Shadowland

Chapter 6

Spirits

I am not Walter Disney, nor am I related to Disney in any way, except for being a fan of his work. Shadowland, Chapter 6: 'Spirits' is property of Troy Wong, a.k.a. Chookooblash, and is not to be resold or posted on any other site without my permission.

I hope you enjoy reading my stories. Long live the king!

"Know who your friend is, and who your foe is."

-High Shaman Rafiki, during the reign of King Mufasa the Great; 3rd King of the Pridelands.

6:00pm

Western regions of the GreyMountains

1 night before the cave-in.

Approximately 75 hours after the death of Seer Waturi, of Tarot's herd.

"What is that?" asked Sapphire, looking back at the approaching figure. Coyle didn't think much of Sapphire's question. He knew she was tired, and perhaps thought that she could be hallucinating.

"What's what?" he asked in return. He didn't even bother to look back to see what it was. If he did, all he would have seen would be two glowing red dots in the distance, coming ever closer. Orion did turn back, staring at whatever it was out there for a few moments. Before he could say anything, the ground shook under his feet. Sapphire screamed as she was nearly thrown off the path.

"It's coming closer!" Orion exclaimed, as the first wave wore off and he regained his balance. Coyle decided to turn back this time, to see what it was. Then, the ground shook again as the three lions heard cracking sounds.

Sapphire looked in front of her to shout orders to Coyle. "Keep going! Run!" she yelled at him. Coyle didn't say anything. He just stood there, looking at those peculiar lights in the sky. Before Sapphire could yell something else at him, they heard more cracking sounds coming from behind them. It turned out to be the path that was beginning to crumble and fall underneath their feet.

Now Coyle couldn't afford to stand still and stare blankly. He ran, alright- for his life, and for those of the two people behind him, who could move if he didn't do so first. And the whole time, these two red, shining spots were growing bigger and brighter; moving closer.

Finally, after countless metres of running, it seemed that they had come to the end of the rock path. However, just before they could make that final leap to safety, a huge rock spire burst up from the ground right in front of them, blocking their escape route. Coyle cursed under his breath and yelled.

With the ground disappearing slowly under their feet, no way of escape, and strange lights getting closer in the distance, what were they to do? "We have to jump!" one of them yelled. It was impossible to tell which one over the noise.

"We can't do that! We'll kill ourselves!" Sapphire heard herself yell at the top of her lungs.

"We're going to die anyway!" Orion yelled back, the dust rising around him, making it hard to see and breathe. They had made their decision- they were all going to jump, but as they prepared to fall into the darkness below them, the sky flashed white, and all hell broke loose. Gales blew in from all directions, and thunder and lightning crashed so close to them that they could feel the heat singeing the hairs on their faces. It was a storm without rain.

Sapphire winced and tried to hide her eyes from the light as best she could without falling to her doom. As soon as it seemed that the bright lights had gone away, she lifted her head to see that everything around her had disappeared; Orion, Coyle, and even the landscape. All that was left was her consciousness and white, everywhere. What had happened? Where was everything? It must have been a trick. Was she dreaming? Was it magic? Had she died?

Had she?

She turned to her right to see an ethereal, maladroit ball of darkness hovering in the air. Then, it burst, and its daemonic contents began to spew out into the pure white surroundings. What was this? It couldn't be real. But then, why could she feel the strange ooze of the black liquid under her feet as it touched them? Why did she feel like she was sinking? Because she was.

It was like quicksand. The more she struggled, the more she sunk. In seconds, she was shoulder-deep in liquid darkness. It just kept rising. It consumed her. Before she knew it, the black stuff had risen up to her nose. She took one last panicked breath before it covered her completely. When would it stop? Was it going to end like this?

"No!" boomed a godly voice. Where did it come from? It was impossible to tell, despite how incredibly loud it was. It seemed to come from everywhere, if that was possible- even from inside her head. Seconds after hearing the noise that was so alike to thunder that you would duck into a cave after hearing it to avoid the rain, she could breathe again. Whatever she had just been drowning in had completely gone, and not one spot of black liquid was left. Wherever she was, that place was pure again.

"Sapphire…" called the voice.

