As the group was bickering over where to go, Leone and Iman fighting over the map while Riva handled the reigns, Azim noticed in the distance an odd sight on the side of the trail up ahead. Riva had not seemed to notice it yet, for the other two had preoccupied her attention. Up ahead was a pile of barrels completely unattended. Azim counted 11 of them that he could see, some stacking on top of others while some laid about on their sides. They were as ordinary looking as barrels could look, except they had some notable wear and tear to them. Azim even noticed the tail of an arrow sticking out of a few of them. What had happened here?
Ignoring the bickering young adults, Azim bent next to Riva to ask about the barrels. Always interested in learning more about Irvana, the android was curious if the barrels were anything special or could just be found anywhere and were not much to look at. He made note of the damage to them and asked if that was an indicator of anything as well.
Riva dismissed any worries the robot might have had, which were none, by assuring him that the barrels were nothing of significance. She mentioned that sometimes loot could be found in them, like food, items, or even money, but other than that, they weren’t a big deal. At her own words, she pulled on the reigns and decided they could afford to stop and check if the wooden containers had anything they might want to take with them. Worst case scenario, they wasted a few minutes with nothing to show for it, but she was willing to take those chances.
The carriage slowed down and veered toward the barrel pile. Noticing the change in course, Leone gave up the map to Iman and looked up. Despite not paying attention to what the other two had been saying at first, he quickly realized what they had been talking about and chimed in. “Hey, wait! I don’t think those are ordinary barrels!” he claimed.
“What do you mean?” asked Riva. “What could they be if not barrels?”
“No, I mean— I’m not saying they’re not, I’m saying I don’t think they’re just that. It could be a trap!”
“A trap?” repeated Riva.
“Well, yeah, think about it. We’re in between towns, not really anywhere, and there’s just a random pile of barrels. Seems a little out of place, don’t you think? And look at all the damage done to ‘em, some of ‘em even have arrows sticking out! One would think they must be pretty valuable to get attacked like that. Or at least, whoever set up this trap would want people to think that. Make you think there’s some good stuff in there, and then bam! Whoever set this up takes our good stuff.”
“Come on, Leo, that’s not what that is,” said Riva, starting to doubt her own words. “You really think so? Where would anybody even be waiting for us? There aren’t any rocks or bushes to hide behind.”
“Maybe they got magic,” quipped Iman.
Leone gestured both his hands toward the young musician to emphasize her point. Wanting to keep the group happy, Riva asked what they wanted to do. Leone mentioned they should test one of the barrels in some way without getting too close. He offered to shoot one but then decided it wasn’t the right move. They had to make it look like they were generally interested in the pile, not already suspicious of it.
Iman lit up with an idea. She had been working on a new spell for a while now, and figured here was the perfect opportunity to show it off. Granted, she hadn’t been with her new companions for long, so they were not aware of how long she had been practicing, but no matter, she thought! She still had a cool trick up her sleeve, and she was eager to show it off. Grabbing her mandolin from beside her and pointing the neck of it at the barrels, she focused for a moment before sliding her hand across the strings in one swift strum, chanting in a melodic voice, “Elastihand!”
Instantly, a hand made of yellow light shot out from the end of her instrument, flying toward the barrels while remaining tethered to Iman by a long yellow band. When it eventually reached the nearest barrel, it spread its light-based fingers and latched onto the top of it, as if it was about to pry the lid off. The yellow did not remain manifested long enough to do so.
As the lid of the barrel popped off, the hand dematerialized, the cord of light it was attached to disintegrating until it reached the end of the mandolin. The group watched as more emerged from the barrel along with the lid. For one thing, a bony head attached to it.
“Rah! Ahhhh!” screamed the contents of the barrel, which revealed itself to be a skeleton hidden inside.
In the moment that its head popped out, the rest of it spilled out as well. Two bony arms slid out from either side of the top as its torso stretched upward, with two legs shooting from the bottom as well, ripping the side of the barrel from the bottom lid it now stood on. It even had a small sword in its left hand that had somehow fit with the rest of the bony creature. It swung its measly blade as it emerged, hoping to strike whatever passerby had been foolish enough to try and open it. Instead, the skeleton’s blade was met with air, and its seeing eye sockets were met with the same plain it saw every day, with no one in the immediate vicinity to have been responsible for the rude shaking.
Looking around, the barrel-wrapped skeleton, whose lid was still on top of its head, secured by a strap that ran under its chin, noticed the carriage a few meters away. It locked eyes with the spunky nør elf that was standing at the front, as well as the woman sitting next to her, holding the reigns to the horses.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Hey. Hey! Hey!” The skeleton shouted. “Look alive everyone, we got company. Well as alive as you can, anyway, ha ha ha ha!”
All at once, the barrels exploded open, arms and legs flying out of each one, with weapons in hand and menacing faces to match. All of them, except for the one in the middle of all of them. It was bigger than the others, about twice the size. Yet it remained just a barrel.
