by HC MacDonald
I had gathered these daggers when I was ten from a pile of discarded weapons and clothing back at the fortress. Normally the Raiders would keep these gems, but they were to small for there large hands. Perfect for me. I had spent years learning to fight with them. Perfecting my stealth and technique. Many prisoners I had helped, would teach and spar with me for trade of food, water, and escape. I was always happy to oblige. I would have provided that anyway, but now I was getting training. Win, win in my mind. I held one in each hand now. I would be ready to defend myself if needed. I then began a slow crouched walk through the street to the edge of the town and the briars beyond. Still looking for my family.
I made it to the end, with no problems. No one moved. No one breathed. No one cared I was there. The children were not there from what I could tell. I could only wonder what was going on there? I needed to find the kids and get moving on as quickly as possible. The path appeared in patches underneath the fog. It took me back into the briars, and thicket.
There were odd shaped crooked trees spread across the land. The trees I passed looked like old men with canes petrified in place, and a chill in my spine manifested. The low fog began to thicken again and clutched the ground. Making the path I was on hard to find. I continued walking through the trees and thicket in the direction the path was originally headed, the tiredness of the night was starting to get to me.
I had been running since sunrise, only stopping long enough to check the tracks on the path I was following. My mind began to fill with a heavy fog of sleep. My focus waning from my task at hand. My legs became so heavy; as if I was dragging large iron chains spiked to the ground. I needed to rest but dared not stop. Fear encircled me. My mind started to drift even more. I began to justify that a few minutes of rest would probably help me be more aware. If I closed my eyes for only a few minutes my search would be faster and my head clearer.
Giving in to reason, I sat on the ground with my back against a bent and twisted old man of a tree. I could feel the discomfort in my back yelling at me in pain and feel the thorns of the bushes surrounding me dig into my skin. My mind was so heavy in that moment that I didn’t care. Five Minutes. I only need five minutes I thought.
Sleep came quick, my mind filling with images of torture and pain. I recalled hiding behind the wooden table of my home as I watched my mother taken before my eyes. Images of the dead. My father laying before me. I couldn’t wake up from this dream. Every scream of pain I had heard, every crack of the whip, or howl of sorrow from prisoners, all holding my mind captive. Memory after bad memory plaguing me. Each dream pulling at me, making me feel weak and helpless. Then, I saw a woman standing in front of me. “Wake up!” she said. “Wake up!” she repeated authoritatively. My eyes flew open.
My eyes were open, but there was a fog on my mind and haze to my sight. Think, I scolded myself. I was sitting on the path. Think, no, I am not on the path. Where are the crooked trees and briars that poked at me? Where am I? I started to move and as I did my mind fog lifted and my eyes began to focus.
This was a dank dark cave. Lifting my head to see, I looked out over the hills and valleys of the floor. There was a soft red glow stretching in painted patterns across the floor of the cavern. I followed one of the florescent trails, it was like the vine of an ivy circling in patterns over the hills and then up the side of the cavern. It climbed intertwining with other vines toward the center where it wrapped around a dull metal crouched appendage. There were many veins of this dusty light creating patterns on the walls and ceiling. The soft glow giving me enough light to see.
The metal arms I saw hanging from the ceiling were made of dull steel. They were unmoving at the current time. They were long thin metal pieces with two hinges that made it fold into itself like bats tucked asleep. I moved to get up. As I did, I realized I was not alone. There were numerous people laying in this cave. Stacked together like dirty piles of laundry. These were not hills and valleys with in the cavern like I had originally thought, but piles of people. I looked down at my sleeping companions. I tried quietly shaking awake the person next to me, but to no avail. Then tried another and another. Shaking did not work, slapping did not work. I even tried cutting one on the arm to see if the pain would wake them up. It should have, but didn’t. I tried everything I could short of screaming. I dared not yell or scream incase I would awaken the owner of the metal appendages that hung from above.
