Golm

Golm - Chapter 12

Chapter 12

We walked for a few more hours and we reached the end of the mountains and Runar’s Castle was a small, but visible spec on the horizon. Chen-glok occasionally fell to his knees in pain. He needed to rest, but as long as he could walk, he would. With the castle becoming larger, our determination grew and our pace quickened. In the excitement, I forgot to ask about the War of the Elements, but I didn’t think it mattered. The time was now, not thousands of years ago. We eventually got to some light forest just outside the castle and decided to plan our attack there.
Our objectives were to, 1. Get inside 2. Retrieve the tail sword 3. Find out Runar’s plans regarding Earth, the Elements and myself 4. Sabotage his plans some how 5. And of course, escape with out leaving evidence or getting killed. With the castle now only sprinting distance from our shelter in the trees and bushes, we tried to think up an entry plan. The easiest way in seem to be a side door, where supplies were delivered. The section was only guarded by one patrol and a door guard. The problem was there was no way to climb or go around the door, so we had to get through it. Also with the patrol we couldn’t sneak in, by distracting the guard, the patrol would spot us. We couldn’t attack the patrol, because the other guards and the other patrols could spot us. Attacking both would make too much noise and get us killed. Whatever the plan, it had a flaw. No body could think a way in.
While Maurna was convincing people her plan about slipping through the cracks was the best; I turned back to look at the main road on which the carriages traveled. I spotted a group of entertainers coming down the path about 300m away. I suddenly had an idea. A disguise as entertainers would surely get us in! I turned to the others and whispered loudly, “Guys! I have an idea! Quick no time to explain. Grab your weapons and follow me.” They followed me as I ran through the trees that were hiding us. As we ran I instructed, “Knock out the entertainers, I’ll explain later!”
So we ran out of the forest and onto the road. The entertainers shrieked in panic as we clubbed them all with the handles of our weapons. In mere seconds they were out, five dancers, a jester and a driver. I stripped them of their outer clothing and we carried the half naked bodies into the forest so the wouldn’t be seen. I smiled and Maurna asked, “What are we doing?” I smiled and I picked up one of the dancer’s dresses. I stretched it back and forth and showed it to Pias.
Channdis shook his head and warned, “You aren’t thinking that we…” I smiled, bounced my eyebrows and nodded. He finished, “…Oh please. Have mercy on us.”
Half an hour later we were set. I was the jester. I wore his hat, because jesters’ skull was shaped like the hat in Golm, so I had to wear it. As well I put a long strip of green cloth around my tail and painted a happy face at the end, so it looked like a snake. Channdis painted his hands and most of his face peach, so he could be the driver of the carriage. Maurna turned liquid and was in a large pot, so she looked like a pot of drinking water. Finally, the five warriors were dressed in the dancers’ clothes. They wore tall hats to cover their horns and they wore pretty little veils over their faces. We were all set. Now our only hope was that the guard was dumb enough to buy it all.
We stepped up to the guard with our carriage. He demanded, “HALT! Who goes there?” I saw the guard and he looked stupid, so we were in luck.
I changed my voice so I sounded like some British storyteller. I answered him, “Why it is us, The Travelling Entertaining Guys of Ultimate Happiness. We were asked to come here and entertain the Emperor.”
The guard told us, “Emperor Runar is away. You may reach him in a few days.”
I pleaded, “We were asked to come early to entertain his servants inside. Please our schedule is very busy.”
The guard asked, “Well I’ve never heard of you, but please introduce yourselves further and I might let you in.”
I wrapped my tail around my body and neck and moved it around like a snake would. I bowed and said, “I am, uh… Happy McJackie, Jester-snake trainer extraordinare!” He looked strangely at my “snake.” I moved it slowly down my arm. As he was watching it move, I was whispering, “Hiss, hisssss.”
He asked, “Can it do any tricks?”
I happily demonstrated, “Watch closely as Sir Slither plays dead.” He gazed at the snake as I punched it in the head. It twitched and swerved and died on my shoulder. The guard was a little sorry for the snake. But then I shouted, “Ka-Zam!” The snake came back to life. The guard clapped in happiness, but realized he was acting foolish, so he smartened up.
He asked, “Who else do you have with you?”
I pointed to our driver, Channdis, and explained, “This is our driver, Crap-on-a-stick! His specialty is singing like a tree better than anyone else in Golm!” The guard looked at Crap-on-a-stick and waited for a demonstration. Channdis sang a short verse like a tree, (like a broken record) and was done. The guard admired how much he sounded like a tree. I asked, “May you please let us in. We have to set up for tonight’s performance.”
The guard got serious and told me, “Get what ever is in your carriage out. I want to check it.” So I did. I took out the costume trunk and a trunk of food. I asked the five dancers to get out and to put the pot of water on the ground too. The guard looked through the trunks quickly and saw no sign of danger. (He didn’t find our weapons at the bottom of the trunks.) He told me, “You almost have me convinced, but I must ask,” I got a little nervous.
He continued, “Who are these fine young ladies?”
I smiled and pranced around. I answered with, “You’ve never heard of Golm’s largest dancers? Why, they are the rarest of the rare. Truly something that is good for your Emperor’s amusement.”
He smiled and asked, “The are amusing me quite well now. Please let one of them dance.”
“Which one?”
He pointed to Chen-glok. I nervously smiled and told him, “Ah yes, the fair Juliet Capulet. She is a very good dancer. Please Juliet, show the guard your gift.” Chen-glok was very embarrassed and he was probably breaking every code in his book, but he put his hands above his head and tiptoed in a circle.
