A chilly wind moaned through crags and spires of rocks, cutting against Arban’s pale cheek as he peeked from the opening of the cavern. Even though he knew he should, he just couldn’t pull away. Neither could he help the awe he felt watching Erhan’s perform his druidic arts.

 

The druid stood straight. His cloak danced as the wind blew through them, as did his hair, white as the snow surrounding them. But the man didn’t care about that, neither did he care about the cold that almost froze Arban’s blood. The only source of discomfort was the numbness spreading through his body with every drop of blood he sacrificed to maintain the mantra. But he couldn’t stop, not at this point. So he held up his blackened staff, shining with a muted white light to create a layer of translucent barrier to camouflage their presence from the dark mass of twisting shadows before him that looked awfully like an overblown version of a snakehead fish found often in the southern parts of river Russet.

 

A very large, very toothy fish.

 

Palm-sized black scales all over its several yards long body shone as the pale light reflecting off the snow hit them. Two foot long sharp fangs extended past its bucket-sized head from its jutting lower jaw. It twisted and turned in the air, searching, swimming circles around the boulders and snow piles as it left tendrils of smoky black mist behind it. Its very appearance arose a primal sense of revolt and fear in those who laid their eyes on it, and Arban was no exception. His pulse quickened each time the abominable monstrosity swam close to the barrier.

 

Now his heart practically galloped inside his chest. The creature was too close! Its tail swayed gently as it hovered just a yard away from Erhan, greenish-blue eyes staring him directly in the face.

 

If it could see them—

 

A huge hand fell on Arban’s shoulder, yanking him back inside.

 

“Have you gone mad, boy?” Harker scowled down on him. Even in this bone biting cold, his bald head glistened with perspiration in the flickering light of the torch. “didn’t you hear what lord druid said? Stay still or you will put all of us in danger.”

 

Arban gripped his fist. “You’re so big, but still scared of a little danger?”

 

“A little?” Harker frowned, pressing the boy to the rocky wall behind him. “That thing outside seems like just a little danger to you?”

 

“Well, here we go again.” Arda shook her head. “Give the kid some rest, will you, big guy? It almost seems like you are bullying him.”

 

Harker turned his head towards her. “Bullying him? Gods! Woman, that’s a Nightmare out there! It’s been the third one this week. We would have died long ago if Erhan wasn’t here.”

 

“Yes, so just keep shouting as you are so it can notice us sooner,” Garan commented quietly as he leaned on a boulder and examined the head of his arrow under the torchlight.

 

That shut the other three up. With a sudden surge of strength belying his stringy physique, Arban pushed the larger man away and strode deeper inside the cavern where a small pile of wood smouldered on a huge slab of rock. Arda followed him and Garan continued scrutinising his weapons. Harker also sat beside his huge sword, propped up against the uneven wall. The four of them silently remained silent, doing whatever they found comfortable, but none of them could help glance at the opening of the cavern from time to time.

 

Even though this was the fourth time they faced a Nightmare since entering the mountains, it wasn’t something anybody could get used to.

 

---

 

“Should we follow a different path?” Harker asked as he passed a tankard of firebrine to Erhan. “This route seems too dangerous.”

 

The druid leaned his head onto his satchel as he took a sip and felt the liquid burn some life into his veins. Holding the camouflage for so long had taken much of his blood, but it was a better alternative to fighting the Nightmare. Even if they could kill it, who knew what price they would have to pay? And if it escaped?

 

Well, the origin of the saying ‘haunted by a nightmare’ was not without reason.

 

“That would be of no use,” he said to Harker. “This path is the safest one.”

 

“Even with so many Nightmares?”

 

Erhan ran his fingers through his hair. “I have a feeling all the other paths should be more dangerous.”

 

“What can be more dangerous than Nightmares?”

 

“Even more Nightmares,” said Arban, poking at the fire with a branch of dried wood. “There should be even more of them in other places.”

 

Erhan gave the boy a peculiar look before slowly nodding.

 

“What about the other teams though?” Arda asked. “Wouldn’t they be facing danger too?”

 

“Yes, they would,” Erhan said, a bit uncomfortable at the notion. Their company still survived, mostly due to him. But no other team had someone like him.

 

Harker frowned. “I had visited the mountains a few years ago for worship, at that time it wasn’t so dangerous. How come it’s suddenly teeming with Nightmares? Isn’t this the home of the druids?”

 

“The druids…” Erhan wondered. Although the truth was somewhat more complex than this place being their home, Harker did have a good point there. With them watching over, such a surge of Nightmare in the outskirts of the mountain…

 

Though it was not like, there was no other reason.

