[Mkguild] Prepared for Sacrifice pt 18

[Radioactive Toast]

 The thunderous footsteps faded as they put distance between them and Xayk, but not by much, not by much at all.  A thunderous crescendo as the horrendous demons no doubt charged the dragon, and then... the men looked at each other as they heard chaotic noise, a juxtaposed jumble of thunder and roars, then complete silence, then more booming that echoed through the tunnels.  They weren’t about to slow down, not for anything, not for supernatural goings on, not even if the Patriarch himself showed up were they about to slow down one iota. 

 This may have been a slight mistake as they were quite delayed in hearing a certain series of rapid ticks until the echoing noises were almost on top of them.  “Does anyone else hear that?” Parn asked.

 Still running, Pols craned his head about.  “Wait, that sounds like...”

 That moment they passed a side passage on their left, which went straight for a few feet before skewing off to the side.  Arching around this corner was a collection of gargantuan moving shells reminiscent of horseshoe crabs, some kind of strange cross between a regular crab and a tortoise.  

 “It’s those blorg things!” Lum shouted, recalling the crabs that Xayk had so inventively named.  Not to mention that it had been Lum who had been bitten by one of the little monsters two days before.  Before the sentence had fully left the sailor’s mouth, the giant crab creatures swarmed out of the tunnel like a plague, moving far faster than their ponderous size and small segmented legs would suggest.  And like a plague in no time at all were the men confronted and overwhelmed.  Zyn jumped back from one as it practically leaped to him, falling to his back scrambling backwards as it snapped at him with ugly misshapen pincers that seemed to protrude from the carapace like a compound fracture.   

 Another of the crabs surged forward at Lum, who let loose with his commandeered merfolk spear and thrusted low, stabbing right into the blorg’s ugly face.  But the crab, though likely mortally wounded, rushed at him in its mad, agonized death dance and let loose with its enormous pincers, with the sailor just barely dodging away in time but still getting nicked with a clear cut right across the arm.  Berserking, the crab slammed into Lum and smashed him into the wall, sending the sailor’s head careening directly into the stone, leaving him dazed and out of commission.

 The blorg on top of Zyn snapped at him again, and this time nearly sliced open a piece of his chest in the process.  Kicking it square in the face did a little to push it back, but its tenacity drove it forward and Zyn back even more, forcing him back on the floor and up against a wall.  Another furious bite from the crustacean’s pincers bit into Zyn’s right leg just below the knee, hard.  Screaming, Zyn kicked again with his other leg as he fought back the searing cut in his leg.  It felt like it a tendon or something had just been snapped.  

 The nasty critter didn’t get another chance to taste Zyn’s flesh, though, as at that moment Pols jumped up from behind and thrust down with his spear with enough force to send the point straight through the carapace and impale the damn thing.  Snapping to his feet with a grim triumphant face, the bald sailor found himself lurched forward from behind as a set of pincers impaled him through the abdomen, sticking out from his belly in a bloody mess.  

 Zyn stared at the dying man for only a moment before pushing himself up against the wall and grabbing the sacrificial knife that had fallen in the scuffle.  Some feet away he heard Parn shouting and swinging wildly with a spear of his own, whacking ineffectually at a giant crab that was persistently charging at him.  It was an on the run fight, and one that the mage was not going to survive for much longer.  Finally the blorg snapped at Parn’s spear and snapped at it just as the mage was leaning on it, causing him to stumble head over heals down a short incline.  The crab eagerly advanced on its hapless prey, an encounter that would almost certainly end with the mage’s death.

