Chapter 133
Neutral zone parallelling Republic of Shantu, Continent: Barat, the Year 2038, Planet: Grimoire
It seemed as though several hours passed, but only fifteen minutes ticked away, and a series of whistles drew everyone's attention. Now, Grifton felt his alertness draining away. That was the all-clear. "What in the world happened?" he was confused.
Diego returned to where Grifton sat on the top of the wagon's canvas covering. He'd gotten bored and began patching an area that had grown thin so that anything could and had seeped through during the night.
Diego eyed him with bemusement and shook his head grimly. "Well, what we discovered weren't monsters but the remnants of another caravan that hadn't fared well."
Hmm, Grifton recalled how Firenze resisted leaving his side. Could that have something to do with what happened? "Hey, Jesso, come on out." He tapped the canvas to get Firenze's attention.
"I'm out, what's up?" Firenze listened intently to what Deigo had to say.
"I'll join you to check it out." He frowned. "I think that Grifton should stay here and out of sight."
He suspected a potential for ambush? Now that Grifton thought about it. This whole situation had earmarks of a staged presentation about it. "I think we should post guards around the caravan wagons, on all sides and between them."
Grifton looked around for a moment. "Do you think we could pull the wagons to that hillside?"
Firenze snapped. "No, don't move." He stared at the hillside, his eyes glazed. "Something is waiting inside, just waiting..." Fear washed over his face. "Nothing will remain of our caravan if we go there."
Yikes, that wasn't a good reaction. Grifton sighed. "All right, so where should we go."
Firenze blinked. "Uh, what just happened?" He looked baffled.
"You had a vision." Grifton gestured to a suspiciously clean and innocent-looking hill standing in the middle of the clearing. "That hillside has something hidden inside."
Firenze stared at it and shook his head. "That isn't a hill," he stated. "It is a creature of enormous appetite and power." A sigh escaped him. "It isn't quite sentient," Firenze studied the sight and shook his head uneasily, "It does have enough intelligence to become a very cautious ambush predator."
While informative, it could have been more helpful to Grifton's mind. Just how were they supposed to get rid of it? That's what he wanted to know. Either that or how to avoid attracting its attention was the other option.
"We just need to go around that entire clearing." Firenze seemed to pick up on Grifton's thought pattern. "We're in luck. It is sleeping right now."
Huh, well, that would be good if they could avoid it then. "Fine, let's see if we can make our way around that clearing." Grifton didn't know what else might happen should they awaken that creature, and he wasn't in the mood to find out either.
On the other hand, the warriors might do something stupid just from sheer boredom.
One of the crabbiest warriors approached, and Diego stood beside Grifton's wagon. He nodded politely to Grifton and Firenze before hailing Diego to get his attention. "Hey, Diego, we found an alternate route that should take us completely out of the strike zone of that thing."
He obviously knew what they were dealing with. "I had to knock out a few stupid fools who thought going after it was doable."
Firenze snorted.
Diego sighed.
Grifton chuckled. "I did wonder how many would've tried." He admitted. "I'm not one of them."
The veteran, Orian, smirked. "Yeah, I knew if we took too long to make a decision," He sighed in mock hurt, "That you might've started a betting pool before long to make sure they never tried this again."
Firenze's eyebrows rose. "Wow, now I didn't know he would do this."
Diego laughed. "Uhm, he'll do it to knock sense into the foolish ones." He shrugged. "Usually, one experience is enough to knock the stupid out of them."
Orian sighed and shook his head. "However, this time, there hasn't been an opportunity to make those fools realize just how dangerous this lifestyle is," he shrugged. "This might be the shock they need to receive to get it through their heads."
Firenze shook his head. "What else can be done is to show them just what that creature will do to them." He had a small object in his hands.
Diego and Orian glanced at it and blanched. "So, you've gone against one of them."
"Not personally, but my father and two cousins did." Firenze swallowed hard. "Only one cousin survived long enough to send this to me." Apparent anguish crossed his face when he muttered. "He died shortly after severe poisoning that wasn't treated properly."
Grifton reached down to rest a hand on his shoulder. Firenze squeezed it gently. "Now, maybe this can give them an eyeful to reorient their priorities."
He handed the device to Diego and Orian. "Do what you want with it."
Orian grunted. "I'll return shortly. Maybe this will do the trick."
A few minutes later, Orian smirked. "It worked." He handed the device back to Firenze. "Now, we'll be rerouting to avoid that nasty creature before it awakens."
With that reassurance, the caravan wagons were readied for taking an unknown route. One that would avoid a nasty hazard that could poison and eat them alive just for fun. If the creature was inopportunely awakened at the wrong time.
No sooner had they gotten around the thing and back on track many miles away than an earthshattering roar alerted them to their narrow escape.
"Evidently, it found traces of our caravan that avoided its lethal bite," Grifton commented.
"I just hope it won't come after us." Orian grimaced.
"It won't." Firenze shook his head. "there is no reason for it to chase something already in motion."
"Not only that, but we left behind a distraction for it to play with," Diego shrugged. "It was one of those damn fool warriors." He sighed when Grifton and the others looked at him in shock. "He left intending to awaken and send it after us." Diego grimaced. "I had overheard him and three others planning what to do. That was what they'd been ordered to do before hiring on with us."
