chapter 11

The next morning Varden was awakened by Drake.

Drake asked, " Are you going to sleep all day? I heard you tossing and turning all night. What is going on with you?"

Varden frowned and said, "I didn't sleep well I just need a little time to get myself together."

Drake looked at him and just shook his head. Then thought it must be young love I hope it doesn't get us all killed. When Drake was dressed, he went over to Draydens door and knocked. When she came to the door, she looked worse than Varden did. Drake simply told her that they would be ready soon and she should get herself together. Shaking his head as he walked away.

She saw the look in his eyes and the disappointment that was there. She was now even more embarrassed by herself than she was before.

As Varden finished dressing and left his room he noticed that Drayden was just coming out of hers. They looked into each other's eyes and then they both noticed how tired the other was. Varden went to say hi to her, but she turned and said, "The others have to be waiting on us already. We need to get moving."

Varden frowned and then nodded his head knowing that she was right. They made their way out of the bar where Drake had joined them. To their surprise Argus was already in town, it appeared that he was getting some supplies today and that was something that they all needed.

When Argus looked at the two of them, he started shaking his head the way a disapproving father would have done if he was looking at his child. Then he said, "Why don't we rest today?" He knew that neither of them was in any shape to do anything productive and that neither one had rested at all.

Everyone was exhausted from everything that they had been through so no one disagreed with a day off. So, Argus used the day to catch up with his students and get them back on track once again. Once it was decided that it was a free day Drake slid off to do his own things like normal. Varden and Drayden found a quiet field to have a picnic in and fell asleep while they were holding each other.

When they awoke it was almost sunset, so they walked back to town. They were both feeling so much better since they had gotten some sleep and it was not just the sleep that helped it was the fact that they had been holding each other that had made the difference.

They were both happy and smiling when they made it back into town. They went to the tree that he had carved their initials in and watched the sun go down. It felt to Varden that they had always been together and at this spot, he was truly happy here. Even though they had only known each other for a few weeks it felt like a lifetime of love was what he was sharing with her.

As the sun started to sink into the horizon, he held her close, and they shared another kiss. Neither of them wanted this moment to end but they knew that it had to, as the last bit of the sun disappeared on the horizon.

Drayden said, "We better go back and get some sleep so that we are ready for the others in the morning."

Varden agreed so they held hands as they walked back to the inn and then back to their rooms. but once again Varden noticed the woman in red watching him closely it was like she was studying his every move.

They kissed a long and passionate kiss goodnight in the hall, and each went into their rooms and they both had nothing but pleasant dreams.

In the morning Varden woke to the sound he was beginning to love the sound of the knock on the door. He quickly threw on something and dashed to the door it was Drayden. He moved in to kiss her and she pulled back and turned away. Varden started to ask what the problem was when he realized that he dressed too quickly and not all of him was put away he ducked back into the room but not before Drayden turned for another look. A smile came to her face as she thought about touching it. Then she did her best to put it out of her mind.

Varden finished putting himself away then went over and woke up Drake when they had everything ready, they found that Drayden was waiting on them to get going.

As they made it to Argus's castle Argus was standing there waiting on them. They could tell that they had kept him waiting and he was not happy about it.

The trip to the castle was uneventful and that is why when they opened the door to the entryway and a tiger jumped out it was such a surprise.

When it jumped out it knocked Varden down. Varden quickly threw the tiger off of him. The tiger did a flip and landed on its feet.

The tiger let out a loud growl and raked its claws across Varden's chest which did no damage due to the armor.

Varden thought fast and since he didn't really want to hurt the tiger, he just slammed it in the side with his shield. He hit it hard enough that it knocked the tiger off its feet.

The tiger let out a roar as it fell and quickly rolled to its feet where it growled again. Then it took off out the door, it didn't want any more of that, and since there was a way to get out.

Varden was glad he didn't have to kill it. Especially since it was placed here to slow them down and hurt them but not of its own will.

They when back threw the center door where they had left off the other day and Drake started searching and found a secret door 80 feet down the hall on the right side.

Varden carefully opened the door and peeked in and saw that there were two large tigers in the room, so he quietly closed the door and asked for suggestions.

