Bakkian Chronicles, Book I - The Prophecy (57 page)

Replenishing his jhorun for the fifth time, Steve wiped his sweaty palms on his trousers.

“
Stragglers?”

Breslin peered through the dense smoke at the retreating guur. “Five,” he reported.

“
Can you see which way they went? Sooner or later one of these suckers are gonna lead us to the female’s lair.”

“
They took the right tunnel up ahead. We have them on the run! Come, lads! We must not lose them!”

The dwarf and two humans raced to keep up with the fleeing survivors. Sprinting through various tunnels, Steve quickly lost track of how many lefts and rights they had taken. Was anyone as concerned as he was?

“
Breslin!”

“
Aye, lad!”

“
Dude, tell me you’re not as lost as I am. Do you know where we’re at? I don’t want to have to worry about wandering around in these damn tunnels trying to find my way out!”

“
I was born in here, lad,” Breslin wheezed out, running slightly behind him. “I cannot get lost in my own home.”

The tunnel they were following deposited them in a large cavern with several smaller openings dotted along the wall and ceiling. Guur holes? The retreating insects all disappeared into the same hole about four feet off the ground on the far wall. Running over to the tunnel to peer inside, Steve swore loudly.

“
Cowardly sons of bitches! Think you’re safe in there?? Have a taste of this!”

Placing both arms directly in front of the
tunnel
opening, Steve sent a brutal blast of fire and energy into it, watching with satisfaction as the tunnel’s perimeter started to glow red. One order of guur flambé coming right up!

“
Look out!!”

Rhenyon’s warning caused Steve to snap his head up. A reddish-orange light had appeared directly above him and grew brighter by the second.

“
They have set a trap for ye, sir Steve! Get out of there!!”

With a bemused expression on his face, Steve watched as the exorbitant amount of jhorun he had just expelled rain down from the ceiling above, completely enveloping him in a shower of pure fire.

“
Sir Steve! Can ye hear me? Get out of there!!”

“
Lad! Drop and roll!”

The fire storm finally tapered off, leaving Steve bare to his waist with only his nohrstaff harness criss-crossing across his chest. His magically enhanced dwarven gauntlets remained unaffected as well.

“
Why is it always my damn shirt? What’s the deal with that, anyway?”

Rhenyon ran up to him. Concern for his friend had him dropping formalities. “Steve, are ye alright? Are ye injured?”

“
I’m fine. Lost my damn shirt, though.” He peered into the still smoking hole. “Think I got ‘em?”

Breslin nudged some debris that had fallen from the ceiling.

“
I believe so, lad.”

“
Where now?”

Rhenyon turned to Breslin. “Master dwarf? Ideas?”

“
Aye, we must go deeper. The female guur will prefer to have her nest situated on at least three sides by solid rock. The better to defend it from
intruders
. A guur nest will have to be close to a source of water. In fact,” the dwarf paused, tapping his fingers on his axe, “I believe I have an idea where we might find her.”

“
Where?”

“
We are near the source of Duvvin river.”

“
What river? I haven’t seen any river.” He glanced at the captain. “You?”

Rhenyon shook his head.

“
It feeds the lake, lads. At the point where the river emerges above ground, there is a large cavern with several smaller caves scattered about. It would be a perfect place for a guur
female
to nest and hide. I have not actually laid eyes on that cavern in quite some time.”

“
Lead the way, master dwarf. Sir Steve, if ye please, flanking position.”

****

“
The rumblings have stopped,” Kern reported. “Either they successfully destroyed the female guur, or else –”

Pheron smacked the soldier on the back of the head. Hard.

“
Think before ye speak, soldier!” he hissed furiously at him. He indicated where the female Nohrin sat, a scant ten feet away. “Lady Sarah is right over there. Speak nothing of this to her, understood?”

“
Aye,” Kern lamely responded, rubbing the back of his sore head.

Sarah, in the meantime, had already detected the lack of vibrations in the rock floor. Since it was the one sure way she could tell that her husband was still alive, she had started praying for the trembling to begin anew.

Kern sat up and walked over to Lady Sarah to sit down next to her. Still electing not to say anything, they just sat there in total silence.

The dwarves had approached several times, offering food and drink, but all had refused. If their friends couldn’t get anything to eat or drink, they reasoned, while they were battling those bugs, then neither would they.

A tremor hit just then, which had Sarah scrambling to her feet. She was closely followed by Kern, Rhein, and Pheron.

“
Did you feel that? Did you? That’s great!!”

Pheron smiled. The battle continues!

****

“
Dammit! That was a crappy shot. My fault on that one!”

“
No worries, sir Steve! Behold! They are all retreating to the tunnel Breslin wants us to take. He must be right. Come! Do not lose sight o’ them!”

Dwarf and human surged ahead, with the weary fire thrower bringing up the rear. Every so often a guur would poke its head out of an overhead tunnel, and a searing blast of fire had it retreating back into the rock.

