Trying a new format to my writing hope it works out a bit better than before. Will be redoing the previous chapters in same format and fixing spelling and grammar, however the story will remain the same.
Things Only Whispered In The Shadows
Ch9. True nightmares
We took almost four hours to get back, Traps were more fun to set when there was competition. We had set more traps than we could count in those four hours, pit falls, rock slides, spike traps, ect...ect...ect... getting back was the fun part, actually being back and having to give the news to everyone was a different story all together.
Fel was the first one to greet us when we ran in the front doors, and the first to hear the news of the impending invasion. Maxis next, and then Rune. Darkness had once again settled into our lives. This would be our last night at the temple and we would be spending it collecting the things we could take with us instead of sleeping.
Maxis looked back at the temple longingly in the darkness, I couldn't blame him, we all felt the deep loss of this place after all it had been our home for so long. Even Rune seemed sad at our departure. It had almost hurt to leave, this place was home, and we didn't stand a chance defending it against that many soldiers. Halfway down the mountain we heard the first screams off in the distance. I couldn't be sure if they were from the traps or just the local 'residents' but I was certain they were from scouts, otherwise they wouldn't be spaced out as much.
I almost hated myself for wanting their deaths, after all most of them probably joined Salem's' army to survive the tyrant. On the other hand, if we wanted to survive in order to save more people from the same fate then we had to do what we had to do. Maybe someday we would be strong enough to do differently.
Those screams would haunt me for the rest of the night and probably the rest of my journey.
That night I dreamed of darkness, overwhelming darkness. No phantom enemies this time, no Salem, no parents, not even close. No this time I was surrounded by the darkness I felt and the screams of the people I might or might not be responsible for killing. A golem, a monster, or a bot was one thing, but living people were another matter altogether.
I tried to run from it, but the air around me only grew darker and the screams louder. I ran faster and faster, shutting my eyes and covering my ears like a child. Hopping it would go away if I blocked it out.
Eventually I tripped over my own two feet I could feel tears streaming down my face, when had I started crying? Instead of getting up and trying again I just curled up into a ball and began sobbing.
I don't know how long I was lying there, or what was happening to the nightmare world around me until someone sat down next to me. I didn't know if I wanted to look or not, or if I cared at this point. Let me die in this world of nightmares. If it would make the darkness and the death go away then so be it.
Eventually I looked up. I didn't have the motivation to wipe the tears from my face, so when I glanced over to see Shadow I didn't so much as blink.
"Well this is a new one, never seen a nightmare world like this before." He wouldn't look at me. I didn't blame him, I was a mess and I knew it.
I finally bothered to wipe what was left of the tears from my face and sit up instead of just lying there pathetically.
He finally bothered to look at me.
"So you finally pulled yourself together enough to move. Good. Then we can get to discussing business."
"Business? What do you mean business?" he sighed and stood up.
"Knuckles told the others about you and the emerald, and your, predicament. So Faker and his friends are trying to find a way to help you. To do that we need as much info as possible, that's where I come in. Since I am the only one capable of talking with you it is my job to get as much useful info as I can before we find our way to your world."
I sat there in stunned silence. Silence being the key word, when had the screams stopped? No wait, I don't care, they were coming for us, we might just pull this off…
Shadow was getting annoyed by the waiting, they were only in this place for so long, "Well, are you going to say something? Or am I going to assume you have no useful info?"
"Oh. Right. Um, let's see. Since you don't know anything about this world I should tell you it's not like yours, its smaller and more dangerous…" he snorts at that last part but stays otherwise silent. "Anyways, there are four of us, wait, five now? Five of us standing against Salem, and we are currently evading his main force marching into our territory." I wasn't about to tell him we were running for our lives, I was at a low point with my dignity but not that low. "We have traps set all over and the native creatures are some of the fiercest in the world. Most of them don't stand a chance…" I swallowed, pushing down the rising guilt and bile. There was no way I was losing it in front of him again. "We don't know if he is with his forces or not but chances are that he sent one of his generals in his stead."
