Ekobean: After a while of being sidetracked by useless school work, I have decided to update. Here ya go.
The Chronicles of Theta: Part II
Ashelin groaned. Everything was dark. No movement, no sign of rocks or the sources of the mysterious voices that had echoed up from within the cave like a swarm of shadowy bats. There was only darkness and the sound of water.
Water was all around her, trickling down from some unknown source deep within the pit of the darkness.
Ashelin stirred. She forced her deep, green eyes open, to gaze around the deep pit of nothingness. The opening from where she had fallen was only a sliver, like a horizontal slash across a starless night sky.
Slowly, one by one, she forced her arms to move, to slide across the slick rock surface she was laying on, half submerged in the stream of cave water. Groaning, she rose up ever so slowly to a sitting position. The water was cold, deadly cold. Everything below her hips was numb, her legs felt like they had been carved out of rock.
Ashelin blindly frisked herself, running her hands down the length of her body, searching for fractures or bruises, anything that may limit her chances for getting out of the crevice alive. Her entire body ached, her back most of all. Falling hundreds of feet was not good for someone, even if they did land in water.
Ashelin winced suddenly, choking back a yelp. She ran her gloved fingers over the perfect outline of her ribs and sucked in air through her clenched teeth, her eyes squeezed shut. Two broken ribs. Not bad for such a long fall, but not good for trying to get out.
Grimacing, she reached into the pocket of her legging, producing a small Krimzon Guard radio. "Torn?" she said hopefully, ignoring the pain that erupted from her belly when she spoke. The radio fizzled and popped, emitting a racket reminiscent of the death screams of a doomed Hip Hog.
"Damn it," she hissed, chucking the small device into the darkness. She heard a satisfying snap as the tiny radio made contact with the opposite wall, crunching into hundreds of tiny fragments.
Ashelin grunted and dug through a pocket on her other leg and pulled out a pocket flashlight. A thin, white beam emerged from the end of the small device, traveling out about ten feet before fading.
Grimacing, the red-haired elf began to hoist herself out of the freezing water. Her steel-soled boots slipped suddenly as they ran across the slick coat of slime that clung to the rock. Ashelin yelped, falling head-over-heels back into the freezing cave water. Grasping the flashlight tight in her hand, the elf thrashed wildly with her hands and lifeless feet, flailing until her hand touched the rock again. Relieved, she heaved herself back onto solid ground, fighting to hold back tears as a new wave of pain flooded from her fractured ribs.
The water tasted awful. It may not have been water at all for all she knew. It was flat and lifeless, not in any way refreshing. It rolled off her tongue as a flat liquid, not beading or forming droplets. It felt dead.
Her stomach turning, Ashelin hoisted herself from the briny liquid, her legs flopping lifelessly behind her. As she began to rub her legs, trying frantically to get the feeling back into them, the flashlight's beam fell onto a small impression in the Earth. Ashelin stopped her work to gaze at the shadowy impression in the squishy soil. A footprint.
So there had been someone down here!
Ashelin stopped herself from calling for help. She had no idea what could be down here. The footprint looked elfish enough, but it was larger. The soil around it was hot and dry, compressed into small clusters of rock.
And worse, whatever it was could still be down here. Ashelin slowly raised the flashlight from the footprint, running it across the span of the cave, her eyes darting nervously back and forth. Every shadow became the silhouette of some demonic beast with the express intent of ending her life. Every pointed rock or jagged boulder became a spear or cruel device of torture.
Her breaths came in short, ragged gasps; her stomach turning in one long spasm of fear. For the first time in her life Ashelin was openly afraid. She was alone, a single flashlight her only source of light.
Yet, the more she quivered at the fact, the more it became increasingly obvious. The creatures, whatever had been down here, had left. There were footprints. And unless she was going to climb hundreds of feet with no rope and broken ribs, she had to follow the whatever-they-weres.
