Original Stories Fan Fiction / Fables/Fairytales Fan Fiction ❯ Hallow Sins ❯ the fire ( Chapter 1 )

The fire was a beautiful thing, in a place like this. Its flames danced upon the last few pieces of wood the group had brought with them. Grant's full body fey steel armor still caught the light of these flames; despite the heavy use it showed, turning its normal cold grey color into a glowing orange. “How long is this Plane?” the loosely dressed teen on his right asked, dark brown eyes focused as he fiddled with the D-launcher rifle in his hands.

“Getting impatient, Brail?” the girl across from him replied, her head resting atop of her knees, brown tresses tucked into a clip. She was tired, it had been a long day for the group, and it was her responsibility to make sure they were all still alive and ticking. Considering the number of Creeps they had the fortune of meeting today, she had had her hands full.

“So? Key?” Grant looked over the fire to where the last member of their squad sat, reading one of those cursed books.

“Huh?” the light hazel eyes broke away from the archaic language printed in the leather bound tome to meet Grant. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“How much longer until we hit the bottom of this shit-hole of a cave?” Grant hissed back, spiked black hair quivering with his annoyance. He knew better then to shout in this place.

Key frowned for a moment, and then reached over to his satchel that lay in front of him, taking care not to let the hem of his deep red robes catch fire from the small blaze in the center of the four friends.

 

“Hey Brail? What'r'ya going to do with your share of the loot?” Mizu asked. Not bothering to hide the excitement in her voice. Even if they had been down in this cave for about three days already, she figured they were getting close.

“Don' know,” Brail shrugged, putting his gun aside. “Guess on food, games, my usual shit, you?”

“Uhhh…” Mizu leaned as she thought, putting her weight on her arms behind her and stretching her legs so that her combat boots just brushed the rocks that contained their fire. “Art supplies maybe,”

“I'll tell you what I'm going to buy,” Grant leaned forwards. “A new bird cage for Gust and Cotton, the old one's just about done,”

“Cool,” came Mizu's response. “Hey Key, what'r'you going to do with your money?”

“One more level,” he stated in a monotone sort of voice.

“Huh? To what?”

“No no, one more level to go,” Key shook the map he was now holding to show her. “Loots on the next one down,”

“Finally,” Grant sighed. “Tomorrow we'll head down and pick it up,”

“That's assuming there is loot, and it's not guarded by Creeps,” Key cautioned.

“Pff, if they're anything like the junk we've faced…but maybe you should be worried, after all, you did run away from a rabbit…”

“It was a horned rabbit!” Key interjected.

“We ate those rabbits for supper,” he grinned back.

“Literally,” Brail added, they were falling short on rations.

“And weren't you supposed to make sure none of them got by you?” Key pressed.

Grant hefted his duel bladed battle axe up; the intimidating weapon was only a hands width shorter than his own 5'10” frame.

“See this? This is for bashing goblins, not rabbits, those little fuckers are fast, besides, Brail shot it down didn't he?”

`Ya, but I was the one healing your bites' Mizu thought to herself, she knew better then to voice that to Grant. “Hey, Key may not be a fighter like the rest of us, but his magic and tactics really help out,” She supplied.

“What tactics? You hit the Creep until it can't hit back, there's no tactics to that,” Grant yawned, it was almost time to turn in for the night. Not that this place had a night, or a day for that matter. “Forget this, I'm going to bed,” Brail rolled out his sleep mat.

“Not so fast dude, you take first watch tonight remember?” Grant informed the grumpy gunner.

“Fine,” he sighed.

“Wait, just one?” Key asked.

“What are you on about now?” Grant cried, already laid out on his own sleep mat, in full armor like he always did. “Yes, one person watches, just like last night, and the night before that, and before that!”

“ya, but if we're this close to the loot, the creeps might be stronger, and we'll need to be more alert.”

Grant grumbled, debating where Key's skill with magic warranted him from becoming a very bloody mess on one of the stone walls of this alcove they had found.

“Fine! If you're so worried, YOU stay on watch with Brail, wake me and Mizu in four hours,” with that, he lay down against a wall and was asleep.

“Night,” Mizu cuddled up under her own sleep mat.

Key sighed, and then sat down with Brail, facing the only entrance into their camp site. It was a runoff from the main tunnel, and had twisted enough that the light of the fire shouldn't alert any Creeps to their presence.

He adjusted his robes, shifting around uncomfortably in his seat, even though he and Brail had been friends for a few good years, he found his silence was unnerving.

“It's not like the promotion ads,” Brail spoke suddenly.

“Huh?”

“The ads, all the talk of adventure and riches…they make it sound like a video game,”

 

“And it isn't?” Key asked.

“For one thing, if you die, that's it, no reset, no going back,”

The brown haired mage shuddered; death was a touchy subject with him.

“And they never tell you about how tiring it gets, the pain, the terror, why couldn't the Center beam us straight to the loot? Instead of having us trek all the way though this god-damn cave in another dimension”

Key paused, ever since they signed on he had thought of that. The discovery of these worlds, with the Center finding new ones every day, or why they drafted kids like them to make the expeditions, or as the groups where calling them now, `Dives'.

