by Noah Layton
I turned and slammed my boot down hard, striking one of them square in the face and sending it toppling back.
Turning back to the highest ridge I saw Oden’s huge outstretched hand and took it. He wrenched me up sharply, almost pulling my shoulder out of its socket.
The four of us stood side by side, weapons firmly in our hands, and looked out over the cavern.
There were at least forty of the monsters making their way to us, twenty from both sides, some even pushing past others in their effort to get here first.
Those on the opposite side were tumbling down the ridges, levelling themselves out on the cavern floor, then making towards us fast.
There was no relief on our side either; those nearby were able to wrench their huge weight up the vertical walls, dragging themselves higher with their multitudinous scrabbling legs.
A symphony of scuttling and feral hissing was all around us.
I looked left to see two moving straight towards us, one after the other.
I opened my spell wheel and selected Spell: Telekinetic Blast.
‘Telekinea!’
The familiar whomp sound exploded from my hand, distorting the air and sending the first of the monsters tumbling into the second.
They smashed down the cavern walls fast, knocking into another on their way as they toppled like rocks to the cave floor.
‘Jack, what do we do?’ Cass asked.
‘Knock back the ones closest.’
‘That’s only going to work if we don’t get swarmed, and it really looks like that’s what they’re going to do to us.’
‘Just trust me.’
‘Trust you?’ She laughed nervously.
‘When have I ever let you down in the past?’
Cass shot me a pained grimace. She was tough, and so were her brothers. They could handle this.
The creatures amassed around us, crawling up the levels in growing numbers. All of those from the other side of the cavern had now reached our side, and were crawling up the walls to reach us.
We spread out a little but stayed along the same section, knocking back those that came too close with our pickaxes. They were the perfect weapon, their large heads and sweeping arcs giving enough leverage to hold them off.
I had never seen the twins fight before, but as I chanced a look over at them, I didn’t know whether to be impressed or terrified.
Aden brought his pickaxe up above his head and swung down on the hardened shell of a creature nearby. It didn’t break the surface, but the sheer power of the strike sent its face smashing into the rock, releasing a compressed explosion of hideous green goo.
Oden had never spoken once to me, but was now yelling with enraged power. He kicked and swung and screamed at those that came nearest to him with animal ferocity.
One suddenly got the drop on him, rising up to our ridge with its gnashing fangs snapping loudly.
‘AGHHH!!!’
Oden smashed the closed fist of his hand straight into its face. Its fangs closed, trapping his hand briefly and cutting through his skin.
‘RAAAGHHHH!!!’
The jolt of pain coursed through him. To my terror he dropped his pickaxe, but it was all part of his rampaging response.
He raised his other fist and slammed it square into the monster’s face, then again, over and over until its face had been reduced to green mush.
Its fangs released and he kicked it back hard, wrenching up his pickaxe again before it had toppled into three of the creatures behind it.
It was a victory, but a small one.
‘Jack, there are too many of them!’
‘Just wait.’
‘For what?!’
They were swarming up around us now in three scattered lines, splitting into five competing to get to us at the front as we knocked them back.
A single gap would bring us down.
‘Telekinea! TELEKINEA!’
The lines exploded backwards, sending the first two rows smashing backwards into the rest. Aside from a few stragglers all of them were crunching down the levels.
‘Now!’
Together we dropped down the ridges, clearing them as we went. My sword and their pickaxes sliced and crunched into every exposed body of every creature that we came across, ending them one by one as quickly as we could.
By the time we reached the bottom level only a few remained. We viciously slaughtered them, even the few remaining alive; even after seeing their dead kin, they still chose to drag themselves towards us with crippled legs that had broken after their fall.
Panting hard, I made my way to the last one and plunged by blade deep into its innards, so deep that the end of my sword struck against the shell.
I twisted it with gritted teeth, then pulled my blade out and looked over at my companions.
‘See,’ I smiled. ‘Told you I had it under control.’
‘Only because of that overpowered power stone of yours,’ Cass laughed. ‘Where did you get that thing, anyway?’
‘Stole it from a cave filled with sirens that were trying to murder me.’
Cass laughed again. ‘That’s real funny… Wait, you’re serious?’
‘Not the weirdest thing that’s happened to me in this world.’
‘Now that’s a story that I need to hear.’
‘Sure, just as soon as we get out of this godforsaken place.’
***
We arrived undeterred back on the surface of the land where we used some bandages and potions of healing on the flesh wound on Oden’s hand, as well as checking ourselves for any previously undetected injuries.
‘So what do you plan on doing with all of this?’ Cass asked, examining several of the ores scattered upon the ground from our inventories.
‘Some of it we’re going to use to build funds. There’s a trading post on the river where we can sell ores or smelted bars. The rest, mainly the iron, we’re going to use for armor.’
‘For ourselves?’
‘No. For the army that we’re going to build.’
‘An… An army?’
