The Orphan Wars (Book One) (16 page)

"How long until my neck heals?"
asked Nemeth in a concerned tone.

"
I just told you," replied Jaida.  "Don't worry about your neck.  The bites are not large and will heal soon.  The important thing is that your body has been cleansed of the poison.  Now let's go through the door up there."

"That's easy for you to say," said Nemeth still sounding depressed.  "You can just fly up there.  I've got to figure out how to get up there."

Nemeth walked cautiously to the block in the far right corner of the room.  He looked at the top of the block which had the image of a monkey's head inscribed in it.  Nemeth seemed confused and then shook his head.

"I'm not falling for this again," said Nemeth.  "
If I push down on this block, I'll just have another Venoma attacking me…or worse.  I've got a better idea."

Nemeth reached into his backpack and pulled out his grappling hook.  Nemeth threw the grappling hook
high onto the platform above.  He tugged on the grappling hook and made sure it was secured to the platform.  He climbed up to the top of the platform and put his grappling hook away.  Nemeth looked down below and signaled for Jaida to join him atop the platform.  He walked confidently to the wooden door and tried to open the door.  The door did not budge.  Nemeth continued to try and pull and twist on the door's handle, but the door remained closed.

"The damn door is locked!" whined Nemeth.

Nemeth sighed and then reached into his backpack for his grappling hook.  He placed the end of the grappling hook on the door handle and climbed down below.  He walked over to the block and looked at it momentarily.  He drew his sword and then jumped on the block.  Unlike the block that was in the Illusari Forest, this block did not sink when Nemeth jumped on it.  Nemeth continued to pounce on the block several more times, but it refused to sink into the ground.  Nemeth became very angry and walked off of the block.  He put his sword away and scooped up the nearest large rock into his arms.  The rock was rather heavy and very difficult to carry.  Nemeth waddled his way back over to the block and dropped the heavy rock on top of it.  The heavy weight of the rock was enough to cause the block to sink into the ground.  Nemeth performed a backflip and drew his sword expecting another battle to occur.  A metallic clicking noise could be heard coming from above.  The right side of the platform started to shake and transformed into a set of stairs leading up towards to the door.  Nemeth walked up the newly formed staircase.  He grabbed his grappling hook from the door handle and put it into his backpack.  Nemeth was hoping that the metallic clicking noise he heard was the door unlocking.  He reached for the handle of the door and pulled on it and fortunately the door opened.  Nemeth and Jaida then proceeded into the next room.

"Good job master!" exclaimed Jaida.

Nemeth looked around the next room.  This next room was much larger than any of the previous rooms.  It was rather barren compared to the other rooms.  There were only a few bushes covered with thorns and a couple small puddles of water.  Engraved into the stone ceiling were drawings of different species of birds.  There were three doors to choose from instead of one.  One door was on the left, one door was in the center and one door was on the right.  Nemeth randomly chose the right door as the first door he wanted to go in.  Nemeth approached the door on the right and opened it.  Nemeth and Jaida proceeded into the next room.

"There were no traps in that other room," said Nemeth.  "And this door opened up far too easily.  Something bad is bound to happen here."

A thicker wooden door with no handles magically appeared over the door behind them causing them to be shut in.  There was an unusual ankle-high layer of nearly dead grass covering most of the floor.  In the center of the room, there were two identical wooden statues.  The statues had the body of a gorilla, but the head of a hawk.  In the arms of each statue was a large axe.

"I sense great danger
in this room," replied Jaida.  "I also sense that there is a great reward as well.  It doesn't look like there's another way out besides the way we came in.  We've got to figure out a way out of here!"

"I'll see if I can push these
statues out of the way," said Nemeth.  "Whoever carved these statues is quite talented, don't you think?  I wonder who the artist is."

Nemet
h walked over to the two statues in the center of the room.  He placed his left hand on the left statue and his right hand on the right statue and began to push.

"No, that's just not going to work," said Nemeth.  "I've got to push one statue
at a time with both of my hands."