The guard clapped, but stopped when he noticed blood oozing through the dress. He asked me, “Why is she bleeding?”
I didn’t know what to answer. I ummed and uhhed, but I told him, “Do you know about, when a young lady reaches this age…” He nodded slowly. “…And she bleeds, because she’s ready for… you know…”
He smiled and answered, “Oh yes… sorry to be so rude.”
I asked, “May we go now?”
He nodded, “You are very talented and you should entertain the castle.” He wiped a little bit of sweat from his head. He waved us in.
As we took a few steps he asked, “I am a little thirsty.” I froze in fear. He continued, “May I have a drink of your water?”
I told him, “That isn’t the best of water. It’s more of a prop.”
He insisted, “Oh no. I’ve probably drunk worse. Please let me fill my canteen. It’s the least you could do to repay me. I let you in, during a heavy guard hour.” I gave in. He was right and if he wanted some water that badly, he could have a bellyful of… Maurna if he wanted to. So I let him fill his canteen and he took a few big gulps and it was all down there. I was trying to keep myself from laughing my head off. It was so funny. He just drank, I don’t know, Maurna’s leg? We continued into the castle. The gates closed behind us, and the guard clutched his stomach and fell to the ground groaning. He eventually went unconscious.
We got inside. We were in a large storage room. There were a few guards patrolling. Slowly we made our way to an area in the storage room where we wouldn’t be spotted for a while. We removed our disguises and equipped ourselves with our weapons and armor. After we knew the guards couldn’t see or hear us, we dumped Maurna on to the floor. Slowly the puddle grew higher and shaped. Then Maurna was there.
She complained loudly, “That guy drank some of me! Oh that guy is going to have a sick stomach for a month!”
We all hushed her. She didn’t know that she had to be quiet. One of the guards heard Maurna and went to check the scene. We heard the footsteps get louder in our direction. We didn’t know what to do; we panicked. When the guard saw us, Rorden did what ever it took to make him forget we were here. Rorden, in the blink of an eye, pulled out one of his swords from his holster and threw it at the guard. Before the guard could scream, call for help, or even react, the sword spun around and took off the guard’s head and jammed it against the wall behind him!
My eyes popped at the amazing skill that must have taken. I whispered loudly to Rorden, “Thanks for getting us out of that, but we have to avoid killing people. What would the guards do if they saw a body, bloody on the floor.”
He answered, “They’d sound the alert.”
I nodded and barked, “And we don’t want everybody in this gigantic, heavily guarded castle after us, do we?” He shook his head. I smiled and told him, “Very good, we have an understanding.” I looked at the rest of our group and warned, “That goes for the rest of us.” They all understood too.
We headed towards the dead guard. We stuffed the head and body in a haystack on a buggy that was near by. Then we pulled a crate over the blood. Near where Rorden got his sword out of the wall, there was a door. I opened the door and noticed the halls of the castle were narrow and what hiding spots there were weren’t very good.
I backed off and told them, “I have a change in plans.” They listened. “This place is too secure and we’re too large as a group. We have to split up.”
Channdis commented, “That’s a good idea Herridan. What are the groups?”
I said, “Pias, Utof and I will get the sword. Channdis, Maurna and Rorden will check around and see if you can find out what Runar is up to and maybe stop those plans.”
Chen-glok asked, “What about me?”
I explained, “You and Vion should take out the archers around top and scout for Runar or his body guards coming back or any other alarm. If you see anything, we’ll have to abort.”
Vion shouted, “A watch! I can’t do a watch, I have to fight!”
I barked again, “Chen-glok is in no position to be doing any fighting. You are skilled and you must protect him and keep watch.”
He moaned, “Fine.”
So Vion and Chen-glok went ahead and quickly found a staircase to the roof. Channdis’ party went down the left of the hall and ducked behind a corner. My party went to the left and we hid behind a pillar. Our hall was unfortunately more heavily guarded.
Vion and Chen-glok made it up to the roof, with little problem. They got to the roof though and there were no archers, but they only saw the south. Runar was coming from the north, from the lake side cities. So in order to get a good view, they’d have to swing around two sides.
The two tiptoed down the path and peeped around the corner. There were three archers. Two were stationary looking to the west and one was patrolling the perimeter. The patrol was heading their way. Vion thought fast and Chen-glok knew what he was going to do, so he stepped back. As the guarded turned the corner, Vion grabbed his face with his hands and pulled him back well behind the corner. Vion’s thumbs were covering the guard’s mouth. Vion pushed the man’s head back. The man screamed in his head as hard as he could. Vion kept on pushing and pushing. The man’s muffles were insane and desperate. Vion’s mean look didn’t care; the old man loved to hurt others as slowly as possible. The second the man’s screams were the loudest, was the same second he became silent. Vion had broken his neck. Vion smirked and tossed the body off the edge of the roof and it fell to a large thump. Big mistake! Luckily no one heard it, but as soon as a guard sees it, the whole castle would be after us. Vion didn’t realize his mistake, but he laughed silently.
The other two archers were up to Chen-glok. Though he was in terrible pain, he leapt from the corner and ran at them. The turned around to see what the noise was, but Chen-glok grabbed both their heads and smashed them to the ground. Both guards were out cold. When Chen-glok got up, Vion stabbed them both with his blade tipped staff. Chen-glok was angry, but was in too much pain to talk. They watched the field for Runar or anything else dangerous.
