The Thorn and the Rose

Chapter 3: Cave of Darkness

I watch in horror as he begins to change halfway through the leap, but I don’t wait around to see what he looks like all monstered up. I pound my feet into the ground, running as fast as I could, but he is quicker, crossing the distance between us in a heartbeat. I scream as I feel his claws rake down my back, my flesh feels like it bursts into flames. As I stumble forwards, disoriented with pain, I hear two bodies collide with each other behind me and half-stagger half-dive forwards, trying to dodge what I expect to be him crashing into me.

There’s more commotion behind me, but nothing hits me, then I hear Dean’s voice. It’s distant and I shake my head trying to clear it and make out his words, “... run! Hurry, go, I can’t hold him for long!”

The words finally hit my brain and push me back into action. I start running, as fast as I can, like my life depends on it, because in all truth, I think it does. Pain pulses through my back and across my whole body but the fear of the thing behind me is more intense, pushing me to run faster. Tree after tree goes by, my eyes scanning for anywhere to hide, I know without a doubt that the moment he gets free of Dean’s grip I'd not have a chance. Through the fuzziness of pain and fear I spot a dark mark among some large rocks on the hillside ahead. I make a beeline for it and find myself half-jumping half-falling into some kind of cave. 

Once I stop rolling, I stay still, trying to control my breathing to keep from making too much noise. It wasn’t long before I could hear the two voices

“... trouble for doing that! You hear? What’s wrong with you?!” The voice was loud, rumbling and very angry sounding.

Dean sounds a little scared as he responds “What? She’s just one woman taking out a walk, she’s done nothing wrong.”

“NOTHING WRONG?!” the other man's voice roared at Dean. They must be right outside my hiding place, “She’s here during a full moon. That can’t happen!”

“But she doesn’t know that,” Dean replies, sounding confused.

“It doesn’t matter! Come on, you are going to help me find her,” the other voice growls at Dean threateningly.

“Yeah, sure,” Dean sounds defeated and small, his voice barely audible to me this time. “What about in here?” It feels like my heart freezes as he speaks. They've found my hiding place and I quickly and as quietly as I can shuffle farther into the darkness.

The other voice, however, replies quickly with a tilt of fear in it. “No-one is dumb enough to go down there, not even a human running for their life.” 

I heave a deep sigh of relief as I hear their footfalls fade away and I begin to take stock of my situation. The first thing I feel is the pain in my back and I carefully get closer to the entrance for a better light then take my jacket and shirt off. Looking at them, I sigh sadly. Another set of ruined clothes, and my favorite jacket too. I stretch my wings experimentally and find, by some miracle, they were missed completely. I carefully twist my arm behind me to feel the wounds, they are deep and nasty, but probably would have been worse if it wasn’t for the scales I had. 

I pull my hand away and look at it in the dim light. ‘Covered in blood, not good.’ The wound feels like it’s on fire, all of the nerves that are cut are screaming at me but I knew I couldn't leave yet, I had to wait for the men to stop searching. I am scared. I know I've been badly hurt and this wasn’t something I could deal with on my own, I’d need a hospital, but that was dangerous in its own right. ‘Maybe going to a vet would be better,’ I thought as I shivered.

‘Okay, one thing at a time, girl. First, we have to survive to even need one of those things,’ I think to myself, trying to encourage action. I needed to stop the bleeding, else I'd just end up fainting and dying here in this hole. I take my ruined t-shirt and begin ripping it into strips. Not an easy task without any tools. Once I have the fabric sorted out, I begin wrapping it around me, crisscrossing my back as best I can. It’s hard with wings in the way, I can't just wrap it around my chest like a normal person. I’m confident I've done the very best I can with what I have and carefully reach round to feel my work. The fabric already feels slick, but at least it will help slow the bleeding if nothing else. Now I just have to wait.

