The Home Stone

How long had he lain there he could not remember, but it was quiet as he opened his eyes. Not a sound came from anywhere in darkness. He called out to his men, but he got no response. Finding his arms working he tried to push himself up into a sitting position. A sharp excruciating pain shot through his lower body. Again he passed out.

When he came to the second time, he slowly began to pull himself along the hard ground over to where he could see the shadow of a sled. The pain in his right leg was unbearable. He could only move a few inches at a time. So inch-by-inch he made his way until he finally after what seemed to be an eternity, he reached the sled. He could just make out the broken boards. As he pulled himself closer he saw that this was his sled and he knew there were still some supplies, such as fuel for the lanterns. If he could get a small fire going, he then could see the rest of the hole in which he had landed. The closer he crept, he saw what he feared the most. His good friend and cook, Gunthar, was lying under the sled with one of its rails stuck in his chest. With the pain in his leg, Oestrin pulled himself even closer to see if his friend was still alive. But alas, it was not to be. The cook was already half frozen. He must have died instantly.

Groping around, the king found one canister of fuel and one unbroken lamp. Working feverously with a flint, he managed to light the lantern. Instantly the light illuminated the crack into which they had fallen. Then and only then did he see the gravity of his predicament. Checking his leg he could see that it was broken. The first thing he would need to do is splint the leg, but how would he be able to do that? Every time he moved to touch the injured part he would nearly pass out from the pain.

Working in the dim light Oestrin managed to loosen some of the boards from the sled and work them down to the broken leg. Then after fishing around under the body of his fallen comrade, he found a knife. He then cut some strips of fur and tied his leg to the boards. After many minutes that seemed to turn into hours and passing out a few more times, he finished. He had splinted his own leg.

This procedure had taken so long that the lamp was almost out of fuel. So he extinguished it to conserve what little oil he had left. Grabbing as many furs as he could reach, Oestrin wrapped himself up and fell asleep. It was an uneasy sleep, for he kept dreaming that he was falling and there was no end to the bottom of the hole. He would wake up screaming whenever he tried to turn for the pain in his leg was so intense, he wondered if he would ever walk again.

Finally after an exhausting sleep, he armed himself with a couple of daggers and a broken pike. He then dragged his sore body over to where some of the others had fallen, to see if there was any sign of life there. The sharp pain in his leg had become an aching throb that would not let up, but he knew he had to continue. He was in a sweat when he reached the others. They too, like the cook fared the same way. No one was left alive. Even the great bear was dead. The animal was buried under two sleds and three men. All had broken their necks. The others were crushed when they hit the ground.

Salvaging what he could from all the sleds he dragged the supplies as far as he could from the death scene. It was painful work dragging all the furs and weapons over into a corner so he could not see his friends. He had found more fuel for the lamp, but all the other lamps had been smashed when the sleds hit the ground. The reindeer too had died. He was the only one left alive.

Using the wood from the sleds and some tinder he managed to make a small fire, over which he cooked some meat that he had cut away from one of the sled animals. This filled his hungry stomach and gave him some much-needed warmth. In a small battered and bent metal cup he melted some snow, which he drank. It was a bland meal, but it filled him. He needed to build his strength. As soon as the meal was finished, Oestrin wrapped himself into the furs and went to sleep. Again he dreamed of nothing but nightmares. Always falling with no end to the bottomless pit. When he awoke he knew why his nightmares had been so bad. He had moved during his sleep and his broken leg was resting up beside a sharp rock that dug into the side of it.

Days went by and the pain in his leg was now nothing more than a dull ache. Although he still could not stand on it, his movements around his prison became faster and less painful. Soon all of his fuel was exhausted and he needed to search for more. With no more oil for the lamp, the crevasse into where he and his friends had fallen grew dark. He had to find his way out of there, or he would die.

The next couple of days he searched for something with which to make a fire, but found nothing. He was now down to eating his meat raw. Eating only when he could not stand the hunger pangs anymore, Oestrin searched the hole from one end to another. One afternoon, after his broken leg, still painful, but allowing him to half stand with the aid of a board, which he used as a crutch, he found a narrow opening in the wall over in a far corner, where he could not get to before. Entering the gap, no wider than his body, he groped his way along until it opened up into a small cavern.

The cave was lit by a strange glowing white light that was out of his reach even when he tried to poke at it with his crutch. His eyes soon adjusted and he could see around the entire place. It was empty. Not a piece of wood for burning or any fuel for his lamp. He also noticed that here in the cave it was much warmer than where he had set up his camp in the crevasse outside. Making his way back to the outside, Oestrin spend much of the day and part of the next bringing as many of the furs and weapons into his new home. Soon he had his place for sleeping and another for eating all set up and was exploring the rest of the cave.

On the next day he found another opening in one of the walls and entered it. It ran on for miles and soon had the king turning back because of the pain in his leg. He vowed to return as soon as he rested and the pain gone. This new find kept his mind off food and so he did not have to think of the raw bear meat waiting as his supper meal. Though when he awoke, he managed to force down some of it before returning to the opening. Taking his time he slowly ventured along the narrow passage. He had thought to bring some water that he had melted from the snow outside in the crevasse. This would quell some of the hunger pangs when they returned. Although it was pitch black in the corridor, Oestrin knew he could not get lost if he had to return. So he pressed onward, hoping to find a way out. His heart lifted as he noticed a slight rise in the elevation of the passage he was following.