9

Jared’s dreams were filled with shining sun bright gold. He slept well until morning when he dreamt of being smashed under boulders being tossed at him from the top of the mountain. He woke in a fright and it took a moment for him to realize he was safe in the shepherds’ hut. He rolled out from under his covers, added wood to his fire and peeked out of the door. It was still dark without any sign that the sun was ready to rise. He got back under his cape, laid his head down and slept some more. He did not have any more dreams of avalanches.

A little while later, he woke very refreshed. He gathered his belongings together and packed up. He ate more of his cooked hare and a hand full of blue berries. He saved a haunch for his midday meal, wrapping it in leather and putting it away in his pack. He covered the fire in dirt and dowsed it with water. Satisfied that it was out, he went down to the stream and refilled his water bag. He came back to the hut and gathered his belongings. He set out up the trail on his second day of his quest.

The path got steeper on this section of his hike. Rocks and gravel made up the bed of the trail and the trees became made up more of spruce with fewer leaf trees. Jared was coming up to the part of the mountain where the cougars had their haunts. He became more cautious and kept his ears peeled for rustling in the trees and brush. He hiked through the morning without seeing any animals at all. He stopped for a break as the sun began its downward cycle towards night. He ate the rest of his rabbit and berries. He drank some of his water, splashing some on his face as the sunshine up this high made him hot and sweaty.

Jared began walking again. The incline continued to rise but he was very happy with how uneventful his trip was. If things continued in this fashion, he thought to himself, he’d be back home and rich in no time. By the time the sun began to set, he was almost to the tree line. From where he was now, he could see where the trees stopped growing and there was only scrub grass and bushes. He had about an hour to go before getting there. It wasn’t far now and when he got there another hut was waiting for him for the night. This would be the last man made shelter he would have on the trip.

While he was thinking about his break for the night, he heard a sound off to his left. He stopped to listen more carefully because he wasn’t sure if he had actually heard anything. He did hear movement in the bushes; first slow and quiet rustling, and then a rush of noise, with breaking branches and a bark.

A small black bear, probably not even six months old dashed out of the woods, running and jumping without a care in the world. Jared stood stock still, staring at it, barely breathing. The cub ran out onto the path and skidded to a halt barely ten feet away from Jared. They stood looking at each other, neither of them moving. Jared tried looking out of the corners of his eyes to see if he could find the mother. He didn’t see anything but she couldn’t be far behind. He wondered what he should do.

The cub took one tentative step towards Jared. Jared took a step back. The cub took three steps forward as Jared stepped back and fell over backwards landing on his ass and hitting his head on the ground. He passed out. He woke up to the cold and damp on his face. The cub was licking him around the mouth and on his nose. Jared yelled out in fright and surprise, startling the cub that yelped and scrambled back away from Jared. Jared pushed himself up on his elbows and then sat up. Once he was upright again and rubbing the bump on his head, he looked across the path and saw the cub’s mother just nosing out of the woods.

She came out of the trees sniffing the air. The cub sat down next to Jared. The mother bear stood on her hind legs and bellowed to the sky, raising her front legs up and waving them like she was shaking her fists at Jared. Jared tried to quietly shoe the cub to his mother but he wasn’t moving. He sat by Jared like a trained dog. The mother bounced down on all four legs and called angrily to her cub who just sat there with its tongue lolling out. Jared crawled slowly backwards, inches at a time. The cub swung its head from its mother to Jared, looking back and forth between them. Jared kept moving away from the cub and so far the mother was not moving forward.

Just when Jared thought he’d be able to get away without any more troubles, the cub moved towards him which made the mother start running towards them. Jared jumped up, dropping his sack and ran back down the path. He could hear the cub following him and the mother bear following them both. Then all he could hear was the sound of his won labored breathing. Jared turned his head to see how far the bears were behind him. He couldn’t see them so he turned the top half of his body to get a better look while he continued to run. This caused him to overbalance so awkwardly that he fell again, tumbling head over heels.

When he finally righted himself, Jared looked back up the path to the two bears ripping his back pack apart. Jared figured they could smell the dried meat he had stored in his bag. Jared could do nothing. He had to sit there and wait for them to tear his things apart and hope they didn’t destroy things too badly.

