The First Candle

A surge of panic crept up my spine as I rapidly lost my orientation in a wood that had filled with ghost-like penumbras. I heard something large moving through the shallows so I called out again and all went quiet. Bile welled in my throat as I realized the size of the thing in the shallows would have had to be far larger than a man. There was new movement from several different directions. Sounds were returning to the creek but these were not familiar noises. These were ones that elicited terror in all that were sensitive enough to feel it That explained why the animals were gone. A large number of sounds could be heard now, and closing on my position. My courage left me and I turned in absolute terror to flee. I had crashed through only the first few paces of the alien gloom when I struck into the remains of an antelope. Delimbed and shredded, the beheaded effigy of this now precious specimen starred at me with eyes, stark, in what must have been its moment of death. I felt the thorns of bushes I had grown up to love tear at my face as I tried to make my way up a slope I hoped was the one I had recently descended. Just as the fog was beginning to thin I saw him. Pinned to a tree with claw marks over much of his body, was Jack. Upon reaching where he hung I saw that he had been strung up crudely by twine. His wrists had been badly chaffed by what must have been a super human effort to escape his bondage. His hair was matted in blood and his eyes were imploring yet his bloodied mouth moved only in the silent mimicking of speech. In horror, I realized that his tongue had been torn out and in his shock he had not yet realized he could no longer tell me his message. However his eyes told me volumes as I untied him and we struggled to the top of the hill. The fog though thinner still hovered over everything and the trees now stood ghost-like around us. A scream of animal rage erupted from the valley below. I surmised that the creatures pursuing us had discovered their captive had been freed. It was then that I realized I had somehow come up on the wrong side of Havens Creek. The scream below was closer now and was answered by a chilling howl which came from somewhere ahead of us. Fortunately for us the moon's baleful light was out and provided enough visibility for me to find a worn path on which Jack and I fled. We knew little of this side of the creek but knew we must flee or perish. The trees flashed by us as we half ran and half staggered down the dimly lit path. Both Jack and I were good runners and under optimal conditions could run miles. However Jack was running on nerves alone and I was not much better. A cri-wolf (or so I presumed it to be from the descriptions I had heard from woodsmen who had travelled through areas far to the north), so large it dwarfed even my greatest expectations, rose up on the edge of the path only yards in front of us. It attacked instantly. I reached for the knife that hung at my side, but knew my gesture would be too late. I held my hands out in front of my face in an instinct to protect, at least temporarily, my exposed throat from the powerful fangs. A flash of metal slipped by my left side in the same instant I realized that the fangs had not reached me. The wolf lay to one side, convulsed momentarily, and then lay still. It had a sword buried to the hilt in its throat. Jack dazed as he was, had been wiser than I and had carried his sword in his free hand. His reflex had saved my life. I glanced a last time at the cri-wolf, mentally noting that only Jack's enormous strength could have driven the sword so deeply. There was no time for thanks as the howling now sounded all around us and was joined by a far greater guttural cry from the pursuit closing from behind us. We ran on and on up hill and down small depressions but always steadily climbing. However the pursuit did not slacken and closed on our heels. Finally Jack, his condition sorely weakened, sprawled facedown on the ground. I stopped and could hear the beasts raging around the last bend we had passed. Jack looked up and his eyes pleaded with me to go on alone. I lifted him, and knew instantly that I could not support his massive frame. We staggered on a few more yards before we saw the red eyes of our pursuers racing through the trees on either side of us, waiting I presumed, for the last fractions of our resolve to capitulate to the inevitable. The screams of the creatures pursuing from the creek were now very close, and I saw in Jack's eyes, terror deeper in a man I had believed feared nothing - even death. A faint glow appeared from a clearing ahead of us, but soon after reaching the clearing our strength left us and we collapsed onto an unexpected solid granite surface. I looked up to see that we had fallen at the base of stone steps that lead up to massive wooden doors. I crawled up the first few steps pulling Jack behind me, when the pack of cri-wolves entered the clearing and began to close on our position. It was obvious that the chase had stimulated the wolves as most were heavily salivating. Now new creatures entered the clearing. The first were deformed massive apeheaded fourleggers with fangs that hung menacingly from their powerful jaws. Yet the creatures appeared in no hurry now, as if waiting for the beasts that pursued from the river. Just as the first had crept to our flank and was preparing to bury his teeth into my calf, we were suddenly bathed in light. The wooden doors swung open and a stooped frame of a man cowled in a grey-blue robe stood at its entrance. The animals immediately sank back and some even began to whimper. He reached down and helped us up to the entrance, while always keeping his eyes fixed on the creatures in his courtyard. The cri-wolves cowered while the massive headed mutants stood their ground. The scream from the creatures of the river was now very close and appeared to vastly encourage the surrounding beasts, who suddenly rushed up the stone steps. The courtyard erupted in bone chilling screams from confident new arrivals, which sped directly at the monk (for that surly was what he must have been from his manner and attire). The monk calmly pulled us the last few feet, before shutting the doors with a solid crash. It was incredible that once the doors were shut, little could be heard of the cacophony outside. The room we had entered was not a room at all but a long hallway with a cathedral ceiling reaching up to huge windows which let in a pale light. The hallway was poorly lit by only a few candles and appeared to lead into the bowels of the monastery. For it was the monastery where I was sure we had reached. A chanting could be heard reverberating around the hallway as if providing additional support to its massive stone walls. While I did not wish to be rude or lower my guard, my strength was gone and I collapsed beside Jack on the floor at the feet of the still cowled monk.