Chapter 15: In the Hall of the Rat King - Part II.

“I believe I can fly! I believe I can touch the sky! I think about it every night and day! Na na na na, na na na!”

It was about five seconds into the falling when my mind, collapsing unto itself in unspeakable terror, decided to parade me into the world beyond with style through a very famous song, though probably not so famous in this world, much less famous to the ears of ratlings that were probably watching me plunge to my death with amusement.

Paul wasn’t falling anywhere near me as far as I could see. Not like I could see anything as I was spinning in the air like a ballerina having a seizure. However, for a split second I did see something shining flying away. Well, there goes my second axe, then. Wasn’t like it mattered now.

Suddenly, something swooped past me deeper into the ravine, before the same shadow slowed down and passed me again, this time the other way. Not a split second later, the something caught me and yanked me upwards, sending my equilibrium into an even more horrible spiral, making me suddenly, horribly nauseous.

“Shhh!” a familiar gryphon shushed in my face, letting his spit fly everywhere. Ah, so gryphons did have salivary glands. I also noticed that I was still singing “Na, na na!” which was probably the reason why Paul was shushing me still.

“Okay!” I yelled back through the swooshing of air jovially as we kept gradually slowing down. My head was in the clouds, light as the feathers on the arms that held me from the dark death beneath. It felt almost like being in a drunken stupor.

We stopped, but the world kept spinning, so I kept grunting in displeasure at the unstability of reality.

Something grazed my shoulder, making me cry out in surprise and pain. Almost immediately my balance was thrown off again as Paul did some elaborate dodging before practically throwing me at some ledge. As I skidded to a halt on the cold, hard stone, Paul landed beside me, took hold of my legs and started dragging me into a small cave.

“Sorry,” I heard him whisper as my ears finally registered the commotion we caused out there. Hundreds of those things were crying out for blood. Our blood.

“Leave me to die, I don’t care, just don’t make me get up,” I half-wept over my battered body. A bitten and grazed arm, beat all over my body, now probably a dozen new bruises added on top of it all. I was hungry, thirsty, and the call of nature was strong in me.

For all that, the pain cleared my head pretty good.

“Run!” he yelled as a familiar bustling of paws on stone grew thunderously close. Scratch what I’d said, no way I was gonna die a painful death being eaten alive. That was, like, number 3 on my list of Ways I don’t want to die, right after burning alive and drowning. But what about falling from heights, do I hear you say? Yes, I might be afraid of heights, but falling on your head with enough force behind you is a quick and painless death compared the other gruesome ways to go.

That single scary thought gave me enough strength to get up pretty fast. Paul, seeing that I was quite capable of standing on my two feet without his help, took off down the ledge while the rat-like things started throwing wooden spears and stones at us. Oh boy.

The ledge was quite narrow and it sloped downward. I hated running downwards. Almost impossible to stop yourself. But it’s not like I needed to stop, considering the now a dozen or two ratlings closing in behind me. Soon enough, I was more jumping than running, and my main goal was now not to run faster, but to not disastrously slip. Easier said than done.

In fact, I was soon running-jumping so fast Paul ended up behind me instead.

Like the introduction of a side character in a bad novel, there were suddenly ratlings half a hundred meters in front of me, too.

“Problem!” I yelled, hopefully loud enough so that Paul could’ve heard me without my needing to turn my head around. That would end up in painful tumble into the waiting jaws of unholy beasts.

My glorious gryphon friend, maybe taking the cue or just seeing the problem in front of us with his very own eyes, suddenly had me under his arms and off the ground with a powerful flap of his wings. He dodged left, taking us off the ledge and away from the bastards trying to block our way.

Then I felt it. The mysterious presence of power that I’d felt back at the silver forest. Time seemed to slow down, or perchance it were just my senses in overdrive, but everything looked sharp and slow all of the sudden. My eyes were drawn to a cave entrance, gilded with bones and trinkets. There was something special about that cavern, and I wanted to know more. No, I needed to know more.

“Go right!” I screamed loud as all hell. Paul, clearly panicked, probably took the assurance in my voice like a ship caught in storm welcomes the light of a lighthouse. With yet another powerful beat and rush of air, we shot straight into the decorated cave where we tumbled to the ground, luckily without me hitting my head. That would’ve meant the end of our journey, most likely.

As it was, I shouted even as my legs almost gave up beneath me once I stood up, “Go!”

So we ran, hordes of the most annoying things walking this planet right behind us. We stumbled in the unilluminated parts of the cave, my lantern lost now somewhere in the bowels of the mountains. Bones hung from the ceiling and the walls, trinkets and gems lay at both sides of the cave, making our running in the dark even more difficult.

There was a brilliant golden glow right in front of us. Like lost souls searching for guidance, we embraced the light and entered it.

It was an almost perfectly circular room with flat floor and ceiling. No decoration adorned the room except for dozens of torches illuminating the whole room in golden light. My first thought was how much effort it had to take to keep all the torches perpetually burning. I could think of the weirdest, most trivial things in times of crisis.

Then there was a small pedestal. Simple, square, and made of stone like everything around it (except for the torches, of course). Upon it, a small bracelet sat perfectly in the middle.

That was it. There was no way out, nothing. We were now trapped pigs waiting for slaughter. Good place my feelings brought me to, really great.

Seeing the futility of our situation, Paul drew his axe and blocked the narrow opening with his entire body, waiting for the rats to catch up to us.

