“Well… can’t bag this one no more” Rowan’ pulled the creature off the wall, it’s dead weight hitting the floor as he dragged it close to him. “Damn, and most of the work was done…” He picked it up, bringing it’s head closer to his face, “You think cause I popped it’s eye it died or because I hit it with my hammer?”
Callahan looked at the monster, wondering if Rowan was joking or not, whatever solid structure was keeping its form was completely smashed by the blow it received from Rowan’s hammer, “I’m surprised it didn’t die on the spot…”
Rowan shook it a little, making sure it was dead “Yeah, tough little bastards for how skinny they are”
He then brought the light up to the crevice, along the walls were hundreds of thousands of scratches, tell tale signs that many of the creatures had made it in and out of this small opening before. Rowan stuck his head into the crevice, and swung his touch out on the other side seeing how far the light would carry, “If he was heading this way it must be their home, maybe we sneak around bag one or two then get the hell out.”
Past the crevice was another narrow trek, the walls on either side of them were not masoned with stone, no, they were rough dug out dirt patches that seemed to stretch up above them infinitely as the path they walk took them deeper below.
Past the light of Rowan’s torch there was nothing but a black wall, he’d never seen this sort of pitch dark nothingness before, he feared if the torch went out they might be lost down here forever.
As they continued even further the path began to change once more, the walls began to fall away, opening wider and wider, and below in the dirt they could make out small markings leading them further, though Wailer tracks they were not.
“Weird aren’t they?” Rowan said, getting a better look at the dirt below.
“How deep do you think we are… like we kept going down, why does a fort cellar even go down this far?” Callahan wondered, his eyes tracing the dark for any sort of sign of life.
“You’re supposed to be the scholar, Kiki didn’t give ya those books for nothing”
“They’re books about Animals monsters and Binds not geography…”
Rowan pressed forward following the marks on the ground as each one pointed to the next.
Callahan chased after him, trying to keep him in his sight, it was getting harder and harder the further they went down. The Anima was so high now that it extended far past even Rowan’s head, they were truly in the thick of it.
“Hey… do you see that?” Rowan peered out ahead, his voice laced with a baffling uncertainty
“what is it?” Callahan asked, still trying to catch up to his brother, Rowan pointed out ahead, at a flickering blue light in the darkness, it was small at first, like a single star in the night sky, but then they could see it, strange lines carving themselves in the black, emanating a soft glow that was inviting them forward. “huh… pretty” Rowan said, walking towards the cerulean patterns taking shape before him.
“Uh… damn…” Callahan followed the light was pleasant to look at, but he wondered… why was it here? As they drew closer the dirt floor gave way once again to finely honed stones, and they could see now what the blue cerulean lines were etching themselves into. Large flat tall stones, hardened granite with patterns and figures of men and monsters etched into every inch, like water the light flowed into the empty etchings filling out the patterns more and more as they got closer to whatever the light was leading them towards.
Callahan looked couldn’t help but marvel alongside his brother at what they saw before them, they couldn’t fathom who or what built these things so deep underground, the figures marked in stone were gigantic, and Callahan wondered if they were telling some sort of tale, every one they past got stranger, but in the strangeness there were some things he found familiar, things he felt he seen before. “Kinda looks like some of Great Grandpa’s old carvings don’t they?” Callahan asked.
Rowan was stuck, staring at one of the stone monoliths, he almost couldn’t tear his eyes away from the depiction of what looked like a man wrestling with a boar.
“Rowan?”
“Huh? Oh, sorry,” he caught himself, dazed a little, then marched forward continuing to where the lights flowed from.
Just a little further down they saw it, marked my grand archway that fed them into a massive amphitheatre that was underground, swirling blue etchings, crisscrossed lines far above, the way the blue light made the anima almost sparkle, it was mesmerizing, and at the center of all of it, was a rising pillar with those same blue light etched into the swirling stone, with markings that looked almost like flowers, and those same crisscrossing lines leading up a path of stairs to whatever lay at the heart of the pillar.
Rowan picked up the pace eager, and Callahan followed “Oh gods, do you think?” Rowan’s voice beamed so brightly that Callahan didn’t need to see his face to know he was smiling
“Treasure? Something huge? What if it’s a diamond or or… I mean The Captain will be happy if we bring back something valuable right?” The thought of what they might have found almost melted all of Callahan’s worry away as the two brothers raced up the steps
"That’s gotta be good, right? Expensive?"
