Chapter X - Prison Break Part IV - Beware the Shadows.
Gargoyle
Chapter X - Prison Break Part IV - Beware the Shadows.
Vault POV
The journey through the old city had been… oddly insightful.
You know the phrase, don’t judge a book by its cover? Boy, does it play out a lot here…
Everywhere we had looked was ruins of what clearly was once a great people… dog… whatever the hobolls are. It was quite saddening really to see how far these creatures had fallen, I nearly felt sad for them.
Nearly.
The reason for why I only nearly felt sorry for them was, we were now being chased by them. We had just left the room where we found the strange painting with the moustached weapon when we heard the sounds of at least six of the bastards behind us.
I ditched the torch I was carrying and picked up Crystal, carrying her carefully on my back avoiding my wings and used her as a makeshift sat nav in the darkness of the ruined buildings. Something she had initially protested about but had eventually clammed up about it when I had to remind her. Twice. I was blind in the dark.
“Remind me again why we are running?” she asked me.
“Correction, why am I running, your riding on my back. And the reason is, I can’t exactly fight well in the dark when I can barely see can I? They have the advantage.”
“Fair enough I suppose, but, do you have any idea where we are running?”
“Away from them,” I replied with a smirk.
“Har har.” she said sarcastically, boping me on the head. “But seriously, do you— TAKE A LEFT!”
I did as she said and gasped when I noticed I had nearly run right off a walkway and into the abyss below. “Fuck that was a close one…”
“Yeah… but it would've been okay. We have wings, we just need to—”
“Actually…” I interrupted her as I ran, “I can’t fly…”
“What? Why not?” she asked, seemingly dumbfounded at my statement.
“Dunno, never learned how to, haven’t had these wings long.”
“What do you mean by that?” she asked.
“Long story, tell you all about it when I got the time!” I said, singing the last line.
“... You’re weird, Vault,” Crystal sighed.
“That may be, but you love it,” I grinned as I leapt down some stairs, landing with a thud.
“I have to admit, it is entertaining.” she giggled. “Okay, I see a turning to the right up ahead as well as to the left. What one do we take?”
“Let’s go with right, I’ve had a bad experience going down left tunnels… fucking 173,” I muttered, shuddering at the thought of the monster.
“What was that?”
“Nothing, how far away are the hobolls?” I asked.
As we reached the turning, she cocked her head back and stared into the darkness.
Crystal POV
As I looked into the darkness, I could see the hobolls gaining on us. But that wasn’t what had my attention, I don’t know why but, I felt as if there was something behind them. Something following after the hobolls.
I continued to stare into the darkness, trying to see if I could see anything when I heard Vault let out a grunt of annoyance.
“Earth to Crystal, do you see them?” he asked.
“Yeah they’re gaining, we better…” I looked back into the darkness, but was unable to see anything more other than the hobolls.
Vault quickly ran down the corridor and I returned to looking ahead, however this time it felt different. I was starting to struggle to see anything and it was unnerving me a little bit.
“Vault,” I started, “something doesn’t feel right…”
“What do you mean?” he replied.
“I can’t shake this feeling that we’re being followed, or that something around is… I don’t know, off,” I muttered, nervously looking around.
“I don’t feel anything, it’s probably your mind playing tricks, given how dark it is and deep underground we are.”
I nodded slowly and clung tighter to him, “I guess you’re right…”
Vault nodded as he continued to run into the darkness, but the feeling still hung onto me. Filling my mind with uncertainty.
Hoboll PPOV
The hobolls came to a stop as they reached the turning and the leader sniffed the air, trying to catch the scent of their quarry again.
“Anyfink?” one of them asked.
“Not yet… dat gargoyle ain’t got ah smell on ‘im, but da bug,” he inhaled deeply, “she got ah smell on her! Down the left boys!”
The hobolls nodded and started to run down the left corridor, chasing after the smell of the changeling. With each step, they all started to feel as if something was wrong, but they put this down to simply the darkness of the tunnels and carried on running.
Eventually the hobolls came to a large clearing in the cave that had two exits in front of them. The leader raised his head in the air and began to start sniffling again, growling in annoyance as he lost the scent.
“I lost da scent… fuck.”
“Da alpha ain’t gunna be happy if we don’t get dat box…” one of them whined.
“I’m more worried ‘bout da snake guy…” another muttered.
“Same ‘er, you seen da way he makes the alpaha—”
He was interrupted as the leader of the pack came over and smacked him with the hilt of his sword, causing the hoboll to let out a pained yelp.
“Shut it! Dun talk bad ‘bout da alpha, or yur gunna get yurself killed!” he growled.
