Caged: Book 2 Of the King's Hand Series

by B. A. Monaghan

  Shadow responded as any mountain wolf would. You can smell like a wolf; how could you not smell them and avoid that bane?

  Vena must have noticed the look between Roland and Shadow. “Roland is everything all right?”

  “Everything is fine. I was just realizing that I can smell the bees and now that I can smell them, we should be able to avoid them.”

  Mateo had a look of surprise. “You can smell bees? I’ve never heard of such a thing. They are insects. How is it possible to smell an insect?”

  Roland chuckled. “Just about everything has a smell. You just need to recognize the smell for what it is.” This got everyone laughing. Roland wasn’t sure if they were laughing at the fact that someone could actually smell bees, or if they thought he was kidding them. Sometimes figuring others out was difficult. That in itself reminded him that he really needed to work on his Charisma, still only having a paltry 12 points of it.

  The group picked up and again headed forward. The going was very slow, but at least Roland could easily slice through the vegetation with the machete. Even though it had a very sharp blade, his arm become heavy with the motion of lifting the blade over his shoulders on each swing. Roland changed hands often, trying to keep things moving. Making problems worse, there was a lot of sap seeping from the vines and branches. As he cut through the branches and vines, the sap dripped out and landed on either Roland or one of the adventurers behind him. The group stopped just after mid-day and were covered in sticky sap, which now drew millions of gnats to them.

  The gnats grew into swarms and Roland felt as if he was experiencing a plague sent by the one true Deity. As a young child, his mother had told him about plagues sent to civilizations that came wicked. He didn’t question the truth of them but he also never thought he would experience one. The buzz of the little critters was almost overbearing. He hoped he could get the sap off him very soon. They stopped for the night on some high ground. Water was everywhere so gaining access to it wasn’t an issue. The smell of the water was sulfurous, reeking of rotting plant debris. Vena cleaned the water as best she could and Roland gave her some elixir to help her keep her mana level up.

  They spent the first part of the evening cleaning off the sap and checking for the leaches. Everyone was surprised how many of the things they had on them. Roland had five of them on his body, disbelieving he could have so many without detecting them sooner. Again, Vena removed them and made sure the bites were cleaned to prevent infection. Roland spent a long time removing them from Shadow too.

  Dinner that night was quick and short. Odelia prompted a fire using her magic. They prepared and ate a large constrictor snake for dinner that night, which was pretty good. The meat was white, without much flavor. Shadow thought it tasted like chicken. He always seemed to think white meat tasted like chicken.

  They began to settle in for the night, remembering to prepare for the Screech Bats. Mateo said the bats always made their appearance the first night that a group set up camp, then they would show up periodically after that looking for weakness in the group. Before this, the adventurers had always killed just one or two of the bats when possible. The blast of noise that came from the bags could cause a person to become disoriented, then the bats would storm the disoriented person, taking as many bites as possible before others in the group came to the rescue. This was just one of many reasons no one ever traveled into the swamps alone, especially at night.

  Sure enough, Shadow detected the movement first. Whatever it was moved fast, dodging in and out of the trees that surrounded their camp. Roland was ready and waiting to make a good shot that would allow quick retrieval of the creature, which had become bolder. Roland fired the first shot before the creature came into the small clearing. The next shot rang out just as the second creature realized death was stalking them, and it died seconds later. When the rest of the colony of bats realized they were being hunted, they quickly fled from the area.

  When the group pulled the two bats next to the fire, they realized the bats’ bodies were about the size of a large dog, with wings that were triple the size of the body. When the wings were stretched out, the bats looked so much larger and more intimidating. The faces were ugly, having a sharp upward pointing snout and two rows of teeth that were as sharp as any blade Roland had sharpened. He knew he didn’t want to get bitten by those teeth.

  He quickly pulled out the two glands in each bat, mixed them with citronella grass, and added a bit of mana as he cooked them together to make a thick syrup. He put the syrup into a gourd that Matty had provided. Next, he put a drop at each of the four corners around the camp. This would keep the Screecher Bats out, as well as any vampire bats, for the rest of the night. According to Mateo, the vampire bats would crawl along the ground to the unsuspecting adventurers, bite the skin to numb it, then lick the blood flowing from the wound. If too many bats found the same victim, it was possible that the bats could drain all the blood in from that victim in one night. Roland liked the syrup he had made even more after hearing about the antics of the vampire bats.

  As Roland inspected the bats he had killed, he was amazed at the softness of the underside of the bats’ fur. It was finer than any mink fur he had ever touched. He quickly skinned the bats of their soft fur and scraped them clean. He then took some branches and stretched the fur, hanging them on his pack. If he returned home with nothing else from this swamp, he would at least have two of the nicest furs he had ever owned.

  The group had a guard set up to patrol the camp. Bats were certainly a menace, but there were many other predators in the swamp too. As the evening turned to pitch black the swamp noises changed. The sound of birds faded and frog and insect noises took over. The frogs were so noisy that Roland wondered how any of them could sleep at all. On occasion, a scream would be heard and the sound of thrashing around, then all would go silent for a bit. Life and death was happening all around them in the swamp. Roland wasn’t sure what animals were making the screams, but he hoped most of the dangerous creatures remained a great distance from his group.