While Chen-glok and Vion where struggling to get the vantage point, Channdis, Maurna and Rorden were trying even more desperately to find where Runar’s plans could be. They first decided to check Runar’s bedroom. It was up a few spiral stairs, but they met minimal trouble. They saw the door to his room and there weren’t any guards by the door or in the hall. First they headed to the door, and Channdis noticed it was locked. Maurna knew what to do when the other two looked at her. She quickly planned the attack, and then she went to liquid form and slid right under the door’s crack. Still a puddle she noticed a guard was inside watching out the far window.
Maurna thought fast. Then she knew what to do next. She thinned herself out so she was less visible and she extremely slowly approached the guard. The guard though he heard something and turned around. Maurna stopped moving. He saw a large patch of the rug a little darker then it should. He didn’t suspect anything, so he turned back to the window. Maurna continued slowly to the guard’s legs. Once she was close enough she thickened a bit. She then formed her tail from the puddle and extended it upwards. She quickly wrapped it around the guard’s neck and choked him unconscious. She formed back to her full self and unlocked the door.
Channdis and Rorden entered and were impressed by how Maurna handled the situation. They searched the room for anything that could be useful. After a thorough search and a cleanup, they only found out that they should look in the mailroom. They made their way down to the bottom floor, but they had no idea where it was. The only thing they could do was find a map, but where was the map? They decided to look in the main lobby and maybe they’d get lucky.
While all this was going on, my party was going through the heavily guarded rooms. Luckily Pias knew where to go, because he had been a guard in the top secret area’s a few times before. He said that the sword that I was looking for was in a room full of magical arms and was so well protected that not even he saw the sword. That didn’t help my confidence very much, but I still wanted to get the sword and bring Runar down!
Pias said that the area holding my sword was in the lowest basement. So we basically went down the spiral stairs for a while. Once the stairs stopped, Pias said that it is down two more floors. So all we had to do was find the next set of stairs. It seemed easy enough, but when I peered around the corner, it didn’t seem so easy. There were guards everywhere. But the hardest thing was that there was no place to hide at all, it was one big open room. So in order to get past all these guards we’d have to put them out, whether it means killing them or knocking them out.
I backed off from the corner a bit and turned to Pias and Utof. I explained, “There’s no place to duck behind or anything, so we’ll have to put them all out of commission. Don’t let anyone escape this floor or get the Castle in alert. We have to take them out quickly. Understand?” They both said, “Yes sir.” Then we drew our weapons. My sword from my back holster. Utof unlatched his war hammer from his back and Pias put on his shield and pulled his sword from his side holster.
We counted to three and then we charged out of the stairwell. Every guard turned to hear what the noise was. As I ran through the giant lobby, I estimated about 20 men were there and in the first instant, I had put my blade across someone’s chest. Utof to my left smashed someone’s chest and the person flew across the room and hit the wall as a bloody mess. Pias knocked two out with his shield and stabbed another with his sword.
We stopped running and we stood stationary to fight. Utof stayed back to guard the stairs and Pias stayed at the entrance to the next staircase, which he found earlier. I ran around and took on most of the guards. It was all so swift. I’d stab one in the chest and spin around and take off someone’s arm. I quickly took out six, but a wave of a few more came. They grouped together and I had to use multiple appendages to beat them. I slit one’s throat and I kicked one away at the same time, and half a second later I caught one’s sword with my tail. I kicked another in a spin and right after my sword swung and took off a head. The wrist that I held with my tail soon twisted to break the man’s arm and I swung my tail around the neck of the guard who almost chopped it off. I went behind the man and tightened my wrap on the person’s neck and fended off the last standing men while holding the one guard.
Pias was attacked from behind by someone from the lower floor, who heard the commotion. Pias flipped the guard over his head from behind and stepped on his face. Pias put his sword in the man’s heart when he hit the ground. Utof was attacked by one of the guards on this floor and he swung his maul and knocked the guard’s head right into another one’s chest, the guard’s body flipped in the air and landed with a loud thud.
I was only fighting three men now, excluding the one I was choking. I was behind the one man. Two were coming at my left and one was coming at my right. I managed to get a left one’s arm open and he fell down. The one on the right was swinging for my tail, but I kicked him in the gut and swung my sword straight upwards starting at his nose. The last man didn’t want to be attacked, so he kept using his friend I was choking for a shield, so I couldn’t swing around to get him. If I did he could easily take off my arm. So I sucked it up and used as much power as I could in my tail for this movement. I slightly bent down as I pulled down on the man’s neck as hard as I could. Time seemed to freeze. The man’s spine arched so much it snapped in two, but before it fully broke, I used the springboard action to help lift the man in a flip. The man looked like he did a back flip. As he was well up in the air his legs hit the other guard in the face and I dove underneath the flying corpse. I sliced the guard in two by the waist in one swift dive and swing. I skidded across the ground. The legs fell and shortly after the body fell. Then the man attached to my tail hit the ground flat on his stomach. I unwrapped around the man’s neck and got up.
No one was left standing on that floor. We made sure the ones that were moving didn’t move any more. I killed a few more men. Utof insisted that he stay guard on this floor, because Pias knew the way. I had no problems with that, but I told him not to do anything stupid, like coming and getting me if trouble aroused. So Utof wiped his hammer clean and waited by the staircase. Pias and I proceeded down the stairs.
Down the stairs we met with minimal opposition. I took out two men by a door and Pias got one patrolling the hall. The room was horrific. The room was very quiet. The room was dark and had a few torches lighting the dusty stone halls. The smell was stuffy and damp. You made footprints in assorted things on the ground, such as dust and decomposed bodies. The room seemed full of death. Mysterious echoes from the hall chilled me to the bone. But I had to go forward; I had to get the sword.
