Chapter 31
Krraa stood in the shadows of the tunnel, watching over the cavern with powerful eyes while the Rojuun and their new friends walked across the far end. The glowing one it wanted was there.
She had killed his pets with her painful blue fire that hurt his eyes. That was not why Krraa wanted her though. It was the glow. The girl had a soft blue glow that was power. She could fix him. Her blue power could make him better. He could wrap it around himself, stand straight and finish growing. He could stop the pain. He could be real. He could kill the Rojuun. He needed her power to fix him.
An evil chuckle escaped his unnatural lips, dripped to the floor and oozed into the crevasses of the tunnel.
The sstejj hungrily waited for Krraa to release them to kill the creatures they hated so much.
He ordered his pets to attack with a silent command.
They poured out of the tunnels on the far side of the cavern by the lake. The Rojuun hadn’t dared to gate these tunnels yet. If he had his way, they would never be able to build another gate again.
Krraa could see that the Rojuun were going to camp near the waterfall. It was the perfect place to set up the ambush. He would be able to get the glowing one if he could stay away from the other new creatures.
Those creatures killed more of his sstejj than any Rojuun ever had. The unnatural one in metal scared Krraa the most. It killed and killed and had no flesh to rend. The fast one had flesh, but couldn’t be felt. Krraa could see it, but it made no vibrations in the ground. He saw it touch the ground, but there was nothing. There was another creature that Krraa couldn’t quite remember, but it wasn’t important.
The horde of sstejj he had just let loose upon the group should be able to kill even the fleshless metal one with the great blade and the silent one with the dark blade. The rest would not be a match.
Krraa watched as his biggest pet walked above the horde. He had found a beautiful gem with great power in the depths of the caverns. By setting it in the forehead of his biggest sstejj ever, he had created an invincible minion. Even if the rest of the horde failed, the largest sstejj would destroy all Rojuun.
The giant beast was clumsy. Occasionally, it would step on one of the smaller sstejj and impale it. Then it would shake the smaller creature off and keep going forward. Krraa laughed every time it happened and enjoyed the screams of the dying sstejj.
He petted a special sstejj that served as his normal mount. It was larger than normal sstejj. There was a red gem in its head similar to the goliath. He had five of the smaller gem sstejj. They surrounded and protected him. He controlled them with his mind and they did his every bidding. He rode his favorite by sitting on a special granite saddle he had built into it between the first and second set of legs.
Krraa bid his gem sstejj forward at a slower pace than the rest of the horde. He wanted the horde to kill as many Rojuun as possible as well as the new, terrible beings that protected them. His small group traveled on the far side of the river away from the rest. They moved quietly and efficiently as he watched the beginnings of the battle. Krraa wanted to see the new creatures die and watch the Rojuun scream and suffer before he took his prize.
What he didn’t want was for his pets to hurt the glowing one. He had told them not to kill her, but they were too stupid to follow directions. They just wanted to kill Rojuun. They would kill the glowing one too unless he got to her first. Krraa made his small pack hurry forward a little bit faster.
The horde crashed over the black fleshless one.
They died.
They attacked the silent one.
They died.
They attacked the Rojuun woman who learned from the others.
They died against her long knives as well.
Krraa hated them. He hated them so much. The Rojuun needed to suffer. These creatures were stopping his pets from their desires. His red cat-eyes flashed and a high-pitched, double whine of frustration came out of Krraa’s unnatural throat.
The pack of gem sstejj answered with whines of their own.
Krraa watched eagerly as his goliath reached the fight. When Rojuun spells glanced off the gem barrier, Krraa howled in triumph. The gem sstejj pack howled in response. He knew the Rojuun would die soon so he quickened his pace. He could see the glowing person in the filthy Rojuun camp. Krraa desperately wanted that glow.
Before plunging into the river, he looked at his biggest pet to see how many it had killed. With horror, he saw the silent one stabbing the back of it. Krraa stopped his mount and watched fearfully as the silent one stabbed it again and again. He laughed nervously when his goliath didn’t die. The silent one couldn’t kill it. Nothing could kill it. Another spell glanced off of his pet and Krraa laughed louder. He stopped laughing when the silent one ran toward the gem.
Krraa screamed as his creature shattered into a thousand pieces under the force of the blow. A metal blade shouldn’t have damaged the gem. His biggest pet was invincible! The red flash was bright and Krraa shielded his eyes.
The silent one flew through the air and fell to the ground.
There was no more time to waste. The battle wasn’t going as he had hoped, but the sheer numbers of his pets were keeping them busy. He would just have to take his prize quickly and escape.
The gem sstejj scurried into the river, running along the bottom to the waterfall pool. Their gills enabled them to breathe underwater as did Krraa’s. In a moment, they were on the other side of the pool.
He saw the glowing one taking care of an injured Rojuun. That made him mad. The Rojuun needed to die and it wasn’t acceptable that the glowing one use power for anyone but Krraa.
A purple whip laced with lightning hit the gem sstejj to his right. It staggered, though the gem kept it from being destroyed.
Krraa had forgotten about the purple lightning creature. It shouldn’t matter though. That one wasn’t important. It couldn’t be.
Another whip crack drove the gem sstejj to the ground again. Its gem became unstable with magical sparks shooting out of it.
Important or not, the purple lightning creature had to be dealt with.
Krraa rose into the air, spreading his dark, wasp-like wings to hover above the purple creature. He drew in dark energy and then released it violently as the casting wind buffeted his wings.
Black, poisonous webbing hit the purple creature, slamming it back against the cave wall.
The purple creature screamed in pain as it found itself trapped in the poisonous silk.
Krraa settled back down upon his mount and folded the wings he loathed.