Sapphire turned around. She looked behind her, and glanced to her left and right. Where was that voice coming from? "Father…?" she asked, somewhat hopefully.

"Your father is here… But that is not the case."

"What do you mean?" she shouted back. "Let me see him! Let me talk to him!"

"I am afraid I cannot do that, Sapphire… But you must do something for me. What I have done for you, you must do for my kingdom. Evil lies dormant in us all, and at any time, it could strike. Watch the two that you travel with. Watch them very closely… Restore the land to its former glory. Go. Now!"

"Sapphire!" yelled Orion, right in her face. "Is anyone in there?"

"Huh? What?" she said, lost.

"I said we should get some sleep before tomorrow."

"Sleep where?" she asked, curiously, as though Orion was crazy.

Orion looked at her is if she was the one that was crazy. "Well, look around you." He stepped back to reveal to Sapphire that she was standing in a huge cave. Its ceiling was metres off the ground, and one hundred elephants could fit in it with ease. Its extreme roominess gave the place a sort of an eerie feel. Sapphire ran around the room to see it all. Was it possible? How did she go from a white room to this in seconds? Wasn't she just talking to a ghost? Was it a ghost? What was it?

"What? How'd we get here?" she finally asked. "Where's Coyle?"

"Well, Coyle's just gone off to look for a way out of here, and we walked here."

"Huh? What do you mean, we walked here? Weren't we just in…" she trailed off.

"Sapphire, are you feeling alright?"

She sighed a deep, confused sigh. "I'm fine… I'm fine." she uttered, as she curled up into a ball to sleep.

xxx

Coyle walked, all alone through the stone corridors. In most parts of the caverns, there was no light, whatsoever, and so every step he took was a test of his faith. Was this a safe path, or would there be a pit somewhere along the line? He didn't know. There wasn't any way of knowing, if you were a lion.

One step, two steps. It seemed like he had been walking for hours. His joints ached, and his muscles felt like they were burning. Why was he even doing this? So that he wouldn't have to the next morning. He had to find a way. Why? Why all by himself? Because it would be no use if all of them suffered when only one of them had to.

The caves were so empty that Coyle could hear his own breathing echoed everywhere. The sound was so loud compared to the silence. It was unearthly. To walk alone in these caves was to leave behind your own consciousness just before a long journey.

'The plant knows when to drop its leaves…'

What was that? Did he just hear that? Why did it sound so familiar? Was it even a sound, or was it just his imagination?

'When the leaves are doing more harm than good, they are dropped…'

That one was shrilly real. Coyle could've even sworn that he heard the voice coming from in front of him.

'Why are you doing this, Coyle?'

Immediately, he stopped walking. What was that? It called his name. It has just called his name. That must have been real. He couldn't help it. It was in his inquisitive nature to do so, and so he talked back to whatever it was out there, but doing so may just have been his biggest mistake. "Who are you? Where are you?" he called out softly, to the darkness. His voice echoed like a thin beam of light in a mirror maze.

'I'm right here, Coyle.'

"Where?" he asked, a little panicked. "Tell me."

'That is not important.'

"Yes, it is. Tell me, now!" he yelled.

'If you must know, I am everywhere. I inhabit these caves… I can't escape. And there I go, giving too much away.'

"What do you mean? You're a spirit?" he asked

'You don't seem to believe me… Don't you believe in ghosts?'

Coyle paused for a moment to absorb everything in. "No, actually. I don't."

'You don't believe in the walls that surround you? The darkness that covers you? The ceiling that is above you?'

"What is that meant to mean?" he asked, questioningly.

'Don't you believe in things that are real?'

He ignored the question for the time being. "Why are you here?"

'Again, Coyle, my boy, that is not important.'

'Coyle, my boy'. Torres used to call him that. From the earliest days of his childhood, back when Torres was still 'normal'. Could this have been Torres? Somehow, had that crazy old man gotten here to confuse him, and scare him? Unlikely. But Coyle had to confirm it. "Who or what are you?"

'Not important.'

