Savior
Chapter 6
They were two days into the jungle when they reached the mountains. Rick managed to go hunting, and while he hated to do it, he shot an orangutan. They roasted it over an open fire, and to their surprise, it was delicious meat. Maybe a bit tough, but it was tasty.
Flame seemed to like his raw, and he was content to chew on a bone.
Then they came across an old castle. Roy and Kate walked up to the gate, which was closed. "Do you suppose you could Knock it open?" Roy asked her.
But Rick spoke up. "I don't think that's necessary." Rick beckoned them with a finger to get them to come to him. They joined him, and he pointed. "The entire east wall is gone."
"So it is. All that's left is the rubble," Roy noted, and they made their way inside, where they looked at the castle itself. It appeared to be made up of three towers with an interconnecting walkway and looked to be five stories tall. Each tower had an opening.
"Left, middle, or right?" Roy inquired.
"Right, because I want to be different," Rick told them. So they went right and walked through the open door. They saw what looked like a kitchen, a dining room, and a set of stairs going up. Everything looked ruined and broken, but they walked through it anyway. "What is it, boy? What have you found?" Rick asked Flame. He went over to him, moved some of the debris out of the way, and searched the floor.
"Hey, it looks like there's a trap door here," Rick called out and worked at finding a way to get it open. "I think it's a cellar. But there aren't any stairs down."
"I've got a rope if one of you wants to go down. But I don't see any place to tie it off." Roy went ahead and unwound it from around his backpack.
"I'm the lightest, I'll go." Kate removed her backpack and waited for Roy to play the rope down. Then she sat down on the edge and went down the rope. "It's dark down here," Kate called up. So Roy threw down his torch, which she lit up.
"I see lots of barrels and three large chests. …The chests are locked," Kate called up and looked around. She thought she saw something behind one of the barrels, so she moved the barrel out of the way by rocking it back and forth. "I found a secret door. I'm going in."
She opened the door and went inside. Kate looked around and saw three small chests and a space off to the right. So she went right and saw a well that had water in it. "So they had fresh water." Kate returned to the chests and opened them one by one. She found something in each of them worth keeping. She dragged each chest over to the opening and the rope and tied the rope around the chest. "Okay, pull," Kate yelled up.
"She's put on some weight," Roy complained as he and Rick pulled. Except what they got wasn't Kate; it was a chest. They untied the rope, sending it back where Kate was ready for it. She tied off the next chest.
"Go ahead and pull," she called up to them.
Again, there was a chest on the other end instead of Kate. They untied it and sent the rope down. Moments later, she told them to pull, and they brought up another chest. They untied it and sent the rope back down.
"Now, do I use a Knock spell on these chests?" Kate asked herself. She already found something worth keeping in a secret room. She decided not to, then tied herself off and told them to pull. It only took seconds to pull her up.
While Roy put his rope away, they opened the first chest. It held the pelts of some animals. The next chest was full of gold and silver coins. They counted the coins, and they found 1,889 gold and 2,445 silver. Meaning they each had 629 gold plus one and 815 silver. The third chest contained potions, though most of them looked broken.
One went through the potions, and the other two looked over the pelts. "I'm not sure what animals these are, and those pelts will take up a lot of space in our backpacks. We should leave them," Roy told Rick.
"It's a pity, but I think you're right. I don't recognize the animals either." Rick turned his attention to Kate. "Find anything?"
"I found four of them that aren't empty or broken." Kate sighed. "Sorry, I thought it would be more. I've got a potion of Blur, a potion of Keen Edge - that's an oil, by the way, a potion of Hide From Undead, and a potion of Water Breathing, or so the tags say," she told them.
She dug down through the broken vials carefully and found something else. "I found a Rod." She lifted it out and showed it to them. Kate cast Identify on the rod and told them, "It's a Rod of Enemy Detection. I'm not sure how useful it is, but that's what it is."
"Well, that was useful. We gained some gold and some silver, and a few potions and a Rod. Not at all bad." Roy was quite pleased.
"Good boy," Rick praised Flame and petted him. Flame ran around catching fire to various items, but they went out quickly, so Rick didn't scold him.
They went up the stairs and saw a living room with broken furniture and a shattered chandelier. It might have looked like something once, but it was trash now.
So they continued up and came upon a sitting room and three bedrooms. All of them looked looted already, so they went up again. This area was one big open room save for four columns supporting the roof. There was a connecting pass-through, and they could go up.
Moving on, they went across and saw another large open area with columns holding up the roof. They went down and saw a sitting room and three bedrooms. They went back up and across to the third tower.
