Cost of a Crown (Book 1)
Two Brothers
Chapter Three: Evergreen Forest
Keldor did not stay long after explaining to Randor his system for handling the administrative tasks of being King. The sorcerer stayed only long enough to take a nap (he had been up all night), pack a bag, and change his clothes.
When he left Eternos, he didn't look much like a Prince at all. Wearing plain, practical travel boots with just a bit of fur trim, bare legs and exposed thighs for better mobility, an armored loincloth, exposed abdominals and pectorals, just some bandoliers crossed over his chest holding on some light shoulder armor, and a cape with a hood. Keldor was not wearing the hood, he refused to cover his ears. Even traveling, not letting people know that he was Prince Keldor, he would not hide his Gar features.
On his back he carried his travel bag, and his sword. A very unique blade his father commissioned for him.
A double bladed great-sword. It looked far too large for one of Keldor's build and height. But the twin blades came apart, forming two separate but identical swords. Mirror images of each other. One, the hilt tinted a dark violet, the grip stained in lavender, and metal of the blade a cool blue. The other, a gold hilt, white grip, and shining pure steel blade. A sword with two blades for a Prince from two peoples.
Like Randor, Keldor had never used it outside of the training circle.
He hoped he wouldn't have to use it at all.
Outside the city gate was such a stark contrast from inside the wall. Inside was all paved streets and stone buildings. Neatly trimmed city trees, all placed equal distances apart, square window boxes, or diligently tended private yards. Eternos was a nice city, but it had the sterility of civilization to it. Outside the gates, the Fertile Plains sprawled in front of him for kilometers around. Green, and lush, and verdant. Tall grasses coming up to Keldor's hips. The wind brushing over it, making the stocks bend like waves of the sea.
A narrow little road cut through it. Paved close to the city wall, but the farther out a person went, the more poorly maintained it became until it was little more than a dirt path. Keldor made a mental note to add the road in and out of the city to his list of municipal projects that needed his attention when he got back. Eternos was the capital city of the whole planet. Eternia could not have her capital city inaccessible by foot traffic or anyone who didn't own a hover vehicle. The capital should be open to all citizens of Eternia.
When the dirt path finally vanished under the grass of the plains, Keldor struck out on his own, forging his own trail through the grass. Heading north, up to the Evergreen Forest.
Keldor didn't actually know much about the Evergreen Forest, to spite being so close to the capital, it was a place mostly shrouded in mystery. But the Evergreen Forest was not one of his destinations, none of the artifacts on his list were said to rest within its trees. But through the Evergreen Forest was the quickest way to get to the Vine Jungle, which did have an artifact.
The Moonfire Stones that resided within the Temple of the Fantus.
It was said that the twin stones that were the eyes of Fantus, a local minor deity. They were supposedly set in a statue of the deity, and imbued the resident tribe of worshippers with power.
'Power' was a word that was thrown around a lot on Eternia, not just within sorcery circles. It was used so widely and so broadly that it had lost almost all meaning. It could be that the Moonfire Stones did nothing more than give the locals the 'power' of faith and hope. Or it could be that they channeled the energies of time and space and could un-make the universe if used improperly. Or, they could be exactly what Keldor needed to restore his father's health and vitality. His quest could be over at the first point on his list and he could come home victorious.
He just needed to get through the Evergreen Forest to find out.
The trees rose up suddenly from the plains. A dark line of tall trunks, almost like a wall forming the border between the Fertile Plains and the Evergreen Forest.
They were not all evergreens. There were pines, and fir, red cedar, spruce, cypress, and yew. The vast majority of trees making up the Evergreen Forest were evergreens. But not all of them, Keldor also noted oak and maple, hawthorn, dogwood, aspen, and persimmon. Trees who's leaves did change color and were not forever green.
Currently, everything was green.
And very dark. The trees were dense and close together, their branches interweaving to block out much of the natural daylight. And the underbrush was thick. Overgrown and tangled. There was no discernable path through the Evergreen Forest. Keldor just had to trust that he could keep his heading north and not stray too far off course in the dark wood.
It took him the better part of the day to cross the Fertile Plains and so he knew he couldn't travel much farther after reaching the forest. But he at least wanted to cover some distance before he made camp for the night.
Staying on as straight a path as he could, looking around him for a flat enough space for him to lay down on, and glancing up every now and again to try and discern how much daylight he still had. It was slow goings for Keldor.
