The Winds of Crowns and Wolves (11 page)

Neach followed closely behind for a few
minutes before his curiosity got the better of him.

“Excuse me, sir, who exactly are you? Why am
I here?” Neach queried with impeccable speed.

The old man simply laughed and continued
about his task of setting up a sleeping area. In the corner of the
hut, bedding was placed along with a makeshift pillow. Behind the
pillow, an unlit torch was laid as a source of light during the
night.

“So many questions, such little time,” the
man remarked, “soon you will know, but for now, rest up. Tomorrow
will be a long day.”

With that, the man retreated toward his own
side of the hut and seemed to pass out instantaneously. Neach was
left to his own devices, now shivering from the night cold. The
earliness of the season meant that although the days were warm, the
nights would be very cold. He got as much of the blankets he was
provided wrapped around his body, and closed his eyes. He was
exhausted from the journey that he had been on, but somehow his
mind continued to be restless.

It ran to thoughts of Rine back on the
beach, and then to a wolf. As he dozed off, the wolf had
infiltrated his unconscious. He slept, but inside his mind was
anything but relaxation and rest. He was taken outside the
encampment in an out of body experience. A few meters above the
ground, Neach hovered as he watched a bright green and orange wolf
slowly circle the area where he lay.

Unsure of its intentions, Neach felt warmth
overcome his soul. It seemed that the wolf was there to protect
both the old man, as well as Neach. For the first time in his
dreams of wolves, he did not feel afraid. His soul and his body
were at peace as they watched the animal prowl around the camp in
the middle of the forest. Its body was much like the last,
effervescent and vibrant. Its beauty was unparalleled by anything
else that Neach had seen in the forest earlier.

All night long, this wolf laid its stake
around the area in a sort of securitizing measure to ensure that
the men remained safe within the hut. Around and around it went,
monotonously moving about, but with such grace that even in the
dark forest, the camp was alive with the glory of this majestic
animal. The first rays of sunlight fought their way through the
thick canopy above and the roof of the hut to strike the closed
eyes of Neach on his bedding. He awoke with a groan and he felt the
soreness that was present throughout his entire body. Nothing about
this morning was going to be easy, yet he knew he needed to rise at
this time to show the man that he was dedicated to learning more
about this mysterious book and the equally mysterious group of
people who had crafted it.

With a roll to the left, Neach hoisted
himself upward and onto his feet. He rubbed his eyes in an attempt
to remove the fatigue from his face, but alas, it was to no avail.
Out of the hut he headed, and into the oncoming day he was
thrust.

He was greeted by a wooden pail crashing
into the ground in front of him.

“Fetch some water son, it’s going to be a
long day,” the man barked.

Still groggy, but determined to fulfill the
man’s wish, Neach grabbed the bucket and headed for the stream that
ran near the encampment. Its clear, blue water sparkled in the
broken sunlight that fought its way through the treetops. It flowed
slowly, but with intention, directly into the mouth of the
expansive ocean that could be seen in the distance.

Only minutes had passed before Neach had
returned to the presence of the man in the center of the cleared
space where he had spent the previous night. The man was pacing
back and forth in a fairly rapid manner, as if every step he took
offered a joule of energy through kinesthesia to his weary
mind.

“My name is Fenris, and I, will be your,” he
paused, “teacher,” he finished.

“You see I struggle with the word ‘teacher’,
because it is you who will ultimately teach yourself. The path set
forth for you is something that is not debatable, what is up to the
nature of the world is whether you choose to accept it,” Fenris
stated boldly.

“As you enter this space every morning, know
that others have come before you, and others will come after you,
it is completely reliant upon your concentration and dedication
whether or not you succeed.”

His words cut sharply through the cool
morning air and sliced at Neach’s bare, open mental flesh. Unsure
of what he was getting himself into, Neach treaded carefully, as if
every word he spoke had the potential to erupt with the fury of a
thousand volcanoes.

“You say I have a path, yet I am unaware of
it,” Neach said.

