4- To Stall Or Not To Stall?

4

To Stall or not to Stall?

“A what?” Zachariah asked in absolute confusion.

Mel turned toward him.  “A rock troll.  It’s going to eat us if we don’t get out of this hole.  Don’t tell me you have never heard of one before?”

Zachariah became sarcastic.  “Well, I did tend to sleep through my science class.  I must have missed that chapter on rock trolls.”

Mel’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Zachariah, as if trying to figure something out.  “You’re not a ‘nex’, are you?”

Zachariah looked defeated, “A science-fiction, soft porno show?”

Mel shook his head.  “No that was lexx.  A nex… a wizard, shaman, adept user of the magical arts?”

Zachariah stared at him.  “I’m good at poker.  Does that count?”

Now Mel looked defeated.  “Damn!  Two nexes might have been able to figure something out, but alone I have tried everything to get out of this hole and it seems hopeless.”

It was at this point that Zachariah seemed to realize that they were in a deep dark hole with no visible light source, but yet he could see.  In fact, a blue light seemed to illuminate the entire pit, but Zach could not, for the life of him, figure out where it was coming from.

Suddenly, it dawned on him.  “Is that light coming from you?”

Mel raised an eyebrow.  “Where else would it be coming from?”

Zachariah shook his head.  “Of course!  My bad.  I forgot in this new world I’ve ended up in that dwarfs that create light!”

Mel’s eyes narrowed.  “Watch it, long legs.  I have a limit.”

Zachariah nodded.  “Yeah, so do I!  In the last twenty minutes I have been attacked by a ninja, kidnapped by a walking Celtic light show and trapped by a rock troll in a hole with a glowing dwarf.  So fuck you, little man.  And fuck your glowing forehead!”

Mel seemed to ignore Zachariah’s rant.  “Ninjas and a Celtic light show?  Was the light show a woman covered in dancing tattoos?”

Zachariah calmed down.  “Yeah, yeah she was.”

Mel’s face cocked into a half smile.  “When she was fighting the ninja, did you hear any Gaelic words getting thrown around?  Like maybe Rognaithe?”

Zachariah walked over to Mel and sat down in front of him.  “Yes! That word.  Everyone kept calling me that!”

Mel laughed out loud.  “You’re the Rognaithe!  That explains everything!”

“Not to me, it doesn’t.  How about sharing?”  Zachariah said.  He was almost salivating at the thought of understanding something of what was happening to him.

Mel shrugged.  “Why not?  Nothing else to do till the troll gets here to eat us.”

Zachariah frowned, having forgotten about that part.  “Thanks for reminding me about that one.”

Mel ignored him and began.  “Okay, so years ago back in 1492, the last of the wyverns, Zersch, was brought down, but not killed…”

Zachariah raised his eyebrow.  “That’s a hell of a start.”

“Who’s telling the story?”  Mel asked angrily.  Zachariah put up his hands in defeat, and Mel continued.  “So, it was put to sleep by the druids, a secret order of elemental nexes. They did it by putting some kind of curse on it.  Not really sure how the curse worked, but anyway, enter Columbus…”

“Christopher Columbus?” Zach asked baffled.

“Yeah,” Mel said, frustrated with the interruptions.

“Columbus was a druid?” Zachariah asked.

Mel shook his head, “No, but he was anti-wyvern.”

Zachariah shrugged as if to accept this and Mel continued.  “So, Columbus set sail with the three ships in order to banish Zersch.  After arriving in America, the druids split off from Columbus and took the beast as far northwest as they could and buried it deep within the ground, in a series of caves.”

Zachariah was nodding as he tried to soak in the knowledge.  “What about the ninja?”

“That’s the kaze clan.”  Mel explained.  “They are everywhere, infecting every society, influencing officials and governments with magic and secrecy.  They have a long standing feud with the druids.”

“Why?” Zach asked.

Mel shrugged, “It’s a secret.”

Zachariah scowled, “Cute.”

 Mel grinned at his joke.  “The ninjas-”

Zachariah interrupted.  “I’m pretty sure that ninjas isn’t a word.”

Mel frowned.  “What am I supposed to say?  Ninji?”

“No you just say the word, like it’s its own pluralization.” Zachariah responded unsure.

Mel shrugged.  “Alright, the ninja, tagged along and have been trying to stop them ever since.”

“The ninja were on the boat with Columbus?” Zachariah asked.

Mel nodded.  “What did you think happed to the other two ships?”

“That was ninja?”  Zachariah asked.

Mel nodded.

Zachariah seemed to contemplate this.  “So, the druids of Europe secretly got Christopher Columbus to go to America to hide the last wyvern, who was named Zersch, while fighting off a ninja clan?”

 Mel took it in.  “Yeah, that about sums it up.”

Zachariah found himself actually having a hard time not believing it all.  After the day he had, why wouldn’t he?  It was at that point he came up with another and most important question.

