Tunnel-thoughts

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 1981

~~Damn hypnotic booby-traps!~~ thought Fred to himself. ~~Without a true map of this underground lair, finding this wyrm will be much more difficult than I had thought. At least now I have some kind of guide and another warrior at my side.~~

As the three strange figures walked back up the tunnel all became quiet. The quietness of the underground passage began to unnerve Lord Fred and he began to wish that he was elsewhere. What made it worse was his own noisy- ness. Poor Velus' canine legs made nary a sound at all, the warrior- woman's naked feet also were quiet, but each step of Lord Fred's armored legs clanked resoundingly within the cramped spaces. Fred could not help it, and he was not about to take the armor off, yet he wondered at who or what might be listening to the sound he was making. Though this was not the place nor the time for conversation, Fred couldn't help but want to fill the eerie soundscape with something more...'normal.'

"Princess," began Fred in a whisper. "Have you ever seen the dragon that lives here?"

"No," she whispered back. "But I have been told. It has a body like an ox, and legs like a frog, two short fore-legs and two long ones behind, and besides that it has a tail like a serpent, ten fathoms in length. When it moves it jumps like a frog, and with every spring it covers half a mile of ground."

Fred pondered what she had said and compared it to what his own people had told him. Then he asked, "Has it not wings?"

She turned to look at him, the light of the torch illuminating her features in strange ways. "Wings? No. It leaps and so sometimes appears to fly, but wings it has not. Do the dragons in your land have wings?"

"Yes. I think so. This is what I was told, that is," said Fred rather weakly. He had never seen the dragon, he simply knew it as the Most Terrible Dragon of the Southern Caves. For years the dragon had tormented the people of the Great Kingdom. It had burned the fields and had taken countless children. But Fred had never laid eyes upon it. "I was told that the creature is like a great worm with a great gaping mouth filled with great big teeth and eyes that can pierce the soul or drive the mind of a man mad; and it has wings such that the great weight of it's body can rise high into the sky like a kite and then breathe down fire upon unsuspecting peoples."

Thessamar Astra did not say another word, she allowed Fred's words to die down and join the silence of the tunnel and she turned forward to follow the canine who was leading the way in the maze of tunnels. Within the silence punctuated by his own clanking armor, Fred wondered at the tunnels, were they made by the dragon or by something else? Were they clawed out by the creature described by Thessamar or were they the workings of the wyrm known to his own people? As they walked Fred touched the tunnel walls; jagged, rough, treacherous – the walls reminded him of the nature of this quest.

Suddenly Velus stopped and Thessamar Astra held out her hand to stay Fred. Fred looked to see the reason and his jaw dropped within his metal helmet. Before him lay a great cavern, dimly lit by some phosphorescent goo that seemed to grow from the walls themselves. Though the lighting was not as good as a torch or lantern, it gave the impression of twilight above ground. Within the cavern was a group of people hunched over some tables, they were dressed in robes and each seemed to be writing upon parchments that were laid upon the tables.

"Let me investigate this," said Fred in his chivalrous way, and before anyone could stop him he entered the cavern and approached the closest scribe. "Who are you, and what is your business here?" asked Fred.

The scribe ceased writing and, placing the quill upon the table, looked up at Lord Fred. Fred's eyes widened in terror, for what was looking up at him was nothing more nor less than the skinless face of what once was a man! This skull looked up at Fred, red flame burning within its eye sockets, tooth grinding against tooth. The scribe began to stand and as it did so the creaking of its bones was clearly heard. Fred began to back away and the scribe reached out to grab him. As he did so, the robe about his hand and arm fell back revealing nothing but bones, this scribe was a walking skeleton!

  1. Fred reached out instinctively for his sword, drew it and.....

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree


YY

6/3/1999 6:07:16 AM

The Never Ending Quest Home

Extend-A-Story Home

21321611 episodes viewed since 9/30/2002 1:22:06 PM.

Do not click me.