Trials of the Hunt

Chapter 22

"I hear something slithering, not like a snake, something different. Skin on skin or something."

Naois looked around the room, checked under the bed, the closet, and the bathroom. Naois guarded Kirwin in the Horde and at court and was excellent at keeping him safe. Gannon knew that he checked with more than his eyes and he was being thorough about it.

 "I don't see anything, but I don't like what I'm not hearing. Come on, we're leaving," he said as he turned towards the door.

Gannon swung his legs off the bed and planted his feet on the floor when movement on the darkened ceiling caught his attention. He halted immediately.

"Do you see that?" He whispered.

Naois looked up and crouched down. "No. What's up there?"

Gannon opened his mouth to describe the huge cephalopod-like creature obscured by the shadows, but before he could get a word out a gray mottled tentacle shot out at him, wrapped around his neck and dragged him kicking and fighting up the wall. Gannon wrapped his hands around the tentacle that constricted his neck, and it pulled tighter.

Naois looked around the room to find a weapon, and having none of his own, reached for the white belt hung on the bedpost. The belt glowed bright white and burned his hand when he touched it. He snatched his hand back and yelled.

Daisy entered the room faster than light and tossed a sword to Naois. He grabbed the shiny weapon as it hung in the air, jumped on the bed and attacked the tentacled creature with everything he had, slashing and stabbing at it. Blue blood spurted from the beast and poured onto the bed and floor beneath them.

More tentacles wrapped around Gannon, constricting his body and his throat. This creature didn't mean to strangle him, it meant to decapitate him, its arm constricting around his neck until he could barely wrap his fingers around it. The beast jerked its body and shuddered, gliding across the ceiling towards the window.

Daisy yelled, "Don't let 'em out!"

Naois jumped over the bed and ran to the window. He brandished the longsword and blocked its escape.

"Get out and bar the door!"

Daisy closed the door and dragged a large chest from the hallway in front of it. It only covered the bottom half, but it would at least keep the door from bursting open. She ran into the study and grabbed her old flail. She hadn't used it in years...not since Gannon's birth. She wielded it a few times to feel the balance of the weapon in her hand as she ran back to Gannon's room to guard the door. She listened with her ear to the door and heard slashing and bumping, tumbling about and slithering. It made her flesh crawl.

The beast launched tentacles at Naois, who stood against its attacks. Naois slashed at the beast again and again, spilling more of the thick blue blood on the floor. The beast shrieked loudly and glided across the ceiling back towards the door. As it passed the bed, Gannon hooked his dangling foot through his belt and flung it into the air. He released his hold on the tentacle around his throat and caught the pommel of the sword. The sword unsheathed and bright light illuminated the room, stopping the beast dead in its tracks.

"It remembers me."

Gannon wielded the sword, cutting of the tentacle around his neck, gasping and drawing short, urgent breaths. The beast loosened its grip on his body and lunged for the window, throwing a tentacle at Naois, who chopped it off.

As the beast began its retreat, Gannon sliced into its body until it dropped him to the floor in a pool of thick blue blood and flesh. It stopped moving, its red eyes still blinking, and Gannon and Naois continued slicing it until its body lay in pieces all around the room. Several tentacles remained stuck to the ceiling, shuddering absent the body.

Naois and Gannon dropped to the floor. Gannon panted and Naois surveyed the room.

"The next time I say we're leaving, you just move, alright?"

Gannon tried to smile, but couldn't. He gasped for air and whispered, "Mom."

Without a word Naois went to the door and found that Daisy had barred it as requested.

"Daisy!" He yelled, his head to the door waiting for response.

She removed the chest from the door and Naois opened it. She hugged him tight even though he was covered in blue slime.

Without a word he went to the hall and placed a moonlight call to Kirwin. It was well known within the Horde that Gannon was on a personal hunt. This was likely part of his trials, but Naois clearly didn't like the danger that had come to his home.

Gannon walked around the room and surveyed the damage. Daisy stood just outside the doorway, flail in hand. She eyed the shuddering tentacles attached to the ceiling. One fell and plopped to the floor in a mucky disgusting splash that made her skin grow clammy.

She sniffed. "What is that?"

Chicory. Gannon stopped in his tracks. "Tell no one of this."

"Part o' yer trials..."

He nodded and continued walking around the room. It didn't feel anything like the blood golemn. The magic from the blood golemn was powerful, extending from skyward down deep into the ground. Dillion said it had rendered the ground fruitless. This was clumsy, rushed. The magic filled the room, but Gannon sensed that if he opened the window it would dissipate quickly.

"Close the door."

Daisy did as instructed. She looked at him quizzically, her head tilted to the side.

He nodded. "I can't tell you, so don't ask."

"Can I help?"

"No. This is my hunt and mine alone. Dill has already broken that rule once. Let's not tempt The Fates by doing it again."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I pay homage to Child's Scottish ballad that features a husband and wife who make a deal that whichever of them speaks next is to get up and bar the door. Their stubborness causes them to be robbed and the wife almost assaulted, before the husband appeals to the thief. The wife, having won the bet, tells her husband to "get up and bar the door!"