 Gritting his teeth, Zyn stood on his wobbly feet and his straining right leg that emphatically did not want to support his weight in its wounded state.  The crustacean that had killed Pols looked to be occupied with the sailor’s body for a moment, but seeing Zyn move about apparently made it decide to pay no more attention to the deceased to rather focus on eliminating the living, and it clicked and chittered angrily.  Straining against his torn leg, Zyn pushed off from the wall to give himself some momentum, which he used to leap straight onto the back of the blorg’s carapace.  Furious clicking and shaking ensued, but by then Zyn had leapt off the giant crustacean and towards Parn.  His landing was less than graceful with his wounded leg and all, causing him to tumble to the cave floor in a disorganized heap.  He’d made more foolish leaps before though, so the pain wasn’t unbearable.  The crab nearest Parn was almost on top of the mage when Zyn kicked at its back legs, causing the crustacean to spin about in surprise.  Zyn had another surprise waiting for it as he stabbed his knife into its face once it revealed itself.  The crab let out an alien crustacean “scream” of scattered clicks as Zyn held the knife in place until the oversized critter stopped moving.  Trying to tug the blade back out, Zyn saw that he had wedged it in at an odd angle against an inner portion of the carapace precluding any easy removal.

 “You... you...” Parn said between gasps.  “You have a wounded leg, how... why...?”

 “Why end the wacky state of affairs with your family just yet?  You’ve got grief to live through, mage,” Zyn cracked as he tried to push himself back onto his feet, his right leg screaming in protest and the rest of him if not complaining than at least severely chastising him for pushing so hard after just having been whacked all over.  As he did so, he saw Parn’s eyes go wide, and snapping his head back he saw the blorg that he had leapt over approach them, its pincers snapping irately...

 ...Only for a voice to furiously shout out Pols name and for the battered form of Lum to leap forward with a rock the size of a large dog and smash it straight down on the giant crab’s back, shattering the carapace and splattering the crustacean’s insides with a decidedly satisfying crunch.  

 “They killed Pols,” Lum whispered, more for himself than for anything else, though it was news to Parn whose face sagged at the revelation.  

 Angry clicks and chitters echoed from the tunnels behind them, signaling more of the ugly crustaceans on their way.  Without another word Lum helped Zyn to his feet, and the three of them raced as fast as they could, leaving the body of Pols’ dead body behind.

 Remembering to take another right, the three remaining men hurried until they had to navigate a section of cave strewn with debris, likely the remains of some wall.  And right beyond, a vertical shaft illuminated with light: light from the surface.  “I’ll be damned,” Lum whispered, “The dragon wasn’t pulling a fast one.”

 “These look as though they were smashed from the inside,” Parn pointed to the smashed pieces of stone.  “There are sigils, some kind of old enchantments engraved onto the stone.  I am no expert in this kind of runic magic, but I recognize some of these symbols and it seems this wall was enchanted to be quite strong-“

 “Speak quick, mage boy, we don’t have time to waste,” Lum said as he helped Zyn make his way past the debris.  

 Sighing, the mage stumbled over the stones himself.  “I think Xayk smashed this wall, and I think he did it while we were after the crystal.”

 “Ok, so he smashed a wall open to let us out,” Lum said.  “Fine, good for him.”

 “Whatever,” Zyn said, “I still don’t trust him.”  Xayk was the type that nobody should ever trust.  He thought about this cave, the demon worshipping merfolk and wereorcas, and wondered if Xayk somehow could have had some hand in it.  True, he had smashed the crystal and according to Parn had paved the way for them to get out, but there were still questions about him, questions that seemed likely to never be answered.

 “Speaking of which, I thought he was fighting those... things,” Lum wondered.  “Wasn’t he making a bunch of Earth shattering booms when he was fighting them?”  Indeed, now that they thought about it the cave, aside from the blorgs, had been eerily quiet, as if there was no colossal battle between two huge black demons and a dragon.  

 Regardless, they pushed their way to the shaft, blinking as they looked up where straight above the orange hue of approaching dusk shone brilliantly as the midday sun in comparison to the dark confines of the cave.  Zyn had never been so grateful to see the sky.  Lining the inner walls of the shaft were small obtruding platform formations that looked sturdy enough to hold some serious weight.  So without further ado they started climbing.  

