Dan the Adventurer, page 3
part #2 of Gold Girls and Glory Series
An abomination had risen from the rift to hunt the night.
Her night.
Nadia jogged through the forest, following the thing’s trail, and soon realized that she was following not one thing but two. Two of these strange creatures, their odors slightly different, were hunting side by side.
She stopped, reconsidering her pursuit. Hunting two predators was far more dangerous than hunting a single creature.
Quit the trail, she thought. Come back tomorrow and investigate with Dan and Holly. Maybe Holly will know something about—
Screams exploded over the hill, followed by otherworldly caterwauling. Nadia raced in that direction, filled with terror.
For those weren’t just any screams.
They were elven screams.
4
A Warning from Beyond
Around the time that Nadia was peering down into the eerie crevasse, Dan mumbled in his sleep, dreaming.
He drifted through the gray nothingness of the Between, tugged along by a shimmering silver rope.
Usually his dreams were weird and choppy and made little sense.
This dream was different. It felt oddly real. His thinking was unbroken and clear, and he seemed to be in control of himself if not the situation.
“Zeke?” he called.
And everything changed.
Suddenly, Dan was standing in a cave of black stone veined in luminous red gemstone that cast the cavern in crimson light. Before him, the cave ended in a roaring cascade of pounding water shot through with a latticework of crackling red energy.
The air was warm and humid, thick with a strange, unpleasant smell that blended the odors of a dairy farm and a landfill.
Everything was so detailed, so real, so unlike a dream.
He turned and jerked backward with surprise.
A mummy stood five feet away, grinning at him.
Reflexively, Dan reached for his hip, but his sword wasn’t there.
The mummy cackled.
The cackle was familiar.
Dan narrowed his eyes, studying the emaciated figure, taking in the drooping hat, ragged poncho, and wispy beard.
“Zeke?”
“In the flesh,” the cadaverous man chuckled, “more or less.”
Zeke was all bones and beard and leathery skin. The formerly bright poncho, now tattered and faded, hung from his wasted frame like a cloak of filthy rags.
“You don’t look so hot,” Dan said.
“Griselda’s corruption spell,” Zeke said, and Dan remembered the sorcerers’ fight in the stadium, remembered the black energy striking Zeke and ruining his flesh. “I zipped straight to a high plane. Otherwise, the corruption would’ve finished me.”
Dan smiled, moving past shock. “Are you coming back now?”
Zeke shook his head. “In my current condition, I’m too weak to return to our plane. Besides, I have work to do.”
“Am I dreaming?” Dan asked. “Or is this really happening?”
“Both,” Zeke said. “You’re dreaming, but I am really here. Now stop flapping your lips and listen. I need you to do something. Something vitally important.”
A terrible shriek split the air. A feral and predatory blast, like the screech of a hawk, the cough-cry of the hunting fox, or the wild shriek of a cougar.
“What the Hades was that?” Dan said, looking around.
“That,” Zeke said, “is why I’m interrupting your sleep.”
The haggard wizard stepped aside and gestured behind him, where a screen of crackling red energy stretched from wall to wall and floor to ceiling, blocking off the cave.
Beyond the wall, dark shapes prowled back and forth with the fluid impatience of caged tigers pacing before mealtime.
“Apex predators from the lower planes,” Zeke said. “Unfortunately, my shield can’t hold them forever.”
With a wild scream, one of the dark shapes slammed into the red shield. At the point of impact, the shield wobbled, crackling, and emitted a flash of bright red light. The dark shape ricocheted away into the indistinct gloom beyond.
“I need your help,” Zeke said, “before it’s too late.”
“Of course,” Dan said. “What—”
An invisible force interrupted Dan, seizing his shoulder and shaking him, and a voice boomed, calling his name. The dream crumbled away, and Zeke, the crackling shield, and the pacing shadows vanished.
5
The Thing in the Forest
“Dan,” Holly said, shaking him. “Dan, wake up!”
Dan jerked awake. He was back in the tent.
