by A. Giannetti
Spitting with anger when it saw that Elerian and Ascilius had armed themselves with more missiles, the guardian turned and leaped back to the edge of the river, leaving scarcely a ripple as it dove beneath the surface of the dark water. With his mage sight, Elerian saw its red shade just below the surface of the pool. It floated there, maintaining its position against the flow of the current with easy strokes of its legs. Despite its injuries, it appeared to have no intention of abandoning its pursuit of them.
Elerian dropped his stone onto the ground, as did Ascilius. “What sort of creature is this?” asked Elerian in wonder. “That boulder you threw at it should have at least crippled it.”
“Now that I have gotten a good look at it,” said Ascilius, “I believe the creature is a lentulus. I have never seen one before, but I have had them described to me. Has it gone away do you think?” Ascilius asked Elerian hopefully.
“No,” said Elerian unhappily. “It is still out there, just below the surface of the water.”
“How do you know that?” asked Ascilius in a puzzled voice.
“I am gifted with mage sight,” said Elerian. “I can see its shade through the water.”
“A rare gift,” said Ascilius, but he did not seem much surprised. Evidently, he had come to expect such things from Elerian.
“One of us must explore the tunnel behind us while the other stands guard,” said Elerian to Ascilius. “If we both leave, the creature will come up behind us.”
“You go then,” said Ascilius. “It will take more than that pebble you threw earlier to frighten it off if it attacks again.”
“Very well then,” said Elerian with a smile. “Let those with strong backs guard the entrance while the crafty find the way to freedom.” Disappearing into the tunnel, Elerian heard Ascilius sputtering as he searched for a fitting reply.
No sound of any footfall or other noise came back to Ascilius, as he waited impatiently for Elerian to return. His eyes riveted on the river, expecting the lentulus to burst out of the water at any moment, Ascilius started into the air when Elerian spoke suddenly from behind him.
“Must you sneak around like a shadow?” shouted Ascilius. The whites of his eyes were showing, and he was shaking all over as he clutched at his chest over his wildly pounding heart with his left hand.
“Did I frighten you,” asked Elerian. He had an innocent expression on his face, but the gleam in his eyes betrayed his inner amusement. Despite the gravity of their situation, the chance to startle Ascilius had proved irresistible to him.
“I am not frightened,” said Ascilius irritably. “You startled me, is all, by appearing so suddenly. Now what did you discover in the tunnel?”
“It may lead us out into the open, for there is a steady stream of fresh air blowing through it,” said Elerian, still quivering with suppressed laughter. He handed Ascilius a battered, rusted ax, which the Dwarf happily snatched up in his right hand. “I found this while I was in there, as well as a sword for myself.” Elerian showed Ascilius the rusty sword he held in his right hand. “These weapons were lying on the floor of the tunnel, along with a great number of bones.”
“The passageway must certainly lead outside the mountain then,” said Ascilius excitedly. “The lentulus must use it when it wants to hunt in the open air. We can follow it and gain our freedom.”
“The lentulus is sure to follow us into the tunnel,” warned Elerian.
“Let it,” said Ascilius stoutly. With an ax in his hand, he felt a sudden rush of confidence. “If it dares attack us now, it will feel the bite of real weapons.” He stepped into the tunnel, which widened quite a bit away from the entrance. The faint radiance of the spark hanging in the air above his head revealed the debris that littered the floor of the passageway. Ascilius saw more weapons, rusted from the damp air, bits of tattered, rotted clothing, and the white gleam of bones, all tangled together.
With a last glance at the river, Elerian followed Ascilius into the tunnel. Glancing at the ground, he saw something gleam where Ascilius’s footsteps had disturbed the litter covering the floor of the passageway. Reaching down his left hand, Elerian picked up a plain silver ring that gleamed as if newly cast. Its polished surface showed no sign of any wear. He was immediately reminded of the magical ring Ruso had stolen from him so long ago. Having no pockets to put it in, he slipped it onto the third finger of his right hand, where it seemed to fit most comfortably. As soon as the ring touched his skin, Elerian’s third eye opened, and he saw mantle of golden light spill from it, covering him from head to foot. Just then, Ascilius turned and stared perplexedly around him.
