Chapter 13: The cavern.
I rush back to my weapon, the arrow-cum-spear has returned to it's original red texture. To my surprise the giant I ambushed is still alive and kicking...well, not literally kicking after I snapped his spine in two. Lucky hit.
Thorns and brambles, these fuckers are resilient.
Keeping an eye on the hulking figure wreathed in shadow, carelessly I pour vita into my weapon, the edges of the blade glows an inky black and let's off dust-like particles. The red wooden handle turns a pitch black this time. I pay it no mind.
I pull my weapon, the blade of the spear cleaves through bones and sinew, completely dismembering the giant from neck to sternum then cuts a path through the left ribcage at an angle and into his abdomen. The blade comes out with a swishing sound, blood gushes out of the wound. It was fatal. The poor bastard already passed out, if it's not dead yet, then soon.
The hulking monstrosity hasn't moved an inch. It just keeps watching.
Of the two giants, one is on the ground struggling to move. Kassia fires arrow after arrow into it with pinpoint accuracy, about thirty arrows protruded from her victims body. As I watch, her next arrow takes it in the eye, burying itself deep into it's eye socket, likely puncturing the brain. It spasmed for a bit and lay still.
The last one was already on its last legs, covered in blood and missing it's right arm at the shoulder. It's a wonder it could still move, injuries like this would've killed anyone else. Tough buggers.
An arrow arcs through the air and strikes the half dead giant in the chest, right where the heart of a human would be. It stumbles, then it's head is loped off it's shoulders with a single precise strike.
"Quan." He turns to me. "We have bigger problems, emphasis on bigger." I point towards the behemoth standing about 50 paces from me. It still hasn't moved. Absently, I note Kassia changing position. She's moved to another tree I cannot identify, I am sure she's almost out of arrows.
"How are you on energy?" I ask.
"I'm good, didn't use any..." He flexes his sword arm. "...vita, wanted to see how long you could hold out. Nice short by the way, your technique could use some more fine tuning but overall you did well. You'd be dead, with your insides bare for all to see if my girl hadn't nailed that shot. What would you have done differently if it was a solo fight?" He gives the imposing titan a cool look, I can't tell if he was intimidated by the hulk.
"Run...? As fast as my legs would carry me." My heart beats faster.
"Greetings, warriors." A deep rumble escapes the giant. It's voice was like rock grating on metal. It made my bones ache, my head throb, but what I found surprising was the fact that it spoke in the common tongue of the God'sgrave: Evulsian.
"...I am Bhrook."
"Quan." He points to me. "Heron." He says nothing about Kassia . "I take it you want something, Bhrook. Out with it, we're a short on time." He seems calm, too calm infact.
Bhrook replies in a language I cannot comprehend, it sounds almost primal, but it seems Quan understands. He looks pensive for a bit when the giant was done talking.
"Alright, lead the way." Quan says, his eyes staring holes into the shadowed figure.
Without further words the giant turns to leave, dragging the massive warhammer like it weighed nothing. Quan follows in it's wake while I trail behind. The situation has changed but I do not know how. What was said between them?
I was about to ask when Quan narrows his eyes at me. I hold my tongue.
Bhrook leads us down an unassuming path so dense with foliage it seemed a solid wall of greenery, it walks through with a subtlety that belies his immense size. Disturbing nary a leaf --- I have to say it is one of the most impressive things I've seen.
Quietly, the minutes stretch and then turn into an hour, then two. Still we walk on, following a meandering stretch of forest one can barely call a path. Slivers of moon light peek through the gloom of the dark here and there, casting ominous shadows over everything. Except the giant, I still haven't gotten a good look at it yet.
Twice we come close to other hunting parties, each time we steer clear from them. It seems we're not the only ones hiding from the giants, Bhrook was dodging the others for some reason. Now why would a giant hide from its own kind?
Something isn't right here, I can almost smell it.
After four hours of trudging through the damp forest we arrive at a small mountain that stretches into the distance. It was too dark to make out any properties of the mountain or the surrounding environment.
Bhrook lifts a huge slab of stone used to camouflage an opening into the mountain, Kassia drops down to join us, standing by my side. Bhrook barely looks at her, if he's surprised at her sudden appearance he doesn't show it. Kassia looks bored.
Am I the only one worried about entering an enclosed space with this giant?
The heavy slab slams shut behind us, sealing us in. The only way out is through.
