Unknown Waters

Feeling raindrops running down his face, Captain Feregreth Sorrowhill slowly opened his eyes and looked around with blurred vision. He had been holding onto a broken barrel from the debris which had kept him afloat. The mist had eased up around him, and he could see land on the horizon. Apparently, they weren’t the first people who had capsized in this area, countless shipwrecks had gone aground against the sharp rocks of the coast. Letting go of the barrel, he began to swim towards the murky shore as the faint morning light appeared upon the cloudy sky.

Reaching ground beneath his feet, Feregreth waded inland, his eyes scouting around for survivors. Palm trees were covering the beach alongside ancient vines and mossy rocks. Dense jungle with mountain tops in the distance was about the only thing he could see. It wasn’t before he got out of the water that he noticed a deep cut going down his right arm. Without giving it much thought, he ripped off one of his sleeves and tied it around his arm to prevent further bleeding. As a gentle breeze passed him from the south, the scent of death quickly caught his attention. The rain seemed to let up as he moved into the jungle, using the vegetation to shield himself from the eyes of unwanted foes.

Getting closer to the source, he noticed a glimmering light dancing around against a rocky cave entrance. Someone had lit a campfire, but the smell of putrefaction was only getting stronger. He stepped out of the bushes and walked cautiously forward as he drew his blade from its sheath, expecting to have someone jump out at any moment. He swiftly moved behind a nearby crate by the entrance of the cave when someone spoke from inside with a deep voice.

“Overlord, we’ve secured the cave and are ready to bring up the supplies from the coast,” the voice said.

Moments later, two tall beasts walked out of the cave, and Feregreth noticed that the one talking was addressing the same vanghoul that had carried the hammer from before. His natural breathing sounded like the growls of a tiger, and the vibration coming from his steps shot terrors down the Feregreth’s spine. The Overlord glanced around himself with a piercing look as if he knew someone was there. With a simple nod, he replied to the warrior next to him.

“Good, inform Nekada to bring the prisoners and tell him to bring me Galeran alive!”

“It shall be done, my Lord.”

“And send word to the emissary, inform him that the plan was successful.”

Rubbing his beard, Sorrowhill tried to piece together the information but, it only led to more questions. Sitting on one knee, he peeked around the corner and watched as the moss skinned beast stroll back inside. However, as he was about to look away, he caught a glimpse of someone moving fast across the crown of a tree in the distance. The person quickly disappeared from sight, which caused even more confusion. After a moment, Feregreth moved out from his cover and uttered to himself. “What the hell is going on here?”

With the sound of more chatter coming from within the cave, the captain snuck inside to see who else was present. The dark rock on the ground had a wave pattern going back and forth between the sides. Placing his hand on the wall as he glanced at the formation, he stated in a low tone. “This is a tunnel, a volcanic one. If the mountain tops from before were, in fact, a volcano, then this might lead straight into the heart of it.

He continued further inside and eventually came upon a wooden bridge leading across a wide gap that seemed bottomless. The cave itself was dark, and the open room made it impossible to see exactly how large the area was. A small torch was hanging on the other side of the bridge, next to a stone gate. However, something seemed odd, the walkway had to be many decades old as some of the planks were rotten to the core. Besides, there was no sign of vanghouls anywhere, and there was only one way to go from there. Carefully walking across, he ended up in front of the gate. Engraved letters covered certain pieces of it, but the description was unknown to him. It looked like ancient runes, but they had more of a curl to them. He took a small journal from his chest pocket to document the symbols, however the pages were soaked with sea water. He put the journal back and ran his fingers along the symbols memorizing them. “Interesting…I wonder who lived in this place back when it was operational. This old craftsmanship must have required a lot of people.” He mumbled to himself.

As he continued to go over the letters, a couple of vanghouls came out from the tunnel behind him, talking. He looked for places to hide, but there were none. Taking a deep breath, he turned around and made eye contact with the beasts on the other side of the gap. They remained silent and just stared back at him for a while. The moment one of them was about to step onto the bridge, Feregreth pulled out a knife from his belt and placed it at one of the two ropes holding together the walkway. Stopping momentarily, the vanghoul took a step back and watched Sorrowhill who spoke with a confident, but uneasy tone.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Seemingly amused, one of them grabbed both beams holding that side of the bridge up and threw them down to the shadows below. With a surprised expression on his face, the captain looked down into the bottomless pit as one of the vanghouls grunted.

“Humans and their short-minded strategies. Tell me, how will you solve your current predicament?”

The two vanghouls started laughing as they turned around while holding up a torch, lighting up a stairway that led upwards against the cliffside which had been concealed by the darkness. It wasn’t long before they were out of sight, and they didn’t bother with Feregreth again. That wasn’t all too surprising as there was nowhere to go except down.

After a short while, the sound of someone whistling came from the shadows on the other side. Gazing in that direction, Sorrowhill asked curiously, “who’s there? Show yourself!”

Stepping out into the dimmed light, he noticed it was a woman wearing something resembling a hunter’s attire. Leather plates covered her right shoulder atop of the green jacket, and she had knives strapped to her gray pants. With a light voice, she shared her concern. “Are you okay? I saw you outside of their camp earlier.”

“You were the one in the tree?” Feregreth asked.

“Yeah, I was pursuing their leader, Gathon. He recently returned to the island.”

Squinting slightly at her, he replied confused, “returned? He’s been here before?”

“This is the Vanquished Island, it’s where the vanghouls originated from.”

“What…? So, then the words on the gate here is in their language?”

Giving him a little smile, she shook her head and strapped her long white hair into a ponytail as she continued, “Not really. That’s an ancient Elven language.”