Drake said, " We could pour oil on the floor and set it on fire." But no one liked that idea very much, so they kept looking.

Argus suggested, "If they had a way out, they probably wouldn't bother us. As long as they were too hungry, or their minds weren't being controlled."

Varden said, "We would have to prop the doors leading out open so they would have someplace to go. Then we would need someplace to be out of the door and a way to open this one without being seen."

They got everything ready and everyone except Varden was safe and hidden. All the other doors were open, and the smell of fresh air was coming in. Varden braced himself for the worst and he pulled the door open. The tigers came running out into the hall. There was a moment of indecision on the part of the tigers whether to fight or flee. As the larger tiger was sizing up Varden a strong gust of fresh air hit the hall. That was all the tigers needed to make their decision. They went running toward the outside. Varden thought that was lucky for a second, he thought that they were going to stay and fight and was glad he didn't have to fight them.

Varden called the others once it was clear. They came out and went into the room, it was a 70-foot wide by 80-foot room that was empty. They could tell that the tigers were recently put in the room. There was no food or water in the room and there weren't hardly any tiger droppings in there as well. If Varden had to guess they were there less than a day in fact seeing them and that they weren't that hungry probably a matter of hours.

Drake went about searching for things and halfway through the room he found a trigger for another secret door. Drake used it and a door slid open revealing a 40 by 50 room with a large chest in the middle.

Drake carefully searched what he could of the chest from what he could tell it was not trapped or locked but just from the massive size they had no way to get it open.

Argus drew a six-foot circle on the front of the chest began chanting then touched the center of his circle. Flames shot out of his hand, and it was like the line that he drew on the chest stopped the flames. When the flames had died out the line was there but there was a hole that went through the chest. Varden checked that the outside of the chest was not burnt, and the edge was not even warm. As Varden looked at it he didn't understand why a wooden chest didn't burn or even heat up any.

They looked inside and saw that there were 10 small pouches, each filled with various gems of different sizes and shapes. Drake checked the rest of the chest but there was nothing else.

As they left the room it was just in time to see a rat scurry across the floor in front of them. Just up ahead of them the hall turned to the south and ran to a doorway. Drake checked it for traps it was okay, so he told Varden to open the door. Varden opened it enough to peek inside just and a snake struck missing his face by an inch and hitting his arm instead not making it threw his armor. Drake threw his dagger and pinned the snake to the door.

Varden pulled the dagger out of the snake's head and was wondering where the snake had come from. Varden found himself wondering where all these different creatures were coming from, they all couldn't have been here originally.

Argus said, "The giants were supposed to have collected every type of creature that they had come across along with every bit of treasure that crossed their path and that is why there is so much here, and I think that is why the dragons are lured to this place.

Varden then realized that he never really asked the question and yet Argus answered it. Varden put the thought in the back of his mind to talk to Argus about that later. Varden carefully opened the door and looked in and then he caught a whiff of the room it stunk. As he looked in, he saw a few snakes slithering around in the room. This gave them a dilemma no one wanted to just kill them, but they needed a way to drive them off and that was not going to be easy.

Then all of a sudden, their behavior changed they became aggressive. It was like they were working together. They formed up and all came from different directions to go toward the door. It was easy to tell that there was something definitely controlling them. At this point no one was worried about saving them, it was far too late for they needed to worry about saving themselves.

The snakes had surrounded them and started them moving to the center of the room and it seemed like the number of snakes was growing.

Varden came up with an idea but they all would have to hurry. He told everyone to throw their oil on the floor, they each quickly dug the oil out of their packs and threw them on the floor. Once most of the floor was covered Varden wondered how they were going to get close enough to the oil to light it. It was not like they were going to simply stay back while someone bent down and lit the oil on fire.

Argus spoke up and said, "I have this," and with a simple snap of his fingers the oil burst into flames along with the snakes.

Drake started checking the room and he found a small gem that one of the snakes had eaten at one time. He came across a secret door and as soon as he started checking it to see how to open it a trap was set off. A different door was opened and a creature with 3 legs and 4 arms made its way into the room. The first hand held a large club, the second hand had a long spear in it and the third carried a sword and the last had a war axe. On its back, there was a large bundle of spears.

