Chapter 17 - Towards Lendoren

Noliea awoke with a start. She found herself lying against Paul, who looked down at her and smiled.

“Did I wake you?” he asked, brushing the hair out of her eyes.

“No, I-” she stopped mid-sentence when she realized it was dawn. “How long was I asleep?”

“Not very long,” the giant man replied, “But you’re not alone. Most of us bedded down once we were full.”

“We need to get going,” she said, stretching and getting to her hooves.

“Well, that’s something I wanted to talk to you about,” said Paul as he too got up, “Where do you think we should go?”

Noliea started to say something, and then caught herself short. Where would they go? “I just assumed that everyone would want to head into the frontier and see if we can catch up with the main herd.”

Paul’s look told her that he had been thinking about this for a while, “That would mean heading east, towards the flesh worms. And I don’t think they’re all dead.”

“I agree,” Noliea concurred, “But I was thinking about heading south first, then turning east.”

“There’s something else,” Paul said solemnly, “I just have this feeling that the others who weren’t captured by the masters won’t be that easy to find. Since the masters never captured anyone else from your herd, what do you think the chances are of finding them now?”

Paul was right. He and Rowena were the only people who hadn’t been with Noliea and her herd when they left Lendoren and traveled across the great plain, and it had been over seventy seasons of winter since Rowena had been enslaved. But Noliea had left Lendoren with a herd of over a thousand people, and surely a herd that large would be relatively easy to find.

“There are other options,” added Paul as he watched her mull the situation.

“I know,” she said, already knowing what Paul was going to suggest, “But gather the herd before we start making plans. I want to know what everyone else wants to do before we head out.” Noliea had another reason to cut the conversation short; she could smell someone making woodstone soap.

Woodstone soap was relatively simple to make. Simply find the seedpod of a woodstone tree (which, as it happens, looks identical to an avocado) and toss it in a fire. In about half an hour, the outer skin will swell until the entire seed looks round. Roll it out of the fire and dunk it in cold water. Once it’s cooled, dry it off and repeat the process until it doesn’t swell up when heated. While it’s still warm, peel the skin off and pull the seeds out of the center. When the remaining gel hardens you’ve got woodstone soap.

Shaniddia had built a fire from some dry kindling she had found inside a log and was busy with Melinda roasting several woodstones. Several others had woven a few baskets out of vines and saplings and had filled them with food.

“Is everyone here?” Noliea asked, taking a quick headcount. They were two short.

“Alec found a path not far from here,” Henna said, “He’s following it to see if there are any recent traces of travel. And,” she added, already cutting off Noliea’s attempt at objecting, “he wanted me to specifically tell you that he would stay off the path and watch for traps.”

“How long has he been gone?” she asked nervously.

“He and Andrea left just before you woke up.”

Noliea sighed, “I’m sure the rain washed away any traces of travel. Melinda, would you go and get them? And don’t call out for them; I’m not so sure that the masters aren’t already in the woods.”

Melinda nodded and headed off in the direction the other two had gone. Noliea walked over to Shaniddia and helped her peel the blackened skin off the woodstones. “Did you get any sleep last night?”

“A little,” Shaniddia shrugged, “I was constantly having horrible dream-visions.”

“About Gabriel?”

“Sort of. It was mostly about what I saw when I brightened Paul.”

“I can’t imagine what it must have been like.” Noliea said, trying to put the sight of all those dead flesh worms out of her mind and concentrate on her work.

“Noliea,” said Shaniddia, as she stopped peeling and simply stared down at the woodstone in her hands, “I want to go home.”

Noliea looked up at her lifelong friend, “I know. Me too.”

“Mariah, he’s waking up.”

Even before he opened his eyes Gabriel felt a wave of vertigo sweep over him. It felt like he was being pressed against the wall of a stone centrifuge. Thinking that the view would stop the word from spinning he opened his eyes. Big mistake.

“Gabriel? Can you hear me?” came Mariah’s voice from some unknown direction.

{Bluhhh,} he replied, finding his tongue totally uncooperative.

“Don’t try to speak. I’ve had to rub your wounds with gensberries. It will remove the pain but you will not be able to move for a while.

His vision was blurred, but he could see that he was not against the wall. Instead, he was laying face down on the floor facing the fireplace. He could see his right hand in his field of view, but try as me might he couldn’t make it move. He was paralyzed.