A chuckle broke the tension in the cool,
early spring air.

“I have heard about you, boy, your incessant
questions and attitude,” Fenris claimed, “but know this; both can
be harnessed to become either your advantage or your hubris.”

“Now, follow me, there is work to be done.”
The two men headed out of the encampment in the direction of a
collection of rocks that could be seen far off. Rocks which seemed
to have been frozen in place for thousands of years rose up from
the Earth and grafted a makeshift shelter.

What Neach could not see from afar, was what
lie underneath these ancient stones. Through a small crack in the
front of them, an entrance to an underground cavern could be seen
upon closer inspection.

Fenris removed the rope belt from around his
waist and threw it down into the shallow cave.

“In you go, son,” Fenris said.

With a look of bewilderment upon his face,
but resigned to the abnormality of the situation he currently found
himself in, he approached the cave’s entrance.

Upon his first view inside, all he could see
was darkness. Not a single glow was present lo a flickering, dim
torch light. His view was impeded by hanging vines, but he decided
there would be no way around it.

And so, into the dark cavern Neach
descended. With a thud, he hit the earthy floor beneath his feet.
From above, all that could be seen was the sunlight and rope, both
of which disappeared as he headed, tentatively, further into the
cave.

After a few steps, it was clear to Neach
that something about this place wasn’t right. He quickly turned
about face and headed to the opening of the cave. With a shout,
Neach commanded the attention of Fenris above him.

“Fenris,” Neach shouted “what am-“ he
couldn’t finish his statement, as a silencing motion was being made
by Fenris up above.

“Be quiet,” he whispered, “or you’ll wake
him,” Fenris said.

More confused than ever before, Neach
feigned naivety and played along with the game he believed Fenris
was conducting.

“Who am I going to wake,” Neach responded
with a whisper.

“At the back there’s a-uh-creature, if you
will, he won’t take kindly to any sort of rude awakening,” Fenris
said. At the moment, Neach heard a groan erupt from what seemed to
be the very bowels of the Earth. In the back of the cave laid a
giant feline creature.

“That there is a lion, Neachy boy, you’d
best be quiet as to not wake him; we need those eggs behind him for
breakfast,” Fenris concluded with a muffled chuckle. He walked away
again, leaving Neach to his own devices in the cave.

Neach knew that he would need to plan his
next movements according to the sleep pattern of this behemoth
which was guarding the prized poultry possessions. He swayed from
side to side, slowly, yet at an uneven pace. His nerves were
supremely evident as he crept close to the lion.

He did everything in his power to prevent
his feet from making any noise as they struck the ground beneath
them. Unfortunately for Neach, it was not enough to keep the lion
at bay. As he got within an arm’s length of the great beast, it
began to convulse into consciousness. He backed away, slowly at
first, but picking up in pace, until he was engaging in an all-out
sprint toward the rope.

Determined to survive this close encounter,
Neach mustered all of his speed and launched himself onto the
escape vine. Climbing with aplomb, Neach reached the top of the
cave as the lion was restrained by a chain. As to allow as little
danger as possible, it seemed Fenris had chained the lion up to
prevent him from reaching the unsuspecting student.

Alas, Neach’s emergence from the cave was
met with a raucous, deep laughter. Fenris had fallen over from the
humor he took from the experience. Neach had believed he had only
just escaped with his life, but to Fenris, there had never been a
danger within the depths of that cave.

“What are you trying to do, kill me?” Neach
asked.

As he wiped the tears from his eyes, brought
on by laughter, Fenris responded with a wry smile on his face.

“Soon you will learn, boy, but for now you
read that book until sun down. Nothing worth teaching can be found
outside of that text, I promise you” Fenris said as he strolled off
toward the camp.

Belabored and full of anxiety, Neach jogged
to follow Fenris and headed back toward the hut.

For the next three days, Neach lived and
breathed the words in that text. Though the Toriik Riamendi was not
in any language he could understand, it seemed that he had some
ethereal connection to the words which were cast onto each page of
the ancient document. He feared the pages would crumble in his
hands at times, yet each word demanded his full attention.

