Authors: Sebastien Blue
The guards have to feed these things and the wolf is obviously here to offer some protection. These creatures are hard enough to find in the first place, never mind having to round one up. Should it escape, they would use the wolf to track it I think, and the wolf would alert the guard outside if it got loose,” replied Catalyst.
“
So, the Gallows –
not so bad, huh?” asked Natalia throwing his lie in his face.
“
You know, Natalia, I thought I was going to have to dig through a lot more than this wall to find you. What happened? How did you get here?” asked Catalyst, changing the subject and curious to know.
“
I leaned up against the wall to fix my shoe. The next thing I know I'm sitting on my butt in a room with almost no light at all and then I found a puzzle, solved it, and crawled through a tunnel here. By the way, you have some bugs in your hair,” replied Natalia brushing away what she put there.
“
A puzzle –
what kind of puzzle?” asked Catalyst.
“
Take this crystal back there and you can see for yourself, but don't try and solve the puzzle because I don't think you'll get it. The answer is 777+,” replied Natalia, smiling with girl power.
“
Well I guess we'll never know now, will we?” was all Catalyst could say.
“
Come on, Natalia, let's get out of here,” said Catalyst and took her by the hand.
Stepping back out into the hallway of the Gallows, the wolf followed only to run down the hall and disappear into a vent of sorts, big enough only for him.
“
That was strange. Why do you think he left?” asked Natalia.
“
He's done his job, so not much reason for him to be here I guess,” replied Catalyst.
As they walked down the hall a guard came into sight and it was then that Catalyst noticed just how eerily quiet it had been. Since he had been in search of Natalia he didn’t know when the place turned silent.
“
Do you hear that?” asked Catalyst.
“
Hear what?” replied Natalia.
“
Nothing and that's just it –
it's way too quiet in here,” replied Catalyst.
“
Nice to see you again, Krusnik,” said the guard as they reached him.
“
And you too,” replied Catalyst, sniffing the air.
With a look on her face that screamed,
“What are you doing?”
Natalia just stood looking at Catalyst.
“
Look, he's the only Basajaunak that I've ever met that insists on bathing everyday. He doesn't stink,” replied Catalyst, giving Natalia the impression his answer was more an invitation. With an expressionless face Natalia just stood there in refusal.
“
Ha ha!” laughed the Basajaunak, seeing Catalyst had no idea what he'd just done.
“
So, why is it so quiet in here?” asked Catalyst once the guard had stopped laughing.
“
After that creepy old Bailey escaped, seems almost everyone else in here thought they could as well, and since the only real way out of here is through us guards and then the gates, they must have thought Bailey went through the roof and I suppose they tried to follow him, and we all know what going up there gets you, and that was pretty much the end of the populace in these two sections, but don't tell Keft, okay? We're going to blame it on that new guard you just passed –
he's such a whorble,” replied the guard.
“
Whorble, what's that?” asked Natalia.
“
Nothing really, but you can tell by the tone of voice it's insulting,” replied the guard.
“
Forget the guard, who's Bailey?” asked Catalyst, almost drooling with excitement.
“
Bailey? He's a dirty, vile, filthy, rotten, evil old Elf that went mad and if there are any meaner I've never met them,” replied the guard.
“
I think we have,” said Natalia and Catalyst at the same time.
“
He's tried to capture and cook us more than once, but we were too much for him and we kept getting away,” said Natalia proudly.
“
Yeah, barely got away,” said Catalyst, being realistic.
“
By an inch or a mile, Catalyst, I don't see the difference, away is away!” said Natalia overruling his attempt to crush her.
“
No arguing with that logic, Krusnik,” said the guard, almost as proud of Natalia as she was.
“
I guess not,” replied Catalyst, at a loss for words.
“
By the way, your Morph is dead,” said Catalyst, letting the guard know he would not have to feed it any more.
“
I know, I heard,” said the guard, pointing to his ears that were as big as his head.
“
You don't miss much with those, do you?” said Catalyst bugging the huge Basajaunak.
“
If you heard, why didn't you come and help me?” asked Natalia, stunned by his lack of concern.
“
That's what the wolf is for,” replied the guard simply.
“
Besides I have my duties here, although I admit there's not much to do as of late. Nope, this place is pretty empty now, and speaking of empty, best you two be on your way,” said the guard in a bored tone of voice as he opened the door for them and pushed them both through.
As Natalia and Catalyst walked round the circle hallway from one corridor to the next they walked without incident, easily making their way past the small but annoying traps.
“
Where are all these shops you told me were here, Catalyst?” asked Natalia.
“
Well, it's more like
a
shop and it's more of a stand than it is a shop,” laughed Catalyst.
“
Why not just tell me that? I would still have come in here with you,” said Natalia shaking her head.
“
I don't know,” smiled Catalyst.
#
On the outside of the Gallows stood Bailey. Knowing he couldn't go through the gate for fear of being caught, he had crept around the wall looking for the very spot he crawled out of the night the Clique set him free. When he found it, he got down on his knees and started to dig out the same tunnel.
“
I can't believe I'm breaking into this place,”
mumbled the Elf as he recalled every single reason for his hatred of it.
As he dug underneath the Gallows, passing the room Natalia had been locked in and into his old cell, Bailey cursed Natalia’s and Catalyst’s names a thousand times.
“
Those rotten little brats, had she not hit me with that axe I could have taken on everyone in this place and had my revenge on them for what they've done to me. Now I have to dig like an animal. I'll get them, I'll get them, I'll kill them, I'll cook them, I'll eat them both!” screamed and slobbered the vile old Elf into the air.
