Thursday, August 20, 2009

Day 12-Dunsdai, Augusta 20...Edgewood and beyond

Wow, I slept like the dead last night. Thankfully! I must have been truly worn out and exhausted. If only I could manage to sleep like that every night. I feel rested, relaxed and rejuvenated and not a moment too soon. If I had continued on my downward spiral I don't think I could have made it to the Lake District with my sanity intact. I realize that I may be celebrating my return to the living a little prematurely, as we still have the better part of two days or more, but I felt real good this morning. Sure, my mind is still swimming with everything going on but I am not feeling so overwhelmed...so beaten down by it all. Most importantly my appetite has returned. I'm just worthless if I don't eat, and eat is exactly what I did when I woke up this morning. I got out of bed, cleaned up a little, dressed and headed for the breakfast table at the inn we were in. They were serving fresh baked biscuits with sausage gravy and apple filled pastries. It was wonderful. Olin stammered down from his room he looked a little sore from the scrap he was in with the raiders. He didn't say much (he rarely does) and just sat there and devoured his breakfast. Antonia on the other hand preferred to sleep in as long as Olin and I would let her. She must have needed sleep more than food.

We packed up our horses and headed out of Edgewood and made our way towards the
Pass of Sorrows, our most dangerous and difficult part of the journey. The terrain leading up to the summit of the Pass of Sorrows is very rocky and unstable making it very difficult on our horses. We were going to need to walk parts of it, however, the views were spectacular looking back down toward Edgewood. Our destination was a small village that lies just below the pass called Vensk. Olin said it was a fairly rough place filled with miners and nomads. We were to watch our step when we arrived.

The trail we were on was very hard to navigate. The horses weren't happy at all, especially when the wind picked up. The incline kept getting steeper and steeper and the footing looser and looser. It wasn't fun at all. I think Antonia should have taken the time to eat something substantial for breakfast this morning. She was struggling, and our measly collection of dried fruits and nuts wasn't cutting it. We approached one climb that required us to walk, and when Antonia dismounted her horse she fell hard and really bruised herself up and on top of that her horse stumbled and hurt its front leg. We rested there for quite a while and tended to both of their injuries. Olin was insistent that we make it to Vensk before night came. He said we didn't want to be caught outside the village, on our own, after dark. The dangers escalated dramatically under nightfall, and not only due to the lack of visibility. Apparently, the predators that inhabit this area are very active at night and are extremely dangerous, not to mention the rogue bandits and raiders that frequent this area. However, Antonia was in pretty bad shape, as was her horse. Niether could move very fast. We kept making progress towards Vensk but we just weren't going fast enough and we were soon engulfed by darkness as the sun faded from the sky. Visibility was near zero thanks to the ominous looking cloud cover. Olin unsheathed his sword and carried it at the ready; I followed suit. We put Antonia and her horse in between us to discourage the predators from attacking the visibly wounded. We were making slow, yet steady progress when suddenly from all around us flames erupted from out of nowhere. Olin yelled, "Ambush!" and turned to face an approaching attacker. He dispatched the bandit quickly and readied himself for the next one. That is when I lost track of Olin. I had my own problems to deal with. I handed the reins of my horse over to Antonia, and in all the confusion she was dragged off into the woods by the horses as they fled from the encroaching flames. I parried the first attacker and struck him across the face with the hilt of my sword and the rest was just a blur, then sudden darkness and silence, enveloped me. The next thing I knew, Olin was kneeling over me wiping the side of my head. I finally realized I was bleeding and then the pain set in. I have never felt such excruciating pain ever in my life. I finally muttered Antonia's name and Olin just shot me a bewildered look and a shrug. I snapped to, sat straight up and yelled Antonia's name...no answer came. I asked Olin, "Where was she?" "What had happened to her?" "Was she...was she dead?" I passed out, or so Olin told me that is what happened when I came to, again.

Next thing I remembered was lying in a small bed in Vensk, and when I looked next to me...there was Antonia in the bed next to mine. Oh thank God, she was still alive, oh thank God...

Olin didn't say anything about the night's events and I didn't ask...I really didn't want to know.

1 comment:

  1. But I want to know more about the night's events...where did Antonia get dragged off to?...was she hurt worse?...what happened to Damzee?

    ReplyDelete