Acri is on his hands and knees, crawling slowly backward to the gate, chanting the whole time and drawing on the exposed silver. Olivia is helping Thirax to his feet while favoring her dislocated shoulder. Thirax looks terrible. Blood flows from the arrow wounds, and a large puddle has formed where he was lying.
A loud clatter of many booted feet begins to echo down the hall.
“Time's up! We gotta go! Now!” Olivia cries out while trying to drag the semi-conscious Gnoll with her.
I run over to help her and get my shoulder under Thirax's arm to support him.
“Acri! You almost done?” I yell.
“Yes, I just have to activate it. Preferably from the other side of the gate!”
The first of the reinforcements come around the corner and see us. Acri launches a fireball from his staff that detonates in the middle of the group. The explosion tosses bodies and body parts in all directions. A wave of heat rolls over us.
We drag Thirax closer to the gate when he suddenly regains his feet and stands tall, all on his own. “I hear many more coming; you must hurry!”
Without warning, he shoves us both forward, hard. We both stumble and fall to the silvered floor, just as a fresh volley of arrows fills the air above us. The rest of the troops have arrived, and they've brought more bows. Many twangs and thrums echo in the cavern once again, and bolts fly like deadly, angry hornets.
“Sing my song to the Pack and remember my glory,” Thirax says in a pained voice. I watch helplessly as he turns to face the oncoming horde. Four more arrows stick out from his back, bleeding profusely. He roars at the oncoming foes and gathers the last of his energy. With a heroic effort, he throws himself at the front line of the evil Fey creatures.
I grab the handle of my mace, still slick with ogre's blood and try to get back to my feet. Three hands change my plan as Olivia and Acri both grab me a drag me backward to the gate.
“My spell will fail soon if I don't activate it! Don't let his sacrifice be in vain!” Acri shouts in my ear.
“He's gonna die if we don't do something! We gotta fuckin' help him!!” I shout back, still struggling to my feet.
“Caleb, he's already dead… you saw the arrows and the blood. He knows it too. Let him save us one last time,” Olivia whispers in my other ear, her voice cracking with unshed tears. “Don't let his death be wasted.”
I stop fighting them as they drag me through the gate. The boundary line between the two worlds feels like a thin wall of room temperature water as I pass through it. After all this, I think I was expecting something more.
Acri reaches back through and places his hand flat on the silver vein and speaks a few words that I can't hear well enough to repeat. A moment later, I watch through the flickering veil of the portal, the bodies of the ogres and goblins sink into the molten silver pool, bursting into flames so hot they burn themselves out in seconds.
We all watch Thirax through the slowly shrinking portal, stabbing with his keen sword and slashing with his wicked claws. He stands tall, larger than life in the bottleneck of the hallway, killing or maiming any who try to get past him. He takes many more terrible wounds from cutting blades and bashing clubs.
He slips to one knee but continues to fight, howling his challenge to all. The portal has nearly sunk into the silver pool, forcing me to lie on my belly to watch the final few seconds of my friend's last stand.
With a roar, Thirax regains his feet and guts an overreaching ogre with his wicked claws. Then the light of the portal flickers and dies, leaving us in pitch blackness.
I pull my helmet off and tear the arrow out of my scalp. I'm grateful that the blood and darkness will hide the tears in my eyes.
I just want to lie here in the cool blackness for an interminable time and not move.
Powerful light suddenly floods the area, blinding the three of us.
“Caleb, Olivia! It’s them! Stand down; they're here,” a familiar voice echoes somewhere away from us. Then, “It’s okay, guys, you're safe now!” Haynes angles the flashlight so we can see the wide grin on his dark face. “Who's your friend?” He raises his light, and I see it’s attached to the short barrel of a tactical shotgun.
“At ease, Sergeant. He's with us,” Olivia says with an exhausted smile.
“Okay then. Let’s get you guys out of here. Welcome home.”
The story of Caleb and company continues… look for Book 2 of The Chronicles of Underhill, out soon!
Glossary of Terms, Phrases, and Miscellaneous Datum(Warning, may contain spoilers) Note: Most Tabletop RPG gamers may find some of this very basic.
1dX +Y: The dreaded math nobody ever thought they would use after high school… algebra (sort of). ‘1dX’ indicates one die of a specific type is used. Can also be seen as 2dX, indicating 2 dice of the X-type are to be used and so on. 1d6 would be a six-sided die (the one most people are familiar with). 1d4 would by a four-sided die, a 1d8 would be an eight-sided die, etc. (if you don’t get this yet, more examples probably won't help you.) +Y added to a specified dice roll is the modifier, usually a bonus added to the dice roll. An