Rowan’s voice beamed but was breathy, as he started climbing up the stairs on all fours
"It has be, nobody would build this for no reason.” Callahan chased after him as he ran up the stairs leading to the top of the pillar
When they finally reached the top, they stood before a granite pedestal, like all the stone before it had those same crisscrossed markings and the flowery etches carved deep into the stone, held in the pedestal underneath a strange dome of glass was a curious thing.
A silvery orb, with a green gem in it’s center, from that gem sharp jagged lines bled our in every direction, the same cerulean filling in the jagged veins on the orb like blood.
“Hohoho!” Rowan couldn’t help but giggle “Look at that, it’s gorgeous! That’s gotta be worth a fortune!”
Callahan couldn’t believe his eyes “You think… I mean we have to tell the Captain right? He’d kill us if we sold this on our own…”
Rowan brought Callahan under his arm into a tight headlock “Ah we’ll tell him don’t worry, you see this whole place? ain’t no way this is the only treasure down here, we’ll be rich! Ma ain’t just going to get better! We’re gonna build her a new bedroom!”
Callahan squirmed his way out, making Rowan loosen his grip by poking sharply between the small gap in his armor
“Ow hey! I’m just celebrating!”
“Me too!” Callahan couldn’t hold in the laughter anymore “I can’t believe this! I uh… do you want to grab it?”
Rowan shook his head and bowed away “Nah Cal, you can do the honors!”
“Okay, if you insist!” Callahan walked up the the pedestal, and slowly put his fingers on the strange glass.
Callahan stepped up to the pedestal.
He reached out, slowly, and placed his fingers against the strange glass. He could almost feel the texture through the wraps of his hands, ever so gently he lifted the lid of the pedestal, he expected the anima to fill in what looks to be almost pristine air around the orb, but even with the glass removed, the anima still would not touch the metal, it seemed like it repelled it.
“Weird… here goes…” He said as he placed his thumb and index finger onto the orb and pulled it gently out of its stone bedding. It popped out, easily, “ooop” he expected more give, but instead it just rolled from his fingers into the palm of his hand. It had a heft to it despite its size, and the cold feel of it could be felt on his skin even while wrapped.
“What do you think it is?” Callahan asked, as he rolled the orb in his palm.
“hmm” Rowan thought for a moment, “Maybe a crown jewel? Some sort of ancient weapon maybe? Or hell could just be a fancy lookin marble.” Rowan turned toward the stairs, “Well either way lets get, we’ll try to find a Wailer up top, I dunno how long this torch is gonna last”
Callahan began to follow Rowan, stuffing the eye deep into his cloak, and when his foot finally left the main step of the pedestal, it started. Suddenly the blue creeping lights, they began to recede.
“Hmm…” noticed it first, and kept quiet, hoping that maybe it was just a dimming that would stop, but the room grew darker, the patterns faded, and the unease started to set in.
“Did… did we do something?” Callahan caught it now too, as the lights faded faster, he looked back at the pedestal, wondering “should… maybe we put it back and come down here with the bigger group right?”
Rowan shook his head “No, no, it’s fine, we got this, we don’t need the lights to lead us back up, I know the way.”
“If you’re sure…” Callahan followed closely behind him, as Rowan carefully took another step, and then he stood solid, still, as Callahan head butted the back of his armor trying to keep up
“Hey ow… why’d you stop?”
“Did you hear that?” Rowan flicked the light forwards, trying to illuminate more of what was out in front of him, it was so hard to see now, but he knew he heard a thud.
Callahan looked around, searching, wondering what he was looking for, then he heard a thud too.
“is something falling?” Callahan looked up, the ceiling high above no longer radiated with the criss-crossed luminous blue, no. Those patterns long faded were now replaced, with an endless tapestry of what could’ve been starts, sickly white orbs, all in pairs, all in the dark, all looking down at them from high above.
“No..nonononono” Callahan stepped back, further and further almost falling off the stairs, Rowan grabbed his arm, pulling him close and keeping him low, “Shhhh” he said his head swivelled looking at all the angles, he was already trying to figure out what to do.
