Chapter 39 Jump on three; one, two…

Chapter 39

 

 

Jump on three; one, two…

 

 

“Look out!” Gerad covered his head as the stacks of baskets came crashing down on top of him. Dust filled the small storeroom and caused everyone to evacuate into the open coughing and sneezing.

“I-ACHOO-uh, told you to be careful.” Selene said rubbing her nose.

Gerad hacked and coughed, “Yeah, yeah.”

“I told you it had been years since anyone’s been in there.” Meria said waving her hand in front of her to help clear the dust.

“Man, you’re just getting told left and right by girls, aren’t cha Gerad.” One of the farm hands teased.

“Shut up, Malcom.” Gerad grumbled as Malcom laughed.

Malcom was the youngest of the farmhands and only son of the haymaster. He was an intimidating sight at six foot seven, with a barrel chest and square jaw. His brown hair was tied back in a braid that went to his shoulders. His brown eyes danced with amusement and tears as he coughed from the dust.

Meria had told her parents about their predicament and Malon had showed them the entrance to the old cellars that were all that was left of the town of Parsford. Ralph had volunteered Malcom to help them with any heavy lifting they may need to do. So far all they had found was dust and lots of it.

 “Is anyone else,” Selene sneezed, “beginning to think this is pointless?”

“Oh, I’ve thought that many times these past few days.” Calhan said rubbing his eyes.

The others laughed in agreement some shaking more dust out of their hair. Meria sat down on the grass to take in a few minutes of sunshine before they dared the musty recesses of the cellar again. Her gaze wandered to the south where the Moon Isle floated ominously closer to them, each day it became bigger.

“How much longer do we have?” Meria asked over her shoulder to Calhan who had sat a little behind her.

“You ok?” Selene asked him when Calhan didn’t answer.

Calhan yawned and rubbed his face, “Yeah, just really tired lately.”

“Malcom go get something to eat and drink for us, please?” Meria asked the big boy who grinned.

“Sure thing.” Malcom replied and trotted off to the house.

Once he was out of hearing Gerad knelt next to Calhan and stared hard at his face. Calhan looked at him quizzically till Selene gently grabbed his chin and turned his face to look at her.

“How long have you been feeling like this?” Selene asked tilting his head to different angles.

“Oh, you know,” Calhan replied flippantly, “not that long.”

“When, Calhan?” Selene demanded in such a tone she reminded Gerad of their mother.

Calhan sighed, “Right after I brought Gerad back to life at the Forest Temple.”

“And the medicine isn’t helping anymore?” Gerad asked concern fringing the edges of his voice.

Calhan pursed his lips and stared at the ground without answering. Selene looked at Gerad in confusion as she stood up.

“You ran out, didn’t you?” Gerad accused him sitting back on his legs.

“Not on purpose.” Calhan said flinching slightly, “Granny kind of broke my bottle.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?!” Gerad asked.

“Because we were somewhat preoccupied at the time.” Calhan replied his voice taking on a steely tone, “I’ll be fine as long as I don’t push too hard.”

“That’s not what you told me, way back when, Calhan.” Gerad retorted not at all phased by the authority in Calhan’s voice.

“What are you two talking about?” Selene finally demanded cutting into their conversation, “What medicine?”

Gerad sighed, “Calhan being the Lore Sage has its draw backs and part of it is aging really fast. Kelith made him some medicine to slow it down but now he’s out.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this earlier?” Selene asked turning back to Calhan with her hands on her hips.

Calhan sighed in aggravation and rubbed his face, “I’m not having this discussion.”  He laughed humorlessly as he stood up and walked back to the entrance to the cellar.

“Calhan, wait.” Meria called after him as she got up and dusted grass off her pants. Gerad and Selene stayed put and watched in silence as Meria followed Calhan into the cellar.

“How long do you think he has left?” Selene asked turning to Gerad.

Gerad sighed as he got up from the ground. Looking at the floating island off in the distance he scratched his beard in thought.

“Not long enough.” Gerad replied softly.

 

Meria ducked through the entrance of the cellar and walked cautiously down the flight of stone steps. Coming to the hallway at the bottom she saw movement on her left and followed after Calhan.

He ducked into a side room a few feet away and Meria followed. She turned the corner to see Calhan leaning against the left wall clutching his chest with his shoulders hunched in pain.

