III
“Who are you, and what are you?” Grador asked the figure sitting on the other side of the fire. The figure was shorter than any full grown human but had the strength of a adult man. He's arms were scaly with a slight green tint to the. The figure had his face hidden behind a hod. The creature removed its hood and stared with its bright yellow eyes right at Grador. Grador shivered in fear it felt as if the creature could see into his soul. There was a long silence as the creature sat still, staring. The it blinked and stopped turned away reaching for its instrument and started playing the same melody that it had been playing earlier.
The melody felt magical. Grador could feel as the pain in his body disappeared and the weight of his body vanished. The music made him want to close his eyes again. He leaned back on the hard surface floor and listened to the music while falling into a enchanted sleep. However before he lost consciousness he felt the cave rock and his body separate. Everything became light as if he was floating.
The creature stood up and changed his melody to a faster passed melody. It started leading the two floating bodies through the cave. It used no fire to guide as it could see in fine in almost pitch darkness. In fact the creature preferred the dark. It had grown up in the caves listening to the music echoing through the mountains.
The creature lead the bodies through a narrow cave path that lead down deeper and deeper into the mountain. Then the open path ended and creature slowed down his melody and placed the bodies back on the ground. It placed its palms on the cave wall and nicked its own hands on five shard points on the wall leaving blood on each. After a while the wall started glowing. Blue light appeared from each point and they connected from one point to the other creating a illuminated star. In the middle of the star a opening started to form. It grew larger and when it finally stopped the creature started plying his instrument again and the bodies returned back to their floating state. They enter the hole in the wall and soon the wall started to close up behind them. The tunnel lead back up and outside. There the creature set Grador and Sisill to lay.
The creature disappeared back into the tunnel and an hour later five creatures that looked like him returned with supplies that they left beside the travelers. By the time the two woke up the sun had risen and the creatures were gone. The two found them selves sleeping in a small inning of a mountain overlooking white, snow covered valley with small hills in the horizon. There were no forests and no frozen lakes. In the distance there stood one tower. It was dark even though the sun shined on it. Snow around it was red and dark brown, but from the distance that Grador and Sisill were looking at it the tower seemed like a lovely place to find shelter.
“How did we get here? Do you remember anything?” Sisill asked Grador.
“No, I guess we should thank who ever helped us out and gave us those supplies,” Grador replied while pointing over to the pile of supplies. He could still the bright yellow eyes staring back at him but there was no more fear. He was not sure how it was possible but he had a memory of the creature telling him not to tell about their encounter to anyone. This memory puzzled him because he was sure he had not heard the creature utter a single word.
“There is mostly food here,” Sisill said as she inspected the supply pile.
They packed as much as they could carry and then started to head down the hill towards the open plains. The snow was deep and there was no trail to follow. As the mountain fell further behind and they neared the open valley the winds started to pick up. Grador and Sisill moved closer shielding each other from the flying snow. The openings of their hoods started to collect ice as the cold air was freezing their breath as soon as it was exhaled. The snow kept getting deeper until it became so deep that they could not continue further. There was nothing they could do but try to find a place where the snow was less. Grador had lost sight of the tower once they had started to look for another path. When all hope seemed lost their salvation appeared in the form of a wolf. They saw it momentarily but it was long enough that they could see the trail it had left in the snow. The path lead straight towards the tower. For the time being Grador was able to muster a smile onto his face. His life had been saved again by a wolf.
By the time the duo arrived at the base of the tower the sky was dark and the shape of the tower could barely be seen. The tower door was locked and the nearest window was ten meters above the ground. The duo had no choice but to sleep out in the open under the stars. The covered themselves and kept close in order to keep each other warm.
A crow landed on Grador's head and pecked at the cloth. Grador swung his arm scaring the crow away and pushing the cloth which was covering him away. His head was turned in th opposite direction of Sisill and as the cloth moved away Grador found himself staring at a skeleton. He turned his eyes scanning as much as he could without moving. There were skeletons all over the place. How had they not felt them the night before when they had arrived. Grador's thoughts were interrupted by Sisill scream who had just waken up and realizing she was hugging a skeletons arm instead of Grador's arm. The sun was up and to the surprise of both the tower door was open.
The tower had spiral stairs leading up to the top. There was dried blood, bones, and dead crows along the stairs. The stairs ended in front of another door. The door screech as it was pushed open. One after the other they went into the room and were to shocked to find Yurel. He was was hanging down from his arms on the eastern wall of the room. His throat cut , his eyes pecked out, and his arms snapped into pieces by impact from a mallet. The body was frozen and therefore the time of death was hard to predict. Sisill's eyes filled up with tears as she looked at the tortured to death body of her father.
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