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Leech's odyssey-Chapter 8: A new fight, a new friend.
Alice and Leech sat in the the forest for an about an hour. They had noticed after the boy named Zero vanished that he not only grabbed them but the many things they picked up in Shale. The two gathered their things and began to walk westward, hoping to hit a road they thought knew connected Shale and the coastal city of Ungar. They walked for about two hours and just as it was getting dark they came upon a cave. They decided to stop and stay there for the night, they stood cautiously just inside the entrance. The cave it self had a large mouth and lead down into a dark underground. Leech reached into one of his pockets and removed a palm sized, jagged stone from it, "I'm glad I kept this pieces of flint I found.". Alice was leaning against the wall of the cave and sighed, "Well, i guess if you're gonna start the fire i guess I'll get the kindling. I'll be right back.". She walked into the growing darkness for a few minutes, then returned carrying an armful of leaves and twigs. In the meantime Leech had dug a small pit, with is hands, for the fire, and lined it with stones the contain the fire as much as possible. "If you would please lay the bundle in the hole, I'll light and build it up." Leech said smiling. As Alice dropped a handful of the pile into the hole, Leech pulled out his sword and stuck the piece of flint in his hand, sending hot sparks into the the hole. After a few minutes of this a small fire flared to life, Leech carefully blew on it and it grow, he slowly added the rest of the kindling and the fire grew. Soon it was big enough to take branches Leech tore from a few trees. While he was tending the fire Alice had gone out hunting, her eyes had adjusted to the dark and she had fashioned a few rough arrows. She was gone from the time Leech started to build the fire to the moment he had it fully ready. "Well, that's a nice fire ya got there" she said appearing from the blackness with a string of dead rabbits. The two spent the next half hour skinning and preparing the rabbits for cooking. Leech was finishing the last one, "I hope the smell of these don't attract to much wild life.", "I'm sure the fire will keep them away, it always seems to." Alice said, skewering meat from the cleaned rabbits with a sharpened stick. Leech just nodded as he firmly planted forked sticks on both sides of the fire. "Well i guess we're about to see if fire is good enough" she smiled as she placed to skewer in the fork of the sticks and the meat began to roast over the fire. The two sat in silence for several minutes while the meat cooked, taking turns turning their meal. It wasn't long before the smell of the meat filled the air, along with the smell came a loud rumble from Leech. "Wow! Sorry 'bout that, guess I'm hungrier than i thought", they both broke into laughter that lasted several minutes. The meat was almost done when there was another loud rumble, "You seem to be impatient today." Alice said mockingly. "That wasn't me that time, i thought it was you.", she shook her head, "Wasn't me.". "Well there are only the two of us, so if not you and not me than who?", he said with a raised eyebrow. "Don't look at me like that. I'm telling the truth!", Leech laughed, "Oh really? then why are you getting so defensive?". Alice was about to deliver her retort when they herd another loud noise, but now they could tell it came from within the cave, "What the hell is that!" the both said to each other at the same time. "Ya think it might be a bear?" Alice asked looking cautiously into the dark of the cave, "Maybe. I guess there's only one way to find out." he said strapping on his scabbard and picking up a long, thick branch they hadn't use for the fire. "You're going in there?" she asked shocked, "well of course! if it is a bear then we'll have to deal with it sooner or later anyway, and besides, if it's not a bear I'm interested to see what else could have made that sound.". "Don't you think we should both go?", Leech tore a long piece of cloth from his blanket and wrapped it around the branch, "No, you stay here. That way if something happens to me then you can help.". She shrugged, "Well, if that's how you want it.", "It is, and don't forget about the food.", he said smiling just before heading quickly into the cave, leaving her to take care of the nearly burnt meat. "oh! crap!" she whine as she remembered it.
It wasn't long before the only light Leech could see was the torch he held, he was amazed at how dark and cold the cave was; he also noticed that the cave inclined downward steeply. There was a sudden gust of wind from behind him that carried the sent of the cooked meat strongly, the gust was quickly followed be another, louder rumble, almost a growl now. With the combination of the unusual darkness and the growing sound from the cave, Leech began to get a little scared, "There's no way that's a bear". He drew his sword and cautiously continued forward, after walking for a while he felt and heard something crunch and crack under his feet. He jumped back surprised, and lowered the torch to see what had made the noise, to his shock the light reviled that the ground was covered in bones, both animal and human. Seeing them made him want to turn and run back out, but he also still had a large amount of curiosity. Leech sat and thought about what he should do, "Well, wondering around lost, in the dark, in a forest probably isn't a good idea, but what ever lives here could kill us, if i don't kill it first anyway. Then again this is it's home; well, i guess I'll investigate just to see what kind of animal it is, but i'll not attack unless it comes after me.". He stood and made is was though the cave as quietly as he could, hugging the wall, and moving bones out of his path with every step. It wasn't long after coming upon the bones that Leech saw light a few yards away from him, "What the hell?" he thought to himself as he came closer to the light. When he got closer he saw that the cave opened up from a tunnel into a large room.
