doorway.

Eric obliged to relieve himself, and then washed standing above a basin on the tiled floor.

"We do this every morning, and every night before dinner." The giant informed him.

Eric nodded.

The giant departed after escorting him back to that cold little prison, where he remained inside all alone the entire day.

That night Hitherin returned to his bedtime demeanours, without so much as muttering a single word to Eric. He blew out his candle and slipped into slumber.