Kaleidoscope

It was so dark that even Kael felt as good as blind. He reached out with his arms in every direction, feeling for something that would give him a clue as to where he was. Stumbling with outsretched arms he went he wandered the darkness searching for something, anything beneath his feet he heard the crunch of twigs beneath his feet, no not twigs bones. 

He sniffed the air and found the he was right, there were bones everywhere. He couldn't tell what creatures they had once belonged to but he could smell that they came from many different kinds of beasts. He spun around wildly searching the gloom for the beaat that had left the bones behind, jumping at the of his own movements.

'There's nothing here, perhaps there never was, even if there's a beast it probably long gone. Be calm'

He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes and when he opened them the dark wasn't all he could see any more. Eight red glowing irises stared at him from the canvas of black. It could have been right before him or a mile away but he couldn't say. He would have convinced himself that it couldn't see, that it was as blind as he was but then moved. The eyes seemed to fly with no body to hold him but he didn't need to see it body to no what it was he knew the soundless fluid way it moved. A blade limbed spider! In a sudden burst of valour he grabbed is own bladed spider limb and charged the spider. Growling he hacked at it with all his might but each time he brought the blade down it bounced off a limb he could not see. Again, again until finally the bladed flew out of his hand, sensing weakness the spider moved in. Desperate he reached inside himself for the tendrils but he found nothing, he was out of despair. 

He didn't see the spider strike but he felt it. One of its legs speared through his t.h.i.g.h and forced him to his knees the second one went through stomach. Weakly he gurgled on blood and bile. It would kill him. 

The final blow never came and when Kael opened his eyes again it was to a starry night sky.

'A nightmare'

Kael sat up glanced around he could see the sleeping bodies of his compainions gathered around a dying fire. In the distance either Bloke or Kip sat alone, keeping watch. 

He should have felt better, safer but the ice was still in his heart, shadows of the fear he had felt in the dream remained. 

'Why did the dream scare me so much?'

Looking back the fight with the spider could have gone very differently. It could have taken off his head and not his ear with that first strike or perhaps impaled him when it leapt from the ceiling even charged when he his leap went wrong but he wasn't afraid, not really. He was more fearful of the storm of birds or the snake man who cut him down. So why was it the spider he dreamt of? 

'Maybe the tendrils didn't dissapear because I was out of despair and the place wasn't too dark for my night vision maybe I simply wasn't a deviant in the dream I was just me. Is that what scares me?'

He turned his gaze to what was left of the fire and let it hold his attention. It looked dazzling, more brilliant than it had befire it, the sun, even the afternoon sky, they seemed to shine more, sparkle like jewels. The stars too, he realised looking up. They hadn't always looked like this, he was sure of that it had to be his night vision, it had changed the way he viewed light. Most things looked the same, the colours were deeper and everything was sharper but luminescent things had taken on a strange new beauty to him. Oh they had always shone but not like this, it was hard  for him to remember what they looked like before.

Coming out of the tunnels and into the light had been something else. The sun was out in its fool glory and the sky was a flawless ocean of blue above him. Bloke and Kip cried when they saw it, Barnel fell to the ground laughing and for the first time everyone knew why. Gerald and Kael glanced at each other and shared a smile, before bursting into laughter themselves.

They had taken a labourious trek through spider territory after making public proclamations that they were out to hunt spiders and would return with more swords and that those who wished to escape with them should make themselves known when they returned. Hopefully the Voth would think they died in the spider tunnels and that would be the end of that. In any case they had travelled as fast the ordinary people could go, perhaps they would have made better time with more rest but all of them just wanted to get as far away as they in the least possible time. 

Kael got up and sat himself by the watcher, it was Bloke. For a while the both just sat there, listening to the sounds of the night.

"The fire will go out soon." Kael warned

"The sun is rising" Bloke answered, pointing.

Kael looked and saw that Bloke was right, behind the thick underbrush was a red glow. The first signs of dawn, it would be breath taking with his new vision. 

"You should get some sleep, I'll keep watch."

"I... I wouldn't be able to sleep."

Kael nodded and kept watching, waiting to see his first sunset since being free. 

"The sun will clear up all the mist" Kael said.

Bloke went pale at that, he knew what Kael meant. The first day had been safe mostly, as a group of five nothing dared to attack them. Their biggest problem was the vegetation, forcing your way through foliage was dangerous when the prick of a single thorn might have enough poison to kill you. Still using their swords they managed to clear pathways through the forest.

The first true sign of danger came at early sunset. The group was searching for a suitable clearing spend night, when a light fogged rolled in. The waning light coupse the dense vegetation meant visibility was already low enough that even a light fog spelt danger. It would be dangerous to walk through but camping within it would only make attackers bolder.  

So they walked on, pretending not to the way the way the fog twist in strange shapes without the help of wind. Kael didn't notice when first appeared but tgey were there when he looked.  Figures, translucent beings of humanoid shape composed of nothing but mist. The walked beside the group like an escort, an escort of ghosts. Even the talkative kip went silent, a creature creature of flesh and bone could be slain but a beast of the wind?

Their ethereal visitors never did anything to suggest they had noticed the party, but the way they kept pace with them left no room for doubt. As the sun sunk lower the fog men became livelier, more boisterous. They moonlight shone of them made them seem to glow and they begun to race around the group.

Kael thought could here music, that when he stared long enough at a single silhouette its features came to life, inhuman features but as beautiful as they were alien. He saw them take mounts, and sound great war horns, he saw them feaat and dance, wed and bed, they cared for their young and slew the hosts of their enemies. Then as silently as they came they raced off, leaving the group alone again. Kael felt he had lived a thousand life times in those moments and when turned his head around it always seemed like he had caught a glimpse of one of them. Kip opened his mouth to speak but Gerald shot him a frosty glare that silenced him. 

"What was that?"

He did not know, he knew he didn't want to speak of it or put it into words for that matter. When it was ongoing he had felt afraid but when it was over all he felt was disappointment no he felt like he had lost something dear to him.

"Will I see them again?... Probably not, it should be better this way."

After a couple of hours passed Bloke woke the others, the sun had not risen  completely yet but it was bright enough to travel again. 

For a while all five of them sat there together doing nothing in particular. Kip complained noisily about being sore all over and Bloke responded with weak smiles, Barnel paid rapt attention to the one sided conversation but he made no sign of actually hearingor understanding what was being said. Gerald was alone, he seemed dreary and distant. He was sharpening his sword with a stone.

Kael tired of watching the trio and turned gis gaze to the sun. They should have been moving already but no one seemed to want to break the atmosphere, theyknew that once they got going there would be no stopping.

Finally the sun peeked over the trees and Gerald dropped the stone and rose to his feet.

With a tired sigh he turned to them and said "Let's get going"

With that the group was on the move again, walking towards the next unkown.