The Hall of Heroes

8. - A Glimpse of life

Honza found it hard to move his eyelids. They had been closed for almost a whole day. In fact, it was difficult for him to move any part of his body, which was likely due to the paralyzing poison the creature had injected into his system. But after a while of trying, he finally opened his eyes.

He was still in the tomb. Some remnants of sticky spider webs were still clinging to his clothes and his whole body felt numb. There were three people standing near him. Fanda was the closest, leaning over him with a strangely wizened and calm look in his eyes. Tereza was crouching (which he had never seen her do) nearby, darting her eyes around like a wild animal. She had an ugly short bow strapped to her back and had her clothes tightly strapped to her body.

And then, further away, there was Alois. He was standing with his back to Honza over some sort of a large burnt piece of coal that smelled awfully even at this distance. Honza screamed loudly and almost jumped back when he saw a long thin smoking thing that looked like a very, very large spider leg jutting out of that piece of coal.

As he screamed, Alois turned to him. And the look in his eyes was something Honza had never seen in Alois. There was a strange jovialness and carefreeness behind that one grinning look that made Honza feel estranged.

Honza started looking from one of these strangers to another and realized he knew none of them. They had the looks of the people he used to know, but these were not his friends.

"I think he knows." the man in Alois' body said.

"Th-th-that is pr-pr-pretty obvious." the woman who used to be Tereza responded with spasmodic twitching.

The man in Fanda's body looked directly at Honza and said in a soothing voice, "Don't be alarmed, friend. We are here to help. In fact, the four of you have called for our help."

"I have only just met these two." he said and pointed at Alois and Tereza. "They said they are called Crefar and Duzz. Duzz is the stammering one." The woman in Tereza's body gave him an ugly look. "And I am called Horden." he added.

Seeing the fear in Honza's eyes, the man added, "It's a good thing you were not here when the two of them awoke. They seem pretty calm now, but upon waking, he was bursting out flames in every direction like a madman," he said pointing at the man in Alois's body, "and she could barely move around, all she did was holding tight in the cradle position and twitching all over. It must have been their last moments that made them behave in such a way."

Honza was so scared he had a hard time addressing these people, but in the end, he managed to point at the man in Fanda's body. "But how is it that you are..."

"We puzzled over that as well." the man responded. "You see, even the three of us know very little of our own situation. The last thing we all remember is the last moment of our lives followed by an endless silence. And then the memory of being cast out into this new life inside a new body. And as if that was not confusing enough, we are all aware of another soul sleeping within our bodies, so we know those bodies are not our own. We all feel like inside some wild dream.

"But we took a look around this place and we've been able to make some sense of all this." He raised his arms to the pillars and paintings all around them. "Those carvings and paintings were placed here with the purpose of communicating how this place works. And as far as I understand, when a visitor comes to plead for aid, his body becomes an offering for the souls of the heroes that rest here. And if a hero's soul is willing to accept the plea, it descends into the offered body temporarily in order to become corporeal and be able to fulfill the requested task."

"I... see." Honza whispered.

"So the three of us that have awakened, we are the souls that were put to rest here, but have accepted your plea for help," the man in Fanda's body continued. "And we have entered the bodies being offered. Mind you, our souls operate on a very different level than our counscious bodies, so I myself have no idea why my soul has chosen this particular Fanda person and has accepted this particular task. But here I am."