Capítulo 99: - Whispers and Wonders: The Hidden Canopy
"Lia, pass me that spyglass. Oh and those provisions."
Lia reached for the spyglass and the spare pouch of a day's worth of provisions, passing them along to Lukali, as she turned her eyes to the open grounds of the land.
The sky was gray and cloudy, remnants of the storm from last night still ever present in the skies and the land, seen by the harsh winds that blew against the trees, grass, bushes and brush. The way the branches swayed, the grass moved like shimmering waves, and the way the water of the pond rippled from the force of the winds, Lia could already tell that though the storm had yet to hit, it would hit soon enough.
"Lia, have you got everything?"
Lia snapped out of her trance watching the scenery around them and turned back to counting the things in her rucksack. Food, canteen, tinder box and even a small bit of rope that she suspected would come in handy seeing as they were about to venture to the southern cliffs that housed all the caves.
Turning, she called back to Rian who was loading his own rucksack on his back.
"I've got everything. You?"
"Yeah."
Lukali loaded his own rucksack on his back, carrying more food and the like in case they did find Voln and he happened to be hungry.
"Are you sure we should be taking so much? Even if we find Voln I doubt most of this stuff will come handy then."
Lia shrugged, looking back towards the manor where she saw four figures making their way down the path towards them.
"Better to be safe than sorry."
Lukali and Rian noticed the four figures as well, tensing up from their place next to the boat shack.
"Winslow. Good to see you this morning."
Winslow, who was guiding Mr. and Mrs. Dorrow down the rugged yet beautiful gravel path towards them, nodded his head in greeting to Endless.
"Good morning all of you. The Dorrow's wanted to say a few words before you left on your journey."
As Mr. and Mrs. Dorrow stepped forward from behind Winslow, Lia was able to catch a glance of a man she had never seen before, though he wore guard armor he didn't seem like someone you would see escorting these two.
'I thought Saul would be with them. Who's he?'
Catching the man's glance, the man let loose a smile that all at once made Lia hate him. It felt as though his smile was feeling her skin from her toes up to her face, and she would have liked nothing more than to beat that smile off of him.
'He must be Marcus. Pig.'
As Lia turned to face the Dorrow's, she was reminded of how this was only their second meeting since the time when they had given her this job.
'I wonder what they've been doing while we've been out looking for Voln?'
She didn't get the chance to ask the question or hear the answer as Mr. Dorrow began speaking at once, addressing all of them.
"I would like to thank you once again for coming this far in searching for our son. I want you to know that my wife and I are grateful for your help."
Lia raised an eyebrow, the oddity of his choice in words made her curious.
"You act as though this is the last time we will be seeing one another?"
Mr. Dorrow smiled, eyes turning to the ground as if he had been caught red handed, before he looked back to them, eys directed straight at Lia.
"Most Hunters that take this job don't continue on after they investigate the cliffs. They go in, come out, and then suddenly, they're done with the whole thing."
"Anything we should be worried about?"
Mr. Dorrow raised his hands as if to guard off an attack.
"Oh, no. I-I didn't mean it like that, it's just…"
Mrs. Dorrow spoke up for him, seeing her husband's embarrassment in his poor choice of words.
"What we mean is, most Hunters chose to give up looking for Voln after they search the cliffs. It really is the only trail Voln left behind but, even then, no ones been able to find anything."
She took Lia's hands in her own, eyes tracing all over her face, looking for any signs of fear or doubt.
"I just hope you won't be the same. I hope that you all will keep looking even if it all seems hopeless."
Lia smiled, the type of a smile a child would give an adult when he was trying to fake being nice. Which in this matter, Lia was.
"Don't worry. We will do all we can, and more."
Mrs. Dorrow breathed a sigh of relief, looking down at the ground, hands still in Lia's.
"Haa...Thank you. Thank you. I wish you three luck."
She dropped Lia's hands out of her own, and suddenly Lia had an eerie feeling about her.
Normally, you can tell a lot from a person by one of three things. Their eyes; the windows to the soul. The physique; the look that draws others in. And their hands; a charm that tells one of their wears.
Her hands felt older, rougher, and much, much more different from her husbands when Lia had shaken his hand. His hands were smooth, calm, and soft. The type you would find from a nobel or a rich merchant.
Yet, they were so different. Why?
It was another one of her questions Lia could not answer, nor could she ask. She just silently shelved the question until she could come back to it, waited for it, her mind ever wondering why.
While the Dorrow's were thanking Lukali and Rian individually, Winslow approached her, passing on a small piece of rolled up parchment.
"What's this?"