Back in the castle Channdis, Maurna and Rorden eventually found the mailroom while looking for a map. In the mailroom there were all sorts of messages, orders, carrier pigeon messages and letters to and from Runar. It seems while he was away, they had made second copies of letters, before they sent them to Runar. Channdis picked one up. It was dated two months ago and was from Runar. It read:

To high command,

I have just reached the small village of Pennle. I asked two of my representatives in the village if they had seen the Tail man, Herridan. We showed them the sketch of him and they denied. I did not believe my colleagues, so I ordered them to eliminate all tail men with in 12 hours, I would take down the village and them myself. When I returned from the lake gathering samples of ---------- I saw two tail children in the streets. I burned Pennle to the ground and everyone in it. Since I was unsuccessful for both objectives I’m moving to the city of Gretian.

Emperor Runar

Channdis was shocked that Runar had burned a village to the ground, because Runar didn’t trust his colleagues. So Channdis reached for another letter. This one was from a week ago to Runar. It read:

To Emperor Runar

Still no progress has been achieved in the search for Herridan. Though we managed to find out that he escaped with the assistance of an Aquasian. We are ready for a full scale attack on their home once we find it. We have some royalties flying around the area. And guard has been increased in your absence to protect your studies.

High Command Trique

Now we knew that we were being searched for, and an attack on Solwashi would be very bad. Channdis skimmed through more letters, but none were really important. Maurna couldn’t read the writing, because she didn’t know the text. She found a long one and asked Rorden to read it. Rorden read aloud, “This one is from Runar. I have had no success in finding Herridan in the north. Your men cannot find him in the east or south. But only a fool would hide where he lived before. That’s why I’ve given up burning down and killing the villagers in the northern cities and I took the liberty of moving west to where he was first found. Most of the city is destroyed and all tail men are dead. His friend, the Sage Channdis was not home. So I burnt his home too. The only place left is Solwashi. I’ve given you the coordinates and you should be able to get him and his Aquasian friends. If Channdis is there too, please capture him. I’ll need his knowledge to open the Tolken door.”
Channdis panicked. He blurted out, “The Tolken door! That doesn’t make any sense. He can’t open the Tolken door. He could only do that if he summoned the four Elements.”
Maurna snapped and asked, “Elements? He wants all the Elements in the same area, working together. Do you mean he wants to start that war over again?”
Channdis wiped sweat from his wrinkled forehead and explained, “I don’t know. If he opens that door he could enter Herridan’s world and try and conquer it. But the only way to do so is to have all four Elements. But before you could have the Elements under your control, a huge war of the four will break out and it would destroy both worlds.”
Rorden asked, “Is that the ancient war where Tolken created the balance between all the Elements at the end?”
Channdis nodded, “Yes Tolken single handedly brought the four super powers to rest and created the un-openable door to the other world.”
Rorden asked, “So why is this so bad?”
Channdis explained, “If what we’re guessing is correct, and Runar has been finding ways to revive the Elements and control them, then he can open the door and with the four Elements he would be so powerful, not even Herridan’s war driven time could stop him!” We have to warn Herridan that he is the only one who can save both worlds from the Elements’ or worse, Runar’s wrath!”
Up on the castle roof Chen-glok’s Aspirin was wearing off and the pain was returning. Vion was getting impatient with his watch and getting annoyed with Chen-glok’s shouts of pain. Vion said to Chen-glok, “This is a humiliation in my pride to be on watch with such a weakling. I am a true warrior! I am 71 years old and I’ve fought 70 of those years! I can’t stand this, that Runar is going to finally show up when we’ve left already!” Chen-glok clutched his chest and grunted. Then he turned his head and looked to the west. He saw all the green grass had been turned grey. He stood up slowly and looked closer. It wasn’t grey grass; it was the first wave of Runar’s army! They had returned early and they were very close. Chen-glok and Vion had been watching the north, but they didn’t know from the letter that they had changed route and were coming earlier from the west.
Chen-glok stood and told Vion, “They’re here!”
He turned to Chen-glok and shouted, “Are you blind? There’s nothing, but a hill of grass!”
Chen-glok pointed behind Vion. Vion turned around and looked. He saw the army, no more than 300 meters away. Chen-glok told Vion, “I’ll warn the others. We have to retreat!”
But when Chen-glok turned and took a few steps, Vion had put the blade at the end of his staff in Chen-glok’s back. Vion pulled it out and Chen-glok came crashing to the ground. Chen-glok’s eyes glazed over and blood spewed from his mouth and back, but he only lived long enough to hear Vion’s last words. Unable to move or talk, he heard a mocking laugh from Vion. Vion pointed at Chen-glok’s bloody body and shouted, “You are a coward! All my life I’ve been waiting to kill these men and you want to run away? You should bleed for the sin of not stopping them when they are weak. I will take them all on myself and I will save Golm and you will be looked at as the man who wanted to run. This golden opportunity is mine and you missed out!” Vion jumped off the edge of the castle and landed on his feet and ran towards the enemy. He was about to take on Runar’s army and none of us knew they were even here.
Down in the depths of this castle Pias had led me to a final doorway. He told me, “Ok, this is it. You just need to get past these three obstacles.”
I asked, “What do you mean, obstacles?”
He explained, “Three hallways of booby traps. They say only one who can survive the traps can use the sword.” I nodded in slight fear. He added, “I cannot go in there, you must go in there alone.”