  The next day when the group woke up their motivation wasn’t as high as it was the first day they had entered the swamp. Roland, because of his navigation abilities, would be the point man. As point man, he was back to hacking away at the plant life along the trail. Things were going well until just after lunch and they found themselves facing what looked to be an ocean of tall grass. The grass reached way over their heads. The stalks of the grass were almost as thick as a wrist.

  Mateo gave a sigh. “I was hoping we wouldn’t hit the grass until later in the voyage. This stuff shows up as you travel through the swamp. We can hope it doesn’t go too far, I hate this stuff.”

  Roland looked at him with a puzzled look. “Why do you hate it? It doesn’t seem that bad.”

  Mateo looked at him with a bit of irritation. “I’ll give you 20 minutes to figure it out, and then if you don’t know by then, I’ll tell you.”

  It took a total of 10 minutes before Roland realized he hated this tall grass. It was called giant thatching grass. Roland couldn’t imagine anyone coming out here to harvest this grass to use for thatch. The grass was over 10 feet tall, and his arm was fatigued from hacking away at it in just a short amount of time. There wasn’t a bit of wind that reached down into the tunnel where he was working. Oh, what he wouldn’t do for even a small breeze. He could see the top of the grass swaying, but the breeze didn’t make it all the way down to the base.

  The seed head on each blade of grass looked like a giant white dusting feather, making them beautiful to look at. As Roland struck each base of a plant it would fall, and as the grass fell the beautiful seed head would scatter out along the group of adventurers. Everyone in the group except Roland and Shadow was wearing large hats with brims bigger than anything Roland had ever seen. They must have had them hidden in their packs.

  The feathery seed pods scattered, as if there had been a feather pillow fight. The problem with the seeds scattering and fallin
g was that the seeds would travel down the back of Roland’s shirt as he worked, and it would itch worse than mosquito bites.

  The day dragged on, the itch never subsiding. Roland was in absolute misery. The group stopped because he had lost all of his strength. He took one of his endurance elixirs, hoping to refresh his energy in a short time. They all sat up against the grass stalks in an attempt to shield themselves from the direct sun. The only thing Roland could hear was the rustling of the grass leaves rubbing together. He drank some water and waited for his strength to return.

  Roland was regaining strength when he first heard a noise. Shadow was completely focused on the area from where the noise was detected. Something was coming through the grass, and it was coming slowly. The grass stalks seemed to be falling one by one. First one stalk would fall, then several seconds would pass before another stalk of grass would fall. Whatever was out there moved very slowly and seemed to be headed straight for them. The entire group was poised and ready when it approached within a few feet of them. Roland couldn’t see what it was, but it had to be right in front of them.

  The creatures came out all at once, a trail of the largest ants any of them had ever seen. Each ant was the size of Roland’s thumb and twice as long. The ants were black and had huge pinchers. The ants appeared to work together as a team, one ant attacking a stalk of grass while the one behind it attacking another stalk. It was like watching an army of ants making a highway through the grass. It was amazing to watch. As the group observed, the ant highway cut right through the trail Roland had been working on minutes before. The ants that were behind the first group cut the stalks apart, then carried them back in the opposite direction to clear out the path.

  The ants kept going in their intended direction, pretty much ignoring the adventurers, which was good because those pinchers could probably do significant damage. The number of ants travelling back and forth on their highway had to be thousands upon thousands.

  Every member of the group was engrossed in watching the highway being built before them when Mateo stepped in front of them. “Ok folks, time to get back to our work. We’ve been entertained by workers who are clearly better suited for cutting through this grass than we are. We need to get out of this stuff before it gets much later.”

  They returned to their job of hacking through the grass. About an hour later, they came upon the triple canopy jungle they had left a half day ago. Upon entering the jungle everyone in the group collapsed from exhaustion. Roland didn’t think sitting in a hot jungle breathing the thick humid air that he would be thankful, but he was thankful that he was out of that tall grass. They all sat in a circle, trying to catch their breath. It was almost time to set up camp for the night.

  They didn’t speak as they were recovering, that would take too much effort. Just then, a bright flash of color caught everyone’s attention. What appeared in front of them was the biggest butterfly Roland had ever seen. The butterfly had to be bigger than his two-hands stretched out, and it was covered in the brightest blue color he had ever seen. The wings had what looked like specks of metal sprinkled upon them. The butterfly floated and start to fall, then began to flap its wings gently to ascend into the air, gaining height before slowly falling again. Roland thought the wings should have made some noise being as big as they were, but the flapping was completely silent. It was the second time that day they had all been mesmerized. The Endless Swamp possessed beauty as well as danger.

  They camped a short distance away and started a fire to heat up the leftovers from the previous night. Roland cast a navigation point and noticed how close the group was to the camp where they were the night before. Apparently, they hadn’t gained much distance during their long day’s work and he was disheartened, but decided he wouldn’t tell anyone else. There wasn’t any reason to disappoint his group.

