Page 11 of Alpha's Fate

For a while I stayed put, not knowing what else to do. With all my heart I went on being still, paralyzed and hoping she would come. She had to. Right? Surely, she would figure it out. But the more time passed the more I realized I might be in this alone. I didn’t know where she was, she wasn’t answering my calls, and I couldn’t even smell her. She might as well be on the other side of the planet. After a while I started moving, walking hesitantly. The more I went the more unsure I became.

Everything had my heart racing. Every touch and slide of the tentacles creeped me out, not to mention it hurt. Not every one of them, but some of them burned like touching a hot pan. It was agonizing and I never could predict when it was coming. But after finally pushing my way through the seemingly endless, ever denser dark vines I finally just stopped and took in a breath. I had to think logically. What would be the best way to get out of this? Going through it wasn’t working. Going above it seemed best, but it wasn’t like I could climb the living shadow. At that moment I heard her.

“Weston, I’m right here, you can do this!” She called, and I heard her. I heard her voice. “We’re so close, Weston, just come to me. I’ve got you!”

My heart slowed and my mind stopped racing. Cora’s voice was like a glass of wine before a big date, just taking the edge off perfectly. I was face to face now with the eyes, the tendrils all glaring at me with their pale light, their darkness and intensity seeming to fade as relief washed over me. Cora was safe. And she was mad, I could hear it. She was angry and fighting her way toward me.

I should be angry, but I couldn’t be. I just felt relief and peace at the sound of her voice- the sensation of coming home. As she called out that she had me, she was there with me, I reached out through the tentacles.

“I can hear you, Cora, I’m right here! Just fight your way this way. I’m coming!” I cried out, forcing my way through the pain and the cold to get to her. Even though the tentacles burned with ice and fire I reached through them, fighting forward toward her voice, before I finally brushed up against something warm and human. Cora’s hand. I forced my hand forward and slid my fingers along hers to find the palm of her hand and grasp it tightly. The shadows fell apart, vanishing back into the ground where they came from. I was so blinded by the dim light and Cora’s presence that I didn’t realize the terrain had changed.

Dilapidated old stone surrounded us on all four sides and an ancient tableau was beneath us. We were in a doorless room, and in the center of the room was a statue. It was tall, possibly as tall as the walls that surrounded us. I stepped forward silently, reaching up to touch the cold stone of the statue. It was rough hewn and it was covered in vines and lichen, drawing me in closer to read some of the inscriptions on it.

“Weston?” Cora said softly behind me. “I think it’s alive.” I looked up to see that where the eyes should be were glowing as though coals, live and hot. Seeing that I stepped back, keeping myself between it and my mate.

“What do we do?” I asked, and she didn’t answer me at first, just silent as it began to shift and move, joints creaking as stone scraped against stone.

“If it fights, we fight. I don’t know what we’re going to do or how we fight this thing but I’m not gonna die here.” She said softly, and I heard her shift behind me. I studied the thing in front of it as it advanced on us, unsure of how we would fight stone with teeth and claws. It was solid, like granite, not soft. But it was our best chance. I shifted, clothes tearing away as I did. It didn’t matter right now.

I saw the stone sword get raised and dodged- I could tell that our advantage was that it was slow. We could outmatchit in speed, but I thought it probably had us in strength and endurance. As long as we could stay away from it for just long enough for me to figure it out- just long enough to see what its weakness was. It must have one.

Cora was analyzing it as well, as things began to light up on it slowly, a pale green light highlighting previously unseen glyphs. It was as if the carvings on it were coming alive, glowing brilliantly. It was nearly blinding in the dark. As they lit up it began to come more alive, more agile and quick. We were quickly losing our one advantage on it.

It began the fight properly once it was up to speed. The thing fought like a human swordsman, lunging and sweeping its weapon with grace. But like Cora said, I wasn’t going to die here. I just wasn’t. And neither was she. I came out of a particularly hard thrust with damage, a punch to the side of my head sending me flying. She was backhanded directly into the wall and I fought my way back up, head spinning. I let out a growl and leapt at the creature, furious. I felt my teeth crack against the stone, piercing through the vines just to meet with the bitter stone beneath.