Finally, he found a spot that was clear enough of underbrush for him to sit down. Not to lay down fully, just sit on the ground with his back leaned against a tree. He hugged his cape around him for shelter, and this time he did raise the hood up over his head and cover his ears. Not to hide their points, just to shield them from any creepy crawly things that might come out while he was sleeping.
It was uncomfortable.
The ground was hard, and the bark of the tree uneven. Keldor could not find a comfortable position, and he spent the majority of his night turning and fidgeting against the tree.
He did sleep, though. He knew he slept because he dreamed.
He dreamed of a crown that was just out of reach. Try as he might to run towards it, it continued to draw farther and farther away from him. He could never possess it. When he did catch up to the crown, it transformed into a skull in his hands. Startled and afraid, Keldor threw the skull away. But it came sailing back and closed over his head. Try as he might, Keldor couldn't pull the skull off. It was a part of him now. His face. His identity. A Prince who would never be King, with a face of death.
There was a moment of disorientation when he woke up and realized he was not safe in his bed in the palace. Then Keldor remembered what he was doing out here in the wilderness. On a quest to find an artifact of powerful magic to heal his father.
Lowering the hood down off his ears, Keldor stood. He cracked his back and massaged his neck. Everything felt stiff and sore, and it had only been his first night.
Looking around, Keldor realized he wasn't sure which direction was north anymore, and the branches of the trees were too densely interwoven for him to see which direction the sun was rising from.
He tried searching for his own trail from the previous day, but any bent underbrush was grown over, and tracks in the dirt were covered up or obscured by animal movements in the night, and nothing looked familiar to him. Keldor glanced back up at the tree he slept under. It had a wide trunk and thick branches. He could climb it. Maybe it was tall enough to get him above the canopy so he could see the son and find a direction.
It wasn't exactly as easy a climb as Keldor would have liked. The bark was course and uneven and gave plenty of hand and foot holds, but it was also old, the outer bark flaking away to reveal younger bark underneath. Keldor nearly fell more than twice. The second near fall he was very high up already and had a flash of a panic for a brief second when he thought he was going to die, before he caught himself on a small branch.
Finally, he got as high as he could. The newer, thinner branches and the narrower younger parts of the trunk no longer substantial enough to support his weight. Keldor drew his sword and cut off the top of the tree so he could have an unobstructed view of the forest.
He was very high up.
High enough to see that the Evergreen Forest stretched out for kilometers on all sides.
Keldor must have made it deeper into the forest that he originally thought because he could not even see the plains anymore. It was like he was adrift in a sea of dark green. In all directions, green.
Except for one random speck of gray.
Keldor narrowed his eyes, squinting at the gray speck, trying to figure out what it was. There was no shine of reflection that a body of water would have. It wasn't a lake or an uncommonly large pond. It almost looked like a castle. A castle made of gray stone.
But there were no settlements or outposts in the Evergreen Forest. At least, there weren't supposed to be. Aside from the animals that were native to the forest, it was uninhabited.
But, inhabited or not, it was a landmark.
Keldor looked at the sun. It was still rising, so he knew which way was east. That meant that the gray stone castle was west of him, and north was that way.
Sliding back down to the ground, Keldor struck out heading north.
It was still slow goings. Even if he knew where he was going, there were no trails or paths in the Evergreen Forest. Everything was overgrown, and thick. Dense in a way that felt like the woods were actively trying to push him away or push him out. Like the forest itself did not want him there.
Inevitably, he ended up veering off from his strait line north. Whether it was a fallen tree he had to detour around, or a dense wall of brambles that couldn't be passed through, or a stream that couldn't be forded, Keldor had to change direction. He knew he was off course again, he just wasn't sure how far.
And then a falcon came out of nowhere and divebombed his head.
"Argh!" Keldor dove to the ground to avoid a second pass by the falcon. "What the-!?"
He rolled onto his back.
It had uncommon coloring for a falcon. White, red and blue. And she was diving at him with talons out.
Keldor jumped to his feet and ran.
The falcon probably had a nest nearby, because she followed Keldor as he ran. Screeching loudly, scratching at his hair with her talons, and beating her wings as if she were trying to box his ears more than keep herself air born. Very, very aggressively trying to chase him off.
"Alright, alright, I'm going." He shouted at the bird.
She still pursued him until Keldor nearly tumbled off a cliff.
He grabbed a tree branch at the last moment and pulled himself back on land. Hugging the tree with both arms and legs.
Then, the falcon finally left him alone and flew back to her roost, wherever that was.
