"Tribe of the Aquene"

An original series by Darkness Tigerpaw
(c) Darkness Tigerpaw, all rights reserved
Not to be used without permission under penalty of law.

Marten could see the group's campfire and movement around it. He smiled slyly as he was sure that he had found Lammina's group. At a very safe distance behind some tall grass, he silently slung the bag of priceless artifacts from his shoulder and set it down on the ground silently.

Opening the bag and peeking in, he could easily see some of the items inside, but argued with himself which one to use first. Which one will take out the dragon? he thought to himself. Or was it a combination of these items? The human debated for a few seconds before he started to hear a clacking sound coming from the gorge behind the group.

Marten looked up and around his immediate orbit to try to identify the sound, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't immediately place the echoing sound.

Returning his attention to the bag, Marten stuck his hand in and shuffled some items around, finally stopping at one. The grin on his face extended ear to ear as the item that he held gave him a wonderfully evil idea.

* * * * *

Tai sat alone on the opposite side of the fire from everyone else. Her bag's drawstring was pulled tight and it was now tucked deep into her breast pocket.

The remainder of the group was not so forgiving.

"Personally, I can't understand your inability to comprehend opening a dimensional door to another plane of existence and just... walking away as something sticks its hand through!" Shi'n said as he gritted his teeth, trying in vain to keep his anger in check.

The remainder of the group was noticeably upset by Tai's lackadaisical attitude and her complete disregard for the safety of anyone else. Ferelia, one of the three serious members of the group besides A'arch and Lammina, worried about Tai. The drow remembered the days before Tai had be cursed with vampirism. It had changed her greatly, she said to herself. But without walking in her shoes, she did not understand how.

Shi'n vocalized his concerns about what would happen if the bag's demon had decided to enter this world fully or, even worse, send something through the bag's opening that could have been even more monstrous.

Tai sat staring at the flickering light of the campfire, attempting to block out everyone's verbal attack on her. She realized she acted before she thought, but that's the way she lived and she liked it. Her status as a vampire changed the rules slightly and she couldn't understand why no one else could comprehend that, including Ferelia.

Lammina and A'arch, trying to put tonight's incident behind them, wisely listened to the conversations but did not intervene.

From the direction of the gorge before them, an echoing clacking sound silenced the group. At first it was an occasional sound, but then it seemed to multiply. A large number of these ear-piercing clacking sounds filled the air. Immediately, everyone in the group stood up, drew their weapons and took defensive positions around the campfire, their backs getting warm from the heat.

The drow, with their infravision could see the glowing colorful images of a handful of large quadrupeds circling very wide outside the group, the clacking sounds emanating from their general direction. The few soon turned to many and the many soon grew to a frightening number in almost no time. No one could see where they were coming from, but they seemed to double in number every minute.

Lammina could see everything. With her mouth agape, she echolocated these large creatures circling them, but could not identify them. "Does anyone recognize them?" the dragon called out.

The human stood there with his back to the fire and looked out into the darkness and saw just that: darkness. He was very frightened to be the only one in the camp could not see in the moonlight.

"I cannot," A'arch said. The other members of the group gave a similar reply quickly thereafter.

The elf widened his eyes and stared deep into the night. Adjusting out of his infravision , he attempted to view whatever was surrounding them with the small amount of visible light his eyes could take in. To his left, one of the creatures began moving closer to the group and he could begin to make out features. He thought by calling these features out to the group, whomever recognized the description would answer. A'arch started to describe what he saw: "Quadruped. Large skull. Closed eyes. Small spikes on its spine. Very small tail. One horn in the center of its forehead."

Rareki's eyes opened with surprise. Could it be? he asked himself. "Stone pigs!" he called out. Everyone's attention shifted to the human wizard momentarily.

"What can you tell us?" Lammina asked as she stared out towards their new mutual enemy. While she did want to know more about these creatures, she was ready for a battle with them if it were necessary. The dragon was never the type to underestimate her opponents, but based upon her short experience on the outside, swine were mostly easy to take down.

Rareki continued. "They're deadly. Fatal. Very few who see them survive. Their skin is hard as stone, they're all muscle and viscous. Bloodthirsty. I--" The human's voice trailed off. Everyone could tell how frightened he was, but he continued. "While the exposed skin is as tough as granite, its belly is soft and vulnerable. However, you rarely have access to that part."

"I'll take care of that," Lammina said smiling, contemplating tactical plans.

The clacking sound their attackers made grew louder and started to give the human a headache. To the group, the high-pitched sound was obviously their form of communication and/or intimidation. Whatever it truly was, it was beginning to hurt everyone's ears.

