Long ago in a walled-off land to the north, a princess faced a curse. The people called it the curse of sleep, for each day, the princess took more and more hours to open her eyes every time she went to bed.
She was a fair woman, in her 18’s, with long black hair and pale white skin. Everyone loved her, especially the king, who disposed of all the resources of the kingdom to find a cure.
“This is Kaluma’s doing,” The priest said, holding his hand over her sleeping face.
His blinded white pupils seemed to see something others did not. They moved above the old face, deep wrinkles in a startled expression, shaking his head and making the feathers of his holy golden crown weave.
“He is spreading the dark powers, as a vengeance for his exile into the sacred realm”
The queen weeps at the sound of those words, hiding her face in the chest of her daughter, praying to the ancient gods for a cure, whispering bitterly.
“What can be done?” The king asked. He already knew the answer, but still, he needed to hear it again. With a grave expression, he took his daughter’s hand in his.
“She is to be exiled to the sacred realm, where Kaluma lies. Once she no longer wakes up, the dark energy will go back to Him, and it won’t spread to anyone else” The priest answered grimly, bowing his head. The ages didn’t make it easy to deliver such terrible words.
“I’ll kill him!” A young man busted into the room. He wore a leather armor inscribed with multiple ornament glyphs, he had a bright red hair over his strong shoulders “Kaluma’s curse had taken enough lives in this kingdom!”
“Agro, you fool…! Even if you manage to kill him, the dark never dies. It must always go somewhere!” The priest shouted “Begone! Let this poor family grieve in peace!”
The royal couple looked at the warrior. Far from hating him, they shared his frustration. Agro had known the princess since childhood and where fond friends. They were both young, but he was devoted to her as he realized he had fell in love for her.
It was a cold day. Rain poured as the royal court started pulling the chariot with the sleeping princess and her solemnly closed eyes. Agro witnessed, clenching his fist and teeth. They were to drop the princess' body inside of a temple far north. A desolate place where once the old gods roamed. The sacred realm.
A stoned bridge was the only entrance over a precipice of unknown depth. On the other side, green grass, blue sky, and mysterious rock formations with many symbols ahead. The old priest headed the incursion, he summoned the gods for their protection as they went hoping to not stumble upon the dark god Kaluma, who protected the realm. The bridge ended on the steps of a great temple where long ago, humans came to pay respects, until the gods departed from the physical world, disappointed in the human ways.
There, they left the princess on a pedestal, once used to bear gifts to the great ones. She wore a long white dress with fabric weaved on wind flowing from the crevasse in the ruined structure. The royal couple wasn’t among them, for the journey was too dangerous, nor was Agro, for he wasn’t deemed trustworthy of making the trip. After a prayer, they came back the long way back home.
“Watch out!” The priest shouted. He could hear the earth moving, so he pressed forward and the company followed him.
They witnessed how a large stone fell from the hills and cracked a hole on the bridge making it impossible for them to go to the sacred realm.
“Agro!” Someone shouted. They spotted the indistinguishable red hair over a black steed making its way over the hill where the rock fell.
“Stop him! He’s going to try to kill Kaluma!” The priest ordered, but the hole was too wide. They would need time to make repairs.
Agro rode across the temple, only stopping to caress the calm face of the princess before journing ahead into the open fields, the clear sky, dodging the monoliths written by the gods themselves. The mountains ahead left paths into the solid stones. Caves. The perfect place to start looking for a dark god.
Steps led the way inside. Torches all along and in the end, an altar, where an immense being, in the form of a lion, was nailed to a wall with bright, white nails.
“Agro…Agro…” A grim voice whispered “I have your princess here with me, in the realm of sleep. She said you would come” The voice laughed softly.
The warrior took a spear from his back. The chest of the creature moved. It was laughing. Laughing at all the sorrow and the pain the people of the kingdom had endured because of the curse of sleep. The silver eyes of the creature pierced his skull.
“I will keep cursing your kind until the end of time… just because it pleases me to feel all of your wailing”
Agro clenched his fingers on the spear.
“Agro, please. Take me home… It’s so dark in here… so dark!” The princess's voice filled his ears.
“Shut up!” Kaluma roared “There’s nowhere to go… but oblivion.”
“You monster! I’ll kill you where you stand!” Agro shouted.
“You are just a child…scared of the tales of an old man.”
“Agro please!” The princess's voice kept screaming.
“You want to save your lady? Come take your prize…hero!”
“PLEASE!”
Agro launched from the underground temple pedestal, he pointed the spear to the creature’s heart letting out a warcry that echoed out of the cave.
The royal scort managed to get back into the temple. There they found the princess, confused, looking at her hands with absorbed eyes. They quickly surrounded her and the priest waved his hand across her face.
“The dark energy… is gone.” He whispered in awe.
“Yes, yes… I needed it back” Agro shouted, getting up the steps while playing with his spear. “After all, I am going to need all the darkness I can muster to crush you all… Vermin!”
The priest gasped.
“Kaluma. Kaluma took Agro’s body!”
“Brace yourself, meat bags. The age of man is gone!”
The warriors of the court took the princess behind them, starting to slowly walk back, spears ahead.
“Agro! Be strong” The princess shouted.
“He’s gone, princess. We must take our leave and seal this land… or the world will be doomed”
“SILENCE!” Kaluma shouted. A wave of dark energy launched everyone to the ground. Their heads filled with a heavy feeling, they could barely keep their eyes open.
“A… Agro…” The princess whispered, trying to crawl away, but a pair of feet stepped in the way.
“So… you are the treasure of the warrior I possessed.” Kaluma held the spear above the girl, with a grin “Thank you kindly. I’ll give your parents the news”
But before he could end her life, something started to happen. It was like it was losing grip over the warrior’s body, as he shouted, cursing and mumbling, stumbling around the temple.
“Go…! Leave! I’ll keep him here!” A bifurcated voice came from the warrior’s mouth.
The group hardly managed to stand up. The princess didn’t want to leave the warrior behind, but she knew in her heart she had to.
Mounting in horses they took the bridge back to the kingdom. From there, they sealed the way to the sacred realm forever.
Untold years in the future, an explorer found a statue, deep into the jungle. It was of a man holding a spear and in the base in an unknown language, the glyphs told:
“From your treasure, with love.”
Images from pixabay
