Expedition Aurora
Chapter 4 - Into the Desert
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Expedition: Aurora
Location: Aurora Desert
Day 19
It's in the middle of the night, our first night in the desert. I was among the few who had drawn the first watch, so now I'm sitting as a look out on the north side of out encampment. Before me, nothing but endless desert stretches as far as my eyes can see. Behind me, the great statue looming above Aurora's temple is still visible, and it keeps me with thoughts of Kalin, worrisome thoughts that make sleep impossible. So perhaps it's good that I drew first watch. What if something happens, and I cannot return to her? What if, when I return, I find something has already happened back in the city? What if I return, and she no longer feels the same way she did when I left!?
This blasted desserts seems to already be addling my mind. In the day he heat hear is monstrous, much worse than in the city, where there is at least shade to block the sun. But at night, it is damnably and impossibly cold. For a desert, it seems utterly surreal. I half expect it to start snowing. Though if the clouds up ahead are any indication, a thunderstorm might be present. Hopefully it will blow over. Storms don't cause much of a problem for the soldiers, but they are extremely inconvenient.
Some of the soldiers, the older and more superstitious ones, say that it is a bad omen for a storm to approach right after a voyage has begun. However, Alistair and his men believe it is a good omen, that the life-sustaining rain that chooses to fall so scarcely in the desert has decided to start on our journey's first night. But Reaver says that omens are foolish, old wives' tales and that a man's fate is in the way he carries his weapon.
I don't know who to believe anymore. I wonder what Kalin would think, if she were here. And I wonder if she is thinking about me now too.
Expedition: Aurora
Location: Aurora Desert
Day 20
When I woke early this morning, groggy from a night of little or restless sleep, I was informed that in the middle of the night, something had happened and now, three men were dead, and four were missing. I asked them who had done such a thing, and why the men on watch had not succeeded in stopping them. They brought me to Reaver and Alistair, who were already up and inspecting the stains of fresh blood on the sands.
Alistair told me it had been the Sand Furies. Kalin had told me of them once, I recall only fleetingly, and I wished I'd been more interested in what she'd said, rather than the way her lips moved when she said it...
Fortunately Reaver was there to refresh my memory. A tribe of desert wenches, he said, quiet as shadows and as versatile as the sand itself. One hardly has a chance of stopping them unless they are extremely gifted in battle.
One of the men on the last watch claimed that he had heard no fighting, and didn't even realize something was amiss until the rest of the men woke up that morning. I asked Reaver why they would attack only these few men. Why not all of us?
He responded with a chuckle, the most irksome I had ever heard. And proceeded to enlighten me on the fact that, Sand Furies being a tribe of women only, need to find ways to procreate. But of course, they want only the strongest men to father their spawn. Most likely, they started inspecting bodies and killed the ones they were not pleased with. Mercifully they must have found worthy men quick enough, otherwise there would be a lot more blood on the sand.
We buried those who died properly, or as properly as one could in the desert, before making our way again. This time, we were careful of our surroundings and kept a good look out for these illusive savages. Everyone seems more on edge as we ride deeper into the desert.
Expedition: Aurora
Location: Aurora Desert
Day 21
When we first entered the desert, I felt this eerie feeling. Its the same feeling I used to get standing in the Bowerstone Cemetery as a boy, and when Kalin showed me the ruins of the destroyed city.
But this eeriness only seems to be increasing more and more. My thoughts are still with Kalin, but they are also with my little sister now. If I die, Cassandra will become Queen. She is but a little girl. She shouldn't have to have that weight forced upon her at such a young age as I did. And what would she do without me? She'd have Walter and Jasper to care for her, yes, but no one to teach her how to be a proper ruler.
And after the darkness has run its course here in Aurora, swept up all the life and light it can, who is to say that it would not then move on to Albion? This is among my foremost concerns. That I will fail and fall, and thus so will everything and everyone else. I have to be strong, I have to win this. Not just for myself, or for Kalin, or for my sister. But for everyone. Such is the duty of a King.
Expedition: Aurora
Location: Aurora Desert
Day 22
Today, I discovered a stowaway... Again. The same one we found on the ship just two weeks earlier. Somehow William managed to slip in with the others almost unnoticed, and stay hidden among one of the supply carts. I'll never know how we was able to do it. But I know he's quite the master at hiding. Of course, I scolded him thoroughly for it. He looked ashamed... for all of two minutes. Then he was excitedly asking me where we were going. I told him we were going to end the Darkness. He asked me where.
I wish I could tell him, but I do not truly know myself.
We are deep into the desert now. Deeper than I had hoped we'd need to go. I can still se the staue to the Auroran temple looming behind us in the distance. But before us still, an alarming nothingness stretches on in vast eternity. How long will it be? How long before we actually know where to go, and are not wandering about aimlessly. Alistair and his riders are leading the way now. It seems they have a better sense of direction, or at least the direction we need to be going in.
We are all growing weary, and I am growing impatient. When I decide to do something, I do it right away. Being left alone to think over my decision is complete torture. Have I done the right thing in prostrating myself and all these men upon the mercy of the desert and this darkness?
And of course the doubt is still there. What if this whole thing really is only a legend after all? But then again, Reaver seems to think it's real. While the old fop has never been decidedly practical, I know he wouldn't go after something like this unless he knew it would be worth it. It puts me on edge, the fact that the only solid ground I have to go off here is Reaver. A man as fickle and erratic as they come.
