“I-I think you are right,” I said. But my eyes were still fixed at the beach and I saw that some of the necromancers were returning towards the temple, letting the other catmen finish the job with the cats. “But I don’t think there’s any time left for us to return to the beach to get Julia. Let’s get to the temple and do what we can. If we can’t speak to the soul, maybe we’ll at least be able to free the cats?” I didn’t care for all the cats that the catmen were beating down at the beach, for they were related to the murder of Minnata. But I did want to help all the innocent cats that that were being already used as breeders by the catmen.
Chapter 24
The decision made, we moved up the hill as fast as we could. My legs grew weary and felt leaden, but I pushed them on. From time to time both Gnaria and I would get down on all fours and move like the cats we were.
And then we finally reached the top of the hill. From here we could see the other side of the island. Down below, near the foot of the hill, there was what looked like a pyramidal structure. This I reckoned was the temple that Julia had told us about. Farther away near the beach there were tens of pillars. To each pillar a number of cats were bound by chains of iron. The cats all looked like they had lost the will to live. Not far away from the pillars were a few catmen sleeping in the open.
There was a fire around which the catmen were sleeping. There was something very feminine about their features and I realised suddenly that these were all female catmen. There were some males standing guard near the pillars and near the sleeping females. And near the temple there were at least five catmen and one of them was a necromancer. Getting inside the temple would be a tough job for sure.
“There has to be a distraction if we want any chance at success,” Gnaria whispered to me and there was much seriousness in her voice. “And I am going to be the distraction.”
Barely had she said these words that she sprinted down the hill.
“No, wait!” I called after her, but she kept moving.
Was she crazy? I watched, half in horror, half in awe as Gnaria made her way down the hill. She kept her distance from the temple and was able to move past it. When she reached the spot where the cats were chained to the temple she attacked one of the catmen standing guard.
The guard was strong, but Gnaria had her knife spell on. It wasn’t easy for her, for despite his larger size and his bulk the guard was very agile. But Gnaria was finally able to kill the guard. The guard died, letting out a cry. The catmen at the temple, who had also been watching the fight till now, realised that Gnaria was not an opponent who could be dealt with by a single catman. Three of them ran down to Gnaria, while another catmen who had been standing guard near the females also came to help them.
Only two catmen now remained at the temple. One of them was a necromancer.
I tried not to look at whatever was happening to Gnaria and prayed that somehow she would be able to tackle the catmen. I ran down the hill towards the temple. The necromancer and the guard catman saw me.
The guard lunged at me. But as I focussed on avoiding him, from the corner of my eyes I saw a blue bolt of lightning escape the hand of the necromancer and come towards me. I suddenly changed the direction I was moving, such that the bolt of lightning went past my head by a mere few inches. I could feel a certain iciness in the air about the bolt of lightning even as it passed me.
But the next moment, the hammer like fist of the guard came crashing down on my head. I saw stars in my vision first and only then was I able to experience the explosive pain in my head.
You have been hit.
You lose 100 health!
I felt like I would drop down unconscious, but I forced myself to keep my eyes open. If I gave in to weakness at this moment then all would be lost.
Somehow I was able to dodge a second blow from the catman. The necromancer raised his hand again, perhaps to throw another bolt of lightning. I pointed my paw at him and activated my rope spell. At once the necromancer was bound by ropes. I had put a considerable amount of mana in my spell. The necromancer struggled to remove the ropes, but in the process he only dropped to the ground.
The guard meanwhile roared. I raised my paw at him, but there was so little mana left that I couldn’t even fire an air arrow at him. Shit.
And then an idea came to my mind.
As the catman tried to grab me with his fat hands, I was able to go behind him by moving through the gap between his legs. I climbed onto his shoulders and I bit down onto his throat. The catman cried out. I didn’t have the beast canines, but I was able to pierce through the skin of the catman and puncture his windpipe.
The catman grabbed his throat as he struggled to breathe. I let go of him. He was not going to come after me now because he had his neck to worry about. I made to the temple and then I entered it through the only door that it had.
It was dark inside. Overcome by excitement, I didn’t realise there were steps leading down, and very soon I was tumbling down the steps. After a moment I found myself at the base of the steps. My body ached from the fall and I saw that I had only a little health remaining. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to stand up. Gnaria was outside fighting all the catmen on her own, so that I could get inside the temple. I couldn’t let her down at any cost.
There was a tunnel that led on from the steps and at the end of the tunnel there was a light. I moved towards this light and soon realised that the tunnel led to some kind of an underground chamber that was lit with torches.
The moment I entered the chamber that I felt like the air had become ten times heavier, more like some kind of a liquid. I could still breathe it though. I also realised that there were no torches in the room, instead the very air seemed to glow! I watched in awe as the air flowed into my nostrils as I inhaled. I had never experienced anything quite like this in the past.
