The Legend of Valtera: Chapter 19
A valley fell below them, surrounded on all sides by the glorious snowcapped mountains of Valtera. The ground dropped sharply beneath their toes, ice snaking down the mountainside directly below them. The mountain slopes were steep along the entire northern half of the valley, ice cutting through the land like nature’s frozen tears. Trees flowed from halfway down the slopes, circling around to the east, leaving the west all but bare. The land evened out in the center, a lush green swath of grass tumbling away to the south where a perfectly round lake, blue as a sapphire, hugged the southwestern mountainside like a lover.
Prea choked out a sound that landed somewhere between a laugh and a gasp; her eyes sparkled with unshed tears of surprised relief. It was almost too much to absorb: the emotions, the sights, the sounds; her brain was practically exploding from astonishment. She had never seen anything like it before in her entire life. Prea had known all along that this place existed, that this was the end of her journey, ever since her dream, but being here and seeing it was different. It was indescribable.
A light squeeze caught her attention and she turned to find Kael staring down at her.
“I told you we’d find it. I told you it was real,” Prea said, staring into eyes that seemed to glow gold in the sunlight, though in reality, she knew they mirrored the blue of the lake below. She had never seen him like this, with a smile that lit up his face from within and eyes that glittered with joy and amazement. It was an expression of pure emotion and Prea knew hers matched.
“You have no idea how glad I am to be wrong,” Kael said and he raised his free hand to her cheek, brushing her hair out of her face. As if it belonged there, Prea tilted her head into his palm and they stood for another moment, eyes locked as Kael stroked her cheek lightly with his thumb. His eyes held hers as he leaned in slowly, grazing his lips against hers. After a second, Kael’s hand moved to the back of her neck and the kiss deepened.
“What was that for?” Prea said finally as she pulled away slightly, the stirring reignited.
“Celebratory gesture,” Kael said, smiling.
Prea’s eyes shimmered. “Now that we’ve celebrated our discovery, how are we going to get down from here?”
The tunnel opened out onto nothing, a circle cut into the side of the mountain in a seemingly random location. The mountain slope jutted out into a small ledge ten or fifteen feet below them; it was hard to tell. Their only options were to climb down or jump onto a slick river of ice and pray for a safe landing.
“Climb or jump,” Kael replied, his mind on the same page. “Which will it be?”
Kael went first, carefully climbing down until he hung from the opening by his fingertips. He let go and fell the rest of the way to the sloping glacier. There was no way to land other than hard, his feet colliding with the ice with a loud thump. The slippery surface provided no traction and he toppled to the ground with a scream.
“Are you all right?” Prea called down anxiously. He answered with a moan. “Kael? Are you all right?” Still no answer, just sounds of pain.
With nothing left to do, Prea followed suit, falling farther and landing just as hard, if not harder. Her feet met ice, legs slipping out from under her. She fell sideways, landing on her hip before her head struck the ice with a loud crack.
The pain was ferocious and she couldn’t even release a scream as she continued to slide down the icy slope. Prea managed to regain some sense and dug her heels into the ice until she forced herself to stop. Using all of her strength, she rolled over and saw she had passed by Kael.
Her head was throbbing and it was hard to focus as she lifted her hand to feel the lump growing under her hair. She flinched when she touched it, pain shooting over her entire skull.
“Kael?”
“Prea?” Kael responded through gritted teeth.
“Can you slide down here?”
“Give me a minute,” Kael said as he prepared to move.
Prea tried to move as well, shifting on the cold ice until she was sitting up for the most part, heels still dug in preventing her from moving further down the mountain. It took Kael a minute before he slid down, clutching his left arm to his chest until he reached her.
“What’s wrong?” Prea asked immediately.
“I hit my elbow on the ice. I think it might be broken,” he managed with a grimace.
“This is so not good,” Prea groaned.
“Are you all right?” Kael wondered.
“I hit my head…and my hip, but other than that…” Prea trailed off, looking around. “We can’t do anything up here. We have to get to lower ground.”
The two had a better perspective from their current location, but that perspective wasn’t going to make the next leg of the trip any easier. Standing was not a possibility; the ice was too vertical, too slippery.
“We’re going to have to slide down,” Prea determined. Kael just nodded.
They sat on the frigidly glassy ground and dug their heels in as they slid quickly down the ice. They couldn’t stop, they could only slow their progress slightly as they made their way down the mountain. The crisp air whipped past, stinging eyes and burning skin. Her eyes couldn’t help but water and the tears flowed in little frozen streams down her cheeks. Equal parts fear and exhilaration coursed through Prea as they sailed downwards, her hair billowing out behind her like golden streamers on the wind.
A month and a half in and she had covered half of the nation in that time, but this part of the journey was over in a flash. When they reached the tunnel opening they were half way up the mountain. Sliding down the ice, Prea and Kael managed to cover half of the remaining distance in a matter of minutes. This must be what it feels like to fly, Prea thought. She felt free—free and alive, her pain momentarily forgotten.
The end of the glacier grew close as their speed continued to climb. There was nothing to be done as the ice abruptly ended, their feet striking ground, flinging them into the air as they tumbled to the dry, hard earth. Their bodies crashed, rolling down the slope until every bit of flesh and bone pulsed in pain and they were left in lumps on the ground, groaning as the pain grew more intense. It took a long time before Prea was able to stumble to her feet where she swayed in place, dizziness overcoming her.
When the world righted itself, she stripped off her pack and made her way to Kael who was lying on his side, his arm still clutched to his chest. Her mind was fuzzy as she rolled him onto his back and saw the scowl on his face.
“Come on,” she said, trying to free his good arm from his pack. “We need to get this off of you.”
