by LJ Davies
"No, you have to stay here – they'll need every dragon out here if they're to stand a chance against those manticores. The moment you see smoke from the inside, come in after me," I elaborated, before assuring. "I've snuck into my fair share of orkin forts, I know what I'm doing."
"Let me guess, you learned that while you were stuck out here alone?" she chastised.
Meanwhile, Tarwin was looking between us, only hearing half of the conversation, but quite clearly understanding what we were discussing.
"I'm coming in with you," she declared, drawing more of my disapproval. "Just because you can talk now doesn't mean you can argue. I'm not letting you go in there alone," she pressed sternly.
"Besides, I've got a little something to give those stupid creatures," she added, pulling several small, spiked orbs from one of her pouches.
I recognised the orkin weapons in an instant. Not only had I been the target of such explosives, but I also felt an element of caution at the sight of them.
They're bombs, like the cannon rounds, only smaller.
"Where did you get those?" I asked, trying to hide my excitement as I imagined the orkin getting a taste of their own fiery medicine.
"Surely you didn't expect me to spend months out here without picking up a few new tricks?" she responded, tossing one of the orbs up and down.
Does she know how dangerous that thing is!? I had to fight not to lunge forward and snatch it from her. She's like a flightless hatchling playing far too close to the edge of a cliff!
"So, are we heading in there or not?" she urged, nodding to the rotting fortress as she stashed the explosive.
I let out a sigh, but Tarwin wasn't Risha, there was far less room for negotiation.
"Good to see there's still someone you listen to," the blue dragoness joked.
"Fine, but I have no idea what's going to be in there," I replied with a huff.
"Good, that should make it interesting," Tarwin declared, and I couldn't help rolling my eyes.
It's going to be just like old times, only with murderous rock monsters, flying horrors and miniature bombs.
After assuring myself that every one of my other friends was ready, I motioned for us to begin our approach toward the bridge, where a lone guard stood by the entrance with a crooked spear.
"You ready?" I whispered to my companion as she knelt in the bushes beside me.
Despite the overwhelming difference between us, she simply nodded. Clearly, my newfound ability to speak hadn't changed the years of hunting experience we had together. She quietly drew an arrow, pulled her bowstring taut, and aimed for the guard's neck. I glanced between her and the oblivious orkin, half of my mind pondering whether she'd be able to take him down before he could warn any of the others.
Seriously, if anyone can do this, she can. Moments later, the guard fell backwards into the fortress’s entrance, clutching at the arrow in his neck. Point proven.
Silently, we both scurried across the bridge and made our way inside. The structure itself seemed to be covered in damp bark, as if some foul magic had dredged the tree from the soil and frozen it in a constant state of decay. A pungent smell filled the air and sickly fungi clung to the flaking walls; it was so bad I felt a strange longing to have the hardened walls of the ice fire citadel back.
I really shouldn't think about what can smell that foul, or what I'm stepping in.
Tarwin crouched beside the fallen guard, yanking the arrow from his neck and making sure her work was finished by swiping a dagger across his throat.
"Nice shot," I commented, flicking my tail at the orkin.
"Thought you knew I never missed?" she boasted, snatching a wall torch from its decrepit holder.
We cautiously made our way into the maze of tunnels toward the centre of the festering structure. The deeper we moved, the more the walls glistened like wet slime.
It's like we've been swallowed whole, this place is disgusting!
I tried not to think about the areas of the wall that seemed to writhe and wriggle, as if a whole carpet of insects were eating away at the decaying wood.
The more I look the more I just want to burn it all down. Even so, the swarms of bugs weren't the only things to shift in the dim light.
As we made our way around one tight bend, I saw a patch of large, bulbous mushrooms sprouting from the wall. I paused, raising my wing to signal for Tarwin to do the same. The fungus shuddered, as if disturbed by our presence, and with a scraping sound, one popped free from its place amidst the rotting bark and gave a low, chattering growl.
