CHAPTER V – SIDE B: THE HAUNTED SWAMP (2)
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CHAPTER V – SIDE B: THE HAUNTED SWAMP (2)
“Just as I had in mind," said Emerita, proudly, “a letter for curiosity.”
"I'm not going to deny that I doubt you for a moment," Arac replies, "but it seems I have underestimated you."
“You are not the only one who has big plans, my love”
Among the warm prairies of the northeast side of the island, the days passed like an everlasting eternity for the goddess of light; along the company of the god of the air. Crossing the miles to reach the haunted swamp. A difficult, yet prolific journey for them, since Marlina had been training her lover so that he could triumph at all costs upon the eminence of this challenge. All the faith of the woman, was now placed in his steps.
The mind of the chosen gods from the architect of life, were ready to attend a battle once in again; although, in this case, the most important of their lives as divine entities. The recovery of the necklace, represented the triumph upon the goddess’ heart, whom continued to guide the owner of the air to the east of the island; around the mysticism of the days, upon the silence of the nights. And when they passed the twelve marshes of destiny, they arrived to an entrance covered with rotting groves; the opening to a dark, twisted swamp. Greenish, full of death algae. They passed dozens of fallen trees; whose bark were rough and rigid. The fauna was either dead or absent; the deplorable flora gave off an unpleasant odor, and their surroundings denoted listless grayish scenes. And so, at the miraculous dawn of the 13th day of the Gont Cycle, Marlina and Amsiret reached the cursed land of Clarendēn.
At the beginning of the swamp, upon the edge of a sharp stone, the only one that raised among the disgusting waters, the mortal was standing still, next to the god of plasma; contemplating the arrival of the goddess of light from the sticky bushes, alongside her new lover.
The contrast duo looked confident; they descended from the big stone, elegantly, and stood before the nearby gods; before the aforementioned of chaos. Before the beginning of a doomed puzzle.
"Welcome, my friends, to the lands of Clarendēn!" exclaims Emerita. “How does the sunlight of today’s morning is waking you up?”
“We’ve traveled for five days. Just tell me where you dropped the necklace, Emerita” responds Marlina.
"Well, it seems not in a good mood," answers the mortal. “I did not threw the necklace; remember, it is now in the possession of the owner of these lands.”
"Is that all you will say?" says Marlina.
"Just be quiet and let me take care of this," whispered the human to the goddess.
"Divine companions," exclaims the mortal princess. “We have brought you here, for your quest today will be to find the necklace of the millennium; engraved in gold and sparkle, in love and radiance. One who possesses the deepest energies of the goddess of light. It will not be an easy task, but neither will it be impossible, in the minds of supreme deities like you. You will cross unpredictable obstacles, uncertain paths, confusing realms; some more difficult and terrifying than others, but you must rely on your intuition and intelligence, for you will depend on them to reach the sacred object, and escape with it alive.”
"Are you listening to what you´re saying?" exclaims the god of air. “You are challenging us; are you forgetting that you are a mere mortal?”
“And do you forget that you are a simple coward?” states Arac.
"Save your differences for the beginning of the journey, perhaps it could be of some use for you," indicates Emerita.
"Could you tell where the hell do you threw the necklace once and for all?!" asks Marlina, effusively.
" I said did not threw it anywhere!" shouts Emerita. “The necklace was lost, at the presence of the queen of this land! The witch Yelvira!
When the woman mentioned the witch's name, the fallen trees squirmed together. The air felt compressed in an instant. The water turned murky, and the swamp roared like a breath through the marsh inlets.
"Don't mention this name out loud here" exclaims Marlina. “You don't know what you've done Emerita, it's impossible to get this back.”
"Perhaps it is," replies Emerita. “Perhaps is not; the gods have a slight advantage. Don't ask me how I got to know this, but over the day that I was here, I discovered that the witch is attracted to both of two. Therefore, your plan should not be to find the necklace, or you’ll be lost in the infinity of paths and crisscrossed walks, until you meet the face of death. Your plan must be to find the owner of the swamp, who will surely be waiting for you. And from there on, it will be up to your cunning to recover the necklace.”
