Duendewood: Children of Ruin, part twenty-seven

"We've taken a wrong turn," Jacques breathed. Flanking him on either side, Telorn and Skyflower nodded.

There were passages out of this room, one to the left and the other to the right. Ahead of them was a raised dais, with seven stone thrones arranged in a crescent to face them. The central throne was two steps higher still, on its own raised platform. Each throne was occupied by a jackal-headed corpse, wrapped in funerary bandages and arranged stiffly in a seated position. 

They stopped at the end of the passage, a step away from actually entering the room. 

"Odds that they all stand up the moment we set foot in there?" asked Telorn. 

"Absolutely certain," Skyflower whispered back. 

Jacques studied the dead things again. Had the one in the center turned its head to regard them? He wasn't sure, and that was worse than knowing it had. "Okay, next question," breathed Jacques. "If we back away, are they going to get up and pursue us?"

"...Seems likely," Skyflower told him, "and I don't think we can take them."

"Then it's diplomacy," Jacques said, trying to ignore just how desperately he suddenly needed to piss. "Telorn... go back and get the others. Skyflower... wait here. If they turn me into paste, try to get everyone back out up the shaft."

Telorn turned and departed silently. 

Jacques set foot inside the room. 

Duendewood: Children of Ruin, part twenty-six

The ruins were old, and overrun with undead... but it was the constructs that gave them the most trouble. Animated suits of armor, small scuttling things with pincers and blades, an iron cobra... 

The hallway was full of them, and none of them were friendly. Rose watched her half-siblings and friends tear into them, smashing with draconic strength or carefully-channeled magics. Azrael, the bladecrafter, seemed to know just where to hit the things; his blows weren't powerful, but the constructs couldn't absorb them the way they seemed to absorb everything else. And he was fast enough to avoid being hit himself. Jacques Fontaine danced in and out, making himself a distraction while calling orders and offering encouragement; Rose could see his early training coming through. 

Her own spells were ill-suited to this, but she did what she could to help: conjuring roots and vines to trap enemies, healing allies so that the clerics were free to deal with the undead. Telorn and Skyflower fell back beside her, covering the rear and then moving forward to check doors when the last enemies were down. 

Jacques glanced back to where they'd emerged, then surveyed the hall and led them down it. "This way, I think," he said, and turned to the left. 

Telorn checked the door for traps, then opened it cautiously. Skyflower remained at his side. 

Nothing charged out at them. 

"Okay," Jacques said softly. "The three of us will check up ahead. Everybody else, hold here until we get back -- unless you hear fighting."

Risk grinned. "Then we come running." He was looking forward to it.

"Be careful," said Tybalt, barely loud enough to be audible.

Rose watched as the three of them moved out. 

Afterworld: Casualty Count

Jason was fine, of course, still busily plucking venomous murder-squirrels off his spines. So was Devon, still wearing his fur and moving on all fours; Chad had had a bad time of it, but apparently the squirrel-blood was mammalian enough restore him. Jenny had taken nearly enough damage to collapse, which would have been disastrous; her fur was better armor than it looked like, but she was still staggering. I was feeling a bit staggery myself, and could barely feel my right leg; and Mary had managed to protect herself and Ishanna until Jason could step in. 

"What's the consensus?" I asked, keeping careful track of my balance. 

"Time to pull back," Ishanna said quietly. "Chad'll be all right in a little bit, but you and Jenny are barely on your feet."

Mary nodded, looking worried. Chad met my eyes and said, "Yeah. You know how it is."

I knew how it was, because I was the one who'd first told him. In situations like these, the moment you got hurt your odds of getting hurt further went way up.  

Jenny had her hands pressed to the sides of her head. "Yeah, I... I need to sit down. Somewhere. Maybe not here."

Jason said, "I could keep going, but..." He looked at Jenny. "Better if I take rear on the way back." 

Devon just grunted. 

"All right," I said, testing my leg again. "Devon, lead us back. Jason, you're rear guard. Everybody else, stay alert as best you can."

It was going to be a long walk back up the mountain. 

Afterworld: Venomous Murder-Squirrels

They really were about the size, fluffiness, and general proportions of squirrels, except for the very tips of their tails, which were equipped with stingers -- and their teeth, which spiked carnivorous instead of Rodentia. Mary fell back with Ishanna, still breathing out feline predators, but I got taken by surprise and missed everything else. 

Also, the damned little things could jump. 

