Her argument seemed plausible to the group until their trek through the cavern halted at a dead end.
“Oh crap, we are going to starve to death! I knew I was no hero, and this is no story. It’s real life and now it’s going to be real death, and this really sucks!” Gabe cried hysterically.
“Calm down, Gabe,” Felicia sighed as she aimed her flashlight up the sheer wall.
“So are we trapped?” Josh asked, walking up behind her.
“I don’t think so. See how it’s still dark up there where I shine my flashlight? I think there’s a ledge, and the cave might continue near the top of this wall. I think I can free climb this and let a rope down.”
Felicia pulled a rope out of her pack, slung it over her shoulder, and began inching up the rough cavern wall. She found small handholds, wedged her hands into small crevices in the rock face, and slowly kept pulling herself up the wall. She finally reached the ledge and pulled herself over. The group watched her light flash around before her face peered over the ledge.
“It goes on. I’ll throw a rope down.”
She hammered a piton into a crack in the wall and secured her end of the rope to it before throwing the trailing end over. Her friends took their packs off and pulled themselves up the wall.
After several failed attempts at climbing, Gabe simply tied the rope around his waist and allowed those up top to pull him up. Phil decided to go last and tied the packs to the rope where the others hauled them up as they did Gabe, one by one, before he climbed up himself.
They all wanted to rest longer, but the urge to escape the dark confines of the cavern drove them onward. Without their watches, the adventurers would have had absolutely no sense of time. Minutes seemed like hours, and hours sometimes seemed like minutes. After another hour of walking, they were faced with yet another obstacle.
“Great, a fork in the road,” Gabe exclaimed. “Now what?”
“A fork?” Chuck called from the middle of the group. “What the hell’s a fork doing this far in a cave? Someone have a picnic in here?”
“Not that kind of fork, Chuck,” Felicia replied, rolling her eyes.
“Oh, that kind of fork. I knew that,” he mumbled embarrassedly.
“We’ll mark the intersection with chalk and keep on with the wider passage,” Felicia instructed, pulling a large piece of white chalk from her pack.
She scrawled a large, white arrow on the grey cavern wall and proceeded down the indicated path. Over an hour later, they turned back and took the alternate path since a cave-in had filled that one with an impenetrable barrier of rubble.
The party finally conceded to their fatigue and aching muscles and decided to rest. Cave climbing and exploring was far more exhausting than simple trail hiking. The ground was far from even, often climbing and descending rather steeply in areas. The party posted another watch despite Chase’s renewed protests. There was absolutely nothing to use as fuel other than the small cans of camp fuel, so they used one to make some oatmeal but used their sleeping bags to stay warm instead of relying on the small flame for heat.
From the deep within the concealing darkness, several pairs of hungry eyes watched the humans bundled up in their strange bedrolls. Soon, their kin would join them and they could strike. The humans, with their weak eyesight, would never see them until it was too late.
CHAPTER 9
“Another hour of my life I’ll never get back,” Chase grumbled bitterly.
“Quit complaining, Chase. It’s better to lose an hour of sleep than the rest of your life because you got lax,” Josh scolded.
“But there’s nothing here but us!” he insisted doggedly.
“Remember Murphy’s law,” Ted piped in. “The moment we don’t watch out, that’s when the creepy crawlies come out of the cracks and suck the juice out of your eyeballs.”
“Stupid Murphy probably doesn’t practice law in this world,” the young thief mumbled to himself.
The party traveled on through the expansive cave system, always marking areas of multiple passages. More than once, they were forced to backtrack as one of the passages became impassible.
The large eyes of the cave dwellers kept their prey in sight, but they always remained concealed from the humans they pursued. The foolish humans should have known better than to enter their lightless realm. For generations, the humans passed down frightful tales, warning of certain death for anyone who braved the caverns beneath the mountains. Perhaps the light-dwellers had forgotten; they would need to be reminded.
Felicia called the group to a halt as their light revealed a large chasm cutting directly across their path. The wall continued on their left, but the cave floor, ceiling, and the wall to their right disappeared into the darkness of empty space.
“Crap, we have to go back again! And we went so far this time,” Chuck complained bitterly.
Felicia shined her flashlight across the deep rift and made out a black patch surrounded by the dark grey of stone. “I think the passage continues just on the other side of this gap. I’ll take a rope over and you all can cross just like you did before.”
“There wasn’t a thousand feet of nothing below us before!” Gabe squeaked fearfully.
“We’ll be fine, Gabe, I promise,” Felicia assured him tiredly.
The athletic young woman set down her pack, threw her rope over her shoulder, and clipped several cams, carabineers, and pitons onto her belt. Phil hammered a piton into the wall near his feet and another at shoulder height on their end then fed one end of the rope through them both before handing it back to his sister. Felicia clung to the wall, using her slender but strong fingers to find purchase along the rough wall. After several tense minutes, she managed to traverse the forty-foot wide chasm and gain the far side.
Once safely grounded again, she selected a cam from her belt and wedged the spring-loaded device into a small fissure in the cave wall at the relative heights of the rings on the other side. She then clamped a carabineer to each of the cams and fed the rope through, making a sort of rope bridge.
She could clearly see her friends on the other side of the chasm, but their magical lights barely illuminated her form. If it were not for her flashlight, she would have been little more than a shadow herself. As soon as she had secured the rope, she waved her flashlight and called them to come over.
“How do we cross this?” Josh asked, feeling a bit nervous himself just now.
“Just hold on to the top rope, put your feet on the bottom one, and sidestep until you’re on the other side,” Phil instructed.
Josh stepped out onto the bottom rope and tightly gripped the top rope as his feet swayed precariously on the makeshift bridge.
“That’s it, Josh, just hang on and take small steps,” Felicia called out encouragingly.
Her piercing scream cut short her shout of encouragement when a grey-skinned humanoid leapt from the dark shadows above her. The creature sank its hard, black claws into the rigid leather armor and tried to sink its teeth into the soft flesh of her neck. Felicia grabbed the creature by one arm, pivoted with her hips, ducked her head, and flung it over her back to land hard onto the ground.
“Felicia!” Phil screamed as he saw the creature attack his sister.
Josh, still hanging from the rope, looked away from the wall to where Felicia was fighting for her life and was barely able to see the grey-skinned creature as it tumbled across the stone and sprang back to its feet with remarkable agility. He tried to hurry across the shaky, swaying ropes to help her as she swiftly drew her rapier.
Phil cried out another warning as a second creature dropped down from the darkness overhead. Felicia whirled around at his warning and nimbly dodged to the side as the creature landed gracefully on all fours on the spot she had just vacated.
Phil drew back his bow and launched an arrow into the first shape that was little more than a moving shadow. Before the creature could fully recover and spring back at his sister, the steel-tipped shaft pierced its grey flesh. T
he creature flailed about with a high-pitched shriek of pain, its blood spattering the rocks in its spasm.
Felicia was forced to dodge as she spun to face the newest attacker while several more dropped from above and scrambled toward her from the passage beyond. She quickly found herself surrounded by the evil creatures with no place to go other than the seemingly bottomless crevasse behind her.
The creatures were dark grey in color, nearly the same color as the surrounding stone, with black mottling to camouflage them even further. They looked human except for overly large eyes and bodies that were virtually hairless. Long fingers and toes sported hard, sharp claws nearly an inch long. They were not large, perhaps four feet tall and very thin, but wiry corded muscles showed clearly through their dull skin. Large, bat-like ears protruded from the sides of their nearly hairless heads.
She lashed out at one, but it swiftly dodged the sharp steel of her sword. The other continued its charge until she shined her bright flashlight into its large, sensitive eyes. The creature balked for just a second and shielded its eyes with its skeletal-looking hand. That second was all she needed, and she promptly thrust her needle-sharp sword through the creature’s heart.
Chase carefully aimed his crossbow at another of the fleet, shadowy shapes and fired. A loud screech rewarded his shot when his quarrel pierced the thigh of one of the creatures.
Several brilliant darts of power erupted from Ted’s outstretched hand and slammed into the creature that had dodged Felicia’s initial strike, throwing it back toward its brethren with a howl of pain and fury.
The creatures hissed in disgruntled fury. Their dinner was proving to be harder to catch than they had anticipated. No matter, there were many of them, and life was hard under the surface. The weak often perished so that the strongest lived on.
Phil sent another arrow streaking into one of the creatures his sister illuminated with her flashlight. The cave-dwelling monsters advanced en masse as they overcame their fear and sensitivity to the humans’ hated light.
Felicia swung her slender rapier back and forth to keep the creatures wary and away from her as she backed slowly toward the ledge. When she ran out of room to retreat, she had no idea what to do other than fight as hard as she could. She chanced a brief glimpse over to Josh and saw he was only about ten feet from gaining the ledge.
“Josh, watch out!” she cried as three of the creatures came crawling down the wall above him like huge, grey spiders.
Josh looked up and swore, feeling extremely vulnerable while hanging from his precarious platform. He drew a long dagger from his belt with one hand and swiped at one of the creatures when it came too close. A second cave creature released its grip and dropped onto his back, trying to find the soft flesh under the steel armor.
Another salvo of bright bolts lit into the creature’s torso, causing it to release its hold on its erstwhile prey and fall screeching for several long seconds into the gloomy abyss before cutting off with a soft thump.
“What the heck are those things?” Chuck demanded, feeling useless on his side of the chasm.
“They look like a bunch of mutant Sméagols!” Ted shouted back.
“What the heck is a Sméagol?”
“Sméagol, you know, Gollum from the Lord of the Rings movie.”
“That little, ugly, creepy guy with the ring fetish?”
“Yeah, that one.”
“I would have snapped that little creep’s neck in the first part of the movie!” Chuck exclaimed loudly.
“Not really the time to discuss movie plots, Chuck,” Ted insisted.
Another of the creatures trying to dislodge Josh from the rope suddenly tumbled from the wall with an arrow in its spine, striking the shoulder of the human clinging tightly to the rope as it fell.
“Guys, I really need some help here!” Felicia cried out as she ducked a leaping Sméagol that went plunging over the edge before driving her blade into the neck of a second one.
“Help is on the way!” Gabe shouted, and conjured a wall of spinning blades that hacked brutally at several of the creatures and slung gore across the cavern, effectively blocking the advance of the others.
Josh twisted to the side and hung from the top rope by one arm as the remaining creature clawed at his face, narrowly missing with its sharp claws. He swung back and drove his dagger deep into the creature’s shoulder blade, reached up with his gauntleted hand, pulled it from the wall, and sent it screaming into the deep crevasse. Free of his attacker, he crossed the suspension, dropped his pack, and stood next to Felicia with his lethal sword in his hands.
Chuck quickly scrambled onto the rope and started to cross as Ted sent a huge fireball exploding into the rear ranks of Sméagols crowded behind the barrier of spinning blades, waiting for the spell to expire to resume their attack.
Gabe chanted another prayer, and a brilliant ball of light like a miniature sun erupted over the deep gorge and floated lazily toward the far side. As Chuck reached his two companions, he could see the creatures pulling back from the bright orb filling the entire cavern with a dazzling white light.
Gabe’s blade spell wore off, but still the creatures retreated, turning their eyes away from the hated light and fleeing down the passageway to the safety and comfort of the darkness beyond.
“How long will that light last, Gabe?” Phil asked the young cleric.
“I’m not sure, but a while I think.”
“You guys hurry across. I’ll follow with Felicia’s backpack,” Phil instructed the two spell casters.
Ted scurried across, his slight frame making the perilous traverse look relatively easy. Gabe thought a moment, cast another spell on himself to increase his strength, and made it across without incident. Phil tied his sister’s pack onto his own. Although it made his load cumbersome, his skill allowed him to cross the rope bridge without falling.
“They obviously don’t like the light, but I don’t think Gabe and Ted’s light will be enough to keep them off us for long,” Josh said. “Let’s move on quickly before they get too much courage built back up and decide to press their attack again.” He waved a hand toward a tunnel. “It looked like most of them ran down this right hand passage, so we’ll have to take the left one and pray it doesn’t come to a dead end.”
The party moved out at a quick pace, hoping to put as much distance between them and the cave creatures as possible. Within minutes, the light disappeared from behind them, and a shrill cry reverberated through the cave.
“I think they’ll be coming again real soon,” Phil warned needlessly.
Soon after his prediction, the sound of dozens, maybe even scores, of hard claws scratching and scrambling against the stone could be heard even over the sounds of their own flight.
“Gabe, can you cast another of those bright lights?” Josh asked, breathing hard.
Gabe nodded. He was so out of breath, he could barely gasp out a response. The party stopped and drew their weapons as Gabe chanted hurriedly but quietly. The intensely glowing orb filled the cavern with light for a hundred yards in both directions. Only forty yards away, the bright light revealed dozens of the vicious cave creatures.
The creatures threw their hands over their eyes, turned, and fled back down the passage, scrambling over dozens more of their kin running behind them before they too turned and fled the dreaded light.
“That will stop them for a few more minutes, but I can’t keep running like this,” Gabe huffed, trying desperately to catch his breath.
“All right, Gabe leads, we’ll follow at his pace. Ted and I will bring up the rear,” Josh told the group.
The party set off at a slow, shuffling jog. It was the fastest Gabe could move, although all of them were exhausted from their flight. They lost the bright glow of the light after several twists and turns. They knew it would not be long before the light holding the creatures at bay would extinguish and the hunt would resume.
Josh did not know what they would do once they expended their magic, other
than sell their lives as dearly as they could. He prayed something would happen before then to give them a reprieve from their seemingly tireless pursuers. He knew that their only likely salvation would be if the tunnel finally ended and they found themselves outside before long. He just prayed it was daylight.
“Ted, you do have a few tricks up your sleeve, I hope?” Phil puffed as the sounds of pursuit filled the cavern once again.
“Yeah, here goes,” he panted.
The party halted once more, and Ted sealed the passage with a curtain of flame just in time. Several of the creatures, unable to stop their momentum, were incinerated as they ran into the wall of flames and lay thrashing for several seconds before falling still in a burnt heap. The flames brought scores of others up short and forced them to flee back down the passage and into the darkness beyond the light of the fiery barrier.
The gang of young humans ran again as soon as Ted secured their retreat with his spell. The spell was not as long lasting as even Gabe’s light spell, and the pursuit was soon joined once again.
“We need something more durable, Ted. Please tell me you have something,” Josh pleaded.
“Yeah, I have something that should buy us some time,” he puffed, “but it won’t kill any of them.”
“I’m more worried about escape at this moment.”
The ranger twins fired arrows down the dark and narrow tunnel. Howls of pain echoed up the passage as their arrows easily found targets in the packed mob of monsters.
Ted chanted a complex incantation and the temperature in the tunnel rapidly dropped. Hoarfrost began forming on the cave walls, and the heavy breathing of the companions was clearly visible as it was expelled in a great billowy fog.
“Hurry, Ted,” Gabe urged, gripping his mace tightly, “they are almost on us!”
Chuck and Josh stood side by side in front of the wizard as he cast his spell while Phil and his sister loosed arrows past them and into the charging hoard. Another flight of arrows dropped a pair of cave creatures, which tripped several of their kin in their blood rage-fueled rush.
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