Note: The number in the parenthesis are notes at the end of the text.

I was returning from work an evening when I notice that there was something in my post office box.

Mr Carlo (1) is with generous condolences that we tell you that our brother Marco has died in an accident, we ask you to come here and take its objects and personal affections, we leave the address below.

This news was not a surprise, Marco was always reckless, dauntless and regardless of dangers, I remember that when we were young we imagine that in the forest there were who knows what magical and mysterious creatures, many times our parents have pass sleepless nights searching us in the woods, the problem was that I have stopped when I become an adult, he continue, living a nomadic life, a life of renunciations and travels, I hate him for this when you will grow up? When you will become an adult? Do you want to remain a tramp all of your life? When will you settle down? I tell him, and he in response shows me various items that he had collected in his travels, exotic items, alien, strange, and for each one of them there was a different story, “you see this dragon statue made of obsidian? Beh this is a strange story, see…. , and when he had finished his tail he asks me what I have done, and what I have to show him, I was furious at him, why he gave all of this importance to certain things I don't know.

Regardless he is my brother, and even if I have not heard him in years, I am his only parent alive, It is my duty to go and conserve his affections and give to him one last goodbye, so take 3 days off work and I go to the address.

High mountains, boundless green landscapes, not a sign of human construction, it seemed that I was in some remote landscape in New Zealand or some unknown and unexplored land, I understand why my brother had chosen this place, arrived at the foot of a mountain, my guide, a man on the 40, that comes from the village and offer himself to guide me, despite his age was still very energetic, tell me to stop, “we have arrived” he says, “now we have only to climb the mountain”,” WHAT” I said in a stunned tone,” what you mean we have to climb the mountain?!?” he answered me with a laugh and starting to climb, for me, use to the city, the climb was very hard, paths that were narrow and rocky, herbaceous, insects and animal everywhere, the hot sun, for him the climb was super easy, although he has 20 years more than me, after two hours, but I think that they were eight I manage to reach St. George on the mountain(2), a village on top of a mountain, in the middle of nothing, with nothing inside. I recover my energy and I follow the guide toward the house that was of my brother, while I was going I notice that this village is ancient, very ancient, it seems that here time stop at the start of the XIV century, not a trace of industrialization or development, the clothes of the people were made at hand, all was made by hand, from the doors to ladles, there where no babies or young adults, only old and middle-aged people, what I was expecting? Who wants to grow here? Once I arrive at my brother house, a little white medieval house, common in this village, I immediately notice that there was something off, an order and cleaning too thorough for my brother, I ask my guide if he can leave me alone, he agreed, I take his affections, not much, an old backpack that show the sign of time, some money and various camping/exploring items, but something was missing, where they are the various items that he found? Where was the obsidian dragon, the strange ceremonial knife, a feather of (what the legends say) a fenix, a statue of the buddha in blue glass and the bronze amulet? Where they were? He can’t have lost them, they were too precious for him. I turned the house upside down, checking every angle, every wall, every stone, I realized that a part of the floor was empty inside, with much effort, I manage to find the point of opening, and open it, I found myself before a strange vision, various papers and letters, a red book, a piece of flesh(?) and various object, among which his relics, now that I look closer at this objects they appear even more strange, examining what I found I feel confused.

Dear Mr M he was right, next time I will be prepared for certain occurrences, I feel like I nearly found his position, a castle abandoned during the reign of Frederick II di Svevia somewhere in Sicily, unfortunately, the documents and the legends contradict themselves, but I believe that I found a castle that corresponds, more or less, to the descriptions, a long journey await me.

PS: Don't rush your researches, always remember the dangers that you are running.

L.

What letter is this? That my brother had lost all contact with reality, and immerse completely in some game? That he had a correspondence with other people like him? His diary, a book covered in a strange red skin, decorated finely with strange drawings and various minerals, what a strange item for my brother, he loves simplicity, and this contrast his nomad and poor lifestyle, who knows where he had found it? Was even worse, a mass of sentences without sense, if they were even sentenced, they were strange letters that I can't understand.

Maybe Kyros, maybe Kryne or Daigon? What I know, I don't believe that you care, like the starry sky does not care about the earth, so you don't care.