 They were about a third of the way from the top scrounging up when the smashing and quaking that had shaken the cavern when the enormous demons had charged Xayk returned, this time with a roaring that nearly deafened all three of them and sent them covering their ears to try and protect them from the overwhelming, reverberating onslaught of sound.  The shaking wasn’t limited to their ears; everything around them shook fiercely and huge chunks of rock began falling down the shaft all around them, taking several of the stone platforms with it.  

 Zyn did his best to dodge the falling rocks, and narrowly avoided a chunk the size of a head that fell mere inches from his shoulder.  Lum, however, wasn’t so lucky as another rock fell right atop the sailor’s head, knocking him out cold.  

 The rain of boulders didn’t last much longer, leaving Zyn and Parn to check the damage to Lum’s head.  “Is he alright?” Zyn asked.

 Parn stared, then shrugged uncomfortably.  “I... he seems to be stable, but I am not sure.”

 Grabbing Lum’s head, he smacked his cheeks lightly.  “Come on Lum, come on buddy, wake up.”

 “We [i]are[/i] where Xayk told us to be, are we not?” Parn asked.  “He said he would be here.”

 Zyn looking up to see the stone platforms leading to the top of the shaft had mostly collapsed, stranding them from the brilliant orange sky above, stranding them from escape.  So close, only twelve or so feet, but so, so out of reach.  

 A creeping emptiness filled his stomach, and Zyn fought to remain calm.  They had done it all: they had smashed that abomination of a crystal, they had escaped from certain human sacrifice, and the three of them were this close [i]this[/i] close to finally escaping this hellish place, to have it within sight.  Just a few feet more and the three of them could climb on top of each other and possibly even get out that way!  

 Rocks scuffled below, and for a moment Zyn feared another slide of loose rocks were on the way, but it quickly became clear that it wasn’t rocks but hardened carapaces with pincers attached that were coming.  

 Parn looked to Zyn, fear creasing his boyish face into lines that almost looked permanent after the last few days.  Eyes wide, he dared peek a look below.  Joining him, Zyn had to squint to see in the dark bottom of the shaft, but what he saw he distinctly didn’t like.  Rocks were being hefted and shoved aside as dull brown irregular shells pushed their way through.  This time it wasn’t a group of four or five; now at least a dozen of the monsters were pouring into the shaft below, examining around.

 “What are they doing?” Zyn whispered

 His question was promptly answered when the crustaceans began clawing at the walls, and incredibly their forms slowly lifted from the floor as they clung to walls, slowly but surely climbing their way up. 

 [i]Damnit![/i] All this way only for death to slowly to march upon them like this? Like [i]this!?[/i]  He hadn’t come this far just to be nibbled apart by these Eli forsaken crabs!

 He plowed through his mind thinking of a way out, of something that could at least buy them time.  The blorgs crawled up steadily, but not at such a riotous pace as they did skidding about on the ground.  Maybe he could kick them off as they tried to climb onto the platform?  No, that might work with a few, but not a dozen; he’d succeed in dislodging one or two before the others swarmed up from all sides.  Parn couldn’t accomplish much besides blind them, but the crabs probably wouldn’t be affected as a man or a merfolk or even a wereorca would be.  He cast a glance at the mage, hoping that he could pull something spell out of that skull of his that could work, but Parn shook his head, unable to think of anything.  

 “What about that stuff you were doing with those stones, imbuing them with fire and light and whatnot?”

 “I... sorry,” the mage shook his head dejectedly.  “I used focused lodestones from Xayk’s cave to channel those energies, and... I used the last up in the sacrifice chamber.”

 The blorgs were almost two feet above the floor now, and it had only been seconds since they started climbing.  In a minute they would be inundated.  There had to be something, somehow...

 Beside them Lum groaned, not truly conscious but more as a reflex.  Zyn stopped as he stared at the sailor.  It... could work, provided the blorgs would be distracted completely by it, which he wasn’t altogether sure of.  

 But it was the only option they had.  

 With one breath Zyn steeled himself and moved between the wall and Lum’s prostate form and started pushing.  Instantly a look of alarm crossed Parn’s face, but Zyn shook his head and stared back firmly.  Agony crisscrossed the mage’s features but he made no more sound or move or protest.  Zyn kept pushing.