Expedition: Aurora
Location: Aurora Desert
Day 23
The desert once seemed to have no end. But finally, we seem to have found at least a bump in its road. Today, just before sunset, when we were about to make camp, and I was honestly contemplating turning the entire army around and heading back to the city, we spotted something. Up ahead in the distance, there is an ancient-looking ruin. And one can just make out a small, dark doorway sitting on top of the ledge. Alistair swears by everything dear in this world that this is where we should be. Reaver was quick to agree.
I sent scouts ahead to scope out the situation, and they have not yet return. If they are not back by morning, then we will know whatever awaits us has nothing good in store. I do not have much faith in the notion that they are still alive.
...My father often warned me about the decisions one made as King. Even good decision could warrant bad outcomes. The deaths of men are needed to preserve the life of a nation. But the guilt will stay with me forever. It will never be absolved.
Expedition: Aurora
Location: Aurora Desert
Day 24
We never found the scouts' bodies, nor even a trace of them at all. No footprints, no hoofprints, no sign of a skirmish. Nothing of the sort. Many think they went craven and have turned their backs on us, going back to the relative safety of the city. I don't know what to think.
We spent the day trying to figure out how to get all of us up to where we needed to be. The ledge where the door way was located had no stairs leading up to it, which posed a bit of a problem, of course. At that moment, I was thankful for William coming along after all. The lithe boy was able to scurry up the large rocks and got to the ledge easy enough, after a bit of a boost from the strong men below.
He tied a rope to a sturdy rock upon the ledge, allowing for the rest of us to climb up. I've decided to leave a few men outside the cave, just in case anything happens to us. They can tend the horses while we travel this cave on foot, and they can at least go back to the city with word of our fate, should we fail return.
It took us the rest of the day to get such a force of men up here. They are tired, and weak, and after looking into the complete and utter darkness that await us inside that tunnel, they're scared. It'd be best if I let them have their rest now. We will need it most of all when we venture into the unknown that lies in waiting beyond the entrance to this cave.
Even Reaver looks apprehensive to go forward, a trait I have never before seen in him.
Expedition: Aurora
Location: Shadelight Cave
Day 25
We started the morning early, and I wasted no time ordering the march into the cave, fearing any trace of hope and courage left among us would die out if a I waited any longer. Every fifth man was given a torch, so the way was not as dark as, but frightening still. Things are so...old here. So void of life, yet full of...something. That something has a pulse, I swear it. But it is one that beats heavy, and dull and laborious in my ears. It is so faintly there, I cannot even be sure it is not just my own heart.
After some time we emerged from a long hall way into a larger, circular room that looked like it could have once been a throne room. There was a row of brooding, hooded statues aligned on either side of the room. Suddenly, Alistair and his men fell to the ground on their knees. It caused a panicked stir for a moment, until we realized they were kneeling in prayer.
The Dark Guardian, Reaver uttered the explanation to me, an odd catch to his voice. I knew immediately what he meant. These were the ones that had turn away from the Father Guardian so long ago, as Kalin had told me.
After the Aurorans had said the prayers they felt were adequate enough to save them from the unholiness of the Dark Guardians, we continued on to more caves and pathways. Some of them branched out, and I divided the men to go down each pathway. I made certain William, Alistair, and yes even Reaver, were in my party the entire time.
Reaver... he has been unusually quiet. I think at times I can even see fear in his eyes now.
The idea of Reaver fearing anything is almost impossible. But I have long known of is dealings with darkness. The Shadow Court, and their agreement that has allowed him to live for so long.
I have known him for such a time that I can now tell, just from his behavior, when he is about to make a sacrifice. He will grow very somber and distant just before he leaves. It is clear he dreads the process. It must be that he fears darkness in all its form. Perhaps that is why he seems so grim now, and why he can never seem to spend a night alone.
Whatever the case, I can see he would rather have no one know of it. Our eyes met briefly once, and as soon as he noticed I was watching him, he dropped the look of fear and fell right back into the charming, nonchalant charade he plays so well, smiling carelessly. I wonder if there is a single person on this earth with whom he confides in, now that my father is gone.
Sometimes, though only rarely, I feel the real reason why he keeps close to me is less because of what I can do for him as a king, and more of what I can do for him as a friend. Perhaps a part of him hopes I will be what my father was to him.
It must be difficult, having no one to rely on but oneself. Having no one in this world to love and be loved by. He can hide it all he wants, but I know there will always be a part of him that craves simple, human affections. For all the annoyance I have for him, one can't help but feel pity, even if he has brought this upon himself.
Expedition: Aurora
Location: Shadelight Cave
Day 26
Again, we did not find much today. Just more tunnels that lead to no where. My father, when he was alive, would tell me stories about the years he spent as a slave to the Spire. How the structure seemed to live and breath on its own, so much that it had its own heartbeat, its own pulse. Is what I am feeling now similar? I remember when I was a boy and my father took me to the place of his childhood, where his old gypsy camp has once resided. Much had changed, he told me, and now one could see the spire from the shore. I had always felt a strange vibe coming from the place, even as it stood several miles out to sea. The Spire is a place of great power, and with it, my father had obtained an immense amount of wealth, and thus became King of Albion.
But the feeling I get from this place seems so much different than the stories. My father told me the Spire got its pulse from the energy flowing through it. This place has no energy, no life... Only death. The pulse is getting louder and louder with each passing hour. At first, I could hardly tell the difference between it and