 wolven [Profile] 2013/1/30 - 16:29:40
Chapter 8 contd...
A tiny dagger shot past Cane’s left ear. His stupor made him forget he was chasing the Ra’zac for a few moments, and now they had chosen to flee, trying to distract him in the process. He turned and ran towards the dome at the top of the spire pod. As he entered it, darkness clouded the area outside the dome-like structure, and the ground seemed to glow a kind of turquoise-blue colour, which blinded him after being so long in the dark. When he reopened his eyes he saw a mural, inscribed onto a massive tablet, suspended between two pillars, whilst the dome was adorned with markings he could not understand. He turned his gaze back to the mural, and time seemed to stop as he briefly marvelled at it’s beauty.
The mural depicted some creature, black and muscular with two arms and claw-like hands, two, shadowy wings and a pair of legs. A tail whipped around the background of the picture. The creature had a relatively long neck, and it’s head was triangular, like a dragon’s head, except for the fact it had two massive ram-like horns which spiralled and seemed somehow perverse and defiled compared to the streamlined horns of the Alagäesian dragons that Cane knew. It also had a very forward, elongated chin. The mural was not coloured, except for fourteen jewels of different colours which were placed evenly around the creature. The jewels seemed to glow of their own, unearthly light, though faint. At the creature’s feet were stone depictions of flames; whilst further up to the left were depictions of lightning, and to the right- a depiction of stars, falling from the heavens.
Cane finally snapped out of his stupor and looked at the middle of his platform. It sank into the ground, he realised in a spiralling fashion, and the stones, though irregular seemed capable of taking his weight. He descended the stone stairs, and arrived at the platform below, to the bridge where the Ra’zac were crossing moments ago. Cane cursed, for in that time he had spent looking at the mural, the bridge had collapsed.
“There has to be another way to get round there!” Cane barked, and sped off in another direction.
* * *
“He followed usss!” The smaller of the Ra’zac hissed as they sped down a corridor, which seemed to be growing somewhat clammy. “How could thisss happen?”
The taller of the Ra’zac chirped and waved its torch at Yeersha who was cuddled up by herself in their wooden cage- carried by the smaller of them.
“It wasssss her. The ssssnow boy iss fond of her, in casssse you didn’t notice. I told you we sssshhould have left her with the corpssses!” It hissed, dragging out its ‘S’s into long hisses.
“Even we need food down here and thossse wild onesss, make for poor eating after the shade dissspossed of them! The girl would have made a fine meal!”
“We will be lucky if we get out of here alive, never mind the ssssnow girl!” The taller cawed in anger.
“Hold!”
The Ra’zac had stumbled into a new room, filled with Sarcophagi, all made of stone, whilst some skeletons littered the ground. Yeersha yelped as she beheld the sight, and clutched her teddy all the tighter.
“You were ssssaying?” The smaller said, clacking it’s beak in a tone of derision.
The taller crowed in anger.
“Never mind theeessse, we don’t have time to raid theeesse bodies, the sssnow boy could be here in minutessss!”
“Weaponssss? Whoever isss buried here might have weaponssss. We could fight him off.”
The taller one whacked the smaller over the head with their torch. The smaller screamed in pain as the flames licked its bald head.
“We already have our own! One more ssstupid ssssugessstion like that and I will persssonally throw you into that leviathan’s abysssss…”
Yeersha calmed herself for a moment, as a few drops of dust and a few stones dropped through the ceiling, for unbeknownst to her captors there were holes above them, leading to other tunnels.
The Ra’zac squabbled with each other and left Yeersha sitting in her wooden cage unattended, whilst they batted at each other with a pair of blades each. She looked into the tunnel above her, and could see a flicker of silver hair falling through the hole. She smiled briefly to herself.
“Hey! Birdbrains!”
The Ra’zac stopped and looked up, slowly.
One of them collapsed to the ground as Cane entered the arena, swinging his spade round with one hand, and his dagger in the other. The taller Ra’zac was hit first, and tumbled into a sarcophagus. The smaller one attacked Cane, though he dodged it’s attacks and kicked it back.
At that moment, two of the Sarcophagi burst open, and two horrible black creatures burst out. Yeersha screamed, as they appeared to have no eyes, and their legs were crooked. Their skin was blotted, boiled and in some places oozing with pus. A strange purple aura surrounded them. Cane batted one aside and left the smaller Ra’zac to fend for itself. He immediately pried the cage open, took Yeersha’s hand and bolted down the adjacent corridor, leaving behind the screaming match.
“Cane! You came for me-” Yeersha began, her eyes beginning to tear.
“Don’t thank me. We aren’t out of this yet. The mountain is about to erupt and I don’t exactly have an escape route planned.”
“Well done.” Yeersha said, pouting.
Cane backtracked as best he could, navigating through the rooms so as to return to the abyss. Before long they found themselves standing before the bridge he first crossed, adjacent to the mural.
