by Sam Ferguson
Jonathan peered around the rubble and saw that if they could skirt the slope, there was a section where some larger rocks had piled atop each other in such a way that they could be used to climb atop the structure.
“There,” Jonathan said as he pointed to it.
Sami nodded. “Watch your step,” he cautioned. “I don’t think we would like to take a swim around here.”
Jonathan started down the slope, leaning into it so he wouldn’t lose his footing. A few small rocks skittered down the slippery slope and plinked into the dark waters, causing ripples that moved a pair of lily pads nearby. Jonathan pressed on, coming with a couple feet of the water’s edge as he searched for handholds.
Up from the water exploded a massive form of teeth and rough skin. Jonathan wheeled around as Sami shouted out in warning. The teeth gnashed closed just as Jonathan fell back onto the slope and tucked his feet up under him. In the commotion, he let go of his bow and the weapon slid half way into the water.
A massive crocodile roared as it crashed down onto the slope, the end of its snout just inches from Jonathan’s boot. Jonathan scampered up the slope on all fours, staring into the hungry eyes of the beast as it wrestled its massive body up onto the rubble.
Sami was there in a second, his hammer coming down and smashing the beast in the head. The croc’s tail thrashed out from the pool, spraying Sami and Jonathan with water as it pulled away. Surprisingly, the blow did not kill it. It snapped its great jaws at Sami now, biting and gnashing its teeth. Sami sidestepped the monster and came down again and again with his hammer. Blood splattered out after the third hit and the monstrous crocodile fell limp to the stone.
That was when Sami noticed that Kigabané had slipped into the pool.
“Your bow!” Sami shouted. Jonathan called out in protest, but the big man was already springing into action. He dropped his hammer and jumped into the water with a huge splash. Sami disappeared under the depths for half a second and then came up with a big toothy grin.
“I got it,” he shouted as he held the bow up in his right hand. He reached out with his left and grabbed hold of a hunk of stone so he could pull himself out of the pool.
That was when Jonathan noticed the dark form just below the surface making its way toward Sami. It wasn’t quite as large the first, but it was most definitely a croc. The ridges of its tail and back broke the water surface as it swam toward Sami.
“Sami look out!” Jonathan shouted.
Sami turned to see the croc. He tossed the bow up and turned to clamber onto the pile of stones, but the stone he held gave way under his weight and he fell back into the pool. Jonathan rushed into action. Without thinking, he drew his curved knife and leapt out toward the oncoming croc. Just as the beast opened its gaping maw to attack Sami, Jonathan came down on its head, using his bodyweight to drive the blade through its tough hide and into its brain. The croc hissed and dropped into the water. Jonathan tumbled over the rough body, unable to see through the copious amount of scarlet blood pouring out around him. He tried to remove the knife, but it was wedged in too tightly. The croc’s body tangled with his, and threatened to pull him under, but he pulled free and made for the surface.
Something seized his left arm and pulled him through the water. Jonathan swung out with a fist, striking out to free his arm, but he could not escape the painful grasp. Then, all at once he was pulled out of the water and flopped unceremoniously onto the stone rubble.
“It’s me, Jonathan!” Sami shouted. “Calm down!” Jonathan looked at his arm smeared with blood and realized that it was indeed Sami’s hand, and not some other monster from the pool, that held him fast. “Get up, we have to move,” Sami ordered. The large man hoisted Jonathan up to his feet and the two scrambled to pick up their weapons and clamber up the rubble until they were on top of the structure.
Only then did Jonathan look back and see half a dozen other crocs swarming the area.
“We were lucky,” Sami said. The big man thunked Jonathan’s chest. “Thanks for saving me back there.”
Jonathan nodded blankly as he watched the newly arrived crocs pull and tear at the corpse that had been left on the stone. “Do crocodiles normally eat their own kind?”
Sami shrugged. “Don’t really know, but I do know that they aren’t eating us, so let’s just keep moving.”