 

“It may relate to our actions,” he said.

 

“Us?”

 

“The Shadewolf,” Garan opened his eyes and from where he rested by the fire. “People in our tribe say she is one of the guardians of the mountain. That she is protecting us all from a great evil.”

 

“Well, they are not wrong. Though the evil part may not be necessarily true.” Erhan stood up and stretched his legs. “The path ahead of us is a long one, so let’s not delay any longer.”

 

Drops of ice-cold water seeped through the tips of the stalactites overhead, dripping in rhythm with Erhan’s heartbeat. Quiet and even. The tongues of flame dancing atop three torches shed plenty of light to the structures of stone ahead of them. But beyond that, the darkness seemed to press in, confining them in a cage of light.

 

The path through the cavern had not been a part of the map, but the designated path had given him a feeling of danger. The immediate intensity of it had left even his heart trembling. So Erhan had chosen to divert to a path that felt safer.

 

But now, he felt even less secure.

---

Something lay in wait ahead of them. Erhan could hear it slithering just at the edge of his hearing, testing the boundary of the light. Not daring to come out in the torchlight? No! Rather, its massive weight dragged the darkness with it.

 

What it was, Erhan wasn’t sure. But there was something familiar about it. Familiar and dangerous.

 

Erhan’s knuckles tightened around his staff. Maybe they should have waited instead of diverging from the path on the map. Those fake druids performed some very real divination. If it was him alone, it wouldn’t have mattered much, but the four behind him...

 

“What is it,” Arban’s barely audible voice interrupted Erhan’s thought. He turned his head, wanting to signal him to be quiet, but that distraction cost him.

 

The five of them stiffened as a hair-raising hiss spoke right beside their ears. An ethereal sound, no louder than a whisper. It spread to every inch of the huge cavern, bouncing off the wall and getting louder and louder with every breath, until it roared so loud that they could hear nothing else.

 

Erhan whipped his head around, his eyes bulged as he tried to pierce the viscous darkness. Now he knew where the familiar feeling came from! This sound, he could never forget it!

 

“Cover the—”

 

The wind inside the cavern began twisting before the words could leave his mouth. The first gust struck their torches, snuffing them out like candle flames. In an instant, pitch blackness covered them and panic exploded in their hearts.

 

“Don’t move!” Erhan roared, but his words could hardly be effective with how the wind whipped at their bodies, trying to throw them off balance. And somewhere deep within this darkness, something moved. They could hear it slithering through the floor, crawling through the walls, an entity so heavy yet so fast!

 

Erhan’s heart quaked. Of all things he never wanted to meet a second time, Narraakh the Old was the first. The snake was one of the oldest, most powerful of the Nightmares. With darkness and wind in its command, no one had seen its true form, not even those who died at its hand. Erhan had only met it once before in his life. At that time not only had he gotten an almost fatal injury, but most of the group he had been travelling with at that time had also lost their lives to it. And that group had been a lot more powerful than this one.

 

“Arda!” he shouted, putting some power in his voice as he searched his mind for a mantra that could be effective in this situation. “Tell me where it’s coming from!”

 

His voice jolted the woman awake from her panic. She perked her ears, trying to catch the direction of the movement. “Above! It’s above us!”

 

Erhan bellowed his mantra as he thrust his staff upward. The head of the staff crackled, a few blue sparks flickering above it. They connected, exploding out in a blinding blue flash, revealing the face of the shape of the monster hanging from above for just a moment.

 

A giant maw the size of a cottage opened above them. It struck out at an impossible speed and slammed into the transparent layer of blue Erhan had erected. The coat of dense blackness smothering it sizzled at the touch, making the monster shiver. It hissed and reeled back up inside the darkness, glaring at them with burning blue eyes.

 

“That way!” Erhan pointed at the direction they had come from. “Run that way! I’ll hold it back.”

 

Arda and Garan didn’t hesitate a bit to follow his instruction, but Arban paused, looking from him to the backs of the running two, unsure of what he should do. The big man beside him however pulled out his sword and stood his ground.

 

“Let me fight with you!” Harker proclaimed.

 

“Now is not the time!” Erhan said, not even taking his eyes off the creature as he pulled out Markreath. The Eternal flame shimmered in his hand as he sang his second spell, sacrificing even more blood. He looked up at the burning eyes hovering in the darkness, watching, waiting.

 

“You would only be a burden right now. So take Arban and go,” he said to Harker.

 

“No, I won’t go!” Arban shook his head. “A stupid snake can’t do anything to me.”

