I held my breath, hoping they wouldn't find me. They found me. Before I had any idea what was happening half a dozen knife cuts were added to those already on my body. I leapt up, my hand darting out with lightning speed to slash the throat of the first goblin, my arm waving to fend off the attacks of another. Within seconds both of my opponents were convulsing on the floor, major arteries cut and brains leaking over the dirty stone floor. I smiled as I saw the destruction I had wreathed. An arrow flew by, waking me up to the fact that it wasn't over yet. I charged into combat with the sender of the arrow. The little green skin tried to draw his knife but it was all over before he could even drop his bow. A quick slash across the forehead followed by a deep lunge into the creatures chest, spearing its heart and killing it instantly. Another knife darted from beyond my field of vision, slashing my leg. I cried softly in pain, jaw hurting from where my captors had previously beaten me, almost to death. I turned around and growled at the remaining goblins. It was only a half hearted growl because, even as the goblins closed around me, I knew that this minute would be my last. Coiling my leg muscles, I crouched down onto the stone floor. The goblins came closer and I almost thought I was trapped when my escape route appeared in front of me. One of the goblins tripped, catching itself before hitting the floor but unsteadying itself. I darted forward, Elven calves driving me through the puny creature before me. I dived at the only exit and watched as it seemed ever so slowly to come closer. Suddenly it slipped away, disappearing into the darkness. It took me a few seconds to realise the terrible pain in my shoulder. I crashed against the wall, everything speeding up back to normal again. An evil and quite terrifying laughter echoed around the chamber, seeming to come from one corner, which, as if on queue, lit up as I turned to look at it. In the corner sat a large, fat and gruesome looking orc, with two, more exercised guards by his side. One of the guards was missing a spear and I realised that that was what was pinning me to the wall, trapping me for the goblins to slowly take apart. Although goblins were smaller and weaker than orcs, they were a lot smarter. They all grinned as they closed, realising how many hours of fun they would get out of me once I was captured. I tried to move but the spear pinned me painfully well to the wall, but not through my flesh. I cursed as I realised it was my own Elven armour that was stopping me. The spear had gone straight through it, slicing my flesh, and then come out the other side and into the wall. I slipped and fell to my knees on the floor, my knife slipping out of my hand and over the slimy cobblestones into a corner. I collapsed, knowing that my time had come. My comrades were not here and my torn clothes held nothing to help me. The orc warboss in the corner laughed, chilling me to the bone as the laughter bounded around the room. The warboss pointed his skull encrusted staff at me and opened his mouth. But before he could say anything, a bolt of lightning whizzed in through his open mouth, sizzling his brains and creating a spectacular light show. I mumbled 'about time' as loud as I could but it couldn't compete with the fierce war cry of Ragnar the barbarian as he charged into the orc warboss, slaying him and his guards with one mighty swing of the family sword. Xenoth the wizard stepped lightly into the room, his fingers spraying blue flames at the now screaming goblins. Finally came a agile form, darting through the doorway to protect the foolish Xenoth who had gotten himself surrounded by unsure goblins. The shadow darted straight through the goblins, not even stopping until it got right through. Behind it half a dozen goblins dropped to the floor, trying to hold in their innards and wind pipe. The surviving goblin stopped in the middle of his swing and stared at the mysterious figure which them smoothly chopped its head off. Ragnar turned around from dismantling the orc warboss and grunted in anger. "Yu' taken all me blimen' monsters!" he said in disappointment as he tried to bring a severed goblin head back to life with his sword, just so he could fight it. "Ah, Ragnar, you always complain, if you had been brought up in my family - " started Xenoth. "Yeah, yeah, we all know, you don't have to go on about your stupid etiquette rules and what-not, down here it means nothing. The only rule here is survival of the fittest!" barked Ragnar in reply before the stupid wizard could get going. Then even he couldn't stop the wizard as he went on about house etiquette and all manner of stupid snob nosed rich scumbag type things. To him, life meant one thing, death. He lived to kill and kill he did. "Ahem?" I said softly, wondering if they were about to forget about me and walk out. "Now what have we got here?" said the figure teasingly, stepping out of the shadows and drawing back its cloak. I knew who she was, Felicity, the only female member of our party. No doubt I would never here the end of how she had saved my life. "Come on!" I said, trying weakly to pull the spear out of my complaining shoulder. "You owe me one!" replied Felicity, wrenching the spear out of my shoulder and dropping it across the crushed chest of one of the goblins. Owe her one. Like as if I didn't already. This always seems to be my part in the adventure, it's like a script; enter dungeon, get separated, get captured, escape, get rescued, find treasure and return home. I sighed as I remembered my peaceful life back in the shady vale of Loren where I had played with my sister all day. That life had ended a long time ago when the dreaded Orc's emerged from secret tunnels to launch an attack on my home. My house was burnt, my farm and property destroyed, but most painful, I never saw my parents or sister again.
