Enchanted Ch. 12

Steff bristled. "I can make it, sure as my legs made of wood it won't slow me done none."

Red frowned and then nodded. "All right, but you come last, like before."

"Aye, I'll keep our rear guarded," Steff said. She caught Little Red's eye and added, "Seems some need more care taken with their rears then others."

Red scowled and turned away. She reached for the ladder and, after testing the wood and noting a few fresh repairs made with small vines wrapped around both steps and the frame, she took her first step up it.

They waited for her to climb the length of it and held their breath when she had to pass a broken rung or slowed to make sure the ladder wouldn't break. Once she'd made it to the same ledge Zynga was on she motioned for John to follow.

They worked up the cliff side one ladder after one set of stairs at a time. No more than a single person was on the aged and decrepit constructions at once. By the time they reached the top of the cliff the sun was high overhead and lit up a pond that fed the waterfall. The overgrown trail continued along the water's edge and led to the ruins of a small collection of huts and the remains of a single long hall. The posts of a long ruined dock rose above the water, as did the husks of two small canoes on the rocky shore.

"This is it then," Red said and looked to John.

"I expect it is," he agreed. "The jungle behind them looks like it's eating the huts on that side."

"Webs," Zynga said. "Spider webbing stretching into and between them."

"Spiders?" Little Red asked and took a step back.

"Spiders are small, just don't let them bite you. Most aren't poisonous," John reassured her.

"You haven't seen the size of those webs yet," Zynga warned.

John frowned and looked to Red. "I think the ruins of that long hall? But I'd hate to miss something of value in a hut."

"One at a time," Red said. "There's what, a dozen huts left? Of those three still standing proper? If Billie's here, where's he hiding?"

"Maybe he came to get what he could and then left?" Steff asked. "Another way off the island or a second hideaway?"

"Through spider infested jungle?" Little Red asked and shuddered.

"No way of knowing from here," Red said. She drew her saber and said, "Let's go, weapons at the ready."

John tightened his grip on his spear and stirred the magic inside of him. It was ready to explode. More than ready, it yearned to burst forth. Steff readied her curved blade and Little Red produced twin daggers that had been tucked into sheaths sewn into the back of her vest.

Seeing them ready, Red led the way forward and John moved to stand beside her now that the growth was little more than long grasses and weeds. The first hut had a wall toppled inward on the lake side. The door had rotted and fallen apart, leaving little inside save for leaves and clumps of grass that found a way to take seed on the dirt floor. A crushed chest lay under the fallen wall. Steff tugged at it but couldn't get it to budge. A kick with her peg smashed in the rotted wood but left her with nothing save some beetles and centipedes scurrying to find a new home.

The next hut was in better shape, though the door had fallen off its ties and was falling apart. The remains of a pallet could be made out on the ground, complete enough bones to know a person had died there. Their chest was open, the top having rotted and fallen to the ground behind it. Inside there was some moldy... something. John tried to collect it but whatever it was had faded with age and fell apart.

"Maps or something," John guessed. "Maybe some letters or a book?"

"Aren't you after books?" Red asked.

John nodded and continued to poke around. "Yes... but there's nothing I can do if they haven't survived. I... what's this? Oh, here's something."

John rooted around in the detritus and plucked out several coins, one after another. They were blackened with jungle rot clinging to them, making it impossible to tell what they were, but they were small, some the size of his thumbnail and others a little larger.

Red looked at them and took one when he stood up. She'd sheathed her saber so she could dig at it with her fingers. Rather than clean it she spread the slimy dirt across its surface.

"That's all there is here," John said.

She grunted and led them to the water's edge. She knelt down and washed the coin in it. She even pressed it against the rocky ground and scrubbed the dirt against it. She pulled it out of the water and looked at it a moment before grinning. "This is a golden tiger of Semidia. How many do you have?"

John looked at the coins in his hand. "I've got about eight of the small ones, thirteen large ones."

"Those will be silver jackals, most like," Red said.

"Semidia... I've heard of that. A kingdom, isn't it?" John asked.

"It was," she agreed. The king got greedy and was deposed. Nobody could agree on who or how to replace him though. Seems the greed was shared. A half dozen cities claimed they were the new capital and after a long and usually bloodless war, they gave up. They're little more than city-states now to the north of here along the peninsula."

"Are they worth anything?" Steff asked. "Gold is gold, right? Same as silver?"

"They'll spend the same as any," Red agreed.

"Well, that's a fine start then," Steff offered.

"It's a far cry from the treasures I'd hoped for... or enough to pay the crew wages for the time spent so far."

"We've barely begun to search," John reminded them. "The best us sure to come."

"What was that?"

Little Red asked as her head snapped to look out at the pond.

"What?" Red and John asked in unison.

