Mrythdom: Game of Time (14 page)

“Gral! Cease that infernal banging!” Gabrian boomed with a surprisingly resonant voice.

The banging stopped and the troll slowly turned from the doors, his broad, ugly face was fixed in a terrifying rage, his grayish skin flushed a dark mauve. He roared impressively and then threw the mangled crate cover to one side. “Where has master been? Why no one come to Gral? Gral hungry! And thirsty! And very ANGRY!” He bellowed the final word with such force that Aurelius’s ears were left ringing in protest.

“Now, now, Gral. We were busy.”

The monster crossed his massive arms. “Gral not care.”

“Fine. We’re sorry. We’ll go get you food now.”

“No. Gral get his own food. You let Gral out!”

Gabrian stopped a few dozen paces from the giant and began shaking his head sadly. “We can’t Gral. It’s too dangerous here.”

“Here Gral’s home! You no tell Gral it dangerous. Gral know forest dangerous. Gral survive many winters before you come. Gral survive many more after you leave.”

“We’re not in your forest anymore. This is an entirely different place. We’re on Gryphon Isle.”

“
Gryphon?
”

Aurelius was surprised to note the tremor in the troll’s voice.
Anything that can scare a troll must be dangerous.

“Yes. Gryphon.”

“Gral still not care! Let Gral out. Eggs make tasty meal.”

“Unfortunately, that is exactly why you cannot leave the ship. We cannot risk you angering the Gryphons. But we will bring you food.”

Gral thrust out his lower jaw in a sudden pout, revealing prominent incisors. “And water!”

Aurelius cleared his throat. “Gral, there’s water in here, let me show you.” He walked over to one side of the cargo bay where there lay a pressure hose connected to a faucet. Aurelius unscrewed the hose and cast about for a container. He spied the sensor dish for a missile guidance system which had broken off as the guidance system had tumbled around the cargo bay. He filled the dish and carried it over to the troll. Gral suddenly uncrossed his arms and snatched the dish from Aurelius, nearly yanking him off his feet in the process. The troll downed the giant bowl of water in a few seconds and then wiped his mouth on his hairless forearm. He threw the dish back and Aurelius barely managed to catch it before it broke his nose.

“More,” the troll growled.

Aurelius thought about showing Gral how to get his own water, but then it occurred to him that maybe Gral’s giant, clumsy hands were better kept to himself. So he quietly repeated the process until the troll’s thirst was sated. After that, Aurelius went around the cargo bay gathering up weapons and stacking them inside an empty crate while Gabrian continued to argue with the troll about the necessity of staying with the ship. At some point the conversation switched from whether the troll could go outside, and why not, to what types of food Gabrian could promise in exchange for staying put. The old man was evasive on that topic, which seemed to get the troll’s ire up once more.

Aurelius tried to ignore them as he went about collecting the weapons from the broken crate. He was peripherally aware of Reven dogging his steps, but he did his best to ignore the hairy wolf man. Most of the scattered weapons were damaged and malfunctioning beyond repair, but a few of the hardier pieces were still in perfect condition. Most notably was a plasma pistol which was only a model or two back from the one he’d lost. Aurelius tucked it into his holster. It would do. He considered slinging a rifle across his back as well, but settled for a belt of stun grenades instead.

Aurelius turned to interrupt Gabrian’s argument with Gral. “Ready?”

“Let’s go,” Gabrian said, turning away in an angry swirl of robes. “You be a good troll, Gral, or we’ll feed you to the Gryphons when we return.”

“You bring Gral food or Gral eat you!”

“He sounds grumpy,” Aurelius commented as they hurried from the cargo bay.

“He’s just hungry.”

“Are you planning to bring him food?”

Gabrian smiled thinly. “Perhaps.”

*   *   *

Before leaving the ship, Aurelius went to the galley and retrieved a case full of emergency rations which he stuffed into a backpack along with some canteens full of water. He passed the pack to Reven who promptly slung it across his shoulders. The wolf man probably wouldn't even feel the added weight. Aurelius also took a moment to fetch his flight helmet from the cockpit. He had a feeling he might need the extra sensors to warn him when something was sneaking up on them.

“So, Wrinkles, where to?” Aurelius asked once they were standing on the beach beside the ship. He cast about for a moment to properly take in his new surroundings. Deep blue water as clear as crystal sparkled beneath the sun, waves lapped softly against the strange, lavender-white sand, and the air was heavy with moisture and heat, making Aurelius break into an instant sweat beneath his flight suit. He tapped a command into his forearm gauntlet and immediately felt a cool gush of air from his suit’s thermal cooling system.

Gabrian had his eyes closed and was whispering unintelligibly again. Abruptly, he turned and pointed up to the rising green slopes which lay inland from the beach. Aurelius squinted against the sun for half a second before his helmet polarized to give him a clear view of the summit. The mountain was much higher than it had looked from a distance. Sensors in his helmet fed data to a HUD and revealed the summit to be almost a mile high. If they had to climb all the way to the top, it was going to take them all day. A quick look at the dense jungles crowding the slopes had him amending that estimate. It could easily take weeks.