“You think he understood you?” came an unfamiliar voice. Gabriel tried to see who it was but only managed to roll his head until he was staring at the floor.

“Easy young one,” came Mariah’s soothing voice from behind him. He felt her hands cradle the sides of his face and gently roll his head back until he was looking at the fireplace again, “You’re going to be okay.”

At least he hadn’t woken up in pain. The “gensberries” sure packed one hell of a nerve suppressant.

Melinda, Alec, and Andrea returned, and the entire herd gathered around the small fire.

“I’m open to suggestions,” Noliea said, knowing that everyone had already discussed the matter at one point or another, “As far as I can see we have four choices. If we continue east, we may find the main herd. However, we would be traveling through flesh worms, and I for one don’t believe they're all dead. We would have to travel hard and fast in the day, and make enough torches to travel at night. Sleep might not be an option for at least a week, which means that we would have to stay here and rest for the journey. The second choice is north, and find Paul’s homeland. We would skirt about around the master’s city, and continue until we got there. However, the masters might follow us, and we would be leading them straight to his herd.”

Paul nodded. He already knew that traveling north wasn’t going to be an option everyone would want.

“Next, we could head south. But since none of us know that region, we would be traveling unto the unknown. That could be both an asset and an problem. Since as far as we know the masters never explored the areas south of here, we would be as new to the area as they are. But anything that slowed us down would allow them more time to catch up.”

“Are you still considering going south, then turning east?” asked Shaniddia.

“It’s an option.” Noliea replied, “In fact, we could also turn south and head west. But still, the southern direction is an unknown factor. Which leads me to our final proposal: heading west. Since it's spring we would make good time across the great plain, and lose any masters following us.”

“Before we ask for any further ideas,” Shaniddia interrupted, “I’d like to know something: How many of us want to return to Lendoren?”

With the exceptions of Paul and Rowena, the vote was unanimous.

“Well,” said Noliea, “that makes things simpler.”

When he awoke the second time, the vertigo wasn’t anything near as bad as it had been. His mind could think more clearly, and when he opened his eyes the world was in focus.

‘This is so odd. I’m waking up in a dream. Or am I?’

Gabriel had a sudden realization: What if this wasn’t a dream after all? What if he had actually teleported into another dimension and was hallucinating the people around him? That would explain a great deal. Gabriel pulled himself onto all fours; his arms and legs feeling like lead weights but at least now they obeyed him.

“How are you feeling?” Mariah asked.

{Like I fell off the mountain,} he replied, turning his head to see Mariah and another male centaur. He looked to be in his mid twenties and had brown hair and a dark tan coat.

{Are you related to Mariah?} he asked.

The centaur nodded.

“Here,” said Mariah, handing Gabriel his shirt, “I had to take it off of you to rub in the gensberries. I apologize if I have offended you.”

{On the contrary, I’m grateful for what you’ve done for me.}

Gabriel examined his shirt. The scorch mark on the back didn’t look anywhere near what he had expected. He thought that half his shirt would have been melted. Instead, he found only a three inch wide black area. He was also surprised to find another much-smaller burn in the front. Examining his chest, he found a large burgundy stain.

{Where is Jason?} he asked.

“Jason went back home.” the male centaur answered, “He said he didn’t want to be around you any more. He blames you for Elena’s death.” The anger in his tone was obvious.

“Jerid!” exclaimed Mariah.

{I know,} Gabriel said somberly as he slowly put his shirt on, {I blame myself as well. If I had just told her I couldn’t carry her, she wouldn’t be trapped up there now.}

“What do you mean, ‘trapped’?” asked Jerid.

{There is an old temple up on the mountain that Mariah wanted-}

“Yes yes,” interrupted Jerid, “I know all about the old temple of the Blessed Goddess. But you’re telling me you left her up there?”

{I don’t know what happened up there. I was standing beside her body and talking to her while she was standing in the temple. The people there are obviously alive otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to dictate the letter for Mariah.}

“So you left her in the temple?”

{The people in the temple are trapped. From their point of view the inside of the temple looks like a solid stone wall. They all want out but can’t find a way to leave. Speaking of which,} he turned to face Mariah, {I presume the gensberries are the reason my chest and back are numb. How long will this last?}

“That’s not important!” snapped Jerid, “You have to go back there and bring back Elena!”