Exhaustion like never before hit my every bone and muscle, making me collapse to my knees and arms. It was useless. I’d die here, never to see my friends, my family, my brother... ever again. In that moment, I realized the emptiness of my actions, of my goals and promises. How could I fight, when my enemy was the world and time itself. An endless field of things strange and unknown, and among it I had to search for a small needle. A single tear trailed down my face.

Everything was for naught.

All was silent. Strange nothingness befell my senses as the thundering sound of hundreds of little feet and the heavy breathing of Paul and I were gone. Everything moved in perfect silence.

Do you want it? There it was, the strange presence that drew me here.

The bracelet was all I could see.

Take it.

A roaring hunger, a jealous thirst and lust, hit me with such force it sent me reeling, but something was holding me, not letting me fall lest I don’t stand up again. My mind and body switched to the most primal of instincts. Strength from the deepest parts of my soul lifted me back onto my feet. As if in delirium, my mind shoved me toward the pedestal.

Never before was my body filled with such overwhelming desire. It didn’t matter whence it came, why it was there, or what its purpose was. All that mattered was that it was, and that the one thing to even hope to sate it lay in front of me.

I snatched it. Not even looking at it closely, I attempted to shove the thing onto my hand. I needed to feel its presence around my forearm; to feel it constrict around my wrist.

It took a few tries, but eventually I managed to slip it on.

There was the sound of a rushing waterfall somewhere in the room, and as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone. The room rumbled for a second, and it knocked me off my feet. However, when I looked at Paul, he was still blocking the doors with the mass of his body. He seemed completely unfazed with the miniature earthquake a few seconds ago.

Nothing else happened. Now I was down, and too weak to get up.

Don’t give up yet, idiot. When in doubt, start calling yourself names. Does wonders for your confidence.

Let me help you, child, a thought, perhaps my own, perhaps the result of my weariness, rattled my already aching skull, even though it was just a whisper spoken into the breeze.

Just let me in. The voice again, as if someone incredibly suavee was whispering from everywhere at once. It brought with it something that left me a mere moment ago. The promise of strength and hope.

Even through the haze of my mind, I wasn’t stupid. I won’t try to act as if I didn’t know, or at least guess. I wasn’t some book or movie hero who was clueless for the purpose of the plot. I’ve read and seen enough books and movies to know what was going on. The voice was obviously in my head, and the bracelet had something to do with it. The strange presence of power was stronger still, now like a heartbeat matching my own.

A ray of hope, that was all I needed. The light of a chance to keep searching, to not die in this forsaken place, was all I wanted. To see my lost little brother again, and save him from this world, was all I hoped for.

But would it be worth it? Whatever this creature was, there’s probably a reason why it was hidden in the deepest part of this dungeon, guarded by bazillions of anthropomorphic rat creatures. No, I wasn’t clueless nor dumb.

“I am not giving you my soul or body. Do you think me an idiot that I’d ever fall for such a stupidly obvious cliché tactic?” I whispered out. For whatever reason I didn’t care about right now, the alien voice spoke in English in my head, so it was only right that I answered such.

No, not at all. My only desire is for you to survive.

Like a voice whispering in my head would care, I thought sarcastically.

But I do care, my host. I am trapped here just like you are.

Great, it can read my thoughts.

It most certainly can.

What did I do to deserve a cursed artifact possessed by a smartass entity?

The artifact is neither cursed nor possessed. ‘Tis but the channel of my true self.

Can you speak at least speak less like a cliché villain trying to lure me into his services and more like a believable entity, please?

I most certainly can. But will I? His voice boomed, no longer whispering.

I didn’t have the mood nor patience nor time for this. I wanted to die in peace at least, not being annoyed by a smartass whatever the hell this creature now whispering sweet nothings in my ear was.

Could you at least be silent as I am devoured in horrible agony by hundreds of rats?

And with that, I just watched Paul, heroically still standing there, blocking the entry with his body, but otherwise doing nothing.

Wait!

Well, well, well, now this was something interesting. Was that desperation I heard in its voice?

What do you have to lose? If you don’t let me in, you’ll die here. If you let me in, I’ll save you. Even if I were to somehow possess you, you’d still be alive.

Living as a puppet isn’t any kind of life I’d want to live, I thought resolutely, closing my eyes as they could no longer bear to be left open, my eyelids now heavier than lead. For all of that, my mind was still strangely clear, allowing me no rest nor respite from this dufus.

It makes me sad that it is necessary, but I promise that I’ll release you once we both get out.

Someone once said, “Oaths are but words, and words but wind.” It’s going to take a lot more than a promise to not die a free man.

But what about your brother?

There was a significant pause as my mind suddenly erupted with thousands of questions.

How-

You were thinking about him pretty hard earlier.

Son of a bitch.

Isn’t he worth risking this for?

I didn’t answer. Not like I could, really. Of course that was the first reason I, for but a second, considered the offer. Anything that could bring me closer to him was a win in my books. But, if I became possessed by a demon or whatever… Maybe I would see him on the other side. The notion that there was nothing after all of this didn’t dare to cross my mind.

Your silence says more about you than your words. Let me in, and you will yet have a chance to meet him, to save him. Do you not love him so that even death is not an obstacle?

My resolution broke down like a burned wooden dam. Any hope, any chance.

Do what you must. Was my last thought before my battered body finally gave out.