I asked, “What kind of booby traps?”
He shook his head and sighed, “No one has ever entered and lived to tell what the booby traps were.”
I gulped. Pias had faith in me and he wouldn’t have let me go if he didn’t know I could do it. I shook his hand and told him, “We are friends and friends don’t lie to each other. So if I say you are going to make it through this, you will.”
Pias shook again and said, “You will come out of there and use that blade to stop the evil that has plagued this land for centuries.” We both wished each other good luck.
Through the door was another long spiral staircase. As I went down, the stench of many deaths filled my nostrils. The darkness was partly broken up, by eternally burning torches. The cold sent chills down my spine and goose bumps all along my skin. The fear of everything that led to this point weighted my shoulders and tried to shatter me and make me fall to my knees and beg for mercy. But I didn’t crack. I kept walking down the stairs. Each step getting louder, because of the silence around me, even though I was walking quieter. Finally after a long walk down I reached the bottom. It felt like I had climbed all the way down to hell.
I faced a large hallway. The tiles on the floor were grey at the start and at the end of the hall, but in the center of the hall, it was all brown tiles. By my guess the brown tiles meant the booby trapped areas. I also saw on the floor footprints of the souls who made it this far over the years. All but one set, ended at the brown tiles.
So how was I to cross? I made a test, by stepping gently on the first brown tile. Nothing happened. So I pressed a little harder. Still nothing. Then I pressed so hard; it was as if I stepped on it full force. Then the tile crumbled and thanks to my position, I didn’t fall into, what seemed to be a bottomless pit. So the floor would crumble beneath the victim and they would fall to their deaths. But there had to be a way across safely. Maybe a few special tiles had a pillar underneath them and you could safely step on them. That was a good guess. To check, I stuck my head under the crumbled tile and looked around upside down. I was right. There was a pillar to step on, but which tile was it supporting? That was the tricky part. I had to guess which tile to jump to judging by a vague look under the tiles.
So I had to cross. I made a guess for a tile 2 tiles in front of the first tile. Each tile was roughly 18 inches square. So I swung my arms and I leapt. While airborne I realized I had over jumped. I saw my death coming when crashed through the next tile. But out of instinct or panic, my tail swung around looking for something to grab and save my life. My tail had wrapped around an eyehole hook that was just under the pillar’s top. I was tangling upside down by my tail looking straight into the blackness of my, could have been, fall.
Still holding on I was able to see the next pillar. Since I was lower I was able to count the number of tiles and where to jump, like a chessboard, from underneath it all. I quickly pulled myself back up from the near death encounter. When I was under I counted, two tiles up and one right. So I jumped for that direction and I landed on the safe tile. To ensure I didn’t loose my balance, I shifted my arms and tail around when I landed to keep myself from falling to my death. The tiles were 18 inches square you know.
I broke the tiles around me and I found the hook on this pillar as well. So I wrapped on and I fell down. I dangled a while and I looked up. The next pillar was up one and over four. I brought myself up again and I jumped to the next pillar. I repeated this process five more times and I got to the other end of the hall. I had made it. I got past the first obstacle. Only two more remained.
I walked down a few safe hallways and I felt pretty confident. Though everything around me was lifeless besides the torches, I walked on. The cold air became warmer, maybe even hot. I started to sweat, but I kept my cool. I decided to put my sword back in my holster, because I’d be getting a new one very soon.
My confidence put me right into the next trap without having a clue. I realized that I was trapped in a small room. As soon as I entered, the door behind me was blocked by a rolled boulder. The room was a dead end and I was trapped in it. I stamped my foot and yelled at myself, “Look at what you did. You didn’t even see this one coming! Now you’re going to die of starvation.”
As soon as I finished that thought, it went away. I wouldn’t starve; I’d be crushed. The walls to the side of the blocked door started to cave in. They moved very slowly, but they were closing in too fast for me. I looked around everywhere for anything that could help me. I looked down and I saw a skull and blood stains. I looked forward and I saw scratch marks. I looked up and I saw a perfectly cut hole in the ceiling. Around the hole was some sort of rusted metal, so it wasn’t a crack.
The ceiling was about six feet high and the hole looked like a perfect fit for a tail. So what else could I do? I had no choice, but to gamble my one try at any escape idea. I waited for the walls to get closer. When they were close enough, I jumped and spread my legs out. I was up using the walls to boost me higher. But I didn’t have very long; I could only stay up for a few moments.
I reached with my tail upward into the hole. I was thankful my tail was extremely long this time, because I had no problem reaching to the hole. I pushed it through, but it led to nowhere! The walls got closer and bent my knees, giving me about another foot of reach. I searched around inside and found that it turned inside and continued downwards. So I bent it over and pushed it further, but I didn’t reach anything. The walls kept on caving in and the stress on my ankles was unbearable. I hopped a bit upward and my knees bent more. I felt something down the pipe, a lever. Most likely a lever to stop this trap and escape. But I was only brushing it with the fuzz of my tail and I didn’t have enough to wrap around and pull it back.
I stretched and struggled, but I couldn’t reach it. The pain of my ankles got so severe that I fell down from the walls. The walls still crept closer; they were less than a meter from crushing me. I had to pull that switch. So I crept up the walls again, but this time I couldn’t push away with my legs, so I pushed against the walls with the outsides of my knees as well as pushing with my arms. I had little time left before I would run out of strength, so I had to reach it quickly. I jumped, shifted and squirmed around against the wall until I was upside-down. Now I had a lot more length to get a good grasp on the lever.
