Chapter 4

         Chapter 4          The Bowman          Chapter 4

         

Chapter 4

          The morning came without incident.

          "We should really get to that grove if we want to get that Azgroot oil," Arman says as he hands out some still fresh meat and cheeses for breakfast. The sun blasted down into the camp, perfect for making jerky and drying skins for Siobahn's cloak, she needs a hood he thought as he laid out a couple more pieces. Though, he did think twice about covering up that insanely beautiful body of hers. Then he pulled up the meat so it dangled fifty feet off the ground, the trees were still hundreds of feet in the air at this point, they only got smaller at the grove. At that height, no beast should be able to get at the meat save but a squirrel or two and how much could they eat?



          Upon entering the Azgroot Grove, the team could easily see why the government protects these trees. The bark of this tree is moist and a sharp blue. Sandrial witnessed one of the lavender leaves fall off one of the tree branches and watched in amazement as it turned a bright red before it even hit the ground. The colors made an incredible contrast to the rest of the green forest.

          "No sign of any predators, but that doesn't mean we should linger," Arman says while the two women just stand there in awe of their surroundings.

          "I thought you said this wouldn't be something to worry about?" Sandrial asked.

          "There isn't, well if you don't mind the occasional goblin or troll, but I've ever only seen one so far and it ran away, as I said, they're more afraid of us than you are of them. But then, I have a certain reputation out here and they know better. That's why it was so easy to get the gnolls to help us."

          Sandrial just rolled her eyes and shook her head. 'Arrogant much?'

          "I hear something," Siobahn whispers. He looks around and listens. The sounds of the forest whisper to him, the birds chirped, the leaves rustled and there was a grotesque sound that he heard above all else. He looked around letting Sandrial to her own devices.

          "In any case, I have to move farther in, the bark here isn't moist enough." Sandrial finishes up her work, puts the bark down, and picks up her satchel.

          "Hold on," Arman tells her putting one hand behind his back to gesture her to wait while looking deeper into the grove. Siobahn already had her bow out and an arrow knocked.

          Both Arman and Siobahn raise their bows simultaneously. Sandrial can hear it now too; a faint high pitched grunting sound that interrupted the pleasant sounds of this peaceful grove. Arman motions to Siobahn to move ahead in the trees as he moves forward. They both moved silently. When Siobahn put her fist in the air, everyone stopped and crouched. He shook his head and he relaxed a bit chuckling a bit. He was witnessing the time of the Rift's effects on Goblins. They were mating frantically off in the distance. There were two of them coupled right there in front of them about fifty yards away, the only way he could see them attacking is if they interrupted the two. Sandrial got to the location and saw the two goblins fucking hard, its hips pumping feverishly into its mates. The grunting was sickening, the action was appalling, but she couldn't keep her eyes away. She was both surprised and disgusted at how large he was. That was when she looked away and had to turn around to gag, almost throwing up.

          "How did you think they were made?" Arman asked Sandrial with a large grin on his face.

          "Let's just get the damn bark, can we?"

          "What, and miss the show?"

          Sandrial just grunted and turned to find her bark.

          Sioban found herself smirking as well. She had never seen these creatures, and to see them mating, she thought that might be a rare sight indeed. She never really thought about how some of these monsters conceived. She just assumed that when she saw them she needed to kill them. She never even once considered how they reproduce. This got her wondering if they could reproduce during the normal years as well since they looked so small and frail. She realized that there truly are more creatures in this world than she had thought before.

          "There must be a dungeon or a deep cavern nearby because I don't see any others. They usually Travel in tribes." 'I'll have to check this out at another time.' He thought to himself. "They usually hang out in caves and dungeons," He told Siobahn.

          "We could look around and see." Suddenly Siobahn crouched down and raised her fist in the air again. Arman stopped talking and had his bow at the ready. "I can sense something magical coming," she whispered.

          Just then another goblin walked up behind the two oversexed ones. This one seemed to be dressed in some kind of ceremonial dress and kicked the two on the ground.

          "Get back to lair I tell you!"

          'It spoke, and in the common language too.' Siobahn thought. Arman could see the surprise in her face.

          "They can speak several languages they can even talk to dragons. Though, we call them goblins, they actually have some dragon's blood in their lineage somewhere." He whispered. She just looked on as the goblin kicked at the two again before they finally got up and started to walk away from them.

          "Let's follow them," Siobahn whispered to Arman.

          "What about the phase demon?" Sandrial asked.

