The Manticore

 Eventually we stopped for breakfast. I didn’t speak to anyone except when directly spoken to, but I attempted a weak smile when Leo looked at me. After the meal we started again. Leo dropped back to join me.

“Sounds like my advice didn’t really pan out,” he said, chuckling.

“It’s not your fault. She just really doesn’t like me. It’s unfortunate that I ended up here with you.”

“Do you mind telling me what was said?”

“Basically I pressed her for an answer on why she gives me a hard time. I didn’t think her answer added up so I kept pressing her. It’s my own fault. I kind of forced her into admitting she can’t stand me and thinks I should have blown up the door and rid everyone of my problems.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Leo. He spoke calmly, but I could tell he was angry. It was obvious he put a lot of effort into maintaining a sense of comradery among everyone, and he blamed Lilian for what happened.

“It’s fine. Just leave it be. I don’t need you getting onto Lilian about it.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll give her a chance to explain her side,” he said.

I was going to say that wasn’t really what I meant when I heard a loud roar. It was close, but with all the rocks echoing it was hard to tell where the sound had come from.

As we had gotten closer to the mountain, the lava pits had gradually been replaced by large rocks between which ran narrow passages like streams of black sand. Instinctively we turned towards our companions who, at that moment, were out of sight around a bend in the canyonlike path. As we rounded one of the rocks we found a scene of total confusion. On one of the rocks, twenty or thirty feet above us was a manticore–a cruel looking beast with the head of a lion, great taloned wings, and a tail with long, quilllike barbs. These it was flinging down on the party like arrows, sending them into disarray. Lilian was returning its volleys with barrages of icicles from her wand, Paelyn was crouching petrified behind a boulder, and Kyle was scrambling up a rock wall, though whether to get at the creature or to escape was unclear.

Leo unleashed his knives on the beast who howled, launched a volley at us, and leapt out of view. Luckily neither Leo nor I were hit as the needles went splintering off the rock a few feet above us. We hurried to Lilian’s side and found that she was bleeding from a pair of wounds in her shoulder.

“Just two needles did a lot of damage,” she said, “and there seems to be a poison effect too.”

Paelyn came up after us and started tending to her wounds.

“Where’s Kyle?” asked Lilian.

“He went up the rock,” said Leo. “They may be fighting as we speak. The manticore went off in that direction after I got it with my knife.” He pointed.

At that moment we heard a yell come rattling through the canyon.

“Come on,” said Lilian, pushing past Paelyn.

We followed after her, racing between the rocks. The path was slightly inclined and rose until the rocks were only a little over our heads. Here Lilian started climbing. As I knew I couldn’t climb after her, I pressed on, hoping to find an exit. I could hear voices again, and it was clear that Lilian and Leo had found the manticore or Kyle, if not both. I kept on along the sandy bottom of the chasm, but just as it seemed the ground would rise to the level of the rocks it turned and started down again, away from the others. I had already followed the cleft for several minutes and going back was not an option. Neither did waiting seem possible, for if at any moment the manticore appeared I would be completely exposed. I therefore started down the slope, as the voices of the company passed out of hearing. As much as I hated heading back down into the canyon, there was one positive about pressing on: I was now heading precisely in the direction of the mountain pass which Leo and Lilian had selected as the best way around the mountain. With any luck I would meet up with them again as we got nearer to the pass.

I ran on in silence for another minute when suddenly the rocks opened up and I heard voices not far away. I hurried and a few seconds later caught sight of the party and the manticore at the same moment. We were at three points of a triangle, each more or less a hundred feet from each other. The four companions were standing on a raised bank on the edge of a small river of lava.

The manticore launched a wave of quills, which ricocheted off a dome of ice which Lilian managed to conjure just in time, but the beast was closing in, and now, on level ground, I could see just how massive the creature was, its back rising almost as high as that of a horse, its taloned paws as big as Kyle’s buckler.

At that moment Leo and the manticore both spied me.

“Jump!” Lilian yelled.

“Wait!” shouted Leo, realizing that to jump was to abandon me to the manticore.

“No! Go now!” Lilian yelled again.

Kyle and Paelyn obeyed, launching themselves over the cliff onto the bank below. Seeing them barely make it I knew, even if I could get past the manticore there was no way, burdened with my casks, that I could make such a jump.

The manticore, seeing I was alone and vulnerable, turned its attention to me. I turned and ran, not back into the canyon, but away over the rocks roughly in the direction they had come. Before I knew it I had stumbled into a kind of cove, surrounded by rocks on three sides, with a passage among the rocks at the back. I was afraid to enter the canyon lest it lead to a dead end, and looked behind me, only to behold the beast sauntering towards me, with long easy strides.

I turned and darted into the canyon. Once more I found myself winding blindly through the towering rocks, only this time I knew the manticore was right behind me.

