Chapter 6

The sun slowly slipped into the depths of the cave as it rose above the horizon, telling me that I was still heading east out of the city. I woke up and went in search of a small river to bathe in, leaving my stuff behind in case Garth woke up. He would know where I slept and come wondering if I had left him, and he would know that I would never leave my bags behind.

After climbing up the ramp to the opposite side of the ravine I noticed that the land here was far more lush then from where I had come. Trees grew in every direction and every flower imaginable grew around the forest floor. It seemed like a miracle to say the least. I had to walk about ten minutes into the forest before I found a small stream. I quickly undressed and placed my clothes upon a rock before wading out into the stream. It felt odd to be out there where anyone could see me, but I quickly got over it, not wanting to feel the grit and grime of the road any more.

“You know, you really need to learn how to walk quietly. You stomp around like a moose.” Garth’s voice scared me to where I screamed and dived behind a rock. I did not trust his male eyes, no matter how blind they were, to not stray to other parts of my body besides my head. “And you also need to learn how not to scream. It scares away the game.”

“Get out of here Garth! I am not in a decent state!” Garth walked over to the rock I had placed my clothes on and picked them up.

“Well judging by the state of how your clothes are, its not much different, Zaylia.” He had a cheeky grin on his face as he sat down on the rock, placing my clothes in his lap.

“Garth. Would you kindly leave?”

“And take all of your clothes with me? Sure.”

“Don’t you dare, Garth.” I yelled at him as he stood up.

“Then I suggest just getting along with it and coming out when you are ready.” His smug smirk that was ever plastered onto his face was staring into the river, just to the left of the rock I was hiding behind. I quickly dived underneath and rubbed a few places before coming back up. I walked onto the bank as Garth followed me with his unseeing eyes. He stretched out his hand with my clothes in it and I quickly swiped them, letting him know I was not happy by roughly taking them back. He just laughed as my face burned red. I dressed as quickly as I could, not wanting to be naked in front of him any longer then I had to. His chuckles sounded once again, causing my heart to try and leap out of my chest and strangle him.

We walked slowly to the cave, Garth trying to shoot a couple rabbits on the way, before the sun got to high in the sky. Despite his being blind he had actually caught us a rabbit and a squirrel. When I asked him about it he told me that since he is blind his other senses are heightened and he can hear really well so he can hear the scurrying of a squirrel in a tree, or the munching on a piece of foliage by a rabbit. It took him time to be able to aim properly without seeing, but he got it and he has been able to eat because of it. He also mentioned how much he hated squirrels, their only redeeming quality is that they taught him how to climb trees as a young boy.

We made it back to the cave and Garth quickly packed his two bags for our journey, one with clothes and the other with the freshly caught game he also packed his flint and a simple necklace into his bag. I had no idea why a blind man would have a beautiful and simple piece of jewelry like that, but I did not ponder on it.

We kicked some dirt on the dying embers of the fire from last night, before exiting the cave. Garth told me that he did not copy down a path through the map so everything that had been written down to get me there was written by my mother. He was not to keen on the idea of him telling me where to go, saying I had to figure it out for myself or else I was not even smart enough to be worthy of finding the crown.

After about an hour of arguing, all while walking in the hot sun, Garth finally relented and let me copy down the rest of our journey in a cryptic manner. He had a deep scowl on his face for the rest of our walk until we hit a new town. “I need to pretend you are guiding me. This town is not the friendliest. They will not attack a pair unless provoked. Seeing me as blind and you as female will give them a cause too try and take you. If I am holding onto you I can kick their asses if they try.”

“What? Are you my body guard now?”

“Is this not a dangerous journey you are undertaking?”

“Is that not answering a question with another question so as not to have to reveal the answer?”

“Is that the pot calling the kettle black?” he made me want to strangle him with his cocky, sarcastic and condescending tone. If looks could kill, the one I was sending him would have put him six feet under. “Now we have to get just past the other side of this town and we will be at your next point of interest. If you can figure it out you will know where to go. Garth grabbed onto my arm as we walked into the town, keeping our bags close together and in our sights. The town looked old and run down, trash all over the place, an unholy smell rising up. Garth seemed to be in more discomfort from it as he had actually pinched his nose closed to ward it off.

I tried the same but was rewarded with an acidic taste in my mouth. “Its the fog, the air is so toxic that any amount of moisture brings it down from the sky.” Garth said as I almost choked on the air.

“Let’s just get through here as fast as possible before I puke up my breakfast, Garth.” We were walking rather fast through the city, almost at a full out run, before a group of three men came up to us.

“And where do you think you are going? I think we would have some fun, don’t you pretty lady?”

“No.” Garth chuckled a little at my blunt reply, but the repugnant people did not take to lightly to it and punched him in the stomach. He hunched over but kept his grip on me.