Okay, now I've seen everything.
The creature looked like a mushroom; a set of mangled, grubby legs sprouted out below the bulb while a fleshy mouth lined with jagged, brown teeth broke its surface. It had no eyes and was no bigger than my head, but the deeper I peered down the tunnel, the more I saw.
Not all were mushrooms – some looked like simple branches or wiggling maggots – but they all began to turn toward us with hungry sets of snapping jaws. I recoiled, fighting the urge to gag on the smell as the walls came alive. Tarwin took one look past me and brought the torch forward.
"Quick, get through before more of them notice," she commanded as the tide of nattering beasts collected themselves and began to advance.
I didn't argue as the first of the little monsters jumped up at me like some kind of horribly deformed grasshopper. Without a second thought I cut it in two with my blades, the sizzling odour of its charred flesh smelt worse than when it was alive. Two more latched on to my paws as I staggered forward, only to be squashed like bugs. As more awoke, I opened my wings to keep them away from Tarwin, forcing them back with several heavy beats.
"Get through, I'll be right behind you!" I called urgently as I kicked and clawed at the probing creatures.
My efforts did little to keep all of them at bay. The urge to simply blast them was tempting. Especially as I felt smaller ones trying to worm their way under my armour, only for the magical metal to tighten and slice them apart. One jumped at my face, trying to sink its teeth into the end of my snout before I snorted a puff of flame, turning it to ash.
"Remind me again why we were always so eager to see things like this!?" Tarwin called as she squashed one of the festering creatures under her boot.
"That was you, not me, I was just dragged along," I retorted, half-focused on flicking one of the things from my tail.
A sudden sharp pain lanced through one of my wing membranes and I turned to see several of them had sunk their teeth into the soft tissue. Shaking them off was easy, but watching the inky-black substance that flowed quickly into my veins wasn't so trivial to dismiss. I felt a wave of sickening nausea come over me as the golden glow of my natural healing began to stem the tide of rotting venom.
"Don't let any of them bite you," I called, all too aware that if the poison could do this to me, I'd no idea what it would do to a mortal.
Tarwin looked round, her face awash with alarm as she noticed the necrotic poison battling my celestial healing.
"Since when did your wings light up?" she asked, smashing another grubby monster aside with the torch.
"Since I found out I wasn't like any other dragon. Now, will you please move!?" I snapped urgently, battling away more of the ravenous beasts.
There was no more arguing, and we soon forced our way into a larger chamber where four tunnels converged. The combined light of several torches illuminating the chamber seemed to be enough to force the creatures back into their gloomy tunnel, and I slumped down with a huff. Taking several long breaths I inspected my wing, watching the wet holes slowly close as the rotting effects diminished. As Tarwin observed my rapidly healing wounds I knew I had to explain.
"I can't really be hurt, not from anything I've come across," I told her, although I made an effort to hide the dark scars on my right side as I did so.
Not by anything aside from Mordrakk's claws.
She offered a confused look.
"Is that the same
for all dragons or just you?" she asked.
I had to disguise just how much that obvious question hurt, when voices from within the maze of tunnels interrupted our conversation.
"It's the stinkin' wood grites, I's tellin’ you, nothing more," the gruff voice of an orkin soldier announced as two shadows appeared ahead of us.
We took cover in another of the tunnels, Tarwin finding a pool of sickly brown water to douse her torch as they came into view.
"Stupid things keep trying to bite off more than they's can chew," the same orkin added, while his companion snorted.
"Shut your's trap, we's no venom without them little wretches," he added.
I glanced at Tarwin, and it was clear she'd heard and understood their conversation too.
I guess the orkin are just as cursed, if not more so. But if they're using the venom of those little creatures? I didn't want to think about how that could rot someone’s flesh.
"Don't let one of them so much as scratch you," I whispered.
Tarwin gave me a look that told me how obsolete my comment was. While the two orkin passed by and moved off down the tunnel we’d just escaped.
