Kit had changed his mind about the pigs being cute, they were creepy little monsters! He watched as the teacup pigs moved in unison and snorted white mist out of their tiny noses. Ice covered the ground where the mist touched.
A cry left the mouth of one of the leopards and the beady eyes of the pigs returned to the cats. The pastel blue pigs wrinkled their tiny noses then sucked in air through the tiny snouts. With a whoosh air was expelled through their nostrils. Sharp white projectiles hurtled towards the leopards piercing their flesh.
Agonised screams left the leopard’s jaws. Before the cats could leap into action more of the projectiles stabbed into the cats. Soon the leopards looked like pin cushions, shards of white coated their pelts and frost had started to grow over their skin.
Kit watched in horror as the cats froze over right in front of his eyes. They became ice sculptures glittering from the light shining into the cavern. If Kit wasn’t so petrified, he would think that they looked beautiful.
Now that the three leopards were dealt with, the beady eyes of the teacup pigs turned towards the bleeding Kit. He had experienced, being stabbed, gnawed on, and blown up, now he guessed it was time to be frozen to death.
He sighed in his heart at least the agonising pain in his arm and leg should become numb being frozen. A soft thump on his chest dragged his attention away from the pigs. Snowball had jumped up onto his chest and had his hackles raised at the teacup pigs.
Panic flooded his system, if Snowball dies, he couldn’t be resurrected! With his good arm he quickly grabbed the small dog and rolled his aching body on top of his companion. He hoped that he could at least keep Snowball safe.
He hugged Snowball tight and squeezed his eyes shut. He heard more crashing sounds near his ears, he assumed that more of the teacup pigs had turned up until he heard familiar snarls. Hope bloomed in his heart when he realised that the midnight guardians must have turned up to protect Snowball.
With out glancing behind him to see what was happening, he awkwardly scrambled to his feet and hobbled away as fast as he could. The sounds of fighting behind him drew further away, Snowball was wiggling frantically in his arms.
“Snowball keep still! I’m having enough trouble staying upright.” The small dog settled down and started to whimper. Kit had to grit his teeth against the pain screaming in his leg to keep moving towards the entrance of the cavern.
He didn’t forget about his friends and opened his mouth. “QUICK HEAD TO THE ENTRANCE OF THE CAVERN!”
Kit saw movement in front of him and fear spread through his body. What was he going to run into now? Grandpa’s worried face came into view and Kit let out a relived sigh.
“What happened!” Grandpa rushed over to Kit, took Snowball from his embrace and wrapped an arm around Kit to support his body.
“Spiritual beasts! We need to leave straight away!” Grandpa grunted in reply. His eyes travelled over the wounds on Kit’s body. Grandpa forced Kit to halt to pull something out of his pouch. A small red bottle was placed into Kit’s hand.
He threw Grandpa a thankful look and downed the contents. He didn’t stand still waiting for the potion to take effect, he kept hobbling towards the entrance. If those little pigs caught up, they would be dead.
Grandpa supported him once again and they continued with haste back to the entrance. By the time they reached the entrance Kit was fully healed. The others were standing at the entrance of the cavern waiting with confused expressions. Mars was the first to speak, “Kit, what’s going on?” Kit explained what had happened to him at the waterfall and shocked faces met his words.
“Let’s not delay leaving. Honestly, I felt that these caverns were too easy, something in a hidden area was bound to be difficult. I think we are lucky that we got to clear the other caverns first.” Peaches surmised out loud.
They entered the tunnels cautiously and moved at a steady pace. Kit couldn’t help looking behind him every now and then to see if anything was following them. He didn’t know if it was his imagination or he was paranoid but he swore that he would catch a glimpse of pastel blue behind them every now and then.
He was so scared each time that he urged the others to move faster. When they finally burst from the cavern back out into wilderness Kit was panting hard. The last quarter of the tunnels they had sprinted. He sucked in deep lungful’s of air greedily.
He could feel the leaping of his heart beating against his rib cage. Now that he was outside the cave and felt safe, he started to laugh. He remembered the sight of the fish tanks bobbing along behind the fleeing group.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Leave it to Grandpa to not forget the fish! “Kit what is so funny?” Twix was giving him a strange look.
Kit shook his head and smiled. “Nothing I’m just relived to be alive.”
Grandpa was wheezing next to him, the old man took a bit longer to recover. “I think we should pack up camp and put some more distance between us and the cavern while there is still light. If they were spiritual beasts, they might delve outside the cave to find us.” Grandpa squeezed the words out between breaths.
Kit felt his muscles tighten again hearing those words. Tension filled his body spurring him into action once again. He was not the only one rushing towards the camp in haste. They quickly took the campsite apart and found their mounts and speed off towards the direction of Spartan Fire.
