Cripes this chapter took longer than I thought to write... Regardless! Here's this, not much to say hope you approve of the past I gave Amumu
Amumu kept waiting for the pain of the ground to shatter his bones and shatter his tendons, but Annie had other ideas. "Tibbers!" She shouted and threw her bear to the ground past them, instantly spawning her demon bear. "Catch us!" She shouted and Tibbers held out his large paws. Anticlimactically catching Amumu and Annie and setting them on the ground. The pit was deep, Annie looked back up where they fell, the light of the ceiling was but a mere flicker at this depth, Amumu would have no doubt become paste of the hard-tile floor.
"Annie!" Ashe's could heard from where they fell, her voice choked up with fear.
"We're okay Miss Ashe." Annie called back and a sigh of relief could be heard from Ashe.
"Okay, don't move! We don't have any rope long enough to get to you, but we'll find a way down."
"Okie dokie!"
"It's dark down here…" Amumu depressingly commented.
"Come on! Let's see what's around this place" Annie chimed.
"But… Miss Ashe said not to move"
"Well I say we go exploring! Let's go!" She laced her hand with his bandages and pulled him behind her and Tibbers.
The fire that emanated from Tibbers proved to be a far better light source than any torch as they walked the forgotten walls. This place they fell was like no pit, its walls were stone and covered in strange artwork. Its floors were cold tiles bearing unique symbols. Annie had led them down a single hallway, sand was littered across the floor, and they could only see as far as Tibbers' fire would glow.
"I wonder if someone lived here once…" Annie commented. Amumu continued to watch the paintings on the walls, none of them were the same and he found it funny to guess what they were doing though he was clearly wrong. The next one had a bunch of weirdly drawn people shying away from a light, next was a really big crocodile, a lot like Renekton, and the next one was one weirdly drawn person being wrapped in… Bandages. Amumu stopped at this painting and Annie stopped with him. In more detail, it seemed four people were surrounding the person being wrapped; they had already wrapped his legs and had begun wrapping his body. The person being wrapped seemed so willing, by his facial expression, which confused Amumu, why would anyone want this fate? "What is it Amumu?" Annie broke his examination of the odd painting.
"I just… Do you think this is what happened to me?"
"Oh," It was Annie's turn to examine the painting. "Maybe, I don't know, most people are dead before they're wrapped up,"
"Most people stay dead when they're wrapped up…"
"Oh cheer up!" Annie hugged his body, but he just continued to stare at the painting. "Let's go silly" She pulled him along again. They continued to walk down the ever narrowing hallway. The paintings had begun to repeat themselves down the hallway and Amumu's game was over, though he continued to feel pity for the one man constantly bandaged. A large doorway greeted them at the end of the hallway, its green coloring faded and old, with cobwebs dangling from the roof.
"I don't think we should go in there Annie…"
"Quit being a scaredy cat!" Annie cheered and pulled his hand along through the doorway and into an enormous room. The walls seemed to go up for miles, and spanned a wide area around. For what they could see, the room appeared to be circular in shape, with a sort of blue glow to the entire place and in front of them lay several stairs down to a pedestal, surrounded by four pools."Let's go see it!"
"Annie be careful!" Amumu called and followed her down the stairs to the pedestal. She came right up to it and examined every little detail of it. There was some weird writing at the bottom, but Annie couldn't read it, so she ignored it.
"What do you think it says?" She asked, touching the symbols.
"It says, just a drop, and the light will be revealed" Amumu read from the pedestal.
"I… How did you know that?"
"It says it right there, I thought you could read?"
"Of course I can!" Annie defended herself. "Just not that weird language."
"But… That's English" Amumu looked at the words again, they were all crystal clear to him.
"Well… What does it mean? A drop of what?"
"I don't know," Amumu said. "Maybe there's something on the top of this thing…" He went to wipe dust from top of the pedestal, only, as soon as his hand made contact with the surface, pain surged through his hand. As soon as he had touched it, a large needle had launched through his hand and could be seen jutting out of his skin. "Ahhh!" He wailed in a panic.
"Amumu let go of it!"
"I can't!" He said struggling to pull his hand away. As his hand was trapped, the room seemed to come alive. His blood dripped around pedestal and as it did, all the symbols bloomed with brilliant red lights. The lights flowed onto every wall and seemed to outline a doorway was beginning to form from the markers. Soon, the entire room had lost its blue glow, replaced with the red of blood, until the needle retracted itself and Amumu was free once again. The little mummy collapsed on the ground and Annie quickly was at his side. "I'm… I'm okay" He assured her.
"No you're not!" She turned to her massive bear. "Tibbers carry Amumu" And the bear did so.
"Wait…" Amumu stopped them. "What's that sound?" She hadn't noticed it before, but a strange sound had begun. It sounded like uneasy waters, like a tide turning and twisting, only, the only water could be found in the little pools beside the pedestal. Annie watched the pools, the water had begun to stir, but it was not conventional waves, it was as if something was to burst from its surface. Without any warning, a hand shot out from the little pool, only this hand was twisted and deformed, its fingers long and sharp, its skin covered in scars and burns, almost demonic in appearance. Annie let out a yelp and ran back to where Tibbers and Amumu were.
"What is that?" She asked, her shoulder quivering. The hand reached out onto the tiled for and latched on, pulling an equally demonic body out of the water. It almost appeared to be a man, but his legs were gone from his body, his spine hung out like a tail and his head was only a deformed skull. "Die!" Annie screamed and launched a fire ball at it. The creature took the hit and was launched flying back into the pool. It was the first of many however as more hands burst from the three other pools, first there was three… then eight, now twelve and they weren't stopping.