The sun was almost down when the bears left Jared’s things and sauntered off into the woods for the night. Jared waited some minutes more to be sure they were not coming back. He got up and made his way back up the path. He had lost precious time because of the bears. He had also lost very important supplies due to their attack. With hardly any light left by which to see, Jared gathered as much of his things as he could find and tried to pack them back in his pack. He had an hour trek to the next hut, but he felt it would be best to get there and start a fire and see how things really stood at this point.

He set off at a brisk pace, hurrying his way along, trying to get to the hut as soon as possible, stumbling several times on the way. He finally reached the hut and was thankful that someone had left wood in a pile out back. He put his belongings inside and then went and got two arm loads of wood. He found his flints in his pack and had to strike it many times before he got some sparks going. Finally a fire blazed in the hut’s in door fire pit. Jared was warming up and reviewing his aches and pains. His head hurt where he had fallen and hit it on the ground. He had scraped hands and bruised knees. But other than these few injuries he was relatively unhurt considering he could have been torn apart by the bear’s claws. The thing that bothered him most now that he was out of immediate danger was his hunger. He would have to go to bed with his stomach growling because he had no more rabbit and no dried food and it was too dark to try to look for berries (even though he knew he was too high in the mountains for berries) or to hunt for small game.

His ordeal made him tired and sleepy. He pulled out his leather cape a spread it out on the ground to warm by the fire. Then he went out back and hauled in more wood so at least he could stay warm all night if not well fed. Once he thought he had enough wood, he closed the door tight and put on the rope latch. He added more wood to the fire, wrapped his wool cape around himself and lay down for sleep. He would check his belongings in the morning in the light. He may even need to go back down to where he met the bears if he was missing some key items. Soon his exhaustion had him snoring away until morning.

Jared woke the next morning to the sounds of hawks calling over head. He ached all over. He put wood on the embers in the pit and got the fire going again. He sat and stretched out, trying to get rid of the kinks and tight muscles. He felt every bump and bruise all along his legs, butt and arms. Then his stomach made a very loud sound. The first thing he needed to do was to get food. Once he had eaten then he could think of where he stood.

He still had his bow and two of the twenty arrows he had left home with. He was a pretty good shot, but still he hoped that two arrows would get him what he needed. He had not expected to be in such a bad situation so early in his trip. Stringing up his bow, he went out to a clear bright morning. He looked around to get his bearings. The hawks he had heard earlier were perched atop their own trees, just looking down upon their kingdom. Jared didn’t want to have to compete with such excellent hunters, so he hoped they had gotten their fill the night before.

Jared set off into the woods, moving stealthily, watching the placement of his feet so he did not snap any twigs and scare off any potential prey. After walking about a half hour, he found a good spot to hunker down and hide in some bushes, allowing any animals to come his way so he did not have to go too far away from the hut.

He squatted down, bow and arrows at the ready and waited. Luckily he did not have long to wait. A rabbit crossed his path not too far in front of him. He took aim, pulled back and got his arm caught in a branch behind him. The arrow flew off course and the rabbit bolted. Jared knocked his second arrow quickly, aimed and shot again. This arrow nicked the rabbit in the rear, but it kept on going. Jared dropped his bow and took off after the rabbit. He was desperately hungry and that made him fast. He lunged at the rabbit and just barely got it by one of its hind legs. He pulled his flint knife from his belt and slit the rabbit’s throat. He tied the rabbit to his belt with leather thongs.

Jared followed his trail back the way he had come to retrieve his two arrows and his bow. He wended his way back to the hut. On the way back, he saw a pheasant in the brush ahead of him. He fit an arrow in his bow and let it fly. He got the bird clean in the neck. It dropped over dead. Jared now had a choice of two meats for his meals. It would still be a long while before he ate. He hurried even more now to get back to his camp.

Jared cut up part of the rabbit and skinned it. The piece was just large enough to feed his hunger now. He got it on the fire so it could begin cooking. While the rabbit piece cooked, he cleaned the rest of the rabbit and plucked the pheasant. By the time he had done all of that the sun stood high in the sky and his meal was done. He ate heartily, finally breaking his fast and no longer feeling like a starving man. Once he was satiated, he spitted the uncooked meat and placed it over the fire. He collected more wood from the edges for the forest where he could keep an eye on his food. When he had enough wood to last him until tomorrow, he looked through his belongings to see what was missing.

