The Three Feathers - The Magnificent Journey of Joshua Aylong (12 page)

Out of the holes in the ground came the spiders. First dozens but then hundreds of them, their bodies covered in long hair, they came crawling with immense speed down the hill and toward the tower. They must have been three to four feet wide and at least three quarters the height of the wolf. The sound was deafening and so terrifying Joshua flew higher and faster than he ever thought he could. When they reached the other side of the dam and the stairs, the spiders had reached the ice covered lake. The wolf ran up the stone steps, taking three or four at a time. He arrived first at the plateau with the large door.

As Joshua flew up the stairs he heard the wolf in his thoughts.

“The doors, Joshua. The doors are closed. We can’t get inside!”

Joshua reached the plateau. Behind him, the ice crept into the boulder. The spiders were about half way across the lake. And Joshua felt suddenly that this was it; that this was the end of his journey. It was either the spiders that reached them first or the ice. It did not matter. He didn’t think his end would come like this. He was always convinced it would be from a predator, like a fox or on owl. But not a spider four times his size or temperatures that could freeze one’s breath and turn it into icicles in a matter of seconds. Grey and Joshua looked at each other, for an instant wordlessly acknowledging their friendship to one another. Then they turned to face whatever it was that would reach them first.

The shadow that suddenly blocked the sun became larger and larger and Joshua looked up. Blinded by the light he saw a blurry silhouette coming toward them. He could make out a dark figure and massive wings pushing the air. And then Krieg landed next to them.

“Step back from the door,” he told them in his thoughts. And before Joshua could react, the war horse kicked the door several times until it flew open.

“Get inside!” He commanded them.

And when Wind landed on the ice covered plateau, Joshua flew through the door. He was followed by Grey, Wind and Krieg.

“Go up the stair case!” Wind’s thoughts reached them. “It’s not over yet!”

Krieg kicked the door from the inside and it shut, the sound echoing through the large space. As Joshua ran and flew up the massive stair case that went up along the walls he heard the spiders on the outside. For a moment he took in the scenery: a wide spiral staircase of massive proportions made of stone and reaching ever higher inside the tall tower. As Krieg passed Joshua he stopped briefly.

“Fly onto my back,” he told him.

Joshua did so without hesitation. As they raced up the stairs, Joshua saw the ice crawling up the walls toward them. The stone stairs far at the bottom were already completely covered. They had to reach the top of the tower before the ice overcame them completely.

“You have wings!” Joshua couldn’t help but think to Krieg.

“Yes, my friend, I do.”

For a brief moment, and cutting through all the fear, he felt utter joy to see Krieg alive and well. Then he looked behind him and saw that the ice had almost caught up with them.

“We’re here!” Grey’s thoughts reached Joshua. And with that he disappeared through an opening in the ceiling. Wind followed and then Krieg with Joshua on his back. This part of the tower was completely made of glass interlaced with thin, carefully crafted bars that made up the structure into which the glass was built. As they stood in the large space that was easily fifty yards across and at least twice as high, they could see the ice crawling up another ten yards on the glass before it stopped. At the same time the spiders reached the top of the tower. For a moment all was quiet except for the eerie crackling of the ice outside. The spider’s bodies, tugged against the glass, blocked most of the light. Here and there a beam of sunlight came through the small spaces between them, illuminating parts of the floor.

The group stood huddled together in the middle of the large dome. Joshua saw that Grey’s fur coat was covered in ice crystals. Parts of the wings of the Pegasus were frozen as well. And as he looked down on himself he saw that a fine layer of ice covered his feathers. They got here not a moment too soon. The joy over seeing Krieg again was overshadowed by the terrifying thought that they were surrounded by hundreds, maybe thousands, of large spiders. The relief he felt when they reached the tower room was short lived. What if the spiders found a way inside? The door at the bottom was probably still open even though Krieg tried to close it shut.

“They will not harm you.” Wind’s thoughts reached him like clear water bubbling to the surface of a well.