 

No sooner than the words left his mouth, those eyes overhead left Erhan and set their sights on him with an almost mockingly amused look. Gritting his teeth, Erhan jerked his staff up, sending a ripple of blue towards the darkness. The nightmare hissed and shrank back even further.

 

Erhan’s breathed out. The Narraakh he remembered shouldn’t be this... cowardly? Was it a different nightmare? Or had it been weakened?

 

“GO!”

 

Harker clenched his fist. What the druid said was true. How could he help when just looking at those flaming blue eyes overhead sent his mind swimming? No, he would be a burden, not to mention Arban, who was but a child in his adolescence.

 

Not wasting another moment, he grabbed Arban’s collar, hoisting up the struggling kid as he sprinted away. The Nightmare hissed. It hadn’t cared when the other two escaped, but this time it wasn’t willing to wait. Its giant body backed away a bit before hurtling towards the two with the speed of an arrow leaving the bow.

 

“Stop!” Erhan mustered all the force in his body and sprang forward, landing just ahead of the massive beast and pointed Markreath at it.

 

The snake halted in its tracks just before him. Darkness obscured most of its form except for the huge head. Its skin and scale sizzled in the cleansing blue light, but it neither flinched nor backed away. It just stared at him, tilting its head to the side. It was as if the Nightmare was studying him.

 

Erhan also studied it. Having faced Narraakh before, he was well aware of the traits it possessed. And at this moment, he could confirm without a doubt that the Nightmare before him was indeed the old snake. He looked at the deep claw mark just below one of those burning blue eyes. He could tell the mark was at least a few months old, but some fetid, greenish-black blood still dripped around its edges. The power of shadow lingered around it, hinting at who the culprit was.

 

The Shadewolf.

 

He straightened his back, pointing Markreath at the wound. “If you wish to go forward, then you have to pay a price greater than that,” he said calmly.

 

The rippling grey sword raised a look of alarm in the Nightmare’s impassive eyes. Once again, its form retreated a bit. “You have grown, young druid,” it hissed, surprising Erhan. He knew the older, more powerful Nightmares could speak like the creatures of myths and legends, but he wasn’t actually expecting it to speak. But something else was even more surprising.

 

“You remember me?”

 

“I never forget a prey that essscapesss me.” the Nightmare said as it slithered down towards the ground, its massive body circling around the place where Erhan stood, little by little confining him in a wall of flesh and darkness. “Too long has your kind has confined usss in thessse cursssed mountainsss. But now, the time isss coming for usss to gain back our freedom. To return to the world beyond where we could roam free.”

 

Erhan didn’t fear the snake surrounding him, but its words struck a sense of unease in him.

 

Freedom…

 

In the lands outside of Clover, where no such restrictions like the Dreaming mountains existed, they also roamed free, but for some reason, the Nightmares of Clover were even more powerful than those places. Before the druids confined them, they had almost extinguished all life in Clover.

 

No, they could never be allowed to roam free, or they would once again bring death and chaos everywhere.

 

“With the great spell encompassing this place, how will you ever gain freedom?” He asked the Nightmare.

 

The old Snake’s whole body shook as a cackle escaped its throat. The harsh hiss curdled the air of the cavern, grating against Erhan’s mind like uncountable shards of sharp broken glass.

 

“Clever druid!” it crooned as its head circled above Erhan, looking down on him. “Clever, clever! Trying to make me tell you?” It stopped as the hint of murderous anger that all Nightmare carried finally appeared in its eyes. “Why don’t you ask your other druid companions?”

 

Erhan crossed his staff and sword in front of him. The creature was running out of patience. An attack was imminent. “What do you mean?” he asked, hoping to engage it long enough for him to prepare.

 

“You want to know?” the snake tilted its head. “Alright, I will tell you when you and thossse you sssent away lay dead before me. I will tell your ssoulsss asss I devoured them.”

 

A bad feeling rose in Erhan’s heart. He whipped his head around, looking at the direction the other four escaped to, and the feeling intensified almost tenfold. They were in danger!

 

“You are too late, druid! They will die sssoon,” the snake’s head shot forward as it hissed. “And you will die too!”

 

Erhan growled, thrusting his staff and sword forward and unleashing the spell he had spent all this time preparing. A large surge of his blood burned as an omnipresent and sourceless flash of light chased the darkness away, exposing the body of the Narraakh the old snake to the world. Only less than half of its impossibly long body was on the ground. The rest of it coiled around every stalactite on the roof of the cavern. As the light struck its scaleless pale white skin, it sizzled and smoked. The Nightmare wailed, a loud, ear-piercing sound like a million kettles releasing steam all at once.

