Chapter Five
"You can't be serious." Cynn deadpanned.
"I am as serious as the Searing." Devona retorted. "Get over here and help us clear the blockage."
"And… what… exactly makes you think I would, or even could, be of assistance?" The elementalist answered crossly. "If I wanted to schlep dirt around, I wouldn't have left Rin."
Every muscle in Devona's body tensed, and she straightened, turned about, and closed in on the prissy girl with deliberate strides, intentionally violating Cynn's personal space, and looking down with an intimidating gleam; helped by the fact that Devona was roughly half a head taller.
"And if you don't get over there and help, I am going to make you wish you never left Surmia." The warrior finally growled, having quite enough of Cynn's attitude for one day.
Cynn gulped, and not surprisingly found a growing urge to perform some manual labor. "You know… I think Mhenlo needs a hand over there…"
"Yes, I do believe he does."
Devona watched with a baleful eye as Cynn got to work… or as close as she got to work anyway. Rubbing her temple, Devona returned to her task, grasping one particularly large boulder from the pile with both arms, and with an angry growl, rolled it down the mass of stone.
"Would it be a hazard to my health to ask you what is on your mind?" Aidan asked softly.
"Yes." Devona answered dourly.
"Very well." He said simply, and returned to his tasks.
Devona liked Aidan… he knew how to keep his nose out of other people's business.
On the other side of the rockslide, Devona could hear Cynn and Mhenlo talking, despite Cynn's apparent attempt to remain discreet, but was doing her best to ignore it.
"Did one of the Charr we were fighting earlier crawl up Devona's ass without us noticing?"
"She was upset that you were not pulling your weight; both literally and figuratively." Mhenlo replied calmly.
"Well, yeah…" Cynn admitted, "…but she never got that mean about it in the past. She's been rather sour since we left Rin. Do you think it has something to do with the mission?"
"I suspect it does. I get the impression that Duke Barradin put a lot of pressure on her."
"Nah, we've all been under even more pressure before. It's like this is personal, or something. Did she tell you anything while you two were searching about?"
Devona was one fraction of a second from breaking up the chit chat when Mhenlo defused the situation. "I'm afraid not. I fear I did most of the talking. She was very much focused on the business of finding our wayward Prince."
"Would it hurt for her to tell us what's on her mind every now and again… ah Grenth take it!" Cynn suddenly yelped, and jerked her hand away, sucking on a finger that she scraped between two rocks. "That's it!" She screamed, "Everyone get back!"
The three other adventurers complied… not necessarily out of any respect for Cynn's order, but from fear of whatever her mind was concocting. A burst of magical energy evaporated off her body, and nary a blink of an eye later, the loose rocks burst upward with a violent explosion.
Mhenlo hastily constructed a protective shell around them, but it turned out that Cynn had properly angled the blast in order to send the flying boulders harmlessly towards the western wall of the ravine. She glared accusingly at the monk, indignant that he thought her so reckless.
"My, Cynn… do you think you could be just a little less subtle? I don't think every Charr within twenty miles heard that." Mhenlo quipped once the land had settled once more.
"Then we'll send them to the Rift like all the others we've come across." Cynn shrugged. "But you've all got what you wanted. The rockslide is cleared."
There was little doubting that point… as the boulders had indeed been cleared, leaving a clearly man made opening about 10 feet high, its potential depth quickly shrouded by darkness.
Aidan noted torn pieces of metal along the rim of the neatly carved stone, and guessed they were likely hinges for what was once a door. "That's some awfully fancy trimmings for just any old cave, don't you think?"
"How much do you want to bet a clue to the Forgotten Academy lies within?" Devona asked.
"That would depend. Am I betting for?" Mhenlo offered.
Devona prowled the immediate area, and gathered several large, dry branches from nearby trees. She held one such stick up in the air, and asked, "Cynn, may I get a light?"
Wordlessly, the top of the branch burst into flame, and the warrior fearlessly took the lead towards the entrance to the tunnel. "Let's move. Time may not be our enemy right now, but it's rarely our friend."
"Are we there yet?" Cynn droned playfully, not out of any real boredom, but because she knew it would drive Devona crazy.
Through the light of the makeshift torch in the warrior's hand, Cynn could see it had the desired effect. Devona cringed, and she abruptly stopped in her tracks. "Cynn, I swear… if you say that one more time…"
Devona never got the chance to finish describing whatever foul torment was in her mind. An unseen force collided with her, knocking the torch out of her hand, and completely bowling over Mhenlo. Aiden spun aside in the little space he had, but by the time he had brought his bow to bear, it was out of sight.
