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We made it two days when Pippin walked into a wall. I had had no sense of anything ahead of us, but when he walked entirely into it, a light so bright blinded us all for three hours. Saul was pacing back and forth and scowling while Pippin ranted and paced. I sat with my eyes closed and searched myself for the answer out of this. The wall stretched miles in either direction, and I wondered why it was put here and by whom. Our companions sat together, huffing and purring and growling at each other. Suddenly I could understand them. I placed my hand on her mane, and she locks her eyes with mine. I must have thought about being able to understand them because she was suddenly clear in my head.
"You have always understood me, but it is good that you finally hear us all." They all bob their heads. "Do you know what must be done to cross this wall?" I asked. Merrick ruffles her mane, "Carper has an idea." Carper is Saul's companion, and he is all scale and tail and just as mysterious as Saul. Making eye contact with Carper is like staring at the sun, blinding but warm. "Blood." His voice, like gravel over a metal grate, rumbles through my head painfully. He closes his eyes and starts snoring, and Saul joins him about ten minutes later. Pippin was still pacing, but his ranting was down to a low grumble while his companion tracked his movement with her eyes. Merrick sat again as a sphinx with her steady gaze on me while I tossed around Carper's clue.
We stand in front of the wall. Myself. Pippin and Saul. We each grip our ceremonial daggers in our left hand, preparing for the deep slice into our right palms to smear our blood across the wall. I tossed Carper's clue around for a while before waking Saul and hauling both him and Pippin over and explaining the idea. The key inside me sings low and steady with a melodic hum, so I relax and let it flow through me and into my friends and our companions. It is like breathing in the sunshine. I brought my dagger up quickly and sliced deep and smooth while Pippin and Saul duplicate my motions exact. As one, we smear our blood into a large circle while our companions start a strange chant that only I can hear. The wall lights up and blinds us, and we listen as it cracks and splinters. The light dies out, and our vision returns.
Directly in front of us, the wall has split into a six-foot-wide crack and in heads Pippin with no fear in sight. Saul looks over at me with a grin and motions Carper over and then heads in after Pippin while his companion scurries after. Merrick nudges my shoulder, and I start walking with the key vibrating inside me as I cross the wall. I stumble a bit, but the vibration soon passes, and the key resumes its steady hum creating warmth throughout my body and beyond.
A few hours this side of the wall, I notice a slight shift in the air and the brimstone smell becomes more potent. The six of us stand in a circle, and the three of us draw our swords. Something is coming. Merrick kept saying she could smell it on the wind. The smell was neither good nor bad, and she could only describe it as nothing. If nothing had a scent, she said, this would be that scent. All three companions were agitated and then suddenly everything was still, everything but me. I felt like I was underwater. Heavy, thick air surrounded me, and the bell inside shifted in resonation. Then a voice spoke from everywhere and nowhere. “Welcome champion.”