 “Uhhh,” breath escaped from Lum’s mouth.  “De...Deloris...”

 Zyn pushed again until the sailor was practically over the edge already, his left arm and leg hanging off to the side limply.  “I’m sorry,” Zyn said simply.  And with that he gave the final push.  

 Neither of them peeked their heads over to see what happened next.  Besides, they couldn’t afford to tempt the crabs with any more of their senses than they were already were.  By remaining unseen, hopefully that would add to the diversion.  

 The telltale picking of the blorg’s legs clinging to the walls did change somewhat, and in seconds they heard forms falling below, and the distant but sure organic sound of spurting, ripping flesh.  It wasn’t possible to tell if there were any muffled screams mixed in or not.

 Minutes ground by agonizingly, with nothing but the chomping and clicking of the crustaceans below.  Parn covered his ears and wept softly to himself.  Zyn sat still until he saw a sudden shadow pass by overhead.  Their view of the now distinctly reddish sky was obscured for a moment then restored before a silhouette in the shape of the head of a familiar dragon popped over the side.  “So, here you both are,” Xayk said, almost as if he expected [i]both[/i] of them and no more.  But maybe Zyn was reading too much into the dragon’s words.  Sometimes, you just had to draw lines.

 Escape came in the form of the dragon’s tail which he rather ungracefully lowered into the shaft, letting the two survivors grab onto it before hoisting them out.  Emerging on a large, smooth topped rock situated among the coral reefs, Zyn saw they were quite removed from the island, which stood with its towering plateau up against the flat backdrop of the ocean on all sides.  Dusk was fully setting in, with the sun lazily hovering over the horizon, the sky in brilliant shades of orange, red and purple, reflecting serenely off the layered but fluffy clouds, the tops of to the each were illuminated in red above the darkened lower layers which were now hidden from the sun by the horizon.  

 “Well,” Xayk said softly as he spread his wings lazily about, “I’d say that about wraps this island up.  Seems we got done what we had to do to get off.  Well, no sense sticking around any longer, climb aboard!” he gestured to his back.

 The two men were somewhat concerned that they wouldn’t be able to fit, but looking at Xayk he seemed... just a bit bigger somehow than they had remembered.  Zyn shrugged and climbed on, ignoring his throbbing leg.  He and Parn were forced to sit practically on top of each other, but neither of them complained.  

 “What happened to those... big demon things?” Zyn asked.

 “Oh, those mean jack offs with the maces?” Xayk responded as light and carefree as ever.  “Don’t you worry about them, I took care of them good,” was his ever so specific reply.  Zyn figured it was a waste of time to press the subject.

 Without further ado Xayk swept his wings down and with a leap they sprung into the air, gravity losing its near permanent hold on them (and their stomachs, it seemed) as they entered a rushing wind, a heady weightlessness as inertia acted upon them in a way Zyn had never experience before, or for that matter imagined.  He had ridden on a horse before, and experienced the thrill of the speed and power as the world raced past, but this... this was comparing grassy knolls to snowcapped mountains.  He had flown on the dragon’s back twice now, once to his cave on the island and once down from it, but this time it wasn’t some ferrying trip; this was a full blown race through the open air.

 A quick and rather sudden dive caught Zyn off guard, instinctually grabbing hold of Xayk’s scaly back to keep himself steady.  Behind him Parn wasn’t much better off.  Both of them almost failed to notice the shape waving on the reddened waters below.  “Ahoy!” a familiar distant high pitched musical voice rang out.  

 “Booyah!” Xayk crowed.  “See, we done and fixed your problem up real nice; you won’t have to worry about black sacrifice crystals ‘n crap anymore.”

 Predictably, Sreenii was not quite able to take Xayk’s excessive casualness in stride, and shifted in the water a bit.  “I... I bring personal word from the Lord of the Seas himself that Dvalin has granted you clear passage; no more will he obstruct your ways with the winds of the sky, most noble dragon.”