The pages were adorned with gold flakes and
shining lettered titles at the top of each section. Unsure of their
meaning, Neach turned his attention to the illustrations that
sometimes accompanied the passages. After reading through about
five pages of illegible writing, Neach glanced down at a picture of
a child in a field. He could only assume that this picture held
some point of significance, but he wasn’t sure exactly what that
may be.

And so, on the third day, Neach emerged from
the hut and asked for a second opportunity to claim the eggs from
behind the sleeping lion. With a bemused look upon his face, Fenris
obliged him and led him back to the cave.

“Remember, Neach, if you want to make the
lion believe that you aren’t there, you must become one with the
lion,” Fenris claimed, boldly.

This was the first time that Fenris had used
Neach’s name in reference to him. Perhaps it was a sign of the
respect he was accruing. Nevertheless, the two men reached the
cave, and Fenris resumed his position up above, with his rope once
again hanging down into the abyss.

With a silent understanding, Neach hurdled
the rock and careened into the cave floor just a few feet below.
The cave smelled of dead animals, most likely ones which had been
fed to the lion previously. The stench was so strong at times that
Neach had resorted to pulling his shirt over his nose as he
continued into the dark.

The cave wasn’t massive. It was just deep
enough to lose the sunlight once within reach of the lion. But
Neach pressed on, with less trepidation than he had earlier. Once
again, his eyes fell upon the burly beast which was curled into a
ball on the floor in front of him. Its bristly hair provided an
expansive meadow of warmth across its back, and its mane flowed
like a glistening mountain waterfall of hair.

Beasts such as this were terrifying, but
also majestic. Something about the very existence of such a
creature lent its hand to a beautiful parallel existence where
humans and animals could coexist peacefully.

Unfortunately, this was not a time for Neach
to sing the praises of the lion in front of him. The danger was
very real, and the goal set forth was also something that weighed
on his shoulders.

As if by switch, an idea flickered on inside
his head. He saw the breathing pattern of the lion and wondered
what would happen if he altered his rhythm to be congruent with the
lion’s. Outside, rain fell as if it were the heartbeat of the young
man inside that cave; persistent, but filled with jagged
deviance.

He calmed himself down and attempted to make
himself “one” with the massive carnivore in front of him. As he
closed his eyes, he saw a plain, but unlike anything he had ever
seen before. He was running through it, as if someone had set his
back ablaze. The heat from the sun beat down upon his face, and his
breathing slowed to the rate of the lion.

With a swift step forward, cautiously, Neach
made his first approach on the eggs that were located behind this
behemoth of a feline. They sat within a wooden basket. Underneath,
grass protected their bottoms from breaking upon the hard rock
surface of the ground below them.

His breath continued at its slowed pace, as
he lifted the eggs from the ground and claimed them in his
possession.

Slowly, he backed away from the lion and
fought against his will to keep his breath at the decreased pace he
now found it maintaining. With the eggs caressed strongly against
his chest, Neach broke into a trot once he hit the sunlight that
illuminated the entrance to the cave.

He placed the eggs on the wet grass as the
last drops of rain fell from the sky. Fenris applauded as Neach
emerged from within the darkness.

“Good work, boy. You’ve claimed the eggs.
But this is not your only task; tomorrow when you wake, there will
be more to learn. For now, make your way to the hut. This rain will
pester us ‘til the ‘morrow and it’s best if you get your rest,”
Fenris concluded.

With a faint smile upon his face, Neach
hurried back to the encampment hoping to gain further insight and a
richer understanding of the world he now found himself fully
encompassed by.

His body ached.

For days now, he had been subject to
rigorous physical training at the hands of Fenris. Unsure of how
long he had been on this island, Neach’s days were beginning to
mold into one. All hours of the day were spent engrossed in the
ancient text, and the hours he wasn’t reading were delineated to
physical training.