Curse Of Blood: Gods & Monsters

Chapter XXXVI - Roth

"How did you find this place?"

Roth pulled his gaze from the grotto's narrow opening and hunkered down to scratch Váli's ears affectionately. "It was not I that discovered it. I merely followed Váli to his lair, I think."

Renic's glowing eyes, like bright orbs in the darkness, lowered to settle over the wolf. "I always wondered where he disappeared off to now and then." He twisted his head around to search the way they had come. "And I see why he chose it."

Roth nodded. They could not hear a single human voice this deep in the forest and 'twas his hope that they too might make use of it ... for their own deranged purposes. Without a word to either of his companions he stood and slipped edgewise through the narrow crevice, a vertical split in the rock that was almost completely obscured by creeping plants, weeds, and sharp nettles that drove their little hooks into his flesh as he bypassed them. Renic moved to follow after him.

It was not an easy space to maneuver through, but at length he and his brother reached the other side, their superficial wounds sealing almost instantly. It was the deeper lacerations that took far longer to heal — ones wrought by otherworldly means.

There was no moon tonight and it was as black outside as the bowels of the cave they had entered, but neither he nor Renic had need of the stars or the moon to light their way — their eyes could see clearly into the stygian gloom that mantled the jagged walls of the cave.

He knew not the hour or the moment he had realized he could see the world in hues of green, the details clear as though a viridian sun shone it's glow upon whatever object he gazed upon. He had always taken it for granted that others could see into the darkness as well as he was able to. His brother could, so why then could not everyone else do the same. However, his mother had swiftly disabused him of that illation and forbidden him to speak of "his gifts" to anyone but herself.

"How deep does the tunnel go?" Renic's voice reverberated quietly along the rock wall, their footfalls as hushed as Váli's imperceptible padding.

"There are many tunnels, brother; and they are all as long as Jorgmungand himself..." Roth had only managed to explore a scant few of the burrows today, yet had every intention of probing the depths of every subterranean shaft herein as soon as they returned from the hunt.

At length the passageway widened into a tall, cavernous chamber that was vaulted with thick veins of rock and thousands of hair-like roots that glistened with water droplets and fungi. The sound of dripping water seemed to echo all around them as though the very heartbeat of the black cave was counted in every purposeful drop. The pulse of life beat even here; in Niflheim.

There was no sound here, save their own blood thrumming calmly in their chests and the faint scuttle of cave-dwelling creatures.

"I think it will do nicely, brother." Thank Thor for Renic. He was sorry for the fact that his doughty brother should suffer his fate as well, but, in the same instant, he was thankful that he was not alone in his torments. Yet lately that was proving to be a curse as well.

His brother's answering smile was gradual and meagre, but still it came, as he knew it would. "Ay, a bit of stone and mortar should do the trick."

"Perhaps we may somehow find a way of separating the beasts at either ends of the cave." Even he could hear the dubiety in his own voice.

At that, Renic gave a troubled grunt. "Perhaps."

But separate them they must, for he did not care to wake from his lunacy covered in blood as he had the last time. And it was not the blood of a clansmen that had soaked his flesh last moon, it had been his and Renic's. Still and all, he supposed, it was better each other's than another's.