The pain was beginning to be unbearable and I hadn’t even started to reach yet. The walls were almost breaking my hipbone. I ignored the pain and reached blindly for the hole. I felt around and found it. I shoved my tail down the narrow pipe and around the corner. It ventured down a little further and it reached the lever. I was no longer pushing with my knees or arms; I was now being sandwiched in place. I had mere seconds until I was flattened and the pain was seeping any hope I had left. I ignored the pain for the last moment and I reached in. I wrapped around the lever and pulled it back with a little trouble.
The walls stopped moving. For a few moments I was pinned there upside down in unbelievable pain. I took my tail out of the hole. A few seconds later, the walls began to spread apart and go back to their original positions. I fell down on my neck, but I only got a bump. I lay on the ground a little longer to catch my breath. The walls moved back with a gentle crumble, but my panting was louder. I rolled around the dirt to see if any bones were broken. I felt pretty bad in the ankles and the hips and every muscle in my body was sore, but I was ok. I was alive and it never felt better.
While Channdis, Maurna and Rorden were trying to find the stairs to get down to the basement, so they could warn me about Runar’s intentions. Channdis had run across Runar’s library. He stopped the panicked group and exclaimed, “I have found Runar’s library. This is were we can find out how to prevent this war.”
Rorden got angry with Channdis, “We must keep on searching for Herridan and the others. This has gotten to intense for any of us to handle and we must abort! We have no time for reading!”
Maurna hung her head and added, “I agree with Rorden we must not stall. We have to get out of here!”
Channdis rebelled, “That man can take care of himself. Besides we must know his weakness in order to stop this from happening.”
Maurna asked frantically, “What about Runar’s army arriving?”
He shook his head, “We haven’t heard from Chen-glok or Vion and they shouldn’t be here for at least an hour. That should be plenty of time for me to ‘borrow’ some documents.”
Rorden and Maurna looked at each other and then Rorden said, “You have 15 minutes! Get going!” So Channdis rushed to the library and Maurna and Rorden continued looking for the stairs.
Meanwhile Vion was waiting the last seconds, before the army attacked. The army was marching to the castle not thinking Vion was an enemy. They thought he was running to greet them. He was a warrior, so they thought that he was on guard before they arrived. The marching troops in the front row were a little threatened by the charging warrior, but had faith that he was a friend. All that faith disappeared when Vion spun around and slit the throat of the front row center man. The men only took a few seconds to realize that Vion wasn’t their friend and they attacked.
Two men swiped swords at the same time, but Vion stopped both attacks at the same time with his staff and with one quick swirl of his staff, the soldiers’ necks were wide open. Vion stabbed another in the stomach, pulled it out and stabbed some one else’s chest. Vion went on a few more kills with one hit, but then they started to pour in on him in greater waves. Vion was taking on at least 10 men at the same time from every side, but he kept on blocking the blows and slicing up the men with gracious combos and skill.
He had killed ten men. Then 20, 30, 40 and he hadn’t been hit yet. But the army was so big and was only the first division of a lot more. How did Vion expect to kill every one? Each time he blocked an attack another man would come in. There were too many for him to keep up with. He got cut across the arm, but he laughed at the pain. He loved pain give or receive. Vion was bloodthirsty and he wasn’t slowing down! He was going at least 20 on 1, but he didn’t care. Blow for blow, block by block; he wasn’t going down. He had killed so many, but they were starting to beat him.
Vion was so blinded by his obsession for death that he didn’t realize he was being hacked away at. The number of bruises, cuts and wounds on Vion’s body were increasing faster than he could move. Vion began to realize that he was dying, so he sucked it in and gave an attack that would buy him more time. He spun around with his staff extended 3 times and backed the men off around him. A few soldiers fell, but that was all. But then as the men moved in again, Vion jumped like a gymnast on a trampoline right over and out of harms way.
He landed about ten meters from the pack of soldiers. He was breathing hard; breathing like that was the only thing he could do. His left knee sagged to the bloody grass. His once glorious and brilliant armor was now a few ripped rags clinging on to the closed wounds. His blood covered boots were steel and gold edged were the only thing that kept him up besides his pride. Vion’s once wrinkly, old and pale skin was now a bloody mess. He had so much blood out of his body; you couldn’t even see his wounds. His long grey hair that was wet with sweat and the blood of his enemies covered his grey eyes and his scar infested face. He grabbed his staff tighter and held it up to his chest. He yelled, “Is that all you have? You are a disgrace to anything in Golm that fights. You cannot destroy me! I am Vion!”
After the shock of Vion’s dazzling move the men ran towards Vion and started hacking at him again! This time Vion wasn’t laughing, he was screaming with rage! Diverting any power he left in him, even the energy his body used to bleed, to continue fighting. He was killing them at a faster rate then before, but he was dying and he knew it.
Then all of a sudden the soldiers backed off. Vion kept screaming and swinging, but soon realized he wasn’t fighting anyone. He stopped. He was shaking and staggering to stay standing. He looked around at the soldiers backing off and screamed at them, “Cowards! You haven’t killed me yet! We must settle this now! Come back and fight me! Fight me! FIGHT ME!!!” But as he struggled to stand he noticed a huge shadow approaching from behind him. He turned around slowly. Vion looked up.
It was Runar! Vion fell to the ground and tried to waddle away. Runar took a step forward and boomed, “Nothing can save you or anyone else now. You foolish rebel!” Runar grabbed Vion’s ankle with his tail and brought him back to his gigantic feet. Vion looked at his face and smiled. Runar got angry, but Vion laughed. Runar lifted his huge feet smashed them across his chest. The impact made Vion spew more blood. Runar shouted, “You pathetic warrior. Why couldn’t I have seen you were going to betray me? Why couldn’t I have seen that you would try to stop me at my finest hour?”
