By: Brenna “Snakelady” Dawkins
“Part One: On the Road Again”
The clearing was empty, but only for a moment. Into it burst a young boy; one could almost call him a young man. His blonde hair was messed up and he was panting heavily. In his hand he gripped a bow. A young dark girl coming from another direction soon joined him holding a short, sturdy stick. She was barely breathing hard at all and came to a stop next to the young man. A crashing sound coming from yet another direction brought the two teenagers into alert mode, but they soon relaxed their battle stance when a young preteen aged boy came bounding out of the woods holding a huge club almost the size of his body with ease and in the company of a romping, white baby unicorn. With unpretentious stealth, a young red haired girl with freckles burst into the clearing on the preteens heels. And lastly came a blur of green in the form of a young boy in a classical magicians garb and glasses, panting as hard as the young ranger.
“I think we lost ‘em!” The blonde male managed to say between breaths.
“Yea, and I think we lost someone else.” The dark girl scanned the clearing, looking for their missing company.
As if in answer, there was a loud, familiar scream coming from within the woods, “YYYYYYEEEEEEAAAAAAARRRGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!”
“Found ‘em.” The magician pointed in the direction of the noise. Shortly, their missing companion flung himself through the break in trees, shield forgotten on his arm and red cape flapping.
“ORCS!” Pant, “ORCS!” Pant, “ORCS!” He managed to warn his comrades as he blazed a trail past them and buried himself into the woods on the other side.
The group sighed in much practiced unison. They loyally pursued their friend before the orcs caught up with them again. They had a lot of practice running through forests away from horrible things lately. It was easy to follow the trail their friend left, unfortunately, that also meant the orcs would have no problem either. The ranger knew that they had to do something to take care of these green baddies soon. They couldn’t run forever.
The forest broke again. Before them stretched an expansion bridge over a canyon river a few hundred feet below. Why was it, the blonde thought grimacing, these bridges were all the same? They always were at some ridiculous height and they always looked as if someone who didn’t ever look at a manual on how to build expansion bridges constructed them. But it gave him an idea.
The young cavalier had already started tromping across the bridge. The preteen, unicorn, and magician were starting across; their added weight on the pieces of twine and sticks caused the bridge to bounce up and down in an unsettling undulating pattern. The girl in the cloak was next and the ranger stopped the dark girl, gently grabbing her well-muscled, bare arm.
“Make sure the others get across safely, Diana,” he told her and gestured with his head in the direction the orcs would be coming, “I’m gonna stop them in their tracks.”
Diana nodded in sudden understanding. She took off after the group to let them know that they had better hurry across, not, she mused to herself, that they needed any reminding. The cavalier made it across first. He turned his head to check on his friends behind and to make sure the orcs hadn’t caught up with him either. He decided to pause and catch his breath.
“COME ON, YOU GUYS!” He prompted as he collected his breath. He noticed that the ranger was still on the other side of the canyon and he wondered what, by the DM’s shiny baldhead, did the hero think he was doing? He watched as the ranger knocked a few energy bolts at the feet of the arriving orcs. Man, they just now got here? He was getting faster. Being the first to run in a bad situation was paying off.
“What took you guys so long?” He smirked at them. “My trust funds gonna mature before you guys will ever cross this bridge.”
“Wish he’d mature,” mumbled the young barbarian to his sister behind him.
The magician had overheard and sniggered and they all finally joined the cavalier on solid ground once again.
“HANK!” Diana hollered between cupped hands.
There was no need for Hank to look over his shoulder to check out what her call meant. He and Diana read each other’s cues fairly easily lately and that was helpful while being the unofficial leader. He knocked a few more arrows to discourage the orcs before he could set his scheme into motion. Twisting on his booted heel, he charged for the bridge. The ropes used for the railing seemed sturdy enough and he came to a halt at the foot of it.
“What does he think he’s doing?” The magician asked worriedly.
“Oh, God . . . he thinks he’s Indiana Jones, that’s what!” The cavalier replied disgustedly as he realized a little too late just what his friend had in mind.
