Burning Road

Descent- Part II

Just as his lungs began to shout for attention something grabbed a hold of his hair and pulled. Prince wrapped his hands around the arm which held him as he burst out of the pit. His lungs filled with cold air that burned going down, but did wonders in restoring his resilience. A shrieker held him aloft, grinning malevolently. It opened its huge mouth full of needle-like teeth and cackled.

Prince released his grip and shouted, "Wait!" as the demon reared back to strike.

The shrieker paused for the briefest of moments, long enough for Khouri to put a bullet in its head.

The demon teetered forward as its body smoldered from the head down, and Khouri threw himself to the side and narrowly avoided going back into the pit. He got to his feet and continued along the path. Khouri jogged to get his heart pumping and his blood flowing. He had to get to the others and find Mimi before the cold stole what little warmth he had left.

The path ended at a seven foot drop. Below him burned the remains of a trio of demons. A broad shouldered brute of a shrieker stood alone against Golan and Cyril. The former had a ragged wound in his gut that would have killed anything but a troll.  The constant regeneration made Golan stand nearly a foot taller than he had before. The meaty strips that replaced his left arm had already fused together and grown into a bundle of sinew and a gnarled elbow. His axe lay in the snow, the demon was between him and the weapon. Cyril had abandoned his staff for a golden dirk.

Prince jumped down catlike. He collected the axe as he quietly closed the distance between himself and the fray. The shrieker shouted, bringing Golan to his knees. Cyril charged from the opposite direction, and, as the demon swept its cone of sonic disruption, Prince buried the axe head deep into its armpit. The shrieker turned in surprise, and Cyril delivered two upward thrust beneath the rib cage.  Falling to the ground, the demon burned from the inside out. The icy soul turned to stone and fell to the spot where the demon died.

Cyril quickly grabbed his quarterstaff and the disoriented troll. He lead or dragged the others into an opening in the rock face. Before he entered the old creeper whistled high and long. Out of the storm galloped the last of Artaxi's kin. The pegasus joined them in their refuge from the storm. The heat that met them was a relief like nothing Khouri could readily think of. He stumbled on legs beset by pinpricks as feeling returned. The opening was the mouth of a cave that led into the island's interior.

Unable to break focus to mentally recall the number of rounds he'd spent, Prince popped out the clip and did a count. Things weren't looking good. He reloaded, refilling the clip with loose rounds from his pocket. His arms and legs were beginning to feel like themselves as the snow and ice melted.  How he'd survive another trip into the freezing cold without more appropriate clothing, he didn't know. It wasn't the time to dwell on it, but that time would come soon. First they needed to find Miminda.

Cyril had a quick conversation with the pegasus, and when he was done the winged horse went back to the cave opening. Golan reclaimed his axe, tested the weapon's weight, and nodded as if he were content with his inspection. He spoke but without the aura wrapped around him Khouri understood nothing.

Prince must have dropped it when he crashed onto the island. He debated whether casting the spell would be a hindrance if he needed to call on a talent in a pinch. In the end, he spoke the words and cloaked himself in understanding. He was in an alien place and his only allies were the monsters he'd spent his entire life training to hunt. He wanted to be able to communicate when things got complicated.

"You're welcome," Prince said to the troll.

Golan studied him for a moment and eventually sneered.

"You really are a Binder, aren't you?" Golan said, it was more a statement than a question. "I was never sure that you existed. Why would some all powerful master forsake us to the mercy of the darklings and the suffering of the lands below The Under... but you do exist. Maybe there is a reason you trapped us here, maybe we deserve our punishment."