Missteps Book Two

Chapter Six – Duos

The only sound in the small corridor was the sound of Carric yelling profanities at the sealed doorway. Behind him, Iados winced as the crude words rebounded sharply off the stone walls.

"I think they get the point." The akudaem yelled out. He reached out and wrenched Carric around strongly by the shoulder. "Who even are you yelling at?"

"The damn sisters!" Carric growled as he wrenched his shoulder out of Iados's arm. "They stole Shomma!"

Iados raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I got that from your yelling." He chuckled. "I don't think I've ever seen you this upset before."

The ranger narrowed his eyes. "You don't just take a man's weasel." He stomped off up the hallway.

The akudaem laughed and followed. "I'll have to remember that. Why are you so sure it's the sisters?"

"We're in their damn tower." Carric growled. "When we finally reach them and it turns out it wasn't them who stole Shomma, then I'll be angry at the real culprits. Until then, I'm blaming the sisters."

Iados nodded. "Glad you've got a plan at least."

The two walked in silence for another five minutes before they came to the end of the corridor. A stone door much like the one they'd walked through before sat embedded into the stone wall. Once the duo was only a few feet away, it crumbled into dust, and they barely hesitated before walking into the room beyond.

This room was much smaller when compared to the previous cavern, and was longer than it was wide. Only a couple of feet above their heads was a wooden chandelier suspended on a short chain. Chests and wardrobes lined every inch of the walls, except for a narrow stone door opposite from the entrance. Clothing overflowed out of the wardrobes and cascaded down onto the floor. Most of the large chests were missing their lids entirely, or had their sides burst so that the contents spilled out.

With a large smile, Iados's eyes raked over the mess. The clothing consisted of everything from simple peasant garb, to servant's uniforms, to middle-class suits and dresses, and even a few ball gowns. Dispersed amongst then were hand fans of every variety, costume jewelry, leather horse heads on sticks, a startling number of bells (cow and otherwise), and even some leather harnesses. It was as if the sisters had moved the inventory of a theatre company into this room. The items in the room were stacked so deep that he had no idea what the floor looked like.

Carric ignored the items in the room, and instead stamped over to the exit door on the opposite wall. Unlike the previous door, this one did have a handle that included a silver locking mechanism. He turned to the akudaem "Want to try to pick this?"

"Why? It's probably un-pickable like before." The former pirate reached down and picked up a large paper fan that had a scenic mountain painted upon it.

The ranger snatched the fan out of his hands. "So you're not even gonna try?"

Iados grinned. "That's right." He kneeled down and started digging through the mounds of clothing.

Carric groaned. "We should be looking for a way out of the room, not looting."

"I'm looking for a key." The violet-skinned akudaem explained. He stopping digging and looked up at the half-elf, a pink and white juggler's club in his hand. "The way I figure it, if there's a lock, there must be a key. And where's a good place to hide a key?" He waved to the large mess with the club. He clicked his tongue and went back to searching. "Man, you lose one pet and you just go to pieces."

The ranger's face went red as he reached out and wrenched the club out of Iados's hand. "Sorry if my concern is distracting. We can't all be cold-hearted pirates."

The akudaem jumped to his feet and rounded on the ranger. "First of all, that's hurtful and I demand an apology. Second, sometimes you need a cold-hearted pirate to get a distasteful job done. Three, I'm neither cold-hearted, or a pirate, anymore." He turned his back on the ranger and kneeled down again.

Carric brandished the club at the back of Iados's head. "In my experience there aren't many ex-pirates out there who turn into good outstanding citizens."

Iados gave a heavy sigh. "Ok, why are you getting so out-of-shape about this? Is it because I'm not sa-" He was interrupted by a hard thud to the back of his head that shoved him face-first into the ground.

"What the hell!" The akudaem growled as he flipped over on the floor so that he could face his attacker. "I know you're pissed, but that was uncalled for." He rubbed the now-sore spot on the back of his head.

