chronicles of eden - act I (32 page)

"I'll be right back, you do what you do best, Daniel. Make us some allies in this world," she said, and then ran after the ant girl. Daniel watched them run off then looked back to the queen. She stifled back a sigh and motioned him to proceed with a wave of her hand.

"Well, go ahead, human. Speak," she said in a bored tone. Daniel nodded and smiled at the queen.

"Before we get started, what's your name?" he asked. The queen merely raised an eyebrow at him.

"My name?" she asked flatly.

"Yes, what's your name, besides your majesty of course. You know, just so we can talk like civilized beings of Eden," he said politely. The queen smirked and nodded slightly.

"Very well, you may address me as Queen Victoria then," she mused.

"Well then, Queen Victoria, thank you for allowing me to speak to you," he said with a formal bow. The queen chuckled amusingly and nodded as the guards put away their swords. Alyssa glanced around at them then looked to the queen with a careful eye.

"Alright then, Daniel, you have my full attention. Please, enlighten me on your… beliefs," the queen said with an intrigued eye.

*****

Triska was running down a darkened tunnel, looking around carefully while the ant girl was running in front of her with a torch. The two headed down the tunnels and stopped at an intersection, with the ant girl nervously pointing over down another corridor. Triska looked to seeing a few pincers sticking up near the intersection, the teen narrowing her eyes and unsheathing her sword. The rescued ant girl watched with wonder as the sword made a metallic ring as it was swiped down to the teen's side.

"You know, I used to think all monsters in this world were evil. I hated every kind of monster out there, I was raised to believe they were all… well, just monsters," Triska said softly. She glanced back to the ant girl with remorse.

"I trained to become a fighter for my village, to protect my kind and our men from the Darker Ones. To protect Daniel," she said gently. The ant girl squeaked softly as Triska looked down to her sword and tilted it, the blade shimmering slightly in the glow from the torch.

"He was the only one in my village that believed that your kind weren't just monsters, that you were more than just lustful creatures. That some of you could be trusted," she said gripping the handle securely. She breathed out and looked back to the ant girl.

"And he was right, somehow he knew all along," she said. The ant girl tilted her head slightly in wonder as Triska smiled gently at her.

"You're the kind of monster in this world that we can trust, that Daniel knew existed. You're not evil, just under the influence of your nature. The way you stood up to your queen to save him, you're proof that your kind can be trusted, that we can coexist," she praised. The ant girl just looked at her curiously, her antennae twitching slightly. Triska looked down then over to the pincers sticking out of the ground, then walked over to a set nearby and spun her blade around, now holding the sword inversely.

"However…" she said as she raised her blade up. The ant girl watched her with wonder as the human narrowed her eyes.

"These monsters…
are
evil!" she yelled as she thrust her blade down between the pincers. A crunch and a shaky roar were heard as the sword shook around, the teen holding it tightly as she pushed the blade down deeper. She twisted the handle which caused another crunching sound, and then the sword remained still. Triska pulled the blade out to reveal blood soaking the steel, with the ant girl staring at it with wide eyes then down to where a small pool of blood was seeping up through the dirt. Triska whipped the blade to the side, getting some of the blood off of her sword, and then peered down the corridor. More pincers were twitching slightly revealing the predators lying in wait. She walked over to another pair of protrusions then glanced back to the ant girl. She winked at her then with a mighty thrust drove her blade down into the mouth of the underground monster, the sword trembling around while the ant-lioness screamed hoarsely from the strike before falling quiet.

"To coexist we have to help each other," Triska stated as she yanked her sword back up. She looked down the tunnel as a few other ant-lionesses crawled to the surface and roared at her, their mouths opened all the way with their pincers spreading out. The ant girl trembled and looked at them with fright as Triska readied her blade.

"We have to protect each other, to help each other with our enemies," she continued before she gripped her blade tightly and dashed towards an ant-lioness. With a powerful swing she hacked off the monster’s head, then spun around and struck her blade into the ground between two pincers. A loud screech was heard under the ground as Triska took out her dagger and jammed it behind her into the skull of another ant-lioness, the monster halting right before she was about to grab hold of the human.