I moved on to the sword- it was separate from the carved stone guardian itself. It was held in the granite hand it sat in- if I could get it loose, we might have a better chance. At the next chance I dove into it, making contact with my shoulder rather than trying to bite or claw. It didn’t come loose, the hand tightening on the hilt of the blade. It moved in for another swipe at me.

We were still quicker by a hair. I dodged a sword swing and got grazed, the smell of blood blooming in the air. Cora let out a howl at that, charging in but her attacks did barely anything to it. Hardly a scratch on the stone, but it did gouge the lichen and wood of the vines. That’s when I spotted the weakness.

Beneath the crust of vines and lichen the joins were held together by nothing. It relied on them like ligaments to hold ittogether. I moved in again, tearing at the vines around its elbow just to show Cora what we needed to do. She attacked at the knee, ripping at the wood and plant matter. One more strike and it lost an arm. One more for her and it was down a leg, the knee joint completely destroyed. When it collapsed to the ground I crawled in behind it slowly and tore out the back of its neck, the head rolling off and away toward my mate. Cora shifted back and stood, nude and proud, one foot on the head of the giant.

I panted softly, shifting back myself and standing up, nearing exhaustion. It had taken so much out of me just dodging back and forth with the thing. We stood for a few moments just staring at our felled foe before we heard the painful screech of an ancient, iron gate swinging slowly open behind us. I turned to look at it as Cora peered around me to see what was beyond the gate. It glowed with fungus, brilliant blues, greens, pinks, and whites, a path of moss behind the gate.

“Let’s go,” Cora said tiredly. I nodded and held my hand out for her and she took it and together we walked through. We stepped into the path, stepping over a line of mushrooms in front of us. As we did a woman in pale green stepped toward us from seemingly out of nowhere.

“Welcome!” Her voice was warm and inviting and I smiled a little at her, nodding. Her skin was a shade of almost imperceptible green, the shadows playing on her face the only true indication that it wasn’t a normal skin tone. “Very impressive. You’ve made it! May I have the names of the champions from beyond?” She asked.

“Weston Silverstreak,” my voice came out exhausted and she wrote it down on a piece of parchment with a pen made of glass.

“And the lady?” She turned her attention to Cora curiously.

“Cora Onyxian.” She replied. She looked as tired as I felt.

“Wonderful! Feel free to pass through. You’re welcome here. Anything you seek you can find if you look hard enough!” Hervoice was so chipper and upbeat that it almost made me more tired. “Although you look ever so tired. Let me show you the hospitality of a place to rest for a while before you move on. Something to eat, perhaps! It’ll be mushrooms, of course. Ever so good for you,” she led us toward a hut carved straight from the heart of one of the tree height mushrooms nearby, a glowing flesh toned creation. I loved it. As we walked toward it a creature of light, a little sea slug made of wisps and membranes floated past us through the air. What was this place?

“This is your home?” She asked, and the creature nodded.

“You can call me Lilly. This is all of our homes.” She replied simply. She tucked the small paper into the belt she wore around her waist covered in small pouches which seemed to contain herbs and crystals from what I could see poking out of them. “We sort of share here.” She explained, and honestly, I didn’t care what she meant by that. I just followed her into the hut.

Inside of the place was huge compared to the outside, wooden spiral staircases towering above us. The whole upper level seemed to be floor after floor of papers and pages and books. I wondered what kind of knowledge was locked up there. Down where we were seemed to be a small, precious kitchen with wooden counters, a shining copper stove, and herbs hanging from the shelves above where mushrooms were carefully labeled in jars in a language I couldn’t understand. It should have been cozy but it made me uneasy, like something was just slightly off about the place.

“Tea and soup for the tired champions!” Lilly announced, dipping a tea kettle into a barrel of water nearby and setting it on the stove to heat. The inside of the stove flared to light and as we waited for the kettle to boil she sat us at a small table. On it were just tea cups and spoons. “I’ll put some soup on. It’ll only take a tick!” She smiled and returned to the kitchen, humming as she worked.

“Are we sure this is a good idea?” I asked, and my mate shook her head slowly.

“But we don’t have a choice. I can’t go on without rest and food and I’m willing to bet you can’t either.”

Chapter thirteen

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