"It wasn't me!" The ranger's eyes were wide as he held the club as far away from him as he could. "It was the club." As the two men watched, a large toothy maw appeared on the item's side.

Iados cursed as Carric dropped the club and scuttled back. Four pink appendages popped out of the prop, the mouth focused in the akudaem's direction. A long, purple tongue snaked out of the maw and licked its thin lips.

As quietly as he could, Carric got to his feet and drew his sword. Iados saw what he was planning, and gently shook his head.

"Hey, you're just a little one, aren't you?" The former pirate cooed as he reached into a pants pocket. "I bet you're just hungry after being trapped down here, aren't you?" He pulled out a strip of jerky and held it out to the creature.

The club scuttled closer and sniffed the jerky with an unseen nose. Its tongue shot out and did a taste, before the purple mass grabbed the whole strip and brought it back into its mouth. As the mouth chomped down on the jerky, the creature reverted from its club shape, to a small puddle of black ooze, just big enough to fit in the palm of someone's hand.

Iados grinned. "That's what I thought." He put another piece of jerky in his hand and held it out towards the creature.

Eagerly the tiny ooze slid forward and crawled onto the hand. The mouth reappeared and went to work on the jerky.

"That's not how I expected that to go down." Carric slowly resheathed his sword as he watched in awe as Iados stood up with the ooze in his hand. "How'd you do that?"

The akudaem shrugged. "Experience. Usually the smaller they are the easier it is to convince them to eat something else. It's the big ones that have more voracious appetites." The little ooze gave a small burp. Iados used a finger to pet it, a move the ooze enjoyed as it began to purr. The former pirate chuckled. "At any given time, there would usually be two or three of these little guys on the ship. When they grew up, we'd trade or sell them to groups looking to guard something." He gently tucked the ooze into a pants pocket.

The ranger raised an eyebrow. "You do realize that you can't keep it, right?"

Iados looked hurt. "Why not?"

"Ander hates those things, especially the little ones. Remember? One crawled up his nose and give him bad indigestion?" Carric explained.

The akudaem tilted his head in confusion. "When he'd say that?" He shrugged. "What about if we just don't tell him about the little guy?"

With a smile the half-elf sighed and hung his head. "Fine, but when he finds out I'm pleading ignorance."

"Sounds good." Iados chuckled and turned his attention back to the mess of clothes and props. "Come on, help me look for that damned key."

With the two of them looking together, it only took about twenty or so minutes before they discovered the small silver key stuck to the bottom of a wardrobe. The door opened with a flash of light, and the duo was once again presented with a hallway. Through an archway at the end, it emptied out into a long perpendicular corridor. Two more archways were sat farther down, and then across the hall were two stone doors.

Between the doors, was a large mural that stretched from the floor to the 10-feet ceiling above. On a black background, were three large, scaled, and winged creatures; one was red, one was copper, and the other was creamy-white in color. It was obvious to both of them that the creatures depicted were dragons. The three of them flew and encircled the image of a cracked egg.

"What do you think it means?" Iados asked as he stood in front of the mural and gazed at it.

"No idea," Carric went over to the doors and looked for any kinds of handles or latches, but there were none. He sighed and went to sit on the wall across from the mural. "Wanna takes bets on who comes out next?"

Iados threw a grin over his shoulder. "Am I allowed to bet against my girlfriend?"

***

"I don't think it's working!" Lia yelled out over the sound of Ander's disgruntled yells as he threw bolts of fire at the still-as-yet unmarked stone door. "We're on our own."

The small wizard breathed heavily as he looked at the elf over his shoulder. "You could try to help before just giving up."

She rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's see what's at the end of this hallway." Lia didn't even wait to see if the halfling would follow her before turning on her heel and heading up the stone hallway. Ander hesitated for a few seconds before he begrudgingly followed. Thanks to the sconces embedded in the walls, the two of them weren't in complete darkness as they traveled.

After almost ten minutes of walking, they arrived at another stone door. The two didn't have time to fully examine it before the door crumbled, leaving behind an open doorway. At the same time the door vanished, all the wall sconces in the vicinity blew out, leaving the duo in complete darkness.