So I flung my right arm up to protect my face, used my left arm to catch and crush the murder-squirrels, and took a couple of bites and stings in my right thigh while I was at it. I didn't worry too much about trying to kill things with my right hand; I was mainly using the knife to protect it, and my arm to protect my exposed head. My right leg went numb and I staggered, but I managed not to fall. I was wearing armor -- after a fashion -- but it wasn't enough.

One squirrel... another... another... Plucked off my leg or chest, crushed, and flung aide. The chain mail shirt wasn't doing nearly enough to stop the stingers, which was going to be a problem. They couldn't sink in deep, but that venom felt like the kind of shot a dentist gives you before she starts drilling on your teeth. I could feel the numbness spreading. 

I caught the last of them with my left hand, crushed it, and reached for another before realizing there was nothing else on my body. 

The forest had gone silent. The attack was over.  

I sheathed the fighting knife that I'd been using to protect my fingers -- it had knuckle guard of sorts, which wasn't enough for this but was better than nothing -- and started picking up my other weapons, in case anything else was coming this way. We used the guns as little as possible, not just because ammunition was scarce; they just attracted too damned much attention. 

Afterworld: Trouble Follows Trouble

"Holy fuck," said Chad, emerging from the woods. "Well, that was big."

"You, sir, have a keen grasp of the obvious," I told him. Like Jason, he'd been a college kid when everything had gone to hell, and he thought it was hilarious when I sounded like a professor... which I often did, sometimes by accident and sometimes as a bit.

"Thank you," he said, looking pleased. "So keen to live up to your expectations."

"Quiet," said Ishanna, and a moment later I heard it: a soft chittering, somewhere out in the trees. More than one source, out there in the trees. 

Mary looked at me and then sighed through her nose. Devon and  Jenny exchanged a look, then moved apart from us, scenting the air and studying the forest around us. 

"Oh, shit," said Jenny quietly. "Murder-squirrels. Get ready..."

They came in a wave, small packs moving in and out. They were small and fluffy and brown, and would have been cute if they hadn't been trying to eat us. Probably they'd been too lightweight for the fall from the storm to hurt them much. Beside me, Mary was breathing out cat-sized predators as fast as she could shape them from her breath. On my left, Ishanna was stepping back and Jason had moved in front of her, squeezing his fists in a way that made his spines extend. That was smart; Ishanna wasn't really equipped for this kind of assault; Jason was. Chad swallowed, but held his ground. 

I dropped the sword just like I'd dropped the bow a minute earlier. It wasn't the right tool for the job. A flamethrower would have been better; a flamethrower also would have been suicide. The best I could do was a knife I'd had since my early teens, a simple design with a finger-guard.

They swarmed over us. 

Valthor: Aboard The Galleon

I was down in the bath when someone reached in and shook me. I shot up, putting my head above water, and heard someone squeak as I wiped the water away from my eyes.

"Harvest Mother!" shouted a woman's voice. "How long have your been down there? I thought you were drownt!"

I leaned back in the still-warm water. "I don't drown," I said. I opened my eyes again and found myself staring at a petite redhead with her hair cut short, wrapped in a towel and still gaping at me. "So I find it relaxing to sit under the water."

"So you're... you're not dead?" she asked. 

I laid my head back against the edge of the bath and sighed. "No, I'm not dead." Then I gathered myself, because of course she had a point. "But I appreciate your concern. I'd appreciate it even more if you didn't mention this to anyone."

"So... you're a sea elf? Like the Captain?"

I weighed that for the barest moment, because it would have given me an easy out. "No," I told her after a moment. "I'm something else."

"But alive, right? Not some vampire we accidentally invited on board?"

I chuckled, and it wasn't a pleasant sound. "Yes, I'm still alive, so no, I'm not a vampire." I lifted a damp hand, held it out. "Valthor."

She hesitated for a moment, then clasped it. "Kiela," she told me. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to disturb your bath."

I shook my head. "Perfectly natural reaction," I told her. "No reason you would know."

She shrugged apologetically, then grasped at her towel as it started to slip. "Well, now I do," she said. "It won't happen again." 

Music: Shadows

The Midnight:

Afterworld: The First Beast

It was something like a boar, a razorback, if you'd made it the size of a moving van and crossed it with an armadillo. It was snuffling around in the underbrush, and for a long moment I considered just backing away and leaving it to forage. Then it looked up, locked eyes with us, snarled, and charged, 

Jason grounded the butt of the boar spear and caught the beast in the throat, while I bounced an arrow off its forehead. I'd been aiming for an eye, but I missed. The spear snapped, but Jason rolled aside and sliced into its armor as it passed, his spines doing their work. Another arrow shattered at the joint of its neck and shoulder -- Ishanna's work -- and I heard a curse from back among the trees.  