I picked myself up from the floor and allowed Felicity to apply some soothing herbs to my cuts. "I would do this myself, it's just - " I started, trying to gain a little bit of the honour I had lost. "It's just that you lost the fight and stuffed up again, so now you can't do a thing for it!" said Felicity, reminding me of the brute truth when I least wanted it. I smiled lightly as I gave up the argument, it would probably not of lasted long anyway with my mouth seemingly not even on my face. Actually, that was how most of my body felt, like it wasn't even there. That, I knew, was because of the Elven healing herbs. Those herbs had saved me many a time and my love for my Elven culture ran deep. I gave up trying to regain my manly honour and just let Felicity tend my wounds while Ragnar and Xenoth wandered gravely around the chamber. "It seems we have been tricked, my friends" began Xenoth, " our good friend Dylon seems to have gotten his dungeons crossed, mmm? Perhaps we should pay him a visit on the way home?". Ragnar smiled venomously and slapped the flat of his sword into his hand. Pay back on that lying scum-bag would be sweet, Ragnar already had a tightly strung relationship with Dylon and it seemed that wire had just snapped. Ragnar suddenly started talking to himself, something he only does when he's thinking. Since this is rare for him I leapt up, well, tried to. My legs folded neatly under me and I landed with a neat splat on the ground. Ow. Felicity started giggling uncontrolably, something she does quite often to my expense! "What have you found, my dear Ragnar?" asked Xenoth in a snobby voice. "Er, oh, nothing. I thought I saw something" replied Ragnar, sounding quite embarrassed about drawing all the attention to himself and them finding out he'd found nothing. I laughed slightly, old Ragnar was as thick in the head as ever! (But not to his face if you want to keep yours!) I rubbed my sore back and lent up against the wall. Suddenly there was a click and the wall suddenly wasn't there. I tipped backwards, landing with a thump on the ground. This just wasn't my day. Hiss. "What?" I said aloud. Hisssssss! "Er, Ragnar, this ain't funny!" I cried out, trying to force my jelly legs to stand up. They refused and I was left on the floor. I began to panic. "Shut up, you know it's only Ragnar playing his stupid jokes again!" I said to myself softly, trying to convince myself it was true. But I still knew it wasn't Ragnar. I knew because now I could hear footsteps, tiny footsteps and lots of them, about eight. Dungeons are just like all places, they have bugs. Only the bugs in dungeons often grow a lot bigger than normal. Sometimes bigger than a man and even on rare occasions as big as a house. This was one of those rare occasions. Venom dripped onto the floor only a few feet from my head, splashing me slightly and burning everything it touched, including me. Instantly I swung around and bunched my feet up, ready to kick anything that appeared from the darkness. Even as I prepared for an attack my hands tried to locate a hole in the rocks behind me. There wasn't one. Even as I realised this with horror, the giant creature whom who's den I had fallen into, appeared out of the darkness. I gasped as the huge spider dwarfed me. I shuffled sideways, trying to get away from the huge beast that was even as I watched cleaning its teeth for its next meal. I bumped into something and turned around to find myself facing a rotting corpse, flies buzzing in and out its eyes, nose and mouth. I cried out and it was that cry that saved my life. The giant spider scuttled towards me at an impossible speed, faster than anything I had ever seen in my life. It raised its front legs and opened its mouth to show fangs nearly a foot long. Suddenly the legs swept down and the fangs sliced through the air towards me. I braced myself for the impact that would bring about my death but it never came. I opened my eyes and blinked. I was surrounded by my companions, all of them bearing worried looks. I collapsed, I was sick of this adventuring business. Join the adventurers, they said, become a hero, they said. If I didn't watch it I would very soon become a memory! I glanced at the stone from which I must have come through but there were no hidden patches, doorways or levers, just a plain old wall. "Wh, wha, what