Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons 117 CXVII. The Snatch

After a few seconds, the bonfire died and darkness swooped on the three adventurers.

"I don't see anything! Light a torch, I can't see you!" said Karl, as he walked with his hands outstretched in front of him, to avoid crashing into some trees.

"Let's take the torches" Dag said, bending down.

"They should be here next to us... light one of them, Reidar" he said.

Reidar grabbed the torch stick and lifted it off the ground, looking for the flint in his pockets.

"Guys... fast... I hear something back here!" said Karl, frightened.

"What? What do you hear? Follow my voice, Karl, walk towards us!" said Dag, after kicking his flint out of his pocket.

"Give me, I'll turn it on" he said, tearing the torch out of Reidar's hands.

"Karl, keep following our voice" Dag continued.

After about 4 attempts, the sparks of the flint managed to turn on the torch and Dag immediately pointed it at Karl, illuminating in that direction.

"Karl?!" shouted Dag, who could not see his friend.

He and Reidar ran that way.

"Where the fuck did he go?!" asked Reidar, looking for Karl behind the trees.

Dag did the same.

"Kaaarl?!" the two companions continued to call him but heard no answer.

"If it's a joke, it's not funny!" said Reidar, as Dag ducked to the ground, picking up something.

Reidar approached his captain, discovering that he had just collected Karl's almanac.

"Karl..." whispered Dag, looking at the almanac.

Reidar ran to their horses and took another torch, which he lit soon after.

"Captain, the three horses are still there" Reidar said.

"Let's go find him... he can't be gone so far" Dag said, pointing the torch upwards, trying to illuminate the ceiling of petrified branches.

They ran to the horses and after collecting their belongings from the ground, including the Red Executioner, they set out in search of Karl, with his horse tied behind Reidar's.

Because of the fragile soil and darkness that enveloped that forest, they had to advance slowly.

They moved away from the path, entering the adjacent trees, the ones from which the swarm of locusts had sprung.

Meanwhile, they continued to call Karl, frightened that something had happened to their comrade.

Those locusts! They deliberately flew against the fire to extinguish it! It must have been this forest that gave the order! said Dag angrily.

"Just before he disappeared, Karl said he heard something behind him... something we haven't heard, though. That means it's a being who can move without making too much noise" Reidar thought aloud.

"And it's also a powerful being, that managed to immobilize and drag Karl away" dag continued, frantically moving the torch in front of him, trying to look through each tree.

Moving away from the trail, Dag and Reidar ended up getting lost in the many trees, among which the horses could barely pass.

After about an hour, in search of Karl, they stopped.

"Captain, we can't keep moving without understanding where we're going. We have to follow a lead" Reidar said, watching Dag keep looking for Karl nonstop.

After these words, Dag paused and raised his head.

"Did you hear that too?" he said, raising his hand toward Reidar, telling him to keep quiet.

"Heard what?" answered him in a low voice.

*crack*crack*

"Now have you heard it? It looks like the sound of rock branches breaking" continued Dag, who pointed the torch behind Reidar.

"Yes, I heard it too!" said Reidar, who drew his bow with his other hand, ready to defend himself.

As the two companions pointed their torches in the direction from which the noise came, fragments of rock fell on Dag's shoulder and he turned to it.

Then he raised his head upwards: when the torch lit up the branches of the ceiling, Dag rolled his eyes and for a moment he was missing his breath.

"What's going on, Captain?!" asked Reidar, as he looked at Dag's terrified expression. Then he too looked up too.

Looking closely between the branches of the ceiling, they were able to realize that there were many human skeletons, which were slowly turning into rock.

In addition to the skeletons and some corpses still in the process of rotting, there was also Karl: a large branch wrapped around his chest, another his throat, and other smaller branches enveloped his hands and feet, immobilizing him.

His eyes were closed, he had lost consciousness.

"K... Karl..." said Dag, when he managed to catch his breath and his voice returned.

"We have to pull him down from there!" said Reidar, who began looking into his backpack, looking for something that could help his trapped friend.

Dag looked away from Karl and got off his horse, tying him to a tree next to him and suggesting Reidar do the same.

"Give me one of your arrows and the rope with which you tied Karl's horse to Ace" Dag said.

Reidar obeyed without asking.

Squeezing the rope around one of Reidar's toughest arrows, Dag built a kind of handcrafted grappling hook.

"Now cover me. The being that put Karl up there may still be nearby... maybe it's looking for us" Dag continued.

Reidar wedged his torch into a tree trunk and positioned himself with bow and arrows to cover Dag as he tried to free his friend.

Dag threw the grappling hook upwards but found no stick.

After repeating the operation several times, the arrow finally wedged into a trunk near Karl, circling it.

Dag pulled the rope towards him, to see if the foothold was safe.

He wedged his torch as Reidar had done, in a tree near him, and began to climb the rope, slowly.

"Karl! Kaaarl!" said Dag, whispering his friend's name, trying to wake him up.

He continued to climb towards him, while Reidar looked around, ready to defend Dag.

Chapter end