Nemeth started to push the statue on his left with both hands.

"This statue doesn't even feel like it was carved out of wood!" exclaimed Nemeth.  "It feels like actual fur.  This artist is simply amazing.  Any ideas on how the artist accomplished such an effect?"

Nemeth had not realized that both statues were now alive.  Quickly he was hoisted into the air by his right arm by the left arm of the leftmost statue.  Nemeth looked into the
dark red eyes of the statue that had tightly gripped him.  Nemeth drew his sword with his left arm and cut across the statue's arm that was holding him.  The grip was released and Nemeth ran toward the door where he came in.

"Jaida, what are those things?" asked Nemeth.
  "Tell me what you know about these things."

"
I'm trying to gather as much information as I can about these creatures," replied Jaida.  "These creatures are known as Buteo Graueri.  They are harmless when they are in statue form but come to life when they are touched by anything organic.  It appears that a single Buteo Graueri has an overall threat score of 26,000 out of a possible 1,000,000 points.  The overall threat level to you is fairly low.  You were able to escape their tight grip with your sword, so you can inflict damage that way.  I believe destroying both of them is the only way to get out of here and get a reward.  Now attack!"

Nemeth
charged the leftmost Buteo Graueri but quickly came to a halt as the monster swung its axe vertically at Nemeth.  The axe attack nearly missed him but hit the ground instead.  Nemeth performed a backflip and locked onto the eyes of the rightmost monster.  He charged at the creature.  The monster swung his axe in a downward motion at Nemeth.  Nemeth managed to sidestep the monster and sliced at its torso. Small amounts of brown ooze began to drip from the monster's torso, but it appeared to be unfazed.  Nemeth refocused his attention on the leftmost Buteo Graueri.  He circled to the left of the monster and began to walk backwards towards the left wall until he was pressed up against it.  He gestured for the monster to charge him.  The beast began to walk with an increased speed toward him.  Nemeth waited until the beast came within striking distance of him.  The beast swung his axe again at Nemeth, but he rolled out of the way.  The axe got stuck in the ground for a few moments which allowed Nemeth to come in and slice the top of the beast's right leg.  After several backflips towards the door where he came in, Nemeth refocused his attention on the rightmost Buteo Graueri.  Nemeth ran to the right wall and gestured for the monster to attack him.

"Attack me already!" screamed Nemeth.  "Your
big buddy over there is hurt.  Do you feel any compassion for your fellow monsters?  I know I don't.  Now get the hell over here and get what's coming to you!"

The Buteo Graueri increased its pace and approached Neme
th.  It swung its axe at Nemeth, but Nemeth rolled out of the way.  Nemeth stabbed the beast in the back of its right leg twice.  Nemeth then headed towards the center of the room.  The Buteo Graueri had been separated from one another.  One was now on Nemeth's left side and the other was on Nemeth's right side.  Both of the Buteo Graueri began to walk straight toward Nemeth in the center.  Almost simultaneously the two monsters swung their axes at Nemeth.  Nemeth performed a front flip out of harm's way.  Since the axes missed Nemeth, the statues wound up chopping each other with their axes deep into their shoulders.  Brown ooze gushed from their open wounds onto the floor.  The monsters tried to remove their axes from each other but failed to do so.  Nemeth saw this as an opportunity to inflict more damage.  Nemeth charged the monsters and delivered a jumping slice attack to each of the handles of their axes rendering their weapons completely useless.

"Such a pity," said Nemeth.  "You had a two on one advantage and you still couldn't defeat me.  If you're watching this Terazhul, let this be a lesson to what's going to happen to you and Vulpes!"

