5-She's Back...woohoo

5

She’s Back….Woohoo.

“FUCK ME!” Zach screamed and grabbed his hand in pain.

The troll reared back slightly, but not out of pain.  Zach was positive he had not hurt the great beast.  Instead, he had just broken his own hand.  The troll had reared back out of surprise.

It was shocked by the blow to its face.  It shook its head as if that had never happened before.  Zach had a funny feeling that the rock troll’s prey had never attempted to deck it in the face.

“Did you just punch a rock troll in the face?”  Mel asked with a look of shock on his face.

Zachariah was still holding his throbbing hand.  “You said to stall it!”

“I didn’t mean for you to punch it in the face!”  Mel yelled back, still shocked.

“Well I was going to sing it a show tune, but I wasn’t sure he’d like that.  WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU WANT ME TO DO?!” Zach sarcastically screamed back.

Zach looked up at the troll, who looked back down with its pupil-less white eyes as if to ask sarcastically, ‘really?’  Zachariah shrugged in response to the perceived sarcasm as if to say, ‘Sure why not?’

The troll had enough and roared again, pulling its hand back and striking downwards with one punch.  “MOVE!”

Mel’s scream forced Zach to leap to the side at the last minute as the troll’s giant, grey, muscle-laden arm slammed into the ground with thousands of pounds of pressure.  The unstoppable force hit the ground and it shattered.  Zachariah’s eyes went wide as the ground gave away under him, Mel and the rock troll.

Zachariah’s brain had time to spew out one thought…

Falling again?  Are you kidding me?

****

Kahn stared into the blackness that stretched out in front of her and she smiled.  It is the trap of a rock troll and it appeared that the Rognaithe had fallen in.

“Master.  It appears the Druid followed the Rognaithe down.”  The Ninja known as Hikashi spoke behind Kahn.

“Indeed,” Kahn spoke back to her soldier.  “It does appear that way.”

“Should we follow?” Hikashi asked.

“Why should we?”  Ikaru spoke up to Kahn’s left.  “If the Rognaithe is eaten by the troll, it only makes our job easier.  The druid doesn’t matter.”

“True,” Kahn said settling the argument before it got started.  “If the Rognaithe dies in the troll’s lair, our job is done.  But we must make sure, one way or the other.  Follow.  I know another way.  We will head them off, should they be successful.”

Her shoulders gave a ‘Yes, Sir’, and they vanished into the shadows.

****

In the movies, people fall into water all the time.  In fact, it seemed to Zachariah that every time a movie or T.V. show writer needed a way out, the hero would make some giant leap into water and as long he fell into the water, he was fine.  When a villain falls backward into water, no matter how high from which he falls, they always come back to get revenge.

Zachariah realized as he hit the underground lake, forty feet below, that this fact about water was, in fact, a total lie.

Zachariah hit the surface of the water and it felt like he was crashing through a plate glass window.  The force sent a numbing shock wave through his body.  The water flooded into his mouth and nose, since they had been previously open in a hopeless scream.  The water tasted like minerals and rust.

His breath left him and Zachariah began to paw and kick to reach the surface.  His broken hand throbbed and his body ached from the force of the landing, but the pain in his chest drove him on.  His thoughts fled from his head until all he could think about was his desperate need to breath.

Suddenly, he broken the surface and gasped, flooding his lungs with sweet, life-giving oxygen.  He paddled there keeping himself afloat while he looked around.  He was in an open alcove, floating in a small underground lake created from dripping water around the edges of the cave.  The whole place was lit by a weird bluish glow that seemed to come from the walls.

Zachariah was, for a brief moment, lost in the awe of how beautiful the place was.

The bewilderment of the place was replaced by the realization that the water he floated in was ice cold, and so Zachariah began to slowly kick and paddle for the shore.  As he did, he began to look around for Mel and couldn’t see anything.  This bothered Zachariah to his core.  He had only known Mel for a small time but he felt a kinship after what they had gone through together.

Mel had saved his life.

So he thought.

As Zachariah closed in on the shore, the water around him began to be disturbed.  He was trying to figure out what was going on by peering into the water around him.  He couldn’t make anything out in the foggy water at first, but slowly a shadow came to view.

By the time Zach figured out what it was, it was too late.

****

Cathleen moved down the walls as fast as she safely could.  She could hear the insanity below her, two voices screaming at each other, and the rock troll’s roaring.  She was sure she was on the right track because through it all, she could clearly hear the Rognaithe’s voice.

This Zachariah was very, very loud.  So much so, that she wondered how he had any friends.

She decided he couldn’t possibly have any.  Who would put up with him?

She didn’t recognize the other voice.  Then she heard a loud rumbling noise, like rocks falling.  Cathleen became nervous as she tried to move faster.

She heard the Rognaithe’s scream, then silence.  This was not good.

Would she be the first in nearly seven hundred years to fail?  Had the Rognaithe met his demise at the hands of a stupid rock troll?  Would Zersch awaken after all.

She could now see a blue luminescent light at the bottom of the hole.  As she got closer, she realized they had fallen through into an underground alcove.  She peeked out while hanging from the edge of the hole.

Cathleen let out a sigh of relief as she could see the Rognaithe swimming for the shore. He was still alive.  Cathleen had not failed, yet.

Her relief turned to despair as she saw the rock troll under the water, a huge shadow moving to swallow Zachariah and end this journey before it began.

Cathleen steeled herself and let go.  This was what she was here for.

