BLADES AND BONES

Chapter 3: Welcome to the Bloody Jungle

Fog started to form in the base of the thick forest as dawn started to break. At the moment, Kesk found himself waking up from a nightmare. What he could only recall was that he has fallen to a black hole, fully oblivious of what's around him, yet the feeling of falling down seemed true for him. Everything turned black. The next thing he knew was that he was now on the ground lying on his belly. A quick scan at the surroundings and it looked like he was in an apocalyptic land where corpses left scattered on the ground. The skies were covered by the darkest gray clouds. He got up slowly and saw gruesome images of floating dead horses without bodies. Blood was dripping down from their necks. Most horrifying was meeting eye to eye with their huge, bloodshot visual organs. As the nightmarish creatures approached him, tentacle-like limbs suddenly gushed down from the neck, red and dark in color. There's the gut feeling inside the albino that a bad thing was about to happen if he would not flee. The farmer did choose to run but he realized his feet were stuck on the mud. Unfortunately, he was helplessly taken by those creatures. He screamed for help, then it became dark for the second time. That was the last thing he remembered before he woke up. Sweating and panting. He hoped that wasn't any premonition he get from his dreams in many occasions. Whilst everyone can dream about something but the possibility of it becoming true was beyond comprehension. And Kesk knows it better than others. His clairvoyant personality was one of the characteristics why he earned the king's trust aside from his talent in tinkering. Still, his dreams weren't exactly as they were to happen in his waking hours like the missing boy in his dream before the night a horse disappeared. He knew something was amiss there the moment he discovered some animal was gone. Although they were vague representations of what will occur which leaves the poor albino guessing what will really come true, he would treat those lucid visions seriously. Afterwards, he reports them to the king to help him solve the baffling circumstance. Kings and Queens were commonly impressed by his way of perceiving things. Others, though, did suspect he was also the one who does the dreams himself to make it come true but no one has proven he was doing something suspicious. His dreams were mostly nightmares to begin with. And Kesk thought he was cursed than gifted. It didn't help him get much the sleep he yearned for. They even call him lunatic. Nobody understands his honesty and condition except for the kind King Pejulo and his Queen.

But the truth arrived and it scared him...

Kesk was extremely surprised to see that he was now in a different place. Not quite the doomed plains he dreamt about but in a land full of trees. He would have been relieved to know if he was in the forested part of the farmyard but the trees and plants were not familiar. It was clear that he was no longer in the farm.

Today, it was uncertain if he could reach the King's castle to confess about the recent dream to help him figure out what's going to happen. Worse, he doesn't actually know why he was in the forest. He only hoped his day wouldn't be so terrible as he expected it to be.

The blond then suspected that he sleepwalked towards the forest. But he never remembered having sleepwalked in all of his nightmares. He wakes up in the same bed he slept on. To answer the questions in his mind, he had to find a way to grasp his current location. Hence, it was the time he recalled having a map and compass. This pair was a gift from the deceased Queen Yerka, Yureka's mother, and it was his habit to bring tools intact on his dark brown pouch with a braided rope sling wrapped on his body. This small bag was made of animal skin and Kesk usually wears it beneath his layers of clothes. Though he had pockets on his coat and pants, he solely uses them for carrying money. He's done this for years to prevent people from eyeing on his prized possessions. A man who has less shall keep them his treasures. As his motto, "Never reveal your treasures if you don't want them stolen." And it did work at the current situation. He groped for his bag and he felt his pouch on top of his belly. Immediately taking it out to check the contents inside on its Lilliputian opening by untying the handmade stitchery. Despite the size, it could handle valuable items. This items were the torn, folded map of Aetheria, a piece of charcoal wrapped in wool, scratch papers, his own-made compass and a monocular. He found all of this things safe in his bag. The farmer sighed in relief. Thus, the albino decided to stand up though he felt laggy. He kept asking to himself, 'What happened while I was asleep?' The man was just thankful he was in one piece without any mutilation or stolen trinkets. Although, he was certain somebody brought and left him here. Out in the wild, bloody jungle. To the left, the right, all around him were trees that looked achingly similar. He used his compass and unfolded the small incomplete map. The device for finding directions was made up of a needle pointing north and was attached to the small, round metal body by a loose screw to allow movement. He turns to south-east. Having the hunch that he was not far from his country. Its unfortunate that his map only showed half of Aetheria. The whereabouts of the other fragment was unknown. But his map was enough for now. The important thing was that he could tell where he was. In the 'Unknown Forest', northwest of his hometown. There was no need to say that he was beyond the borders upon seeing the giant trees. He wore a frown. The need to know more about the surroundings was put into action. Keeping his valuables back to his bag, then venturing south-east, and hopefully be able to return to San Tima, safe and sound. The soil was soft, dark...and reddish. He knelt down and flicked a finger on the ground. His grey eyes squinted at the tip of his finger, looking closely at the muddy soil. The soil seemed colored by something. He knew its not the original color. By sniffing it, he smelled metal on it. Linking the color and the metallic odour.. "It's -"

"!!"

