by Des Pensable
Miranda spiralled down, landed near to him and reformed to her newman shape.
‘By the Lady what do you think that you’re doing, going to a Royal funeral?’
‘I have just constructed something that I’ve always desired, a headband of power. Not as powerful as I’d like, but not too bad either. Each precious stone held in the band is a powerstone that holds a power. If I can control my anger I can use the powerstones embedded in it. If I cannot the band will probably melt and fall onto the ground.’
Then he reached into the body shell, retrieved a ring and passed it to Miranda. ‘This is our contingency plan. It’s a ring of teleport. If anything goes wrong you touch me and teleport us back to the teleport marker near the ruin.’
‘I can’t believe I’m actually stupid enough to be here with you, wizard. You might be prepared to throw your life away, but I’m not prepared to die yet. Let’s get out of here - the place is just too creepy.’
‘Let me tell you a story Miranda. Many years ago a young apprentice wizard visited a small town in a wild area on a woody world, not unlike this one. In the middle of a bitter winter when food was scarce a pack of wolves came into the village one night and attacked and killed a man outside his front door. The next day the villagers organised a wolf hunt and followed the tracks of the wolves for a league before coming to a cave. They went to enter the cave and found an incredible feeling of fear and doom emanating from it. No one was game to go in, so they all went back to the village.
‘Three days later the wolves returned and killed another villager, a child this time. The villagers had a meeting and decided to get a priest from a nearby village to help them with the fiendish wolves. They returned to the cave, the priest cast a ward against fear on the group and they all went into the cave, and after a bloody fight killed all the wolves. Every one was happy and excited - until they wanted to leave the cave and discovered the feeling of fear and doom was near the entrance, and their ward against fear had worn off.
‘Nobody was prepared to leave the cave until the priest had prayed to his god for another prayer to ward them against fear again. When they were protected by the priest they all left the cave, found nothing dangerous outside and returned to the village in high spirits. The young apprentice wizard was with them and when he lay down to sleep that night he found he couldn’t rest. What had happened in the cave just didn’t make sense. So the next morning, while all the village celebrated their bravery in the inn, he returned to the cave.
‘The feeling of fear and doom still emanated from the cave but he plucked up his courage and ran inside and created light in there to look around. There was nothing obvious, other than the dead wolves. So he used his magic sight and noticed a glow from a nook in the wall. On investigating the nook he found a small amount of gold, a dagger and a leather bound diary.
‘The journal belonged to a hermit who had lived in the cave for years. Amongst the entries in the journal he found the reason for the feeling of fear at the entrance to the cave. Each winter when food grew scarce animals went to the cave and tried to eat him. While he was young and strong he had no problems, but as he became older and weaker he was afraid that he couldn’t keep them out. So he took most of his remaining wealth to a shaman and asked him to make an amulet of fear. The shaman did this and he returned to his cave and hung it at the entrance.
‘The young wizard then carefully went back to the entrance and after a short search found the amulet and destroyed it. There was no longer any fear within the cave. That young apprentice wizard was me. I learnt that day that fear was a weapon, a defence and an illusion. Had we been able to overcome our fear, we could have killed the wolves and the child would not have died at the village three days later.’
‘And had there been more wolves in the cave when you crept back by yourself, you would have been killed,’ Miranda commented drily.
‘Perhaps and perhaps not. Life’s a calculated risk. No risk, no gain. Are you coming?’
‘I’ll come to the entrance with you and guard your back while you enter,’ she said. ‘One fool out of the two of us is enough. You talk to me through the mindlink. When you’re dead I’ll know what I’m up against. Besides, if there’s a lot of dead in there the air will be too bad to breathe. Your slime body might cope better than mine.’
They walked together towards the cave entrance. When the feeling of fear hit them Miranda wavered for a few seconds, falling to her knees and grabbing his hand.
‘This is madness wizard!’ she hissed, but stood up shakily and continued onwards with him, her body visibly trembling. At the entrance to the cave the air was really foul, and the feeling of fear unbelievable. Miranda passed out.
‘Damn, I’ve pushed her too far,’ he thought. ‘She’s probably right. I’m too stupid to know when I’m wrong,’ so he picked her up in his arms and walked back to his body shell. She came around and said,
‘By the Lady, that poo of yours stinks,’ and found herself in his arms. She glared at him so he quickly put her down.
‘You’re right Miranda. I’m sorry. I’m stupid. I shouldn’t have forced you to come along. It’s a bad idea. Let’s go back to the ruin.’
‘No, wizard. I think that you’re right. We need to know what’s happened. We can’t just let this lie. I think it’s the stench that got me, not the fear. If we could get some fresh air into the interior of the shrine I just might be able to make it.
Aquitain stood thinking for a few moments.
‘Maybe there is a way to get some air in there.’ And he felt inside his body shell for the crystal sphere that the elder air elemental had given him.
‘This should be quite exciting. I got this thing from Whooshoo, who said if I ever needed any help from an air elemental then this would call one.’
He held it out in front of him and said in Draconic:
‘Air brother I command thee to appear!’ The ball of crystal went cloudy. The wind started to swirl around him and moments later he heard a voice from above in Draconic.