          "This would be a good time to find out if there's a dungeon around. It might be a good place to hide if we need to get away from it." Siobahn told her.

          "The magic you felt must've been that goblin. It must've been a shaman or something." He paused for a moment. "I guess we can check it out, let's go, I can track them easily." He motioned to Sandrial to follow quietly. She rolled her eyes and did as she was told; having all of the bark that she needed, she even picked up some of the leaves from the ground. She thought about picking from the trees themselves for a different chemical compound but thought they would just turn red also. And so they did.

          They moved swiftly and silently. Arman decided that he liked adventuring with the two women, especially Siobahn. She seemed energetic and had a purpose and all with a child-like curiosity; he decided it was cute. They soon came upon what looked like a hole in the side of the ravine. They had left the grove about a hundred yards back. He had never been this way before. He realized that he needed to start exploring the place where he was planning on building his cabin. He stood barely outside the entrance and began to listen and feel the surroundings. The air was stale and pungent. He heard nothing from inside. He motioned for them to stay there hidden.

          He crept inside slowly. There was a dirt floor and a dried dusty skeleton in pieces on the floor against the wall. 'Well, that's not a good sign.' He thought as he crept a little farther and stopped before entering the room up ahead. 'Yep, a dungeon.' He heard movement and brought his swords to bear. Peering into the room he sees two goblins sitting at a wooden table. They were playing some kind of dice game. He snuck a look around the room and saw a couple of smaller swords lying against the wall near the table he also saw two torches along the walls burning bright. They appeared to be guarding a large wooden door. He ducked back out of sight. He decided this was as far as he wanted to go, for now, he would have to come back later and explore, hopefully with Siobahn. It might be a good "Date" to have with her. He hurried back to the opening and when he got outside he didn't see either of the girls. Siobahn walked out from behind a tree, then Sandrial.

          "So?" Siobahn asked as he walked steadily away from the entrance to avoid alerting the two goblins inside.

          "It's a dungeon all right. There is a room about ten yards in with two goblins inside guarding a large wooden door." He said quietly. "Siobahn, lets you and I come back another day and clear this dungeon."

          "Sounds good to me, maybe we can check it out tomorrow." She remarked.

          "I'm not sure that would be a good idea."

          "Well, I guess we should take care of that demon first huh?" She said.

          "Right, and get to the root of that evil at the Delzuun Ruins. I don't want that shit getting more powerful." Arman explained. With that, they set off back to camp.



          "ok the deer is almost ready and I was even working on a cloak for you but I was wondering if you could enchant both of them later after they're both done curing?" He asked Sandrial.

          "That depends what would you want it enchanted with, what do you want it to do?"

          "That's a good question, I'm not sure. You get to choose your own enchantment but Siobahn how about you?"

          "I don't know, I have never had an enchanted cloak before. What would you suggest?"

          "Yep, I'm with a bunch of girls." He says under his breath and chuckling. He forgot they could both hear a whisper in a crowd of people. They both shot him a dirty look. "How about invisibility?"

          "I'm not a warlock Arman; I can't do that kind of enchantment. How would you like to have a boost in your abilities, make them easier to use?" Sandrial asked.

          "All I have to do is think about something and it happens that's pretty easy to use."

          "What do your daggers do if I might ask; I have been meaning to ask about that," Arman asked.

          "Pretty lame actually, one is just a normal dagger, and the other freezes the area around where I cut the thing."

          "Sandrial, can you do something that takes life from the enemy and restores yours?" Arman asked her.

          That will take some doing but I think that would be a better enchantment for her other obsidian dagger. Let me look that up and I might be able to do it with her dagger." Sandrial said. "Think of something else for the cloak.

          "What are you going to do with your cloak?" Siobahn asked her.

          "Use it for a windbreaker and raincoat; I told you, I don't want the damned thing anyway."

          "Well, while they are curing think about your enchantments and if Sandrial can do it she will, right Sandrial?" He said with his brow furled.

          "Sure," She said rolling her eyes.

          Arman worked on the two cloaks for the rest of the day and let Siobahn and Sandrial talk seeing as how they seemed to be getting along. Although, he could tell that there was still some tension. Sandrial belittled her several times and could tell Siobahn was getting frustrated and agitated. Luckily, he had dinner almost ready.

          "Dinners up." Arman interrupted.

          "Good, I'm getting a little hungry," Siobahn said, happy to get out of the conversation.

          "I need to keep researching some new spells that I can learn that might be helpful. I'll eat later."

          The morning came sooner than anticipated. Arman finished up with the cloaks, started breakfast, and woke the girls.