She asked, rolling open the paper to reveal a large and intricate piece of art. Drawings of trees, ponds, lakes and rivers, rocks and landmarks, mountains and trails dotted the parchment.
Their designs were beautiful, better than any map Lia had seen before.
"This map will help guide you to the nearest cave. It's some journeys away but I hope it will prove useful to you."
"You…thank you."
Winslow nodded, before turning his heel and joining the Dorrow's side once again, who, to be mentioned, did not see Winslow hand off the map to Lia. A fact Lia was not willing to tell them, though she didn't know why.
Perhaps her sense of distrust, or the fact that Marcus had not left heir side, eyeing her up and down like a pig would.
She didn't want to get any closer to him, especially not within earshot.
Finally, after giving their own thanks to Rian and Lukali, the group bowed their heads to the couple and left, the forest enveloping them like a warm welcome from a father, watching his children come back home.
'Strange…to think we're all forest people, and yet, we're drawn closer and closer to sophisticated life.'
The journey wasn't challenging, but the feeling of an impending sense of responsibility weighed heavily on them. The feeling of knowing that they were the first Hunters to try with Voln having been so close just nights before, was like a weight on their backs, pulling them back towards the ground when they tried to climb to the clouds.
Using the map, Lia led on point, turning and twisting through different trails and markers, large pillars of stone of who knows what or how it got there.
After several hours of twists and turns, Lia began to somewhat doubt the map Winslow had given her, cursing herself inside for believing it led anywhere.
'Great job Lia. Take a map and trust it cause it looks pretty!'
Cain said nothing to her self loathing and calmly watched on from his spot in the darkness. His own body was leaning against the occasional trunk up above the group, watching them like a hawk.
He smirked when he heard Lia's cursing and wondered to himself if he should have helped her read the map in the first place, considering she had barely any experience in doing so.
But he remained quiet, watching on as he always did in the case of danger.
Eventually, Lia got a grip on where the map was leading them, thankful to the gods that she had been going in the general direction the whole time. Coming across a large pile of boulders and rocks, she put away the map and began to climb, hoping that at the top of this pile of rocks and stones would be the thing they were looking for.
The caves.
It took them another hour just to climb over such a large distance of rocks, but when the skies began to dawn in a deeper shade of gray, Luakli called out from the front atop a large boulder.
"I see something!"
Lia and Rian, who were a lot less nimble than Lukali, began to climb faster, helping one another over large builders, sharp rocks, and even lifting one another over taller bits of stone. The latter mostly being Rian's job as Lia was far too short.
Finally, after nearly three hours of traveling, Lia laid her eyes on the mountain ace. Dozens if not more caves from small to large, narrow to wide, tall to short, dotted the mountain. Some ledges were far above them , some only a few minutes climb from where they stood.
The ledge they were on was large enough that a whole platoon could march single file, hugging the mountain as they went.
The 'cave,' in reality, was just a large and dark cut across the mountain's face, like a scar in the side of the tan rock.
"You think this is it?"
Lukali asked, helping Rian up from his spot on the ground where he was catching his breath, his voice hopeful after the long hours of traveling they had just endured.
Lia however, shook her head, crushing Lukali's hopes like the snap of a twig.
"This is only the first cave. Saul said there were probably dozens if not hundreds."
Lukali's face grew pale as he imagined having to comb through all those caves in one day. And if not, he didn't want to imagine having to make the trip back every single day until the had.
But before he could say anything, Rian groaned, speaking for him.
"I can see why so many Hunters turned tail and left after this. Good gods, I wouldn't want to do this all day either."
He much disliked climbing, in fact, he would much rather dig through tunnels and tight spaces than climb up mountains. He just didn't believe he had it in him.
"I doubt we will have to."
Lia said, looking over the map once more, taking notice of a pale gray 'X' that marked three separate locations. One was a few miles away from them, another was back in the forest they had come from.
The final one she pointed out to Rian and Lukali, who leaned over either side of her shoulder to see the map for themselves.
"It seems Winslow might have helped us out."
Rian pointed to the 'X', his voice betraying his skepticism.
"What exactly is that?"
"Some cave maybe. Who knows. All I know is that this is a start to something we didn't even know was here."
Luakli looked up along the mountainside, glancing between cave after cave after cave. The whole mountain looked like a bee hive where dozens of holes led to intricate tunnels and systems of pathways.
"You think it's somewhere up there?"
Lia looked up, shifting her focus between the map and the area around them. Eventually, she began to walk, comparing the map with what she saw as she went, matching one image on the map with what she could see.
"There."
