Chapter 36: The Path Again

Maleki:

Miko and I moved like shadows through the dark desert, which was the area surrounding The Garden. Even though the Leviathan tree sprouted again, something had broken inside it, causing its influence to be nullified. There was no infinite stamina or healing glow being emitted now within the walls of The Garden, and that also meant there was no longer a sapping force that sucked away at the inhabitants or travelers of the lands that make up the trials. These environments were not friendly even without the presence of the tree and its curses, yet this desert somehow seemed less dangerous than before. The trees seemed less ominous; even the clouds seemed less dark and no longer loomed so close to the ground.

The Strix attacked as they did before, but something had changed since then. They were as vicious as before, with talons as sharp as a blade. They were swift and agile, like any beast. But I was not tired, nor was I worried about Miko’s state of being or them focusing an attack on him. We both moved without hesitation against them, cutting away at their feathered flesh with the same invigoration as hungry wolves. When night fell, we started a fire near the stream on the ashen land using foliage and sticks we found near the outer wall.

The whispering flames danced before us while we ate upon the Strix’s white flesh. We laughed and told stories for hours until the sun began to rise again. We had not slept that night. I had not slept since exiting the tree, but I was still not tired. We weren’t in a hurry, and yet our pace was quicker than the stream. It felt like we were moving as fast as the clouds.

We raced, and we ran. We talked about the past and the future, our fears and hopes. We were brothers again. There was no curse, no disease, no growing illness. It was just Miko and me, like how it used to be.

His arm was still dull, but he had control over it now. There was no more cycle with limbs alternating daily; Miko simply focused on a limb of his choice. He was limited in some ways, but missing an arm is much different than missing a leg. He could walk, even run, all on his own. And that made all the difference this time around. Even when I usually would have been tired, watching Miko run next to me reminded me of those days I watched him in our grandmother’s garden when he seemed to resign himself to a cruel paralytic fate. Those days were fresh on our minds, perhaps even more so for Miko, considering he spent almost nine months fighting just to regain the very control he has now.

With Miko off my back and his condition off my mind, we cleared the area that was once the end trial in a week. What had felt like an eternity, what had felt like death, what I crawled, starved, sweat, and bled through for over two months, we finished in only a week.

The area of the life trial that I had lost my mind in, and that later Miko had collapsed into his own mind in, was still the same dense jungle that it was before. The healing effect that the false garden had once emitted was no longer emanating, so our wounds did not heal, and our memories did not fade, but neither did the trees and shrubs grow back like they once did. When we hacked and slashed at the foliage and vines in front of us, the remnants fell to the ground like any other forest. The overcrowding of the branches and trees had not yet begun to affect each other, but Miko and I had suspicions that that would not stay the case for much longer. Despite how devastating this trial was on us individually when we first made our way through, it really was just a thick and tangled mess that any seasoned traveler could make their way through in just a week or less. Without the extra effort added by the trial, we had made our way through in five days.

In our time together throughout the life trial, Miko and I spent more time recounting the trials and The Garden, and what each other missed out on. We had prepared somewhat for this next trial, but Miko’s recollection of it was much different from mine. I still remember the suffocating waves, the rain that seemed to drown us from above, the waterspouts that ripped away at the sea with fierce winds, and the hole that existed between the two beaches. Of all the trials, that one was the one that made me feel the most helpless. Somehow, in my head, I felt as though if I could stand on my own two feet, I could accomplish just about anything through sheer effort, even if it killed me slowly. But the water was different. Even though you could just barely see the beach on the other side of the water, the goal of swimming across felt impossible. Last time, I moved because we had to, out of fear of Miko getting worse the longer we waited. But this time, we just simply wanted to go back; we didn’t have to, and there was something limiting about that line of thinking. When you have no other choice but to forge ahead, the details are less important; it’s just doing it that matters; one foot in front of the other, one hand dragging us across the sea while we backpedal slowly.

Over the course of the life trial, Miko and I deliberated on whether it would be easier to swim with one arm and two legs or two arms and one leg. With two legs, he could pedal his feet while I stroked backward with my arms, and with both of us flat on our backs. However, that would make Miko reliant on me, and he was hesitant for me to use any additional energy on anything other than myself if he could avoid it. Everything that happened in The Garden of Need, and everything that it took to get us there, caused my brother to hesitate. Perhaps it was out of fear that the same thing might happen to me again if I bore his weight as my own.

So, Miko decided that he would swim on his own with two arms. We camped on the beach where Miko had once spent a week waiting for me and rested to our fullest potential so that we could prepare our bodies for the long swim across. Tonight would be the first time Miko had two arms available to him since his attempt to climb the great leviathan tree. When morning came, and the sunlight gleamed on the white sand, we immersed ourselves in the cool water and began our trek.

We swam and swam, but tired or not, we paddled and cupped our hands through the waves in an effort to stay afloat. After almost two hours, I estimated we were somewhat near the middle, but something wasn’t right. The waves hadn’t been as violent as last time. There was no whirlpool. No suffocating rain. The weather was tame, and the sky above us was hardly full of clouds.

The swim was hard, and our bodies had barely enough energy to pull ourselves to shore, so we rode the waves to the beach below the mountain. The last time we made the journey over the sea, we had only made it halfway before we fell into the watery pit below the surface, and we didn’t even swim the last half; we were just shot across the sea floor by some impossibly fast current.

We slept on that beach for two days before we attempted to move. This feeling of pain and soreness should have been reminiscent of the intense pain I felt throughout the journey, but instead, it felt right. I had gotten my footing back from the desert and the thick forest, and that swim was what I needed to finally wake up my bones and muscles so that they felt like they once did. All that time I slept, and the time inside the tree did not cause me to regress; in some ways, it made me stronger, but I was used to intense movement, having carried Miko for half my life.

