by J. D. Hale
“Get the spider off of her. I'll take care of her arm.” I whispered, and my brother got to work on moving the spider. Ross tossed me my bag and helped out my brother as much as possible as the spider turned out to be extraordinarily heavy. Rowan yanked the sword out of its abdomen and tossed it to me. I collapsed it quickly and shoved it into my bag after cleaning it off.
Iesleen was limp on the ground as I held her arm in my lap. Her breath came in ragged gasps while I healed her arm. In a few moments, though, she was feeling better.
“That was amazing.” I told her quietly.
“Thanks. It was nothing.” She said, shrugging it off.
“Seriously, though. I wouldn’t have been able to face whatever it thinks I’m afraid of.”
“Don’t be like that. I knew it had to be me the second you read the sign. Now, go on and finish this. Don’t let Ross get killed, alright?”
I laughed, “Never.”
She took a deep breath and I helped her up. She stumbled into my brother’s arms, and I looked away as he held her.
“Is that not the weirdest relationship you’ve ever seen?” Ross whispered, suddenly next to me.
You haven’t met my parents, I thought, forgetting for a moment that we had recently discovered his mind reading abilities.
He smiled, “I suppose they’re not the strangest couple.”
“It’s out there, all right. Rowan’s always been so against me being in relationships with accomplices. Who would’ve thought he’d be the one to break his own rule?” I laughed.
“Rules are meant to be broken.” Ross said playfully, his caramel eyes flitting between my eyes and my red lips.
“You’re right, as usual.” I replied with a sly smile.
I turned back to Rowan. Iesleen walked back to the shack, and sat down, exhausted.
“Ready?” Rowan asked, anxious to get out of here.
“Are you?” Ross asked, a little irritated.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rowan asked, not taking well to a challenge.
“Not again.” I rolled my eyes, “C’mon, Row, we all know you’re attached to Iesleen and don’t want to leave her here, all by herself. And Ross, please refrain from provoking my brother. I’m extremely tired of playing referee. Let’s go.” I ushered them through the now unlocked door at the other side of this level.
Instead of stairs, the side of the wall was jagged, like a rock-climbing wall. I shook my head and smiled.
“Only one way down, I suppose.” I grinned at Ross, knowing he would be terrified of going down this way, “Row, why don’t you go first. I’ll help Ross get down safely.”
My brother jumped across the gap and effortlessly grabbed onto a large rock. He climbed down easily, and jumped into a bright level.
“Alright, Ross, here we go. I’ll jump across first, and help you down from there.” I told him and then leaped across. My right hand clung to a smaller rock, my left on a ledge. I held on with my left, and let my right arm dangle.
“Be careful, Kai!” Rowan yelled below me.
“I’m fine, Row!” I called back with a laugh.
Ross gulped nervously.
“All you have to do is take my hand, okay?” I said comfortingly. My hand reached out to him, and he leaned over to take it. The moment he had a firm grip on my hand, I jerked him off the ledge. He looked terrified, but then grabbed the wall with his other hand.
He gasped in a breath, “Why the hell would you do that?!”
“Calm down. You’re fine now. I knew that the worst part for you would be jumping, so I eliminated that problem.” I half shrugged, trying not to fall down.
He let go of my hand, and grabbed another rock.
“Just get a strong foothold, and go down one limb at a time. Make sure you always keep a good grip with one of your hands. I’ll go down first, so if you fall, someone will catch you.” I said, attempting to be reassuring.
“Thanks…I guess.” He sighed.
I quickly climbed down, ending up next to my brother.
He gave me a look that I couldn’t interpret on the spot.
Ross took shaky steps, descending towards us. When he had gone down a few feet, his right foot slipped and he was hanging by only his left hand.
An image of me, just a few weeks ago, gripping the gray arch of Anacapa Island, racing Cal to the top, flashed into my head. I shook it out and continued to watch Ross. He regained his hold, and climbed down steadily.
He walked towards me, his face bright red.
“See?” I smiled, “That wasn’t so bad.”
