into it. The veil folded around her and became a snug, warm blanket. The blanket paled, became mist; the mist thinned, dissipated, revealed a star field like the Milky Way, only a million times clearer and brighter than she had ever seen it before. The stars flowed towards her and swarmed around her as they wove a cocoon--
The stars exploded, blinding her, as her head rang with a smashing pain. She grabbed the crown of her skull and spun around as her vision cleared. Sunny stood behind, her bow raised, ready to wallop her again.
"What the hell was that for!?" She hefted her sword in reflex.
"You were walking into its arms!" And she point behind Eile.
"What?!" Then she understood. Looking over her shoulder, she saw she stood just inches away from the ends of the outstretched sleeves.
"Gaaah!" She whirled around and danced backwards at the same time, swinging her sword to ward the figure off. "Get away from me, you asshole!!"
The figure dropped its arms. "Very well. If you will not join with me willingly, you shall be forced."
She took up a fighting stance as Sunny nocked an arrow, expecting the thing to advance, but instead it just folded its arms. She glanced at Sunny, and she looked as bewildered as she felt. Then she heard what sounded like a low moan. They turned together, and through the openings between the blocks they saw mounds form in the gooey detritic soil. They rose up into columns as tall as the figure then bulked out as arms sprouted from their sides and their bases split into two columnar legs. Last of all, three orifices opened in the bulbous tops, two small ones above, one large one beneath. With that, the golems stepped forward between the blocks and moved to converge on the Girls. Their keening filled the air with a low, monotonous throb.
Eile actually felt relieved. "Finally, something tangible to pummel."
"Let's get 'em, partner!" Sunny squealed.
"Rraaaahhhrr!" They shouted in unison as Eile charged the closest group while Sunny launched the arrow. It was a tactic they had practiced so often that it had become second nature.
When she reached the golems, she swung her sword in wide arcs as Sunny pumped arrow after arrow into their bodies. She twisted and turned, slicing off arms, slashing bodies, and severing heads. The consistency of the golems felt like heavy dough, but her thin, sharp sword cut through cleanly, while the arrows buried themselves up to their fletching. However, despite the damage they did, she got the sinking suspicion they made no real headway. The number of golems didn't diminish, and they pressed closer with each second. In fact, it seemed they were getting bigger, and tougher. She severed one in half from shoulder to crotch, but stepped back to watch what happened. It didn't collapse as she expected, but actually rejoined, and then grew larger!
Alarmed, she twisted around to glance at Sunny. Her partner had run low on arrows, and she looked worried. She pointed at a golem; "Burn!", and it burst into flames. At another: "Fry!", and it sizzled, warped, and shriveled like a piece of bacon in a skillet. "Freeze!", and a third turned into a block of ice. "Zap!", and an electrical flash reduced a fourth to a cinder. But each time she turned away to face a new opponent, they reformed, bigger and more formidable than before.
"Holy shit!" She sprinted back to stand beside Sunny.
"What's the matter?"
"We're not hurting them! We're just making them stronger!"
"Huh?"
"See for yourself; blast one of them!"
Sunny focused on the closest. "Nuke'em!" The golem vanished in a searing flash of light and a concussive shockwave, with a small mushroom cloud rising in its place, but the cloud coalesced and solidified into a new creature larger than the one it replaced.
"Eeep!"
"Yeah, that was my reaction."
"What do we do?"
"I--I don't know. I'm thinking!"
"Well, think faster! They're almost on top of us!"
"I'm trying! Geezus. It's almost as if they feed off our attacks."
She saw Sunny stiffen. "That's it!"
Startled, she said, "What's it? What are you talking about?"
Sunny didn't respond. Instead, she dropped her bow, wrapped her arms around Eile's waist, and licked the nape of her neck.
"Gaaah!" She jumped and almost dropping her sword. "What the hell are you doing?!"
Sunny replied in her ear. "Violence makes them stronger, so maybe love will weaken them."
"You always get like this when we're in the most danger, you space-case."
"I'm serious. What have we got to lose? Let's do it!"
"H--here? Now?!"
"No, not sex, silly; love, affection." And she started blowing in Eile's ear.