Surprisingly he nods, then thoughtfully, "Find out, if he is your probably screwed, otherwise you might stand a fighting chance. Tell me about his generals. How many are there, how strong are they, what are their weaknesses, strong points?" the first specific question I had gotten out of him today, er tonight.
"There are seven generals, I don't know much about them but my brothers Talon and Fel do."
"It's a start. How about his army. How many men does he have and how loyal are they."
"About ten thousand or so, they would follow him to hell and back if it meant keeping on his good side. Most of them used to be soldiers from other kingdoms who defected when he stared taking control of the world with little to no resistance. It isn't that no one went against him, just that every time someone did they were wiped out, mercilessly. They are more like slaves than soldiers, and his generals are the only ones he truly trusts to any degree." The nightmare was fading bit by bit, getting lighter and brighter.
"We can use that against him, if he rules with fear then taking down even one of his generals will be a major blow to his pride and even more so to his troops morale."
"Won't it just make him mad? And besides he still has the other six generals if we do, he'll just send the others after us, and then we would be dead. Kind of counterproductive don't you think?" I gave him my best doubtful look even though what he said made a lot of sense.
"No, chances are that he will send them one or two at a time to keep his image intact and in hopes of wearing us down, and if you can take down one of them then the others shouldn't pose to much of a threat if you take them on one at a time."
I couldn't argue with his logic even though I wanted to for some reason. I stood up next to him, looking out at the grey and black expanse before us. I had never seen the nightmare world do anything like this before and judging by the look on Shadows face neither had he. That or he was really focused on the Intel he had gained.
The world began to fade around me, and probably him as well, "Well looks like goodbye for tonight Shadow." With a quick nod for an answer he vanished with the nightmare. Was it even a nightmare anymore? Most likely. This world just kept getting stranger and stranger.
I awoke in a familiar cavern, almost expecting a giant snake to try and eat me as I awoke. I had somehow gotten a good night's sleep, relatively speaking. And so it seemed had the others. Talon and Fel were used to this kind of thing from their travels, Maxis was used to living like this during his youth if his mealtime stories were anything to go by, and who knows what kind of life Rune had lived before. In all we were doing fairly well this time around.
"Talon, we need to go back." Talon rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
"Go back where? What time is it?" he looked around the cavern at the waking forms of the others as he stretched to drive away the remaining grogginess.
"You and I need to go back to the temple." I was trying to make it as simple as possible and take as few people with me so as not to draw unwanted attention.
"What? Why? Have you lost your mind? If we go back there now we don't stand a chance against that army!" He was wide awake now that my words had sunk in a bit.
"Not to fight them idiot! To gage their strength. We need to know who is leading them and such. We need to know what we are up against. I do Not intend to fight if it can be helped." I hadn't intended to bite his head off, just get the point across, but it seemed to work out anyway, the look on his face was priceless even if I didn't have time to laugh.
"Oh. Well you might have a point there. Do you at least have you emerald in case we need to teleport?"
"Stupid question." I held the yellow gem up to the light from the entry and watched it shine.
"Yeah guess it was." He chuckled.
"This is going to be fun."
"Something like that." He grinned from ear to ear. We were going all out again weren't we? I had to smile at that to, we hadn't had this much fun in a long time. It was time to mess with Salem and his undefeatable army. I grabbed my bag and strapped my blades on to my back, Talon did the same with his monstrous sword and we set out for the temple.
Two hours, that's how long it took us to infiltrate the now overrun temple, and that's how long it took us to realize just how much of a toll this place had taken on his army with some help from our booby-traps. They had gone from ten thousand to a couple hundred overnight. I was honestly surprised to see such an enormous force reduced to this in such a short amount of time. Especially since two kids, an old man and a robot had managed it for the past few years without a single casualty. How much stronger had we gotten over the past few years? Maybe we stood a chance after all…
I almost felt guilt again seeing the pathetic state most of the remaining soldiers were in, that is until I saw that three men seemed completely untouched and unfazed by the whole incident. Fear ran a cold finger down my spine at the sight of them and I ducked behind the rampart I was watching from when the largest of the three glanced in my direction. I shivered and made my way back to Talon on the other side of the temple observing the other remaining troops from the seemingly unstoppable army before they had traipsed through the domain of the beasts.
