The Cave Part 6

If you have ever heard a tale about yourself that you cannot remember and doubtless think is made up, you will know how I felt when Tharkin related all that the eagle had seen of me before my memories were scattered. Of far distances and traveling companions that I did not recall, camping out under the stars and making our way to the mountains with deliberate purpose. The great bird had lost contact with my party once we entered the forests, and the seven other members were not seen again by him or his brethren since.

"Seven others?" I asked, thunder struck by this revelation. "Missing? Dead? Who were they and what were we doing?"

"The answers will come," assured Tharkin, his gaze thoughtful. "Do you remember any more of your past now?"

It was a fair question. I had been here several days now, that I was awake for. Before that was probably another day while sleeping and healing with the vegetable soup the old man had given me. Dreams had come to me every night, but they vanished from sight and memory when I arose. Still, I had vivid glimpses of the streets of a city far away. I did not recall exactly where, but I knew in my gut that it was distant, and the eagle's observations were a confirmation.

"Just visions of a city I suppose I once lived in," I replied quite honestly, "and if I'm remembering rightly, I was not overly fond of the place."

"The city where you grew up as a pickpocket and thief?" he asked.

"Is there a difference between the two?" I asked.

"The first is laden with great and immediate personal risk, while the second can be an art form conducted in numerously different conditions."

"I suppose, and yes I think you are right that I grew up there," I replied, not quite sure why he would explain something out like that, but who was I to argue?

"We should continue with the work we planned for today," he continued, suddenly changing the conversation to my relief. "Our friend here will regain his strength and may stay a few days."

And so we continued where we had left off. The daily round of chores continued, with a large and beautiful eagle perched near the cliff overlooking the sea occasionally following me with his gaze, but not for long. Tharkin told me the bird was called Kar by his brethren, or Strong Talon in our common speech. The name seemed to fit well as the creature began to attempt small flights, then full forays out over the sea. Feeding itself from these trips, large fish in its unflinching talons, Kar contributed greatly to our fertilizer by way of scrap fish parts. Some we used with the crops, and others we tossed into the pond to feed the private stock. Two more days passed in this manner.

I could easily see how time began to lose meaning in the sanctuary of Tharkin's making. Laying in bed the evening of the second day after the coming of Kar, I was unable to sleep. So many questions remained, and nothing was unraveling fast enough for my own growing curiosity. Unable to sleep, I rose up and walked out into the night. The stars were burning brightly in a very clear sky, and the salty sea breezes where warm. The earth felt strong and comforting under my feet and while standing there beyond the house, I sensed a kinship to everything about me. Mysteries remained, but I felt more alive now than I ever had before. Not that I could remember the life before, but I felt it in my soul.

Suddenly, I wanted an answer to something that had been heavy on my heart. Slipping on my leather sandals provided by Tharkin, I walked out boldly into the dark. Though I was still a little apprehensive of Kar who slept nearby with his head beneath his left wing, I was not afraid of anything else in the sanctuary. Only the cave. Yet that was where I was going now. I needed to go back. I had to speak to the voice in the darkness again.

The grass smelled sweet as I walked through it with stronger strides than when I had first come through. These last few days had seen the return of my strength, and there was no fear of falling off the cliff as I had before. I was no longer weak and so near to passing out from hunger and exhaustion. Yet now, more whole than I had been before, I felt a greater sense of foreboding, an awe in my heart as I drew near the black slit at the base of the rock wall. The boldness had disappeared from my limbs, and I stood quite still before the opening. A stillness beyond contradicted so starkly with the open seascape beyond, that it felt like I was staring into a tomb. Dared I to go on?

It was pitch black beyond, and the stones were still rough beneath my feet, but the leather soles I wore this time protected me far better than whatever I had been wearing before. I vaguely recalled that my former clothes were still tucked away in a drawer inside the house, and I had not been curious to look at them all this time. I had a long dagger with them that I had discovered as if fully forgotten, but that also was left behind. With right hand reaching out to touch the wall I proceeded forward into the darkness. How far I would have to go was lost on me, since I had not counted steps before and it was still vague in my mind. I guessed that I would know when I was there.

All was stillness as it had been before. No sounds of water dripping or creatures roosting in the darkness above my head. It was indeed as a tomb that I had wandered into. But I had questions. Part of me thought back to the beginning, and wondered if I had made the whole thing up. The voice in the cave just an awful dream that made no more sense than how I had gotten to Tharkin. Except that he had conformed that the voice existed, and was a being that dwelt below time out of mind. So I continued into pure blackness, with only the barest sense of pale star light fading behind me.

"You have returned restless one," spoke the deep voice out of the darkness and above me. I froze, a cold sweat breaking out on my forehead. "Do you want me to eat you, or have you come for something more?"