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“They will not harm you in any way. They are not here for you.”

Joshua didn’t understand.

“Why are they here then?” He asked.

There was a pause while Wind looked at him, her eyes kind and her presence warming his mind.

“They are here to seek shelter. The ice comes from deep within the earth, taking everything in its path. The spiders flee from it to the only place they know will save them: Refuge. If you were to look outside now you would see that none of the ones below us have survived. They all died in search of a place where the ice could not reach them. They were not after us.”

“So, closing the doors killed them?” Krieg asked into the silence.

“No. Even inside, just below the floor, they would not be alive right now.” Wind held Krieg’s gaze. “There was nothing you could have done.”

“What happens now?” Joshua asked, not sure what exactly he meant.

“Once the ice melts, the lake will take their dead. The ones that survive go back down deep into the ground.”

“Until next time?” Joshua asked.

“Yes. Until next time,” Wind answered.

Joshua nodded slightly. He had seen so much death in such a short period of time and each one touched him anew, each time it was as if part of himself died as well.

“Death is just a part of this world,” Wind thought to him. “It is neither good nor bad. It is.”

“I don’t like it!” Joshua was surprised about the strength of his reaction. “Why is there life when it ends in death anyway? Why go through all this when the outcome is certain and inevitable?” Joshua was suddenly overcome by a wave of emotions of desperation, fear and a sense of loss that he couldn’t comprehend.

“Joshua!” Grey’s thoughts stood clear within his mind. “It’s the spiders. You are experiencing what they are feeling. It is their thoughts that you are hearing.”

Joshua realized at that moment that the wolf was right. He could feel it now. It was all around him. The spiders that had made it up to the top mourned the death of their brethren below. Suddenly Joshua saw the outside of the tower through their eyes. It was covered in the frozen, crystallized bodies of the spiders. One by one they fell off the ice covered walls as it began to melt. It was an image of utter horror.

“There is nothing you can do for their bodies,” Wind thought to him. “But there is something you can do for us and for yourself and for them and that is that they are not excluded from our thoughts. That they are
in
our thoughts. That will accompany them to wherever they are going and to whatever awaits them next.”

As Joshua thought about this, trying to comprehend what he had just heard from Wind, Krieg came over and lay down across from him and the wolf. The three of them looked at each other for a while.

“I’m so glad you are both alive,” Krieg thought to them. “I was certain of your death and I felt it as my own.”

“We are very glad to see you well, Krieg,” the wolf replied. “Tell us what happened.”

And so Krieg told the story of how he and Wind escaped the crumbling path and made it up the steep incline to the surface. He told them about the beacon and seeing the sky people float up and about himself jumping into the abyss and passing through the clouds into the blackness of the Gate of Time. When he came out of the dark he suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his back and he realized that his fall had slowed. He became aware of his wings and began to make small adjustments to them to change direction and height. Then he saw Wind coming toward him. He felt her utter joy.

“I live!” He thought.

“Yes. And you can fly,” Wind replied.

“I can fly!”

It was a feeling unlike any other he had ever experienced. He felt weightless, gliding through the air, dizzy from the sheer height and feeling the air under his wings.

“Come with me!” Wind turned toward the Wall and Krieg followed behind her. “We can use the upward winds,” she thought to him and he saw her suddenly far above him. A moment later he was carried upward at least 200 yards until he was next to her again.

The exhilaration he felt was contagious and for a while both of them flew through the sky, at times gliding in almost complete silence and at others using their powerful wings to push upward. Eventually they set down in a small enclave of trees not far from the Wall to the north where the land was lush and the grass was deep green. It was warm there and the finest mist hung in the air. Moss covered the lower parts of the Wall. From high up, water ran down along it and where it hit the ground it disappeared into a narrow gap. Krieg realized that where they stood was the bottom end of the waterfall where he, Joshua and the wolf had barely escaped their fate.

