3. Devil’s Pass

Zenith was awoken the next morning by the pain coming from his arm. He looked down at it and saw it had been put in a cast. He looked to his side and saw Grith sitting in a chair, a pair of backpacks and sacks next to him. He was looking at a map.

“Hello,” said Zenith.

“Ah, hello son, ready to go? You were asleep fer quite some time, so we didn’t leave right at the break of dawn,” said Grith.

“What time is it?” asked Zenith.

“’Bout…seven,” answered Grith.

“Oh…well then let’s go, we don’t want to waste any time,” said Zenith, pushing himself up out of bed with his good hand.

“Okay, here, Zenith, look at this map, that’ll tell you were we are going to have to go.” Zenith took the map and looked at it. His father pointed out several places on the map.

“First, we go through the woods here. Not that bad of a start. But as you see here,” he pointed to a place right outside the woods, “we have to either go through the briar patch, which we can’t, or,” he pointed at a different spot. Zenith noticed Grith’s hand shaking slightly, “we go through this way.” He pointed at part of the map that led through a large graveyard, and through a section of mountains. The path was very long, and along it were places labeled “cliff” and “avalanche area”. Zenith read the name of the path.

“Devil’s Pass,” he said. Even just reading the name gave him slight shivers.

“Devil’s Pass is a very treacherous route, but it leads to the next town, where we will be able to rest. Then we have a long journey to go from there still,” he pointed to a town at the end of Devil’s Pass, then pointed to a very large section that was all forest, “we have to pass through these forests. Over to the side of these forests,” he pointed to a black area, in the middle of which was a large castle, “is the Land of the Dead. An evil lord is said to live there, and he rules all of the undead that plague these towns.” He pointed to the town at the end of Devil’s pass and a town at the end of the large patch of forest.

“The Land of the Dead,” repeated Zenith. Something about the name stirred his memory, but he had had a long day, so he couldn’t remember.

“A very evil and dark place,” said Grith.

Zenith and Grith had started their journey, Grith carrying everything until Zenith’s arm healed. Grith was carrying the sword, the shield, two backpacks, two sacks, a belt with pouches full of money, and a strap around his chest that carried a few daggers. Zenith had told him that he could carry at least some, but his father had insisted. They passed by the edge of the town and through a large meadow, and then they reached the first forest that Grith had pointed out.

“There are sometimes gremlins and goblins in this wood, but nothing that could pose a real threat,” said Grith, giving Zenith a dagger. “Keep this at hand.”

Zenith nodded and started walking into the woods. Grith followed, a dagger at the ready. Suddenly, Zenith heard a slight rustle. He looked around and saw a pair of eyes peering at him. But as soon as he looked, the eyes disappeared.

“Goblins,” warned Zenith.

“What?” asked Grith.

“There are goblins near us. I just saw one,” said Zenith.

“YAAHHH!!!” They heard a shrill shriek and a pack of five goblins raced out at them both, small spears poking at them.

“Oh no,” said Grith.

“YI-YI-YI!” A particularly short goblin squeaked as he jabbed at Zenith with a tiny little spear. Then, after the goblin saw he wasn’t doing anything to Zenith but giving him tiny scrapes, he jumped onto Zenith’s leg and climbed up.

“OW!!” Zenith yelled, and he swatted at the goblin.

“YIPE!!!” the tiny goblin shrieked as he fell of Zenith’s leg. Zenith looked around and saw Grith fighting off a pair of goblins at the same time. Zenith pulled out his dagger and jumped at the goblins with his good hand and stabbed at them. He speared a goblin right in the back, but the other dodged away, and jumped at Zenith. Zenith felt Grith swat at the goblin and it went flying. Zenith felt claws digging into his back, and he yelled in pain. He heard a goblin cackle that turned into a scream as it was stabbed by Grith. The last goblin had broken its spear, and when it saw Grith and Zenith advancing on it with daggers, it shrieked and fled into the woods.

“WHEW,” said Grith. “That was an ordeal.”

“Hopefully that won’t happen again,” said Zenith.

“This is a very small patch of woods. We are almost at the end.” Grith pointed to a small patch of light at the end of a longish path.

“Good. I know those goblins were easy, but it’s hard to fight with a broken arm,” said Zenith.

“Yes, well, it’ll heal over time,” said Grith.

Zenith and Grith started walking down the path. When they came to the end of it, they noticed that it was longer than they expected. Dusk was falling, but Zenith, for some reason, could see fine.

“I can see fine…why?” Zenith asked.

“Probably a bit of the wolf got into you,” answered Grith. They began walking along the small pathway. A couple steps along, Zenith started smelling an odd smell.

“Yuck. What’s that stench?” he asked.

“It’s probably the graveyard just around the corner,” said Grith.

Suddenly a vision appeared in Zenith’s mind. It was of a man falling off of something, but it had only appeared for a split second. He hadn’t been thinking about anything, but it had all of a sudden appeared. He concentrated on seeing the full vision. He closed his eyes and thought about the vision. It popped back in, and Zenith saw, to his horror, that it was Grith. Grith was running away from a large avalanche of rocks. Suddenly Grith skidded to a halt and stumbled. He tripped over a small rock and fell off a large cliff. The vision suddenly shifted to Grith, hanging on to a small outcrop of rock. The avalanche was falling over the edge. A particularly large rock fell off the cliff and hit Grith on top of the head. Grith became unconscious and let go of the cliff.

“NOOOOOOOO!!!!!” shouted Zenith, forcing his eyes open. He looked wildly around. Grith was staring at him. Zenith looked around and saw nothing, no avalanche, and no cliff.

