“Hey Mike.” Deniz the halnaak said quietly.

“Hey Deniz.” I answered. My position was a bit awkward. I hadn’t yet transferred weight to my upward hand so a great deal of my body mass was held on my other hand. I gritted my teeth.

“I don’t want to have to hurt you, Mike.” Deniz said, still speaking in a low tone of voice.

“We agree on that. I don’t want you to hurt me, either.” I tried to sound flip but she couldn’t have caught me in a much worse position.

“I’m not going back.” The lizard woman told me.

“You have to. You know what they’ll do to the rest of us.” I said, watching her clawed foot very carefully. It had two forward toes and one rear, making a sort of triangle. Each of the foretoes had a large hooked claw on it. That’s what was on my hand.

“Mike? Is everything okay, brother?” Jackson yelled from below.

“I’m good.” I called back.

“I’m not sure you are.” Deniz told me.

“I hope I am. Aren’t we friends?” I said, strain sounding in my voice from holding onto this wall. Trying to keep my voice from breaking, I wondered how long I could keep up the spiderman impression?

“I think we were.” The little lizard shrugged. “Up until Niobe said you guys would take me back by force. That isn’t something friends do.” Her talon started tapping me on the knuckle. That wasn’t very happy making. She had a staff in her hands, leaning against it so as not to put any weight on the foot that was sitting over the top of my hand.

“What’s going on?” Niobe called up to me.

“Dealing with something up here.” I yelled back.

“I’m not sure what to do with you.” Deniz said. “I don’t want to kill you, but I’ll never have this type of advantage again. I also know you’re much stronger than me, so letting you up here would be personally dangerous.” She looked at me sideways. One of her birdlike eyes focused on my face.

“I don’t think I’m in a great spot to advise you.” I tried shifting my weight more to my legs, but her claw dug into my hand just a bit. Death grip on the crumbling cliff face, I froze.

She sighed. “If I let you go, then you’ll force me back to that prison.”

“Yeah.” I said quietly. “We can’t let everyone get beat again. You know what they’ll do.” I paused for a moment and tried to shift my weight. She let me this time. “And if we don’t get you, they’ll send Stethyr after you.”

The lizard woman gave a brief, bitter laugh. “Yup, and he’s scary as hell.”

I nodded. “He is. He’s like a scaly version of the terminator. Bidlack plays big, but I think Stethyr is the real killer of the bunch.”

She started to run her hand up and down on the staff. “He seems that way to me, too. I wonder if I’d be able to avoid him?”

“Dude, what’s going on up there?” Jackson yelled.

“Hold on for a minute!” I roared back. I could hear them grumbling down below, but couldn’t make out the words.

“I miss home so much.” Deniz told me, wiping a tear away.

“Me too.” I agreed. “I wonder how close it is to Christmas back there?”

She sniffled. “I know my little brother is in school by now. I keep picturing him on the train by himself. His little backpack.” I could see a tear running down a scaly cheek.

“I don’t think this gets you any closer to home.” I told her.

“Does staying? Is there any chance they’ll send us back?” She asked me.

I hung my head. “No, I don’t think there is.”

“I’m coming up!” Niobe yelled at me.

“Stay there! I’ll send down the rope in a minute.” I hollered.

“I won’t be able to keep them down there forever.” I told the lizard.

“I know.” She let out a long breath. “So I guess I have to do this right now.”

I could feel her foot tense up and she put her other hand on the staff. I jerked my hand back and grabbed her ankle, yanking her off the ground and hanging her into the air. My other hand gripped tight and my feet were clamped down, trying to control the weight.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Her staff went flying off into the air as the woman screamed. It was a throat tearing awful sound filled with nightmares and spiderwebs. Her throat expanded and gave it some extra oomph. I had no idea halnaaks could be so loud.

She swung back and forth a couple of times, then bent double in a move a gymnast would envy. She climbed up her own leg and grabbed my arm. Now we each had the other one.

“Let go of me!” Deniz cried.

“You let go of me!” I yelled.

Her stupid little lizard teeth clamped down on my arm, biting the forearm just below the elbow. I screamed and my right foot slipped. We slid down the cliff face just a bit.

I let go of her leg, and she climbed up my arm and side. One clawed hand gripped the top of the cliff, which put her head just above mine. I grabbed her tail and pulled.

Again, she swung out into the air, screaming blue blood murder. “We have to take you back, Deniz!”

“Never!” She grabbed onto the cliff face and her tail detached, coming right off into my hand. It writhed around like a serpent. I dropped it, horrified for a moment, thinking I’d maimed her.

She scurried up the cliff, and I finished the climb. We both lay on flat ground, breathing heavily and just glad to be alive. “You aren’t taking me back.” She said between gasps of breath.

“You’re okay?” I asked? “That was really horrid when your tail came off.”

“It wasn’t roses and sunshine on this end, either.” She spat back at me.

