Swirling crimson and darkness enveloped everything in every direction. Yet there was no direction, no sense of heading, no here or there. Only the sensation of spiraling about aimlessly was certain. Little Fish put out his hands and feet trying to get a sense of anything in this strange place he was in. Wherever 'this' was, it wasn't in the 'Black'. The Black was the strange watery space between life and death where he, the Knight and the Chief traveled to the past. After getting lost in the tunnels under the City of Golden Towers, he jumped into a strange pool of light to escape the swarm of crawly things chasing him.
Now, he was somewhere or nowhere beyond even the Black with less of an idea of how to get back. Fear enveloped Little Fish like the octopus his father fed crabs to at the pier of their fishing village. The disorientation of this nowhere place had the boy ready to scream, but then he remembered the time one little crab escaped the octopus' tentacles by sheer tenacity. No matter which way the octopus turned it, the crab did everything in its power to thwart its attacker. Finally, when the octopus turned the crab's back into killing position it turned and jammed its large claw down the beast's open maw. Though it lost the claw, the octopus let it go as it fought to dislodge it.
Little Fish remembered looking in amazement and hearing his father say, "Only the dead give up." Well, he wasn't dead yet. Doing his best to calm down, Little Fish saw the fish-scale necklace still burned with red light. Maybe, he was still connected to the place where the Knight and Chief were. He Knew they were still in that awful city deep in the tunnels. But, he did not want to go back there at all! The thought of all those crawlies made his entire body shudder. Little Fish hugged his chest tightly and forced the sight of the swarm from his thoughts.
Instead, he did his best to picture the Valley Knight the last time he saw him. The sight of his hero bathed in red light in the dark tunnel was clear and suddenly, the red and black swirl gave into darkness. Once more, Little Fish found himself back in the strangely comforting and familiar black void. He then felt the pressure of being deep under water and began the wide alternating strokes and kicks which raised him to the surface of an underground pool. The red light of the fish scale showed the boy a dead-end to a connecting tunnel.
Little Fish crawled out of the water and collapsed on the cave floor. He had no idea of where he was, but at least he'd escaped the 'nowhere place'. His stomach rumbled angrily and Little Fish remembered the last time he ate was in the Chief's old village. "Hungry...." His lamentation was cut short by an all too familiar sound. "Not again!" Off in the tunnel was the growing sound of a building swarm. "Crawlies!" Little Fish started for the tunnel in the hope of finding a way out before the swarm caught up with him. However, only after a few running strides in he knew it was hopeless.
The swarm was drawing nearer and the boy realized the only easy out was going to be the pool. Yet, Little Fish was reluctant to use that as a way out. He might end up back in the nowhere place! He came here thinking this was where the Knight would be. The swarm was loud in its approach and in moments would fill the cavern! Looking at the pool being the only way out, Little Fish sreamed, "VALLEY KNIGHT HELP ME!" A flash of angry red light streamed up from the pool and a sudden vortex spun the water of the cavern pool violently about raising a stinging spray.
Raising his arms to protect his face, Little Fish saw the clear water bathed in red light suddenly turn the consistency and color of fresh blood! Something erupted from the vortex and landed heavily but with the grace of a big cat upon the cavern floor. Little Fish's eyes grew wide with terror as the 'thing' turned out to be a man covered in blood with the face of a skull! It was the demon he saw in the vision when they first came to the City of Golden Towers!"
Little Fish was in a panic! On one side was the coming swarm of crawlies and on the other the Skull-Faced Man, the only person the Valley Knight couldn't defeat! "I wanna' go home!" yelled Little Fish as he crabbed backwards to the cavern wall. The swarm spilled into cavern like sand into a pit. Just as Little Fish prepared to be engulfed, the Skull-Faced Man leaped between him and the swarm as it shot forth. The Skull-Face drew his black sword and the swarm suddenly recoiled at his presence! Each time the swarm tried to come near Little Fish, the Skull-Face moved into its path and it recoiled as if he were made of poison!
