The Alchemist's Lair: Part 3

We had the misfortune of running into a particularly steep incline the day after a full night’s downpour. Roads in the Ptolomiac mountains were poorly maintained at the best of times, and the one we were on turned into sticky mud, into which I would sink to my knees every time I made a step. Our carts had no chance of making it, so we unloaded them, carried all the things by hand (some particularly tricky items were levitated by Annabel and a battlemage who was attached to Nixon’s unit, but even mages lack infinite reserves), and then we got to work getting our carts and beasts of burden to the top. It was slow and exhausting work, and by the time we were finished, our best option was to seek a nearby place to camp and settle down for the day. We barely got a wink of sleep during the last damp night, after all.

The clearing we camped in was not to Iocasta’s satisfaction. She thought we were too exposed, and spent a good few hours organizing the construction of impromptu barricades. When she returned, it was dark already. She glanced at our group, eating vegetable stew around the fire, and noticed someone was missing. “Where the hell is Civet?” she asked.

“Went to look for some mushrooms”, said Nixon.

“Starlight amanita in particular”, clarified Annabel. “He said it was allegedly endemic to this area, but there were no samples in the university’s collection. Some even argued it didn’t exist, since they found the entire idea of glowing spores quite silly. So old Civet went looking for proof”.

“And you let that idiot wander in the dark by himself?” Anger and disbelief were mixed in Iocasta’s voice.

“I made him promise not to let the fire out of sight”, Nixon replied, “What was I supposed to do, tie him up? You treasure hunters are supposed to be able to look after yourselves”.

“Most of us are. But he’s... different”. Iocasta was already moving towards the woods. “Julia, Andre, you’re coming with me. We need to find him before something else does. You said he went that way?”

“Can I help?” I chimed in. “My night vision is pretty good”. Ever since we started the journey, I felt like a dead weight, not knowing what I was supposed to be doing. Earlier that day, my strength proved indispensable in getting the cart up the hill, and it was the first time during the expedition that I felt properly useful, so I thought I might as well make a habit out of it.

Iocasta shrugged. “Sure. Be on the lookout for those mushrooms – they are very much real, I assure you – and try to keep at least one of us in sight at all times. There’s no need to be stealthy. On the contrary, making enough noise might help us avoid trouble altogether”.

“But what about bandits?”, I inquired.

“Most of them are further west. There are some outlaws in these parts, poachers mostly, but they tend to avoid humans. No, it’s other creatures I’m worried about”.

The four of us spread out and went in Civet’s general direction. Even if he intended to keep his promise to the sergeant, he must’ve been too absorbed in his search for the starlight amanita to pay it much thought. Soon enough, a small hill was between us and the camp, and my mind became aware of the quite real possibility of getting lost myself. Nevertheless, for now at least, I could keep track of the other members of the group by either sight or sound. So, I calmed my breath and kept looking for Civet.

Soon enough, I heard Julia from somewhere to my left.

“There’s light over there – oh, that must be him!”

I hurried up in that direction. Sure enough, I noticed Civet before long. He was in a circle lit up by a group of blue mushrooms. The stories turned out to be correct, as the fungi were surrounded by a cloud of glowing spores, giving the entire scene an otherworldly look. Our academic friend was sketching something on a piece of paper, blissfully unaware of the ruckus he caused or the trouble that would befall him in a few seconds.

Julia and Iocasta were almost halfway to him, and Andre was catching up to me in a jog. I was about to breathe a sigh of relief when Iocasta froze, screamed “Baukhs!” and readied her gun. In an instant, something jumped out of a tree at Civet, the rifle spoke, and the creature was blown away before I could make out what it looked like. Then all hell broke loose.

Furious screeches erupted from the branches, like an infernal choir. The gunshot woke Civet from his trance. He turned around, noticed the dead creature and the flock that was about to descend upon him, and immediately bolted – in the wrong direction, further into the woods. I cursed under my breath, then sprinted after him. So did everyone else, aside from Iocasta, who would from time to time stop, take aim, and make a shot with deadly accuracy, felling several vaguely humanoid hunchbacked shapes in the process. Soon enough, Andre and I overtook her.

