Chapter 31
The Gyresherm
Sonya’s feet could not move fast enough as she raced down earthen hallways and through doors, following frantic dwarves as they rushed towards the Gyresherm. Something was wrong. The pure terror that was evident on the dwarves’ faces told Sonya that this was not a normal occurrence.
Soon enough, she arrived at what she assumed to be the Gyresherm. It appeared to be a vast, circular pit filled with water. A stone bridge crossed it, but there were no rails on either side. Pushing her way forward, Sonya’s eyes landed on a small figure far below in the water.
“Help!” Tiaem screamed, terror filling her voice. “Someone please help before it gets me!” Her tiny arms were flailing in the water and tears were streaming down her face.
Dwarves were scurrying about, trying to lower a rope down to the little girl, but it always seemed to come up short. Risal was hysterical in the corner, clinging tightly to her father.
Sonya quickly saw that the dwarves’ efforts were getting them nowhere. Without a second thought, she moved to jump over the edge into the water, but a hand quickly landed on her shoulder, holding her back. Whirling around, Sonya found herself staring into the Seer’s grey blindfold.
“Do you not know the monster that lurks within the Gyresherm?” he hissed, anger and fear seeping into his voice. “If you leap in after her, you leap to your death.”
Yanking her arm out of his grasp, she glared at the Seer. “I will face whatever monsters necessary to save an innocent life,” she spat in return.
Swiftly, Sonya reached into her book and pulled out her knife. The mooonhawk bone handle felt so familiar in her palm, it was like she was back in the Fay’s Forest. Before anyone could stop her, she turned and jumped off the edge.
She savored the shouts of alarm and panic as she tumbled down the cliff side. A huge splash accompanied the sudden rush of bubbles around her disoriented Sonya for a minute after she crashed into the water. When she finally found which way was up, she broke through the surface with a gasp. As quickly as she could, she swam over to the floundering dwarf girl, who was still panicking.
“Hey, shhhh,” Sonya soothed. “You’re alright. I’ve got you.” Soon the girl stopped flailing, but sobs still wracked her tiny body.
“It’s going to eat me,” she wailed. “Risal told me not to play on the bridge but I wanted to so badly. It was going to be a romantic scene with my dolls, but then I dropped on of them! I thought I could catch her in time…b-but then I fell over too! And now I’m going to be eaten!”
Continuing to sooth Tiaem, Sonya looked around for help. Surprisingly, there was none. The ropes were still too short, and hundreds of pairs of eyes still were fixed on her.
“Nothing’s going to eat…” Sonya started, but then trailed off. The water below them had begun to churn, as if a whirlpool had begun. Screams escaped the dwarves’ mouths above them as they retreated away from the edge. Frantically, Sonya’s green eyes searched for any means of escape, but she still found none.
And then seven heads burst forth from the water.
A short yelp escaped Sonya to quickly for to stop it. But her sound of surprise was lost in Tiaem’s long scream of terror. The beast’s heads seemed like that of a dragon. They writhed and wriggled like seven snakes, and their eyes were molten gold. Before she had time to think, fourteen hypnotizing eyes were focused on Tiaem and herself.
Sonya had heard about these beasts, but they only existed in stories. It was a hydra.
A head darted down towards them. Sonya screamed and just managed to push Tiaem out of the way in time. However, the beast clipped her shoulder, pushing her under the water in a flurry of bubbles. Water filled her lungs as she plunged deeper and deeper into the water.
As soon as she felt the hydra’s head retreating, she began to panic. Flailing her arms, she miraculously managed to grasp a horn. All she could do was hold on while the hydra jerked her towards the surface.
Her gasp for air was drown out by the hydra’s piercing shriek as ten dwarves hurled spears at its scaly, blue-green skin. Tiaem was sobbing a few feet away, clinging to the Gyresherm’s wall. From above, Sonya could hear Risal screaming her little sister’s name.
Still panting, Sonya grasped onto a rock jutting out of the stone wall. The water had suddenly gotten warmer, almost to the point of unpleasantness. Her soaking clothes began to weigh her down, and she was starting to wonder why she didn’t think this through. Looking up, she found herself not inches away from a huge gold eye.
She froze. Not even daring to breathe, her green eyes stared deep into the monster’s golden one. For a moment, neither of the moved, both locked within an internal conflict. Then the hyrda opened its mouth and let out a deafening shriek, revealing thousands of sharp teeth.
As it lunged towards her, Sonya closed her eyes and waited for death. But a sudden roar of pure rage rang in her ears and she jerked her head up in surprise. Dearekk held Ventar over his head, mist and flame swirling around the blade. His tattoos glowed through his sleeves, and a look of vengeance contorted his features. The whites of his eyes had disappeared, and his eyes glowed an aqua color.
He stood at the edge of the Gyresherm, gazing down at the hydra with a mixture of contempt and rage. “A debt will be paid!” he bellowed. “I have waited long for this day, Tethken. Now the hunter will become prey. Let us dance, hydra.” With those words, he leaped from the ledge and landed nimbly on the hydra’s neck.
The way he moved could only be described as inhuman. The hydra twisted around and snapped at him, but he nimbly bound out of the way. The half-elf’s sword slashed and cut it’s way through scales and flesh on the hydra. The more Sonya watched, the more she realized that it was like a dance.
Jerking out of her daze, Sonya quickly swam over to a still screaming Tiaem. “Climb on my back,” she commanded the terrified dwarf. Without speaking, Tiaem obeyed, wrapping her tiny arms around Sonya’s neck.