Lammina, bearing an open mouth to echolocate everything she could, smiled slightly, put her arms out to her side and bared her razor sharp claws. She was not only ready to jump in and slaughter the herd, but she could already taste its meat. The group of drow, dragon and human had not eaten a solid meal of meat in days and she could already visualize chunks of pig roasting on a spit over the fire later in the night. She began to drool hungrily.

* * * * *

Marten squatted low behind some tall grass and watched the group take up defensive positions around their fire. Luckily, he was outside the ring of stone pig at a safe distance.

He reached into his bag of magical artifacts and pulled out a long string with a crystal attached to it. He carefully put it over his head and wore it as a necklace. The crystal glowed for a moment, attuning itself with the wearer to protect him from all physical damage with an invisible bubble of protection that nothing could penetrate.

In his left hand, he held an item of great power: a small statuette of a traditional winged dragon in flight. In his right hand, he held a small bag of gravel. He waited patiently for just the right time to run in and use the two carefully chosen items of power to extract his revenge and destroy Lammina for embarrassing him and killing his guards.

The dragon will die tonight, he thought to himself.

* * * * *

Tai reached into her shirt and extracted her small bag. She immediately opened it and asked "Are you there? We're in trouble here and need help quickly."

There was a low grumble from the bag's demon as if Tai's question woke him up. "Is that my fault?" it asked sarcastically.

"No, just get your red behind out here to help us. There's stone pigs everywhere around us."

The demon's disembodied voice laughed heartily. "Those things give me gas. Deal with your own problems. Good bye, drow."

Becoming frustrated, Tai knew the only way to make the demon of the bag pay attention was to barter. "How about a trade?" she asked in a purposely sensual voice.

"Barter? Please explain," the voice said, interested.

"I seem to remember that you had in your possession a ring of transport. Do you still have it?"

The demon was becoming interested. The ring of transport was an extremely powerful object, not one to be used lightly or on a whim, but the elf did say she was in trouble. "And what do you offer for this ring I may still have?" the demon-turned-instant merchant asked. "Yes, let's bargain. Those who have their lives threatened tend to bargain loosely."

Tai had nothing to offer.

* * * * *

Marten could easily see the group's confusion by reading their body language. They were beginning to circle the fire slowly, facing outward into the night.

For a brief moment, the group moved to one side of the fire, the human assumed it was to get a better look at one of the circling invaders, but that left Lammina on one side of the fire alone and unguarded. This was the perfect time to attack, the human thought. There's no time like the present.

Marten jumped out from behind the tall grass, dragon statuette in his left hand, bag of gravel in his right, a crystal of physical protection hanging from his neck. He nimbly jumped over a distracted stone pig and into the inner ring of the circle. With incredible speed for a human, he was almost at the campfire in no time at all.

He came to a skidding stop in front of Lammina who heard something coming seconds earlier. Upon hearing the skidding in the dirt before her, she turned towards the noise and echolocated everything before her. She saw the human in her mind, the same human she thought she had run off earlier. Although she thought the day would come that the two would meet again, she didn't expect this bad timing.

Extending his left arm towards Lammina, Marten shouted "Fire!" and a massive flame shot from the statuette's mouth, completely encasing her in blazing hot dragonfire.

A'arch, Shi'n, Ferelia and Rareki, with their backs to Lammina, felt the blazing hot flame and were pushed down to the ground by its force. Tai still stood far off to the right, out of the way of the blast. Upon seeing it, she briefly paused her bargaining with the demon in the bag and began to slowly flank Marten's right side. What she was going to do when she got there, she had no idea.

When the barrage of white hot flame stopped, Lammina continued to stand there untouched and angrier than ever before.

Marten looked at the statuette and wondered why there was no effect on his most hated enemy, the blue dragon. Disgusted, he dropped the assumedly defective item to the ground and shifted to the item in his right hand: the bag of gravel. He reared back and threw it directly at Lammina's direction. The small bag only traveled a few inches before hitting the inside of the invisible bubble of protection that encased the human. It fell to his feet, exploding with incredible force as it hit the ground, blowing the necklace off his neck.

Marten stood there, scorched and blackened, his clothes burnt and smoldering, weaving slightly from the blast. Finally, his body gave out and he fell forward into the dirt with a dull thud.

A thick cloud of smoke laid heavy near the campfire for a few moments.

Tai arrived to the scene as the smoke cleared and looked down in amazement at the scorch marks left in the small crater in the soft soil. To her left, she noticed the half-buried dragon statuette the human held. She picked it up, blew some dirt from it and stared at its beautifully ancient detail. Suddenly, her eyes lit up with an idea. Looking at the bag in her other hand, she peeked in and said "How about this?" and held the statuette above the bag's opening for the demon to see.

