This is the short story I wrote for the
July-August 2022 short story contest
The theme was: "The Explorer's Guide to Lustria or A Brave/Foolhardy Exploration"
My entry:
Game over
*Older man’s voice*
“Twisting through the vast green jungle runs the river Amaxon like a turquoise snake. Endlessly bringing water to the even more endless ocean. At places wide, at places slim, at places tiring slow and at places rampaging fast, but ever flowing. Many adventurers or explorers seeing the new world upon arriving have seen the mouth of this majestic river pouring its water into the sea, but none have even the smallest clue to where its origin lay.”
*Young adult’s voice*
“None you say?”
*Older man’s voice*
“Well, almost none.
There is one little group of people that set out to resist all treads that the New World had in store for them. We find them upstream of the river in a typical vessel: one mast with one red and white striped sail, a low bottom and the sides of it adorned with colorful shields. The prow of the ship has been carved into a wolf-like head. The Longship was crewed with twenty strong warriors and oarsmen commanded by Faustus Olafson.
Originally set out from their homeland led by the fearless Gundar Packmaster, the goal of this expedition was to reach the city with streets of gold. Up to this day, day thirteen since they landed at the coast, they had not succeeded yet. Four days ago there seemed to be a breakthrough as they ventured from the river land inwards to a suspected city, only to find themselves ambushed by Amazon warriors. Six men did not make it back to the ship in time. One of which was Gundar.
Faustus was put in charge for the remainder of the expedition, or at least for as long as he would stay alive.
Standing on the little raised platform at the end of the ship Faustus oversaw his men, hardened by battle and raiding expeditions far and wide, now bleak images of themselves. The journey in this warm and humid climate had drained them to near exhaustion.
The last two days the water that they moved around in was all sorts of brown and it smelled terrible. The water reserve on deck had been dried up by daybreak. On top of it the mosquitos were everywhere, hovering above the water waiting for a bit of bear flesh to poke through. .
Faustus spotted a parting of the river and maneuvered the ship into it. The water was clearer and moving faster over here. Some of the oarsmen noticed the change of water and tried to quench their thirst. A couple of buckets on a rope were let down in the water and hoisted up quickly. Before Faustus had realized what was going on the bucket had been passed around by eight men."Spit it out! Spit it out!” he shouted at them. Two of them spat the water on the deck and a third started coughing up a mixture of water and stomach contents.
“We all are thirsty, but the water from this river is nowhere near drinkable! We will have to make land to find water safe for drinking.”
At the end of the day they made land near a ruined city along the river. From the ship buckets, barrels and five lifeless bodies were set down on the embankment. Half of the crew started chopping down a few trees near the river. Faustus took the other half of the crew and all the barrels to the ruins and found a spring welling up clear water.
Apart from birds and insects flying away in front of the passing party and the chopping of wood behind them there was no sound or movement to be concerned about.
After boarding the ship again they rowed on, leaving behind a few tree trunks and a pile of burning wood with on top the remains of their previous comrades.
The fresh water supply did last for the better part of a week. The banks showed nothing but trees and vegetation with occasionally animals breaking the canopies or the water surface.
After two days the contours of the mountains showed up above the treetops and started to grow in size with every turn of the river.
The jungle became less dense and now and then they spotted an overgrown statue of a giant snake along the river. Around a bend suddenly appeared a stone carved quay of about fifty feet in length.
Further ahead the river became narrower and eventually it split into dozens of tiny streams coming from between the trees that adorned the base of the mountains.
Faustus decided to land on the quay and prepare to venture further on foot. Every member of the crew took a shield from the side of the ship and hung an ax on their belt. A stone arch stood on the edge of the small open area in front of them behind it a path stretched through the vegetation after twenty feet it bent to the right. Just above the canopies showed the top of a large stone pyramid. Faustus led the party onto the path, assuming it would lead them to the structure.