Realizing what he had done, Bailey quickly shut his mouth and looked around for any guards that might have heard him. No one was in sight, so Bailey continued to rage as he dug his way through to his old cell.
“
No one knows this place like I do. I swear there'll be no escape,”
mumbled the old Elf as he lifted the rock that lay between him and his cell.
Stepping silently to the door, the old Elf slipped open the steel plate that covered the barred window. He listened hard for a moment and hearing nothing, reached through with his right hand and slipped his finger tip into the lock, forcing the turn as hard as he could. The lock opened.
He pulled his hand back, leaving his whole nail and half his fingertip in the lock. The Elf just smiled at the wound and gave the pus and blood a lick just to taste his success.
“
It'll be worth it,” whispered the Elf to his finger as he headed across the hall to the opening Natalia had fallen through.
With a crooked push of a brick, the Elf stepped into the room and pushed the symbols for 777, grabbed the +, shoved it into place and waited for the wolf to come through the crawl space, ready to beat it to death.
With no wolf, and no wonder, the Elf continued to make his way through to the next room.
Crawling from the tunnel and seeing the Morph lying there dead, the Elf just grinned. He had never liked those creatures anyway. Natalia’s perfume was no longer being drowned out by the stench from the tunnel, so the Elf knew he was right behind them.
Smiling at the hole in the wall, the Elf walked to the cell door and peeked through the small window. He saw the shadow of the guard and knew he couldn't go that way. Knowing that the third guard would be at the far end of the next hallway, he quietly headed for the hole in the wall and took another look at the Morph.
“
Far be it from me to waste a good meal,” mumbled the Elf as he walked over to indulge himself in some fresh meat while Natalia and Catalyst moved a little further down the halls.
When he had had his fill, the Elf stepped through the hole and looked through the window. He could see no one so he gently, slowly opened the door and slipped across the hall unnoticed. He picked up a piece of old wood and threw it into the cell he had just left, hitting a table that crashed into a pile of old broken metal, then he closed the door of the cell door he was standing in and diving under a filthy old mattress. He knew the guard would be there any second and not being in any condition to take him on, Bailey could only hide.
Lying under the pile of rotting filth the old Elf felt humiliated. He had once been a great Elf and was now reduced to cowering. There was nothing he could do about it so he just lay there in shame, waiting for the guard to do his job.
The guard took a good look through the window and, satisfied that the sound he had heard came from the room Catalyst had made a mess of, the guard returned to his post.
Creeping out from underneath the mattress, the Elf gently moved a chair underneath a hole left by the last guest, happy he didn't have to dig a hole through the ceiling himself.
Poking his head through the hole, he hoped that with the death of whoever it was that last lived there, the Acquittals would now be gone.
Finding himself surrounded by spark bugs glowing hard, Bailey soon heard the hissing of the Acquittals. He fell off the chair and crashed into the pile of rot and garbage, sending everything everywhere in the room. Knowing he was now caught, the Elf made a dash for the door and across the hall.
“
Bailey!” yelled the guard.
Jumping through the hole in the wall, hitting the cobble trip switch and diving back into the crawl space, pulling the door closed behind him, the Elf headed back to the room Natalia had found herself trapped in.
With the sound of the guard’s yelling and only one of them knowing what was going on, and fighting for control of the lock as they both tried to open the door, the Elf had time enough to get to the room. By throwing another trip brick, Bailey was now standing in the hall outside his old cell.
“
Bailey, Bailey,” yelled the second and third guards as they sounded an alarm alerting Keft, who was on the other side of the door from where the Elf was standing.
Fighting to open his cell door and with three guards on their way, Bailey kicked the door open, slammed it behind him, shoved an old chair underneath a freshly punched hole, picked up the rock to his tunnel and jumped in feet first, slamming it into place just as Keft’s foot kicked open the cell door.
Back outside, Bailey threw enough dirt back into the hole to block sunshine from getting through any cracks that might be there as he listened to the three guards yelling, “Bailey, you dirty rotten good for nothing, wait till we find you!”
Knowing there was only one reason Natalia and Catalyst would want to go through the Gallows, the old Elf ran for the sheer cliff knowing this was his only hope of catching up to them and saving his life.
“
If I can't get you there, I'll get you out here where no one can help you,” laughed the Elf, running for the cliff.
With guards rushing by them from what seemed like every section, Natalia and Catalyst tried asking what was going on, but got no answer. They walked on without worrying, moving through the never-ending circle.
“
How much further till we get to this stand, Catalyst?” asked Natalia, making fun of him.
“
Well we're almost finished walking this place, so I would think about five minutes,” replied Catalyst without caring what she thought. She was safe and that's all that mattered.
As they went out through the last door there stood the only shopkeeper in all the Gallows. She was dressed from head to toe in a swirled striped fur suit with matching hat, which made Natalia burst out laughing.
“
You’re the only thing I've seen in this whole place that doesn't belong!” laughed Natalia as she had never laughed before.
“
What do you mean by that?” asked the woman, laughing right along with her.
“
Well look at you. You look so jolly and happy you’re like a candy cane. It's the last place I would expect to see anyone dressed like you. You stick right out,” laughed Natalia as she tried to bring herself under control.
“
Well if you don't stand out in a crowd how's anyone supposed to see you? Because all you've really done is blend in,” laughed the woman as she dug her hands into her apron and pulled out two fistfuls of gold coins.