I didn’t know this place or how I got here, but the chill down my spine said now was the time to leave. I dusted off the glowing vein that was stretched across my skirt. It blew away like dust in the wind. Then I started hopping over bodies and with effort stepped on as few people as possible. Still none stirred. Only the odd sound of silent screams broke the stillness of the cavern I was in. I searched pile after pile looking for my family. There were no children in site. No children in any of the piles. I took hope that they were not in this place lost in a nightmare.
Exiting the cavern only lead to multiple openings and more tunnels. Each tunnel I ran down ended in another cavern all filled with the same slumbering piles of people and now animals and other such creatures. All with wrenched metal arms hovering above in wait. What is this place? I thought to myself. I looped through one cavern and then another. Hitting a dead end. I back tracked. Turning right this time, then left then left and a right. Nope, try again. It felt like hours. I was getting desperate. The fear overtaking my mind. My body began shaking. I was thinking that I would be trapped in here. Then I saw a dim lit crack. A small wedge of light shining into this otherwise bleak cavern. This had to lead outside, just had to. The desperation gnawing at me now flickered with hope.
I ran toward the crack only to realize it was a reflection. I needed to think. If this was a reflection, then where was the actual hole. I slowly assessed the part of the cavern I was in. It linked to two other caverns. Then I saw it. The metal arm from the ceiling that was reflecting the light. I followed the reflections from one arm to the other. Then it disappeared. I knew which cavern held the original light source and so I ran.
The opening was small, but I could work with that. I had been in tighter jams at the fortress. I knew I would have to backtrack to get to it. To many piles of people in the way. Hope was rising up inside me. This was my way out. I backtracked through another cave to get to the other end of the large cavern that held my escape. I ran to it, not knowing a pair of eyes were now watching me.
Chapter 3
Koboldrone
Leon
I saw the swing of his arm but couldn’t duck fast enough catching a portion of his paw as it hit me across my face almost knocked me unconscious. His other claw snagged me across my arm. Blood dripped down my hand to the ground. How many were there? I complained. This was the fifth Asbjorn in a row and they were getting stronger. Why were they attacking my village? I had to ask myself.
This was not their normal behavior. They were territorial beasts. Having this many in a short time I knew something was off. The one I was fighting now was black as night. Fur from head to toe. Sharp poisonous red and purple spines lined his back from his head down to his short fur covered tail and he was standing on edge. His snout covered in saliva that whipped off his purple elongated tongue, and sharp fang like teeth to cover his face with slime. His piercing black eyes followed my every move. Standing over thirteen feet tall and another six feet wide he was a force to be reckoned with.
With a sharp growl he swung and this time I dodged it. The only thing I could do was stay out of its way. I was to tired to fight. I ran behind a tree. I needed to put some obstacles between us. Get a game plan together, save my energy, attack, and kill this beast. My village was at stake. I ran to a large boulder further away and crouched behind it. I needed to get my mind working. Out think the beast. I was so tired. “Boom” the crash of a tree hitting the ground some 50 paces away. Then another sharp roaring growl. I tried to focus, but an unusual smell of summer peeked into my senses. I shook my head clearing it of the smel
l and trying to think. As quick as it came it was gone and my focus shifted back to the Asbjorn. “Crash” another tree hit the ground closer this time. Then I heard a rock smashing into the boulder I was crouched behind. He would be on top of me soon. My mind filled again with the sweet scent of summer my focus wavering from the beast. My senses were overrun with smells of fresh dew in the morning, meadows of wild flowers in bloom, green grass after a summer rain, all making me feel as if I could do anything, the world was full of hope and possibility. It was the smell of my childhood. I breathed it in and my eyes flew open.