Her tattoos began to dance.

****

The water exploded around Zachariah and he was flung through the air all the way to the shoreline.  He crashed into the shale covered shore, rolling through the thin rocks.

He came to a stop and coughed the dust, water and pain from his lungs.  He heard the roar but already knew what it belonged to.  “You have got to be kidding me.”

The rock troll stepped out of the water and growled toward him.  Its muscle covered body was covered in grey, thick, now wet fur.  It had long backward sloped ears like a bat, and no legs or feet, just four arms and four hands, using two of them to walk and the other two to flex and ball in front of it.

Its whole body moved and seemed to slide like that of a predator ready to pounce on cornered prey.

A flash of light, Cathleen appeared in front of the rock troll and Zachariah suddenly heard a faint robin’s call.  The troll seemed to be shocked and Cathleen moved in, stabbing her sword into the top of one of the troll’s standing hands.  It roared in pain and staggered.

Cathleen turned and screamed.  “RUN!  HIDE!”

Then she vanished again, appearing on the back of the troll.  Sword in hand, she raised it and tried to drive it downward into the troll’s head.  The troll moved just in time and she only managed to catch its shoulder.

The troll reared back and threw itself forward and Cathleen went flying through the air. She tucked and hit the ground with grace and agility rolling to her feet to face the beast again.

Zachariah hadn’t yet begun to run or to hide as he was told.  This was partly because of shock and partly because he really had no idea where to run or hide.  Instead, he just kind of looked around, standing there confused.

Cathleen screamed to run and hide again as the rock troll charged her, but it was really a moot point now.  His eyes set finally on Mel.  He was crawling out of the water, nearly twenty yards behind him.

Zachariah sprinted over to him and fell to the ground next to him.  “Mel, you made it!”

“Yeah, I guess I did.”  Mel said, between ragged breaths as he fell to his back in exhaustion.

Zachariah raised his eyebrow.  “Wow, you are really out of breath.”

Mel’s eyes opened then narrowed on Zachariah.  “Do I look like I would be a naturally strong swimmer?”

Zachariah raised his hands in surrender.  “I didn’t mean anything by it!”

“Sure,” Mel said sarcastically.  “What happened to the troll?”

Zachariah suddenly remembered about Cathleen and the troll.  “Oh shit!”

He stood and turned.  Mel did the same and they both saw the fight between the druid and the troll.

Cathleen vanished again and again, appearing and taking a chunk of flesh out of the troll’s hide.  The troll would counter and just miss with a powerful blow.

Zachariah grinned.  “She’s picking it apart.”

Mel’s face was stern.  “She’s going to lose.”

Zachariah looked at him.  “What?  How do you figure?”

Mel shook his head.  “The druid rune magic takes an incredible toll on the body.  She can’t keep that pace up.  The fact that she cast that many spells without passing out is amazing, but in the end she’s not doing enough damage and its going to catch her.”

Sure enough, the Tattoos dancing around Cathleen’s body were fading.  She was in trouble…

“How can we help?” Zachariah asked as the troll slammed the ground, barely missing the Celtic woman.

Mel nodded.  “We make sure her sacrifice is not in vain.”

Zachariah looked confused.  “What?”

“We get the fuck out of here.” Mel said, as he turned to walk away.

Zachariah turned and caught him just in time.  “What?  Where the fuck are you going?”

Mel frowned and turned.  “What you want me to do?  Bite its ankles?”

“We have to do something!”  Zachariah yelled at him.

“I am doing something.  I’m using the opening to get out of here.  That troll had dinner.  I’m not going to be his desert.”

Mel pulled away and began to walk away.  Zachariah sighed in desperation and turned back to the fight.  The troll was catching up.  It spun and hit the ground a half second before Cathleen could teleport again.  The blow rocked her.  She made a loud yelp of pain and flew through the air, hitting the shale and sliding to the wall.

She slowly began to pick herself up.  She was taking big gasps and sweat was pouring from her brow.

I can’t let her die.

Zach suddenly began to remember…

I can’t let her fall.

Why was that important?

I can’t let her… fall.

 Zach spun one more time and chased down Mel.  He grabbed him and spun him.

“Hey!  Fuck off, already!”  Mel yelled.

“Mel, you told me in the beginning when I fell down the hole that the troll knew I had fallen down the hole.  That it could hear the vibrations.  What did you mean?” Zachariah yelled at him.

Mel frowned confused.  “That’s how it hunts.  Hell, that’s how it see’s.  Those ears sense vibrations.”

Zachariah stared and him, his face contorted in thought.  “So its eyes…?”

Mel Shrugged.  “Just for show.”

Zachariah turned and looked at the troll.  Cathleen wasn’t moving.  Mel wasn’t moving and Zachariah wasn’t moving, but neither was the troll.  It was waiting.  Waiting to hear its prey.

Cathleen brought herself to her feet and prepared to attack.  Zach turned toward Mel. “Listen, can you make all those rocks around its feet move?  Just for a second?”

Mel shrugged, “Sure I could but I-”

Zachariah saw Cathleen’s tattoo began to glow and heard the robin’s call and he cut off Mel mid sentence.  “Do it! DO IT NOW!”

Next week:  Cathleen makes one final attempt to slay the mighty beast, but can she make it count?  Has Zachariah figured out a way to help the Celtic druid warrior, and even if they survive, how will they deal with the ninja ambush?

All that and more!  Next week!

Stranger things

TO BE CONTINUED….