She pointed to one of the caves, a large and ugly scar across the tan rock of the mountain's side. They only needed to share one look between them before they all, as one, ade their way over in the directions hse was pointing.
The cave was narrow and dark, the inside covered in a cloak of black like a sheet had been drawn across it. As they entered the darkness seemed to stretch on for miles and Lia wondered if it did, considering she couldn't even see the back wall.
"Here."
Rian grabbed a large piece of dry wood, clutching it in his hand before taking the time to wrap a piece of cloth around the end, struggling to use a tinder box to light it.
"Ugh! Come on you piece of-"
"Here. Let me."
Lia crossed the distance between them, kneeling down to stand shoulder length with Rian, before using [Flames] to light the end of the wood on fire.
The heat from the flames was warm and welcoming to Lia, who watched as the fire licked across the cloth and the wood, like a growing red flower.
"Better?"
"Much. Thanks."
Rian with his torch and Lia with her flaming hand, they both made their way down the cave, whose entrance had at once deceived them. While the narrow crack in the mountain's side had betrayed the idea of a narrow passage for them, when they entered it was far different than what they thought.
The cave spread out into a fairly sized room. Different rocks, both sharp and round, dotted the ground beneath them, a gravel path all that was there to lead them farther down the cave.
"Hold up."
Lukali's voice carried down the narrow passage into both Lia and Rian's ears, causing them to turn back around to face him.
That was when they saw it.
A small section of the cave had been jutting out on their way in, causing them to lean more left than they actually needed to. But when they turned around to face Lukali, they realized that a small crevice had been hidden from them. A crevice that looked as though it could have remained hidden had the jutting edge of the rock gone out just a bit farther.
"Ha!"
Lukali exclaimed, laughing out loud, causing both Lia and Rian to share a glance at each other wondering what had caught his attention.
"Look at this."
He gestured to the two of them to come closer, before he miraculously pulled the jutting edge of the rock away from the wall, as if it was weightless in his hands.
"What in the…"
Rian closed the distance between them in seconds, eyeing the rock before he two smiled and began laughing.
Lia, who felt as though she had been left out of the loop, called back to them.
"What's made you two so happy?"
Rian turned the seemingly weightless piece of rock to face Lia, who watched as the hard and smooth rock surface turned into a more soft and furry form.
Animal skin.
"Kids are smarter than we thought. He used animal hide to keep himself hidden. He must have fooled dozens of Hunters before us."
Rian waved the large piece of animal hide around testing its durability before he calmly placed it against the opposite wall.
"If anything, he's a smart kid. Good at skinning too."
"I never would have thought…"
Lia traced her own hand across the rough but soft texture of the fake stone.
"...seems we're dealing with a smarter kid than we thought."
Suddenly, a chill ran down her spine, causing her to shutter.
'How would a kid know how to do this? He can't be more than ten, fifteen.'
Before she could think harder on this thought that crossed her mind, Lukali's voice echoed out through the cave.
"Guys. Come get a look at this too."
Lia and Rian turned to where Lukali was, kneeling down on the hard gravel path where the fake rock had once stood. Beside him, a number of items were dotted around the empty space that had been cleared of any rocks and large bits of stone.
A small hay bed with a leather blanket over it laid open, a small kettle and pot sat at its side. Small bits of cloth pouches and bags sat open, showing all the food that was inside, from a range of meats to herbs, wild potatoes, tomatoes, and even a few fully grown carrots.
"Seems like he's been living alright to me."
Rian commented from her side, but she could hardly hear him. Her focus was on something else.
Her eyes turned over the many different items spilled across the ground. Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind.
'Why didn't he just leave. If he wanted to run away, he could have just left.'
Instantly she caught herself, turning over her own words in her head.
'Why….Why have I….'
She had stopped thinking of Voln as just a child.
Suddenly, her eyes crossed over Lukali and what he was motioning towards. Something that caught her eye.
A fireplace. Warm and red embers still inside.
Lukali brought his hand close to the embers and the charred ashes. Slowly, he looked up to face Rian and Lia, before joining them at their sides looking over the small living space.
His whisper sent a chill down Lia's spine, but it was the contents of this whisper that caused her fear.
"It's still warm."
At once Lia could feel Lukali and Rian tense up beside her, and for good reason.
They had sensed it too.
Something was wrong.
It was then that Lia felt it, like a creeping feeling crawling up her spine.
A brush of cold air and the hairs on her neck were standing on end. The feeling of fear overcoming her.
Her eyes widened and she didn't need to turn around to see why.
She didn't need to see him.
The man in black standing at the cave's entrance.
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