What I saw was not the forest or an Absjorn, but a dark cavern and a whisper of girl run by. She was dressed in black from head to toe. With dirty blonde braids stretching down her back. She had a layered long sleeve shirt that tucked into a black leather belt. I could see a small set of daggers poking out of her waist. She wore a black leather pleated knee length skirt over black shorts. Only her dirty knees poked out. Her legs were clad in long black socks and knee high lace up black boots. She was covered in dirt and dust from head to toe. I dared not move as I watched her. Who was this person, why was she here, I asked myself. As she rounded the corner, her scent began to disappear. I was compelled to follow. Whether I liked it or not, she may have just saved me. It was our tradition to owe a life debt in return. I began pushing beasts off me so I could move. I managed to get out from under them all and went in search of this girl.
My day had not started like this; at least I hoped it was still the same day. I wasn’t sure how many days had passed since I began the nightmares. I was out tracking one of those horrifying Asbjorn that had ventured onto our territory. So focused was I on tracking the beast. That I didn’t realized where I was until it was to late. The mist of the Koboldrone had taken hold causing a fog of sleep and nightmares to take over my mind. I recalled the feeling of metal against my skin, lifting me up. A light breeze brushing across my face as I floated in my dream like state.
Our elders had warned us of this place. As children we were told stories to scare us in the night. I had seen the results of this place and knew that the stories were true. They told of the bending crooked trees that once were warriors now cursed into twisted pieces of wood. Of the mist that would cover the ground, making you lose your way. The nightmares that would make you mad. Echo’s of screams in the air that nobody would hear. Trapped in never ending sleep that magic couldn’t break. The metal arms that would come for you. Reaching down to claim the rest of your wake-less life. Extracting of children to be experimented on, cut up, or sacrificed. No one really knew what they did, or how they happened. Rumor was that a great magic created them. A great magic was also the only way to destroy them. Nezra was not even powerful enough to destroy the Koboldrone. Now being here. My childhood nightmares solidified once more, I wondered how true the rest of the rumors were.
I normally stayed clear of this area. However, this time, I had the Asbjorn close in my sights, Wanted it dead so it would not hurt anyone in my village again. Thought I could stay on the edge, finish the job and get out before anything happened. Stupid mistake on my part.
I had found her again. It was easy to pick out her scent. I could see her now and began following her path. She was moving quickly. Light as a feather as she jumped and moved over stacks of silent dyeing creatures. Not afraid of waking them in the least. I knew better then to try. Nothing would arouse them. Our elders had tried many times to wake those that fell in the trap of the Koboldrone.
Wearing sacred rare talismans’ to enter such a place and not fall victim themselves. They would carry home the unfortunate. Then try every spell, every potion, every healing our culture new on the sleeping dead. Most would die before the spell was broken. Very few awoke, and even then; their minds were too far gone to ever be themselves again. Living in a trans like state. Death was better for them. The elders of our village soon gave up hope and no longer tried to save the hopeless. Now I wondered how I had awoken, and why did her scent penetrate into the nightmare spell when no one else’s did. I needed to know more about this girl. I continued to follow.
Ahead was a small crack in the cave wall with a hint of light dimly shining through. She dug at the opening. Then with a loud pop, I saw one of the arms above her unfold and fall to the ground. It landed inches from her head on top of a pile of the dead. She only stopped for a second then went back to digging at the hole.
When it was wide enough for her to wiggle out she did so with some struggle. Resourceful this girl was. I on the other hand would not be able to do the same. Looking around the room I found a larger rock. Picked it up, headed to the opening. I began swinging at the crack in the wall like a hammer. I wasn’t scared I would activate the arms. They had done there task of bringing me here to die. The sound would not bother anyone. Soon I had a good size hole. Pushing away the debris and digging out enough for me to fit, I quickly squeezed through the rock just in time to see her skirt into a long low rusted decaying building. Her scent now gone. I took off running toward the broken glazed glass doors at the front. What kind of trap was I getting myself into now I contemplated.
The building was made of rusted iron and dull grey crumbled clay that matched the stormy sky above. A low hanging roof held up at the corners was sagging like it had held years of water to heavy for it. I was afraid the slightest vibrations would make the whole thing cave in. The glazed glass doors were chipped and broken, I, however, still could not see into the building. There were no other windows, vents, or doors on this sad looking building. I knew it was still part of the Koboldrone. My childhood stories reminding me of the terrors that could await inside. Fear entered my mind.