The glowing creature also screamed and tried to get to the purple creature.
One of the Rojuun leapt to attack. Krraa unleashed magical black liquid from his palm. It covered the Rojuun’s body causing it to scream as it fell dying to the ground.
Krraa rode his mount up to the glowing one who had just neutralized the poison in his net and was trying to release the purple creature. He jumped off to grab her.
She turned to shoot blue fire at him.
He deflected it with darkfire.
She stumbled backward, surprised by his defense.
Krraa sprang to her and slapped her across the face, knocking her to the ground. He put his hand forth and sprayed more of his web. He didn’t lace it with poison as he had for . . . he didn’t remember why he had cast the other web. That made him mad. He didn’t like wasting spells.
The glowing creature struggled in the web.
Krraa slapped her again to shut her up. She sputtered, trying to cast a spell. He saw her gathering energy, but before she could succeed, he released a dark mist into her face from his twisted hand.
She lost consciousness.
Krraa picked his prize up and tossed her on the back of a gem sstejj. Magic hit the sstejj, causing the gem barrier to flare.
Krraa looked up to see pathetic Rojuun builders attacking him. With his mind,
he directed three gem sstejj to attack them. When the Rojuun performed their tumble maneuvers, Krraa guided his pets to attack where their enemies would end up. Two of the Rojuun were shredded by the teeth of the gem sstejj. The others drew back in fear and tried to cast spells again.
Krraa didn’t want to be caught up in the fight. He could see the fleshless killer was still destroying his pets and he didn’t want to face it. Krraa secured the glowing person with more webs and then leapt upon his own mount, turning away as quickly as possible. The remaining gem sstejj killed four more of the Rojuun before following.
Spells were cast at them, but the gem barriers made spells impotent. The small pack was back into the river and on the other side in a short amount of time. The webbing enabled the glowing one to breathe while being carried underwater. Krraa looked back over his shoulder, certain the horde would be overrunning the camp. Even the fleshless one must have fallen back. He adjusted his vision to see detail in the camp and was shocked to see the fleshless talking to the silent one. Krraa had been certain the silent one had died when the goliath exploded.
Krraa screamed in frustration once more with both of his voices. The gem sstejj screamed with him. He turned back toward his tunnels, ordering his pack to run as fast as possible.
Just before the pack entered the tunnel, Krraa heard the roar that shook the cavern. He turned in time to see the great, fearsome beast rise into the air. It exhaled lightning breath down upon Krraa’s pets, destroying most of them. Krraa had no idea where that creature had come from. It was the most horrifying thing he had ever seen in an existence filled with horrors.
When his pack reached the tunnel, he spurred them to even greater speeds with his mind. The next roar made Krraa whimper in fear. The tunnel was darker than the cavern had been. There was still light from plants and moss, but his pets had trampled most of the larger vegetation. Krraa felt more comfortable in the dark. He could still see, but it was much easier for him and his pets to hide. The cursed Rojuun did not like the dark. They were cowards who believed evil lived in the murky depths of the world.
The monster roared again. It was more distant this time and Krraa hoped it wouldn’t come into the tunnel. He didn’t even look over his shoulder for fear that it would be following him.
The hole to lower levels was just ahead. Krraa led his mount into the depths of the world and slowed down. It wasn’t wise to move quickly on the sides of holes even though sstejj were sure-footed on the rocky surface.
Krraa looked over his shoulder only to see purple light flare in the tunnel above. Lightning crackled through the air, creating a sharp scent in his nose. He decided that his pack could move fast. Safety wasn’t that important after all.
He took the next level of tunnels and traveled a ways to another hole, going down. That led to another level where he turned a different direction. The next hole went down even further, and then another direction change in the next tunnel.
After more of this, the pack reached a dimly lit, medium sized cave with few phosphorous plants and little moss. Krraa stopped to listen. There was a stream running quietly over the rocks. Drops of water, created by humidity in the warm air, fell from the ceiling. He could hear the skittering of sstejj that he hadn’t taken to the battle above. What he could not hear was the sound of that horrible monster.
Krraa guided his mount across the cave to his lair on the other side. The glowing creature was still tied to the back of the sstejj next to him. She wasn’t glowing very brightly now, but he could still harvest the glow to make himself better. He dismounted, leading the gem sstejj with his glowing treasure.
He led it to the room where he did much of his work. There, he stopped his pet and unattached the glowing one from it. Krraa slung her over his hunched back.
It was a dark, gruesome room where unnatural experiments were performed. Jagged rock walls covered in slime looked sickly in the light of the fire. Sharp, evil tools hung from hooks on the walls. They were not the tools of a smithy or any kind of craftsman, rather they were implements that would make a torturer feel at home.
A stained iron table was in the middle of the room. It could be raised, lowered or tilted by gears and levers underneath. Krraa roughly laid his treasure on it. He then turned to a fire pit in the corner of the room and lit it with darkfire. The coals smoldered with red flame tinged black.
Krraa removed the webbing on his treasure with a gesture of his hand. There were shackles at the corners he attached to her wrists and ankles, making them tight so she wouldn’t be able to move. He turned a crank underneath the table, which raised the top. When he was done, the table was at a slant.
The malformed creature stared at his prize for a moment. She hung limply at an angle by her wrists. Krraa would take the blue glow from her and wrap it around himself.
Food was needed before he would be able to take that glow. The battle had drained more strength than he had anticipated. He stared at his prize for a while longer and wondered if she would scream when he cut into her. He hoped so. Krraa liked screams so very much. First, he needed food.
As he walked out of the room, the glowing one opened her eyes and stared at his back in sheer horror.
Rojuun Page 49