Chapter 26
A Hero, a Noble, and the Moblin
Tog went ahead, opening the door back to the room with the bubbles. He held the door open behind him as we followed him into the room. Once we were by his side, he again brought up his spear and pointed past the bubbles to the other side of the room. There was a door back there that I must have missed the first time we were here.
"I've already been in there." Tog explained. "I didn't find much out of the ordinary except for a lever. It was just like the one you two found."
"It caused another earthquake?" I asked.
He nodded. But His Highness looked away, obviously not believing it. I wondered if he was thinking about checking that room anyway. A chuckle from Tog snapped my attention off the prince. "That second earthquake frightened me, but I quickly figured that it must have meant you two caught up!"
"All right," I replied. "Since there's nothing more to check here, let's go on up to the big door and see if the key fits in it." I walked ahead, moving past the bubbles carefully and taking the key from my pouch. The other two joined me at the staircase, and I slid the key to unlock the door. It accepted the key, and I braced my muscles against it, pushing it open. The sight on the other side shocked me and my breath was stolen.
The thickest tree I've ever seen was standing tall right in the center of the chamber. The room it grew in traveled up and up several stories high, and the tree was almost taller than that. It had plenty of space though, the ceiling was even carved out completely, showing the blue, midday sky. The tree was bare of leaves however, and it looked like it had been that way for a long time. The branches were thick, heavy and wide. The room itself was circular, and now studying the walls, I saw doors on every level, but there were no floors underneath them, nothing at all to put your foot down in front of them.
The only thing that suggested to me that the doors could be reached at all were the branches. Now the limbs higher up were pointed upwards and away from the doors, but I saw the lowest two branches were different. They were snapped at the body of the tree, lowering them down so they made a platform for a door each.
As we approached the first branch, that was so low it almost touched the ground, I could see that the tree wasn't just planned to be here for the doors, but that it was part of the puzzle. Footholds were carved into the bark, allowing an easier way to climb up. There was also what looked like heavy plates of iron buried in the tree underneath each branch. Perhaps keeping the branch in its place if they broke off. After all, these two were broken, and if they weren't, they would be like the other branches, making the doors impossible to reach.
The tree was as tall as a castle! And as we approached the first branch, I couldn't even see the top! "This is the biggest tree I've ever seen in my life!" I cried out, overwhelmed.
"I know, I can't even believe something like this exists." His Majesty replied.
Tog was already standing with his hand on the bark, ready to climb up. I followed behind him, and as I grasped onto the strong bark, I began to wonder what more the builders did to this tree. It must have been magically preserved, because it's been here for maybe thousands of years in this dry environment with little evidence that it ever held leaves. And the bark was just as strong and firm like a healthy tree in the forest. I don't think there's a chance I'll ever learn the truth.
Tog reached down and helped pull me up, and then I was shocked a second time how wide these branches were! The three of us will be able to walk side by side comfortably most of the way down to the tip. I turned around and helped the prince climbing up behind me. Tog was already starting for the door at the end.
Once the prince was on his feet, I followed the moblin. He waited for us to come close before he slowly pushed the door open. The frame scrapped a carpet of sand as it went past before it revealed a room that was no bigger than a closet, and no lighter than one. Darkness grabbed at the corners despite the sun shining through the room. "What's the point in this?!" Tog yelled, dumbfounded.
And here it was, my worst fear since we arrived; an inaccessible room. "I'd hate to say this, but it looks like the sand filled up whatever's down there..."
"It's not completely filled." His Majesty remarked, pointing down at the floor. He was right, there was a small hole in the wall, barely big enough for a person to crawl through. I couldn't even see it at first because it was so dark in there, but it looked like it was once an archway leading to another part of the room.
I was the first to kneel down and crawl through it. It quickly became very difficult to keep moving as the sand kept shifting forward, burying me in place. But I wasn't giving up, it would be too late to by now that I knew my companions were following behind me. The sand was making this tight, and for a moment, I thought I would become stuck here. But with enough fight, I kept moving somehow.