“Drat you Elerian,” he whispered. “Where are you? This is no time to be wandering off.”
Smiling to himself, Elerian crept up next to Ascilius before pulling the ring off his finger. For the second time, he saw Ascilius start fearfully, involuntarily raising his ax. He quickly lowered it again when he recognized Elerian.
“Now where did you come from?” asked the irritated Dwarf. “I know you were not there a moment ago.”
“I just took this off my finger,” said Elerian, showing Ascilius the bright ring lying on the palm of his left hand.
Ascilius took it with his right hand and looked at it closely. “This is made of Argentum,” he said knowingly.
“It must be,” agreed Elerian. “As soon as I put it on my finger, it made me invisible. I could see you, but you could not see me.”
Ascilius handed back the ring. “The Dwarves have never made any great study of ring lore, but the Elves were skilled in making such things,” he said without much interest.
“How would an Elven ring find its way here?” wondered Elerian.
“Fimbria is not far for a creature with wings,” replied Ascilius. “From what I have heard, a lentulus does not age. The creature following us may be very old. It most likely captured an Elf at some time in the far past and carried him here to devour his body. The ring would have been left with the discarded bones. Treat it with care if you intend to keep it,” warned Ascilius. “If the spell it casts is a powerful one and you use the ring often enough, it will consume your life force until you die. Restraint is the key to owning one of these rings safely.”
“I have been warned about the dangers of using enchanted objects before,” said Elerian sadly, thinking back to the words of warning Tullius had spoken about his first ring. “I will not use it frivolously.”
Anxious to be on his way again, Ascilius turned and walked off down the tunnel. Having no place to put his newly acquired ring, Elerian sent it off to join his spell book. As the ring vanished from his hand, the rattle of a falling rock outside the passageway caused him to start, and he hurried to catch up with Ascilius.
“The lentulus is near the tunnel entrance,” he warned the Dwarf.
Ascilius immediately increased both the rapidity of his steps and the intensity of his mage light, which filled the tunnel around him with its bright rays. “Perhaps the light will hold it back for a time,” he said doubtfully to Elerian.
As he hurried down the twisting tunnel after Ascilius, Elerian threw frequent looks over his left shoulder at the passageway behind them, expecting at any moment to see a pair of fiery eyes burning in the darkness that lay at the edge of Ascilius’s mage light. In front of him, Ascilius regularly trod on the bones and other litter that covered the stony floor, making crunching, rustling sounds, but Elerian’s light steps made no noise as he followed along behind the sturdy Dwarf.
Despite the rapid pace he maintained, Ascilius carefully examined the floor of the passageway as they hurried along, for the sight of the silver ring Elerian had found had awakened the desire for treasure that lurks in the heart of every Dwarf. He found no more valuables, but he did discover two helmets, with the skulls still inside and a pair of round shields.
He and Elerian each took one of the shields and helmets. They now felt more at ease, for they were reasonably well armed, and there were still no sounds of any pursuit behind them.
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“Perhaps it has given up,” said Ascilius hopefully as he stopped to listen for a moment.
Before Elerian could reply, they both heard the scrape of hard claws on stone in the darkness behind them.
“I think not,” whispered Elerian. “It still means to have us if it can.” He became apprehensive again, for they had come to a narrow place in the tunnel. The walls had drawn in, and there was only enough room for the two of them to walk abreast. An attack now would be difficult to fend off, for there was no room to move about or use their weapons.
No attack came, however. The beast following them seemed content to stay just beyond the limits of their mage lights as they hurried along the tunnel. Only the occasional crunch of bones under a heavy foot warned them they were still being pursued, and once, in a straight stretch of the tunnel, Elerian looked behind him and saw a pair of crimson eyes burning in the darkness.