What the Hades?
Had it all been a dream after all? It had been so real, so nuanced, so—
“Get up,” Holly said. She gathered her staff, bow, and quiver. “Nadia needs us!”
“What is it?” Dan said, pulling on his boots.
“Hurry,” Holly said and scrambled out of the tent.
“Wait!” Dan grabbed his sword and hurried from the tent. He caught a glimpse of Holly, her golden hair shining in the moonlight as she sprinted across the creek.
Dan called after her, but Holly didn’t even slow her pace, and a second later, she disappeared into the dark forest. Unlike Dan, she could see in the dark.
He raced after her.
A terrible cry split the chilly air.
No, Dan thought. It can’t be.
He’d heard the same predatory scream only moments before, in the dream.
It’s not possible, he thought, and then caught himself. Yes, it’s possible. Anything is possible in this game-world.
A new fear seized him then. Whatever these apex predators were, they hadn’t come from an official game manual. Whenever Willis made up a monster, it ended up being really weird and really, really powerful.
He fell crossing the creek but hurried up the bank and hustled on, thankful for the intermittent shafts of moonlight falling through breaks in the canopy.
In the dark stretches, he charged blindly forward, cursing. Roots tripped him. Low branches clotheslined him. Briars clawed at his clothes and flesh.
He caught occasional glimpses of his golden-haired wife as she passed through shafts of moonlight far ahead of him.
He roared with frustration. Nadia was in trouble, Holly was charging toward the fight, and he was stumbling over rocks and slamming into tree trunks. He had awakened from a bad dream into a full-fledged nightmare.
Another horrifying scream sliced through the forest. Men’s voices roared in response, and Dan heard the sound of animals fighting, what sounded like a lion battling a bear.
A bear? Or a wolf?
He powered forward, heart pounding, sprinted up a steep bank, stumbled down a short slope, and broke out of the trees.
Entering a moonlit roadside clearing, he tripped over something heavy, hit the ground, scrambled to his feet, and saw what he had stumbled over.
An elf in chainmail lay upon the grass, looking very dead. His long silver hair shone brightly in the moonlight, framing the ruined red mass that had once been a face.
Dan sprinted across the field past another dead elf and charged toward the horrible sounds in the woods on the other side of the clearing. Rushing into the trees, he saw a terrible scene.
Holly and three grey elves in chainmail were fighting a massive, pitch-black creature, easily ten feet tall and built like a gorilla with an elongated snout like an alligator. Dan saw no eyes, no mouth. The thing looked like a three-dimensional shadow.
Beyond them, deeper in the woods, two dark shapes rolled and roared.
Nadia?
The hulking creature gave a high, warbling cry. Its trunk lashed out with unbelievable speed, swatting one of the elven warriors. The elf flew through the air, crashed into a tree, and fell to the ground in a motionless heap.
Holly whacked the beast with her staff, then ducked the trunk’s return swipe. She looked like a small child with a glowing broom battling a gorilla.
Seeing Dan, Holly pointed into the forest, where the sounds of battling beasts raged. “Help Nadia!”
He hesitated for a split second—abandoning Holly was almost impossible—but charged into the woods, knowing that Nadia needed him.
Two creatures rolled on the forest floor, snarling and snapping in a fatal embrace.
One, sleekly muscular and vaguely cat-like, shimmered blackly in the moonlight, like a jaguar made of oil.
The other was clearly Nadia. He had never seen his lover in her fused form, but he recognized her instantly, despite her wolf’s head and chestnut fur, by her familiar body.
His heart leapt, seeing a woman he loved rolling in mortal combat with a horrifying monster.
Nadia bit the thing’s arm and shook her head back and forth.
With its free arm, the cat-thing raked terrible black talons across Nadia’s back, tearing bloody furrows through her fur and flesh.
“Nadia!” Dan shouted and lunged forward. He started to swing but stopped as the combatants rolled again.
He couldn’t risk hitting Nadia.
He switched grips, leaned close, and jabbed carefully, driving the sword point into the back of the cat-creature.