          "I gathered some Raspen eggs for breakfast. And it looks like you both could use the pick-me-up."

          "Whats a Raspen?" Siobahn eyebrow's furled in confusion.

          "It's a reptile that roams around this area. I didn't know they were here. Their eggs give you a boost to energy that seems to last all day. They also have a protein sequence that is hard to find and help improve concentration and focus." Arman told her.

          "Yeah, you're learning all about this world now aren't you sweetie? It's like they never taught you anything in your schools back where you came from." Sandrial said.

          "That's enough Sandrial!" Arman shouted.

          "It's okay Arman what she doesn't understand is that in my village there are no teaching centers, we all learn by what are parents teach us or we experience. So if I don't know something it's just because I haven't experienced it yet or that you call it something different here. We have a similar lizard where I come from, but I didn't notice the fact that the eggs give focus."

          "That's exactly what I'm afraid of, your lack of experience."

          "Sandrial, what's gotten into you this morning? We didn't keep you up last night. So what's up? Why are you in such a bad mood?" Arman almost yelled.

          "I don't know; let's just eat so I can get back to my studies." Sandrial gave them both an irritated look.

          "Have you found anything useful yet?" Arman asked trying to loosen her up a bit.

          "I'll let you know when I'm finished." She snapped back.

          "I'll be looking forward to hearing what you learned," Siobahn said hoping she wouldn't bite her head off.

          Siobahn and Arman talked a little about what the dungeon might hold for them.

          "You might be able to find another magic dagger for your collection."

          "I actually hope Sandrial can enchant it the way you want it, that sounds like a great idea. I wouldn't have thought about that."

          "Okay, we should go to the dungeon. So Sandrial why don't you finish up what you're doing, we can put everything important in my safety compartment I have hidden here."

          "Easy big guy, I am still preparing to purify the bark and then I have to milk the oil from the bark. After that, the oil must cure in purified water. At least a day and a half more at least I'm not going anywhere, besides if Zeth shows up someone needs to be here." Sandrial commented.

          "Have you learned anything new that you can protect yourself with?" Arman asked.

          "You mean other than my magic missiles and fireballs?" She asked mockingly. "Watch this." She said a few words and a giant rock the size of a small dog lifted into the air and flew into a nearby tree Completely shattering the tree and it came crashing down behind her.

          "Well I guess that going to be the first log for my new cabin. Anything else? You don't have to show us, just tell us please." Arman said.

          "Yeah, I should be able to reign down several lightning bolts at once and have them spread out to multiple targets. Siobahn would you be a dear and bless these water jugs with your divine clerical abilities?"

          "Sure." After learning how to do that she blessed the water jugs.

          "You can go about your business now; I'm done for the time being. I'll let you know when the next show begins." She walked over to the table and grabbed some of the fresh meat that Arman had pulled down from the trees. Putting more on, he hoisted the homemade meat dehydrator into the trees.

          Arman decided that it was time to train Sioban on some more advanced techniques of 'dagger play' as he called it. He was more than sure she could handle the techniques he was about to teach her. It was to be two short sticks. He was good at teaching it reminded him of the old days.

          "This is an exercise in both technique and skill for anticipating your aggressor's movements. These techniques will simply allow you to thrust and parry with your daggers. I want to train you in the art of dagger play Siobahn," He informs her. "I am not saying that you're bad with daggers, on the contrary, I believe that you are ready to learn more advanced techniques, as well as to be able to fight dagger to dagger. I want you to watch my eyes to predict my movements. Once you learn that, then fighting dagger to dagger will be that much easier."

          "I was taught to look at the shoulders to determine where he might attack from." She explained.

          "You could do that, but let me explain why looking into your opponent's eyes will be more effective. As you stare at his eyes you will be intimidating him. It shows that he has your full attention. When he does strike he will first look at exactly where he wants to strike and his eye will twitch. If he wants to strike your ribs he will glance there before he attempts his attack, allowing you to be quicker. Now look into my eyes and anticipate my first move."

          He strikes at her heart with his right hand and she swipes it away quickly with her left, he jabs her in the chest hard with his left hand. She takes several steps back in pain, he stops. 'I should know better' she thought. 'Never leave your chest so open, stupid!' She would have to coordinate his attacks and cross over her body at all costs. He saw her thinking about it so he came in again to strike with his left hand and she blocked with her left as her right came to block his oncoming attack from his right. His eyes went from her left then immediately to her right and she saw that he was going to attack that way. He did. She had also anticipated that he would try the same move to get her comfortable with the move.

