One by one they filed into the tunnel. Every third person into the tunnel pulled out a moon rod and stuck it into their belt. Broden entered the tunnel last as the rear guard. He closed the tunnel behind him, pulling the wooden cover over the entrance, just in case a patrol came by outside. There was nothing he could do about covering the lid with dirt, but it should help.
Cole held his light at shoulder level instead of tucking it into his belt. He was trying to get a good look at the heavy, steel door at the far end. I think there are images of divine events on that door... I'll have to get closer to check. Cole's height, he stood head and shoulders over her, and broad shoulders prevented Katrina from seeing his discovery. To compound the matter, the moon rod shown right into Katrina's eyes.
"Hey, Cole, can you-" Katrina tripped over an exposed root and fell into Cole, their plate male clanged loudly together before Katrina tripped over Cole and rolled into the door. No one tried to stop her, they watched in stunned horror.
Katrina climbed to her feet with a frustrated sigh and looked at Kegar, "I spoiled the surprise, shall we go in now or do you want me to give them more time to prepare?"
Katrina began trying to get back to her original position, but gave up. There was more room at the bottom of the tunnel and she didn't relish tripping again. Kegar motioned to Finos to open the door. He did, but he wished there was someone in heavier armor at the door now that sneaking wasn't an option. Finos opened the door, saw two orcs covered in bottles throwing molotov cocktails at the opened door and slammed the door closed.
Kegar grabbed at the handle, "Why did you close the door?"
The sound of glass shattering answered his question. Fire roared on the other side of the door.
Katrina readied a ball of electricity in her left hand, holding her spear in her right hand. She caught Finos' eyes and nodded at him.
He reached for the handle before jerking his hand back, "Hot." He pulled out a bit of cloth and wrapped his hand before opening the door again.
Alcohol burned on the back of the door and across much of the floor by the door. Katrina flung her lightning at one of the orcs who had flung the bottles. The door swung closed again. The sound of glass breaking was overpowered by the shrieking.
The door was pushed open knocking Finos back, he hadn't been expecting someone to try and come through, so the very hot door struck him in the face. He stumbled backwards into Katrina who caught him. An orc wearing nothing but feathers filled the large doorway. His fist caught Katrina under the chin, sending her crumpling to the floor of the tunnel.
Faute shrieked, "Something is trying to get into the tunnel!"
Kegar gripped his staff tightly and used it to shove Stroz into the path of the feathered orc, "Then attack it!"
Shandra flung a colorful spray of magic at the creature that was digging at the tunnel entrance, apparently too large to come in through the hole. Dark green hands, twisted and disfigured, sizzled when the energy struck them. The marks quickly smoothed as if they had never been.
Broden rushed to the entrance of the tunnel, shoving others aside, his head and hands shifting into a lions. His jaw snapped onto one of the clawed hands, shaking it fiercely. He heard the sound of bones snapping under the power of his jaw. The creature roared in anger and used its other claw to rake Broden's head, making deep furrows in his scalp. Under Broden's mouth, he could feel the bones knitting themselves back together.
Stroz breathed a breath of acid on the orc. The orc reached out blinded, grabbed the dargonman's neck and began to squeeze. The breath of acid abruptly ended as Stroz struggled against his breaking neck. His neck muscles strained against the pressure and once again the tattoo on his back struggled to free itself.
Mary, who was stuck at the back of the tunnel began to pummell the troll's arms with her frustration. Her muscles rippled, pressing against the skin, like a creeping creature was struggling to escape. She screamed her fury and her impotence. It was crushing for her to see her brother dying but be too far away to do anything. Her fists hardened as scales pressed through her skin, the color of her hands shifting from a deep blue to a brilliant, blazing sapphire. Each blow from her fists hit with the added crash of thunder and the troll's arms buckled under the blows, parts of the bones going concave.
However, even as the strikes left black scorch marks, the troll's body healed the injuries almost as fast as they where dealt. Only the monster's screaming told that it was being hurt at all.
Cole felt his blood pounding in his ears. The tangle of bodies in front of him prevented him from helping disengage the orc that was killing Tommy - Stroz. He felt powerless in the face of the turmoil. The strain of his friends' pain pressed in on him. He felt so confused and afraid he could think of no words to call on his god with. All Cole had was his fear and panic. Please! Lord of sun and light! Help me! Help my friends! Warmth flowed down his spine as if a great strong hand was placed on his shoulder.