Some part of her insisted it was an insane idea. The golems could only be beaten with sword and club, pounded back into the earth from whence they came. But she trusted Sunny, and she knew she had an uncanny knack for intuiting the best response to a dangerous situation. If she had to choose between Sunny's suggestion and her own judgment, in a situation like that she preferred to follow her heart.
"Aww, cripes!" She jabbed the point of her sword into the ground, threw her arms around Sunny's torso, and kissed her. A long and deep one as they ran their hands over their bodies and heads. She felt Sunny probe her mouth with her tongue; she squeezed Sunny's butt. They switched to pecking at each other's faces, licking their cheeks and chins, nuzzling their necks, and nibbling their earlobes. Eile felt her passion enflame, but not lust. It felt like the strong, warm, comfortable affection she felt for Sunny every waking hour. She loved Sunny so deeply that it hurt to be away from her; so tenderly that she felt like a part of her own being; so solidly that no one else could hold any interest for her. It was as if they were two halves of the same person, made whole only when they first met and fell in love.
After what seemed to her like both a long time and no time at all, she realized that the golems hadn't reached them. Taking advantage of Sunny kissing her neck, she opened her eyes and looked over her shoulder past her head. They had become surrounded by a curtain like a heat shimmer. The golems continued to advance without hesitation, but the curtain shredded any that passed through into mulch, and none of them reformed!
"Sunny! It's working! Keep it up!"
"With pleasure," she murmured as she moved her way up to Eile's cheek.
Eile didn't really believe the tales about the Twins Medb had told them, or the prophecy, but at times like that she could almost be convinced. Sunny possessed powerful magic, but it was often erratic and sometime unpredictable. She wondered if she lent it the stability needed to produce an effective result. The golems kept coming, heedless to the danger, and the curtain continued to fragment them. Finally, the last one disintegrated, and silence fell over the circle of stones.
Still embraced, Eile and Sunny turned to confront the interloper. The shimmer curtain flowed around them and formed a wall between it and them.
"Now, you girls cannot possibly believe that a primordial, immortal, omnipotent being such as myself can possibly be harmed by so maudlin an emotion as love, do you?"
Eile felt a scintilla of doubt form--no, not this time! She squashed it for good. She felt Sunny stiffen as her heart raced, and the curtain began to fade. Reaching up, she touched Sunny on her lips; she turned to look at her. She kissed her mouth lightly, then stroked her cheek and ran her fingers along her jaw. She felt her heart slow as Sunny relaxed and sighed. The curtain reformed, intensified. Eile pecked her cheek as she ran her hand down Sunny's neck and over her shoulder. Dropping it to her bosom, she gently squeezed one breast. Sunny gasped and moaned, and light exploded from her eyes.
Eile looked at the yellow-robed figure. The shimmering curtain moved towards it and surrounded it, sealing it in a hollow column. Then it began to contract. The figure raised its arms as if to ward off it off, but the curtain tightened with inexorable force, and pressed the thing's arms against its sides. As the column's diameter shrank, it compressed the interloper's body tighter together into a thinner mass. It struggled as it tried to escape, but i
t could not defeat the curtain's strength. The figure made no sound until the column had contracted to the diameter of a human arm. Then it screamed as its body was squeezed like a toothpaste tube. The column contracted further and forced the figure up into the sky. The curtain became a narrow shaft of light as the scream ascended and faded with distance. When it disappeared entirely, the shaft winked and vanished.
The light dimmed from Sunny's eyes and she collapsed against her. She picked her up and carried her out of the stone circle, but once they were clear she awoke.
She set her on her feet. "Are you alright?"
Sunny smiled and crinkled her eyes. "Yeah. Never felt better." And she kissed her on the cheek.
In the same instant, tree-creatures swept past them. It seemed as if they just appeared out of thin air, there having been no warning of their coming. They descended on the stone ring and battered the blocks down with their fists, smashing them underfoot. Stunned, the Girls didn't know whether to run or stay put. Then a gigantic hand swept them up and deposited them on a tree-thing's shoulders. It headed for the woods as soon as they settled into place, and entered the trees in only a dozen strides.
The tree-monster took them through the Wood in less time than it would take for a crow to fly the same distance. Eile had a sense of blurred scenery rushing past them as she bobbed and swayed on the creature's shoulder, but before she realized it they had arrived at the edge of the woods closest
The Adventure of the Golden Mushroom Page 5