          "It will take some practice and patience." He told her and then lunged at her while she was not looking into his eyes. She was easily able to block the attempt. "Now try defending against me the way you were trained. Let's see if you can tell the difference."

          She looked squarely at his shoulders as was her nature. He attacked with his right hand. She saw it and deflected it. He came about and aimed for her throat and she had to block that one, with the speed and accuracy of that attack it would've hurt so she kept up the dance for a few minutes and made some attacks to him as well, neither of them gaining any ground. She saw his right shoulder dip slightly they tilted left, but he swiped up with his right and cut into her armpit with the long part of the stick.

          "You're dead." He stated bleakly. "The armpit is a death shot."

          "I know that!" She was frustrated because she knew he was right and that she needed to train herself to look her opponents in the eyes.

          "Again it will take some practice. You have good techniques and you learn very quickly, being able to anticipate your opponent's moves is something you are good at."

          As soon as he said that he brought up his dagger, much quicker than she had thought to attempt a stab at her gut. She did manage to evade the stab, but just barely. She looked into his eyes quickly to see him glance to his right. She pulled her left shoulder back and brought her right up to block his oncoming attack with her dagger/stick. She was successful. But his next attack struck her in the gut hard. She saw it coming but couldn't get there in time. This time as he lunged forward to stab at her throat she took two steps back and imagined vines wrapping around him. Within a blink of an eye, roots began to entangle his feet as he took two steps towards her. She sidestepped his next lunge as he fell forward to the ground landing hard on his face; he only had one hand available to try to catch himself. She dispelled her summoning quickly; she didn't want to harm him. He crawled up to his knees as the roots receded.

          "Well done!" He said standing and brushing off the dirt from his face. "I was NOT expecting that. But that does not teach you how to fight with daggers, that's using your other skills; I want you to learn as if you were on a slab of rock or in a cave. That will be your true test of skill. But I came at you while you be unprepared, so I was playing dirty too."

          "Anything to win right?" She said with a smile. Arman just sat back grinning, proud of his girl. 'Wait MY girl? I guess we do kind of act like a couple."

          "Was that a druidic spell?" Came Sandrials voice from somewhere behind her. Siobahn turned to look at Sandrial, "well?" Sandrial said.

          "Uhh, I guess, I guess, all I really had to do was think about it and it happened." She said shrugging her shoulders.

          "Yeah, that could have really helped us in the fight against the gnolls." She said with contempt. "What else can you do that might just help us."

          Siobahn walked over to Arman and noticed a small cut he must have gotten falling to the ground, she touched it and swiped the blood off the wound and the cut disappeared before Sandrial's eyes. Siobahn turned and smiled.

          "I can also control tree branches. If someone is pursuing us I can cause the branches to trap the pursuers or even just block them from coming after us." She told her.

          "Well when Zeth gets here he can teach you a whole slew of new cleric spells and I know how you like to learn new spells. Those are excellent abilities. We will need them just to reach the ruins." Sandrial says while reaching down to take a piece of jerky.

          "Well, keep those spells handy, as she said, we will need them," Arman commented.

          "They're not spells Sandrial, their abilities," Siobahn says with pride.

          "Doesn't matter, we will need your . . . abilities." She said.

          "Tomorrow we practice again as we wait for Sandrial's oil to be made," Arman said.





          It was early the next morning when Arman and Siobahn got to the dungeon entrance. Arman had left Sandrial while she continued her work believing no harm will come to her during the daylight.

          They crept slowly into the dungeon entrance careful not to make themselves known. Both goblins were asleep at the table. Arman gestured to her that he wanted her to use her daggers to kill them while he set his sights on the other one should it wake before she got to her first goblin.

          Slowly, she crept up behind the first goblin and quickly slashed its throat. Its head flew in the air and tried to make noise and then fell over on the table waking the other goblin but before it could get off a sound there was a dagger stuck in its throat, also unable to make a sound as its head too fell on the table. An arrow flew by the goblin's face as it too reared its head back in pain. She heard a loud crack as it hit the wall next to it.

          "That was some quick reflexes putting down that other goblin so quickly," Arman said walking into the room.

          "I told you I was more than capable of fighting on my own."

          "Let's check out this door." They both looked all around the room in case the door was trapped; goblins were known tricksters with an evil flair. The only thing they noticed besides the torches was a large piece of raw meat on the ground next to the door.