“Jerid,” Mariah said, putting her hand on his flank, “Gabriel is going to go to Lendoren and consult-”

“Lendoren!?” Jerid yelled, jerking away from Mariah’s touch, “That will take half a season!”

“Jerid! You will calm yourself right now!” Mariah barked, “We-”

Jerid slapped Mariah across the face. It wasn’t a hard slap, just enough to shock the old woman. However, Gabriel’s reaction was both instantaneous and over-reactive. The next thing Jerid knew he was lying on his back with Gabriel’s left hand wrapped around his throat and the right one cocked back and aimed at his face.

“Gabriel! No!” Mariah shouted, “He’s Elena’s father!”

“Get your filthy hands off of me, creature!” Jerid said as he tried to push Gabriel off. Actually, Gabriel was surprised at the sheer strength of the man and had to balance himself to keep from getting thrown off. Seeing that the centaur wasn’t afraid of his bluff, Gabriel rolled off the man and stood up. Jerid rolled to his hooves and in one fluid motion slapped Gabriel across the face as well; this time not holding back his strength. The force of the blow was enough to knock him off his feet.

“Stop it! Both of you!” shouted Mariah as she interposed herself between the two men, “I know that both of you are angry at the loss of Elena, but I will not tolerate such action in my home. Gabriel, I want you to go to Lendoren right now. Bring back help as soon as you can. And as for you young man,” she turned to Jerid, “If you ever behave this way again I’ll have the Blessed Goddess deal with you the moment she comes to investigate!”

It had never crossed Gabriel’s mind that he was going to actually speak to their goddess. And the thought was even more unnerving due to Jerid’s reaction. He hadn’t shown the slightest fear of Gabriel, but the mention of the Goddess completely cowed him.

“I will try to be back before the end of tomorrow.” Gabriel said.

He gave Jerid a final glare as he walked out the door.

“That’s why I want all of us to stay together,” said Noliea, pointing.

They had come across a pit in the middle of the path. It had been dug several seasons ago; it’s walls now slanted by many cycles of rain. However, the skeletal remains half buried in the sand and black water was evidence that it had trapped someone who had never been found.

They walked westward for another hour before reaching the edge of the forest. Here the path led directly across a large field into another, much larger wooded area. The field looked deserted but everyone in the herd could see the city of the masters far off in the distance.

“The front gates are open,” Alec observed.

“And it looks like half the city is heading this way,” Noliea added nervously. “We should be able to lose them once we get across the field. Come on.”

They crossed the field as a group, knowing that they would probably be spotted easier than if they crossed one at a time.

“Isn’t there a river in these woods?” asked Melinda when they crossed the field.

“I remember there being one around here somewhere,” replied Rowena, “It was fed by a spring somewhere in the middle of the forest.”

“We need to find it quickly,” added Noliea, breaking into a trot to stay with the herd, “The masters will be here long before mid-day, and there isn’t going to be any rain.” Then, as an afterthought, she asked Paul, “Can you swim?”

Paul’s look showed her that he wasn’t following her train of thought, “I’m not the best there is, but I can manage. Why?”

“If the river is flowing away from the masters, we’ll swim downstream. All of us are leaving a very large trail to follow.”

“I see,” he replied, noting that his own massive hooves were sinking deep into the soft ground. Yesterdays rain had turned the entire forest floor into leafy mud, and there was practically no chance of walking anywhere without leaving hoof prints.

The nausea forced Gabriel to slow down quickly until his flight shields dissipated. Puking above mach speed was not something he wanted to experience a second time today. He had already had to land once to clean himself up, and he wanted to make it to Lendoren as quickly as possible before the ginsberries wore off.

‘Better still, if their goddess is there maybe she could just send me home.’

Gabriel’s hopes were more out of pain reflex that rational thought. He strongly suspected that there was something wrong with this mission. A goddess who traps her worshipers in a deserted temple? This didn’t look too good. Not good at all.

‘I should be getting close to-’

“Somebody help me! Sombody- Ahhhha!!”

The blood curdling scream sent a shock of adrenalin through his system. Instinctively he rolled right and pulled a 7G turn leaving a vapor-trail behind him in the humid air. How could he have heard someone scream at this altitude and speed? Gabriel scanned the entire sky but saw nothing. His instincts told him to hug the mountains and use them for cover. Then he heard another voice:

“Daddy! Daddy help!”

