❤Hearts of Pandore❤ (Part 1): The Crossing

Lynnie and Ryden; Jump (Hearts of Pandore chappie)

"Prepare yourself," Ryden hissed under his breath. He slid in front of me, one hand outstretched to shield me. I took a step back, the ground trembling under my feet with the thundering of hundreds of footsteps.

The welded iron door burst open and hundreds upon hundreds of creatures tumbled in. They had rutted, uneven olive skin. Oil was slathered over their arms and legs, the substance dripping off their limbs in a grotesque fashion. Their pointed ears swiveled towards us, drooping with the weight of multiple golden hooped rings. Strong gazes locked onto mine, their milky white eyeballs boring into my face.

"Stand back," Ryden muttered, "And run when I tell you."

I nodded furiously, gripping my hunting knife in my hand.

He raised his left hand in a nonchalant fashion, skimming across his face and holding his eye patch. In one motion he flipped upwards and I cringed, expecting to see a horrific sight. Instead, his eyelid was closed, he pushed me backwards and smiled a little before opening his eye.

The iris was startling icy blue, but in the center was a glowing five-pointed star. He raised his right arm and commanded,

"Rise."

All at once the ground began to tremble. The stones beneath my feet began to shake and shatter. I screamed as a bony white hand burst through the ground and feel around the cobbled stones. Appendages after appendages rose out of the ground like a horrific nightmare, skulls and feet climbed out of the darkness of the abyss and heaved themselves to their feet. Their skulls swiveled to look at Ryden. He was standing aloof, the center of a battalion of undead soldiers. With a wave of his hand, skeletons scrambled towards me. I shrieked and lunged at them. Nimbly, they dodged my attack and turned around to fix their unseeing sockets towards the goblins. They were protecting me.

"Run!" Ryden shouted, charging ahead with his soldiers. I followed suit, my feet flying across the dungeon faster than I thought possible. A goblin hurled itself at me, and I raised my hands to protect myself. But a black blur flew past me and the goblin fell to the floor, blood spewing from a wound on his shoulder. Ryden was running along side of me, the skeletons creating a circle around us. Claws raked out and I saw chips of bone scattered around his, then all at once they reassembled and throttled the goblin with unflinching cruelty.

Ryden sprinted through the maze of twists and turns. I stumbled on rocks and boulders in my haste, running blindly through the dark. Suddenly, light pierced my eyes as I hurtled towards where I assumed the exit would be.

"Oof." I fell on my butt, having run into something very solid.

"Watch where you're going!" Ryden snapped. He turned to face me and I looked where his finger was pointing.

We were on the edge of a cliff. The tunnel we had taken had lead us progressively higher until we had unwittingly climbed a precipice.

"Turn around," he commended, stepping in front of me.

"There they are!" growled a gravely voice. I whipped around. Not five feet away was a crouching goblin. It's ears were pinned back and his yellowing fangs were bared.

Ryden swiveled his head around for any means of escape. The walls were so close around us there was no hope in breaking through, the goblins were backing up the tunnel we had taken, all we had left to do was...

"Jump!"

We leaped off the cliff and into the dying sunset.