Chapter 67: The Island Of Blood[2]
Xior woke up with a head splitting migraine. His temples throbbed as though someone was driving nails into his skull.
The world around him was full of dull colors, the last thing he remembered before sleep was the warmth of the bonfire and the smell of food.
After so many days on the reckless and dangerous sea, he thought he would sleep peacefully. But when he fell asleep the previous night, he didn’t rest, instead he bled.
The images of what he saw in sleep clung to his mind. He saw the world through another person’s eyes, someone who was trembling in fear and their body drenched in their own blood.
They were running from an army of faceless shadows clad in armor with eyes that glowed red. Their footsteps reverberated in his mind.
"Xior, you look worse than the animals we gutted yesterday." Becca’s voice cut through the replay of what he saw in his sleep.
She crouched near the firepit and tried to rekindle the flame. Xior ran a hand across his face. His palm was dry and yet when he blinked, he thought he saw a streak of blood staining it.
Suddenly he rubbed his hand against his leg hard enough but nothing happened. His hand was clean.
Becca stepped over and handed him water. "Drink this, you’re pale." Her eyes stuck on his face as if she was trying to discern what had happened to him.
"Did you have a nightmare?" She asked as he sat down next to him.
Xior didn’t answer her, he looked on the ground then closed his eyes. "Not mine," he muttered.
Beatrice heard his mutter even though she sat a bit away. Her gaze was fixed on the forest’s edge. "This place isn’t right," she whispered to herself. "It feels...watched."
"Watched by who?" Alice called as she heard her whisper while he stretched her arms. "The cows?"
She tried to sound funny as though to comfort Beatrice but no one laughed. The blood seeping into the ground so quickly was something to worry about.
Xior got up from where he was sitting, he stretched his body and walked inside the forest with a nod.
They had discussed that they would explore the island further, Xior would climb the mountain while the others explored everywhere else.
The morning light filtered through the clouds and cast a bright light onto everything. The birds sang but their voices felt muffled.
The party followed a narrow path upwards the trees, the trunks rose perfectly straight and their branches arched overhead to form a canopy like a cathedral.
Every step they took felt soft, the ground beneath their boots felt as if they walked on flesh. Alice crouched and pressed her hand on the soil then pulled back sharply.
"It’s damp..." She muttered. ’Like blood.’
Xior walked towards the mountain alone and saw signs of habitation along the lower slopes of the mountain.
There were abandoned huts, broken carts and tools scattered across the ground.
Half eaten meals rested on tables and bowls of stew were placed on them. Strangely enough the stew was only cold, it hadn’t rotted yet. The bread was still soft to the touch.
But he saw no people, no bones and no animals. It was as if ghosts lived there. As Xior pushed forward and left the abandoned village behind, his migraine spiked suddenly.
This time it didn’t feel like nails being driven inside, instead it felt like a blade piercing his skull. He lifted his face and looked at the mountain as it loomed over him.
But something else tugged at him, it felt someone or something pulling his bones towards them.
He took a deep breath and started walking towards the peak of the mountain. The migraine worsened with every step he took yet his legs moved as if his body was bound by chains and he was being pulled ahead.
He climbed the winding path higher and higher until the trees thinned and the slope became terraces carved into the mountainside.
This was when he saw a full village, not like the huts he saw early on. But an actual village with a wall around it for safety.
Half hidden among the mountainside the settlement was eerily silent. The houses were pristine, their curtains swayed with the breeze. But once again it lacked life.
Xior’s breath slowed, the air smelled heavier and thick just like the scent of blood scattered in it. He knew how air like that would smell like from the wars against the Dragon and Tiger tribes.
With every inhale he tasted iron, then he heard laughter but when he turned towards its source there was nothing, only silence.
*****
At the far end of the village stood a manor, bigger than the houses around him. Its half was built of dark wood but the rest was carved into the mountain side. He walked towards it but then he saw its door creaking open.
Inside it was dark, the air was heavy and musty with the scent of wax. Candles were on stands but no one had lit them. Dust lay around everywhere.
He walked further and then saw an old man sitting on a chair. He was thin, hunched and his beard was white and long enough to touch his chest.
His hands shook faintly but his eyes were sharp. From behind him came an old frail woman, her hair was silver falling past her shoulders.
She smiled as though welcoming a guest but her lips curled to reveal two teeth jagged at the edges.
"Welcome," the old man rasped, his voice brittle. The ground drinks greedily here, can’t you feel it?"
Xior said nothing but his migraine worsened, he felt the ground hum something. It felt like a lullaby.
The old woman folded her hands, her eyes shone red for a second before fading back to dull grey. "Our blood is not our own," she said and grinned. "It flows downwards."
Xior narrowed his gaze. "What do you mean?" He asked.
The old man chuckled. "This island is no place of refuge, it is a chalice turned upside down. The earth thirsts for blood. And soon..." He trailed off, his gaze pierced Xior. "Soon your blood will be offered too."
The old woman’s smile never wavered. "The mother...she waits below."
Xior felt his skin prickle, her words cut through the air and his migraine worsened to the point he staggered.
"Who is she?" He asked despite being unable to form a coherent thought.
The old woman tilted her head. "The one who feasts on what remains when men are nothing but husks."
The walls creaked as Xior glanced. He froze in place as he saw a thin streak of blood trickle down the stone, seeping from the cracks and sliding across the floorboards.
The couple did not seem to notice, or did they? Xior’s instincts screamed at him. He turned and left the manor.
Outside the world had changed. The village no longer gleamed like it did. The roofs sagged and collapsed. The windows were shattered and the once warm meals were rotten, crawling with flies and maggots.
What he has seen before was an illusion or perhaps a memory replying itself.
The manor behind him sagged in ruin as well, its door became splintered with one wall crumbling into rubble.
But as he looked inside through the cracked window, he saw the couple sitting in their chairs as they smiled with red eyes.
He shivered as he remembered the words of the old man and woman. He clenched his fists and turned back down the slope.
The others were potentially in danger, as he descended the migraine refused to fade, and deep in his gut he knew that the island’s hunger had only begun.
He wondered who the mother was, and what her relation to this all was. One thing he knew was to keep his party safe.
They have been stuck on the sea for weeks now, they faced mermen, a water dragon, the Leviathan and now this weird island.
If this kept up, there was a chance that they would die. They didn’t even know the clear conditions for the eleventh floor.
Once things were sure, they would only get it when they arrived on the mainland. Xior quickly made his way down the mountain.
He walked slowly as he was deep in thought about everything. He recalled things from the tenth floor, from when he met the architects, his meeting with the Nameless woman and finally this.
All of these anomalies felt unnatural to him. And in every event like this, the Nameless were always involved and so were the demons.
As he walked through the dense forest, in the distance he saw the bonfire lit up again. The group sat around it like yesterday and talked among them.
Xior came out of the forest and sat near Alice and Becca, he ate the food given to him and then stared at the bonfire burning in front of him.