“What What?” Wizard asked, still shocked to see a man before him with a sword in one hand and a book in the other. “Hallowed ground. Ha! Surely this is a joke.”
The Reverend took a step nearer. “This is no joke. Thou hast no right to be here. Now, answer my question: how shall I deal with ye!”
Wizard in turn stepped forward, “You may ‘deal’ with us by letting us pass.”
“Not a step closer, fat one,” the Reverend smiled at Wizard’s indignation, “Or I will surely smite thee with my sword.”
Wizard ignored the threat, “Fat one! He called me fat one! Did you hear that. Why I’ll --” Selax pulled the old man back from whatever he was about to do.
Alice piped up, “Sir, we didn’t know this place was consecrated, but if you let us go, we won’t violate it again.”
“I know,” the Reverend sighed, “But I’m not letting you go so easily. Not without first teaching ye a lesson to remember me by.”
“I suppose he’s with you?” Selax gestured toward a burly figure emerging from the shadows.
“With me? Who--” the Reverend turned just in time to be pushed into the group by rough hands.
“In with the rest of them!” shouted a gruff voice. “Now, we know you found something down here, and Master want it real bad. Give it to me!” As the man was speaking, more descended the stairway, cluttering the small cavern.
“Are you all then just simple ruffians and no more?” Wizard asked, almost regretfully. “Who is your master, if I may ask?”
“That’s not important!” another ruffian shouted, “Just give us whatever you found down here!”
“Oh,” Wizard’s face lit up. “They want the clue.”
“I’ll give you a clue,” Sideline muttered as he stealthily unsheathed one of his numerous daggers and let it fly. It lodged perfectly in the largest ruffian’s throat. Everyone moved at once.
The battle continued for several minutes with the ruffians clearly losing. Wizard was fighting to the right of everybody else; he found himself separated by a wall of ruffians. Selax was cutting them down very quickly, but not fast enough.
Suddenly a cloaked figure leapt on Wizard. “I want that clue,” it shouted in a familiar voice. It began searching the old mage’s pockets, much to Wizard’s irritation. “You want it. Take it! But get off of me!” He handed the figure the object then kicked it away. Outraged, he flicked his hand and sent the figure flying out of the cavern, up the stairs, to land somewhere on the ground above them. “Selax, it’s time to leave.”
“Agreed,” Selax said, finally reaching Wizard.
The ruffians all began to flee from the cavern. The man in the cloak came into view again, standing at the top of the stairway, ruffians flooding past him. “I’m disappointed that you would give up just like that. Oh well, goodbye.” With that, he turned to walk away.
“Let’s go,” Sideline shouted to the group, nearing the foot of the steps. The Reverend had already sneaked ahead of them, mixed in with the ruffians, and vanished from sight.
As the last ruffian ran out, the man walking away made a gesture over his shoulder. Instantly, some sort of magic blast from the sky, whether fire, lightning, or what they couldn’t tell, struck the mouth of the opening. It began to collapse, the winding stair with it.
“Quickly, take cover in the tunnel!” Wizard ran to the back of the cavern to the tunnel system they had found earlier. “We can’t climb those steps fast enough.”
As the last person reached safety in the tunnel, everyone heard an enormous noise as the ceiling in the front cavern gave way, and the whole room collapsed. After the thick cloud of dust had begun to clear, they stepped out to examine the ruins. They were blocked. “Looks as though the stones from the building above all came crashing down here too, along with everything else,” Wizard remarked, examining the solid wall of dirt and rock before them.
“Can you push it away?” Alice asked.
“I could try, but I don’t think I have enough energy.” Wizard held his hand out and his orb glowed more intensely than before. A rumbling was heard and some dust fell from above them, but nothing moved. “No. I can’t do it. I might be able to move just the stones, but I think that there’s some kind of magical barrier holding it shut. No doubt from the cloaked figure who collapsed it in the first place.”
“Who was that?” Sideline wondered. “I couldn’t see his face.”
“I don’t know, but that voice,” Wizard seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. “I know I’ve heard that voice...”
Selax turned to face his old friend, “Did I see correctly, Wizard, when I witnessed you give him something?”
“Yes, you did.”
Alice expressed his own concern: “You gave him the compass! I worked so hard to find that too...”
“Don’t worry. I didn’t give him the clue. I gave him the old box that had contained the clue. Whoever he is, he’s going to be furious when he opens that box.” Wizard chuckled, pleased with his own deceit.
“Well, right now, that won’t help us. Now, we need to reach the surface.” Selax glanced at the tunnels behind them. “Which one shall we try? Keep in mind: the wrong one could easily be long enough that most of you could die down here.”
“Thank you for the encouragement, Selax,” Wizard said sarcastically. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I vote for the smallest one here.” He pointed to the right. “From what I can tell, it should be the shortest and hopefully will lead to the surface the fastest without taking us through some endless labyrinth. And if I’m wrong, we can always come back and try another. I hope.”
Sideline glanced down the tunnel before following the others into the dark, “I hate this.”
This post has been edited by The Wizard: 13 January 2007 - 10:15 PM