by Paul Kite
“But there are the mountains!” One of the warriors replied, of course, referring to the gnolls and goblins.
“Follow the order!” the caravan leader firmly told his overly zealous subordinate.
“The owner is right,” said our driver, whose name I didn’t remember. “Scorpions aren’t wizards or shamans. They can’t walk through stone! So, we don’t have much choice.”
He didn’t wait for the orc who controlled the giant, clumsy chitinous monster in front of us to execute An-Har’s order. The huge scorpion led the caravan and carried a cage of slaves on its back. We hurriedly left the caravan. However, our driver wasn’t the first who hastily sent his arthropod transport to the rescue rocks.
Behind the back of our scorpion that was running as fast as it could, loud screams rang out. Some of the orcs didn’t have time to turn and underwent the attack of the mobs, who rushed to the slow victims. Some of the orcs — those very warriors on the varans — covered the caravan and, most importantly, An-Har and our only shaman.
Wrapping a piece of long rope around my hand that held bales with provisions together, I ventured to lean out of the tent. I instantly witnessed how two scorpions jumped out of the sand right in front of the varan who didn’t expect such meanness. In a second, they threw the huge lizard on the ground and first tore the screaming thing to pieces, cutting him up with their claws. Then they began to tear out huge pieces of meat from the still alive and squeaking reptile and thrust its flesh into what seemed like their mouths.
Swallowing, I decided to go back to the tent. Well, those damn images could spoil my dreams.
Covering my eyes, I sat right in the middle of our shelter and tried very hard not to listen to the shouts and noise outside. If we survived, good, but if we don’t, then all right! The wizard asked me about what I saw, I waved him off and muttered something through my clenched teeth. If he wanted to see the vivid and memorable views, let him try doing what I did.
Finally, our scorpion loudly tapped its legs on the rocky surface, and soon I felt how it began to rise slowly on a gentle slope. I was hoping that the driver wouldn’t think of climbing large stones. I was happy to note that our transport stopped and that An-Har’s began the roll call.
Get out, Lsaeros nodded at the exit and it was me who first rushed out.
Well, it was worse than we thought! Only twenty-two of the thirty scorpions were still alive. The caravan lost the giant chitinous monsters carrying the slaves. The riders on the varans weren’t lucky. Three of them were more or less unharmed, but one had a side torn to the bone. Judging by the shaman’s expression, who was examining the sled reptile, it didn’t look good. As a result, An-Har lost all his living goods and more than half of the soldiers!
What remained of the caravan was huddled on a low rocky platform, towering over the sand by about two feet. We began making our way up the steep slope with sharp stones and mounds of small rubble. Climbing it was almost impossible, not only for the scorpions and surviving varans, but also for the orcs. On wrong step and you would fly back down. If you didn’t hurt yourself on the stones, you would surely cause a landslide, which could turn into a mass grave for all those losers who had risked their lives choosing such a foolish way of climbing.
“Heck,” one of the caravan workers cursed, watching the scorpions that had driven us into the trap, scuttled like fish, back and forth under a layer of sand. They emerged for a fraction of a moment and immediately dug back in. “When did they start attacking in packs?” he asked, astonished.
“It doesn't matter when,” the shaman heard his question, returning from a wounded varan, which, judging by the cut in his neck, he had to finish off. “Only if they have among them the…”
“Queen of scorpions?” the rider slapped his forehead while continuing to swear.
“Yes,” the shaman frowned and, turning to the head of the caravan that now communicated with the surviving soldiers, shouted to him.
“An-Har, when was the last time we devastated a scorpion nest?”
“Six months ago,” the orc answered, distracting himself from the conversation and approaching. “Why?”
“There,” the shaman pointed to the sand, “are more than a dozen of these creatures.
“I figured,” An-Har said, warily. “Do you think the queen’s leading them?”
“Who else could it be? I don’t believe that they just attack the caravan passing by. So, someone has recently upset them. It looks like someone did that on purpose!”
