Gareth and th Lost Island (20 page)

“You’ve lost me,” Tralnis muttered.

Without turning around Gareth pointed at the panels.
“The center panels each deal with food. The rune for ‘food’ looks
like a person on their hands and knees with another person standing
on them. A third person is standing up straight next to them. If I
get down on all fours I can press the lower stone. Elizabeth can
stand on my back and press the stone in the ceiling. Henry can
reach up and press the last stone,” he suggested.

Elizabeth looked over at Henry and Tralnis and rolled
her eyes. She walked over to stand next to the shoulder height
stone while Tralnis walked over to the lower stone. Henry leapt up
to the airshaft by first jumping onto the wall nearest him and
immediately launching off of the wall at an angle. He grabbed the
edge, and found he could easily reach the stone set in the ceiling.
After Tralnis counted to three, they each pressed their respective
stone. The stones slid into the walls, while a loud click could be
heard from the metal doors. Now unlocked, the doors swung open
smoothly, even after thousands of years of being shut.

“Or… that works too,” Gareth admitted.

The doors opened up onto a large circular chamber. A
black stone altar, that seemed to drink in the light from their
rune tubes, sat in the middle, just like at the underwater temple.
Beams of light swung across the room as the explorers searched for
any skeletons. They all relaxed a bit when they saw the floor was
free of any debris, bones included.

After making it half-way to the altar, the metal
doors slammed shut with an ominous reverberating clang. “I’ve got a
bad feeling about this,” Tralnis muttered under his breath.

The sound of stone sliding along stone filled the
large circular chamber. Six sections of the wall, spaced evenly
around the outside of the room, slowly lowered to reveal six small
antechambers. Each antechamber was occupied by an angry skeleton.
Five of the skeletons were human in size and shape. They held
short, bronze swords in their dead hands. The sixth skeleton was
that of a very large feline.

“Henry, my hammer,” Tralnis ordered. His faithful
Chim butler reached both of his long arms into his backpack, and
pulled out Tralnis’ war hammer as well as his own trusty frying
pan. Tralnis took his hammer from Henry, and ran his thumb along
the top of the cold iron weapon. The family weapon had a handle
made of treated Silverwood that ended in a leather strap. The head
of the hammer had a rounded end on one side and three spikes on the
other. Tralnis slid his hand through the strap, and held the
crushing instrument at the ready.

After Tralnis readied his weapon, the huge feline
skeleton leapt into the middle of its living prey, splitting them
into two groups. Gareth and Henry scrambled away to the left, while
Tralnis and Elizabeth jumped to the right. Unfortunately for the
cat skeleton, the lack of footpads long since turned to dust had it
skidding across the stone on its bones and claws. As it slid by,
Tralnis stared at it with glee.

“That’s the skeleton of a Northern Sabercat. They’ve
been extinct since the Second Great Apocalypse. No one has ever
found a complete skeleton of one before,” Tralnis exclaimed
happily. Sensing the others were giving him strange looks, he
admitted, “I’m an amateur paleontologist.”

“Wonderful, I’m very happy for you,” Elizabeth said
sarcastically. “Any suggestions on how to handle a cat that’s only
slightly smaller than pony?”

Tralnis shrugged his shoulders. “Depends, anyone
happen to have a bloody huge ball of yarn with them?” he joked.

“Gods! I’m going to be killed next to a comedian,”
Elizabeth moaned.

Henry adjusted his grip on “Mr. Smashy”, and spread
his feet slightly more apart to balance his weight evenly. His open
lipped smile, combined with his primal growl, was a clear challenge
to the undead warriors who approached them. Being smarter than the
average bit of magically held together bones, the three skeletons
spaced themselves out so they could only be attacked one at a
time.

Gareth let his hand slip down and grasp the strange
black rod that had been so effective against the undersea
skeletons. The rod had shifted as they had scrambled away from the
skeletal cat, and refused to slip free of the holster. He reached
over with his other hand, and pulled as hard as he could. The force
of his pull when he finally freed the rod caused Gareth to spin
around, and stumble right into the path of one of Henry’s practice
swings. A loud clang echoed through the altar room as Gareth’s eyes
slid back in his head. He fell to the ground in a heap as his
consciousness was forcefully evicted by Mr. Smashy.

