Missteps V.2

Chapter 36 – Back In

The group finished their rest and headed back into the cavern. Their mission had changed from a simple rat hunt to a search and rescue.

"What do we do about the bodies?" Carric asked as they skirted around the charred remains at the entrance.

"We take them with us when we leave." Elaine's tone left no room for discussion. Ander narrowed his eyes at that answer, but didn't say anything.

The group passed the ruined campsite and took a few moments pause at the next couple of charred remains so that Ander and Kerri could finish collecting the rat tails. Past the remains the cave wall was bare, but smooth. Elaine surmised that it was probably due to be carved into next.

On the left was a metal ladder that led down to a small wooden dock. Two small two-person boats had been hauled out of the water and sat on wooden frames that were stacked against the cave wall. Nothing abnormal caught anyone's eye so they continued on past.

Finally their path opened up into a large cavern with a domed ceiling. In the center hung a mass of hollow white tubes of varying lengths, and the light from the circumluci glittered off from what seemed to be tiny crystals laced within. On a far wall was a waterfall of rock that seemed frozen in time, with dozens of small tubes that flowed down. Tiny wooden boats had been affixed to the stone, each of their sails adorned with a different set of initials.

Opposite the waterfall, just to the right of where they came in, were three large statues. They were easily fifteen feet tall, with the ceiling still far above them.

The first statue, was of a lithe womanly figure. She stood poised with a flaming arrow in her hands while clad in knee-high boots and intricately woven leather armor. A cloak was clasped at her shoulder that flowed around, the clasp bearing a flaming bow in the center. Her hair was tied in a high ponytail, as the steely eyes of the woman bore down on whoever viewed her. At her feet foxes, rabbits, and pheasants hid behind her muscular calves.

"Who do you think this is?" Jun looked the statue up and down. He had to give the artist credit, the detail was amazing. He would not have been surprised to see the woman walk down off her pedestal.

"Her name is Erindoe," Lia stepped forward and pointed at the symbol upon the clasp. "She is the Goddess of the Hunt and Wildfires. Her main duty, is to act as intermediary for her father, Nazash, the God of Animals and nature." She moved her gaze over to the next statue. "Pretty sure this one is him."

The second statue was more crowded. In the center, crouched on a stump was a man with shaggy hair, a long beard, and dressed in furs. His eyes were slits as they gazed out from behind his unkempt hair. Above him was a towering bear, teeth bared and front paws in the air as it stood on its hind legs. To his right sat a large wolf, ears slicked back and nostrils flared. On his left, was a large boar, hunched and ready to gore someone with their huge tusks.

"Nazash is one of my favorites." Carric grinned. "He pretty much hates humanity, and is only ever seen with his roaming band of animal companions. Like Lia said, his daughter speaks for him."

Kerri tapped her chin. "I thought the god of nature was Ekolord?"

Carric nodded. "They're both the god of nature, but Nazash is more animal-based. More precisely Ekolord is the god of Wild Nature. Think more untamed wilderness and away from civilization. Nazash actively avoids humanity, while Ekolord just doesn't care and does most of his work through intermediaries." Carric's mind flashed to Glendaia. For something he'd dreamed up, she kept cropping up.

"What about this one?" Jun had moved on to the final statue.

The final statue was of another female. She stood dressed in a light tunic and simple armor, her legs also clad in thigh-high boots. Her hair was cut short and framed her face. One hand rested on the runic-inscribed whip at her hip, while the other carried an elaborate horse saddle over her shoulder.

"That's gotta be Chakrai, wife of Erindoe and the Goddess of the Beasts of Labor." The ranger explained. "These three are commonly worshipped together, though I gotta say this is the first time I've seen statues of them. The devout usually just wear variations of the god's symbols."

"I'm surprised there's no identification on these for the less religiously-inclined." Iados crouched down in front of Chakrai and scoured the base of her pedestal.

"Elaine, can I get some light?" Jun held out his hands towards the Cleric. "This is a big place and I don't want us with the normal vision forced to clump."

