Deserts Of Naroosh

by Bradford Bates

  A warm bath was a luxury she didn’t always have access to, but a daily dip in the river was something she never missed. It wasn’t that she wanted to smell nice. She had scented oils for that purpose. Neema didn’t like feeling scuzzy. Living in the desert was an opportunity to be covered in dust by ten in the morning whether a person stepped outside or not.

  She wondered if there was a place in the world where it rained enough that the dirt didn’t stick to everything all the time. What would it be like to live somewhere with green fields, or maybe mountains? One day Neema would love to find out, but she would never leave Naroosh until a new leader was in place and her people were free.

  While the caverns had been relatively empty until now, as she drew closer to the market, there were more and more people walking the underground hallways. Neema made sure to keep her eyes up and to meet every challenging stare with one of her own. Showing an inch of weakness here would only invite an attack.

  Several small clusters of men passed her, then a group of two men and a woman. Both of the men trailed behind the woman. As she passed Neema, her eyes almost seemed to smile.

  The blow came from behind her on the left.

  Despite the small warning, she hadn’t been expecting the attack. At the last second, she turned slightly so she took the strike on her shoulder instead of the back of her head. The force of the club still sent her stumbling. The cavern wall almost smashed into her forehead, but Neema caught herself enough that the wall only made her see stars instead of knocking her out. Her legs wobbled a little, and one of the men saw an opening to grab her around the waist and haul her away.

  What a fucking idiot.

  The stupid bastard must have assumed she was unconscious. Not wanting to waste the advantage, Neema let the big idiot lift her onto his shoulder before stabbing him in the back. When his legs gave out, he tipped backward. Neema used the momentum to roll off his shoulder and come up on one knee with the dagger from his back ready to throw. Her wrist snapped forward, and the blade flew straight and true.

  The second of the woman’s guards stumbled back with Neema’s knife in his stomach. He was out of the fight for the money, but a bigger question loomed right now.

  Where was the woman?

  Neema knew better than to stay in one place for too long. She kept the man with the stomach wound in front of her and the cavern wall at her back. A quick peek over her shoulder confirmed the first man she stabbed wouldn’t get up ever again. That’s why she stabbed him more than once, no reason to hope for the best when a few quick thrusts were bound to hit something vital.

  Keeping the wall at her back, Neema pulled her sword free.

  That greasy fucker with the knife in his gut wasn’t faring much better than his dead friend. It would simply take him a little longer to get there. One thing almost no one in the Grotto had access to was a healer. Their value to the kingdom was worth too much for Jabari to waste one of their number here.

  Neema shook her head to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. She still hadn’t located the woman, but the man in front of her could be a problem if she showed up. There was no chance he’d live without a healer, and dying from a gut wound was a horrible way to go. His suffering ended with a slash from her sword.

  The woman sprang out from behind her fallen comrade and tried to get around Neema. Letting her go wasn’t an option. Neema couldn’t risk having a group of smugglers trying to hunt her down. She used her sword to block the woman’s escape.

  Now that the two men were dead, the realization of what the woman tried to do to her hit like a truck. “What would you have let them do to me?” Neema snarled.

  “Nothing you wouldn’t have done to me given a chance.”

  Neema’s sword slashed out before the woman finished speaking. She left a deep slash across the woman's right arm. “Consider it a gift.”

  In a place like this, she didn’t have to strike the final blow. The next man walking down the hall would do it for her. Keeping the woman locked in place with the tip of her sword, Neema backed up until she found the first man’s fallen club. It was time to give the bitch a taste of her own medicine.

  A blow to the head sent the smuggler into oblivion.

  Looting bodies wasn’t her favorite thing to do, but she’d already done it once this morning so what was a few more times? She got down on her hands and knees and rifled through the fallen’s pockets.

  The two men didn’t have much on them—some worthless scraps that might have been called weapons in a pinch and a few copper coins. The woman on the other hand had a rather large pouch of silver on her, and one gold coin hidden in a pocket tucked under her shirt. With this kind of coin, it was no wonder she felt confident enough to strike. This woman worked for someone with power.