The guur they had been chasing paused suddenly, checking behind it to see if it had eluded the flames yet. It hadn’t! The fire pursues! The urge to flee spurred the guur on once more. Up ahead was a known junction of at least ten subterranean tunnels. Chances of one or more of its hive mates being in the area was strong. With their help, it could rid itself of these aggressors once and for all.

Emerging into a small cavern, the guur bristled with excitement. One of its brethren was lying in ambush just inside the closest tunnel, waiting for the opportune time to attack. The smallest biped passed by first, followed by the much larger one. There, the final biped approached. Now was its chance! The guur clicked its pincers, signaling for the trap to be sprung.

Without warning, a guur’s head appeared at eye level directly in front of him. Its jaws opened, pincers preparing to strike. Steve didn’t even blink. Three years of taekwando kicked in even before he could even think about igniting his hands. His right fist lashed out as he twisted his body to the left, channeling all his strength into the blow. His fist, protected by the enchanted gauntlet, knocked the guur’s head clean off. It rolled sickeningly down the tunnel before bumping into the captain’s right boot. Rhenyon glanced down to see lifeless insectoid eyes staring up at him. Nodding with approval, he kicked the head away and watched as the rest of the guur twitched a few more times before dropping lifelessly to the ground.

“
Ewww. Damn bugs.”

“
Excellent strike, sir Steve.”

“
Thanks.”

Its chances of salvation dashed, the lone guur darted away as fast as it could.

The trio pursued the large insect through countless tunnels, passing by amazing rock formations, and numerous small caverns. What was that noise? Were they approaching the river? Something could now be heard besides the sounds of their own footfalls and the constant chittering of the guur. Yes, Steve decided, once he was able to hear it clearly past the sounds of his own labored breathing, they had to be getting close. Fumbling on his harness for yet another charged mimet, Steve restored his jhorun back to full strength and then slipped another crystal into his trouser pocket.

WHAM!

He had run full-tilt into the back of Rhenyon. Blinking his eyes profusely to clear the swirling stars from his vision, Steve gazed up at the captain. When had he stopped, anyway?

Rhenyon leaned over and offered an arm to help him up. The battle-hardened soldier hadn’t even been thrown off balance by the impact. Impressive!

“
Are ye uninjured, sir Steve?”

“
Yeah, I’m okay. What’s up? Why’d we stop?”

“
Behold, lads,” Breslin whispered, gesturing in front of them. “
The source of the Duvvin
. We must be careful. The female guur is here.”

“
How can you tell?”

Breslin gestured at the floor, where his axe was embedded. Steve squinted. He ignited his hands so that he could see better. There, on the floor, was a small guur. Half was on one side of the axe, and the rest hidden from view, presumably on the other side. Once again, the axe had buried itself deep in the rock. How strong was this dwarf, anyway?

“
You got one, is that it? So there’s more around?”

Breslin nudged one half of the guur. “This is a young guur. Note the size. The female is close, I tell ye. Be careful.”

“
Do ye think she’s in one of those caves?” Rhenyon pointed at one of the shadowy openings down below.

“
Aye, I do, lad.”

“
How do we find out which one she is in?”

“
Let’s introduce ourselves, shall we?” Steve ignited a chaser and threw it at the closest cave. It spiraled in and slammed against the cave wall. Three other chasers went rocketing into the other three caves, each exploding magnificently as they smashed into solid stone. Nothing.

“
Two left,” Rhenyon observed. “Which one do ye think it is?”

“
Shhhh!” Breslin shushed them both, silently pointing at the third alcove to get hit with a
chaser
. “Observe!”

Something was moving about inside. A long, segmented leg extricated itself from the smoky ruins of the cave and dug into the rock, anchoring itself in place. Three more legs materialized out of the smoke to take their place on either side of the opening as the female guur emerged reluctantly from what was left of her lair.

The creature that appeared was unlike anything Steve had ever clapped eyes on. Whereas he could see the similarities to the ‘drone’ guur, the female was much larger, with what appeared to be two extra abdomens, and four extra legs to support the extended body. Numerous spiky protuberances were situated all along the carapace, with her head having an extra two sets of antennae that were constantly twitching about, testing the air. The female stopped to face the outcropping of rock that the three attackers were hiding behind. A loud, chittering careened off the walls as the female shrieked with anger.

“
What’s she doing?” Steve whispered. “Think she knows we’re here?”

“
Ye did just destroy her lair, lad,” Breslin whispered back. “She knows we are here, that’s for certain.”

A swarm of about fifty guur materialized next to their queen, instinctively surrounding her to protect her from the unseen threat they knew was nearby. Several guur began herding the queen into one of the two remaining caves, intent on shielding her from harm as quickly as possible.

“
Now is the time to act!” Rhenyon whispered, watching as the female was guided into one of the last two caves. “We must get to her before she retreats into another cave!”

The captain started to rise when both Steve and Breslin laid a hand on his arm.

“
Wait. Let her go into the cave. Easier to hit her from here.”

“
Willing to wager that she is angling for a cave and not an escape tunnel?”