Operation: Pacifica,  The Cave


 A savage wind whipped across the wastelands of Pacifica, swirling
  clouds of dry grey ash around BlackBlood as he stalked towards the fortress
  in which Charn'El made his present home.  Layers of the fine gray particles
  caked themselves to the corpse of Rezon'El wherever there were blood and
  gore stained holes in the robes and flesh.


 Casting the body aside for the time being, he paused to regain some
  of his spent energies.  He sat down, communing with the night, and reached
  out through its silence with his mind and soul.  The darkness itself became
  his senses, his mind, his being.



...




        CP passed through Jihaddi-held territory as little more than
  a flickering shadow cast by a lone candle.  Those who thought they'd seen
  something looked twice, only to find nothing.  He covered distance at a
  surprising rate, silent despite the bulk of equipment and gear he carried.


        Another shadow mirrored him, easily keeping pace and uniform
  distance despite the criss-crossing sensor sweeps and abundance of alert
  guards in its path.  CP ignored it, moving dead northeast, towards the
  deserts and wastelands which lay between he and his goal.


        A shadowy cloud erupted from the earth, its inky darkness a
  spot of pure black in the nearly lightless landscape.  It roiled inwards,
  twisting upon itself in an ever-shrinking pattern.  Two tiny red slivers
  shone faintly, then grew in size and luminosity as the cloud settled into a
  tight, churning pattern.


        Samhain's likeness alternately formed, dissolved, and
  reformed from shadows of a thousand different intensities.  The Samhain's
  spirit stood in CP's path.  His eyes held an unspoken challenge, demanding
  it be met.  CP returned his stare, eyes glinting harshly from the faint
  starlight.  The air between them wavering and rippled as though uncertain it
  wanted to be present.


        The spirit reached out; each gripped the other's right
  forearm, as unspoken agreement passing between them.  A curt nod and the
  hold broke.  CP continued his path to the northeast, Samhain's likeness
  dissolving like smoke on the breeze.


        Neither looked back.



...




 BlackBlood returned in whole to his body, knowing his comrade would
  be joining him at the tower shortly.  He rose, snatched up Rezon'El by the
  leg, and resumed his trek toward the Lyran Citadel, cadaver in tow.



...




 Charn'El's fortress loomed overhead like a giant, gnarled hand
  reaching for the sky.  Sheer rock faces rose upwards from the barren
  wastelands in which BlackBlood now stood.  He could sense the security
  patrols nearby, yet for some reason none dared to approach him.  Perhaps
  they were afraid, but more than likely they had simply been ordered to let
  him pass.  As he approached, he could gradually make out the mouth of a
  small cave.


 "A trap your friends have set," spoke BlackBlood to Rezon'El's
  battered corpse.  "Care do we?" he asked, picking up the corpse to look at
  its ashen grey face.  He grabbed its head with one hand and shook the head
  from side to side.  "Thought not, I did," he commented, then made his way to
  the cave.



...




 A single torch hung from a battered iron mount driven into the
  jagged rock wall of the cave, sending dull light to flicker along the cave
  walls and to sparkle on BlackBlood's obsidian form.  Pieces of skeletons
  barely recognizable as human lined the edges of the cave.  A scant few were
  intact, while the bulk of them were either broken into tiny pieces or showed
  obvious chew-marks from some tremendous beast.  BlackBlood looked again to
  his Lyran cohort.  "Stay," he instructed, propping the corpse up next to
  some pieces of a rib cage. "Find what's here, I will," he continued, then
  headed deeper into the cave.



...




 The cave widened somewhat as BlackBlood rounded a bend.  Before him
  was a tremendous nagenta creature, walking on all fours and bent over
  obviously feeding on something.  It raised and turned its head to growl
  ferociously at the intruder, then whipped its huge tail directly at
  BlackBlood's head.  He ducked the massive blow at the last possible instant,
  giving a very close-up view of the candy-apple green scales on its
  underside.  "Whoa, big one you are!" he exclaimed as he did a back
  handspring just out of the reach of the menacing tail.


 The B'harni-knocker turned to face BlackBlood, growling deeply as
  blood and bits of flesh dripped from its maw.  Its eyes narrowed and it
  lowered its head, then threw it back in a fearsome bellow that shook the
  very ground.  Looking back to its new prey, it snorted and charged, seeking
  to impale the dark figure on its massive nose horn.


 BlackBlood leapt into the air just before the horn embedded itself
  in his chest.  Planting his palms on it like a sharp-pointed pommel horse,
  he vaulted onto the back of the charging beast, where he dug his Claws[tm]
  in as he landed.  The 'knocker reared, and walked back a few steps on its
  hind legs to slam the Maenad into the cave wall with a crunch.  It stepped
  away and turned to face the foe it had scraped off, fury and hunger in its
  eyes.


 Seeing what was coming, BlackBlood tried to pull his Claws[tm] free
  in time to escape.  As they came out of the 'knocker a split second too
  late, all he could do was grunt as he was slammed against the rock and fall
  to the uneven ground as it stepped away from him again.  Pain filled his
  body as he rose to a kneel, but fortunately his tough shell had absorbed
  most of the blow rather than his bones.  The knocker came at him, mouth
  opened wide, intent on devouring him whether he was alive or not.
  BlackBlood waited for the right moment, then swung and stabbed with his
  right hand.  "NYAR!" he cried as he struck, his Claws[tm] biting into the
  roof of the gaping mouth, burying themselves not only to their full length,
  but also all the way to BlackBlood's knuckles.  Their tips erupted from the
  back of the 'knocker's head as it slammed him against the wall again.
  BlackBlood grunted deeply as the air was forced from his lungs and fought to
  maintain his consciousness as he was squashed between rock and beast.


 The B'harni'knocker convulsed violently, then lay still, its mouth
  stuck open.  BlackBlood shook his head to clear it.  He was pinned by the
  massive creature, held in place by his claws and its massive head.  He
  stood, pushing with all the strength in his legs and pulling with all his
  arm strength, and was rewarded with a wet, crunching, ripping as his
  Claws[tm] tore their way to freedom.  A large chunk of skull came out,
  bringing with it great, stringy pieces of meat and dripping large quantities
  of nagenta blood.  "NYAR!" he cried, swinging his arm in an arc and sending
  the chunk of flesh and bone flying through the air.  It splattered against
  the cave wall, sending bits and pieces and blood spraying in all directions.



...




 BlackBlood scooped up the body of Rezon'El once again.  "Come," he
  said.  "We go find your friends now!"



...


 On his way into the citadel, BlackBlood paused once again at the
  fallen B'harni-knocker.  "Maenads bad for health!" He cackled at its
  lifeless form.  Turning towards a small stairway that the 'knocker had
  obviously been guarding, he noticed what it had been eating when he came
  upon it.  He knelt down beside it and examined its clothing carefully.  He
  turned over a piece of fabric torn away from the body by the knocker's
  attack to reveal the logo of the Doberman Empire.  He shook his head
  sullenly; it was too late to help this poor soul and all the many others
  whose bones had been munched by the tremendous b'harnate watchdog.  He took
  his time to bury the fallen soldier in the soft, ashen earth that was the
  bottom of the cave, then moved on.  "Perhaps others live still..."




"The Cave"
Copyright 1997
David R. Hibbs