  Going back to the boss without the silver wouldn’t improve the bitch’s day. Not that Neema should care at all, but part of her knew how quickly the radical could become commonplace. Even if the woman had tried to kidnap her, she wouldn’t be so cruel as to leave her without a weapon. What was the point of fighting for a better future if she let herself become one of the monsters in the process?

  It probably would have been safer to kill her, but Neema had her fill of blood for the moment. All she wanted now was the scroll, but her chances of finding it were as small as a drop of water in the ocean. The only way she stood a chance was if the Goddess Eternia smiled down upon her.

  Still, she heard Khalid’s words in her head over her own.

  The goddess smiles on those who make their own luck.

  Neema prayed and thought of where she could go that would put her somewhere where she could see the most people without anyone paying attention to her. The only place she could think of was where she was already heading. The market. If she found a quiet corner where she could sit and watch the people passing, she might get lucky enough to spot a Vitaria tattoo.

  There was still a chance. Neema wouldn’t fail.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Maria!” A woman screamed as she reached out from an overturned wagon for her daughter.

  The woman's hands extended toward the girl, clutching violently at the air as if she could will her child back into them.

  Tim noticed two things at once. Maria couldn’t have been more than ten years old. She reminded him of his sister. There was no way in hell this girl would die now that they were there. The shock of seeing the young girl hiding in the woodpile was starting to fade, and his eyes moved from her terrified face to the creature hovering above her.

  So that’s what a harpy looks like.

  He’d seen all kinds of harpies in different games. Some of them were sexy, and some of them were freaky. All of them were women. Imagine how awkward it would be to see all those male jiggly bits bounce around on screen every time they flapped their wings. He was sure there was some actual mythos as to why all harpies were female, but Tim preferred what he dubbed the bouncing ball theory. When he explained about the flapping wings and the floppy nether regions he always got a laugh.

  Right now he didn’t feel like laughing.

  The harpy flapped her massive wings, sending a gust of wind toward them. They were still far enough away the blast didn’t do damage, but the bitch’s point was clear enough, don’t come any closer or I’ll fuck you up. The anger and the I’m-going-to-kill-you vibe certainly diminished how much he appreciated her naked torso.

  That was another thing about developers.

  They were suckers for luring young teen boys into games with super hot monsters. It was an age-old tradition. Why make all the monsters terrifying when some of them could be sexy and terrifying? It wasn’t like they did it to honor the raging hormones of the male teen. There was a reason every man in the game had four-foot-wide shoulders and tiny waists. Not to mention a six-pack that would make Lenny Kravitz wonder why he still worked out so hard.

  Now wasn’t the time to nerd out about the validity of sexy monsters.

  Tim ran forward a
nd skidded to a halt next to Maria’s mother. “I need you to go back and join the others.”

  “No, my daughter needs me!” She grabbed a handful of Tim’s robes. “You have to help her.”

  Quest Received: Saving The Future

  Scare away or defeat the harpy in battle while ensuring no harm comes to Maria.

  Reward: Sometimes doing the right thing is its own reward.

  Whole lotta quests without rewards going around right now.

  Tim accepted it.

  Sometimes the extra experience that came with a quest was worth the effort regardless of if it came with shiny loot or not. In this case, they would have helped without a quest. Tim didn’t believe for one second that anyone in their guild would leave a little girl to die because the reward wasn’t big enough.

  It wasn’t who they were.

  Tim reached out, touched the woman’s shoulder, and turned her so she faced him and away from her daughter. “We’ll save her, but I need you to get to safety first.” He held her gaze. “I can’t be worried about you and Maria.”

  “I promise we’ll bring her home to you.” ShadowLily said the words like she was swearing an oath before Eternia herself.

  Maria’s mother glared at them. “If you don’t, I will haunt you ’til the end of your days.”