They only stopped once the light was no longer enough to see in front of them properly. The camp was erected in the dying light of the day.
Snowball was settled in Kit’s lap as he was eating dinner, the little dog would swing his gaze around the camp every now and then as if searching for something. Kit guessed he was looking for the midnight guardians. He stroked Snowball’s fur, “they will be alright, it won’t take long for them to catch up with us.”
He tried to soothe Snowball with his words. Kit was also worried about the panthers. Although he called them troublesome most of the time, they had grown on him. He was actually quite fond of the large cats.
Exhaustion pulled at him, all the stress had sapped his energy. Kit finished his dinner then bid goodnight to everyone and took Snowball into his tent. He spoke some more soothing words to his companion, then fell asleep with the hope that the panthers would be there in the morning.
He woke the next day sweltering, his shirt stuck to his back from his sweat. He opened his tired eyes to see what had caused the rise in temperature. Five black panthers were squished into the small tent with Mars and himself.
His legs were currently pinned under one of the creature’s bodies. He gave the offending cat a firm tap. “Move you big oaf, I can’t feel my legs!” A lazy yawn broke out from the panther and a flash of sharp white teeth penetrated his sight.
The panther stretched then ambled out of the tent. Kit wiggled his way past the remaining sleeping cats then attempted to stand up. His legs were still numb from loss of circulation and he almost face planted. He cursed at the large panther in his head then exited the tent when feeling returned to his limbs.
Grandpa had started a fire and was boiling some water in a pot when Kit emerged from the tent. He walked over to the old man and sat down next to him.
“Morning Grandpa.” Grandpa nodded in greeting and then they both stared at the boiling kettle as the sun’s rays started to splash across the horizon.
After a while Grandpa cleared his throat. “Kit I’m sorry about yesterday, I didn’t realise that there would be spiritual beasts in the caverns. When I was going over the maps that Grandma had left at the house I only looked at where there would be an abundance of flora and fauna.”
Grandpa’s cheeks had a dusting of pink as he spoke. “I was so excited about finding a place that could net you a good range of ingredients that I overlooked the level of the cave. Can you forgive me?”
A small smile played on Kit’s lips. “Grandpa it’s not your fault and we all made it out safe. No matter where we go there will always be a chance of unknown danger. Besides even if I die you can’t get rid of me, I will just return.”
Grandpa let out a chuckle after hearing Kit’s response. “That I’m glad of my boy.” The old man pursed his lips as he added a fluffy dragon head to the boiling water. “It was a pity that we had to leave all those chickens behind. I was looking forward to you making something with their meat.”
Kit’s turn to laugh at the old man’s remark. “Mmm me too. By the way, did you manage to collect any of the blue carrots?”
A smile broke out on the old mans face and he produced a blue carrot from his pouch. “Before I heard you yell out for help, I managed to pluck the whole patch of the carrots from the ground. At least we got these beauties before we had to run.”
Happiness filled Kit at the sight of the blue carrot. Although they didn’t get much out of the last room he still gathered a wide variety of ingredients from the other caverns. Kit went over the contents of his pouch as he waited for the others to rise.
Once they all had breakfast, they packed up the camp and headed back to Spartan Fire. When they reached the village, they separated to head to their own homes.
Upon entering the boarding house noise from the kitchen dragged him to see what the others where up to. Pretzel was playing a game with Mud, they were both staring at a wooden board with small round stones scattered over the board. The others were chatting while watching the pair.
All eyes turned to Kit as he entered. Charlotte was the first to speak. “Kit, welcome back! Did you find some useful ingredients?” From the eager looks on his employees faces he could tell they had waited for his return. Even though he was exhausted he still filled them in on his adventure.
Twix and Mars had joined Kit at some point and had helped him tell the story. Once he was finished Pretzel stared at Kit with sparkling eyes. Kit was confused what this happy look was for, was he excited to hear the story?
“Kit what are we doing tomorrow? Snickers said we’re all working on something together!” Pretzel’s zeal spilled out in his voice. At least now Kit could tell what the boy was brimming over with happiness.
“That’s right we are doing something as a group tomorrow. We are going to be carving up trampling thickhead meat!”
Pretzels beaming face fell, “oh, that’s what we’re doing.”
Laughter filled the room at the boy’s crestfallen face. Mud patted the boy on the shoulder “Don’t worry I’m sure Kit will come up with a way to make it fun.”
Fun, how the hell could he make carving up a giant piece of meat fun! Kit glared at Mud, instead of wracking his brain to come up with an idea to make things fun, he just decided to offer a reward to whoever caved the most meat into sizeable chunks.
He would decide on what to offer as temptation to gain the most meat chunks tomorrow. Kit bid goodnight to everyone and dragged his tired body to his room. He woke the next day fully rested and ready to start carving meat!