4d6 (Caverns and Creatures)

by Robert Bevan

  “We’re not going to make it!” cried Julian.

  “Just hang on a little longer!” said Tim.

  Riding in front of Cooper, Tim obviously didn’t have an appreciation for just how little longer they all had to live.

  “Drop the boot!” said Julian. “We’ll think of something else!”

  Tim hugged the boot tight, trying to minimize the amount of piss sloshing out of it. “Just... a little... longer...”

  “I’m telling you, man! It’s right on top of –”

  Something crashed out from the trees at Julian’s five o’clock. Two angry girallon screams rang in his sensitive ears. He looked back, and found that they were re-gaining their lead as the huge girallon, and a second smaller, yet still very scary girallon, stumbled over one another, the creek bed being too small for the both of them.

  “Ha!” cried Julian. “You crazy son of a bitch, you did it!”

  Tim cocked an eyebrow and casually sipped from his flask.

  The third and forth girallon slowed the whole pack even more.

  The fifth girallon leapt out from a tree branch overhanging the creek bed. It’s timing was off, and it landed hard behind them, just missing the ass end of Dave’s horse.

  “How many of these were there again?” asked Julian.

  “One more,” said Tim. “I think.”

  And there it was, the first girallon they’d faced, standing ahead of them in the creek bed. It looked even more pissed off than the others. Beyond urine-induced territorial instincts, it had personal reasons to want to tear them apart. It screamed and bounded toward them.

  “Go left, into the woods,” cried Julian, not waiting for any deliberation. Now that they’d reached this girallon’s territory, it was pretty much time to start heading south anyway.

  Any one of the girallons could have caught up to them with ease, but even in the open forest, they continued to bark and swipe at one another as they gave chase. More importantly, they continued to lose ground.

  “Ravenus!” cried Julian when he thought they must be getting close. He realized that there were no landmarks which would lead them directly to the clearing, and he didn’t want to waste a lot of time seeking it out.

  Off in the distance, a raven let out a mighty caw.

  “This way,” said Julian, guiding his horse slightly to the right. He shouted ahead, “We’re coming for you buddy!”

  A couple of minutes later, they trotted into the clearing. Ravenus still hung from the tree branch. The annis were assembled in front of their mound. Greedily rubbing their blue hands together.

  “Do you have it?” asked Annie excitedly. “Where is it? Let me see!”

  “You heard her, Julian,” said Dave. “Let her see.”

  Julian looked at Dave. “What?”

  Dave whispered, “Give me the eye.”

  Julian pulled the silver chain over his head and handed the hanging gem to Dave.

  Dave pointed his middle finger at the gem in his hand. “See this, bitches.” He shoved the gem deep in his mouth.

  “No!” screamed the annis who had given Cooper the eye.

  Dave bit down hard. The gem crunched, eliciting ear-piercing screams from all three annis.

  Annies eyes bulged until they popped and ran down the sides of her face.

  “You fools!” cried Annie. “You think that will save you?” She grinned wickedly. “I won’t need eyes to savor your screams. When I’m finished with you, you’ll wish you’d never –”

  Girallon howls and screams grew closer.

  “What’s that?” said one of the lesser annis.

  Tim smiled. “We invited a couple of friends.”

  “Girallons?” said Annie. “How many?”

  Tim guided his horse forward. “Hopefully enough.” He threw the boot at Annie, hitting her in the tit and splashing girallon urine all over the three of them.

  The first girallon crashed out from the trees and into the clearing, heading straight for the annis. Aside from punching Dave off his horse, it paid the rest of them no mind.

  Tim guided his horse to the tree where Ravenus hung upside down. Cooper tossed him onto the branch, where he easily untied the knot.

  All three annis had their claws buried deep in the attacking girallon. It barked and swiped at them, but was gushing gallons of blood from dozens of holes.

  Julian, Tim, Cooper, and Dave stood out of the way as five more girallons came barreling into the clearing.

  Cooper helped Dave back onto his horse. “Let’s get our annises out of here.”

  When they made it back to the creek bed, and the sounds of screaming hags and girallons began to fade in the distance behind them, Julian looked at Dave. “You knew about the eye this whole time?”

  “I suspected it was a Hag Eye when the annis handed it to Cooper. He’s taller, which would give them a better field of vision, and he’s the only one that wasn’t wearing any clothes.”

  “Why didn’t you crush it right then and there?”

  Dave shrugged. “I might have been wrong. It wouldn’t have made a big enough difference anyway. They still would have probably killed us.”

  Julian pulled aside his serape, where Ravenus sat nestled against his chest. “You holding up okay?”

  “No worse for the wear, sir. Just a bit peckish is all.”

  “You and me both, buddy.” Julian really hoped Dave was right about there being a farm nearby, and that they were cooking something. They should at least be able to barter a meal from the silver chain which had held the Hag Eye. But Ravenus’s culinary tastes and nutritional needs differed from theirs. “Fly on ahead until you see a big tree. There’s some good monk up that way.”

  The End.

  If this was your first time in the world of Caverns and Creatures, please do not be alarmed. You can get some answers to your questions by reading the other fine books in the series…

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  Thank you, No Hyun Jun, for your fantastic cover art.

  Thank you, Joan Reginaldo, for continuing to read through my dreadful first drafts.

  Thank you, No Young Sook, for your love and support.

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