Shadow Hollow

BACK at the castle...

The unpleasant ordeal from earlier was unacceptable and one of scornful derision in Briceus' perspective. The disturbing screams of the maidens when the darkness erupted the hall of Tarmath, earlier on, could not be easily forgotten or forgiven by Briceus who hated not being in control of everything.

Together with Zeke and some sworn knights of nobility, Briceus hedged on as they mounted ahead on the large hallway. Briceus proceeded on his path, in all majesty and preparedness for 'What' or 'Who' would dare to come at him and his squadron from any angle.

Zeke was as skilled in sword usage as the other knights who acted as escorts, but to Briceus, if anything out of the ordinary were to stare them straight in the face, he was certain that the mantle of doing the protecting would fall on him than the Ones who should have been protecting him.

As he continued to thrust forward in search of anything or any one of mythical suspicions, his breathing became unstable. The air which he exhaled from his nostrils forever reeked of burning heat and fierceness, in likeness to the fury which engulfed him whole.

However, in spite of his bravado, Briceus had a weak heart which humbled him as it kept pounding beneath his breast plate. His heart galled at him with an intense feeling of guilt; solid guilt which evoked in him as a result of the Ones-in-service who had died due to the ominous darkness that crept into the Castle solely for the purpose of taking lives. This fact greatly nerved Briceus, still he suspected that the actual blame accrued to him for assuming the role of King as was his father's dying mandate.

'In at least two decades and some years past, it has been unheard of that the veil to the yonder realm got breached to usher in such mystical oddity.

Why then on the day of my becoming the king of Aegremonth?

Yet father insisted that I have no blood connection with the yonder realm even until his dying breath.

Hm.

I know my enemies would be in the comforts of their rooms within the Castle, if they still had their breath with them which I yearn to be the case...

And if it be the case, assuredly the eerie turn of events should make me an object of ridicule in their vile lips by now,' thought Briceus.

"Milord-" called Zeke.

Briceus was deep in his own thoughts that he didn't notice the gruesomely disfigured corpse that he was about to walk past unknowingly.

He tilted his head to look at Zeke who said nothing but pointed at the decaying body swarmed up with maggots just two steps ahead of them.

Looking in the direction which Zeke had pointed, Briceus fed his eyes, unavoidably with the grisly sight; too horrid a sight that he reasoned it to resemble the gruesome evidence of a human sacrifice which was left behind by whatever 'Creature of the Dark' had done the horrendous deed.

"This is an absolutely cruel fate that he had to suffer to his death, milord," said Zeke as he felt the urge to disgorge his insides.

Zeke's father had always fed him with gory tales of Demon-tagged cannibalism of the human clan, and strange mysticisms which he had grown accustomed to seeing during his years of service to the King as his personal 'Steward' —this had been his job to two kings in succession, the most recent being the King before Briceus, Lord Voldemort, before he lost his sight.

Still, Zeke had grown up with the mere thoughts that it was his old man's illusiveness that brought him those imaginations he so often spoke to young Zeke about.

Now that Zeke had grown into a finely build man, and was at this time standing in direct proximity with a Demon-devoured sacrificial corpse, his fear outgrew his senses, and he strongly doubted if he wanted to be by the King's side after all.

Zeke's heart failed him as he imagined the state in which he would have been found, if he had been the one who got sacrificed to whatever crept in through the darkness.

..

"I can see it, Zeke... What could it be? Who or what could have done this terrible deed?" asked Briceus, still retaining his authoritative command of the situation.

Zeke knew what it was that could have left a disturbing sight as this, but his old man had warned him of the consequences of purposely calling out demons by name.

Thus, he swallowed back the answer and gave his Lord, a clever answer instead.

"It could be anything, milord. I fear that the Dark Ages are once again come upon us, milord," answered Zeke.

Dark ages? Nonsense! If he could not be specific, why then did Zeke give him such a baseless answer? Thought Briceus. He was not satisfied by the answer his aide had given him, but he chose to forgive Zeke for having no exact answer to something he, himself could not fathom as well.

Still, Briceus grunted.

'I must get to the root cause of all this. I must!' vowed Briceus.

