Do not, I said, stare at it. Put it out of sight. Under your jacket! Quickly, Cory! OK, OK, its covered up. Ouch, its hot! Hold on a minute. OK, thats better. You can take your hands off your face. Whered you get this thing? That priest? It looks worth a fortune! Its uncanny. Ive never seen any metal like this before. The Medruzz runs from it. One look at that knife and he runs, fast. You dont even have to touch him with it. I wonder if its radioactive. If so, Im already dead. I rubbed at my eyes. I think Ill lie down. How long do you think you can stay awake? Another hour? Why dont you wake me then and Ill sit up with the fire. I blinked wearily, suddenly desperate for sleep and weak with relief. In giving up the knife, I had also given away, if only for a little while, the depressing burden of its purpose. Go to sleep, Andy. Ill wake you up when I need to. I went to the tent and lay down. The cold breeze was stronger and blew the smoke of the fire away from me, along with the heat. I shivered and drew my knees up and my arms close around my chest, and looked out between the tent flaps at Corys face on the other side of the fire. He was staring into the flames, as people often do, mesmerized by their yellow dance. Behind his unprotected back lay the infinite maw of night. I got up again and went out to him. I said, Let me have the knife, just for a moment. He frowned, but gave it to me. With my face turned away from it, I gripped it tightly by the handle with both hands, raised it high over my head and then drove it down hard into the tree stump that Id been sitting on earlier. When the blade struck the wood it rang like a crystal bell and rattled me to the bone, but it was solidly buried in the heavy stump where it blazed away like a tiny sun. The knife was hot, but not hot enough to set the wood on fire, or it would have burned all my clothes off before now. I faced Cory with my back to it. It stands guard alone, and better than you or I could do it. Lets get some sleep. I nodded toward the tent. He yawned, shrugged, and followed me. We slept in each others arms, warmer because of the company, and too tired to care about anything else.
The creatures came no closer than the big rocks around the campsite. They prowled. They drooled, a black and slimy froth that dripped from their chins to the dirt near their clawed feet. They snorted and hissed and snapped at each other, and waited there until just before the sun rose, because their tiny brains could not fathom that the magic light beside the tent would not go away and allow them to feed their terrible hunger, to sink their fangs deep into the souls that lay asleep nearby. We didnt see the tracks of them until we had packed up and were climbing away from the site. Cory crouched down and placed his hand beside one of the footprints, careful not to touch the trail of slime beside it. The narrow, three-toed mark in the dust was twice the length of his hand. He stood up and looked around at all of the footprints. They were everywhere. He glanced at me and I could see the veins along his jaw stand out. Finally, he said, Wed better get going. After a minute he added, Im really liking that knife you brought. Keep it handy. I didnt say a word.
The sun was directly overhead. We were hot. We were covered with the fine grey dust. We were each caught up in our own worries. Communication was reduced to an occasional grumble of pain brought on by sore shoulders and feet. Then I saw a new footprint, very different from what wed seen before. I grabbed Corys elbow and pointed down at the imprint in the dust ahead of us. He pointed to all the rest of them, all around us. He was so quiet when he spoke that I almost didnt hear him. Cant have been here long, not out in the open like this. Theres been a little too much wind through here today. The hot breeze blew dust into our faces even as he spoke. It stirred the footprints, erasing some, blurring the others as we watched. Not long at all. He set his boot down in the middle of them. Good. This one is wearing my boot size. So we can safely assume hes probably about my height. We can only hope. It looks like were outnumbered, though. More than one of them may be a lot bigger than you. Good point. Howd they get ahead of us? Maybe theyve been ahead of us from the beginning and were moving faster. So what do you think, Cory? Are they friendly? Lets not show ourselves until weve seen what theyre doing. He leaned toward my ear and said, We dont want them to take that knife away from us. We need it. I agreed. We moved carefully now, quietly, and closer to the bigger rocks, through their shadows. And we moved faster. We heard them talking before we saw them. We crept up behind a small avalanche of boulders and peaked cautiously at the group of men. They had stopped and settled into the shade beneath a ledge, and were passing a jug of water around. One of them sat a little apart, reading from a book in his lap. I turned to Cory, grabbed the front of his jacket and pulled him against me so that I could whisper in his ear. Keep real quiet. We cant let them see us. Its Hugo.
