The Dragon Gem (Korin's Journal)

by Brian Beam

  The glow from the inch of exposed sword at my back kept us in an orange circle at least five or six paces in diameter around us. The light would not allow us to hide us from the eldrhims, but I wasn’t sure that it was possible to hide from eldrhims anyway, even in complete darkness. Besides, plowing into a tree at our speed could kill us before the eldrhims even caught up. I didn’t intend on dying before giving Max the proper burial he deserved, so I kept Telis at a reckless pace in the sword’s light. Luckily, unlike the forest outside of Geeron, the trees were spaced further apart, making it easier to weave through them even at our speedy pace.

  I would have drawn Menar’s sword completely, but if it came down to a fight with an eldrhim, I wanted my trusty Vesteir-sigiled sword in hand. I would have been much slower in drawing out the shortsword if the new sword was fully drawn in my only free hand. I would need to be at the top of my fighting game given that our most powerful asset had been killed and our second most powerful was passed out against my back with her arms clutched around my stomach. That left me and a four-and-a-half-foot Kolarin with a dagger. This was definitely not the time to try out a new sword.

  Strangely, I felt guilty about all the scrapes on my face from the low branches we sped through given that Sal’ had gone through the trouble to heal me. At the same time, I found myself annoyed that Til’ wasn’t tall enough to block me from the stupid things.

  The rain was still trickling through the treetops, soaking all three of us. Lightning still flashed occasionally. I used those brief moments to quickly turn my head to see if any eldrhims were coming within attacking distance. So far, I had seen nothing, but the screeches were getting louder and louder. One was higher-pitched than the other with the lower-pitched one having an undulating nature. They came together into a sadistic harmony that made my heart pump faster and my breath catch in my throat.

  “When are we going to fight those Rizear-blooded eldrhims?” Til’ suddenly asked without turning towards me. Til’s long black hair was slapping noisily against my chest and face. He had only one hand holding onto Telis’ bridle and his dagger bared in the other. If riding bareback on Telis or the violent jostling was bothering him, he didn’t show it. It seemed as if he was actually enjoying being chased down by the eldrhims.

  I mentally shook my head. Either Kolari were really stupid, really brave, or Isaeron was so boring that anything adventurous excited them. Maybe Til’ was just an exception. If the eldrhims caught up to us, I was pretty sure that his tone would change pretty damn quickly.

  “Never, if I can help it,” I called back loudly over the sound of Telis’ galloping hooves on the moist ground and the rain dripping through the leaves. “And while I’m thinking about it, put your hood up before I rip your hair out,” I added.

  Til’ harrumphed. “Fine,” he replied in a loud yet still sulky tone. “I could take them, though. Kolari are tough. I got away from the dragon.” I kept the fact that he passed out when he first saw the dragon unvoiced. “I wish I could have talked with the dragon some. I bet it would have had some interesting stories.” I drowned out Til’s rambling until he voiced a question that actually seemed important. “So, do you really think Menar’s actually helping us?”

  I hadn’t had time to really think about that yet. I just wanted to keep everyone alive. My gut told me that Menar had been sincere about helping us against the eldrhims. However, what if he had just said that to get away? Would I be turning at the next lightning flash to see Menar chasing us down side by side with the eldrhims?

  I shook my head. No, I wouldn’t. I’ve never been the best at recognizing lies, but as we fled the eldrhims, I was certain that something had changed in Menar. He had seemingly known nothing about the eldrhims and appeared to have had a change of heart about his mission as soon as he knew that they had been summoned against me.

  “Yes, I do,” I replied curtly, yanking Telis’ reins to the left in my one-handed grip to avoid a particularly large tree.

  Gratefully, Til’ just nodded his now hooded head and remained quiet. He still had his dagger clutched tightly in his tiny fist, though, ready for battle.

  Another flash of silver-blue lightning shot down and I spun my head hoping to see only empty forest behind me as usual. Apparently the dragon egg’s luck didn’t extend to being chased by eldrhims; behind us I saw an indistinct, humanoid shape charging forward with unnatural speed. It was still far enough away that I couldn’t make out any details of its appearance, but it was closer than it had been.

