Caleb's Journey
Chapter 26

Finding a legend

Finally, the group came to a point where the river flowed over a cliff. “There’s our waterfall,” Sir Kyme spoke.

“

Here the water ends,” remarked Lord Lestrade with the utmost seriousness. “Now, we simply must locate where they have imprisoned this giant. “Knights, fan out and look for an opening or a passage in the nearby hills. The first one to see something returns to this rally point, no shouting. We don’t want to lose the element of surprise. We have found the water’s edge and now we must work to claim our prize. Kyme, you take a detachment to the east. I will lead the group to the western hills.

Alari, who had the gift of keen eyesight due to her elven nature, shared her thoughts on the matter. “Don’t have your boys look too hard, boss knight. They aren’t likely to find anything obvious, like hello here are the big doors where behind we store a giant. Come on in. Besides, there is nothing that I can see in any direction that suggests a secret passage.”

“

Nor nothing I can smell,” Seth added.

“

A dead end at a dead end,” Sir Bix surmised. “There has to be some clue.”

“

You heard two of them, Bix, we’ve got to use our brains,” Sir Sneed commented.

Meanwhile, Caleb, who had paid little heed to what anybody had to say, rode his horse to the edge of the waterfall and dismounted. Next, he took out his rope and secured one end of it to a tree by means of a knot. He took the other end the rope and tied it securely around his waist. Walking to the edge of the cliff, the sound of rushing water drowning out most every other sound he began to lower himself down to a ledge that he spotted.

“

What is that boy doing?” Lord Lestrade asked. “This is no time for exploring. The giant must be in a cave. That is the only place large enough to secure a being of his stature.”

Malachael was ready with his dry reply, “Perhaps he is showing us the way.”

Seth ran over to the rope to hold onto it and protect his friend should the rope give out. He fed the slack to Caleb as he carefully lowered himself onto the ledge. To his surprise there was a large opening underneath the waterfall. “I see something! It’s a huge opening. Seth, tell everyone to come quickly. I think I found something.”

Upon hearing the news Candeallah praised the Goddess with fervent ardor as she rushed to the forefront of the group, her adventurous nature pushing her to be the second person down the rope. That and she felt overjoyed that her vision had proven to be true. Before anyone even had the opportunity to caution her, because many were securing their mounts, she bounded to the spot where the rope laid with all haste and began lowering herself as quickly as possible. Caleb, who had been keeping a watchful eye on anyone coming over the ledge, Candellah in particular, was ready and eager to take her in his arms as she reached the cliff. “That’s twice today that you’ve shown me kindness brave warrior. Many thanks, now let’s wait for the others.”

His face coloring, he replied “Take my torch, please. If you would be so kind as to wait nearer to the cave I’d be most grateful. I don’t want you slipping.”

To his words she bowed politely and went about placing herself as near to the opening as possible. “Goddess, be praised,” she said and she marveled at the sheer size of the opening. Time and water had smoothed out the rocks so that they were perfectly flat and formed into a kind of stone floor, almost like one had come to a great hall to which someone had forgotten to attach the doors or place any sort of courtly trappings about it.

As the others approached Caleb spoke words of caution, “The ledge is slick and narrow. Everyone be careful coming down. I’ll stay here to ease everyone besides Candellah’s descent. She’s already here. Seth, you serve as the anchor at the top. The rope is already tied to a tree. As you are the biggest and strongest, hold the slack to keep our friends safe from falling to their deaths. Once all are down safely climb down and join us.”

“

It’s just my luck being the strongest. Good thing I have sharp claws to help ease my own downward climb.” He chuckled because he thought Caleb was overly cautious.

“

We’ll have to huddle at the entrance of the cave until all are here,” Caleb said. “Then, we can light our torches and march forward. I’d like the ladies to be in the middle of our group as there is no telling what comes ahead or what lurks behind.”

To Lord Lestrade’s pleasant surprise Caleb had begun to take a leadership role. For a moment he saw flashes of Caleb’s father in the lad’s prompt problem solving. “If we succeed in this journey, perhaps he can be one of my protégés,” he thought.

Eventually the arduous task was completed, which improved the mood of all involved. They felt real progress had been made. Soon all present had lit torches and stood in a two person wide column so as to conceal their numbers to any onlookers. Flickering flames from their torches provided some light, but not for much more than twenty paces. The sound of water dripping from the top of the cave made splashing sounds into little pools that had formed along the lengthy corridor.