He pressed his back against to wall and peered into and absent mindedly walked into the open area. He stood open mouthed and awestruck as he looked in on an extremely large room that appeared to be the inside of a hollowed out mountain. The majority of the room was like a peninsula, with a large rounded landmass surrounded by a swirling, bubbling pool of magma. In the center of it laid the source of the noises, and something that froze Leech in his tracks. It was a large dragon, Leech assumed he must be taller that the trees in the forest. The dragon's black scales shined in the orange, red glow of the destructive liquid, his wings were red tipped, and his large teeth and claws that appeared to be the size of one of Leech's legs or bigger and both were razor sharp and serrated. the dragon was sleeping and had it's long black and red tail wrapped around his body and up under his head. Leech realized that the scales must be extremely hard and the tail had long spikes, that he seemed to be using as a pillow. Leech turned and began to slowly make his way back out, but just as he neared the exit into the tunnel he herd a loud voice boom, "Where do you think you're going?", then a loud hissing noise came from behind him, as he turned, he saw a blue and white sphere of fire speeding toward him. He dove quickly the left and the fireball rushed passed him and smacked into the wall, sizzling as it deformed the rock. Leech had not total missed it, as he got up he felt intense pain on his back and right side where the attack had grazed him. The burns healed rather quickly, but the pain remained. He stood and looked up, the dragon was now standing, he was about four hundred feet tall, he was looking at Leech like a cat looks at a mouse, smiling deviously and beating his tail on the ground. The tail seemed to drum along with with Leech's now racing heart. He stared at the tail, watching it's rhythmic movements, for some reason he found himself unable to look away from it, soon all he could see and hear mas the creature's appendage taping the ground. Then suddenly it stopped, and Leech snapped back as he was released from the strange trance, when he looked around he noticed he was now in totally darkness, and feeling as though he was falling. He soon landed on a surface he couldn't see, then a light came out of nowhere and lit up the area he was in.
He looked around, the darkness outside the light seemed stronger, then there was a rumble, and the ground shook as the dragon slowly approached Leech from the opposite side of the lighted area. He quickly readied his sword and balanced of the balls of his feet, poised for attack. "What to you think you're doing?", asked the same majestic voice from earlier. Leech looked around confused and scared, "Who said that!?" he shouted angrily, "I did you tiny fool!" the voice rang again as the dragon stepped closer. Leech looked around confused, then slowly the realization hit him and he pointed his weapon at the beast before him, "That's you!?", "Of course it was! Are you stupid or just really dense?", the dragon asked mockingly. Leech, still ready for confrontation, looked the creature over, "Well, if you can speak I imagine you have a name right?". The dragon gave a sharp toothed smile, "I do indeed. And if you can survive, I'll let you know it.". Leech readied himself again and stepped forward, "What do you mean 'survive'? And a better question, what is this place?", "Well, i guess since you maybe about to die you deserve that much. This large, dark place is your mind, and by the looks of it, you may have a chance in this fight. The bad thing is that if you do lose, your mind will die and your body will be nothing more than an empty shell of meat.", the scaled beast laughed. Leech stood a little straighter, closed and seemed to relax, then began to laugh, by now all the confusion and fear had left him has the reality of the situation hit him, "Well, now that we have that straitened out, shall we begin?". Leech suddenly opened his eyes and,still smiling, rushed toward the enormous dragon, the dragon stood amazed by the boys sheer speed and his excitement towards the on coming fight. The beast was shocked that Leech was already upon him as he snapped from his momentary admiration of the new opponent. Leech had made it to the creature and had his sword point running along the ground, ready for an upward slice.
The dragon quickly spun, flinging its massive spiked tail toward Leech, just as the tail swept across the area Leech vanished. The dragon looked around quickly confused, then looked up, and to his amazement Leech was high above coming down to land a blow to the scaled head below. The dragon just smiled, confident that the small sword would do him little damage if any at all, the decision was proved to be wrong. As he came closer the the creatures head the blade began to glow red, the in a flash, flamed into a bright white flame. Leech aimed the tip of is sword at the creature's back and a white bolt of flame shot of the mysterious blade and striked it perfectly in the middle. The flame was so hot it caused the dragon to lurch onto it's back legs in pain, thus forcing his head up, and right into a full forced swing from Leech's flaming sword. Unfourtionatly the blow was off a little and the blade, instead of running into the dragon's skull, just ran down the length of it's face, causing the dragon to cry out again as it's black, shining blood covered Leech. With the failed blow Leech continued to fall to the ground, and unable to stop himself, he closed is eyes braced for a bone shattering impact. Just before he hit the ground the was a vaguely familiar wet, ripping sound, then his fall stopped. When he opened his eyes he saw he was hanging several feet above the surface. "Hey! What the hell!?", he exclaimed as he looked around, as he did so he saw something out of the corner of his eye, he slowly turned his head, only to reveal a pair of large, black feathered, wings.
