***
The two continued moving deeper and deeper into the mountainside, choosing specific passages whenever Shane detected which one the distinct scents of the beasts had followed. ‘I was nearly led astray though,’ he mused to himself, ‘It was a good trick of some of the beasts to leave their waste and droppings deliberately within the wrong passages. It would make the humans think they had taken that passage and lead the evil humans deeper into the maze of honeycomb passages and, hopefully, they will be lost forever.’
Into the passages, into the darkness, ever going deeper into a strange world devoid of all sight, devoid of the sun, the clouds, the stars, Shane continued walking through a seemingly endless nothing; ‘A path that, with fortune, will not lead us to nowhere,’ he thought.
It became as if the humans, and the land that Shane had not so long ago looked upon, had all been taken away, removed, with nothing left except eternal blackness. And time went by very slowly, in unison with the progress that the two were making and, at times, Shane would be fearful for so long had he been in the darkness. The ringing of Flacks heavy hooves clicking on the bare stone floor brought some comfort to him at these times, reminding him that he was not alone.
On occasions, the sounds of Flack’s hooves would stop and Shane would have to give him a voice to follow. One thing though, that Shane could not do for Flack, was to tell him whenever the cave roof dropped a little and Flack had to find out for himself. This slowed down their progress even more.
And so, it became a bitter march against the blackness of the caves and passages and the seeming futility of the minute progress they were making against the length of time of which they had already spent in the caves and passages.
On one occasion, there was clatter of Flack’s hooves and Shane immediately knew that the unicorn had hit something hard and the angry whinny that he made also seemed to cause an additional effect.
As Shane has stopped and turned his head at the sounds made by the unicorn, he saw that the blue glow cast by the unicorn began to increase, lighting up the walls higher and extending the distance which Shane could see. He even saw the large, jutting out rock that Flack’s face must have scraped against as he had been moving through the passage. As Flack calmed down, so did the blue glow diminish back to its previous intensity.
‘If Flack could be kept angry - or was it pain that caused the increase in light - then we would be able to traverse these passages much more quickly.’
He was about to ask Flack if it were possible for him to do this and then thought better of it. ‘It must have been an involuntary reaction, otherwise he would have increased his glow deliberately and would have been able to avoid of the outcrops of rock which have caused him pain so far.’
But they went on. ‘We have to go on. By now, the humans would undoubtedly be in the caves and they would be carrying their darkness removing sticks.’ Shane suddenly realised this, realising how much faster the humans would be able to travel than he first thought. He wanted to increase his speed but there was too much risk of injury or, perhaps, even choosing the wrong passage if they were in so much of a hurry.
Their main hope lay in that the humans would be lost within the many choices of paths to take. ‘But the humans would split up. Some, always some, would always be behind us.’
Irritation and boredom began to set into Shane in the same way a human axe would smash into wood. He wanted to shout, to run wild, to run from side to side... but he could not.
In his mind, trying to think of something other than the darkness around him and the humans behind him, Shane began to go over the way the relationship between the humans and beasts had slowly changed. Evolving into the frame of being that was going to set the two to war; to a final battle and a final bloody conflict.
He remembered the story from his parents, Judd and Serk, and of how the two of them had been wondering through another land that was very, very, distant from this one, of how they were captured by humans but, instead of being killed, they were to remain alive in order to help the humans search the land and to track other beasts.
The story went that many humans and beasts had come through into this land. Sometimes, the beasts had arrived with the humans, as was the case of Shane’s parents but, more often than not, the beasts had arrived separately from the humans and both groups had set out into the new world to build new lives.
Shane’s parents had arrived with the humans and had remained with the humans. They were safe with the humans and were provided for. It was not the perfect existence, but it was a relatively safe one as long as they remained of use to the humans.
They had become used to human ways and it would have been suicide for them to leave and try to fend for themselves as well as having to worry about being sought out and hunted by the humans.