Coyle subtly looked behind him. He'd rather get out of that cave, back to Orion and Sapphire than suffer whatever this thing had in store for him. He turned around, and bolted for the exit. Before he was anywhere close, though, his muscles cramped, and his bones froze. He couldn't move, and it seemed that the more he tried to, the more he felt the terrible, terrible pain. After he fell to the floor, and was done with screaming in anguish, he heard a chuckle.

"What do you want with me…?" he managed to say, jaws clenched.

'I just want you to ask yourself why you're here.'

Coyle painfully lifted himself onto his feet. "What… Do you mean…?"

If they weren't following you around, you'd be free to go off and find food… You'd be safe, rested, and in paradise by now without those two to drag you down…'

"Sapphire and Orion?"

'Why are you helping them? What have they done to pay you back? Do you know what they're doing now? They're sleeping! They're resting while you're out here, finding a way for them! You're going to be absolutely exhausted tomorrow and how will they be feeling? Fine! They'll feel terrific as you lead them, with your heavy head and drooping eyelids, desperately craving sleep!'

"That isn't true! We're in this together!"

'Listen to yourself… It's terrible. Have they some sort of control over you?'

"They're my friends!"

It mocked him with its piercing cackles and laughs. 'Your friends? Hah! The girl hates you, and the male is dangerously close to seeing you only as a stranger! You're better off by yourself, Coyle!'

"No! You're lying!"

'The plant knows when to drop its leaves… When they're doing more harm than good. The plant is wise… Don't be a fool Coyle. You're smarter than a fool!'

Coyle tried making a dash for it again, but the same excruciating pain that had previously temporarily paralyzed him returned. "Let me go!" he screamed. For nearly a minute, there was nothing but silence.

'Fair enough. Leave.'

xxx

By midnight, Coyle had considered what the thing in the caves had told him. He had decided to, indeed, leave the other two behind, and go at it solo- as well as that, he'd found the shortest route out of the cave. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for his other two 'friends', Orion and Sapphire had woken up by that time.

They began walking through the complex system, and after an hour of doing so, they came across a fork in the road. Coyle had explored both paths earlier on, and had concluded that the left passage was safe, but long, and the right passage was risky, but short. He had already decided to take the right passage, but Orion thought otherwise. That could have been because he had slept long enough, and had a decent amount of energy to burn, whereas Coyle had been awake the whole time, and so wanted to get the whole journey over and done with. Sapphire eventually agreed with Coyle- a decision she would soon regret. Majority won, and so, the three ventured into the right passage, where Orion would soon disappear.

xxx

Present day…

And so, after the cave-in, there were two. Every moment Sapphire lived after that day was like torture. She wasn't able to sleep, because every half hour, she'd wake up looking for Orion, hoping it was all just a bad dream. Every metre she walked, she felt like she would collapse from exhaustion. Every step she took, onto the could, dead, ashy ground of the Grey Mountains, or the white-hot sand of the desert following the rocky peaks, she struggled to stop herself from falling down and refusing to go any further. And, every agonising word she spoke; every painful breath she breathed, she wished she hadn't.

By the time the desert sand had once again turned to grey, ashy ground, both lions had long lost track of time. Had it been hours? Had it been days? Had it been weeks? To them, it felt like months; months without food, or water. Lions weren't even supposed to be awake, nearly as long as they were per day. It was a horrible nightmare that they couldn't escape, and whether Orion had been there, with them all that time, or not, it wouldn't have made any difference.

Coyle and Sapphire had eventually made their way over the dark foothills that surrounded the mysterious black land where they had arrived after their journey, and there, they slept a sleep well deserved, for a whole day; maybe more. But as they regained lost energy, their deep slumber and dreams blocked out a very important fact.

They were being watched.

"After traveling for seven days and eight nights, the lions will come across a great artifact of the past; the staff of a legendary shaman that gave his life in vain for the good of the Circle. Upon touching the ancient wood of the staff, taken from the Tree of Life itself, Coyle; Second Shaman of Claw will have his first vision; the vision that will have a great influence on his fate, and those of all living things around him. He will be empowered with all the energies of past shamans, and so will begin his journey to becoming a real shaman; the first shaman to become what he will be without the teachings of an elder."

-2nd part of the 283rd prophecy of the Great Shaman Metutu, during the reign of

King Mohatu; Greatest and Highest King That Ever Ruled.