The Noru 2 : The Last Akon (The Noru Series, Book 2)

by Lola StVil

  “It’s beautiful,” Randy says, looking at the sky.

  “It is,” I reply.

  He looks up at the sky longingly. He inhales deeply in order to take it all in.

  “Randy, I promise you this isn’t your last sunrise.”

  “Yes it is. The Walking Dead marathon starts in a few days to gear up for the new season. I’m not leaving the house,” he jokes.

  We are asking so much of him, and instead of complaining, he tries to make light of it so that I won’t worry about him. I squeeze his hand. He shrugs this whole thing off as if it’s no big deal. But when we start down the trail that leads to the cave, I can see Randy’s body tensing up.

  Moments later we enter a clearing with a series of complex rock formations. At the base of the center stone, there is a lightning bolt shaped crack. The opening is just big enough for Randy to go through.

  “Randy, it’s time,” East says.

  The panic in his eyes is unmistakable. Randy looks like he will leap out of his skin. Aaden notices it too. He takes Randy aside and tells him once again that he would understand if Randy decided not to go down into the cave.

  “No, I can do this,” Randy says, swallowing hard.

  We place Randy in the pulse harness and fasten it around him. I check and recheck to make sure that it is secure.

  “You’re all set. It should hold you as long as you don’t panic,” Bex tells him.

  Randy doesn’t say anything--he just nods. He looks like a little kid who is being made to confront the scary monster that’s been hiding under his bed. In short, he’s terrified. Bex and I exchange a look of concern. Wisely, Bex does not voice his feelings out loud. The last thing Randy needs is to think we doubt him.

  “You have to drink this. It’s Sobe, a mixture that will make you fireproof for a few moments.,” Key says.

  “What happens when a few moments are up?” Randy asks in a high, strained voice I barely recognize.

  “The more flames that come at you, the weaker the Sobe will get. But it gives you a few moments to run from the Fire Swans if you need to,” Swoop says.

  “Randy, you won’t even need the Sobe. The Fire Swans are at the floor of the cave. The dagger will probably be in the first two levels. So the Sobe is just in case,” Key says in an upbeat tone.

  Randy takes the dark purple vial and drinks it in one gulp. A soft purple colored wave passes though his body. Randy is now fireproof—mostly.

  “Remember we talked about the three levels, right?” Bex says.

  Randy nods slightly. I can feel his nervous energy around us. He’s on high alert, which might actually help him in this situation.

  “On the first level are Bitters. They have beams and they will seek to drain you of your power. Luckily you don’t have any, so they won’t sting you. They will just get close enough to inspect you. Once they don’t sense any power, they will ignore you,” I assure him.

  He nods and again does not speak. Bex places a hand on his shoulder and speaks to him in a firm voice.

  “Randy, Bitters don’t care about humans. The angel who placed the dagger here used a human to do it. That human was able to hide the dagger in the cave and come back up without any problems. And if they can do it, so can you.”

  “What you need to remember about level one of the cave is this: Bitters have no need to attack you unless they feel you are attacking them. So make sure to limit your movements. In fact, as long as you are still, they will go around you. Got it?” Aaden says.

  Randy nods again. The team looks at me with uncertainty. Angels hate it when humans die or suffer in any way. It’s in our nature to try and protect them. That’s why this is so hard for everyone. Not only are we unable to protect Randy from possible danger, we are the ones sending him towards it.

  “Randy, we need to hear you say out loud that you understand our instructions,” I tell him.

  “Got it,” he says.

  “Okay, good,” I reply, feeling no better than I did a moment ago.

  “Here, put these on,” East says.

  He hands Randy an earbud the size of a peanut and a small case containing what looks like contact lenses.

  “It’s a video camera. It will allow us to see what you see. That combined with the earbud means we will be able to see and hear you the whole time. So there is no need to worry,” East says.

  “Thanks,” Randy replies.

  His throat sounds dry and his voice shakes, but it’s better than him nodding. He places the lenses in his eyes and the bud in his ear. Once again we remind him that all he has to do when we lower him in the cave is stay calm, and be still. The harness is illuminated, so he will be able to see everything.

  “I look around the walls of the cave. Once I spot the dagger among the artifacts, I make my way over to it, then you guys will pull me back up,” he says, trying to assure himself.

  “Absolutely,” Swoop confirms.

  “And if it’s not on the first level, we will lower you to the second level with the Sho-Ku. They are plasmalike creatures who take a pleasing shape, surround you, and…” I can’t finish the thought.

  “So basically if I have to go to the second level, I should stay away from anything I find alluring and wonderful, because it’s just a ploy,” Randy says.

  “That’s right. But hopefully the dagger will be on the first level and you won’t have to worry about the other two levels below,” Bex tells him.

  “But if you do need to get to level two, look for the landing. It’s said to go all the way around the cave. It should lead you to level two,” East says.