Alari beheld its great height and width and gasped, “It’s simply astounding. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Fantastic. It must have taken forever to dig this big of a hole, through solid rock, even if you were a scaly, snarl toothed dragon.”

“

It’s impressive to be sure. What say you, mage?” Lord Lestrade, in an effort to seem superior sometimes referred to Malachael’s past. “You’ve seen a thing or two in your darker days. How does this compare?”

“

I’ve seen big, dark holes before, and slain what resided in them,” was the only reply that he received.

Sir Kyme and Sir Vintus took the first two positions in line. Their torches gave some illumination. “Well, look at what lies ahead,” said Sir Vintus, “steps, great big huge steps. Unreal. This cave must be some three score tall and it’s going to get even bigger.”

“

Keep hold of yourself Vintus,” Lord Lestrade commanded. Then he marched to the front of the group to assess the situation. True enough, giant steps and more revealed themselves under the torchlight. Gigantic steps, a massive archway, smooth stone walls that showed faint signs of decay and being overgrown with moss in some parts all revealed themselves when viewed under the torchlight.

Malachael drank in every bit of the giant room as something holy, something to be revered. He summed it up with a single word, “Incredible,” escaped his thin lips almost like a whisper. Few things caught his attention to such an extent for all of his experiences. However, this was one of them.

“

Every work of the Goddess is fantastic, great and small,” said Candellah as she walked past him and put her warm, friendly hand on his shoulder. “They all represent Her magnificence equally. It doesn’t matter what value we place on them, for She created them with a specific purpose that lies beyond our limited comprehension.

“

Plays the part of priestess well,” thought Lord Lestrade.

“

Do you really think he lives here?” Bix questioned.

A deep, sonorous voice answered weakly, “I do.”

“

Come together everyone, at the center of the room,” commanded Lord Lestrade. “He lives!” Everyone brought their torches which more than illuminated the area, but only up to a height of about twenty feet. Stretching their arms to see more they collectively beheld giant, hairy legs, as thick as tree trunks shackled and suspended by thick chain links, as thick and heavy as an ogre’s arm, and sunken deep into the walls. Suspended in these shackles was a giant, emaciated, man. He bent down as best he could, which is to say he tilted his head downwards for his arms were equally fettered. As for the gargantuan male, he looked neither fearsome nor ferocious. Gaunt and humble, he looked like if they had cut him down, he would prostrate himself in the middle of the room and beg them for nourishment. He seemed like a creature more dead than alive. All wanted to free him, but nobody knew how.

“

Malakael, versed in the use of spells cast one of brightening so as to fill up the room with brilliant, white light. After years of living in darkness the giant recoiled from the white glow that emanated from floating, glowing orbs. The light revealed a sad sight, that of a once mighty creature now shriveled, blind, chained, wildly unkempt, marks on his body from where the worms feasted on him. Instead of the greatest and first of his kind he looked simply pathetic.

“

Let’s get him down.” Lord Lestrade ordered.

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Those are some thin looking chains,” Alari remarked. My dagger

should break those.

“

No you cannot,” Graygrim stated. As he spoke the whole group eyed him with both wonder and pity. Entrapped by his nature, they awaited his next words, while Candellah prayed for him. “Look at the inscriptions on the wall. The chains are activated by ancient runes. They tell you how to lower me to the ground so that I might touch my father and be made whole again. You must hurry before the worms come to feast on me again. When the accursed dragons imprisoned me they left me here to feed the giant black worms that reside here in these tunnels. Daily they drain me to the point of near death as they have for thousands of years.”

“

As I’ve hanged here I’ve had nothing but time to study and decipher the writing on the wall. Quickly touch the rune with the red stripe through the middle of it.”

Alari, who was fleet of foot, ran and slapped the appropriate stone with her delicate hand. Magic, which had lain dormant for millennia awakened and red beams of lightning began to surge from the tiny stone and the chains began to take on their color and shake ever so slightly. Behind the walls the links and gears that operated the chains creaked and groaned like an elderly person getting out of a chair, their ability to raise and lower having gone unused for so long made them even more sloth like than one would deem reasonable.

In the midst of this the giant seemed to be nervous as the ground began to tremble. “They’re coming,” his deep voice said with a boom.

“

Look,” remarked Sir Kyme, “giant worms are coming down all the passages that lead to this main room. Everyone looked about and saw the large, perfectly smoothed corridors. They froze briefly in horror at the sight of red, beady eyes, visible in the dark, drawing nearer at a surprising rate of speed, more like that of a rabbit than a giant slug. Closer and closer drew the worms. To the dismay of all there were many tunnels and to a person they felt overwhelmed by the coming battle.