‘Daddy?’ thought Gabriel as he oriented on the area where he though the voice came from. At least he knew the voice wasn’t addressing him. That’s when he noticed a large sandy area near the face of the mountains. From this height it looked like a giant ant hill. Passing over the center of the mound, he instantly recognized the scent that hit his nose: blood.

“Dune worms,” he said aloud as he came around to make another pass. As he slowed down even more he could hear the voices of hundreds of people coming from the opening.

“Goddess, help us!”

“They’re in me! They’re in me!”

“Get it off of me!”

“Don’t die mommy! Please!”

Gabriel landed at the mouth of the cave. The cave itself was about fifteen feet wide and went down at a slope. The floor of the cave was covered with sand and Gabriel could see fresh furrows where dune worms had traveled through. He had taken only three steps towards the entrance when the sand around the mouth of the cave began to churn. No less than a dozen massive worms broke the surface and came barreling down towards him; the smallest over thirty feet in length.

Rocketing into the air, Gabriel searched for a suitable weapon. Spotting a dead tree several hundred feet away, he flew over and picked up the large straight log. Flying up to gain altitude, he oriented on the largest one and dive-bombed the log straight through its massive carcass.

The worm thrashed wildly, sending a torrent of sand and dirt in every direction while making a horrible screeching sound. The remaining worms raised their massive open maws and oriented on the smell of fresh blood. By the time Gabriel had turned around for another pass, he saw the remaining worms tearing into the struggling worm he had hit. Not only that, but hundreds of other worms were now exiting the cave and devouring the carcass as well.

Orienting on a medium-sized worm farthest from the entrance, Gabriel sped past it and sliced into its purple hide with a wingtip. The cut was nothing as critical as the tree had been, but he had guessed correctly about the results. Immediately the worm hissed in pain, and three dozen worms immediately attacked it. One of the largest worms turned on it and literally tore it in half with one bite; taking two or three smaller worms in the process. Gabriel grabbed the remaining half and hauled it nearly to the rim of the pit, trailing purple ooze in his wake. The pain in his back was now making him wince and getting worse with the exertion. However, his hunch was now paying off: All he had to do was seriously wound the larger worms and the others would do the rest.

As several worms crawled up to the rim of the pit Gabriel could still hear the cries of people coming from deep within the cave. If a feeding frenzy was going on down there like the one he was causing up here, he had better end this quick. Taking aim at half of the largest worms, he began to systematically slice each one with his wings. He quickly found that cutting them about a third of the length from their mouths caused the most damage. Soon he couldn’t tell which worms were the food and which ones were still whole.

The massacre took less than ten minutes. The last of the worms had tried to retreat back into the cave, and Gabriel had killed them before they had a chance to escape. By now Gabriel was in so much pain he had to fly a few hundred yards off and rest. He also had a nasty bite mark on the back of his left hand where a dune worm had managed to tag him. He became increasingly aware that he couldn’t feel any sensation in his fingertips.

‘They must have some kind of pain killer in their bite,’ he thought to himself.

Checking to see if any worms were moving, he slowly walked into the mouth of the cave. It was obvious that he was going to need a light source after he had traveled about 50 feet. He returned to the surface and gathered some firewood.

Pulling a large branch off a tree, he stacked dried wood on top of it and started a fire. Grabbing the branch at the far end, he dragged it behind him as he entered. At the mouth of the cave the smell of ammonia singed his nostrils, but in here is was horrendous. He had to pull his shirt up over his nose and mouth to continue. He had also incorrectly assumed that the cave would get smaller as he went farther in. Instead, it opened into a huge natural cavern.

Something large and wet fell onto his left shoulder, knocking him off balance and dropping him to his knees. The worm spun around and clamped its mouth around his neck. He felt it tighten its grip even as he frantically smashed it in half with his fist. Just as he pulled the thing off his neck, three more fell on top of him and tried to bite through the dura-armor cloth. Gabriel grabbed them and impaled them on a stalagmite. Looking up, he could see hundreds more hanging from the roof of the cave and blending with the stalactites; their only mistake being their slight swaying motion.

Another one fell, this time landing off to his left, and then another. Both lay still for several seconds before opening their mouths and orienting on the fire behind him. Looking back up, he could see several others were becoming more animated and they too soon fell. Gabriel simply stepped over to their motionless body and crushed them. Soon, several others had fallen in his immediate area, each one more lethargic than the last.