While running, I heard a cracking noise from above, raised my head and spotted one of the so-called baukhs leaping at me. I raised my hands defensively, but it still managed to knock my rifle out of my hands and make me lose balance. It was still on top of me, trying to claw at my face with razor-sharp talons, when I managed to grab it by the wrist and toss it towards a nearby tree.

The creature landed nimbly, on all fours, and at that moment, I managed to get a good look at my assailant. It was an emaciated humanoid, quite shorter than a regular human. The creature wore no clothes, its jaws were grotesquely huge, and its talons were similar to an eagle’s. It was covered in a layer of thin, sickly pale fur, and its eyes were huge, glowing faintly. It was hissing at me like a cat, judging whether to strike again or retreat.

We briefly stared at each other when Andre sprinted between us. He judged, I assume, that Civet was in bigger trouble than I was and decided to let me fend for myself. My enemy was briefly distracted by this new arrival, which I used to draw my pistol, and, as soon as such an action would no longer threaten my ally, I shot three bullets at my enemy.

To my shame, all three missed. In my defense, this was my first life-or-death combat, and I was quite nervous. At that moment, the creature decided to strike. It must have, with what intelligence remained in its brain, decided that, if I could attack at range, escape would not ensure its survival. Thus, charge was its only option. It leaped at me. This time, I saw it coming, so I dodged out of the way and tried to punch it in turn. My blow merely glanced it, but it was enough for the creature to lose some momentum and land closer to me than it would have otherwise. I charged at it and kicked with all my might. This knocked my foe down, giving me enough time to draw my sword and strike the creature across the back before it got up.

It was not the best strike ever made, but it got the job done. It severed the creature’s spine – or at the very least broke it, given that in all the excitement I forgot my swordsmanship training and swung the blade more like a club. The creature, having lost the faculty of its legs, tried pathetically to drag itself away, at which point I finished it off. Then I ran off in the direction from which I could hear gunshots, forgetting my rifle on the ground.

Before I could reach the site of the firefight, however, I noticed a group of three creatures running across the forest floor in front of me. I took aim with my handgun, and this time managed to hit one of the creatures in the back. It fell to the ground with a terrifying screech, and its two compatriots turned around to attack me.

By this time, I had gotten used to the situation. I emptied the remaining four bullets in the direction of one of the creatures. One of them hit it straight in the forehead, blowing its brains out. I turned towards my last foe, who was leaping at me, drew my sword, and swung at it. The blow severed one of its hands and knocked it out of the air. As I was about to land a coup de grâce at the whimpering creature, I realized it had another ally I had failed to notice, which was now hanging on my back. I watched my wounded enemy scamper away into the darkness while trying to shake away its friend, whose oversized jaws were moments away from closing around my neck.

As I was making peace with the fact I was going to die for a second time, less than a year after I was given an unheard-of second shot at life, someone pulled the creature from my back. I turn around to see Iocasta wrestling with it on the ground, and jamming a large knife into its chest several times until it stopped moving. She then got up and picked up her rifle from where she had dropped it previously.

“Ran out of bullets”, she remarked, unprompted. “No time to reload”. She then glanced at my handiwork on the forest floor and cracked a smile at me. “Good job for a newbie. We’ll make something out of you yet”.

We started running again, Iocasta taking the lead. I left our direction to her discretion, as I noticed the gunfire had stopped. We were running for a long, tense minute, which I spent wondering what condition we'd find our allies in.

It turned out I was worrying for nothing. The other two managed to catch up with Civet and, by a stroke of fortune, made a stand in a small clearing, which prevented the monsters from attacking from above.

Civet was sitting in the middle, his knees having given out from the stress. Andre and Julia were guarding him from two sides. Julia was unharmed, but Andre had a nasty gash in his forearm. Around the clearing lay seven monster corpses, and the rest seemed to have escaped.

“I doubt we’ll see them again tonight”, confirmed Iocasta. “Baukhs are ambush predators. It’s strange they lasted this long before withdrawing, they dislike prey that fights back. Perhaps they were very hungry”.

She helped Civet to his feet, and we returned to camp.