Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12 - Chapter 13
Chapter 14 - Chapter 15 - Chapter 16 - Chapter 17 - Chapter 18 - Chapter 19
Chapter 20 - Chapter 21
Chapter 14 - Chapter 15 - Chapter 16 - Chapter 17 - Chapter 18 - Chapter 19
Chapter 20 - Chapter 21
“Funny, I didn’t invite you to the party,” the Werelupe King
said as he stepped out in front of the monster, ignoring its thrashing to
narrow his eyes at Hyren. At his side, he held a blade infused with fangs and
jagged bits of bone. “Tell me, what makes you think you can invade my domain
and steal my rightful tribute?” he asked.
“I’m sure you’ve done worse,” Hyren said, moving to take a
swing at him. The king brought up his sword and parried the blow. The commander
swept the blade around again, and the Werelupe twisted aside.
“Don’t think you’ll get the honor of dueling with me this
morning, trespasser,” the king said. “No, I have a better fate for you.” He
grinned as he backed away. “Gnarfas here doesn’t get a chance to come out and
play very often. I think it’s about time he had some fun.” Glancing over at the
Werelupes holding the beast back, the king gave a nod, and they released the
chains.
Gnarfas let out a heart-seizing roar and charged. As the
monster’s steps shook the floor, Hyren glared up at him and broke into a run
himself, aiming a strike at the beast’s legs. The blade didn’t have time to
connect before Gnarfas batted the Grundo away, sending him flying. He smashed
through a pile of crates, lying dazed for a moment. The Werelupe rushed him
again, and Hyren brought up his feet and lashed out at him, kicking Gnarfas’s
muzzle aside.
That gave Hyren enough time to tumble out of the way,
bringing up his blade toward the creature. Gnarfas howled in pain and staggered
back, and in the brief pause Hyren saw the king grab Terra’s arm. Another
Werelupe pounced on Blynn, tearing the slingshot from the Zafara’s paw.
Gnarfas scrambled forward and swiped at Hyren, somehow able
to keep all four of his arms working in precision. The Grundo spun and wove
through the tangle of claws. Occasionally they raked against his armor, but he
managed to stay barely ahead of them. He had a plan.
“Milord!” the Werelupe holding Blynn said. “Shall I take
them to the dungeons?”
“No,” the king growled. “I’m not letting her out of my
sights again, since you lot are so incompetent.”
“Why do I matter so much to you?” Terra asked.
“I’ve wanted an owner for a long time,” the Werelupe King
replied, suddenly sounding old and tired. “Which is why Gnarfas is going to take
care of our pest problem.”
Hyren tried not to let their conversation distract him as he
led the monster Werelupe toward the firepit. The commander deflected another
huge paw with his sword, and used the momentum to drag the tip of his blade
through the coals, flinging them up at his assailant.
Gnarfas yelped in pain, pawing at his own snout with one
pair of arms while blindly grasping for Hyren with the other pair. It was easy
for the Grundo to evade them and dive in for the Werelupe’s legs again. His
blow sent Gnarfas stumbling back, the beast coming to rest against the wall
with two hands clutching a windowsill.
The Werelupe King emitted a low growl, his hackles raised
and tail bushed. Still keeping his hold on Terra, he began to reach for his
sword.
Hyren’s chest heaved as he closed in for the finishing blow.
As the commander raised his blade, Gnarfas ripped the stones he was holding
onto out from the wall and lobbed them at the Grundo. They came too fast for
Hyren to dodge—his armour’s shields absorbed the brunt of the concussion, but
he was still sent sailing. He landed against the opposite wall and crumpled.
His sword dropped from his grasp.
“No!” Terra yelled. “Hyren! Get up!”
Head spinning, the commander gritted his teeth and felt for
his weapon. Gnarfas lunged for Hyren again, snapping his fangs. The Grundo
managed to grip the hilt and push himself to his feet. As he threw up his sword
to block, Gnarfas’s snout rammed into the flat of the blade, shoving Hyren back
into the wall with such force that the stone shuddered.
Gnarfas planted all four of his claws into the wall around
Hyren, pinning him. The Werelupe stared him down, saliva dripping from his maw.
The commander grimaced at the monster’s rancid breath and the emptiness within his
eyes, and steadied his sword.
Terra elbowed the Werelupe King in the stomach. The king
doubled over, and Terra used the distraction to wrench herself free of his grip
and sprint towards Gnarfas, sword outstretched. At the same time, Blynn bit the
paw of the Werelupe holding her. The female barked in surprise and fumbled,
giving the Zafara enough time to grab her slingshot and bound away.