"Douse that torch, I's don't want the stupid things swarming over us again," one of them muttered, and my attention spiked at that unwitting advice.
So those little things react to light then?
"Come on, this has to be the right way," I whispered, creeping down the tunnel from which the orkin had emerged.
"You just want to leave those two?" she asked.
"I have a feeling they'll get more than they bargained for down there," I replied confidently.
As sceptical as my companion looked, I knew she trusted me. Even if our newfound ability to talk made it all a little weird.
I just hope it doesn't make things too strange, how are we going to feel about one another after all this?
As expected, more of the wall-dwelling creatures resided in the next passageway, although, without torchlight to wake them, they remained placid. The only light we had came from the small puffs of white fire I dared exhale. It was like navigating a dark, trap-filled maze, until we reached a balcony overlooking a larger open area. It appeared the cavernous space had once been the core of the rotten tree; evidenced by the barely-visible growth rings in the floor.
So this was once a real tree? I considered, feeling a tinge of sadness at its reduction to a fetid tower of filth.
At least three more larger openings led into the maze of tunnels, and judging by the weak sunlight breaking through from outside, one particularly large maw had to be the main entrance. More light pierced through gaps in the tangled thicket of the cavernous roof, illuminating an assortment of bone effigies and roots that hung down from the rotten walls.
Blood-covered pedestals bore the demonic glyphs of sacrificial magic, with gory shrines erected to ancient gods. The bloodied corpse of a griffin lay over the dripping slab of one sacrificial stone, their limbs bound and feathers scattered as if it were no more than slaughtered poultry.
I heard that unmistakable grinding of stones. The sound made me feel sicker than any decaying venom could manage as Mordrakk drew another tally across my mind’s wall of darkness. It didn't stop when I glanced upward. I suddenly found myself very relieved that it hadn't been Shadow Fen orkin to enslave my friends months ago.
More mutilated bodies hung from the festering walls like tattered red flowers, their innards splayed open and bony limbs tied back. Most were no more than simple forest creatures, deer, pheasants and mountain goats, runes carved into their hides. Clearly, anything on the scale of a dragon was too much of a prize. Several larger bone-cages hung amidst the wicked display, exposing those crammed inside to their impending fate.
I focused on the prisoners, noting that most were humans. Larger creatures had been isolated in bigger cages, at least one of which appeared to be for dragons, bound within elemental-dampening chains. Four out of the five I could see were fire elementals. Another was reserved for a group of griffins, who looked to be in far worse condition than their leatherwing fellows.
Looks like they've been here much longer? One glance back at the feather wing on the alter and I dreaded to think why. This land is sick.
Tarwin took one look at the cage containing humans, and I could tell she was battling hard not to find and kill every single orkin crawling about this horrific place. The sight forced me to accept that this may not be as simple as burning down a fortress in Valcador. I was immortal and fireproof, but the thirty or so prisoners were not.
To make matters worse, we weren't alone. At least six orkin stood among more empty cages and pits of sickly black goo that bubbled away in the festering bowels of the tree below. Most were clad in bone-like armour, bodies completely consumed by corrupt stone. I also assumed that the wood grites’ necrotic venom tipped all of their crudely-sharpened weapons.
Things can never be so simple, can they? I turned my attention to the weeping walls, specifically several large patches of sickly orange fungus nestled within the cracks. More grites?
Looking back to the pools of bubbling sludge, I recalled seeing the same stuff before, on the war machines in Valcador.
They use it in weapons manufacture, it's flammable. I flexed my claws and ruffled my wings. The others are waiting for a fire? Well, I'm about to give them one.
"Do you have an arrow that can set that stuff on fire?" I asked, pointing to the sickly bogs.
"Blaze, you're a dragon, can't you just breathe fire?" she asked, and I sighed, a puff of smoke escaping my nostrils.
"My fire isn't exactly subtle. We need something that’s going to cause a distraction, not roast everyone," I reasoned.