“Oh! Almost forgot!” Key pulled out a small journal and started writing in it. “I forgot to record today,” he explained to Brail. “but look at it like this, we're exploring part of a whole new world here, the Center wants to know about everything that happens, and we can't bring electronics though the warps, so everything has to be done renaissance style, Columbus and all that, that's the same reason you're the only one with a gun here, for some reason many types of metal can't go though the warp, why do you think Grant blew most of his cash on that fey steel?”

Brail looked at his gun as Key launched into his explanation; it was about as long as a AK-47, the barrel being 28mm long. It had to be, as the bullets where nothing more than small bullet shaped throwing daggers, hence the name.

“Fine,” he accepted Key's explanation. “But couldn't we have picked a better summer job?”

 

It was then they heard the goblins. Both fell silent as they heard small pitter-patters coming from the entrance of their sanctuary. a moment later five…six…no eight goblins, their green skin and 4 foot high frames made more frightening by the light if the fire, burst though the bend and charged the camp, holding up primitive yet razor sharp weapons.

Fire can be a horrible thing sometimes…

“GOBLINS!!!!” Key shouted, instinctively taking a step back as Brail jumped up, rifle loaded. He pulled the trigger, taking the lead goblin in the head as the resounding boom nearly shook the walls of the cave. But this didn't even cause their attackers to flinch; they surged forward despite the strange weapon and their fallen comrade. Brail pulled back the small knob at the side of his gun to load another slug into the chamber, this gun looked like an AK-47, but it didn't fire like one. His next shot missed his target, and a goblin leaped up, dagger held like a fearsome talon, descending on him like some great bird of prey.

Not enough time…

The goblin changed course as the battle axe smashed into its side, a strangled gasp ripped from its lungs as it was crushed into the wall. Grant used the momentum to launch himself in front of Brail, using his body as a shield for the onslaught. Another goblin repeated the actions of its brother, launching itself onto the warrior with a chipped hand axe. Like last time it too was thrown back, but now by several high velocity ice shards impaling themselves into its unprotected skin. Brail graced himself with a quick look back to see a few more fragments fly From Key's outstretched hands, his lips rapidly forming the words for another spell. Mizu was beside him, her two crescent moon swords she called waveblades at the ready and hands glowing white, prepared to heal the first sign of damage.

“Brail! Eyes front!” Grant shouted, burying his axe in the leg of another goblin, he laughed as another one's dagger bounced off his armor. “Just try it!” he roared.

Brail thumbed the release on his D-launcher, letting the clip slide out as he slammed the spare one in place. A green attacker slipped by Grant and charged him. Reaching into a case at his side, he slid out three shurikens and flicked them towards the goblin, two hit, causing it to howl in pain, stopping to pull them out. The gunner took aim and blew its head off, then gave a howl of his own agony as an arrow hit him in the gut. Key's eyes snapped to the rear, seeing the archer that had hit his friend readying another shot. Reciting quickly, he tapped into the arcane force the Center had injected him with and hurled a fire ball at the offender. “gotta love fireballs,”

Mizu extended her palm, bathing Brail in a beautiful white light.

Brail, who had felt his life seeping out of the wound, was filled with Mizu's healing power, granting him the strength to pull the arrow from his stomach. Not even feeling the pain as it left, the rest of Mizu's spell quickly closed the gap before any blood was lost. Brail continued fighting as if nothing had happened.

Grant now oozed with rage at the Creeps that had harmed his friend, checking a goblin into the wall before slicing it in half. But his rage had blinded him to the last goblin, abandoning its weapon, it threw itself onto Grant's back, digging its claws into the gaps of his armor. In his frenzy Grant too abandoned his weapon, grabbing around for the Creep, but he couldn't reach. Brail sighted the monster, but couldn't shoot for fear of hitting his teammate; Key was in a similar disposition. Swiftly as a river, Mizu dashed to the two and with frightening efficiency lopped off the goblins claws, Grant spun around with a speed unbecoming his size and plowed the beast into the ground with his studded gantlets.

 

“Brail, you O.K.?” he asked.

Brail looked down at his stomach, aside from the hole in his camo top he was fine, there wasn't even a scar.

“I'm good too thank you very much,” Key called out sarcastically.

“You should be more worried about yourself, those could get infected” Mizu fussed, taking off Grant's shoulder pads. Her patient merely rolled his eyes and knelt down, allowing her to treat him.

 

At the same time Brail and Key began the task of collecting the weapons and anything else they could find off the fallen Creeps, intending to bring it back for a bonus. “That was…pleasant” Brail commented.

“Now,” Grant stood up just as Mizu closed the claw holes. “You two get some rest, Mizu and I'll take watch now,” he said as if nothing had happened. The two of them nodded and returned to camp, settling down on their sleep mats.

Brail watched the fire until sleep overcame him. `The fire was a beautiful thing,' He thought.