Vion hacked and coughed. He tried to sit up, but Runar’s huge bird’s feet shaped foot was crushing him. Vion said, “Your finest hour? My Emperor… you have no idea what’s coming to you. Your days are numbered.”
Runar slowly shifted his foot onto Vion’s head. Runar pounded words at Vion, “No rebellion has stopped me and no rebellion ever will. In a mere 24 hours I will uncover the secrets to the War of the Elements and the Tolken Door and I will be unstoppable to rule both worlds. And no one can stop me, not even that tail man Herridan, because he’s dead.”
Vion laughed again. Runar roared, “You dare defy me!”
Vion answered, “Yes.”
Runar snapped and grabbed Vion’s head with his foot. He squashed it like a rotten grape. Runar laughed. He told his observing army, “Let’s continue to my castle. This disturbance is no more.”
While running around looking for me, Rorden and Maurna ran into Utof and Pias. Maurna asked, “Where is Herridan?”
Pias took his time and replied a few moments later, “The path to the sword was booby trapped. Only he could be tested in the rooms ahead. I have no idea if he still lives.”
Maurna got angry, “You better have not sent him to his death or we’ll all be finished.”
Utof barged in and asked, “Why do you say that?”
Maurna took her time, but replied, “Pias, Utof; if what we are receiving is correct, then Runar will destroy everything.” Pias and Utof weren’t satisfied. “Runar is going to gain control of all the Elements, open the Tolken Door and rule both worlds with unstoppable power.”
Pias added, “If he finds and releases the Elements, he would have to harness each one right away or else…” He lit up with fear, “The War of the Elements.” Maurna nodded. Pias and everyone else knew that if that war rose again and if Runar was there, then it meant total destruction for everything in every world.
Pias and Utof didn’t know what to make of the situation. They knew that he might have been planning something like this, but they never would have guessed that Runar would be so power obsessed to bring that war to the Earth. Maurna and Rorden joined up with Utof and Pias to make their escape.
But just after they took a step, the main door down the hall they were in, opened. They hid behind a near by pillar and watched who was coming in. They all thought it was Vion or Chen-glok coming in to tell them Runar was coming, but it was Runar himself. He stood there in the doorway and looked around. He started walking and he yelled behind him, “Kill the intruders on sight, but I want the Sage Channdis alive. Heavily guard all exits. I don’t want them to escape.” Then tens of soldiers came rushing in and starting combing the castle at a very quick pace. Runar had his sword drawn so he was expecting Herridan too.
Luckily the 20 men didn’t see Maurna, Rorden, Pias or Utof, but it wouldn’t be too long. Now they were in a really tight situation. They couldn’t search for me and they couldn’t escape. The best thing they thought up was to rescue Channdis and maybe he would know what to do. So they retraced their tracks, being careful not to get caught, and went to the library.
They had gotten to the library, but five soldiers were moments away from capturing Channdis; they had him cornered. Rorden did what he did best and charged into the scene, with Utof and Pias not far behind. Rorden killed two with each sword with a stab, Pias killed one by slicing down his chest and Utof bashed two with one blow. Channdis was thankful they saved him. He asked, “Where is Herridan?”
Maurna explained, “He’s on his own. We can’t help him. The sword is guarded by booby traps that only he can get through.”
Channdis curled his long grey beard and said, “I hope that boy pulls through.”
Pias demanded Channdis, “All the exists are guarded well. How can we escape?”
He curled his beard a little more and explained, “If you the situation is that bad, then I can suggest only one thing. We take the main stairs from the main lobby and take a leap from the lower roof.” The others thought that the fall would kill them, but they really didn’t have any other choice. Utof and Rorden had some rope, so it wouldn’t be all that dangerous. They agreed and headed out.
Mean while, down in the depths of the castle, I was tip toeing through the halls carefully, in fear of another trap. The dust was untouched for hundreds of years. No one has ever lived to make it this far except for the one set of footprints that I was walking over. If I walked the path of some one who survived I would be ok. The torches around me were almost out, but the halls were well lit by some light source ahead. I couldn’t only hope for the best, as I followed the footprints.
The as I was looking to the floor walking I noticed the pace or distance between the prints increased. I followed and I picked up my pace too. The steps became a jogging speed, and then it went to a sprint. I didn’t run; I just kept looking down. Then the prints suddenly stopped. Right there, the tracks ended and no more prints were ahead.
So I looked forward to see why they stopped. And there it was; there was a sword just meters from my where I was standing. I couldn’t see it too well, because it was enclosed inside a sphere of fire or something. The room that the sword was in was huge and the floor was perfectly made. It was flat, clean, and paved with luxurious marble. The walls were marble too and the ceiling was high and it had two giant parallel arches supporting it and in between the two were some stained glass windows of past royalty. It was truly amazing. But why make the room so beautiful if no one lived to see it?
I took a few steps into the room. The sword was right there and I could have grabbed it with a few more steps. After I took those steps though something happened. The floor seemed to sink and the walls melted. The ground got hot and it began to crack. The entire room was collapsing. I had to get out, so I ran back to were I came in. I dove back into the hallway, because it was safe. I watched as the entire room, where my sword was in, was destroyed. The marble walls melted to the ground that was no longer there. The glass window in the ceiling shattered and the glass burst into flames and burnt up before they hit anything. The crashing and shifting of stone and metal echoed through out my brain and the ground shook so much that I kept bouncing up and sitting on my tail that was behind me.
