Mabinogi Generation 1 - Chapter 4: Three Missing Warriors

When we got here, there were countless snowmen lined from end to end of the field, standing eve so vigilantly guard of the earring supposedly hidden amongst their ranks. A normal intruder seeking this treasure might have been overwhelmed simply looking at the wintry platoon before them; but...
“You seriously melted all of them...”
“Yeah, it was some nice relief from daily life,” Kaya responded with a highly satisfied expression. “Piko’s going on yelling ‘No! No!’ just made it all the more worth it, too.” Sadist...
“Anyways, where’d you run off to, Kitty?” Sokk jumped in, noticing the awkward atmosphere. “We aren’t going to have to leash you, are we?” And it’s awkward again!
I can’t just tell them I had a conversation with a bear though. What would they think of me if I said that? I guess I can just tell them I didn’t want to hear Piko’s crying?
“I didn’t want to hear Piko’s crying, so I went ahead.” Okay, so far, so good. “I couldn’t find the earring though...”
“I’m assuming that’s why you stopped and asked that bear, right?”
“Yeah, that’s...” no no, your cover Taiga! “No, it just looked hungry so I offered it some food!” This might save me just yet!
“Then it wrote something in the snow, right?”
“Yeah, it...” oh just kill me... and the laughing began while my face lit up like a dehydrated bush on a hot summer’s day.
“Don’t worry, Kitters, I talk to animals too~” Piko, neither your hug nor your claim are helping. “Anyways, we found the earring, so let’s get back to the camp, okay?” She patted me on the head, with slight reassurance this will be forgotten. Something in the back of my head told me I would be seeing that bear again though, and soon.
“What did the bear tell you, anyways?” Klarrann asked, having affirmed I spoke with it.
“Tarlach.”

---

The Chief’s gaze was definitely an astonished one, but as he turned away, it faded into pain, then melancholy. He held the earrings together, closed his eyes, and then proceeded to place the pair into a small box.
Something definitely bothered him about what I said just now, I just don’t know if I should pry on it. If it’s anybody else with a troubled face, it’s usually Chief Duncan there to share his knowledge with them, but now it’s the Chief himself.
“That name... you say a bear told you it?”
“I know it sounds weird but...”
“That’s the name of somebody I knew who was friends of a dear acquaintance of mine.” And he turned around holding trinket on a string. “This actually belonged to him.”
With a click, the object opened. And inside was a sombre picture of a young boy and a woman. At a glance, you could tell they were very close to each other, but the hard exterior it was encased in gave a colder story to it.
“This was found nearby the Alby Cliffs, it’s probably the last item we know belonged to him. It’s a picture of him and his sister. Unfortunately for him, his sister was taken away by terrible means, but it gave him new hope.”
And the story went on, a boy who became indulgent in studies to find eternal paradise. He was apprenticed by a great druid called Mores who disappeared following the end of a great battle. A friend he met in Emain Macha and eventually they both came here to meet...
“Mariota Gwydion.” The Chief briefly silenced himself to look at the locket, filled with a cocktail of nostalgia and regret before turning his eyes back to me. “Here,” he continued before tossing it in my direction.
“Huh? Wait, I don’t understand!” Seriously, he just explained what a precious object this is and just carelessly gave it to me. “Chief, what do you want me to do with this?”
“Hold onto it for a bit, I think he’s going to want it back.” He chuckled. This old man...
“But, Chief...”
“Ah, I think I need some rest, what a long story that was...” and with that, the door to his cottage shut behind him, leaving me with this: A locket containing years upon years of erg once owned by a man seeking paradise.
I wonder if he actually found it, and that’s why he’s missing now. What even is paradise? Can I find it like he did? I wonder what this paradise looks like...
The thoughts just played over and over in my head as I put it around my neck (for safekeeping) and twiddled the actual pendant in my hands. By the time I got back to the camp site, the fire had already been extinguished and they had all set themselves to sleep in their respective tents already.
Eh, it’s been a long day, I think I’ll join them...