We had seen the remains of the monsters that had stood between the army and our former home, our hopes hadn't been high before, but now we knew the damage done to both sides, as well as the lack there of. With no way to gage the strength of the uninjured enemies we silently agreed to not stick around long enough for the three that were obviously in charge to find us. We left as quietly as we had come.
At the very least It would take them another night to catch up to us and by then there would likely be no one left other than the three in charge. With Maxis and Fel, we stood a good chance of surviving three enemies with little chance for fatalities. I was just glad that Salem hadn't decided to lead the charge.
The others were exactly where we had left them, they had decided to wait instead of going on ahead and letting us catch up later. We were the fastest of the group and had insisted that they go ahead but it actually worked out better this way. Now that we had everyone together we could lay out a battle plan.
"So how do you propose we go up against three of Salem's finest?" Rune was not happy about our plan, no one was but she showed the most opposition.
"Simple, we isolate them and beat them with superior numbers. We beat them at their own game." Fel had settled into the role of tactician once he realized the severity of the situation.
"And what if most of the soldiers that made it last night survive the second night in hell? What then?" I swear Rune was trying to be a pessimist now.
"Then you get to figure out what to do with them. The four of us get to target the three in charge, and you get the left overs if there are any." Fel was quickly getting fed up with her negativity. "Chances are that they won't bring their injured with, it would just slow them down if they did and even then an injured person wouldn't stand a chance against the night life here, not long anyway." Fel was more helpful in a dire situation than at any other time, and at the moment that was fine by me.
Rune gave a loud huff of disapproval but made no other argument.
"So what do we do if they are stronger than we bargained for?" Talon was the one who spoke up this time.
"Then we regroup and I teleport us halfway to the rebel states." I had to point out the obvious every once in a while, especially when the pressure was on.
"Simple enough, no other depressing questions? Dark thoughts? Oppressive views? No? Good, then let's get to kicking minion but and embarrassing the overlord of doom." and cold calculating Fel has left the building.
Maxis had been strangely quiet about the whole thing, but then again he had lost the only home he had known for probably the last thirty years over night and this battle would probably be meaningless when it came to getting it back. Either way Salem would probably know where to find us now and if we wanted to stand a chance against him and his generals, it would be with the rebel states as small as they were now.
We slept in the same cave that night. I dreamed of the same place as well.
"So this is what this place is like when I'm not running like an idiot." It was still dark and empty with shadows lurking at the edges of my vision, but it was strangely calm tonight.
"As unusual as it is yes, almost pleasant if you think about it." I nearly jumped out of my quills when he spoke, he had appeared behind me without my noticing and I wasn't sure if I was mad or relived for the intrusion.
"For the love of… Please don't do that." I held one hand over my chest trying to get my heart to stop pounding like a drum.
"Whatever, what new intel do you have." It was not a question. Straight to the point then.
"Well we won't have to deal with an army anymore, the monsters in the forest dealt with the majority of it for us. There are only a couple hundred left and I don't think most of them will make it through their second night." He raised an eyebrow at that one.
"What the hell kind of forest creatures live in your world that they could take out an army of ten thousand soldiers overnight?" he let his composure slip, shock and horror showing clear on his face. I would have smiled if I hadn't thought of the three people that had made it through their first night in such a place without a scratch.
"The kind that grow to the size of large buildings and eat one another for sport. More good news, Salem decided not to show up to the party." He had regained most of his composure again and nodded for me to continue, worry or doubt still showing in his eyes. "Unfortunately that's where the good news ends. Three of the people he sent made it through the first night completely unscathed and I don't think it was luck. I'm almost certain at least one of them is a general." Shadow crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and thought for a moment.
"You're right about it not being particularly good news but this could still be to your advantage."
"We thought about that too, we figure that since we manage to do the same on a regular basis the five of us, er, four of us might stand a decent chance against three of them."
"Four or five?"
"Yes well, Rune isn't trained as well as the rest of us yet and we were thinking that if any of the other soldiers made it to us then she could take care of them, if not then, well, four."