  There would be no outrunning the eldrhims it seemed. In my mind, I questioned if I would be able to take it on without Max or Sal’. I kept myself from answering because I knew I wouldn’t be happy with my own response.

  I thought of Sal’s arms around me and Til sitting in front of the saddle. Two innocent—well, kind of innocent in Til’s case—people who had been drawn into this mess. No one else would get hurt because of me. It was time to act before I could think too much about it.

  “Sal’,” I shouted, leaning a shoulder back to rouse her.

  Sal’ groaned wearily and responded, “Father, forgive me. I have failed you again.”

  I rolled my eyes with a huff. “Sal’, wake up!” I brought my elbow back into her stomach with more force than I’d have liked to use, but I had her life in my best interests.

  “Oof,” Sal’ grunted, the breath knocked out from her. “What in Brolynd’s name?” she grunted angrily. Brolynd is the goddess of sleep. In Sal’s case, lack of sleep. “Are you looking for another haircut?” Against my fear, I smiled. There was the Sal’ I had grown to know and love. Not love, love. Friend love. Seriously.

  Back to the point, I called over my shoulder. “Since you showed up on Telis, I assume you can ably ride a horse. I’m going to hand you the reins and I need you to bring up one of your balls of light and keep Telis moving as fast as possible. Don’t stop until the sun rises. Can you do that?” Maybe the better question would have been if Telis could.

  “Yeah,” Sal’ responded with a weary uncertainty. “Why?”

  “Yeah, why?” Til’ echoed.

  Without answering them, I stretched the reins with my left hand around my side to hand to Sal. “Just do it,” I commanded, letting go of the sword at my back and diving off of Telis before thinking anymore about it could spoil my irrationality.

  I hit the wet ground hard on my side and started rolling painfully through the undergrowth of the forest. Both of my scabbards achingly dug into me as I rolled until my back slammed into a tree. My body turned and slid a few more feet before finally stopping.

  “That hurt,” I muttered. I was able to stand, though, so I figured my back was okay aside from the excruciating pain. I turned towards the direction Telis had been going and saw a silver light bobbing as it shrunk into the darkness. I may not have believed in the gods, but I silently said a prayer in my head for them to keep going and to not worry about me. I literally had jumped into this course of action prepared to die. That didn’t mean I meant to, though.

  I speedily drew my shortsword in my right hand and reached up with my left hand to draw the glowing sword. I had to really stretch to reach the hilt since the loose baldric had moved the scabbard down my back. The important thing was that I was able to reach it and draw it to its full length. Bright light was cast in a large circle around me as if the sun had risen to its afternoon peak. The lower-pitched, undulating screech sounded from behind me and I spun to see the creature entering the edge of the light.

  Imagine a lage, nude, muscular male body. Now picture the head of a barn owl atop its neck with a razor-sharp yellow beak three times as large as it should be proportionally. Top off the image with short claws in the place of fingernails. That’s what was charging at me from several paces away. As it drew closer, I could see the body had the same jaundiced look as the simian eldrhim I had fought before.

  I readied both of my swords. I could still hear the higher-pitched screech further off in the distance, but kept my full
concentration on the owl-man eldrhim in my vision. I failed in keeping my hands steady or my heart rate regular, but I wasn’t going to back down.

  In what felt to be only a split-second, the eldrhim had halved the distance between us. I held strong. The distance was halved again and I could see the eldrhim’s yellow skin glistening with rain. I didn’t move. The eldrhim let out its undulating screech from its large beak as it came within reach, bringing a clawed human-like hand down at me.

  I raised the glowing sword horizontally above my head, hoping it was as sharp as it looked. The eldrhims hand collided with the sword edge and was sliced cleanly off. If nothing else, I was pretty damn good at behanding eldrhims.

