Chapter 11 - An Appropriate Ending?

Tannyr stepped toward Rhulyrn. “Wait. We can’t help you at the moment.”

Rhulyrn cleared her throat, a puff of smoke escaping from between her large teeth. “Why not? Already you abandon us?”

“No! If you were smarted dragons, you would have remembered that you caused the tunnel to cave in. Before we can even go after the spirit again, we have to get out of this damned cavern!”

The female dragon looked hard at the dwarf, displeased at his tone of voice. “Then we will get you out,” she growled as she flicked her fore claw, signaling the group to move out of the dragons’ path. Stryloc was the first to proceed down the tunnel toward the door, Rhulyrn coming shortly after, sulking in disgust at Tannyr’s attitude towards her.

Following the dragons, Sartrem pulled Teria aside. “Are you sure we can trust those dragons?” he whispered bitterly into her ear. “How do we know they aren’t using us for their escape, only to betray us in the end?”

“We don’t know that, but we are no better off trapped here.”

The dragons stopped in front of the fallen boulders. “See what your temper caused, Rhulyrn?” Stryloc laughed as he began clearing the boulders with his snout.

“Temper? It was they who woke me up with their explosion!” Rhulyrn nudged her mate before helping with the boulders.

“Where is your hoard?” Racti spoke up.

Rhulyrn stopped and faced Racti. “What did you say?”

“All dragons have a hoard. Where–?” Racti muted himself as Teria pulled him aside.

“We have lived here all our lives, and have not acquired any treasure for a hoard,” Stryloc replied as he lifted a large boulder with his head. Disappointed, Racti sat on the ground and looked over the treasure in his backpack, humming to himself. Rhulyrn resumed clearing the boulders after giving Racti an amused look.

* * *

Soon the boulders were cleared away and the tunnel entrance became clear amidst the dust of broken rocks.

“There you are, little ones. Go now and find a way to destroy the evil here. We will be on our way as well.” Stryloc winked an eye and then headed off through the large doorway with Rhulyrn at his side. The dragons disappeared into the darkness moments later, whipping their shiny tails as they trailed off.

Auric was the first to step into the tunnel. “Flygin may still be around for an ambush, so watch out,” he uttered to Racti as he drew his sword. The half-elf peered around with his elvensight but saw nothing. The tunnel ahead was clear as far as Auric could see. “Let’s move on.”

As the six adventurers walked through the tunnel, an eerie sense of impending doom filled them. With each step, the floor of the tunnel hummed a near-silent dirge.

“These rocks don’t match the walls of the tunnel here,” Zengrath said to Auric, pointing to the rock strewn about. “They are much older.”

Tannyr picked up a fist-size rock and looked it over. “Zengrath’s right. These rocks are over a thousand years old! But why are they here?”

“I think that someone, or should I say ‘something,’ wants it that way. Look!” Sartrem shouted, pointing to a cloudy shape of a man staring at them from deeper in the tunnel.

The man looked to be in the prime of his life, though his pallid face was wrinkled and sagging beyond the age he appeared to be. His fiery red-orange hair stuck upward, disheveled and graying slightly. His figure was concealed by a black and vertically striped robe, which was printed with fetish symbols in gold along its hems. He carried a rod of some sort, but at that distance it was difficult to see.

“Who are you?” Teria asked, reaching for her bow and an arrow.

The man scoffed. “You all should know who I am by now. I am Thelran, the mighty.” Thelran’s already crooked face formed into a wide alligator grin that sent a shiver down Auric’s spine. “I honestly admit that I had underestimated you. To have come this far, only to meet your death.”

“Why us?” Auric held a tighter grip on his sword.

“You chose to meddle in my affairs. This never concerned you. You just got in the way.”

Teria took a step forward, arming her bow. “My ancestors shared your beliefs, rather, you shared theirs. You abandoned them, and left them to die. Only my father survived.” Teria released the bowstring. The arrow hissed as it ripped through the air toward Thelran, but it passed straight through his body.

Tannyr gasped. “Thelran’s a bloody ghost!”

