Lilly sat huddled in a dark area of the dungeon. A tan colored light had suddenly enveloped Torunn while they were on their way down into the dungeon, and then the Martyr disappeared, leaving her alone. Well, not really alone. Even though she was scared, she would rather be alone than be accompanied by the fat Martyr cub next to her.
The fat Martyr cub pulled on her arm, but Lilly resisted. She didn’t want to go anywhere. The rumblings she heard in the cave let her know she was way out of her league. She wanted to stay put until someone found her. Hopefully, someone she knew would see her before whatever made the terrible rumbling sounds did.
The fat Martyr cub pulled on her arm again, this time eliciting a shout.
“Stop!” Lilly said a little louder than she meant too. Still, her tone must have worked, because the Martyr cub let her go. Lilly watched in disgust as the Martyr cub whirled around and got on all fours, sniffing the air.
Then the rumbling began again, but this time it seemed closer. Lilly pressed herself against the cave wall even harder. The fat Martyr cub stood up, and lightly tiptoed behind a rock. The section of the cave Lilly was in was shallow. It was practically a straight hall only 20 feet in length, and barely tall enough for her to stand upright. The entrance into the dead-end opened up to the main cavern where they came from but had a large rock to the right of it. If something stepped into the dead end, they wouldn’t see the Martyr cub. No, they would see Lilly immediately, and that made Lilly mad.
“Are you hiding?” she chastised the Martyr cub, this time more quietly. He looked slightly confused and hurt by her words, but she didn’t care. He deserved it if he was going to be such a coward.
The rumbling turned to footsteps, and soon after a muscle-bound ugly creature holding a pickaxe rounded the corner and looked directly into Lilly’s eyes. The creature huffed and twisted its face into a vicious snarl. Then it raised its pickaxe and charged, causing Lilly to let out an involuntary, ear-shattering scream. She continued to scream as she tucked her head into her knees and closed her eyes.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Lilly could hear grunting and banging through her screams, and when she finally looked up, only the Martyr cub stood in front of her.
“Did you…” Lilly paused and looked at the creature. It reminded her of a human-sized pile of dirty butter, “kill that thing?”
The Martyr cub only grunted and patted its wide stomach.
Lilly frowned, “Well, I hate to say it,” she paused again, this time, swallowing her pride, “but you saved me. It looks like I was the coward after all. Thanks,” Lilly said, realizing she didn’t know the name of the Martyr cub. She only knew that she had seen this specific cub hanging around Patrick often. The two seemed to like each other and would often run at each other at full speed and try to knock each other over with their equally huge stomachs. It was the same stomach bump that knocked Lilly over the other day and caused her to hate this Martyr. Lilly sighed, slowly realizing she shouldn't hate the Martyr because of his need for horseplay.
“Pat-rick,” the Martyr cub said with another pat to its belly.
Lilly raised an eyebrow, “Yeah, Patrick is your friend. I know.”
The Martyr cub shook its head and pointed at himself. “I Pat-Rick.”
Lilly was confused, “Your name is Patrick too?”
The Martyr cub smiled and nodded his head. Lilly did the same, realizing Patrick must have somehow named the cub after himself. She didn’t know how or why he did it, but the cub was all for it and seemed happy to share the same name as the rowdy redhead.
“Okay, Patrick, now that we know you can fight we should go find our friends. I am not sure where Torunn went, but we should be okay without him. If you get hurt I can heal you,” Lilly told the Martyr, Patrick.
More footsteps rang through the cavern, causing Lilly to sigh. If only she hadn’t screamed, then no one would know they were here. She probably alerted all the monsters in the area of where they were. The footsteps got louder, and Martyr Patrick stepped in front of Lilly, taking up a defensive posture that seemed a little bit too relaxed. Lilly didn’t comment though, deciding that she should have had more faith in the Martyr cub before so that she would make up for it now.
The footsteps got louder and louder until the creature rounded the corner.
“Torunn!” Lilly said relieved. The Martyr greeted Lilly and his younger brother with a nod before letting them know they needed to leave. On the way, he briefed Lilly on what was happening in Ogrim’s cavern.