Michael Mathias - Kings, Queens, Heroes, and Fools

Within moments they came across some long exposed bones. A fairly neat pile lay to one side, the skeleton of one of the dragon’s meals, by the powdery yellow looks of them. The walls were patched with a furry gray mold, which hung down in beard-like dangles here and there.

“Look,” Oarly said, pointing to a track that had been pressed into the dusty floor. It looked fresh. The huge paw print was sharp and defined, and a lot bigger than the one Hyden had studied outside the camp. Its shape was similar, though.

“Won’t kill that bastard with an arrow,” Oarly said, before moving on.

They could feel a breeze from overhead. The air was warm and salty, but once they passed the natural vent, the cavern took on a dank musty smell.

Hyden glanced back. The opening of the cave looked like nothing more than a distant rabbit hole from where he stood. He decided there was still a bit of daylight left, but as they moved deeper into the lair he told himself that he wanted to be back in the camp by full dark. He leaned his bow against Brady and cast his orb of magical light into existence with a proud grin. Brady gave him a nod of approval as Hyden took back his weapon.

“Pretty good, huh?” Hyden asked.

“When you get the dwarf’s boot back from wherever you made it go, I’ll be impressed,” Brady joked.

Phen moved past Hyden during the exchange and was now easing up behind the dwarf with a mischievous look about him. The radiance from Hyden’s magical orb made the shadows thrown by Phen’s light far less noticeable. Oarly was oblivious to the boy’s approach. Hyden saw what was about to happen and prodded Brady to get his attention. Phen had a handful of the moss he’d scraped from the wall. Hyden stifled a laugh as the boy threw it over Oarly’s head and shoulders and yelled, “Spiders! Gods they’re everywhere!”

Oarly yelled and spun, swatting at himself furiously. For a moment he looked like a dog chasing his own tail. He nearly set his hair on fire with the torch he held. His barks of terror turned quickly to curses as Hyden and Brady roared with laughter. Phen jumped around laughing and pointing at the dwarf. “Just try to scare me again with tales of giant bats, you old grouch,” Phen threatened with mock severity.

“Ah, lad,” Oarly grumbled, fighting a grin. “You got me good, lad,” he chuckled. “But you don’t have any sort of inkling what you just started between us.”

“You’d better be wary of Hyden Hawk,” Phen giggled. “He owes you a good one.”

“If the scalding that cinder-pepper put on his arse didn’t warn him away,” Oarly gave Hyden a hard look, “then only the gods can save him.”

Hyden could feel the heat on his backside when Oarly spoke the words. He would never admit it, but after the incident he had long considered letting bygones be bygones. But now getting Oarly back was a matter of pride, especially since Phen was in the game too. As they started moving deeper into the cavern, Hyden decided that he might be wise to worry about Phen as well as Oarly. The boy was clever, and wouldn’t be able to resist getting him if he had the chance.

A few dozen paces later the cavern turned to the left and the air became ripe and fetid. Oarly pointed to a half-eaten carcass lying to one side of the floor, then to a respectable size of scat piled across the way. The hum of insects buzzing about the decaying meat filled their ears. Oarly turned, and was about to speak when a deep rumbling growl came out of the gloom behind the reach of their light.

“No sense in running, lads,” Oarly started as he hurled his torch out into the blackness. “Might as well kill it now.”

They could see the thing in the twirling light of the torch. It was another of the quill covered felines, but this one was twice as big as a horse. Hyden instinctively loosed an arrow at where he thought he’d seen its eye glinting in the darkness, but the creature was already charging. Brady ran up to meet it, with his sword held out ahead of him. Hyden stepped in front of Phen and loosed another arrow. This one struck the creature in the chest, but it didn’t even seem to notice.

“For Doon!” Oarly yelled and darted with surprising quickness out of the way of a swiping claw. He swung the pickaxe at the thing’s side and it struck deeply. The weapon was yanked out of the dwarf’s hand and remained stuck in its flank. As Oarly growled his anger at the loss, a spiky tail whipped around, and with a deep thump caught him square in the back.

Hyden loosed again but knew that, unless he could hit the creature in the eye or the neck, his efforts were futile. With Phen behind him he backed them toward the cavern wall. Brady slashed and ducked the snapping set of slobbery teeth, then thrust his blade into the creature’s chest. It left a wicked gash, but the angry beast didn’t falter. A wild arcing claw caught Brady along his side and sent him tumbling toward the far wall. Had he not been wearing the chain mail shirt, he would have probably lost his guts. Instead, one of the creature’s claws was torn from its paw when it got caught in the links. Brady’s head was gashed wide and he didn’t seem able to get up when the creature started at him again.

Oarly, with two spikes sticking out of his back, and blood flowing freely from the wounds, managed to shrug out of the rope coil. As the creature closed in on Brady, the dwarf ran up behind it and chopped at the root of its tail with a shovel that had been dangling from his belt. He struck true and the tip began curling and uncurling uselessly as it trailed along the floor.

The beast roared, turning to face the dwarf in an acrobatic spin. The animal’s attack was so sudden that Oarly was left defenseless. The creature swiftly bit down on his shoulder and forced him to the ground.

Hyden wasted another arrow, hoping to draw it off of the dwarf, but Phen shoved him out of the way and charged toward the melee.

Hyden wanted to stop him, but recognized that Phen was casting a spell. He hoped it was one that would get the thing off of the dwarf because Oarly appeared savagely wounded. He decided that he couldn’t help save Oarly and protect Phen at the same time, so he sprinted toward the battle. He was moving around toward the thing’s head to try and find a shot when Phen’s spell took form.

All around the beast’s rear legs the cavern floor began cracking and splitting as hundreds of green wormy-looking things sprouted up. They grew quickly into snaking tendrils and in a matter of seconds the back half of the animal was wrapped in a twisted tangle of rope-thick thorny vines.

The beast roared and thrashed, trying to pull free, but couldn’t manage it. Hyden darted in, and with all his strength pulled the bloodied dwarf away.

Brady stumbled to his feet and, after taking in the situation, he shook the cobwebs from his head and charged in from the side. His sword sank deep into the monster’s rib cage. He didn’t even pull the blade free. He just scrambled back against the wall and let the thing’s movement tear its insides to shreds on his steel.

“Is it dead yet?” Oarly moaned.

“No, but its well on its way,” Hyden said. Already the creature was wallowing in a great pool of its own blood.

“Be getting me pack, lad,” Oarly said to Phen with a terrible look on his face. He was drenched in blood and a deep black hole that Hyden could easily put two fingers in could be seen on his back. His shoulder had several smaller teeth wounds. Phen grabbed the satchel and brought it over to the dwarf.

“What, Oarly?” he asked, rummaging through the pack with tears welling in his eyes. “What is it you want?”

“Give me the flask lad,” Oarly coughed and blood sprayed out at them in a froth. “I want to drink my last.”