The Realms Of Exentra

Chapter 3: The Tunnels, Part One

"Cloud are you awake" he heard as he slowly opened his eyes. He saw Ariana and Endian smiling and looking at him." What are you guys doing here?" Cloud whispered.

"We were wondering if you wanted to go exploring the castle with us" they responded in perfect unison. Cloud thought that he should go,and that his injury was a lot better now. But he could get caught.

Cloud took a deep breath and whispered "Let's do this!" The trio tiptoed out of the infirmary and headed for the lower levels of the castle.

Luckily they made it to the lower floor unnoticed. The flagstones weren't as straight as the main or second floors. It was also way colder and they wrapped themselves in their cloaks. The smell was terrible. It was musty and dirty the exact opposite of the air in the other parts of the castle.

"Well,we made it now what?" Endian asked wondering why they came down here with no exact plan.

"I have an idea" Cloud half shouted as he ran down the stone corridor. The other two had to sprint to catch up to Cloud.

When he finally stopped running they were in a hallway that had a dead end. The side walls had a couple of glowing torches and the end had a huge statue of an armored knight.

"Watch this" Cloud exclaimed, he couldn't wait to show his friends the secret passage! He walked up to the statue and pressed the statues ring finger. Suddenly a piece of a nearby wall slid away making a loud grinding noise followed by a lot of dust.

"Wow, where does it go though" Ariana asked curiously.

"The truth is" Cloud started off nervously " I have absolutely no idea, so it's perfect for exploring" he finished with excitement.

As the friends stepped into the passage the stone wall slid shut behind them. They turned around and started pounding on the wall in panic but no one came. Losing all of their courage and desire to explore, they decided to follow the passage a little more because help wasn't coming anytime soon.

The passage kept getting more narrow and short so the trio went on all fours the rest of the way. At the end of the rudimentary passage there was a humungous room with a domed ceiling and in the centre was a pedestal with a sword in it and a plaque.

"This sword is the blade of Jeremy Dragonslayer the only known blade that can kill a mighty elder dragon" The plaque read.

The three trainees at the Academy had just found a long lost artifact and a sword of a knight at that. But it started some dispute about who was the most deserving of the sword.

Their first choice was Cloud of course. Him being a prince and all but then they thought a little harder and decided that Ariana should keep it.

She was the best out of all of them at sword fighting and she really deserved it. Ariana gracefully accepted the ancient sword. Now that they had solved that problem they needed to find a way out of the room. There were two passages going further into the cave.

Before they could decide, a troll about the size of Cloud stormed in holding a great wooden club.

He was dressed like a caveman and had pale blue skin and yellow gums. His teeth were rotting and his breath could kill an entire forest.

"What is that" Endian shouted at Cloud!?

"It's a cave troll" Cloud shouted over its roars. Endian felt a little stupid for not remembering what the monster's name was.

"So what the messenger said is true" Cloud muttered

"What was that" Ariana still trying to block out the troll's noise.

"Nothing, just draw your swords we are going to have to battle the beast" Cloud exclaimed.

Cloud drew his long,silver sword and Ariana wielded the mystical Dragonslayer. Endian double-wielded two steel axes.

"Endian, do you know a cave troll's weakness" Cloud asked with a bit of pressure.

"Yes,yes I do" Endian said proudly " They are the weakest of all trolls. Usually you can either make it super dizzy or use magic or strike it on the torso that's it's weakest spot." The team charged at the troll with full speed aiming for the weak spot. Cloud slashed him diagonally across the chest. Ariana cut him on the side and Endian made two cut marks across his belly.

The troll didn't see it coming and staggered backwards each time they hit him. The cave troll countered with a swing of his club at his three opponents. Ariana and Cloud ducked and dodged the club but Endian got hit right in the stomach. He staggered over to the wall and puked before getting ready to deal the next blow.

This time they went with the dizzing tactic. They each started running in different directions. The troll started to stagger around the room until he almost fell before regaining balance. This time the troll was mad and started to try and wack the team like a game of Wack-A-Mole.

The hideous monster had knocked out Cloud and Endian before a miracle happened. Ariana's sword started to glow bright green. The light started off small but ended up blinding the troll. She saw her chance and stabbed the monster right in the heart.

The dangerous troll lifted his wooden club once more before falling over. When he fell there was a deafening sound that woke Cloud and Endian up. "wha..what happened" Cloud asked suprised that the cave troll was laying on the ground dead.

Ariana explained what had happened to the troll to the two clueless boys. Why did the sword glow though was the thought that kept running through her head.

The three friends asked each other if they should go back the way they came or explore one of the two passages. The vote was 2-1 to continue through the left passage. They were at the mouth of the passage when they heard a faint wailing sound.

"Does anyone else hear that or is it my just my ears ringing" Endian's voice shook as he spoke. The sound kept getting louder as if the source was coming closer.