I lay still for a time, taking in the feeling of the energy on my body. I was half expecting the forest spider to miraculously return to life. After a while, and once I was sure it was dead. I pushed the carcass off my body and used my knife to cut away the webbing.
My attempt to stand was flimsy at best. My world started to tilt, and I reached out for the closest tree, resting my hand against it. My legs were still tingling. They felt uncertain, as if they were packed with cotton instead of muscle.
"Up," I muttered to myself and my legs, willing them to work. They obeyed, admittedly slowly.
Where to now? That was the question. My body was full of warnings from hunger aches to the pangs of thirst. It was reminding me of the torture I had subjected it to over the last week. It was a problem I would need to address soon rather than later. I need rest and food.
They weren't my only problem. Magic, that had been magic at the end. I wasn't supposed to have magic. Halflings didn't get magic. Quaterlings certainly didn't inherit magic. And yet, I had used it. I didn't even know what type of magic I had used. Maybe it was the Elieve. Maybe it did more than mend my flesh. Then there was the dream that didn't feel like a dream.
I didn't understand anything that was happening. Everything that had happened to me was all traced back to the monster bait. I could only imagine one person who would have done that. I saw my eldest brother's face and his half smile in my mind. Dale. He had always resented the love Father showed me. It was the perfect crime, a tragic accident. He would have complete deniability. I wasn't sure why he would have needed to go that far, as I had already been exiled. I didn't know his hatred of me ran that deep.
A bird call came from the trees above, bringing me out of my thoughts. I needed to focus. Water first, food second, sleep third and then off to Bramblehold.
Water, that was simple enough. The forest had a rhythm to it. The sound of the wind, the rustling of the undergrowth, the flow of water. I closed my eyes as I had many times before in the forest near Southmarch and listened. It didn't take long before I heard the telltale sounds of flowing water.
I took a hesitant step. My legs still protested, but they followed, and I found a small stream. I used my hand to gather a small mouthful of water. The water was clear, tasteless, but refreshingly cool. I knew I had to take it slow. I had wanted to drink more, but I read in books that drinking too much too quickly could be dangerous. I filled up the canteen I had taken from the wagon wreckage.
I sat down on the edge of the stream, feeling the dampness of the ground on my behind and letting the water run over my feet as I listened to the forest. In my relaxed state, I tried to feel for the flow of energy I had during the fight. I controlled my breathing and relaxed, hoping for something. Then I felt it, a pressure and touch of heat, but it was more intentional than before. It felt like a current, a movement of energy in the air.
Someone spoke. "Come, little one." It was the same voice as from my dream, but I wasn't dreaming this time. I knew it wasn't just a dream. Opening my eyes, I could see it, a thread of flowing white energy.
My curiosity overcame my reason. I followed the thread. Step, Step, Step. The ground was going up, and my legs burned from overuse. Yet, I continued, following the current. The trees thinned as I ascended, and the ground started to change from fresh soil to gravel. I wanted to take a break, but I feared my resolve would disappear if I stopped. So I continued to walk, step by step.
Finally, a hillside came into view. A rise of stone and scrub. It was nothing remarkable about it, except that the current of energy flowed into it. I stumbled toward the wall. Like with the knife, I felt energy flow through my body and into the wall, and a perfectly vertical line formed in the stone.
The vertical line became a seam, and then a gap as the stone parted like a doorway, and air rushed into the room from the outside. Then one by one, the lights came on, not the oil lamps I had seen at home. These were different. They were made of some type of gemstone with perfect, octagonal facets, held in place by some brass armatures. I had never seen anything like them. Unlike the flickering light of a lamp, they gave off a steady glow of green light.
The light showed off the rest of the cave. It was a combination of the impossible. The sides of the cave were covered in silvery lines that connected to panels of unknown metals. Pipes and glass cylinders ran along the ceiling. The floor was unnaturally smooth stone. No encyclopedias or picture books had architecture that resembled this.
None of the races had this amount of mastery over glass and iron. I wasn't sure what I was walking into, but I didn't feel any fear. The energy in the room felt safe.
The energy was stronger in the tunnel, and the current was clearer. I followed the flowing energy along the walls heading deeper into the tunnel, and the lights turned on as if sensing my presence. I arrived at a small door, so small that I had to duck to get inside. It was a strange feeling to have to duck to get inside a room.
On the other side of the doorway, I found myself in a large chamber, easily taller than the keep of Southmarch. Inside, on a pedestal of obsidian sat a large skeleton, the features were easy to make out: the wings, the long tail, and the skull with large teeth. All unmistakable, this was the creature of myth. A dragon. This skeleton was different; embedded in the bones were hundreds of gemstones. I could feel a thread of energy connecting them all and linking to a strange object on top of its head. A strange spherical object was embedded in its skull.
"You made it, little one." This time, the voice sounded tired. I saw the object on its skull flash while it spoke.
"Who are you?" I asked, not sure what else I could do.
"We have little time, so I will be quick. I am the last of the great sentinels," the voice was weak. "Our energy reserves are depleted. We have waited centuries for a weaver like you to return."
As it finished speaking, I heard hissing air and turned to look as a glass tube receded into the floor, leaving a perfectly spherical object that looked to be covered in armoured scales, no more than the size of a melon.
"Take the Seed, little one. Recover what was lost. Return the balance"
The gemstones attached to the skeleton lost their gleam, and the thread of energy that connected them had disappeared.
The lights had started to turn off. One by one, starting within the chamber itself. The dragon, or more likely the object embedded in its skull, must have been powering them.
I ran to the seed and picked it up. It felt as I had expected, leathery and warm to the touch. I couldn't carry it and run. I threw out everything from my pack and stuffed the seed inside, securing it carefully before hoisting the pack over my back.
Then I ran.
On my feet at first, but it wasn't fast enough. The lights were dying faster than I could move with my still numb legs. I dropped onto my hands, using my arms to compensate for my useless legs. It was undignified, but I leapt forward on all fours, faster than I would manage on two legs. I didn't want to know what would happen if I didn't make the door in time, and I didn't want to find out. Worst-case scenario, I could be trapped in here.
Everything burned. Sweat stung my eyes. My arms screamed with effort.
But I caught up to the lights first, and then I overtook them. Making it through the doorway in time.
I fell onto my back on the other side, gasping. I looked back as the stone door closed without a sound. There was no line, no seam, no evidence it had ever existed.