‘Yeah. We’re making more money by the day, and other tribes are starting to pay attention to us. I’ve no doubt some know where we are. Our wealth might not look like a lot compared to some other tribes, but there are plenty who would still take it at a second’s notice. and even if we’ve got the support of the sun-elves, we can’t rely on them to save our asses. If an enemy tribe was brave enough to wage an attack on our land even with the sun-elf flag situated there, they would probably have little trouble overrunning us. It’s why we’re building defences right now.
‘Even if the sun-elves did have our back, it would take them a few hours at best to get to us. By then we could all be dead. We’re going to use this land to start training an army, bring them into our tribe, then use them to fight off anybody who wants to make a move on us.’
‘Sounds like a damn good plan, but warriors tend to be native to their tribes. Where are we going to get a bunch of warriors who are both loyal to a new tribe and capable fighters? We can’t exactly steal them.’
‘No, we can’t. But we can free them from captivity.’
The group gathered themselves and used their canteens to wash the dirt stains from their skin and satiate their thirst while I returned to the treehouse in search of Alorion.
‘Wheels up, buddy, let’s get moving. Where are you at?’
I heard them, and stopped just short of the door from where the sounds were emerging.
‘Yes, Alorion, yes!’
‘Jesus Christ,’ I muttered with a shiver and a laugh. I took off back down the steps and set off for the Furnace Building again, meeting my three companions and turning them around.
‘I thought we were heading home.’
‘Change of plans. We’re spending the night here.’
‘And then we can head home?’
‘Yeah, right after we burn everything in the treehouse.’
Chapter Seven
Night wa
s already starting to fall by the time Alorion had finished off his dalliance with Nyah. For all he had done I decided to let him take the night with her while I and my companions set up a small camp by the Furnace Building.
As the night fell, the glow of the furnace fire became a beacon of safety in the otherwise oppressive darkness of the land. We might have been well-defended by the perimeter fence, but our numbers were small and the fire gave away our location to any beasts or intruders in the surrounding area.
I didn’t doubt that we would be safe and alone out here, but all the same we elected to take turns in keeping watch.
It also gave us the chance to keep the smelting process moving along; as long as somebody was always awake, somebody would be available to continue the process, and we could put every hour to good use.
By the time morning rolled around we had made our way through the mine’s spoils, and the fire in the furnace finally burnt out. The morning air was brisker than usual, and as the final trails of smoke drifted up into the cloudy sky, I took the opportunity to check our total inventory of smelted bars.
Iron bar x232
Bronze bar x340
Gold bar x19
Silver bar x34
Copper bar x98
The haul was nothing to sniff at, especially since we had almost been wiped out by an army of monsters in the process, but it had all been worthwhile in the end.
After making sure the fires within the Furnace Building were all completely extinguished and collecting our equipment, we packed the cart and readied the horses for the journey home.
But not before collecting Alorion.
The treehouse was quiet when I knocked on the door. By the time I had descended the steps, the front door had opened wide and Alorion appeared.
Rather than looking confident and revitalised, he looked more exhausted than I had ever seen him.
‘How you doing, buddy? Pair of shades and a cigarette hanging from your mouth and you would be the perfect walk of shame.’
‘That woman…’ Alorion moaned, stretching his arms out and staggering down the steps stiffly. ‘She will be the death of me.’
‘I take it things went well?’
‘Better than well. So well that now everything hurts…’
‘Come back soon,’ Nyah shouted from the treehouse. ‘I will keep things warm for you until you return…’
I took a drink from my canteen of water, shaking my head and smiling.
‘Let us make haste,’ my imp said sharply, hurrying to the cart. ‘I fear I would just be shooting clouds of dust at this point.’
I laughed so hard that the entire mouthful of water spurted out.
***
Within a few hours we arrived back at the Rourke Homestead. Cass and her brothers waited with the horses outside while I made my way into the kitchen to the smell of fried eggs and bacon.
I hadn’t smelled it for months since I was back in my own world, and the scent practically made me levitate into the kitchen like a cartoon character where I met Jeremiah, Lola and Santana.
‘So this is how you eat here,’ I laughed. ‘I need to get this kind of produce back at our land.’
‘I swear,’ Lola said with a mouthful of food, ‘I only cured the bacon this morning, and the eggs are freshly laid. Would you like to try some?’
She offered up a large plate of well-cooked, thick bacon, which I gladly took. I dug into a piece, indulging in the delicious taste. ‘This is incredible. What did you use to cook it?’
‘Fat from the pigs,’ Jeremiah replied. ‘Could not let it go to waste. Such is the nature of a farm.’
‘Mind if I give these to Cass and her brothers?’
‘Invite them in!’ Lola said heartily, ‘there is more than enough to go around.’ She hurried to the door and beckoned them in. ‘Oh, these brothers. Well, maybe I don’t have enough for them, but we shall see where we get to. Come in, come in.’
I moved to the stairs with Jeremiah and Santana, shutting the door to the kitchen behind me.
‘How’s our guest?’
‘Probably awake by now,’ Jeremiah replied, looking shiftily up the stairs. ‘She has been asleep since mid-afternoon yesterday after I fixed up her wound. The sedative only lasts so long. During the surgery I also found this…’
He produced a necklace from his pocket and held it up. It was one of the most brilliantly glimmering things I had ever seen; a blueberry-sized diamond in the centre surrounded by a deep-black, oval frame.