"And if killing these bitches is the first step needed for peace between our races, then so be it. I'll show you why I'm the best fighter in my village!" she yelled before yanking out the dagger from the forehead of the monster, the ant-lioness dropping to the ground with a thump with its expression of shock frozen on its face. Triska grabbed her sword from the ground and yanked it up, causing blood and a few broken teeth from the dead ant-lioness below to fly up with it, then swung her blade around and sliced off the hand of another ant-lioness that swiped at her. She swung the sword back around and sliced the monster’s skull into two halves as the ant girl behind her watched with awe.

A few ant-lionesses skittered towards Triska on the ground as another ran up along the wall nearby. Triska growled then lunged forward and impaled her sword through another monster's mouth and out the back of the head, then twisted the blade with crunch before she jammed her dagger into the skull of another ant-lioness. Triska yanked the dagger out of the monster with a yell then swiped out her sword from her fallen foe, the two monsters dropping down dead before her with a splatter of blood coating the wall of the tunnel nearby. Triska growled then jammed her sword into another ant-lioness’s mouth. She yelled and swiped out sideways, causing blood and broken teen to fly off to the side, then drove her sword down into the mouth of another underground predator.

“You like that? Does that taste good?” Triska shouted. She yanked her sword up and spun around, swinging up and slicing across the skull of an ant-lioness that was crawling on the ceiling. The human dodged back as the monster dropped down in front of her dead and readied her sword in one hand and her dagger in the other, narrowing her eyes as more of the predators surfaced and skittered towards her.

"You damn things can pick on helpless ant girls, but you're nothing for a real fighter. Take away your element of surprise and you've got nothing," she threatened, glaring at the monsters as a few skittered on the walls towards her. The ant girl behind her watched nervously and backed up a bit, watching all the predators that had killed so many of her kind before with fear.

An ant-lioness swiped at Triska while another quickly buried down at an angle, causing the ground to cave in. Triska slid down as the dirt was dug out from under her before jamming her dagger into the head of the monster in front of her, then swung down with her sword and hacked off the hand of the underground one as it reached up for her. She geared back and struck her blade into the ground, causing a crunching sound and a high pitched screech from the predator that took the blade through its chest. Triska pushed the dead one back with her hand and yanked out her dagger, then darted back out of the dirt pit as another monster lunged at her. Triska swung her sword and sliced across the face of the monster, then followed through with her dagger to the skull. The blade struck into the bone with crunch as Triska looked around at the other ant-lionesses, her eyes glaring as she bared her teeth slightly. Another ant-lioness raced towards her while one skittered along on the wall. Triska yanked out her dagger and swung her sword towards the one on the ground, the monster dodging back and swiping at her furiously with her hands. The ant girl watched with wide eyes as the human swung around at the two monsters, both of them dodging back and clawing at her while screeching loudly.

"C'mon! Is that all you got?" Triska taunted as she swung her blade around and sliced across the torso of the ant-lioness on the ground. The monster screeched then darted back, then dug down into the dirt rapidly as dust and rocks flew up around her. The ground below shifted about and caved in, with Triska stumbling back as the other ant-lioness raced down at her from the wall. Triska swung her sword towards it before the monster grabbed her wrist and held it back. The human yelled and swung her dagger towards the monster, the blade digging into its torso while it screeched loudly. It snarled as its pincers snapped at Triska, the ant-lioness pushing the human over into the wall and trying to bite her with vicious snarls.

"Goddamn, you are one ugly bitch," Triska growled as the ant-lioness snapped at her, the monster's eyes being wide while its jaw was unhinged, revealing all the razor sharp teeth inside of her mouth. It held Triska's hand with her sword against the wall as her other hand was grabbing the girl's hair, trying to pull the human closer to her open mouth while Triska jammed her dagger deeper into its belly. It was causing blood to pour out from the wound, but wasn't killing the monster fast enough. Nearby the other ant-lioness clawed back to the surface, watching Triska with wide eyes as it screeched loudly.

