<< Grains of Salt and Sand - Andrea Krux >>
One day later
Kaius Seraphall pulled the straps of his pack tighter across his chest when he reached the top of the low expanse of mountainous rock. It was already weighing down on his shoulders but he refused to remove a single item after spending two of his gold coins to entirely reoutfit his gear, and stock up on various runic equipment.
His usual attire was meant for casual hiking through the comparatively safe areas to the South and East of Nasiru, and he had never truly needed an array of weapons or defensive gear on his home planet in the past. Yet Kai was used to it now, after a decade of living with a mercenary band of Demon Hunters, he had actually found it strange to spend the past few months without a scrap of armour.
Granted, the thick leather pieces he had been able to afford were a far cry from what he once wore, but it was certainly better than nothing.
He turned around to take one last look behind him at the circumference of red desert sand to steady his nerves.
At the centre was the city, half hidden by the rise and swell of the dunes, and far off in the distance, merely a pinprick on the Southern horizon, was the mountain of Mirai and to the East, the forest of Sekhet.
But Kai's destination was far from his familiar haunts.
And for the first time, he would be travelling for an extended amount of time, camping overnight and traversing a sizeable distance, completely and utterly alone.
He turned back and checked the map again. So far he'd been able to stick to the green route that he'd marked the night before, the fastest and, by all appearances, the safest route.
Taking a deep breath he carefully picked his way down the edge of the craggy mountain path and into the valley below where the edge of the Forest of Spectres began.
*
The Forest of Spectres was a name coined by the residents of Nasiru, the Witches would surely have their own name for the acres of dark forest that stretched from the edge of the valley below, far into the distant horizon, further than his eyes could reach.
It would be reasonable to assume that the forest was named for the perpetual sheet of thick, ethereal mist that clung to the bottom of the valley like a hazy cloud. But no.
Instead, the moniker had arisen from the few citizens who had been granted permission from the Nasiru Council or those who, like Kai, had simply entered without providing notice. From this limited pool of people, either spurred by dangerous curiosity or forced to enter to legally trade with the Witches, the term 'Spectres' began to be whispered from dark, tavern corners and hushed conversations by candlelight.
It was the name they gave to the strange disembodied voices that some would hear when they traversed the 10km stretch of marshland within the forest, an unavoidable ring of waterlogged terrain that encircled the Witches Grove.
Some claimed to hear the voices of their loved ones, even those who had died. Others would simply see strange mirages that appeared to take the form of their deepest desires, in an attempt to lure the traveler into the murky waters.
For those who were lured successfully, their companions would simply shiver with a haunted look in their eyes, only stating: 'They're lost now.'
This was the final hurdle that Kai would face.
This was not to say that the stretch of forest Kai was carefully navigating his way through now, was any less eerie.
Here the mist was thinner, snaking along the ground above his ankles, shifting and swirling with each measured step. If his attention wandered for even a moment, Kai would almost stumble and trip against a root, cursing under his breath in frustration.
The darkness didn't help.
Kai was used to Sekhet where the trees provided large breaks in their canopies, filtering the bright sun down onto the winding river and the vibrant, mossy ground.
But if Sekhet was filled with life, the Forest of Spectres was death.
Here, it was as though the sunlight did not dare to pierce through the thick, fir branches of half-dead giants. He had already needed to activate a light rune, fixing it to the end of a broken arm like a makeshift torch so that he could track his progress on the map and pick his way along the twisting path.
The path itself was near overgrown, but thankfully it had been trodden just enough for him to navigate, sticking to the green route easily enough.
But he refused to even think the words, 'This is easy. What were those people so afraid of?'
Each time that his thoughts swayed to any variation of this he would promptly slap himself across the cheek and frown down at the map with renewed determination.
To think that your journey was going well was one sure fire way to rouse the God of Travelers, she was known to be highly mischievous after all.
Just a single person in your party sighing in relief and exclaiming: 'This is a piece of cake, we'll be home by morning.' Would often lead to that individual tripping over a tree root and breaking their ankle, or for the party's navigation equipment to malfunction out of nowhere, their map blown away by the wind to leave them stumbling around in circles for days on end.
Kai was fully aware that overconfidence and pride was one way to doom your fate, carving your unfortunate demise into stone.
On Zenin, not all Gods were known or recognised, but the God of Travelers certainly was, and she despised proud men who refused to acknowledge her, or mocked the ease of their journey as though their skill alone had made it so.
In light of this, he had made an offering before he departed, spilling half a bottle of wine onto the earth with a promise to deliver the rest when he returned home safely and cupping a handful of sand in his palms, allowing it to run slowly through his fingers as he murmured a long, whispered prayer to her alone.
And so, he would be damned if he even allowed his thoughts to stray to any form of hubris.
The day passed in this manner, hours upon hours of silently picking his way along the safest path, his cheek sore and reddened and his nerves shot to hell at every sound of cracking twigs and rustling underbrush.
The revitalising rush of energy that Katesch had passed to him had long since dissipated and after miles of walking without rest, his mind in a constant state of concentration and alertness, Kai needed to rest before the next day, when he would be required to tackle the Spectres of the marsh.
He pulled a short curved blade from the scabbard fixed to his hip and hacked away at the undergrowth until he had a small clearing, enough for a single tent and a hot plate.
He longed to start a fire to chase away more of the darkness and rid himself of the deep cold that had crept underneath the new leather cuirass, his thick, cotton shirt and even his skin, reaching down to his bones like icy hands. But a fire was suicide in this forest.
The heat and light would draw creatures towards you, none were deterred by the flames; to them, a fire simply meant humans, and humans meant food.
And it wasn't just the forest creatures that Kai did not wish to attract.
People had seen Demons in this forest.
They were mocked for these stories of course. Despite the high city walls and the constant rotation of guards, tasked with policing them by the council, no one in the city of Nasiru had ever actually laid eyes on a Demon.
But looking around him at the stifling, unnatural darkness, feeling the invasive cold that chilled his soul and hearing the distant cracking and groaning of the forest that seemed to come from every side, Kai would believe any of those stories now.
So, he simply activated the heat rune inlaid into the hot plate, swiftly warmed up a large portion of rice with small cubes of salted meat, and proceeded to shovel bite after bite into his mouth in record speed. He didn't want them to smell the food after all, otherwise he may as well have lit half this damned forest on fire.
When he was done he washed out his mouth with water and cleaned off the hot plate sprinkling salt across the ground around him before wearily dragging himself inside of the canvas tent.
He was planning to keep watch just a little longer before allowing himself to rest, but he couldn't honestly see a point to this.
He had to sleep one way or another and there was nobody with him to take turns keeping watch like he, Gen and Rami used to do when they would hike together…
"Ergh!" Kai's face twisted in disgust as he tossed from side to side under the thermal blanket, 'Gods. Why did I think of them? So much for pleasant dreams, now I'll have that on my mind again. Way to go Kaius...'
But the call of sleep was too hard to ignore after all, his eyelids growing heavy and his tired mind already slipping into a far more comfortable veil of darkness.
And just as his mind drifted away into a weary haze, another thought rose to the surface at that final moment before the exhaustion pulled him under:
'At least it's been easy so far...not a Demon in sight, this isn't so bad...'
**