3 – Night Fright
Rulf was ripped from the realms of sleep and catapulted back into reality with bone shattering force. His face was cold, wet and clammy. He was also shivering slightly, though why exactly, he wasn't sure. Something had woken him suddenly, but he was drunk with fatigue and couldn't remember what it was. And then he heard it. A sound that made his blood freeze.
"BRING ME THE BOY! BRING HIM TO ME NOW AND NO ONE WILL SUFFER!" The rough voice cut through the cold night air like a harsh, rusty blade. Rulf recognized with immediate apprehension who it belonged to - that ominous, terrifying, white-eyed man. Had he come back for him?
No... No, no, no! This can't be!
Dark thoughts slowly wormed into Rulf's mind as he desperately clawed his way out of bed. He then almost jumped out of his skin when a shadowy figure darted its way up the stairs and into his room. Reeling back in a panic, Rulf slumped onto the floor and stared helplessly as the figure blocked the exit. He was done for. It was with great relief that his tired eyes adjusted to the familiar face of Elder Borin, who was fixing him with an anxious stare.
"What's going on? I heard-" Rulf began, though he was interrupted by Borin, whose voice was stern and had a certain disconcertment underlying it.
"There's little time to explain.. Rulf... You're aware that you are not from this village. Not like everyone else. But.. The fact is.. You were found amongst darkness, destruction and chaos. Amongst death."
Rulf's tired and tortured brain wrestled with what he was being told. The elder continued. "You are special, Rulf. And you know as well as I do, that this fact is true. As a result of this, there may be some people out there who will try to harm you."
"But why?" asked Rulf, his face contorted into a desperate frown.
"I don't have time to explain right now," was the only answer he got. "Listen carefully, Rulf.. I have a cousin, he is the elder of Helm village situated north of here; his name is Cresamen. You must go to him for the time being, so that you will be safe. Don't ask questions, you have to trust me."
"But-"
"Go now!" requested the elder, his words sounding almost like a plea. It seemed as if Rulf had no choice in the matter. He would have to oblige with Borin's wish.
As he raced down the stairs, his mind raced even faster. The sinister old man was still out there; Rulf could hear his cracked and sharp words piercing into his consciousness.
"That boy! Bring him TO ME, I say!" It seemed surprising that despite the worn out and faded voice the man had used earlier that day, it now seemed to be rejuvenated with wicked cruelty. Borin was already at the open door. He stood resolutely in the entrance, raising his hands into the air. With what looked like great concentration, he stared straight ahead and stretched his old and wrinkled fingers. Slowly but surely, Rulf watched in amazement as from the damp grass, swirling currents of thick white vapour began to rise. It condensed, so that within mere seconds the whole village appeared to be swamped in thick fog. Was this just one of the many things the old man could do that Rulf was so blatantly unaware of? Borin gave a movement of his hand and beckoned Rulf beside him.
"Now.." he uttered softly. "You know this village better than our intruders tonight. This fog will aid you in staying unnoticed. Head for the woods and use its cover to go to the Northeast Valleys. The old man who seeks you is a parasitic, venomous character who goes by the name of Fendrel. Do not let him reach you at any cost. Also, know that his threats are empty and false: he does not have any interest in attacking the whole village. I would simply not allow him to harm any of our people, regardless. However, his prime concern is you. As I said, do not let him achieve this. If you don't escape successfully and he captures you - there may be little I can do to help you, Rulf." He looked sombre at this.
Rulf simply nodded. "Alright," he murmured reluctantly. Taking one last sideways glance at Borin, who smiled weakly at him, Rulf plunged into the rolling tide of fog as Borin's face became submerged, gradually becoming lost in deep white currents.
The cold air hurt Rulf's chest as he stalked silently towards where he knew the woods were situated. It just had to be that his house was the most centrally located in the village. What rotten luck. Fendrel's rasping cries had been dampened to a distant wail now, but Rulf wouldn't have been surprised if that was just because of the suffocating mist. Either way, he dearly hoped he was getting away from him. Rulf wanted nothing more than to be as far away from that man as possible. Once familiar houses now blurred past him like ghostly shapes. His thought process was interrupted when he heard the crunching of feet in the grass, feet which were much closer than he would have liked. Darting behind the nearest house, he nervously squinted from around his hiding place, struggling to see through the thick veil of vapour.