The elf gulped as her vision adjusted to the dark, and she began to view the world in gradients of black. "Got any light spells?"

Ander shook his head. "I've got some fire spells, but they don't last. Need me to light a torch?" He moved to stand next to the doorway as he looked into the room. Like the elf, his vision adjusted with the absence of light. Lia moved to the other side of the doorway and peeked in.

The room beyond was square, and only about twenty feet on each side. Five columns stood from floor to ceiling, one in the very center, and the other four situated a few feet from the corners. A second stone door was situated on the opposite wall. There was a distinctive lack of furniture, but that was more than made up in spider webs. The delicate strings stretched from the walls to the columns, from one column to another, and from the columns to the ceiling. Older webs had lost their grip and littered the floor.

As Lia and Ander followed the paths of the webs up into the air, they both saw the hunched figure that hung out near the ceiling on the middle column. As the creature leaned forward in their direction, it was clear that it had seen them as well.

"What do you think it is?" Lia leaned over more, trying to get a better look at the shadowy creature.

Ander frowned. "It's a yfirkon." From his angle it was very easy to see the large creature with its distended belly and five-fingered clawed hands. His mind went back to the story Elaine had told them of her encounter with these creatures in Lorbridge where a child had died. "Do you want to try to tame it, Ms. Druid?"

Lia didn't answer as she finally got a good look at the creature. It took a few seconds for her eyesight to adjust to the extreme darkness the yfirkon hid in. Though the creature's form was tall and bulky, there were multiple folds of loose skin. It was easy to see the hunger in the creature's two eyes, and the saliva that had begun to drip out of his mouth.

"Yeah no, that thing wants to eat us." She reported as she ducked back into the doorway. "I say we make a run for the door."

The wizard nodded. "You cover me, and I'll run. Give it as small a target as possible."

"Might as well," Lia murmured. With a few words, she summoned a dark green pellet in her palm, which she then flicked up towards the shadowed creature. Before it could make contact, the pellet exploded and let out a cloud of green vapor. The yfirkon coughed violently as the poison burned its lungs and eyes.

Ander ran out, but stopped halfway through the room. He summoned up his own pellet, and with a grin like a naughty child torturing ants, tossed it towards the creature that was right above him.

The yfirkon was not amused as the pellet swerved by its head, missing it by only a few millimeters. With a roar, the creature leapt from its perch and landed heavily on the stone floor, mere inches in front of the halfling. As the smile dropped from the wizard's face, the spider creature lashed out with its claws.

Ander managed to avoid being torn to shreds by the claws, but the front of his clothes were caught. The creature lifted the small humanoid up to its mouth and bit down hard on the thin shoulder with its fangs.

The halfling gave a strangled cry, from both the pain of the bite and the surge of intense pulsing pain that flared from the wound briefly before it died down. He struggled against the claw that held him, till the pointed tip fully tore through his clothes, and he dropped to the ground like a bag of potatoes.

Before the creature could attack him again, a small rock landed with a meaty thud against its grey torso. Lia stood by the doorway, four stones slowly encircling her right wrist. As Ander watched, one of the stones floated to just above the tips of her fingers.

"What are you waiting for? Either run or attack!" Lia yelled as she launched another stone towards the yfirkon, which the creature angrily deflected.

Groaning, the wizard brought his hands out in front of him as he laid on the ground under the creature, and let loose a cone of fire right in the creature's face. He didn't wait for the flames to dissipate before he crawled to his feet and tried to flee. The sudden bright light in the darkness momentarily blinding him.

The creature screamed in anger and agony as the fire scorched its chest and face, and it was also temporarily blinded. It swung out wildly with its claws against the flames, before it scampered back up the middle column. It made so much commotion with its retreat that it didn't hear the gasp of pain Ander gave as the sharp claws scraped across the back of his leg.

