Post date: Jun 5, 2016 3:10:31 PM
Caradorynee: Feats & Wagers
#10
Lark’s body had almost entirely faded when he felt the unmistakable weight and pull of a pair of Shegata shackles clamp around his ankles. His paper-thin Human skin burned fiercely as the energy pulsing through the shackles began to weave up his legs.
Lark’s body immediately solidified.
He turned his head to meet the squinty eyes of a Duracka wagering enforcer. A young hireling meant to keep a close watch on the wagers.
Lark’s Dueanian blood, along with the fact that he’d put down a massive wager, had singled him out for special observation.
Lark swallowed. He knew this would happen. He’d risked everything and he knew full well the consequences of his actions.
Lark wet his dry lips and returned his gaze to the Human girl still trapped in the maze. She was now on her feet. Alive. But for how much longer?
Star gasped again as a pair of yellow glowing eyes pierced her with a murderous glare.
How in the hell could anything have survived the incinerating heat of the eruption of a lava boil?
Yet the Pouriecolt, now reduced to a skeleton form, still appeared to have life coursing through the bleached white bony structure.
Star turned and desperately scanned the pathway forward in the maze.
Could she lose the Pouriecolt in the weaving tunnels? Could she run fast enough to the next corner and somehow hide herself behind one of the ash walls? And even if she did, would she then be able to find her way out of the maze?
Or should she stand and fight?
With what?
She only had her knife, and of course ‘Mr. Bladey’. But still, either weapon would mean she would have to be extremely close to the beast. And exactly what was she supposed to attack? The creature was nothing more than a bunch of bones. There was no flesh to penetrate, no hide to slice open.
She did have her grappling towline. She’d used it to her advantage against a Pouriecolt in the competitor’s battle. Could she do so again?
A shrill cry had Star whipping her head back around just in time to witness a Tooacua being eviscerated by the skeleton Pouriecolt.
Tooacua blood and chunks of flesh splattered Star’s face seconds before the lava boil erupted once more.
Searing heat scorched Star’s eyeballs. Drawing out the moisture in her tissue and making her eyes sting.
Star swallowed her fear but did not hesitate further. She turned away from the now spewing plume of lava and the savage Pouriecolt. Making an instant decision to take whatever corner was next offered her, Star sprinted down the maze tunnel.
There were more horrifying sounds behind her as she ran. Star could only guess that other competitors were falling to the same fate as the Tooacua or were hastily making their retreat backwards.
Star didn’t care. The more creatures that came across the skeleton Pouriecolt the better. It wasn’t a nice thing to think, but their deaths may mean she lived.
The tunnel veered right, then right again, and then a wall of ash brick abruptly halted Star’s momentum.
“Shit!” Star cursed.
The pathway to the left at the beginning of the maze had after all lead to nothing more than a dead end.
Star turned back around. She could hear the Pouriecolt roaring. There were other terrifying sounds as well indicating that the beast was still engaged in some form of fierce battle.
Star faced the wall again.
What were her options? Back or…
Star looked up.
The wall stood close to eight or ten feet high. Too high for her to run and jump up to catch the top edge and then climb over.
She quickly gripped her knife tightly in her fist and stabbed at the ash brick. It would take some effort but she could gouge holes in the brick to form footholds.
The effort would take too long.
Star took a deep breath and tried to calm her racing heart.
Think! Think! Think!
The idea of using her grappling towline to scale the wall was the obvious course of action, but she no longer had a grappling hook, so the towline would be useless. Unless she could find something to attach to the end.
Star searched the maze floor for a chunk of ash brick. None were available.
She could tie her knife to the end and then toss the knife over the top edge of the wall.
Would the knife lodge itself into the wall deep enough so that it could support her weight as she climbed? Doubtful.
Unsure of how much time she had left before the Pouriecolt dispatched all creatures that came upon it, Star hastily plunged the knife into the wall as high as she could and then reached over her shoulder and unsheathed ‘Mr. Bladey’.
“Looks like it’s just you and me,” she said to the short blade.
Then she grasped the knife still suck into the ash brick wall with her left hand and hoisted herself upward, plunging ‘Mr. Bladey’ into the ash brick with her right hand.
The agonizing sharp pain in the muscles of her left shoulder had Star crying out in pain. Tears welled in her eyes and she panted hard.
Pulling the knife out despite the burning in her left shoulder, Star hiked her weight upward so that she could once more plunge the knife into the maze wall.
Gripping the wall with the toes of her hiking boots she leaned against the wall and extracted ‘Mr. Bladey’. Then repeated the action again and again.
Sweat poured from Star’s brow. It ran in rivulets down the sides of her face and dripped off the end of her chin. She could feel her hands becoming slick and increasingly found it difficult to hold onto her knife and ‘Mr. Bladey’.
Still Star pulled ‘Mr. Bladey’ out of the ash brick wall once more. A muscle in her injured left shoulder cramped and Star felt her whole arm begin to go numb. Desperately she drove ‘Mr. Bladey’ back into the wall, only mere inches higher than where she’d extracted it.
She let go of the knife and strained to pull her entire weight upward with only her right arm. Praying her right arm would hold out she gripped the wall with her boots and pushed and then supported her body weight on the tips of her toes.
She was close to the top of the wall, only a few feet more.
Could she reach the top with her left arm?
Star stretched out her arm and gasped as another cramp, this time in her pectoral muscle, almost rendered her unconscious. Her fingertips grazed the top edge but the pain stopped her from reaching further.
Star flattened her left hand against the wall and pressed her body into the ash brick. She sucked in a deep breath and began panting harder. The pain in her chest eased slightly, but Star knew she had little strength left. Maybe just enough in her torso and legs so she’d be able to push herself upward. Slowly she straightened her bent knees. Then her legs until they were stretched out as far as they could go.
She tried again to lift her left arm. Her fingers inching along the wall.
Another form of roar reached Star’s ears.
It was the crowd and the crowd was cheering loudly.
Star’s heart beat even faster.
The crowd’s excitement could only mean that the Pouriecolt had finally finished off the last of the competitors. How much time did she have before it located her?
Having reached the end of her options Star braced her feet against the wall and pushed herself upward. She let go of ‘Mr. Bladey’ and desperately groped for the top edge of the ash brick wall.
Star’s right hand grazed the top of the wall and with her last bit of strength she dug her now broken fingernails into the brick.
When she didn’t fall backwards to the ash covered ground and her death, Star sucked in a breath and began pushing against the wall with her feet. The action propelled her another few inches up the wall, just enough so that she could hook her left arm around the top edge.
Pain jutted to her elbow and then her forearm but Star fought the urge to yank back her arm or let go of the wall.
Hanging on the wall by only her upper arms and shoulders, Star pushed with all her might with her right arm until she was able to get her butt up onto the top of the wall.
Adrenaline pumped through her as she rolled into her knees and then stretched out her arms.
She glanced to her right to gauge where the Pouriecolt was and saw it swivelling it’s massive head from side to side.
It lifted it’s head and appeared to be sniffing the air, but instead of lurching in the direction of where she was, the creature only shook it’s bony head.
Not wanting to hang around to find out if the creature’s eyesight had been as affected as it’s sense of smell, Star reached down and grasped ‘Mr. Bladey’. The knife was too far for her to retrieve so Star carefully got to her feet and without haste began to run along the top of the maze ash brick walls.
©Human in Inhuman Worlds by Janet Merritt