Abased - The Exiled Warrior

Chapter 12.1 - Lord of the Dargu

Alam jerked his head to look back. A glistening white creature, larger than an ox, was issuing out of the corridor they had just come from. It had too many legs for Alam to count, two vicious pincers at its front, and four tentacle-like growths on its eyeless head that waved frantically in front of it. Behind it another creature was jostling to enter the chamber as well. Alam could not tell if more were behind it, and he did not want to wait to find out.

They were less than twenty paces away.

"Run!" he shouted.

He picked up a swaying Sapphire and sprinted towards the wide passage Sapphire had indicated they should choose.

"I have the rear!" Tajar said. He pulled an arrow to his cheek and fired. The arrow embedded deep into the front grag's head.

"Run! Run! Run!" Alam repeated.

Clarisai and the two in white sprinted. Alam and Tajar followed close behind. They rounded a corner and were faced with a crude, but thick, floor to ceiling barricade of stone and wood. There was no door, and no way to get through.

The grag with the arrow in its head rounded the corner behind them.

We're dead.

"Everyone jump on three!" Clarisai ordered.

"What?" Alam asked.

"Jump on three! One, two, THREE!"

Alam, Tajar, and the two in white jumped into the air.

Clarisai touched the small torch she had taken from the dargu to the centre of the barricade. Searing flames burst from the torch. They scorched a hole in the centre of the barricade as if it were paper. Simultaneously, ice crystals formed on the walls, floor and ceiling.

Alam landed and slipped on ice below his feet. He landed hard, but kept Sapphire in his arms.

What's going on?!?

He glanced behind. The grag's feet were encased in ice crystals, frozen to the ground. Tajar was standing. He took the opportunity to shoot another arrow into the closest of the large white creatures.

"Come on!" Clarisai urged. "It will not last." She was stepping through the smoldering hole in the barricade.

With a heave Alam picked himself up off the slippery floor. Sapphire writhed in his arms. There was nothing recognisable about her face anymore. Her mouth and nose had become a long snout, blue scales were appearing on her perfect skin.

"Alam! Run!" Tajar shouted.

He tore his eyes away from Sapphire and moved to the hole in the barricade as fast as he could.

Behind him he heard the sound of ice crystals cracking.

He stepped through the hole. Clarisai was waiting for him on the other side. Her eyes were wide with fear. They had stepped into a huge cavern dimly lit by a dozen or more fires scattered around it. And around each of the fires were scores of dargu. Hundreds, if not thousands, of dargu were staring them with shocked expressions on their grey faces.

"We must reach the cavern on the other side," Sapphire lisped while pointing ahead. "Run!"

Alam looked ahead and saw the cavern entrance she was pointing to.

Without responding he ran.

His feet pounded past Clarisai. The cavern entrance Sapphire was pointing to was a perfectly arched opening that connected the cavern they were in to another large cavern. In the half light it was impossible to tell if it was one hundred or two hundred paces away.