Varden quickly analyzed the situation and knew that this was going to be a tough fight. It had 3 weapons for close range and the spear was for long to medium range. By the looks of it, the spear was used for throwing based on the fact that it carried a bundle of them. Varden knew that they had to get in close if they wanted to hurt it if they stayed back, he would be useless, and the thing could slowly pick them off one by one. But before Varden could say anything the creature threw a spear and hit Drake, pinning him to the door.

The creature seeing Drake pinned turned to attack the others. Varden was the closest, so it went after him first. It attacked with its club first Varden met it with his shield. Next, it swung its sword with all its might. Varden saw that one coming at him and met it with his own blade. The stone blade shattered, but the part that took Varden by surprise was that the hilt oozed lava and reformed the blade. The creature saw that Varden was stunned by what he was seeing so it tried to bring the axe down on his head.

Varden saw the axe coming and was able to move but was not able to get away clean. The axe came down on his shoulder digging deeply into it. If he hadn't had magic armor on it would have taken his arm off.

Varden knew that he was no match for this thing, so he tried to back up a little to get some room. But the creature stayed right with him every inch Varden would back up the creature would move forward.

Drayden hit the rock creature in the back of the head but the shock of hitting something just hurt her hands enough that she dropped her mace.

Argus started chanting and drawing three circles in the air. Then it looked like he grabbed something out of the air then it looked like he threw it at the creature. Freezing winds surrounded the creature and the creature slowed and its color dimmed till it finally stopped moving and ice had formed all over it.

The creature quickly thawed and then looked around to see who to attack next.

Drake was working hard and finally worked his way free just in time the spear that the thing threw went where he had been pinned and would have been a fatal blow.

The creature went after Varden again and swung its sword Varden carefully dodged out of the way. The axe was the next to come at Varden's head again. Varden ducked just in time the axe only nicked the helmet that he was wearing. The club was soon to follow the axe. Varden met the swing of the club with the greater force of his shield and as they made contact the club exploded and threw them both backward.

Varden sprang to his feet and to the attack he came swinging at the creature's chest it blocked the sword with its club arm the sword sliced through the arm and dropped heavily to the ground and Varden was splattered with molten lava as the thing regrew its arm.

Drake attacked from behind and cut deep into its side the lava squirted out of the wound and enveloped his blade then cooled quickly. Drake had a hard time getting his sword back out without getting burnt. When he did manage to get it out it was covered with lava and became too hot for him to handle, so he had to drop it.

Argus was pissed that this was still going on so he cast the same spell but gathered a lot more power, enough that everyone that was around could feel it growing. The creature now noticed Argus and started toward him, but it was too late for it to do anything. The whole room became freezing cold, and the creature slowed quickly till it couldn't move at all yet the cold kept getting worse till the creature was frozen solid.

Drayden seeing that it was frozen took her mace and slammed it as hard as she could making it shatter into little pieces.

Drayden started healing all the burns that were everywhere from the lava spraying. She made sure that she did the worst of the burns first and quickly finished Drake first so that he could start his search. Drake when into the room that the creature had come from, and the whole room was piled with human bones that must have been past victims.

Drake found another secret door behind one of the piles of bones. As he opened it, he saw that that thing must have been used to protect the door. There were two large sacks of treasure that were kept on shelves. It looked like at one time that this must have been the treasury for the castle and that was its guardian. He could see how not even a giant would do good against it.

After Drake finished with that room the treasure was loaded onto Varden to carry. They went back to the hallway and at the end of the left hall was another door that led back to the entry hall or to the right was up the stairs.

As they opened the door a large rattlesnake struck Varden's leg but merely bounced off his armor. Varden waved a torch in front of the snake, and it just slithered off.

Varden wondered what was going on, it seemed like every time he turned around something different was attacking him.

After checking the door, they went into the last room in the row. It was a tremendous bedroom, it was a 60 by 80-foot room, it had a 20 by 30-foot bed in it and a 10-foot table, and across from the door was a large walk-in closet. As Drake was checking things a large bat came flying out of the closet and started circling the room. Drayden quickly opened the door and hoped it would go out and it did just that.

