Dak And Stell/The Travelers Trilogies

1.19 A Mysterious Rock

The morning brought a heavy dew on the razor-sharp grass. The sun was slowly rising in the east, and it bathed the sky in a beautiful pink canopy reaching across the sky. Birds chirped in the trees and the fresh scent of the flowers opening up to receive nourishment from the sun's radiant beams or warmth.

As we packed our supplies back up that we had used the night before, we began to discuss what we would do from here. Stell thought that we should continue north towards Diamond Shell Crossing. Xalmia insisted that we travel east an extra five days to travel across a bridge that may or may not be controlled by Dark-Eyed-Ones.

"I'm not going along that chasm, Stell," Xalmia argued with Stell.

"There is no way we are walking five days just to get to a rickety bridge that spans the river you say you can't see the other side," Stell argued back.

I had never seen Stell like this. He usually was the most easy-going person you could meet. There was some way that Xalmia seemed to be able to get under my big friend's skin. The worst part was that I couldn't take either side. They were both my friends, so I had to let them hash it out in their way.

"You don't know what's down there, though," Xalmia said with a shudder. "There are things down there that peel the skin of you before they even eat you. there are things that will lure you into there mouths without you even knowing."

"How do you know what they can do if no one has ever come back from the chasm?" Stell asked.

"There is a spot that angles into the chasm and leads to the bottom. At night, creatures from below come up and out the ramp and feast on nearby herds or villages. Some stories would turn your blood to ice," Xalmia said with a troubled look in her eyes.

"You will be with us, Xalmia. We won't let anything hurt you," I said, trying to reassure her.

"There are things called crystal crypt crawlers that scale the walls of the chasm. They hide along the edges of the chasm to ambush travelers trying to travel to the crossing. They pull the travelers of the cliffs to there death if you're lucky. If you don't die, the crawlers swarm you and wrap you in some silk pod and inject eggs into your head. Once the eggs hatch, they grow into the brain, taking over the host and forcing them to attack their people," she said and went silent.

That sounded horrible, but the idea of walking five days to have to turn around sounded worse, possibly. For one thing, we had no idea how long we had before the event or where it was even going to take place. I knew Xalmia was scared, but I knew in my heart that Stell and I could protect her.

"You're going to have to trust that we can protect you, Xalmia. We have no idea how long we have to make it to where we need to be or even where it is. If we waste more time, it might end up being too late for everyone," I said. I hated to push her into something she didn't want to do, but what choice did I have. For all, I knew even this deliberation could be costing us precious time.

A loud rumbling sound started to come from the south. We all turned around to see undulating black clouds roiling in the sky. Lightning crashed down and caused us all to nearly jump out of our skins. We could see a white sheet of rain approaching fast. The clouds rolled towards us like an inexorable tide.

"We have to move!" Stell bellowed.

We got our packs on and pulled our hoods up over our heads. They were still that grass green, and Stell said that it would be fine, and they would keep us dry. We began to start heading north towards the chasm, but the rain caught up with us in a matter of minutes.

We continued for the rest of the day, and the rain persisted. We could barely see in front of ourselves selves, and we finally came to a large rock formation. It was nothing special, but the area that was sheltered from the rain. When we finally got into the opening, we noticed a door.

"Have you ever been here before Xalmia?" Stell asked her.

"No, I've never even seen this rock before, and I have traveled this way before," she said.

"What should we do?" Stell asked.

" I think knocking would be polite," a deep voice said from the other side of the door. We all jumped back from the door, as we did, the door swung open.

There was nothing through the door, just a black space devoid of light or color. I felt something warm wrap around me and looked down to see Xalmia's arms wrapped tight around me. She was trembling, so I put an arm around her for comfort. Stell was rubbing his head. When he had jumped back, he must have hit his head on the ceiling.

"There is nothing in that door," I said.

"Every time I look right into it, I feel like I'm getting sucked into it," Xalmia said with a whimper.

"It does smell like something, but I can't tell if its good or bad," Stell said. He was right, as I listened towards the door, all I got from it was a single note, a humming sound that vibrated from the door opening. Just then, Meso appeared from nowhere near Stell.

"It's fine, he can't hurt you, but don't trust him," Meso sent, and then he was gone.

Xalmia gasped for air beside me, and I held her close to me until she got her balance again. Meso always drained her when he appeared, but he was nice enough to appear away from her. Xalmia coughed and pushed away from me. She looked up at me and smiled.

"Thank you," she sent

"Do you plan on letting all the cold air in?" the deep booming voice rang.

I look at Stell, then Xalmia, and then shrugged.

"What's the worst thing that could happen?" I said.