Bakkian Chronicles, Book I - The Prophecy

by Poole, Jeffrey

  Kern sat up and walked over to Lady Sarah to sit down next to her. Still electing not to say anything, they just sat there in total silence.

  The dwarves had approached several times, offering food and drink, but all had refused. If their friends couldn’t get anything to eat or drink, they reasoned, while they were battling those bugs, then neither would they.

  A tremor hit just then, which had Sarah scrambling to her feet. She was closely followed by Kern, Rhein, and Pheron.

  “Did you feel that? Did you? That’s great!!”

  Pheron smiled. The battle continues!

  ****

  “Dammit! That was a crappy shot. My fault on that one!”

  “No worries, sir Steve! Behold! They are all retreating to the tunnel Breslin wants us to take. He must be right. Come! Do not lose sight o’ them!”

  Dwarf and human surged ahead, with the weary fire thrower bringing up the rear. Every so often a guur would poke its head out of an overhead tunnel, and a searing blast of fire had it retreating back into the rock.

  The guur they had been chasing paused suddenly, checking behind it to see if it had eluded the flames yet. It hadn’t! The fire pursues! The urge to flee spurred the guur on once more. Up ahead was a known junction of at least ten subterranean tunnels. Chances of one or more of its hive mates being in the area was strong. With their help, it could rid itself of these aggressors once and for all.

  Emerging into a small cavern, the guur bristled with excitement. One of its brethren was lying in ambush just inside the closest tunnel, waiting for the opportune time to attack. The smallest biped passed by first, followed by the much larger one. There, the final biped approached. Now was its chance! The guur clicked its pincers, signaling for the trap to be sprung.

  Without warning, a guur’s head appeared at eye level directly in front of him. Its jaws opened, pincers preparing to strike. Steve didn’t even blink. Three years of taekwando kicked in even before he could even think about igniting his hands. His right fist lashed out as he twisted his body to the left, channeling all his strength into the blow. His fist, protected by the enchanted gauntlet, knocked the guur’s head clean off. It rolled sickeningly down the tunnel before bumping into the captain’s right boot. Rhenyon glanced down to see lifeless insectoid eyes staring up at him. Nodding with approval, he kicked the head away and watched as the rest of the guur twitched a few more times before dropping lifelessly to the ground.

  “Ewww. Damn bugs.”

  “Excellent strike, sir Steve.”

  “Thanks.”

  Its chances of salvation dashed, the lone guur darted away as fast as it could.

  The trio pursued the large insect through countless tunnels, passing by amazing rock formations, and numerous small caverns. What was that noise? Were they approaching the river? Something could now be heard besides the sounds of their own footfalls and the constant chittering of the guur. Yes, Steve decided, once he was able to hear it clearly past the sounds of his own labored breathing, they had to be getting close. Fumbling on his harness for yet another charged mimet, Steve restored his jhorun back to full strength and then slipped another crystal into his trouser pocket.

  WHAM!

  He had run full-tilt into the back of Rhenyon. Blinking his eyes profusely to clear the swirling stars from his vision, Steve gazed up at the captain. When had he stopped, anyway?

  Rhenyon leaned over and offered an arm to help him up. The battle-hardened soldier hadn’t even been thrown off balance by the impact. Impressive!

  “Are ye uninjured, sir Steve?”

  “Yeah, I’m okay. What’s up? Why’d we stop?”

  “Behold, lads,” Breslin whispered, gesturing in front of them. “The source of the Duvvin. We must be careful. The female guur is here.”

  “How can you tell?”

  Breslin gestured at the floor, where his axe was embedded. Steve squinted. He ignited his hands so that he could see better. There, on the floor, was a small guur. Half was on one side of the axe, and the rest hidden from view, presumably on the other side. Once again, the axe had buried itself deep in the rock. How strong was this dwarf, anyway?

  “You got one, is that it? So there’s more around?”

  Breslin nudged one half of the guur. “This is a young guur. Note the size. The female is close, I tell ye. Be careful.”