A tall man with a bitter scowl on his red face made slow steps towards where Rulf was crouched and shivering. Something cold and gray was swinging loosely at his side. A sword. It wasn't long before his worn boots rounded the corner and the soldier's narrowed eyes fixed directly upon Rulf. Or, they would have, if it wasn't for the bundles of straw that Rulf had scrambled under as the soldier had made his approach to the house. The lengths of straw smelled of pleasant summer days and tickled at his skin, although Rulf knew that the world outside him right now was about as far as you could get from that. How apt it was that he lay there as still as a scarecrow; yet it was he who was feeling as scared as any crow, trying to focus on breathing slowly under that mound of straw, despite his heart's pounding which he felt certain would give him away. He lay listening. Listening for something, anything at all... But he only heard nothing. The soldier had gone by and Rulf was left unnoticed.
He wanted to cry out as the soldier's sword was thrust viciously into the straw. He wanted to yelp as the sharp steel punctured his surroundings repeatedly, a mere yard away from where his curled body was nested. Even as he brought his knees to his chest, the blade seemed to be getting ever closer to him until it would finally come to rest inside Rulf's pale flesh. But then it stopped. This time, the soldier, who had satisfied his curiosity, really could be heard sliding away his sword with a musical chime that eased Rulf's apprehension, if only a little. The footsteps on the hard earth grew fainter and fainter as the man made his way elsewhere. Rulf waited, making sure his hunter would not deceive him a second time; lying for a minute that seemed to drag on for hours.
When he felt it was clear, Rulf swam through the sea of straw and started towards the edge of the village - to safety, with any luck. Cautiously, he tiptoed past the remaining houses between him and his escape. Within seconds he was making his way into the woods. As the trees and overgrowth devoured him, he felt instantly safer. Surely nature would keep him safe from the cruel hands of men. As this comforting thought bathed his mind with a soothing sense of ease, he found the earth rushing up to greet him, as he was slammed into the ground by a rough force hitting him in his back. Before he could utter a moan in response to someone's weight driving him into the leaves, a clammy hand was clasped over his mouth. It was a blind, panicked effort to swirl around in order to see his pursuer. When he finally saw who it was, he was even more startled. Fia.
Wait, what? Fia?
She lifted her hand away from his face and instead brought a finger to her lips, after blowing a wild mess of hair away from her sparkling eyes. Then she motioned with a nod to the east, the direction in which Rulf had been creeping towards. He rolled back onto his stomach and peeped though the dense network of vines before him. Though he was keeping low and concealed for the moment, he had not noticed up to this point that there were two soldiers who were passing by only thirty metres or so from his position. If he had of kept on going, he would have been in their field of vision. They would have sighted him fairly quickly. After all, Borin's cloak of fog did not stretch much beyond the village.
Rulf tilted back towards Fia, who gave him a knowing look as she pushed herself up from him.
"What are you doing out here?!" he hissed, annoyed that she would put herself in such danger.
"Well, that's some thanks for me saving your neck," she murmured. "I heard the noises outside and decided I wasn't just going to sit there and let you do something stupid. So I threw some stuff together and sneaked out of the house." At this point she gestured towards a small and worn looking rucksack on her shoulders. "I just had a feeling you'd go this way and sure enough, I saw you entering the woods. You're so bad at staying unnoticed, I swear it's a miracle you weren't caught alrea-"
"But your parents will lose their minds with worry, Fia!"
She quickly threw away a concerned expression and countered, "I'd rather see that I did something useful, besides I left a quick note and, well," at this point she blushed a little, "I don't want to see you come to any harm."
Rulf sighed. "Oh, I appreciate your concern, but I'll be just fine. Really."
"Really?" she heaved, somewhat incredulously. "Like just earlier? Listen, I'm coming, whether you like it or not."
Witnessing the resolution, set like stone on her face, Rulf paused for a moment and then said, "Alright, so I've been told to escape the village and it was suggested I make my way up to the north, using these woods as cover."
Her answer was short and simple. "Right." Then she added, "So, you're just going to leave until this whole thing calms down? That's what I anticipated Elder Borin would've told you to do."
"Not exactly.."
"How so?"
"Well," he thought for a moment, "he wants me to go to this village called Helm and I guess lay low there for a day or two."
"Well, it makes sense, I guess," she considered. "But let's go already."
"Yes, miss," he groaned, before starting to wrestle his way through the branches. Together, they trudged through the woods and into the crushing darkness, unaware of the many dangers that awaited them.
