Hello Everyone!
I hope you’re doing well!
I am ok, I haven’t missed a day of writing since I started recording my wonderful Mary’s story. It feels like a perfect little distraction from real life, and it makes me feel calmer and happier.
Anyway. Last time, we met Kiyra, the little goblin girl who got attacked by two bigger and nastier goblins and then promptly saved by Bruno and Paulina. The party proposed to help her get to her tribe safely and she gladly accepted.
Kiyra seemed excited with the prospect of not going back alone. She led them through the tunnels and chattered happily the whole time. She told them all about her village, the mushrooms they gathered, and also how scary the Ravens were.
Bruno asked her about the missing loggers but she hadn’t seen them. Her grandmother, though, certainly knew more. Her grandmother apparently knew everything. Kiyra proceeded to talk about all the things the goblin elder had told her about. But, when they reached a certain point in the tunnel, she put a finger to her lips.
"We must be very quiet now, and go without light,” she said. “Otherwise the Hammer will sense us."
"Who's the Hammer?" Bruno asked.
"Oh, he is the giant who fell from the sky. He lives at the far end of the cave but he throws big rocks if he hears us. He’s really scary! The Ravens work for him sometimes.”
Mary was worried at the prospect of having to walk around without a light, but it seemed that they didn’t have much choice. She and Aurum were the only ones who couldn’t see in the dark, so they grabbed on to the dwarves (she insisted to be with Paulina because she liked Paulina and also felt like Bruno didn’t really like her).
Kiyra led the party onwards. Mary kept her eyes wide open as if that’d help her see in the darkness. It didn’t. They walked and walked, the echo of their steps telling them that the tunnel had widened into a cavern. There was the far sound of falling water and as they went on, it came closer.
Then, Kiyra stopped them again.
“We’re at the wall now,” she whispered. “We have to climb.”
It turned out that the goblins had built their village on top of a high vertical surface. They used to live down in the valley but when the Hammer appeared, it became too dangerous and they had to move.
Mary felt faint. Even if she could see in the darkness, she still wasn’t sure she could climb a wall! Not that she was afraid of heights, but she’d never been very strong or dexterous.
“I-I can’t climb!” she whimpered. “It’s dark, I won’t see where my, my hands should go! I’ll… I’ll fall and break my neck!”
“Oh, but don’t worry,“ Kiyra said. “it’s very easy, there are a lot of holds on the wall!”
“No, you don’t understand, I-I can’t!” Mary’s breathing had become quicker and more shallow. “I-I-I need help! And light! And… help!”
“Mary,” Bruno said sternly, “You suggested we go to Kiyra’s tribe. So, let’s just go already!”
“Don’t worry,” Aurum said. “You can do this!”
It took Mary a few minutes to calm down and start thinking clearly. She found something of a solution, and although it wasn’t the best or the safest, she felt that at least it was something. So, she cast her Unseen Servant and saw the outline of Page appear before her Eldritch sight. She was ready--although not too confident--to scale that wall.
It wasn’t an easy climb. It was, in fact, a very dangerous and very, very scary climb, as far as Mary’s imagination was concerned. The moment her feet left the ground, in her mind it was just the same whether they were an inch or a thousand feet in the air. She heard Kiyra’s encouraging whispers from somewhere above and felt Page’s hands guide her to the next hold in the wall. With every subsequent movement her heart went higher and higher in her throat.
And when her foot lost its support for just a moment, she gave out a squeak which echoed all throughout the cavern.
They froze. She could hear her companions breathing. She felt as if her own heartbeat pointed a giant red arrow at them.
A low rumble came from far down and away in the darkness. Then, a grunt and a ‘whoosh’, starting quiet and getting louder and louder. And, finally, a ‘CRASH!’
A little to their left, rocks started crumbling from the place where something had hit the wall.
Mary bit her lips in an attempt not to scream, and the sound that came out between them was low enough as to not attract more attention. The whole party stood silent and unmoving for what felt like an eternity. Then, Kiyra urged them to go on. They were almost there, she said. The Hammer couldn’t throw rocks much higher.
Mary’s hands were trembling. She pressed herself against the wall and felt something hard and angular press against her side. It was one of her crystals and she suddenly had an idea.
She asked Page to carefully get the Lumeer out and tie it on a piece of string around her neck. That way, she was covering it with her body and it wasn’t seen from the cavern below, but its soft light was enough to let her see her next hold clearly enough to grab it.
Mary managed the rest of the climb without any more incidents and when she finally passed over the ledge, she hugged the horizontal surface and breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Pheeeew! That was a scare! My poor, poor Mary! Why does everything have to be so dangerous and frightening around her! And that’s not even the worst part. You’ll see…
I hope you like reading our little adventures. See you in the next one. There, we are going to get to the goblin village and see what Kiyra’s grandmother has to say about the loggers we’re looking for.
Until then,
Taka care and be well!