          Deciding that the door was completely trap free Arman opened the door quietly and peered around it to see what was behind it. Seeing how the other room was completely dark he closed the door quietly and found the two torches along the walls in the first room. He handed one to Siobahn. Peering into the room again, he saw nothing but another empty room, though this one was bigger and sloped downward to another door at the other end of the room.

          When they made it fully inside the room the door slammed shut. As they looked behind them they saw a large grey creature with three sharp claws at the end of each of the six arms that it had. It had slimy grey-ish skin and its maw was huge and dripping with some kind of green goo. It had come crawling down the wall from the ceiling to cover the door. It had teeth as large as one of the goblins. Its thick green substance; possibly an acid or poison was also around all six of its sharp blue claws. Around its neck swung a key on a giant necklace.

          "That must be the key to this other door," Arman said. The creature made no move to attack but it seemed to be studying them, maybe looking for something. "This is probably what the rotten meat sitting in front of the door was for."

          "Yeah, the door we can't get too to grab the meat? It looks like it's getting mad now." Siobahn said.

          "Split up so it gets confused and try to make it to the door to get that meat," Arman yelled as the creature now began to come towards them aggressively. The creature went for Siobahn. It was fast being twice the size of the door. "I think if it gets the meat it will bow down and give us the key!" Arman yelled.

          "I'm not really sure this thing 'bows' to anybody!" She yelled as she started running.

          Siobahn ran around the room past the other door as the creature chased her. She threw one of her daggers and it stuck right into its trachea. It did nothing to slow the creature down. 'Great, now I've lost one of my knives and it didn't do a damn thing! It just stuck in its damn neck!' she thought as she ran around the oval room trying to let Arman get to the door.

          "It won't open! We have to kill it!" Arman yelled.

          'Oh great now we have to make sure this thing is dead, and the morning started out so well.' She thought.

          It chased her all around the room taking swipe after swipe at her. Its green goo flung towards her every time it tried to attack her. 'This is not good!' she thought. 'How are we going to kill this thing? It doesn't have a trachea, what now? The base of the skull, I have to get up there!' She thought. This thing was massive it was ten feet tall and half the width. Its arms reached beyond her capacity to reach it. 'I have to get behind it and up its back. 'The ice dagger should have done the trick, maybe he's magically enhanced.'

          He saw the opportunity to follow it as it chased her around the room. It kept gaining on her but she switched directions on him and it had to compensate every time. Arman watched with careful diligence to see what pattern she was following, if any.

          The creature came around the room back to where he was and as the creature passed he managed to cut off one of the creature's clawed hands. It roared in pain as green goo came gushing out of its arm. It stopped and turned around and as it did so it flung some of the goo; some of it landing on Arman's armor, sizzling down to the padding.

          "Okay, that was dumb. It must be enchanted, nothing like that is supposed to damage my armor.' Now he was worried, but even more so upon watching its claws grow back. 'I have to find a way to kill it!' He saw one of the creature's arms backhand Siobahn into the wall across the cavern, she hit the floor and moved no more. 'OH! It's on now!' "Siobahn!" He called out for her but saw no movement as he began dancing with the creature. It's all coming back to him now, His fighting prowess, training, and his hunting skills all gathered in one mind for one purpose, he needed to kill this thing and now.

          'I have to find a way to bleed it out.'

          He ran straight at the creature avoiding all of its attacks. He got between the legs and slashed out with both of his swords into the creature's calves. Just then he saw the chance to jump on its back and did so sending the thing into a frenzy, flailing its arms and running around; he had to grab the tough flesh just to stay on that wild ride its skin was so slick. Noticing that his cuts to his calves have already healed, he could think of only one thing left to do as he saddled the creature's back. Arman slid his sword directly into the base of its skull and twisted.

          The beast's head tilted up, his shoulders tightened, and down to its knees, then it went lunging forward onto its face. It was dead. Jumping off the creature he ran straight over to her and checked her breathing and pulse. 'Whew! She's still alive, thank the Gods.'

          "That was fun! We should do more of it." She said waking up groggy. "I take it we won?" She said with a soft giggle.

          "Are you nuts? You could have been killed!"

          "I know! Didn't you find it exhilarating?" She said sitting up, then she screamed out in pain.

          "What's wrong?" Arman looked down and saw that her arm was broken and three slash marks in her armor, he hadn't noticed at first. He noticed that the slashes went all the way down to the skin whereby there were three small scratches. He could worry about that later right now he needed to focus on the broken arm. "The only thing I can see in here are some bones, let me see if I can go find some straight ones to make a splint for you."