Waiting is hard. I’m not one to just sit around doing nothing so I begin to explore the cave a bit. Dean’s companion seemed to think there was something to fear down here, which scares me because I'm not sure I want to know what could scare a scary monster like him. Looking around, I begin to notice small odd things, firstly how cold it is. By this point, I’m basically sitting at the entrance keeping my eyes and ears open for the two of them, but it’s like the morning sun couldn't warm me up. At first I put it down to blood loss making me feel ill, but the next thing I noticed worried me more. From my position I could see the sun clearly, shining its light almost directly into the cave. I should be able to see all the way to the back, but I can't. I can only see a few feet in, it’s like there’s a blanket of darkness or a black fog in the cave. I tremble a little looking at it, it feels so wrong somehow, yet I also know it’s why I’m safe here. I take a deep breath to calm myself, looking into that strange blackness, but as I look something weird begins to happen. 

‘I know, what’s weird at this point, right?’ I shake my head half-laughing at myself as the darkness seems to clear right before my eyes. I can see the cave better, the walls are made of a strange black rock. ‘Maybe obsidian, but wasn’t that only in volcanoes?’ Either way, the darkness seemed to cling to the walls, or bleed from them, I’m not sure which. 

My curiosity got the better of me. ‘May as well do something while I wait, how bad can it be?’ I realise how dumb that thought is, like the start of a cheesy horror movie. I laugh a little and get up moving deeper into the cave. 

As I walk forwards, the black fog almost seems to part for me, like it doesn't want to touch me. This let more light into the cave and I could see a bit better. It goes down at a steep angle, then curves around to the right. After following the corner, the path still leading downwards, all light faded from my view and I had to continue with touch more than sight. The walls themselves feel smooth, again making me think of obsidian, but this is like no volcanic glass I have ever seen before. It feels like I’m walking in complete darkness for several hours but it’s likely only a few minutes, the darkness disorientating me. I think about turning back a few times, the path is going deep into the earth and who knows what might be at the end, but my curiosity leads me on. As I walk onwards, it sometimes feels as if something is calling to me, like I am meant to be here and need to find something. I feel a little dumb, that’s just superstitions talking. 

Eventually, I find myself in front of what can only be described as a wall of sheer darkness. As I push forwards I can feel a strange kind of resistance, like I am punching against the wind but without the movement of air. But just as quickly as the feeling starts it goes away, then light fills my vision, blinding me. I cover my eyes with my arm and let them adjust to the new brightness. There are two braziers on either side of me which have sprung into life on their own. I can feel the heat from them warming me, and the flames seem to chase away the black fog. I don’t think too hard about the strangeness of how they lit and move over to try to warm up a bit. After a few moments I take a better look around me. The biggest feature of this small room is the big double doors which had it blocked off. Surely if someone didn’t want people down here they would have put the doors just in the entrance of the cave, not this far in. As I look closer I can see there are carvings around the doors, pictures of dragons, angels, demons, and wizards casting spells. Looking over it, it seemed to be telling some kind of story, but with no context I can’t work out what it is. The doors themselves are made of the same black stone as the wall, only it seems more refined. There are symbols carved into it, the shape of the marks suggests lettering but I didn’t know what language it could possibly be from. 

I stepped more into the middle of the area to try to get a better look. As I do, a cold silver ran the length of my spine and the braziers flared wildly. Sparks flew and landed in small channels filled with oil or some other kind of flammable liquid. Fire raced around me, lighting up the walls much better. The carvings almost seem to come alive with the dancing flames and I stare in wonder at the intricate artworks around me. In the new light I can see they are also coloured. There are dragons of all different colours, the angels are a pure white with gold accents, the demons red with black horns and hooves. The wizards wear pale blue robes and use bright purple magic which shimmers in the firelight, making it look almost realistic. Fire begins to fill the carvings on the door and the braziers pulse again sending more fire, this time to the floor. I look down in fear as the flames race towards my feet, criss crossing in front of me and circling me. I scream a little as I watch in horror, the fire follows the channels, drawing some kind of circle, almost ritualistic in its design and I am in the centre.

The outer circle blazes up unnaturally, like there is a great wind coming from the solid rock fanning the flames. The fire entraps me and, despite the heat, I feel a terrible cold fill me as something grabs at my mind and heart. 

Silence. Darkness. Nothingness. That’s all there is. I feel like I'm floating in an empty void. I know with my soul that this is wrong, that there should be something here. There should be light and colour, I don’t know where I am but I do know that what I see and feel is wrong. I begin to struggle, trying to feel which way is up. I look and reach out for the thing that I know is missing. I spot a tiny light in the distance, it’s as faint as the faintest star in the sky at night, but I'm determined to reach it. I have to put this wrongness right. I have to correct the emptiness.

