The Orphan Wars (Book One) (17 page)

Nemeth and Jaida made their way into the previou
s room.  Nemeth opened the third and final door in that particular area and they proceeded to enter into the next room.  This floor was covered with knee-high grass and dozens of large colorful mushrooms.  A giant colorful mushroom was positioned in the center of the room.  Each mushroom emitted a mild light from their centers.  Large spider webs were in each corner of the room.  The walls of the room had pictures of various animals carved into them.  At the far end of the room was a wooden door.  Nemeth dodged around each of the mushrooms and made his way to the wooden door.  He tried to open the door, but the door was locked.

"Another locked door!" exclaimed Nemeth.  "I'm sick of locked doors!  I'm going to smash this one in!"

Nemeth backed up about 10 paces.  He charged the door and thrust his shoulder into it.  The door didn't budge and Nemeth wound up with only a hurt shoulder and more frustration.  Jaida floated high above the giant mushroom in the center of the room.

"Look up here!" yelled Jaida.  "I'm above the giant mushroom.  There's a key
suspended from a vine here.  I bet you this is the key that opens that door!"

"I'
m not going to be able to reach that key with my sword," replied Nemeth.  "It looks like I'm going to have to use that bow sooner than I thought."

Nemeth took out his wooden bow and quiver of arrows that he found earlier in the temple.
  He placed an arrow on the string of his bow and aimed for the vine.  He pulled back on the string and released.  The arrow narrowly missed the vine and wound up hitting the wall and breaking apart.  Nemeth now had 24 arrows left in his quiver.

"Alright, I'm a bit rusty," said Nemeth with disappointment.
  "I wasn't trained in archery as my primary skill so give me a break!"

"
I didn't say anything bad about you," replied Jaida.  "You're beating yourself up again without a valid reason.  I can help you here.  Right now it's like you're shooting into the darkness.  I'm going to position myself exactly in the center of the vine to create more light.  Shoot at the center of me and you should penetrate the vine.  You can't hurt me with a shot from a wooden arrow.  I'm transparent and pretty much invulnerable remember?"

"
Round two, here I go!" exclaimed Nemeth.

Nemeth readied his bow again.
  23 arrows were left in his quiver.  He aimed for the center of Jaida.  He pulled back hard on the string and released.  The arrow soared through the air and pierced the vine causing the key to drop down onto the giant mushroom below.  The key sank into the mushroom and out of sight.  Nemeth put his bow and arrows away.  He then drew his sword and charged at the giant mushroom.

"No, wait!" shouted Jaida.  "Don't do that!"

It was too late though.  Nemeth had already sliced through the base of the giant mushroom causing it to fall over.  Its once colorful exterior was now dark grey and began to emit a noxious gas into the air.  Nemeth inhaled some of this noxious gas causing him to feel dizzy and nauseous.  He reached inside the mushroom in search of the key.  After fumbling around inside the mushroom for a while he managed to find the key and grabbed it out of the mushroom.  The dozens of other smaller mushrooms also turned to dark grey and began to emit a noxious gas into the air.  Nemeth was unable to breathe anything but the noxious gases while crawling on his hands and knees across the grass toward the door.

"You've got to hurry!" yelled Jaida.  "This whole room is going to be filled
from top to bottom with the gas from the mushrooms!  You've made it too far to die now!"

Nemeth continued to crawl on his hands and knees towards the door.
  He felt more and more enfeebled with each passing second.  He felt like he was going to pass out.  Nemeth scratched his fingernails against the wooden door.  With his last bit of strength, he placed the key in the lock and opened the door.  He could feel fresh air coming from the next room, which he breathed in deeply.  He crawled into the next room, got to his feet and then slammed the door shut behind him.  Nemeth bent over with his hands on his knees and continued to breathe in the fresh air.  His dizziness and nausea had been remedied and most importantly he was still alive.

"I forgot to tell you not to hurt any of the mushrooms," said Jaida.  "Their way of defending themselves is to emit toxic gas."

