Treasure

1.

"I am weary of waiting." Alpen slid his sword into its scabbard.

Drindl slapped him on the shoulder and pointed at the sky behind Alpen. "The faeries have found an energy core. We can prepare for battle."

Altiss, the faerie Queen, stretched her arms to the sky. "Come here, my children!" The dozen or so faeries alighted on her arms then crawled beneath her cloak. She gathered her cloak about her and ducked inside Sarten's tent.

Alpen, Drindl and Fallon waited outside the tent. Sarten threw open the tent flap and stepped out on the damp ground. He pointed west. "A few miles. Take ropes with you. The energy cache is partway down a cliff."

"How much?" Alpen asked.

"More than enough." Sarten glanced at the sky, then put his hand on Alpen's broad shoulder. "Act swiftly and we will attack at dawn." The Faerie Queen emerged from the tent and handed a faerie to Sarten. It looked like a dove but with the head of a squirrel. Sarten handed the faerie to Alpen. "She will show you the way. I will wait until you return. Then we will sound the battle horn."

Alpen, Drindl and Fallon bowed their heads to Sarten and remained facing him as they stepped back. Sarten raised his hand in a gesture of formal dismissal. The three turned toward the warriors' tent.

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The last mile was a steep hike. The three warriors stood next to each other and looked over the cliff edge to the stream at the bottom of the gorge. The faerie chattered at them, then flew down the cliff and settled on a scrub tree growing out from the cliff.

"Drindl, you are the lightest. We'll lower you down," Alpen turned back to the ropes and gear in a pile on the ground.

"We don't even know if there is anything down there," Drindl protested.

"You don't like heights!" Fallon laughed. "Sarten will be surprised to learn that his warrior captain trembles." He slapped Drindl in the back and said, "I'll go."

"Is the rope strong enough for a fat-assed warrior?" Alpen chided.

"It's your ass you should worry about if you don't show some respect." Fallon grabbed the rope and a sling bag. He looked earnestly. "You saw the cliff cutaway  at the tree. I will have to swing out past the tree."

They nodded soberly. This was dangerous work. If Fallon survived the descent without smashing into the rock, he still had to get the energy stones and himself through the tree on the ascent up the cliff.

Drindl handed Fallon the short battle axe. "It will cut an arm off. Perhaps it can do the same to a tree limb."

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Fallon struck out at the faerie before pushing away from the cliff. Wrong move. The faerie nipped at his jacket in a game of tag as Fallon swung around the scrub bush. He spun on the rope as the momentum carried him in an arc away from the cliff. As he swung back to the cliff, he hit his shoulder hard against the rock. Numbness shot through his arm to the hand clutching the rope. He straddled a rock ledge and the gnarled trunk of the bush to stop the twisting. "Damn you!" He yelled at the faerie who settled on a branch and chattered at him.

Looking to his left he saw a small cave in the cliff. He tied off the rope on the bush, then tapped the rope 3 times to signal that he was OK. He pulled on the bush. It felt secure. He was relieved when the faerie flew away. He didn't understand the warning in that behavior.

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Fallon regained his balance on the ledge, bent sideways and discovered a deep darkness. This was a cave, not a shallow alcove in the cliff. He had no fire. Where was the faerie? Its phosphorescent feathers would have provided a dim source of light.

He closed his eyes to adjust them to the darkness. When he opened them he saw the faint blue glow of the energy core. Unsure of the ceiling height in the cave, he walked on knees and hands to the core.

The skin on his fingers tingled as he touched the honeycomb core. A taste? The extra energy would help him make the ascent up the cliff. No, the flood of sensation would disorient him for a few minutes. It was why a warrior could not recharge in the midst of battle.

He stuffed his bag with all that he could carry. A deciding advantage in tomorrow's battle. He turned as he felt a tug of claw at his ankle. Two blue tinged eyes emerged from a bed of straw next to him. His pulse accelerated. An active den! This wasn't the abandoned rook of thE giant Iris bird. There must be another entrance. Below the eyes, a pink mouth opened and the soft plaintive mew of a bear cub broke the dark silence in the cave. Fallon heard a low grunt and the scrape of a large body against the rock deeper in the cave. Mom was returning!

He stood in a half crouch and turned toward the cave opening. A growl from the great bear vibrated through the floor of the cave and trembled the bones in Fallon's legs. No single warrior could best a great bear, especially one which had been feeding on energy.

He felt the shudder of the rock as the bear launched its crushing weight toward him. He rushed out of the entrance and dove into the empty air. Better a quick death than the painful torture of tooth and claw.