  As the creature let out a sound that made me want to drop to the ground and curl up into a fetal position, I spun to let it run past me with its unstoppable momentum. The black, ichorish blood shooting from its wrist thankfully sprayed past me without landing on me. I quickly slashed my shortsword across its back. I don’t know if the dragon egg in the coin purse at my belt had aided me with its luck or not, but my sword sliced deeply into the creature’s vertebrae, lodging itself there. The creature promptly dropped forward to the ground.

  The eldrhim’s human legs went limp with a final spasm, but its arms continued thrashing violently as it let out more of those blood-chilling sounds. I stepped around its flailing arms, trying to avoid the black ichor spraying from its now stumped wrist, and brought the orange sword down, ending its suffering with a quick beheading. The creature spasmed a couple more times before stilling. I placed a boot on its back and wrenched my shortsword free.

  I wiped the blades off on the wet plants at my feet before the black blood could harm the blades, browning the green plant life almost immediately. I gave myself a quick once over to make sure none of the blood had landed on me. All I found was a now tattered and dirty purple shirt and green pants to match. No eldrhim blood, though.

  “Well, that was easy,” I boasted, not even feeling out of breath. Again, if I have learned anything about situations like this, it’s that you should never say—or even think for that matter—that things are easy, getting better, or any other variation of such.

  Something hard suddenly slammed into my side and sent me flying sideways to the ground. What had literally been a young tree—roots and all—as big around as my leg landed with a wet thud at my side. The pain was agonizing, but not unbearable. The tree had struck just below my ribs and I wasn’t coughing up blood or anything, so I figured I was okay. As I looked in the direction that the branch had come from, I questioned that last thought.

  The eldrhim before me let out the higher-pitched screech that I had heard in the distance before. The sound did not match the creature. This eldrhim was so much different than any I had seen previously, and not in a good way.

  Standing at least double my height, more than double my width, and covered in black fur, this eldrhim made the others I had seen seem like children in comparison. The giant eldrhim’s head looked somewhat like a bull’s, even having a large bronze-looking ring pierced through its septum and coming out from its nostrils. Beady black eyes, way too small and spaced too far apart, gleamed with hatred towards me. Pointed, hairless black ears jutted out from each side of its head. One large, sharp, curved horn extended from the center of its long muzzle. Drool dribbled from rows of serrated teeth inside a half-open mouth.

  As if all of that wasn’t bad enough, its huge right arm—the one that must have thrown the tree at me—ended in a bear paw of a hand, complete with foot-long claws coming from the fingertips. The reason I assumed that the right arm had thrown the tree at me was that its left arm looked like a black-furred version of a giant octopus tentacle with two rows of suction cups running down its hairless pink underside.

  The eldrhim had paused long enough to fling a tree at me—an entire damn tree, even if a small one—but was now taking hulking steps towards me on legs that seemed too short for its body. Its lumbering gait tottered, one leg being shorter than the other. As it neared me with more speed than something of its size had any right to, I could see a thin, rat-like tail whipping behind it. This was bad.

  I was on my feet before I knew it, swords at the ready. I had about two seconds to form a plan of action before the eldrhim was on me. The only plan that came to mind in those two seconds was to run.

  That plan never coalesced to action since I greatly underestimated the length of its tentacle-arm. Or maybe its tentacle could stretch beyond its normal length. Well, whichever way I was ignorant about the tentacle, the eldrhim cracked it like a whip, striking the tip across my chest and sending me flying backwards. When I say flying, I mean I was thrown back a good fifteen feet and only stopped when a tree got in the way.

  For the second time that night, I found myself crumpled to the ground after my back had slammed into a tree. Miraculously, my spine remained unbroken and I was able to scramble forward across the wet ground as a razor-clawed paw swiped across where I had landed. The eldrhim’s claws sliced through the tree trunk as if it were merely a loaf of bread, but the tree had been thick enough to remain standing.

  I jumped to my feet and spun towards the towering beast. Chasus’ whole keeping a firm grip on your sword emphasis was paying off in that I still had both weapons in my hands. Getting close enough to the eldrhim to use them was another matter. The eldrhims reach was ridiculous.

