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PoesJournalEntryFifteen
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Well, Alia, I guess I was a bit too optimistic. The Queen hadn’t decided to bring us to the dragon quite yet. If we get through the next 10 minutes…well, 5 now, maybe we’ll be so lucky. Yeah. I have a strange concept of luck, don’t I?
Anyway, beloved, the temple had become eerily quiet. At least for a moment. I’m sure it was probably sacrilegious, but I took the time to say a quick prayer to the Queen, kneeling on the cold dwarven-made stone floor. The heroes meanwhile spread out and looted the place. I’ve mentioned that they’re greedy in the past, right? Heh. The scraping of stone on stone caught my attention. The heroes had found a secret room. Naturally it was filled with treasure. Happy day. I returned to my sacrilegious prayers, ignoring the heroes as they debated over what to do with the spoils of this last battle. The next interruption was a bit more unsettling. A low moaning began permeating the defiled temple. It seemed to come from the very walls around us. Frack. Undead for certain. I hefted my blade and stopped praying. Undead would need to be killed and prayers alone usually didn’t do it. Guss led a few of the other heroes to the main doors of the temple and spiked them shut.
A spectral dwarven figure walked through sealed doors. So much for spiking the doors. Heh. Sunny, surprisingly enough, stepped forward and spoke to them in dwarvish. Our dwarf joined in as well. That’s about when I started getting a bad feeling about things. Last time our dwarf negotiated for us we almost ended up being dragon food. I mentioned this casually to the rest of the heroes, but they shushed me. More spectral dwarves appeared and we were soon surrounded. I walked away and stood with Kobe and Ron. The dwarves moved toward the room’s altar, encircled it and began chanting. Creepy. Guss motioned me over to where the rest of the heroes were deep in conversation.
“The dwarves are going to purify the temple,” he said. “But something ‘bad’ is coming…at least that’s what they claim. We have to buy them time to complete the ritual.” I grunted. Whatever they say I figured. I wasn’t there to make decisions. I looked around and found a good place to get ready for an assault. I had just settled in with my cold blade when Guss waved me over to the spiked doors. “Let’s brace these,” he said. I shrugged. Seemed worth a try. Just as we leaned against the cold wooden doors, a loud voice boomed in the hallway outside.
“Chang the Flash Reaver demands entry!”
The door creaked as it was pushed from the outside. Somebody wanted in. I shifted to the side as our dwarf joined me to help hold the door closed. I heard grunts and shuffling and curses – in giant. Orcs. I stepped back. Let them come in and die. Our dwarf couldn’t hold the door himself and he was tossed backwards as it burst inwards under the weight of the foul creatures outside. I stepped into the breach, sword swinging in a deadly arc at the first orc’s face. Sunny’s voice called out arcane words behind me and the hallway was sheathed in darkness. Arrows from Beros’ bow flew over my shoulder seeking orc targets in the darkness.
Guss held the other door closed a heartbeat longer, then it too was flung open. He and I battled side by side in the doorway and held the orcs at bay while Ron, Beros and the others rained magic and arrows upon them. The one who called himself Chang started yelling again, this time screaming for his minions to get out of the way. He appeared from the darkness, tossed an orc aside and plowed into Guss. I’ve seen some ugly orcs, but Chang took the cake. I expect he generally took whatever he wanted. Well, not today. Heh. Chang’s charge hurtled Guss back into the room and I was left standing face to face with him.
“Come on in,” I said and viciously cut at him with my ice weapon. Chang only laughed as it sliced a deep gouge in his side. Orcs rushed through the hole he’d made in our line. Chang called for them to target the elf and to strike at the forge. Sunny and our dwarf fell upon the orcs quickly, putting a quick end to those plans. The orcs that didn’t fall immediately under their fierce onslaught scattered into the room. The fight descended into chaos inside the room – orcs and the heroes swirling about in a deadly dance of steel and magic. Chang brushed past me to get right into the middle of it. I followed him in. He was mine.
