Restart Round 4 - Chapter 3

Cave of the Beast

Darkness.

It’s still dark.

Am I dead?

This are the only thoughts on my mind as my eyes open to the thick almost tangible blackness before me. A throbbing pain shoots through my head were I was hit confirming I still live as my half-full health bar comes into view. I’m hanging upside down, my hands just barely grazing a mound of snow below me. Somewhere in the darkness, I hear a scraggly growl, its noise echoing all around me.

Still in the cave, I think to myself, not wanting to draw any attention from whatever beast may lurk out there. I raise my hand, digging through the pockets of my coat and the jacket beneath it. I know I have a book of Tindertwigs somewhere in there, it’d be the only source of light. Eventually my fingers wrap around the matchbook and I pull it out.

Let’s see what’s out there. I say as I prepare to strike the Tindertwig. I pause for a few moments, unsure I wanted to see into the abyss. Soon I realize I shouldn’t be putting off and strike up the match. As the flame flickers to life, I see a dark figure immediately to my right.

With a terrified battlecry of “Holy crap!” I put my weight into a right hook, striking the figure. The figure replies with a deep groan that echoes through the cave, resembling a monstrous growl, followed by a familiar voice saying “I surrender!”

“Eli!?” I ask as the figure begins to rub its sore side while I lift the match closer. Revealing the figure to be someone else hung from the ceiling.

“Yeah….augh…was that for pushing you outta the plane, I already apologized….kinda,” The eel-kid groaned.

As Eli was complaining, I waved the match around me trying to find out where I was. As I swung the flickering flame across the room, the light quickly feel across a sleeping figure that caused me to recoil in shock. It wasn’t Geoffrey and it definitely wasn’t Eli, in fact it looked suspiciously like the Nightmare Fuel Beast that we had seen earlier in the cave.

“Hey! You listening to me?” Eli shouted, much louder than I would have wanted, considering the monster and the fact that he was right next to me.

“Shut up, you blasted green-haired fool,” I whispered loudly, as I motioned towards the monster, who was now in the process of hopefully turning over in its sleep and hopefully not waking up.

Eli immediately shut his mouth. Apparently the threat of a flesh eating hell beast while hanging upside down was enough to keep him quiet. With that disturbance settled, I quickly began looking around for a way out. Above, I found that my feet were trapped in ice, too thick to melt with a single match. Fortunately to my right I found my equipment, Greysteel and my Tardis Bag. I stretched out my arm, reaching for my cane sword which was lodged a good foot into the snow. My fingers just barely danced across the hilt, touching but not moving.

“Damn, I knew I should have choosen Psion as my class,” I joked, reminiscing about the old Star Wars movies.

“So any bright ideas?” Eli asked in a sarcastic whisper.

“Yeah, one…” I said, unsure of it myself as I untied my scarf and began retying it into an impromptu lasso.

“You wrastle that there cane ta the ground, cowboy,” Eli urged me on in a faux Southern accent.

“Shut up, you wanna wake Fluffy over there,” I whispered as my first toss feel short.

I reeled the scarf in and swung it around for throw. This time it landed squarely around the hilt. I gave a quick little tug, pulling the cane free from the snow, before slowly reeling my catch in.

“Hurry up!” Eli whispered, louder than before.

A groggy grumble from across the room was what urged me on more than Eli. I pulled the last foot of scarf forward, then dropped it as I pulled Greysteel up from the loop. Eli continued to urge me on as I unsheathed Greysteel. I poked the blade at the ice, attempting to wear it away, preferable without stabbing myself in the foot. Freezing cold flakes of ice fell upon my face, but I pushed on, hearing scrapping and clawing as our friendly neighborhood monster began to stir. Twenty or thirty careful, but hasty thrusts later and I suddenly feel. A yelp of surprise roused the creature fully and I responded by scrambling towards my bag, dropping Greysteel as I dipped my hand into the bag.

A blood-curdling roar shook me to my core as I pulled the first thing my hands came upon and hurled it at the creature. The words “Monster Bait” flashed before my eyes as the object left my inventory, then leaving my hand, it hurtled over the creature and across the room.

“Damnit!” I yelled, no longer trying to keep a quiet voice.

I threw my hands up and squeezed my eyes closed, preparing for an expected, gory attack. Instead, I looked up to see the hulking sillouette of the nightmare beast sniffing around the other side of the cave where my Monster Bait had landed. I literally smacked my own forehead, how could I not expect that response with a name like “Monster Bait.”

“Hey, quit slacking off and get me down, Eli pleaded.

I obliged him, retrieving Greysteel and began the process of chipping away the ice. The mutant teen complained the whole way through with things like “I get workman’s comp for this dungeon if you stab me, right?” and “If that thing comes back I’m using you as a shield.” I tuned it out as I broke away the ice, eventually leading up to the enjoyable moment when Eli dropped from the ceiling face first into a clump of snow.

I ignored his muffled insults as he attempted to pull himself loose, instead I stooped down to pick up my bag followed by my scarf. As I finished tying my scarf back around my neck and as Eli finally pulled his head loose, we both noticed that in the faint light of my match the monster’s shadowy figure was nowhere to be seen.

“Eli, get over here, we need some more light,” I said, waving my new found companion over as I reached in my bag.

“What…” As Eli began, I broke a Fire Bottle across the back of his suit, “the hell!”

As he finished, I held my Tindertwig up to the liquid causing a fire to spring to life across my friend’s back. Eli didn’t notice the fire until he smelled it, at which point he began patting himself, running around, and crying for help. I stood and watched until he calmed down, realizing he wasn’t be harmed whatsoever.

“Okay, how did you know that wouldn’t hurt me?” Eli questioned raising his flaming arms up.

“Well, I’m tempted to say I didn’t, but Xem told me that your rubber suit would be pretty fire proof,” I said with a chuckle.

“Okay, next question….why?”

“First of all, a walking human torch lights up the room pretty well,” I said pointing around at the surprising brightness emanating from my flaming ally, “Second of all, monsters can’t catch you if you’re on fire.”

With that, I began walking, holding Greysteel at the ready. Whatever had hung us from the ceiling was still out there, and I was determined to keep it from eating my face before I got a few stabs in myself.