"I'll take the blame for that one," replied Nemeth.  "I was careless…"

Nemeth looked ahead and saw that the room he was in was quite large. 
In fact, this was by far the largest room in the temple so far.  In the center of the room was a massive door with four large locks on it.  Nemeth and Jaida proceeded to make their way towards the door, when all of a sudden two large thorn-covered bushes magically appeared about 10 feet from them.  Behind the bushes, a creature with the body of a lizard and the arms of a bear appeared.  Nemeth drew his sword and shield.  The bushes simultaneously spewed an array of thorns in the direction of Nemeth.  He managed to deflect most of them with his shield.  His chain mail armor was not able to be pierced by the thorns either.  A few of the thorns had stuck into his hands and face causing some mild discomfort.

"Jaida, you know the deal!" shouted Nemeth.  "
Tell me exactly what I am dealing with here!"

"I'm gathering the information now master," replied Jaida.
  "Please wait just a few moments."

Nemeth decided not to wait and instead
charged after the rightmost bush preparing to slash it with his sword.  The part bear, part lizard creature jumped at Nemeth and swung its tail at him.  The tail whipped Nemeth hard across both of his thighs causing him to flip over and onto his back.

"The creature that just attacked you is called a
Pogonus," informed Jaida.  "The Pogonus has an overall threat score of 32,000 out of a possible 1,000,000 points.  The overall threat level to you is fairly low.  A single thorned bush is called a Berberis.  A Berberis spits out numerous thorns if you get close enough to it.  A single Berberis has an overall threat score of 9,250 out of a possible 1,000,000 points.  The overall threat level to you is low."

Nemeth rubbed his thighs and got back to a standing position.  He
ran back near the door where he entered from.  He put his sword and shield away and began removing the thorns from his hands and face.  He took out his bow and quiver of arrows.  As he tried to ready his bow, the Pogonus dashed towards him.  The Pogonus knocked the bow out of his hand with its tail causing it to tumble across the room.  Nemeth sat down and crossed his arms over his face in defense.  The Pogonus lifted Nemeth into the air with its claws and threw him forcefully toward the far wall across the room.  Nemeth repelled himself off of the wall with his right foot, spun around towards the Pogonus and landed safely on the ground.  He drew his sword and cautiously walked over to the Pogonus.  The Pogonus swung its tail at Nemeth, but he hopped over it.  The Pogonus once again swung its tail at Nemeth from the opposite direction, but he slid into the tail and wrapped both of his legs around it.  The Pogonus struggled to move its tail now that Nemeth had a tight hold on it.  Nemeth performed a fierce diagonal slash on the monster's tail severing it off of its body.  Surprisingly, no blood, ooze or any other liquid was coming from the monster's body which was disappointing to Nemeth. He put his sword away and released the hold he had on the creature's tail.  He picked up the tail from the ground.  Nemeth swung the tail at the Pogonus slapping it across the face.  He swung the tail at the Pogonus again but this time the creature caught its own severed tail with its claws.  Nemeth let go of the tail and drew his sword.  The Pogonus appeared to be distracted by the tail it was holding.  Nemeth sliced off the Pogonus' right claw with his sword and took several paces backward.  The Pogonus dropped its tail and swung at Nemeth with its left claw causing a gash to open on the right side of Nemeth's face.  The Pogonus swung its left claw at Nemeth once more.  Nemeth ducked the attack and countered by slicing off the left claw of the Pogonus.  Nemeth pressed the handle of his sword against the gash in his own face to stop any additional bleeding.

"
You better not have damaged my beautiful face," said Nemeth.  "You've got no more offensive capabilities.  Your tail and your claws are lying on the ground.  Try picking them up and reattaching them.  You won't be able to.  Try kicking me and I'll break your legs.  Try swinging at me with your clawless arms and I'll snap them in half."

"I don't think this creature can communicate with you," said Jaida.
  "I've noticed you keep talking to these monsters.  You're wasting your breath."

"
I have fun toying around with them," replied Nemeth.  "It makes me feel good inside to mess around with them.  If I want to believe that these monsters know what I'm saying, then so be it.  This is my reality and I control it.  I'm entitled to some fun after the miserable day I've had.  Hell, what am I saying?  It's the next day already and I should be in bed."