“And this someone couldn’t know the schedule of our departure from Der-Hawk!” the head of the caravan snarled through his teeth and clenched his fists in fury.
“The closest one who can afford such a trip is Zul-Mak. Idiots! Children of gourahs and gnolls! If I survive, I will tell that to Ar-Tark’s face! And even challenge him to a duel.”
“Well,” the shaman sighed, “first we must survive. I understand it makes no sense to go further? Should we go back?”
“Yes! Check all the animals and the warriors. Cure them if necessary! And prepare all the potions of acceleration that you have.”
The shaman immediately went to execute An-Har’s order, and he summoned one of the soldiers.
“An-Gal, give weapons to all the riders. Throw out anything that’s not essential, including the tents! Half of the supplies too can be left here. You can send the tamed scorpions there,” he pointed to the side, “And there. While they distract the monsters, we will have a chance to get out. And for god’s sake, stay clear from those caves,” the head of the caravan nodded at the dark hole near us, on a steep slope behind a pile of large stones.
I, strangely, noticed this cave only after An-Har pointed to it. The sun was blinding me and I didn’t look attentively. By the way, it was worthwhile to take a closer look, as I found five more outcrops on the surface, which were slightly higher and randomly scattered throughout the slope.
“Beware,” the head of the caravan added, “the queen may try to send scorpions here.”
An-Har was right!
The warriors and the caravan workers had just finished releasing some of the scorpions and began loading those they decided to use, when a pair of enemy arthropods jumped out of the sand dunes closest to our shelter. They whistled something and began to climb the hard stone platform. Three more aggressive scorpions appeared a little further — trying to get to the sensible ones that froze in place.
Part of the orcs instantly stopped what they were doing and, under the command of warriors who undoubtedly knew their business, began surrounding the first two scorpions who had just stepped onto a hard stone. And while the two more frisky and fast drivers attracted the chitinous creatures towards themselves, trying not to get caught under their claws and tail, the rest of the orcs cut the scorpions’ joints and reaching the tender abdomen, bit into the inside of the monsters.
I naturally didn’t take part. It would be the height of recklessness and stupidity to go to the point of rebirth when I almost reached the divine source! However, I understood perfectly the principle of destroying such a mob, watching the coordinated actions of the team. They had no advantage over the scorpions on the sand, but when there was no place to hide... the rational creatures had the upper hand! The orcs could take painful and strong bites even at such a large and armored creature.
There was a loud whistle and the three scorpions hurriedly retreated back to the sand, not waiting for the nimble little men to attack them.
After about an hour, An-Har nevertheless attempted to distract the queen and her chitinous subjects, sending his subordinate scorpions into the sand on the right side of the hollow slope. That didn’t work! They simply ignored their relatives.
While the head of the caravan made new changes to his ‘ingenious’ plan, the sun began to lean towards the horizon. By the way, we still had three scorpions.
The queen, apparently, was more intelligent than An-Har had hoped and tried very hard not to let us off before dark. The leader of the s
corpions every now and again sent her ‘soldiers’ to try our defense, not letting us have a moment’s rest. However, we had been lucky so far. No one died and the orcs successfully destroyed the scorpions who risked getting too close to the remnants of the caravan. We stood shoulder to shoulder on a steep slope, behind a pile of stones that served as some kind of protection. In addition, there were not very many arthropods. I hadn’t seen more than three monsters in one attack.
Time slowly and inexorably passed and we counted the last minutes before sunset. The queen of scorpions finally got her moment — the night fell...
Chapter 31
The moon rose in the sky and its light was enough to observe the terrain, so the hostile scorpions couldn’t climb on the stone slab completely unnoticed. Moreover, the surviving members of the caravan and more than a dozen of their personal scorpions were ready to defend themselves fiercely and selflessly. I thought the queen of the scorpions understood that perfectly well. Therefore, for the time being, she wasn’t in a hurry to break our resistance and destroy us with a final attack.
“I said... don’t come close to the caves!” the head of the caravan barked all of a sudden, startling me and making me turn around.