He had lost several things he would need. He decided he would spend another night here. Go back down to where he lost his things and see what he could recover. He would also try to catch more food along the way. He’d have to carry cooked food with him instead of the dried meat. It would not last as long, but it would be the best he could do now.

By the time he had cleaned up around the creek where he had cleaned the animals and reorganized his pack, he was very tired. The sun was getting ready to dip down to the horizon, so he thought he’d just take it easy for the rest of the night and help his hurts to heal more. When the sun went down, he covered the outside fire in dirt and went inside. He brought the fire up to burn, wrapped up in his covers and went to sleep.

He awoke just before sunrise, well rested and ready to go. He ate some pheasant, packed everything up, dowsed the fire and set off back down the path. When he found the spot from the day before, he also found many of the things he was missing. He gathered everything up, including his missing eighteen arrows and their holder. He did not want to hang around long in case the bears were still in the area. Once he had everything he could find which included everything that mattered, he headed back up the mountain. He made the hut before noon even taking time out to get another rabbit. He would have to spend another night here but he’d be back to pretty good shape even though he’d have lost two days. He may have been a little too optimistic in his eagerness for his quest, but all was not lost. He would need to be more careful in the future so as not to lose any more time.

Next morning he was ready to go. Right after sunrise he was off again ready to do the last leg to the cavern opening. He had on his wool cape as it had gotten colder over night. The path was less obvious than it was lower on the mountain. He had to do more climbing over rocks and boulders. He saw tiny blue flower growing from rock crevices and even a few of the white wooly soft flowers that were so prized by lovers. He would pick one on the way down to give Rosamund as a token of love and to commemorate his quest and success.

Jared caught glimpses of the ice glaciers further up. He kept up his pace even though it was getting more difficult to get a good breath. He had to stop periodically to catch his breath and take a rest. At noon he took a longer rest and ate and drank. He sat for a little while for a break. Then he set off again.

He reached the mouth of the cave when it was still light. He had made good time. The ice came down around the peaks and wrapped around them nudging their noses close to the cavern opening. It was quiet up hear. No animals skirmished around. No birds were soaring up here. The only sound Jared heard was a moaning that came form the cave it self. The moaning seemed to be separate from the whoosh the wind made as it came out of and got sucked back into the cave itself. Jared could not think what was groaning as if it had a perpetual ache. It made him nervous. It had to be a trick of the wind as it snaked through the tunnels.

Jared decided to set up camp here at the mouth for the night. He moved off to the side where some boulders would break the rush of the wind and afford him some shelter. There was no wood for a fire so he huddled in his cloaks to keep warm. He ate some rabbit and drank some water. He thought about how he would see in the tunnels. Somehow this problem had completely escaped his attention. There were not even any branches that he could use for torches. He would have to figure it out tomorrow. His hike wore him out and wedged between boulders he fell sound asleep.

In the morning, he woke aching and stiff. He stretched and ate standing up. Then he went off to check out the cave. He walked into it with care. It seemed that there was only one way to go and that was back and down. The only thing that bothered him was that he could see. There was a glowing light all over inside the cave. It was a soft glowing light but it was more than enough for Jared to see by. He couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. It seemed to glow like the light in corners thrown off by many candles. He had no choice no matter how bizarre he thought the light was. He had to go on.

He walked through the large cavern at the cave’s opening to the tunnel at the back. The same soft glowing light shown back here and he could see his path down into he tunnels. It looked as if there were man made steps down the tunnel path. His way was easy for him. Nothing blocked his way. He could not understand why no one had come this way before. The easy of his journey through the tunnels was making him a bit nervous and puzzled. He began to wonder if Beando had played him for a fool and taken his silver and given him a lark and sent him off on a wild goose chase. But then how could there be stairs? Why were they there and who had put them there if it were not the long ago king to hide his treasure? Still wondering, Jared went on since there was not anything else that he could do. He went further down and turned many corners, still marveling at the light and the stone stairs that he tread upon.

He turned one more corner and fell into a pile of bones. Human bones, picked clean and bleached white, covered the floor of the tunnel in front of him. It seemed that many people had been here before and not made out very well. Jared was astonished. He almost called out in his shock, but stopped just in time. There across the floor on the other side of the field of bones slept a giant.