Twists, turns, and plots that go thick in the night. Hugo's return was inevitable. "There were three born to the sorceress, Sriet..." Hugo, Andy and Hadrea are the three, however much Andy refuses to believe it. Only one of them is allowed to survive, according to the rules set by Makhist. A tough little problem. Anyway, I logged in to add a couple of pictures. This is the first camp, where Andy sticks the knife into the tree stump to protect them from the beasties that come out at night. They sleep together in the tent, fully clothed. Don't know if you can see it in this picture but Andy's eyes are open. She seemed a little surprised when Cory threw his arm around her. But maybe she's just thinking about Arkin. Still working on the rest, but it's very late here on the east coast. *yawn*
Really good stuff, Lynet! You spin a really good yarn!! And your pictures are amazing, as usual...Your Downloads folder must be GINORMOUS!
Thanks, and it is. Three more-- Hugo and his followers. Andy and Cory spy on them. Andy recognizes Hugo.
We edged away, putting our feet down carefully because of the loose rock underfoot. The canyon walls above us were cracked and crumbling, weakened by the ice of a long winter, and were shedding bits and pieces every few minutes. By luck alone, we managed to get away without making a sound. Some distance further down the canyon, feeling safer, we sat in a narrow hollow beneath the cliff and discussed the problem of Hugo and his men. “He must be looking for me,” I said. “Tell me you didn’t steal the knife, Andy.” What?! Absolutely not! I told you what he wanted. He gave it to me and told me to go kill his sister.” “Lower your voice. I mean it. Small sounds bounce all up and down this canyon, so keep it down. If you didn’t steal it, then why would he be chasing you?” “Obviously, he wants to make sure I do what he told me to do.” “If he’s so hot to see his sister dead, then why doesn’t he do it himself? This whole business is screwy. I think he gave you a big load of crap, and now he and his little army of weasels are in the way.” “It’s hardly an army. There’s only five of them, plus Hugo.” “So that’s three for you and three for me. Which three do you want?” “Your sarcasm isn’t doing anything to help us.” “I wasn’t joking. But here’s another idea. We wait until dark and sneak past them. We know they move slowly, and I don’t think they’re even going to make it all the way through the pass. I saw no evidence of supplies. What are they eating? Bugs? It doesn’t matter. What matters is this, we move faster, so all we have to do is get ahead of them and we’re clear.” “It might work, if we don’t trip over them in the dark, or over those other things that leave trails of slime and have big feet with three toes.” “I’m willing to listen to a better idea. How about this one? We go back to the farm and wait until all these clowns have starved to death. Then we try again.” “I’m not going back. We’ll wait for dark and try to get past them.”
Do Andy and Cory look dirty enough? I went a little nuts with that cheap Paint software that comes along for the ride with any new computer.
Lynet I have to say, I started reading this story a little late so I had a lot to catch up on. I love it!! You've written Andy so well, I almost feel like I really know her
It was still early afternoon, but we could not move forward because of Hugo and his men. And I refused to retreat any more than we already had, so we were stuck on the spot. We took a few minutes to chew on raw vegetables, not wanting to risk a fire to cook them. It was an awful meal. The vegetables were stringy and tough, which is why everyone served them as a tasteless, boiled mush. Both Cory and I finished eating in a thoroughly bad mood. Then he practiced with his bow and arrow, and it took him by surprise that he could not even hit the canyon wall directly in front of him. When he got angry with the exercise I had to remind him to keep his voice down. He stopped cursing, but he kept practicing, determined that the thing in his hand must obey simple physical laws. He understood those laws, so the wretched thing should work for him. There was no doubt he had the strength for it. He took his jacket off, and I sat on a rock with it across my lap and watched him pull on the bow, straightening his shoulders and using the muscles in his back and arms. I found myself fascinated by the sight, and felt a flush creep up from somewhere below my heart to warm my neck and my face. Fortunately, the man was too absorbed in learning this new skill to notice me staring at him, and would probably have misunderstood the reason, anyway. The shadows in the rocks grew darker and longer, creeping up the canyon walls, chasing the retreating sun. Cory noticed the chill and came over for his jacket. "There's theory," he said, "and there's putting it into practice. I had to take into account, for instance, the line of my sight over the tip of the arrowhead. Not as obvious as you'd think. Absolutely fascinating. Did you see me hit that rock I was aiming for? The small one. I got it right on. Twice. Want to try it?" I shook my head, "Tomorrow evening, maybe. I'm a little anxious about tonight right now." "Yeah, me, too. We'd probably better get going. They've been walking, I'll bet you, although probably not very far." He grabbed at the hem of his sweater and pulled it up to wipe at his face, adding more dirt to what was already there. Then he straightened out his clothes and said, "Do you have that knife ready to grab? Just in case we meet one of those other things." I fumbled with the top of my backpack, hiding my face from him, although the light was probably too dim for him to see anything, anyway. Besides, I told myself, if your blood is black, then what does your face look like when you blush? A darker gray, maybe? Stop it, Andy! If he figures out what you're thinking he'll never stop laughing. He'll be impossible to work with. Pull yourself together! This canyon is deadly at night and you'd better be focused on surviving it. I slid my hand under the lacings where I'd left them loose and put a sweaty palm and shaking fingers around the handle of the knife. "It's right here." I pulled my hand free, breathed in a lungful of the cool night air, and stood up. "I'm ready. Let's go."
