Hero Quest, episode twelve
The Ferry.
Character Sheet
Race: elf
Class: bard
Background: scholar/street urchin
“Very well,” you say, resting your lyre in the nook of your arm. “This is my offer.” You strike a chord. It rings out crisp and clear, echoing through the cavern. Music has always been the coin with which you’ve bartered. Why not now?
The ferryman cocks his head to one side, listening. You begin lightly strumming and your brother’s body hums in harmony. Then you sing. You sing of mountains and gentle rivers basking beneath the sun. You sing rolling hills clad in flowers and adorned with weathered mossy stones, all awash with the subtle scents of spring. You sing of long summer days and true love’s first kiss lying in the shade of an ancient, ever watchful oak tree. An old song, wistful of days long by and days that never were, yet somehow always are.
You fall quiet, and as the last echoes die away, the ferryman stands unmoving with his head bowed. You wonder for a moment if you choose the wrong song. Would such a wraith-like figure feel moved by such a song? Had he ever known that of which you’d sung?
Then he nods. “Yes. The price is right,” he says slowly. “You will play for me as we cross. But if you stop before we reach the other side, your passage will be forfeit. Do you agree?”
“I do.”
“Very good. Then come aboard and be at ease.”
You nod to the ferryman as you and your brother’s body clamber onto the little boat. He nods back. Your brother’s spectre hangs listlessly overhead.
From some distant place, your brother’s whispered voice echoes to you over the water.
“Sing again of the world above,” the ferryman says, as he pushes off with his pole. The boat drifts out onto the water.
You strum some gentle chords and sing songs of nature’s splendour, from the forests, to the sea, to the ever dancing stars. Songs of all that is most loved by the elves. Your brother’s body hums along. The ferryman nods his head.
The boat drifts further out, until eventually the shore from which you departed is lost and only the water surrounds you, stretching out to vanish into the darkness.
From the corner of your eye, you glimpse something stirring in the depths. A dark shape, huge and serpentine.
You play on.
The shape grows larger, drawing closer to the surface, moving in great coils. Waves dance across the lake’s surface, laying at the boat to gently rock it. The ferryman seems unperturbed.
You play on.
A monstrous serpent erupts from the water, sending forth a great wave to crash over the boat, saturating all aboard the little boat. It rocks violently. Your playing falters.
“You must keep playing,” the ferryman warns. “That was the price.”
He seems to not even notice the serpent. He slowly poles the boat onwards as before.
The serpent looms over you. With shaking hands, you play on.
The serpent hisses, spraying all aboard with putrid spittle.
Then the churning water around the boat is suddenly alive with swarming snakes.
Another wave washes over the boat, bringing a writhing tangle of snakes with it. The bottom of the boat is full of them. One is draped over your shoulders, another squirms about in your lap. They’re cold and clammy, wrapping themselves around you. Beside you, your brother is also covered in snakes. He fights them clumsily, but there are too many.
The ferryman poles on.
Thank you for joining me on this adventure.
My thoughts ran to Indiana Jones and "Why did it have to be snakes?"
Merry Christmas Maximilian!