“Calhan!” Meria cried running the few steps to his side and catching him as he slid to the floor.

In the flickering light of a lamp set on the floor by the entrance, Calhan’s face was very pale. He gasped giant gulps of air in pain as he leaned his head back against the cold wall.

“I’ll get Selene.” Meria said standing up and turning to rush out the door.

“Don’t,” Calhan rasped grabbing her arm in a grip like steel, “I’ll be alright, it won’t last long.”

Meria didn’t leave, not because of Calhan’s request but because of his grip. She slowly knelt and waited anxiously as Calhan’s breathing became less labored. A few moments passed and Calhan’s grip on her wrist slacked and dropped.

“Calhan?” Meria asked softly and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Hmm?” Calhan asked without opening his eyes.

“Tell me the truth,” Meria said still soft but there was an underlying firmness to her voice, “how long do you have?”

Calhan chuckled, “Long enough, I hope.”

She didn’t say anything as she watched Calhan breathe slowly. Now that she thought on it Calhan hadn’t been up to his normal pace since the Forest temple, and none of them had noticed. As she studied his face she noticed silver streaks beginning to form in his black hair and goatee. Wrinkles were becoming more apparent around his eyes and mouth.

“Do I really look that bad to you?” Calhan asked her softly startling her out of her thoughts.

“Sorry,” Meria replied, “I didn’t mean to stare. It’s just; you look so different from when we started three months ago.”

Calhan laughed, “It’s only been three months? Feels like years since we set out from Hyrule Castle.”

Meria merely nodded as Calhan closed his eyes again. She sighed to herself as she looked around the small room. It was the one they had evacuated from a little while ago, the baskets were still scattered across the floor.

“What’s that?” Meria asked standing up.

“What?” Calhan asked blinking his eyes as Meria grabbed the lantern and headed to the back of the room.

She picked her way over the fallen baskets and past other stacks of things so covered in dust as to no longer be recognizable. Setting the lantern on what she thought was a table Meria wiped a layer of dust off the back wall.

“Hey, Calhan,” She called over her shoulder, “come look at this.”

Calhan grunted as he got up from where he sat and made his way to her. Peering over her shoulder at the wall Calhan stroked his goatee.

“Well,” Calhan said touching the wall where the text was chiseled, “I’ll be. I think we might have found our answer.”

“Can you read it?” Meria asked scooting over so Calhan could look at the text closer.

“It’s really old Hylian.” Calhan mused to himself.

Meria was silent listening to him mumble the foreign tongue under his breath. It sent chills up her spine the longer she listened to him speak. A loud crack from the entrance startled them both.

“Oh-ho that hurt.” Malcom grimaced rubbing his forehead where he had hit it on the low entrance.

“Malcom.” Meria sighed, “Are you alright?”

“Ya’, I’m hard headed enough it didn’t damage me.” Malcom grinned, “I brought the snacks you requested. The other two said you were down here.”

“Thanks, Malcom.” Meria smiled at him as she patted him on the arm, “Come on Calhan let’s go get something to eat.”

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute.” Calhan said without turning around. Meria rolled her eyes and left, she knew he would come up when he got hungry enough. Malcom followed Meria out of the small room and up the corridor to the open air.

Selene and Gerad were already sitting on the ground eating the fruit and bread Malcom had brought.

“How’s he?” Gerad asked around a bite of food.

“He says he’ll be alright.” Meria replied sitting down and taking an apple out of the basket, “We found some text on the wall in that room, he’ll be up when he gets hungry enough.”

Selene laughed, “You sure about that?”

Meria was silent as she bit into the apple; she shrugged, “Maybe.”

Gerad shook his head as he smiled. A gentle breeze was blowing from the east carrying the scent of Hyrule fields. The sun shone down and Gerad found his mind wandering to thoughts of Aerica and eventually to the rest of the crew, he wondered how they were fairing.

“I miss the rest of the guys.” Selene sighed as she picked blades of grass at her feet.

Gerad nodded, “Yeah, me too.”

Meria sighed as she stood up and dusted off her pants. Bending down she picked out a couple pieces of fruit and a loaf of bread.

“I’m going to bring these to the scholar before he starves himself.” Meria said in mock aggravation.