They had remained in that human camp and it was with those humans that they had given birth to four offspring. Shane had been one of them along with Sha, Arrow, and Root. He recalled a picture of himself but with the name Genta, his brother who had died at birth.
In his mind, he gave a quiet chuckle as he thought back to his sister and two brothers; he missed them very much and the fun that they used to have together.
And, as his nose continued to seek out a path through the mountain, his mind took him back to other times and other places.
One day, whilst alone with the pups, Judd and Serk had come across another dog. This dog had left a group of humans to travel on its own to try to seek a land called Essilon. It was the name given by the beasts to a land of sanctuary from humans and all beasts were to gather in this faraway land to make ready to do battle with the humans.
A great number of beasts had made a decision that they needed to be free of the evil ways that the humans herded across the land. Stories had come about the destruction of the old land by floods; stories of how the land was to be destroyed because of the evil nature of the humans and of how God had no choice but to cleanse that land.
There was also much talk of a great one, a ‘Chosen One,’ coming from the sky and who would lead the beasts into a final battle with the humans.
Shane’s parents had already known of these stories and they had asked if the stranger would take their four young ones along with him, to take the young ones away from the humans and to the safety of the place called Essilon. The stranger had agreed to this but he had taken only three and not four. Shane had stubbornly refused to go as he was determined to remain with his mother and father.
He remembered the day that they left. His brothers and sister sneaked, one by one, out of the camp to a rendezvous with the stranger and to begin a journey that would take them to safety.
As they left the camp, Shane watched them and was saddened to be seeing them go but he understood what his parents were doing. They were trying to ensure that they had a good life and, if there was to be a battle between the humans and beasts, his parents wanted their young to be safely within the company of the beasts.
Sha was the first to leave the camp and a little while after, his sister, Root, trotted off out of the camp.
His other brother, Arrow, had sneaked up behind Shane and gave him a playful nip. Shane had jumped and Arrow was laughing at him with the same mischievous look in his eyes that he always had. He had always played tricks on Shane.
The smile vanished from Arrow’s lips. “Well, I’ll see you around, brother,” he said softly to Shane.
Shane had just stared back, feeling a lump of great sadness growing in his throat.
“You take care of yourself, Arrow,” Shane had said, “And don’t forget to get plenty of water before you cross the desert.”
“No problem, brother. I’ve got my permanent oasis, remember?” With that he turned his side to Shane, presenting to him his well-known coat on which was a silhouette of an oasis with a palm tree. It was a very noticeable and recognisable shape.
“Look after mom and dad, you hear?” said Arrow.
“I will,” said Shan
e, “You know I will.”
“Well, see you,” Arrow said, as he leaned forward and licked the side of Shane’s head.
Before Shane could reply, Arrow barked loudly down his ear, causing Shane to jump again.
Arrow sped off quickly, shouting back at Shane, “I got you again, little brother. Take care of yourself.”
Shane barked back, “And you take care of Sha and Root.”
Shane heard the reply, “You know I will,” as Arrow vanished behind a clump of bushes as he sped on his way, setting off on the beginning of his journey to Essilon.
Shane was very sad that day and for a long time he wondered if he had made the wrong decision by staying but later he knew he had made the right decision when his father died, leaving his mother alone except for him. He knew his mother was very poorly and that she only had very few seasons left within her.
He had never found out what had happened to his father. He had been out one day with the humans and had never returned. The humans who had returned were injured and they talked about meeting a number of bears and trying to hunt them down. They returned without any meat and so it was known that the bears had won. No mention was made of the fate of his father.
It was for his mother that Shane had wanted to return to the human camp to try to take her away. He had wanted to return but soon afterwards he had realised that with the age eating away at her rear legs she could not have gone very far. Shane knew she would not have left the place where she had buried her son, Genta. And so Shane had changed his mind about returning and had decided to go straight to Essilon with Flack.
There was something strange about Flack but Shane could not see exactly what it was and, rather than think about that, he thought about his sister and brothers. ‘They will be waiting for me in Essilon.’