  With a fury-filled screech, the giant bullratopus—that’s what I named it in my head since it seemed unique enough to warrant its own name—lunged at me again, flinging a hairy tentacle towards me. I dived into a roll under the tentacle and burst into a sprint away from the bullratopus to give myself a moment to decide how to take it down. I kept the fact that I wanted to see Max receive a proper burial as a motivator to kill the thing before it killed me.

  However, no plan came to mind so I just dashed behind a large tree to catch my breath. Before I could even take my first deep breath, the furry tentacle shot past the side of the tree over my head and whipped around, gripping onto the tree trunk with those pink suction cups. The bullratopus let out a piercing roar and, with a splintering crack, the tree snapped right above my head and fell towards the beast. The bullratopus had just snapped a tree in half with its tentacle. Maybe it had used the tentacle to throw that tree at me earlier after all. My chances of living were not looking so great.

  With absolutely no idea how to attack the giant bullratopus, and no hope of outrunning it, I twisted away from the splintered stump and launched my shortsword at the creature. Its tentacle arm, having already tossed the broken tree trunk aside, smacked my sword away with ease as it lunged for me. My chances of living went from not looking so great to not existing.

  If I couldn’t run, I had to fight. If I had to fight, I was going to have to be reckless. Thinking hadn’t gotten me very far anyway. Instead of running away or even attempting to defend myself, I charged right at the lumbering creature with a scream, holding the glowing sword above my head.

  The tentacle swiped towards me, but I dove under it again in a roll, smoothly coming back to my feet and going into a sprint. After two long strides, I pushed myself into a high jump towards the beast with a scream of fear, adrenaline, and pure anger. I stabbed the sword into its torso, grabbing onto its fur with my other hand. The night dimmed as the glowing sword sank into its flesh, almost up to its hilt. Putrescence filled my nose. The coarse, black fur was oily, but thankfully long enough for me to get a firm grip on it.

  The bullratopus screeched with an even higher deafening pitch. I could feel its black-sludge blood oozing over my hand, feeling like I had placed my hand into a fired kiln. I gave out a high-pitch scream of my own, though I’m sure it was not nearly as impressive. To my right, I could see a razor-clawed paw flying towards me. Just what I wanted. Really.

  I let go of the sword and the bullratopus’ fur and fell to the ground on my ass—yes, again—as its claws stabbed into its own chest. As it tried to fling its arm away, it sliced through
more flesh and bone, splattering blood over me. It was as if the sky was raining fire. The clawed bear-paw flew upwards as it exited its body and sliced its flailing tentacle-arm in half. I scrambled away, on my feet and hands, but was unable to stay completely clear of the inky black ichor spewing from the thrashing tentacle. Every inch of my exposed flesh was aflame with pain. All I could do was try to keep the blood from going into my eyes or mouth. I didn’t want to think about fighting the creature blind or what would happen if I accidentally swallowed the stuff.

  The creature fell backwards to the ground, flailing and screeching in rage. I had hoped that it would have pierced its own heart—if it even had one—with its claws. Alas, the bullratopus pushed itself to its feet with its good arm, breathing heavily with its half-tentacle whipping wildly as if it had a mind of its own. I could swear that its eyes started burning red. Burning red eyes are usually not a good thing.

  With another ear-piercing screech, the bullratopus came after me once again. I was only able to see from the small amount of light coming from the half-inch of exposed sword from its chest. I was still on my back on the ground, so I flipped over and tried to run, but lost my traction and fell back to my stomach. I turned to watch my life come to an end.

  Instead, I saw the creature stagger back, trying to reach its good arm behind it. As the bullratopus turned in a circle with its wildly thrashing tentacle fountaining black blood, I saw Til’ latched onto its back, repeatedly stabbing his dagger into the eldrhim. The bullratopus couldn’t reach the Kolarin and continued to spin in circles as it desperately reached for Til’. The rattish tail whipped at Til’, but had no effect against the little guy as he stabbed.