With an imploding suction, the demon inside gasped when he saw it. "We have something to bargain with! Give me the statue and I'll give you the ring of teleportation. I must have that! I've been seeking that object for centuries!"

"No, you give me the ring and I give you the statue," she replied shrewdly.

"Give him the statue!" A'arch screamed from across the fire as he began to stand up. The stone pigs were getting closer than ever and their furious clacking noise was becoming increasingly louder. He thought if the pigs were going to attack, this would be the time.

Tai shrugged and dropped the statuette into the bag. After a few gawking sounds emanated from the demon as he admired his new acquisition, his dark red hand popped up from the opening of the bag, a finely polished silver ring held between his thumb and index finger.

"Thank you," Tai said politely as she took the small ring from the demons grasp. "How do I use it?" she asked.

The disembodied voice said "Hold hands with those whom you want to transport with and then say the name of the place you want to visit. You will arrive there momentarily." The hand slowly retracted back into the bag and Tai pulled the draw string on it immediately. Quickly putting the bag back into her hidden pocket, she put the ring on her right middle finger which surprisingly fit perfectly. She stared at it for a moment, admiring its perfection in an imperfect world.

Lammina never moved from the moment Marten arrived until his embarrassing attack. She believed she saw something fall near her feet after the explosion so she bent down, searching the soft soil around her, her weathered fingers finding a small string. Pulling it up before her mouth to echolocate a visual of it in her mind, she noticed it was the crystal necklace the human wore. She then lowered her head and placed the string around her neck to wear it. After a few moments, the crystal upon her chest glowed for a brief second, attuning itself with her and dimmed. The dragon was now invulnerable to any physical damage.

A'arch, Shi'n, Ferelia, Tai and Rareki now stood around the smoking body of Marten who was attempting to rise from the ground. Coughing up smoke and dirt, he looked up at the untouched dragon. "How? How were you unaffected by the dragonfire?!" he demanded.

Rareki, the only other person in the group who had intimate knowledge of the weapons Marten used, carefully defined their uses to him. "Lammina is a dragon. She is immune from dragonfire."

Tai giggled under her breath.

"But... the bag of explosive gravel! Why did it bounce back within the bubble but the dragonfire was allowed to penetrate?" Marten asked, trying to catch his breath.

Rareki smiled and answered. "The protective bubble of the crystal around your neck was magical. It let the magical dragonfire through. The bag of gravel was physical. The bubble protects against all physical damage. You set yourself up for failure the moment you picked these items to attack with. You should have chosen more wisely. There were things in that cart that could have killed Lammina, but you chose wrong."

Tai laughed heartily. Shi'n stepped up to the blackened human, picked him up by his collar and placed his sword to his throat. "Give me the word, I'll slit his neck now." the drow said.

"No," Lammina said in a calm voice. "He's mine."

The blue dragon slowly walked up to the human and grabbed his collar away from Shi'n. The drow wisely took a few steps back to let her have her fun.

"Lammina," A'arch started. He was concerned that this was going to turn ugly.

"No, love. I have this," she answered peacefully. The dragon pulled Marten up off the ground without effort, his feet dangled and shifted looking for a foothold on something. Lammina drew the human's face a mere inch away from her open mouth, her hot breath blowing his filthy, stained hair back with every exhalation. She began to growl with hatred and the human became frightened. He had the feeling that his life would end here and now at the hands of this blue dragon. Instead, his fear got the best of him and has he hung in the air, helpless, he soiled himself. Again.

Winces and nostril-holding came from the surrounding group. Tai giggled again.

Lammina silently released her grip on the human and he dropped to the ground, only allowed to suffer from his own embarrassment.

Tai asked "What's the name of the city we're headed to? I forgot."

"Glakta!" the remainder of the group shouted in unison.

Tai ran up to everyone, pulling them into a small, tight huddle. "Hold hands!" she shouted.

Without question, Lammina, A'arch, Shi'n, Ferelia, Rareki and Tai held hands tightly. "Glakta!" she shouted and in the blink of an eye, the group softly and quickly faded into thin air silently.

Marten lay there on the ground for a moment, bathed in flickering firelight that clear, starry night.

Then the clacking began again. Sitting up straight, looking around him, the firelight reflected the faces of dozens of stone pigs that surrounded him only a few feet away. He stood up slowly and started to turn. Looking in all directions, he noticed layers upon layers of the stone pigs surrounding him. They were nine, sometimes ten rows deep.

Hundreds of stone pigs surrounded him.

Marten accepted his fate and shed a tear. He was right, he was going to die tonight. He wished Shi'n had slit his throat and ended his life quickly, but now he was going to be torn apart violently by one of the most feared and viscous predators known.

The stone pigs attacked simultaneously.

To be continued...