 “Ah, you hear that?” Xayk craned his head back to face Zyn and Parn as he hovered over the merman’s position on the water.  “I’m [i]noble[/i].  You think I can go legitimately bed some hot aristocratic Pyralian chicks now?”

 Sreenii was equally off put by the response as the men by Xayk’s response.  But his eyes were quick to note the fact that there were only two men accompanying the dragon where there had once been six.  “Are the others...?”  Seeing Zyn’s nod, Sreenii lowered his head sadly, somewhat to Zyn’s surprise.  “Know that the sacrifices you have made today have not been in vain.  You have vanquished a great evil to my people, and we shall never forget your deeds.”  With that, the merman inclined his head respectfully before giving them one last wave and descending back into the deep.

 With Sreenii gone, Xayk flapped his massive wings again and turned north in silence.  Zyn turned back to face the island, which even now was rapidly fading into the distance and the night as the sun left the horizon.  He had first gazed upon it at night, and now again did he see from a distance clearly how it punctured the flat expanse of the sea with its mountainous plateau.  

 That place... had caused him great deal of grief, and with his mentor’s death another chapter in his life was forever closed.  A great deal of pain had occurred on that lone rock in the middle of nowhere.

 But he’d live with it.

 It was what he did best.

 “So,” Parn yelled trying to make himself heard over the wind as it barreled past them in the dragon’s flight, “How long exactly until we reach land?”

 “Oh, only a few days.  Don’t worry about water; I can purify some of this seawater so you won’t shrivel up like raisins from thirst.  I can probably catch a few fish, but you’ll have to eat ‘em mostly raw I’m afraid.”

 Blinking, Zyn realized that those were rather sensible things to worry about, and it was quite fortunate that they would not have to concern themselves with them.  But a trip of several days on the back of a flying dragon over the open expanse of the ocean raised other concerns.  

 “Um,” Zyn began, “That might be all well and good, but if this is supposed to last for several days...  Well, sitting up straight on your back kind requires us to be awake, so what if we fall asleep and... fall off?”

 Xayk didn’t respond right away, a fact that caused Zyn some measure of concern.  That was nothing though compared to what the dragon did next, which was to shake himself vigorously swinging the two men side to side like rag dolls.  Parn managed to hold on with his hands to dear life, but Zyn was thrown completely off balance and before he knew it he was tumbling straight down into the darkening twilight sea below.  Flailing his arms about and screaming, he watched helplessly as the sea raced straight up at him...

 ...Only to be snatched up at the last minute by the dragon’s taloned claws not twenty feet from the water’s surface and rather brusquely deposited back on Xayk’s back right in front of a pale Parn.  

 “That’s not really much of a worry either, see,” Xayk said with childlike enthusiasm as he rapidly regained altitude, a sensation which Zyn noticed made his ears want to pop.  “I can go [i]weeks[/i] without sleep and I can catch both of you easily enough, so if you find yourself nodding off back there you don’t have to worry in the slightest.  You just cozy up and fall asleep anytime you wish.  It’s no inconvenience to me, really!”

 Zyn twisted his head back, making sure not to let go of his grip on Xayk’s back of course, to stare at Parn, who stared back with the exact same look on his face.

 “So,” Xayk said casually as if nothing had just happened, “I never caught either of your names, your full names anyway.  You, tiny mage, what’s yours?”

 “Uh, uh, Pa-Parnsus Scolastin.”

 “Uh-huh,” Xayk said clicking his tongue.  “And yours, survivor?”

 Zyn reflected on the odd appellation that the dragon gave him, but didn’t think much on it.  “Zynaid Amadias.”

 Patting his belly in affirmation, Xayk nodded.  “Alrighty then, I’ll remember those names from now on.  Who knows, maybe one day I’ll pay you both a visit someday after I drop you off on the mainland!”

 The thought was one that made Zyn squirm, and he tried not to think about it as they rapidly flew north as the sun finally crept completely below the horizon to the west.

 		 	   		  

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