The Rivals Ch. 01: Dark Encounters

For now, he decided to be pleasant. He gave a courteous bow. "Well met, fierce lady," he proclaimed. "I am Sligh. A scholar and an explorer."

If she was impressed by his manners her response didn't show it. She merely grunted. "Temple-robber and lecher, you mean." Nevertheless, she was eyeing his tall form appreciatively: the lean, handsome face and shoulder-length dark hair, the tall frame with its broad shoulders and slim waist, the easy grace with which he moved, the outline of the meat against his thigh. Still, her eyes lingered last, and longest, on the pair of long, heavy daggers sheathed on either hip.

She appeared to reach a decision about him. "My name is Avilia. This is my spear. Remember that, if not my name." Turning, she knelt down by the dark hole again and drew out a small coffer, which she placed on a broken pillar. "What do you make of this, oh wise scholar and explorer?"

Sligh was impressed. The coffer was made from heavy stone, and the woman -- Avilia -- had lifted it with one hand. That slim form held considerable strength, he realised.

Still, his interest in her body made place for curiosity about the box. It was decorated with reliefs of the dual suns on its top, with the more abstract patterns of the late Fourth Empire wrapping around its sides.

"Careful now." He waived Avilia's hands away as she reached for the lid. "Remember what I said about traps? Watch this."

Taking a small grey pebble from the pouch on his belt, he held it close to the coffer. At first nothing happened, then it began to pulse with a faint greenish light. Sligh explored the outside of the coffer with it, watching where the light grew brightest. When he found the right spot, he pressed the pebble against the carved stone. The light increased, pulsing brighter and brighter, then steadied. The pebble was hot to the touch. He quickly dropped it back into his pouch, and grinned at Avilia. "That's going to make a nice trap one day."

The woman's face had a slightly pale cast to it. Again she reached out, and again he waived her away. Instead of lifting the lid, he knelt down and inspected the stone box closely. "Ah, here we are..."

He rose again and pressed against two sides, and was rewarded with a faint "click". When he lifted the lid, it came off in two parts. Inside the coffer, they now saw a mechanism with springs and sharp blades. The discoloured edges spoke of an ancient venom.

The split lid, however, yielded a more interesting find. A gold disc, radiating straight lines, shone up at them. The workmanship was plainly visible from the delicacy and proportions.

"One sun," Avilia said. "I thought this was the Temple of the Two Suns? All the images I've seen were of two suns."

It was true. All the carvings, all the reliefs, all the faded frescos depicted the dual suns: one a full circle, emitting rays all around, and one bisected by a horizontal line, the rays emitting only from the upper half.

Sligh pursed his lips. Where was the other sun? Another hidden compartment in the coffer? Clearly this disc was a ritual piece. So where was its mate?

He reached for the sun at the same time as Avilia did. Their hands touched as their fingers closed around the golden disc, and the woman glared at him. He smiled his most gracious smile and withdrew his hand. "Be my guest." He felt her touch linger on his fingers.

Her face still fierce, Avilia took the gleaming disc from its stone tray and lifted it into the light. As she did so, Sligh gave a sudden laugh. "There it is!"

The reverse of the full sun was the bisected sun. How it was possible Sligh didn't know. From his side, the disc had a wide line running across it, with wavy rays shooting from the upper half. But when Avilia turned it round, the rays were straight and ran all round the disc, without the horizon.

For a few moments they played around with it, taking turns handling the talisman and looking at it from both sides. They were both grinning. Then Avilia flipped the disc to Sligh.

"You hang on to this, and let's see what else we can find." He looked a question at her, and she shrugged. "Clearly we need to find more loot, because we can't divide that trinket between us. And I trust you with it," she bared her teeth, "because I can kill you if you try anything."

Sligh slid the gold talisman into his tunic with a shrug. He was surprised to feel a thrill running through him at her words.

***

Some time later they were standing before a small opening in one of the chamber walls. A recessed statue had swivelled, with some pushing, to reveal a dark passage. They exchanged a glance, then Avilia stepped forward, spear at the ready. She heard Sligh follow a pace behind. The glowstone in his hand cast shadows on the rough stone wall. The silence was oppressive.

"Is it setting or rising?" she asked, more to hear a sound than because she was really interested. "The second sun."