 

Erhan took this chance. Fighting against the nausea of the bloodloss, he touched the tip of his staff to Markreath’s blade and dashed towards the snake. He thrust the reddening sword forward, jamming it into the wound the shadewolf had left. A cry of pure agony escaped Narraakh as it thrashed its head around and flung him away. The muscles beneath its skin clenched and unclenched, slackening its hold on the stalactites.

 

Looking at the momentous mass starting to fall down, Erhan fought against the numbness in his hands and feet and stood again. The whole cavern almost convulsed as the heap of flesh struck the ground. The earth rumbled as it shuddered, drowning out the shriek of the Nightmare. Erhan stumbled, shoving his stuff to the ground to catch himself from falling. Large hunks of stone broke off from the roof and crashed down all around him, some of them missing him narrowly, just as the last bit of light from the Breath of Sun spell had fizzled out, plunging the cavern into darkness once again. The darkness that gave the old snake its strength. But Erhan had no more strength nor enough blood to create another spell right now. The little strength he had left, he needed it to save those four.

 

He jumped over the shivering body of the Nightmare laying in his way like a chest-high wall of flesh and ran forward.

 

“Druid!” a roaring hiss came from behind him., shaking off the rubble burying its massive body and gave chase. “Curssse you, druid! You will not escape me!”

 

With the Nightmare gaining on him, Erhan sprinted as fast as he could, but with his weakened state, that meant little. It was a losing race, but the old snake wasn’t satisfied with simply chasing him down. It opened its giant maw and drew, swallowing the darkness and the wind. The force of the draw was too strong. It chained around Erhan, rendering all his resistance futile as it tried to suck him in.

 

Erhan clung onto his staff as he tried to push ahead. But very earth beneath him flowed backwards, drawing him closer and closer to the Nightmare. It was the same as all those years ago when he first encountered the old snake. He grimaced as a deep frustration rose within his heart, but with it also came relief.

 

Leah... Ellie… maybe he finally—

 

He bit down hard on his tongue. No! He mustn’t fall here. He had a goal. He had to destroy the Fade! He mustered every ounce of his remaining strength, drawing on the last of his blood as he prepared to give the Nightmare a taste it would never forget. But suddenly the force constraining him vanished. Erhan slumped to the floor, confused. He could hear Narraakh slither away from him, going further and further.

 

“You are lucky thisss time, druid! Pray you don’t fall into my grasssp again!” its hiss came from far away, containing a sense of… panic?

 

Why? Erhan didn’t know, neither did he have the time to care. He pushed himself off the ground and ran towards the other end of the cavern. The bad feeling in his heart was growing heavier. Those four, they needed him.

---

Arban, Arda, Garan, and Harker stood on the snowy fields outside the Cavern. Back to each other, they had their weapons out, pointing at tendrils of black mist surrounding them. Nightmares, dozens of them circled around them the four. Twisted, misshapen versions of fish, boars, wolves, hawks, their intense glares sent chills down the spine of the four.

 

“Wh- what do we do now?” Arban whispered, swallowing heavily.

 

“Hell if I know!” Arda snapped back. Even one of those might be hard for them to fight, but with so many, they were surely doomed.

 

“Hold on!” Harker said. “The druid would come to our rescue soon.”

 

“Erhan!” The fear in Arban’s eyes dissolved a little. “Yeah, he’d be—”

 

A loud hissing noise pierced through the minds of the four like a red-hot needle. It lit a fire in the Blue-green eyes of the Nightmares. They opened their mouths and cried out in unison before swarming at the four of them with a sudden murderous rage. But before they could reach the four, an intense pressure fell on them.

 

The suffocatingly heavy pressure replaced the bloodlust in the eyes of the Nightmares, transforming it into caution. But in the hearts of the four, it woke a sense of deep reverence and respect. Their knees touched the snow of their own volition as they looked to the skies where the pressure came from.

 

She floated, no, walked down from the skies, stepping on the empty air as folds of her silver-grey dress undulated in a non-existent breeze. A halo hung gentle golden halo shone from within her, standing in contrast with the dark night sky. It was especially bright around her head, obscuring most of her features, but to Arban, she looked no older than him. She stopped before hovering just above the layer of snow and turned to face them.

 

“LEAVE!” she commanded in a tender, pleasant-to-hear voice that soothed away the fear and eased the tension of the four, but the Nightmares, hatred and fear battled in their eyes as if meeting an unconquerable adversary. Hatred won out. They bared their fangs and spread their claws, directing all their attention to her. She sighed, holding up a staff that looked very much like the one Erhan had, and the golden light around her intensified in an instant.