After endless walking, with many a start and a nervous look over their shoulders, Elerian and Ascilius felt the air begin to freshen even more. Ascilius, with long years of experience living underground, declared that they were not far from the end of the tunnel. Before long, they walked around a sharp bend to the right and saw a straight section of tunnel before them. At the end of it, was a most welcome sight. Framed in the narrow mouth of the tunnel was a bit of the night sky dusted with jewel bright stars.
A DESPERATE BATTLE
Momentarily forgetting about the danger that lurked behind them, Elerian and Ascilius both broke into a run, emerging from the tunnel onto a wide ledge high on the side of a mountain. Once they were in the open air, they stood side by side, breathing deeply of the cool night air and feasting their eyes on the brilliant stars overhead, a pleasure to the eyes after the bloody hued gloom of the Goblins’ mine. When they finally looked down to see what lay before them, they saw steep slopes of bare rock, broken by cliffs and sharp outcroppings of stone. Lower down, a thick forest covered the side of the mountain. Stretching north to south at the foot of the mountain was a narrow valley, not more than a mile wide, hemmed in on both sides by steep slopes. A dark ribbon of water flowed down its center.
A low growl suddenly issued from the tunnel behind them. Elerian and Ascilius both started upon hearing the menacing sound. Hearts racing, they spun around and raised their weapons. They heard the rapid scrabbling of claws on stone. A moment later, the lentulus rushed out between them, its sinewy shoulders sending them flying through the air to either side of the tunnel entrance. As they scrambled back to their feet, the lentulus sprang high into the air, unfurling its vast, leathery black wings. Beating its mighty pinions furiously, the lentulus buffeted Elerian and Ascilius with their downdraft before rising high into the air where it circled above them, like a great black bat. Abruptly, it folded its wings and plummeted toward Ascilius, its forelimbs extended, clawed feet clenched and ready to deal a mighty blow to the Dwarf’s head.
His back hemmed in by the side of the mountain, Ascilius darted to left at the last moment, forcing the lentulus to spread its powerful wings to avoid crashing into the side of the mountain. As it hovered in the air above him, beating its wings at a tremendous rate to regain altitude, Ascilius struck at the lentulus’s right foreleg with his rusty ax, but the edge failed to bite, sliding across the fine black scales covering the creature’s leg without doing any damage.
Behind the lentulus, Elerian sprang high into the air, swinging his sword in a two handed blow at the joint midway down the left wing of the creature. The blow numbed his hands, as if he had struck hard stone. With a sharp crack, his blade snapped in half, leaving only a shallow cut in the leathery hide covering the lentulus’s wing bones.
“The creature’s flesh is as hard as iron,” thought Elerian to himself as he dropped lightly back to the ground. In front of him, the lentulus also tumbled to the ground, for Elerian’s heavy blow had momentarily numbed its left wing. Braking its fall with its furiously beating right wing, it whipped the end of its scaly tail across Elerian’s face, the clawed tip hissing past his right eye before laying his right cheek open to the bone.
Elerian staggered backward, feeling as if a line of fire had ignited across his cheek. Regaining its footing, supple and quick as a serpent, the lentulus twisted around and pounced on Elerian. He barely had time to raise his shield before the lentulus struck him like a battering ram, sweeping him off his feet and onto his back. The rusty steel of the shield covering his head and chest squealed in protest as the claws of the lentulus’s front paws cut deep furrows across its battered surface. A cacophony of snarls and growls filled the air as the creature gave vent to its frustration at being unable to reach Elerian.
Taking advantage of the lentulus’s single-minded desire to tear Elerian to shreds, Ascilius slipped up unnoticed behind the creature and struck with his ax between the dark horns that crowned its head, breaking the thick wooden ax handle in half with the force of his blow. The ax blade did not penetrate far into the stony flesh of the lentulus, but it momentarily stunned the creature. Elerian, still pinned beneath his shield by the weight of the lentulus, freed his right arm with a mighty effort from beneath his shield. Thrusting the broken sword he still held in his right hand past the razor sharp teeth lining the lentulus’s open mouth, he forced the broken blade deep into the soft flesh at the back of its throat.