“What is so funny blind boy?” the leader growled out.

“That you think you can take me just because I am blind.” The leader did not like Garth’s tone and aimed another hit at his abdomen, but Garth simply stepped away from the hit, while still keeping in contact with my arm. He aimed a kick at his attackers and hit one upside the head. He came falling down to the ground and laid passed out.

“That is it. Beat this bastard up, I am going to take this little lady down the alley to have some fun.” Garth let go of my arm as he squared up with the minion and left me to deal with the leader.

“Be a good little squirrel, Zaylia.” I instantly knew what he was talking about since he had told me I was almost as bad as a squirrel at least three times on the way here, but I had no idea what he wanted me to do. What was there to climb. I looked around, but I could see nothing that Garth would be referring to until I realized he would not have meant a building or structure. He meant the man backing me up and away from Garth.

Before the leader could grab a hold of me I ducked under his arms and ran up behind him. He was slow to turn and could not keep up with my quick movements, my smaller frame being able to bend more then his tense and overly built muscles would allow. I finally made it to where I could jump on his back and I held on to his neck, cutting off his air supply enough to knock him out within a minute. I could hear the sounds of Garth fighting and beating the second man just a little ways from me. He soon came running to us to hear that someone was being choked.

“Zaylia?”

“For the last time Garth,” I said, my voice strained with the effort it took to knock him out. “My name is Azaylia.” The leader finally fell down to his knees and was almost out, even if he was putting up a hell of a fight. Garth came up in front of us and grabbed on to the man’s shoulder.

“And,” he slammed his foot in between the guys legs which caused him to try and take a breath and stop struggling against me so he was out within a moment, “I have told you I do not care. Now lets go.” Garth grabbed onto my arm right as my heart and mind wanted to jump out and attack him for his condensation and sarcasm.

We finally made it out of the toxic city about half an hour later, thankfully unscathed, and quickly made our way to fresh water, needing a drink desperately. After we had gorged ourselves on the clean water did we move on. The sun was about midway in the sky before we made it to a fork in the road. I knew that I would have to double check my notes to make sure that this was not one of the directions I needed to take, although knowing me if I did not look and just went a random way I would end up going the wrong way.

The next portion of text I had to go through was, “After hearing the promise of three wishes, Midas was torn in his decision. The Genie told him not to trust what other people were saying, and that he was the only one who knew right from wrong.” Obviously the text reffered to the fork in hte road and it should give a direction. The fact that it actually gave one, right, was throwing me off because it could also mean left seeing as we should not trust what the genie had to say. I decided to just trust the text and go right.

“Lets go right Garth.” He seemed to smile a little bit although it was not noticable in the slightest. The only reason I knew he smiled was because his eyes seemed to brighten the tiniest bit to where I thought I actually saw color. Garth’s signature scowl soon replaced his face as he walked ahead of me.

“Took you long enough, Zaylia.” His gruff reply hit my ears and a beating in my temple started to pound out a rhythm of annoyance. Whatever I had done to that boy to make him dislike me as much as he did I wished I could just take it back because this journey actually got harder with him helping me when it was supposed to be easier. We walked for another hour before either of us spoke again, shocking me that I could actually remain just that quiet. I ended up walking in step with Garth as we spoke.

“So what would make you want to come on a dangerous journey to save your parents if the probability that they would be dead long before you got back was higher then anything else?”

“Because if I do not try then I am giving up.”

“Is abandoning them not giving up?”

“No, because there would have been nothing else I could have done for them there without putting myself at risk for getting The Sickness. This was my best way to help them.”

“Oh great, so you were exposed to them, then you came just to get me sick. If I die from The Sickness I will come back and haunt you for eternity and drag you to hell with me after you die.”

“And what makes you think you will die first? I might just kill myself to get away from you pessimistic attitude, Garth.”

“Oh, please do not make a promise you can not keep. Waving something so wonderful like that in front of my face and then denying it is almost worse then denying a puppy a treat.”

“Oh, so you are finally admitting your canine heritage? I thought that would never happen.”

“To bad I can not say anything for your troll heritage. I bet your skinny frame has nothing to it to keep a guy interested.”

“Well you would be wrong Garth. The mayor’s son wanted me back in my town, I refused him having known his true nature. He only wanted me for my status within the community and for the money he thought we possessed. He also told me once that he thought our children would be the most handsome males to ever grace the earth, besides himself. He was an egotistical bastard and I would not take his hand in marriage if someone gave me the head of The Demented One himself. I was determined not to let myself stoop so low and had actually planned on traveling to a neighboring county in the spring just to try and find myself a husband, being of marrying age and all. I needed to marry to help support my family.

“And since when has being egotistical been a bad thing?”

