The Berserker Chronicles [ONC 2022]

The Hidden Monastery

Chapter 8

Meeting monks in a
 monastery in a mountain
might mean I'm mad. Moses!

♛♛♛♛♛

I WAS VAGUELY AWARE OF BEING CARRIED on a galloping horse straight into a solid mountain that opened up like an illusionary beast's maw. It swallowed us without a trace.

I felt that familiar disintegration of my body as if I'd stumbled into a portal. Blinding white-hot light shot into my vision, forcing me to close my eyes. When I blinked them open, we were in an entirely different location. The mountain range, the burnt hamlet, the forest fire — they were all gone.

The new place was a cathedral-like structure. We continued racing towards the building, its lofty towers and tapering spires looming over us like giant pyres.

Ah yes, there was this homicidal elf who was going to politely kill me. The thought made me pass out more, with more visions of fire and pyres burning into my dreams.

♛♛♛♛♛

A BELL TOWER OUTSIDE WAS RINGING, and so were my ears.

"Killer elves. Fire! Dead!" I muttered under a tangle of quilt. "Hot fire!"

"Fire is always hot, bonehead." A watery voice said beside me. Elronde. "You don't have to make it hotter for us." 

Was she crying?

Attempting to abruptly stand, I fell back hard on my butt which hurts as if arrows were still stuck in there. Slow pain flowed through my chest like I swallowed bitter poisoned honey. The mistake of jolting up had reopened my bandaged wounds. My head throbbed. My body screamed in agonized protest. 

Fortunately, someone had removed the arrows in my sleep.

In the corner of my eyes, I caught a flap of Elronde's cloak as she rounded a corner. Her face was hooded. Her skin was paler. Then she was gone. 

"Hey, wait." I called but it was no use. 

I don't understand why she wouldn't talk to me. My breath after waking up wasn't that bad, was it? Besides, she pushed me into this world and it's her fault I've almost gotten killed twice. Now she's deserted me in a dim room that smelled like despair. I was very angry at her but who was I kidding? I needed her help.

I discovered I had slept on a straw bed on the floor. No wonder all my joints ached. Despite my heat-generating dream and being cladded only in my underpants, my skin was damp with sweat. My quilt was actually a filthy burlap sack. I wormed out of it, whitish specks — mildew, I guess — falling off.

Shivering, I scanned my surrounding: The room was a six-walled chamber. A special dungeon perhaps. It was inhumanly tiny as if six floor mats were arranged to form a hexagon. The ceiling was high with cobwebby angles. The ground was dusty. It would've made for a gilded cage if it were painted gold. Instead, it was slapdash gray. The room lacked any form of decor.

"Anybody here?" I called and well, thanks for asking, I got some echoey replies.

Soft streaks of blue-green light spilled in through a high, barless window. The window frame was tiny. I doubted if it would let my big head through let alone my bigger body. How do I escape?

"Bless the heavens you're awake!" A fat man in white robes burst through the door. He held a bowl that smelled like deathly balsam. "Gone for twelve good hours, eh? I never thought my Salve-A-Oil would work on those nasty wounds of yours."