I could see the opening in front of me, all it took was patience to reach it! But finally, I pulled myself from the hole and stood up. I moved away from the entrance so my companions had room to follow. There wasn't a shortage of sand here either, and I felt like the domed ceiling was too close, like I was standing miles above the true floor. But with a closer look throughout the room, I did indeed spot a stone floor. It was past a few iron bars supporting a treasure chest at the far side of the wall. How can we reach that? I wondered.
I heard Tog grunt as he crawled out next, struggling to stand back up. I reached down and helped him up. "Sorry," He apologized to the prince as he emerged next. "That was extremely hard to crawl through with my spear. I should have gone last. I didn't hit you, did I?"
"No," He responded when I then helped him up. "But where did you get that thing? You were using a dagger the last time we met."
"Last time we met, I was going for stealth and secrecy. I figured I had a different focus this time. And-" He reached down at his hip, where he pulled the dagger singing from its sheath. "I still have the dagger with me."
The prince shrugged, like that either made no sense still, or he no longer cared. "So what do we do now?" He asked.
"We have to reach that chest." I answered.
"And how do we do that?" The prince asked again, taking a few steps closer for it.
But then, as I turned back to Tog, there was a sorceress in long yellow robes standing behind him, flailing her wrinkled arms as she worked on casting a spell. "Watch out!" I cried.
Just in time, as soon as Tog turned his head, she had summoned a sphere of fire in her hands. I was already reaching for him and trying to leap for safety, but Tog was already moving without my help. I could hear the sudden roar of soaring flame behind me. I didn't know how close we were to it, but I was startled when the heat reached my skin quickly after that.
Once I recovered and turned back around, the witch was gone. "This isn't the end." Said Tog. "Those magos... They always want you to think the ambush is over."
"Quick! We need to prepare in case she comes back!" I yelled.
His Highness reacted immediately and fell back to us, unsheathing his sword. I straightened and did the same. Then the three of us met in a circle with our backs against each other and waited. Like Tog predicted, the witch known as a mago reappeared.
But this time she didn't come alone.
Surrounding our defense circle, I counted up to five magos, and all of them were casting spells. I brought up my sword as quick as my reflexes allowed me and pointed it to the witch right in front of me. She couldn't respond quick enough as glowing beams shot her straight on, and she shrieked in pain before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
A lot of the other magos flinched, like they had thought we were defenseless with them surrounding us, and that was enough to break their chanting. Out of the corner of my vision, I was aware of both the prince and the moblin leaving my side, charging to fight back the witches before they too will disappear.
I decided to follow their lead, and charged for the nearest mago, but my surprise attack was too late by now. She saw me coming and vanished before I could come close. I spun around, feeling worried the magos would take advantage of their invisibility and appear again behind me.
I saw Tog was still facing his mago in close combat. He swung his body to the side, just barely dodging an outburst of powder like embers the mago threw at him. Then, he countered it by swinging the spear down, crushing and scraping her outstretched arm. His Highness had just finished his fight. He had stabbed his opponent and left her falling to the ground as he then rushed to Tog's side. But as soon as he joined the moblin and brought his sword up, the mago was already gone in a cloud of smoke.
I turned around, feeling vulnerable. And it was a good thing I did, because there was already a mago right behind me. She wore a mask resembling something like a skull, so I couldn't see her expressions, but her eyes smiled with evil intent. I flinched, thinking to attack, but she was done casting her spell. Instead, I tried to do the next best thing and defend myself with my shield.
I just barely brought it up in time! The force of the flame alone was strong enough to threaten pushing me down, but I stood ground long enough for the fire to run out. The mago made a scoffing sound, like she was growing frustrated with the battle, but then her gaze shifted to the side and her attitude changed. She even laughed heartily before she disappeared. What was that about?
I then turned and saw what pleased her so much. Further back, there was another mago facing towards me. And she was just seconds away from releasing her spell!