Nemeth put his sword away and ran back towards his bow that he lost earlier.  He put the b
ow away and then walked back over to the Pogonus.  Nemeth looked at the Pogonus and saw fear in the monster's eyes.

"
Still not talking?" questioned Nemeth sarcastically.  "I could slice you into even more little pieces with my sword, but I don't want to take the easy route again.  If you can't talk and you can't fight, then I've only got one use for you."

Nemeth gave the Pogonus a swift kick to its chest
, causing it to lean forward.  Nemeth wrapped his arms around the Pogonus' body and locked his hands together tightly.  He rotated the Pogonus so its back was facing the two Berberis.  Nemeth removed the grasp he had from behind the Pogonus' back and began to grasp the beast around its throat.  Nemeth started to push the Pogonus towards the two Berberis.  The Pogonus began to resist by pushing back.  Nemeth was pushed back a couple of steps ultimately Nemeth managed to overpower the creature.  The two Berberis began to continuously spew hundreds of thorns around the room.  Nemeth used the Pogonus as a shield by continuing to push its body toward the rightmost Berberis.  As more and more thorns pierced the backside of the Pogonus' body, the creature became more lethargic.  Inches away from the rightmost Berberis, Nemeth swept both of the Pogonus' legs out from under itself.  The Pogonus fell on top of the Berberis piercing its body with hundreds of additional thorns.  The Pogonus could not handle what was possibly thousands of thorns embedded into its body.  It turned into a plume of green and brown smoke and vanished.  Nemeth did a cartwheel in between the two Berberis plants and then performed a split.  Nemeth promptly drew his sword.  Reaching as far out as possible with his sword, he rotated in a 360 degree motion cutting both Berberis plants at the root. Both Berberis plants withered and died in seconds.  A loud noise came from the direction of the giant door.  Nemeth got back up to his feet and looked at the giant door with great curiosity.

"The lock on the upper left of the door
is now unlocked!" shouted Jaida.  "Only three more to go!"

Nemeth began to lo
ok around the room.  He noticed that there were three grey orbs in the room.  One was near the entrance, another was suspended from the ceiling and the final one was near the giant door across the room.  Nemeth struck the grey orb near the entrance with his sword.  The orb's color changed from grey to bright green.  A loud noise similar to the one earlier came from the direction of the giant door.

"The lock on the upper right of the door is unlocked now!" shouted Jaida.  "All you have to do is strike the other orbs!"

"I'll try and shoot the orb on the ceiling with an arrow," replied Nemeth.  "That's got to be the best way to hit it."

Nemeth took out his bow and quiver of arrows.  He aimed for the black orb on the ceiling and shot an arrow at it. 
22 arrows were left in his quiver.  The black orb on the ceiling turned bright green.  The lock on the bottom left of the giant door unlocked.  Nemeth ran towards the final grey orb, but suddenly the lock on the upper right of the giant door became locked again.  Seconds later, the lock on the bottom left of the giant door become relocked.

"I think you need to move faster," said Jaida.  "If you don't
strike the orbs quickly enough, you won't be able to unlock the remaining three locks."

Nemeth tried to position himself as equidistant as
possible between the three grey orbs.  He readied his bow.  He shot an arrow at the grey orb near the entrance with success.  21 arrows were left in his quiver.  The grey orb turned bright green again and the lock on the upper right of the giant door unlocked.  Nemeth hurried himself when preparing his bow again.  He shot an arrow at the grey orb suspended from the ceiling.  20 arrows were left in his quiver.  The grey orb turned bright green again and the lock on the bottom left of the giant door unlocked.  Unconvinced of the time left to prepare another successful shot with his bow and arrow, Nemeth quickly grabbed a dagger out of his backpack and threw it at the remaining grey orb.  The dagger hit the final grey orb and it began to turn bright green.  The bottom right lock on the giant door unlocked.  The giant door opened outward by itself.  Nemeth picked up his dagger and put it away.  Nemeth and Jaida proceeded into the next room.  The giant door slammed shut behind them.  Nemeth tried to reopen the door but he was unable to even touch the door.  A magical barrier now enveloped the entire door.