Wednesday, May 12, 2004

   Dragnet part nine
here is the next part of Dragnet. hope you like it.

Cascon and Gilgal continued down the dungeon with Sanguis. In a short while, they came to a massive and elaborate staircase. The walls surrounding the staircase were covered with paintings of demons. One picture was bigger than all the rest. It was a picture of a creature that seemed to be only a shadow, but when looked at closely, a reptilian skeleton-like creature could be seen under a shadowy cloak and hood. This image reminded Cascon about his encounter with the strange voice in the fiery-blue room.
Cascon hesitated for a moment and then followed Gilgal and Sanguis down the staircase. The staircase led them deep into the dungeon. It had taken them a good forty minutes to descend. The many cracks and missing steps did not help.
At the end of the staircase was a gigantic corridor that seemed to have been a hall for great warriors of long ago. The corridor with its destroyed pillars and walls hinted at the fact that there had been a hard battle. The obvious results were of a victory by the ancestors of the demons that now inhabited the wretched and cursed place.
The three battle-hardened warriors continued down the corridor. They came upon a massive well, and Sanguis began acting strangely. He pointed to the well, but because neither Gilgal nor Cascon understood, he ran to a broken pillar and broke a small piece off. He then began writing with it, and it worked like a chalk.
Sanguis wrote on the ground that the well was a wishing well, but no ordinary wishing well. The well granted the wishes of only the worthiest warriors. He also wrote that he would have wished at the well, but it does not consider demons worthy, even if they are extraordinary warriors.
As he finished writing, Gilgal hurriedly asked how the well worked. Sanguis wrote down with his pillar-chalk, “It works by throwing your weapon down the well. If you are worthy, you will receive a different weapon in return, but surpassing the old one.”
As Sanguis ended this, Cascon walked slowly toward the well. He stood there contemplating whether to throw his sword in or not, for it was the only weapon he had with him. Gilgal, not noticing Cascon’s hesitation to throw in a weapon, took out his nun chucks. He walked to the well and dropped them in figuring that even if he lost them, he had his axe.
They waited for an hour, but when nothing happened, Gilgal gave up hope and with crushed pride, brought out his axe. The weapon was a slick ebony axe. It had been a gift to him from his father when he passed away. The axe had a dark blue leather handle with a royal blue insignia on it that looked like a sea dragon. Gilgal sat down quietly examining his axe and also trying to forget being rejected by the well.
“Well aren’t you going to try it?” Gilgal asked Cascon in a sort of irritated voice.
“I don’t know; I don’t have an extra weapon like you.”
“Sure you do.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I slipped your other sword in your pack before we left Athroden.” (Athroden was the town in which the company had met before coming to this dungeon in Dreshdae, which is about a month’s ride if on a horse, but a month and a half if on foot as they had come.)
Cascon, obviously angered, exclaimed, “You brought the sword that was awarded to me by Ingram the Great! Why did you do that! I can’t believe you did that! I was saving it as a trophy never to be used.”
Ingram the Great was Cascon’s predecessor as the king and champion of earth.
“Come on, just throw that sword in the well, and then you still have the Shrakken.” Shrakken is the name of the sword given to Cascon by Ingram the Great.
Gilgal again pleaded with Cascon to throw his sword in.
“Fine I’ll do it. Satisfied?”
“Yeah.”
Cascon walked to the well again and hesitated for a while. He then dropped his sword in the well and waited.

Part ten coming soon, tell me how you like it so far.
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