The thing gave a high-pitched scream and swatted at Dan.
Dan dodged the attack and surged back in, sinking several inches of steel into the night-black flesh.
Screeching, the thing wrenched itself free of Nadia and leapt to its feet with uncanny speed and unnatural fluidity, as if it were somehow solid and liquid all at once.
Dan swung with all his might.
The cat-thing dipped under the blade, rolled across the ground, and crashed into Dan like a two-hundred-pound bowling ball, knocking Dan’s legs out from under him.
Dan slammed into the ground, pissed at himself for getting knocked down.
Then the thing was on him.
Daggers sunk into the meat of his ass cheek as the thing’s jaws clamped down.
Dan bellowed with pain and tried to pull free, but the beast locked its jaws and rolled. Trapped in its jaws, Dan tumbled across the ground, cursing.
Nadia slammed into the monster, biting and clawing, but the thing wouldn’t let go of Dan, who was trapped on his stomach. The dagger-like teeth sank deeper into his ass muscle. Then the thing lifted him several inches off the ground and smashed him back down.
Dan reached back, batting ineffectually at the smooth, hairless, black head.
The thing’s arm flashed forward, and talons slashed Dan’s forearm, slicing him open from elbow to wrist.
Suddenly, the monster released him with a warbling, high-pitched scream.
Dan grabbed his sword in his good hand and scrambled to his feet. Thankfully, the reforged sword had lost length and weight, effectively going from a two-handed sword to a bastard sword. The weapon was still meant for two hands, but when you have 18/92 strength, you don’t have to play strictly by the rules.
The cat-thing was on two feet now, spinning in circles. Nadia rode its back. Her furry arms were cinched across its neck, and her legs were wrapped around its midsection. Her jaws tore into the side of the muscular black neck.
Swinging the sword one-handed, Dan slashed the monster just below the knees, putting all of his pent-up rage into the blow.
The lower leg sheared away, and the beast toppled.
Nadia held tight, riding the thing to the ground, her jaws still clamped to its neck.
Dan jockeyed for position then shouted with surprise and revulsion as the creature changed.
One second, the monster was vaguely cat-shaped. The next second, it lost definition, stretching into a pillar of darkness and slipping from between Nadia’s arms.
The thing rose up, arching over Nadia like a giant serpent.
“Crom!” Dan said and jammed his sword into the monster’s side. Puncturing the midsection, he pushed hard, skewering the beast. The sword point popped out the other side, releasing a noxious cloud of unnatural stench.
The thing stiffened, sighed, and went still.
Nadia rose, spitting and retching. “Foul blood,” she said, drawing a furry forearm across her muzzle and wiping black ichor from her lips.
They turned toward the sound of snapping branches, and the ape-thing, which now resembled a bull, thundered past.
Dan shouted and drew back his sword, but there would be no catching the monster.
Holly appeared, speaking in Elvish. She raised her arm, pointing at the fleeing beast, and suddenly, the black shape was engulfed in blue flames.
If the blue fire burned its flesh, the monster gave no sign as it sprinted away, glowing brightly in the night forest.
Holly fired her bow rapidly, feathering the creature with arrows until the bright blue flames disappeared over a knoll.
“Come on!” Nadia shouted, and they gave chase.
Dan ran as fast as he could, doing his best to ignore the pain in his arm and ass. He was covered in blood. His left hand was numb now, and sharp, constant pain burned down the back of his leg all the way to the underside of his foot.
He couldn’t keep up with Nadia, but he stuck close to Holly, letting her be his eyes in the dark, running where she ran, jumping when she jumped, ducking when she ducked. His dexterity and barbarian nature did the rest, and soon he and Holly lurched to a stop beside Nadia, who stood, silhouetted against plumes of glowing green mist, staring down into a massive rift in the forest floor.
“Crom,” Dan breathed.
It looked like an earthquake had split the forest wide open. The sheer cliff dropped into a deep chasm full of swirling, luminescent fog.