  “Okay, I got it. Guys, I’m ready,” Randy says, sounding slightly more confident.

  I hug Randy extra tight and tell him that I love him. Key asks if she can have her shot with him. Randy blushes as she embraces him and kisses him on the cheek. We place the harness on him and go over everything once again. We then say a silent prayer to Omnis and send Randy into the Cave of Nor.

  ******

  The twins turn on the device they brought with them. It has a screen that allows us to see everything Randy sees. Although, had it not been for the light emanating from Randy’s harness, we would not be able to see anything. We carefully lower him into the opening of the cave.

  We can feel the icy breath of the abyss even from where we are. I silently scold myself for not making Randy dress warmer. Once past the narrow opening, the cave expands into a large cavernous void. It has a “forest” of tree-length sharp stones and dank and musty walls riddled with slippery greenish decay.

  The circular landing that separates the levels is broken in certain places and looks to be terribly unstable. One look down tells us it’s an endless hole dug deep into the very center of the earth. There are ominous howl sounds coming from every direction at random intervals. It’s hard to detect where they are coming from because everything echoes so loudly.

  Suddenly, a creature flies past Randy. Once it gets under the light of his harness we can see it clearly. It’s a Bitter. It has a bat-like body, with an elongated neck that supports its three hideous heads. Each head has beady eyes and a mouthful of serrated fangs.

  The tips of its expansive wings harbor a red beam. The beam is the Bitter’s most powerful weapon. Once it senses that its prey has powers, it uses the beam to shock its prey with high volts of electricity. That then drains the power from the angel.

  The Bitter swoops around Randy and studies him from all angles. It’s trying to detect any powers Randy may have so it can feed on them. Randy looks up at us. He’s on high alert as the creature circles him once again.

  “Stay calm,” I order into his earbud.

  He nods slowly and remains relatively still. The Bitter emanates a sharp cry as it circles Randy, who’s dangling in the air, held by our rope. Soon a second Bitter joins them. It too swoops around Randy, looking for signs of power. So far Randy remains very calm and still.

  The second Bitter lets out an even more powerful cry. And in a matter of second
s, hundreds of them descend upon Randy. There are so many swarming around him we can no longer see Randy. They cover him from head to toe. I fight my own urge to panic and make myself focus on the task at hand.

  “Randy, if you are okay give us a sign,” Aaden tell him.

  Randy does not reply. Only a few moments pass, but it feels like an eternity. Finally he gives us the thumbs-up sign. The team and I breathe a sigh of relief. This was the moment that could have freaked Randy out most, causing the Bitters to kill him.

  But he didn’t freak out and lose it. So far, this is going very well.

  The Bitters start to fly away, satisfied that the human has nothing they want. Soon there are only a few remaining, and they are more taken with each other than they are with Randy. Our luck holds up when Randy signals to us that he has spotted something. From his viewpoint, we see a shiny spark coming from the left side of the cave. We maneuver the rope so that Randy can get close to it.

  He reaches out and latches on to the uneven landing. Once he gets a firm grip, he unhooks himself from the harness and carefully approaches the spark a few yards away. He finds a small opening embedded inside the cave where the spark is coming from. He takes a deep breath and goes inside the opening.

  Our screen goes blank. The light from the harness is not bright enough to penetrate the darkness inside the newly discovered hole. I softly call out his name, but he doesn’t reply. We have no way of knowing if Randy is okay or not. We just have to wait and see if he comes back out.

  Waiting is a torture I can’t begin to describe. It’s only a few moments, but it truly feels like a lifetime. I exchange worried glances with the team. They encourage me to keep waiting. I have, but so far, there is no sign of my best friend.

  Finally after what feels like years, Randy emerges from the hole and relief washes over us once again. He raises an object up to his eyes so that we can see it on our screen. It’s a curved, jade colored horse head knife with symbols on it.

  Randy found the dagger!

  He grins as wide as he can and proudly heads for the harness. We swing it so that it is within arms length of him, but he does not reach out for it. Instead Randy stands frozen at the edge of the landing.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Aaden asks.

  There are Bitters circling him, but he faced them before so that can’t be what has him frozen in terror. I call out to him, but he is nonresponsive. Randy is looking out at something that has him scared out of his mind, but I can’t see what is causing him to have that reaction. It’s several moments until I see it. But when I do, I understand why Randy is rendered motionless.

  Tarantulas.

  Randy has always been deathly afraid of spiders. Ever since he was a kid and some boys in his class threw one on him as a prank, he has been deathly afraid. Seriously, even a picture of spiders makes him freak out.

  On Halloween he generally stays inside because he fears Halloween decorations that feature the creepy crawly things. Even a fake spider’s wed display at the department store can put him on edge. I was so focused on the creatures in the angel world, I never stopped to think about the creatures of the human world.

  Shit!

  “Randy, try to relax. It’s just one spider, okay? Get back on the harness,” I tell him.

