The terrain was easy and so we walked through most of the night, until the world went black, and then we rested. As dawn began to break I could hear the sound of Jaha sharpening his axe. His look was intense, and I could see that nothing could distract him from his task. He always loved his axe, ever since he got it. Of course he never thought he’d have a chance to use it, and perhaps even then he didn’t think he would. But, this was more than just a fetching mission. This was important!
Then the world went quiet. Not even the sound of the axe blade being sharpened. Sarah turned her head quickly but silently. Terror appeared in her eyes, and she nudged Chester who was still dozing beside her. He started and was about to yell when I reached out and covered his mouth. Something wasn’t right here. Even at this time of year birds should be singing. Jaha’s look was still intense, but now he was listening. A scratching sound was faintly audible. And a strange sound like none I’d ever heard, a kind of slimy, bubbling sound.
And then they came. Two… no, three… no, four things which could only be described as puddles of Ooze. But that wasn’t all, oh no! Scurrying along behind them were a couple of Huge Rats. Maybe they wouldn’t spot us. If we just stayed low to the ground…
“RRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaahhhh!!!!”, boomed Jaha’s war cry!
Sssshhhllllluuurrrrppp went the Ooze as bits of it went everywhere.
Wiping some of the blue goo from his face, Jaha screamed out: “Anyone else wanna play? Or are y’all scared I’ll give you a fatal blow too?!”
While Jaha was showing off, a Rat had crept up on him and was about to lunge at his knees. I put a stop to that with a swift swing of my wooden sword. Well, I almost put a stop to it… the Rat turned it’s now-bruised head, leapt and bit me on the shoulder. I gripped the wound and started to kick the Rat. After a few kicks it went limp, lifeless.
While this was happening, Jaha had wasted another two of those blobs. He was covered in goo, which seemed to be weighing him down or something, as he didn’t look so good. Chester was trying to poke a Rat to death with his stick, but was failing badly. I glanced back at Sarah and whistled. She slowly rose to her feet (having been too frightened to fight) and began to weave a heal spell. I pointed to Jaha, and she threw the spell his way. What we needed now was metal, and he was the one who had it. The goo dropped from Jaha and he leapt into the air, landing beside the other bruised Rat. With a swift blow he cleaved it’s head right off, then wiped the blood off his axe onto his clothes.
Just one more of the gooey things left now. I decided that Chester needed a chance to fight and that I should hold off while Sarah healed me. As I have said before, Chester isn’t too strong in the head, and in looking for the blob, he accidentally stepped in it. Not quite the death I had in mind for it, but quite effective nonetheless. So, with all the beasts dead and all of us healed (if a little tired), I now had time to ask Jaha something which had been bothering me…
“Why the heck did you leap on them, when we could’ve just hidden?!!” I asked, almost angry.
“No-one, and I mean NO-ONE disturbs me and my axe!”, he replied, calmly.
