Ultimate Sacrifice (NaNoWriMo 2014)

Chapter 1

Dedicated to Prisim for being an amazing writer and her awesome stories. Go check out her NaNo entry Lady of the Mysts! 

 Arianna held her breath, not even wanting to breath as a smiling desert scorpion crawled over her stomach. Her entire body ached and she could feel the blood seeping from the lashes in her back, but none of that would matter anymore if even one of the scorpions two stingers pieced her skin.

Just remember Arianna, there’s another forty five thousand starlings once you get out of this and get to the Rololinde Keep, she thought and drew a shallow breath. The scorpions feet dug into her skin it’s entire body tensed, stingers erect. She closed her eyes, waiting for the painful stab that would signal the end of her life.

“Do you think that not moving is going to save you?” her torturer asked. The r’sonafae traitor smiled sinisterly. “You really should remember who you’re dealing with.”

“A traitor, I’m dealing with a traitor,” she snarled trying to keep her torso from moving as much as possible. The scorpion walked around to her back, walking along the edge of one of the whip lashes.

“Traitor is such a harsh term,” he sighed. “I’d like to think of it more as a safe investment.”

“They’ll kill you when this is over,” she said. The scorpion continued it’s journey up her back, occasionally crawling over one of her wounds and sending a spasm of pain down her back.

The tent flap opened and an orc in captains armor strode in. Her torturer scrambled to his feet, spinning to look at the captain. “Has she told us anything yet?” he asked.

“Other than illustrating her wide less than lady like vocabulary, no,” the r’sonafae said.

If an orc could purse his lips, the captain did and then something glittered in his beady eyes. A sadistic smile warped his lips. Arianna tried to see what he was looking at without moving her head when she felt tiny feet crawling across her bare shoulder.

“I’m sure you still have some antidote left,” the captain said.

“Yes, I do, in my kit,” the r’sonafae said, his head nodded eagerly. Arianna’s eyes flickered to the black wrap that her torturer had unfurled at the beginning of their session. He’d produced several things from in, including a false death snake that he coaxed into biting her side. The necrosis from it’s venom turned the muscle and skin black.

Arianna tried to step back away from the orc as he approached, his gnarled face a sea of sadistic pleasure. Her toes slid across the blood soaked sand, sending spasms of pain through her back as she stretched, reopening up some of the shallow wounds. The chains holding her arms up jerked tight after only a few steps, leaving her trapped.

The scorpion crawled across her throat, it’s tiny clawed feet hooking into her skin. She lifted her chin as slowly as she could, her jaw quivering. The orc drew a long dagger from his belt and plunged it into her hip. Her face contorted in pain as she clenched her jaw to keep from crying out and startling the scorpion. It’s tiny feet moved out onto her shoulder.

“You’re a strong one,” the orc remarked and twisted the blade.

A piercing scream ripped through her lips and she felt fire race through her veins. In an instant, a jar went over her shoulder and pulled sideways, a lid snapping over it. The scorpion struck at the glass sides of its prison, claws snapping at nothing.

The blade disgorged from her hip with a wet pop and blood started to slide down her leg. As the venom spread through her shoulder, her legs jerked. She sucked at the air in short frantic gasps. Gasps of pain broke through her lips as her lungs constricted. A growing bruise on her shoulder began to spread and the pain in her shoulder intensified.