In the closet, there were several piles of what used to be clothes. They had rotted and fallen to the floor. Even though it seemed to take forever Drake didn't find anything while searching.

They left the room and went out into the hall, then they came to another hall that ran east and west. They looked down the hall and saw six rooms in the next row. They went to the closest room and Drake checked the door. As soon as Varden started to open the door it was pulled out of his hand and opened all the way.

10 ghouls forced their way out of the room. It was as if they had been waiting for them to come. They all looked hungry and ready to devour human flesh.

Drayden held up her holy symbol and whispered a few words and pointed back at the room. Only one of the goals turned around and went back into the room but at least one did.

Drake stabbed one and managed to kill it. But one hit Drake from behind and paralyzed him freezing him in place.

Varden killed another one and managed to block an attack with his shield.

Argus was in the middle of casting a spell when one of the ghouls hit him and paralyzed him.

Drayden killed one of them with her maze and managed to block the swing of another with her shield but the third one came along and paralyzed her.

Since everyone else was paralyzed they all turned to attack Varden. Varden turned and faced off against the six that were left. Two of them rushed to Varden with their swords drawn.

Varden cut the first one in half with his sword and slammed his shield into the second knocking it down. Then quickly took a couple of steps back to give himself a little more room. The one that fell rolled into the others knocking three of them down. The last one let out a scream and when running toward Varden it made a hard chop down with his sword but didn't make it through the armor.

Varden made a hard swing and chopped its head off then he threw his sword hard and skewered through three of them.

The last one went running up to Varden seeing that he had no sword thought he would be an easy kill. It chopped at Varden but it was easy for Varden to block with a shield then Varden turned a shield and used the edge to attack it. The ghoul tried to block it with a shield, but Varden hit it was such force it split not only the shield and have but the ghoul as well.

It took a few minutes for the others to revive and get back to normal. When Drayden had finished curing all the wounds they went into the room.

As Varden stepped into the room a sword hit his chest with a loud clank. It happened so fast that he didn't have time to block it. The blade barely made it through the armor and was just hard enough to make a scratching his skin, but that was enough to paralyze him. Drake quickly put an end to the ghoul.

Drayden cured Varden while he was paralyzed and that brought him out of it faster.

They looked in the room and saw that it was a 50 by 70 room, and it had a 10 by 30 bed and it, along with a table and a dresser. As Drake checked the room in the dresser, he found the small hidden drawer and when he prided open it, he found that it was filled with little gems. And under one of the piles of rotted cloth, he found a small sack of gold.

They were all getting tired, so they decided to head back to town now. Varden looked at all the treasure that they had gathered throughout the day, and he was happy to be done with it all. Varden thought that it was enough anyway since he was the one that was doing most of the caring anyway.

When they got to the entry hall there was a big black bear, that was trapped in it, it was in a foul mood.

Varden wondered how a bear got trapped in here because they had already been there once today already. There should be no reason that a bear would come into the castle to begin with, especially this time of year.

Varden gathered the extra food from everyone and threw it in a pile off to the side near the wall. While the bear was eating, they simply went around it and then left the doors open so that the bear could leave once it was done eating.

On the way back to town Varden asked Argus, " Have you ever noticed that there is something always attacking us now?"

Argus replied, " Yes. But this is nothing compared to what is to come. It will get far worse before anything gets better. "

Everyone turned to look at Argus. Varden asked, " How bad is it going to get?"

Argus answered, " I can't tell you that."

Varden knew why Argus couldn't say he had already explained that, but it left him wondering just what was he holding back. He knew that it must be bad he had been told that are ready but just how bad could it really be?

As they got to town, they saw signs that a fight had taken place there no more than an hour ago. They took their treasure into Argus's castle and started dividing it up. While they were in there Cara came in and told Argus what happened with the fight in town.

Varden looked over and saw Argus just shaking his head and saying, " That's not good. That's not good at all." Varden just kept counting and he had figured that he would ask him about it later. Because if it was really important Argus would interrupt their counting to deal with it now.

By the time they had finished counting the treasure, the sun had already set. So, all three of them went back to the inn together.

Drake as usual stopped to talk to the hooded men at the back table where they always seem to be. Varden wondered what he was always talking to them about but that was Drake's business, and he didn't want to try to interfere with anything that he was doing.

