The Bone Child Chapter 2: "The Thousand Steps"
A determined young boy takes his first bold steps to find his missing father.
THE BONE CHILD CHAPTER 2:
THE THOUSAND STEPS
Orphan had done it.
Like his father, dead or alive, he had gone over the Edge and entered the Giants’ Crater. The dozens of fallen kingdoms and empires were all still dimly visible from Coldhome on its snowy little perch, but now the towers, temples, and castles looked a lot closer, a lot clearer, here on his way down the Thousand Steps.Â
Orphan had made his descent well that morning and afternoon, and he hoped to make this initial journey’s end by nightfall, at the First Church of Sacred Solace.
Hope was a bit like luck, he supposed, but his father had never admonished him about hoping.
However, Hal the Tall did once warn him about despair. Only the broken ever despair; they hide behind hopelessness like a final shield. And Orphan refused to break.
Instead, he continued to walk cautiously down the treacherous, slippery stairs and switchbacks, all hollowed and cut out by the giants into the eastern face of the great crater, with Aquila, Ashenvale, and the older ruins still far below him in the mists and gloom, spread out like the Gone Gods’ playthings.
The Ashen Fields lay farther still, on the surface of the crater’s floor. The fields and Ulthan’s Bastion beyond were less traveled and said to be even more dangerous. And he had heard from wanderers out of Grimmo’er that there was a hidden kingdom underground, the most beautiful and terrifying of all.
He hoped to find his father or at least his remains long before that, but if it came to it, he would venture down there as well
He didn’t know if he had the heart of a fortune seeker like Hallen Crowspear, but he did believe he possessed the honor and soul of a warrior.
His quest would not end until
he held his father’s warm hands,
or clutched his cold bones.
So step by step he descended,
many times having to climb down rather than walk, with the wintry winds howling at his side and often forcing him back to hug the rough rocks. He was surprised he had not been attacked yet by some savage man or grisly beast, or some horrid ghoul or lonely geist.
He guessed he had not gone far enough down the stairs to encounter any danger beyond the terrain itself. And perhaps such Darkling Things only waited in the maw of the twisted soot-filled cities.
But the day was not over yet.Â
As the afternoon light waned and the fog grew heavier around him, he lit his little torch and pressed on, feeling more confident with each step.Â
Shortly after he lit his torch to banish the mist and gloom, he saw three figures dimly below him, many steps down and still distant…
These figures did not look human.
The mists shifted with the freezing winds, and the sun came out finally from the clouds overhead. Orphan could see clearly.
He saw clearly that the figures were wolves.
One wolf was gray and silver and white, the eldest and the largest.
Another wolf was plain brown but trimmed with a strange fiery red fur.
The final wolf, a young cub, was a shade he had never seen before except in paintings. The cub was indigo, flecked with gold, with white paws.
Just as he noticed them, the three wolves let out three long blood-chilling howls.
Adventure was at hand. He would stay true to his quest. He would not retreat and return up the stairs, not now.
These beasts could be Orphan’s first fight, a real test.
As the wolves leapt and climbed over the rough and broken steps to meet him, he wondered grimly if this first fight might also be his last.
END OF CHAPTER 2
READ CHAPTER ONE?
READ THE PROLOGUE?