Before continuing the conversation, she pulled out the bow that was strapped on her back and took out an arrow from her quiver. She attached a rope to the shaft of the projectile itself, and then fired it against the rock wall beside him. As it flew through the air, a blue, glowing aura appeared around the arrow and shot small particles into the air that faintly lit up like fireflies. Once it struck the rock, it pierced halfway into it similarly to a ballista bolt. The sheer strength of that single arrow rendered the captain speechless. Holding onto the other side of the rope, she tied it around another one and shot it against the ceiling above the gap.

Understanding what she wanted him to do, Feregreth swallowed hard. “You want me to swing across?” he asked. “Will the arrow even hold?”

Tilting her head slightly, she pointed at the arrow stuck beside him.

With a given sigh, he nodded, indicating he got the point before grabbing a tight hold of the rope. He took a few steps back and inhaled deeply, trying to calm his nerves before making the jump. With that, he ran towards the edge and vaulted off, swinging across the rift to where she stood ready to grab him.

The moment he got his footing on solid ground, she pulled him against herself, and the two fell down on their backs. She was laughing a bit as she watched him breathe rapidly before saying in a joyful tone, “It worked; I can’t believe it. I actually pulled it off!” she said.

Turning his head in her direction, Feregreth raised his eyebrows as he replied. “You can’t believe it? You’ve never tested that before?”

“Many times, but it usually breaks after a few seconds.”

“That would have been important to know seen as it was my life on the line.”

“To be fair, we didn’t have the time to find another way, the vanghouls will return soon. You could be more grateful, you know.”

She smiled amusedly at him and got back up on her feet.

Exhaling deeply, the captain replied with a smirk, “you’re quite something, aren’t you?” He offered his hand for her to shake as soon as he got back up, introducing himself. “The name is Feregreth Sorrowhill, I’m with the Stormhold navy.”

“A pleasure, I’m sure. I’m Fraya Aeran’thil.”

“Aeran’thil? That’s an unfamiliar name, can’t say I’ve ever heard that one before.”

“It’s an Elven name,” she replied.

Taking a moment to grasp his head around it, he curiously stared at her as she went on to say.

“It’s not like we’re that different, you know.”

“That’s true, but the last one I saw had these … you know…”

“Ears? Yeah, they’ll grow eventually. It’s not before we reach a certain stage in life that they start to evolve, but up until that time, we are identical to humans.”

“I see. That’s news to me. Well, my apologies for getting completely sidetracked, but thank you for saving me back there. I am grateful. Truly.”

Giving a little nod, she gestured for him to follow her. She entered into a jog and took the same path the vanghouls had taken earlier. Feregreth was following her closely up against the cliffside before eventually reaching another tunnel that went deeper below the ground. Slowing down the pace, the captain went on to ask her what she knew about the vanghoul in charge.

“He is called Gathon Bloodfist, he is the Overlord of the Forsaken vanguard and also the vanghoul leader as far as I know. His brother is next in line, his name is, Nekada Bloodfist. He is the warlord in charge of their armies.

“Bloodfist, huh? I recall the name from an assignment I was on in Fariondor, he was said to be the one who ravaged the northern towns and left them in ruins.

“I wasn’t under the impression that your people knew about the vanghouls?”

“The general population doesn’t, but we were hand-picked for this assignment because of our previous endeavors with these beasts.”

Receiving a somewhat displeased look after hearing that remark, she nodded her understanding. Only moments later, the sound of drums echoed throughout the cavern. It was coming from up ahead. They both approached the exit of the narrow tunnel with caution, preparing for the worst.

Once they reached the end, they arrived at a ledge overlooking a massive hall built underground. Entering a prone position, they carefully crawled towards the edge to remain out of sight as they took a glance at the structures below. Large columns were placed neatly around to maintain stability. On the far end, there was a grand temple built with a sacrificial altar at the top. Another noticeable decoration was a stone carved wolf statue that was positioned behind the shrine. Based on her expression, she hadn’t seen this room before either and was completely amazed.

Feregreth’s eyes scoured the hall, seeing lava rivers at the bottom and buildings built into the side of the walls. It was like an ancient city underground.

The deep voice of Gathon echoed throughout the hall as he got up on a stand before the temple, speaking to the countless vanghouls who gathered in front of him.

Something that caught the captain’s attention was a person being brought forward, strapped to a log that was carried by two beasts. He recognized the crew clothing from the Stormhold ship. “That’s one of my men. What are they planning to do?” He asked in a harsh whisper.

“My bet is that they want to offer him to Keldora, the demon. Gathon has been filling their heads with vengeful desires and chosen to portray everyone who isn’t a vanghoul as a betrayer.”

“So, they’re like a cult, huh? Think we could stir up conflict within their ranks?”

“It’s possible, but Gathon is dead set on not losing control, so he’d rather kill anyone who deviates from his way.”

From the stand outside the temple, the Overlord had stopped his speech and was gazing up at the cave entrance in the distance. Rage covered his entire face as he clenched his fists. The menacing stare caused the rest of the vanghouls to turn around, looking up at Feregreth and Fraya.

Growling for a moment, Gathon soon after gave a terrifying war cry as he yelled out, “bring them to me!”

It felt like an earthquake as the beasts were running across the hall, roaring fiercely. With his eyes locked on them, they could feel his hatred crawling down their spines. The cavern looked like it was closing in all around, and Feregreth could feel his heartbeat where he stood. He was utterly paralyzed by the stare of Gathon who remained motionless as the vanghouls drew ever closer.