Annie and Zed: The Heart of Mt. Coldclaw part 2
After I had wrote a bit about the events of the day (after much frustration due to leaning and writing on the abnormally small counter), I finally began to feel tired, and went to the bed to sleep. As Annie had observed beforehand, the bed was fine, and it troubled me not, but what I worried about was having another nightmare; although I suspected the one I had previously would haunt me no more, earlier, I had felt a little provoked by Annie's appearance, despite my happiness in seeing her again, and was afraid that it would affect me- seeing how much she had changed (this may seem odd given the short time we were together for, but during that time, we really came to know more about one another, as if we had met and known each other long before then) had unnerved me; in a way which I cannot fully describe, it felt strange to see her adopt and embrace the greedy society we despise.
My own personal troubles and opinions aside, the night passed quickly once I fell asleep; fortunately, unlike I had feared, I had no nightmares. All was going fine until a sudden and quite noisy jolt awakened me during the night- I knew not at what time it was, however- that seemed to come from outside the cabin.
"Hey," I said, in a voice I thought to be loud enough to wake Annie, "did you hear that?"
I waited for a response, but heard none, and decided to get out and investigate myself; I bumped my head in the process, causing me to look up at the top bunk. It was then that I saw that Annie was not there. I put two and two together and ran outside, throwing the door open with a clang. There, Annie was duking it out with two men who I could instantly see were very thug-like, and were likely thugs (not to draw premature conclusions or anything). I observed that the boat had stopped, a gangplank had been lain down, and in the distance, a group of people were mounted on horses.
Annie dodged a punch from one man, but was tripped by another, being kicked into the wall. The two ruffians took this opportunity to escape over the gangplank, push it into the water, mount their horses, and flee.
"They took the package, Zed!" she yelled at me, exasperated, "They set us up! That 'captain,' is nothing but a common crook!" She paused to catch her breath. "We have to go after them... wait a minute! The horses; they're still in the hold- they couldn't take them."
Together, we ran to the hold; when there, she pointed to a crate for me to open while she readied the horses- inside were two guns: a revolver (as far as I could tell, it was the one I had used during our last adventure, but greatly refurbished), and a semi-automatic pistol. I grabbed them and a few boxes of ammo next to them, and went over to Annie, who already got both horses out. We mounted and pounded up to the deck; the ship was still motionless in the water. At high speed, we jumped over the edge of the ship and onto the land. From what we remembered of where the thieves went, we made a quick decision and rushed to the left of the ship. I hoped that we could follow them without getting lost.
We rode on for a bit longer and were rewarded with definitive tracks- we were on the right trail. We kept following these tracks in the mud until we reached a small side stream branching off of the main- at some places, it wasn't very wide across, but in other places, it was nearly as wide as the river. We rode alongside the stream until the tracks disappeared. That meant that they either went away from the stream, or jumped across it.
"This way Zed; we can't lose them!"
"I think they went across the stream- look: sometimes it's just narrow enough to be able to jump across, although the distance would discourage us from trying. If we could make it, then I'm sure they could, and I'm certain that's the path they would've taken!"
"But if they didn't, all we're doing is losing valuable time! And besides, what if we don't make it?"
I circled around my horse until I was a fair ways away, and then I turned toward the river and urged the horse forward- as we approached the the riverbank, we leapt over, landing on the other side with a few inches to spare.
"It's safe," I announced, "and I think I see some more tracks over here. Stop your worrying and come over already!"
After she had jumped over in the same manner as I, we continued following the path. Eventually, we got farther away from the river and came upon some hills. Over their tops, I could see a thin wisp of smoke rising- perhaps a campfire?
"If I'm not mistaken," I said, "then that's likely them up ahead. They seem to have stopped to set up camp; I bet they think they've lost us! We should go carefully up ahead."
The brush that lay in front of us started to get thicker, until the point where we decided that it would be better to walk the rest of the way. Besides, we said, it wasn't too much father, and it would give us a better element of surprise. Shortly after, we came into view of five jovial men standing around the campfire, flaunting their stolen goods up in the air for nobody but themselves to see. I looked over to my right a bit and saw their horses grazing nearby. They must have, like us, preferred not to take them through the bushes, all the better for us. Without their horses so close to them, they wouldn't be able to escape as quickly.