‘Pretty nice,’ I remarked, as Jeremiah handed it to me and I felt its surprising lightness.
‘Nice does not even begin to cut it, husband,’ Santana said. ‘I am no miner, but those are two of the most precious metals in Agraria. That’s diamond encased in starstone. It would probably sell for 7000 gold pieces to the right buyer.’
‘…7000?’ I exclaimed. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Positive. I remember seeing a travelling tribe master with his guards at the trading post with one once, years ago. He became angry at me just for looking at it.’
‘So what the hell is our vagrant catgirl who lives in the trees doing with it around her neck?’
‘Santana tells me that she is running from mercenaries,’ Jeremiah said. ‘Perhaps she stole it.’
That had to be it.
‘All right,’ I nodded. ‘Thanks for doing this for me, Jeremiah. Let me go ask her some questions.’
They returned to the kitchen, the door opening to satisfied sounds of relieved hunger from Aden and Oden before closing again, and I was alone.
I headed up the creaking stairs to the spare bedroom and headed inside.
I was thankful that they had taken my advice; Talia was tied to the bed tightly by her wrists and ankles, and despite her struggling as I entered there was no way she was getting out.
‘Oh, good, you’re back,’ she said sarcastically.
‘Oh, fuck off,’ I laughed, grabbing a chair and slumping down in it. ‘You’re the one who intruded my land, remember? How the hell did you get past my perimeter fence anyway?’
‘It wasn’t difficult. I waited for nightfall, watched your guard on the nearest tower get distracted and jumped over.’
‘It’s eight-feet tall and covered in razor-sharp logs, how the hell would you do that?’
‘These features I have are not just for show. I can do things that men like you can only dream of.’
‘I’ll get back to that later,’ I interrupted. ‘More to the point, what did you follow me back to my land for anyway? I thought you wanted your independence and all of that bullshit.’
‘It’s not bullshit, I did, I just… The moment I left you I realized the mistake that I had made. You defended me. You were the first person I had met in months who actually did something kind for me, and I just walked away.’
‘So really you were only planning on sticking with me because I did something for you, not because you wanted to.’
‘No, it is not that …’
‘Look, there’s something that you’re not telling me, and you’re pissing me off so much now that I’m actually considering making an unprecedented move.’
‘Which is?’
‘Selling you back to the assholes who are looking for you.’
Talia went to speak, then paused and gulped, eyeing me with a hint of fear.
‘You wouldn’t dare.’
‘Hell, at this point I’d pay them to take you off me. A squad of mercenaries are tasked to hunt you down and I risk my and my companions necks in an effort to keep you safe and get out of there. I put my tribe at risk just by doing that. And then there’s this…’
I pulled the necklace that Jeremiah had given me from my inside pocket and held it from the chain.
The moment Talia saw it her eyes went even wider.
‘Give me that,’ she said sternly, gritting her teeth. ‘Give me that back, now.’
‘My wife, Santana, she’s downstairs. I’d trust her with my life, in fact I have more than
once, as she has with me… She tells me that this is incredibly rare. Diamond encased in starstone, is it? It would probably fetch enough gold pieces to feed my tribe for months.’ Talia glared back at me. ‘So tell me: what the hell does a vagrant barmaid covered in rags who’s running from slavers have it wrapped around her neck for?’
Talia closed her large eyes and rested her head back against the pillow. Her body became a little less tight as she conceded and relaxed.
‘I didn’t think that you would take me with you if you knew who I really was.’
‘And who are you, really?’
‘My name is Princess Talia of the Rahela Tribe. My people once resided far, far north of here but our tribe was destroyed years ago. I have not seen any of my kind for a long time. There may be none of my people left. I have been moving from town to trading post for years in an effort to remain hidden, but it is Garrison who wants me.’
I stared back at her in disbelief, trying to process everything that she had said.
‘You’re a princess? You mean you were in line to run your tribe?’
‘No. I had many brothers and sisters, and I was far down the line of power. Control of the tribe would never have fallen into my hands even if my people had retained control over it.’
‘So this is why you’ve been so fucking uppity since we met. You’re a princess… You think you’re better than everybody, don’t you?’
‘No, that’s not so at all…’
‘Oh my god,’ I laughed, running my hands over my face. ‘Now it all makes sense. You think you’re royalty, don’t you?’
‘I am royalty.’
‘You were. And this Garrison guy wants you because… Why?’
‘I have heard many things in my time in the towns and villages in the north about him. He has another name… The Collector. He is a very wealthy tribe master who collects the rarest objects he can acquire in Agraria.’
‘I’m guessing that goes for both objects and people?’
‘They are all objects to him. Whether or not they breathe makes little difference in his mind.’
‘Right… And there are no other cat-people anywhere else in Agraria?’
‘There are other tribes similar to our kind, but they are small and hidden. I let my guard down and someone passed word of my existence to him. Plus, having a princess in his collection would be an excellent acquisition in his eyes.’