‘The smoke!’ Gabriel realized, ‘They’re stunned by the smoke!’

Frantically looking around for anything that would burn, Gabriel finally placed half a worm carcass on the fire. Hissing and sputtering, the flames were soon sending huge rolling clouds of smoke into the chamber. Worms started falling from the ceiling in droves. Gabriel didn’t think to kill any of them as he continued his trek deeper into the caverns.

‘Why is it getting so dark in here?’ he wondered to himself, stepping on a small worm that had crawled onto his path. ‘Oh yeah... forgot the fire.’

Gabriel lumbered back across the cavern and picked up the end of the branch and dragged it behind him.

{Stupid fire,} he muttered to himself. Then, as an amusing afterthought, he shouted, {Anybody home?}

The echo’s reverberated through several side tunnels. It sounded much funnier than the terrified voices that filled the cavern.

{Where are you?} he shouted to the people he couldn’t see, {Come out, come out, where ever you are!}

The entire cave seemed to sway slightly as he stumbled to the edge of a circular pit about one hundred feet in diameter. The voices seemed to be coming from deep within the darkness.

{Can you hear me?} he bellowed, ignoring the hissing sounds behind him. He wished everyone would just be quiet; he was trying to save someone! At least he didn’t feel the pain in his back anymore. In fact, other than being a bit sleepy he felt fine.

{I can’t rest here,} he absently said aloud, {The floor’s too sticky!}

Leaning over the edge of the pit (and nearly falling in), he shouted into the darkness over the now incessant wailing, {Hold on, I’m sending down some light.}

Stumbling back to the fire, he grabbed a burning log; the hot embers scorching his hand. It didn’t seem to be important, or hurt much for that matter. He flung it into the middle of the pit.

{Incoming!} he added as an afterthought.

Something bumped his leg. Several of the worms had managed to work their way around the fire and were converging on him.

{Hello little wormie,} he said, picking it up to get a better view, {Are you stuck in this nightmare too?}

A massive hissing sound came from the depths of the pit. The worm he was holding frantically struggled to free itself from his grasp. The worms that had been heading towards him turned around and began to scurry away as fast as their bodies could move. Gabriel also felt something moving at the bottom of his shirt. Reaching behind him, he pulled out a worm that was now crimson... and warm.

{Have you been biting me, you naughty little worm?} he asked as the thing flailed in his grasp. {I’m afraid you’re going to have to be punished for being such a naughty little grubbie.}

He tossed it over the mouth of the pit and looked to watch it land. What he saw sobered him instantly.

Bodies. The mummified remains of hundreds of thousands of centaurs. And crawling throughout the bones and dried flesh were countless grubs, all burrowing deeper to escape the fire that was rapidly engulfing the tattered clothing and desiccated tissue.

‘I gotta get out of here,’ he thought to himself, ‘This place is gunna go up like a tinderbox.’

Indeed, smoke was billowing up from the pit and filling the entire cavern. Gabriel grabbed what little fire he had left and headed back down towards the exit. Within a few minutes, he was hopelessly lost. To make matters worse, the smell of ammonia was getting heavier with each step. The floor was covered with a black sludge, and in that sludge he saw...

‘Hoof prints?’

He looked as close as he could to examine them, but the smell was overwhelming. They looked freshly made. It was hard to make out the details as the fire was dieing out. In fact the flames themselves were burning with a deep blue tint.

Rounding a sharp curve, the tunnel ended in a large round room that was about two feet deeper than the floor of the tunnel. The entire room was filled with tar, but what riveted Gabriel’s attention was the solitary female centaur standing knee deep in the black muck.

She was staring at him with a completely blank expression, oblivious to the fact that thousands of maggots were crawling up from the tar she was standing in. They were burrowing under her coat and he could see small streaks of blood starting to run down her legs. She was already very pale; practically an albino in this light.

{Come out of there.} Gabriel said as he grasped her... well... tried to grasp her hand. His hands wavered as he tried to steady himself at the edge of the ooze.

{You’re going... to have... to help me a little,} he said as he flailed about trying to get a grip, {Give me your hand.}

The centauress obediently held out her hand.

Grabbing it before she changed her mind, he pulled her towards him. She slowly stepped up onto the path he had been following.