Two riders armed with scimitars were standing by the dark passage leading deep into the mountain massif and were attentively peering into the depths of the black cave.
“There is some noise,” one of the orcs said. “So we decided to check…” Suddenly, a thin long creature leapt like a lightning bolt from the depths of the passage. It interrupted the warrior in mid-sentence with a wave of its clawed leg, tearing the orc’s head off, and then, without missing a beat, jumped at the other orc.
“A zergod! It’s a zergod!” the rider screamed, but when the monster’s mouth closed on his neck, the frightened orc’s cry turned into a terrible, hoarse gurgle — he began to choke on his own blood.
Immediately everyone scattered, clutching at their weapons, but An-Har didn’t give the order to destroy the monster. On the contrary, he angrily cried out, demanding that we come closer to the circle formed by our scorpions.
The creature snarled loudly and turned its head towards us, it appeared not to have any eyes. The zergot sniffed, pulling the air deeply into its nostrils, and then snarled fiercely and discontentedly. It grabbed one of the corpses, made a long jump and hid back in the dark passageway to the cave.
“And what was that…?” I asked in astonishment.
“The guardian that the gnolls use specifically to protect their territories. This is their watchdog!” the shaman replied.
“Wow! What a doggie!” I shook my head in amazement and began to move closer to Lsaeros.
I really disliked this place. First, we met scorpions, now these disgusting ‘dogs’. I, for one, didn’t like dogs from the time of Harith-Hodor. Wasn’t it time for us to get out of this damned barren piece that turned into a trap! Truthfully, I didn’t know how to get through the desert with a hundred scorpions, but the wizard probably had a plan. However, I didn’t have time to talk to Lsaeros...
“Raug-gar, raug-gar!” came a sudden noise from the dark hole where zergod had disappeared. There was complete silence for a few seconds.
It wasn’t an animal growl. Oh no! It was an incomprehensible speech of an intelligent being.
Everyone stopped in their tracks, even the sand ceased stirring. Then... dozens of throats began responding across the slope, “Gand-dar! Gand-dar!”
“What’s happening?” one of the riders whispered. It seemed he was the most talkative of the orcs.
“What’s happening?!” An-Har growled, standing behind his men on the shell of a scorpion. “The gnoll watchdog sensed those two warriors. It got out of the aisle, killed them and noticed us, and then, as expected, reported this to its masters. Gnolls and goblins are able to understand what the beast roared. So... we should get out of here as soon as possible. I’d rather die of scorpion venom than in the mouth of these cave creatures.”
Two orc riders, following the orders of the head of the caravan, sent three scorpions into the sand to divert the enemies’ attention. Then, deciding not to wait any longer, hurriedly rushed into the desert on their arthropod transport on the other side of the stone slab.
“Where are you going?” An-Har clenched his fists in frustration. “Cowardly jackals! The scorpions haven’t even responded to our bait!”
I agreed with the head of the caravan. The diversion, as it turned out, failed again. These two orcs were very stupid, deciding to take a chance, or maybe they lost their nerve. After all, not all orcs were as strong in spirit and character as An-Har or his warriors. They were the guards of our caravan, or those islanders headed by shaman Ir-Zan.
I didn’t lose sight of them. These orcs were surprisingly lucky. They moved thirty yards from the stone slab, but no one attacked them! The remaining members of the caravan also watched them. An-Har gnashed his teeth in anger.
They were now forty yards away from us. The caravan leader was no longer angry, now he was squinting thoughtfully and thinking. Was it worth to order the others to follow them or wait a little longer? The fleeing orcs were now fifty yards from us. The orc in the back turned around, and I thought I noticed an apologetic smile on his face. Although... maybe I was imagining things.
Suddenly, the sand stirred under the scorpion who was running at full speed and... suddenly both he and his riders sank into a pit. After a few seconds, the sand filled it again; everything was back in place, leaving no trace that anything happened.