“Rowan we’re fucked… w-we can’t… just one of them”
Rowan slapped him on the back, hard enough to hurt a little but not enough to make a sound
“Cal, just this is your moment alright? This is why I need you out here”
“What the hell do you mean” His voice rose in frustration, the pitch breaking in fear “Rowan this is it, what the fuck do we do?”
“CAL” another hard slap “Focus, focus… think, there’s a lot”
“A LOT” His tone was a frantic screaming whisper “There’s hundreds… thousands”
“Yeah? Well, that should give you an idea then on what we need” Rowan stood up and motioned for Callahan to stay down, he grabbed all the remaining torches they had stolen from the cellar, and lit them up, one by one and threw them onto the ground bellow the pillar they were standing on.
“What are you even going to do!?” Callahan was pleading, desperate for understanding
“Buy you time, what else? Keep your eyes on me, and you know, give me all you got Cal!”
“Slimy bastard” Rowan was caught off guard, but with a quick though he began a backwards charge towards the pillar, sandwiching the wailer between his body and the stone, his armor hit the beast’s cartilaginous form, and he could hear the squelching smash of It’s insides. It’s legs flared out from the pain, like it’s blood was shot into the tips of it’s limbs from the force.
Rowan took a step back, and then before the Wailer could slide down the pillar he spun, bringing his hammer to a devastating crushing blow onto the creature’s head, obliterating it completely.
He hopped of the stairs, leaving Callahan up above on the pillar, his landing was heavy, loud enough that it brought proper attention to him from the Wailers who had fallen from the ceiling onto the ground.
He gripped his hammer tightly, there’d be no wrestling with them this time. With the head of his hammer he smacked it on his breast plate “hoho, come on, come on…” He approached them, slowly, not too threatening this time. He didn’t want to provoke a Wail.
Callahan watched, laying prone from up above, as Rowan carefully made steps towards the Wailer
I don’t know if I can do this… Rowan, something big, something that can get rid of them all…
His mind scrambled, replays of every time he failed to create what he wants, to summon what he needed, the doubt came crashing, a the while below, the first move was made.
As Rowan approached the two Wailers he could see in front of him a third came up from behind, one that had fallen further away, it scampered along the ground in a hunting prowl, getting closer and closer until it could feel the heat radiating from Rowan, and then it lunged, it’s limbs wrapping around Rowan from behind it’s dark ebony claws scratching uselessy on his breast plate
That was the domino, that started it all, the two that watched on almost seemed to recoil at how quickly Rowan ended the life of their cohort, the necks had yet to bloat yet, but he could hear them, thudding, falling from the ceiling, readying to come one after the other,
“YEAH COME ON!” He said, as horrid swarm began to descend upon him. From the side one came, claws out in front flying through the air, it met with the head of Rowan’s hammer like the other had, he swung it hard the centrifugal force and grip of the hammer’s head keeping it body of the wailer tight on the end as he spun and then threw the corpse of it into another who had started a charge towards him. The Wailer forced to tumble back under the weight of it’s cohort slamming into it, and then, before it could even recover, to get away, Rowan had already sprinted towards it, his thick hand, covered in the white wrappings and heavy gaunt, came down upon the wailer’s head, his fingers like the root of a tree dug into the flesh of the creature, as he squeezed and squeezed until he heard that crunch.
Rowan wondered to himself, hoped even, that maybe, they could feel fear, but as the numbers grew the doubt set in, and he wasn’t sure anymore if the more gruesome displays were worth it.
He braced himself as they surrounded him, they would charge in pairs and trios and groups, and be knocked away by Rowan’s swings, he gave each swipe everything he had, every blow meant to crush bones, to maim and to kill, but he it wasn’t enough, their numbers were too many.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
And now, the wailers were getting cautious, they saw him as a threat, they kept their distance, not treading to close to the hammer that had slain so many of their kin already.
He began to taunt, almost breathlessly, “Come on now, cowards! You were so bold before!” He beat his chest with the hammer again, “Keep it easy for me would ya?”