"Hey, Witch!" I heard Tog cry, then I saw him, charging towards her back with his spear lowered at his torso. The mago was forced to drop the spell and face him. Taking the interruption as an opportunity, I ran my sword down her back.
"Thanks." I breathed. Tog nodded before turning to help the prince. I took a second to examine the battlefield. Looks like they had managed to take a mago down when I wasn't watching. That means there should be only two of them left.
And sure enough, as we waited around for them to show their faces again, they teamed up on either side of me and His Highness. Since there were only two now, I suppose they thought they no longer had the time and distractions to cast their spells effectively, because as soon as they appeared, they jumped forward and showered that ember like powder.
I wasn't ready for that kind of attack, and only my reflexes saved me from serious injury. I ducked and held up my shield, letting the powder hit and bounce harmlessly off. Well, most of it anyway. I felt something burning on that upperarm, but I ignored it as I took my only chance to attack. I shot forward with my sword arm, but that burning was quickly growing hotter, and my swing was shaky. My sword sliced the edge of her left hip, and she vanished soon after, screaming.
The ember powder brought out a small flame smoldering on my arm, and I hastened to put it out. Already, she teleported away. I rushed in to help the prince with the remaining witch and in the corner of my eye, I saw Tog hurrying to do the same.
But the other mago reappeared before him and showered the embers over his head before he could react. At once, it burst into a hot flame!
With the prince running his sword through his opponent's stomach, I turned to help Tog. But his attacker appeared again in front of me. I dodged the embers and thought for a moment of trying to move around her, but she wouldn't allow it.
"Go!" I yelled to the prince who was running for the scene. "Help him!" But he was already rushing to do so. Despite their distrust for each other, I'm glad they were still watching out for our backs.
The mago in front of me tried to use the distraction to shower more powder, but I wasn't nearly as distracted as she thought I was. I took my shield and shoved it into her shoulder before the embers even settled. As I retracted, small fires were already lighting her robes. She panicked and batted at them, leaving her defenses open for me to strike a gash near her collarbone.
The prince and Tog have already managed to put most of the fire out by the time I came. The moblin was covered in black ash and had a few burns about his body, but they weren't too serious. He was still lying on his side with his eyes shut with stress and pain.
"How is he?" I asked the prince crouching over him.
Tog opened his wide brown eyes slowly and looked up at the sound of my voice. They seemed to glow against his now darkened skin, and his mouth twisted into what would have been a warm smile if his face wasn't still contorted in pain. "It burns more than a hellhound's bite." He groaned. "Agh! I should have seen that one coming."
I took out my water skin and gently poured it over the worst of the burns. "That mago caught him pretty good." His Majesty remarked. "But it could have been a lot worse. Will you be able to continue?"
"We'll see," I answered before Tog had the chance. "Can you stand first?"
He nodded and reached with large blue hands for support. He stood up with stiffness in his posture and his face showed pain again. I didn't like the look of it, but I tried to remain hopeful. "What do you think?"
His grip on my arms lessoned. "I'll try my best."
"Good," His Highness continued. "Because we don't have much of a choice, we won't be able to leave the way we came in."
"All right, we'll continue." I finished. "But if you need to stop, we can leave you somewhere safe and come back for you when we've cleared the guardian."
"Thanks, but I don't think that'll be necessary." He was strong willed, I just hope I can see past his defenses if he really needs help later.
As he released me and staggered back on his own, I now noticed the bars to the chest were down. His Highness, first following my gaze, nodded and left for it.
The chest, in the end, turned out to be nothing important at all. The prince had scavenged through all the rupees in dying hopes that we didn't do all that for nothing. But sometimes the temples can lead me to such treacherous dead-ends without my knowing it until later. It's frustrating, I had told the prince, as well as myself, to calm him down. The only thing we can do is to shrug it off and try a different path. But hopefully the next one will hold something more useful, I thought silently as we were splitting the money between us, because other than digging for those rooms in the sand, I'm not even sure if we have what we need to reach the guardian.