          "Okay."

          He got up, picked up one of the torches, and looked around. He found two straight bones and bent down to pick them up when he heard a loud "Crack" then her scream in pain at the same time, the cavern lit up. 'So, she can heal herself, I wonder if that's the druid or the cleric in her?'

          "Don't worry about the splint hun; I just wanted you away from me when I did that. C'mon back over now. The worst is over, I just reset the bone and it shall heal in a while. Right now I'm just going to sit here and rest for a minute."

          "What would I have done if you had died? How would have we been able to fight off our bigger foe the shadow dragon?" Trying to reason with her without letting her know how he felt. 'How do I feel about her? Is it just the rift talking or am I really falling for her?' "I was so incredibly worried about you when you didn't get up."

          "Don't worry about me so, it's sweet that you do, but I'm a big girl, besides, we work well as a team. Don't ya think? I'll be the distraction and you can kill things." She said with a smile and a wink. "Now shall we go see what's behind door number two?" She asked standing up while checking her armor. "Looks like I'll have to fix this when we get back to camp."

          He managed to roll the thing over and get the key and her ice dagger. Looking around, they found no traps.

          "I think this...thing was this room's trap," Arman said. They started hearing panicked screaming and grunting from behind the door. The next sound they heard rattled them both. Arman quickly opened the door. It wasn't locked.

          There were Goblin limbs all over the place and even one being torn apart by the phase demon. It seemed to look back at them as it finished its horderves, it flew down the corridor deeper into the dungeon as if beckoning them to follow it. From down the cavern tunnels, emanated more screams.

          "Let's go get it!" Siobahn yelled and started to run towards it, but Arman Grabbed her by the good arm and shook his head.

          "Remember, we can't do anything to it, let's just let it kill the fodder here and we'll come back and track it tomorrow, we need everybody for this." He said. She just looked at him with a face that told him he was right. "And right now, you need to heal. Come to think about it, how did it get past us, don't you think we would've noticed a shadow demon pass right by us? And why didn't it kill us?"

          "Well in the cavern with all the goblins it seemed to want us to follow it. I'm sure it has a mind and can think on its own." She said. "And this is new to me also, it didn't actively try to get me to follow it when I was tracking it, but it seems to have an interest in you Arman."

          "Maybe, or it's being controlled by its master and wants us for some nefarious purpose, maybe it wants us to follow him."

          "Maybe he just doesn't like his master, demons don't normally like to get summoned and taken away from their realm, I would guess anyway."

          "Well, in any case, let's get back to camp."



          Once back at camp Arman told Sandrial everything, especially about the phase demon.

          "We can't do a thing until the oil is done curing, and even then we have to wait for Zeth. We need to get him so that we can stop this thing; he knows a lot more about it than we do." Sandrial told them. "And besides, he's probably already on his way here."

          "We will be a day behind it at least if we have to wait for Zeth," Siobahn said.

          "Well, no offense to you and your so-called, abilities but I'm not sure you can take this thing on. If we have someone that can do it and has knowledge of it then we need to make it happen. We can afford to wait. We'll need him, especially when we get to the Delzuun Ruins. We will need an experienced healer and that he is. So sit your pretty little ass down and put up with it. He should be getting close now." Motioning to Arman with a wave of her hand.

          "I'm sorry Siobahn; it will take at least a day for him to get here. We still have to wait for the oil anyway. You know we have to wait let's make the best of it shall we." He told her lovingly watching Sandrial roll her eyes at them. Then Siobahn's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed.

          Arman scrambled over to where she now lay. He cradled her head with his hand. Sandrial got up right away also to go and assess the situation. She knelt next to her and saw the damaged armor. She looked at the scratches which were now severely infected. She showed them to Arman.

          "What the hells? I saw those in the cavern, they were fine. Poison?" Arman asked panic in his voice.

          "Well, they're infected now. Let me get some of this puss and see what I can determine with the few supplies I have." She looked at him dead in the eye. "Her breathing is fine for now so the poison hasn't completely taken over her body yet. I hope she can make it until Zeth gets here, she's strong, she will make it Arman." She put her hand on his shoulder and went to get her medkit. He hadn't seen her this supportive since he was with her all those years ago.

          Arman cradled her in his arms and started to realize that it wasn't The Rift making him fall for her, this was genuine.

          "C'mon fight it!" He looked into her face and whispered. Sandrial looked at him briefly, understanding how truly he felt about her.

          "It's just a waiting game Arman, she'll pull through."



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