At one end of the chamber there was a peculiar object. There was a mound at the centre of the object that had been carved from stone, and around the object were what looked like hundreds of tiny fins also made from stone.
Wait a minute… was this some kind of a miniature replica of the island?
And was the glowing air actually the spirit of the island? The hair all over my body stood on their ends. The thought that I was breathing in the spirit was disturbing.
Chapter 25
I let out a cough. I had to speak to the soul.
“Um… are you the soul of this island?” I said.
No response. A handful of seconds passed as I waited for some kind of an answer. And then it came, in a voice that was almost a hiss, but not terrifying in any way.
“Yes.” The response came from the replica of the island. There was something very drunk about the voice.
“We need your help,” I said and then I added. “You need your help.”
“Nobody needs my help,” the same voice responded. I couldn’t decide if it was a male or a female voice, “Not me, nor others. I am in bliss here.”
Then I recalled Julia saying that the soul had been drugged by the catmen necromancers using their black magic.
“You are under the influence of black magic,” I said, “you might think you are in bliss, but the catmen have simply made you incapable of exercising any control over yourself.”
“Hmmm… I do not like the word ‘incapable’.”
“You must chase away the catmen from this island,” I said to the soul.
“The catmen… you mean those half cats half human beings?”
“Yes.”
There was silence and then the voice spoke again. This time there was a certain struggle in the voice, as though it was trying to shake off a sleep that was trying to take it into the land of dreams all the time.
“I re… remember. I remember. I remember trying to fight their spells, but somehow they made me lose the will to fight their spells anymore. I feel a spark inside me. I must turn it into a fire and reclaim myself.”
“Yes, chase away all the catmen. This island
belongs only to you and to your mistress, princess Julia.”
“Ah, yes, Julia. I should have taken care of her. Is she okay?”
“She is. But she might not be for long.”
Suddenly a shaking took over the statue of the island. A crack appeared in its midst and from the crack arose what looked like an antenna of sorts.
“Go out of this place,” the hissing voice said and it was coming directly from the antenna, which vibrated with each word that the voice spoke such that I wondered if it was the antenna that was the source of the voice. “You have awoken me, and I thank you for that.”
“And what will you do to the catmen?” I asked.
“They shall face my wrath.”
The very next moment, a humming sound filled the entire chamber. What looked like thousands of little wings of insects were materialising from the glowing air.
I did not waste any time. The soul had awoken from the trance under which the black spells had put it. My job was done. I ran out of the chamber and raced up the steps, all the while the humming sound only intensifying behind me. Reaching outside the temple, I saw that the necromancer had somehow managed to remove most of the ropes that I had put on him. As for the guard, he was still on the ground, and he seemed to be hanging onto the very last bit of life still left in him.
The necromancer saw me. He said something venomous in the tongue of the catmen, his entire face shaking with anger. He raised one of his hands at me and I knew that there was nothing I could do to stop him. I accepted my fate. But at least I had awakened the soul.
But the necromancer did not shoot any spell at me. Instead he frowned hard and his eyes went wide as he looked at the temple behind me. The hand he had raised at me slowly began to drop down.
And then the first of the wasps shot out of the opening of the temple towards the necromancer. It was immediately followed by a dozen more, very soon hundreds were pouring out of the temple and I had to go away from the opening so that more of the wasps could come out.
The wasps ignored me completely. Instead they attacked the necromancer and the catman lying on the ground. The necromancer ran, trying to swat the wasps with his hands and trying to throw spells at them but being able to hit only a few of the wasps at a time. The necromancer cried out in pain as the wasps stung him. He was soon down on the ground, helplessly trying to beat the wasps away but to no avail. As for the guard, just a few wasp stings were enough to put him to death and he died without as much as a whimper. Soon even the necromancer was dead and the wasps then moved on towards the place where Gnaria was still fighting with the catmen. Only two of the brutes were standing while the others she had killed.
I too ran towards her for even from the distance I could see that Gnaria was drained of energy. The wasps reached her before me and by the time I reached Gnaria, the wasps had already killed the two remaining catmen. Their bodies looked grotesque from the stings of the wasps.
The wasps attacked the sleeping females. Some of the females ran towards the sea, in a desperate attempt to flee the wasps. But it was to little avail. The sea wasn’t very calm either. Even though a few of the females were able to jump into the sea, the sea spit them back to the shore, as though even the sea was in alliance with the soul of the island and wanted to doom the catmen forever and rid the island of their curse.
As one group of the wasps was attacking the females, another group flew off towards the other side of the island to deal with the catmen there.
“Did you speak to the soul of the island?” Gnaria said to me and from her voice it was clear that all she wanted to do at the moment was to lie down somewhere and rest.
“I did. The soul has sent the wasps.”
I turned towards all the cats that were chained to the pillars. They all looked in awe seeing what had happened to their tormentors. I feared Gnaria would have to wait for sometime before she could lie down and rest.
“Let’s free the cats,” I said to her.
