I hate losing friends. I mean, I've lost poeple before. My parents, though I don't really feel any great saddness over them. I don't remember them, and how can you miss someone you never knew? I don't even know their names. Hell, I can't even say Arilyn is even MY name. But I've lost people close to me too. When I was preforming, people were always taking "leaves of absence" if they got a nobel to sponsor them. Or jail. We're all always running to get to that next place. The rest knew we'd see them again. Elven nobels can be really flakey and jail can be terribly easy to break out of.
But I'm not used to people leaving with no promise to return. I guess, technically, you could say I left my old friends by dying or whatever. I still kinda see it as abandonment. But Jacques? Gone? I don't know if we're ever going to get him back. When Dolartu bit it we had a body, so it was no big deal. It's supposed to be a lot harder to do it without one. Oh bugger! I just remembered! Jacques was holding all those jewels he was going to "return" to the people of this city. Huh, I guess you CAN take it with you.
Yeah, yeah. Sounds awful, right? Don't hate me for sounding callous and sarcastic. It's just my prickly exterior. I'm really a big teddy bear inside. Besides, I never saw him go down. Makes it seem less real, y'know? I've killed enough things to know dead. It's usually messy and very obvious. This isn't so obvious. He's just running ahead as usual. Eventually, he'll slow down and let us catch up.
So we get to Mortedamos. We're in this room with high ceilings and zombies hanging from the chandelier. A veritable hero's feast, as Dolartu termed it, of crispy-skinned slave sits before us. Tasty. We see Mortedamos at the other end of the room. Like fools we all stand there and let him drop butt gas on us. Green cloud of nasty. Dolartu shoots off a couple streams of fire and Mortedamos collapses. The people rejoice. But wait, what's that laughing? You really think a couple jets are going to take out the overgrown bat of evilness? Absolutely, as long as it was a minion and not the real deal. We should've known better.
Well, Dolartu knew. He rushes the far wall and just disappears. Jacques attempted the same but was brought up by the very same wall the former had melted into. I made it through easily. No bloody noses for this chick. Then, I don't know what happened. It was just pure fear. Flee over fight. Terrible fear. Like losing FrostFang forever. Like a hundred Islans dancing in a kickline. Just stops your heart mid-beat.
I was so scared. I didn't know what it was, but I was running away from it. I don't remember the fight. I know Dolartu ended up with a stump after chewing own hand into burger. I just remember waking up with Anwar huddled against me and everyone looking down an empty hole, except for Jacques, who was nowhere to be found. All of them. It was pitiful. Ok, I looked too. I expected to see a floating Jacques. A scrap of fabric. Something. Him and Mortedamos struggling, but on the other side of a mirror. Anything.
What was not expected was seeing a six foot praying mantis come striding from a doorway. Claims he's a demon. He was summoned by the sacrifices. Wants to know who called him. I couldn't help myself. Just yelled "I did!" It studies me for a minute and then it BOWED!
Teehee.
I've - got - a - de - mon.
It'll perform a task. Anything I want. Immediately Dolartu is whispering in my ear. "Send it away!" But I figured that it would get pissed if it was called and then told "just kidding!" So next he says see if it can bring Jacques back. Not a totally horrible idea. I really was considering asking it to bring me a powerful sword. But then I figured everyone would be pretty mad if I didn't even TRY to use this off chance to get Jacques back. Said he didn't have the power. So then I ask for it to bring FrostFang to me. The total package. Said he didn't have the power for THAT. So I tell him to get just the heart of FrostFang. He agrees and disappears. Turns out that FrostFang didn't need any saving. Squashed that demon like a bug. Hmph. Next time, if we suddenly end up with a relatively free favor from a weak-ass demon, I now know the smart thing to do: cut down a couple zombies swinging from the chandelier and get a stronger demon!
After we got out of the dungeon, we were on top of the city. We hadn't found FrostFang yet. We followed a trail of death and dismemberment. Eventually we started seeing gouts of fire blasting up into the air. Ahh. So close. Finally, after running for far too long, we see him. Monsters are just coming at him and coming at him. FrostFang tosses them off and rips them in half. Yeah. He's covered in zombie yuck and there's a crowd of the city's former slaves circling him and just cheering him on. Amazing. . .
By the time we get to the crowd, FrostFang had finished with the creatures. I break through the ring of people, and grab his leg. (He's so tall! I had almost forgotten.) Then he lifts me up onto his shoulder. I had missed him so much! The people then start cheering our whole group. But we still haven't finished with this city we so foolishly sacked. We gotta blow some stuff up.
We set up the kegs and started running as fast as our legs could carry us. Dolartu let a little bead of fire go. And it just. . .mushroomed. Reds, white, oranges, even blue swirled in the hazy waves of that flame. The ground shook as the river expressed its contempt of this city. And everything was washed away, no doubt flooding the dungeon and everything in it. That's good. That means if Jacques ever climbs out of that well, he can get out pretty easy. He proved that in the sarcophagus trap.
Hmmm. 'Til we catch up with you again, Jacques. |