All motion stopped as everyone, both alive and dead,
stopped to look at where the terrible noise had come from. As the
occupants of the other half of the room turned, Henry quickly hid
the frying pan behind his back, and tried to look innocent.

“Gareth!” Tralnis yelled, when he saw his son lying
on the floor. Tapping his hammer against his hand, he glared at the
skeletons standing around Henry. “Which of you bastards did that to
my son?!” he demanded, as he slowly approached them.

The skeletons looked from Gareth, to Henry, and then
to Tralnis. Seeing an angry Dwarf with a vicious looking war hammer
stalking towards them, the skeletons decided the truth would be
their best option. As one, they each raised a bony hand to point an
accusing finger at Henry. For his part, Henry shrugged his
shoulders as if to say he didn’t know what happened.
Misinterpreting the skeletons gesture as saying Henry was their
next victim, Tralnis shouted a war cry, and ran towards them.

Tralnis’ approach was halted as he was struck full
force by the charging feline skeleton. The force of the blow caused
both of them to slide several feet along the floor. While on his
back, Tralnis managed to wedge the head of his hammer between the
six inch long fangs trying to remove his head.

Angry at being tattled on, Henry leapt towards the
nearest skeleton. With a swing that started in his hips and ended
in his strong arms, he introduced “Mr. Smashy” to the side of the
skeleton’s skull. The blow staggered the skeleton, and spun the
skull around so it was facing backwards compared to the rest of its
body. With calm ease, the skeleton reached up, and slowly turned
its skull around to face the right way. When everything was back to
normal, the skeleton held up one bony finger, and waved it back and
forth as if shaming a child. Henry gulped, and took a step back to
better protect his fallen friend.

Captain Morgana had traveled far and wide across the
face of Hadronus. She had spent many a drunken night near a warm
fire speaking with old warriors around a pint of ale. They had
spoken of fighting various monsters and fiends. One thing their
stories all had in common was, that apart from vampires, the best
way to deal with the undead was to interrupt how the head
communicated with the rest of the body. Drawing upon this
knowledge, she confidently drew her pistol, took careful aim, and
shot the skeleton nearest her square in the face.

The skeleton reeled its head back from the gunshot
before starting to shake it from side to side. The shaking grew
more violent, with the skeleton adding in strikes to the side of
its skull with one hand. Eventually, the shaking stopped and the
skeleton stuck one bony finger into the cavity that used be its
nose. With a flick, the skeleton dislodged the lead boogie and let
it fall to the floor. “Oh come on, that’s dragonshit! I shot you!”
Elizabeth pouted. The skeleton replied by rubbing its fists under
its hollow eye sockets as if it were crying like a baby.

Tralnis was glad the claws on the skeletal feline
were less sharp than its teeth. While they managed to draw blood
from his shoulders, the numerous cuts were rather shallow. Deciding
he had enough of the dried up pussycat, Tralnis arched his back,
and kicked upwards with his legs. The deceased Northern Sabercat
flew through the air to crash down on the black stone altar. The
magic of the altar overloaded the magic of the rune engraved at the
base of the cat’s skull. The magical overload caused the skeleton’s
many bones to separate and fall to the ground.

Elizabeth spun out of the way as one of the skeletons
tried to skewer her with its short sword. She swung her mechanical
arm, and struck the skeleton right under its chin. Momentum caused
the skeleton’s feet to swing upward as her metal arm acted as
fulcrum. While she clotheslined one skeleton, she decided to take
another try at shooting one of the other skeletons in the head. Of
the skeletons attacking Henry, one had its back turned towards her.
Using the purple rune at the base of its skull as a target,
Elizabeth fired another shot. The bullet ripped through the rune,
causing a flash of brilliant purple light. With the magic animating
it suddenly gone, the skeleton fell to pieces. Throwing all of her
weight into it, Elizabeth slammed her foot between the upper and
lower jaws of the skeleton she had knocked over. Her boot heel
shattered the bone at the base of the skull where the rune was
engraved. Like the other skeleton, this one collapsed as the rune
was destroyed.

“Hit the rune!” Elizabeth ordered.

