[centre][h3]Into the bowels of the Hidden Island[/h3][/centre]


The Prince descended deeper into the earth. It was too dark to see, but the hare’s steps could be heard in front of him, leading him on. He knew he was not alone, and with this knowledge he continued on.
But the further he went and the deeper he walked into the earth, the more he was subsumed with the darkness about him. His surroundings merged into black. Alric stopped to listen. A distant and smothered breeze was all he could make out. He tried to listen out for the hare’s steps but the gentle patter had disappeared. The white hare was gone and Alric was alone.

A sliver of doubt. Had he just made a terrible mistake? Was the hare leading him astray? 

He groped his hands about like a blind leper, trying to make out where the walls were. A wet smack was heard as his hand touched a cold, hard and moist rocky foundation.
Alric resolved to continue following the pathway down below. He felt as though something was calling on him, beckoning him from deep. And so, using the wall as a guide, he descended onward. 


In what felt as surely hours, Alric could tell at last a point in the tunnel was reached where the ground ceased to slope down. He trod onto flat surface in a great chamber-like cave, though he could not see much in the darkness there; he could make out his surroundings with senses other than his eyes. The air there was moist, as was the floor he stood on, and the Prince heard in the space ahead the soft howl of wind, indicating an opening towards the surface somewhere far away.. And if he listened hard, he could hear droplets of water dripping down from an unseen roof.


The silhouette of a rock is at the centre of the cave. Coming closer, he hears a strange throbbing, a faint breathing coming from the rock. Then as his eyes attuned more to the dark, it dawns on the Eodaen Prince; he recognises it as a living being, as something like a sitting man hibernating like a cave animal, slumped over and shrouded in a cloak, its head covered by a large hat to which attached a veil, hiding its face.

[i]“Who goes there?”[/i] Alric hesitantly spoke.

The faint throbbing stops. Though the man does not turn around or visibly reacts, clearly it seems to have heard him, Alric is sure of that. And so the Prince speaks again, repeating himself this time louder.

[i]“I said who goes there? I was led here with purpose and I demand answers!”[/i] he called out to the figure.

Nothing, and demanding answers, Alric walks up to him, and places a hand on the man’s shoulder as to shake him awake. 

...He shouldn’t have done that. Immediately the sitting man flings itself up, cloak fluttering as it lunges at the Prince, a sharp appendage outstretched, taking aim at him as if a lance.
Alric ducks just before the man strikes him, and he flies overhead almost striking the wall. A tremendous leap! After landing it immediately turns about with eerie silence, predatorily determined for another go. Alric takes stance, ready to jump out of the way if it attacks again.

[i]“By God, what are you?”[/i] he yelled.

[i]‘’Princeling of the Western Land.’’[/i]
The creature speaks with throaty and nasal rattles, affirming beyond a doubt that what the Prince is dealing with is no man. Having made a far leap as it just did, it couldn’t be a man. 

Alric can make out mandibles beneath the veil as it talks.

[i]‘’My master is upset. 
You upset my master…
You, and all your nations.’’[/i]

[i]“I don’t understand… I don’t know you, I don’t know your master, I just want answers.” 
‘’Agreed; you don’t know my master. Your tribe has forgotten my master.’’[/i] 
Though speaking with indignity, it lowers his talon-like appendage and seems willing to fight not with lance, but now with words. 

Alric had been educated on legends about strange creatures of old but he only ever knew them to be that of myth. Since his escape from Halbuhr Castle reality seemed to make less and less sense for Alric. And now, after surviving fearful odds he was faced with something beyond his comprehension. He had only one path and that was to find answers.

[i]‘’The only answer you will from me receive, is the answer of a beast. The road your races have taken, is one to downfall.’’[/i]
 
[i]“Please, give me some kind of explanation. What are you and where am I? I’m so lost.”[/i]
Alric surrendered himself to the creature, he knew his options were to either turn back or place his full trust in the thing. And so the creature extended its arm and motioned to the pool of water sat at the end of the cave. Light emanated from the water which glistened. The Prince then looked to the being for assurance but it only stood, arm still pointed to the pool.

[i]‘’I slumber, I ward the pond against you. Yet you are different from they, because I can sense his mastery within you.’’[/i] Having said that, an intense vibrating sound came from the creature, amplified by the echoes reverberating from the cave walls, when a series of large insectoid wings sprung from the beasts’ back which the cloak had previously concealed. He flies to the pond, beckoning Alric to follow. 
[i]‘’Hither here.’’[/i]

Alric said nothing. He slowly stepped forwards toward the water. With his heart he trusted the creature as he had trusted the hare. The Prince’s life was no longer in his hands and he gladly gave it away. Falling to his knees, Alric stared into the blue water before suddenly the creature took him by the shoulders and dunked his body into the pond. Alric began to yell, his voice muffled by the submersion. He struggled until his saw a great light below. A calming light that beckoned to him and in that moment Alric became still. There, Alric experienced something greater. Light of all colours came from the depths of the pond and wrapped around his body like tendrils. They cradled him and suddenly the creature let go and his body slipped away, slowly being pulled deeper. In those seconds of submersion Alric saw his father Aethelbehrt, his ancestors. Alric saw everything and more. The tendrils began to let go and Alric surfaced. The creature pulled him from the water and the Prince fell back onto the ground, soaked with heavy breath. 

[i]“I… I don’t know what to say. That was…”[/i] Alric panted, he was lost for words. 
[i]“A Locust… I understand now, you’re a Divine Locust. That water, it revealed so much to me. I know what I must do, it’s clear.”[/i] He looked to the Locust.
[i]“Your master, I felt him. But he isn’t just your master he’s master of all and we’ve… God, what have we become?”[/i] 
In that moment of realisation Alric understood the great crime his people had committed. And the greatest criminal of them all was sitting on the throne: Badastan… His uncle had led Alric’s people astray. 
And all that Alric had done over the past month was running, running from his duty as a Prince, running from responsibility. It didn’t sink in until now how complicit he is in their errors. No one but he can set right the mistakes of his father... the sins of his nefarious uncle. It is Alric’s duty to rescue the Eodaens for humanity’s second chance. 

[i]“Leave.”[/i] spoke the Locust. [i]“If you wish the fate you’ve witnessed be averted, you must redeem your ancestors, the sins of your kin.”[/i]
[i]“Thank you… for helping me see his light.”[/i] With that Alric and the creature exchanged a nod of farewell, and Alric made his way towards the tunnel through which he had come. As Alric opted to return to the surface, the Locust called out to him one last time: 
[i]‘’Take heed, for if we do meet again -- if you fail, we will meet as foes. Therefore make haste, make haste, across the icy waste.’’[/i]

Alric emerged from the cave and into light, and it seemed like years had passed on the surface in his absence. He saw the world with different eyes. Perhaps literally, because as he looked about him he saw an unfathomable sight:
the entire ocean had frozen over… The waves have crystalised to solid form, and the sea resemble glistering valleys and fields of blue -- the Icy Waste. Submersion in the pond had revealed much to Alric, and the Prince knew this to be an act of God. All the Prince had to do now was follow his instincts and cross the icy sea to save his people. And in extension, perhaps all the nations of Visandza. Despite his hunger and thirst, his tattered clothes and bare feet, Alric began his journey. His trust in God now unshakeable.