A piercing shriek that deafened his ears split the night as the lentulus gave voice to its agony. Clamping its jaws shut on his blade, it tore the hilt away from Elerian’s hand with a powerful wrench of its neck. With its left paw, it pulled the sword out of its mouth. A rush of black blood gushed out, hissing like a serpent when it dropped onto Elerian’s shield. Rearing up on its hind legs, the lentulus tore at the shield its right paw, bursting the leather straps that held it to Elerian’s arm and sending it spinning away. Before Elerian could move, the creature trapped him again by setting its left paw on his chest, the long claws sinking deep into his flesh. Right paw lifted up to strike, the lentulus gloated over him for a moment, its black blood dripping from its mouth onto Elerian’s chest, searing his bare flesh. Ignoring the pain, Elerian wrapped both hands around the creature’s left leg and attempted to lift it away, but the leg seemed made of stone, refusing to shift even by a hair. Elerian saw the lentulus sweep its right paw down, hooked claws extended to tear out his throat. Helplessly, he waited for the stroke that would end his life. Then, when the claws were only a heart beat from reaching his flesh, Elerian heard a loud cracking, crunching sound, and the lentulus abruptly shuddered and collapsed, it’s horrible head coming to rest heavily on his chest.
Out of sight of Elerian, Ascilius had staggered up to the lentulus’s right side with a boulder so large and heavy that he could barely lift it up above his head, even with his prodigious strength. He had brought the heavy stone crashing down on the creature’s back, between its wing joints, just as it struck its final blow at Elerian. The boulder did not damage the sleek black furred hide of the beast, but the bones of its spine cracked, making the sound Elerian had heard just before the lentulus collapsed.
From a distance of inches, Elerian spat out a destruction spell at the lentulus. Barely in time, the dazed creature cast a shield spell to protect itself. On its right, groaning and straining mightily, Ascilius was already lifting the same boulder for another blow. Elerian saw the red fires in the creature’s eyes dim, as fear replaced its savage desire to kill. With all his strength, he struck its moist, gleaming snout with his clenched right fist. Recoiling from Elerian’s blow, the lentulus uttered a horrible groan and staggered, moaning, to its feet. Before Ascilius could strike a second blow with his boulder, it vanished into the tunnel entrance, crying out at every step as its broken bones grated against each other. Elerian rose to his feet and stood listening as the sounds of the lentulus’s misery receded into the depths of the tunnel. There was a heavy thump as Ascilius dropped his boulder. He and Elerian stared at each other wearily, each of them still not quite believing that the creature was gone.
“You are hurt,” Ascilius said to Elerian as he saw the blood coursing down his cheek and the deep burns on his chest where the lentulus’s blood had scorched his flesh.
“None of the injuries are serious. I will heal them later, when we are away from here,” said Elerian, wincing as he began to feel the full effects of his wounds. “Do you think the lentulus will return?”
“I hope not,” replied the Dwarf with a shudder. “I have never faced such a terrible creature in all of my life. It is fortunate that there were two of us. Alone, neither one of us would have succeeded in driving it away.”
“Well, if it does come back, we are unarmed again,” said Elerian ruefully eyeing the remains of his sword, its shattered blade blackened and scored by the corrosive blood of the lentulus.
“There are more weapons in the tunnel,” Ascilius reminded him.
“Lead the way, then,” said Elerian dryly. “I will be right behind you.”
Ascilius stared thoughtfully at the tunnel entrance, but he made no move to enter it. “It might be easier just to make a pair of clubs once we reach the forest,” said Ascilius casually.
“I think it will definitely be safer,” said Elerian with a wry smile. Casting aside his helmet, which he found burdensome, he led the way off the ledge and began walking down a narrow trail that seemed to lead down the face of the mountain. Ascilius cast aside his own helmet and also his shield, pausing only to pick up his broken ax before following after Elerian.