---

“You guys might want to have a look at this...” Ruairi spoke as he lifted up a small bushel off the rocks. And beneath it was a gap large enough for a considerably well-armoured person to fit down, which was good enough for us, really.
“Ahhh, come on! You’re supposed to be helping me hunt a mountain wolf!” Mari yelled at us as if annoyed. Who could blame her, all we did was pick on her for having such an easy assignment the whole way up the Alby Cliffs. But her complaints will have to wait. If this gap wasn’t intentionally covered, I wouldn’t have found it suspicious. This just leaves no choice though.
“Alright, Ruairi, care to lead the way?”
“Didn’t have to ask me!” he triumphantly yelled as he jumped in. Well, I was hoping for more caution but... “Hey, toss me a stick and that bush, would ya?”
“Yeah, I’ll be down with both in a moment.”
“Wait, Tarlach, you guys can’t be serious...”
“Oh, we are very, and you’re coming with. Okay?” I said as I reached my hand out to her. With a pouty face, Mari took the invitation and we descended into the mysterious gap. I chose to take her, not because this will be fun, but to ensure her protection. While Mari is a skilled archeress, being a mark still has fatal flaws she doesn’t yet know of, and I’d rather she not find out without us around.
“Okay, mind lighting those up, Tarlach?”
“Yeah, one second...” And the makeshift torch caught a spark, illuminating and revealing... a disturbing surrounding. The walls, which were made of a dark and pale stone, were lined thickly with a sticky elastic silk seemed to have been spun either from years on years of spiders inhabiting this cavern, or something else. And I have a feeling that something else is deeper in this opening that our torch hasn’t shown us.
“Wait a minute, this has been hiding by Tir Chonaill this whole time?” Mari asked with a frightened tone.
“Can’t say for how long, but yes...”
“All these webs, spiders don’t make webs unless they know they’re going to catch something in it.”
“They caught Tarlach and my interest, isn’t that good enough?”
“But what do you think is down here?” As Mari asked that, I spotted other torches along the walls. Convenient, but somehow had an eerie ring to them.
“Ruairi,” I called to him as I lit the wall torch, “take this and see if there’s any on the other side.” If we light this place up, we can get an easier understanding of what we’re dealing with. It’s quite strange though, for wall torches to be set up here. Perhaps this used to be intelligently owned. Those are my hopes at least.
Stereotypically, an abandoned place would become infested by bats, spiders, and the likes. A fine layer of dust coats the ground and surrounding and the inattentive conditions give way to making anything fragile.
But these torches are very much fresh. Something smart lives down here and it likely has a plan.
“Uhh... Tarlach?”
“Huh? !!” And there the plan lay, glaring with either unimaginable fury, or a ferocious hunger: a colossal spider with a crimson shell, teeth the size of a broadsword that has been through Ferghus’ repair work, and four beady eyes, black as night. An average spider can produce a sound undetected by our human ears, but a low growl like an angry serpent emitted from this goliath.
As the light of the torches expanded in lumens, it became more aware of our presence. Taking defence for its territory, it began to stand on each of its long eight legs.
“Ruairi, we need to knock off its balance!” I called to him as I sought to conjure ice bolts.
“I’ll cut those damn legs clean off!” he yelled as he charged towards it, sword drawn.
Ruairi’s sword is a special one, length of a standard one-handed, but heavy enough to be a two-hander. Yet, his fighting style involves flailing it about like a blunt-tipped war hammer. The blade itself is razor sharp, making it capable of chopping a tree almost completely in one strike.
I began to hurl the small ice bricks to the spider’s head, aiming for the eyes. If I could at least distract it, Ruairi could get a swipe to at least half of its legs, rendering it incapable of standing.
And the tactic held through, it toppled over on one side after not too long. The fury of it only grew though, only to be quickly cut off by a gust of wind... no, it was Mari launching a strong magnum shot to the ground crown, felling the spider at last. For one to get this big though, it’s unnatural...
“Ruairi, we definitely need to look into this place. Spiders like these are usually not found in Erinn. It’s the Fomors doing.”
“They’re definitely increasing... I wonder if it has anything to do with the Goddess...”
“Goddess?” Mari stepped in. “What does this have to do with the Goddess?”
“Well... a beautiful Goddess appeared in my dreams last night, and told me something was going on.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t a romantic dream?”
“Ruairi, tell me more.” Teasing the brute is fun and all, but I’m seeing a connection here. A dream, a giant spider, what’s to come next?
“Umm... okay, so... This black-winged Goddess appeared in front of me was standing in the dark, and told me to come to her. She warned me that the world might be in great danger.”
“A black-winged Goddess? To Tir Na Nog?”
“Tarlach, do you know something?”
“The number of increasing Fomors... something has to be wrong with the Goddess. Ruairi’s dream could have truly been a message from her.”
“I guess I’m the chosen one then!” yes you are... and you’re going to lead me there.
“Mari will go too... Maybe the Goddess can help me remember my past.”
“Sister...” We’re coming to avenge you...

---

“!!”
Uwah... what did I just witness? Was that... is that...
His name was... Tarlach! That’s him!
And as I opened the tent, it was still dark. Should I... No. I’m doing this alone. At night, Tir Chonaill seemed abandoned, but truly was dormant at best. This is only a route though. I need to go back to Sidhe Sneatcha, to where that bear... Tarlach is!
Only the light of Eweca and Ladeca shined down on the slowly cascading snow, but gave enough so I won’t get lost. Tree after tree, through the melted snowfield, I’ll find him there... As I trudged deeper and deeper, the snowfall became heavier, and thicker. Like the landscape itself doesn’t want me to see him, but nothing is stopping me. I need to talk to him about the dream, about... his pendant.
Suddenly, and all at once, the snow and wind stopped. And I saw a platform, the same one from before, but there stood, in contrast to the bear, a twig in brown garb. Sitting like a prisoner put away from a crime they didn’t commit. It’s him.