“Gnarfas! Finish him!” the Werelupe King wheezed, holding
his ribs.
Hyren stiffened. He pulled out his blaster and fired a few
shots point-blank, but they did nothing—it seemed the stun effects didn’t work
on a creature this big. Gnarfas drew back his head and spread his jaws wide.
The commander heard a familiar snap, and then a “Whoops”
from Blynn, and the floor beneath Gnarfas’s feet collapsed. The monster’s claws
scrabbled helplessly on the rock for a moment—and then he was gone. A fissure
started to spread through the rest of the stone.
“What did you do?!” Terra asked.
“I don’t know!” Blynn said, looking at her weapon in shock.
Hyren stowed his weapons and leaped across the swiftly
growing chasm. He grabbed the girls under his arms and stumbled over jostled,
uneven rocks, toward the doors. The crack extended to the walls, and the entire
fortress rumbled with the sound of stone being shaken from its foundations.
“How dare you?!” the Werelupe King snarled, his eyes blazing.
Raising his blade, he rushed at Hyren, but the floor gave out from under the
monarch mid-stride. He gave one last sickening howl as he disappeared into the
trench.
“Okay, I didn’t do
it this time!” the commander said as he carried his friends into the entrance
hall. The castle appeared to be almost crumpling in on itself. It was surreal
to watch as doorways slumped in, and stairs twisted and heaved and finally
broke apart like a child’s building blocks being demolished. Werelupes were
swept away into the abyss around Hyren with a horrific symphony of howls, but
thankfully the Grundo’s own footing was sure.
The front gate started to give way. Although his lungs burned,
Hyren summoned every ounce of strength he could, and launched himself out the
open arch, and he and his companions tumbled into the mud. Hyren sat up and
looked back to see the cliff just behind them collapse entirely, taking the
whole castle with it and leaving the three of them alone on the ledge.
He was shaking as he let the girls go and sat back on his
heels at the new edge of the cliff, letting the grey morning rain pelt his
helmet and stream down his armour in rivulets. Rain was really the last thing
on his mind at this point. “I… I think I’ve fulfilled my quota of things caving
in on me,” he said, his tongue feeling like cotton. Blynn and Terra picked
themselves up and the three simply sat there for a moment, dazed.
Their silence was cut short when Hyren was abruptly yanked
back. Wheeling his arms to try to regain his balance, he looked over his
shoulder. The Werelupe King glared at him, illuminated by a timely flash of
lightning, fangs bared in fury and crimson eyes aflame. The king had hold of
Hyren’s bundle of faerie weapons.
“Hyren!” Terra cried out. She stumbled forward and grabbed
his hand. Blynn clutched Hyren’s arm and dug her heels into the mud, but their
strength combined was nowhere near a match for the weight. The commander began
to tip backward.
Hyren knew what he had to do. With his free hand, he undid
the knot tying the weapons cache around his shoulders and the rope whipped into
thin air. Hyren twisted around to see the look of shock on the Werelupe King’s
face as, still clutching the bundle, he plummeted into the mists. A peal of
thunder sounded a farewell knell.
Then Hyren hit the mud, the unexpected force sending Terra
and Blynn sprawling. The Grundo staggered to his knees again, sputtering mud
out of his mouth and wiping it off of his visor.
Terra wrapped her arms around his own arm. She shivered as
the wind slapped her dripping wet cloak about her.
Hyren gathered the two into a hug, trying to imbue some of
his warmth to their small frames. “I love you guys,” he said.
“You’re the best friend we’ve ever had,” Terra said through
chattering teeth.
“Yeah, you’re not so bad for a big, grumpy Grundo,” Blynn said.
Hyren wished he could have stayed in that moment forever,
but the cold and rain were clearly taking their toll on his companions. “Let’s
find some shelter,” he said, standing up and guiding them back into the
relative protection of the trees. True, he had no idea what might be lurking
there, but right now it seemed a better option than continuing to endure the
elements, and Blynn and Terra had gone most of the night without sleep. Even
Hyren was starting to feel the pull on his strength.
They found sanctuary in the immense hollow of an ancient
tree, big enough to comfortably house even Hyren’s bulk. There, they huddled
together to keep warm while they listened to the storm move on to dispense its
wrath elsewhere. The thunder faded, the wind died, and gradually they were left
with only the splash of countless drops of water filtering through foliage. And
all the while the world slowly lightened until the morning reached a filmy
twilight, mist still brooding over the forest floor.