"What do we do?" Amumu asked, struggling to his feet.
"We burn them all" Annie lit her hands ablaze and Tibbers let out a massive roar. One of the creatures leaped at Tibbers, but the Shadow Bear caught the beast and slammed it into the ground, smashing its skull. After that, the hoard engaged, Annie burning them to cinders, Tibbers bashing skulls, and all it took was a tinge of pain to send Amumu into a frenzy of tantrums. They could all fight and fight well, but three against a never ending hoard of monsters is hardly a winnable fight. It took fourteen of them, but the creatures eventually toppled Tibbers and he returned to his teddy bear form, Annie backed on top of the pedestal to get away while Amumu took most of the hits.
Then, the door outlined by the red symbols appears to fracture down the center, and the two sides parted, proving it was indeed, a door. A blinding light came from the doorway which caused all the creatures to hiss and divert their attention. "Return from where you came damned souls!" An unfamiliar voice called and Annie was able to see a Yordle standing where the door was once. A beam of light made contact with the creatures and burned into dust. "Go! Leave this place!" He shot another blast from his hands, eradicating more of them. The creatures seemed to fear this Yordle and quickly returned to the shadows, leaving Annie and Amumu, though Amumu in a far worse state than Annie.
"Aw…!" Annie hopped to Amumu side. "I told you to stop taking hits from me you dummy!" Her voice was angry, but not so much out of rage.
"Sorry…" He said, his bandages were torn, it appeared several of them had sent their spine like tail through his chest and even more had slashed his skin to ribbons. "I'll be okay Annie, I always am"
"Children!" The Yordle called to them and Annie looked up. "What are you doing in this place?"
"Well…. That depends on what this place is?" Annie tried, the Yordle approached them and Annie went to meet him. He was a strange looking Yordle, he was also bandaged, like Amumu, but he had ceremonial armor on and a crown that had long ago lost its glimmer.
"You are in the tomb of Ra-Tenka, I am he who was buried, but you have managed to awake me somehow."
"Oh, it wasn't me, it was Amumu"
"Who?"
"Amumu!" Annie yelled at her friend and he sat up. "Come meet… Re-Tika?" She tried and failed to say his name correctly.
"Okay" He said in his depressed tone. Amumu slowly got up and approached the two, as he did, Ra-Tenka's eyes nearly popped out of undead skull. "Hello Mr."
"Say thank you for saving us" Annie reminded.
"Thank y-" before he could finish, the undead Yordle hugged Amumu tighter than anyone ever before.
"My son! My son has returned to me!" Ra-Tenka.
"What?" Amumu tried to say through the hug.
"Uh, Amumu, do you know him?"
"No…" And Ra-Tenka released Amumu.
"Surely you remember your Father, Tu-Tenka, it's me,"
"Dad?" Amumu tried but nothing resonated.
"Yes! Yes, I am your father! This is fantastic, the plan was a success!" Ra-Tenka seemed to have life restored to his undead bones for just this instance. "We have to get to the Citadel in the Sand!"
"What?" Annie said.
"Why?" Amumu added.
"To fulfill our plans son! Come! We must be off!"
"Stop!" Amumu snapped. "I don't know what you're talking about!" That stopped Ra-Tenka pretty quickly. "I've wondered about my past since the day I woke up and if you are my father, please tell me everything you can about me!"
"…" Ra-Tenka was silent for a moment. "I suppose you'll need to be filled in if we are to continue with our plans… Very well, take a seat Tu-Tenka, I will narrate your life for you."
We are Yordlites. Chosen Yordles of the sands, before the first Rune War, we were a proud people. We marveled in architecture, mathematics, and especially, warfare. My grandfather waged a violent war against every other Yordlite tribe and though many lives were lost, the result was a unified Yordlite tribe. Together, we build grand cities, amazing advances in science and no human tribe could touch us. By the time my father had taken the thrown, it was a time of peace for every Yordlite, we had even begun work to create a great monument to our patron God, Suremond, the monument would grant us great favor with him, but it was not to last. When I took the throne, I took my beloved as my Queen, but I could not see what she truly was, for I was blinded by love. She was a horrible necromancer, every time a slave gave his life for our cause to build our great monument, she would raise his corpse and turn it into those horrible creatures. Eventually, my Queen bore me two children, you and your sister Re-Tenka. You were my son, my true son, you did everything I asked of you and far more. But your sister, she was prey to your mother's influence and the dark arts became her life. The day came when your mother sent her undead army at us, our soldiers fought bravely, but as was the case with you, their numbers were far too great. We developed beams of light to fend them off but it only slowed them down. They stormed our capital and broke down the doors to our palace, your mother and sister at their head. We had lost our entire empire to a wicked woman and her child, I did not know what to do. It was you who came up with this brilliant plan, we entombed the last of our citizens, maybe fourteen thousand men and women or so, and sent them into eternal slumber, only to be awakened by our call. We then entombed ourselves, hoping to wake up when the darkness had passed and rebuild.
"And now that time has come my son! We can rebuild our people!"
"But what about the monsters? They're still here, what if they attack us again?"
"Ah, we too are undead now, they cannot harm us as they once did. Do not worry my son, the Yordlites will rise again, we simply must get to the Citadel in the Sand!" Ra-Tenka walked with a skip in his step and made his way out of the tomb.
Amumu looked at Annie with a raised eyebrow and she just gave him a shrug and they both followed him out.
Yay! This weekend has been ubber busy... I'm sorry, I'm going to be putting out a oneshot here... Sometime hopefully... But yeah! I'll be posting the other chapters as I find time to do so... Sorry to make you all wait.