“So, if everything you say is true,” Zachariah began.  “Then how the fuck do I fit in?  And what the hell is a Rognaithe?”

“Rognaithe is gaelic for ‘chosen one’.  According to this spell the druids cast on Zersch, once every hundred years he can wake up and break the spell, but this is where it gets fuzzy.” Mel answered.

Zachariah raised his eyebrow.  “Fuzzy?”

“Well the way I understand it,” Mel explained, “every one hundred years, Zersch wakes up and the druids choose one normal person.  That person somehow puts Zersch back to sleep.”

Zachariah stared at him.

“What?  Look, I don’t know what that entails.  I just know that’s the way it works.” Mel said.

Zachariah stared at him.

“Stop that.”  Mel said clearly.

“So I have to fight a wyvern?” Zachariah asked.

Mel shrugged.  “I guess so, yeah.”

Zachariah stood.  “Fuck that!”

That’s when they heard it.  A roar from high above them with such guttural volume, the pit shook.

Mel and Zach’s eyes went up, even though they could see nothing yet.

“It’s here.”  Mel whispered ominously.

Zachariah turned toward him and blinked.  “What gave you that idea?”

Mel frowned back.  “You want to go out like that?  With bad sarcasm?”

Zachariah shrugged and whispered back.  “Why not?  It’s how I came in.”

Mel eyes brightened.  “That’s it!”

He dropped to the floor of the pit and put his ear to the ground.  Zachariah turned and looked down at the funny little man.

“What the hell are you doing?” Zachariah asked.

“Saving us, or killing us.  It’s a craps shoot, really.” Mel said as he placed his hands together and rubbed them back and forth as if trying to warm himself up.  He then placed them against the ground.

“It’s gonna take a minute.  Stall it.”  Mel said and began to concentrate on the ground.

“Stall it?!” Zachariah yelped.

They could hear it moving now, down the sides of the tunnel.  As whatever it was approached, Zachariah could tell it was big.

“Yes.  Stall.  S-T-A-L-L.  A verb, meaning to delay for your own purposes.  STALL IT!”  Mel yelled at him as he resumed concentrating.

 Zachariah spun and looked up again.  The sound of it rushing down the caverns was so close, Zach felt he could reach out, just beyond the dark, and touch it.

It was coming.

Zachariah froze, staring into the void.

****

Her stomach dropped and she felt sick.  She was standing in front of a large, fifteen foot in diameter, hole that seemed to have no bottom.  Cathleen knew better then to think it was natural.

A rock troll.

This was just one of the problems confronting her.  When an entity of extreme magical power resides in one place, it creates what the druids call a garden.  The plants, animals, ground, and even the air would be super charged with the magic run off of the sleeping monster below.

This effect had a tendency to attach other magical beings, creatures and people looking to use the power of the garden to make themselves stronger.

Nex energy would be stronger here, the spells more potent.

Monsters could hunt here.  Because of the magic, the game would be the most fruitful.

Suddenly she heard it.  It was far down and barely discernable but there, none the less. The roar of a rock troll laying claim to it’s prey.  It was telling all others to back off while it ate.

The meal would be the idiot, Zachariah.

The meal was the Rognaithe.

She took a deep breath.  This is what she had trained for.  With that, she continued down the hole, moving along the wall as fast as she could.

She had to get there in time.

 ****

Suddenly, the shadows seemed to come together in the darkness that hovered above Zachariah.  He could feel its breath, hot and sticky, wet with the salivation at the prospect of its meal.

 What the hell do I do?

Zachariah’s brain scrambled to find a suitable action; some way of beating back the inevitable doom that loomed over his and Mel’s heads.

I wear Hawaiian shirts…

It moved into the light, a dark, huge face with large pupil-less white eyes and a huge nose.  It almost looked like an ape or gorilla.  Its skin was grey and thick and looked to be as hard as the rock in which it lived.

I eat too much pizza and kiss the wrong women…

Its large nose sniffed twice as if making sure its prey was edible.  It seemed to decide Zachariah was worth eating and its mouth opened slowly.

Do I want it to end?  I could let it end here?

The gap was the size of Zachariah’s head and its jagged teeth seemed to be carved out of stone.  Saliva and slime dripped from its mouth and onto Zachariah’s shoulder as it hovered above him.

Rage against the dying of the light.

Zachariah had no idea where that little bit of poem came from but it seemed to break his paralytic state.  The creators head darted down in order swallow Zachariah’s head whole.

Zachariah reacted on instinct.

He punched it square in the eye.

Next week:  OH NO HE DIDN’T!  But in fact, he did!  Zachariah and Mel fight for their lives to survive against a monster from Zachariah’s worst nightmare…D&D!  Can Cathleen get there in time or does it end in the dark?

Find out next week!

Stranger things

TO BE CONTINUED….