“Not quite, dwarf.” Thelran picked up a rock and tossed it up into the air, and caught it again. “I couldn’t be more alive. You, on the other hand, will be ghosts.”

Taking a step, Auric felt the ground give way beneath his feet. The floor of the tunnel quaked, shaking everyone out of balance. “What is going on?” Racti asked, trying to keep standing.

“Earthquake!” Teria shouted.

“I don’t think so,” Auric responded. “Just the mountain is trembling.” Falling onto his stomach, Auric looked up to see Thelran still standing, laughing at them.

“Now this looks familiar. What an appropriate ending for you all, for you will share my brother’s fate. When you see him in hell, send him my regards!” Thelran’s contemptuous laughter bellowed, shaking the mountain even more. The tunnel collapsed, forming a deep fissure that opened into darkness.

Racti managed to catch hold of the side of the hold before he could fall into the floor. Reaching out with his other arm, he snatched Teria’s wrist and pulled her up so she clung to his waist. With a cheeky smile, Racti leaned in and placed a quick kiss on Teria’s lips.

Zengrath extended his arms, and a shiny bubble formed around him. Instead of plummeting into the fissure, the wizard floated down like a feather.

Auric and Tannyr did the same as Racti, gripping the rocky edges of the hole with their lives. Sartrem, who missed the opportunity to grab the side of the pit, instead clung to Tannyr’s legs. The dwarf grunted and cursed with the weight of Sartrem pulling him down.

“The only way to go is down,” Auric said, climbing down deeper into the fissure. “We’ll find solid ground below.” Looking down momentarily, everyone followed Auric into the darkness. However, no one took notice that Thelran had disappeared.

* * *

The orange glow of lava came into view from below. Zengrath drifted down into view from below. Zengrath drifted down into the opening. “There is a safe place to stand here.” With Zengrath’s guidance, the others climbed safely onto a ledge that surrounded the pool of lava that filled most of the cavern.

A small island stood in the center of the pool, with no access to it from the main ledge. Two pairs of dragon-shaped pillars, carved out of a dark red marble but adorned with silver scales, stood opposite each other on the banks of the island and ledge. It was as though they marked where a bridge had been was no longer there.

“Umm, Auric,” Racti stammered, “I—I think someone wasn’t as lucky as we were.” Racti pointed to a body slumped against the wall of the cavern near the pillars on their side of the pool. The head was turned away from them, and the arms and legs were stretched out to make the body look like it had been standing upright with its arms at its sides. It was dressed very similarly to Thelran, except the robes were white and they lacked the symbols on its hems.

“Normagus, so that is where he has been.” Zengrath walked over to Normagus’ body without fear. Looking down at his old friend’s corpse, he saw the look of fear and agony still on the wizard’s face. “He had suffered greatly. I can’t imagine what he went through down here.”

The others approached him, curious to see for themselves the body of Normagus. “There’s a note rolled up in his sash, Zengrath,” Racti pointed out. Zengrath slid the tiny rolled parchment out from Normagus’ sash and opened it.

“It reads ‘Forgive me, brother. It was better this way.’ Thelran wrote this.”

Tannyr laughed. “Ha! Thelran still has some feeling toward his brother. He may be evil, but he does have a heart.”

“Nothing can separate a bother’s love. Whenever Calamir and I…”

“Master say he very angry about losing them.” Freznot’s banshee-like voice echoed throughout the cavern as the two goblins slipped in through a hidden entrance. Auric shut his mouth immediately.

“He say they are here, but I not see them.” Gorgbuk scanned the room, even gazing into Sartrem’s eyes, but not taking notice. “Let’s look some place else.” Freznot nodded, and the goblins crawled back through the hole in the wall where they entered from.

“How did they not see us?” Teria asked Zengrath. “Did you cast a n invisibility spell?”

“No.”

“It was the shadows. The rock overhead cast a shadow over this part of the ledge, which protected us from the weak eyesight of the goblins.” Auric pointed up to the long arch of rock that spanned the entire cavern. “We were lucky to be standing here and not where we were when we first came down here.”

Sartrem cleared his throat. “Lucky or not, I think we should follow the goblins.”