We file into the mouth of the cave, it was just wide enough for two people to walk abreast. Bhrook went first, taking almost the entire space, he doesn't bother to check behind if we were following. Kassia and i go next, side by side, while Quan brings up the rear.
Quan takes out a necklace --- it was the fang of some beast --- he imbues some vita into it and it began to glow, a soft blue light slices through the dark.
We walk the straight tunnel until we come to a cavern, it was massive with a dome of black rocks covered by luminous webs. Now what kind of spider makes glowing webs? I hope it's not carnivorous.
At the end of the cavern there's three tunnel entrances, we take the one on the left and keep walking, I begin to notice the ground was sloping downward. I guess we're going deeper into the mountain.
The deeper we go, the more uneasy I feel. The howls of unknown predators follows us on our journey, I am certain this is a trap of some kind, but Quan seems unbothered so I stay quiet and trust him.
Eventually, we stop to rest for a while. I make a small fire, we huddle around it and eat a quick meal of ham. Bhrook doesn't join us, he --- I'm starting to think of him as an he instead of an it, since I heard his name --- sits a ways off murmuring and stroking his Warhammer, still covered in shadows. I think he's mad, cracked in the head.
Finally, I ask. "Where is he taking us? And why are we following him?" I nod towards the mad giant.
Quan considers before answering. "He offered to show us a hidden path out of the region. In exchange, I do him a little favour. Seemed a reasonable deal, thus I agreed. And here we are."
"Am I the only one who thinks it's a trap?" I look to Kassia for support, she shrugs. Thanks for the help. I turn back to Quan and find him picking his nail with a dagger. "Where do you keep your weapons? I saw you pull out that sword from thin air."
"Not from thin air boyo, I happen to have a repository." He taps the bracelet on his left wrist, it was made of malleable silver, threaded through with thin strips of leather. "It is a separate space, I store things inside. They come in various shapes and sizes, and can differ greatly in relation to storage space. Mine is only 15 cubits in diameter, got it from my wife. Expensive as hell."
"How does it work?" I ask, curiosity evident in my eyes.
"Well, this one is rather simple." He picks up a flat rock. "Transference requires touch, the object shouldn't be larger than the space within the repository. All you have to do is touch an object and will it into the recepticle, as for taking out objects; well you basically think of the item, with the intention of taking it out. Another thing of note is, these require binding, hence only the owner can access a bound recepticle. Until they die. You can't store a living being in there just so you know..." He adds when he sees the look in my eyes.
"What about something already dead? Let's say a cadaver, for example." I ask.
"You can definitely keep those in a repository."
"What else do you have stored in there?"
He smiles, it was a malicious smile. "Let's say it's a surprise. A nasty one."
"Time...to gooo..." Bhrook rumbles from his perch.
Getting up in one swift motion he stalks deeper into the tunnels.
"You heard the man, giant? Titan? Bah, whatever. Let's go."
I douse the fire and we trail behind Bhrook. Soon we enter another cavern, this one bigger than the last. The luminous webs covered the entire stone ceiling, spilling over onto the walls on each corner, making the entire cavern glow brightly. The floor is dotted with stalagmites, rising like silent, stony sentinels, some thin as needles others are as big as a full grown man, as if the earth itself is slowly growing upward.
"Careful. She sleeps, do not wake." Our guides voice was so low I almost missed it. I look around, wondering where the attack will come from. I didn't have to guess what he meant: the spider responsible for all this unholy decoration lazed on an elevated platform of stone, it was huge, glowing with shimmering colors.
That beast could eat me whole in two bites, Quan in three... maybe four.
We wound our way around the stalagmites, at the extreme of the cavern was an exit guarded by three sentinels. All bigger than me, but smaller than the queen. Halfway through the cavern, something unexpected happens.
A huge jackal with dark-brown fur crashes from one of the many openings decorating the cavern walls above, it lands with a loud smack and immediately pounces on the sleeping queen.
Well, I didn't have to wonder what was howling anymore.
A shriek rends the silence of the cavern, as the queen wakes up, it grabs the jackal and tosses it into a stalagmite, shattering it on impact the jackal howls in pain. Righting itself, it stares directly at me with cold, intelligent eyes.
Countless spiders pour in from every direction, alert to danger. Their eyes locking on the most likely targets: us.
I expected the giant to betray us, not to become spider chow. Why does everything in the God'sgrave wants to eat us?