Callahan watched on from above, his eyes could barely see a few meters ahead, Rowan looked like a blurry mess, the anima reflected what little light there was in obscuring patterns, and clear sight on his brother was something he so desperately needed. “Come on… COME ON” he cried out in frustration as he tried to clean the smudgy lenses of his mask. “I got it… I GOT It’s so clear in my head I can…” he tried again, tried to focus, but all he could see was horror, all around Rowan, the Wailers stood, their claws dug into the dirt as their necks bloated to bursting
“ROWAN!” Callahan screamed out
Then Rowan raised his own voice, as he charged forward trying to kill as many of the Wailers as he could before they could start their signature attack “CAL FOCUS! COME ON!”
Then it came, like a horrid symphony, the screeching Wail of hundreds of the creatures, it was so loud, even when not directed at Callahan, he could feel it like a million spears all being thrust into his body from all directions. His body tensed once more, he could feel the bile coming up his throat, the tears welling in his eyes, more than anything right now he wanted to roll over and die, to fall off the ledge and split his head open to end the suffering.
He couldn’t hear a thing when they finally shut their horrid throats, deafened, in pain, he could feel the warm bile from his mouth leaking down to the bottom of his mask, he tried to roll over, to catch a glimpse of Rowan, and all he saw was pain, his brother barely standing now, leaning against the shaft of his hammer, the head buried deep into the dirt by the weight of him being held up. he head low, he couldn’t even imagine what Rowan was feeling right now, what a direct hit could even do to a person, and then he saw it, blurred, like most things out in front of him, the Wailers making their cautious approach, to finally feast on their prey.
“no… No ROWAN” He leaned over the edge, trying to catch a glimpse “ I can’t… I cant’”
He brought his hand to his face and his fingers breached the seal of the mask around his neck
“I CAN’T FUCKING SEE WITH THIS MASK ON” he ripped it off his face, and instantly he the burn, his skin bubbling, his eyes watering, his lungs melting, but he could see it, in his mind’s eye, he knew what he needed
The strength of the sea, the arms of the devil, the creature his brother wanted to hunt down barehanded, with that image locked in his mind his eyes began to glow, his vision locked, dead center on Rowan, but still. So blurry, he couldn’t make it out, still couldn’t see “No… NO WORK GODSDAMN IT”
In his cloak, a pale blue light started to burn, he didn’t even notice it, to focused to tell, and then it flashed brighter, and an invisible force pulsed, bigger and bigger and bigger, pushing the anima away, It grew and grew until he could finally see, he didn’t even understand why but he could see
“ROWAN!” He screamed he clear of sight, and he finally felt it, that connection, as his sight dug past armor flesh and into the soul, Rowan’s body pulsed.
Rowan’s body flared with his light.
The Wailers pounced, numerous, unending waves came burying the green glow that had engulfed Rowan, “No…NO!” I FELT IT, WHY ISN’T IT?!
Then it came, erupted, large and sinewy, past the pillar, reaching high into the air, the thick tendril of the Kraken bursting forth from the Wailer dogpile
“YES!” Callahan yelled, his voice ragged, his face sore, “YES YES YES” as he cried out in joy he stuffed his face back into the mask and then watched as another eruption came from the dog pile
The Wailers were tossed aside, each limb of the Kraken was like a living pillar of flesh, Rowan spun, dragging the tentacles around him like a whirlwind, “HAHAHAHAH” His laugh was loud, defiant, but panged, “HA Oh… CAL YOU DID IT!”
Four of the Kraken’s limbs grew from his back, the armor punctured almost completely destroyed from the eruption, his arms now replaced too, with the thick tentacles of the beast, and he rode high in the air on the swirling muscle mass of the sea’s fury that had become his legs.
Quickly, and gently he grabbed Callahan in his new grip, “Rowan…” Callahan fell into the catch, his strength almost completely gone, the affects of the Mire, slowly eating away at him,
“Cal I’m gonna get you to the entrance, and then you gotta run, just keep running straight okay? I won’t let a single one passed…”
Rowan battered his way through the arch that they entered from, and gently placed Callahan on the floor, “Run Cal, don’t stop!”
With those last words, Rowan went back into the fray, chasing after the wailer’s becoming a wall of death and destruction for the monsters of the mire.
He no longer needed to be quick on his feet, his reach was long, and unforgiving, whenever a group of them would bloat their necks, down came his crushing limbs splattering them against the dirt and stone, when they tried to pounced upon his limbs, and dug their ebony claws into his flesh, he returned the pain in kind, twisting the limbs around and around, until every wailer was crushed under his grasp. He uprooted the granite pillars, the artistry, now used as a battering weapon, a new hammer, a bigger one, he hurled it around like a building, hundreds of wailers wiped out, one group after the other.
