Day 47

Churchill Downs Day 47: I woke to the sound to rustling steel. Everyone around me was dressing in plated armor for our journey. I opened my eyes wide to where I could get a good look at everyone and sat up. "We got new threads huh?" I said looking at the shiny metal plates on my brothers bodies. No body said anything as they were to busy putting the rest of their armor on. Ted got my attention by whistling at me across the room. "Put it on" He said sternly. I looked down at what was thrown to me. It glistened with the light that was beaming through the open window. It had markings that were engraved in the metal. The markings looked like symbols and letters, but I had never seen them before. I looked at all the others sets and they had the same markings. "What do these symbols mean Ted?" He glanced over at me from where he was helping Andy put his armor on. "They all mean the same thing, they're just in different languages all over the armor." I almost ignored his answer and jumped to my next question. "Where did all these sets of armor come from anyway?" He looked at the floor a little as Andy got the top part of his armor on. "They belonged to the people I landed here with. We made them right after they got here with me." I dared not ask what became of them. I could assume nothing good, seeing as there were no original bodies filling these sets of armor anymore. It seemed like we had all gotten our armor on, and were ready to start our march. Our new member, Jake, stood with us covered in metal just like the rest of us. We all looked like medieval soldiers now, but the armor was more modern, and made us all look like formidable foes. "Here" Ted said as we all stood together, "These should keep your faces pretty." He threw us helmets all with the same symbols and crafting style. The helmets went on and had splits where our eyes were, horns that curled to the back of our heads, and masks that covered our mouths with holes in them for breathing. We looked deadly as we put them on. Even I would have been hesitant to challenge anyone wearing one of these suits. "Thank you Ted" we all seemed to say in our own way, and he smiled every time he heard the words from us. "You're all welcome. Now let's go over where you're headed."

          Ted went to the back of his longhouse and into his bedroom. He stepped up to a chest that he unlocked with a key around his neck. He grasped something from inside and brought it out. He walked back into the room we were in and spread out what he grabbed on a table. It was a complete map of the entire apartment. We were all flabbergasted. How did he have this???? We all barraged him with the question at once, but mine was the one he got to answer. "Ted, how in the hell do you have this????" He looked at me with a smile and said, "When I got to this village for the first time, the people had drawn this up for me. Apparently they had been here longer than any of us. So far this map has been exact, so I'm hoping that this will take you to the heart." I looked at the outstretched map and saw the center of the apartment. "Here" Ted pointed. "That must be where it is." Ted pointed at the center, and it didn't make any sense at all. My bedroom was where the heart was. Casey spoke, "But we would have to go back around the mountain, and down it to the other side again to get there!" Ted looked over at Casey and said, "You would" he paused and smiled, "Were it not for the path through the wall of the kitchen." He pointed his finger along a winding trail not far from where we were that led right into my bedroom. "What's that?" Nate asked. It was peculiar. The path was marked on the map with an X and scrawled with panicked messages in another language. "That" Ted started, "Is the problem. Through the wall lies something terrible. The map calls it Kongulo, which is an Icelandic name. I have no idea what it means, or even how it got the name. I've never been that way before, and I do not plan on it. Whatever has a den there though has killed many men, wolves, and even giants. Do not tread lightly through there. After that the trail should lead right out into the bedroom and to the heart." We all looked at the map with intent and none of us had to tell the other, but there was no going back. We were unafraid. "Take the map with you, and do not lose your way." We thanked Ted again for all the gifts he had given us, and we all suggested we get to the gates.

          We briskly walked to the entrance to the village with our new helmets in our hands, and there to meet us were all the villagers. They all cheered and thanked us for our brave fight with the two T-Rex that surely would have destroyed their village. Then we got closer and the cheering died down. We could hear whispers throughout the crowd in their language that no one among us could understand. They all stared at us with almost fear in their eyes though. It was strange to watch them look at us with eyes that screamed stay away. We all noticed, but even Jake who had been here since the beginning of the village had no idea why we frightened them so much. The crowd seemed to get quiet now, and one by one they came up to all of us and shook our hands, gave us food for the trip, and even tried to kiss a few of us on the cheek. Then the crowd split and Ted walked through to say his goodbyes. We all shook his hand, and told him we would come back for him, and take him and all his people to the exit. He approached Jake who lived in the village and gave him a hug. "It will be different here without you my friend." Jake smiled back and said, "I'll kill some wolves and giants for you buddy." Just like that we started to leave. We all threw on our helmets, and the crowed all went wide eyed. Some even gasped in fear. I looked at Ted through my helmet and asked him, "What is wrong with these people? Why are they so scared of us??" Ted looked back at the crowd, then back to the steel engravings on my chest. "They fear you all, just as anyone who will see you in those suits will now too. That steel was made in heart of that mountain, and bathed in the hottest fires it contained within its belly. It was made almost impenetrable from arrows and swords, and put to the test many many times. They fear it because they've seen what happens to the enemies of those who wear it." I looked at the cold steel gloves and chest piece I was wearing, and at the engravings all over them. "You never told me what they meant." Ted looked at the symbols we were wearing on our chests. "Death" Ted paused and looked seriously at all of us. "They mean death. In every language spoken in this apartment." I looked back to my brothers and they all looked as serious as I did. "Good" said Andy, "That's all our enemies will ever find."