Elaine nodded and picked up a rock from the ground. She quickly enchanted it and handed it to Jun. "That should be good for an hour or so."

"Thanks." Jun looked up. "Where is he going?" Together they watched Ander walk away from the statues and towards an opening to the left of where they'd come in at.

Elaine shrugged. "I don't know." She turned and jogged off towards Ander. She wasn't the only one who was curious as everyone but Jun and Kerri congregated around the area.

The opening led into another cave, this one much smaller with no other way out. In the middle stood a large formation that had been carved to look like an old man as he sat by the edge of a river. A beautiful, young woman with only a strip of cloth for modesty reached out of the water. Her hand cupped the old man's face, as they stared into each other's eyes. In the back corner of the room, the wall had collapsed and water rushed and formed a puddle on the ground.

The cave was roped off with a thick heavy rope supported by wooden beams on either side of the opening. Or at least it had been. Now the rope and beams were on the ground, and the wood splintered in pieces.

"Woah, do you think the rats did this?" Iados was crouched down next to Ander as the halfling carefully picked through the pile.

Lia joined them. "Why would the rats care about something they could have just crawled under?"

Carric shrugged as he leaned against the wall. "You saw what they did to the campsite."

Ander pulled out a thin piece of metal from under a beam, a beam that Iados had had to lift for him to wrench the piece out. The metal was completely corroded and as Ander handled it, bits and pieces flaked off readily.

"Shit," Ander said softly as he held the piece of metal up to his light.

Elaine kneeled down and tried to look at the metal as well. "What's wrong?"

Ander pointed up and traced something along the edge of the sheet. "Do those look like teeth marks to you?" Everyone tried to squeeze in and see the ragged edges that Ander pointed at.

"Maybe?" Iados shrugged. "That thing is also insanely rusty, so it could just be that."

"Maybe, but we didn't find any metal or iron in the campsite." Ander grabbed a piece of wood that had splintered at the top. "Combined with these teeth marks, I think we've got a Meirithe down here."

Everyone's eyes went wide. Elaine immediately stood up and began to scan the shadowy corners.

Carric hung his head. "Please tell me that those aren't the creatures that eat metal, like swords?"

"Technically they don't eat metal, they eat rust." Ander explained as he dropped the piece of wood. "They do however secrete a compound that can turn metal to rust in a matter of minutes." Carric was not reassured.

On the other side of the room, Kerri and Jun had found a passageway a few feet past the statue of Chakrai. They'd barely gotten close to it when they heard the now very familiar sound of the rats. They both looked over towards the others, and saw that they were all engrossed in something happening on the ground.

"It wouldn't hurt to do a little recon." Kerri winked and headed out towards the sounds. Jun tried to reach out and stop her, but she slipped out of his grasp and continued. With no other choice, Jun followed.

They traveled down about fifteen feet before the tunnel started to curve to the right. They both hunkered down and peered around the corner. The sound they'd been following were indeed rats, but this mass was considerably smaller. Whereas the others had been a dozen or more, this one was about the half the size. The rats were still large, but there were less of them. They also didn't seem to be in the process of eating anything. They just scurried from wall to another. As they watched, a couple of the larger rats hissed at each other. Kerri suddenly had a vision of a rat street brawl. She hurriedly reached up to stifle a laugh, and as she did her elbow knocked loose a rock that thudded very loudly on the ground.

As one all of the rats stopped and froze, their noses twitching. Jun leaned forward as to get a closer look, and his foot scrapped the ground.

The sound was enough to set the rats off and they started to scurry away.

Jun stood up, drew his warhammer, and bellowed down the hallway back towards the rest of the group. "Get your asses down here!"

Kerri sprinted forward and skewered one of the smaller rats through the back of the head with her rapier. As she went to pull her rapier out, a rat lunged forward and dug its teeth into her calf. She gave a howl of pain.

Jun stepped up and booted the creature off her. He tried to whack it but it scurried out of the way. The two of them watched as a clump of them scurried under another rope that blocked an entrance.