The hoboll he struck whimpered and nodded his head as the leader snorted. “Now, dey can’t ‘ave gotten far…”
He turned around to look back to the two exits then quickly turned back when he heard a light whoosh sound and noticed there was only four hobolls behind him as opposed to five.
“Where da ‘ell ‘as he gone?!” he barked.
“Dunno, boss. One second ‘e was here, den—”
“I didn’t ask where he was, ah wanna know—”
A pained yelp alerted the group to something above them and the looked up.
Just in time to see the missing hoboll’s body crush into itself with a loud sickening crack as its spine, ribs and other bones snapped that echoed in the area and be violently pulled into a small hole. Blood rained down onto the group below as it split from the body of the hoboll before it vanished.
“WOT DA FUCK WAS DAT?!” one yelled.
“ARE WE UNDAH ATTACK?!” another cried.
The leader looked to the exit and saw them move, forming into one shadow which darted to the right, hiding in the shadows of the wall.
“IT’S AH TRAP!” he shouted, “BACK DOWN DA TUNNEL!”
The hobolls didn’t need being told twice.
Whimpering with their tails between their legs, they made a beeline for the exit. The leader came to a screeching halt when the darkness of the tunnel they had come from suddenly engulfed his pack and he heard them scream in terror and pain, followed by gurgling sounds, the crunching of bones and the splash of blood before the shadows parted. The color in his cheeks went pale as he vomited onto the floor.
Where his pack had been was nothing more than a pile of mutilated corpses, most of the blood had been drained from the bodies and stained the floor, walls and ceiling. Bones stuck out, ripped through the flesh and snapped as organs lay splattered against the floor, walls and ceiling.
He started to back up, whimpering as the shadows formed in front of him to show a small humanoid creature, with two white eyes that appeared in its head. In a blind panic, he threw his sword at the creature, and cried out in terror as the creatures head split apart to allow the sword to fly through it and clatter to the floor before forming back into a head.
“S-STAY BACK! P-PLEASE!” he pleaded.
His plea fell on deaf ears, the sounds of his screams echoed all throughout the tunnel systems before they were abruptly silenced.
Vault POV
I came to a halt as a low scream echoed down the tunnel before coming to an abrupt stop. I looked around and could feel Crystal was looking around
“Did you hear that?!” I whispered in alarm.
“Y-yeah, it sounded like a hoboll…” she whispered back.
“Can you see them?” I asked.
Crystal stared into the darkness and shook her head, “No I can’t.”
“At least… that’s good?” I said meekly.
“I guess… we should keep moving,” she replied.
I nodded as I held onto her legs and started to walk instead of run, deciding it would be smarter if I conserve my energy for the time being. However, I now was having the same niggling feeling that Crystal must’ve been having earlier on as I could literally feel as if something was off in the air. I took a deep inhale and something hit my nostrils that smelt wrong, I couldn’t describe it.
It just smelt wrong.
“The air smells off…” I muttered as I took a couple of deep breaths. “Really off, I don’t like it.”
“What are you talking about it?” Crystal asked.
“... Nothing, it’s nothing. Lets just keep going.”
I could feel that Crystal was a bit confused, but she didn’t say anything and we carried on down the pathway in silence
Crystal POV
Vault was starting to worry me.
I know I was saying that I felt as if someone or something was watching us earlier, and even thought I had seen something behind the hobolls when they had chased us. He hadn’t seen or noticed anything out of the ordinary.
But ever since we heard that scream, he started to act a little edgy. And it was worrying me.
I jolted on his back as he stopped for what seemed to be the tenth time in less than five minutes and span round, glaring into the darkness behind us.
“Vault, what is it this time? Seriously, you're acting really nervous right now.”
“Hmm?” he replied, not really paying attention.
I bopped him on the head and scowled, “Pay attention. What’s wrong?”
“Ow…” he grumbled and rubbed his head, “I don’t know okay? Everytime I take a breath something smells wrong. I don’t know how to explain it more than that, and now I can’t help but feel we’re being followed by something.”
I looked back and stared into the tunnel, trying to see if I could see anything but like the last time I tried, I couldn’t see a damn thing.
“Look, Vault,” I started.”I’m worried about you, I can’t see, hear or smell anything.”
“What about earlier, when you asked me if I felt like we were being watched?” he asked.
“I think it was just my imagination, because there was only the hobolls. And I think now, your imagination is playing tricks on you because of that scream,” I replied.
Vault sighed and rubbed his head, I gave him a soft squeeze-hug to reassure him and he placed on of his hands on my hoofs and gently squeezed it.
“I guess you’re right. Thanks… needed that,” he said softly.
“Anytime,” I smiled.
“So… shall we carry on?” Vault asked.
