by Shawn Kass
After waiting for a minute or so, the recently defeated wolves disappeared, and Sam and Anna were able to pick up two items and a handful of gold which had been left behind. From there, the two of them continued on their way, heading up the narrow path with a sheer rock wall along the left side and the vast emptiness of the open air on their right. When they passed around the second bend in the path, they encountered another pair of wolves and were able to defeat these in much the same manner since their attacks were exactly the same as the last.
The wolf attacks continued to come at regular intervals as they made their way up along the mountain path, but since their pattern of attack was so predictable, the fights themselves became almost a choreographed dance for the two of them. The only real danger happened when Anna backed up a few steps to get a better angle for her shot and almost slipped off the path. Seeing this out of his peripheral vision, Sam took a step back and reached out to catch Anna. In doing so, he left himself open, and the first wolf leapt at the opportunity to sink its teeth into the adversary which had eluded so many of its previous attempts on the path below.
Aware of the incoming attack, Sam yanked hard on Anna’s arm, forcing her towards the rock wall while simultaneously pitching himself into a spin which destined him to go over the edge and held out his sword in his other hand. The result was a strange twisting motion which allowed his sword to not only cut into the already airborne wolf, but also alter both Sam’s and the wolf’s trajectories. While the force of the impact pushed Sam towards the wall and Anna, it pushed the wolf in the other direction, so rather than landing on him or even the path, it was flung out past the edge of the path where they saw it tumble against the rocks and fall into the white abyss below. It was a bleak and frightening sight to see, but they had little time to appreciate it as the second wolf, no longer needing to wait for its counterpart, resumed its attack.
Dispatching the second wolf was easy, and when they finished, Anna noticed the contemplative look on Sam’s face and said, “Please tell me you’re okay with us not going all the way back down to retrieve whatever that wolf may have left behind?”
Nodding, Sam admitted, “If I were on my own and didn’t have a sick kid back in town waiting for us, I’d consider it. Chances are, I would be able to grind out some more experience in the process if I did. But in answer to your question, no. I wasn’t thinking we should go all the way back down. I was actually just wondering if there was a way to set up a trap that would continually throw these wolves off the edge and whether or not we would gain experience for such a thing.”
Shrugging, Anna said, “Honestly, no matter how many times you try to explain this experience stuff, I don’t fully get it, but I think setting a trap here would be somewhat pointless. If memory serves, we should be almost at the mouth of the cave by now.”
Looking up the path, Sam didn’t see any openings, but when he turned back to Anna, he said, “Okay, well, if we’re that close, let’s get moving. I’d like to get away from this edge before one of us has an accident.”
Sparing a glance back towards the precipice, Anna shivered against the thought and said “Agreed,” before she passed him and continued up the narrow path.
After one more fight which again involved two wolves attacking as they had before, they found the path widen a bit as they came around a bend and then spotted a door-sized opening in the rock face of the wall. Peering inside, Sam found that the path continued inward, but that the lighting was so dim that he could hardly make out anything past a few feet.
Turning back to Anna, he asked, “You didn’t happen to pick up any torches while we were at the general store, did you?”
Smiling, Anna partially withdrew two sticks with a bit of fabric wrapped around one end and said, “I sure did, but we shouldn’t need them yet. It only looks dark because it’s so bright white out here. Once we’re inside, our eyes will adjust. These,” gesturing towards the sticks, “are for when things are pitch black further in, and we need the light.”
“Okay,” acknowledged Sam. As he stepped inside, he unnecessarily ducked his head to avoid hitting the ceiling and then stopped a few feet in with Anna close behind.
What Sam found was that Anna was right. Surprisingly, he could see fairly well despite the fact that there was no source of light other than from the entrance they had come through. In fact, aside from the dark shadows which played along the walls, Sam had no problem seeing the path before him or the detritus which littered the area around them.
Satisfied, Sam suggested, “What do you say we take a break now that we’re out of the weather?”
“Sounds good. I’ll set up camp, and we can rest here for a little while before we make our way to the peak.”
Trying to make themselves comfortable, the two of them sat down on the stones which must have at one point been stalagmites and placed their packs in front of them. Being on the higher stone, Sam had no need to remove his sword, but Anna’s weapon rubbed against the rock. She had to remove the bow off her shoulder and set it down on the ground beside her while she continued to set up camp. From her pack, she withdrew two sets of rations and passed one to Sam. When he took it, she said, “Aside from whatever you brought, I have three more sets, which should be more than enough to get us to the top of the mountain and back to Ms. Kirkland’s.”
Tearing open the rations package, Sam pulled out something which resembled a dried papaya and said, “Good. I got some, too, but if they all look like this, I’m hoping we won’t need them.”
As they ate, Anna heard something which sounded like rustling behind her, but unfortunately, she mistook it as the echo of Sam’s rations package and dismissed it without saying anything. Had it been Sam who had heard it, either his years of gaming experience or his natural curiosity would have been enough to convince him to check it out, but Anna had neither and let it go. By the time the second sound reached Sam’s ears, it was too late to implement any sort of coordinated defense.
