(Book 1) The malediction of the Undertaker

Chapter 26: A wartime message

Markus runs as fast as he can for help, he awakens scorpions and spiders and heads for the fortress. The guards walk through the village telling their stories and making their rounds. They realize in front of the door of the fortress, that creatures of their 2 species are waiting for them, sees Markus, and hits his paws hard on the stone wall to try to wake someone up... "go wake up the Majesty... I'll see what's going on." Jason ordered his colleague to watch, who immediately left for the castle. Mike, Jason's colleague, trots towards the castle, goes upstairs. He is supposed to be sleeping at this hour there, he thought. He knocks on his door, once, twice but seeing that he does not answer, he enters and no one... it's empty...

He decides to go and wake up Pat, his room and next to that of the Majesty, he knocks once, twice before hearing a din in the room. "What's wrong man?" half-sleepy, half-naked Pat asked, hoping it was important. "Sir, there are spiders and scorpions gathered outside the main gate." Said Mike looking at Pat who is rubbing his eyes frowning, Pat curious, goes to look out the window and sees Markus and some of his scorpions and some spiders, they look anxious, especially Markus. Pat gets dressed and goes to see what's going on outside... "The Majesty knows?" he asked tightening his belt and Mike looked at him and shook his head. "He's not even in his room..." the guard said in a rather worried voice. Pat looks at him wondering where Taker is at this time of night.

As soon as Markus sees Pat, he tries to make him understand something that happened in the forest, he turns to the forest and turns back to Pat.

"You two come with me, ride on the back of a creature and we'll follow Markus." ordered Pat as he climbed onto Asgoth, a bad feeling crossing his mind. Where is the majesty? Thought Pat, following Markus into the forest.

~!~

Taker is trying not to close his eyes even though his sense of vision is still blurry, his breathing is starting to be difficult...so he's so strong that Mendal's creature? that's why Markus couldn't defend himself and fell from the tower... Strong paws, the thorns were sharp from top to bottom his paws he uses to beat me, his red chelicerae are so strong, I guess he uses them to remove Markus' Chelicera... his creature has trained so hard to beat whoever it wants... but why didn't he allow his creature to kill me like he wanted it? he was thinking.

Taker has heard noises and screams, but he can't see anything because his vision isn't working well... the pain is hard to manage, he feels someone take his head in his hands, he sees the form speaking but his sense of hearing is fading and his eyes have started to feel heavy to keep them open...

Pat holds Taker's head, begs him to stay awake and tries to stop the blood flowing from his left eye, realizing he has a wound that runs from the top of his left eyebrow to his cheek, his eye appears to be torn out from this injury, Pat sees that Taker has injuries to his arms and chest... he's in a bloody mess, thought Pat...

"We're going to put him on the back of a scorpion, we have to go quickly to the castle, don't worry my friend, you'll live..." says Pat to his ally who is dying before his eyes.

Pat and the guards put the Majesty on a scorpion's back, Pat climbs up and puts Taker's back on his chest to hold him down and he realizes there are bandages covering wounds on his back. What happened last night? thought Pat, frowning.

~!~

Asgoth arrives at the fortress as quickly as possible, walking towards the castle so as not to waste time. Pat picks up Taker, helping him walk to the great hall before laying him down on the table. The Majesty is in a mess, and they try to save him, Pat opens Taker's left eye, the eye is gouged out, he takes a tool to pop the eye out of its socket. He puts a cotton ball on his friend's left eye socket before blindfolding him. Pat checks his other eye, his right eye is good. They tend to Taker's wounds as the door to the Great Hall opens, Diana walks in wanting to know what's going on.

She was awakened by the noise outside and seeing movement towards the castle, she decided to see. "Oh my god..." She says puts her hands in front of her mouth, tears well up seeing Taker in a bad state, he's bleeding, his clothes half ripped off. "Wha..What happened?" She asked Pat who was tending to his friend's wounds. "I don't know, we found him like that." He said before finishing bandaging Taker's arm. Pat looks at Taker's chest to see if he's breathing, and he does.

Pat and some guards take him to his room, to put him in his bed while he recovers from his wounds, Diana still in tears, couldn't believe the Majesty got mugged...

"It's a message of war, they're going to pay for what they did to Taker." Said Pat looking at Taker sleeping before leaving the bedroom. Diana watches the majesty rest, he has bandages on his arm, torso, head and left eye. She kisses his forehead, hoping he wakes up soon.

~!~

Pat leaves the castle to go see Markus who is still in front of the fortress, very stressed for his master while Asgoth is next to the spider trying to reassure him. "Taker is resting, Markus I promise you we'll find out who did this, we'll kill him" Pat promises, He looks at Asgoth who has something in his claw. It looks like a key. Asgoth found this key near a tree that was a few yards from where Taker was. "Well done buddy." Said Pat to his creature hoping that it will be useful to him for something.