Alright, so I've had some time and I was able to get another chapter done. Not much to say, just R&R and enjoy.
The Legend of Midna: Clockwork Darkness
Chapter Sixteen
"Alright," Eoghan announced once they had reached the top of the stairs, "the first thing we need to do is find our gear."
"We'll have to be sneaky," Cailin added. "Without any weapons we're prime targets, and magic can only do so much."
"You gotta give Zagros credit," Siobhán said absently, "he covers his bases."
"Which is why we have to be on our toes," Eoghan said. "There's no telling what's waiting for us in this place, so we've got to be ready to dance with anything."
And so the trio set out through what they could only assume was Zagros' fortress. The hallway they were in now was dimly lit with torches secured in brackets to the iron walls. Up ahead somewhere they could hear footsteps.
"Quick," Cailin hissed, "we've got to hide or else we'll be seen and then we're toast!"
"There is nowhere to hide!" Siobhán hissed back. "Nocwwm!"
"What was that?" Cailin demanded in barely more than a whisper.
"That was me saving our asses," Siobhán retorted. "I just cast a spell that will make us appear like shadows. Now get down on the floor and keep your trap shut!"
They did so, and sure enough, around a corner came a squat, porcine figure carrying a long knife.
"Hgn?" it grunted as it cast a look in their direction. It turned its head from side to side, looking around stupidly but finding nothing. Finally it shrugged and kept moving. Then Siobhán began to follow.
"What are you doing?" Eoghan hissed at her from the shadows in which he hid.
"Making sure that pig doesn't ruin everything," she hissed back. Silently she crept up on the pig-man and then, before anyone knew what had happened, she was standing over its prone body. She then slipped the knife from its hand and slit its flabby throat. Her face held a look of mingled disgust and satisfaction as the thing's blood pooled around its head.
"What the hell was that?" Eoghan demanded. "You just killed that thing in cold blood. I realize it's a guard for this place, but still."
"Eoghan," she said, "you know as well as I do that one wrong move and that thing would have dozens more on us in no time. I was just making sure that didn't happen."
"Well, either way," Cailin interjected before things got out of hand, "we've still got to find our gear, so let's just get a move on."
They continued down the hallway, turning the corner that the pig-man had just come down, until they came to a fork in the path. To their left was another corridor, and directly ahead a short distance away was a door.
"Here, let's try this door," Cailin suggested.
"Good idea," Eoghan agreed. They approached the door, but as he reached for the handle, his sister seized his wrist.
"Are you even thinking?" she demanded. "What do you think will happen when you open that door?"
"I'll go in?" he replied, not sure where she was going with this.
"No," she corrected, "you'll be beset by who or whatever is in there, which means in turn the rest of us will, and in case you've forgotten, the only weapon we have is this piss-poor excuse for a knife!"
"Ok," he argued, "what do you suggest then?"
"We find an alternate way in," she said definitively. "There's got to be something…there!" She had pinpointed her target, and pointed out to the other two an empty space high up on the wall above the door.
"How do you expect to get up there?" Eoghan insisted. "That's got to be at least fifteen feet in the air, probably more."
"It won't be easy," Siobhán said, "but I can do it. See those beams up there?" She gestured to the steel support beams high up over their heads. "If I can get up there, I can get in that room."
"What about the rest of us?" Cailin insisted. "You're just going to do this all by yourself?"
"Well, not entirely," she said. "I have a plan, but first I need you to create a force field that I can stand on."
"What?" Cailin looked incredulous.
"Look, just trust me for once," Siobhán insisted. "Right about there," she gestured to an area above just about eye level, "I need you to create a force field."
"Alright," Cailin agreed, "but whatever you've got in mind, make it quick. I can't do this forever."
"No need," Siobhán said with authority. She stood back and allowed Cailin to work her magic. A moment later, there was the outline of a platform suspended in the air.
"Perfect," Siobhán said. Then she did something the others weren't expecting at all. She took a running start at the wall that held the door, ran a few steps up it, and then pushed off into the air. She grabbed hold of the force platform that Cailin was holding in place and from there jumped up to the support beams. She pulled herself up, and then carefully made her way over to the open space high on the wall.
"How in the blue hell did you do that?" Eoghan said aloud. "I guess I should say, when did you learn to do that?"
"Oh, I've always been able," she replied. "I just would rather be doing something else."
"Well, that's great," Cailin said, "but how are we getting up there."
"Can you climb?" Siobhán asked.
"Yes," they both answered.
"Then watch," she said. With that, she used her Twili shadow magic to tear the torch brackets from their places and affixed them to the wall beneath where she sat perched in such a way that they formed hand and footholds, extinguishing the torches in the process.
"Now you can climb up," she said with satisfaction.
"Wow," Eoghan said. "I think you might just be a genius."
"Well," she said to herself, "that makes one of us." She waited until they had all reached her perch. "Now look," she said with much more authority than she had the whole time they had been on their journey, "you see down there?" They looked down into what appeared to be a barracks of sorts. All around there were cots, some empty and some with sleeping pig-men. "We have to be careful not to wake them up. Otherwise we're dead meat. I think our gear is in one of those chests, but I don't know for sure. What I do know is that we've got to get down there and go through all of those without being detected."
"What's your plan, then," Eoghan asked.
"I need you to lower me down so that I land on that empty cot there," she pointed at one that was fairly close to the door they had just circumvented. "It won't be easy, especially since you'll have to navigate these rafters and maintain perfect balance."
"I can do it," he said. "You can count on me."
"I know," Siobhán said. For a moment it was as if they had come to some mutual understanding. That moment was over as soon as it had begun, because they couldn't afford to lose focus. Slowly and carefully they crept along the beams until they were directly over the cot.
"Alright," Siobhán said, "what I need you to do is lower yourself down into a hanging position. Once you're there you'll really have to focus because I'm going to climb down you so that I hit with the least amount of force possible. I don't want these pigs to wake up."
"I understand," he said with a nod. Slowly he lowered himself down so that he was hanging off the beam. He steeled himself for the added weight that Siobhán would create, but it was such a precarious position that he still nearly lost his grip as she lowered herself down his body. It was a relief when she finally released hold of his ankles and he was able to pull himself back up.
Once she had reached the floor, Siobhán moved more silently than she ever thought she could. She made for the nearest chest, which just happened to be right next to the head of a sleeping pig-man. She made to open it, but the creaking hinge stirred the pig. It grunted, but didn't fully wake. Time for some preemptive action, Siobhán thought to herself. She stalked around to the other side of the cot, drew the knife, and silently opened the pig-man's throat. She followed suit with the others, being careful not to make a sound. Miraculously, not one became aware of her presence, and soon all the pig-men were dead, their throats opened, blood flowing freely. She then leisurely began to open all the chests.
"You two can come down now," she called up to Eoghan and Cailin, who were watching her with pained faces. Disgusted, but eager to leave, they lowered themselves down, albeit with much less ease and grace as Siobhán had. Soon, all the chests were open, and all their gear had been recovered.
"Alright," Siobhán said. "At least all that trouble wasn't for nothing. I wonder if maybe one of these guys…" she let her voice trail off and she searched. "Here we go," she said triumphantly as she found a map of the fortress among one of the pig-men's possession. "These might be helpful too," she said as she lifted a ring of keys from another. "Well, let's keep moving now that you've got a sword and shield again and we've got our things."
They exited the room, now much more prepared for the challenges they faced, and knowing Zagros, there would be many more challenges to come before they faced their final adversary.