The Battle of Euangelion: Reborn

Chapter 19: The Lord of Stridor

Alexis slowly started moving her arms and legs. Initially pleased to feel all the important parts still being attached to her body, she soon regretted feeling at all. Everything hurt. She tried straightening up and partially surfaced from the rubble piled on top of her. Her banged-up chin and neck were now accompanied by a scar above her right eye and a large bruise on her forehead. She was entirely covered in rock dust and gave a few good coughs to rid her lungs of the particles that made it inside. A cloud of the same substance covered the scene which prevented her from seeing clearly.

"Rufus?" she called as she started looking around.

"Rufus!" she spotted her friend lying motionlessly. Alexis moved over and started moving the rubble from his face. Save for a few small cuts and a bloody nose, he looked whole. She softly patted his cheek, "Rufus, wake up." He was unconscious. Her pats got harder, "Rufus, wake up!" her voice trembled. She finally gave him one full-force slap.

"Ow! Alex? What the -," he started coughing up dust. Alexis gave a sigh of relief and rested her head against his chest.

The relief would be shortlived, however. She quickly identified uncomfortably large silhouettes encircling and enclosing around them. The silhouettes proliferated in number. After a long uneasy silence, the silhouettes began murmuring. Voices cried, "Humans!" others excitedly shouted, "Food!", and some buffered the last horrifying notion with "Oh no you don't, the boss will want to see them!"

The shouting came closer and closer until a smaller group could be heard growling an assortment of 'make way', 'move!' and make space for the General!"

An especially horrid-looking creature broke through the dusty silhouettes and lurched over Alexis and Rufus. He gave an awful grin, revealing sharp rotten teeth. "Why, you sure are a long way from home," he said in a deep coarse voice.

He leaned down in front of Alexis, squinting his creepy yellow eyes like someone conducting a careful examination. She recoiled when his massive hand reached for her face, but he grabbed her jaw before she got too far. She cringed and whimpered after he dipped his fat finger in the blood on her chin. He slowly placed the tip of his finger on his tongue to taste. His horrible smile returned, this time double in size, sending shivers down both Alexis and Rufus' backs.

"I have someone who's just dying to meet you," the Turpi General said as he stood up. "Bring them," he ordered a group of other Turpis standing close by.

Alexis and Rufus were clutching onto each other but one Turpi soon reached for Rufus and roughly restrained him while tying his arms and hands.

"Let go of him!" Alexis yelled at the Turpi, but she was soon apprehended by another one who did the same to her.

"Enough!" Rufus shouted, "We'll stop fussing, all right. Just stop hurting her!"

The Turpi yanked Alexis to her feet by the rope tied around her hands.

Both pulled and steered by rope, Rufus and Alexis began their long march toward the towering black structure in the distance. But in Rufus' head, there was something that loomed even larger than the castle of the devil himself.

He had a terrible knot in his stomach. "Alex," he started, she looked over at him. "I need to tell you something," he tried to whisper to her. But his attempt provoked a flying Turpi hand to the back of his head.

"No talking!" the Turpi roared. Thereafter the Turpis pulling each of them were instructed to put considerable distance between their captives.

Aside from occasionally being poked and prodded by curious Turpis who had never seen humans up close, the rest of the march was largely uneventful due to Pravus' threat to gut any Turpi who would reduce the humans to anything less than their original size before they reached the Dark Lord's castle. A few were particularly infatuated with Rufus' hair,