"Fish jumped," Steff suggested as they saw a ring of ripples spreading out from near the center of the pond.

Red stood up and turned to John. "Hand me those coins, I'll keep them in a pouch so we can keep track of what we've got.

John held them out and, when she dug out a pouch and opened it, he poured them in. A disturbance in the water drew his attention and caused him to drop two coins in the water's edge as he looked at it.

"Damn it, John, pay attention!" Red snapped. She bent down while John stared at the water and saw the water ripple in nonsensical patterns.

"What— Red! Move!"

Red twisted her head and saw the water bulging up as something raced through it toward her. She cursed and thrust her hand down, scooping up coins and pebbles alike.

John summoned his magic and readied it, though for the life of him he didn't know what to do with it. Was it the water sprite again? Had she come back already?

Water sprayed at them as a serpentine shape burst toward them. Red tried to leap away but she was bent over and off balance. It slammed into her and knocked her sprawling to the beach. Blood splattered the rocky shore, running from a gash on her hip caused by the claw at the end of the tentacle. Before she could crawl away it wrapped around her ankle and started to pull, dragging her back into the water before anyone could react.

Steff rushed forward, running in a strange but fast gait on her wooden leg. She slashed at the tentacle but the rubbery skin was tough and wet. Her blade did little more than score it. Red was jerked in deeper by a reflexive sudden contraction.

Red flung her coin purse onto the bank and reached down to draw her dagger. She stabbed and slashed, trying to cut the tentacle free. Each attack left an angry gash but she could not convince it to let her free, let alone sever the sinuous appendage.

"John!" Little Red screamed as she waded into the water grabbed her sister under the shoulders. "Help her!"

John focused his magic and thought of several ways to make it work for him. Lubricating her boot so the tentacle slipped free was one, or maybe causing her boot to fall off her leg. He could give Red great strength for a short time or make her grow or shrink. The problem was, she'd resisted his magic and trying anything on her now would have been shrugged aside at worst, barely effective at best.

That left him with the tentacle. He could try to over stimulate the tentacle to make it numb or try to freeze or boil the water along its length. He could do a lot with his magic, but it required a connection to the recipient. Whatever creature this tentacle came from was unlikely to be interested in letting him make that connection. With the water sprite he'd caught her off guard in the heat of the moment. With this thing...well.. there was nothing amorous or distracting about it. He couldn't even try to contest magic against magic... this was just a tentacle.

Lacking a better idea, John ran into the water beside Steff and swung his spear at the tentacle. The blade bit deep until the cross blade stopped it. John pulled his spear back at the same time the tentacle jerked Red deeper into the now red stained water.

They felt as much as heard a high pitched buzz. The water vibrated, the surface tension broken by the strange noise coming within. Two more tentacles burst forth and left wakes in the water as they rushed toward them.

"Do some—" Little Red shouted and then shrieked as a tentacle grabbed her around the waist. She was jerked off her feet and splashed into the water.

John growled and let his magic fill him. He couldn't help Red and he couldn't do anything to the tentacles. He could do something to himself though.

John's body swelled and expanded. Magic filled the gaps while he grew larger and larger. He towered over the water, twice as tall as Red. His spear had remained the same size but his hand was twice as big and made swinging it as easy as waving a quill. He swung down, hard, and severed the tentacle holding Red's leg.

Red collapsed in the water and then scrambled up to her feet and back. She scooped up her saber and looked around. "Mare!" she screamed before wading into the water.

John went after Steff and the tentacle she was battling. Her sword kept the claw at the end of the tentacle away every time it darted toward her. While she kept the tentacle at bay the water was slowing her and she was slowly moving deeper into the water. It wouldn't be long before she'd be too deep in the water and remember she couldn't swim. Then it would have her.

John grabbed the rubbery arm and yanked it back away from Steff. It wasted no time and turned and coiled around him, constricting his arm like a python. John growled and thrust the quad-bladed point into the meat of the tentacle just beyond where he held it. His blade pierced it through and through, impaling it.

John channeled magic through his spear, electrifying the arm from the inside. The grip on his arm tightened for a heartbeat and then relaxed and fell limp. John pulled hard against it and sawed his spear blade until he cut his way out one half of it. The tentacles tugged back away from him, sliding free and back into the depths.

"John!" Little Red cried again.

"Stop! Wait!" A man's voice cried from the village behind them.

Little Red's shout was exhausted and weak, John ignored the man and ran after her, sinking deeper into the pond with each step until it was up to his chest. Her hand broke the surface again, she was only a few feet away! John swam forward and grabbed her arm, wrapping his large fingers around her arm.

John pulled on her and managed to gain some ground. He lifted up and pulled her head above the water to let her spit and sputter.

"John!" she gasped. "It hurts!"