“

Form a circle, quickly,” barked Lord Lestrade. “We’ll fight with our backs to the giant. Let no creature pass. Alari, you stay near the giant and let loose with your arrows. Candellah, stay with the giant and pray for us. Malakael, if you can, brighten those orbs. I doubt they’ve seen anything so bright in their whole lives. It drew them to us. Let’s use it to our advantage!”

With great alacrity everyone did as ordered. All drew their weapons, Alari notched an arrow to her bowstring and Candellah began to pray and Malakael increased his light orbs in both scope and intensity.

What disgusting creatures they beheld! Each worm was roughly eight feet in diameter with a gaping, salivating maw, beady, glowing red eyes that twinkled greedily in their passageways at the idea of an extra portion of food like a beggar getting extra gold from a generous person. The black behemoths squirmed towards their latest meal.

Alari quickly loosed an arrow towards one of the creeping hulks, aiming for an eye. The arrow struck its mark and the creature roared in pain, but kept advancing. Quickly she fired a second volley that hit the think hide of the monster and barely pierced the flesh so much so that the attack failed to impede the progress of the worm. Seth flung his wachas, tri-bladed palm sized weapons, at the same beast as it slunk down the corridor, the razor sharp blades managed to open a gash in the monster. It slowed for a moment, groaning in agony.

Malachael gripped his metal staff tightly and each knight held his shield in his left arm and wielded his sword with the right. Caleb drew his twin swords from their scabbards on his back, the weapons making a sort of gliding noise as the metal of the blade touched the metal of the scabbard. The two women stood in the middle of the circle. Candellah felt grateful for the protection as she had no means of harming anyone or anything. Instead, she closed her eyes and concentrated on a prayer that she hoped would instill bravery in her compatriots. Unbeknownst to them, they all felt eager to do battle and confident of the outcome.

Smelling the odor of fresh prey excited the black crawlers and they rushed forward with increased ferocity. The first one to emerge from the tunnels lunged at Sir Bix who parried the strike with relative ease, even using his shield to buffet the attack. He then slashed the creature using a downward str

oke of his blade and it cut deeply into the tough, rubbery hide of the beast. It writhed in pain and then it reared itself upward, resting on the mass of its trunk. Seth broke ranks, as he was eager to draw blood and he ran up behind the beast, roared loudly with rage, and jumped onto the behemoth’s back. At the same time Alari, who saw Seth’s unconventional maneuver shot another arrow at the monster. Seth began plunging the blade of his

ouja repeatedly into the worm. Blood flowed freely from the monster and sprayed onto Seth, bathing him in the red liquid. Seth relished the moment. His wild side let loose and sent him into a blood rage, a trait unique to tigans whereby they feel less pain in combat and realize increased strength.

The worm thrashed about trying to throw its rider to no avail. Seth freely thrust his

ouja again and again into the folds of his prey. Sir Bix took advantage of this turn and thrust his sword deep into the warm underbelly of the monster. Uttering a pitiful groan the beast succumbed to its wounds and collapsed, dead.

Simultaneously, other worms entered the chamber and Caleb, following Seth’s lead, broke ranks and charged one of the oncoming bloodsuckers. “Hold the circle,” Lord Lestrade ordered, but he might as well have been shouting at a wall and expecting the wall to follow his commands. Continuing his charge he waited for the worm to open its mouth to strike. To everyone’s surprise, Caleb ran right into the monster’s mouth! They thought him mad, but then they saw two blades stick up out of the beast’s head and it ceased moving. “He’s amazing,” said Sir Kyme. “Hold the line,” Lord Lestrade reiterated.

One of the worms reached the circle entourage and raised itself up on its hindquarters. Sir Cedvic raised his shield to ward off the blow, but the annelid came straight down upon him, the circumference of its capacious maw was enough to envelope both knight and shield. He gave out a shriek as the creature swallowed him whole, engulfing him in its giant mouth. Those who saw watched in horror screamed for him to fight out of it, but they had foes of their own to face.