“Woah!” Yeersha gasped, as they looked into the abyss. The darkness, in the space of roughly an hour, had now changed to a glowing orange colour, for the molten Rock had begun to increase rapidly in volume. Cane moved his arm in front of his eyes to shield himself, as a massive pillar of magma shot upwards, faster than dragonfire, and hit the ceiling. The heat was so intense, he felt the heat behind his arms, and it burned his eyes nonetheless. The pillar receded.
The mountain gave a horrible shudder. The blast had created cracks in the ceiling, and the whole stadium began to crumble. Several of the bridges supporting the spire pod simply fell away, for their foundations were already ruined. The lava began to roil, and the heat inside intensified. The lava began moving upwards, the rocks simply adding more fuel to it, to keep it rising.
“Yeersha,” Cane gasped, as the toxins in the air increased rapidly, “Give me your sleeve. Now!”
The girl lent him her arms. He swiftly tore off the cloth binding the sleeves to the torso. Using his dagger, he cut them into two lengths. He tied one around her head, obscuring her mouth and nose like a mask, before doing the same to himself.
“This should hold the poison for a while.” He looked down and up, as the Mountain continued to crumble. “We need to find a way out, fast, and reach some high ground. Come on, we need to get to the spire.”
Sheathing his dagger, he gathered Yeersha and put her on his shoulders, piggybacking her, for he was faster than her and they could not delay. They reached the mural, but there were no lights, nor a surrounding darkness.
Behind, they heard two ear-splitting shrieks. Cane recognised them as the Ra’zac. They had caught up, but as Cane turned, their bridge had collapsed, so at least Cane and Yeersha were safe from the demon-bird’s grips.
“Look Cane, round the back of the… the…” Yeersha said, pointing. Cane saw where she was pointing and carefully climbed around the side of the mural, and on a ledge, looked to her point. There, higher than he could possibly reach, was one more ledge, and judging from its placement, Cane knew it could not be reached by a bridge.
The Mountain quaked more violently, and from several other ledges, Lava poured into the increasingly filling bowl below them. From above, more Chunks of rock cracked and dropped into the bowl, slowly melting. Dread filled Cane for a moment, and he feared that his time had come, until an idea sparkled in his mind.
wolven [Profile] 2013/1/30 - 16:31:8
“Yeersha, you know how to get to the graveyard from my place, you have to cross stepping stones?” He yelled against the muffling cloth.
“Yeah. Why do you ask?” She asked, her voice beginning to fail with panic and exhaustion. Cane pointed up at the chunks of rocks which continually fell into the magma. More ledges erupted, spraying the molten flames everywhere, and the Lava began to rise even more quickly. In fact it had reached two floors below them.
“Ah!” She exclaimed, her eyes gleaming. Cane grinned behind his mask.
“Timing is everything, we just have to wait…” He said, but saw two black shapes circling the floor below them, searching for them, “…and stay alive. Whatever you do Yeersha, do not let go! Do you understand me?”
She gripped his neck tighter in response, and they waited. The Ra’zac shrieked below them, as their way was blocked by the more frequent pillars of magma.
The time passed quicker than Cane would have liked. With a mighty Crash, a chunk of rock fell into the lava, and Cane bounded onto it, raising the level of the magma. Already, he could feel his feet beginning to burn, and jumped onto the next rock, being careful to maintain his balance. The lava was rising faster, and the heat stung worse than the Ice outside, singeing his skin, and burning the tips of his trousers. He bounded from rock to rock, for his ground melted with each second.
At last, He reached for the sky, and grabbed onto the ledge, pulling himself and his cargo up onto it. He had a moment of relief, but remembering the lava behind them, he realised there was no time to rest, and gathering Yeersha with his arms, he ran as fast as his legs would carry him into the unknown depths of the ruins… where no-one else had ever been.
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So thats the chapter in full. lemme know what you guys think of it and this picture.
frost_star [Profile] 2013/1/30 - 18:21:9
well i can't see it now because my screen is messed up, but the sketch was really cool.
lady_miragon [Profile] 2013/1/30 - 20:44:5
I think your story is going well. I like reading them. :c)
I don't know if it's just my screen, but I am having a hard time seeing what's going in your drawing. I can see Cane, but I can't really tell what he is doing. I like the new technique you've been using, but I am not able to tell what is going on since it is so dark.
imagamaker [Profile] 2013/1/31 - 4:25:59
Neat pic! That hand in the corner really makes me jealous...I cant draw hands. But the dragon/dinosaur things are cool, and although it's hard to see, it just shows they're fighting in a dark area. Nice job!
silvershadow [Profile] 2013/2/1 - 6:11:21
Sweet! Your angle on the Ra'zac in front is so perfect. And the fight in the back, with their eyes locked and everything... I really like it! :D
miles [Profile] 2013/2/1 - 17:42:19
it's p dark on my screen too... but from what i can see the pic looks awesome.
frost_star [Profile] 2013/2/3 - 9:12:30
I can see it now! It looks amazing! the razac are perfectly horrible, (meaning that as a compliment).
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