Garinor considered his options for a moment and then nodded. “Okay. I’ll go after the scepter.”
The old woman cracked a smile. “A wise decision for one so young. Yes, yes, that is a good choice.” She struggled up from her seat and rummaged through a set of drawers, pulling out a piece of parchment. “It isn’t much, but it’s something else that occurred to me when I had those dreams.”
Garinor took the page that was scuffed with coal. He saw several jagged lines and a filled-in oval and he realized that it represented mountains and the cave. He didn’t quite understand how it was going to help him.
She could see the skepticism on his face and shook her old head impatiently. “The shape of the mountains, boy. Look for them and they will guide you.”
He folded the parchment and tucked it into his pocket, then checked his short sword, feeling he should leave imminently. “I’m wound up. I have to get moving.”
“That’s the herbs I gave you. But here, take these.” She handed him a small sack she had been filling while he was looking at the parchment. It was full of sweet cakes that would sustain him when he lacked other food. “You’ll have to head a fair bit east before you turn north. The land is dangerous if you head north now. Give it about a day on foot. Now go on and don’t get yourself lost.”
Garinor grinned and he went out the door and ducked around the back of her house, mindful of the patrols in town. He moved east, jogging for most of the way, until he came to a copse of trees through which ran a small stream. He drank deeply of the cool water and took out the parchment again. The only thing he knew for certain was that he needed to find the mountains to the north, and then find the cave. Looking at the rough sketch he had been given, he doubted it would be of any use.
He poked his head between the trees and looked off toward the horizon. He could see the distant mountains as they swooped up into the sky and were lost under the cover of clouds. He compared the scene to the map she had given him, but there was no resemblance. Shrugging, he tucked the page away again and continued his journey. She had said he would need to head east for a while.
The day passed without event, for which he was grateful after everything he had been through so far. He kept bearing east, planning to turn north the following morning. If the cave wasn’t in sight, he figured he would head further east along the mountain ridge.
Night arrived and covered him in a veil of darkness. His dreams were filled with a glittering scepter floating in the air, beckoning him to find it.
As Garinor dreamed lazily about the scepter, he found that the dream turned into something else. He was being taken toward the cave and the scepter was still calling him forward, but he no longer had any control over how he got there. His body was dragged along the bumpy ground and he was smacked about all along the way. Then he was plunged into a deep river. Water worked its way up his nose and he choked and gagged and he knew his life was about to end.
But then he woke up and realized it was only raining.
The sky overhead was a thick, dark gray. It didn’t look like the sun would ever peek through. He lay out in the open, covered only in some brush, so he was getting soaked through. Further north there were some trees, to which he raced as quickly as he could.
The canopy of leaves protected him from the worst of the storm and he was grateful for its cover. He soon found out, though, that he wasn’t the only one seeking refuge there. He looked around and saw that numerous creatures had come to the trees in order to escape the rain. Squirrels and foxes darted about. Deer pounced away when he approached. He wanted to laugh and delight in an afternoon spent watching them. But a low growl alerted him to the presence of something else. Something dangerous.
Two yellow eyes glared at him from behind a tree and slowly, skillfully, a black panther padded toward him, teeth bared in anger at his presence. He wasn’t sure what he should do to escape the forthcoming attack.