Breathing deeply, her hand clutched tight over her exposed midriff, Ashelin began a slow, steady walk along the path of the footprints. With every step the stench of mold and isolation grew heavier and more obvious. The flashlight's tiny beam was like the thin blade of a rapier, and she brandished it as such, slashing through the thick, unending darkness that closed in on her, threatening to smother her.
Time seemed to have slowed to an agonizing crawl. Ashelin had lost all senses save that of hearing and smell. Her legs seemed to move with a will of their own, following the pre-designated path by her unknowing hosts.
Her blood-red, braided hair clung to the back of her smooth neck, plastered in a mixture of cave water and bitter sweat.
The air about her was thick and musty, as if weighted down by the aromas of cave moss, underground water, and the aroma of her own sweat.
The world became this path to her, the looming darkness on either side representing the Void, the emptiness that existed outside of the Precursors' vast creations; the deepest reaches of outer space.
All at once a sharp new smell hit her nostrils with the force of a speeding Hellcat. It was a smell most unnatural, a smell that definitely didn't belong down here. It was a smell she had grown accustomed to, as smell that had wafted from Jak's pores when she had first met him when her Hellcat had crashed in the Pumping Station. It was the smell that had permeated the air of Haven City for months after the Dark Metal Head attack. It was the smell of Dark Eco.
On instinct Ashelin immediately doused the flashlight, inching forward purely with the sense of touch, tapping her foot in front of her. With every step the reek grew stronger, more powerful.
Ashelin's heart was beating furiously, yet the blood in her veins felt icy cold.
At first she believed her eyes were playing tricks on her, her mind broken by horrors too great to bare. She shook her head, trying to clear the image from her mind. But it was real. As real as the Red Eco pistol that she held in her quivering, sweat-soaked palm. A dim orange light, like the light given off by a growing ember. Light. The word itself felt so welcome that Ashelin could have fallen to her knees and wept.
As Ashelin inched closer the intensity of the light grew, the ember growing to a roaring flame. Ashelin crouched, inching on her hands and knees toward the familiar glowing light. But as the light increased, something else became visible. Ashelin stopped suddenly, the blood pounding in her temples once again running cold.
In the light of the flame the silhouettes of numerous monstrosities became visible. In the shining orange light the texture of their skin, the horns covering their bodies were illuminated in frightening detail. There were no eyes decorating their bare foreheads, only scabbed, bloody flesh. Their gaping maws were filled with rows of inch-long, jagged razors. They were monstrosities, unnatural being forged out of someone's deepest, darkest nightmares. That was the only way to explain it.
The glow itself emanated from a large device reminiscent of a drill. From the barrel of the smooth device, which itself seemed to glow with its own light, leapt a column of living flame. The flame struck the ancient rock of the crevice, boring a deep, smoking hole into the rock. A thin trail of mist whirled and twisted from the boiling rock, floating upward like a frail rope.
Ashelin's eyes again fell on the group of creatures, her breath coming in short, quick gasps. She scanned the group over and over again. It was impossible to tell exactly how many of them there were. Only a fraction, she was sure, was visible in the fire's glowing light. The rest of them were lurking in the darkest corners of the cave, as sneaking and nosing about.
The she-elf's heart skipped a beat. One of the beasts had moved, its eyeless face turned toward her, its shape contorted like a crouched wolf that had caught a scent. It was aware of her.
As Ashelin began to creep backward, more and more heads began turning, their gaping mouths drawing in the putrid air of the cave, tasting her presence.
The red-headed she elf crept back farther and farther, unaware of the tears running down her tattooed cheeks. She was whimpering, tasting the bitter-sweetness of the tears as they ran into her mouth. Her limbs kicked faster and harder than ever, throwing away the element of stealth to the overwhelming panic that filled her being like a cancerous plague.
All at once three of the beasts leaped, five more emerging from the deep shadows. They all let loose a scream that erupted deep from within their chests. What torturous source could have spawned such a sound was a mystery to all but Os'hildai himself and his puppet Erol. Ashelin scrambled to her feet, sprinting down the path, her clothing ripping and her exposed flesh scraped and bruised.
For the first time in her young life, Ashelin was the hunted.
To be continued…