He shrugged and cracked his knuckles.
For the first time, I took in the room we stood in. On the floor were hundreds of multi-colored square tiles, all leading up to a checkered door. We stood on a white platform, and across the room was a matching platform. A metal rope led across the ceiling. There were no signs anywhere, and I wondered what the challenge was.
I searched for a sign until a great groan came from the ceiling. Down from the rock came a huge projector, hanging from the metal rope on the ceiling, and it stopped at the center of the room. A bluish hologram stood in front of us. It was a projection of Dmitri Ivanov, the dead police chief.
“Congratulations, you’ve completed the first two levels of the tunnels. In this challenge, each of you must get across this room, one at a time, in three separate ways. The catch is that your feet may not touch any of the squares. If you do touch a square with your feet, a hole will open up in the ground, and you, along with everyone else in your group, will be killed.” The projection said.
“Simple enough.” Row said, “I’ll go after…Ross.”
Ross gulped nervously, “Well, I suppose this is where ten years of being pushed around like a wagon by my older brothers pays off.”
He jumped onto his hands and made it across on his palms, somehow getting up onto the white platform across the hall.
I was immensely impressed, as even I can’t walk very far on my hands.
“Alright Row, top that.” I challenged.
Rowan rolled his eyes and smiled.
He assessed the room, looking for a creative way across. He jumped up and brushed his hand on the ceiling.
“Perfect.” He whispered to himself.
Rowan leapt up again, this time grabbing the metal rope. He began swinging across the ceiling. Towards the end, there were a few feet of space between the rope and the white platform. So, he swung back and forth a few times and jumped onto the platform, landing next to Ross.
“Your turn Kai!” Rowan called across the room, “Top that!”
I stared at the floor tiles for a few minutes, and then strode across. When I stepped onto the platform, Ross gawked at me, but Rowan just shook his head and smiled.
“How?” Ross breathed.
“Two reasons. First: the hologram said that my feet couldn’t touch the ground. My heels touched the floor, not my feet.” I said, and then grinned, “Second: the tiles on the ground aren’t squares, they’re rectangles. You were too busy figuring a way over than noticing the obvious.”
Ross looked dumbfounded, “I can’t believe I didn’t notice that. I notice everything.”
“Wrong.” Rowan smiled, “Kairee notices everything.”
“Come on, let’s-”
I was cut off by a bone-shattering roar. It rumbled through the entirety of the tunnels, and chunks of rocks fell from chipped away from the ceiling.
“Sounds like the Beast has awakened,” Ross said devilishly.
The next three levels were simple challenges – a brain puzzle that Rowan figured out instantly, a word problem in four languages that Ross made quick work of, and a shooting challenge that I mastered immediately – all leading up to our fight with whatever monster the Beast was. Each level down, the roars from the Beast became louder and louder, until I finished the shooting test and opened the door to the stairs. The three of us walked down what seemed to be an endless staircase. We had trotted down hundreds of
steps, and yet we still hadn’t made it to the door. When I was so frustrated I almost gave up on the whole thing and turned around, we reached the door.
Another projection appeared out of nowhere, this time it was the Prime Minister.
“The task is simple: Kill the Beast. No one has ever done it, and I have reason to believe that nobody ever will.”
I waited a moment before opening the door, prepping myself to face the monster.
Ross looked at me nervously when another deafening growl shook the ground below our feet, “I’m more than a little terrified.” He whispered. I handed Rowan the collapsible sword, and he looked at it in awe. Ross got the gun from the shooting challenge I had just finished. I pulled out my trusty dagger, ready for anything.
“It’ll be fine. I’m sure it can’t be too-”
And then I saw it.
In front of us stood a golden dragon, standing on all fours, so huge I can barely describe it even now. It was so massive that it could use one of my mansions as a baseball bat. Its great scales, each the size of me or larger, glittered golden yellow in the dim lighting. At the moment I saw it, the Beast was looking away from us, so we all got a good look at it. It had a long, sharp tail with huge, thorn like spike the size of sails. The largest spike was on the end of its tail, and they went all the way up to its head.