Behind them they heard the sound of everyone running forward. Iados reached the two of them first, his sword drawn and ready, just as Jun slammed a rat into the wall.

Kerri pointed towards the entrance. "They ran into there!" Iados nodded and jumped over the rope into the room. Kerri and Carric followed after, a few beats behind as they paused to duck under instead.

Inside, Iados found five rats in total. A few of them had fresh wounds on them, probably the ones that'd escaped before. He quickly found himself pressed up against a wall as he tried not to get bit.

Carric, with his swords out, attempted to go after a small group of them.

This room, and it was a room and not a cavern, was considerably smaller than anywhere else they'd found so far down here. Everyone found that they didn't have as much room to maneuver, whereas the rats had no qualms about stepping on their neighbors to reach their target.

Kerri squeezed in between the boys and lunged at an injured rat that had huddled in a back corner. She skewered it just under its nose as she mocked its ugly visage. The rat gave a howl of pain, and blood poured from the wound as Kerri pulled her rapier out. It still stood.

Two rats peeled off from the attack on Carric, and instead moved to help their injured comrade. Before Kerri even knew what was happening, she had three rats lunge at her. There was no way she could have dodged. The heavy fur-matted bodies sent her crashing to the ground. She felt them claw through her clothes. She got bit once on the shoulder, once on her arm, and once high in her thigh.

She gave a cry of pain at every bite. She felt the hot blood as it ran over her skin. Her vision went black, and she wasn't sure if she'd closed her eyes.

"Bard down!" Distantly, like she was underwater, she heard Iados above her. Every other word was laced with a profanity. One by one she felt the heavy weight of the rats leave her body, but her body didn't feel any less heavy. Hands reached down and grabbed her under her arms. She was pulled back. She heard Iados's curse-infused grunts mingled in with the high-pitched scream of the rats. She felt another bite to her leg, but no pain accompanied it.

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There should be pain.

As this thought went through her head, the world around her went silent.

Carric pulled Kerri's limp body to the far wall. Lia and Jun rushed by him into the room, but he didn't care. With Kerri cradled in his arms, he reached into his pack and pulled out a vial of healing potion. He uncorked it with his teeth and quickly poured the red contents into Kerri's mouth.

He watched as the potion dribbled out the sides of her mouth. He waited, his breath held, for her to breathe.

Elaine, he wasn't sure when she'd reached him, reached out with a hand to Kerri's throat. She laid two fingers on the vein he knew was there, closed her eyes, and listened.

It felt like an eternity as he waited for Elaine to say something.

Finally she opened her eyes, and already he could see the tears that welled in the corners. "She's dead."

Elaine didn't, couldn't, believe that she'd actually uttered those words. Her eyes raked over her friend's blood-soaked form. The bite on the shoulder was deep, but it wasn't anything serious. Same with the bite on the arm. It wasn't until she got to the thigh injury that she understood. Her hands shook as she slowly peeled away the fabric. From the amount of blood that still gushed out, and the depth and location of the wound, the rat had gotten lucky and hit an artery. She wondered how long her friend had lasted. She wondered how many seconds Carric had wasted before he'd given her the potion.

No.

Elaine mentally slapped herself. This wasn't the time to play the blame game. Behind her, she could hear the rest of the party as they still fought. For them time was normal, but for her time had slowed.

She looked back up at Kerri's face. A face that was splattered with blood. She wasn't smiling.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Kerri was supposed to live a long and full life before this happened. She was supposed to find love and happiness again, either with Maron or with someone else. She was supposed to live a life full of laughter and sunlight.

She wasn't supposed to die because a rat got lucky.

'There's still time.'

The back of Elaine's neck prickled. She recognized that voice, or at least she thought she did.

'What do you mean?' Elaine thought back.

She felt the small laugh that she received.

'Your friend is strong. Her spirit hasn't succumbed just yet.'

