Note: I keep updating; it's a long way to the 42k after all

Note: I keep updating; it's a long way to the 42k after all.

Vinte's behaviour is just what he needed in addition to the walk towards the mountains. As if his nerves weren't unsettled enough.

And this walk to the sacred place where her sons gave their lives to their Mother is already a very uneasy march for him as it is. Perhaps it is that he, technically, must have been born out here, amongst grey gravel fields and ice, since Vinte had found him here at the end of the last dark season, cold, naked and sick.

It's a colourless landscape they need to cross to reach their destination, with the blue sky above and the green of the valley far behind them. It's crushing in its intensity, and even Arn and his younger brother Njir fell silent hours ago, which is unlike them with their usual banter and jokes.

That may also come from the determined face Tuuli has had since they set out from the village, fully intent on finding a way to deal with these strangers from beyond the mountains if they do indeed try to contact the village. He is far older than Mies and his sons but so fast in his pace that the three younger men have no easy time keeping up with him.

Mies turns more than once, watching the green valley and the village become smaller and smaller in the background, watches how the green forest that drapes over the slopes at the end of the valley like a soft fur becomes black with shadows, and how the sun, hanging low on the sky, sends blood red tendrils along the horizon.

It's beautiful.

"It's a sign of something bad to come," Njir says stopping beside him and looking back as well.

And it is, but not the way Njir may have meant it.

The shrine is a dark hole in the otherwise white and spotless snow field, a pitch black stone ledge hangs over it like a predator's mouth, wide open with sharp stone teeth bared threateningly at anyone who dares to come too close. It's like the giant head of something dark and dangerous, peeking out from below a white and harmless sheet, like a monster that will devour them, and even the snow seems afraid, giving it a wide berth.

Tuuli stops at the border between white snow and black gravel ground, raising both hands into the air while ducking his head. Arn and his brother crouch down, heads lowered and Mies, awestruck by the black monstrosity looming ahead, nearly slips as he follows their example.

"My Mother, eternal sun, please open your house for your reverent child," he says, waiting for response but there is nothing more than the whistle of the wind.

"I seek entrance to speak in the name of our village, for there are foreigners that have come through the woods…" Tuuli continues.

Mies dares to look up as breeze cuts through the snow and twirls a few flakes through the air, head still bowed but too curious for what is going on to not peek. Mies nearly falls backwards and on his ass, all muscles in his body tensing simultaneously as an invisible wall that keeps the snow from claiming the ground by the ledge falls in a shower of sparks that glow in the upcoming night.

"What…" he babbles.

"It's nothing to be afraid off," Arn whispers and smiles, reaching out to steady Mies with a hand on his shoulder. "It's the breath of the mother inviting us in."

From the moment the small group follows Tuuli onto the black gravel and into the tunnel beyond, everything becomes unreal and terrifying.

The next few moments pass like in one of his dreams, but some vicious force has sucked all colour and warmth from the nightmare he is walking through. The light comes from above and throws foreign patterns on his skin and the stone walls morph into what looks like living black flesh only a few feet from the cave opening. Signs dance over surfaces and skin hangs from the quivering muscles, moving in the air while veins pump dark bloodlike liquid through the semi-transparent surfaces. It's cool and smelly and the deeper they go, the more accurate becomes the picture of a monster's throat that Mies feels like he's slipping down.

Their path guides them past webs and shadows hiding in alcoves along the walls. Past what looks like brittle bones and old skin caught forever in awful grimaces and hollow eye sockets watching him veiled by even more of the unknown material.

It's nothing like the places out of his dreams.

Where the silver spires and lights feel like salvation and freedom this place feels like the darkest pit where no light reaches and only flames and death reign over contorted corpses.

The word hell comes to his mind, and although he knows not what that word means, he finds it strangely appropriate for the place around him. He starts to understand why Vinte might have warned him not to follow Tuuli and the other men. It's terrible, and it only becomes worse as they reach what looks like the belly of the beast.

Fog curls on the ground, grey and heavy, and giant bent bones surface on both sides of the room, leading like arches to what can only be described as a throne.

It's black and creepy and nothing like what he would have imagined the shrine of the sun to be. All his instincts tell him it's wrong and dangerous to be here, like walking right into a predator's striking range or something and as Tuuli kneels down a few feet away from the throne, his sons following the example, Mies keeps standing, hesitating and unsure if he should not just follow the feeling in the pit of his stomach and turn around.

"Mother sun, your reverent sons greet you."

And then there's a light, bright and accompanied by a hiss that echoes in the silence of the room. He can't look away from what the beam leaves behind, even if he would want to, and remains standing mouth gaping and eyes wide.

"Mother," Tuuli says and bows a little deeper.

She is tall, taller than most women of the tribe and thin, her skin of a strange ashen colour that glows faintly blue in the odd light and her hair is a startling white-silver curling over her shoulders and almost to mid waist. The worst is her face, caught in a hissing distorted mask that seems only faintly human, marred even more by symbols Mies is sure he has not even seen in his dreams.

Arn grabs him by the wrist and pulls, and Mies is so startled and shocked by the creature they worship as their goddess and Mother than he crashes hard on his knees and doesn't even feel the pain of impact.

She curls her lips back to expose sharp teeth in what may be meant to be a smile and reaches her hand out towards Tuuli, stepping down from her pedestal and putting the hand on the grey haired head of the village chief like a Mother on a child.

"Son…" she hisses and looks them over, moving surreally slow. "Children," she adds as greeting to them all. "What leads you here?"

"Strangers have come through the woods, Mother," Tuuli says and lifts his face towards her, taking her pale hand from his head and cupping it between his.

"Strangers," she says. "Villagers you do not know?"

"They did not come from these parts of the woods and said they were from a village on the other side of the mountains," Tuuli explains and she nods slowly, turning her head away and towards one of the skins in the wall that glow faintly.

It wakes to life at her attention; full of signals and signs the same as those she wears on her skin, moving down over the screen. Mies should know them, he thinks, but can't tie anything to it.

"They wore strange clothes and weaponry and knew nothing about the way of our lands," Tuuli adds and the Mother nods so very slowly again.

"They have not spoken the truth," she says. "There is no village on the other side of the mountains, only what remains of the shadow bringers…"

Tuuli nods, he had been right all along, and looks up to the Mother, holding to her hand like a small scared child. "What shall we do?"

She tugs her hand from his and moves back to her throne, slowly and with an unbelievable grace.

"Be careful my children, do not trust these strangers," she says and turns back to them.

"But do not worry, I will protect you, my children," she says and reaches her hand out as if she expects someone to take it, pulling her lips back to show more of her disgusting teeth in what is probably meant as a smile. "I will always protect you, like you always come to heal me."

Tuuli gives his son who kneels beside him a long look, reaches out and rests it on the younger man's shoulder, sounding a little broken as he says, "Son."

Njir's eyes fly wide for a moment, but deep down he may have expected this. It comes with a price to request the help of the Mother and suddenly Mies also understands why Njir's wife and all the other women looked so sad and frightened as they wished them farewell.

"Father," Njir says and rises, taking the hand the Mother offers to first kiss the osseous ornaments adorning her fingers before guiding the hand to his chest and bowing his head.

They leave and Tuuli walks out the way they came at a brisk pace, not faltering as the screams of his son echo through the halls behind them.

Mies stops though, looking back as the sparkling wall rises from the ground behind them and cuts off all sound that may have come from within the shrine. It's completely silent for what seems to be the most terrible moment of Mies' life.