"I've got you," he said and took a step so he could wrap his arm under her shoulders and hold her head above water. The monster tugged back, nearly pulling her free from his grasp.

John clenched his teeth and tugged back, earning a scream from Little Red. He held steady and set his feet into the bottom of the lake. They sank through the layer of silt and mud and then held against the denser rocks beneath. The water was cold too, which John hadn't noticed until now.

"John..." Little Red panted and moaned.

"Hold your breath," John warned her. "I'll go under with you and I'll cut your free."

She panted and spit at the water that kept slipping into her mouth as she shook her head. "No... John... I... let me go."

"No!" he growled.

Another tentacle slithered around his leg and tugged on him. He held fast against it but he knew he wouldn't be able to last.

"I'm dying," she said. "John... I'm dying. Oh saints..."

John stiffened and then slipped as the tentacle on his leg managed to jerk his foot several inches through the silt. "I'll get you free, hold on!"

She twisted her head and shuddered. Little Red coughed and spit again. This time what came out was red. She shuddered and jerked in his arms. When her brief fit ended she gasped and said, "It's inside me!"

"It— what?" John stammered.

"Save me," she wheezed. "Make it stop... Take it away. I know you can."

"I'll get it off, just hold on."

She shuddered and let out a grunt. "Hurts so bad! End it... for me. Take me. Take me into you. I felt it... I know you can. Hurry... make me part of you forever. Be. My. Champion."

Little Red jerked in his arm again and coughed up more blood into the water.

"No!" John said. Tears streamed down his face.

Her hand grabbed his arm holding his spear and pulled it between them. She arched her neck and nodded. She mouthed the words, "Kill me," through bloodstained lips.

John bowed his head and kissed her forehead. His tears fell on her cheeks as he jabbed his spear into her upper back. The blade slid between her spine, ending her pain in a burning flash before it sank into her heart and forced the tortured muscle to rest. Little Red's eyes widened so much all he could see was black... then she smiled and gave her soul over to him.

What little energy she had left flooded through his spear and rushed in to restore his waning magic. He hadn't realized how much power he'd used until now. Her life force burned away his tears and grief, fueling the magic and making them partners in rage again.

Her body was yanked from his arms. A moment later the tentacle on his leg yanked again, tugging him toward the center of the pond.

John's magic raced inside of him. The link to Little Red was gone. All that she'd been was inside him now, reduced to magic that he'd carry with him for the rest of his life. Her body and mind had been taken from him. This monster had stolen something that was his! He used the magic to re-double his strength and not his size this time. He thrust down and stabbed into the tentacle. Two more thrusts were needed before it let go of him and recoiled.

John didn't let it though. He grabbed the tentacle in his free hand and held fast. He sucked in as much air as he could and dove under, letting the tentacle pull him this time. It retracted quickly, whipping him through the water and trying to shake him loose. John held fast and saw the bulbous mass at the middle where the tentacles rose out. A gaping circle of a mouth opened and shut, showing rows of teeth like a shark. As John drew close to it other tentacles came for him. He ignored them, aside from the ones that held Little Red and pulled her through the water toward the central body.

John forced himself to look away from Little Red. Two tentacles had her leg, one on each, and a third was looped around her thigh and...and... it had thrust up into her, tearing through her pants and violating her.

Rage poured through John until he could barely see. He was pulled to the mouth first, a second tentacle constricting around his belly and squeezing tighter and tighter. John's anger and magic helped him ignore the pain as he was inverted and guided right toward the mouth. He snarled and brought his spear into a two handed grip inches away from his chest. He thrust up, stabbing the spear into the mouth and driving it into the soft tissue inside.

The tentacles squeezed and thrashed, trying to shake him apart. John unleashed his magic through his spear again, pouring eldritch power that electrified the monster from the inside and burned out its ability to feel and process those feelings.

The tentacles holding him went lax. John continued to wrench and grind the spear into the monster for several seconds until he realized he was free. John gave another jab and then ripped his spear free. He turned and swam up, directing himself toward Little Red and grabbing her as he passed. He pulled her free of the tentacle that was still buried within her. Nearly two feet of the rubber appendage slid free, squeezing his heart and making it ache even more than his lungs already did.

John broke free of the surface, kicking with his feet while he gasped for fresh air. He managed to get his feet under him and staggered forward, using his arm and spear to try and help pull him through the water.

He made it to the shore and collapsed to his knees. Little Red fell to the ground beside him while John gasped for breath on his hands and knees beside her. The magic slipped free of his grasp, pulling back into him and causing him to shrink back to his normal size. His robe had grown and shrank with him but he paid it no mind.

All John could think about was Little Red... the amazing, vivacious, stubborn young woman that had loved him so fiercely. She was gone forever.