“Of course, not sure where to go though… it’s just a straight corridor,” I muttered.
“Well, it’s got to lead somewhere, right?” he chuckled.
I smiled warmly as I settled myself again on his back and he started to walk, I could feel the emotions he was giving off and it was frankly nice. Not like some of the emotions ponies would give off. I couldn’t really explain it, he just felt… different.
As we continued to walk we did eventually come to the end of the tunnel and I couldn’t be happier to see it. Even though changelings make their hives inside of caves or old ruins, it was nice to finally come to the end of this damn area.
I was highly mistaken…
We walked out of the tunnel and into a large open area that was a bit lighter than the tunnels we had been going though and had several pathways jutting off in front of us. I groaned and laid my head on the back of his as he let out a deep sigh.
“Whelp… any idea which way we should go?” he asked, resting his hands on his hips.
“I’m not sure… give me a second…” I replied.
I hopped off his back and walked forward a few steps, looking down each individual tunnel to try and see if I could get any kind of emotion trail from them. The second to last on the right had a—if very faint— trace of anger coming from it.
“Okay… I think we should go down the second to last on the right,” I started, “but I can feel a lot of anger coming from it.”
“... Huh…” Vault blinked.
“Changelings can detect emotions, I already told you this,” I deadpanned.
“Oh yeah… sorry forgot,” he replied with a sheepish grin.
“You’re hopeless, you know that?”
“What can you do, eh?” he grinned. “I’m one of a kind!”
I giggled and rolled my eyes as I started to head down the tunnel followed by Vault. I could hear him walking behind me and figured that since he hadn’t asked me to ride on his back again he was okay with me leading him through the tunnel, I kept my eyes open though, looking to see if anything was out of the ordinary as well as making sure I could see what the anger was coming from before it could find us. I figured it might probably be a hoboll, given they desperately needed whatever was in that box if the golden demon was to go by. I cast my head back slightly, still keeping my eyes forward.
“Just a heads up, you may have to fight something in a minute, Vault,” I said. “I really don’t like the feeling I’m getting.”
No answer.
I rolled my eyes again and turned my head round, “Vault, did you—”
My eyes widened in alarm when I saw that Vault had vanished, and instead a shadow was standing behind me. Its two white eyes staring at me almost manically.
“W-what the—”
It interrupted me with a loud screech as its head ripped open revealing hundreds of razor sharp teeth.
I screamed and ran down the tunnel, not giving a damn if I ran into a hoboll or whatever, I just wanted to get away from whatever the fuck that thing was. I could hear it running after me, my heart pounded as I tried to make as much distance as I could from it when I ran into an open cavern again, looking around to see if I could see another tunnel.
There wasn’t one.
Fearfully, I spun round and started to back away as the creature slowly emerged from the tunnel. Charging up my horn I blasted a beam of magic at it, hoping to deter it. It screeched as the brightness hit it and it retreated back into the shadows.
I let out a sigh of relief that was short lived as I could hear it shifting around in the darkness.
I looked down the tunnel and saw nothing except darkness, before two white eyes floated in the center and a wicked grin soon after.
I was trapped. And it had all the time in the world.
I growled and stomped my hoof, “No… I’m not freezing up again!”
I charged as much magic as I could on my horn and charged at the creature, it shrieked as I got closer and closer and I ran as fast as I could down the tunnel ,the shadows parting as it desperately tried to avoid the light.
I had no idea where I was going and I didn’t care, I need to find him. I needed to find Vault.
I needed to find my friend.
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Damn, that was good. Didn't actually catch much wrong, but hey little editing touches can't hurt.
I got one correction for you:
Should be you're.
I've always wanted to write/read something like this! :3
Wat… what IS that thing? Automatic physical disassembly and regeneration… what kind of creature could POSSESS such power?
Their behavior is wrong and unrealistic. They met dragon, run from demon, and now are chased through ancient underground city that was abandoned by unknown reasons, and its citizens turned basically into cavedogs. Crystal said that she got feeling of being watched, and that something followed hobolls, then said hobolls scream in panic/suffering, than Vault got bad feeling and smells, and what they do? "Nah, it's just my imagination". You know how bad their behavior was? That bad:
i.imgur.com/5xGUi.png
3497650 Many. Shades, Shadows, Darklings, Shadow Demons, Shadow Spirits, those are right off the top of my head.
3498358 I'm gonna have to agree with you on that. To me this chapter to me just feels rushed. I understand you wanna actually get out of said cave and into the adventure but this is just kinda........boring? Not because of the arc but because of the way the characters are.
Please dont be the Screecher anything but the Screecher
Is it the thing from your nightmare? The animation? Hmmmm.....