Into the Deep Wood

Val did not know how long she slept before her body pulled her violently from it.

Whether it was the water, the rations, the cave air, or maybe it was the smell of that rotting wood set aflame by the firestarter feather. But she felt the bile boil up, and she was going to be sick.

She rushed away from the blankets, from the sleeping Marat, and grabbing their only source of light - she stumbled toward the first opening she could see. Anything to just get away from the camping spot, to get far enough that he would not hear her get sick.

She hurried, any caution gone, until she could hold on no longer, collapsing forward. Val braced herself with both her hands, her entire body convulsing and the entire contents of her stomach coming spewing forth. It splashed on the rocks, on her, and pooled at her hands. And again, the nausea came like a viscous wave and overwhelmed her, seizing her muscles and making her retch.

She did so three more times, each hurting her stomach and tearing her throat raw one after the other. Dazed, her arms shaking under her, she felt the acidity in her nose. Tears had been rolling down her face, and she wiped them away with her sleeve, sitting back. Gods. It had gone as fast as it came, and she knew that not a drop had remained in her whole body.

The firestarter torch had been dropped and rolled on the floor away from her when she fell forward - but it still burned. And in its light, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw something white - the light casting dancing shadows across it.

Her breath caught. Her first thought, its presence, it felt like the moment before a needle stabs into your finger—the very moment of anticipation of pain.

Gods.

She spun around, holding a gasp in her throat.

Mere feet away was a humanoid, about the size of Marat, clinging to the wall of the cave like a salamander. It faced her, no eyes, yet its expression was that of a surprised child with its round, gaping mouth. This thing had no muscles and little definition to its bones. Just soft and crawling skin. She could see the mess of veins in it; it was so pale, unnaturally so, like an underground worm. The arms were there, the fingers, the shape of the skull. But it was as if it was all supported by its veins and whatever plumped up its soft head.

It sat still, facing her. Its mouth opened and closed like a fish waiting to be fed. And then, its eyebrows shot up, immediately making its whole expression take on an air of worry and anxiety. It faced the passage from which Val came. She felt a scream come from the same place that the bile had, but a hand grabbed hers and pulled her back before she could.

“Shh!” Marat pulled her back from the bleach-skinned creature. “You’re alright. It’s harmless.”

Her heart was pounding hard, and she grabbed onto his arm and allowed him to pull her up, clutching to him.

“What do you mean??” She whispered, her eyes never leaving the human-like creature on the wall.

“It’s a cave crawler. They’re harmless. But they spook easily. Leave him be.” He reached to grab the torch off the ground, but she pulled him back, grasping at him in a panic.

“Look at it!”

“Val, I said leave him be. Out of all the things that we can meet down here, this is the least of our worries.” He shook her hands off and grabbed the torch. “Besides, they’re good for the ecosystem. They eat isopods and millipedes.”

“Marat, that thing, it was huge!” They walked back to the camp and at his prompt, she sat down on the blanket, Aditi snorting in displeasure at the noise they were making.

“They’re big, yes. That is about as big as they get, don’t worry. If you see one, just pass by. Don’t scare it. They’re harmless, but if they step on you in their retreat, it will still hurt.” He set the torch down wedged between the rocks. “I would have come and warned you, but you took the only light.”

“He was coming toward me though…” She had a hard time believing that what she saw back there was harmless. Its yawning mouth looked so… wrong.

“He was not. You probably invaded the cavern he was sleeping in - with all your noise. Scared the little guy half to death.” The corner of his mouth crept up. He must have thought himself so funny, Val thought.

She sat quietly for a moment.

“I felt it.” She said finally. He looked up at her. “I felt the presence like it was looming pain. Like you said.”

“I should hope so; he was less than ten feet from you.” This time, he smiled.

“No!” She looked at him sharply but realized he was laughing at her. “My first thought it was as if I felt what you described, the wound in my mind. I never noticed whatever that was, but I feel like I have felt it before.”

He nodded, laying back down.

“Once you understand what to look for, it gets easier. You get better.” He said, his eyes lingering on her. “But it won’t matter if you aren’t paying attention. Even the best hunters can’t be on guard all the time. It’s exhausting.”