Injured, the beast spun, trying to decide which of us to attack.

That was when Devon pounced on its back and sank his teeth into its neck. It thrashed, trying to fling him off, and its tusks tore up huge chunks of underbrush and scraped  gouges in the ground. I tried another bow shot but missed again. Its skin was just too thick to pierce that way, and those small black eyes were difficult targets. Jenny came in under it, clawing at its gut, but while she managed to draw blood it wasn't anywhere near a killing blow. She came out the other side and darted away, further distracting it. 

Then I heard a pff like somebody blowing out a candle, and part of its right foreleg exploded. That was the power the monks had given Mary: her breath was shield and weapon and conjured reinforcements, depending on how she shaped it. Evidently she'd decided on sniping. 

The beast reared with a grunting howl, then slammed its hooves down. Devon was still clinging to its neck, claws and teeth hooked firmly into the edges of its scales and trying to chew his way through. Jason had circled off to one side and was yelling abuse at it, trying to keep its attention on him. Then a crack of thunder split the air. 

Ishanna had given up on her bow, and gone to the rifle instead. The hole she made was cleaner than the one Mary had given it, but probably deeper. I dropped my bow and drew the Zombie Cleaver; it was my only other option, and the bow had done nothing so far. 

That was the moment the beast decided to come at me, charging at me like an oncoming train and lowering its head for a scooping slash with those massive tusks. If it managed to connect, it was going to cut me in half. 

I waited, calculating the timing. 

Then there was another pff and it stumbled, and I took that opening to dart in, kick off my altered left leg, and throw myself up and past its tusks at just the right angle to take out its left eye with the Zombie Cleaver, cutting on the pass. Behind me, I heard it squeal -- but I was busy moving, putting distance between us. 

Then the thunder rolled again, and the beast staggered and fell onto its side, throwing Devon loose. Jenny came out of the trees in a blur, found his place, and dug her claws in, ripping into its flesh.

It shuddered, squealed once more, and lay still. 

Ishanna's bullet had taken it through the right eye. 

Afterworld: Out On The Hunt

We found a lot of corpses. Even among those who survived the fall, a good number had fallen to the influence of the Sacred Trees. They were strange things, misshapen and -- when they survived -- always hostile, but I still felt bad for them. I doubt they wanted to be here any more than we wanted them here.

The trails were narrow, so we kept to single file, with Devon and Jenny alternating on front, Ishanna and Mary and Chad in the middle, and Jason and I switching out at the rear. Devon had put his fur back on, and was moving on all fours. I was carrying a bow, but had the Zombie Cleaver in easy reach, while Jason had borrowed my boar spear, both for anything that he might want to keep out of reach and for generals use as a walking stick. Ishanna was carrying a bow but had a rifle slung across her back and pistol at her hip, while Mary and Jenny were just relying on their natural abilities. Chad had borrowed a katana from my collection, and had a pistol on his belt.

We came to an abrupt stop as something stirred, groaned, reached vaguely in our direction, and then collapsed back. It was vaguely humanoid, but with four stumpy legs and four tentacles -- or I guess pseudopods, technically --  for arms. Jason came forward and put it down with the spear; it might recover and be a threat, but if it couldn't then it didn't deserve to suffer. Either way, it had to die. 

We were nearing the bottom of the hollow now, where the ground smoothed out and even with the trees it was easier to move around. With a little better footing, we might shift to a two-by-two formation, but for the moment...

Devon whined softly, and Jenny held a hand up. "There's something up there," she whispered back at us. "I can't get its scent over the corpses." She peered forward, and Devon moved slightly in front of her, instinctively protective. "I can't tell how big it is, either. But it's definitely still alive and moving."

I considered that for a long moment. "Switch positions," I whispered. "Jason and I will take front. Ishanna, Mary, spread out and flank it. Devon and Jenny, you two hit it while it's distracted with us. Watch your paths, in case there's anything else active out here. Chad, you watch our backs."

The thing ahead of us gave a series of grunts, but didn't seem to be moving our way. We shifted positions carefully, moving up to encircle it. I didn't mind having become a monster myself, but I'd never fancied hunting them. Still, at the end of the world you did what you had to do. 

Jason and I crept forward.