Author's Note: Just got back from a long day trip. Man, I was itching to get back a write out this story so here am I, 5 days earlier than expected. Well, time to begin the show! Send my regards to Talyyr, a deceased homicide who just died in a car crash.
Chapter 9-Inside the labyrinth
Deep down inside a cave not too far away from the oasis, two grown men in cloaks threw two unconscious bodies into a dark and damp cell. The men in cloaks took the weapons they found, walked out and slammed the wooden door shut. One of the men pulled out a click and placed it into a metal lock. He turned the key and a 'click' sound was heard indicating that the door was locked. They nodded at each other and walked away while carrying the weapons they took with them in their hands.
Inside the cell, a snore startled the prince and he woke up instantly. He pushed himself up with his hands which felt like jelly and sat upright on the hard, cold and damp stone floor. It took his eyes a minute to adjust to the dark and when they did, he saw a figure laying flat on the floor next to him.
"Jamal? Is that you?" the prince asked tiredly. He felt fatigue catch up on him even after his slumber. He heard another snore and knew it was Jamal. The prince moved nearer to him and placed a hand on his shoulder and shook him up. Jamal's eyes slowly opened. He got up and yawned loudly, while the prince stood up and scanned the room with his eyes.
The room was filthy, with blood stains on the walls, cockroach droppings and to top it all up, a severed human hand lay rotting in the back of the cell. 'This must be a torture room' the prince thought. He turned to Jamal who was by now alert and gave him a look of dread. Jamal had the same look on his face as well.
"We were captured if I'm not mistaken?" Jamal said darkly. The prince nodded and went to check the door. The pulled on the doorknob, but the shackle on the knob would not budge.
The prince didn't give up and he tried kicking it down but to no avail. His legs weren't in top condition and when he threw a blow towards the door, he felt his pain in his feet. He yelled in anger and dropped back onto the hard stone floor and rubbed his feet to ease the pain.
"Damn, we should have been more careful," the prince said angrily. Jamal sighed. The prince realized that his hand was empty and panic started to fill inside him. He turned behind, no dagger. He looked at Jamal, who was unarmed as well and knew that the bandits took their weapon. What worried the prince more was that the weapon they took was the only key in finding the Crest of Time.
"So, do you have any idea on how to get out of here?" Jamal asked. The prince looked at the door once more and shook his head in vain.
"Not in our current state right now. That dart they used on us must have had a side effect. Some kind of weakening poison maybe," the prince replied. Jamal groaned and punched the floor.
"NO! I refuse to give up so easily!" Jamal roared. "We were close, we even defeated those four bandits out there and all of a sudden, we fall into this useless cell!" He punched the floor another time. The prince moved his hand to stop him, but as we moved, the door swung open.
A broad shouldered man stood at the doorway with a face of fury on his heavily scarred face. His eyes were bloodshot but they looked deadly and the prince felt queasy looking at the small beady eyes.
The man took a step inside and that is when Hell came. He took one look at the prince a kicked him in the stomach. The prince spluttered blood out from his mouth and he cursed under his attacker under his breath. Jamal tried to push himself up and try and help the prince, but to no avail, the man had turned to Jamal and gave him a good strong blow from under the chin. Jamal fell back against the moss covered wall, clutching his chin in pain while a small trickle of blood started to flow from his gums.
The man now then moved toward the prince. The prince forced himself to look into the eyes of what he may call death, as if not to show weakness in a time like this. Weakness was death and he couldn't receive it now. He had much more to do.
"So, you, and that weakling in the corner, had just taken out 4 of my best paladins," the man hummed quietly. The prince continued on staring at him with growing hatred. "How did it feel? Good? Marvelous? Did you taste the experience of killing something, having taste the feeling of blade cutting flesh?"
The prince kept silent and Jamal coughed a little more blood out and the room was starting to get cold, with a sudden chill from the presence of the man there. The man was starting to walk back and forth from the door, muttering to himself.
"Do you know who we actually are peasant?" asked the man, talking through gritted teeth. The prince thought for a moment and replied:
"All I see are scoundrels without a proper way of life, which they only know how to kill instead of live."
The prince felt himself being thrown of the ground by a sudden force and he flew back towards the wall. Pain resurfaced in his body and he felt limp. The man was standing right above him now.
"It would be wise to keep that mouth of yours shut in case if you have nothing else but nonsense to say. We, who are the Bandits of Zarul, are the Gods of the desert! We are the one who are feared and you, my good friend…" he laughed to himself as the prince wondered what monstrosity might come after him after this conversation had finished.
"You, you shall have the honor of being the first ever outsider to battle in our arena. And your friend, the weakling over there will aid you. But I daresay that you wouldn't even last a second inside." He walked off towards the metal door laughing.
The prince managed to pull himself together and call out for the man. Jamal remained unnerved, happy that the goddamned man was leaving. But the prince had one last question for him.
"What are you?" he said, fighting the pain away from his body. The man stopped in his track, turned his head to the prince and gave the prince the stare of a merciless cold blooded killer.
"I am Zarul, the one referred to my men and eared across the land as, Death Bringer." He grinned at the prince, opened the door, locked it and left the prince and Jamal inside the cell. Jamal finally poke in the last few minutes of the man's entry.
"That man…he's not from this world," Jamal said shakily. The prince understood. He felt it too. The feeling of the presence of a grim reaper.