“Did it hurt?” I gasped.

“Of course, it hurt! My tail fell off. That’s an extension of my spine.” The little lizard huffed. “It felt about like getting punched in the nose, just on my lower back.”

“Aaaaaaaah!” floated up from below.

“Ugh, I guess it just got down to them.” I shuddered.

Deniz giggled, “Serves ‘em right.” She laughed. I shook my head, but found myself laughing as well. “I liked my tail, though.” She twisted around, looking at the stump.

I got up on one knee, breathing finally under control. “Come on. Let’s go back down.”

She twisted to her feet and adopted a fighting pose. “No! I’m serious.”

I stood and spread my feet to just beyond shoulder width, slightly bending my knees. Grabbing my shield, I put it on my left arm, which was held down in front of my torso. My right hand formed a fist and was held, palm up, at my waist. I’d adopted the basic stance of Volcano Strider. “You can’t beat me in a fight.”

“I don’t have to. I just have to get away.” She came at me, slashing at my shield with the smaller claws on her hands. I moved the shield to block, and she squatted down, moving quickly on the doglike joint of her rear legs. She spun, one taloned foot lashing out with the spur on the back of her leg.

-4 hp

She struck me on the leg, drawing the claw across my lower thigh between cuisse and greave. Blood welled from the cut immediately. I gasped, and she took off. Sprinting into the line of fir trees, quickly vanishing from sight.

I sat down against a boulder and took my backpack off. Getting out my healing kit, I packed the wound and wrapped a bandage around it.

Heal skill check successful. +1 hp

Nice. My healing kit was really proving its worth. I packed everything up and grabbed the rope. Tying it to a tree, I looked down.

Niobe was already halfway up the cliff face. I waved and sent down the rope. I grabbed the free end and wrapped it around my waist. I was so much heavier than any of them, I’d make a great stabilizer.

The cat woman quickly swarmed her way up the rope. “Where is she?” She cried as she stood there, war claws in hand.

“She ran off that way.” I pointed.

“You just let her go?” Niobe growled.

“I didn’t let her do anything.” I showed her my bandage. “She caught me climbing the cliff. Tried to talk her into coming back with us.”

“Yeah, I saw how that worked out.” She shook her head.

“Not great.” I agreed.

The cat lady snorted, then laughed. “You should have seen Izzy’s face when that tail hit the ground.” She chuckled. “I thought she was going to have a heart attack. It was all wriggling around and everything.”

“Oh, was that Izzy I heard screaming?” I asked.

“Naw, that was Jackson.” She was full throated laughing now. “He let out that little yelp when it first hit the ground.”

“Wow, I thought for sure that was one of you girls.” I shook my head.

“Why? Because only women scream?” She put her hands on her hips.

I raised my hands placatingly, “Because it was so high pitched. I didn’t think a man could make a noise like that.”

Niobe snorted. “It did sound like a little girl, didn’t it?” And laughed again.

The rope started moving back and forth. Jackson yelled, “We’re gonna have to tie Izzy to it. She doesn’t think she’s strong enough to climb!”

The two of them worked out a field expedient swiss seat by running the rope between her legs and then around her waist. She held on for dear life as Niobe and I both raised it. It jerked and slipped, but we got her to the top.

The little sea elf flopped down on the ground. “Never.” She shook her head. “Never, ever doing that again.”

“Hey, you made it. Great job!” I told her and tried to untie the rope. Izzy kept a death grip on it. Niobe had to tease it out of her hands. We finally got it free and sent it down to Jackson.

The big human was strong enough to climb the rope relatively easily. He even brought Niobe and Izzy’s sacks of gear with him. The cat lady spent a few minutes untying the ropes, and we each got our section of hempen cord back.

“Now, where did she go back into the woods?” Niobe asked. I pointed out the exact spot. You could clearly see the three-toed prints, like a huge bird, in the snow. I pulled my cloak close, shivering in the chill breeze.

We were off. The trail was obvious for a few minutes, then Niobe had to slow down. “She’s brushing her tracks, trying to obscure the trail.” We kept at it though, following along in Deniz’s path.

We came to another clearing, this one created by the falling of a great tree. The titan had been an oak. Several of its branches shattered when it hit the ground, scattering large pieces of wood all over the place. A fringe of leaves decorated its remaining limbs, but greasy looking shelf fungus was all over the trunk.

Jackson stood on it, looking around. Parts of the village were still visible through the trees, miles away and much lower in the valley. The castle could clearly be seen, with toy sized guards patrolling the walls. Bullseye lanterns were lit, playing their illumination over the cleared area at the foot of the walls.

Shadows were long now. The white sun was hallway eaten by the mountain peaks that defined the horizon. As we watched, it slowly slipped down, lower, and finally out of sight.

The light took on a leprous, bloody quality. The fat, dull red sun was now the only source of illumination.