A voice spoke in his mind. The voice was deep, calm and powerful. Don't be afraid.
Calm moved through him, raising his hand and stretching it toward Strozazand. He couldn't reach much, but as the tips of his fingers brushed Strozazand's back Cole's hand glowed brilliantly. The light chased away all the shadows that hid in the tunnel as if the light were hounds hunting down shadow foxes.
Stroz felt his bones being knit together where the orc's strength had begun to damage them. His neck muscles now easily repelled the grip around them and the light headedness that had been swallowing him up was banished in an instant.
As Stroz began to recover, Faute held her hand out toward the troll, her fingers splayed. Glowing pink energy, that smelled like sugar and bubbles, flew from her fingertips. The beams struck the troll's arm and vaporized it, leaving nothing below the elbow. However, even as the troll recoiled in pain and anger, its arm began quickly re-growing. The green stump twisted and appeared to hungrily claw out toward the youths.
"Shandra! Use your fire on the troll! Only fire or acid can stop it from healing!" Ellen called out. Her frustration grew exponentially. She was the only one among the group trained to deal with these creatures, but she was trapped in a tunnel with people she was supposed to be protecting, and they were pressing against her so much she couldn't use the short bow she had brought for close combat.
Shandra clutched a glass vial that held explosive liquid, against her chest. She had read about trolls and come to the same conclusion as Ellen, "I can't! If I used a fireball or my Witches' Fire it would kill us all!"
Faute thought of her ring. She could save everyone by using it. Did he say three times a day or that the ring had three uses in it? She wondered. She couldn't remember. Well, I'm not willing to risk it being three times total. I'm certain we'll make it out somehow. Katrina always has a plan for bad situations. It made her uneasy to have the way to save everyone and not use it, I'll use it if things get desperate.
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Finos, finally able to disentangle himself from Katrina's inert body, used her as a stepping stool to reach the orc's neck. He pulled out one of his long, sharp, slender knives and pushed it up through the back of the orc's head into its brain.
As the orc's corpse crumpled to the ground, the group began spilling into the room. Cole scooped Katrina up in his arms. She was struggling to return to consciousness, her eye lids fluttering. He had always thought she was beautiful, of course, but this was the first time he had been so close to her. He had never noticed how soft her skin was.
Ellen had grabbed Katrina's spear and dragged it into the room as well. The fires on the floor were largely out. Stroz practically had to throw Broden into the room. Once Broden was out of his way, he breathed a breath of clinging oil down the hall and stepped into the room before closing the door. The oil was like a black tar that clung to the walls and floor, when even a hit of spark struck it from the dying flames, the black oil ignited burning white hot.
"Help me to hold it closed!" Stroz shouted as the troll threw himself at the door.
Katrina's eyes snapped open.
"Oh, Katrina!" Cole breathed. I was so worried... but he couldn't say that to her. Not right now.
Katrina launched herself out of Cole's arms, her gaze sweeping around the room taking in the wreckage, "Quick! Help me with this table." The table, some boxes and other bits were soon stacked against the door, holding it closed. The thumps grew fainter until they finally subsided.
Kegar rounded on Katrina, who now that the door was solidly closed was leaning against Cole, who hadn't left her even as she directed the group to help Stroz. Kegar's bellowing voice echoed in the acoustics of the room, "This was supposed to be a surprise attack! How are we to sneak in when you can't even keep your feet under you?"
Lizzy tugged anxiously on Kegar's sleeve, "Kegar, honey, keep your voice down. Anything spoken above a whisper can be heard through the rest of the keep."
He shrugged her hand off his arm, "It doesn't matter! Anyway" his voice rose, "they already know we're coming because of someone!" He glared at Katrina, "Make as much noise as you want!"
Katrina clenched her jaw until her face ached. Something quickly achieved after the recent blow she took. With those bomb throwing orcs, there could be move explosives in the room. The last thing we need is one of my tiny anger bolts setting off a bomb. Katrina struggled to control her temper. The power inside her whipped around her mind so aggressively, her vision began to darken as if storm clouds had passed over her eyes.
To Cole and the rest she was an angry, frozen statue. On the inside she was a tempest. The ache in her skull compacted her anger, pressing for her to release the god given energy.
When Kegar saw he would get no response from Katrina, he grabbed Finos and threw him bodily toward the door leading deeper into the keep, "Lead on."
