Plankrun Forbidden Grove Chapter 38

Read Table of Content | +Kyla Scurchio
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       The Acolytes stood there, hungry and powerful, waiting for my first move. What they wouldn’t give to have a hunter on their side to control, and to manipulate. What I wouldn’t give to be free. I shook my head to calm my inner voice.
      Upon the stone table I noted the pile of little blue stones. The Forgotten Book had mentioned things like this before. It called them ancient runes. They had an unknown origin, and I had a suspicion the acolytes brought them here.
      “I wouldn’t stand in that doorway for too long hunter.” said the Lich mouse from behind the
Acolytes back. His voice was waspy as he spoke. The others chuckled darkly. I didn’t move.
       “If you want to keep that half of your body intact I’d move before it closes. You don’t want to be ripped in two when the Realm reveals itself now do you?” a different mouse spoke this time, sarcasm dripped of his undead tongue. He stared at me with hollow eyes, looking as if death was about to whisk him away, but powerful enough to not rely on it.
      His eyes glowed yellow, green in their sockets. Ancient stones hung around his neck and another strand of them lay across his skull. He had a cloth wrapped around his middle that hung past his feet. Runes were just barely visible down the middle of the fabric. The same red cloth hung like a cape from his neck. I flinched when I saw what was in his paws. One held a staff, which glowed red, a slight mist coming from the tip. And in his other paw was an incredibly sharp looking mace. I really didn’t want to cross paths with him.
      I stared open mouth for a moment before taking the dreaded step forward. I didn’t move down the old steps towards them. Half my body was ready to bolt for the door; perhaps those spider mice weren’t so bad.
      The mice ignored me and went back to their hushed conversations for a time. I watched the Lich mouse open up his copy of the book. I wanted to take it from him. I wondered how Zugzwang had ever managed it.
      “I believe it’s ready” whispered the Wight mouse as he stared down at the ancient text. He shuffled a few of the runic stones around the table then his cold eyes found mine. I had been silent the whole while too scared to move.
      “And now for the sacrifice masters.” said the two ancients together. The Acolytes turned again to face me. The hood on their robes was pulled up, I couldn’t see their eyes; and for some reason that bothered me.
      I took half a step towards the stone archway that concealed the door to the cats, but before I could make any more movement the Acolytes paralyzed me. For one instant I felt nothing, and then the next I felt white hot pain blast its way down my spine. My skull was on fire, my insides felt like they were being seared apart. A loud noise filled my ears and I was sure it was my own screams but I couldn’t remember screaming.
      When the pain stopped I found myself on the ground with the robed figures standing above me. My arms shook violently as I tried to push myself back up.
“Oh, no Plankrun, we can’t have you getting away.” They grinned down at me before raising a hand. More pain. I felt my mind fade, tug away from one reality and into another. Like death was taking me. Or perhaps it was just illusions placed on me by the Acolytes. I didn’t care; all I cared about was the lack of feeling I now felt. I took a few moments to decide I wasn’t dying before opening my eyes again.
I was staring up at the face of the Realm Ripper. I felt shock slap itself across my face.
“What are you doing?!” I asked mouth agape.
     “Helping you. Again!” he looked annoyed. “This really must be the last time Hunter.” I watched as he reached over and picked up a tattered page of a book. “This could help.” And he was gone.
The page was ripped straight from the volume of the forgotten book the Acolytes had. I stared at it for a few minutes before I fully took it in.
How do you bring death to a beast that is beyond it? You can’t.
      There was a full page of information and ancient scrawl for me to take in but that was the only sentence I wanted to read. It was in Z’s handwriting. Or at least I thought it was, it was quite similar; perhaps it was his father’s. I folded the page neatly and placed it inside my pocket, then looked around for the first time. A purple fog engulfed me. I wasn’t in the kingdom.