  Without another word, the woman turned away from her daughter and sprinted back toward the farmhouse.

  “Momma!” Maria cried.

  She paused for a moment, and Tim’s heart broke for her. When she looked back over her shoulder, he saw the wet stains on her cheek. It took all he had not to call her back, to let her watch as they saved her daughter, but the risk to all of them felt too great. Now his only job was to make sure they had a happy reunion as soon as possible.

  The harpy lunged forward and struck the woodpile. Maria screamed as the wood shifted, and all of them instantly focused on what they needed to do. The young girl crawled farther back into the stacked rows, but they wouldn’t be able to protect her forever.

  Tim waved at Lorelei. “Might be a good time to introduce that feathery bitch to a few sharp and pointy objects.”

  “Getting her attention shouldn’t be a problem.” Lorelei nocked an arrow and let it fly almost instantaneously.

  The arrowhead glittered in the bright afternoon sun like a silver missile. Tim watched as the arrow flew through the air, tracking its progress toward the munition’s ultimate destination. The ranger’s shot would be dead perfect, as always.

  Right before the arrow would have plunged into the monster’s chest, the harpy beat her wings again. The gust threw the bolt violently off course to the side. A single feather was impaled on the ground.

  “Her wings have a lot of power,” Lorelei called as she nocked another arrow.

  Tim turned to Cassie. “Get in there and do your thing!”

  “Like I was waiting for you to tell me.” Cassie vaulted over the wagon. “Just didn’t want to get shot in the back,” she screamed back as she sprinted toward the harpy.

  “As if,” Lorelei huffed while letting another arrow fly.

  This time the harpy used her wings earlier, and the arrow flew back toward Cassie, forcing her to dive out of the way.

  “My bad,” Lorelei shouted at Cassie’s scowling face. The ranger shouldered her bow and pulled her knife free. “New plan.”

  The monster had been mostly ignoring them, seeing the girl as a much easier target. That was right up until Lorelei's first arrow pulled one of its feathers free. Now the bitch looked pissed. Not that Tim was entirely focused on her face. This was the first time he’d gotten an honest-to-God look at the creature, and he wasn’t sure if he was disgusted or slightly turned on.

  Did having feathers invalidate the power of boobs?

  Sometimes he thought developers had fun seeing what they could pull off when it came to sexy repulsion. This harpy was no different. Feathers covered most of its fifteen-foot frame, but skin covered her other parts and was very, very distracting.

  What was it with him being attracted to only the deadliest of women now?

  There was a time when all he wanted was to find someone who wanted to hang out and game or watch movies. Now that he was with an assassin he saw how much he’d been missing out on. ShadowLily was as fierce in combat as she was in the bedroom, and while he was pretty sure he satisfied her regularly, if she turned into a fifteen-foot-tall killing machine his man parts might be woefully lacking. Maybe that’s why harpies were so mad all the time. Had to suck not being able to get any nookie for the cookie.

  Sometimes size mattered, and not just when you ordered fries.

  Cassie was closing the distance quickly, but it would take her a few more seconds to get there. The harpy didn’t dismiss the charging warrior as she had the ranger. Instead, she turned to face Cassie down. A tear in reality appeared in front of the creature, and Tim cringed backward expecting bolts of dark energy to rain down upon them. Instead, the harpy pulled a sword and shield from the opening. It closed, leaving nothing but a clear sky in its place.

  With a sword and shield in her hands, the harpy almost looked like an avenging angel. Her fondness for murdering farmers and eating children precluded the angel argument, but it wouldn’t have taken much persuasion to convince Tim the creature was a demon working for Vitaria.

  Normal harpies didn’t have weapons waiting for them in some kind of pocket dimension. In fact, most of the time they didn’t even have arms. Only wings and the head and upper body of a woman, with taloned feet. This monster was all kinds of different and wouldn’t be anywhere as easy to take down as a traditional harpy.

  Tim scanned the boss now that they were closer, and the information only came back with a name, Helen.