On the way upstairs Varden felt like someone was watching him again. As he looked around, he saw the woman in the low-cut red dress watching him again. Only this time it felt more uncomfortable than it ever had before. It was like she was more intense about it. Varden pretended not to notice her and just kept walking up the stairs, but it seemed like she was watching his every move.

As they got about halfway up the stairs the woman got up and started up the steps.

Varden looked into Draydens eyes and kissed her and said, " I wish we had more time to talk tonight." He was hoping that she would ask him in so that they could talk some more or stay out in the hall to talk.

Drayden was completely worn out by everything that happened throughout the day. So, she just kissed him good night and said, " We can talk tomorrow." He nodded his head in agreement and stood there and she went into her room and closed the door. Since he was exhausted, he decided just to go into his room and get some sleep.

While Varden was opening his door he heard a sweet voice from down the hallway say, " Excuse me, sir."

He turned his head and saw the woman standing out in the hall outside her door. He asked, " How can I help you?"

She said, " I'm afraid I'm a bit stuck my dress is caught and I need some help to get unstuck. Is there a way that you can open my door and get me unstuck?"

At this point, Varden knew that he would have been better off ignoring her from the start when he first heard her. It was far too late for that now, so he went over to her and asked, " What exactly is the problem?"

She said, " We can't do this out in the hall. How would that look?"

He knew she was right, so they went into her room, and she shut the door. He looked at her dress and she could've just slipped out of it and so he wondered what she had him in there for.

She said, " It's caught in the back. And I can't get it open."

Varden looked and saw two buttons, so he unbuttoned them for her and then said, " There you are." He caught himself before he asked if there was anything else that she needed. Then he turned for the door.

She said, " Wait, I haven't even thanked you yet."

As he turned to tell her that there was no need she let her dress drop to the floor. He stood there just staring at her, he couldn't believe that she just did that, and he couldn't take his eyes off of her either.

She walked up to him and removed his helmet and kissed him. While she was kissing him, she started unbuckling his armor.

Varden knew while they were kissing that Drayden was the only one for him. He broke the kiss off short and said, " I have to go."

She said, " You unhooked me the least I can do is unhook you as well."

He said, " I really would like to stay but my heart belongs to Drayden." Then he turned open the door and started to leave, trying to get out of there as fast as he could.

Just as he got halfway into the hallway Drayden passed by and saw the woman was naked and Varden was half unbuckled. Varden quickly stepped out into the hall and closed the door.

Drayden said, " I felt a little guilty because I could tell that you wanted to talk. So, I went to your room, and you weren't there. So, I thought that you might have gone downstairs. I was going to join you down there. Only to find that you were half-dressed in a naked lady's room. Apparently, it wasn't talking that you really wanted to do, and just any woman will do it for you."

Then she turned and ran crying back to her room. Where she slammed the door and locked it.

Varden ran after her while he was trying to refasten his armor. He went to her door, but she wouldn't answer when he knocked. He said, " I know you can hear me so I'm going to explain." He told her how the woman's dress was caught and that after he got it unfastened how she dropped it to the floor before he could stop her.

She said, " Well, that kind of explains why she looks like that. But that doesn't explain why you're all unbuckled."

He knew this part was going to get him in trouble, but he really didn't do anything wrong. And there was no way he wanted to lie to her about any of this. He told her that she started unbuckling him during the kiss.

"So, you kissed her!" She screamed.

He knew at this point it would do no more good talking to her he would have to wait till she calmed down. He had to admit the situation looked pretty bad even to himself. He knew that woman meant trouble for him when he first heard her voice, he didn't understand why he even paid attention to her from the start.

He thought to himself, when will I ever learn to listen to that little danger signal that tries to warn me and keep me out of trouble?

When Drake came up the stairs the woman had been waiting for him, she stopped him to talk and asked, " Do you share a room with Varden?"

She had already found out that his name was Varden and that Drake did share a room with him. Drake answered, " Yes I share a room with him."

" I need to trade rooms with you for tonight." She told him.

He said, " I can't do that."

She offered a little money, so he agreed to do it for her.