Callahan did as he was told, he ran, it came easy at first, the adrenaline and fear, it pumped the blood quickly through his body, let each step glide past the almost effortlessy, but as he went on, and the pounding thrums of the battle behind him faded, so to did the adrenaline. Instead, he started to become tired, his vision, darkened, the light of the torch seeming to fade regardless of how much tinder there was still yet to burn. “Help!... HELP” He tried to scream, hoping somebody might hear him, “help…” but his lungs were weak, boiling from the inside out”
His breathes felt heavy, his legs limp and numb, his arms unable to be help any longer. He took 3 more lumbering steps before he face planted into the first, the torch’s flaming head dug itself into the dirt, the flame died almost instantly.
And Callahan, he laid there, face first in the dirt. With what little strength he had left, he pushed him self over on his back, trying to relieve the pressure on his lungs. It wasn’t helping, the weight and pain was pushing in on them from all sides, “Ma…” he tried to call out, “Rowa…”
Hot painful tears rolls down the side of his face beneath the mask “I tried…” he could feel it, the lightheartedness, the world in the dark becoming topsy turvey, his fingers weakly dug into the dirt below him, trying to grip himself, to hang onto this life but he could feel it slipping through his fingers. He couldn’t tell anymore, if his eyes were opened or close, if what he was seeing was real or a hallucination from his mind, but, there was a soft glow emanating from below him, that same familiar blue that lead him to this horrible end, he didn’t if it it was comfort he felt or pain, or regret, but it was something close to it.
The light bloomed brighter around him, crawling out from him, up the walls once more, and up in the ceiling he could see those patterns again. But what did it matter to him? What final light show before the end. He could feel something new now, a gentle lifting from under his shoulders, he wondered if this was it, if his soul was finally departing. “Rowan…” he gasped, but it was barely loud enough to be a whimper, he could feel himself being dragged, could see the light ahead of him fading once more, as the dark crept into him again and again….
His eyes were heavy now, he couldn’t keep them open.
“Rowan… Rowan…. ROWAN” a shrill screech, familiar, but young, younger than it had been in years
“ROWAN LET YOUR BROTHER GO RIGHT NOW”
He knew that voice, he heard it so many times, saying that exact line, so familiar… but young younger than it had been since he was boy.
“Mom?” he felt thrown so far now, out from under whatever hellish Mire he was trapped in, now he seemed to be standing, in his old room, watching himself, headlocked and wrestling, trying to break free from young Rowan’s grip while their mother, exasperated came with a heavy hand that pelted the back of Rowan’s head. “I TOLD YOU IT’S BEDTIME!”
“Mom?” He stood there, taller than her now, he couldn’t help it, the feelings welling up inside him, he hadn’t seen her so up and healthy in ages now, he tried to grab her, to hold her, to just feel her once more before he left, but when his hand reached for her, it faded through her as if she was made of air. “Is this the big flash before I go?” his voiced seemed echoey, like the room was the vast cavern that he knew he was dying in, but what he saw, was something special, something he loved. The warm candle lights, the creaky windows in the snow storm, the bed covered in raggy sheets stitched together from so many hand me downs. Then he saw himself, about to be tossed head first into his bed by his brother, before the motherly hand of justice met the back of Rowan’s head.
“No more!”
“OW MAA, HE LIKES THIS IT’S FUN!” Rowan pouted
Lil Callahan was quiet, dizzy and confused, “mom… I feel sick”
She knelt down to her youngest son, cupping a warm hand to his face as her thumb gently petted his cheek, “You’ll be okay, no more rough housing with Rowan! He doesn’t know how to be gentle at all!”
“MA! I Know I was just trying to make him tough!”