Whispering, Sam said, “Anna, I don’t think we’re alone in here,” as his hand drifted nonchalantly towards the handle of his sword.
Eyes wide, Anna began to reach out towards her own weapon, but she halted when a booming voice rang out, “I’d leave that there if I were you, Missy.”
Chapter 13
To call what had taken place a few moments ago a fight, or even a skirmish, would have been an outright lie. At first, from the look of the shoddy weaponry a few of the men had been carrying, Sam figured he could have beaten any one of them as his sword would have easily sliced clean through theirs. Additionally, he also felt that he was probably several levels higher than any of them and combined with the fact that he was able to wield fireball magic, he had a good chance of winning. All of these facts, combined with the knowledge that this was a video game, encouraged him to not only fight but to slay them all and gain not only the experience but whatever gold or loot they had on them. Unfortunately, moments after the voice had rang out, startling them both, Sam realized that there weren’t just a few men; there were at least thirty already surrounding them, and Sam didn’t think he could count on them patiently waiting to fight one at a time like the wolves had. That meant there would be at least fifteen arrows for each of them on the first volley, which was exactly fifteen more than he felt sure he was comfortable with receiving. So rather than risk it, he raised both his hands and announced their surrender. As he did this, he sent Tezukayoshi a message through their shared link that the lizard should stay in his pocket and out of sight.
Anna’s bow was picked up by one of the men, and Sam watched as another man placed cuffs on her wrists. As they clinked shut, Sam felt hands reach up from behind him and remove his sword and sheath along with his sack of supplies before they roughly pushed him forward to stand next to Anna so that a second set of cuffs could be placed on him. Shackled and surrounded, the men led Sam and Anna deeper into the cave until they reached a point where it branched out in two separate directions. Hesitating for just a seco
nd, the leader turned left and kept going.
Next to Sam, Anna whispered, “Where are they taking us?”
“How should I know?” whispered Sam back. “I thought you knew this path.”
“Not this way. We turned right the last time I came this way.”
Still whispering, Sam added, “You know I wasn’t going to say anything, but don’t you think these guys are acting suspiciously like bandits? I mean, I know they’re not bandits because you told me that this area was safe and that there weren’t any, but I get the distinct impression that they want take our stuff and kill us, kind of like the way one would expect bandits to behave.”
Forgetting to whisper, Anna retorted, “Really? You’re going to bring that up now?”
From behind them, a man hollered, “Hey you two. Shut up!” and so they quit their bickering for a few minutes and bowed their heads.
After a while, Sam chanced a look around him, making sure to glance cautiously towards the men closest to him. It took a second, but he quickly noticed that they were also looking around at the walls quite a bit as if they were trying to identify landmarks, too, but did not recognize the area either. Under his breath, Sam whispered, “It doesn’t look like these guys know where we’re headed either.”
Whether the guy had heard exactly what he had said or not, Sam had no idea, but the man directly behind him gave him a sharp push in the back and said, “Didn’t you hear us the first time? Shut your mouth or else we’ll break it!”
Stumbling forward, Sam kept himself from falling, but as he did so he caught sight of something pale white piled up against the wall. Risking a look back, he was able to confirm his suspicion that what he had seen were bones, but before he could say anything, the man who had pushed him stepped up with a sword and said, “If you’re going to be a problem, I can just take care of you here and now.”
Gritting his teeth, Sam thought about letting a fireball loose right in the man’s face, but as some of the other men around them began to turn to see what the hold up was, he realized that he didn’t have much chance in taking on the whole group. Reeling in his anger, Sam said, “No problem. Just lost my step,” and turned back to continue following the rest of the group.
They continued their descent into the cave for another ten minutes, taking several turns whenever the path split, until eventually the cave opened up into a wide cavern. The sound of the men’s boots shuffling about echoed throughout the room until finally, everyone found their way inside. Stepping to the side, as directed by his captor, Sam saw that the cavern floor extended only about thirty feet before it abruptly disappeared from view and that the leader was standing near the edge trying to see how far the drop went.
With a grim look on his face, the leader made a show of picking up a rock and casually tossing it into the cavern. Holding a hand up to his ear dramatically, he waited a couple of seconds for the sound of the rock to come back to him and winced when it finally came. Turning back to the group, he said in a loud intimidating voice, “Bring me the girl,” and the phrase continued to echo back from the abyss beyond for several seconds afterward.
Obeying, one of the men near Sam grabbed hold of Anna and hurriedly walked her forward. When he reached the group’s leader, he placed a hand on Anna’s shoulder and forced her to kneel on the ground just a few feet from the edge before he took a step back.
With the three of them lined up next to the abyss, the leader stared at Anna for a long moment before he finally asked, “Who sent you?”
With one eye still on the edge of the abyss, Anna stuttered her answer, “N…no one. I mean, the doctor, but he didn’t say anything about you, it was for Peter.”
Frowning, the man said, “Explain yourself, or I’ll toss you over the edge and get my answers from your friend.”
“We, um, just came to get a flower. Doctor Brown, our town doctor, said it grows up here, and he needs it to help cure a sick boy.”