The halfling was forced to lean against one of the columns as he momentarily lost strength in his injured leg. His breaths came in heavy gasps. Before he could work out a next move, sticky webbing came out of the darkness from above and plastered against his torso.

"I'm stuck!" Ander yelled out towards Lia as he fought against the substance keeping him from moving away from the column.

Lia cursed in elven and ran towards the center column. She threw another stone up towards the creature. "Hey! Come at me! Bet I'm tastier than a halfling!"

The creature turned its focus towards the yelling elf. Ander struggled some more against his bonds, until he finally managed to loosen the strands enough that he could forcefully shimmy down and out. The whole front of his body was perfumed in a sour smell as bits and pieces of the webbing clung to him. He abandoned the plan of making it to the door, and instead sought shelter in the most readily place he could find it: behind Lia.

"If you burn me I'm gonna be pissed." The elf hissed as the halfling dived between her legs and took cover.

"If I die you won't have anyone to be pissed at." Ander hissed back, wincing as he tried to see how much weight he could put on his injured leg.

Lia didn't have time to answer as the yfirkon launched itself from its lofty perch down towards the duo. She was barely able to bring her staff up in time to block the saliva-covered fangs from hitting her. The creature tried to grab at her with its claws, but she was deft enough to dodge the attacks and only sustained a few scratches.

The elf's nose wrinkled as the creature's foul-smelling breath wafted down onto her. "Maybe if we give it something else to eat it'll give up on us." With the creature this close, she could see the outlines of its ribs against the loose skin.

Ander frowned. He looked up at the scene from around her hips. "I don't know, I don't think our rations are going to be a suitable substitute." He reached out a hand, the tips of his fingers turning black as he recited his spell. The wizard caught one of the clawed fingers, and instantly sent all the dark, necrotic magic of his spell surging into the appendage.

The yfirkon gave a cry of pain as its finger turned black. The creature backed up, cradling the damaged extremity. Its black eyes narrowed towards the duo, as a deep roar bubbled out of its throat.

Lia's eyes widened. "I don't think it liked that." She took a few hesitant steps back. Even though the creature in front of her was not only visibly hurt and had a slight sway to its stance, she knew that an injured creature was always the most dangerous.

Ander could only gulp in agreement. He turned towards the door they'd come in, but found only a solid stone wall instead.

With a loud roar, the yfirkon tucked its head down and charged at the two of them. With a long sweep of its claws, Lia was thrown aside like a rag doll. The black eyes of the creature narrowed in on the halfling. Before Ander could react, the creature plucked him from the ground and held him between its clawed fingers. The wizard didn't even react to the claws digging into his skin. He was too focused on the large fangs that again penetrated his already injured shoulder.

This time the creature lingered a few more seconds with the bite, and Ander felt the pulsing pain of the poison as it spread through his body. After a few pulses, the wizard went limp in the yfirkon's grasp.

"No!" Lia screamed. She launched herself at the creature, her body shifting into that of large brown bear. The shock of her transformation combined with the weight of the bear's body baring down on the yfirkon, was enough that the creature dropped Ander to the floor.

Bear-Lia growled as she hunkered over the wizard's still body.

The yfirkon, angry that its meal had been taken from it, stood and postured at the bear. It snapped its claws, and growled.

Lia wasn't having any of it. She swiped out with her own claws, keeping the creature from getting too close. The large spider-human hybrid wasn't about to give up as it leapt towards the bear. In its weakened state, it was easy for Bear-Lia to easily overcome the yfirkon and force it to the ground. She held it in place with a large clawed paw, and let the bear instincts take over. With a loud roar, the druid bit into the creature's throat and tore out a bloody chunk in one fluid motion.

The yfirkon struggled for a few seconds, before its eyes rolled into the back of its head, and the body went limp.

Lia transformed back to her elven form, and went to Ander. As she gathered his limp form in her arms, she was happy to see that he was still breathing. However, the large wound to his shoulder that still bled heavily ensured he wouldn't stay like that for long.