He raked his fingers across her legs as tiny grub-sized worms dislodged by the hundreds. He swept them back into the tar and grabbed another handful. After a minute, his hands were dripping with fresh blood; some of it his as the grubs had attacked his hands as well. He cleaned her off until his hands were completely numb from the bite marks.

{Come on,} he said, taking her by the arm, {We have to get out of here.}

Grabbing another piece of burning wood, he tossed it out into the middle of the tar pit. The flame flared a deep blue as it passed through the air and landed in the center.

‘Blue flame. Wonder why it burns blue down here?’

The explosion of methane gas answered his question.

The concussive force of the blast slammed Gabriel into the wall while the centauress was thrown straight up the hallway. His fire had been destroyed but the tar pit was now ablaze and filling the tunnel with smoke. Everything had grown eerily silent and Gabriel had to crawl on his hands and knees to see where he was going. He found the centauress clambering to her hooves. She looked none the worse for wear.

{We need to get out of here!} he said with renewed urgency. He couldn’t hear his own voice. The blast had deafened him.

When she wouldn’t move quickly, Gabriel literally scooped her up in his arms and hoped the ceiling was high enough for the two of them. She offered no resistance.

Totally blinded by the smoke and not able to orient in any direction by listening for echo’s, Gabriel walked up the tunnel backwards, spreading his wings out behind as a guide. As he got closer to the main cavern, it became easier to see the tunnel around him. Turning around, he reentered the main cavern.

Flames were leaping from the pit he had thrown the torch into. The entire cavern was beginning to feel like an oven. He quickly found the scrape marks he had made in the sand with his fire and followed them into a corridor on the far side of the cavern. Unfortunately the corridor was now blocked by thousands of worm carcasses. Gabriel set the centauress down and rushed to the pile of dead worms. Scooping them up in his arms, he dug his way into the mound of slimy tubes. He even used his wings to send hundreds of them scattering all over the floor of the cavern.

Suddenly a bright blue glow flared behind him. Gabriel spun around to see the centauress cradling a dead worm in her arms; the bright blue glow emanating from her hands.

{No!} Gabriel shouted, not able to hear himself.

The revived flesh worm wiggled free of her grasp and began crawling towards the exit. Gabriel crushed it with his foot. The centauress didn’t even seem to notice; she began to pick up another worm.

{No!} Gabriel commanded again, scooping her up in his arms and plowing through the remaining mass of dead worms. ‘What the hell is she trying to do? Get us killed!?’

As he broke through the far side of the mass of dead worms, Gabriel inhaled fresh air and shook off the limp carcasses of the worms. ‘Guess the worms are blocking in the smoke.’

However, the centauress’s hands glowed once again. She had plucked another medium sized worm from the pile of dead ones and was healing it. This time Gabriel didn’t try to stop her. The glow was making just enough light to see through the tunnel. As the worm regained it’s strength the centauress dropped it on the cave floor. As Gabriel was about to side-step to crush it, another explosion knocked him to his knees; dropping the centauress. Chunks of rock and dust pelted them from the ceiling. And the ground didn’t stop shaking. Picking up the centauress once again, and spreading his wings to center himself in the middle of the tunnel, Gabriel blindly sprinted as hard as he could hoping that hitting a wall at this speed wouldn’t kill her.

As the first rays of daylight could be seen, he could also see his worst fear: The sand surrounding the entrance to the tunnel was pouring in by the ton. Hoping neither of them would hit something solid, Gabriel flew directly into the flowing wall of sand.

The torrent of soil hammered down much harder than he anticipated. They were instantly buried under several feet of earth and he lost his grip on the woman. In a matter of seconds, nothing could be seen of either the archangel or the centauress. For nearly half a minute nothing but the sound of pouring sand could be heard.

Suddenly, about half way up to the rim of the pit a brilliant flash of light appeared accompanied by the sound of a large match being lit. Gabriel and the albino centauress literally appeared out of thin air; their limp bodies falling lifelessly into the sand.

Both archangel and centauress slowly began to slide down the slope of the opening towards the cave entrance. But the mouth of the cave was already filled with sand, and they only slid a few yards. The dirt here was still littered with the partial remains of the worms that Gabriel first encountered. For the next few minutes nothing moved. The only sound was a slight breeze blowing across the rim.