“There,” Nadia snarled, pointing across the chasm, eighty or ninety feet down the opposite cliff, where the creature, having returned to an ape-like shape, descended the rock face, still engulfed in blue flames.
“Thank you, faerie flames,” Holly said and fired her bow.
The glowing monster flinched, then swung onto a stone ledge. It threw its arms wide then flexed with rage, bellowing up at them.
Then the thing dipped into a dark hole in the stone cliff and disappeared. Only its rage remained, echoing off the stones like a chanted threat.
6
What Is It?
They hurried back to the battle site. Dan’s left leg kept spasming, so he hobbled after Holly and Nadia.
They were hurt, too.
The side of Holly’s beautiful face was badly bruised, and her eye was swelling rapidly shut.
Nadia was crosshatched in bloody slashes. She stayed in her fused form so that she could heal more quickly.
Dan’s eyes were locked on her body.
Much to his surprise, Nadia was super sexy in this half-wolf form. Sure, her body was covered in wounds and short fur, and she had a bushy tail, but she still had the same A+ ass and the muscular yet decidedly feminine build of a curvy gymnast.
Even running, even hurting as he was, he started to grow hard as he watched her firm, furry ass. But then they reached the corpses, and all thoughts of sex vanished.
The only obvious survivor of the patrol kneeled beside a fallen comrade at the edge of the moonlit clearing. “Iron Daughter,” he called to Holly.
Iron Daughter, Dan thought, and remembered the Campus Quest judge saying that Holly was the daughter of the Iron Druid.
“Moro still lives,” the kneeling elf said, “but his life is fading.”
Moro lay unconscious on the ground. His face was young and handsome and pale as new-fallen snow. The beast’s claws had ripped through the chain armor over his chest. Dark blood pooled in the gaping wounds.
“Moro?” Holly said with surprise, a look of concern coming onto her face. A second later, she composed herself and cast a healing spell. The wounds shrunk and the blood coagulated.
Moro’s eyes shot open with a look of panic and confusion. Then he coughed and winced and blinked up at Holly. A weak smile lit his boyish face, which had regained some color, the hue of which shifted as the boy’s face pinkened.
“Holly?” Moro said, looking both incredulous and embarrassed. “What are you doing here?”
Holly laughed and tousled Moro’s silver hair. “Saving your life, foolish boy. The real question is, what are you doing here? You’re too young to be on night patrol.”
Moro sat up, suddenly indignant. “I am not too young! I’m a member of the patrol!”
Holly raised one golden eyebrow dubiously.
“Moro is a provisionary member,” the other elf explained. “We were down a man. Your brother…” He trailed off, apparently thinking better of what he’d been about to say.
“What about Briar?” Holly said, her undamaged eye narrowing.
“My lady,” the soldier continued uncomfortably, “your brother broke Daron’s leg while sparring.”
Holly’s face twisted with anger. “Why?”
Moro spoke up. “Your brother has grown fearsome in your absence.”
Holly scowled, looking thoughtful, then shook her head. “Enough. I’ll deal with Briar once we reach the grove.”
The other elves seemed relieved by her dismissal of the topic.
Holly asked about the fallen elves. When she heard their names, she was silent for several seconds. Then she nodded. “They were good men. We will return them to the grove so that they might join their ancestors in eternity.”
Dan had never seen his wife so serious, so mature, so commanding. By the way the patrolmen were acting, he realized that he had underestimated Holly’s status in the grove.
“Moro, Estus,” Holly said, “meet my husband, Dan, and my sister-wife, Nadia.”
Dan gave the elves a nod.
“Hey, guys,” Nadia growled in the gravelly voice of her fused form.
Something like panic passed over the features of Estus, but he reined in whatever he was feeling and bowed to Dan and Nadia, saying that it was a pleasure to make their acquaintance.
Moro disguised his feelings less successfully. A look of shock bordering on horror contorted his face. His eyes darted back and forth between Dan and Nadia before settling on Dan with obvious disdain.
