Beyond Doubt: Whispers of the Unseen - Chapter 42
Welcome to my seemingly endless journey.
A trip that will take you to places I might have visited many moons ago.
It´s a tale that came back to me when I meditated on one of my past lives. A life I told you about in my unbelievable true story.
As promised in that story I will now share this story with you.
Chapter 42
We are all emotional by that voice and we all have a need to tell our story.
I tell them how I floated away from the village.
Rech explains how he felt himself becoming a little boy again. Numico only remembers that all he wanted was to follow that voice to the end of the world.
But something stopped him from going down the hill. As if the voice pulls you towards her, and at the same time ensures that you keep your distance.
It was a strange sensation, three grown men, so impressed by one voice.
This break had clearly run late and we decided to eat and drink the rest while walking. Very occasionally we still hear the voice when a sigh of wind carries her away. She could be anywhere by now, while we still have a long journey to go.
This green rolling landscape caresses the eye, and although the climbing and descending cause a somewhat slower pace, it is worth it. When we climb the largest hill in the meadow area, the view is fantastic. At its foot on the other side lies a large lake surrounded by many green hills, the vegetation consisting of various shades of green and brown, seems to represent a huge bear.
This lake is the end of my map; no one I've ever spoken to has been further than here. The bear on the lake. The men who had been here traveled further than anyone else, seeing no village or settlement from here, which made them decide to turn back.
They traveled south via a circumferential route in the hope of discovering new communities there. Communities that may have knowledge that will help us. This makes this the edge of the world for us.
"Gentlemen, we are at the end of the world," I say solemnly. They look at me like I'm out of my mind, but I pretend my nose is bleeding and take the map out of my pocket. I unfold it and show them the border to the north of the drawing I made. The edge where a lake with a bear and green hills is visible.
"You see, after this, it ends," I say holding op the map.
"So no one from our tribe has ever gone further than here," Numico says proudly.
"If anyone has been there, they have never returned from it," I say. Numico's eyes widen, and he descends the hill with quick steps. Apparently, he wants to be the first to enter this new world.
We follow the path that cuts through the bear forest. Nature here is less friendly than the environment earlier today. My thoughts are with the village; a few more days, and we should be close by. If we find it, it will be the first encounter with my nightmarish visions.
Why am I looking for this village that probably no longer exists? What traces can I still find?
What can it tell me?
Doubts arise because I no longer know what drives me to look for this village. It's the only lead I have, but it still seems unlikely that it will shed any new light on the situation.
What worries me most it the fact that it will be a confirmation of that what till then can be written off as a fantasy.
An icy scream cuts through my bones.
I turn to see if nothing is wrong with Numico. He could be the only one who can shout that high, but he too looks up in surprise and scans the area for the origin of this sound. The trunks limit the view; the leaves and shrubs do their best to make it impossible to see in the distance.
The young man looks at me questioningly. I shrug my shoulders and indicate that I want to continue walking. "Probably the death cry of a rabbit or something like that," the last word is not yet spoken when the sound is heard again.
"Maybe we should take look. Never know," says Retsj. I nod; we walk on the path for a while, and after a few meters, we see a narrow track leading into the western part of the forest.
“This is the direction I think it must come from,” I say, and as if to prove my words, the icy scream repeats again and sounds closer now.
We hurry along the path that gets narrower towards its end. Then a wooden hut appears from behind a number of thick trunks. It's not much, a simple log cabin with a wooden fence on the left side, which serves to keep the animals inside; a cow and a goat, some chickens, and a beast of burden.
"That'll teach you, dumb bitch," a man's voice booms, followed by a swishing sound that breaks into a 'pets.'
"No, stop, it was an accident." Sounds a female voice.
"You're an accident," and that swaying sound again, but this time no slaps.
What follows is a bang with which the door of the log cabin slams open, and a young woman in rags runs out. She looks at the ground and therefore has not seen us yet. Then a large, roughly built man appears in the doorway. He has a long thin stick in his right hand and freezes when he sees us standing there.
The woman runs without looking; Rech puts his arms out to catch her. She would otherwise have run herself upside down into the giant.
The young woman is startled by the arms and screams again; then she looks up, past the enormous chest, into Rech's eye.
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