Had the situation not been so serious, I was sure she'd have added something witty. Instead she looked at one of the torch-bearing orkin, then at the pit.
"I don't have any fire arrows, but if you can get one of the ones with a torch near a hole, I can improvise," she proposed.
"Okay, I'll get their attention, but we'll need a distraction to keep them occupied while we free the prisoners," I responded.
"Leave one of those cages to me," she said, grabbing at the canteen around my neck and pulling it off.
"Loud and to the point," she mumbled to herself, bouncing two of the explosive orbs in her grip as she looked at the leather-clad drinking utensil.
Now I know she's planning something crazy, something very crazy. I was about to ask her just how ridiculous her plan might be, but before I could say anything, she spoke again.
"You know, I always thought I was the one with the ridiculous ideas. Maybe we're both just as crazy?" She shifted slightly to strap the canteen to her belt with the rest of the orkin explosives.
"No, that's just you; you are the one with all the crazy ideas," I laughed.
"You say that as if it's a bad thing," she responded with a wry smile as she crept away.
Now there's no going back, nor is there time to consider other options.
As she edged to fulfil her part of our plan, I crept slowly down the side of the balcony into the centre of the chamber. While I pressed my body to the foul-smelling filth, my mind screamed at just how much of an idiot I was being. Against all my better judgment, I jumped out into the middle of the heavily armed guards.
Tarwin's right, we're both crazy, but that's served us both well enough up until now.
Taken completely by surprise, every orkin around me stopped what they were doing, a particularly large one turning back from the bloody altar. His rugged form was hunched and crooked beneath a layer of crude armour while an antlered skull covered his face. He peered at me with baleful green eyes, as he backed slowly toward one of the bubbling pits.
"What’s this?" he cursed as the majority of the others stepped closer, their weapons raised.
It wasn't hard to see the caution in them – these orkin were smarter than those of Valcador. I fought the urge to let my eyes wander toward Tarwin as I saw her creep around the edge of the room,
before she began unscrewing several of the explosive orbs to get at the black powder inside.
Meanwhile, the larger orkin gave a frustrated groan and finally charged at me. I darted into the air, kicking him in the face with my rear claws as he tried to grab my wings. It was seemingly a cue for the rest of them to attack, and within no time, I was battling several sets of hideously spiked blades.
I dispatched two with my tail and another with a clean sweep of my wing, all the while wishing I could simply burn them and be done with it. One of the larger creatures drove a spear through the membrane of my left wing, pinning me down as another struck me across the back with a spiked club. My armour absorbed most of the blow as I swept the legs out from under another of my attackers, while the hooded beast stood on my muzzle, stopping any form of fiery retaliation. In that moment, I saw Tarwin appear above the altar, improvised canteen in hand. I'd no idea what she'd done with it, but as she produced another explosive orb in her opposite hand, I didn't stop to think about it for too long.
"Here, you overgrown fungus, have some of this!" she shouted, tossing both the armed explosive and the canteen into the middle of the group.
I took one look at the bloated leather pouch and immediately realised what she'd done.
Loud and to the point, indeed!
Kicking up against my confused attackers, I yanked the spear from my wing, having barely enough time to escape before there was a blinding flash and the whole floor shook. The orkin were sent flying in a shower of sparks and flames, several landing in the sickly black pools, swiftly igniting the liquid and themselves. Tarwin released several arrows into the confused rabble as strange-smelling smoke began to pool in the air.
Well, there's stage one of my plan. I surmised, leaping up onto an outcrop of rotten wood, peering at the tether holding the fire dragons’ cage aloft.
Now to complete stage two, before reinforcements arrive.
The walls began to twitch and chatter as the heat of the sudden explosion and the bright burst of light touched them. Within moments, fungal growths crawled from the decaying wood, immediately overwhelming two orkin as the rest were stuck between the growing fire and the tiny beasts’ chattering teeth.
