Red Blossom

Knee-deep in the snow, Raegald struggled to move forward. Beset by the mountain harsh wind, his heavy fur cloak was keeping him warm. I have to fight. I need to find it, he told himself. I must find it. The shaman had told him that she needed a red blossom to save his newborn daughter. “You must seek a rift where it grows protected from the wind”, she had told him last night, “be fast, she does not have much time.”

The storm is becoming a blizzard, I must seek cover. He looked around him. A cave entrance, that should do it. He reached it and entered the protected space. If the blizzard carry on I will not find a blossom in time, he thought, defrosting the wool of his mantle with his gloved hands. He heard a roar coming from the cave depth. I’m not the only one sheltered here. I need to get out, one monster of a snow storm is enough for me.

He jumped out into the cold. He looked for large depression in the snow, sign of a rift but found nothing. It's been hours, I must keep looking. At least, the wind had dwindled to a gentle breeze. He heard another roar, deeper, more dangerous. He turned and saw an avalanche rushing toward him. No time to seek shelter or to outrun it. I must hold to something solid. He looked around him and saw the head of a rock. It’s small enough to be embraced but it should be large enough to uphold. He ran as fast as the snow allowed him and succeeded to take a hold of it. The avalanche struck him like a raging boar. He heard the rock break in two. Taken by the flow, he tried to keep his head up. Ice blocks and rocks were constantly ramming into him. A huge rock hit his head and knocked him down.

He awoke and his whole body felt broken. He opened his eyes, and saw that he was hanging in a huge rift. I can't see the damn bottom of this crack. He saw his rope above. Damn it, it’s too far, I can't take it back. He looked up and saw that a sharp rock had skewered his cloak. It could have easily been me. He looked to the opposite side, a good six feet away, and saw a red dot a bit to the left. He heard his cloak being teared down and felt himself fall several inches. He put his feet on the wall and pushed all he could. He felt a deep pain in his left knee. Getting momentum, he heard his cloak give way and the tension in his back disappeared. He started to fall quickly but he grasped a fissure in the opposite wall with his right hand. He could see it clearly now, a red blossom just three feet to the left. He gripped the fissure with his other hand and stabilized himself. He heaved himself up using his feet to support his weight. The pain in his knee deepened. In a cry, he grasped the blossom. I have it, I must come back quickly, I don’t know how long I have passed out.

He slowly and painfully climbed the dozen of feet from the surface. The snow had totally stopped to fall. He could see were he was. The avalanche has brought me only a couple of hours from the village and from my daughter. He ran through the snow, like a boar plowing with his tusks. He left behind a trail of red blood from his wounds. He arrived in the village at dusk and run toward the shaman’s lodge. “She’s with your wife, Raegald !” Not bothering to see who told him, he turned left and after passing two other houses he entered his own.

Everyone looked at him. “Do you have it ?”, the shaman asked. Without bothering to answer, he gave her the blossom. She took them in her leathery hands and squeezed them while murmuring some incantations. His wife was holding their daughter. She looked pale. Too pale. The shaman forced the red mixture into her mouth. They waited, hearing no sound but the creaking fire in the fireplace. He heard a cough. The best sound I ever heard. Life was blooming into their daughter and then she began to cry. Colors have gained her cheeks. She looked alive and beautiful, like a red blossom.

— Aretis 2020/05/09 12:03