happened?" I stuttered. "You tell me, old friend!" replied the wizard Xenoth with a slightly amazed tone, "one minute you were there, the next, POOF!". He snapped his fingers to emphasise the point. "You're lucky I heard your cry, I located the cry and quickly cast a spell to bring you back to us!" continued Xenoth. "Hov, hoyerrrrrr......." I tried to say something but before I could say a word I had passed into unconsciousness. I could just imagine Felicity saying "Great, now we have to carry bimbo here all the way back home!" and I could imagine Ragnar grunting with amusement. Barbarians would rather die than pass out, to them, falling unconscious was showing immaturity and proving that you were weak. Xenoth would be the only one not making immature remarks or gestures. He would probably be too busy searching for secret passages or something. He was like that, he liked adventuring but his real motivation was treasure. Still, he's a real handy guy to have around sometimes!
I woke up quite a time later, when we were well out of the dungeons. We were travelling horse back along an old dirt path that wound its way lazily through the country-side. After a moment of making sure I wasn't going to splat on the ground, I pulled myself up into a ridding position and took the reins. "So, you decided to look at the scenery?" asked an esquiring voice, Felicity. "Just resting" I said casually, pausing briefly to look back at her. She smiled lazily. It was a peaceful day and we weren't really expecting any trouble, but we should have.
After a few more hours of ridding we stopped and made camp. Xenoth decided to cook some pungent potion in the cooking pot so we were going to have to wait a while until he was finished. While we waited I ran through a few practice exercises with Ragnar. He went soft on me but I was still hard pressed to match his strokes. After a while I gave in and Ragnar smiled happily and went off to oil his sword. I wandered back to where Xenoth was brewing his potion. "Which dead animal's in it this time?" I asked, referring to the time he made us rat and snake soup. "I must remind you that at the time it was quite a delicacy!" he replied, trying to keep a straight face but failing. I nodded casually, he was right, at the time it was a delicacy. But only amongst orcs. "If you're looking for Felicity she went that way" said Xenoth without any prompting on my part. She had probably left the message and was going to play one of her teasing games. I gave in and got up. I had the time and she enjoyed it, so I figured why not. Carefully I wandered into the forest around the outskirts of out camp. I wandered for a long time and found nothing. I called her name a couple of times, trying to trick her into thinking we were all eating but she didn't appear. I was starting to get worried, never had she taken so long to play a trick and these woods were notorious for bandits that would slit their own throats for a few silver pieces. Suddenly a face appeared in front of me, scaring me into another dimension. It was Felicity, hanging upside down on a tree branch. "Hello!" she said, grinning. "You're gonna kill someone doing that one day!" I replied, rubbing my back from where I had fallen. "Probably!" she said as she flipped over and landed perfectly on the ground. She was still smiling and I was getting annoyed. I shrugged to myself and the anger went away. Suddenly a twig snapped behind me. I whirled around but alas, I was too late. I huge wooden club came down on my shoulder, sending me sprawling. I picked myself up from the ground, grabbing for a sword that wasn't there. My eyes flashed back to the camp where I could see Xenoth tasting his potion, my sword resting beside him where I had casually dropped it. I drew my knife, which I always carried, and brought it up to face my attacker. "You scum - " I started but stopped. Felicity gasped and I almost fell over. In front of me stood a huge figure, easily twice the size of me and three times my girth. A giant, and a large one at that. The giant brought its club up above its head and I desperately tried to get a foot hold on a tree behind me so as I could climb out of the giants reach. I couldn't, the tree behind me was a smooth as, as, skin? I turned around, falling as I did. I cried out, rolling over as the giants club came