Ep.26 - The Year Of The Bear
(Start at the beginning)
“My satchel! Where’s my satchel?”
The collective attention of the Bears turned distractedly at Julia’s alarm. The cool, quiet interior of the cavern had been calm and solemn since she’d returned to her feet but was suddenly put on edge thanks to the outburst. Julia waved her torch around wildly, illuminating the scuffed earth and shadowed edges of their battlefield but to no avail. Aside from the odd rock, dark markings of blood, and the lifeless corpse of one of the Heesh there was nothing around to speak of.
“What of it?” Carmel asked.
“The woman took it after delivering that blow to your head,” Dolev pointed.
Julia raised her hand to her head, the lump painfully obvious and the associated headache still tearing havoc through her mind. The bloodied mess through Dolev’s hair looked worse but despite the ghastly appearance seemed less of an influence over her ability to function.
“You had a satchel?” Kodiak chimed in unhelpfully, looking confused at the memory.
“Yes! It had the package in it, remember? The one you wanted to open?”
“Oh yeah,” Kodiak sounded unconcerned. “Shame that. Could have been worse though, she could have run off with you. Seemed like they were fixing to.”
“We have to find it,” Julia blurted.
“Why?”
“Fareamay wanted it delivered to the Serpent, she said it was important.”
“Important how?” Carmel asked with a stern, probing tone to his voice. It shook Julia from her vivacity, giving her an acute sense of self awareness. She shrugged and shook her head, her former bluster having drained away.
“I don’t know, she just stressed the point.” She watched as Carmel and Dolev shared a look, a silent exchange transpiring between them which concluded with an agreement of disbelief.
“Not sure I believe that,” Carmel stated openly as he started gathering up his things, readying himself to move on. Kodiak was doing the same, taking one last moment to pick over the corpse for anything of interest. There was none.
Dolev moved toward Julia, her hands raised and her eyes on the wound. “Let me see. This welt is worse than it seems.” She shifted her gaze to meet Julia’s, their eyes transfixing in a way that was becoming familiar to Julia for all it’s strangeness. “Are you sure you’re not just forgetting? Take a moment, think, your mind might be hazy from the blow.” The soothing tone of Dolev’s voice came sweet as honey, smooth as silk, lazy if not for the suggestive nature that genuinely made Julia want to recall. She jolted with a start, blinking and nodding, drawing fresh breath with a look of self assurance.
“I’m sure,” She asserted, “If we can track it down I think we should.”
~~
Everything moved slower, everyone much quieter. Carmel lead the Bears on into the darkness with the anticipation of another attack. The path had little variation, the cavern growing closer as it descended further under the hill. The Heesh were nowhere to be seen and may have seemed ghosts had there not been a trail of blood spattered along the earthen path. It wasn't long before they came upon a body, one of the previously escaped warriors who had succumbed to his wounds. He lay lifeless against a slope in the wall, a knife still clutched in one hand while the other lay limply on a wound at his side. Asleep as he now appeared, dressed in coarse clothes, his long shaggy hair covering half his peaceful face, he seemed nothing of the monster that came screaming out of the shadows. Yet Julia was sure to keep her distance and could only watch as Carmel stepped forward on to the knife, and thrust his blade in under the man's ribs to deny him the chance of any surprises.
It seemed difficult to track time beneath the earth but it was all too soon when Julia heard the sounds of voices again. Though they were more tempered than before the tones of the Heesh bounced along the walls once again. Only this time they did not fall silent upon approach, nor did they change to screams of bloody murder launching from the Shadows. Light illuminated a chamber up ahead and as the Bears approached they caught sight of the three remaining Heesh, including the woman with Julia’s satchel. The two warriors who had escaped with little more than a scratch between them were on their knees, faces down, noses inches off the hard packed earth. The woman was in much the way only she held Julia’s satchel up like an offering, her eyes cast low. She spoke loud and resolute into the gloom, words Julia could not understand. Then from the depths of the darkness, beyond the places where the word ‘shadow’ held any meaning, an impossibly low and rumbling voice spoke back.
“What in the hell was that?” Kodiak whispered.
“My guess is the Serpent,” Carmel replied in kind, trying to get a look.
Julia’s heart raced, the nerves reaching up from the pit of her belly and choking out her throat for fear of making a sound. She found Dolev at her side, giving her a nudge and motioning into the cavern with her head, “Your satchel.”
Julia had seen but it seemed incredibly unimportant now. She nodded her head, managing an acknowledgement albeit a silent one.
“Should we go in and get it?” Kodiak asked.
Carmel looked to Julia, but she could only stare back, less able than willing to answer. He shook his head, “Let’s see what happens.”
More dialogue was exchanged from the Heesh until the woman half stood in her place and tossed the satchel as far into the darkness as she could manage. Something moved at the edge of the din, a huge shape, dark in colour, too huge to comprehend. When one edge to the shape seemed to become defined, a newly revealed angle in another moment left the previous thought confused and misaligned. The thing washed down, shifting a great weight into the fringes of the light where it retrieved the satchel and drew back into darkness. Everyone else seemed suddenly speechless. Except, of course, for Kodiak.
“What in the fuck kind of serpent is that?”
(Continue to Ep.27)
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