Nemeth then ran to the far left wall, circled around and delivered a hard dropkick to the back of the knee of one of the monsters causing him to fall backwards onto the ground which was covered in brown ooze.  Nemeth ran to the opposite wall, circled around and delivered a jumping roundhouse kick to the back of the second monster's head knocking it forward and onto the other Buteo Graueri.  The monsters were unable to get up and continued to leak brown ooze from their bodies.  Nemeth began to run in circles around the monsters hacking, slashing and stabbing with his sword at every possible place on their bodies.  They finally perished once Nemeth severed the beaks off of their heads.  The creatures left nothing behind other than a pool of disgusting brown ooze.  Shortly after the defeat of the two monsters, a golden light began to shine brightly at the far end of the room opposite the door.  A beautiful treasure chest appeared where the light glistened.  Nemeth ran over to the treasure chest and flung open the lid.  Inside he found some lightweight chain mail armor.  He tried on the armor and it fit almost perfectly.  The thick wooden barrier that was blocking the entrance crumbled into nothingness.  This brought a grin to Nemeth's face.

"Phew, that was close!" exclaimed Nemeth.  "
I was nearly beheaded!  You were right about the treasure though.  I've got this great armor now.  I'm feeling a lot better.  By the way, do you think I should collect some of this brown ooze?"

"It never hurts to have a lot of
different items," replied Jaida.  "I would suggest drinking another Healing Potion and then filling the vial with the brown ooze."

Nemeth reached into his backpack and grabbed a Healing Potion.  He chugged
down the Healing Potion and felt refreshed.  He walked over to the pool of brown ooze and scooped up as much as he could into the empty vial.  He sealed the vial and placed it into his backpack.

"
I want to go in the room that would have originally been on our left when we first came in," said Nemeth.  "So we just have to go straight across once we open this door.  Alright, let's keep going!"

Nemeth made his way to the door, opened it and headed back into the previous room. 
Nemeth and Jaida made their way across the room and opened the door.  In this somewhat thin corridor, there were dozens of wooden spears of varying lengths moving in and out of the walls.  None of them were long enough to penetrate Nemeth's flesh as long as he stood in the center of the room and walked slowly along a narrow path that was cut into the tall grass.  The path ahead appeared to lead to another treasure chest.  Nemeth took a couple of steps forward and the ground below him started to move.  Nemeth got down on one knee to avoid going completely off balance.  He continued on the path on one knee.  The movement along the pathway brought him dangerously close to the spears that were moving in and out of the walls.  Nemeth swung wildly with his sword at the spears on the walls breaking the ends off most of them.  At the end of the path, Nemeth reached the treasure chest.

"I made it Jaida!" exclaimed Nemeth.  "I can't wait to see what's in here!"

"Master, watch out!" shouted Jaida.  "Look above you!"

As
Nemeth was about to open the treasure chest, vines from the ceiling swooped down and wrapped themselves around his legs.  Nemeth was dragged upside down to the ceiling by the vines.  Nemeth experienced a rush of blood to his head and felt his energy being drained from his body from the vines.  He took in a deep breath as he watched the upside down view of the room which had now been littered with broken spears.  He tried to break the grasp of the vines by stretching, wiggling and kicking his legs, but it was to no avail.  Nemeth decided he had no other choice than to use his sword to cut the vines and hopefully not break his neck on the way down.  Nemeth sliced his sword at the vines.  The slice was strong enough to free one of his legs.  He performed a sit-up and sliced again at the vines with his sword.  This time he was completely free from the grasp of the vines and he fell down to the ground landing hard on his tailbone.  The pain from the fall was intense but was soon forgotten when Nemeth turned towards the treasure chest and opened it.  Inside the treasure chest was a wooden bow and a quiver of 25 wooden arrows!  Nemeth smiled with excitement and put his newly found items into his backpack.

"This is an excellent find Jaida!" shouted Nemeth with great pleasure.  "I hope that I
still have what it takes to shoot with a bow and arrow.  I haven't done any archery training in over a year."

Jaida floated in front of Nemeth.

"You have yet to come across a challenge that you haven't overcome," replied Jaida.  "I'm sure you will be great with a bow and arrow if the time comes that you need to use it."

Nemeth nodded
in agreement and smiled at Jaida.

"Ok, let's backtrack to the other room!" exclaimed Nemeth.
  "The final door was in the center, so it should now be on our left."