A damp chill then hovered in the air, and as Devona gathered up the torch once again, heard the slight, ghostly sounds of other creatures approaching. A near wall of astral shadow creatures were bolting down the tunnel at an alarming rate of speed, and Devona took the Rinblade from her back with her free hand, prepared to meet the coming swarm.
But the shadows didn't seem to be interested in a fight. They actually didn't even pay any attention to the four humans as they blew by, seemingly in a great hurry to get to wherever they were going.
"I'd love to be able to say they were running from us… but I don't think any of us would buy that explanation." Cynn said.
"Which brings up the natural question of just what they really were running from?" Mhenlo added.
Of course, asking that sort of question will often yield an answer in the most unpleasant way. An abrupt, reverberating thud prompted the tunnel to tremble violently, followed by another that collapsed a sizable portion of the floor in front of them, or in Devona's case, right underneath her.
Aiden's quick reflexes kept her from falling to unknown depths, and with Mhenlo's help, she was pulled to relative safety. Devona clambered to her feet, and said, "Get ready."
"Why?" Cynn asked.
"I saw… something… down there as I fell. I don't think it was friendly or happy."
The six finger, mottled gray hand that grasped at the edge of the hole somewhat affirmed Devona's statement. The edge crumbled, and for a moment the massive paw disappeared, only to emerge again and find a sturdier hold. Its twin joined the first… then a third and a fourth. Finally having a firm hold, the creature pulled itself up into the tunnel.
On first appraisal, the thing was huge. It had to hunch over to fit into the tunnel, and the top of the tunnel was at least fifteen feet high. It smelled of fresh kills, and the smears of what appeared to be blood along its grotesque, misshapen claws only reinforced those initial senses.
Its face was a flaming skull, it's black, dragon-like wings were laced with bright red veins that glowed as if pumping molten lava. It wore a breast plate and leggings as black as night, with blood red runes occasionally glowing on the surface of the armoring.
A scream caused Devona to turn slightly to try and boost Cynn's morale, only to note that the elementalist was looking with disturbed fascination towards Mhenlo, who had apparently been the one to make that eerily feminine noise.
"That's… a Lieutenant of Grenth!" The monk yelped, pointing fearfully at the hideous, titanic monstrosity taking slow deliberate steps as the four adventurers steadily strode backwards.
The creature howled, a hideous sound that carried all the maliciousness and bloodthirsty fervor of the Underworld's unholy choir. It then lunged forward, and fortunately its size in relation to the size of the tunnel slowed its efforts somewhat, for its attack was hindered, its movements forced.
Even with that handicap, it still struck faster than a trained Tengu Brave. Two talons scraped across Devona's mail as she sidestepped, and she could see the normally sturdy dwarven craftsmanship literally melt under some sort of acidic touch. That same arm was then struck with two simultaneous flaming arrows, which might as well have been feather strokes from the lack of any response from the creature.
It finally met resistance when it struck Mhenlo's protective barrier, brilliant white sparks streaking off from the contact, illuminating the tunnel in a way that momentarily startled everyone inside.
Cynn recovered the quickest, quickly casting one of her rarely used water skills, a chilling burst of ice that momentarily caused the Lieutenant of Grenth to rear backwards, not necessarily out of injury, but more along the lines of surprise. This sort of resistance didn't seem to be what it was expecting.
Devona took that opening to deliver a sound statement of her own, her Rinblade crackling with furious energy as she struck. The creature reacted quickly, but not fast enough to keep the small finger on its lowest right hand from being chopped off neatly by Devona's strike.
At this point, the abysmal fiend decided retreat was the better part of valor. Devona had no doubt the creature was likely frighteningly intelligent, and was likely pulling back to rethink its strategy for a force it hadn't been prepared for. It jumped back down the hole that it made, and Cynn rushed up to the edge.
"Come on! We got that thing on the run!" She encouraged, trying to peer down into the black depths for any sign of how far of a drop it was.
"Cynn… I suspect we may have other problems." Aidan said slowly.
"Like what?" The elementalist asked, then looked up to see the other side of the collapsed floor filling with pairs of gleaming golden eyes. She backed up, and turned about, only to see that the other end of the tunnel was closed off as well by a small legion of slowly advancing cat-like creatures wielding weapons like spears and bows at the ready as they made their cautious advance…