  Over the next several days, they encountered one struggle after another. They ran into pixies, a giant boar, and some large, as well as small, monkeys. Roland thought the monkeys were evil. They would throw their own poop at you, along with sticks, rotten food, or anything else they might find up in the trees. Giant lizards also roamed the jungle, and according to Mateo they roamed the grasses and the deep swamp as well. The waterways were filled with alligators and crocodiles. Ugly giant rodents were seen roaming in large groups where there was solid ground. Big cats meandered among the tree tops at night but they generally kept a distance. They were after easy prey.

  The group was beginning to wilt under the constant watch for threats, along with the heat and humidity of the swamp. The conversation at night was short and to the point. Each person either slept or pulled guard duty. Two weeks into their journey, they decided to remain in a good campsite in order to clean and repair their clothes and equipment. They stayed for two full days, using some of the extra time to catch up on sleep.

  A few days after leaving the campsite, they found the deep swamp, which really meant deep water. Rarely did they find enough ground above water level for all of them to sleep upon. Tree roots looked more like knees sticking out of the water than actual roots, which made walking through these areas treacherous. If it wasn’t the tree roots causing them to trip, it was the mud sucking the boots off their feet that made travelling here dangerous. Everything was wet and nothing was dry. Their feet had to be healed on a regular basis because of the constant wetness.

  The magical creatures in this area were everywhere. One day while the group was meandering through the swamp, a mud lizard attacked, sending an electrical shock through the water. Since Shadow was the closest to the water, the shock hit him first, and he went down. Roland jumped up and over to his bond mate with the help from his Gossamer ring. He landed on top of the lizard, driving a knife through its head. No one or nothing messed with his bond mate. It took Roland three castings of heal before Shadow was back to himself. With swamp creatures hiding underwater, hunting using scent was tough because the odors were hidden.

  The rest of the group kept quiet about the huge leap that Roland had made. None of the group talked openly about it, but they knew Roland possessed some hidden talents they didn’t know anything about. They weren’t sure how it was possible that he could make such an astonishing leap. After discussing this between themselves they were glad he had the abilities. Who knew when they might need him to leap to their need?

  They were keeping a good look out for an Amber Slime. Now that they were in the deep swamp, the odds of finding one was great. They had come across two black slimes, which weren’t what they were looking for but it did provide an opportunity to become proficient at killing them. The spears were definitely the best way to go. Odelia’s small electrical cast would kill them too, but even a small electrical charge affected everyone in the area except Odelia. To her it was like a tickle, but to everyone else it was very painful. It would definitely put a stop to the slime, but unfortunately it would put a stop to the rest of the group too.

  The deep swamp was almost unbearable. The insects swarmed their faces continuously and the water was taking a toll on their feet. Just moving short distances was exhausting. The water seemed almost as hot as the air around them. The crocodiles and alligators had to be fought off again and again. Roland was getting desperate to find a piece of high ground so they could set up a decent camp. This might be where the Amber Slimes were but they needed a night where their feet could dry out.

  Late in the afternoon Shadow noticed some different types of trees growing densely to the north of their position. They weren’t Mangrove trees and they weren’t Cyprus either. The group was hopeful that the trees might mean higher ground to make camp. The distance looked to be at least a half a mile away and travelling in a swamp, that seemed an eternity. With exhausted adventurers, it was almost too much. They finally got to the grove of trees and found a substantial amount of ground sitting above the water line. By now, it was dark and a sigh of relief came over the group. It was so dark that they set up camp without a fire and quickly fell asleep. Rola
nd and Shadow took first guard and stayed up as long as possible to give the rest of the group some rest. The next day when dawn came, they were all appreciative of Roland’s sacrifice. The morning had brought a thick fog that was so thick they just stayed in place because they couldn’t see beyond their outstretched hands. There was too great of a chance to lose someone in this thick fog. They were all exhausted, so taking a rest day seemed to be the best for everyone.

  They still maintained a guard which turned out to be a good thing. Late in the morning while the fog was still as thick as pea soup, a giant constrictor slid down a tree in the midst of the group and wrapped itself around Vena. She was being hoisted up into the tree almost before the others knew what was happening. The snake wrapped around her so quickly, and the squeeze around her chest was so great that she couldn’t even get a scream out before it happened.

  Roland, realizing what was going on, knew something had to happen immediately or they would lose Vena. He dropped some mana into his Gossamer Ring and then jumped up into the big tree next to him. He continued jumping up two more times from branch to branch. After his third jump, he was just above the snake with Vena in its hold. The snake had anchored itself to a large branch and was curling up in the crook of the tree, beginning to make the final crush on Vena before devouring her.

  Vena looked like she was on the verge of passing out. Roland would have to act fast. He was still a good distance away, so he put more mana into his ring and made one final jump. The snake had no idea he had been pursued up into the tree. Then Roland dropped on its head.

  During the jump Roland had pulled out both his Elven knife and his Dwarven knife. Both penetrated deep into the snake’s head. The knives didn’t enter deeply enough to kill the snake, so Roland pulled out his Elven knife and readied for another strike just as the snake’s head shot backwards. Roland was using his left hand and he was barely hanging on.