She staggered over towards the far wall where she'd flung her pack when the fighting had begun. Frantically she dug into it and pulled out one of the healing potions that Ms. E had given them. Hastily she uncorked the bottle and shoved it into Ander's mouth. She watched as the bleeding slowed and eventually stopped on his shoulder injury. After a few tense minutes, his eyelids fluttered open.

"Am I dead?" The wizard's voice was very weak as he looked up at the elf.

Lia shook her head, tears in her eyes. "No, no you're not, thanks to Ms. E." The floodgates opened, and her tears began to drip down her face onto Ander's.

Mentally she kicked herself over and over again. Not even a couple of hours ago the group had unanimously decided that she was their leader, not knowing that Lia hadn't bothered to prepare any healing spells. In the past they'd relied on Elaine and Kerri for the healing, freeing Lia up to take a more active role in the fighting. It hadn't even occurred to her that with Kerri gone, there was one less person in the group ready to heal. One would think that after Carric had almost died for the same reason, that she would have learned her lesson. No, she made the same mistake again, and this time it'd been Ander who'd almost paid the price. As she rummaged in her bag for her meager kit of herbs, she vowed to never be without a healing spell again.

After she tended to his injuries the best she could, she left him alone to rest. When she examined the door on the other side of the room, she discovered the same silver lock. With her staff, she knocked down the myriad of webs in the room, searching through them for the key. Eventually she found not only the silver key, but also a small, round, red gem. She pocketed the gem, hoisted Ander onto her back, opened the door, and headed out of the room towards the archway in the distance.

***

It was silent as the two humans marched along the sloped hallway, the way brightly lit by the sconces on the walls. The berserker walked a few feet ahead of the cleric, his heavy footsteps echoing slightly on the stone floor.

"What do you think we'll find at the end?" Elaine asked finally, just to break the silence.

Jun adjusted the warhammer in his grasp and didn't answer.

She sighed and kept walking. She noticed that he still seemed to favor his right leg as he limped slightly.

Finally they reached a stone door at the end of the hall that immediately crumbled into dust. As soon as the two of them stepped into the darkened room beyond, the wall closed up, trapping them inside.

It took a few seconds for their eyes to adjust to the darkness. A very dim light was given off by what seemed to be fungus growing up the walls and along the ceiling. After seeing that the light situation wasn't going to get better, Elaine lit up one of her bolts and held it aloft like a torch.

They were in a large room, about forty feet by twenty feet, with walls made of cut stone. The floor was dirt, mostly compacted, save for the few large holes that had been dug out in various parts of the room. Elaine's light didn't hit every corner, but they could barely make out a second door across the room.

Jun's eyes swept over the holes as he raised his warhammer. The weapon vibrated slightly in his hands, and fed the berserker a feeling of anxiety. "Get your crossbow ready." He commanded the cleric. Elaine nodded. She stuck the makeshift torch into the center of her tight bun, and readied her weapon. On his signal, the two of them carefully made their way across the room.

The duo hadn't gone more than a few feet before the ground exploded in front them. Dirt and small rocks cascaded over them. Elaine felt her jaw drop, as a large, black beetle with dark red stripes along its thick, sharp mandibles crawled out of the earth. It snapped menacingly between the two of them, as if it were deciding which of them it would target. The insect didn't take long to decide as it swung towards the large, non-armor wearing male.

Jun took a quick step back. He slipped on the loose rocks and went crashing down to the ground as the mandibles snapped together right above him.

Elaine also scrambled back hurriedly, as a few swears dropped out of her mouth. This was not the first time she'd come across this creature. Back in Liratha they called it an oxiskythri. It was a pest that was usually only found in the plains to the west as the creature's colonies created their elaborate networks of tunnels under the farmland.

"Keep away from the mandibles, and the acid!" The cleric yelled out as she fired a bolt that hit deep into the insect's torso.

Jun rolled to his feet. "What acid?"

The insect reared its head up, and began to spit a straight line of acid out towards the berserker.