Back in the main chamber of the cave, the roaring fire that had started in the pit was now beginning to die as the supply of oxygen ran out. The flames slowly flickered down to small areas scattered throughout the pit itself. The glowing mass of half-burned remains creaked and groaned as the heat of the fire settled deeper into the pile. The accumulation of hundreds of thousands of bodies suddenly shifted as the mass of bones and desiccated flesh collapsed, sending a shower of sparks and flames upwards. The collapse also exposed several large side tunnels that had been buried under the decaying pile. By the dim light of the glowing embers a writhing mass of juvenile worms could be seen; each no more than two feet long. The tunnels were lined with thick black ooze... in some places it was more then a foot thick. Retreating from the heat of the embers, the worms began to burrow into the thick gel. The dieing embers of the fire flared a deep blue as the air from the side tunnels reached them.

A quarter of a mile from the entrance of the cave, the ground itself heaved nearly four feet, and then collapsed downward as the main chamber caved in. A thick cloud of smoke rose from the ground and formed a mushroom cloud as it ascended into the sky. When it reached the lowest levels of the clouds the winds literally sucked it eastward and merged it with the continuously moving cloudbank.

Akkwa was the first to spot the plume of smoke. "Vin!" he said as he approached his ranking officer.

"What is it, Akkwa?" his supervisor grumbled, trying to keep his temper under control. This would make the twelfth time today that the recruit had bothered him with his trifle sightings of something mundane.

"I beg to report to you that there is a large fire coming from the south. It could be from one of the nests."

"One of the nests, eh?" said Uhrup, a slip of a chuckle escaping his mandibles. "The nearest nest is almost a days travel, you moron. It's more likely some of those fate-forsaken creatures burning their food."

Getting up from his mat more out of the urge to belittle his newest recruit than to check out this supposed fire, Uhrup climbed up the ladder to the guardhouse overlooking the back of the royal castle. And while this was the highest station in the kingdom, it was also the worst in terms of duty. In all the years since this city was built, absolutely positively utterly nothing had ever happened at this post.

'If I hadn't gotten caught...' he thought to himself, but repressed his self-pity before completing the thought. He only had this duty for a few more days, then some other would be punished and be given this post.

"There," announced Akkwa before Uhrup had cleared the final rungs. Urhup made the final few steps and turned in the direction his subordinate was indicating.

Well, if there was one thing Uhrup had to give the rookie credit for, it was for seeing the fire in the first place. The smoke was only a wisp on the horizon; and was barely visible against the endless blanket of clouds. But the line of smoke had a distinct crook near the top of the plume, and Uhrup had witnessed only two fires of that magnitude. He knew this fire needed to be investigated.

"Shall I form a patrol?" Akkwa asked excitedly.

"No need to hurry," his superior replied, "We'll set out and investigate the matter in the morning."

"Won't the fire be out by then?"

"Most likely," Uhrup said, descending the ladder once again, "But the distance is too great to cover before nightfall. We'll gather proper supplies and send out a detail just before daylight."

A severe coughing fit racked Gabriel as he regained consciousness. His mouth, nose, ears... everything was filled with foul gritty sand. Rolling over onto his hands and knees he shook out the sand caked around his face.

'I teleported!'

The thought brought new hope to his predicament. He and the centauress had been flattened underneath a title wave of sand when he had tried to carry them out of the mouth of the cave. Literally buried alive in less than a second, he frantically tried to pull the two of them to the surface, but couldn't budge. He could feel the pressure of tons of sand building up on top of them. In a moment of panic he tried teleporting the two of them close to the rim of the pit.

The centauress was lying next to him. In the waning daylight, he could see that she was in fact a true albino. Moving next to her, he checked for a pulse and found one, but she wasn't breathing.

{Come on, sweetheart,} he coaxed as he rolled her upright and cleared her mouth of sand, {I didn't bring you all this way just to have you die on me now.}

Giving her mouth-to-mouth proved to be daunting. He had to give her four or five breaths just to give her enough air to fill her lungs. After a few tense seconds, he was rewarded with a face full of sand as the centauress cleared her lungs.

He loosened his hold and let her turn away to cough and sputter. Taking a quick look around he saw that they were about fifty feet away from the mouth of the cave opening; or what was now a sand-filled crater. All of the carnage that he had left at the mouth of the cave was now buried deep within the plug of sand. About a quarter of a mile west from the mouth of the cave a plume of smoke was rising. Looking at his watch (which he once again discovered he didn't have), he looked at the sky and roughly guessed it to be late afternoon.

