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THE ROOT OF DARKNESS TWENTY-EIGHT
The sounds of banging against the wooden door is what rouses me from my slumber. I blink the sleep from my eyes, and uncurl myself from my sleeping corner.Bang! Bang! Bang!"Open up in the name of his Majesty, the king!" A male voice yells outside.I let out a groan and stretch out my limbs, then brush the lint out of my dark hair. I cannot find the strip of cloth I always tie my shoulder-length hair back with, so I let it be and go ahead to yank the door open.The daylight filters in through the dank wood, and I pull the door open wider. Two guards stand in front of the cottage, menacing and rigid."We are the royal guards. Submit your taxes, you are far behind on your payments." One of the guards says stoically.I resist the urge to grimace at them. They always insist on introducing themselves each time they come for taxes, despite the fact that their attire definitely shows that they work for the king.I straighten up and tell them the same words I said during their last few visit
THE ROOT OF DARKNESS TWENTY NINE
I watch the knights going in pursuit of the man on my donkey, and rapidly realizes the situation. The strange, shifty man is a thief. He broke into the King's vault of magical items and stole some seeds.I glance down at the satchel again.These seeds.They are indeed magical, from the castle and even belongs to the King. If they be so precious, why did he steal them, only to give them to me in exchange for a donkey?I tie the satchel up and place it into my rougher satchel, along with the five copper pieces.I decide to keep them, for they have to be as priceless as the man claims if so many royal guards are in desperate pursuit. Then, I think about aunt, and the 30 copper pieces I have to deliver to her.The guards will return tomorrow for our debt, and we have nothing else to sell. Our cow is too useful to be put for sale just yet.Telling her such a story is sure to be disappointing and will paint me as a reckless, gullible young lad. But I have no choice. I have to repeat the man
THE ROOT OF DARKNESS THIRTY
Those odd seeds still linger in my dreams when I suddenly jolt awake.I am disoriented for a second, before I realized what had roused me from earlier than planned. It was because of the strange rumbling sounds filling my ears.There are strange vibrations from the floor of the cottage, to match the rumbling sounds. I frown, watching the door rattle in it's hinges as the vibrations grow in intensity.In alarm, I shoot up to my feet, feeling the floor shake slightly under me. For the life of me, I can not figure out what the cause of this could be, so I hurry to the door.Throwing the shaking door open, I step outside to see three guards atop three mighty horses, galloping towards our little cottage. The horses hooves strike the ground with such power, that I feel the vibrations where I stand.The rumbling sounds only come from the horses hooves and their galloping.I sigh to myself,"These darn guards could not even wait till we are properly awake before barging in on us."The guards
THE ROOT OF DARKNESS THIRTY ONE
My hands tremble after an hour of persistent climbing. The stalk seemed to have no end. The farther I climb, the farther the top seems to get. I could only see what I assume to be the top of the giant plant, piercing through a sea of clouds so far up above.A strong wind blows against me, rattling my ropes and causing my hair to whip behind me. I hold fast, digging my knife into the thick stalk. My shirt is paper thin against the harshness of the elements up here, but I can only grit my teeth and continue.Up here, the wind is unrestricted and strong enough to knock one off any footholds. I do not intend to let that happen, anyway.The wind eventually dies down, and I let out a tired breath, continuing the torturous and hazardous climb. My fingers are bright red and raw from gripping tightly at the knife and ropes. I have tied the knife tightly to my arm with the ropes, so it does not fall back down to the ground if my hold slips.My toes burned from gripping on to precarious grooves
THE ROOT OF DARKNESS THIRTY TWO
"That's enough for today. We covered great a distance. I would not suggest you look down, because we are at such an unbelievable height. I don't want anyone getting faint." Sir Victor announces.I ignore him and look down, but I can not even see much of what lay below because it is already nightfall. And again, we are so far up that our eyes can not simply take the strain of trying to identify anything on back in the ground.A ghoulish thought crosses my mind, wondering if one would be dead in the air before they even reach the ground should they fall from this height.The last of the light is rapidly vanishing from the sky, and I have to focus harder on where I place my foot to avoid slipping.Sir Berret glances around us, and draws our attention to a fork in the part of the stalk right above us. It branches out into a sturdy stem with giant, strong leaves that don't even move with the wind."We can spend the night there, lads. Move your arse up there, Jack, we are running out of twi
THE ROOT OF DARKNESS THIRTY THREE
Three days.Three days to break the thick sheet of clouds hovering around the top of the giant plant like a mist. We persist through the fog like mad men, losing the strength to even talk.Every breath is precious in the thin air, and every step higher, drains our strengths faster than our barely existent food supply can replenish. Despite our strict rationing of hard bread and stale water, there is nothing left in our satchels."Ah! I can barely feel my back anymore!"It is Sir Berret who exclaims, his voice hoarse with exhaustion.I glance sideways at him, barely seeing him through the fog. I croak back,"I can't feel mine either. Only the pain in my fingers guide me. I reckon if I take my gloves off and see the state of my fingers, I would definitely faint and lose my balance."Sir Victor let out an exhausted wheeze that he probably intends to be laughter."Look on the bright side, lads. We are about to break the clouds. Look up!"I look up and a relieved smile stretch my parched l
THE ROOT OF DARKNESS THIRTY FOUR
I am still lost in the formless world of dreams and drowsiness when a sudden series of shouts and yells barges into my ears.Jolting, my eyes fly open as a familiar course of adrenaline runs through me. It is a familiar feeling. I have felt that a hundred times during the climb up the beanstalk, when I startle awake in the dead of the night thinking I was falling to my doom.Each night on the giant beanstalk brought a different kind of fear. The fear of my ropes snapping. The fear of the strong winds blowing me off my perch. The fear of suffocating in the thin air. The fear of slipping on plant sap.The fear of losing my blade, the last thing I have of my father.It was a treacherous sensation.And that fear is exactly what I feel right now, as I scramble on the pile of leaves I was lying on, squinting up at the sight before me."Don't move, you slimy intruder!"A bark shoots in my direction, followed by the whiny ring of a steel sword pointed at me threateningly. My heart thunders as
THE ROOT OF DARKNESS THIRTY FIVE
Exactly how large is this castle? We have not reached the kitchen yet, how much farther can it get?"Sir Berret mutters, rubbing in his sunken belly through his threadbare shirt. The knights are leading us to the kitchen to be fed, according to the orders of the princess, and I find myself ever grateful to her.Without her intervention and insistence, we three would be dead men by now.Sir Victor says in a low tone,"At least we know we are finally going to eat good food after starving for a day or two."I smile at them both,"They will treat us to a feast. Nothing like the treacherous stale bread we had coming up here. In a castle filled with gold like this one, food and game must be in abundance. We will feast on food far better than anything we can find back in our kingdom. The princess will make sure of it."My own stomach growls as I speak and salivate over the food I had not even set my eyes on yet. Only the thought of putting something warm and tasty in my mouth, and filling my
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