| Sample of TALES FROM THE LONG ROAD |
by H. Wolfgang Porter
The corridors were filled with armed humans of all
ages. With the barest whispers of movement, they
traversed the crimson-lighted tunnels. It was an
ingenious tactic lighting the passages with lamps covered
in red glahs. The red light allowed humans full vision
and rendered nightsight worthless. Fortune was with me
in that I was not dependent on nightsight alone. I moved
along the tunnel wall at a snail's pace to maintain my
camouflage. On several occasions, I bumped into
sentries that were hidden at intervals along the tunnel
walls. If it weren't for the mass of people moving about,
the sentries would have noticed me.
My usual cool and professional disposition was
wearing dangerously thin while searching through the
tunnels. After a number of harrowing moments, I was
able to duck into an alcove. A quick inspection of the
cavity led me to believe that it might have been one of
the many guard stations hidden throughout the
sandstone passages. Six humans could have fit inside the
space, so there was room for me. Thankfully, there
were none of those blasted glahs lamps inside which
made the area pleasantly dark.
I sat cross-legged on the sand covered floor facing out
towards the alcove's opening. Getting control of my
breathing was a no mean task. The exercise took some
of the edge off the encroaching concern (hell, it was
more like full-blown panic) that this was the absolutely
most asinine stunt I had ever pulled. About that time,
the seriousness of the situation hit me in the teeth just
below the gumline. There was no way to tell how long I
had been shuffling around these damn tunnels, so the
deadline could easily be up. Also, not having a
reasonably laid out plan had erupted into an enormous
pain in the ass!
Always I told myself, 'Next time I'll be more
organinzed.' Yet I always came to the point of being up
to my nose in shit wondering, 'how the hell did this
happen?' The only good thing about these little moments
of recrimination was; I eventually get bored with beating
myself up about how screwed I am and resume the
business of getting my sorry ass out of the dragon's
gullet. A good length of time had passed during my
respite. The flow of the Spine's defenders had slowed to
a trickle, then something peculiar happened. The noise
level in the tunnel began to swell. I belly crawled to the
opening to steal a quick look.
A throng of Jade Spear fanatics surged into the main
tunnel from a multitude of connecting passages. The
mob howled at fever pitch as the mass got closer. I was
struck with the impression they were all one entity. A
chill clutched the base of my spine for an instant.
Striding stark naked imperiously before the herd was
one of the most fearsome human males I had ever seen.
He was covered in war paint that gave off a faint glow
in the red lantern light. As he passed the doorway where
I was hidden, he turned and looked me right in the eyes!
I held his gaze without flinching and he went on about
his way with the mob baying after him.
There was something in his eyes that was all wrong.
I could not grasp what it could have been. Behind him
dragged the body of what looked to be an elven warrior.
The poor sap was being pulled along by the skull mere
inches ahead of the slavering mob. I then decided if I
were to make any headway completing this 'rescue',
there was only one thing to do. I jumped in with the
press of bodies. I was really sorry I didn't have a god to
pray to because this was the stupidest thing I had done
yet.
The corridors were filled with armed humans of all
ages. With the barest whispers of movement, they
traversed the crimson-lighted tunnels. It was an
ingenious tactic lighting the passages with lamps covered
in red glahs. The red light allowed humans full vision
and rendered nightsight worthless. Fortune was with me
in that I was not dependent on nightsight alone. I moved
along the tunnel wall at a snail's pace to maintain my
camouflage. On several occasions, I bumped into
sentries that were hidden at intervals along the tunnel
walls. If it weren't for the mass of people moving about,
the sentries would have noticed me.
My usual cool and professional disposition was
wearing dangerously thin while searching through the
tunnels. After a number of harrowing moments, I was
able to duck into an alcove. A quick inspection of the
cavity led me to believe that it might have been one of
the many guard stations hidden throughout the
sandstone passages. Six humans could have fit inside the
space, so there was room for me. Thankfully, there
were none of those blasted glahs lamps inside which
made the area pleasantly dark.
I sat cross-legged on the sand covered floor facing out
towards the alcove's opening. Getting control of my
breathing was a no mean task. The exercise took some
of the edge off the encroaching concern (hell, it was
more like full-blown panic) that this was the absolutely
most asinine stunt I had ever pulled. About that time,
the seriousness of the situation hit me in the teeth just
below the gumline. There was no way to tell how long I
had been shuffling around these damn tunnels, so the
deadline could easily be up. Also, not having a
reasonably laid out plan had erupted into an enormous
pain in the ass!
Always I told myself, 'Next time I'll be more
organinzed.' Yet I always came to the point of being up
to my nose in shit wondering, 'how the hell did this
happen?' The only good thing about these little moments
of recrimination was; I eventually get bored with beating
myself up about how screwed I am and resume the
business of getting my sorry ass out of the dragon's
gullet. A good length of time had passed during my
respite. The flow of the Spine's defenders had slowed to
a trickle, then something peculiar happened. The noise
level in the tunnel began to swell. I belly crawled to the
opening to steal a quick look.
A throng of Jade Spear fanatics surged into the main
tunnel from a multitude of connecting passages. The
mob howled at fever pitch as the mass got closer. I was
struck with the impression they were all one entity. A
chill clutched the base of my spine for an instant.
Striding stark naked imperiously before the herd was
one of the most fearsome human males I had ever seen.
He was covered in war paint that gave off a faint glow
in the red lantern light. As he passed the doorway where
I was hidden, he turned and looked me right in the eyes!
I held his gaze without flinching and he went on about
his way with the mob baying after him.
There was something in his eyes that was all wrong.
I could not grasp what it could have been. Behind him
dragged the body of what looked to be an elven warrior.
The poor sap was being pulled along by the skull mere
inches ahead of the slavering mob. I then decided if I
were to make any headway completing this 'rescue',
there was only one thing to do. I jumped in with the
press of bodies. I was really sorry I didn't have a god to
pray to because this was the stupidest thing I had done
yet.
| © 2005 H. Wolfgang Porter. All Rights Reserved |