Eventually the room stopped being destroyed and it was quite different from before. I walked to the edge of the hall and now it was the edge to a long fall into a giant lake of lava. In front of me I saw the waves of heat like the waves over a barbecue. The once marble walls were steamy rock walls and the beautiful ceiling was now a crater of a volcano with a red sky past it. The sword was still there, begging to be owned, and now the fiery force field around it was gone, but it was on top of a stone pillar and there was no way to get it unless I could fly.
I sighed and lost hope. There was no way to get the sword now, unless I wanted to die. I turned around and I hit my head on a pipe. I backed away and rubbed my forehead. I looked at what I had hit and it was a pipe. The pipeline moved upwards into the wall. I turned around to the room again and looked for the pipe. I saw the pipes going around the room, being suspended in the air by ropes from above. I followed the trail of pipe and it did go above the sword! It also led to a cave in the rock on the right, which I hadn’t noticed before, in which I could escape. I had hope again; I could climb along this pipeline and I could get the sword.
I grabbed the pipe above me. I pulled my hands away, because it was extremely hot. I took off my very torn up white T-shirt and I tore it up more. I wrapped the strips around my hands, and I also stuffed some in my holster so my present sword wouldn’t slip out. I began to sweat, the lava was dangerously hot and any sweat I had could make me slip.
I grabbed the pipe again and I pulled myself up on top of it. I balanced my feet on the pipe and used the support ropes and my tail to keep balance. I crept along slowly and I told myself not to look down, but I did. The lava was down there; swirling around, exploding and calling my name. It wanted me to fall. The pipes began to shake more, as I became tenser. The sweat all over my body got me slippery. Soon the support ropes were farther and farther apart and it got scarier every step.
I seemed to be going well. I had my tail hooked under the pipe and it was keeping me balanced. But the lava got inpatient and got angry. A huge explosion of lava shot up where I was. I fell backwards to get out of the lava’s way, but I had fallen off the pipe. Luckily I caught myself with my pre-grasped tail and I hung from the pipe for a moment looking face down into the pool of vicious magma. I brought myself up and I grabbed the bar with my hands and knees. The heat had drained so much energy that I couldn’t pull myself upright. So I had to crawl upside down. It was faster, but a lot more painful.
I had gotten right over top of the sword, which didn’t have the fireball around it anymore. I reached out with one hand for it; way too short. I hung from my knees; still too short. It then came to me that all the traps I had been in, the key for survival was to have a tail. Which was ironic, because Runar wanted this out of the reach of any tail man. So I let go with my legs and hung down with my tail.
I stretched out as much as I could, but I was still out of reach by mere centimeters. I loosened my grip to give me some slack. I was touching it, but not enough to get my fingers around it. I kept on reaching a skinning the golden surface of its handle. Then a wave, a huge wave of lava arose and was sweeping across the room. If I didn’t grab the sword and got up right away, the sword, myself or both would be incinerated. I stretched and squirmed and struggled. The wave was seconds from killing me. I took the biggest gamble, but I loosened the grip more. In one swift moment I grabbed the sword and caught my fall with my right hand when my tail slipped off. I swung up my legs and used all my strength to swing up on the upside of the pipe, at the same time as the wave passed by. Unfortunately a few hairs on my tail were burnt, but I was ok.
I crawled quickly to the cave and I dropped myself off when I got there. I ran down the cave a little and I collapsed. I dropped everything and caught my breath. I was a sweaty as a guy who fell asleep in a sauna. The insides of my jeans were black and smoking. I whacked the fire on my tail out. I sat there for a long time panting and trying to snap back to reality.
After at least ten minutes, I finally looked at my sword, which I had nearly died three times to get. It was something I hadn’t seen before. The blade looked like it was cut with lasers and it shined like a mirror. There was no hand guard and the handle was long and hollow, and it had a really fat part at the blade. I realized that it wasn’t an ordinary sword, which you held in your hand. You slipped your tail in the hollow gold handle. The fat part was where the tail wrapped around a small pin and it was so tight that it locked in place. The blade was very peculiar. It was long and double-edged, but every 3 inches or so, on each edged and each face, a hook curved inwards to the center of the blade. So there was a hook on each edge and each face, so four sets of, I counted ten hooks. These hooks were each also a few inches long. Each hook, each edge and the blade’s tip were sharp enough to cut me in two with ease.
I put it on and locked my tail in the handle. I stood up and looked at my tail with it on. It wasn’t very heavy, but I knew it was very strong and maybe even magical. It felt like it was one with my tail, like my tail had just become my most powerful weapon. It felt like I was supposed to wear this. It felt so necessary and it felt so important and powerful that it seemed to be calling out its name to me. Since it was a unique weapon, the first of its physical shape and it was supposed to be the weapon to save all life in Golm, it deserved a name. The name that seemed to echo in my head the moment I put it on. I named it, The Toothed Tail Blade of Life.
I continued down the cave. The path was uphill and it was very long. It was straight though and I could see a dim light at the top. I kept climbing, and now I began to run up the path, in fear for my friends. I ran and ran until I reached the top. There was a wall, a nice wooden wall. He light I had been following was a crack in the beams, coming from the other side. I peered through the crack and I saw movement of people and I heard voices. So I waited until the sounds and bodies went away, then I kicked and rammed the wall until I burst through it. I was inside Runar’s castle again. I stood up, looked around and I ran cautiously to where the men had gone.