Ross sucked in a nervous breath, and the dragon heard it.
Its massive head turned around slowly until it was staring straight at Ross.
It had the most frightening face I had ever had the displeasure of seeing. The whole head was pockmarked with jagged slashes and long scars all across the face. All around the eyes, the weakest point on the body, were horrid cuts. The worst part was its left eye. It was glazed over, and it didn’t follow the right one.
“It’s blind in its left eye. Good. Row, distract it on its right. Try getting under its front right leg. Ross, do whatever Rowan tells you.” I told them quietly, “Go now.”
Rowan ran at the dragon, and all of its attention went to my brother.
I ran around the back and jumped on its tail. It thrashed around, but I kept a tight hold. When I got up to the first of the spikes, I made to hold onto it. But, the moment I pressed my hand to it, I found out the hard way that the sail spike was razor sharp. My hands got sliced open, and the dragon threw me off. I flew threw the air and landed in a heap next to my clear bag. I reached in and carefully plucked out the blue gel. I used it like lotion and spread it on my hands. I shoved the gel into the pocket of my dress and pulled off my shoes.
Then, a real problem emerged.
The dragon reared back onto its hind legs, roaring with such ferocity they must have heard it hundreds of feet above us in the Institute. A column of azure blue and bright orange flame shot out of its nostrils, charring the rock in front of us. Ross, ten feet away, got his clothes singed so bad they were almost falling off. A wave of pure heat slammed me backwards.
“Ross!” I called out.
He had collapsed on the ground, and the dragon looked like it was ready to eat him.
I ran up to him and stabbed the dragon in the nose, burning my hand. When I pulled my sword back out, it was piping hot. I dropped it and grabbed Ross. I couldn’t bear to be distracted by his injuries as I dragged him to the back of the room. I left him there and ran back for my sword.
Running off towards the dragon again, I couldn’t help but be scared. I’ve never fought anything this large before. While I was running, a plan began forming in my head. I jumped onto the dragon’s left claw, and began climbing up. Its scales were like massive rocks, and I climbed them as such. It was an arduous climb up, and I was tired by the time I reached its back. I sat for a moment with my hands dug under a scale so I wouldn’t go flying off.
I watched my brother weave between its legs, doing an amazing distraction job. The dragon was completely enthralled in trying to get him away. It swatted at him and snapped huge teeth. Another plume of fire shot at my brother. But Rowan was way too fast, of course, to be caught. He slid onto his back under the dragon.
A shot rang out, and my adrenaline level skyrocketed when I found out that Ross accidentally loosed a shot into the right eye of the dragon. I knew that there were only moments until the dragon got a bullet in its only functional eye, and it would go for Ross.
I shouted as I trotted up, “Row! Stab it in the stomach, right between the front legs!”
I ran, fast as lighting, up the back of the dragon. My steps were light so that the dragon wouldn’t notice me. When I reached its head, I sat and slid down to its nose. I stood shakily, looking into its pitch black eyes. I saw the tiny bullet make contact with its eye.
It roared and thrashed its head around, exactly what I wanted it to do. I let it throw me off, propelling me up into the air. When I was at the height of the jump, the dragon’s head turned back and I landed safely right under its eye.
I stabbed down, directly at the center of the eye. It began falling forward.
Down below, Rowan knew this was his moment, and he run under its body. As he worked at shredding its guts open, I slid down the dragon’s back and jumped onto the ground. I darted to where Rowan was standing, under the dragon’s light yellow, rigged stomach. He was making long gashes in the dragon’s underbelly, and crimson blood was spilling out.
Rowan made a quick, gruesome job of ripping apart its gigantic heart. The Beast toppled to the ground in defeat.
“That wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d thought it would be.” Rowan said
“Are you kidding? Did you see Ross? And my feet?”
My feet were shredded open from running up the scales.
Rowan cursed, “And what exactly happened to Ross?”
“Go see for yourself. I’ll fix up myself.” I said, and plopped down.