“Well, we better get started before your face gets any wrinklier.”

With that, they set out. The jungle wasn’t as thick as it had seemed from a distance, but the going was still difficult. They let Reven go first to blaze a trail. He beat and battered the undergrowth into submission with his hairy fists, letting out a constant stream of frustrated snarls that Aurelius hoped would be enough to warn away any predators.

“I haven’t seen a single gryphon yet,” Aurelius whispered. “You told me they have wings, so why didn’t we see them flying around when we came in for a landing?”

“Perhaps they were frightened by something. Be thankful that we haven’t seen them, elder.”

“What could have frightened them?”

“That depends how Malgore came here. Perhaps he summoned another dragon.”

Aurelius let out a quiet hiss of exasperation. “Right. I’d almost forgotten about the dragons. I suppose if a gryphon can be described as a deadlier version of a flying wolf, then a dragon could be described as a deadlier version of a flying troll?”

“No, no, elder. More like a flying leviathan.”

“Great! Dragons, leviathans, gryphons, trolls, werewolves—what next?”

Gabrian smiled. “You needn’t fear. I’m far more deadly than any beast.”

Aurelius snorted derisively, but privately he was more unnerved by that statement than ever. “Let’s see what’s for breakfast,” Aurelius said, catching up to Reven and unzipping the pack. He pulled out the case of rations he’d packed and began passing out energy bars. Reven sniffed his suspiciously before taking a bite out of it, wrapper and all. He promptly spat it out with a snarl and tossed the bar over his shoulder.

“Hey! Don’t waste that!” Aurelius plucked the remainder of the bar from a giant fern and dusted it off. “It might not taste good, but it’ll give us the energy we need.”

“What is it?” Gabrian asked, poking his bar with a long fingernail.

“Concentrated protein and carbohydrates. There’s a whole meal in there.”

“It smells like krak,” Reven supplied.

Guessing what the wolf man meant, Aurelius frowned suspiciously at his own energy bar. “Well, it isn’t,” he replied, not sounding entirely convinced.

“I’d rather starve,” Reven replied.

“We will wait for a proper meal, elder,” Gabrian said, passing the bar back to Aurelius.

“Fine, more for me.” He stuffed the rations back into Reven’s pack and then disabled his suit’s cooling system and removed his helmet to eat his energy bar.

He almost gagged on the first bite. Somehow it tasted worse than he remembered.

*   *   *

Gral was pacing up and down the cargo hold.

Thump, thump, thump . . .

Thump, thump, thump . . .

The master had been gone for hours and still no food. Gral’s stomach growled painfully and he stopped pacing to glare at the scuffed and beaten doors. He never should have agreed to come inside. Now he was trapped! Maybe the master would never return and Gral would die of hunger!

He couldn’t imagine a worse death.

There had to be some way out. Gral turned to glare at the doors by which the master had left and his brow furrowed thoughtfully. Maybe he had simply picked the wrong exit. Gral walked up to the much smaller doors at the back of the cargo hold. He set his shoulder facing the door, took a few steps back, and charged.

The resultant
bang!
and subsequent vibrations set his teeth on edge, but when Gral looked again, the doors were bowed noticeably inward and a small gap had appeared between them. Gral worked his fat fingers into the gap and heaved with all his might. There came a screech and groan of metal and then the doors began to move further apart. Soon the gap was as wide as his chest and he saw that he could crawl out into the tiny passage beyond. It would be a tight squeeze, but he could drag himself along the floor on his belly and probably make it.

After almost half an hour of sweating and cursing and pounding on the twisted doors, Gral managed to squeeze out into the corridor. From there he began crawling. At times he had to reach out for handholds to drag himself through the corridor, and sometimes his handholds broke, but he was making good progress.

Gral used the thought of food to motivate himself whenever his shoulders got stuck in a doorframe and he had to squeeze through on his side. It was hard, exhausting work, but the thought of tasty gryphon eggs spurred him onward. He was leaving a trail of green drool all the way from the cargo bay.

After taking several wrong turns, Gral eventually found the airlock. As with every other part of the ship, he didn’t quite fit, so he lay on his side, roaring and beating on the outer airlock door with his first until he accidentally broke the transparalloy plate guarding the emergency release and fired the explosive bolts which sent the door flying out onto the sand below with a heavy
whump!

Gral grinned wildly up at the sun until his eyes were dancing with bright spots. He belatedly squinted them shut and pressed a hand to his brow. “Ouchy.” Once the pain passed he dragged himself out of the airlock and tumbled head first to the sand with a
thud!

He clambered to his feet and roared loudly. “Gral is freeee!”

*   *   *

After several sweaty hours of climbing through the dense jungles, made easier for Aurelius by his climate-controlled suit, he began to notice that something was amiss. The jungle was deadly quiet. The only noises were those which they made by snapping twigs and trampling ferns underfoot. Whenever they stopped to take a break for water, the jungle didn’t suddenly resume its noisy bustle of activity. There simply
was
no activity.

“Has anyone else noticed how quiet it is?” Aurelius asked, turning in a slow circle to scrutinize the dense green foliage.