Knox of the Bloom

Chapter 24 - A Time for Peace

Four days the storm raged, with the going getting harder the higher they climbed. The nights were cold, with no fire as the deadfall was frozen and the Dark Ones had to be chased off every night with the act of changing form sapping Knox's energy. That night the Dark Ones came upon them in a swarm, and Knox came back to camp covered in scratch marks, but Eriu put on a balm given to them by the Druids, and the cuts healed up nicely by the next morning.

By the fifth day they came to the end of the valley and had to climb a cliff face, with Knox going first and Eriu struggling up behind him. Knox had to climb back down to tie the rope around Tapa and his hands shook from the hard climbing by the time he reached the top. The going improved with the ground sloping away down wards, and by the sixth day they came to the last temple. It was a square block of granite, with a tunnel carved into the front, and it led them below ground. Knox made a torch and together they delved down below the temple, with the way filled with twists and turns, and soon they grew disorientated. Eriu marked the walls to show them the way back, and Tapa soon set to growling, for there was the sound of footsteps echoing through the tunnel. They came to a cavern, where columns were covered in etchings of animals and figures. A pool ran around the columns, and an ancient fire-pit had been laid in the centre of the cavern, with logs placed beside it. Knox and Eriu built a fire and lay down beside it, warming their cold limbs, for the temperature below ground was unnatural. They woke the next day and ate a meagre breakfast of icy water that did little to improve their waning mood.

The tunnel they entered brought them deeper below ground, and by the time they reached the next cavern Knox was sweating from the walk, for hours must have passed with them going further and further down. They slept that night surrounded by stalagmites and stalactites, with hand prints covering the walls, and ancient these must have been for no man had set foot in this temple for what seemed hundreds of years, for the equipment they found discarded in the corner of the cavern was of bone and obsidian tools, of the like used by the early tribes of the land who first settled here.

Their rations of dried meat they had built up from chasing game soon ran dry, and it was a hungry Knox who tramped along the tunnel that seventh day below ground, but the ground seemed to be finally sloping upwards, and when they emerged from the tunnel they found themselves on a stone platform overlooking a lake far below, nestled among mountain peaks. They were high up in the mountain themselves, and they spent that night looking out over the terrain, wondering how far from home they were.

Blue torches bordered the stone platform, and these seemed to keep the Dark Ones at bay, for they stayed beyond the light. Knox felt his heart soar at the sight of the sun spilling over the mountain peaks, for a more majestic sight he had never seen, and he wondered what world those earlier men had lived in, with little knowledge of the far off places and living in a world so ruled by myth and legends.

They followed an ancient trail down the mountain path and came to the lake, which was frozen over, but Knox used his blade to dig a hole and they spent the day fishing, catching a few nicely sized fish. Knox showed Eriu how to tie knots and she had a big smile plastered across her face as she pulled a fish from the hole.

"This is brilliant," she said, watching how Knox gutted the fish, and they built a fire at the edge of the lake to smoke the fish. With their bellies filled with meat and their hands warmed over the flames, they felt their spirits renewed. The following dawn found them approaching a pyramid surrounded by large doldrums. Inside they found the relic they believed they were searching for, a wooden box, with ashes inside. Eriu read the inscription on the wall and supposedly it was the remains of an ancient God inside of the box.

That night the Dark Ones attacked in force, a multitude of them, at least a score of screaming wraiths storming the temple, and Knox and Tapa fought them off fiercely, with Eriu managing to keep them at bay with the relic, for it cast a bright blue flame at their approach, that did not burn her but seemed to shed a warmth. The Dark Ones fled as she opened the relic, and did not return that night.