Mike Wild - Engines of the Apocalypse

The fist of the juggennath tightened ever so slightly around her.

"Who are you, girl?" A voice boomed. "What are you doing in my forest?"

The voice was arrogant, cold and cruel. Bastian Redigor, it seemed, was introducing himself.

"Hello, Baz," Kali said. "You don't mind being called Baz, I hope?"

"I asked you a question. What do you want?"

"Er, world peace? A cure for the hic? No — how about an all-over tan?"

The fist tightened.

"Okay, okay, just breaking the ice." Kali leaned forward and peered into vast orifice. "Dark and smelly in there, huh?"

"I am not here, stupid child. This beast is but a means of communication."

Kali rolled her eyes and tutted. "Farking hell, I know that, elf. I should have known the Ur'Raney would have no sense of humour."

Redigor laughed. "So you know who I am. Would it surprise you to know that I, in turn, know who you are… Kali Hooper?"

Actually it did, but Kali didn't let it show. Maybe there was something in what Fitch had said about Redigor's gaze being so penetrating it could read minds. She concentrated on keeping her true thoughts — and plans — to herself.

"I see the little girl, wide-eyed with stories that I would come for you," Redigor went on. "I sense the fear, the desire to run and curl beneath the bed…"

"Forget it, Redigor. I wasn't afraid then, I'm not afraid now."

"I would not say that. I can feel your sweat leaking onto this creature's pores."

"You sure it's my sweat?" Redigor's laughter was a rumble this time. "Listen, Puce Lord or whatever your name is, I've been in tighter spots."

"Really?"

The juggennath's grip tightened suddenly, not enough to crush her but enough to squeeze all of the breath from her lungs. She had no doubt that Redigor could have crushed her had he wished, but was enjoying playing with her. Knowing his predilections she wouldn't be surprised if the immense fingers of the giant he controlled soon started to peel away her clothes.

"I ask you again," Redigor's disembodied voice said. "What are you doing in my forest?"

"I've come to stop a dirty old man returning his perverted rule to my world."

"Bel'A'Gon'Shri is sealed and the exchange will soon begin. And I hardly think you are in any position to stop it."

"No? You don't know me very well, do you?"

Kali suddenly rammed her gutting knife into the tender flesh of the juggennath's palm and, with a roar of pain, the creature opened its hand. She had gambled on the fact that, even though Redigor was ostensibly in control of the mammoth creature, its reaction to pain would remain instinctive. Of course, she'd hoped that the giant's grip would simply loosen enough to allow her escape from it, and hadn't expected to be dropped.

Time to improvise.

As the juggennath's other hand swept around to swat her from existence, Kali twisted in mid-air, booting herself away from it, and once more found herself heading towards the hairy hide of the beast, somewhere about its midriff. She struck, clung, and began another slow climb.

She didn't want to know what it was she was climbing up and as she ascended the thick, matted hair she instead concentrated on what mattered — that it was getting her where she needed to go. One way or another she had Bastian Redigor by the short and curlies, and when she had finally returned herself to the juggennath's neck she told him so, whispering into the beast's ear, "Redigor, I'm coming."

Kali heaved herself up on top of the living mountain, avoiding its hands. She leaned forward, holding her gutting knife in both hands, and plunged it viciously into the creature's eye. Vitreous humour spurted forth and the creature reacted once more as she had hoped.

Roaring and slapping at the eye, the juggennath staggered forward in the direction from which the pain had come, seeking out the cause and attempting to crush it. There was, of course, nothing there, and Kali had already flipped herself away. She dangled, now, on a length of hair by the left side of the beast's head, and after a few seconds kicked herself around and delivered another blow with her knife, this time to the juggennath's cheek. Again, it roared, turning to identify its new attacker, but once more there was nothing there. As the beast lurched forward, she did a quick calculation, working out that only one more application of the knife would be needed to get the creature to go where she wished it to go, and then she could effectively sit back and enjoy the ride.

Kali returned to its head and this time used the fringe of the beast to drop herself down until she dangled directly in front of its eye. The blinded eye had reverted to a natural state, a sign that Redigor had departed his host, most likely in response to the pain. That suited her needs perfectly. Glancing behind her to double check that she, and more importantly the creature itself, were on the course she wanted, Kali rammed her gutting knife into the eyeball once more.

The creature roared louder than ever, scaring away those of its predators that still remained in the nearby undergrowth, and charged through the forest, swatting its great hands before it as it did, trying to locate and remove its tormentor. Kali, however, was once again, gone, perched now just above the beast's forehead like a driver. From that position she occasionally jabbed her knife into the wrinkled flesh of its brow, reminding it, when needed, of where she wanted it to go. Then the first of the traps she had laid became visible just before its stomping feet, and just before the rampaging beast triggered it, Kali wished herself luck and hung on tight.

The trap caused the beast no pain, of course, but it roared anyway, this time in confusion, as Kali's meticulously arranged vines wrapped themselves around its feet, throwing it off balance. The trap was not enough to bring it down, of course, but it was enough to send the giant stumbling blindly and out of control further through the forest and towards the second trap she had laid. This one was strung at a different height to the first, and this time the tension in the vines turned it as well, sending it careening to her goal. Kali tightened her grip on the giant's matted hair as it slammed through the trees surrounding it. She could make out the remaining traps ahead of them and, beyond those, the gorge that led towards the necropolis.

She couldn't help but yell out loud — "go, boy, go!" — as the juggennath impacted with her next trap, this one designed to catch the giant at the waist, throwing off its centre of gravity.

Kali suddenly found herself atop a rampaging mountain that could not stop itself from flailing forward, a victim of its own momentum. The last two traps she had lain came into their own now. As the giant stumbled into the complex arrangement of crossed vines, breaking each with a sound like a musket shot, the branches and, in one case, log that Kali had secured in place sprang from their lairs and struck the juggennath full on, slapping it forward. The giant roared in protest and confusion, brain unable to register what was happening in such swift succession, flailing all the more.

Perfect, Kali thought from her position at the creature's summit. All she needed to wait for now was the final trap and she could be off, leaving nature — and gravity specifically — to take its course.

The Juggennath broke through the thorn barrier surrounding Bel'A'Gon'Shri, and was in the gorge leading to the necropolis's front door. From her height Kali could actually see the stone slab ahead of them. She encouraged the Juggennath once more, ramming her knife into what remained of its eyeball. As the giant beast roared in pain she saw two tiny figures on top of the necropolis — Freel and Slowhand — turn at the sound.

The Juggennath staggered forward and Kali counted down the seconds until it triggered the trap.