Miko was more tired than I was, considering he moved with one less limb that entire time, but somehow he endured. My brother had changed in a lot of ways in my absence. I suppose over ten months alone would do that to you, though.

“You said there was a terrible storm last time we swam this, right?”

“Yeah,” I said back through short breaths as I tried to rise to my knees. “It was everything they say about the coastal storms, but worse. The whole sky was a dark gray cloud that sundered the sea with rain and funnels.”

Miko had more trouble sitting up from the tiredness and from the dull arm that now slumped at his side. “Do you think that storm was the trials doing?”

That was a question I never considered. Everything had felt like a part of the trials doing in these zones, but there were outside factors like the Strix and the Aeternae that The Garden certainly had no direct interaction with. It was possible that it attracted these things, but if the volcano had somehow erupted, would I have attributed that to the trial or to a natural occurrence?

“Now that you mention it, we haven’t seen any harsh weather since we’ve left the garden. It made sense in the end trial since it was a desert, but we hadn’t seen a single storm yet. Do you think the tree dying affects-“

“Yes.” Miko interrupted as he breathed heavily, holding himself up over the ground with his good arm. “I had suspicions, and I knew the tree was responsible for more than just some majikal fruits. The tree must have been responsible for the storms that have affected our planet all throughout history.”

“Why would the tree want to send out storms?”

“I think the Leviathan tree is a tool used by whatever came before the primordials to seed the planet with life. It had only been intended as a haven for their creation, but the storms create and spread water all throughout the planet and our continent. I just hope the weather systems have been in effect for long enough that they can run without assistance. I don’t think they’ll be as strong as they once were, but if not, I will have changed and upset the balance of a lot of different ecosystems.”

“We don’t know that for sure. We should reserve our assessment until we are out of the trial zones.”

Miko didn’t fight me on it, but it didn’t seem to convince him either. He did not sulk or hide from his choice. He seemed to be taking it head-on. But part of me feels like I can see the reverberations of guilt on him. The Miko who came out of the tree seemed less concerned than the brother I dragged through the desert.

The mountain was the only true landmass that remained in our path. Three trials in one. Aeros, Agni, and Aerth. We had two paths ahead of us. Take a different route with unexpected obstacles and possibly speed up our journey back and avoid the trials, or take the previous path and use the advantage of knowing what to expect. With Miko’s new capabilities, new paths open up to us either way, and at the very least, we can move much quicker and with less risk. The trials may not be in effect any longer, but that doesn’t mean threats like the Aeternae aren’t roaming these cliffs or the deep tunnels. I was lucky the first time fighting one of those beasts, so it might be wise to stick to the path we know one has been dealt with.

After much consideration of both paths, we decided to climb around the mountainside that peered over Quavoris. This was the original route that Khronos had tried to guide us through, but under my impatience, we took a direct path through the mountain's inner core and to the peak. Part of me thought we had taken unnecessary risks with that decision, considering we could have taken this path all along, but Miko reminded me that every zone had to judge us for us to proceed, so that meant that every path was prepared with a different approach or strategy to test us. Depending on the path we took and the choices we made, we would be tested accordingly.

Miko and I stared at a stretch of stone that extended horizontally across a ravine that was too deep to see the bottom. To our left was a path up the mountain that likely led to the enormous cave system we had already traversed through, and to our right were a few miles of sloped cliffs that descended into the ocean.

“You’re not in climbing shape, let’s just take the caves.”

“Not in shape?” Miko said with her mouth agape. “I climbed higher and farther than you did with one whole less limb.”

“Well, I had a whole person to carry, so that has to account for something!”

“You climbed like fifty feet! I climbed for days. That’s gotta count for something…”

“How about you climb with me on your back this time for a third of the distance, and we can call it even.”

“Fine!” Miko spat back. His eyes scanned the flat cliffside we needed to climb across and then moved back to me to inspect my shape and size as if he were truly analyzing the possibility of carrying me across. “Never mind.” He grunted. “I can do this, though. Just make sure not to fall to your death, and listen to what I say. I’m your senior when it comes to climbing experience.”

“Do you want me to cripple you after all that work we went through to get you better?”

“Try it, Maleki! Don’t make me put you in a coma again.” He grabbed his limp arm as if he were trying to cross his arms with a tough gesture, but it just ended up looking like he was nursing a bite wound.

The climb would have been impossible with Miko on my back and with my stamina being drained, but now that those factors were removed, I could move freely on the stone wall with a confidence I hadn’t felt before. On our horizontal path over the ravine below us, we kept our eyes above our heads and to our sides, seeing only the rock that sloped outward towards the water and our destination on the other side of the stretched cliff face.

Miko moved methodically; every gap he cleared was passed with intensive consideration of how he could combine his current limbs to move in ways I hadn’t considered. There was no sleeping on the side of this mountain like he did in the tree. The only rest we received was when we found a crevice in the rock that we could reach into to free our arms from holding up our entire weight. This wasn’t a difficult climb in terms of the maneuvers; it was the duration and lack of rest points that increased the difficulty. The slower we moved, the more the potential for our bodies to tire out on us and fall to our deaths.

I wasn’t worried about myself. Instead, I found myself slowing my pace to keep near Miko. Every handhold and foothold I watched meticulously, like a grave hawk watching a rodent from its perch on a tall rocky hill. I stayed far enough away to avoid him feeling like I was monitoring his every move, but that came with the added pressure that I couldn’t get to him if he needed assistance.

The climb was difficult, but it too passed like the other trials. After two days of walking the rugged mountain paths, we found ourselves overlooking Quavoris. Far below us sat The Temple of The Last Gods, where we first discovered majik and where we once looked far up into the sky at the mountain that we now stand on. Our journey had almost come full circle.