Suddenly the canyon opened up, but my joy turned to horror when I realized where it had brought me. I was standing at the foot of the slope Lilian had first suggested we climb, a steep and treacherous scree of rock. In any other situation I would have considered it impassible, I would be as likely to come down in a rockslide as make the crest even in the best of conditions, but now I had no choice. I started up the slope, already winded, but compelled my body on. My legs and chest were burning, but I had no choice but to climb, knowing that even if the manticore did not pursue me up the bluff it could still kill me with its needles. Up and up I forced myself, as my feet slid backwards and I felt small stones breaking loose of the mountain and rolling down into the gorge below me. I was about half way up when I heard the splintering sound of needles hitting the rocks around me like falling hailstones. I was not out of range, and my legs, pushed to their limited were trembling with exhaustion. As another volley came in I turned my face away, trying to shield myself with the barrel, but several needles still found my lower back. I let out a cry as much from desperation as pain. Honestly the pain wasn’t terrible. I think the doctor toned down pain in that world, not to where it didn’t hurt, but enough that it wasn’t excruciating. Far worse was the certain knowledge that I could not survive another such attack. That these were probably my last seconds to be alive. I wasn’t ready to die. I wanted to see Ori again.

Suddenly there came an explosion as I felt the ground rumble beneath me. The rocks everywhere shook and started downward. I raced upward toward the mountain but I was running in place, for the rocks beneath my feet were every moment giving way and plunging down the slope, and even rocks above me were crashing on my head. Finally the cascade stopped. Half buried in the mountain I glanced downward. Where the manticore had been was now covered in ten feet of rocky debris. It took a moment before I noticed the two figures perched up on the mountain. They were about level with me. It was hard to tell who was higher, for a great gulf of open air lay between us, me on my slope, and them on the crest of a cliff–Leo and Lilian, Leo waving eagerly.

It took a long time to get me back down the slope. First Leo and Lilian had to pick their way up gingerly to where I was, before working cautiously to free my legs without starting another rockslide. It must have been an hour before my feet touched level ground again.

“Did you start that rockslide on purpose?” I asked.

“It was the only thing we could think of,” said Leo, waving his hands apologetically.

“No, thank you, I thought I was a goner.”

“We thought you were too. You took a direct hit from those spines of his. None of us could have done that. Honestly I’ve never heard Lilian swear like that. Oof!”

Lilian elbowed him in the ribs.

“Anyways we’re both thrilled to see you back down in one piece. It was a risky move but it worked out.”

“Where are Kyle and Paelyn?” I asked.

“Don’t know. We didn’t end up jumping, obviously. So we haven’t seen them since we came after you.”

“Not to alarm you or anything, but if I don’t get a heal or something soon I think the poison from those barbs might end up finishing me off.”

Just then we heard voices echoing along the canyon passage, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“How are you feeling?” asked Leo once I had been taken care of my Paelyn. “Do you want to camp here or do you feel like pressing on?”

“Honestly I’d like to get out of here as soon as possible.”

“We can’t leave yet,” said Lilian. “We haven’t found the scroll.”

“Oh, yeah, we’re looking for this thing called a scroll,” he said, turning to me.

“Oh, I know what a scroll is. Ori and I found one.”

“Really? Well we got a hint that there was a manticore guarding a special one out here. I guess it can’t be far away now that we’ve dealt with the manticore right?”

“You are sure it’s dead?” I asked, looking from Leo to Lilian.

“Yes, I got the loot for defeating it. No scroll though,” said the girl. Her voice was polite, though she avoided my eyes.

“Kyle and I will go and look for it,” said Leo. “The rest of you are looking a bit ragged.”

For a moment Lilian looked as though she would protest, but decided against it, rubbing her upper arm where one of the spines had pierced her.

While the three of us waited, Lilian recounted to Paelyn what had happened after she jumped. Paelyn asked questions and either Lilian or I answered.

“Sounds like you were lucky Lilian was there to help,” said Paelyn, hugging her friend.

“Yes, she undoubtedly saved my life.”

“I only did what I would have done for anybody.”

“Don’t say it like that,” said Paelyn.

“Sorry, that came out wrong,” said Lilian. “I’m glad you’re safe, Bastian.”

There again was the cordial aloofness. I wondered if Leo had given her a talking to on their way down from the mountain, or if my near demise had been a reason for her to regret her prior treatment of me. In any case, thereafter I found she treated me with courteous reserve, and even occasional kindness, a welcome change from her previous thinly-veiled contempt.

Kyle and Leo returned within half an hour, clutching the scroll. I thought there was something a little strange in their expressions. Rather than triumphant, their looks were puzzled.

“What’s wrong?” asked Paelyn.

“Take a look at this,” said Kyle, handing the scroll to Lilian.