  “Do ye think she’s in one of those caves?” Rhenyon pointed at one of the shadowy openings down below.

  “Aye, I do, lad.”

  “How do we find out which one she is in?”

  “Let’s introduce ourselves, shall we?” Steve ignited a chaser and threw it at the closest cave. It spiraled in and slammed against the cave wall. Three other chasers went rocketing into the other three caves, each exploding magnificently as they smashed into solid stone. Nothing.

  “Two left,” Rhenyon observed. “Which one do ye think it is?”

  “Shhhh!” Breslin shushed them both, silently pointing at the third alcove to get hit with a chaser. “Observe!”

  Something was moving about inside. A long, segmented leg extricated itself from the smoky ruins of the cave and dug into the rock, anchoring itself in place. Three more legs materialized out of the smoke to take their place on either side of the opening as the female guur emerged reluctantly from what was left of her lair.

  The creature that appeared was unlike anything Steve had ever clapped eyes on. Whereas he could see the similarities to the ‘drone’ guur, the female was much larger, with what appeared to be two extra abdomens, and four extra legs to support the extended body. Numerous spiky protuberances were situated all along the carapace, with her head having an extra two sets of antennae that were constantly twitching about, testing the air. The female stopped to face the outcropping of rock that the three attackers were hiding behind. A loud, chittering careened off the walls as the female shrieked with anger.

  “What’s she doing?” Steve whispered. “Think she knows we’re here?”

  “Ye did just destroy her lair, lad,” Breslin whispered back. “She knows we are here, that’s for certain.”

  A swarm of about fifty guur materialized next to their queen, instinctively surrounding her to protect her from the unseen threat they knew was nearby. Several guur began herding the queen into one of the two remaining caves, intent on shielding her from harm as quickly as possible.

  “Now is the time to act!” Rhenyon whispered, watching as the female was guided into one of the last two caves. “We must get to her before she retreats into another cave!”

  The captain started to rise when both Steve and Breslin laid a hand on his arm.

  “Wait. Let her go into the cave. Easier to hit her from here.”

  “Willing to wager that she is angling for a cave and not an escape tunnel?”

  That silenced both Steve and the dwarf, who stared at the dark opening.

  “All right, we attack on three. Ready? One… Two… Three!!”

  ****

  “They must have found the female,” Rhein reported, lying face down with his ear to the rocky floor. “That sounds like one hell of a battle.”

  “What do ye hear?” Pheron squatted next to his friend. Kern joined him moments later.

  “Several explosions.” Rhein was silent a moment as he sensed the faint vibrations in the rock. “The intensity is growing steadily stronger. Do ye think that the battle is in their favor?”

  “There is no way to know.” Pheron thought a moment. “Let me know the instant anything changes.”

  ****

  “Come on, you lily-livered, monkey-lovin’, small-brained pieces of crap! Come get me! Fresh meat!!”

  The advancing guur clicked angrily as their hive-mates continued to drop around them, turning into flaming piles of goo. No matter how they attacked this wielder of fire, they kept sustaining incredible losses. The queen had retreated into the last grotto after narrowly avoiding being destroyed in the previous assault. A group of twenty guur had then been selected to sn
eak through the overhead tunnels to attempt an overhead attack. The rest were tasked with keeping the bipeds preoccupied while more reinforcements could be summoned.

  Three of the most aggressive guur chose to attack the largest of the bipeds. As they rushed to overtake the human, a fireball slammed into two of the large insects, reducing them to deep-fried status. The third actually made it to the ungainly biped. Chittering victoriously, it leapt at its prey. It was then that it realized part of its abdomen had stayed behind, while the half with its head still attached learned what it was like to become a shish-kabob.

  Breslin whistled in admiration. That human was insanely fast with his blades.

  Pushing the remains of the insect off his sword, Rhenyon glanced around the cavern. Breslin was now advancing on the guur that he had been facing, hacking the bug into little pieces much like a chef would dice an onion, all the while deeply scarring the rocky floor in the process. Apparently the dwarf liked these things as much as he did. Speaking of which, what happened to the rest of the horde he had just seen? What were they up to?