I slowly opened the door not knowing what I would find. The smell hit me first. Spoiled food, urine, waste, wafted into my nostrils. I tried blowing it out, but the smell was stuck. My head shook in reaction. I was disgusted as the smell now seemed to coat my tongue.
I slowly looked from side to side noting no movement. It was safe for now to step in. There was no one in site. Not even the girl. A few doors to my right, and one to my left. Metal tracks ran the length of the entrance disappearing behind walls and doors. Then, the smell of summer hit me. She was to my right. I took a few steps her direction, and around a giant pile of rotting debris and trash that reached to the ceiling I saw her. It was only for a moment as she slipped into the first door on the right. As it closed I heard the latch of the lock click.
A few steps later I was around the pile of trash tugging on the door. It was locked and would not budge. There was a small window above the handle. I crouched down to look in. I could see a long hall with doors. She was trying all of them. Locked. She kept looking into the low set windows on each. She seemed to be franticly searching for something. Then without warning two metal appendages came from the ceiling pinning her arms to her chest and dragging her into one of the previously locked rooms. She struggled and squirmed to free herself until she was out of my site. I knew then she was in trouble. Considering the look of fear on her face, so did she.
I heard the UN-clicked of the door lock. I pressed it open a little to hard as it slammed against the wall and I ran down the dimly lit channel. Stopping at the door she was forced thru. She was being strapped to one of fifty tables in the room. Arms bound across her chest with one strap. Her legs bound just above the knees with another.
I glanced around the room noticing all the tables were filled with sleeping tranquil children. Each with injected with tubes filled with a stream of red blood stretching across the space of the room. A grey static screen that encompassed the entire wall buzzed at the front filling light into the space. At that moment I feared for her life. I searched for her again near the front. All I could do was watch as a knife came down and sliced her arm just below the shoulder to just above her wrist. Her blood now pooling into a a funnel.
She wasn’t watching as her blood siphon through the tubes, or cared that the slow buzzing sound that resounded in the building had sped up. She wasn’t co
ncerned that the screen once grey was now red. She was working her way out of the restraints that held her. Managing her escape before a metal tube could pierce her skin. She jumped off the table and ran to the far side of the room and out a side door. My door was still locked. I couldn’t follow. I ran to the door I had come from in an attempt to catch her coming from one of the other two doors I had seen.
I ran to the second door. It was locked. No window. The third door was unlocked and extremely heavy to open. It took all my strength to wretch it open. By the time I slipped into the room I was sweating and short of breath.
Inside was a storage room of sorts. Stacks of cloth and shelves filled with clothing. Spoils of the dead I concluded. At the far end another door. I started toward the door, but stopped. She was coming, I could smell her scent getting stronger. I stepped behind it as she swung it open. She came barreling through. She ran to the door I had come from, but it was to heavy for her to move. She turned at that moment and we looked straight at each other. I stepped closer.
A waif of air blew under the door. It was then that the smell of fire hit me. The heavy door behind her swung open at full speed. Hitting her into my arms. Pushing us both out of its path. Not before I heard the smash of bone on metal.
We lay there watching as metal arms raced through the room above us, and out the door she had first come. When the room was clear and the commotion silent, I looked down at this girl I was holding. So vulnerable, fragile. I had a strong urge to hold her, even though we needed to leave.
As soon as the coast was clear she pushed against me. She was gone and running. No, limping as she ran across the hall to the last unchecked door. She swung it open and entered. Gathering myself off the floor I took off after her.
I went to open the door and enter myself, but out she came with three young children in tow. She looked at me with bright blue eyes and a questionable look. All I could do was hold the door open. I myself was baffled by what was going on. Then the first blast shook the building. The smell of fire I had forgotten about, back. Smoke began surrounding the five of us. She picked up the young boy, and I taking cue, grabbed the two remaining children. With unspoken words we ran for the glass doors.