‘What is thy request, air brother friend?’
‘I would have you refresh the stale air in that cave air, brother - we cannot breathe in there.’ The elemental flew to the entrance and began swirling on the spot. A whirlwind of dust appeared and grew stronger and stronger, then shot into the cave. A gale blew out of the cave for a minute or two and the elemental returned and confirmed that the job was done. Aquitain thanked it and it disappeared.
‘Quickly before the bad air builds up again,’ she said.
‘Wait a moment,’ he cautioned, ‘I may be able to lessen the effect of the fear feeling by using a calming mantra. It’s a powerful verse that calms my mind when I am scared or angry. If I direct it at your mind and you relax and are receptive to it, I might be able to get it to work on you.’
‘All right, if you think it might help,’ she said.
‘Hold my hands, close your eyes, concentrate on my spirit aura and relax your mind.’
He closed his eyes and concentrated on her spirit aura and began silently chanting the verse. She began to pick it up and repeat it in her own mind.
‘Do you feel anything?’
‘Yes my mind feels numb, less worried about things. It is sort of like a prayer, but not directed to the Lady.’
‘That’s it. Try to keep that feeling in your head.’ And holding hands, they ran off towards the cave entrance together.
The intense smell of death was much diminished. It was strong and almost nauseating, but the air was no longer toxic and lethal. The calming mantra together with her courage and stubbornness was enough to allow her to enter the shrine with Aquitain. He created light on Alpha and the whole area lit up, then he augmented the radiance by boosting it with his power to control light until Alpha shone like a miniature sun, illuminating the whole terrible scene.
The inside of the cave was roughly circular and thirty paces across, the floor and walls were of the same red-brown colour as the dirt outside the entrance. The w
alls rose, forming a dome ten paces above their heads. Attached to the walls were light balls but they were not illuminated. Across from the entrance and painted on the wall was the giant head of a jungle cat.
Scattered throughout the cave in contorted, anguished positions as if they had suffered horrible deaths lay the bloated bodies of dozens of short, red skinned lizard-like creatures, with scaly dog-like heads. Groups of the creatures that lay on either side of the entrance carried small bows and tubes of arrows. Some larger ones with spears beside them were spread out in two rows as if to block anyone entering the cave, while behind them against the walls lay dozens of unarmed females and young.
‘The Lady have Mercy,’ said Miranda in shock. ‘They have been exterminated like vermin. This is murder of the foulest kind. Someone will pay dearly for this insult to nature. These little people are kind and generous and harm no one. They roam the jungle, nurturing it and tending to its needs. The druids could not have made the world like it is without the help of these creatures, and they have been callously slaughtered.
‘We must make amends. Their spirits are trapped here in this cave. That is the terrible fear we can feel. They are suffering great anguish. We must help them find the way to their ancestors.’
Miranda spread out her arms and gave voice to a prayer to the Lady to calm their fears. It was the most beautiful loving and soothing prayer that Aquitain had ever heard. It reverberated around the cathedral-like space, spreading hope and courage throughout the cavern and he could feel the change in the air around him. The feeling of fear and despair subsided, transformed to one of hope and expectation.
Miranda began coughing and ran out of the cave followed closely by Aquitain.
‘That air is still bad in there. I don’t think I could work in there for long. We need to incinerate the bodies of the dead little people and hold a ritual parting for them.’
‘What if I pile them in a heap in the middle of the cave - do you think you could call on your goddess to burn them?’ asked Aquitain.
‘Perhaps. The Lady allows us in times of need to use a prayer to summon help from the creatures around us. You don’t seem to be affected by the noxious air in there. I know it is a terrible job, but if you could get the bodies into a heap I could call on a fire lizard or two to help dispose of the bodies.’
‘Good. Then lets get to it. You stay out here until I’m finished. Don’t interrupt me unless we have a real problem. One of the stones in my headband will help, but it normally wouldn’t last long enough to do the whole job. I’ll have to go into a trance and supplement its power from my source. For that I’ll need absolute concentration, so you must watch my back as I’ll be defenceless.’
Aquitain took off his headband and removed each of the powerstones except for one and swallowed them. He allowed the headband of chaos matter to reshape itself into its ball shape and then returned into the cave. Alpha was still giving off light, but of normal lantern intensity. He issued a command in Draconic and all the light balls along the walls lit up, illuminating the interior of the shrine.
He looked around and spotted a waist high box. ‘That will do fine,’ he thought, and moved it to near the entrance of the shrine then stood on it as if he was going to conduct an orchestra. Miranda watched from ten paces outside the cave where the air was breathable. He held the powerstone in his right hand and the ball of chaos matter in the left. He threw the chaos matter onto the floor and mentally formed it into a large scoop-like shovel, then he contacted the powerstone. It held the power of telekinesis, the ability to use mind to move objects, and he invoked it now.