Just wonderful, so they'd been spies planted to hinder the progress of their caravan? Grifton frowned. "What else did you learn from them?"
"Nothing else," Diego shook his head. "Though I did send word back to Lamberton not to hire any more warriors from a certain institute after this incident," he shrugged. "Lamberton informed me that I was free to do whatever it took to prevent more incidents from happening."
Orian smiled. "So, we've been given permission to clean them out?" He jerked a thumb at the remaining warriors gathered in small clusters, staring at Orian and Grifton.
Diego looked back at the warriors. "Yes," he sighed. "I think we'll be thinning the numbers considerably."
Well, it's better than having to heal wounded or be eaten alive. Grifton kept that thought to himself. It wouldn't be appreciated right now.
Not to mention that too many things were going wrong, and it was just the beginning of the journey. Grifton sighed. "Well, at least it is happening now rather than later at a critical point, wouldn't you say?"
They all nodded. "We can think of strategies later," Diego muttered. "For now, shall we just continue as planned?"
"Sure, why not." Grifton yawned. "I'm going to catch up on my sleep. Too damn many nightmares." He muttered with a growl.
There was laughter from Diego and Orian.
Orian told Firenze. "You stay with him and stay alert."
"Yes, sir," Firenze murmured. "I'll do that."
A few more orders were given, but Grifton had enough and finally went to sleep. He just couldn't stay awake any longer.
~*~
Sunny skies and pearlescent gentle clouds conspired to make a comfortable temperature. Grifton sat upon a gently rolling hillside that had nothing hideous or malicious waiting to strike from within its center. Instead, it was part of a homestead carved from a rock-strewn mountainside. He was part of a caravan that had become stranded in a strange piece of land.
Waterfalls of all sizes crashed from one height down to another level and formed deep fathomless pools. Each of the pools held fish edible for eating if one had the guts to spear it from a slippery, slick cavern rock face. Trees and vines populated the area and made climbing to different pools and caverns easy. The area natives had taken Grifton and his caravan members into their friendly embrace. A monster attack had left many warriors and mages injured and near death.
Grifton barely managed to keep them alive with his severely lacking healing abilities. Not long after, the natives found and took them to safety. The remainder of the wagons were destroyed, and anything edible was consumed by waves of monsters. Grifton didn't remember witnessing such a sight before. It was the creature they'd managed to avoid before. Now, it was getting rid of the evidence despite having yet to attain its goal of consuming human flesh.
Once a small tortoise, it had morphed into something hideous and venomously dangerous. Not even dragons could take it on safely and survive to tell the tale. Oh yes, Grifton had encountered the dragon's enclave once more. They had been on the route that the ill-fated caravan followed. After exchanging news with the dragons, Grifton requested that at least one of them send word about their status to Darmono and Lamberton. He had a feeling that only the dragons could convey a warning about that nasty creature and live to talk about it.
Not long after meeting the dragons, the caravan was also attacked by cursed mages. It was their bad luck to have drawn the attention of both kinds of menaces. Luckily, it happened far enough away from the dragon's barriers that the cursed mages weren't aware of them. That was the only luck that Grifton had in that scenario. Now, they were stuck in this vine-entwined cavernous paradise.
Grifton was a couple months pregnant since he and Firenze finally became an official couple. The pregnancy hadn't been planned, but they were still doing their best to be discreet about what happened. Unfortunately, after discovering the pregnancy, Firenze decided that neither he nor Grifton should leave the cavernous paradise.
The remainder of the caravan members finished the journey and provided a report of what happened. That had been six months ago, though, and Grifton doubted he'd ever return to civilization.
That scene faded to black, leaving Grifton gasping for air as he awakened abruptly. What the hell kind of future was that? No way, he refused to let it happen. Stirring to his left startled Grifton.
"Don't shout, it's just me," Firenze muttered. "I haven't turned on any lightning. Something is roaming around outside."
Grifton frowned. "Where are we?" He felt uneasy and queasy as he listened to the scratching noises.
Firenze hesitated and sighed. "We've pulled into a series of caverns." He explained what happened while Grifton had been asleep. "We just left the dragon's enclave." He sighed when Grifton tensed. "I was going to awaken you, but Diego told me not to."
Grifton swallowed. "I think I should just tell you what I dreamt about." He didn't know if it was just a nightmare or what.
Firenze listened intently without a word. "Yeah, some of that did happen." He confirmed. "However, no one got hurt even after that thing attacked the caravan." A faint smirk curled his mouth. "I think it was lured away when the cursed mages tried to ambush us. They got ambushed instead."
Firenze shrugged, and Grifton sighed.
"Well, finding out what happens next should be interesting," Grifton muttered.
"Mmhmm, well, we'll not be here for much longer." Firenze listened intently. "It sounds as though we'll continue through the mountain passages tunnels rather than expose ourselves to the nightmare creatures that'll prowl this area unchecked."
Grifton thought that felt reasonable enough. He wasn't ready to become a father to any child yet, and he sensed that Firenze was also in that state. Neither of them was stable enough to handle childrearing at the moment.