When she said nothing, he settled on the blanket beside her. “Valeria. You don’t have to run from me like a blushing maiden. I am familiar with how the fluids of the body work.”

“I don’t know why I did, I just didn’t… I didn’t know why I felt so sick.”

“You didn’t?” He raised his eyebrows. “Val…”

“I know now, alright. I don’t want to talk about it.” She shut it down. This was the first in a long time that the conversation breached the topic, even if only slightly. And she did not wish to bring it up again.

They did not go back to sleep, instead packing up and moving along. Val kept trying to call back that feeling, that awareness. The pain that connected her with the creatures, but she could not catch it again.

Twice they saw the slippery white shapes scatter away from the light as she approached, but now Val had looked at them with different eyes. She knew that the silver stags had been of the Nothing. That the Leshy, who had been kind to her, had been of the Nothing.

It was still a strange concept that something that came from there could be harmless.

Val stood and went for her bag. Marat looked at her questioningly, but his face relaxed when he saw that she had taken out Erlan’s journal.

Silently, she flipped it open midway through to the pages that were still blank, and began to write. She wrote fast, although her fingers were unpracticed. It was much easier to read than it was to write. She noted down all that Marat said.

Cave Crawlers: An Entry

She tried to copy Erlan’s format.

… they eat isopods and millipedes… harmless.

She shut it without a word still, and slipped it back into the pack, petting Aditi and then walking ahead. Marat’s eyes followed her before his steps did. His face was thoughtful.

Her actions, although small, had been unexpected. Something about that insignificant act caused a tightness in his chest, one he could not quite explain, but it felt almost like a memory. One that both warmed and devastated his heart.

It was unclear how many days they spent wandering the cave. There were no days, no mornings or sunsets. There were only the aches in their legs, the fogginess in their heads, and the outright refusal of Aditi to continue forward. They slept four times before they saw just the faintest light reflecting off the stone walls ahead. Marat had told Val to wait, and gone ahead.

It was not long before he returned.

“A sea cave mouth.” He announced, and she noticed the amount of relief in his words. It told her that perhaps he had been downplaying the gravity of their situation. “Wide opening, you can see the lakeshore.”

The brightness of the day had flooded the cave mouth, and Val flinched, covering her eyes. As the outside of it came into focus, she saw muddy waters - within view, a shore, and beyond it, trees.

They were no longer in the desert.

“I don’t know where we are, but the Crimson River is the origin of all lakes on this side of the kingdoms. We can find it from here.” Examining the water and the rocks hiding below, he began taking his boots off, and Val wondered how it was he planned on carrying them if they had to swim to shore. Next went his shirt and pants, and Val looked away, feeling her face warm at her immediate thoughts.

Marat carefully lowered himself into the water and pushed off the rocks. He was only up to his waist as he walked to where the walls parted.

Val waited as he disappeared out of sight, holding the mare and absent-mindedly stroking her muzzle.

“It’s shallow, sandy shore right around the corner of the cave.” Marat returned very soon, and even his hair remained dry.

She handed the reins down to him, Aditi unprotestingly following his lead. With a large splash, she flopped into the water and made a great show of how hard she struggled with her eyes wild and snorts frequent.

The water did not even come up to her chest.

The sun was warm and foreign feeling after the cave. The shore had been sandy and rocky, surrounded by a line of gently swaying evergreen trees. Beyond them, in the far distance, towered white peaks of great mountains.

She closed her eyes and allowed it to warm her face, pushing all other thoughts away. Everything that had happened over the course of the past few weeks: the chase through the desert mountains, the darkness of the cave, the dampness and uncertainty of whether they would be able to find their way out.

“We crossed right under the mountain range.” Marat broke her silent meditations. She opened her eyes unwillingly. He was pacing, looking around carefully, and seemingly muttering to himself.

He knelt and drew something in the dirt before him. Set to ignore his stressful energy, Val laid her head down on the ground, closing her eyes again. Marat had been nervous, short, and tense nearly the entire time. Although she understood it, given the situation, they were out now, and they both deserved a moment of peace before whatever lay ahead.