“Since it has blocked the persons ability to judge between right and wrong and who their true god is.”

“What God?”

“You do not believe in God?”

“No, he has not been there for me these past five years of darkness. Why should I believe in someone who does not exist?”

“Oh but he does. He plans things for a reason, even if you may not see it yet. Maybe you being blind and forced to live in that cave because of it was all for the ulterior motive of having you help me now, all to go towards training you into what you needed to do to help me reach my goal. Maybe there is something one of us is supposed to do for the other. You can never know what God has in store for you.”

“Darkness, permanent darkness. He does not want me to see him or his creation ever again. He wants me to walk in hell for all eternity. I have almost forgotten what it looks like to see the spring flowers the first day after a winter blizzard, sunsets after a beautiful summer day at the shore, the beauty of a maiden’s hair just after she has let it dry from washing it. It is not air that you tell me to look for his greater plan and to not be able to see it.”

“Maybe he took away your sight because you were too focused on the things you could see and he wanted you to focus on other things so he took away your main form of distraction.”

“Whatever it was, I still have been in five years of hell and no God ever helped me through. I taught myself how to survive.”

“How did you survive for so long while teaching yourself?”

“I had managed to learn quite a bit before I went blind and I retained some of that. I had some money and used it occasionally to buy things in the market. I ran out of money shortly after I taught myself all I needed to know. I did not need to try and determine plants by touch since there was enough around that I could find to eat like nuts and fruit from trees.”

“I do have great respect that you managed to thrive despite you inability to see. That is a great triumph Garth, but you lost all most all of it with how you act towards other. Just because you have a disability it does not make you above everyone else.”

“Who ever said I was above anyone? I know I deserve what I got and how it happened. Ever think to consider I am upset about it? I went back to visit my Mother a year ago. She had no idea who I was because my appearance has changed since I left her. She thought I was a stranger and the fact that my voice had deepened did not help. She called the police and I barely had time to escape before they caught me. I have no idea what you look like. I have no idea what I look like anymore, Zaylia.”

I took some time to think over that. I remained silent for a couple minutes as Garth kept his head down and his hands shoved into his pockets, trying to keep his coat around him tightly. I looked over his rugged and time worn features. His scowl was deeply etched into his face as he kept to the dirt path.

“Dusty blond hair.”

“What?” he asked, confused by my statement.

“Eyes that I can tell used to be a brilliantly bright color clouded over by gray that is almost as dark as a thunder cloud.”

“Zaylia, I did not mean for you…”

“Stubble lines your jaw, not enough for it to look over grown, but enough for it to darken your jawline and lower cheeks. Your hair reaches to your shoulders.”

“Zaylia, stop, I mean…”

“Broad, muscled back and shoulders, strong and well defined arms. Large and calloused hands. Taller then me by about half a foot and I am just over five and a half feet tall. Your years of scowling have left it almost permanently etched into your face, but it only makes it look that much more carved with only the bump in your nose and your slightly larger ears keeping you from being perfect. The scar above your chin helps make you look just that more dangerous as it looks kind of deep.”

Garth stopped walking and stared in my direction, astonished at what I had just done. “I got that when I was younger, falling out of a tree.” For once he had not used a insulting tone of voice towards me. It was probably the nicest thing he had ever said to me. We walked for another ten minutes before Garth spoke up again.

“None of that told me what you looked like, Zaylia.”

“It does not matter. Looks are not important in my mind. I am pretty on the inside, and that is what matters.”

“At least let me know something. I can not just go thinking you are a skinny twig of nothingness for the rest of my life, Zaylia.”

“Fine. I have red hair, the color of wine, but in the right light it can look as bright as a fire.”

“Like in a sunset?”

“Maybe at its brightest. Happy now?”

“No, but then again what is new? At least I have a hair color. I am now determined to learn at least one new thing about what you look like each day, Zaylia.”

“Well, maybe you can do that, but I guess you will have to earn it. I guess you did by helping me knock out the leader of that group of thugs.”

“Oh well if I have to earn it then forget about it.” He said, throwing a large grin my way, telling me that he would in fact learn things without earning them.

“Whatever Garth.” I bumped into his shoulder and he bumped mine back. We walked for a little ways before we came to another fork in the road. One path had dirt, twigs and dead plants. The other one was covered in grass and deep foliage. I looked over the next portion of the text I had and it said, “Midas’ first wish was to be fit and healthy and Midas felt like he had just climbed a mountain.” I guess my next step was to climb a hill or mountain.

I grabbed Garth by the bicep and led him towards the path that had all the plants along it. We had to walk about a mile along the path before a hill spread out in front of us that we could not see past the trees. I decided, since we had fallen into silence once again, it would be the perfect time to look through the next few steps and try and figure out what they could possibly mean, or memorize it enough to recognize where to go with the next steps.