 

The skin of the Nightmares sizzled as if someone doused them in boiling hot oil. They wailed, a sharp, jarring sound like uncountable sheets of metal being torn apart forcefully. Arban’s head burst out in pain as the sound struck him and he wasn’t alone. Everyone except the silver-clad girl pressed their palms to their bleeding ears and rolled around on the ground.

 

And then suddenly, it was all gone. A gentle warmth covered the four, seeping into their bodies. Healing their hearing and soothing their injuries. One by one, they shook themselves off the snow and looked up again.

 

The moonlit valley, the dark line of pine trees ahead of them, the snow-capped mountains far away, everything was the same as before. But the nightmares, they had vanished as if they had never even been there at all. Not only them, the girl that had rescued them had also disappeared.

 

Arda sighed a breath of relief. “We are safe!” she said shakily.

 

“Yes,” Garan nodded. “I never thought we could come out of that situation.”

 

Arda gave a nervous chuckle. She had given up many things, made sacrifices, done unspeakable things just so she could live. The thought of death scared her as nothing else did.

 

“Why so nervous, big man?” she said to the Harker, who still looked all around the snow with a frown on his face. “Whoever she was, she chased those things away. You don’t have to fret.”

 

Harker’s frown intensified. “The boy! Where is he?” He asked.

 

“Where is Arban?”

---

 

Erhan!

 

Erhan’s feet halted. “Aritra?” He muttered before resuming running again.

 

You look... empty. The voice spoke directly in his mind. It was gentle and calming, like the warbling music of a mountain rivulet. Please stop running and take some rest.”

 

“No time! My companions are in grave danger. I can’t leave them alone.”

 

Your companions are in danger no more. I have saved them.

 

Erhan stopped. “You have?”

 

Yes, now please sit down and meditate. I have some matters to discuss.

 

Erhan breathed out. Now he understood why the old snake had left in such a hurry and why it had been so panicked. He spread his senses out to the surrounding. Finding appropriately flat space, he sat cross-legged, holding his staff straight, and closed his eyes. The silver-clad figure of Aritra appeared in his mind.

 

Her serene, pearly black eyes studied him. It has been a long time, brother.

 

Yes, a long time. Erhan smiled. You have grown, Aritra.

 

You have grown old. She observed. You have sacrificed too much of your essence.

 

It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. Erhan thought. Thank you for saving the life of my companions. I am truly grateful.

 

You do not need to thank me, as the responsibility of this disaster lies partly with us.

 

What do you mean?

 

Aritra shook her head. You have left this life, so it is not for you to worry about.

 

I see. Erhan couldn’t help but chuckle. Since it’s not my business, then what is so important that you want to discuss.

 

This quest of yours.

 

The... quest? Erhan raised an eyebrow.

 

Yes. Aritra nodded. The sacred mountain is teeming with danger, so it is unsafe for you to continue. We have reached out to other groups too. Most of them have left. Those that had stayed, faced death. I offer the same choice to you too. Give up this quest or continue at your own peril.

stayed

Erhan stared at her thoughtfully before shaking his head. I have indeed left that life, but I am well aware of what it entails. I am not convinced they would have just issued a warning instead of driving us away if this really troubled them.

 

Aritra sighed. So what is your decision?

 

I would not leave. There are answers I seek and I would find them, no matter the cost.

 

For a moment, Aritra hesitated. Should she tell him? If he knew... She sighed, shaking her head. The decision had already been made. I… just want you to know. The price that you have to pay for those answers is heavy.

 

Erhan shook his head, refusing to answer. The faces of the two closest to his heart surfaced in his mind. Leah… Ellie…

 

His body shook for an instant. Taking a deep breath, he looked at Aritra. I cannot let the Fade come back.

 

The fade... Aritra observed the twinge of pain in his expression and sighed. Do you not regret it?

 

“Regret?” Erhan whispered aloud. He stared vacantly at the dark landscape of his mind for a time. It would be a lie to say he never regretted his decision then, but…

 

I would have regretted never making that decision even more.

 

Aritra nodded. The time has come. She said. I have to take my leave.

 

Farewell, then.

 

Farewell. Her figure faded from Erhan’s mind.

 

Erhan prepared to break off the meditation, but before he could, Aritra reappeared again. I forgot to inform you of something. She said. I found a good seedling in your group. One with a very strong affinity to the arts.

 

Arban? Erhan frowned. Don’t tell me you—

 

Yes. I have taken him under my wing. Aritra affirmed, and before Erhan had the chance to say anything else, she vanished completely.

 

“Taken under her wing?” Erhan woke up and rubbed his temples. He felt a headache coming already.

 

“She has taken him away by force, hasn’t she?”