We were just about ready to make our way over when we noticed that there was absolutely nothing for cover between us and them but a few patches of grass- they had cleared out everything around their little camp. Slightly hindered, but still determined, we crawled across the field, very slowly, our guns prepared to fire. Despite all of our careful planning, however, we were spotted.
"Ay! Who goes there? Be it an animal o a person?" It was the 'captain' who spoke- I could tell from his voice. His accent was different, for the most part, but some of the ways he pronounced his words seemed similar.
"Look at those two shadows," I could hear somebody else whispering.
"Yes, it's definit'ly a person," someone else said, "or two."
"We can see yew!" the 'captain' yelled again. "Get up, now!"
We slowly rose until we were somewhat-crouching.
"All right, we give up!" Annie said, "We're coming over!"
"Another victory for the Ballsy Bandits!" a drunken cheer came from the men.
Annie started snickering, then broke down laughing.
"What kind of a..." she laughed, "what kind of a dumb name is that!" We were now close enough so we could avoid yelling.
"It's our name..." said one of them, dejected.
"I thought it was a good name," said another one.
"You two aren't helping!" their leader said, "Just ignore her!"
"Does every dull-brained all-male outlaw group need to have some sort of silly alliteration in its name? I mean, that's even worse than the 'Rainbow Red' pirates... at least their name makes sense when you think about it!"
"Well our name makes sense too!" they jeered.
"STOP IT ALREADY!" the leader turned his back to us and faced the other four. "Stop paying attention to her! She's just tryin' to make us feel bad- all of yous are great men! And remember who thought of our name, eh? Your great leade..."
This distraction provided a great opportunity for Annie. She quickly pulled out her pistol and shot him from behind: the others recoiled from the sound. By the time he hit the ground, they had already unholstered their own weapons, and some had started firing. We scurried away to where the brush was more plentiful and provided more places to hide. As we were doing so, we could see that they were moving to their horses, their stolen objects strapped to their backs.
"Aim for their heads," Annie told me, "we don't want to risk damaging anything."
We had a distinctive advantage from our place amongst the bushes. They were merely firing blindly at us, but we had clear shots at them. Although it was dark outside, we could see them fairly well. We managed to pick off two of them during the time they were walking over, and another one after he had mounted. The final one escaped, however.
"You go over and get the horses," she said, "and I'll check to see if any one them had the package."
As chance would have it, none of them had the package she was looking for. Now we were forced to pursue the last man. She loaded the pieces of the cargo we had collected onto our horses and mounted. Then, we galloped off after him.
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The man rode further away from the river and in the direction of a clump of trees that could barely be considered anything more than a backyard garden. They weren't much to look at, but they would give him an edge if he reached them before us.
"Faster Zed! We need to catch up!"
I got out my revolver and shot at him. It would have hit, had he not jumped off and landed in the bushes around the trees. My not-so-carefully aimed bullet hit the horse somewhere around its head, and it crumbled to the ground. As he ran behind a tree, it was our turn to jump off our horses and use them for cover. We exchanged a few shots but inevitably got nowhere. We were at a complete standstill. We tried slowly walking our horses over, but that was tedious and diverted our attention from finding him- if he had more foresight, he probably would have caught on to our tactics and used that opportunity to escape... but he was determined to die valiantly. Or in a ballsy way, one could say.
After a while, however, his blind shooting payed off, and he hit my horse in its hoof. It reared, nearly knocking me back, and ran off, holding its bad foot in the air all the way. I stumbled to my right and towards Annie. Seeing my predicament, she yelled out to the bandit to distract him. It seems these bandits were of the easily-distracted variety.
"Well, look like we got a genuine horse-hitter on our hands... now tell me... what kind of bandit joins a group called the 'Ballsy Bandits'?" She paused a bit, as if seriously expecting a response.
"I'll tell you! AN-"
A clumsily-fired shot whizzed by us.
"Over there!" Annie whispered to me, pointing to a shiny gun barrel sticking through the bushes.
I fired directly at it, and hit the man in his hand. He cried out and dropped the gun. We ran up and tackled him together, beating him repeatedly with our fists and guns. When we had enough of practically bashing his skull in, we searched around for the box. It was lying, undamaged, underneath him.