I gasp, sucking in air like I'd been holding my breath for longer than I could. I open my eyes and find myself on the floor, the fire surrounding me beginning to fade away. I sat up slowly, feeling weak all over, wishing I’d never gone for that walk. I watch blearily as there's a loud click, the sound of stone grinding against stone and the large black double doors begin to open. I stand slowly, swaying a little on my feet as I step forwards. The doors open to a set of stairs leading down. Small sluice gates open and channels on either side fill with liquid, quickly followed by fire, revealing very little. The chamber beyond the doors is huge and as I shuffle in and down the stairs I get the sense that not only is it big in diameter but also in depth. It feels like if I were to fall off the edge it would not be a short journey to the bottom. As the fire races to the bottom, I notice once again that the room is filled with the black fog, the fire seeming to burn it away as it travels. I’m not scared of heights, but in my more wobbly condition I stuck as close to the centre of the steps as I could, not wishing to find out just how high up I am. At the bottom of the stairs is a short walkway leading to a stone slab. The whole structure seems to be carved out of the very rock of the cavern. There are no seams that I could see between the steps or the floor or the slab, everything is just one single piece. I might even be impressed if I didn’t feel so light headed, it must have taken a long time to carve this place out of the cave. 

Making my way down to the slab of stone, I note how the smoky darkness seems to cling to the surface, the fire not having chased it away. At this point, I'm not really sure what’s completely real and what’s my imagination, I feel so lightheaded. I put my hands on the slab to try to stabilize myself, to stop the trembling. At this point I'm confident I’m not going to make it out of the cave, the feeling of my leggings wet and sticky with the blood still oozing from my back. As I place my hands on the stone, I expect it to be cool. I was thinking the smooth chiseled stone might even be a good place to rest, but it’s not, it’s warm to the touch and I look around trying to work out why. The pooling smoke finally leaves the slab as fire shoots across it forming the silhouette of a bow. 

‘I’m seeing a bow? Here? What’s going on…?’ I watch it confused as the fire dies away but the silhouette doesn't leave with it. ‘Did the fire just make a bow?’

As I watch the silhouette slowly fades into a clearer object, as if it’s phasing into existence. It is a modern recurve bow. It looks like it is made of the same stone as everything else in here, black as jet with a dull sheen in the fire light. It is unstrung, though the string sits beside it, again black, though this time the material seems to shimmer a midnight blue as the flames flicker. Finally, a set of deadly looking arrows lay beside the weapon, their slim shafts again made of the same stone, ending in deadly broadhead points, beautifully crafted as one piece. The fletches are of a black feather though like the string seem to shimmer midnight blue as the fire dances.

I stare at the objects in front of me, shaking my head to be sure I'm not just imagining the sleek weapon. I feel the stone under my hands heat further for a moment, letters beginning to glow around the bow. Unlike the door, these I recognise, Latin. "Qui per tenebras videt, qui dignus habetur fortis, tollunt tui facere, et rursus ad bene cor malum, quod tenet in mundum." Or, in English, “One who sees through darkness, who is deemed worthy and strong, take up this weapon of your making, and strike well into the heart of the evil that grips the world.”

I don’t really understand what it’s talking about but I reach out and touch the bow, I can’t help it, it’s a beautiful piece of equipment and I’m one of the best archers in the country, I love the sport. I get a small static shock from the first touch but rather than pulling away I take hold of it more completely. It feels right under my touch, the hold fits my hand perfectly, it’s light but balanced, it feels strong and just looking at it I know it would be deadly accurate. It feels like mine, like it was made specifically for me, that only I would be able to use properly. 

As my fingers coil around the grip tightly and I hold it up to examine it more fully, the fires around me flare brightly and once again begin to circle my feet. I feel incredible pain as it seems like the fire races up my legs and spine, feeling like it set my blood on fire from within. I hear a blood curdling scream before falling to the floor, my whole body in pain and I just can’t stand it any longer. I realise the scream was my own as a second echos around the room. Then, everything goes black.