Iscladon Breaking (Book One in the Cerios Chronicles)

Chapter 11-Jungle

Chapter 11

Jungle

Slikver groaned, sure it was close to dark by now, but not looking forward to another night riding through the desert.

Suddenly there was a loud cracking sound, like a gun going off.

Slikver jumped up, reaching for the malk only to find it was gone, along with all his weapons. Lacking defense, he began to panic, running further into the cave, only to find the crackling sound continuing at the same volume no matter what he did.

Then, abruptly, it stopped.

Slikver looked around, disoriented, to find the other occupants of the cave holding his weapons, holding in their laughter. As he saw them, they all burst out laughing, filling the cave with the reverbations of it.

Down at his feet, he saw a series of tubes tied to his foot, it looked like someone had filled them with gunpowder, then set off a continuous fuse. He had a sneaking suspicion who the culprit was.

He sent a glare in the direction of Apolus, who was laughing harder than the rest of them.

"You," he said, walking up to him, "you are going to pay for this."

"Oh," he asked tauntingly, "and what do you plan to do?"

Slikver gave a smirk, "Well, I could always tell Metya about that comment you made earlier."

Metya swiftly stopped her chuckling, snapping her head in Apolus's direction, "What comment was that?"

Apolus held up his hands innocently, "I swear, I don't have a clue what he's talking about."

"Oh, come now, Apolus," Slikver said pompously, "you should be proud. After all, how many people have the guts to call a master assassin a 'cute little kitten' and expect to survive."

Metya instantly got a glint in her eye, "Markus, I'm afraid we're going to be setting out a little late." She grabbed Apolus, overriding his objections and dragging him further in the cave, "Just ignore any screams you may or may not hear."

Apolus kept up his defense, "Metya, I swear, I wouldn't even consider saying something like that." She jerked him forward, pulling him off his feet and continuing to drag him by his collar, "Okay, I would, I would, but I would never actually say it..."

At that point they rounded a corner, and the sounds got somewhat muffled.

Markus shook his head, "Ah, Apolus, you'd think he would have learned his lesson by now." There was the sound of someone being knocked against the stone walls from Apolus's direction. "I'm honestly a little surprised, Apolus usually stays off Metya's bad side, he's rather wary of her, and I'd imagine it will get worse after this."

Slikver chuckled, "Well, really, I suppose I might have misheard, after all, he wasn't talking to me." A number of shreds of hair flew out of the adjacent cavern.

Markus mouthed wordlessly for a few moments, "You're kidding me, you not only lied to a master assassin, you also left Apolus to her vengeance." There was the sound of joints cracking from being pushed a little to far.

"Well, he should know better than to mess with me."

There was a girlish shriek, which Slikver suspected did not come from Metya, then the two of them returned, Metya supporting Apolus, who looked rather worse for wear. He was lacking one of his sleeves, and he had a somewhat rough haircut on one side of his head. From the way he was standing, Slikver guessed there was at least one bruise on his right side. When Apolus had sat down, he sent Slikver a glare, "You are an evil, evil child, and I will have my revenge on you."