Midnight Man — Greatest Vigilante in the World — protects civilization from predators both human and cosmic. From deep within his hidden Midnight Cave, he strikes out against all things evil, and always before they strike first. He is a Shadowy Paladin who instills fear in the hearts of all those who wish to do injustice to others.
More myth than man, the ultimate realization of humankind, he is the only thing that stands between us and the darkness…because, Midnight Man is DARKER than the darkness…
Chapter 4: The Cave
Soon they came to the cave on an outcropping of a cliff to the north. They dismounted. Durant lit a torch and led the way in with the horses clopping beside them.
The cave was vast, a hidden treasure of the earth. Immediately, Midnight Man noticed a familiar sound above him, and a familiar smell in his nose. He looked up at the roof —
Bats.
It was a satisfying omen. The creatures crept above them, wings fluttering, whispering shrieks.
“Frightening things,” said Durant.
“Yes,” agreed the Midnight Man.
A youthful voice echoed through the cave: “A little goth, don’t you think?” Young Merlin came out from hiding behind some rocks. “I guess it feels like a home away from home to you, huh Midnight Man?”
The Midnight Man did not reply to such foolishness.
“Light that fire, Sir Durant,” Merlin said, obviously annoyed the Midnight Man wouldn’t be ruffled by his teasing.
The old knight rolled a small barrel from a nook near the entrance and then went about opening it.
“I could use my magic to start the fire,” Young Merlin suggested.
“I would prefer you did not,” Sir Durant replied.
“Why not?”
Sir Durant popped open the barrel. “I would prefer to die in battle, rather than in an absurd accident.”
Young Merlin considered what Durant had said. “But do you not think it would be best not to die at all?”
Sir Durant raised an eyebrow and grimaced.
After lighting the blaze, they made their way through the cave, the shadows of the flames licking across the ancient rock, Merlin’s emaciated gray nag’s clops adding to the reverberating din.
“For a surreptitious escape, we sure are making quite a racket,” said Merlin.
“You are making quite a racket yourself, wizard,” said Sir Durant.
“You know, my esteemed knight,” said Young Merlin. “It isn’t that I don’t enjoy our banter, it’s just that it so exhausts me to lower myself to your intellectual level.”
“I am pleased I can provide some semblance of labor in your life,” Sir Durant replied.
After an interminable echoing, they decided to rest their ears and their bodies. The cave was large and airy enough to start a fire, which Durant set about doing with some wood he had tied up his horse.
“I’m hungry,” Young Merlin complain.
“Why don’t you conjure us up a feast, wizard?” Sir Durant asked.
“It doesn’t work that way, Sir Dense.”
“I suppose that would be proof magic had purpose,” Durant mused.
“Magic has purpose!”
“I am hungry too,” said the Midnight Man, hoping to silence their bickering.
“Me too.” Durant pulled a bow from his horse and shot an arrow at the roof above them. A dead bat fell to their feet. “Supper,” said Durant.
The bat was quite small. It didn’t look like there was much meat on it.
“Well,” said Durant, pulling out another arrow. “There are plenty of them.”
They made a fire and cooked the bats.
“Do you think they will follow?” asked Midnight Man.
“They might,” said Durant. “But they are a superstitious and cowardly lot. I imagine they will be spooked by the cave if not the fire.”
“They said they were Christians.”
“Aye, they are now. But…” Durant spat out a bat bone. “They were born Pagans. Things can change as quickly as a generation.”
Young Merlin was silent, delicately picking the stringy bat meat from the bones before sucking it from his fingers into his mouth.
“What is your Christian name, Midnight Man?” Durant asked.
“Bryce Dayne.”
“Well, Sir Bryce, I fear a dark wind is blowing. We are in the thick of it now. I am unsure how we save the Queen, let alone survive. It feels like the days of the Round Table are done.”
Young Merlin said nothing, but listened closely. The Midnight Man knew his Arthurian legend well enough to know the king’s and Camelot’s survival at the end of all this was improbable. He wondered if he was changing the past by being here, or if his presence was all part of history. Midnight Man decided it didn’t matter. When one was this far back in the past, the future seemed less than a wisp of a glimmer.
“Should we be off then?” asked Durant, once they were finished eating.
“I was ready like ten minutes ago,” complains Young Merlin.
“Perhaps you should have been studying your magic spells, in case you want to use one without killing us,” said Sir Durant.
All of their moods changed now that they had fresh meat in their bellies. After a few minutes silence, Sir Durant spoke. “Midnight Man… is it true you are also called the Shadow Paladin?”
“It is true,” admitted the Midnight Man.
“But you fight on the side of the just?”
“I do.”
“Why do they call you that?”
“Because I instill fear in the hearts of evil men.”
“Well,” said Durant, “I should like it if you brought fear to Mordred and his men.”
“So would I.”
“What is it like in the kingdom beyond the sea?”
Midnight Man thought about it. “It is quite mad.”
Durant laughed. “Well, we’ll see if you survive long enough to make it back!”
A few minutes later, a shriek rang through the cave, followed by a powerful, hissing wind. Their torches were flushed out, and an omnipotent darkness swept over them.
“Merlin you fool, make some fire! Cast a spell!
“I can’t see anything, Durant!”
“That’s why you need to use a spell and make a fire, you damn fool!”
The shriek sounded again, followed by the wind, but both were ten times as frightening in the darkness.
“I don’t think that is weather from outside,” said Merlin nervously.
“Of course it isn’t!” muttered Sir Durant. “It’s some demonic beast of some sort from the insane depths of the Earth!”
Something clicked and a small yellow light flickered, slightly illuminating the cave in a smaller cave made of shadows. Merlin was holding a dancing flame in his fingers.
“Amazing, wizard!” commended Sir Durant. “You have cast a spell without killing us!”
The shriek bellowed again, but the wind that followed was unable to snuff Merlin’s flame.
“That’s no magic,” the Midnight Man observed, always on the lookout for charlatans.
“No,” chuckled Merlin. “It is a Zippo lighter.”
“Hush!” whispered Durant. “I can smell it now… sulfurous.” He pulled a long knife from his belt. “Take this, Sir Bryce.”
Midnight Man’s eyes fell on the sharp point of the offered knife, a tool which no doubt had killed. Could he take such a weapon into his hands and use it himself, even if was on a “demon?”
The floor beneath them started rumbling. The horses began to panic.
“Take it!” Durant pleaded.
The Midnight Man took the dagger.