'Odd,' he though to himself, 'I went into the cavern around this time of day. The teleport must have knocked me hour for an entire twenty-four hours.'

He was very thankful for the cave-in. He had been lying in the open next to a worm next for an entire day! Meanwhile the albino had finished trying to heave her lungs out and stood up on all fours. She reached out in front of her, moving her hands around as if trying to blindly look for something.

'She is blinded,' Gabriel realized, 'With those sensitive eyes and coming from total darkness it's no wonder she can't open them.'

Indeed, the centauress was now moving down the slope and back towards the entrance to the cave.

{Come on,} he said to her, holding her hands and guiding her back up the slope, {Let's see if we can find you something to eat.}

The centauress complied and offered no resistance to his guidance. They walked westward until they found an old trail that headed north/south, then turned northward until nightfall. As they walked Gabriel examined the centauress closely. There wasn't a mark or scar on her. He ran his hands along her flanks. They were smooth with no maggots in her coat at all. Gabriel suddenly felt the need to check himself over as well. Thankfully, he found nothing. He'd give himself a more through examination once he had some privacy. He chuckled at his own hypocrisy. Here he was feeling perfectly fine, guiding a completely nude female centaur on a path-

His mind literally interrupted itself as it replayed its own last statement: 'feeling perfectly fine'

He flexed his wings, and felt no pain at all. He pressed his hands to the burned area on his chest, and again there was no pain. He had even overlooked the fact that he wasn't deaf. But the biggest revelation was when he looked at his hands: The bite marks from the dune worms were gone. In fact, all the scars he had accumulated over the years were gone! He even checked the white patch of skin near his left ankle where he had burnt himself nearly twenty years ago. The skin was the same dark tone as the rest of him.

{Did you... um...} What had Noliea called it? Oh yeah. {Did you brighten me?}

The centauress didn't answer, she simply kept pace beside him as the sky grew dimmer.

{We'd better find a place to stop for the night.} he said, eyeing a grove of forest off to their right, {That looks like a good place.}

Again the centauress said nothing; just walked next to him. The grove itself had a good supply of firewood, and in a few minutes they had a small fire crackling. The centauress immediately tried to shy away from it, but Gabriel finally convinced her to sit down with her back to the light. None of the plants looked like any of the fruits Mariah had taught him, so he sat down with his back to a tree trunk just a few feet away from the girl.

{What is your name?} he asked. She looked up more in reaction to the noise than to the words themselves. Instinctively he felt for the amulet under his shirt. It was fine.

'Crap!' he swore to himself, suddenly realizing what he had lost, 'Mariah's letter!' It was buried somewhere back in the cave.

The two of them sat in silence as the fire quickly became the only source of light.

'I wonder how long she was down there?' he asked himself, 'She looks fairly healthy.'

His mind wondered back to Noliea. 'Was she going to be okay?' He had abandoned her and the others in the middle of a downpour. At first it seemed like the logical thing to do. 'Why give the telepath any way of tormenting me?' But now the nightmare had lost its terror. He had fought two entire hoards of worms and killed every last one of them. And Shaniddia wasn't really a zombie, was she? She more than looked the part but she was just as afraid of him as he was of her. And where did the insect people fit into all of this? Sure, they were intelligent even to the point of forging metal, glass, even using steam power if Merek was to be believed.

His thoughts were interrupted by the centauress getting to her hooves. Her blank stare made it impossible to guess why she had gotten up. She simply started walking back towards the trail.

{Where...} he started to ask, but dropped the rest of the question. Grabbing a burning log out of the fire, he followed her as she stopped at the trail.

{I don't know where you want to go, but I'm heading to Lendoren.}

She had stared blankly at the trail until the word Lendoren was spoken, then she turned her head and looked at him as if focusing on his face for the first time.

{Would you like me to take you to Lendoren?}

She said nothing, but her eyes practically pleaded with him. It would be a risky trip. If they came across any worms in the dark the only way he could protect her would be to pick her up and fly. It wasn't the smartest thing he'd ever done, but the thought of camping less than a mile from a (hopefully) destroyed worm nest wasn't exactly sitting too well with him either.

{Okay, lets get you to Lendoren,} he said. She said nothing, and simply kept pace beside him as they started.