My brother had completely lost his gumption, he had completely contact with reality, but there was something that gets attention particularity, a strange piece of what seems to be the meat of an unnatural pink, it was strange, very strange, what animal had skin like this? Between the shell of a turtle and the skin of an elephant yet soft on the contact? where he had taken this from? That my brother had started to butcher animals? And what was the strange dripping fluid that covered it? Still, in a state of confusion, my guide enter the room while I was examining the piece of meat, “that….” he stops for a few seconds, “is clearly a piece of meat of a diseased pig, why you brother kept these things?”, “I don't know” I answer him,” and I don't want to know it”, I put his stuff in my backpack, except the piece of meat and some of the more heavy pieces of exploring/camping, and I left the home, I was in a hurry to leave this village, isolated, full of old people, in which the madness of my brother reach his peak, renaissance cities underground, children being educated by strange creatures, immortal being that wander the earth in nights without moon, please, then where his fantasy on “statues of white knights” that follow him come from? Here there are no statues. I go to the exit in a hurry only to find it closed, I notice that the guide was running behind, “is near night, you can't leave now, you had trouble in broad daylight, let alone at night! And then you still need to assist your brother funeral”, with delusion I had to go in the church, where, what it seemed to be the entire population of the village was waiting for me, many looks at me in a strange way, wary, I see the coffin open and I came closer, even if I hate him is still my brother, see someone so lively, dauntless and adventurous, become a cold carcass feel my heart of pain, and I started crying, “why you have left? There are so many things that I want to tell you, why….”, the ceremony went on normally, except for the priest that sometimes, because of his old age mispronounce some words. Afterwards, the coffin was, for the moment, put in the local cemetery and was engraved with a gravestone, after the coffin will go to our country of birth, I was the only one crying during the ceremony. A bit after the funeral, the inhabitants offer me the house of my brother for free as a sign of condolence, obviously I don't want to live here, but I don't know where to stay for the night, once I enter I start organizing all items, the instruments, the few coins, his relics, the letters, the book and the pie-, where is the strange piece of meat? I searched all the house, and I did not find it, but I notice that there was a strange line of humidity on the floor, I remember that the strange piece of meat was covered in a strange liquid that was dripping everywhere, I pick my backpack that contain among other things the book of my brother, and I follow it, the line was leaving the more “develop” part of the village and had taken a route in the part more wild of the mountain “damn” I thought, “he had travel quite a lot”, at that moment I thanked my brother and his compass and lantern, without them I will never be able to follow the line, at a certain point I arrive at an abandoned water well on it a pretty long rope hang, for a moment, my brother words had come to my mind, but I dismiss them immediately. Moved by curiosity I take the rope and I back enter the water well, at the bottom there was a hole in the wall that go somewhere, normally I am not an adventurous, but this is the best that I can do to honour my brother memory, I notice that the strange liquid had arrived here, how? I enter the hole and after a dozen of minutes i find myself before a strange spectacle, that never in my life a city inside the mountain in full renaissance style, despite the darkness that made the vision of the entire city impossible, the city of magnific with his warm and life full colors and his artistic architecture, i forgot the liquid and the piece of meat, and i started wandering for this great forgotten city, the first thing that i notice where the various statues of knights, so is here that my brother had taken the idea, i explore the churches, with their epic architecture, with their splendid paintings, strange they were no crosses, i explore the houses, that seemed very well preserved for being forgotten for who knows how many centuries, in a house i notice something very strange, the pot was tepid…, strange, i heard a strange crunch, a little noise, i had the impression that one of the statues had moved, it can't be, it must be my memory, i come closer to the statue and i notice nothing of strange, so i turn back with the intention of exploring more that house, but in that moment i feel a piercing pain behind the back, follow by much blood, i started running for where i don't know, after a bit i notice what it seem to be another tunnel in the rock and i run inside it, i ran for long, i don't know for how long, at a certain point i slammed on something soft that made me bounce back. “AH, you hurt me,” a voice said with a strange tone, I hit the ground and when I open my eyes I saw it, a strange creature, high just a little more than me, with all his flesh of an unnatural pink, his physiognomy was between that of a reptile and a man, his shape seems like that of a centaur, that instead of the man at the end had a strange cluster of meat and tentacles, his legs seemed to be the one of an elephant, his bones were out, his skin… was like the piece of meat, I started running in the opposite direction, but at this point I was breathless and I was bleeding, “wait we can be friends”, “WHAT” I answer him, “my name is Phtu” the creature said,” what is your name?” My mind was in a state of complete confusion, what was he/she(?), what was the thing right in front of me? And why he was acting like a child that want to make friends? I sit, I was losing litres and litres of blood, my clothes were drenched in blood and sweat,” Carlo” I said, “Wait are you the brother of Marco?” he/she(?) respond, “yes, how you know that?” I answer surprise, “the guardians can be very evil, I remember that he always played with me, I am sorry for the horrible end that he encountered, a very nice and strange boy, all of his skin was strange, like yours, but it was a good guy, I told him that he shouldn't go too deep into the mountain…” the creature looked sad and a few moments of silence followed, “what is inside the mountain?”, I humbly asked, “Many things, the temple, the cradles, dad, mom, and my other friends, I don't advise you to go there, they are very violent with strangers,” said with particular emphasis on the very, “why they are so violent?”, “For an old rancor, long, long ago dad tired, dig a hole and started sleeping, much later a king awake him offering him a pact, it was something about a relic, something went wrong, and dad started inflicting terrible disease and catastrophes to the kingdom, asking the king for impossible things if he wanted him to stop, at the end the brother of the king had to sacrifice himself, from then they hate the outside world and they never leave, even wandering the nearby mountains is consider venturing too far”, memories of my brother book had come to my mind, now more clear than ever “how much possibilities i have to exit from here alive?”, along silence followed,”none…..”, i gathered my energies, “take this, protect it better than me, do it for my brother and me” i give my backpack to him, i notice that the backpack had a pretty big cut, fortunately not much was lost, “i will do my best, i know a place that no one ever check”, “great”, then i take a deep breath and i started running as fast as i could toward the water well exit, i run through the renaissance city again with all the statues that were moving and trying to stop and attack me, at the end moonlight, i climb the rope with my last energies, only to find myself surrounded by a hundred people, “I KNOW IT”, someone said in the mob, i recognize the voice, it was my guide “the brother were co-worker, BRING HIM TO THE TEMPLE”, a a loud strike made me faint.

When I reopen my eyes, I was bound to some columns with some ropes, two torches placed near the columns had given me enough light for understanding what I had in front of me, in front of me there was a big and deep cliff that spam for kilometres, a creature emerged, a monstrous creature that vaguely resembles a gaping dragon(3), his meat was pink like one of the creatures, his bones had exited from his flesh forming a giant mouth, parasites and insects were everywhere on his body, I closed my eyes, I can't look at it, at a certain point something grab me and in a fraction of a second my bones were broken, my flesh was torn, and after a second I didn't feel anything anymore.

Notes from the text:

1 I decide to not translate the names

2 Fictional place not real, although a mountain named after St. George exist

3 Here I have taken a bit of artistic liberty, I utilized the term gaping dragon referred to the gaping dragon of Dark Souls

Thank section:

I want to thank the discord of royal road and writers lounge.

I also wanna thank everyone at scribophile for the critique and help.