  “They just left their queen unprotected,” Steve observed, also noting the strange absence of the guur horde.

  “I trust this not, sir Steve,” Rhenyon murmured. “Do not let yer guard down.”

  “I hear that.” Steve looked at the last remaining alcove. “Time to finish this once and for all.”

  At that moment, however, it started raining bugs. Big ones. The rest of the guur horde had reappeared, streaming out of numerous holes scattered all across the ceiling. Some chose to scuttle down the cavern walls while others elected to simply drop down, hoping they could score a hit on the deadliest adversary they had yet to encounter.

  “Get back! Get back now!” Steve turned, grabbed Rhenyon by his right wrist, and executing a move that would make his old taekwondo master proud, hurled the startled soldier back amongst a group of fallen boulders, knocking Breslin down with him as well. At that moment, Steve’s jhorun, correctly guessing that some dire action was needed, once again took the guesswork out of his hands.

  The very air in front of him detonated, generating a large, intense sphere of fire and heat that expanded rapidly outward in all directions. It caught the guur completely unaware, vaporizing soft tissue instantly, leaving nothing but empty carapaces everywhere along the ground. Dead, smoldering guur began falling from the ceiling overhead.

  Echoes of the explosion continued to reverberate throughout the surrounding rock until eventually fading away, leaving a silence that was inexplicably deafening. The singed head of the captain appeared over a large boulder.

  “Wizards be damned, sir Steve!”

  ****

  “What the hell was that?”

  All three soldiers had leapt to their feet. Sarah joined them moments later.

  “Did everyone feel that?”

  All those present nodded.

  “That was no simple tremor. The very ground shook! Was that sir Steve?”

  Sarah nodded again, staring numbly ahead. “In dire circumstances, he has been able to generate a blast that can incinerate everything around him.”

  Curiosity had numerous dwarves poking their heads out of their houses. Windows and doors opened. Younglings appeared, chatting excitedly amongst themselves. Maelnar, along with several members of the Council, approached.

  “What was that, lass? Was that yer husband?”

  Sarah could only nod. Until she knew that her husband was okay, she didn’t trust her voice.

  Noting her discomfort, along with the unease exuding from the human soldiers, Maelnar sat down next to Sarah to wait with her.

  ****

  “Did I get them all?” Steve fanned the air in front of his face. That was the fourth blast he had generated and each had been more powerful than the previous one. Cool! “Anything moving besides us?”

  “Nay, lad.”

  Breslin was poking several of the smoking carcasses. No signs of life anywhere. Suddenly remembering that their primary objective should be in the vicinity, the dwarf’s head jerked over to the last remaining cave. It had suffered a cave-in! Tons of rock had fallen from the ceiling, smashing everything flat!

  “Lads! Behold! The last cave has been demolished!”

  They approached the destroyed cave cautiously, waiting for the last bits of debris to clear the air. Steve sneezed. The dust kept tickling his nose.

  “Think she made it out?”

  Breslin approached the ruins of the guur queen’s lair. Nudging aside some of the smaller rocks, he let out an exclamation of surprise. He pointed at an object in the pile of rocks.

  “Look there, lads. There can be no doubt. The female is no more!”

  The two humans joined the dwarf by the pile of debris. There, protruding from beneath an enormous boulder, were two large smoldering insectoid legs.

  The captain clapped Steve on the back.

  “Ye did it, sir Steve! The female guur has been destroyed!”

  “Let’s get the hell out of here. We need to let everyone know that we are alive and okay.”

  “Agreed. Master dwarf, lead the way.”

  Chapter 15 – Key

  Tumultuous applause erupted as the three weary fighters emerged from within the depths of the earth. All three soldiers embraced their captain, giving him a royal welcome. Only after they had verified he was uninjured did they all let their accusations fly. Sarah pushed by the cheering dwarves and the angry soldiers to pull her husband into a tight embrace.

  “Are you alright? What happened in there? And what happened to your shirt?”