“As you can see, there are three paths,” the young woman continues, “they will take you to the depths of the swamp. I suggest you to start your journeys with the wide path that you see on your left; the first one. This is the broadest of the three, and I'm sure it will give you more clarity than the others. You can stay together, or you could go separately. If you stay together, you´ll go further; if you go separately, you´ll go faster. And remember, you only have till afternoon, for if the curtains of the night falls, and the effulgence of our sun fades, the moons of Ïnmâeh will take care of you, and put your so-called immortality to a test; for not even Elgoneth will help you escape alive from the nocturnal of this land. Now, let the Clarendēn Challenge begin! May the best man win!”
“We aren´t any man.” exclaims Arac. “We are the gods of this island.”
“We´ll see about that.” says Marlina.
The brothers entered the obscure, horrifying tunnels of the swamp; crossing through the mortal's suggested path. Their synchronized intuition born along, for they began the journey together, without saying a single word to each other. The path was watery and cavernous; it seemed it wasn’t visited, for a long time. The centuries were throughout the corners of the darkness. Lost prophecies wove between giant cobwebs. Unpleasant mucus poured slowly from the earthen walls.
Passing the watery walk, the swamp ways divided suddenly into four paths; then the brothers, without thinking about it, went to the path that was farthest to their right.
“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?” exclaims Amsiret. “I chose this path first!”
"You're wrong, as usual!" responds Arac. “I saw this path first, and I am not going back off because of some vermin!”
"Well, neither will I!" replies Amsiret. “I guess we'll have to continue, together.”
"I guess so," exclaims the plasma god. “Ladies first!”
As they entered, the journey took them to a cluster of sad trees, where the light was completely lost. The bushes came to life, and absurd sounds of thousands of strange creatures echoed in their frightening ears. As they overpass the closed trees, they began to hear a group walk in the distance. Some soft voices talking among themselves, in a dialect the gods had never heard before; the cradle of ancestral languages. Hallows of the infinite, wandering in the deceptions of the swamp.
The brothers perceived through the bushes, a gathering of tiny beings; floating upon a path of fallen leaves. They walked together, with lances and torches lighting up the dark place.
Arac immediately pulls his brother into the bushes, and among them, they hide rapidly.
“What are you doing? Why do you stop?” asks Amsiret. “They are just cursed goblins, we don't have much time!”
"Take your ignorance away from me!" exclaims Arac. “Didn't you learn anything in the Assembly? They are Velceros! Spirits of the lost dwarves! Ghosts consumed by these lands!”
“And what do you want us to do? Stay here?” responds Amsiret. “Let's just go through the trees, and they won't realize we're here!”
"You're a fool! Of course they know we're here!” replies Arac replies. “They're looking for us; I can feel it.”
"You are paranoid" exclaims Amsiret. “How could you know that? And in such case, we destroy them with our lights and that's it!”
"There is no way to destroy a vagrant soul," responds Arac. “And I do not pretend to be held into its nauseating dimensions because of your lack of intellect! There must be something here to serve as a distraction.”
After a while of pondering around, Arac notices there are words written on the bark of a hidden tree. He illuminates the trunk with his violet light, and whispers the engraving.
"For gold to be found, a treasure must be hound"
The brothers were confused; they explore the surroundings heedfully, but Arac's nerves made it impossible for him to find anything. Amsiret's anxiety clouded the way. They began to fight with themselves, until the god of plasma located some unusual lines, under a set of dry leaves.
"Look there, to the right; the ground states a landmark," says Arac. “It´s leading to the leaves.”
“It’s in there!” says Amsiret
"It's too easy to be here." exclaims the god of plasma.
"Everything is easy for you. It must be there," says the younger brother.
"We must not look for the silly necklace; gold must not be found." replies Arac. “Emerita made it very clear.”
"Why does it matter what she says?" asks Amsiret. “Arac, she is a simple human; what could she know about this life that we don't?”
"Careful what you say, shame of air." exclaims Arac.
“What's wrong with it? Now you are interested in what’s so spoken from a mortal?”
“Lower your voice.” answers Arac.