There was yet another open room save for four columns holding the roof up. They went down and saw a sitting area and one large bedroom that, by the looks of it, was ruined. So they went down and stumbled on another sitting area and three bedrooms. They went farther down and saw a barracks with bunk beds.
They decided to leave the castle and go out into the jungle.
They stopped for the day to set up the tent, still surprised when they learned the tent had a king-size bed, having not been told about it when they bought it. Tonight was Rick and Kate's turn to share the bed. The young woman was tired and slept in her underwear while Rick slept in his shorts. Each chose a side of the bed and went to sleep.
When Kate woke, she was in the middle of the bed with her arms wrapped around Rick, breathing in his breath. He was breathing in hers with his lips right there.
She was afraid to move since it might wake him, but she needed to extract herself from this entanglement, which was when she became aware that her legs were apart, and his leg was in between hers, with his bare leg right up against her pussy.
She managed to move her leg and one arm, but that was as far as she got. "Hi," Rick murmured. "What are you doing on my side?"
"I'm not on your side," Kate tried to explain. "I'm in the middle, and you are too."
"Really?" Rick was still partially asleep, and nothing she said registered in his brain. "Hi," he told her again as he looked at her beautiful lips that were right there. He only had to do was move an inch, and he'd be kissing her.
"Hi." Kate saw his lips getting nearer to hers. Rick's lips were closer and closer, and then they were kissing a nice soft kiss, one barely there.
Rick broke away from the kiss, and Kate began to chase after those lips. "Hi," Rick told her.
"Hi," she replied. "I think maybe we should move."
"Move? Right..." Except Rick didn't want to move. He longed to kiss her again, so he did. Kate kissed him back with a kiss not so soft; it was full of need and lasted for a long time.
Rick broke from the kiss, and Kate was out of breath. She liked kissing him. "I need to take care of something." Rick left the bed and went outside with Flame following him. His pup watched him pee, so he peed as well.
When Rick reentered the tent, he saw Kate was up and dressed and headed out to relieve herself. Rick got dressed, save for his boots, and kicked Roy awake. "Hey, you. It's time you were up."
Roy yawned, stretched, and worked out a kink. The man was up and dressed just as Kate came back in. Roy smiled at her, and she smiled back at him.
They ate something and drank something, and took down the tent and stood there in the middle of the jungle. Rick sighed at what was ahead of them, but he moved out.
oo0O0oo
In a clearing, they saw eight unremarkable columns that they could ignore. Rick checked the ground and saw the footprints of a humanoid and one of a giant snake. "Yuan-Ti have been here as well as a large snake. It could be an Abomination, but I can't tell," he told them.
They came to a hole in the ground that was maybe more of a cutout than a simple hole. Roy unsheathed his sword, Rick readied his new bow, and while Kate pulled out a dagger, ready to cast a spell.
They went down the ramp with the two men side by side. They spotted three Pure-Bloods down there quickly, and one of them was getting ready to blow a horn. Rick put four arrows into him, killing him before he could blow into it.
Roy charged the other two, swinging his sword, and killing one of them. The remaining one swung his sword at Roy but missed him. Roy swung his sword and ended him.
They looked around the large room that was maybe 60 by 60. It had four exits, and they all looked rough. That grandiose location had seen better days. It appeared to have once been a place of worship, but only dust and rocks remained of the altar at the western end of the chamber.
Rick looked over at Roy. "Which way do we go?"
"Left, of course," Roy replied as Rick rolled his eyes at that, but he went left. The first opening was about 15 feet deep and ended there, so they went to the other left.
This way opened into a small room, which had suffered a cave-in at one point, but there was an opening to the right. So they went right.
They saw six alcoves, but there was nothing in any of them. There was once a sarcophagus in each space, but those were all long gone.
They saw a way to go to the right, but it was rough, not like the previous room. They made their way and saw it opened into a larger space. The room held seven Yuan-Ti eggs and two guardians in the form of two giant snakes. Those snakes stuck out their tongues and attacked.
Roy got to swing first; he hit it and killed it. Rick shot at the other one and killed it with four arrows. He looked at Roy and Kate. "What do we do with the eggs?"
"We destroy the blasted things, that's what," Kate told them. "They'll hatch and grow up to be Yuan-Ti if we don't."
"I can't allow that. I know what you're thinking, but they're eggs. They're innocent," Roy insisted. Rick opened his mouth to say something. "Don't even think it," Roy warned him.