He chanted a Mantra of Concentration and went into a mild trance. Mentally he grabbed the chaos matter shovel and moved it to a body, scooped it up and carried it to the centre of the cave where he dropped it. The body was partially decomposed and fell out of the shovelhead in pieces, splashing onto the ground with a slurping sound. Horrible viscous, stinking body fluids also dripped from the shovel.
Had he been in a newman body he would probably have been incredibly sick at that moment, but as a Logicon the smell was not so much nauseating as even a little appetising, suggesting that Logicons not only liked horrible smelly excreta but may have also eaten partially decomposed bodies in their past. He continued the ghastly labour almost as if he were conducting music. The shovel rhythmically flew through the air, scooped up a body, flew back and dumped it onto the heap.
Sometimes they slid off the shovelhead in a fluid motion making almost no sound, and at other times they thumped and splashed slimy black ichor all over the nearby ground. The process continued for more than an hour, when suddenly he lost shape, reforming as a Logicon and flowing down the side of the box he was standing on forming a pool at its base. The chaos matter shovel fell to the ground with a loud metallic crunch and lost its shape, reforming as a ball of clay-like dirt on the ground near one of the bodies.
‘Damn! My source has almost run out,’ he said to himself.
Miranda noticed that he had lost shape and said through the mind link:
‘Have you finished?’
‘No. My source is almost depleted I just have enough to keep the mindlink open. That’s about all. I’ve got most of the bodies moved. There are perhaps a dozen left. I’ll move back into my body shell and drag the rest onto the pile, then you can do your bit. Miranda, there is a newman body in here as well, and it’s wearing druid style clothing. I’ve left it separate.’
‘Damn. Not a druid as well. Wait until the Council hears about this - they’ll be baying like hounds for blood, and I don’t blame them.’
Aquitain slithered out of the shrine holding Alpha up in the air like a periscope, and headed for his body shell parked in the centre of the grassy clearing. Alpha noticed a movement on the edge of the clearing near the track and alerted Aquitain. It was a cat crouching and slowly creeping towards them. He quickly alerted Miranda. When she looked in its direction that cat with another leapt up and sped straight at her.
Miranda moved faster than anyone he had ever seen. She instantly sprinted into the cave and around behind the huge pile of corpses. The two cats reached the edge of the cave and stopped. He lowered Alpha down slowly and blended into the ground. He felt through the ground the vibrations of more feline footsteps approaching.
‘I’m in the cave and safe since the cats wouldn’t come in, but I’ll have to come out. The air’s terrible in here. I don’t know how you could work in here. I’m sorry you had to do it,’ she said.
‘You’d better fly out, but be careful - I think another cat or two might have joined the first two,’ said Aquitain. ‘I’m a little reluctant to move - I don’t want to attract their attention.’ But he did think of something he could do. He mentally searched around amongst the powerstones that he had swallowed and found the one he was after. It allowed him to use a power that would harden his skin so that it was as tough as chain mail armour. At least if the cats found him he would have some resistance.
Miranda also toughened her skin using a druid prayer that gave her a hide like bark; she then shape changed to her eagle form and took off, circling once around the inside of the shrine before shooting out of the cave like an arrow. One of the cats reflexively leapt at her, but fortunately missed. She sped across and parallel to the ground about six paces high until she reached Aquitain’s body shell, then flapping wildly, and greedily gulping in fresh air climbed up into the sky and circled around for a view below.
There were six black jungle cats in all, five of them were near the cave entrance, but one had discovered something on the ground midway between the cave and the body shell. She couldn’t see what it was because it was camouflaged to fit into the ground colours, but she knew that it had to be Aquitain.
‘A cat’s found me Miranda. I’ve got some protection on, but it will wear off if they all have a go at me,’ Aquitain said urgently.
‘I know, I know,’ she said and urgently tried to think of a way to help him. She certainly couldn’t land a
nd take them all on. That would mean death for them both. She soared around the open area again and landed on a protruding rock several paces above the cave entrance, and returned to her newman form. By this time the other cats had gone over to see what the lone cat had found. They weren’t quite sure what it was, or whether it was dangerous or not. So they circled around it, darting in and poking at it tentatively with their claws.
Miranda had a commanding view of the whole area and was safe from attack herself - perfect for using a little druid magic. She stood upright, raised her arms and chanted a prayer, then at the last moment pointed to where the centre of its effect was to be. In half a second magical vines had shot out of the ground over the entire area for twenty paces around Aquitain and started whipping around looking for something to grip onto. All six cats were entangled in no time. They hissed and howled, rolled and struggled to get out of the vines, but to no avail - the vines held tight.
‘If you’re slippery enough you should be able to slide out of the area of entangling vines, wizard. Head for the cave. You should be safe there.’
Aquitain secreted more slime onto his skin and slithered off towards the cave. The cats could see what was happening and hissed their anger, but they couldn’t move to stop him; they were too tightly bound. He was slick and slippery and although the vines thrashed against him they couldn’t get a hold, so he was able to slither to safety, reaching the cave entrance just as the magical entanglement ceased and the cats were freed. He quickly headed up the cave wall, changing his coloration and texture to match it, and vanished.
‘I’m safe Miranda. That was good thinking. Thanks. I owe you.’