  Weird-ass name for a harpy.

  The sneer on Helen's face as she waited for Cassie to close the distance between them was enough to snap Tim’s thoughts back into focus. Looking in those hate-filled eyes reminded him of the first time he ever laid eyes on the scary mythical monster Mucklebones.

  No one wanted to meet fucking Mucklebones.

  Cassie slammed into the harpy’s shield with enough force the monster flew back a few steps. All it took was one massive heave of the creature’s wings, and she was back on the tank in an instant.

  Shit.

  Before sending his tank in to fight a monster they never faced before, Tim probably should have had his heals ready to go and his buffs cast. It wasn’t like him to make such an amateur mistake. Watching Cassie almost getting cleaved in half reminded him always to be vigilant and quickly realigned his priorities.

  Tim dropped into his Way of the Boulder stance to provide Cassie a boost, then quickly cast Curse of Giving on the boss. With a burst of healing directed at the tank, it gave him time to cast his buffs. Maybe he was having a case of the Mondays, but he always felt more prepared than this.

  Wait, what day was it anyway?

  Shaking his head to clear it, Tim tried to focus on the fight, but his heart wasn’t in it. What in the fuck was wrong with him? Something didn’t feel right. Then it dawned on him he might be suffering from some kind of status effect. His fingers moved slowly but eventually made their way through the Cleanse spell.

  His thoughts cleared instantly.

  It was a good thing they did because everyone was down, and the harpy was scratching at the woodpile with her talons like a fox at the hen house. Cassie was the closest to the mind-flaying bitch, and she was also the tank, which made her top priority. Tim cast Cleanse on her, followed by a Healing Orb.

  He wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen Cassie so pissed off. JaKobi could make her mad, but not like this. Their tank might as well have been a freight train of rage ready to deliver an economy-sized can of whoop-ass on the harpy. It was as though they had a little mini-Hulk.

  The she-Hulk slammed her bō staff into the back of one of the harpy’s wings, snapping the limb. Feathers filled the air like when a Randy Johnson fastball took out a dove on the way to the p
late. Tim couldn’t see a thing, and that meant trouble. Maybe this was the harpy’s version of squid ink.

  “Watch out!” Tim cried as he threw himself to the ground.

  A screech pierced the air, and all the floating feathers blasted forward pushed by a gale-force wind. Most of them shot right over him, but one caught his cheek and left a razor-thin cut. If anyone on his team got hit by the blast full-on, it would have been devastating.

  Tim jumped back to his feet, quickly checked his status bar, and met with an eyeful of depleted health bars. He preferred to keep his status window closed, but now and then he used it to get the complete picture in a second instead of having to look around. He almost felt like he was running with a group of players who decided it was time to do big DPS, and moving out of the giant red circles on the ground was optional instead of mandatory.

  In this case, it wasn’t his team's fault.

  Who would have thought the harpy’s feathers would have been razor-sharp? It wasn’t like they wrote that shit in any of the storybooks. Tim had proven he could handle a few random hiccups during a battle without falling apart. A quick Healing Orb on Cassie would keep her up while he changed gears. Now he was finally able to test out some of his burst AOE healing.

  He’d been working this option out in his head for a while and was excited to put his plan into practice finally. It was one of those things where he felt silly practicing his rotation over and over again until it became a part of him, but that was also what separated the cream of the crop from the masses.

  All he had to do now was execute.

  Who Needs a Shield was his opener for this gambit. It would give Cassie the boost she needed to survive before the rest of his healing kicked in. He quickly reapplied Curse of Giving and followed it by casting Healing Orb. As the orb splashed against the tank, Tim flipped his stance into Way of the River.

  With his stance changed, the heals from his curses and any damage dealt should now spread to the party. With his curse pumping out healing to the entire group, it was time to kick things up a notch. Tim cast Behold My Power. The whole party staggered to their knees as though another blast of the harpy’s power hit them, and not the recoil from Tim’s spell.