I stuck with Chang and exchanged several blows with him. Our dwarf and Kleister were the first to join my assault on the orc leader. The remaining heroes were not far behind and soon a well placed magical blast from Sunny laid him out. After putting Chang down we pushed the remaining orcs back out of the temple area. As the last of them fled, we heard them calling for someone or something named “fell fowl”. Oh great…an evil bird, I thought. Hopefully the damn thing could actually fly. We had a brief respite. The ghostly dwarven chants continued from the back of the room. The ritual dragged on. This was shaping up to be a long frackin’ ten minutes…
Thank the Queen, she didn’t give us much time to worry. A scratching sound approached from the darkened hallway. Bone on stone. My prayer beads burned ice cold. Undead. I gripped my sword tighter and stepped forward with the heroes, just as two gaunt unnaturally fast creatures bounded out of the shadows. Wights. Frack. We all swung at them, but none of us could land a blow. One of the wights grabbed our dwarf, its dirt encrusted claws opening gaping wounds on his arm. Ron stepped forward and waved his arms. Blasts of thunder blew the wights and some zombies who’d followed them in back into the hallway.
The wights sprang back at us. The fight was on. Guss’ blade began skipping around too fast for my eyes to follow. His rain of steel kept the creatures at bay, opening wound after wound on their dried bodies. Then the cold struck…ice cold as if from the grave. You’d think after spending a winter naked in a cave it wouldn’t bother me. You’d think. All it did was bring back frackin’ memories I could live without. The cold was emanating from the zombies and it was killing us fast. I fumbled in my pack, and swallowed down a potion that Ron had assured me would provide some protection. I was supposed to save it for when we faced the white dragon, but without it I didn’t think I’d survive to do that. The potion burned down my throat like a powerful ale and its warmth spread quickly throughout my body. That’d do it.
Sunny, Kleister, Beros and Ron, fighting from behind the line that our dwarf, Guss and I maintained, dropped the wights and then got started on the zombies. The creature named Fell Fowl came out of the darkness in the hallway, bellowing its name and flinging more magical cold at us. Our dwarf was blasted with ice and fell to his knees. Before he could crumple to the ground, a light shot out from the altar behind us and struck him. His back arched in pain. His eyes bulged. Not a good look for him, really…but his wounds healed. Heh. Something strange going on here…I didn’t have time to think about it too much as we were nearly being overrun by four armed skeletons who were backing up Fell.
As I pressed to hold the line one of a skeleton’s four blades slid past my guard and sliced across my throat. Blood poured down my chest. This is it, I thought. I’m a goner. I thanked the Queen, closed my eyes and grinned. I’ve been waiting for this…to see you, Alia…
Suddenly there was a presence inside my head. It was foreign, but bolstered me with an alien strength and a sense of purpose. Defend the temple…I shook my head as my throat itched and the bleeding wound closed up. Frack. Guess today wasn’t the day after all. Might as well kill that damn bird thing. I stood and took the fight to Fell. With the Queen guiding my strikes and the Heroes slaying undead all around me I struck the killing blow on the fowl creature. The Queen’s power surged through me, strengthening me further. I again shook my head and this time, pushed the alien presence out of it. Alone with my thoughts again I saw that the Heroes were fighting with renewed vigor as well, led by Ron who, wreathed in magical flames had stepped to the front beside Guss and our dwarf to take the fight directly to the undead. Good man. As I watched, Guss swept his blade down on the last skeleton, slicing cleanly through its bare ribcage. Bones clattered across the floor.
We caught a break and our breath…and the ritual rolled on in the background. I poked at the corpse of the thing they’d called “Fell Fowl”. Didn’t even have wings. I shook my head. Stupid frackin’ orcs…
The heavy tread of more enemies echoed through the dark hallway once again. I whispered a prayer to the Queen, grinned at Guss and stepped back to the front. What the frack. It’s always a good day to die.
Poe.