“Heck!” Lsaeros swore. He, like everyone else, carefully watched the unsuccessful attempt of the two orcs to break through a small army of scorpions hiding in the thickness of the sand. “They don’t want to let us out of here!”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Ra-Log,” An-Har turned to the shaman. “Can you see how many of them are there?”
He didn’t mean scorpions, but those who continued to communicate in the caves.
“Yes!” the orc nodded and immediately set to work.
“Lsaeros,” I called quietly to the wizard.
“What?”
“We will leave this place or die here with the others.”
“It’s too early,” the wizard shook his head. “Of course, if you want to leave right now, go,” Lsaeros pointed to the sand in front of us. “You can repeat their stupid feat.”
“No way!”
I wasn’t going to contradict the wizard, so I stepped aside, squinting at the conjuring shaman. He was busy for quite a while for some reason. Then the orc finished his spell and hurriedly ran to An-Har.
“We have problems!”
“I know,” the caravan leader said sarcastically. “Did you do what I asked?”
“Uh-uh,” the shaman was confused. “That’s what I wanted to say. There,” he pointed out to the mountain range, “in the very middle, in the depth, there are a lot of bright dots and they are confidently moving in our direction! But there,” he waved his hand to the cave entrance closest to us, then to the second, then to the third, “I’ve seen about twenty intelligent creatures — gnolls and goblins. But I have no idea how many zergods and other creatures are in there.”
An-Har cursed again all the ancestors of those fools who had ransacked the scorpion clutches at the wrong time, and he mentioned the pair of orcs that had attracted the zergod’s attention.
“Everybody get ready! We won’t give up so easily!”
“Did you hear that?” I found myself close to Lsaeros at the same instant. “We need to get out urgently!”
“I heard it,” the wizard frowned.
“What shall we do?” my question immediately followed.
“Stay away from the orcs,” the wizard whispered. “We’ll wait for the gnolls and goblins to attack, let them grapple with the riders and warriors. As far as I know the habits of these reasonable but stupid creatures, I am sure that they’ll step on the sand anyway. And…”
“The scorpions won’t fa
il to take advantage of such an opportunity,” I finished Lsaeros’ thought.
“Right,” the wizard nodded. “As soon as the orcs and gnolls get into a fight, we will get on our scorpion and go there,” Lsaeros pointed to the opposite side of the forest, to the right of the stone slab.
Hmm, it was the very place where the orcs sent those scorpions on the sand, trying to divert the queen’s attention.
Of course, I sympathized with the orcs, who were going to be sacrificed, but I agreed with Lsaeros. We would have only one chance to leave this place. An-Har and his people were determined to win. I noticed that they no longer expected to survive, so they would fight to their last breath. Except for those two cowards, there were no more fools among the orcs. Even though the orcs were warlike and militant, there also had the weak in spirit among their ranks. Ideal of races didn’t exist!
While everyone was distracted by preparations for repelling an attack from the rear, the wizard, trying not to attract too much attention, managed to take our scorpion a little to one side. It seemed the orcs didn’t noticed this. Or maybe they did, but decided that it was nothing. I, of course, also began to move sideways after Lsaeros, despite the fact that the shaman and a warrior began to look at me with suspicion. Let them think that people were cowardly — it didn’t matter. I wouldn’t like to be in the midst of the battle among the gnoll and goblin attacks.
“Ur-zar duck!” it sounded from somewhere above.
“Gunn ha! Dehg!” a loud shout of dozens of throats echoed through the desert.
It seemed to me that the rocky slope stirred and was about to bury what little remained of the caravan. However, after a closer look, I saw the small bodies of hyena-like creatures and goblins, riding on the backs of zergods and other absolutely bizarre mobs. They were armed with rather primitive weapons — various rusty bits of daggers and swords, simple clubs, and bone axes. Though the enemies outnumbered us by a hundred to one! A huge lively wave of furious and evil creatures was approaching us.
The wizard stood next to the scorpion and calmly watched their movements. I couldn’t boast of having excellent endurance and didn’t even notice that my hands were frantically gripping the hilt of my swords.