Just then Briceus felt a quake in his eardrums as his ear fangs tingled to the incoming footsteps they had perceived; footsteps that resembled thumping sounds of men running hurriedly, two or three at most. The sounds of their heavy exhales suggested that the ones who ran were almost out of breath.

'But for fear? Or what?

What could this mean? And how can I hear these men from kilometres away from where I am?' contemplated Briceus in his heart.

Only he could hear what he heard. The others, however, were oblivious of what had caused Briceus to instantly lift his head and turn slowly backwards as though he was expecting someone.

Zeke was the first to speak.

"Milord, do we have visitors? What are you looking at?" asked Zeke who was dumbfounded and untrusting of his Lord's motives.

Briceus, however, had no ready reply to give to him, as his senses interpreted the sounds which he heard as a thunderous applause of heavy feet stamping aggressively on the concrete grounds of the Castle's interiors.

'Ah! Yes, those foot noises are now within the Castle, and they have become increasingly hesitant by this time,' perceived Briceus.

Thus, he lifted his hand, and halted Zeke from saying anything else.

"Silence! We have visitors indeed!" said Briceus.

Just then, two young men, heavily armoured as ones prepared for battle made a hurried entrance before the king. Their glimmering silvery outfits portrayed one thing— that they were recruits of the Knight's Council of the Castle of Barad-dûr.

Once in front of the King, they bowed their head slightly lower, with one kneel to the ground. While they rested their left elbow on their other leg which was half supporting their postures still.

They continued to gasp for air as hurriedly as they had run while, their Silver swords dangled from the sword holder on their outfit.

"Lift your heads and speak at once! I command you!" demanded Briceus as he was impatient to find out the reason for such dramatic display.

"Milord-" the younger Knight recruit began, but paused again to catch up with his breathing.

They were both still fidgeting.

Meanwhile, at this point, Briceus kept a straight face still, not expectant of their next words. This was because now that he looked at their youthful faces behind their helmet which they had flipped open to acknowledge his presence, they looked to him like newly sprouted teenagers who may not have the propensity to perfectly interpret the gravity of the odious darkness that had only just enveloped the entire kingdom in all its might, also sniffing the lives out of some of the Castle's most senior Knight officers in the most hideous manner.

"Milord-" the other recruit began speaking through brief pauses of hesitant breathing spasms, "Milord! We... We... Your highness, something... We saw something... It crept out of the darkness, with dreary locks of vicious snakes swimming about its head... a grim shadow, milord-"

The other Knight recruit took over at this point.

"Y-yes, Milord... of a woman or of a man, we cannot tell... But we... were rehearsing in the open square, and-"

"You both left the castle grounds to play with your swords of honour in public?" scolded Zeke, with a stern look on his face; one that revealed his great displeasure.

Briceus, however, had something else in mind. The revelation of these recruits could point his assumptions in the right direction. Therefore, he lifted his hand to request silence of his most trusted aide, Zeke. To which Zeke quickly understood.

"Proceed, young knight," commanded Briceus to the first one to speak, the one who was bold enough to describe what he'd seen.

Taking a break from panting heavily, the young knight continued, "It screeched, milord. It did that and disappeared."

"What direction did it head in?" asked Briceus.

"Towards the direction of the 'Shadow hollow', milord" answered the young Knight.

The revelation caused Briceus to hum a melodious sigh; loud enough to alert everyone around him. Then, he ordered the young knights to take their leave, and stay within the perimeter of safety which their timid minds interpreted accurately to mean within the Castle walls.

As they scampered from his sight, Briceus conceived in his mind that it was highly probable that the Entity the young knights had seen was different from the one who had wrecked the gruesome havoc on his most senior Knight officials.

He knew he was not wrong. Yet, his question remained so, 'What could have caused the subtle divide in the veil protecting us from the yonder realm?'

The only way to find out was to trail this creature of neutral gender, as described by the young knights into the woods—the 'Shadow Hollow', since the Castle held no other answers to the explanation of the mysterious happenings of some minutes ago.

Thus, Briceus and all others turned around in the direction they were once headed, but with a slight change of plans. He had decided to stop by his room to have a change of clothing, befitting enough for his journey into the woods that very instant.

