Rise of the Rook

Rise of the Rook

Chapter 2

“How am I going to kill it? In case you haven’t guessed, Im not exactly well informed.” I whispered. Upon not receiving a response, I turned around to find that the basilisk had simply moved.

I mean, really, how can something that big simply move! Something of such a great size can't simply vanish without a sound! Luckily, the ‘diamond dog’ as the basilisk called it , snapped me back in to reality with its frightened yelps.

“What ! Who’s there! Don’t think that Smallfang wont use the explodey vials!”

'Smallfang' barked out in to the cavernous space.

Also, how was I meant to kill him? I mean, yes, I know I have claws but I didn’t know if they where sharp enough. And the basilisk’s ‘gift’. What was it on about? It made my eyes burn like hell, and then decided to vanish without telling me how to use the gift!

“Aha! Found you!” A bright flash and a small explosion rocked the cavern. “Another statue! I cant take it in here! Graaaaaaaa!” The panicking diamond dog yelled out in to the air in frustration.

Luckily for me, he was unaware that the explosion he created and all his yelling had given me the perfect opportunity to sneak up on him. Sadly, being made of stone does hinders your ability to sneak.

When I was in about a arms length away, I stood on a stone and crushed it, causing Smallfang to turn around, and scream in my face. Up close , I could see how ugly this mutt really was. His coat was light brown, but you couldn’t really tell from the amount of dust and dirt he had accumulated on himself. Not to mention he was wearing a worn down collar which had a few tiny gems on it.

Looking in to his eyes, I felt something. A sliver of warmth. And I wanted to devour it all. Staring directly in to his eyes, I saw the life slowly drain out of him. His body began to turn grey. If I broke eye contact with Smallfang, I would have seen the stone creeping up from his legs to his torso, to the rest of the body.

Smallfang let out one small whimper, before being completely turned to stone.

A feeling of overwhelming bliss enveloped me, then a pleasant shock of electricity coursed through my body. After the feeling passed, I realised what I had done. I had, seemingly, killed another sentient being.

“He’sss not dead, if thatss what your wondering.” The fucking ninja basilisk had managed to creep up behind me. “You are jussst draining hisss body of energy, you could let him go at any time, but that would weaken you in the processs.” Every time that the basilisk said yes , its forked tongue slapped me across the face at least once.

“Do you have a name, gargoyle?” It asked me, thankfully not slapping me with its tongue this time.

“Alexander Rooks,” I replied, looking down at my right hand. Sure enough , the white ring was still on, and there was still a image of a Rook on it.

“Just call me Rook. I have two questions, what’s your name, and any idea what this is basilisk?” I asked, raising my hand, showing the ring.

“My name? You wouldn’t be able to pronounce it , but,” the basilisk then made large amount of guttural sounds, mixed with hissing. It sounded like a Tyrannosaurus Rex was forcing itself upon a snake.

“I’ll just call you Bertha for now. Bertha the basilisk, it fits, right?”

Bertha didn’t care, it was too busy staring at my ring in rapt fascination.

“Erm..Excuse me Bertha?” I then flicked Bertha on the nose, causing it to flinch back.

“Thisss ring… It marksss you asss a player.”

“Gee, thanks for the compliment honey.”

“No you fool, a player on the chessssboard.A pawn on the field of play.”

“I am no ones pawn,” I spat out menacingly. “If this ring is anything to go by, I am a rook. And that is quite a few steps up from a pawn. Anyways, what does It mean?”

“It meansss, little one, that I have to train you to use your giftsss.”

Over the passing time of my training I discovered many things. One of them, being that I could detect things by heat. Another, that I could manipulate the very earth,but it was exhausting. I could eat practically anything. Mainly, I would be living off the energy of the creatures I petrified, but I could also eat jewels and ores. And the the cherry on top? I found out that Bertha was in fact, female.

The giant serpent had a rather interesting way of training me. She would un-petrify one of the statues, and I would have to fight for my life considering how anything that Bertha reanimated from stone would always try to kill me.

Anyways, she had re-animated a griffin, and it looked at me, then looked at Bertha, and darted up towards the ceiling, in to the inky blackness. Shortly after that, the occasional rock would be thrown down at me, always from a different place.The blasted bird actually managed to hit me on the arm. It didn't visibly injure me, but damn, it still hurt!

Strangely, my eyes began to itch. Then, I started seeing things.

The ground, the statues, the walls where all bleak and gray. Absolutley no colour remained. Then, I looked at Bertha. She was ablaze with colours running all over he form. Tearing my eyes away from the myraid display , I looked to the ceiling. There! Nestled in a tiny hollow in the ceiling, was that griffin, who was practically pulsing with colour!

Without knowing it, I impersonated a fairly famous fighter a few realities away. Who, most likely, looked up for a second from beating whover to a messy, bloody pulp.

"GET OVER HERE!"

A chunk stone was torn out from the ground next to me, was shot up towards the griffin, and shifted so it actually grabbed the griffin, and dragged it to the ground. Even trapped it had a look of sheer determination on its face. And most importantly , in his eyes.So tempting, he doesn't even matter, I can practically smell the energy in him..

No!

I resisted, mainly because I was impressed with the griffin, and its reaction to its sitaution. I was by no means a master stratageist, and it did show so intelligence after all..

"You are quite clever you know, instead of head on charging at me, you flew up and hid in the shadows.Very clever.What's your name?" I asked, trying not to sound threatening, but its hard not to be threatening when you are a , you know, a monstrous stone gargoyle.

"Razorbeak. Yours?" Razorbeak inquired back. I'm glad it could speak. With a name like that, I assumed that Razorbeak was a male, otherwise he would have been a extremly butch female.

"Well, your parents must be so creative to come up with a name like that. The name is Rook. Now, would you like to explain where I am?"

Razorbeak looked shocked.

"You mean you don't know?" He exclaimed. I simply shook my head in response. Razorbeak took a deep breath, and began his explanation.

"Well, right now you are in a cavern underneath a diamond dog hollow.Diamond dogs are creatures that have taken to enslaving other races to do their work, such as Griffins like me.There aren't that many of us Griffins left, becase we are simply being worked to extinction.Some of us have managed to escape, my cousin Gilda for example.And news is that there a are a group of ex-slaves and other creatures simply known as the Griffin Pirates. Their aim, as far as we have heard from guards, is to free all the slaves, and re-create the Griffin Dominion, which was our kingdom. The country above is known as the Volcanic Wasteland, because that's what it is. A volcanic wasteland. There are quite a few volcanoes,as the name suggests, and there are other diamond dog hollows.The biggest one around here is know as The Deeps.Oh yeah, and there are also dragons. Lots of angry dragons. You know what they are right?"

I nodded. Before I could ask anymore questions we where interrupted. A section of the cavern wall caved in, and gave the room some much needed light. But there was a problem. Diamond dogs began to swarm out of the cave in,roughly 20 of the buggers, and spotted me and Razorbeak.

"Well, Razorbeak, can you fight?" I asked. He nodded. I released him from his stone imprisonment, and he instantly took to the air.

"Well then, lets go kill some diamond dogs." With a bellow, I charged.