Kesk suddenly heard a branch snapping nearby. Someone must've known he was there. He quickly ran to a tree, lucky enough not to slip on the soft ground, and climbed up a rock beside it in a hurried manner. There seemed no traps there after all, or so he thought. He reached for the lowest branch, taking advantage to his height, and continued until he was high enough to be covered by leaves. The man felt fear but not of heights but for his life. He has no weapon to protect him from the unidentified guest. He kept still, with hands tightly gripped on the branches.

A short moment after, the bushes moved. Then, a hand came out, revealing a human crawling. The blond noticed his bloodied armor. It wasn't long when he identified the wounded man. He gasped, "Oh no, he's one of the patrolling guards!", the farmer thought. Filled with pity, he was moved by the urge to help the man. He went down almost falling because he was in a rush. At last, he finally reached the ground on his feet. Yet, before he could turn to where the knight was, a shrieking roar stunned him. After that astonishing sound, Kesk immediately turned his body towards the knight who saw him. They were just about five to six feet away from each other. Kesk would have taken his first step to run towards the knight when...

"RUUUUUNN!" The wounded soldier shouted at him. But he hesitated. He can't just leave a wounded person alone after hearing that roar. Running was really his first option but leaving the poor, bloody man was too cruel for him. "Run... ", the knight begged in his weakened voice. They met eye-to-eye, Kesk nodded with a regretful face. And, he ran. To which direction, he doesn't know. He knew nothing but to run away from the wounded man and the roar. His feet felt heavy as he fled. As he was leaving, footsteps of seemingly gargantuan creatures were heard. They sounded like hooves. Lots of it. 'Horses!', instantly recalling his nightmare. It's coming true...

He decided to hide behind a tree and took a glance back at the unfortunate knight who was now crying for mercy. The blond was frightened, yes, but he can't just run away. He was trying to catch his breath. Everything was way too hard to accept. He hated how his nightmares come to life. There was too little of a time to prepare. He looked for a possible weapon. Nothing but leaves and branches. Afterwhich, he heard the knight screaming. Knowing that the monsters were there, he peeked to see what they were.

Behold, the monster's form. A sleipner — a horse with many feet. He thought there were more than one but he's wrong. 'How can I fail to guess that right?', he asked himself. After all, he has read books about mythical creatures but he didn't expect them to be real. This one was bigger than the size of an ordinary horse having the height of three persons stacked up, roughly estimated at twelve feet tall. It looks like the creature's mangled body has human parts, too. He noticed the pair of abnormally deformed human arms with claws. Its large head was somewhat a mix of human, at the right side, and horse, at the left. He could see the whole body: bluish black and rotting. Its ribcage and bones prominent on the decomposing skin although it was amazing how robust its body built was. The muscles remained intact. There was a bandage, no, white fabric wrapped around the neck of the monster. There was only a short time to study the monster's appearance  before it crushed the victim and killed it. Kesk was utterly disgusted and saddened the way it mashed the human like it was just an ant on the ground. After the hybrid was done, it faced the direction where Kesk was hiding. The farmer held his breath. He's pretty sure he was next. Not moving would seem to help however, one jump and the creature landed behind Kesk's spot. The tree was the only thing in between them. One swing of the claws and the creature ripped the tree. This caused Kesk to move and sprint away. Again, the creature roared. The blond swore he should have escaped when he had the time but curiosity made him stop. Studying the monster was suicide. As he ran, he saw what's ahead of him. A cliff. He stopped in time to avoid falling. Jumping was a good option if the ground wasn't steep. Of all the things, it was a deadly cliff. There wasn't anything to assure a safe fall. It was the river below. He quickly checked his sides to find an alternate way to go. However, it was too late to search for a way. The sleipner caught up fast with its thundering hooves. Kesk had to face the nightmare.

He was doomed.