In a rude tone the Skull-Face commanded, "Boy! Get off your ass and come take care of this damn thing!" Little Fish's heart leaped in his chest for only the Valley Knight ever spoke to him that way! Bolstered by the presence of the Knight, Little Fish did his best to move forward despite wobbling knees. He stepped out from behind the Knight and the light of the fish scale shifted from his savior's back onto the seething swarm. The crawlies immediately moved toward Little Fish but the Knight raised his sword arm and they recoiled once more. The Knight tilted his head towards the boy and said, "This is something you are going to have to deal with Little Fish! If you have any ideas, now's the time to try them."
Truth was, Little Fish had no ideas whatsoever! Then, he remembered the crawlies did stop when he held out his hand and yelled for them to stop. The swarm was moving in once more and the Knight barked, "Fish do something!" Little Fish jumped with a start and his hand shot out as he shouted, "STOP!" The swarm halted its advance at the raising of his hand and held in place. Little Fish was repulsed by the sight of so many writhing bodies, flicking legs and waving antennae. Suddenly, the swarm started to move and Little Fish commanded it to halt again. The Knight cocked his head with understanding and said, "Now I get it. Little Fish, move your hand around slowly. "What?" asked the confused boy. "Just do as I say!" snapped the Knight.
Sure enough, as his hand moved the swarm followed. Little Fish didn't know what to make of it, but the Knight understood perfectly. More than likely, through the power of the Necklace or Little Fish's exposure to the 'Black' as he called it, the youth was attracting the swarm of lower creatures. However, they seemed more interested in following him around than doing harm. The Knight also recognized the mask he wore came from Death itself and no doubt had it's influence on it. It was a pretty safe bet while he wore the mask, no living thing other than a man would consider attacking 'death.'
"All right, that's a good start boy. Now, you must get your fear under control. These things are attracted to you for some reason so until we discover what that is, I doubt they're going away." The Knight's words were encouraging, just not what Little Fish wanted to hear. All he wanted was for the Knight to make them go away! "O-okay, s-so what do I d-do now?" The Knight had to admit that was a damn good question. He remembered during his humiliating battle against... himself, there was a swarm just like this that followed the Skull-Face out of the Gatebringer's gate. If he remembered correctly, the Gatebringer wasn't present when the Skull-Face appeared. Narrowing his eyes behind the Skull Mask, the Knight understood a few more things about what happened that night in Aunt's cavern.
Little Fish had seen this swarm in his vision and the Knight saw it in action during the confrontation that thwarted Aunt's plan to return to the Valley. Just like everything that happened so far on this quest, all elements were where they should be, when they were supposed to. Looking out at the seething swarm, the Knight remembered something from his distant past which he never understood until now. "Little Fish, you still with me?" Changing hands because the first had grown tired Little Fish replied, "Uh huh!" "When I was younger than you, one of my fighting masters asked me, 'what should I do if I was trapped in a hole with a lion and had no knife to kill it with?'"
Not sure where this was going Little Fish asked, "What did you say?" "Well I thought about it and knew I wouldn't be strong enough to fight it with my bare hands and in the hole, I couldn't run away. So I told the master, 'I didn't know what to do and would be eaten.'" Little Fish was not finding this encouraging at all. "What did the Master say?" Moving slowly farther away from the terrified boy the Knight replied, "With all seriousness, the Master told me, 'If you don't want to get eaten boy, you better teach the damn thing some tricks!" "You're joking right?" exclaimed Little Fish. "Not even. Unless you give into fear, I don't believe this swarm will hurt you. Now, I'm going to see where this tunnel leads. While I'm gone, use the time to teach this thing some tricks!"
True to his word, the Knight slowly trod out into the swarm which recoiled away from him. Just as Little Fish was about to whine for the Knight not to leave the Knight yelled back, "Just think how pleased the Priestess will be when she hears about how you tamed the swarm!" It struck the boy hard as he could suddenly see the Priestess' beaming face at such an accomplishment. Once more, he moved his hand from side to side and the swarm followed it obediently. A sudden mischievous smile crawled across Little Fish' young face. "The Knight was right. I'm going to teach you some tricks...."
© 2011 H. Wolfgang Porter. All Rights Reserved.
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