“TO BED ROWAN, BEFORE I SLAP YA AGAIN”
Rowan rolled his eyes behind her back, then climbed into his bed, tucking his head under his covers. “Get into bed, Callahan, you need your sleep, you won’t get any better if you don’t rest”
“Okay…” said the lil Callahan, as he crawled under his covers and let his mother tuck him tightly into his blankets. She pressed a warm kiss to his forehead, this to Rowan she went, he was hiding underneath the covers that she ripped down to show his face “Come here you little beast! Give your mother a kiss”
“NO!” Rowan pushed and shoved her away, but Mama Fiona was tougher “AYE I SWEAR ROWAN IF YOU DON’T LET ME GIVE YOU A KISS”
Rowan giggled, he loved making his mother furious, but finally he relented, letting her plant a soft peck on his forehead.
With the two of them tucked in she hovered her face over the candles on the bedside table, and blew the out the candles, then gently walked to the threshold of the door, “Good Night my sweet boys, Sweet dreams.” She said, gentle as the wind in spring
Together the boys replied, “Good night Mama” and then she disappeared into the dark behind the threshold of the door.
“Ma…” Callahan reeled, almost heartbroken at what he was seeing, what he was losing, “Mom…” He went to the bed, he tried to touch Rowan, to touch his smaller self, but they too slipped through his fingers like air.
“Why… why is it still going, just let it end, I don’t need to see all this…” He paced around the room, unsure what to do next, the memory was soft, saccharine, if this is how it would end then he wouldn’t mind, but he was still here, still “alive” and he felt something terrible, knew something that was to come… he felt it, the fear, as his gaze lingered on the darkness of the Threshold door.
“Just let it end… please, I don’t want to see this part…” He could hear it, the foot steps, scraping on the old wood, the familiar creak of the broken panel just outside their door.
“Stop… stop…” he turned away from the door, spun towards the window on the opposite wall, hoping to ignore it, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw it, lil Callahan, awake staring at the thing he’d rather not look. “No… just look away, please…” he pleaded, uselessly to his younger self.
“Come on Cal…” it was strange, using his brother’s nickname for himself…
Lil Cal, sheepishly cried “Mommy…” as he looked toward the darkness of the door, toward something the older Callahan couldn’t face.
He tried to stand in front of his smaller self, to fruitlessly block his sight, but it was no use, he could see it, the room darkening, the tendrils of what was behind him wrapping around every small splinter in the wood, crawling up the legs of the bed, the dress, and swirling around the lantern. Engulfing everything, like the pitch black of the Mire he was in.
Reluctantly he turned to face it, like a mass of black insects it hovered in the shape of a man at the threshold of the door, living shadow, and pain, it cut a cold stabbing pain into his heart, a pain he had felt before, a nightmare reoccurring over and over, “STOP PLEASE” he tried to cry out, tried to fight back but he couldn’t move, it would play out again, that reaching dark grasp, inched over, closer further up the bed of Rowan, the dark hand, clawed and shark wrapped around his neck, and behind, he could feel it, Lil Callahan’s terrified gaze, his hoarse whimpers, his pleading cries.
“MOOMMY HELP” He screamed “ROWAN WAKE UP” He cried again
“MOMMY… ROWAN… MOM! BRIGETTE HELP!” endlessly he shouted, but he was unheard,
“Cal…” he couldn’t take it anymore, he was falling apart, he could feel the pain, but not in himself, know it radiated from the young Callahan and struck the older one like a hot knife,
“ROWAN WAKE UP” and then it played out again, like it had so many times before, one monster turned into two, a violent beast erupted from the body of little Rowan, roiling and raging, it’s thick neck broke throw the shadowed grasp of the dark demon.
It roared, a shrill painful whine, like the howling of terrible winds, and then it charges at the shadow, the beasts tusks goring into the swarm of insect that bled hot red blood. “STOP ROWAN, I’M SORRY” The older Callahan cried, “It’s all my fault… you didn’t mean to…” he slumped into himself, curling his legs to his chest hiding his face, he couldn’t stand to watch anymore.
“Why… why does this have to be the last thing…” He felt smaller, rocking back and forth on the floor, sobbing back the tears and fears. “just let me go… just let me go” his voice shrank along with is body, smaller and smaller, he just wanted to disappear for this to all end. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m Sorry…”
He tried to use his voice to drown out the sound of the squealing beast, and the gurgling Shadow, dying on his bedroom floor. Repeating the same words over and over and over…
“Oh… what a terrible dream you’re having” A voice, unfamiliar, cut through the scene, everything froze, like a painting, it was still. “My dear sweet Callahan, let me wake you from this nightmare!”