  “I’m alright. A little tired. About my shirt, though,” Steve looked down at his bare chest. Was it his imagination or did it look like he was losing some air in his spare tire? Will have to ask Sarah for an honest opinion later. “It’s a long story. Tell you all about it tonight.”

  Thinking back to their quarters in the dwarven city, Sarah teleported a fresh tunic for her husband, who hastily pulled it on. He never really was comfortable without his shirt, Sarah mused. She wasn’t sure why. Watching Steve stretch his arms up to slide the tunic over his head, she couldn’t help but notice that he really should go without a shirt more often.

  Properly attired once more, Steve turned to Maelnar, who was approaching with several other members of the Council. Pheron, temporarily finished with chewing out his superior, followed the captain to the impromptu meeting with the dwarven council.

  “We are relieved to see ye safe and well. I take it ye were victorious, were ye not?”

  “The female guur has been destroyed,” Steve confirmed. “Along with I don’t know how many of the drones.”

  The elderly dwarf turned to Breslin. “I am relieved that ye are safe, my son. Have ye any idea how many of the drones were destroyed in the process?”

  “We did not keep an accurate count, father,” Breslin began, “but if I were to venture a guess, I would say we destroyed maybe three or four hundred. They kept trying to overwhelm us with sheer numbers, and fortunately sir Steve was able to incinerate anything that attacked us.”

  Maelnar clapped his hands together. “Excellent! Ye have exceeded my highest expectations, all of ye.” The dwarf gestured to the large council chambers. “Do ye mind? We would all like to hear about yer splendid victory over the guur.”

  Breslin looked at his companions. Rhenyon was yawning profusely while Steve appeared to be asleep on his feet.

  “Perhaps we could all convene tomorrow, father,” Breslin answered. “Speaking for myself and my companions here, I think we would all appreciate a night of rest and relaxation. What say ye, lads?”

  “He has my vote,” Rhenyon muttered.

  “That sounds like an awesome idea,” Steve yawned through his response. “Sorry.”

  Maelnar was nodding. “No apology necessary, lad. Rest and recovery is more important. We shall convene on the morrow, then.”

  Steering her husband gently away from the throngs of well-wishers, Sarah guided hi
m towards their assigned quarters.

  “You look dead tired, honey. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “All things considered, I’m not doing too bad. Just really tired. Wouldn’t mind grabbing a bite to eat, though. Must have something to do with expelling all that jhorun.”

  “How many of those mimets did you end up using?”

  Steve patted the pouches along his chest, pulling out various crystals to see if they were hot or cold.

  “I have seven left, plus I’m missing a couple.”

  “I still have the three that Rhenyon gave me. Two hot, one cold. I used one to replenish mine after the trip to the castle. One round trip and I was wiped out.” She gave the crystals back to her husband, who had to pat himself down again to find the empty pouches they belonged in.

  “Okay, make that nine, then.”

  “So you used close to half. That must have been one huge battle.”

  “More like three or four huge battles, one right after the other. I’m surprised I didn’t deep fry Rhenyon or Breslin.” Steve laughed. “You should have seen me, babe. I was firing off blast after blast at anything that moved. It was like that whack-a-mole game. There were so many holes everywhere and these things kept popping out of them all at the same time.”

  As Steve continued to relay the events that had transpired after she and the soldiers had left, several dwarven guards appeared out of nowhere and discreetly started clearing the road back to the guest quarters. With Rhenyon and Breslin both following silently behind, they navigated their way through numerous streets and alleyways, all the while being congratulated by every dwarf they encountered. Numerous well-wishers had lined the streets, all cheering loudly and clapping everyone on the back, including Sarah.

  Bidding their friends good night, the two Nohrin retired to their chambers. Pushing the door gently shut, she turned to her exhausted husband and suppressed a smile. Steve was attempting to pull off his boots, which were refusing to cooperate due to the laces still being tied. Coming to his aid, Sarah untied his laces and then helped unbuckle the dragon sword. Sighing heavily, Steve stretched out on the bed.