With a shrug, Henry swung his favorite frying pan up
and through the throat of a skeleton. “Mr Smashy” rocketed out the
back side of the skeleton’s neck, shattering the bone around the
rune. The deactivated skeleton fell apart, with the remaining bit
of the skull bouncing on the floor. Not wasting an opportunity,
Henry snatched up the broken skull, and with a loud hoot, threw it
with all of his might at a skeleton attempting to sneak up on
Tralnis.

Acting on instinct, the skeleton dropped its bronze
sword, and caught the skull of its comrade. It paused to look down,
and reflect on all the good times they had playing charades over
the thousands of years that they had been trapped in the temple.
The skeleton hardly noticed as Tralnis’ war hammer struck its
ribcage, throwing it into the altar to end its enslavement.

Seeing the tide of battle crash against his side, the
remaining skeleton waved its bronze sword over its head, and ran
towards Gareth. It felt that if it was finally time to go to the
great beyond, it was taking at least one of the fleshies with it.
The skeleton was so intent on killing the helpless Gareth, it
didn’t notice the black rod on the ground. As soon as the
skeleton’s foot hit the mysterious rod, the bones in its foot lost
their cohesiveness. The skeleton wobbled on one leg and then fell
to the ground. As the skeleton fell, it managed to accidently shove
its own sword through the base of its skull, giving a perfect
example of why parents throughout the multiverses are always
warning their children not to run with sharp objects.

While the other living occupants of the room were
catching their breath, Gareth swam back to consciousness. He sat
up, and rubbed his aching forehead. Seeing his friends panting, and
the room full of individual bones, he inquired, “What did I
miss?”

By the time they made it out of the jungle temple,
Gareth was managing to see straight, and walk on his own.
 Thanks to some foul tasting herbs Tralnis had forced him to
swallow, Gareth’s blinding headache had also receded quite a bit.
 The fresh air above ground helped also helped immensely.
 Even though he was feeling better by the moment, Gareth was
quite content to let Henry lead the way back to the Glorious
Dawn.

After walking several hundred yards, Gareth cocked
his head to one side and frowned.  He couldn’t tell if the
buzzing in his ears was coming from the jungle, or a byproduct of
the blow to the head had received.  He stopped to listen, and
heard the buzzing getting louder and louder.  “Does anyone
else hear a buzzing noise?” he asked.

Tralnis stopped as well, and cupped his ear with his
hand.  He dropped his hand suddenly, and started to run down
the faint game trail they were following.  “Mongitos! RUN!” he
ordered. The other three quickly raced after him as the buzzing
became a deafening drone.  The first pigeon sized mosquito
burst through the underbrush, and changed direction to follow the
four lunch specials.  The rest of the swarm wasn’t far behind
the scout.

“I thought you said they were the size of robins?!”
Gareth yelled at Tralnis as they ran.

“We seem to have discovered a new, larger species.
 If we live through this, I’ll see about naming them after
you,” Tralnis offered before vaulting over a large root sticking
out above the ground.

Henry pulled out “Mr. Smashy”, and swatted a mongito
that was about to bite Tralnis.  The Chim nearly gagged at the
sight of the disgusting goo that smeared over the bottom of the pan
when he hit the giant bug.  A quick backhand stroke knocked a
second mongito into a tree.

Gareth slowed, and started to fall behind the others
while he did some quick calculations in his head.  Feeling he
had about a 50/50 chance of pulling off what he planned, Gareth
stopped and dug around in his pockets.

Tralnis saw him stop out of the corner of his eye
and yelled, “Gareth, don’t stop!  The lawyers, I mean blood
sucking bastards, are almost on top of you!” he warned.

Gareth replied with only two words, “Unholy
Winds!”

“Oh bugger,” Tralnis swore with feeling. “Captain…
Henry, run faster. Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to
be caught up in the magic blast Gareth is going to unleash!” The
other two nodded, and tried to run even faster.

Gareth’s fingers slipped around the ancient talisman
in his pocket, and found the small twine knot he had tied around
one end of it. He reoriented the talisman in his palm to make sure
the right side was up before rubbing his thumb across the stone.
With a quick muttered activation word, a visible ripple of magic
started at Gareth, and then flowed outward, just as the leading
edge of the mongito swarm reached him.