Amazingly, the blue gel hadn’t fallen out of my pocket yet. I spread it into my feet tenderly, and they healed almost all the way. There were only a few small cuts around my ankles.
I grabbed my bag and ran to Ross.
His arm was completely burned, all the way from his fingertips to his shoulder. Ross’s eyes were closed.
But one might face their final hour.
“No.” I whispered. “Not Ross.”
Rowan looked at me confusedly.
I squeezed out the last of the blue gel, dreading its end. I made a mental note to call Hearth for more. I rubbed the last of the gel into Ross’s arm, healing it almost fully. That was the first sign to me that Ross was till alive. If he was dead, he wouldn’t have any natural cell reproduction in the first place, so the gel wouldn’t be able to speed it up, and the whole thing would be pointless.
Ross’s eyelids fluttered, “Hey beautiful.”
“He better be talking to you, Kai.” Rowan said, rolling his eyes.
I smiled at Ross, and play-slapped Rowan on the back of his head. Of course, my light slap was harder than the normal person’s regular slap, and Rowan shot me a look.
“So, where’s the door?” Rowan wondered.
I scanned the perimeter of the room. Just stone.
“My best bet is that the dragon was guarding it.” I told him logically.
“Awesome.” Heavy sarcasm, “How do we get to it?”
I stood up, thinking about it. Rowan helped Ross up and they looked at me expectantly.
My mind raced, “We can’t move the dragon.”
“Obviously.” Ross replied sardonically.
I shot him an agitated look.
He returned with a smile, “Why don’t we find the door first. We can go from there.”
He walked up to the dragon, and my brother and I followed.
“It’s probably under the stomach.” Rowan said in an attempt to be helpful.
“It would never be there. You would’ve seen it. Duh.” Ross countered with a snicker, obviously trying to aggravate my brother. I didn’t stop him simply because, hey, Rowan’s fun to irritate.
“Don’t insult my intelligence. Where do yo
u think it is?” Rowan challenged.
“Back left foot.” Ross replied, as if it was obvious.
“Oh really?” Row retorted, “Why?”
“That’s the only part of the body the dragon wouldn’t move while you were trying to fight it. You two seriously didn’t notice?” Ross’s left eyebrow went up. His glasses were sitting crooked on his face, broken a bit on the side.
“Of course I didn’t.” I said, a snarky tone in my voice, “I was a little preoccupied fighting a dragon. And, not to mention, saving your life. Don’t try to belittle me.”
“Sorry.” Ross said quietly.
“Good. Ross – how much do you think that foot weighs?” I asked – rhetorically.
Of course, Ross didn’t notice that.
“Maybe…six hundred pounds? Give or take a few.” Ross told me.
“Oh!” I exclaimed happily, “Row and I can push that.”
“What?!” Ross gaped in disbelief, “But you guys are so…weak looking.”
“Don’t be naïve, Ross. You know that Saizians are naturally small, but have over twice the muscle mass of humans. The strongest humans have been known to lift anywhere from five hundred to a thousand pounds. I can lift about three-fifty, and Rowan can lift about…what – six-, seven-hundred pounds?” I shot Row a question, the answer, for some odd reason, eluding me.
“Kilos, Kai.” Rowan corrected.
“Wait…”Ross was stunned, “You can lift six- or seven-hundred kilos?”
“Yeah. What about you, small fry?” Rowan teased.
“I’ve never lifted anything I didn’t have to.” Ross laughed, and Rowan rolled his eyes.
“Then I suppose,” I cut in, “you can leave this to Rowan and I.”
Ross nodded, “I wouldn’t be any use to you, anyways.”
“You’re awfully good at being right,” Rowan teased.
“Stop fooling around, boys. Row, help me move the foot.” I commanded.
As it happens, the claw was heavier than originally anticipated. It was taller than Rowan and had to weigh at least a thousand pounds. We actually needed Ross, weak as he may be, to move it. Every muscle helps, even if it’s barely functional.
The door down was a classic, wooden trap style. There was a bronze latch holding down the wooden panels.