Jonathan nodded and the two walked along the roof of the add on structure until they arrived at the stone keep that had once been the mighty Battlegrym. They climbed onto the structure and slowly made their way up toward a window about fifteen yards above them. The whole building was slanted enough that so long as they kept low to the surface, they could climb it reasonably well.
Jonathan had a bit of trouble finding hand holds, but his cleated boots did well enough to secure him as he propelled himself along. Sami, on the other hand, was so brawny that he could easily pull himself along an arm length at a time. He reached the window before Jonathan was even half way to it. Sami swung into the opening, and situated himself while he dug into his pack. He pulled out some rope and tossed the end to Jonathan.
“Grab on,” he said.
Jonathan took the rope and no sooner had he done so than Sami was pulling him up the slanted wall. Jonathan turned onto his side as he slid and dragged along the mossy stone. When he got to the widow he peered down and saw that Sami had precariously perched himself with his legs against a wall sconce beside the window.
The floor on the inside of the structure was slanted much steeper than the outside wall had been, but Sami didn’t seem to mind. He moved Jonathan’s hands to hold onto the window and then he tied the other end of the rope to the iron sconce. A moment later he was sliding down the rope to walk upon the opposite wall in the room.
Jonathan did the same, careful to grip the rope tightly before letting go of the window. When he made it down, he stood and brushed the moss and dirt from his pants. Broken furniture and other things were piled against the wall, and it made for slow going as they walked around and made their way toward the door.
“How are we going to find the map in this mess?” Jonathan wondered aloud.
“Easy,” Sami said. “The original map is in the shrine. That’s about two floors down from here. I can find it.”
“How do you know that?” Jonathan asked.
“I told you, I was here before.”
“Right, but how do you know the map is in the shrine?”
Sami grinned. “Because that’s where they hung it. It was there as a way for us to take hope that someday we would find the lair and root out all of the trolls. I saw it often enough.”
Jonathan followed Sami over to the door. The portal was busted open, with one of the hinges completely torn free and the other only barely hanging on. Luckily, the door had bust toward them, so they could use it to climb upward. The last hinge came off when Sami put his foot on the door, but the wall it leaned against held it firm in place. They hopped through and then walked, climbing over broken stones and wood until they found a stairway.
Luckily, the stairs made the walk much easier as they were essentially now parallel with the ground. The two of them followed the stone stairs down two floors and then Sami led them down a long hallway. They had to walk over mangled suits of armor as well as broken bits of marble tables, broken chairs, and fallen tapestries as they made their way to the shrine. Jonathan fell quite a bit behind Sami, but he was still making decent progress through the hallway.
As they climbed through the rubble, Sami went on and on about how this hall had been almost an extension of the shrine, with famed warriors’ armor mounted here and tapestries that depicted brave heroes of the past. Jonathan only half listened though, as he was much more interested in not slipping through a pile of sharp objects and tearing his leg off, or breaking an ankle.
Jonathan still had his head down, reaching hand over hand as he climbed atop the rubble, when he bumped into Sami’s back. Jonathan startled and looked up.
“What’s wro
ng?”
Sami shook his head and pointed to a pile of heavy slabs. Then he pointed up. “The floor above must have collapsed onto the entrance,” he said. “How badly do we need this map?”
Jonathan sighed and ran a hand through his hair as he looked at the massive pile of stone. “Do you know the way to The Warrens?” he asked.
Sami sighed. “Nope.” He turned and pointed to Jonathan’s bow. “Perhaps you should check and make sure we are alone before we spend the next hour or two digging stones out of the way.”
Jonathan pulled his bow around and held it in his hand. He spun around in every direction, pausing for good measure, before finally nodding his head and setting the bow down against the wall. “We’re clear.”
Sami nodded and pointed to one side of the pile. “You start there and I will start here. Let’s hurry though, before it rains again.”
The two of them pulled at the stones, slowly digging their way through the pile that covered the doorway. The rocks and bits of wood were slick to the touch, but Jonathan made a good go of it, gripping each piece as well as he could and tossing it out of the way. Once a heavy stone slipped from his grasp and nearly squished his toe as it crashed down beside his foot.
