"C'mon, do you want to die in this sewer!" Jess yelled back at Henn while running away.
Henn turned to see Jess's back, "What do you mean..."
That's when he heard a splash from behind him. He turned around quickly and saw another pink creature on the floor next to the bars, that's when another hopped through the bars. It jumped from the pitch-black abyss landing next to the other two with a splash.
Then, all at once, their slits filled with teeth opened and they began to bark.
"Argh, argh, argh...argh argh..." They were obnoxiously loud and Henn found that they were getting louder. That's when he noticed that more than three barks were sounding off, then he started hearing slash after splash. Without thinking, Henn began running towards the door which he now noticed was being held opened by Jess.
Suddenly Henn heard a series of hundreds of splashes getting closer to him. Though he was scared he felt that it would be better to know what was chasing him, so he turned around; however, he immediately regretted it. What he saw behind him was an uncountable amount of teeth chasing him. Only two feet, at most, separated him from the jumping teeth.
Luckily, Jess was ready to close the door even before Henn was through, so as soon as a terrified Henn jumped through the door Jess slammed it shut. The sudden slamming of the door caused a multitude of the creatures to slam into it.
"What the hell was that?!" Henn yelled angrily, "what the hell were those things?!"
"Seriously, you've never seen a brocata before?" Jess asked as if it were impossible.
Henn shook his head.
"On my kanta, where did you live all this time, paradise?"
Henn scoffed at the joke; however, when he did pain shot through his entire body causing his light to disappear. He then sat down slowly against a brick wall near the door and willed another tiny sun into his hand. In order to find out whether anything was broken Henn decided to lift his white shirt that now had a mass of blood pooled on his left side.
"What the..." Jess yelled at the sight of Henn's body. His body was littered with bruises from his fight days ago with The Crustacean. Then there were more recent injuries like a rib that was poking out from his side, and an imprint on his chest that was obviously from the wooden plank Jess had hit him with.
"How...how did you get all these?" Jess asked Henn shocked from the sight of his mangled body. Jess could tell that most of the injuries were from before she met him.
"I am a knight you know... Ahh!" Henn yelled in pain after touching the rib that was pointing out of his body.
Jess then ran over to Henn and crouched down in front of him. Then, she cupped her hands over his rib and closed her eyes. That's when a blinding ray of light shined through her hands and then disappeared when she raised her hands Henn noticed that he was in slightly less pain than before. He looked down and saw that his rib was no longer piercing out of his skin.
"How do you know magic?" Henn asked curiously.
"What, no thank you?" Jess said sharply, her stare hurting Henn almost as much as his bruises.
"I'm sorry," Henn replied, "thank you for healing me. But, I still want to know how you did it."
"You really are strange, I thought that everyone had at least heard stories about elves."
"Maybe I've just forgotten. Why don't you remind me?"
"Fine then, I'll tell you about elves. Long ago we elves ruled over the land of Kishara, back then we were much larger in number. However, soon humans began to rise up and take over our lands until eventually, all that was left were a few scattered elven settlements here and there," Jess explained, "as for the magic all else have always had a natural affinity for healing magic. What I can do is basically the bare minimum."
"Well, thanks to your bare minimum I didn't die from that wound," Henn said thankfully.
"I am amazing aren't I?" Jess replied with a slight laugh.
"Damn right you are," Henn agreed.
Jess then stood up from her crouched position and stared into a dark tunnel that led away from the door. "We better get going," she said before helping Henn off the ground and supported his body by wrapping his right arm which held the tiny sun around her shoulders.
As they walked an aura surrounded them. If someone were to get close enough to them to feel this aura they would most likely be able to tell that these two obviously a pair of friends who could never be separated. In the distance, they could both see a giant wooden door.
"We're almost out Henn."
"I know I see the door."
As they got closer to the door Henn noticed a bright light shining in through the cracks. Sunlight, it was sunlight. As Jess opened the door Henn couldn't help but feel a sense of achievement. He had made it through such a terrible situation, and he had saved someone just like he always wanted to. He was a hero. He was a knight.
After the door opened Henn was amazed. His eyes now saw a giant grass plain surrounded by trees that reminded him of blossoming peach trees. White petals flew with a slight breeze as an elf woman and a human man emerged from a dark doorway hidden within a hill.
As they walked away from the door and over the beautiful white petals and bright green grass Jess spoke.
"Thank you, sir Henn," she said with relief. Hearing her say this Henn looked at her face and saw tears, then he looked away.
"All I did was get beaten up and get us chased by..." Henn's sentence was cut off by the sound of whistling and a large thump. Then Jess went limp and fell.
She was now on the ground gasping with an arrow sticking out of her head. Henn unsure of what was happening knelt and held on to Jess not knowing what to do. Then he looked towards the doorway in the hill and saw four lizardmen standing in a line.
From left to right two light green ones were both about the same size that the warlock was, then there was a purple one who was taller than all of them, and finally, there was a dark green one that was shorter than the rest but not by much. The short one held the bow.
"Didn't I say you would pay with your kanta," the purple one said calmly.
Henn was horrified. After all, he had been through was he destined to die here. That's when he looked down at Jess who was gasping for air. Unsure what to do Henn closed his eyes. It was then that he heard Jess say a word between gasps.
"Ma..gi...mag...magic..."
Magic! Henn remembered then that magic could be used by understanding the world and he understood how people healed naturally. Henn opened his eyes and pulled the arrow out of Jess's head and placed his hand over the wound then closed his eyes, and started to imagine the cells in her head multiplying.
He imagined her cells becoming tissue and that tissue becoming her brain, and then minerals becoming bone and that bone becoming her skull. When he opened his eyes he saw that Jess's breathing had steadied and that she was asleep. Then he lifted his hand and saw that there was no longer a wound where the arrow used to be.
Henn had healed her. He had saved her. Henn let out a sigh of relief, but it soon became clear that he had done it too early.
"You must be the one who killed my warlock," the voice of the large purple lizardman announced, "and here I was trying to kill the elf because I thought it was her."
Henn looked up from Jess's sleeping body and saw the four lizardmen. Three of them looked astonished, but the biggest one looked more annoyed than anything. Henn took the knife out of Jess's holster once again, then he stood up and stepped in front of Jess defensively.
"You think you can go against all four of us," The purple lizardman said.
Henn looked down at the blade in his hand and closed his eyes. He imagined the molecules of the metal vibrating and heating up. When Henn opened his eyes the blade was glowing bright orange, then he looked up at the lizardmen's uncertain faces.
"Do you think you can take me on with just the four of you."