Thank you so much, everyone, for the five star rating which I just noticed! As for Andy and Cory, they are having some real excitement right now. I am following them with my camera. I just happened to notice the evil sorceress Hadrea hovering nearby and I snapped a picture for my avatar. Creepy! (Also, it's very bright. Don't know how long I'll be able to stand seeing it every time I visit.) And all this time I thought she was hibernating...
For as long as we had enough light to see, we moved fast, sometimes running, until the canyon night deepened into a cold and solid darkness that caught at our legs and feet with unseen fingers of stone. I stumbled often and so did Cory, and that slowed us down. We stopped completely only once, when we heard the low muttering of some nocturnal predator. But the creature had already caught its dinner and was only warning us to keep away. A pair of glowing, yellow eyes moved among the rocks and watched us as we slipped past. We didnt speak to each other, and tried to move quietly, but the pounding of our hearts and our heavy breathing almost covered the other noise, the drumming. Move! Cory hissed. Faster! Its coming from behind us and getting closer. I knew what they were, their long feet pounding the canyon floor, their narrow heads raised as their throats erupted with a wet howl of hunger. We ran, following the too faint light of the stars, and as we ran I pulled my backpack to one side and reached my hand in to get the knife. At that moment we ran headlong over Hugos men who lay sleeping and huddled against the cold in the middle of the pass, where the rock of the canyon floor was warmest.
Run! I screamed. Run! Run! I could barely see them, wrapped in their black hoods and cloaks in a blacker night. But I heard them talking and grunting with surprise. Cory and I ran a little further down the canyon where I stopped at last, unable to run any further, my heart pounding too hard for me to hear anything around me. I pulled the knife all the way free of my backpack and with both hands on its handle I raised it over my head, where it blazed with an unearthly fire. Cory was momentarily blinded and almost fell over backwards in surprise but managed to stay close to me. Neither one of us could see anything beyond the small patch of dirt where we stood. We could only listen, and we heard the bellowing of the monsters as they retreated from us, headed for other prey. But the other prey they chose to pursue threw up a barrier of his own. Hugos blood may have turned from black to red, but it was still the blood of a sorcerer. I did not see how he raised the shield but raise it he did, a shimmering green wall of magic that surrounded him and his acolytes. I peered cautiously beneath the glare of my knife, toward the pandemonium of the monsters as they yelped and snapped and drooled around the edges of his shield. While they hovered there, frenzied by the sight of the meal they couldnt touch, Cory and I stepped quietly away and then started running again. Eventually, we had no strength to run any further. We climbed onto a narrow ledge and with our backpacks for pillows and our arms around each other for warmth, we dozed and waited for the morning sun. The knife lay exposed on the stone nearby, protecting us. Half awake, half asleep, listening to Corys exhausted breathing, I looked up toward the peaks that leaned over us. The moon was there, and something else. For a moment I saw a womans face. She seemed to be watching us. Then she rose and faded from sight. Just a dream, I told myself, and closed my eyes.
Are we playing the same game? You do such amazing special effects. Witch Baby wants to know where you got the dragonoids. I thought you didn't have pets yet.
I'm afraid I will have to disappoint Witch Baby. The dragonoids are a statue I found over at MTS2. Some people may recognize its shape and guess the movie that inspired it. However, even though they don't move, I find their appearance a little unnerving and feel compelled to delete them from the lot when I'm finished 'shooting' the scene.
The scene with the light coming from the knife (which she was actually holding but I just couldn't get a good picture of it) was so beautiful that I wished everyone were here in front of my computer to see it. I really couldn't convey it in a picture very well. Andy's face was glowing! I started to get choked up. Stupid, but I get so deeply immersed in the atmosphere of the story I'm writing. I even play moody music, creepy and dramatic stuff. I always do that. Let me tell you, I've always loved the charming, perky music that comes with the games, but it sure doesn't suit the darker and more sinister imagery of some parts of this story. I don't want Josh to worry, though. It really is just a romantic adventure -- love conquers and all that.