"Shit!" He ducked under the stream, but not before more than a few drops landed on his shoulder and sizzled into his skin. With a few more colorful curses, the berserker went into a pain-fueled verta-kochen. He rushed at the creature and slammed his warhammer into the side of the insect's tough exoskeleton.

The oxiskythri reared back in pain (narrowly causing one of Elaine's bolts to miss) and backed down a foot into the burrow. The creature swept its two-feet long mandibles towards Jun, catching him in the gut and throwing him to the ground. Before he could stand up, the insect rushed forward. The berserker gave a howl of pain as he was captured between the mandibles, the sharp edges cutting into his skin on either side of his torso. The mandibles began to squeeze.

Elaine's eyes went wide. "Jun!" She held out her hand and sent a blast of radiant energy careening into the hard torso of the beetle.

The insect thrashed in pain. With clasped hands, Jun slammed down on the mandibles. Finally they let go and he dropped to his knees. As he scrambled back towards the cleric, a line of red encircling his torso, Elaine threw another bolt to distract the insect.

In retaliation for its meal escaping, the beetle reared it's reared its head back up again in a familiar motion.

Jun stopped in his tracks, turned, and positioned himself in front of Elaine. He threw his arms up in front of him just as the hot acid shot out of the creature's mouth. The berserker's teeth gritted together in pain as the acid poured down his forearms.

Elaine laid a hand on his shoulder. "Let me heal you." Her hand began to glow.

He wrenched his shoulder out of her grip. His breath came in heavy gasps. A mixture of blood, acid, and liquefied tissue dripped onto the ground next to him. "Not yet," A dark growl rumbled in the back of his throat. The berserker readjusted his grip on his weapon. His pupils went dark red.

The berserker rushed at the creature, launching himself off the ground and onto a mandible. In one grunt-filled motion he pulled himself to his feet and stood above one of the black eyes situated on the side of its head. He pummeled the eye, even as the creature shook its massive head in an effort to dislodge the rage-filled warrior.

With each successive hit the hammer was buried deeper and deeper into the socket, until finally the creature gave one last shudder and collapsed in a heavy heap.

A tense silence hung over the room as Jun stood atop his fallen foe, his chest heaving heavily. He was splattered from head to toe in blood and gore, not all of it the creatures.

Elaine approached him cautiously, her weapon stowed, and a damp rag in her hands. "Can I heal you now?"

Jun nodded as he stepped off the creature and lightly jumped down to the ground. He sat heavily in the dirt and leaned back against the dead oxiskythri. Elaine knelt in front of him and gently used the rag to clean the dirt from his forearms. Throughout the ministrations, her hands were bathed in a soft golden light, and with every pass of her rag the more serious acidic burns were healed. By the time she was done, the skin was only slightly red and held a couple of pockmarks.

"Feel better now?" The cleric asked as she smeared a cold cream onto the red skin.

The large man sighed in relief as the medicine stifled the last of the burning sensations. "If you're talking about my arms, then yes."

Elaine shook her head. She exchanged the cream pot for a bundle of rags and began to wrap them around Jun's arms. She gutted her chin towards the pulverized beetle face. "I'd say you had some issues to work out."

He closed his eyes and leaned against the cooling exoskeleton of the beetle. "That's nothing compared to what I'll do to the people who took my daughter."

That's what I'm afraid of. Elaine thought to herself as she finished tying off the bandages. She let Jun sit and rest, as she scouted the rest of the room, and peered cautiously into the remaining holes. Thankfully it seemed that this insect was uncharacteristically solo. As she approached the downed creature, a thick piece of rope tied around one of the creature's exposed legs caught her eye. She discovered that a small sack had been secured there. Inside was a round, crystal gem, and a silver key.

She helped Jun climb to his feet, and slowly they made their way towards the door, and opened it with the key. Barely ten feet down the hall was an open archway, where a violet-skinned former pirate and a red-headed ranger stood waiting. Iados passed a few coins over to Carric, before he ran forward and helped the weary berserker up the passage.