Tales From the Outposts, Vol. 1 - Travels in the Forbidden Lands

Travels in the Forbidden Lands

I spent the first couple of days riding due north out from the Outposts. The land immediately outside the gates consisted of rolling plains and forests. Wild herbs and roots grew thick in the fertile soil and game was plentiful. I never understood why they didn't expand the Outposts to include this part of the countryside and made a mental note to discuss the matter with the manager when I returned. Whenever I had brought up the subject before, they seem afraid to expand their borders for some reason and it seemed to me that this land would be ideal for them. The fertile ground and abundant hunting and fishing would support them for years if they would just make use of it.

I made the edge of the foothills at the end of the second day and camped under a sky full of stars. I was up early the next morning and my horse, Lil' Red was as anxious as I was to tackle the mountains before us. We spent the next week climbing the foothills, hunting and harvesting fresh roots and herbs as we came across them. The nights grew progressively colder as we headed up into the highlands, but game was plentiful and I hadn't needed to touch my supplies of food. Time passed uneventfully as we ascended higher and higher into the mountains and I found myself attaining a measure of peace that I hadn't experienced in quite a while. My horse found plenty of grass to graze on and didn't seem to worry about predators. On the second night after traveling through extremely rugged mountains, I sheltered under some trees with a roaring fire to ward off the cold. The next morning when I awoke, the ground was dusted with snow that didn't melt during the daytime as we continued to scale the mountains.

On the third day in the mountains, Lil' Red and I crested a ridge that made me feel like I was riding on the top edge of the world. All around us were chains of lower mountains, valleys and plains and the widest expanse of the bluest sky I had ever seen. I reined in Lil' Red so I could sit and take in the scenery spread out before us. I grew dizzy as I gazed down on the lower mountains radiating from the chain we had ascended, looking at the snow and tree lines and realizing for the first time just how far we had come. Before vertigo got the best of me, I kicked my horse in to motion and we descended a steep mountain that bordered a vast rocky plain that extended past the horizon.

As we descended, I was able to make a closer examination of the land that stretched out before us. As we neared them, I saw that the plains were fairly hilly and the land looked like it had been blasted repeatedly by a greater power than any I had ever seen; there didn't seem to be any plant or animal life whatever out there, just ruined earth and massive boulders that appeared to have been tossed about by a careless giant. I scanned the sky in front of me and didn't see any birds above the land before us and nothing moving beneath us. Turning in my saddle, there was plenty of animal life both on the ground and above us and I was more than a little unsettled at the thought of nothing living in the plains to which we were descending. I turned around to face our descent and took time to study the land before us. The ground consisted of sand and hard packed earth, strewn with the scree from whatever had erupted out there. Boulders were pushed up out of the ground like broken bones through skin and the smaller rocks seemed to be the jagged scars of the earth and were strewn about like the broken remains of teeth. I jumped off my horse and decided to lead him down the last of the mountain, due to the steepness and pitfalls on the trail we were following. We rounded a boulder and I stumbled onto a patch of ground that gave way under my feet and fell over an small outcropping of rock, receiving a deep, nasty gash across the palm of my left hand when I tried to break my fall. After cursing mightily, I decided to take Lil' Red back to the Outposts out of concern for his health. The ground was so treacherous, I couldn't risk him getting an injury.

After dressing my wound, I spent the rest of the day unpacking everything, taking out what I could carry with me and repacking the rest onto Lil' Red for his journey back over the mountains. I was pretty sure he would find his way home again, but sad that I had to leave him behind. Lil' Red had proven his worth to me several times over the years and was just about all I had left of my former life. As I laid out my supplies, I was glad I had brought sturdy clothes because I had a feeling I'd need them before my trek was over. After my fall, I was glad I had thick clothes because I had a feeling I would need their protection in spite of the heat. It was warmer on this side of the mountains and the wind was steadier and smelled slightly of sulfur. The lack of anything living in the flats disturbed me more than a little and I thought it might not be a bad idea to hunt for extra food before making the trip back down onto the blasted plains. That night Lil' Red foraged for what sparse grass grew on the side of the mountain and I had some more of the game fowl I had cooked up the night before and turned in for a good night's sleep.