“Midas Second wish was to be smart and Midas felt like a river of knowledge had passed through him.” I spoke aloud.

“His first wish was to be smart actually.”

“What?”

“Midas’ first wish was to be smart, then for the strength. The only reason it was switched was for the map.”

“Is it true that he took a still born and cut it in half for those mothers?”

“Yes. He stole the idea from the Bible, King Solomon, having thought himself even smarter then him. Midas was very humble, but very naive and gullible and as soon as he asked the Genie for it the Genie told him he could be smarter then Solomon. Midas was a poor fool, barely worthy enough for his throne. Midas did have his merits though, he managed to concur half of Europe with that brain of his.”

“Why did he not win over all of Europe if he was so smart then?”

“Well he would have won all of it and probably most of China too, but that was when someone came and assassinated him. The man did not succeed in killing Midas before he was caught. His family line was cursed and he was sent to Egypt to be mummified alive. Some say he escaped though and became The Demented One, that only part of the mummification process had been completed before he had escaped.”

“Wouldn’t the Mummification process have killed him? How could he possibly be alive more then a thousand years later and terrorizing the descendants of Midas?”

Well, I think the curse that was placed upon him and his line and being half alive turned him into what he is today. He lost track of King Midas’ line, but he kept search for it. They think he went after The Old Regime because they had descended from Midas’.”

“That is ridiculous. How could someone hold a family, generations later, responsible for something that their ancestor did years ago?”

“I do not know. Something happened to cause the man to kill Midas. No one knows what, that bit of history seems to have fallen through a crack in time. I would say that only Midas knows just why it happened.” We had made it to the top of the hill and you could see out over the land for a mile or so from how high we were, probably being a hundred feet up or so.

“Is the sight as beautiful as I remember?” Garth asked suddenly, dropping our previous subject.

“I would say so. This is amazing Garth.”

“It never ceased to amaze me just what all I got to behold while on my journey for the crown. Unfortunately I think The Demented One’s reign has stretched its power out beyond The Domain and it is starting to affect us. I know he is trying to search for the Crown himself so he can use it to find and destroy the rest of Midas’ line. He wants to get rid of them for some reason, but I do not know why.”

“Maybe there is some bit of knowledge that was passed down through the ages that he wants.”

“It is possible, but I have no clue what it could possibly even be about. Lets go though. The sun will set in less then an hour and I believe we can just get past two more locations before sundown.”

“Lets hope.”

“If you hurry we can cook the rabbit before it gets too dark.”

“That would be amazing. I have not eaten since we stopped for a drink at the stream.” We walked down the hill, letting gravity talk over a little bit to help us get down faster. We made it the pathway down below in half the time it took us to climb the hill. We were walking along it simply and came upon a fork in the road with two arrows on it. The right arrow said ‘Hunter’s Hill’ while the left said ‘Classmen Town.’ I thought over my options and remembered that the other wish was to be smart, and that you go to classes to get smarter. I followed the path to Classmen Town and it was not long before I heard a river. It was all just too perfect.

Garth and I made camp for the night beside the river, deciding to continue on in the morning. I set up a fire with his flint while he skinned and cleaned the rabbit for us to eat. The meat was juicy and greasy at we ate it and Garth told me to rub the grease on my lips to keep them from drying up on me. It was a good tip and I thanked him for it since my lips had been hurting for the past hour. We ended up having to put out the fire before we went to bed and I was not happy with his reasoning why.

“Zaylia, if someone is on our tail, one of the guards from the border perhaps, we do not want them to see our smoke. Also wild animals will be drawn to it as well. If we do not want to share the campsite with a bunch of bears, foxes and coyotes tomorrow morning then I suggest you shut up and come over here.”

“Why can’t I stay over here?”

“Because you will freeze.”

“And what will moving do.”

“Zaylia, if you do not get over here I will come over there.”

“Fine. Whatever.” I moved over hesitantly and laid down a couple feet from Garth, just wanting to sleep, but before I could get comfortable I felt his arm snake around mine as he pulled me roughly against him.

“We need to share body heat during the night, Zaylia, or neither of us will survive.” My cheeks burned bright red at the fact that I would now have to sleep directly next to Garth for the rest of the trip. I had never shared a bed with anyone before, not counting when I was younger and scared of the dark so I slept in my Mother’s or Grand Mother Yvette’s bed. I remained silent about it all, not trusting my voice to remain steady. I could not show Garth that this had affected me in any way. I mentally cursed Garth to the depths of hell for what he was doing to me until I drifted into a dreamless sleep.

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Word Count: 20,591............hopefully I can get through these last few days and Thanksgiving while pulling off another miracle win!!!!!