“Careful,” Sami said. “A broken foot is a death sentence out here.”
Jonathan nodded and redoubled his focus as they continued tearing through the pile.
Eventually, after a little more than an hour’s worth of sweaty work the two of them uncovered the doorway. It was tilted about forty five degrees, but at least the inside of the room was visible. There was a heap of broken marble statues and busts littering the left side of the tilted chamber. Sami reached over and put his hands out for Jonathan. Jonathan stepped into them and Sami hoisted him up. He climbed into the room and then quickly moved out of the way as Sami clambered in.
The room extended roughly fifteen feet to the back wall, and was only about eight feet wide. Sami almost had to duck as they walked over the rubble and looked for the map. They shifted the broken statues and other bits of stone and wood with their feet as they walked, looking for any sign of the item they sought.
“It was framed,” Sami said. “It was framed and hanging on this wall.” He pointed to the wall that was now tilted so that it was essentially the ceiling. Jonathan could see nails jutting out from places in the stone where the thing had been hung, but it was hard to see the farther they went into the room. The only light they had was coming in from the open doorway, and that light filtered down from the broken space above it.
Jonathan moved to a pile of rubble and began digging, setting aside the shards and hunks as he made his way to the bottom. The pieces of stone clicked and clacked as he set them aside. He took comfort that the room had been kept dry by being sealed off. That should mean that the map would still be usable, so long as it wasn’t torn beyond repair in the collapse.
The two of them sifted through the piles of rubble for a few minutes, and then they stopped when they heard something echoing out in the hallway.
“Do you hear that?” Sami asked.
Jonathan reached for his bow, but then remembered that he had left it out in the adjoining hallway. “I don’t have my bow.”
Plink-plink-plink. Plink-plink-plinkity-pink.
Sami then shook his head. “Rain,” he said simply. “Come on, dig faster.”
A second later the single drops turned to a full torrent as a storm poured out over Battlegrym. Sheets of water pummeled the stone. Small rivers of water snaked their way down into the hallway outside the shrine. A few moments after that, stones began to fall. First there were small and medium sized bricks, but as the water grew in intensity and weight, the whole of Battlegrym shifted and groaned under the pressure.
“Come on, Jonathan, we have to leave.”
Jonathan shook his head. “We have to find the map. We’re too close!”
Sami growled in frustration and began angrily tossing bits of marble and granite aside. “This building isn’t stable, you saw the sinkhole outside. We have to hurry!”
Just then the whole room shifted and the two were thrown onto their faces. Dust popped up around them and Battlegrym quaked. Jonathan looked wide-eyed to Sami. The two of them scrambled back to all fours and kept furiously digging. Then, a massive force rocked the shrine and the wall above them let out a thunderous crrrrack! The two were thrown down again, this time much harder.
“We have to go, now!” Sami yelled. The big man jumped up and rushed toward the doorway. Jonathan didn’t argue. He leapt to his feet and started to run as well. Another massive impact shook the room and the whole shrine tilted farther, throwing the two back to their faces yet again and shifting the entire pile of rubble.
Jonathan sputtered and wiped his face free of dust. Water dropped in from above now, pouring in through a fissure in the stone. He pushed to his feet and then he saw it, the corner of a wooden frame. He turned to pull some of the rubble away. He saw the corner of a map.
“I found it!” Jonathan shouted.
“Hurry!” Sami yelled. The giant man stretched his arms up, reinforcing the wall above them as it sagged lower and lower with each passing second. “I can’t hold this forever!”
Jonathan looked up to see Sami supporting the slab of stone that comprised the majority of the wall and knew he had to act fast. As he dug out the map, a few more impacts shook the room. Battlegrym creaked and groaned all around them. Jonathan worked his hands as fast as he could, uncovering the map and wrenching it free. To his horror, the map was not whole. It was ripped, presumably during the collapse. He turned it over to examine it.