“The bearer of this scroll can cast it to select another player to instantly transfer all of his points to them,” Lilian read.

“So it let’s you steal someone’s points?” asked Paelyn.

“No, it sounds like it’s the other way around,” said Lilian.

“Maybe it gives them however many points you have but you still keep them?” suggested Kyle.

“There’s a thought,” said Leo.

“Except it clearly doesn’t say that,” said Lilian. “This scroll is incredibly powerful, don’t you see? It has the power to decide the outcome of this whole competition. Naturally it’s going to come with a drawback.”

“I just don’t know how you talk anybody into giving you their points,” said Kyle.

“Hey Bastian,” said Lilian, looking me in the eyes suddenly. They seemed bigger somehow, probably because she wasn’t glaring for once. “Transfer me all your points.”

“Why should I?” I said, blushing.

“I’ll let you see me naked,” she answered, with a completely straight face.

“You really want to win, huh?” I said, nervously laughing her off.

“Wait, how many points do you have?” she asked, her eyes narrowing.

“Like a hundred and twenty,” I said.

“Never mind,” she said.

Leo and Kyle looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

“You people really can’t take a joke,” said Lilian crossing her arms, her cheeks flushed.

“Anyway, I guess we could try to get out of this place,” said Paelyn.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind waking up tomorrow to the sun,” said Leo.

We all agreed. A glance at the map showed us which direction was the nearest way out of the ‘Lava Marsh’ as it was called and we headed that way. Looking at the map I noticed, in a far away corner, a little blinking dot and wondered if that was Ori.

It was evening by the time we passed over the last ridge and saw the first stars of night in the pale blue sky. We set out immediately to locate a good campsite and then had dinner.

Afterwards everyone was so exhausted that they decided to go to bed, leaving me as the lookout. It was still early and with all the events of that day I don’t think the adrenaline had quite left my system, though whether that was in Scuba or out of Scuba I wasn’t sure. I’d been up for a couple hours and was just starting to get tired when I noticed someone coming towards me out of the dark. It was Lilian.

“Oh, it’s you. I wasn’t expecting to see you,” I said.

“Why? It’s my turn to watch,” said the girl. Her voice was pleasant. She sat down beside me, close enough that our legs were ever so slightly touching, and I felt my heart start to race.

“Hey,” I said. “I want you to know something. I think I’m technically not supposed to tell anyone, but I want you to hear it.”

“O–kay…” said Lilian.

“Pasqual told me I can’t win the competition.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“The Panacea, he said it won’t work on me.”

Lilian’s hand went over her mouth, “No…”

“Mhmm,” I said. “So I guess when I realized Eutopia was going to be the end of the line, I put all my focus and hopes in the person who had been nice to me. But there’s no future for Ori and me, and to make matters worse she has a fiancé. The narrative I’d been secretly imagining–of us falling in love and me helping her win–it would only get in the way of her happiness…”

“Oh…” said Lilian.

“So yeah, you had me just about figured out. I was puppydogging after Ori.”

“I’m so sorry,” said Lilian. “Those things I said…I didn’t know.”

“No–I know. But that’s why I wanted you to know–so you’d understand where I’m coming from.”

We sat in silence for a long time. I was about to climb down from the rock and say goodnight when Lilian spoke.

“I know you think I’m a bad person, but I promise I’m not.”

I was going to contradict her, but she went on.

“After my mother passed my father remarried and had three more kids, mind you, I was already a teenager by that point. Well then his new wife passes away and it’s just him. I wasn’t really around much by then. I got out and went to college as soon as I was eighteen–didn’t even go home on the holidays. Well, one day I get a call and my Dad is gone.” She smiled sadly. “So I took a leave from school, even though I was a few weeks away from finals, and I went home to raise these little kids I didn’t know–my half sisters and brother.”

“My gosh,” I said.

“And so for the last three years I’ve been raising them, practically speaking, a single mother. So you see, I feel like I have to get back to them. I’ll do anything to get back to my siblings, even if it makes me seem like a bad person.” She paused. “You have nothing to say?” she asked.

“No I just. I’m surprised. What made you choose to share this with me.”

“I guess because I can tell you’re a caring person. Also I think I just needed to make a clean breast of it to someone, and most people would take it defensively, like I was telling them I deserve the Panacea more than them.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” I said. “Well I’m glad you told me. It makes me like you even more now,” I said. I turned and found myself almost touching her beautiful face. I looked away, blushing.

Lilian laughed. She leaned in close to my ear, and I could feel her breath on my neck. “You know what? Get to a thousand points and that offer is back on the table.”

Lilian was looking at me with a smile at once so innocent and wicked that I felt like my heart would burst. “Now, off to bed with you,” and she pushed me off the rock.

I started walking back to the tents, my head spinning.

“Think about it,” she called after me, in a singsong voice which ended in a giggle.