whizzing down to crush me into ground cover. But the club never touched me or the ground, instead it hit a branch which had seemingly moved itself in the way. It had. In front of me I watched the tree I had just attempted to climb turn into a Dyrad, a forest spirit. Dyrads are trees who have been gifted or blessed by someone of the Elven culture, such as an Elrad, god of the hunt, to come alive at times of need and help the Elves. Now was such a time. The giant stared in amazement as the huge Dyrad brought one of its man sized branches straight down onto the giants head. The giant stepped backwards awkwardly, trying not to fall. Suddenly the giant lost its stupid grin and became angry. It swung its club sideways just as I managed to get to my feet. The club connected squarely with my chest and I went flying, straight into another tree. I lost hold of my knife and it disappeared into the undergrowth. Felicity leapt out of the clubs path just in time and landed awkwardly on the ground. The Dyrad roared and raised both of its main branches. In one last attack it brought them down with all its strength. The two branches hit the giant on both its shoulders. The giant sank to its knees, and then toppled face first into the ground. Before I knew it the Dyrad had disappeared. "What was that?" cried Felicity who now had her sword drawn. "A Dyrad" I croaked, awkwardly getting to my feet. Felicity recovered from the shock. She had obviously never seen or heard of a Dyrad before and was quite amazed at seeing one. She walked over to where I was trying to get up. "This just isn't your day, is it?" she said to me as she pulled me up. "At least it can't get any worse!" I replied.
I was wrong. After slowly making my way back to the camp and applying a few more herbs I relaxed by the fire. It was almost dark and hopefully it would keep away any wild animals that wanted dinner. Felicity came and sat by the fire, followed by Ragnar who was carrying an armful of different things. "Thank you, Ragnar" said Felicity seductively. Ragnar instantly went red in the face! He mumbled something about other stuff and quickly went off. Felicity smiled at me. No matter what, she could always seduce a man, even Ragnar who's been adventuring with her for over a year now. Even I had the occasional red in the face moment because of her. She could be anything from a princess to a cave-women, depending on the situation. At the moment she was nearer the princess mark than anything else. "Ragnar, Ragnar, where for are the, Ragnar?" she said over her shoulder, reciting part of a play by the famous Brettonian, Willian Throwaspear. Ragnar quickly appeared beside her, still bright red. This time he was carrying some cooking herbs. While Ragnar clumsily unloaded the herbs and pot, Xenoth came and sat down. "Hello!" he said to announce his arrival as he is known for doing. "Hello!" said a voice from outside the fire. Instantly we all stopped and stared at the place the voice came from. I quickly picked up my sword, holding up against the shadow. Ragnar drew his battle axe and Felicity drew her knife. Suddenly there was a cry from behind me. Instantly I rolled forward and heard a chunk as a heavy axe cut straight through the log I was sitting on. I was back on my feet instantly, ready for anyone else. The attacker had disappeared into the shadows again, leaving his axe. There was a twang and an arrow buried itself deep into Ragnars wolf skin coat. He cried out, tearing the arrow out of his flesh and spinning around to face its firer. Felicity grabbed her bow which was attached to the saddle of her horse. Before she could pull it down an arrow whizzed right past my nose and went straight through the bow and into the saddle. The horse reared up, snorting, and then ran off into the darkness. Suddenly a dozen shapes appeared as if out of thin air. Ragnar cried out and charged the nearest three. They expertly avoided his blows and circled him. The wizard, Xenoth, muttered a word and there was suddenly bright light everywhere, illuminating our attackers. I jumped towards the nearest attacker, rolling aside as he brought his sword down and into the ground. I brought my sword up, slicing his back all the way up to his neck. He roared in pain as I got up and charged towards me. I parried his blade with mine and kicked him in the stomach. He