“We have to find them,” Krieg thought to Wind. He looked down at two half decomposed Hyenas right next to the small gap. “Even though it is the last thing I want to see, we must try to find their bodies. They should not become prey to worms and other vermin.”

Wind could see the pain in Krieg’s eyes.

“Then let us go and find them,” Wind answered and took a few steps. “Come.”

Krieg gave his silent approval and Wind began to trot and soon galloped through the trees in long strides gaining speed until she reached a large clearing and lifted off the ground. She turned in the air and flew back toward Krieg who went up on his hind legs, pushing forward and racing through the trees to the same opening. His wings unfolded and he was in the air. He gained height until they were about 200 yards above the ground.

“We should fly along the wall to the west,” Wind thought to Krieg, adjusting her wings accordingly.

And so they flew along the majestic wall looking for any signs of Joshua and Grey but they couldn’t find them anywhere. In the distance they saw the shimmering lights of the ruins and the beacon rising up into the sky. Krieg could sense Wind’s wish to go there and stand on the ancient grounds of her city once more.

“You are right, Krieg. My home is calling for me. But answering it must wait until we have found your friends. I have waited a thousand years and I can wait a little longer.”

It was then when Krieg spotted a small red dot racing across the dam and toward the Refuge. And he saw the ice closing in on them and the spiders running for their lives and he flew down and found his friends again.

13.
L
IONESS

When Joshua and Grey told their part of the story, Wind listened intently, asking many questions about the city of light ruins and the beacon and the engravings on the plate of stone. Joshua had many questions for Wind as well, some of which she was able to answer. She spoke about the sky people who, for centuries, visited the city through the beacon to serve the Pegasus. They lived peacefully together until some of them began to mine the mountain for rare crystals. More and more of the sky people came through the beacon and the city became a thriving mining town. But in time, most of the sky people forgot their purpose to serve the Pegasus and they began to use them in the mines. They were strong creatures and able to sustain long times without food and water deep inside the mountain. Very few of the sky people realized that they were lost. Lost in greed and the underlying despair over what they were doing to the Pegasus. Some of the sky people began to oppose. Many lost their lives in their attempts to free the Pegasus from the mines.

And one day, a small group of sky people who still believed in their purpose and that of their ancestors, destroyed the beacon, fully knowing that they would not be able to ever get back home. They fled deep into the ground. Without the beacon, the creatures of the dark came by night to take whoever was not able to find shelter. Without the beacon, the ice was able to reach far into the city and one day whoever was still above ground was prey to its deathly claws. Many died. The Pegasus that were still alive and weren’t killed by the dark ones, abandoned the crumbling city. Without the beacon there was no longer any purpose for being there. And without the beacon, the city began to fall. The sky people that were left swore never to let this happen again.

Deep below the surface, they found stone plates filled with symbols of the knowledge of an ancient civilization; the one who had built the beacon in the first place. It was there were they found instructions to close the entrance to the mines; seal the Porte Des Lioness and build the labyrinth of mirrors that would allow only one with a true heart and certainty of purpose to reactivate the beacon and give the sky people another chance…

Joshua suddenly found himself back in the dark tower room realizing that everyone was looking at him.

“What are you looking at me for? I didn’t do anything,” he thought. “It obviously couldn’t have been me. I’m certainly not true in my heart and also not at all certain of my purpose. It must be you, Grey.”

The wolf smiled in his thoughts. So did Krieg and Wind.

“What” Joshua thought. “Let me explain to you why it couldn’t have been me. First of all, pure of heart I’m certainly not. I have abandoned my fellow chickens and with that sentenced them to death for which I am responsible. My heart is anything but pure. It is the opposite. And since I have found you I have pushed you into an ordeal that almost cost you your lives. Several times over. So, don’t tell me that I’m anything but what I am: nothing.”

Joshua looked at his friends and could not understand why they didn’t agree with him.

“Grey, am I not right? You almost lost your life twice now, actually three times if you count the labyrinth. And you Krieg, I…” Joshua seemed to have lost the thread of his arguments.