"There are times when I wish you weren't a Paladin." Shaking his head, Rick left the eggs and moved to the far end of the space.
The next room held two giant snakes, too, but they were guarding something. After sticking out their tongues, they slithered across the room to attack. Roy got to swing first and killed it. Rick put four arrows into the other one and killed it.
A crate of cinnamon was worth 300 gold pieces outside of the kingdom. A package of Ardennian Silk was worth 800 gold pieces outside the kingdom. "They're too large for us to take," Roy said as he moved on to the next space. He had to decide whether he would go right or left now. And as usual, he chose to go left.
The next room looked worked with smooth walls, floor, and ceiling. It also held five Pure Blood and three Half-Bloods lounging on sleeping pads.
Kate decided it was a good time for a Fireball and cast it, encompassing all of them in the blast. The Fireball killed the Pure Bloods but not the three Half-Bloods. Rick put arrows into one of them, killing that one.
It was a large room with eight columns holding up the ceiling.
Roy charged another one and killed him. The Half-Blood was able to swing at Roy but missed him. Roy swung his sword at him and killed him.
A minute later, an Abomination entered the space from the north. Rick put four arrows into it, and Kate cast Magic Missile. Roy got to swing first, hitting and doing damage but not killing it. The Abomination swung, hitting Roy, who screamed out in pain. The one swing hurt. Rick put another four arrows into him, while Kate cast Magic Missile.
Roy could swing again; he hit it but didn't kill it. The Abomination swung and struck Roy, who grunted from the strike.
Rick put four arrows into it and killed it. The three of them went to the north and to search the room. Once in it, they spotted bones of past kills and a wooden chest in the adjoining stone-tiled chamber. The chest contained three rubies, a diamond ring, a bag with eight sapphires, and 326 gold coins. They estimated the rubies to be worth 400 gold pieces each, the diamond ring to be worth 500 gold pieces, and the eight sapphires to be worth 600 gold pieces each.
They searched the main room and found nothing in it or on them.
The last room featured a room filled with bas-reliefs on the walls, scriptures, hieroglyphs, and other kinds of written language on almost every inch of the walls and ceiling.
"I don't have Comprehend Languages spell, so I don't know what it says." Kate ran her hand over some of it. "It's interesting, though."
They each remained at the seventh level after this event.
They exited the space, got far away from it, and set up camp. This time it was Roy's and Rick's turn to use the bed. Rick blew her a kiss. Kate smiled back at him, then lay down in her sleeping bag. The bed was more comfortable but her sleeping bag wasn't too bad.
Come the morning, they all went outside to relieve themselves, including Flame. Returning, they sat down and ate something. It was only trail rations, but it was better than nothing. They finished, broke camp, and took down the tent.
They were traveling through the jungle when suddenly they came across something interesting. It was the upper torso of an angel, complete with wings and holding a lantern, which shed light even today.
It was tall, very tall, even if it was just the torso of an angel. "I wonder how big it was when it had legs." Roy dropped to his knees and prayed to his God in front of it. He thought he saw something. Was that a pyramid? He just knew it was a vision from his God. He didn't know where the pyramid was, though. It could be anywhere out here.
Roy thanked his God and continued to pray. After that, he buried 100 gold at its base as a thank-you to his God. He stood, looking at the others looking at him. "I had a vision. It was of a pyramid, so I offered up some gold as a thank you."
"Did that vision tell you where this pyramid was?" Rick queried.
"No."
"Figures. Those Gods show you something but don't tell you where it is or why it's important." Rick rolled his eyes and looked at Kate, but all she did was shrug.
"So now what?" Rick asked Roy.
"We keep walking for Ishau," Roy replied.
Rick went hunting that evening and came back with a gutted monkey carcass. "It was the biggest animal I could find."
It had a faint, herby taste, and they realized monkey meat was pallid and tasteless. It could be that spices thrown into the soup pots made the meat palatable. Unfortunately, they had no spices or even a pot to make soup.
"So, no more monkeys," Rick promised them.
It was Roy's and Kate's turn to use the bed. The two went to sleep on their side of the bed and woke up again on their side of the bed, unlike sleeping with Rick. Kate missed sleeping with Rick, sort of. Sleep-sleeping, not sleeping with him.
They had traveled almost all day when they came across a pyramid. "This your pyramid?" Rick asked him.
"Looks like it," Roy said. They studied it from a distance. The sun was setting, and it would be dark soon. The three debated whether to sleep in the tent or go inside the pyramid.
They decided to go inside. If there were any Yuan-Ti inside, then maybe they would be asleep.