Swiftly, Sonya began to climb up the side of the Gyresherm. As soon as she reached the ropes, she told Tiaem to grab one of them. As the little dwarf girl tied one around herself, she paused and looked at Sonya.
“Aren’t you coming too?” she asked through her sniffles.
Sonya looked over her shoulder and saw Dearekk dancing just out of the hydra’s grasp. Turning back to Tiaem, she gave a lopsided grin and said, “Someone has to make sure the stupid half-elf doesn’t kill himself.” Whirling around, Sonya let go and plummeted down into the water again.
As she swam over towards the hydra, her mind searched all of the legends for a weakness in the beast. All the stories her brother told her at night came rushing back to her.
“Tell me the story about Dushen and the hydra!” a seven-year-old Sonya yelled, jumping on the bed.
Remaduce chuckled. “Alright! Alright, just calm down!” he replied as he plopped on the bed next to her.
“How did he kill it?” her green eyes filled up with wonder.
Tutting softly, Remaduce let a small smile escape his lips. “Don’t you remember? There is only one hydra, and Dushen didn’t kill it. He just injured the beast. According to legends, he needed a scale to save the elf he loved. So he summoned it in the Gyresherm and fought it. He ripped out a single scale, right where the seven heads meet.” To demonstrate, Remaduce touched his chest, right below the hollow of his neck. “To this day, that is the only true weakness of the hydra. It is the place where there is no protection, and a single hit will send it running as far away as possible.”
Pulling herself out of her memories, Sonya looked at the huge beast and despaired. How was she supposed to find a single missing scale on that massive beast?! Still she swam closer, desperate to help Dearekk in any way possible. Grasping her knife in her hand tightly, she began to scale the beast.
Luckily, the hydra was much to busy snapping at Dearekk to notice her climbing up its foreleg. When she reached the beast’s chest, something caught her eye. A small spot glittered like snow in the sunlight. Realizing she had incredibly found the hydra’s weak spot, Sonya began to move towards it. But a sudden jerk on the hydra’s part sent her tumbling back into the water, for the third time that hour.
As she surfaced spluttering, she noticed that Dearekk was jumping from head to head on the hydra. However, one of the hydra’s heads was sneaking up behind him. Between the half-elf’s roars and the hydra’s shrieks, she knew that he would never hear her.
Closing her eyes, Sonya tilted her head up. One Who Created All, help me please, she prayed silently, then drew her arm back and hurled her knife.
The hydra didn’t react. She had failed. All she could do was watch as her friend was about to be eaten. Turning away, she felt a tear sliding down her cheek.
Then a screech shattered the air. The hydra’s whole body tensed up, and seven mouths all let out a simultaneous howl of pain. Without hesitating a second, the monster turned and dove deep under the water, leaving Dearekk to plummet with it.
It wasn’t until he didn’t surface that Sonya got worried. Swimming over to where he disappeared, she saw a figure floating face down.
“Dearekk!” she cried, and flipped him over. Shaking him, she felt panic build up in her as he didn’t move. “No, no, no, no. Not now. Please.”
The water began to churn again. Terror seeped into her heart as she realized what was happening.
The hydra wasn’t done yet.
She nearly screamed in surprise and hysteria as a rope landed in the water next to her. Without a second thought, she tied Dearekk and herself to it.
The water was becoming a massive whirlpool. “Go!” she screamed in desperation. She felt her self being hoisted up a few feet, only to stop as soon as she was out of the water.
A large patch of darkness in the water was growing bigger and bigger; and the darkness had fourteen golden eyes, brimming with hatred. The hydra burst out of the water, and froze. Literally.
It was if the hydra became completely encased with ice. The once green-blue beast was now a statue of white. Looking up, Sonya saw the Seer standing with several dwarf mages on either side, his arms outstretched towards the hydra.
“The ice will not melt for a thousand years,” the Seer boomed, “but it will eventually. I suggest that you make plans for that time.”
Though the hydra was defeated, Sonya was far from calm. By the time the dwarves had pulled them out of the Gyresherm, Dearekk still wasn’t moving.
Shaking him, tears continued to run down her face. “Wake up!” she yelled and slapped him, desperate to get a reaction. “Wake up, you stupid, brash, reckless boy!” Falling to his side, she put her face in her hands. “Why won’t you wake up?” she whispered. In a moment of rage before despair, she hit his chest has hard as she could.
Suddenly, Dearekk coughed and rolled over, spluttering water out of his lungs. His whole body was shaking, but he was alive.
“Dearekk!” she cried and knelt by his side. “Dearekk are you alright?”
When he looked at her, she found a pair of glowing blue eyes not inches away from her own. Staggering back in shock, Sonya could only stare with wide eyes as Dearekk slowly stood.
Crossing his arms over his chest, the half-elf’s glowing eyes surveyed the now terrified onlookers. “Dearekk is gone,” he spoke, his voice a low rumble. “I am Revolaton. Fear me.”
(A/N Erm…attempt at a cliffhanger. Hope it worked!! Holy cow. Almost two weeks since my last update. I am soooooooo sorry!!! I’ve been really busy recently and I’m juggling band, writing, and soccer. We just finished two-a-days for soccer [which lasted a whole week! Ugh!!]. I just started band camp, and I still have soccer every night. I’m trying to fit in my writing time between those, but it’s just not working out so well. Especially now that school’s going to start soon, my updates may be a bit far apart. But I will try to update as often as I can! Remember to vote and comment PLLLEEEAAAAASSEEE!!! Seriously, every vote makes my day and every comment makes my month. :D Cover on the side was made by GoldenBird7 :D ~*~*~Ninja Out~*~*~ )