"Watch above you!" Zoran shouted: a screeching voice of perpetual fear.

With the fragile hide of the ground, a piece of the mountain fell and was rushing hastily to Theodren. He quickly thrust himself further despite the slim pathway below. The way behind him collapsed as the falling stone became a stampede of boulders running down the cliff side.

They traveled far east, to the eastern mountains that stood tall like a wall, covering the rest of the world beyond it. Each step in their footing grew more rough as they went on. Had they been barefoot, their feet would be bloody and course. They had to hold back their horses from what was ahead. The sun was going down soon, and the mountain pass was like a maze of crooked walls and massive grey spear tips below them.

"Sod off, mother!" Theodren raised his voice to a shout with every slip, a reddish and aggravated tone beating against his forehead.

"Don't intend to turn the same way back?" Zoran turned his unstable brother's way with a smug look, raised brow.

"Oh, but we shall! Best we learn how to fly over thin pathways hindered by the drop. A good crack in our bones, why don't we?" Theodren nervously stated in a sarcastic tone as he held firmly to the wall behind him. It seemed even to the might of Theodren, great mountainous heights was not a match he could win, for it terrified him.

"Quiet." Zoran held up his hand while his brother remained closely behind. "See that passage?" He pointed to a cave five arms length forward.

"I don't recall that I'm blind." Theodren held his hands to his sides as he lowered himself to his brother's level, rubbing his scrapes and bruises, and cleaning off rock fragments lodged in his clothing.

They went into the cave. The moment they took their first steps, damp musty air and the pungent scent of death blew towards them. Zoran immediately pinched his nose, and Theodren coughed heavily and cursed.

"Fine greetings this is! Could not a sign be placed on the cave's entrance to warn us of this foul intrusion of my senses?" Theodren retorted, utterly disgusted.

"Well, such as yourself; the mountain's passion to gain knowledge is but the wind that flows past it, glancing over the surface and then gone again." Zoran turned to him, holding his nose shut with his undershirt.

"If you're going to make a mockery of me, be proper and say it to my face. I've grown used to the reminder." Theodren held his nose as well, a witty muffled voice in response.

Zoran took out a torch, and the further in he went, the more he realized the scene before them. There was at least five corpses laying there: two a week or so old, and three just scattered bones. He cut out a chunk of one of the two decaying corpses, taking the fat from it and wrapping it in cloth. He then lit the fat-coated torch with a spark of flint against his sword.

Set to flame, they walked further within the void.

"That's how you lit torches all those years past? Surely something less grotesque!" Theodren commented, as Zoran took the torch aimed above in front of him.

"How many corpses have we stumbled upon before?" Zoran asked, continuing into the darkness.

Theodren paused, thinking. The flame's light slowly faded in front of him.

"Wait!" Theodren rushed further in, glancing to the musky scented cave walls to the right and left, stained white and green in what seemed like mold.

The winds from outside began to fade. Slowly, step after step: not a vague fragment of sound remained, nor the light that hosted it. They were left alone with their echoing footsteps, as well as their muffled breathing.

Further and further they tread, until the sight of a glow was seen only a few strides ahead. A red rose with a shine like gold, with leaves green as emerald, and a stem with the firmness of bronze.

They were captivated by the sight. Zoran handed the torch to Theodren, walking towards the flower.

The light of the flame suddenly dimmed. The two stopped, not able to catch a clue as to why it was so.

With a brief display of wordless gestures, Theodren held the torch stiffly with a nervous look to his brother.

Wind seemed to have been carried from the dark abyss ahead, gently brushing against the flame. A sound of a deep growl quickly crept their way.

Eyes nearly three heights the average man stood above them, with a glow like two distant stars, a white yet faded shine.

Foul breath caused the fire to ignite even stronger...a barg....

"Run!" Theodren demanded, terrified to the point he almost couldn't think.

The rocks above them crumbled like sand. Their running just caused it to get closer, closer, finally reaching the light they thought they'd never see again.

The barg hissed as it met the light; shading its face, and struggling to walk backwards towards the cave.

Its skin was like blubber; fat, unbalanced, wrinkled: yet thick and well protected. It had horns like a ram on both sides of its forehead, with spit from its mouth dripping down like water mixed with honey. Lastly...the smell...the unbearable smell of a barg; like onions drenched in decaying flesh....

The barg brought down its tree trunk of an arm, a boulder of a fist onto them, covering its eyes. Together, the two of them rolled out of its sight, slipping by the dead, wide eyed at the sight. They had returned to their feet with a loud cough from the stench of it.

"The beasts of the caves are nearly blind by the light of day!" Zoran said, in a very quick and unbalanced way.

"You still remember what Carrion taught us all those years ago?" Theodren continued to dodge the beast's blows, a roll to the left and right.

"Then I suggest we'll need to be quiet. The only way it can sense us is by our sound and scents." Zoran whispered back and they duct their heads, rolling in separate directions to dodge it.

"You take the beast, I take the healer?" Zoran asked, looking at the mighty beast huffing away at his face; it a foul scent a stain against his skin.

"Yeah, I'd fancy that," Theodren replied nervously.

Through the disruptive stench, Zoran made his way to the barg's den, seeing the divine flower glow as it was seen by the torch's gaze. He grabbed it quickly, running back as careless as his brother, for he worried for him.

The beast extended its arm, with sharp claws prepared to strike, letting out all of its force on Zoran as he made his way back. His small body flew to the wall, leaving him nearly incapable of moving, and the torch rolling on the floor with Retra rose only inches from his hand.

"Get up!" Theodren spoke loudly, although unintentionally receiving the beast's attention. The barg ran towards Zoran to protect its treasure, the smell couldn't be forgotten by it. Bargs aren't exactly the brightest of beasts, but they know when there's trickery. It ignored Theodren entirely.

"Fine then, I'll just have to take care of this myself." Theodren thought in disgust, grabbing a stone and gripping it with one hand.

He ran towards the barg. Up its fat and smelly back to its head, holding on to the neck with his legs. He lifted the stone, a firm rock that held a width twice that of a man's skull, and smashed it against the back of its head, leaving it with a roar in agony and frustration. It collapsed and took Theodren with it, giving him a soft landing as he sat atop the beast.

He looked to his brother, seeing him slowly return to his feet with a cripple in his balance.

"Praise greets none but me, atop the mount I stand! Where a strike of strength shall be, the beast fell true as sand!" Theodren clapped to himself in a rhythmic song.

"How long have you waited to use that?" Zoran rubbed against his head and back to wipe off dust and pebbles.

"Three years." Theodren stepped off the beast in an almost comical way, as though staged, a large grin of excitement on his face.

Zoran chuckled a bit, but he quickly shifted when he saw that the beast had begun to move.

"With this much fat you could make a fortune in your corpse torches." Theodren looked to the beast, then back to his brother, and then to the beast.

Theodren did not speak another word. He looked to his brother, and jumped off the barg with frightful haste further outside the cave. He looked ahead, and saw a new route. Taking his brother's hand, they ran on slimy ground: wet, moldy, and muddy. The roar of the barg swiftly approached them, a cry so loud it made their ears ring in pain.

They made it out, and down they went.

With the union of their feet to the grass ground an hour after, resting on the soft grass by the mountain range's edge, Theodren honored it with a kiss, thanking it.

The deed was done, and thus they were off to Marfield.