“Alright,” Gerad smiled up at her, “we’ll be down in a bit.”

Meria waved her acknowledgment over her shoulder as she descended once again into the dank darkness of the cellars. As she rounded the corner into the room she rolled her eyes when she saw Calhan hadn’t moved at all.

“Hey,” Meria called to him as she approached, “eat something.”

“Yeah in a minute.” Calhan mumbled without turning around.

“No now.” Meria protested shoving an apple between his face and the wall. Calhan sighed as he took the apple and bit into it.

“Figure out what it says?” Meria asked him over turning a bucket to perch on next to him.

Calhan didn’t answer as he took another thoughtful bite from the apple. He wiped more dust further down the wall off as he continued to read the script. Meria sat there in silence waiting for an answer and slowly realizing she had been forgotten.

“Calhan.” Meria said suddenly causing him to jump.

“What?” He asked startled, “Oh, sorry, yeah it’s about the Temple but so far it hasn’t said where it’s at.”

“So what does it say exactly?” Meria asked leaning closer to the wall.

“Well,” Calhan said leaning back and taking another bite of the apple, “once you get past the poetry and find the actual facts, not very much.”

Meria nodded slowly, “Poetry?”

“Yeah,” Calhan sighed in frustration, “back in the day they were all about writing in rhymes and riddles. Why they couldn’t just say ‘so and so is here and this is how you get to it’ I don’t know.”

Meria pursed her lips as she leaned back and studied the text as a whole. The years hadn’t affected the stone too much and she could see the carvings were once extravagant with detailed pictures. Towards the bottom of the text there was a perfect circle.

“What’s this?” Meria asked brushing dust off of it.

“I don’t know.” Calhan said peering at it with her.

Meria tilted her head in curiosity as she ran her fingers over the little bulge in the wall. The circle gave way as she pressed on it and there was a loud click. Meria snatched her fingers back and shot off the bucket as the room started rumbling.

Calhan stood next to her and they both backed up as the wall with the writing fell backward revealing a tunnel. The two of them coughed and sneezed as more dust was raised from the wall falling.

“What was that noise?” Gerad asked as he rounded the corner into the room.

He didn’t get very far before he started another sneezing fit. Selene and Malcom came in a few moments later.

“Where do you suppose that leads?” Meria asked pointing down the tunnel.

“Only one way to find out.” Calhan replied picking up the lantern.

The others followed him into the tunnel that gently sloped downward. Gerad brought up the rear and glanced back over his shoulder as they rounded a bend in the tunnel and saw the entrance swallowed by the darkness.

Feelings of apprehension were starting to creep onto his shoulders as he remembered his solitary trip through the dark corridors of the Spirit temple. Turning back to face the front he almost walked into Malcom who had stopped.

“What’s up?” Gerad asked stepping around Malcom to see what had made the procession stop.

Calhan had held up his hand when they had reached an archway that led to a vast open room. As Gerad stood beside Selene, Calhan cautiously stepped into the room holding the lantern high to give more light to their surroundings.

The room was circular with a high ceiling. The room seemed to have been carved out of the rock that Lon Lon Ranch sat on. As the group moved to the center Meria glanced at the floor and recognized that it was the Wind Sage crest.

“Calhan look at this.” Meria said pointing to the floor.

“Interesting.” Calhan mused squatting down to the floor.

“What do you suppose this room is Calhan?” Selene asked as she walked towards the left.

“Not sure.” Calhan replied as he tapped his finger on his chin as he thought.

Meria walked past him toward the center of the room, something there seemed to glow. She peered at a spot on the ground that pulsed dimly. As she walked closer it pulsed faster. The others’ voices seemed to fade away and be replaced with the sound of wind streaming past her ears.

Meria reached the point of light in the exact center of the room and stopped. The light continued to pulse so fast to be an almost continuous glow. As she watched it went out. The silence was suddenly replaced by a great gust of wind that swirled around Meria.

“Meria!” Gerad called then was blown down to the ground by the wind.

There was a bright flash of light and the wind stopped. The lantern had gone out and Gerad couldn’t see anything. A small glow came from his left and he saw Selene outlined in light.

Calhan used Selene’s Sage glow to relight the lantern and held it up peering in the direction Meria was.

“Where did she go?” Malcom asked as they all stared at the empty space where Meria had been.