Elaine couldn't help the small feeling of pride that welled up inside of her at those words. A part of her wanted to ask this strange voice to bring her friend back, but another part of her knew that asking for favors from unknown sources usually led to trouble. The voice laughed again, a deep laugh that resonated deep in her ears.

'We'll call this one a freebie.'

With those words, Elaine felt a surge of energy within herself. Her vision heightened and everything around her turned crisp. Every nerve in her body tingled as she felt the power rush through her. Somehow, she knew how to harness that power and gather it into her palm. Her whole hand glowed with a soft yellow light, and she was vaguely aware that her holy symbol around her wrist glowed with the same light.

She reached down, and set her hands on Kerri's chest. As she did, unfamiliar words sprang out of her lips. She had no idea what she was saying, but soon she was chanting them as the light flowed from her hand, into her friend's body.

Carric watched with wide eyes as the wounds on Kerri's body closed. Her skin that had taken a pale and shallow shine suddenly lightened. He watched her chest rise as she sucked in a large breath.

Kerri's eyes fluttered open.

'Next time it'll cost you.'

The voice sounded tired, and Elaine almost asked what it meant by 'next time'. The words died in her throat as Kerri spoke.

"What happened?" Kerri's voice was groggy, as if she'd just been awakened from a deep sleep.

"You got mauled by rats." Carric tried to keep his tone calm as Kerri sat up. "You got better."

"Wha-" Kerri was cut off by a loud roar. All three of them looked up at the scene that played out just a few feet from them.

Instead of a bunch of rats, the four other members of Mellow Andromeda fought against two large winged creatures with large tusks, sharp claws, and made of stone.

Carric vaguely remembered seeing the two tall statues positioned against a wall on the other side of the room when he'd first run in.

Ander had been the first one to see the gargoyles. He'd run into the room as Jun dispatched the last of the rats outside the door. As Iados's voice had rung out, he watched the stone eyes across the room glow.

Ander was very familiar with gargoyles. Back home in Sageburrow they were the favored guardians of well-to-do homes and mercantile shops. He knew exactly how dangerous they could be. For a split second he hoped that they weren't gearing up to attack.

That hope was dashed as both of them took two menacing steps towards Iados.

Ander gathered blue and white light in his hands. "We've got company!" He yelled out to the room at large a split second before he threw out his lightning whip. The gargoyle merely stepped to the side and evaded the attack.

Jun, already on edge from the sight of Kerri's fallen form, allowed Ander's words to fuel him into a verta-kochen. He raised his warhammer and stomped towards the closest gargoyle. He landed a heavy blow to the creature's chest and smiled in satisfaction as the stone underneath cracked. The gargoyle didn't even blink.

Iados allowed the rats to scurry out of the room by him as he took in the large shape that walked towards him. This wasn't the first time he'd faced a gargoyle, and if experience told him anything, it's that the payout for whatever they protected usually paid out handsomely.

Lia was the last one to enter the room. She'd managed to whack one last rat as it'd tried to escape. She paused and knelt down to the now-conscious Kerri. "Let's not try that again, alright?" Lia lightly tapped her shoulder with her staff. A green mist was released from the tip of the staff and traveled up and down Kerri's body completely coating her. Kerri felt her skin tighten, and when she looked at her hands, they looked like they were covered in flesh-colored tree bark.

The elf winked and turned around. From her crouched positon, she morphed into the large black form of Bitey. For the first time, Kerri noticed the slight streak of white that traveled down the right side of Lia's form.

Bitey barked at Iados.

The akudaem looked over his shoulder and saw his girl crouched down on the floor, ready to strike. With a grin he ducked under the gargoyle's arm and stepped out of the way. Lia launched herself at the gargoyle. Her teeth scrapped across its hard exterior and the two struggled for a few moments before Lia was shoved down.

Iados smiled as he watched his girlfriend bare her teeth at the gargoyle. Now that he was out of the fight for the moment, he took in their surroundings. Off to the side Ander watched the action from afar as he occasionally threw in a bolt of fire and tried not to hit either Jun or the small Kerri huddle. He looked past the fighting. On the other side was an empty room with plenty of space for someone to maneuver in. Problem was, the fighting in the middle blocked his way to it. Carric had stood up to fight with Jun, while Elaine seemed to have a vice-grip on Kerri's arm and pulled her away to a far wall.