“Huh . . . oh.” The magician responded meekly eyes widening as he watched the events unfold unbelievably.
Hank had wrapped his leg around a section of rope support and fired an arrow at the bridges support ties. The ropes snapped predictably and the wood splintered. The bridge seemed to hang suspended in air for just a second before it realized that gravity once more wrote the book and then began to fall away from the cliff side. Hank grabbed hold of the rope railing and his bow for dear life as his end of the bridge swung faster and faster towards the other side of the canyon. The orcs screamed their rage at having lost their prey and tried to throw things at their diminishing target: rocks, sticks, and even other orcs.
“Ooohff!” Hank hit the other wall hard. The bridge bounced back up with the impact and he was mashed into the cliff side again. The rope swayed precariously for a moment with him dangling at deaths edge. He didn’t dare look down. All he could do was look up into the anxious faces of his watching friends.
“Hank!” Called the barbarian, “You okay?”
“Dandy.” Hank returned.
“Hold on, Hank!” Called the girl in the cape.
“No problem!” Hank sighed.
“Come on guys, PULL!” Hank recognized that as the voice of Presto.
He clung on and used his feet to repel as his companions slowly dragged him up the cliff side. He closed his eyes and silently prayed. Through much grunting and groaning, they finally managed to hoist the ranger up to blessed, blessed solid ground.
“Eric, I thought I told you to scout around the orc camp quietly.” Hank looked up at the cavalier.
“Hey, next time you pass by a flower with a huge mouth and big teeth looking at you like you were it’s next source of fertilizer, what would you do?” Eric replied defensively.
“I’d tell it that it wouldn’t like the taste of chicken.” The barbarian countered.
“Listen, Runt-” Eric began as he turned around to face the adolescent, but he was interrupted.
“Dungeon Master!” Cried Diana delightedly. “There goes the neighborhood!” Eric said, clearly exasperated. Eric turned again to see the squat master sitting upon a tall, stone monolith, cross-legged like a mutant Buddha from Hell.
“What’s the word this time?” Eric continued, voice dripping with sarcasm, and he smoothly made a transition that sounded uncannily like the DM, “You must wander the world lost, find something lost, get someone lost, and speaking of getting lost-“
“Dungeon Master,” the red head cut Eric off, “Is this going to be another wild goose chase or is it going to finally be the way home?”
“Ah, Young Ones,” the aged man replied soothingly, “Actually, you both were very close on the mark, cavalier, thief . . . “
“Will wonders never cease? Someone please pinch me!” Eric replied, arms folded.
Eric was getting more than just tired of this place; he downright despised it. There was nothing for him here. He was angry. Angry at the Dungeon Master for calling them here, angry at the Dungeon Master for continuously sending them on these stupid quests, and angry that his whole life seemed to be put on hold for as long as he stayed in this stupid Realm. The easiest way for him to deal with that anger without suffocating in it was to dish it out on Dungeon Master and, unfortunately, his friends too. At the moment, he didn’t care that his friends seemed to be embarrassed for his attitude towards this so-called Dungeon Master. All he wanted was . . . he hesitated as he tried to think exactly what it was he wanted. He looked over at Hank and Sheila and saw again the subdued and buried feelings the two held for each other, no matter how well they tried to hide it from the group. That’s what he missed. Female companionship. He was envious of the duo. Granted, they didn’t dare come out about it, not wanting to risk the security of the group, but at least they still had each other. Diana was pretty, but, their relationship was too rocky to try anything serious, he sighed as the DM settled down to begin yet another vague description on what they had to do next.
“Across the land of Rookwold, there is the Forgotten Dungeon. Venger has stolen a valuable treasure and in this Dungeon, it is stored. You must bring this treasure with you as you go on to the blighted planes of Stalmoore and free the land from Venger’s tyranny. If you do that, you will be handsomely rewarded, cavalier.” He smiled knowingly at a startled Eric.