Hyren found himself feeling less and less proud of what he
had accomplished under Sloth. They didn’t even feel like accomplishments at
all. Hyren knew he’d just been hurting people and spreading the rule of a
tyrant. That wasn’t what he wanted anymore. He just wanted to look out for his
two best friends.
But Sloth had ways of finding him, Hyren remembered with a
chill up his spine. The overlord’s words from long ago echoed in the commander’s
head. Hyren knew Sloth well enough that he did not doubt Sloth had ways to make
good on that threat.
Hyren felt uncomfortably trapped in a job he now hated. But
he could at least keep his friends safe from Sloth. So he decided to focus on
that first and then start worrying about his own hide.
His thoughts turned back over to what they had just gone
through. “So… what exactly happened back there?” he asked Blynn.
“What?” she asked.
“When you shot at that monster Werelupe with your
slingshot,” Terra said as she tried to dry off her glasses on her wet shirt.
“And it made the whole castle fall down.”
“I didn’t know it was gonna do that,” Blynn said. “I was
trying to make fireworks again.”
“Maybe it’s random,” her owner said. “I mean, it is faerie magic. That stuff tends to do
its own thing.”
“Maybe…” Hyren grunted. He thought for a moment. “What did
you shoot?”
“I was aiming for his feet,” the Zafara said.
“No, I mean, what kind of ammo did you use?” Hyren asked.
“Um… I dunno, I just reached into the pouch without looking,”
Blynn said. “I think it was one of the pebbles I picked up from the mountain.
Would that matter?”
“Oh, I get it,” Terra said. “You think where the ammo comes
from has something to do with its magical effects.”
“Exactly,” Hyren said.
“And the slingshot draws out the inherent magic in whatever
gets used with it,” Terra guessed.
“Sweetness!” Blynn said. “I’m glad I got the slingshot,
then! You guys can keep your crummy swords. I have to find more stuff to shoot
and see what it does…”
“I could have handled the situation myself,” Hyren insisted
with a pout. “But… thanks for helping me out.”
“Can’t let you take all the credit,” Blynn said.
Terra sneezed. “It’s too bad we don’t have a fire,” she said.
Hyren felt sorry for her, but there wasn’t really much else
he could do at this point. “No getting sick on my watch,” he said with a
chuckle, making her laugh a little. “Once it dries up out there, we’ll see if
there’s anything to burn. At least we still have the fire mote.”
Blynn had set the lantern on top of their pile of gear and
opened one of the windows, giving the three a view of a little fire sprite who
was not fond of this weather at all. The mote hissed and sputtered, sulking
near the bottom of the lantern rather than bobbing merrily like usual.
“You know,” Terra said, “I feel bad for the Werelupe King.
I—I wish we could have helped him.”
“But he was such a jerk,” Blynn said. “No way do I want
somebody like that as my brother.”
“He seemed awfully sad,” Terra said, looking rather sad
herself.
Hyren felt bad for her. He’d been so focused on saving
himself and the people he cared about that he didn’t consider that his enemy
might need saving, too. But once again Terra had shown compassion toward
someone who definitely didn’t deserve it. “Well—he had his chance,” the
commander said. “That’s what happens to Neopets like him.”
Terra sighed and said nothing, and Hyren knew she didn’t
like that answer. But he didn’t know what else to tell her. “Now get some
sleep, the both of you,” he said. His own eyelids were growing heavy, and he
let out a yawn.
“I’ll try,” Terra murmured, her eyes already closing.
“Let’s hear another story,” Blynn said.
“All right,” Hyren said. “I’ll tell you about the time I
found a moon covered in ice geysers. I was piloting a fighter, and I weaved my
craft between the glittering sprays of ice as I skimmed close to the mirrorlike
surface…”
As the three of them drifted off, in the back of his mind
Hyren thought he heard a familiar beeping coming from the equipment pile, but
he was so exhausted he paid it no heed and let himself slip into sleep.
He snorted awake some time later, startled by a mounting,
rumbling whine overhead. He blinked, trying to remember why it sounded so
familiar.
“Wow, what is that?” Terra asked, pulling on her glasses and
rising to her feet to peer out into the Woods. The sound crescendoed and then
began to fade.
“I hope it goes away soon,” Blynn said with a yawn,
scratching her belly. “I wanna get back to sleep.”
Hyren’s heart skipped a beat. “Starship engine,” he said.
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12 - Chapter 13
Chapter 14 - Chapter 15 - Chapter 16 - Chapter 17 - Chapter 18 - Chapter 19
Chapter 20 - Chapter 21
Chapter 14 - Chapter 15 - Chapter 16 - Chapter 17 - Chapter 18 - Chapter 19
Chapter 20 - Chapter 21
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