He shook his head. He'd want to keep Lia far away from danger too if she looked that bad. He looked over the room. The only way he'd make it across was if he jumped over Bitey, and Bitey was very large. Her shoulders stood at nearly five feet. If she'd crouch down, then maybe he could do it. He'd seen the monk's back home clear fences that high easily. Granted they had years of practice, but what did he have to lose?

Iados backed up to the far wall. He locked gazes with Elaine and gave her a toothy grin.

"Bitey, get down!" As soon as the words had left his mouth he'd started running. He hoped that Lia had actually understood the direction. He didn't have a whole lot of space, so he waited till the very last second before he knelt and spring-boarded into the air. Just as he'd been taught, Iados lengthened his body as he flew over his girlfriend, who went flat on the ground.

The landing on the other side was rough as he came down too hard before he started his roll. Still, he popped back up on his feet, on the other side of the room.

As Iados pulled his sword, Carric sidled up next to him, bow in hand.

"Why the hell are there gargoyles down here?" Carric shot out at the nearest gargoyle and nailed it in the head. His arrow splintered into pieces.

"Don't know, guess we'll find out when we finish them off." With a skip in his step Iados rejoined the fray.

On the other side of the room, Kerri tried to wrench her friend's hand off her arm. "Elaine, let me go. I want to help."

Elaine tightened her grip. "No, you're staying here with me." It seemed that Kerri didn't even understand how close she'd come to death. How would she react when she found out? Did she have to find out? Would Elaine have to tell her how she'd brought her back to life?

Elaine shook her head. This wasn't the time for such thoughts. She conjured a floating mace and sent it into the fray.

Kerri pouted and leaned back against the wall. Why was Elaine being so mother hen all of a sudden? Kerri's foot tapped on the ground. She was filled with nervous energy. It was like she'd been hit by lightning, but in a good way. She felt lighter than she had in months, as if a heavy weight had been taken off her. She had no idea what had happened, but she couldn't just stand here.

With a grin, she reined in her tapping foot and instead marched loudly in place. She slapped her thigh to match the rhythm and sang out a song just for Jun.

"Up in the mornin' with the risin' sun!

Here's a fighter that will make you run!

Heavy is the hammer that he swings real quick!

Into the ground and walls you'll stick!

Berserker Champion!

When you see him comin' you better hide!"

"Bring it!" Jun roared with renewed energy as he smacked the gargoyle and its pointed ear crumbled under the force.

During the course of the fight, Ander was mobile. He tried to get clear lines of sight so that he could hurl some spell at the gargoyles, but the fighters were doing too good a job at keeping the gargoyles occupied that it was very difficult. After he almost hit Jun with one of his fire bolts, Ander decided that a new tactic was in order.

He reached up and clutched the amulet around his neck. With a few muttered words, he felt the magical force within well up in his eyes. When he opened them, it was as if a new layer of sight had been applied. Both gargoyles were lit up, as were a number of their own items (Iados's cloak and Jun's warhammer for example). He looked past the fight and scanned the walls.

Back home, it was common for a house's occupants to have a way to control their guardians from a distance. Hopefully the same held true here. As luck would have it, the far wall behind Carric lit up in two distinct spots.

Carefully Ander ran past Jun towards the other side.

"How's it going?" Carric released another arrow as Ander reached him.

"Oh not too bad, just trying to find a way to stop these gargoyles." Ander didn't even look at him as he concentrated on the glowing spot.

"That'd be nice. My arrows aren't doing much." Carric released another arrow. "At least the same could be said for the gargoyles." It was true, the team were hitting their opponents a lot more than the gargoyles, but go figure that creatures made of magically enhanced stone could take a beating.

