Shadow Realm

Death rides at night, even in the torrential rainfall outside. I lay in a darkened cave, cold and frightened, seeking shelter from the violent storm. Vicious lightning strikes crashed against the cold, barren mountain peaks with increased intensity, as the storm grew stronger, illuminating the dark night with brilliant flashes of energy. Thunder reverberated across the canyon walls. Sheets of rain marched in successive waves, like an army assaulting the mountain.

The wind drove the water deeper within my shelter, forcing me back into the blackness that was my cavern of fear. But as ferocious as the storm was, it was not the major cause of my distress for out in the darkness, death rode. Sahat traveled across the land by night, searching for those who were trapped in this land of shadows.

Evil reigned supreme in this land over those like myself who did not know the Light of the world. I lived in a land of shadows, a land of illusions, filled with traps and hidden dangers, roving bands of outlaws and the ever-present Sahat.

I was chained by the links of death. As time went by new links appeared, making it ever more difficult to overcome and survive. The links were a direct result of an ancient curse that had befallen my race. There were times when I no longer wished to survive, but deep within me in my dormant spirit there was a will to fight, to somehow escape this land and its terrors, to find the Light the legends spoke of that could reverse the curse of death upon me. I had two chains across my shoulders that were a heavy burden, but I still survived.

I pulled a filthy blanket close around me. I watched as the rain slowed somewhat and the lightning was fading away to the west. As the noise of the falling rain receded, I faintly heard someone out in the darkness running through the trees below the cave entrance. The person scrambled along the rocky shore of the river that flowed below my hiding place, traveling closer as I waited in the dark shadows. As the person came close, the echo of a distant horn call pierced through the thick pine forest across the river like a nightmare. The Sahat had located their prey.

“Please! Someone help me!”

It was a woman’s voice, and she undoubtedly knew what the horn meant as I did. I heard her struggle through the thickets on the steep slope above the river. I imagined she was trying desperately to find a place of sanctuary, a place where the evil soldiers could not locate her. Several times I heard her fall. Her cries for help were unanswered and grew in desperation and terror. I could hear the horsemen as they rode closer along the rocky shoreline.

I lay frozen in my cave, frightened and ashamed. Finally she climbed out of the rocky gorge through the mountain laurel and into the open forest just below the cave entrance. A shadow moved across the face of the cave opening and I heard her desperation and fatigue, as she collapsed not thirty feet from the entrance. I realized that she had seen the cave and was attempting to crawl through the mud with her last bit of strength toward my hiding place. I could have helped her. In fact I should have assisted her, but I did not. I lay under my filthy blanket against the cold, damp walls of the cave of my fears hoping that the Sahat would not find me.

Outside the rain suddenly ceased and the wind began to blow, pushing the weakening clouds away and revealing openings where scattered stars blinked from behind the veil of darkness. The full moon appeared briefly, ducking in and out from behind the retreating clouds, illuminating the darkness outside the cave intermittently. Water ran everywhere, leftover from the recent downpour, dripping from hidden crevices in the rocky walls. The woman fell face down in the mud within a few feet of the cave opening where I lay hidden. A mounted horseman appeared from the side of the cave door and another pushed his way through the undergrowth from which the girl had struggled.

The two shrouded figures were armored soldiers dressed in black and riding black horses. They wore helmets, revealing only their piercing crimson eyes through small slits. Their eyes illuminated the darkness with an eerie red glow wherever they looked. Both carried a shield with a striking red dragon emblazoned on the front in their left hand and a double-edged axe in their right. Their horses glared with the same evil, piercing red eyes. The horses pranced and snorted as the two soldiers herded the woman into the open area at the cave entrance.

The woman’s will was broken, her sobbing cries echoing against the cave walls. With the creak of leather and rattling of chain mail, one of the soldiers dismounted and walked toward the woman who cowered away from him, on her knees in the mud. The second Sahat remained on his horse, his piercing eyes scanning the surroundings. He looked into the cave.

I lay perfectly still near the back of the cave. My heart raced with fear. I dared not move and give my position away. The twin beams of his eye’s red light penetrated the darkness of the cave. He seemed to look directly at me. I hoped to appear as one of the rocks. I lay still as he continued to scan the cave, and then again looked directly at me, although he did not appear to see me, and then I knew that he did see me! I was too frightened to move as he edged his great horse toward me and entered the cave, stopping just inside the opening.

“Ah, it appears we have another fugitive hiding in the cave,” he remarked and the other looked into the cave as did the girl.