“You know, I could really do with a big glass of rum right now,” Gnaria said, even as she took a sluggish step towards the cats chained to the pillars.
It took us at least half an hour to remove the chains from the cats. The freed cats helped to remove the chains of the other cats still bound and after a while Gnaria and I were able to climb the hill again and go to the other side of the island.
Corpses of catmen were littered everywhere. Their faces and bodies were all covered in the ghastly sting marks. There were also a few dead cats, followers of the hooded female cat that had been killed by the catmen before the wasps had reached this part of the island.
“Where is Julia?” I said, looking towards the spot where Gnaria and I had last left her. The hooded female was also not there. Even the boats were missing. And the dead cats on the beach were only a few compared to the hundreds that had arrived on the island only a few hours back. And then I spotted far away in the sea small dots that I knew to be boats. The cats had somehow succeeded in fleeing the island as the wasps had attacked the catmen, despite the raging sea.
“Look there,” Gnaria said, pointing at a spot near the edge of the woods. There a figure was on the ground, struggling to get up. Though we were unsure if the person was indeed Julia as there was little illumination on the place, Gnaria and I moved towards the person. We soon found out that it was indeed Julia.
We helped her stand up.
“What happened?” I asked her.
“I failed,” Julia said and there was a great regret in her voice. “She has escaped.”
“That woman in the hood?” Gnaria asked.
“Yes,” Julia said. “I was too busy throwing spells at her, when one of the necromancers threw a spell at me and so lost I was with her that I didn’t see it coming and it struck me and took away all energy from me. She used the moment to her advantage and she went back to her boat and fled. Once the wasps came, her servants were also able to run to their boats and flee. Were you able to talk to the soul?”
“I did,” I said, “the soul sent the wasps to kill the catmen.”
“And were you able to free the slave cats?”
“Yes, all of them.”
“I do not know how to thank you,” Julia said, “at the same time I feel like I have let you down.”
“We were doing all this to thank you for saving us from the catmen earlier, remember?” I said to Julia. “But if you indeed want to thank us, then you must answer a question.”
“Anything.”
“What have you got to do with the hooded female? How does she know you and how do you know her?—”
All of a sudden a notification popped up in my vision, even as a feeling of great well being took over me.
Congratulations!
You have levelled up!
And then, yet another message appeared.
You receive a new spell!
The Rage Barbarian Spell.
When you activate this spell, you will become invincible for a short duration of time. No spells will be able to have any effect on you, and you will possess ten times the strength that you normally possess. Please be aware that after activating this spell you will lose the ability to differentiate between a friend and a foe. A great anger will seize you and all you would want is to destroy everything and everyone. So please be careful that you do not activate this spell when you are in the presence of friends. You mana will also deplete after the duration of this spell ends, which is usually a few minutes.
Now that was one spell that I doubted I would use. Still, there might be some circumstance when I might have to use it and it might potentially save my life. So at the end I was thankful at having received the spell.
I dismissed the notifications I had received and only then did I realise that even Gnaria had a big smile on her face and it was obvious that she too had levelled up.
She clapped her paws together and the moment she did so that she began to hover in the air!
“You can fly!” I said. Gnaria went up in the a
ir by a few metres and then she came back down.
“I can’t fly too high but it might still come to use someday. What spell have you received?”
“I don’t think I will be able to demonstrate it,” I said to her, “It’s kind of a dangerous spell.”
I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of envy for Gnaria. Why did she always receive the cooler spells? While the spells that I received had helped me a lot, her spells were unarguably the better ones. I would easily trade the Rage Barbarian spell for a spell that could help me to fly.
General Information
Name: Timmy
Level: 6
Sex: Male
Race: Cat
Health: 470
Mana: 170
Strength: 52
Stamina: 54
Luck: 50
Chapter 26
“So you want to know about the female in the hood?” Julia asked Gnaria and me. We nodded.
“Her name is Glosis,” Julia said. “The two of us were married to the same man a long time ago. There were three more wives of the man. I do not know where they are anymore. All of us used to live happily in the same castle. Ah, I still remember those days of bliss. Our man used to love all five of us equally. And then…”
Julia sniffled. She didn’t speak for a while.
“Did something bad happen?” I asked her.
Julia nodded. She rubbed her face of the tears that had leaked out of her eyes in the moment of silence.
“And then he changed. I do not know what caused him to become so. But all his love went up in smoke as though it had never existed. He became rude and he would be away for long periods of times. We wives began to blame each other for we were sure that we had done something that was the cause behind the change in the behaviour of our man. We however continued to reside in the castle for a couple more years. And in those two years everything only worsened. The hatred of us wives for each other became so great that we would stay in our chamber and not see each other for days at length unless it was most necessary. And then a day came when our man called us all to him and then he insulted all of us and told us to leave his castle. I returned to my island while the others too left the castle.”
Catheroes Page 38