"Both," Sligh replied behind her. "Or neither, as such. The dual suns are the sun high in the sky, and the sun on the horizon." They continued for a few steps, then he added, "Some scholars argue that the high sun represents life, and the other one stands for death and rebirth." A few more steps. "Others say they represent summer and winter, for what that's worth."

Again they walked. "And?" she asked after a moment.

"And by the end of the Fourth Empire, when the cult flourished here, most priesthoods were concerned less with belief, and more with power and wealth. And with protecting it. Stop."

She stopped, and he stepped past her. He smelled nice, she thought, for someone who'd been travelling in the wilds. Hastily she pulled her thoughts away and focused on what the man was pointing at.

It was a set of carvings, high up on one wall. The regularity implied a pictorial form of script. Sligh was peering up, holding the glowstone above his head and murmuring to himself.

"What is it?" she asked. She tried to sound calm.

"Some kind of warning." He turned to look at her, frowning. "Something about the mind, or the spirit, or perhaps feelings. And something about hunting. Or maybe eating."

She raised her eyebrows at him. "Your scholarliness seems to be letting you down."

The man gave a sigh. It was, she thought, perhaps the first genuine reaction he'd displayed so far. She willed herself not to look down at the outline of his cock in his tight breeches.

"It seems to be a variation of the standard glyphs," he said, swinging back to look again. "Perhaps for use by the priesthood only."

"Maybe if you had a closer look...?" she suggested, a faint hoarseness in her throat, and was rewarded when he stretched up on his toes. The view from behind was just as mesmerising as from the front. She barely registered his disappointed announcement that he saw nothing new.

When he turned round again, she hastily looked away down the passage. "Very well," she said. "We'll be alert to feelings of hunger. Or philosophical hunters."

They continued along. The passage grew colder, the walls clammy with damp. Even so, nothing lived here, not even any insects or spiders. They found themselves speaking as little as possible, and then only in whispers.

At length the passage ended in an open doorway, framed with carved and decorated stone. It was the same abstract style as the patterns on the stone coffer they'd found earlier, but somehow menacing. Beyond was blackness.

They stepped up to the doorway side by side, their shoulders touching. Avilia recalled how it had felt with his body atop hers, pressing against her arse, and fought down a shiver. Now was not the time to be distracted.

A large cavern yawned before them, the floor perhaps twice their height below them and the roof invisible above.

"There's something here," Avilia murmured, at the same time as Sligh pointed to one corner and whispered, "Gold!"

The word drove the unease from her mind. She clutched at his arm with her free hand, feeling the wiry muscle through the leather of his jacket. "Where?" she asked.

He pointed again. "Down there!"

He was right, there was a faint glimmer. He was already drawing a cord from around his waist -- she was reminded again that he'd come much better prepared than she. It was knotted at regular intervals, she saw, as he held it up. "Climb down," he instructed. "I'll hold the rope."

He was wearing that smile again. Perhaps he thought he could charm his way past her distrust, if not into her breeches. "You climb down," she countered. "I can hold the rope."

In the end they tied the rope around a protruding piece of stonework. Avilia agreed to go first, but demanded the gold disc before she went. Sligh ruefully agreed, and she placed her spear against the wall of the passage, tucked her glowstone in her pouch and climbed down.

At the bottom, she took the stone out again and looked round, making sure to cast a casual glance up as Sligh made his way down. His leather breeches stretched admirably around his thighs and arse.

He landed next to her and grinned. "See anything interesting?" It was clear he wasn't referring to the gold, and she felt that same shiver run through her. It's been so long since anyone pleasured me but myself!

Suddenly the feeling of unease swept over her again. "We're not alone down here!" she whispered.

Sligh clearly felt it too. He peered around, holding his own glowstone up, and not looking at the corner where they'd spotted the glimmer of gold.

"A mellix," he breathed, then added, "a fear-eater."

"Never heard of it," she whispered back. "Is it dangerous?"

"A kind of demon. I realised what the warning was about, but I thought it would be dead by now, or gone." He was still peering into the darkness. Avilia could make out a black shape, the size of a cooking pot perhaps, darker than the rest. "The name isn't strictly speaking correct. They feed on any kind of emotion, and take physical shape accordingly. There are tales of decadent enchanters who would summon mellix-demons for orgies and... Well, you can imagine."