The path curved through the jungle vegetation avoiding trees left and right. The stones, slightly overgrown, were set uneven by the passing of time. They had to watch their footing. In the middle of this part of the jungle the trees parted and the path widened leading into an oval plaza. The path entered at the oblong side of the oval and continued on the opposite side. Faustus took a couple of steps on to the open plaza and scanned the edges of the vegetation. To both sides of him five men stepped forward to watch out for incoming danger. After a minute or two of impatient waiting the ten men strode further forward to the middle ready to continue towards the start of the next path.
“Halt!” It was Faustus that shouted out over the plaza. “Do not move any further.” Faustus pointed to the edge of the plaza, there stood the same statues like the ones along the river. A loud “CLICK” sounded and a deep rumble traveled through the stones. A large circle in the center of the plaza, with eight warriors of the frontline on it, dropped about a foot. Out of the holes in the now exposed stones crawled forth hundreds of colorful snakes, taking in the surroundings with their tongues in the air they located their prey immediately and attacked rigorously.
With their shields and axes they parried as the first wave of snakes, but wave after wave they struggled to keep their body away from the vile teeth and cringing venom. It took a couple of seconds before the remaining men realized what happened before they strode forward. Faustus turned around as they did and spread his arms wide: “Don’t do it! Do not aid them in this battle that can not be won! Let us move ahead and honor their deaths by reaching our destiny.”
Although counterintuitive the men knew Faustus was right: dying in battle was the most glorious way to go.
As the fighting in the center continued with less intensity the remainder of the party moved around the circle to the other side of the plaza. There they followed the new path closer to the city ahead. After five minutes the screaming and sounds of weaponry dulled completely behind them, leaving only the basic sounds of the jungle around them.
Faustus led the party further along the path even more wary of the surroundings than before. For half an hour there was nothing but a path, trees and plants. Now and then a bird flew over causing axes to be grabbed tidier and shields to be slightly raised. In front of them the low vegetation parted and only trees were visible in both directions.
Three more turns in the path revealed a wall of the same gray overgrown stones ahead. The path itself led to an opening in the wall to what might be construed as a gatehouse, but there were no doors nor a gate, just stones formed into a large circle and behind it the streets of gold and pyramids towering over the walls.
As the party stared in awe of this beautiful sight there was a soft sound of wind blowing: “woosh, woosh.” Faustus looked around to see what source this sound could come from. As he does, two of the men at the back of the group drop to their knees and sink forwards revealing a bright feathered dart sticking out of their neck and back.
“Shields up! Behind!” Like one man the remaining five warriors turned around and lifted up their shields. The shields blocked another dart with effect.
Faustus scanned the jungle where the darts had supposedly come from but couldn’t distinguish the source of danger. So close to their goal he could not think of letting it slip through his fingers. He instructed his men: “Let’s move as one. To the gate!” All together they continued on the path holding the shields in place behind them. Six steps in and again the darts were sent, now no contact with a shield, but a dull impact sounded twice. Left and right of the party a warrior stumbled and fell aside. “Rearrange!” was Faustus’ response.
The warriors shifted and one still held his shield in the back, while the other two each moved to a side, Faustus still in front.
The city came closer, about fourteen feet in front of them, Faustus upped the pace. Ten feet… seven feet… “woosh! woosh! woosh!” several darts flew around from various directions. Most hit the shield than not. Faustus heard a body fall behind him and then a second one… two feet… the last of his crew dropped to the floor.. one feet…
As Faustus ran through the gate a flash of blue light encased him. For a second he had set foot in the city with streets of gold and just like that all around him blurred to blue. He felt his feet being lifted off the ground and his body started to turn around. The blue light slowly faded and the blurred surroundings became clear again. In front of him the river Amaxon poured its contents in the blue deep and vast ocean. His feet found the sand beneath, he dropped to his knees exhausted from his adventure and with a broken spirit for losing something he did not really found. In his head he heard a voice speak slowly: “Game over””
*Young adult’s voice*
“That’s it? That’s your story? I can hardly believe that.”
Ivar Darkmane stood up from his chair on one of the quays in the harbor of Skeggi and walked away, leaving the older man at his chair behind the table. Next to the table a cardboard was nailed to a post, on it was written by hand:
“HIRING CREW - ADVENTURE AWAITS”
Grrr, Imrahil
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