Keldor breathed a sigh of relief. He climbed up onto the branch of the tree he was already holding onto and leaned back into the bend where the branch joined the trunk. He looked out over the see. The sun was setting now, and setting over the water, which meant he had somehow gotten to the west coast of the small straight that separated the Southern Continent from the Norther. When Keldor started out, the path up from Eternos put him sort of in the middle, but in the middle closer to the east coast.
For all the walking (and running) he did during the day, he hadn't traveled any closer to his goal.
He probably past clear by that old castle of gray stone without even seeing it. If his mental map of the area was at all accurate, he was probably getting close to the castle around the time the falcon attacked him. She probably made her roost somewhere in the old ruin and though he was a predator getting too close to her nest.
He ran a hand through his hair. Much of it had been knocked lose by the falcon attack, and he let it down to brush it out. When his hands came away from his head, they had specks of blood on thim. The falcon's talons had scratched him after all.
Pulling his pack off his back, Keldor pulled out his medical salve and dabbed at his scalp under the hair where he felt the sting of cuts.
Then he leaned back against the tree, and prepared to spend another night in the Evergreen Forest.
…
When he woke up, it was to a spike of adrenaline as Keldor got the sudden sensation that he was falling.
He caught himself before he could fall completely.
It was still dark, but it was the kind of bright darkness that proceeded the morning. The sun would be rising soon and Keldor would have enough light to press on. He was on the western coast, so if he just followed the shore and kept it on his left side the whole time, he should reach the Vine Jungle by the end of the day.
Nibbling on some of the food he packed from Eternos, Keldor studied the edge of the cliff, looking for a safe way down to the rocky beach. It didn't have to be a wide path, just a few ledges or rocks jutting out from the side would do. Keldor could climb. But there were none immediately in front of him.
Stowing what he hadn't eaten of his supplies and closing up the pack, Keldor swung down from the tree he was in and landed on the grassy, overgrown ground. He would just have to follow the tree line until he either found a way down, or the Evergreen Forest ended. Whichever happened first.
Hugging his cape tighter around him to ward off the cool morning air rolling in off the Growling Sea, Keldor started heading north again.
The morning was climbing from 'sunrise' into a more proper 'daytime' when Keldor finally came to a way down to the rocky shore. Where the rain, or perhaps the high tide surf had washed away enough of the earth to weaken the tree roots and several trees had fallen over. Their roots still clinging to the higher slope, while branches spread out over the shore, the trunk between forming a nice ramp down. Keldor used them to slide down to the bank.
Without having to weave his way between trees anymore, and without hazard of losing his way anymore, Keldor followed the coast north until the trees started to change.
Fewer evergreens now.
More nutmeg, brazilnut, palm, and acai. The kinds of trees one might find in a jungle. They were growing interspersed with the evergreens of the forest that bore their name. He was getting close to the Vine Jungle, but he wasn't there yet.
He took a break for the midday meal next to a stream of fresh water that trickled out of the forest down into the sea. Keldor washed his hands in it when he was done eating and refilled his water skin from it.
Pressing on, it was early evening before he started to see the actual vines hanging in the trees.
Gone were the evergreens. No more cypress, or fir, or pine. Now it was all palm, and brazilnut, and acai. But also, kapok, gum tree, rubber tree, balsa, and cacao.
It took him the better part of three days, but Keldor finally reached the Vine Jungle.
Now he just had to find the Temple of the Fantus and decide whether or not the Moonfire Stones were the kind of magical artifact that could help father or if he had to move on to the next item on his list.
It wasn't a long list, and Eternia was a large planet. Keldor hoped he found one that would work fast and not have to be away from him father and brother too long. It took him three days just to reach the Vine Jungle. How long would it take him if he had to go all the way to House of Darkness in the deserts of the Dark Hemisphere to find something?
At least Randor was taking care of things at home.
Grabbing onto the vines that hung down onto the rocky beach, Keldor pulled himself up off the bank and into the jungle. It was muggy under the trees. More humid than on the beach, the air not moving as much and the moisture allowed to stagnate.
The Temple of Fantus was somewhere in the middle, so Keldor head in.
He just barely was out of sight of the beach behind him when he felt something large and dark pounce on him.
Keldor rolled onto his back to see the massive jaws of a wild Dylinx bearing down on him.
The massive jungle cats could grow larger than horses and were immensely strong. This one was huge, if its teeth were anything to go by. One yellow-tinted fang was almost as long as Keldor's face.
He stared at the open, hissing mouth with its dagger-sized teeth and thought for a moment that he just might die out here in the jungle far from home and his brother might never know what happened to him.
Keldor hoped Randor was having an easier time than he was.
…