When he saw them he was momentarily confused, but then he realized that more than saving him from the fall, they also gave him a slight advantage as he knew that his enemy would not expect this, and the element of surprise was something that had already proved beneficial. He turned to face his surprised foe, but the turn was slow, and sloppy as he tried to learn how to operate his new appendages. By the time he was able to turn completely to face the dragon, he found it was no longer there. Suddenly there was a bright light from above him, then he was immediately enveloped in a cone intense of flame that blasting him to the ground. He was besieged by the inferno for several minutes, and slowly felt his skin burn and boil, his screams were bone chilling, but could not be heard over the roar of the fire that encompassed him. When the assault stopped Leech was lying face down on the ground, chard and deformed with his his clothes fused to his skin. The dragon, who had been hovering far above, now descended, the wind from the creature's flapping wings blew a black cloud of ashes from Leech's unmoving body. "Well boy, you put up a good fight, and even managed to surprise me.", the dragon thought as he closed his eyes and tried to leave Leech's mind, but he couldn't. "I'm not done yet!", a voice shouted from behind the dragon, when he opened his eyes he saw that Leech was gone and all that was left were he had been was his silhouette in the ashes. The creature turned, astonished to see the boy standing before him, burned and scared, but healing at an unbelievable speed. Leech looked at his foe and gave him a fanged smile, "You think you've won? I'm not losing to you!", Leech that rushed toward the beast again. The dragon grinned and readied him self to attack, but just as he was about to release another powerful wave of fire, Leech dove onto all fours and his fox ears and tail sprouted on his body as his speed greatly increased, to the point that the dragon was unable to see him anymore. The next thing he knew the boy was on his back and have sliced the full length of his back.
The large beast roared in pain as it's blood poured from the wound and dripped to the ground, leaving pools of black on either side of him, "You little b*****d! Who the hell do you think you are?". "I wish i knew.", a voice said as another painful strike tore into the dragon's tail, "You little rat! I'm ending this once an for all!". The creature flicked it's tail, hitting Leech in the chest with one of it's large spikes. Blood rained as the dragon began to bring it's tail in an arching motion from one side of his body to the other, slamming Leech into the ground over and over again. He would have screamed if he could but the spike pierced his lungs and the constant beating was knocking him unconscious, he knew he needed to get released from the tail, or else he would surely die. He quickly took his sword and with the strongest swing he could manage cleaved the spike from the tail, to his surprise the plan worked and he fell to the ground, landing on his stomach and the spike was pushed farther into him. His legs shook as he stood, he leaned on the hilt of his sword and coughed up what seemed like a full pint of blood before reaching around and ripping the offending object from his body. "Damn! That hurt! You know, you almost had me there for a minu...", he was cut off as the dragon took him in it's mouth. Leech was slowly chewed on, he screamed as the beast's teeth ripped into him, his blood dripped from the satisfied dragon's mouth. The dragon finished chewing, the swallowed him, "Almost my a**!", the dragon laughed, then closed his eyes and tried to pull out of Leech's mind again, and like before it didn't work.
The serpent's eye's snapped open as he felt felt a sharp burning pain from deep inside he chest, he looked down in time to see Leech's sword penetrate out and slice down. There was a wet ripping sound as Leech calmly, yet angrily walked out of the creature's chest. Once he was out he was a mix of black and red as blood dripped from his body, "Now that pissed me off!", he said as he closed his eyes and forced his defeated enemy out of his mind. When Leech opened his eyes again he found himself back in the magma lit chamber, his body was painful all over and he had many scares where he was injured in his mind. The dragon laid exhausted before him, "Damn kid. I never thought I'd be beaten, let alone by someone like you. Son, among many things, you have earned my respect and if you ever need any help, just think about me, and I'll come to your aid.". "How's that work?" Leech asked, "Well, do you remember how i said that if you lost your mind would be gone, well that's because a bond is formed when I challenge people, and those who pass are bound to me for the length of their life. So anytime you need me, just call, just give me a day or so to rest, you really did a number on me.", he laughed. "Well, i hope you heal up soon, and I'm sorry for barging into your home. And before i go, you said you'd tell me your name. Oh, and if it's not too much to ask, could you point me in the direction of the nearest large town?". "I did indeed promise my name, it is Volocris Eversor, and you can find the nearest town if you continue eastward.", Leech turned to leave, "Thanks for the help...and for the fight." then left the room smiling.
 randomizor301 · Sun Sep 26, 2010 @ 09:56am · 0 Comments |
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