"Who was this man in particular?" asked Briceus. He was referring to the rapidly decomposing mortal corpse in front of them.

Before Zeke could give a reply, Briceus obstructed him.

"Now that I think of it, his role is no importance to me. Have all the bodies desecrating the Castle grounds, properly disposed of," demanded Briceus.

Two of the knights escorting the King immediately got to work on the Order and in time, the news reached other knights at strategic positions and the deed was done.

"Milord, where are we headed?" asked Zeke who had noticed a sudden determination in the king's pace as they got to the cross linked passage way and made it towards the left wing.

"I need to dispose of this regalia, and cloth up smartly to go do what I must," replied Briceus to Zeke.

"Why, milord? Are we on to the Shadow hollow? Surely... Your highness... Do we not need to make adequate preparation for this journey?" asked Zeke whose fears were highly perceived by Briceus from the tone with which he had just spoken to his Lord in.

Briceus who was unexpectant of his behaviour, felt disgusted by Zeke's degree of cowardice.

"I have no use for men of fear, Zeke! I shall spew you out of my sight if you let the miserable emotion of fear overwhelm you!" warned Briceus.

Zeke perceived the King's words to resound in his eardrums as though he had just been spoken to, in a highly sepulchral tone; the kind that buttered the latter's fears with total graveness which made his insides quake from the reality of the King's solid threat.

Therefore, Zeke apportioned his mind to believe that the King could do far more physical damage to him than his deep-rooted fear for the demons he could not see.

As the train of Royal Knights marched solidly behind their king, Lord Briceus, who had his aide still by his side, they were now headed in the direction of the King's former room.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth who was in the same passage way with the King unknowingly, heard the sounds of approaching footsteps, and halted while her senses harassed her sore.

"For no! I am surely alone. In truth the maidens have all exited the hall by now, and I have just returned solely to find Louisa's necklace," said Elizabeth as a means of convincing herself.

Beth walked on, ignoring the footsteps her senses had warned her about. But, just then, she caught sight of a senior In-Castle Royal head maid-servant who Beth perceived to be the Lady-in-waiting.

Elizabeth could deduce that much from her clothing style, and semi-rich fabric as opposed to that of the train of six maid-servants, uniformly positioned behind her in pairs of two.

'This must be the Castle's Court lady,' thought Elizabeth.

'But how come I can see her and the others at this passageway? Should this corridor not have link somehow with the hall where we were formerly made to be picked to maiden by the King?

Also, how much time has gone past since I have been trapped within the Castle walls?' questioned Elizabeth.

According to her mind calculation, she concluded that thirty long minutes had drifted by, in her quest to search out her sister's borrowed necklace which she had misplaced during her run out earlier on, with the maidens.

Instantly, Beth noticed that the head maiden was about to tilt her head in her direction. Hence, she hesitated noisily and quickly ducked by the corner.

"Did you just hear something?" asked Court lady, Sigrid to none of the Palace maids in particular.

At once, Sigrid halted the maid-servants to afford her the luxury of listening in on the nearby sound she was certain to have only just heard.

She was suspicious, no doubt! Hence, she set out to feed her suspicion.

'What could that be? Or could it be a someone instead?' thought Sigrid.

"Who is there?!" Sigrid called out, "Who dares to come through the hallway of the nobles? You would be doomed if you are found out," Sigrid further warned.

Elizabeth's feet grew ice-cold and terribly numb. She had not expected the turn of things.

However, instead of making herself known at that instant, the approaching footsteps Elizabeth had formerly heard, which belonged to the King and his Knight squad unknown to her, prompted her to give in to the brewing tension in her heart, from both circumstances altogether.

Frightened to her bones, Beth retreated and stumbled on one foot due to the hugeness of her Ball-like gown, by mistake. Feeling overwhelmed, she used her back to push open the door she had been leaning against, with great vehemence.

The effect of the push produced the opposite and equal reaction that got Elizabeth pulled into the majestic room with great intensity so much so, that she fell head flat on the hard floor.

Her eyelids battered for some lingering seconds, her senses fazing out slowly until she lost touch with her reality, with both eyes shut.