"No, wait a minute," interrupts Amsiret, “why are you so concern about her?”
The god of plasma made no reply; his gaze was fixed on a point from the ground. The brothers began to walk slowly, almost squatting, towards the small mound covered with the dry leaves. Arac bent slowly, and saw a delicate glow; a set of rose flashes of light, sprouting from inside of the mysterious set of leaves; there was something gleaming from it.
"Who would’ve thought it," says Amsiret. “After so many years of humiliation, and it turns out, the God of Plasma has chosen the human!”
“Be quiet, I´m warning you”
"This is unbelievable!" exclaims Amsiret, laughing. “This is wonderful! I don't know why I wasted so much time worried, if in the end, you were always destined for less. In fact, what are you even doing in here? How do you think Marlina will react when she finds out? If she thought you were disgusting before, now you will be a thousand times worse!”
"I told you to shut up!" shouts Arac.
Enraged, the voice and purple glow of Arac rose amidst the silence of the darkness. The group of cursed spirits caught the gods in the distance, and their evil faces floated at full speed towards them.
Dozens of torches with fires were now thrown at their bodies; under the pressure of the brothers, while the evil souls approached at all angles. The god of the air turned around, and emanated a mighty defense, but the lights pierced the specters of evil, and pass through their vanished souls like nothing; they were about to fail.
"Get the leaves off the mound!" shouts Arac.
“They are approaching everywhere!” says the god of air, casting spells at the ghosts. “Go yourself!”
"I told you they can't be destroyed!" Arac replies.
The plasma god quickly removed the leaves of the small mound, and saw an embedded pink crystal; it glowed at full energy. He removes the crystal from the ground, and underneath it, was a marked X.
“There’s a landmark with an X!” shouts Arac.
"Now what?!" replies Amsiret.
“The crystal must serv–
Before the plasma god finished the sentence, the earth melted below them, just when he stepped on an old root. Promptly, a hole opened into the depths of the underground; dragging the gods into the descending passageways of the subsoil; the earth was swallowing them into a set of tunnels, falling at full speed, to the profound realms of the haunted swamp.
Whilst the descent happened, the paths of the brothers separated accidentally; delirious in two different and deeply rooted ways. Depleted in odious roots and huge insects, until both fell into two totally different cavities, abruptly.
The god of air fell upon the plate of a dark dungeon; the main columns were destroyed, the damaged structure scattered in pieces everywhere. Cracked with broken bars; the iron remained rusty, and what once appeared to have been a cage for a demon, was now stipulated as an unneedful relic. Only a beast could have escaped such a trap; something that did not sit well to the owner of the winds.
Amsiret went out from the blemished dungeon, and walk across the desolated meadow. Every step felt colder, as he entered the insight of the terrifying place; covered in mist, surrounded in shadows. A slight greenish horizon opened the way to a singular storm, exclusive to the dark praire. He couldn't see anything. He tried to continue, looking for a safer path, but the wind was so slither that even he could not fight it; a terrible premonition followed in his instinct.
"What is that?!" shouts Amsiret.
An eerie harmony of sinister, manifested itself as crunches of despair. The god of air slowly approached the intensity of the sound, until he realized, it came from a thick shaft made up of old bricks. And when he was close enough, he trudged upon; trying to predict what might be hidden in the water well. Curiosity invaded the mind of the god, without understanding, it was the sound for the call to a prey’s death.
The trembling man approached his eyes slightly to the profundity of the shaft, sees the black bottom of the deep darkness. In one of its corners, a flickering of a small, incandescent light, looked directly to his soul. The glow was green, with yellow shades; growing in the obscure. And when he perceived the giant pupil awakening, the god of air breathed the cold air of fear.
Amsiret tried to retreat stealthily, so as not to attract more the attention of the beast; but when he took a step backwards, he tripped over a stone, generating a noise that made the frightful animal rise from the depths; above the dusk. And with a powerful roar, the infernal creature emerged as a hunger malice; unfolding the complexity of two giant heads, two enormous mouths, with an ancient fury, an immeasurable size. A final condemnation, for the god of the air.
- Writer