“What are you going to be able to do if it’s broken?”
“I don’t know. I’ll try something,” she muttered as she got one arm free. “Can you sit up?” She didn’t wait for an answer, just helped to pull him to a seated position. She moved behind him and shifted the pack so that it was on his left side, and gently removed the strap with as little movement as possibly. He still gasped in pain.
“Can you move it at all?”
“Barely.”
“Okay.” Prea dug through both packs, trying to find the additional cloth they had purchased for bandages. She tore the fabric into two long strips, and did her best to bind his arm to his body to keep it immobile. “That’s the best I can do for now. Can you get up?” she asked, and Kael gripped her hand, pushing into the ground with his feet as he rose.
He stood in place as she searched for more pain solution for the both of them, taking a swig herself before handing the rest to him.
“You go on ahead. I’ll be right behind you,” she instructed.
“What about…”
“I’ve got both packs. You go on ahead.” The pain clearly made him compliant as he walked away without another word. He started down the slope as Prea looked around for a minute before following. She still couldn’t wrap her mind around everything that had happened; right now she was just captivated.
The land was not just grass like the valley in Rodor, nor filled with trees like the forests of Alder; it was a combination of the two. Sections of open emerald turf were laced between groupings of towering trees. It was the best of both worlds, with the runoff from the glacier carving a small stream into the land. The colors seemed more vibrant here, even as the sun continued to set.
The wind whooshed and swooped among the trees, across the mountain slopes, carrying the songs of a distant bird on its back. As with all their recent encounters, this tune was new and unfamiliar. In fact there were multiple birds, each with their own harmony, the melodies knitting together and melding into a unique song.
The two limped as far as they could, following the trickling stream water until the sun’s light crossed over the western peaks. As the light dimmed, the travelers automatically drifted towards the closest thicket of trees, picking a place a few feet in to set up camp. They were almost positive no one lived in this part of Valtera, but it still felt safer to be among the trees.
As night joined them, the sounds of the land changed, shifting to match the darkening sky. The wind stayed strong, the afternoon birds’ songs fading away as other deeper notes started ringing through the air.
Without talking, they set about their camp routine, collecting wood and building a fire. Prea collected some cold stream water and brought it back to the camp right as Kael gathered a few pieces of firewood with his good arm. When Prea returned, she lit the wood with the firestone and got the fire blazing. The crackling wood and fizzing sparks added notes to the woodland choir, as Prea and Kael cozied up to the warmth of the flames in the dropping temperatures.
Before they could eat, Prea wanted to check on Kael’s arm now that they were by a source of heat. Her head was pounding and the pain was radiating down her spine as she helped Kael undress the top half of his body. His joint had swelled and was starting to change color as she examined it.
“How’s the pain?” she asked, looking into his deep eyes.
“Bearable,” he answered as he watched her work.
She produced some turmeric and salt, combining them into a salve which she gingerly applied to the swollen joint. He winced even under her light touch and she was reminded of her ribs after her tumble in Alder.
“That should help with the swelling. I’m thinking it’s better to bind your arm to your body under your clothes and just leave it like that for as long as possible.”
“All right,” he said and shifted so she could reset his arm. He grimaced throughout the ordeal and she couldn’t help but shake her head. “What?”
“You shouldn’t have come,” Prea muttered when she finished. “I never should have let you come with me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“If you hadn’t have come, then you wouldn’t be in this mess. You wouldn’t have gotten attacked by wolves and you wouldn’t be hurt now.” Her mind was hazy from the pain and her body felt funny.
“Good heavens! Haven’t we been over this?” Kael argued impatiently.
“There’s the potential for more than just adventure here,” Prea continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “We’re now in the middle of the mountains, both injured, and we’re still going to have to find a way out of this place. And it will be no easier than how we got in.”
“How many times do I have to say it? This is the final time. You do not make me do anything. I am here by my choice. And I don’t want to hear you say anything else about it.”
“I’m ruining your life. This isn’t your responsibility. You should be off, traveling Valtera, living however you want.”
“You’re kidding, you have to be. Prea, you were right before. I wasn’t living, I was just existing. This has been unbelievable, but I wouldn’t change my decision. This whole journey has been a once in a lifetime experience,” Kael said simply. “And my being in Ashton…maybe it was fate.”
Her gaze latched onto his piercing blue eyes and her stomach rolled over. “I thought you didn’t believe in that sort of thing.”
“All of this has me reevaluating what’s possible,” he replied seriously.
“I have to…I’ll be right back,” she muttered quickly and ran through the trees, away from the fire and Kael, her hand clamped over her mouth. When she could no longer see their camp, Prea fell to her knees and proceeded to be sick next to a tree until there was nothing left in her stomach. She managed to climb to her feet at some point, dizzy and confused, before walking the rest of the way back to the stream.
Prea collapsed on the bank and splashed cold water on her face hoping it would make her feel better. She rinsed her mouth, drank a little and looked up, greeting the moon as she crossed over the far peaks to the east. It was a comforting sight; the moon was there for her every night without fail, another mother in the sky. She looked to the moon for guidance right now, her life ceasing to make sense the farther she traveled on this journey.
“Please let this work, Aylin. I need something in my life to go as planned and this is the one thing I ask for. Please let me save my brother. He doesn’t deserve to die, especially not because of my shortcomings. Let me do this right.”
That was her prayer for the evening, her plea to the light in the darkness of the night. Once done, Prea strolled through the shadows, weaving between the few trees to get back to their camp. She stoked the fire, watching the flames twist and twirl on top of the ashen logs, listening to the song of the forest life as she drifted off to sleep under the starry midnight sky.