  Randy nods slightly and starts to reach out for the harness, but he never takes his eyes off the spider to the right of him that’s a few yards away. That turns out to be a big mistake.

  While he was focused on that spider he missed the one to his left; it crawls inside the opening of Randy’s pant leg.

  “arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!”

  Randy cries out so loud it echoes and vibrates throughout the entire place. He panics and shakes uncontrollably while begging for someone to get the spider off of him. The spider continues to crawl under his clothing; it makes its way up Randy’s upper thigh and back. Randy goes berserk. We plead with him from above to grab hold of the harness, but he’s too freaked to do anything but scream and shake.

  Things go from bad to horrific when half a dozen spiders crawl out from one of the many openings and start climbing on him. Randy weeps openly and begs for help. He shakes so hard he falls to the ground.

  Randy’s wild and sudden movement attracts the attention of the Bitters. They start to fly down to him to investigate. Now completely out of control, he swats at everything.

  “Randy, no, don’t hit the Bitters!” I scream down to him.

  It’s too late. Randy in his panic uses his arms to take aim at any and everything around him. He makes contact with a Bitter and swats at it. This causes the other Bitters to see him as an enemy. So they naturally attack.

  Hundreds of Bitters descend upon Randy just like before, but this time they aren’t looking to feed; they are looking to kill. They clamp down on chunks of Randy’s flesh and rip it off his body mercilessly.

  Randy’s cries resound throughout the cave as the Bitters tear him apart, literally. Delirious from the pain, Randy rolls off the landing and falls down to the bottom of the cave and into the nest of Fire Swans below.

  I don’t even remember making the decision to go after him. I was midflight by the time I realized I had actually jumped. The second I dive into the cave the Bitters converge down on me. They were already going crazy before, but now sensing the amount of power emanating from me, they are in a complete frenzy.

  The team screams in horror as the Bitters attach themselves all over me. They savagely bite down into my wings until they get to the bone. They shock me repeatedly with their beams; the jolts of electricity crack parts of my flesh open. The blood flows out from me and into the abyss below. The agony is unimaginable. It’s so all consuming, it’s all I can do not to blackout.

  But none of that compares to the two terrifying revelations I’ve made in the last few seconds. One, Randy can’t possibly survive this fall, and two, by the time I reach the floor of the cave all the power will be drained from me. So even if Randy did somehow survive, I would still be powerless to rescue him.

  I don’t care; I have to at least try and save him. I will my body not to lose consciousness. But my body is no longer listening to me. My wings grow numb. They can no longer support me. I start falling out of the air like a newly crippled bird. I spiral towards the darkness and crash hard into the pit of ravenous Fire Swans.

  I use whatever energy I have left to turn my head and see Randy lying across from me. He’s not moving. The Fire Swans spew a lake of fire on to his body. Thankfully the mixture he drank earlier, Sobe, is protecting him. However, it will start to fail because the Fire Swans are persistent and determined to get past its invisible barrier.

  It takes tremendous effort, but I manage to hold out the palm of my hand and try to Pull the creatures. Nothing happens. No power comes from my hand to pull the life force from the Fire Swans. My powers are all but gone. A few yards over I spot the harness that the team had lowered down. If I can get Randy strapped in, they can lift him up to safety. But how can I do that when I can barely hold my head up?

  Just then, Randy starts to stir. That motivates me to find the strength to move and help him. I’m short on time because the blaze coming from the Fire Swans has intensified, and the mixture on Randy is wearing off.

  Randy looks around, dazed and confused. A few feet away from him is the dagger. Only Omnis knows how I managed to muster up the courage, but I grab the knife, crawl over to the smallest Fire Swan, and stab it in the eye. It roars in agony.

  Knowing how protective Fire Swans are of each other, injuring the smallest one is bound to piss off the others. It works. The savage creatures growl and turn all their focus on me.

  I throw the knife towards Randy and order him to grab the harness and go. He wants me to get on with him, but the harness is too far away. I won’t make it in time. And I still need the Fire swans to focus only on me.

  I think he’s arguing with me, but I’m not sure because the loss of blood starts to take its toll on both of u
s. But I struggle to keep my eyes open long enough to see Randy take the knife and get into the harness.

  The Fire Swans corner me and prepare to give me a “flame” bath. I have no powers. No weapon to defeat them or keep them at bay. The only thing that comforts me as I collapse onto the ground is that Randy is headed to the surface with the dagger.

  The biggest Fire Swan roars above me as it gets ready to attack. I welcome the oncoming darkness and the pain that comes with it. However, instead of pain, I feel a rush of air on my skin. Before I can make sense of what’s happening, I feel someone’s arms wrap around me from behind. Someone or something has dug a hole in the side of the cave.

  It’s Aaden. I don’t have to see his face to know it’s him; I just know. I know his touch. He holds me protectively against him and whisks me, once again, away from certain death.