We went back over to Annie's horse. Mine had ran off, and left a trail of stuff behind. We didn't bother chasing after it, and just went back to the bandits' camp to get a few of theirs.
"I can only wonder what's so valuable in this box that it couldn't have just been sent by standard shipping," I said, half to myself.
Annie was clinging onto the box like it was some sort of prized jewel. I had only gotten one clear look at the things that were written on it- one side held a label that read "To: Diggory; From: Elizabeth and Joseph."
The trip back to the barge was otherwise quiet. Because we didn't want to try and jump the river with our horses having cargo strapped onto their backs, we had to take the long way around, passing by the lake where the stream ended. The sound of the horses' hooves and nighttime animals filled the air. The near-silence was relaxing in a way.
"Y'know... those bandits," Annie said, "they were real intelligent, the lot of them. I'm surprised they even managed to form a plan to rob the ship."
We got back to the barge shortly after; some of the genuine crew members had gone to a nearby city and recruited a retired captain to finish the trip up the river. Aside from the few that were on the boat, there weren't many capable hands aboard, and thus, after we had sorted through everything below deck, we were asked to help around. Most of the time, though, we just sat around- overall, I felt it was a waste of time given how little we had slept so far, but I couldn't object to the crew's request.
It was a little past sunset when we reached our stop: from this point on, the river circled around a bit and went farther away from the mountains. This was as close as we were going to get. I was glad that we had the horses with us, so we wouldn't have to walk the entire distance- although we would have to as we climbed the mountain, riding on horseback all of the way up until that point allowed us to conserve energy. Annie got everything ready for our departure from the boat.
"All ready then?" she asked. "Good! Let's go! There's not too much left, and everything so far has gone swimmingly... except for a few interruptions. But that's why we're together, right?"
I stepped off the boat and let out a deep sigh; I noticed that I could see my breath. Were we already that far north? At this point, I stopped to jot down a few notes while Annie was finishing preparing things. I'm a neat person, but I could never be that organized- she's really worried about doing well on this job.
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Log 2/27:
Perhaps I'm overreacting, but I'm concerned about the delivery; I'm genuinely considering taking whatever it is we have to deliver out of its package and using the empty box as a decoy: it certainly wouldn't be the strangest thing to do. I'm worried that something will go wrong and we'll be unable to get the package back- that I'll disappoint on my first major delivery.
I've only slept for about five hours since I left Coral City, and when I have slept, I haven't done so comfortably, but I still feel really energetic and alert. I'll probably collapse eventually if I keep this routine, but as long as I can keep it up, I'll do it.
We're headed up the mountain soon. I think there's supposed to be a village near here- one of the last inhabited place as you get to the edge of the map. Speaking of which, I wonder what extends beyond this mountain range, and how long it goes on for. We're going to take a little trip to try and map the terrain after the job is done, though, after seeing what's out here, I'm not too sure that we'll be ready to face what's further out. Are there more creatures like those in the forest? I remember those vividly, from what little we saw of them, and I know that it wouldn't be pleasant to get up close and personal with them. We got past those narrowly.
At least I know what's up ahead on the mountain. There should be no other people on there to stop us, which means that it's only us versus the weather.
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After what seemed like hours, we set up towards the mountain, fully prepared- Annie made that a complete certainty. As she predicted, there was a small village not too far along. We passed through without stopping, except to ask its inhabitants for advice for getting to the top, and where that "Diggory" man is, safely. They directed us to a man known as the Mountain Shaman, a wise old hermit residing close to the village in his own hut- they go to him for advice on the little matters of their lives, and think he sustains himself on the magical energy coming from his staff. A bit of a weird belief, but if he is truly knowledgeable about the mountain, we'll want to at least go and meet with him.
The Shaman's hut was well-constructed, but still looked as if it could fit in amongst the villagers' own houses. Although a bit cautious about leaving our horses out in the open, we had to do so in order to enter the hut. The inside was meager, but cozy in a way. The man who I presume was the Shaman sat in a chair with its side facing the door. There was a small fire pit in front of him, with a little flame in it. He turned around as if he knew we were coming and spoke to us.
"Ah," he spoke with a grumbly voice with an air of wiseness- or what I perceived as wiseness- "you are different from the others who come here. I can tell you're not from here."