grunted and pulled back. Before he could raise his blade I drove mine into his gapping mouth and down his throat. He sprouted blood from his mouth for a moment as he dropped onto the ground, then I smoothly cut his throat clean from his head. One of the attackers charged straight at me. I raised my sword up above my head. The attacker didn't do anything. He came in range and my muscles strained to bring the sword down on my attackers head. But I couldn't, something had caught it. Behind me another attacker was using his sword to pin down mine. He kicked me in the back and I dropped to my knees. The first attacker brought his club down across my chest. Luckily I was wearing my Elven armour and the club didn't damage me but I still fell backwards. I dropped my sword and tried to grab my knife. I remembered how I had lost it in the forest to the giant and cursed. I rolled aside as the club came down again. It grazed my arm and that was the chance I needed. In a flash I was standing again and the club was in my hands. I pulled it back and its wielder fell towards me. I kneed him in the stomach, let go of his club and then punched him. Spinning around I caught the other attackers blade between my hands. I twisted it aside and kicked the attacker, once, twice, three times in the stomach. I crouched down and tripped him over. Grabbing his sword and using it to parry another attack that came from beside me. I quickly span around and got up. The new attacker was half orc and I quickly despatched him. Orcs weren't known for their fighting skills. As I turned around I saw another three attackers get turned into ashes as Xenoth's firebolt spell consumed them. Felicity despatched her opponent and Ragnar was already interrogating one attacker. We all paused, checking that all the attacker were accounted for. "What's all this, huh???" asked Ragnar in a half animal voice. The attacker, whom I saw was Elven, cried out "I didn't mean it! They made me, I promise!". Ragnar raised his fist to finish the bandit but Felicity rushed to Ragnar's side and stopped him. "Wow!" said the bandit, staring at Felicity's entrancing figure. She smiled sarcastically and I could see her fighting with herself over whether to kill him or not. I've seen her break a mans arm over smaller things. That's how we met Ragnar. He came into the bar drunk and tried to seduce her (Something hard to do when your breath smells so bad vampires won't go near you!). She broke seven of his fingers and promptly sent him flying out the door and into the mud. "Now this is interesting!" said Xenoth, his fingers still sparking slightly. The bandit screamed as he saw Xenoth's burning fingers. Xenoth looked startled and then looked as his fingers. "Oh, sorry!" he said, blowing the last of the sparks away. The bandit squirmed in Ragnar's hold but there was no way anyone could escape Ragnar once he got a good hold. "And what do you think you were doing, attacking us like that?" asked Felicity. The bandit whimpered and remained silent. "Hmm, you slime are all the same!" she said to the bandit. "Be careful, there's a bit of venom on your chin!" I said to Felicity. She smiled. One of the advantages of being Elven was it was in our nature to forgive, even in the most one sided cases. "How about we invite our little friend to dinner?" I asked. Ragnar licked his lips, showing stained yellow teeth. The bandit screamed. "As a guest!" I added quickly. Ragnar looked at me and then back at the bandit. He sighed. "But he's so cute and all alone, can we eat him?!?". The bandit closed his eyes, his knees and teeth rattling. "Ragnar, tie our little friend up and bring him to dinner!" proclaimed Felicity. Ragnar went away with the bandit, still thinking we were about to eat him. "Phew!" said Felicity, "I was about to slap his puny little face into the next province!". "Come on, let's eat, I'm starving!!!" said Xenoth, losing all his posh accent and glamour. When it came to food he was it! After a moment we resumed eating something Xenoth called "Puos Daot". I could taste something different in it but just couldn't put my finger on the extra ingredient. I could have asked Xenoth but no, I don't think I really want to know. After feeding the captive bandit we settled down for the night.
To Be Continued....
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