She closed her eyes. The image was both horrifying and strangely arousing. "So what do we do about it? Let it fuck us to death?"

"We get the gold and get out, that's what we do!" Sligh turned away, and moved to the corner where the gleam had been.

Avilia didn't hesitate. She tucked her glowstone away and took a stride towards the rope. Leaping high, she grabbed it and began to climb quickly up. By the time Sligh looked round to see what was happening, she was at the top and pulling the cord up.

"What are you doing?" he called, striding to stand below her. She saw that he held a fistful of gold coins.

"You knew that thing was down there," she replied. "And you wanted me to go in by myself without warning me." She unbuckled her belt and began to unlace her breeches. "So maybe this demon can give you what you thought you could get from me."

Stripping her breeches down to below her knees, she knelt on the stone by the hole, legs spread as far as she could manage. Sligh gazed up, visibly caught up but clearly also worried. "Avilia," he began, but she interrupted.

"Do you like what you see?" She ran a finger down along her slit. "I admit, I'm already wet. You have a nice arse." One finger slipped inside her, then another, and she moaned quietly. Was it her imagination, or was that an echoing moan coming from the darkness?

Sligh must have heard it too, because he gave a quick look over his shoulder, then leaped at the wall. His fingers were far short of the ledge.

They were nice fingers, and Avilia imagined how they'd feel on her naked skin. "If you can make it up here," she whispered down at him, "you can have me. That's what you want, isn't it? My body, my pussy," she reached round behind her with one hand, "my arse?"

There was movement in the darkness now, a sense of something wakening from a deep slumber, growing. The look on Sligh's face was very worried now. "Throw down the rope!" he pleaded.

But Avilia was caught up in her own pleasure. Arousal seemed to be welling up inside her, and flooding in from the darkness. "My pussy, my arse!" she whimpered as her fingers plunged in and out of her holes. "My pussy, my... aahhh!" The explosion hit her hard and fast, leaving her gasping and shaking and struggling not to fall forwards.

Sligh was standing with his back to the cavern wall, gazing up at her. She could see the outline of his swollen cock fighting against the constraining leather. "The rope!" he called again. "Avilia, the rope!"

She stood, hauling up her breeches. "Goodbye, Sligh the Slimy. Perhaps you'll enjoy being fucked to death by the demon." She was reaching for her spear when he called out again.

"Zretha," he said, and she stopped.

"What?"

"My riding-lizard. Zretha." There was resignation in his voice now. "She's waiting outside, by the old road. Take the saddle and harness off her before you go, so she can fend for herself."

"Your lizard?"

He didn't reply. She looked down. Long tentacles were creeping over the ground towards him out of the darkness. Tentacles that ended in what appeared to be hands, cocks, tongues, all reaching for the lean form pressed against the stone.

"You fucker!" Just when she'd made up her mind that he was an awful person... She hurled the rope down at him, together with some choice curses. As soon as he grabbed it, she began to haul it up.

Moments later he pulled himself over the ledge. He winced as the bulge in his breeches caught on the stone, she noticed with satisfaction. Then she dragged him further into the passage, aiming a kick at a swollen cock with a massive purple head that appeared beside him. "Come on, let's go!"

He staggered to his feet, and together they dashed away from the ravening horror below.

***

When they emerged from the low tower the sun was nearing the horizon. How appropriate, Avilia thought. "Here we are then," she said.

Those were the first words either had spoken since they'd fled from the fear-eater's dick-headed tentacles. Sligh's only reply was a grin, then he reached out a hand for her arse. She slapped it away.

"No," she said firmly. "I'm going to climb those stairs to my roc, and you're going to find your precious lizard -- who gives a lizard a name, anyway? We go our separate ways. You keep the coins you found, and I keep the sun-disc." She stared at him defiantly.

For a moment it seemed that he was going to protest, to try to seduce her. Certainly the bulging outline in his breeches didn't suggest that he was going to take her refusal lying down. Then he shook his head and turned away without a word.

Avilia watched him go, then entered the tower again and began to climb the stairs. Perhaps we'll meet again one day, she thought. He really does have nice legs and a fine arse.