Another one of the horrific creatures tried a similar attack on Malachael, but he managed to roll to his side just in time and the creature hit the ground with a hard thud. Failing in its attempt to claim a victim left the creature open to attack from all angles. Lord Lestrade and Sir Kyme seized the moment as they both thrust their swords into their enemy. The attack caused the worm great pain and it flinched in agony as blood poured out of its open wounds, setting it to thrashing to and fro to recover its standing. Malachael jabbed it with his iron staff, but it bounced ineffectually off of the rubbery hide of the creature. Still, it served as a distraction for the monster turned towards Malachael. This temporary distraction allowed the duo of knights to flank the worm and bring down their swords into their foe with fierce intent, opening more wounds, but their foe quickly turned to Sir Kyme and lunged at him. He barely had time to raise his shield and stick it into the gaping maw of the worm who swallowed the shield entirely, the impact of which knocked Sir Kyme to the ground and caused him to drop his sword. Meanwhile, the gears kept grinding, slowly. Ignoring another strike from Lord Lestrade the indefatigable quarry slunk towards its stunned adversary, jaws wide open.

Sir Kyme, shaken by the force of the blow, stood shaken to his core, stared helplessly, and very dizzy, but cognizant of his imminent demise. He fumbled to get his dagger from his side scabbard as if such a weapon had a chance of stopping so large a creature. Malacheal used his staff like a pole vault and put himself in front of his dizzied comrade. In a quick motion, he raised his staff and jammed it upright into the worm’s open mouth, the creature thrashed about, distracted for a moment. A moment was all that Lord Lestrade required as he rushed to save his friends. He dropped his shield, gave charge to his quarry and thrust his sword as deeply as his strong arms would allow, the blade sunk into the black, rubbery flesh, killing the monster.

As the battle progressed so too did Graygrim’s descent from his prison chains. All the while he waited eagerly for his feet to touch the ground and tell his father that his son had returned. “Just a little bit closer,” he told himself. The worm that had swallowed Sir Cedvic had penetrated the circle.

Candellah shrieked and stood paralyzed, unable to move out of sheer terror. The monster closed in on her, opening its giant mouth and yet still Candellah would not move. Caleb emerged from inside his foe and noticed the events unfolding. Running as fast as his powerful legs, strong from years of hunting with Raven, would carry him. He leapt and with the sword in his right hand brought down a mighty slashing attack that severed the worm’s tail completely. It let loose a mighty roar of pain and Caleb advanced as the beast turned to face him, he twirled about and using the sword in his left hand shoved it into the thick hide of the worm.

This gave Candellah time to recover her senses and come to the aid of Sir Kyme. She laid her thin, delicate hands upon him and a white light shone from them and restored the knight to his former self. Instantly, he sprang to his feet, recovered his sword and returned to the fray alongside Caleb. Sir Kyme flanked the beast while Caleb gave a frontal assault. Sir Kyme’s overhand s

lash cut a deep gash into worm. It writhed in agony and knocked Caleb to the ground. As he struggled to gain his footing and avoided the monster’s maw, Seth appeared and gave a ferocious slash with his

ouja that nearly severed the beast’s head, killing it for certain.

Alari, whose keen eyes adjusted to the dark saw another wave of adversaries and shouted a warning that more of the beasts were on their way. Bathed in blood, Seth screamed to let them come.

Caleb’s mouth curled into a defiant sneer. “If it’s a fight they want, they’ll get it,” he said through gritted teeth.

“

Close ranks,” Lord Lestrade ordered. “Two by two, shields up. Knights, let’s not let them into the main room, but strike at them before they have time to maneuver. Now, let’s show these disgusting larvae why we are the most elite warriors in the world!” All of the knights did as there we told and lined up at the numerous caverns from whence the worms sprang ready to thrust their blades on sight.

“

Let them come is right!” said a deep based voice, “For now I have touched the ground and my father knows I live. Graygrim Mountaincrusher has returned and I will have my vengeance upon these worms.” Everyone turned to see the marvelous sight as the gaunt giant began to fill out. The open wounds on his body miraculously began to close. The chains that held him were still attached. “Get out of here he told everyone. Run, there are too many for you to fight, but not for me.”

Everyone did as commanded, but the worms had gotten down the passageways faster than assumed, leaving Alari, Sir Bix, and Seth trapped. “You want to see my might, worms? I’ll bring this cave down around you and make my prison your tomb.” He pulled at the chains with all of his might and the iron bands began to creak and bend, before they snapped. Alas, with his great strength the giant had also begun to make the prison chamber collapse. A collective shriek came from the group, especially those who had not the time to escape. Pieces of the cave began to fall from the ceiling, crushing the worms. Graygrim used his might body to shield the trio who were not fortunate enough to reach the escape path. How quickly events had turned for the worse. Their one hope perished and four of their comrades had fallen, not that anyone could see that three had survived, for they ran as quickly as possible to the exit.

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