Behind her, a man rummaged through the sacks they had confiscated from her and Sam, pulling out various items and tossing most of them to the ground where their weapons already lay. When he finally reached the gold they had collected from killing the wild boars and wolves along the way, the man held it up so the leader could see.
Leaning in, the leader said, “Tell me the truth now. You have gold. You have weapons. You must have come here hunting us.”
“No, I swear,” said Anna. “We picked up the gold on the way here from town, and we only have the weapons to protect ourselves.”
The man took a step back, appraising her for a moment before he finally asked, “Have you ever heard of the name Jeva?”
“No. Who is he?”
“I am Jeva, and these,” gesturing to the crowd, “are my men.”
After a quick glance towards the men surrounding Sam, Anna shook her head and said, “No, I’ve never heard of you.”
Smiling, Jeva called out to his men, “You hear that, boys? We’ve found ourselves a new town where no one has heard of us.” The men took a moment to cheer at this announcement, and their voices echoed loudly off the cavern walls before Jeva cut them off with a hand gesture. When the crowd quieted, he went on with, “The only problem then is these two. Personally, I’m inclined to just toss them over the edge, but what say you?”
All around, the group cheered, showing their support of Jeva’s decision, and the noise once again echoed off the cavern walls.
Whether the noise was what brought it, or it simply used the noise to cover the sound of its own approach, Sam didn’t know. What he did know, however, was that while all the men around him seemed to be cheering, and Jeva’s back was towards the abyss, a large furry white hand reached up from the inky blackness beyond and scooped up the man who had been standing behind Anna. That man’s whoops and hollers of agreement and excitement like those of the other men quickly changed to screams of terror and pain as he disappeared beyond the edge of the cliff and into the shadows below.
Standing there in shock, Jeva knew he was out in the open and a prime target for whatever had taken his man. Since he hadn’t seen more than a glimpse of it and had no idea of what it was, he stood still, unable to move. All he could find the strength for was a gasping intake of breath as panic and disbelief overwhelmed him.
The rest of the men surrounding Sam instantly quieted when the screams began, and a palpable fear rippled through the ranks. For just a moment, Sam couldn’t tell if they would be driven to fight for their friend or flee in the face of such a beast, but he didn’t have to wait long for his answer. A moment later, the shredded and torn remains of what he could only assume used to be their comrade was carelessly tossed up and over the ledge, landing in a bloody mess a few feet in front of them. With that, survival instantly set in, and the men ran for the exit.
Spotting the keys hanging from the man’s belt closest to him, Sam deftly snatched them away and began to unlock his cuffs. He was just able to free one hand and had pushed the key into the second cuff when he felt the shoulder of one of the escaping men slam into his back. Sam instinctively put his hands out as he tried to brace for the impact with the ground, but he ended up jamming his wrist into a rock along the way, and, when he spared a moment to look, he found that the key in the cuff was now bent at an odd angle.
Cursing aloud, Sam scrambled to his feet and tried to assess the situation. From what he could tell, most of the men were now behind him, making their way back through the series of tunnels which had brought them this way, but their leader, Jeva, was still out there. Fear had a death grip on him and had frozen him in place, while Anna sat just a few feet off to the side hyperventilating. To their right, a giant god-knowswhat was climbing up the cliff wall to kill them. Ultimately, running outside sounded like the best option, but one more glance at Anna told him she was in no condition for an all-out sprint. That meant he would either have to go alone and leave her to die or face this thing and see how many experience points it was worth.
As Sam took a second to debate
these options, Jeva broke free of the mental chains of fear which had been holding him. Seeing none of his men around as the giant creature pulled its head up to their level, Jeva tried to simultaneously turn and run for the exit while also pulling his weapon free, all while keeping an eye on what was coming. The result was spectacularly clumsy, and Jeva nearly landed on his own sword when his feet got caught up in each other.
Eyes wide, Jeva clambered to his feet, and once he had regained his footing, he ran as fast as he could, boots smacking hard against the cavern floor as he tore for the exit. His face took on a disbelieving stare when he reached the halfway point as he saw his prisoner run past him in the opposite direction, but he didn’t stop him or bother to look back. To Jeva, if the guy wanted to go back for his companion that was his business, but he was sure it would only invite this incarnation of death to take him faster.
Thinking to himself that he had completely lost it, Sam darted across the room towards Anna and the creature who was now standing on the edge. When he reached her, he could see that she was still petrified with fear and that there would be no way to get her moving. Not knowing what else there was for him to do, he reached into his pocket and withdrew Tezukayoshi.
Looking into the lizard’s eyes, Sam willed the connection that he knew they had and said out loud, “Save her if you can. I’ll take care of this,” with more confidence than he truly felt.
Picking up on Sam’s distress, Tezukayoshi looked down at Anna and then back to him, and Sam got the distinct impression that the lizard would much rather be doing what he could to protect Sam and fight by his side.
Assuming that he understood what his familiar was trying to tell him, Sam said, “I don’t know if I can beat it, but I don’t need to, either. I just need to buy enough time for you to snap her out of this, and then we can all run.”