Ellen moved to wait with Katrina, she had after all, helped Katrina sort through her anger before. But Cole shook his head, "Please, I know you are friends, but I need to speak to her."
Normally, she would never leave Cole alone with Katrina like that, but there was something about his face that compelled her. It was unnerving. Ellen sighed and followed Percival out the door. She wanted to trust Cole enough to not look back, but she found herself glancing back anyway. Katrina was much younger, but still her best friend as best she could reckon.
Cole saw the growing bruise on Katrina's jaw. Hesitantly, he placed his hands on her face and asked his god to heal her. Before the panic of that last fight, No, before I felt the hand of my god... he would have waited to heal her when she was awake so that she would know it was him. He would want her to know that he had healed her more than he would want her to be healed. But now... Sure, I still want her to know I healed her... but I want her to be whole because that's how she should be.
Her bruise faded away. He stepped away from her and gave her the space she clearly needed. He thought over what had happened in the rush of battle and what had happened in the moments before.
It took Katrina less than five minutes to come to herself. She blinked, clearing away the fog. "Cole? Where is everyone?" Her voice was even, her earlier anger dissipated like a storm.
Cole stood up from rifling through a dead orc's pockets. "Ah, you're back. The others went on ahead. Ellen was going to stay with you, but I asked to."
"We should catch up with them." She said hurriedly, the last thing she wanted was to be trapped in a room with Cole.
"A moment." Cole said. Held up his hand in a commanding gesture.
Katrina was taken aback by it. He's never been so... confident... before. She nodded for him to continue, intrigued.
"Right before you tripped, you started to say something to me, what was it?"
Katrina picked through the charred remains of an orc. She found a knife with three gems on its hilt; a ruby, topaz and emerald. She slipped it into a pouch. "I was going to ask you to lower your moonlight."
Cole blinked, "What?"
"The moon rod was shining in my eyes, so I couldn't see." Katrina was facing away from Cole on purpose. She wasn't trying to accuse him of anything. It was likely that if he hadn't been blinding her, she would have seen the exposed root and not tripped. But that wasn't a certainty. It was possible that even if everything had been going right, she still would have tripped. She wasn't trying to blame what happened on him. But it was what it was.
Her shoulders hunched. It had taken everything out of her to hold in her anger, to keep the bouncing lightning bolts from escaping the storm in her mind, she didn't have the energy to mitigate his feelings too.
Cole was quiet, "I'm sorry." It was a simple apology. He didn't embellish it or try to explain how it wasn't his fault for how he was holding the light. With the troll possibly on the other side of the door, it didn't seem worthwhile to tell her about the possible markings on the door. Strozazand's fire trap on the other side of the door had most likely destroyed the images anyway.
The last of the black anger that had been knotted behind her eyes burned away like fog before the sun's light. She turned toward him, "Really?" She asked, surprise evident in her voice. "I mean, thank you."
Did her eyes flicker blue? Cole wondered, No. It must have been my imagination. Cole pointed to a drawer he had pulled out of an empty bookcase that was set into the wall. Katrina walked over to take a look at what he had found. The drawer was full of explosives. Easily enough to turn the entire keep to a heap of ash.
"If these had been set off, we could've all been killed." Cole whispered.
Katrina began putting the explosives in her backpack, a pensive look on her face. "You are touched by your god, right?"
If Katrina had said that to him at the start of the day, he wouldn't have known what she meant, but after today, he knew. "Yes."
Her words came out slowly and hesitantly, "So you know how... the closer you get to your god, the more of their personality and their wishes you absorb?"
I suppose that makes sense. This calm I feel certainly isn't from me. He mused.
"My goddess isn't just a goddess of weather. Her primary focus is storms. She loves the flood of power, the way the wind bows the earth to her will. I have that power pushing me all the time. It is wearying to resist all the time. When I get angry and sparks fly it's because I'm not just resisting my own temper, I'm resisting the power she offers to channel through me." She looked up and saw the confusion and shock on his face, "Perhaps you don't quite understand." She looked down and placed the last explosive in her pack.
Cole felt her closing down and wished he knew how to keep this openness. It was everything he had truly longed for, even not knowing it. "We should go catch up with the others."
A quiet sigh escaped her like a dying gasp. They left through the far door and made their way toward the rest of their group.