Donare Donum: The Gift Giver's Chronicle

Ann and I did everything we could to arrest our downward momentum with the chain and the wall. But, eventually, something broke, probably the support aboveground, and we fell to the bottom outright. It was a mercifully short freefall, though, and we landed on top of the cage at the bottom with a quick bang. I saw stars from the impact and felt my right elbow crack against the metal. Bolts of pain from that and my back shot throughout my body. I rolled over on reflex and face first onto the cave floor, smashing my nose with the short fall onto the hard ground.

Delirious from the pain and exhaustion, I tried to force myself upwards but shooting pains from my elbow put me on the ground again. I heard shouts from my concerned friends and heard them moving to help Ann. I could hear her groaning on the other side of the cage. It was a few more seconds of agony before they came to check on me as well. I felt myself slowly turned over and saw Victor’s face through the haze of pain:

“Easy there, Stephen. Eat. You’re going to be okay.”

The mouthful of berries he offered me was so strong in flavor I nearly spat them out before I forced them down. I could hear Lynn’s voice behind me, chiding:

“Vick, you shouldn’t give them all at once. They taste horrible.”

He shrugged at me, “Sorry kid. At least the pain will go away faster this way, right?”

He was correct. I already felt my arm numbing and the bones within shifting to find their natural position. My back felt rather similar, the unbearable needles of pain running up my spin subsiding. The world seemed to jump back into focus, my muscles spasming in relief and, after a few seconds, I gingerly pushed myself to sit up under my own power. My weapons had been removed from my sides when I was still stunned from the pain. I saw them on the other edge of the cave by lamplight, and I turned to my left to see Victor and Lynn looking at me anxiously.

“What happened? Why did you fall? Where is Isaiah?” Victor probed anxiously.

I shook my head numbly, recounting everything that happened after they were lowered into the pit. I felt the others listening intently from the other side of the cave and I saw Lynn blanch and put her hand up to her mouth, eyes widening in horror. Victor just looked grim, but he had turned a few shades whiter as well. After I finished, we sat for a few moments before Victor broke the silence:

“We should best get going, then. We’ll need as much of a head start as we can, and daylight is burning.”

He strode around the cage and toward the stash of supplies at the back of the walls before Lynn interrupted:

“What are you saying, Vick. Our families are still up there. We came down here for shelter, right?”

He turned to face her, eyes softening a little, though his tone was firm when he spoke:

“The warriors of the village can’t beat that thing, love. And its’ flames can burn through any rocky shelter. Our home just isn’t safe anymore. We can’t go back.”

Suddenly, Hope piped up from further away:

“What do you mean? What are you saying? Mom and Dad are fighting that thing! Why can’t we just…” the girl trailed off, apparently too distressed to continue. I could hear the tears behind her voice, and I started to get choked up as well in response. Hope was a quiet young child, studious and careful with a strong innocent streak. I couldn’t stand to hear her like this, but I couldn’t do much to stop it.

“Vick’s right, little lady.” I said, softly, using Dad’s nickname for his youngest daughter, “We can’t stay here. Mom and Dad did what they spent their whole lives doing –making sure that we could have good lives and defending the village. We can’t let that go to waste.”

Now she had started to cry in earnest, which set baby Eithan off as well. Julia and Al were trying their best to comfort the young ones while Ann had stood up and walked around the cage towards the rest of us. When she got closer, she spoke loudly enough to be heard but quietly enough that she gave the kids space to cry:

“What’s the plan, exactly? I know we have Glasrock but how can we survive without the village?”

Victor and I exchange looks, having come to similar conclusions, before he responded:

“We really can’t rely on Glasrock to try to wander around Corynth and hunt for food. We would run out of rock before we ran out of supplies. But even if we had an infinite supply of both food and Glasrock, trying to live in the lowlands of Corynth permanently is just too dangerous, especially with the little ones.”

“Which is why we need to think outside the box.” I interject, warming up to the idea with a bit of excitement, “We need to think about leaving the region entirely.”

I winced internally at a small jolt of newfound elation that cracked against my melancholy. I had just lost people I loved deeply, and their absence twisted my insides in a hollow, painful feeling. A part of me wanted to bawl just like Hope. Despite that, I couldn’t help but feal a slight burst of excitement at the prospect of being able to leave the cage that had held me down my entire life. I was doing my best to keep my cool as my feelings went to war internally. We weren’t out of danger yet.

“Precisely,” Victor nodded, picking up from where I had left off, “We need to leave the Mist behind us entirely. The records we have speak of regions and places beyond our home, a fact which we have obviously been unable to confirm until now. I was planning on eventually persuading the Council to send an expeditionary force to investigate sooner or later, but we are obviously going to have to test it out ourselves instead.”

“But how should we leave?” Ann replied, “Where would we even go?”

“The southern forest is too dangerous for us as we are,” I respond, “The north is rather inhospitable, so we probably shouldn’t try to exit that way. The west is nearly as barren, and it gets even worse the further you go. I say we try our luck in the east.”

Victor nodded in agreement again, “No matter what we try, it is a gamble. The Manichea’s Mesa may be east of us, but they won’t be able to see us as we sneak through their territory, and we would have 2 months before the next Hunt. Plenty of time to slip through unnoticed and try our luck in that direction. The only problem is that we have no idea how far we need to go before we finally leave.”

“So, we will need to get as much Glasrock as we can before we start trying to leave in earnest.” I follow up, “Per Victor’s theory, they are an expendable resource. If we ran out on the journey, we would be doomed.”

Ann had walked over to us pallid and worn out but as we spoke, she started to perk up, visibly standing up straighter and regaining some color. Her eyes glinted with a combination of buried grief and stone-cold certainty when she responded:

“I see. We are going north again, aren’t we?”

When Victor and I both nodded, she swiftly turned around and started to march towards the back of the cave, the two of us following her. Lynn had snuck around our little huddle and had successfully comforted both crying children at the same time. Eithan had fallen asleep in her arms while Hope was holding onto her leg. Julia and Al had already gone to retrieve their packs, the looks on their faces clearly indicating that they had heard us talking and agreed with the plan. Once the three of us had also grabbed our packs, we realized that there was another problem. There were six packs but only 4 of us were physically trained. Victor was already straining slightly, lifting the second lightest pack.

Al was the one to say it first:

“Will Lynn be able to carry a full pack? What about the kids?”

Lynn had ambled over to where we were standing around, and we quickly worked together to try to find an arrangement. We donned several of the extra clothes and drank as much as we could before dumping most of our water supply. With Lynn here, water wouldn’t be much of an issue, given that she had her mother’s Gift. I forced down the wave of grief that threatened to wash over me when I thought of Mom facing down that beast’s breath attack and continued to re-arrange our items as best as I could. Lynn ended up with a rather light pack, while the 3 fighter’s packs bulged even more heavily. We also inverted the Eithan carrier and put it on Lynn, such that he was carried on her chest, balancing out her pack. He was extra weight for her, but the Fighters needed to be able to shed our burdens quickly, just in case.

We approached the foggy gate with some trepidation, and Victor reached into my pack to pull out one of our hard-won treasures. The smooth blue rock glittered slightly as it reflected the muted sunlight shining through the Mist. He held it up to the entrance, and it worked exactly as advertised. From deep within the gem a soft, light blue glow began to shine and grow brighter as he stepped forward, and the Mist moved back.

We followed him in shock and wonder outside of the cave and into the greater region beyond.