The three gladiatrices tried to keep under the shade of the nearby plateau as they continued their journey towards the first batch of bandits Drisana wanted them to silence. The caravan mistress had given them free choice of gear to bring but due to the heat they were wearing only light clothing with miscellaneous pieces of leather armor and carrying few weapons between them, opting instead to load up on a little food and a lot of precious water for the journey across the hot sands.
Indas, who was up front, suddenly spotted something in the distance and signaled the sisters to a halt.
Up ahead was an almost clear patch of desert, with one ominous looking black obelisk in the middle. Someone was chained to it.
"I don't suppose we are about to stop helping strangers now are we?" asked Nessa sarcastically as she took the lead, advancing quickly but cautiously with her companions in tow.
Finally reaching the imposing stone they found a blonde and brutalized, naked woman chained to it. She was still breathing. Not wasting any time the gladiatrices began to hack at the chains, causing the captive to rouse from her unconsciousness.
"Run... it's... coming..." was all she could mutter as Indas managed to break a chain on her side.
The ground suddenly shook violently and from a distance, Nerith could see something moving underneath the sand heading straight towards them. They worked quicker on the chains, hacking free all but one attached to the woman's left leg before giving up to instead face whatever was coming towards them. Only two seconds later did slimy grey tentacles burst forth from the sand, squirming quickly at each of them but none managed to get close as they were hacked and parried back.
A second set of tentacles then emerged grabbing the ankles of each woman and the legs of the captive. Having had enough of this beast Indas reached down and flexing all her muscles, not only freed its grasp from her leg but managed to yank the creature's bulbous, disgusting sack of a body partially out to the surface. Confused, the monster let all the girls go as it desperately tried to burrow into the sand once more but Indas dug her feet in and pulled even stronger, exposing more of it to the surface. Able to see their foe clearly now, the sisters quickly went to work on it with their blades, stabbing, hacking and chopping at it until finally it exploded, covering them and the entire area in it's white, sticky entrails.
"That was disgusting," was all Nerith could say as she spat out some of the vileness that entered her mouth.
With the captive finally free they retreated back to the shade and gave her some water, spare clothes and time to recover. Eventually she was strong enough to talk.
"Thank you for rescuing me," she began. "I am Jasmine of Gedrin."
"What did you do to be chained out here?" asked Nerith.
"You don't know?" Jasmine asked, truly surprised. "That is the punishment of any mage is caught refusing to work for the wizard king."
She suddenly began to cry. "Please, my people. My village. They need your help."
"Here we go again," muttered Nessa to herself as she rolled her eyes.
"Wyrmias, the man that... did this to me... he and his soldiers are still there," continued Jasmine. "He is a sorcerer of the king."
No comments:
Post a Comment