Every one of the skeletons chuckled and cackled, their barrel armor sloshing up and down slightly as they did. Some of them were calm and sly, as if itching to pilfer whatever goods the travelers had. Others were ecstatic and jumpy, as if they were just eager to attack some innocent strangers. Whatever the skeletons felt, they were certain that this was their lucky day.
The gang of bones rushed toward the carriage, each one swinging their sword or axe or spear respectively. They gangled forward like animals, not thinking about anything other than pillaging this carriage and brutalizing whatever passengers were inside. A few of them expected the two girls visible to panic or scream, maybe even try to hurry up and leave before the skeletons could get to them. Yet, none of them seemed to pick up on the fact that both the woman and the young nør elf were completely calm. It wouldn’t have mattered either way to the skeletons. In a matter of seconds, they were going to be torn to shreds.
The first barrel to explode left all the other creatures in shock. Whatever had just merged from the strangers’ cart, whatever this thing was in front of all of them, it now stood over what used to be one of them. However now, all that remained was the lid to the barrel and a few wooden pieces surrounding it. As for the bones that made up the skeleton, those had shot off in a dozen different directions.
It was so fast that not all of the bony grunts had even seen what had happened. The ones that did were unsure if they could believe it. This silver-armored man had emerged from out of nowhere, supposedly from the carriage, into the air and back down onto of them. It had brought down a hand onto the lid of one of the skeletons, smacking it down so hard that its head was shoved back inside its wooden decoy of a shell, until finally hitting the ground and getting pancaked, sending every one of its bones splinting off in different directions. In an instant, their bony companion was nothing but the lid that once kept his secret.
The rest of the skeletons just looked at the strange, shining figure. It stood motionless amongst all of them, its hands at its sides. It did not even look at any of them. One skeleton made the poor choice to raise its one-sided axe against the metal-covered man, but was quickly met with regret.
Metal connected with metal as the blade of the axe landed softly in the metal man’s hand. Before the skeleton could do anything, the strange figure snapped the axe head off its handle and flung it back at the skeleton, severing its head clean off its exposed vertebrae. It said not a word as it did. The headless bone man crumbled to the ground, while the others around it just watched in disbelief.
Doing their best to gather their composure, the remaining skeletons all raised their weapons and roared, circling the silver-coated stranger in an effort to overwhelm him. An effort that was all in vain. As the weapons swung forward and the bony hands clawed, the metal man seemed unfazed by everything. He ducked and weaved through the swarm of bony arms reaching for him, breaking the weapons of each skeleton with ease or simply smacking their head off so hard it knocked into the one next to them, leaving them momentarily dazed.
When there were no one but two left, one on either side of the metal man, the skeletons were losing hope. They did not show it, of course, but their fallen comrades were more than enough evidence for them to realize that this, in fact, was not their lucky day. Nevertheless, the two bony soldiers lunged forward, weapon in hand, only for the metal stranger to punch each of them in the barrel at the same time, hitting them so hard the barrels caved in, the splintered pieces of the bony creatures washing over the metal man in pathetic defeat.
Azim stood up and looked at the mess around him. Easier than anticipated, the robot thought.
The android’s companions cheered the metal man on for his success against the skeletons, but Azim was fixated on the last remaining barrel. “There is one more,” Azim mentioned, pointing his companions in the direction of it.
“Well, you know what it is now, buddy, go show it what’s up,” encouraged Leone.
“Do you want to accompany me?” Checked the android.
Leone chuckled. “It’s alright, buddy, you got this. I mean, look what you did, already. I’ll jump in when it’s a real fight. Those guys were like butter. I want someone like steak.”
Going along with the young man’s encouragement, Azim walked toward the last remaining barrel. He noticed that its height reached about his shoulders. Azim took a moment to assess the object in front of him, running his processors to determine what the best course of action was. He had a reasonable guess as to what was inside, considering what he had just encountered, but he had to account for the difference in size, and thus, the potential difference in circumstance.
Finally, the robot knocked on the barrel like it was a door, gently coaxing whatever hid inside of it out. In a flash, a weapon-swinging arm shot out of the top, prompting Azim to lunge back. Thanks to his quick reflexes, the tip of the weapon never even made it within half a foot of his face.
“HA! Did I get ya’? I got ya’ good, didn’t I?” Laughed a hollow yet deep voice.
The head of the large-barreled skeleton popped up out of its shell, looking around the area. It slowly stood up on its bony legs, the sides of its wooden armor rising apart from its bottom. It was excited to see whatever fool had wandered too close. The skeleton noticed the silver-coated man standing a few meters in front of him. “Aw man,” grumbled the skeleton. “I coulda’ sworn I got ya’. Well, you won’t get away from me a second time.”
Before giving the robot any more attention, the tall skeleton looked around to check out the situation at hand. “Well, what’s going on, where are my boys? It’s awfully quiet around here, where are my—“
The tall skeleton’s empty eye sockets locked onto the mess of bones behind the android. He paused for a moment, speechless. “M-My boys!” he finally yelled. “What did you do to my boys?!”
Leaning forward and raising his weapon by his side, the skeletons to deadly serious. “You smashed my boys to pieces. And now I’m going to smash you. Make it easy and stay still.”