Smugglers of the Dark

Smugglers of the Dark

         Salligness watched in silence as the troupe of guards passed right under her position. Trying not to make to much noise, the elf slowly made her way farther up the tree, and came to her friends. “They are gone.” She said. Leellon, the halfling, chuckled to himself and patted Forreed on the back. The man grinned and started to climb down the tree, but at the last moment, his foot slipped, and he fell down through the branches. The guards turned on their heels. Salligness swore and jumped out of the tree and was followed by Leellon. The trio ran from the oncoming group of guards, trying to stay as far away from the trail as possible. They ran for what seemed like hours until the three were sure that they were not being followed anymore.
         Forreed looked around, trying to get a picture of where they were. He didn’t recognize this place. A large abandoned building, probably a church, lay before their feet. To their right and left and behind them all they could see was forest. So, Forreed thought, the Smugglers of the Dark are lost in the forest they claim to know inside out. Leellon was thinking that also. If only the stinkin’ guards didn’t find us selling our stinkin’ wares, we wouldn’t even be in this fix, Leellon thought. Salligness, who was usually the optimistic one, quickly said, “Well, it could be worse. I mean it could be-.” Salligness stopped abruptly as a loud thunderclap sounded above, and rain started coming down. “Scratch that.” she mumbled, as she followed the other two into the abandoned church.
         As soon as they got in the church a gasp escaped Salligness’s lips as the trio got their first look at the inside of the church. It was nothing less than imposing, with its high ceilings, huge tapestries, and most of all, the huge evil looking gargoyles that seemed as if they would come alive at any moment. “I guess this isn’t one of them good temples.” Salligness grumbled “We best be looking around for rooms.” Forreed said, trying (but failing miserably) to hide his awe. “And food.” Leellon said quietly as his stomach growled. The church branched off into three places from the main entrance. The first was a smaller hall than the first, and instead of being for prayer sessions, it looked like it was more suited for daily song.
         The second passage branched off into a huge room filled with old items that were labeled as antiques from the “dawn of the ages”, most manuscripts, but others crude statues depicting priests in dark robes burning a village. This room also held a statue that was not labeled (which led the three to believe that it was put in the room as decoration), and was another one of the priest, his eyes wide, hand outstretched as if he was casting some sort of spell, and his mouth open wide in a mocking laughter. The trio quickly got out of that room.
         The last passage led to a series of rooms, most bedrooms each with four bunk beds, but the last few were far different than those. One had large steel doors and the ceiling was covered with nasty looking spikes. This room also had a statue, this one depicting a mage, head bowed and lightning crackling from his fingertips. Another one of the rooms had walls that were covered with weapons of all sorts, and five statues in the back. Four of them were grotesque creatures, probably orcs, each sporting a shield and a huge axe. But the fifth was different, for it carried a huge spiked chain, and instead of a shield it had a large hammer in the other hand. Alas though, for the smugglers never did find any food in all those rooms, and were forced to go to sleep, despite their stomachs’ protests.

******

         Laughter woke them up. All three bolted from their beds and grabbed their weapons, the laughter still sounding. Leellon’s small morningstar shook in his hand as he looked around the room, and at his companions for any comfort. He found none, for the trio was equally scared. “Let us be gone from this place before it is too late.” Forreed said in a voice barely above a whisper. The other two nodded and were off, but not for long, for a wall that wasn’t there before blocked the passage. The only other thing to do was to go into the room with the large doors and try to see if the answer lied there.
         “Where’s the statue?” Salligness quietly asked, her voice quivering. Slowly they all turned around to get out of the room, but found the door closed, and before their very eyes it was expanding to fit its portal. A humming sounded behind them, and before they knew what had happened, a large blue floating disk swept them off their feet and started to make its way up to the ceiling, obviously trying to impale them on its spikes. They all rolled off just in time, and instead of impaling them, the disk impaled itself and shattered. A low feral growl sounded, and they turned to see the stone mage glaring at them, the lightning in his hand leaning in the trio’s direction.
         Without warning, the lightning struck, and Forreed flew back into the wall, and commenced clutching his stomach and trying to breathe. Salligness roared with anger and charged at the mage, her sword held high. Another bolt of lightning escaped the statue’s fingertips, and sent Salligness sliding across the floor. Leellon looked around frantically, trying to find some measure of defense, and when he couldn’t think of anything else, he did the only other thing that was left to him. He threw his morningstar at the oncoming lightning, and threw himself to the floor, to lie alongside Forreed. The morningstar attracted the lightning, and granted Leellon a slight reprieve, which was just what he needed. He grabbed the crossbow on Forreed’s belt, and took out a small wand that lit the crossbow bolt on fire. His aim was perfect, and the bolt bore a hole through the mage’s stony stomach, and the mage fell to the floor.
         Gasping for breath, Forreed yanked the crossbow out of Leellon’s shaking hands, and replaced it on his belt. “Nice…shot.” Forreed said between breaths. Salligness was already up, and after a few more minutes, Forreed was better as well. “The door!” Salligness gasped. The other two turned around and saw that indeed the door had opened back up. “Now, let us be gone from this place.” The wall was gone now and they were free to go through the rest of the church. Or so it seemed.
         They had not gotten into the main room yet, and already they found that two of the stone orcs blocked their path. “Not another battle.” Forreed groaned, as he leveled his crossbow for the shot. The bolt took care of the first orc, and a combination of a sword and morningstar took care of the second. The trio continued their frantic run, and looked back for just a second, trying to see if they were being followed. The three bumped into the huge orc warrior. The statue grunted (or maybe it was just their imagination) and his eyes narrowed.
The chain was swinging before the trio could register the movement. In unison they ducked the blow and came across with strikes, stabs, and shots of their own. Seemingly ignoring the blows, the statue cooridinated his movements, and swung his chain at their weapons, while thrusting powerfully ahead with his blade. Leelon grabbed his bleeding hand as the mace was ripped from his fingers, taking quite a lot of skin with it. The other two successfully dodged the chain, but Forreed, who was the one that the sword targeted, had to contort his body in order to dodge the stab. Salligness came across hard and fast with her blade, and pushed past the stony barrier that prevented her from continuing her swing. The giant orc's head fell with a *clunk* to the floor. "Good, now that's done with." Leellon said, still clutching his fingers. They turned around again and saw the priest and the rest of the orcs following them.
         With the doors in sight, they found that they had just enough time to get out. Unfortunately their findings were wrong. The priest pulled out a wand and pointed at the three, and soon he and the rest of the group was in front of the trio, not behind. “Now…defiler, you die!” The priest laughed maniacally, and the orcs prepared for a charge.
         “Kill the beasts!” A call from behind the statues, and from outside of the doors was heard. A large contingent of guards came pouring in, and soon all that was left of the statues was rubble. “Ah…so nice to see you three again!” The lead guard said, a grin appearing on his lips. All three moaned in unison, for this was the same group of guards who had been chasing them in the first place. “Come on now, all of you, let’s go.” The guard said, and the trio began making their way over. “Well, this is it, the Smugglers of the Dark are no more.” Forreed whispered. “I never thought we would ever even have the face the prospect of going to jail.” Salligness whispered back. “Maybe we won’t have to face that prospect.” Leellon said, as he pointed the tip of a familiar looking wand (belonging to a certain all too familiar priest) at the group of guards.

The End