“What’s wrong?” asked Grith.

“I saw something…it was so real,” whispered Zenith.

“Well…what was it?” asked Grith.

“I saw you. You were running from and avalanche, and then you slipped and fell off a cliff,” Zenith said.

“I wonder why,” said Grith. “Well, c’mon, let’s get going before it becomes completely dark.”

Zenith followed his father along the pathway, the vile stench intoxicating the air. They rounded the corner, and Zenith saw the graveyard. It was the biggest graveyard he’d ever seen. There were thousands and thousands of gravestones, each seeming to reek of filth. Zenith saw a sign hanging from a large gate that led up to a small hut. No lights were on in the hut, but Zenith read the sign clearly.

“The Grime-Droppings Graveyard,” he read.

“It’s the biggest graveyard in this town,” said Grith.

Suddenly, a light flickered on in the hut, and they heard a dog barking. They saw the silhouette of a man standing in the doorway. He had a large humpback, and when he breathed in, he rocked back and forth. Zenith saw a gleam from the doorway, and saw that the man was holding a large butcher knife.

“He’s got a knife,” whispered Zenith to Grith.

“Whaddya want?” the man in the doorway shrieked.

“We want only to pass by here!” yelled Grith back.

“Go past here, strangers, but if I ever catch you snooping around my graveyard again…”

“We weren’t snooping!” Zenith shouted at the man.

“Shhh,” whispered Grith to Zenith.

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t accuse us of something when all we did was stop to stop gagging from the stench of your graveyard!” Zenith called at the man, ignoring his father. Zenith suddenly saw a vision in his head of a man throwing something, and at the same time, he didn’t know how, his body made him duck. He heard something whiz over his head, and then a thunk, and he looked around and saw the butcher’s knife sticking into a tree behind him. He heard more whizzes, and heard three squelches, and he saw the man at the doorway fall to the ground.

“Please think before you act next time, Zenith,” said Grith. “And how did you know to duck?”

“I don’t know,” said Zenith. “I saw a vision of that man throwing his knife at me, and then my body forced me to duck.”

“Hmmm,” said Grith. “I think I might know what you are, but I would have to check with someone.”

“What I might be?” asked Zenith.

“Yes…” said Grith. “You might be a Mazs-Zhido. They’re extremely rare, but you have the symptoms.”

“What’re they?” asked Zenith.

“A Mazs-Zhido is a type of magic user that can see things that are about to happen, or that will happen a month, maybe a year from now. A Mazs-Zhido usually finds out he is a Mazs-Zhido by having a supernatural wound done to him, such as a werewolf bite. Once a Mazs-Zhido knows he is one, he can channel his future sight, and use it when he needs it,” Grith explained.

“So why do we have to find out? Why can’t I just try?” asked Zenith.

“Because if you are not a Mazs-Zhido, then you could see something that is just your imagination, and it could end up getting you killed,” said Grith.

“Oh.”

“But if you are a Mazs-Zhido, then that means you have some magic in you, and you will be able to do some minor magic, such as levitation and lesser teleportation, maybe even invisibility.”

They started walking farther down the path, discussing more about Mazs-Zhidos, when they came to a rocky cliff.

“We have to climb up this,” said Grith.

“How am I supposed to?” asked Zenith, gesturing to his arm.

“Hmmm…I’ll climb up, then I’ll pass you down some rope. You tie the rope around your waist, and I’ll haul you up. You might have to use your unbroken hand to grab onto some outcrops, but I think I can haul you most of the way,” said Grith. He started climbing, missing a step only once, and making Zenith’s heart pound, but he regained his balance, and climbed all the way to the top.

“Okay, now tie this rope around your waist!” called down Grith.

“Okay!” Zenith called. It was a very high cliff. He tied the rope around his waist, grabbed onto a rock that poked out, and yelled

“Okay!! Pull me up!” he felt the rope tighten, and he started to go up. He helped his father along the way by grabbing onto rocks and helping himself up. He reached the top and climbed over the edge.

They were walking along the rocky mountain path for about an hour, when they saw a large place where the rocks looked unstable.

“We’ll have to cross that,” said Grith.

“Hmmm, that might be an avalanche area,” said Zenith. He pulled out the map and looked at it. There was a large rocky area on the map, and it was labeled “avalanche area”, but it was too far away from the graveyard to be this one. “No, I guess it’s all right.”

Grith walked over to the rocks and climbed on top of one. Zenith heard a crack. Then a rumble. He looked up and saw a pile of rocks tumbling down toward Grith.

“LOOK OUT!!” he yelled.

Grith looked up and saw the rocks headed toward him. He jumped off the rocks and jumped off the cliff beside him. Grith was running away from the large avalanche of rocks, running as fast as he could. Zenith ran over to the side of the cliff, and saw that his vision was coming true. Suddenly Grith skidded to a halt and stumbled. He tripped over a small rock and fell off the large cliff below him. Zenith jumped down off the cliff, forgetting about his arm, and feeling excruciating pain when he landed. He went over to the cliff and saw Grith hanging on to a small outcrop of rock. Zenith looked up at just the right time and saw the avalanche was falling over the edge. He reached out his good hand and felt his father grab it. He pulled with all his might, feeling his cast coming undone, feeling excruciating pain as tiny bits of rock and dirt pelted his broken arm. Finally, he pulled Grith over the top, just as a particularly large rock fell right where Grith’s head used to be. They both lay down away from the avalanche and waited for it to stop. When it did stop, Grith looked around and said,

“Look, over there, we’re almost at the end of this evil pass.”

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