The ant girl watched as Triska was pinned against the wall and trembled with fear. The other ant-lioness rushed towards Triska, the teen kicking back the first monster and causing it to stumble away with the dagger stuck in the torso still. Triska swung her blade around and sliced a gash through the second ant-lioness’s face, the monster howling as it dropped down thrashing around. The human then struck the blade into the skull with a crunch, the body of the monster twitching before falling limp. Before Triska could yank her sword back up the other ant-lioness rushed over and pushed her back into the wall, the monster pinning the human's hands to the wall as her pincers snapped at her.

“You just can’t take a hint, can you?” Triska grunted as she tried to avoid the monster’s attempts to bite her face off. She pushed back slightly and held her knee up to the monster's chest, the teen keeping the ant-lioness from getting too close to eat her face. The ant girl watched with fearful eyes as the human was pinned to the wall then saw another ant-lioness emerging further down the tunnel. The monster screeched then started skittering towards Triska, the human glancing to it with frustration before looking back to the ant-lioness that was still snapping at her. The ant girl shook her head fearfully then glanced to the side, seeing something by the corner of the tunnel that caught her eye.

Triska growled and attempted to push the ant-lioness off of her before the other got too close, trying to kick off with her knee as the monster kept pushing back while snapping towards her face. Triska watched the ant-lioness with frustration, glanced over to the other ant-lioness rushing up towards them, then back to seeing the monster still snapping at her… then watched as a pickaxe struck through the monster's skull with a crunch.

Triska went wide eyed as the tip of the digging tool stopped just short of impaling her head, then looked over to seeing the ant girl holding the handle of the digging tool with one hand and staring at the ant-lioness she just killed with frustration and fear. The girl yanked the pickaxe out of the ant-lioness, the predator then dropping down with a thump as its face was frozen in shock. Triska looked at the corpse with surprise then to the ant girl. The monster was trembling with frustration and tears forming in her eyes, then looked at her worriedly.

"Wow… thank you," Triska said softly. The ant girl squeaked softly then looked down at the monster she just killed. Triska just looked at her then over to the other ant-lioness, the predator also staring at the ant girl with surprise. The ant-lioness then charged towards them while screeching loudly, the two girls looking to it quickly. Triska darted forward and grabbed her sword while the ant girl gripped the handle of her pickaxe tightly, her expression of fear and frustration still as she tried to be brave. The ant-lioness rushed towards Triska before the human whipped her sword out from the skull of her previous kill and swiped towards the monster, the ant-lioness darting back before Triska lunged forward with another swipe. She sliced through the chest of the monster, causing it to screech loudly and stagger back. Triska darted to the side and swiped off two of the monster's legs, the ant-lioness howling as it dropped to the ground and thrashed around. The human looked down at it with narrowed eyes then struck her blade down into another nearby ant-lioness that was buried next to her foot, right between the two pincers while the ant girl walked up towards the wounded monster. Triska glanced to the ant-lioness nearby and twisted her blade, causing a crunching sound from below.

"These ant girls are your prey no longer," she stated firmly. The ant girl squeaked loudly and swung her pickaxe down, spiking through the skull of the predator with a crunch. She stared at the monster she just killed with wide eyes, her breathing short and her squeaking quiet. Triska yanked her sword up from the ground, causing a shot of blood and a broken pincer to pop up, and watched as the ant girl slowly looked to her pickaxe. She glanced to Triska, the human winking at her with a smile.

"To coexist we have to help each other," she repeated gently. The ant girl looked at her with wonder then down at the ant-lioness that had a pickaxe struck through her skull. Triska smiled at the ant girl then grabbed her dagger out from the downed ant-lioness’s torso, wiping the blood off on the monster's tunic before sheathing it again at her hip. She stood up and held her sword at her side casually as the ant girl slowly let go of the pickaxe and backed up, staring at the weapon she had used to kill the monster with.

"I take it you're the first one to ever fight back like that," Triska guessed with a raised eyebrow. The ant girl looked at her with wonder as the human smiled at her.