The Rules of Blood-Volume Two ; Chapter 67 (283) - Beast From Underground
By the sixtieth day, the endless sight of rocks had grown tiresome to look at.
Even more irritating were the bandits lurking among them, springing their ambushes with smug grins, as though they had invented the idea. They all died.
Blanc exhaled in relief, knowing this Domain was nearly behind them, and all the more so because, aside from the bandits, nothing else had attacked, granting them an unchallenged passage through the land.
Blanc looked deep inside his backpack, grabbing half the sticks he had in there in order to make a fire. He picked them up inside the Domain of Blood Maiores in preparation for the lack of vegetation around.
Unfortunately, this was barely enough to cook a simple meal.
He gathered a few flat rocks, stacking about twenty of them into four short towers, leaving a one-inch gap at the center.
From his pouch, he took a small lump of fire-starter, a mix of dried grass, leaves, and crumbled bark. With a knife and a stone, ten quick strikes produced enough sparks for an ember to form.
Grabbing the fire-starter in his hands, he blew gently from the side until smoke curled upward and a flame appeared.
He turned it in his palms, feeding the flame more of the dried lump of vegetation, making the flame larger.
Once satisfied with the size of the flame, he slowly slipped it into the narrow gap between the rocks.
And slowly, over a few minutes, he first fed smaller sticks to the fire, then larger ones, increasing the flame, making it as strong as possible with what he had left in hopes of properly cooking breakfast.
It was high time he ate a hot meal and stopped chewing on dried meat.
Once he placed the pot above the stacks of rocks and filled it with water, he turned to the woman watching intently.
“Now, Your Highness, we are waiting for the water to heat up,” Blanc explained, sitting down next to her.
“How many times did you have to make a fire?” Velakia asked, amazed by Blanc’s earlier performance.
“Enough times to grow tired of it,” Blanc chuckled, his eyes looking at the fire through the gaps in the rocks, “Let’s just hope it’s enough to make a meal.”
“You looked hot handling the fire, so that must count for something,” Velakia laughed, her face slightly turned to face him.
“Unfortunately, that only counts for women, not for the water,” Blanc shook his head, “But still, thank you.”
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It was still dark outside, with dawn right below the horizon. In the tents behind them, Lendros and Tahreni were sleeping in preparation for crossing the Domain in the days to follow.
Blanc and Velakia slept too, though half as much as they should’ve.
But at least, they stopped lying to themselves. Stopped saying that every time they did it would be the last. At this point, if a stranger were to see them, they would consider the two as lovers. What they were into each other’s eyes, however, was much harder to name.
But what was certain was that at this point, they decided to keep each other company until the day Velakia finally left.
Quietly, they talked until dawn, while Blanc busied himself with the porridge he’d been craving for days.
Oats, a pinch of salt, raisins, and a fistful of nuts.
When it was finally ready, after a taste of the final result, a wide grin spread across his face.
For a moment, he looked like a child quietly sneaking into the kitchen to eat dessert instead of vegetables.
Velakia found it so endearing that before going to wake Lendros and Tahreni, she felt the need to steal a kiss from him before running off.
An hour later, under the slow rise of the morning sun, with a breakfast that made everyone’s day better, they finished packing up everything and were ready to go.
After barely walking a few hundred feet, on a rocky hill nearby, several bleats sent the four of them looking in the sound’s direction.
“Mountain goats,” Blanc muttered, amazed by the sight of them.
It was a small herd of seven, running as fast as they could on the side of the hill.
This made Blanc’s amazement short-lived as he realized the beasts were panicking, running away from something.
And as if to confirm his thoughts, from the direction the goats came, rocks moved aside at great speed as something traveled underground, following them and slowly gaining ground.
Blanc cursed as the goats bolted downhill, straight toward him, bringing with them whatever was chasing them.
“Fuck,” he muttered. “We run.”
But before they could move, a piercing screech froze them in place. The sound sent shivers down Blanc’s spine; it reminded him of the Morois he had to fight in the Golden Forest.
Then he saw it, crashing through rocks with claws the size of swords, a giant mole.
Its coat was pitch black, its face a sickly pale white, broken only by a long nose and a wide, gaping mouth.
The ugly fuck had no eyes. For it did not need such inconveniences.
At the speed it moved through the damn rock sea, it was frightening to think what it could do fully on the surface.
They’d never outrun it.
Which meant only two choices remained: fight, or pray it didn't notice them.
The goats thundered past, less than fifty feet away, too panicked to notice Blanc and his companions. The mole followed, closing the distance fast. There was no time to draw swords, nock arrows, or summon weapons.
Blanc stayed still, counting on using the mole's blindness to their advantage.
He signaled for silence. Velakia nodded. Tahreni did the same.
Then, off to his right, came a panicked whisper: “Iskahulului Amar.”
It was enough.
The mole veered toward the sound, abandoning the goats for Lendros and the polearm he’d summoned against orders.
The creature burrowed beneath the surface, the low grind of stone rumbling through the ground.
They froze, listening. Then the earth trembled.
“Move!” Blanc yelled.
They leapt aside just as a claw the size of a man’s torso burst from the ground where they had stood.
Volume Two ; Chapter 67 (283) - Beast From Underground
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