“Come on, Jonathan, let’s go!” Sami shouted.
Jonathan glanced to the large man and saw his shaking arms and legs. “Just a second, I have to make sure it is the right part!” Jonathan rotated the map and looked it over. A wide smile flashed across his face as he discovered that he did indeed have enough to navigate their way to The Warrens from Battlegrym. It was the northeastern portion that had been ripped away, and that was not necessary for them. Jonathan jumped up just as another impact rocked the entire chamber. Jonathan was thrown forward this time, but Sami held firm in place, growling against the effort.
“GO!” Sami shouted.
Jonathan scrambled back to his feet and darted out the doorway, jumping through and landing on the slick stones outside, slipping and hitting his side. “I’m out!” he shouted as he grimaced against the pain in his side. He pushed up and turned to the doorway. He only just caught sight of Sami’s red face as a wave of water and rock broke free from above. Jonathan screamed at Sami to get out, but the man never had a chance. The wave of rock and water crashed into the section of the wall that Sami was holding up. In the instant before the room collapsed, Sami offered one final toothy grin and tossed the wooden tube to Jonathan. Then a wave of muck and dust exploded as the entire shrine collapsed and crashed through the floor below.
Jonathan screamed, with tears filling his eyes and his body trembling in horror. Battlegrym convulsed and quaked as the shrine and pile of stone broke through the subsequent floor, and then the next, and then the next, until it crashed down into a dark pool of water. Jonathan fell against the wall, screaming and crying out. He mindlessly rolled the map and stuck it into the tube that Sami had brought. After he sealed it, he put his hands on his head and drew his knees in close as shock and grief overcame his trembling body.
He didn’t move, couldn’t move for a long time. He let the water pour over him and build up around his body as he sat there shivering and sobbing.
It wasn’t until Rourke dropped in from above using a rope that Jonathan was able to stop crying. The scout moved in and grabbed the bow and placed it into Jonathan’s hands, pushing it hard enough to force the boy to take it.
“We have to go,” Rourke said.
Jonathan closed his eyes. “He’s dead.”
Rourke placed a reassuring hand on Jonathan’s shoulder and then cupped his left hand under the boy�
�s chin. “We saw the collapse from outside. When you didn’t come out, we feared the worst. Now, I know this is hard, but trust me when I say that sitting here and doing nothing will not help. Let’s honor his memory by pushing forward.” Rourke stood up and offered a hand.
Jonathan took Rourke’s hand and pulled himself up to his feet. He then held up the sealed tube. “We found it,” he said. “It was in the room where Sami said it would be.”
Rourke looked down to the broken floor, nodded and took the map from Jonathan. He tucked it into his belt, using a small chain to hook it in. “That’s all the more reason to push forward.” Rourke pointed to the rope. “Up you go.”
Jonathan and Rourke climbed out of the building, and only once they were out could Jonathan appreciate the magnitude of the collapse. Another third portion of the building had fallen to the ground, and most of the wall he had used to climb in had caved in as well. It also appeared as though the building had sunk another twenty feet into the ground. It was a miracle that Jonathan had survived such a calamity. Had it not been for Sami, he knew he would be dead.
Rourke and Jonathan found Miranda hiding in the trees atop the grassy hill. From the look on her face, Jonathan could see that she was both happy to see him, and sad that Sami was gone. Instead of saying anything, she stepped up to Jonathan’s side and laid a hand on his arm. After offering a measured, meaningful look that left him with the inexplicable feeling that she understood him, she squeezed his arm reassuringly, and offered Jonathan a small kiss on the cheek. She smiled faintly and then she turned to Rourke. The scout pointed to the wooden tube at his belt and nodded.
“We have it,” Rourke said.
Jonathan offered one last glance back to Battlegrym and then he followed after the other two, who had already started walking again.
They made camp in a hollow dugout, using a fallen oak for a southern wall and clambering under an overhang of dirt and moss that kept the rain off of them. They ate their food in silence. Jonathan stared at the ground, while the other two glanced at him a few times.