His face had a distinct quality and echoed with a presence of strength, as if he had been here for a long time, and could easily survive on his own in the wilderness. Immediately, I could sense that he was the real deal.
"Yes, sir," Annie said, quietly- she had the same impression of him as I, "we need to get to the top of the mountain."
"Not many people come here for recreational hiking."
She was about to interrupt him, but he spoke again.
"You'll have to leave your horses outside. The villagers and I will take good care of them. You can only take what you must up the mountain. The way itself should be easy; just keep climbing straight. There's a little forest as you go up, and there, it starts to get steep. If you find the right path, though, you will not encounter much struggle.
He got up out of his chair and went to grab firewood from a pile in the corner; he wore a tan parka with a bright white fur lining. In his hand, he held a long wooden staff- at the top of the staff was a dull red gemstone. The stone was large, about the size of my stretched-out hand, and looked as if it had once been cut flawlessly, but somehow worn away at and bent out of shape. Annie took notice of it as well.
"Sir... what's that? On your walking stick?"
"Aaahhhh..." he drew this out for a long time, as if many others had asked this question in the past. "It is a rare type of gemstone from the far, far south of the world. It is a powerful thing, very durable and brilliantly colored... but over the years, it becomes worn out. The people here call it the Heart of Mt. Coldclaw, for when it is new, it radiates an energy that feels as if it comes from the earth itself. Most of those people only know this place as their home- they haven't traveled all across the continent like I have."
Annie and I stood there, silently, expecting him to elaborate. He, too remained silent.
"Well," he grumbled after some time, "you better get a move on- it isn't getting any earlier while you're just standing here!"
We went outside and scoured the supplies, taking what was essential and leaving everything else behind... which meant that we ended up leaving most of the things we had taken behind. After this was finished, we began our long trek up the mountain. The walking was tedious, but definitely not as much so as that of our previous adventure; despite the slight incline, I was doing fairly well, as over the past few months, I had resolved to get more physical exercise in the form of walking and jogging.
Eventually, we got to the forest described by the Shaman. The sun was low in the sky by that time, so I suppose we must have been walking for several hours- the time passed quickly, as Annie and I talked about what each of us had been doing in the previous months. Nonetheless, I was a bit exhausted after the long trip up, so I asked if we could rest at the edge of the forest for a little time. The forest itself wasn't too magnificent- just some evergreens here and there, and maybe a group of them together ever once in a while- but it was a change from the white snow and grey rocks we had seen on the mountain so far.
Thus, after resting, we started through the little forest. Glancing around, I took in the view- on one side, the sun setting, and on the other side, the moon, already high up in the sky. I breathed in and out, and listened to the noises of nature to help me relax...
I heard a howl- definitely a wolf. Not too close, though, so that was good. Another howl. That's a little bit closer, I thought. A third howl...
"That's..." I spoke out loud, although I intended to just speak to myself.
I looked over to my left again. There were two wolves standing a short distance away from us.
"Right... next to us..." I hesitated in my walk, then grabbed Annie by her shoulder. "Stop," I said to her, "there are wolves to our left. We need to proceed quietly if we don't want to alert them."
"I think it's too late," she whispered, handing me the revolver, "look around us."
She was right. In all directions except in front of and behind us, there were wolves- about eight of them total. There was an extremely small chance that they hadn't noticed us, but if they had, we would have a tough time getting through unscathed, if at all. We seemed to have a terrible experience with forests- there were always some sort of wild creatures attacking us.
"On three, we run," Annie announced... "one... two..."
We heard a loud yodeling coming from somewhere below; I turned around just in time to see a figure standing on a ledge, waving his arms- in one arm, he had some sort of long stick or weapon of some sort; from this distance, I couldn't really tell.
"Uh... three!" she said.
Both of us ran away as fast as our legs could take us as the wolves were attracted to the yodeling man; a single wolf decided to stick with us as a target, but I shot two rounds at him (or her?), and it fell back, wounded.
"I think we lost them!" Annie yelled to me.
"Better to keep runnin... oof!" I bumped into something and fell over.
Annie skidded to a halt and slipped on the snow a bit. I looked up at what- or who, rather- was standing over me; it was a tall, intimidating man. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. He opened his mouth, took a deep breath, and spoke...
TO BE CONTINUED, IN PART 3