He sighed, "Better than nothing I guess, so you fight these kinds of things on a daily basis? That would certainly explain a few things."
"Nightly, but yes, and what does it explain?" I had no idea what kind of puzzle he was putting together in his head but I was obviously missing a few pieces.
"Your fighting abilities, from the first time we met. Most people can't put up a good fight other than Faker and his friends."
"Who the heck is Faker?"
"Sonic."
"Why do you call him Faker?"
"Can we get back to a relevant topic?" Irritation began creeping into his features replacing the worry and doubt that had been there.
"Right, anyway. So we know who we will be fighting and how we are going to do it."
"Do you have a backup plan?"
"Yep, an escape plan."
"Well?"
"We regroup and teleport."
"Simple."
"If you have a problem with it say so."
"Who said I had a problem with it, all I said was that it was simple."
I wasn't sure if that was an insult or an explanation but I was sure I didn't appreciate his tone.
"What do you plan to do after you win or escape?" I was sure he put a slight disapproving emphasis on the word escape but I ignored it.
"We head for the rebel states, they are the last stronghold against Salem's forces and the only place we can get away from him. I know that we won't be able to hide from him there and we don't intend to. If and when we make it there we are going to hit him and his forces hard and often, we will wear them down while gaining strength and experience while helping the rebel states take back territory from him. If all goes well then we will be well on our way to eliminating his generals and obtaining the fragment emeralds."
He mulled over this info for a while and began to pace around the strangely empty world. It hadn't gotten brighter or anything but it was less intimidating and oppressive than before. I think it had more to do with our attitudes and such than with our nightmares.
"When you get the emeralds from him, what do you plan to do?"
I was silent, I already knew what we were going to do with them, but did I want to tell Shadow. Hesitantly I chose my words carefully. "Well we, my brothers and I, are going to try to go to your world, we were originally going to try and find someone to help us find the original emeralds and defeat Salem with them." I was still not sure about telling him about our plan to recombine the worlds.
"Sounds like you had at least that much planned out for quite some time."
"Four years."
He raised an eyebrow again, it was beginning to get repetitive, he hadn't been expecting an answer to that one. I hadn't been expecting to answer. "How long have you been running from this guy?"
I took a little longer answering this time, it wasn't just that I didn't want to sound desperate, I didn't want to break out in tears again. "My earliest memories are of my family less than a year before he killed my parents… So about ten or eleven years, something like that."
We sat in silence for a while longer, not looking at one another. He broke the silence. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."
As surprising as his statement was mine shocked me just as much. "It isn't your fault, don't apologize." It came off a little curt but not quite hostel or anything. I sighed, "Wow we got so far off topic. There is something else you need to know." I would wait to tell him the rest of the plan but there were a few things he needed to know about the fragment world. "Our word, my world, is way different than yours."
"That was made obvious by the apparent large number of man eating monsters that seem to populate the wild places you have told me about." The obnoxious tone was back and I was kind of glad, it meant that we were done with the awkward sharing time.
I scoffed at his comment, "No that's just in this area. Most of the dangers are from elemental hazards. The desert between here and the rebel territories is the biggest problem, and the only reason Salem hasn't taken them over yet. The other is the ocean, it takes up over two thirds of the planet and with only two continents and a few islands there is nowhere to run to if, sorry when Salem turns his focus on us. Also the winters in the desert and the territories are notorious for claiming countless lives. So between the large amounts of water or lack thereof, and the extreme temperature differences I just thought it would be a good idea to forewarn you."
"You think your world's weather is going to be more of a problem than giant man eating monsters that I now know primarily only live in one place? I hope you know our world has its fair share of bad weather, and this isn't the first time we have been to other worlds each with their own hazards. This one will be no different." I had to admit that had both surprised and impressed me, and that annoyed me. I was trying to be helpful and tell him what to expect and he just shrugged it off like it was going to be nothing out of the ordinary.
The dream world began to fade again like it did every night before we woke. I was content to stay silent after his last remarks. Apparently he wasn't.
"Thank you Whisper, and good luck." Then he disappeared and I followed, shocked.
