Crimson Revenge - Payback in Blood. Part 6

Mengtao, Cazora and Saberhagen had entered the forest and its dark, dank fog.  Cazora reached into her pack, pulling out two pairs of goggles.  These weren't just any goggles.  These were enchanted vision goggles, built by Cazora herself.  Not many knew she was a brilliant engineer and a skilled enchantress of items.  She handed one pair to Mengtao and put on her own.  Pressing a few calibration buttons and turning the nobs until she could see very well.  She turned to Mengtao,  gently tugged his face down and calibrated his goggles.

"Better?" she asked him.

"Um..."  He stammered as he realized he had been staring at Cazora's chest during the calibrating. He began looking around. "Yes.  Much better!" he hoped she hadn't noticed his ungentlemanly eye gaze. The last thing he wanted to do was treat her as anything but the breath-taking creature she was.  A person that he respected immensely.

Cazora continued on, seemingly unaware of the wandering eyes.  She knelt down by Saberhagen and whispered to him.

"Sabey. Can you see in here?" she asked.  The large feline made a a short purr sound to acknowledge he could see very well. "Excellent." Caz whispered as she straightened up.  She looked over her shoulder to Mengtao who quickly began scanning the forest. Cazora smirked knowingly.  "Are we ready to continue?" she asked.

"Mmhmm" Meng nodded, grinning. "Lead the way, General Cazora." he gestured politely.

"That's General Cazora Starfall to you,  Commander." she teased. Meng grinned widely.

Cazora drew her golden bow,  'Wing Fury'. As she held it,  the two wings of the design began to flutter their feathers, as if they were alive.  Caz readied an arrow from her magic, never empty, quiver. The arrow she took was replaced instantly with another.

The trio made their way through the forest.  It was a twisted mess of roots, dead looking trees,  ugly mushroom and spore plants squirting their noxious clouds into the air.  The air was thick and musty.  The smell was of decaying and rotting plant matter, mildew,  and something else they just couldn't place. With the goggles on, the forest took on creepy purple and green hues. There were cockroaches, ants and insects scurrying around, their bodies mutated and grotesque.  Some had extra appendages, others had pulsating pustules all over their exoskeletons.

Cazora wrinkled her nose in disgust as she accidentally stepped on a particularly large and pus filled larva.  It's squishy squirt sounds echoed into the forest loudly.

Mengtao looked at Caz with horror and disgust on his face.  He was not a fan of bugs... or pus. Cazora raised her boot up and a thick string of pus dangled. Meng gagged loudly,  covering his mouth and nose and clenched his eyes shut.  "That's so disgusting!" he gasped.

"Ugh!" Caz frowned as she scraped her boot on a nearby tree root. "This place and all that dwell within are tainted." she said, scraping.

Saberhagen snuffed the air.  Saberhagen's heckles raised and he growled.  They were being watched by many eyes...

Cazora looked up from her scraping and saw several pairs of glowing eyes blinking at them. Several growls rumbled from the forest around them that were not Saberhagen.  Mengtao pulled his bo staff from his back and took his stance.  "Incoming." he whispered.

A large werewolf emerged from behind a gnarled tree and lunged at Meng with teeth and claws as two others crawled menacingly toward Caz, snarling and slavering.  Meng ducked gracefully, flattening his body, extending his leg and kicking the werewolf squarely in it's gut as it sailed over him.  It yelped in surprise and thudded heavily against a tree.  Cazora swiftly released two arrows in such swift succession, her arm was a blur as it loosed and reloaded.  The two werewolves that had been crawling toward her were snarling as they clutched at arrows sticking from their eye sockets, before falling limply on the ground.

Another werewolf jumped out of the trees to her left, but she turned right, shooting more arrows at new werewolves advancing.  Saberhagen appeared behind the werewolf, pouncing on the back of it's neck, breaking through the skin with his long pointed fangs.  The sound of a loud bony crunch emitted from the werewolf who slumped to the ground, his neck broken.  Saberhagen released the dead werewolf as he shimmered and disappeared once again.

The werewolf that had fallen against the tree, was getting ready for another lunge. Meng twirled in the air, kicking the werewolf multiple times in the jaw before landing and taking his stance again.  The werewolf didn't get back up.  Mentao rolled forward like a furry ball, knocking down a couple of werewolves as they emerged from hiding to attack.  They fell over flailing clumsily as Meng stood and turned swiftly, bo staff in hand, to knock them over the heads. Whack! Whack!

Cazora was showering arrows at the other glowing eyes in the forest.  Each arrow produced an angry scream or growl.  Meanwhile Saberhagen was slinking around, pouncing on the enemies from behind to snap their necks.  A few moments later, Meng, Caz and Saberhagen stood together in a circle of furry bodies, panting from the effort.  Nothing moved.  The other eyes had disappeared, fleeing into the trees.

"I guess they bit off more than  they could chew." Caz laughed and finished wiping the bug goo off her boot onto a dead werewolf.

"Indeed." Meng agreed, smiling, as he picked up his pack, re-slinging it onto his back.

Saberhagen was visible and nonchalantly licking blood off his paws.  Cazora patted him on the head.  Stepping over the circle of bodies, she led the way onward once more.

***********************************

Ravvyn had awakened from her sleep to find herself drooling a bit onto Joliset's fur.  Joliset was still asleep in her giant Dire Bear form and snoring loudly.  Ravvyn wiped her mouth, embarrassed.  She hadn't slept like that since she was a mere infant.  The fog was still very dense, but she could tell it was daytime from the slightly brighter hue above.  She stood, brushing off dirt and moss from sleeping on the ancient cobblestone covered ground.

After awhile she decided to awaken Joliset, so they could continue on their journey out of this evil place.  She patted Joliset, "Time to awaken."

But Joliset did not stir.

"Time to awaken, Joliset."  Ravvyn said as she shook the bear.

Still nothing.

Ravvyn was now worried.  "Joliset!  Wake up! Joliset!  Joliset!"  She shook and patted the great bear, opening it's eyelids to look at it's eyes.

Joliset stirred weakly.  Snuffed her bear nose, then tried to get up.  She seemed very disoriented to Ravvyn.  "Change into your humanoid form, Joliset.  Can you do that?"  Ravvyn asked, clearly concerned.  Slowly, the cloud surrounded Joliset as she changed into her humanoid form.  She lay limply in Ravvyn's arms.

Ravvyn gasped as she saw the claw marks on Joliset from the evil spirits the night before.  They had changed color and were now obviously infected or poisoned as the wounds pulsated with long dark veins radiating outward from the wound.  "You have been infected."  Ravvyn said to Joliset who fluttered her eyes and groaned, breathing in small wisps.

"Can you use your Earth Magics to heal yourself?" Ravvyn asked. Joliset moved her mouth weakly, trying to asnwer.  Ravvyn leaned in closer to hear what she was trying to say.

"D.... dy...ing."  Joliset said.

"No!!  You can't die!  We...  There must be something I can do."  Ravvyn stammered.

"H....old... me..."  Joliset managed, as she began to swirl into one last cloud.  Ravvyn clutched at Joliset's body and began to cry.  Her hands were closing together in the cloud until they clasped each other.  The cloud dissipated and she held something very small and light in her hands.

She sobbed at the loss of the only person who had ever shown her kindness in this life.  Even though they had only known each other for a short while, she had felt connected.  Like a sisterhood.  Tears dripped down her face as she looked down, slowly opening her hands.  She held a small acorn with a white stem. "Ussta... abbil.." she sobbed.  ('My friend', in Drow.)


(To be continued...)

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