"Just keep them away from for another couple of minutes." Ander muttered as he laid his hand flat on the small rune he'd found inscribed in the stone. Instantly he could feel the magic as it surged through the rune.

Whereas Kerri and Lia had an innate connection to the magic that swirled around them, Ander's connection was more complicated. It was more like picking a lock or solving a puzzle. Certain spells, like this rune, had been designed by forming layers of different spells. Those layers were then folded, knotted, wound around, or whatever so that it would perform a specific job.

Now, if he were powerful enough he could just blast through the magic where it was most vulnerable and cause the spell to collapse. However, he wasn't there yet so he had to go the long route. Using his own magic as a pick, he pried the layers apart as he identified what kind of magic was at work.

Good news: it seemed to be a mass-produced enchantment. The rune controlled the rudimentary magic that enchanted the gargoyle. That meant all he had to do was deactivate the rune and the gargoyle was gone.

Bad news: the only way to deactivate the rune was to find the command word.

He gritted his teeth and concentrated more of his own magic into the rune. Instead of just identifying the spells, he now needed to read them.

Carric looked down with a worried expression when he heard the halfling groan. The look on his face was not one of encouragement. Carric looked back at the fight. Jun was fighting one of the gargoyles alone. The gargoyle had several large cracks throughout its body, but Jun had taken a few intense hits as well and looked just as worn.

The other gargoyle didn't look nearly as worn down, and it had three people and a floating mace attacking it. Of course, this gargoyle was slightly smaller in form and a lot more agile.

Kerri stood rooted to her spot as she yelled out insult after insult at the gargoyles. Carric didn't know what kind of home life a gargoyle had, but according to Kerri it was a pretty miserable one.

"Yes!" Ander hissed as he opened his eyes. The light from the rune faded. He looked over his shoulder, but was dismayed to see that both gargoyles were still in the fight. Without another moment to waste, he dashed over to the second point of light and started the process all over again. This time it went much faster as the second was a carbon copy of the first.

As he felt the magic of the rune dissipate, Ander opened his eyes. He was just about to turn around and watch the fight end, when he saw something else happen instead.

The wall space between the two runes evaporated into a five-foot wide doorway.

Ander looked over his shoulder. The gargoyles were still there. They were still fighting. He looked back at the two deactivated runes. He'd misread the magic. He'd assumed that they controlled the gargoyles, but obviously he'd been mistaken. "It didn't work." He said in a low voice.

"What do you mean it didn't work?" Carric fired another arrow. He'd lost count of how many arrows he'd gone through. He wanted to pull sword and join the fight, there just wasn't any room.

"I was wrong, the runes didn't control the gargoyles." Ander's hands began to shake. Uncontrollably, his mind traveled back to the fight against the minotaur. The fear from then began to creep up in the back of his mind. He was out of tricks. He was afraid to cast any of his spells, even the small ones, for fear of hurting his own team.

Carric reached down and patted Ander heavily on the head. "We're not out yet, so don't check out." Just then Jun slammed his warhammer into the gargoyle's chest. The crack that radiated out from the hit spread and joined up with the other cracks until the cracks didn't have anywhere to go and the creature crumbled into dust.

Not five seconds later, the translucent mace crashed down on the second gargoyle's head, and the creature collapsed into a pile of rubble.

No one spoke for almost a minute. Bitey transformed back into Lia, and the spectral weapon faded out of existence. The only sound was the heavy panting of breath.

"Catchphrase." Kerri suddenly sputtered out. Everyone turned to look at her.

"What?" Iados's eyebrows were knitted in confusion.

"We need a catchphrase for when we kill something like that." She clarified. "Just an idea."

Jun roared with laughter as he sat down heavily on the ground. Everyone else joined suit as the tenseness of the past several minutes lapsed. It'd been a long fight. Not a particularly hard fight, but it'd pushed everyone's stamina. Suddenly they were glad for all of Jun's drills during the past week.

Carric crouched down next to Ander and gave him a smile as he ruffled the shorter man's already mussed up hair. "See, it all worked out."