Bab 31: Ch. 31: Trials
'Where are we?' I quickly assessed our surroundings. It seemed as though the remaining torches were now smothered out leaving us in darkness . . . There were about six Silvantians lying dead on the ground, Rodair had a small gash in his right arm and I couldn't quite tell where we were. With all the circling and the running, I was now thoroughly lost.
Still breathing heavily, Toval started smiling, "Now that's what I'm talking about. What a good warm-up! Those cannibals sure know how to give a fight, don't they?"
Rodair and I both turned to look at this maniacal war-crazed fiend, "Seriously? Even Rodair thinks that Toval may have a screw loose."
I couldn't help but stifle a chuckle. Looking around again with the imposing darkness and impending silence I couldn't help but shiver, "Guys, do you know where we are? Which way do we need to go?"
Toval scoffed then looked up. Since we were still in the clearing, we could faintly make out some of the sky through the fog. "If I'm seeing this right, we should be heading in . . ." Then he pointed to our left, "That direction. Trust me - I'm excellent at navigation."
"Toval already said that earlier," Rodair mumbled with his deep baritone voice. I could tell that Toval was getting on Rodair's nerves, but we were kind of stuck together now.
We followed Toval's lead and headed to the left. My eyes quickly got adjusted to the dark; I was used to this kind of lighting anyway since I used to train in minimal lighting. I could still hear the locals in the distance, but they seemed far enough away that it didn't bother me too much. Since they were giving us a moment to catch our breaths I was fairly thankful, unless they were leading us into a trap.
Since Toval's mood had been lifted a little, he was humming a dainty little tune as we walked along in the dark. "Would Toval please keep it down? Who knows when the Silvantians will come back. If Toval keeps that up, the cannibals will pinpoint us three easily." Rodair harshly whispered.
I heard Toval sigh disapprovingly, "Please. Those locals are just biding their time. Do you honestly think that they've taken their creepy little eyes off of us? I'm telling you, they're following our every move. What difference would it make if I were silent?"
'He's got a point.' Although I didn't like Toval's rough exterior and he got carried away sometimes, he had a pretty good head on his shoulders. Common-sense wise he was top-notch.
After several more minutes of walking, Toval slowed a little to get in stride beside me. He finally cleared his throat and haltingly said, "By the way, umm - thanks for helping me out back there. I get frustrated easily and I wasn't watching my back." He hesitated a little more then continued, "You didn't have to help me out and I just - for a woman you don't fight so bad."
I chuckled, "Thanks. You fight well too . . . we all have to make it out of here alive so don't overthink it, okay?" I was still walking but noticed that the fog was letting up a little. Before I could really think about why, Toval had bristled up, "Who said I was overthinking? I was just wanting to - Ah!!!" Suddenly Toval was slipping down the side of a steep cliff. We were right on the edge of one of the Silvantia's sides and Toval was about to plummet to his death. Grabbing his hand, I hollered for Rodair to help since now I was being pulled down. My strength couldn't hold us both up but Rodair easily reached down and grabbed the back of Toval's shirt. With one hand Rodair lifted Toval up and placed him on the edge like he was nothing but a sack of potatoes.
Toval now sitting and catching his breath, angrily looked up at Rodair, "I could have handled that myself."
Looking down at him I rolled my eyes, "Yeah sure you could have." I looked down into the abyss of the ocean, "Why are we at the edge? Weren't we supposed to be headed to the other end not the side?"
"Maybe Toval was mistaken earlier in the clearing." Rodair mocked.
Toval stood up, "I wasn't mistaken! I was just momentarily confused - but I meant to go this way. If we are at the edge, then I can easily tell which direction to head."
I narrowed my eyes, listening to oncoming footsteps, "Yeah but if we are at the edge, that means the locals can pick us off more easily. We'd better go, NOW."
Before a form could take shape Toval drew his sword and lead us away from the edge into the 'right' direction. We started running as I saw some of the locals crawling up over the edge of the cliff with staves in their hands while more started coming out from the thicket and chasing after us. I took up the rear in order to sling as many throwing knives as possible to keep them off our backs.
We ran while dodging and keeping them off of us. They were trying to force us to the edge of the cliff while some of the ones at the edge were trying to pull us off. My arm was grabbed, forcing me to a halt. I pulled out a dagger from my leg holster and before the form could sling me off the edge, I stabbed the assailant right between the eyes. The creepy form crumpled to the ground, slid off and fell into the rocky water far below.
Fending off a few more hooded forms, I looked around and noticed I was far from Toval and Rodair. Stabbing another form through the waist, I ran to catch up to the guys however before I got to them, a form suddenly dropped down in front of me. It threw a wooden pole my way and I barely had a chance to dodge. Pulling back a little, I rolled to the side and swept up with my dagger. The form moved out of the way before I was able to make contact. We fought back-and-forth for a few minutes as I noticed more forms coming up to flank my rear. Twisting around I fended off two cannibals that were about to slice into my back. I was just about to be completely out-numbered when I heard the barreling war-cry of my beloved shadow. Rodair pummelled his way through, swinging his axes left and right causing the little party to shy away. Toval was right behind him when I noticed two forms come shooting down from the trees wrapping tight ropes around both of Rodair's arms holding him in place. Toval was right behind Rodair and didn't notice two forms heading for Toval's exposed back. I quickly slid between Rodair's legs and swept up with both daggers in my hands, momentarily confusing Toval since I was now face-to-face with him. Before he could react, I shoved both daggers on either side of his face right into the two heads behind him. As they fell, Toval turned around to see that I had saved his life once again.
"Not bad," he admired, then quickly swiped his sword to release Rodair from his bindings. We began running once more. We were close enough to the edge to see our surroundings, but far enough away to not get pulled off. After running for a long while, I began to see a faint line of spikes with severed heads.
"We're getting close!" I heaved when all of a sudden I felt my ankle twist painfully. My boot had apparently gotten caught in a crevice causing me to pitch forward and hit the rocky ground hard with my head. I could feel blood spilling out from my forehead and heard pounding in my ears. Little black dots danced before my eyes and my ankle was shooting pain up through my leg. I could faintly make out a form coming up to attack me so I raised my other boot and pounded the form in the chest. I heard a faint hiss before it came back to me with a pole out-stretched. Before it could make a killing blow, I saw a sword go straight through the form's mid-section.
"Ezran! Get up woman! We are almost there." Toval pulled out his sword from the cannibal and looked down at me. I tried moving my ankle and let out a small gasp before Rodair reached down and helped me pull my foot from the crevice. He lifted me up over his shoulder and barrelled through the thicket at top-speed with Toval right behind.
We kept running until we finally came to the clearing at the other side. The guys didn't stop until they had passed the line of spikes and even then they were still on their guard. Rodair gently let me down, allowing me to hold his arm for support and to keep the weight off my ankle.
"Whew! We made it." Toval smiled a huge smug grin and looked at both of us. Rodair looked down, his teeth pearly white in the light of the moon.
I sighed, "Looks like we survived."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone