Short Story : Runs With Danger
The clans feared that which hid in the darkness, that in turn was protected by the creature that shunned the light. Legend had it that the creature’s very body bent and refracted the rays that attempted to make it visible to those that tried to flee, the foul stench of its gaping maw the only warning that it was close at hand.
The clan member known ironically as Runs With Danger had been forced to join a group of warriors who had been challenged to bring an end to the entity once and for all. Although not the bravest of his peers, it was believed that his ability to run at a speed never before recorded by the clan would enable the rest of the warriors to gain time to bring down the beast. If nothing else, they could capture the beast as it pursued Runs With Danger, who many jokingly referred to as Runs FROM Danger.
The forest was even darker than usual as Runs With Danger brought up the rear of the hunting group. The clan’s bravest warrior, Fights With Monsters, took up the lead, while fellow warriors Dabbles With Peril and Wrestles With Menace, followed close behind.
“Is this really a good idea?” Runs With Danger asked nervously, “I mean, just because we have these new fangled laser rifles doesn’t mean we’re going to be able to take down the creature that lurks in teh darkness.”
“Don’t be such a coward,” Fights With Monsters hissed quietly, not taking his eyes off the path ahead of him, “we didn’t want you on this run, but what the chief says goes, so just keep quiet, keep back, and once we’ve killed this creature you can bask in our reflected glory.”
Runs With Danger swallowed uncertainly, but soon realised that what Fights With Monsters had said was true. He might not be the best warrior, but he’d still be considered a successful one if this attack went off without a hitch. He took a deep breath, puffing out his pigeon chest, then exhaled as he continued to follow the three warriors into the heart of the forest.
The trees seemed to be closing in on the four warriors as their journey into the forest took them into an area with little or no light. Fights With Monsters held up his hand for the others to stop, indicating their laser rifles.
“There are torches attached to the top of your weapon,” he reminded them, “I suggest we all switch them on and keep our eyes peeled for any sudden movements.”
Dabbles With Peril and Wrestles With Menace slowly lowered their weapons to adjust the torches, while Runs With Danger hurriedly snapped his light on without any pause for thought. The light flickered as he forced it on, but his clumsy handling of the weapon led to the torch twisting too far, and the light flickered down to a dull orange glow.
“I think my torch is broken,” he said fearfully, watching the orange light barely making contact with the ground by his feet.
“You must have twisted it too hard,” Dabbles With Peril told him.
“You have to be gentle with these weapons,” Wrestles With Menace agreed, “they’re meant to be handled with care, not with clumsiness.”
“Just stay close to us,” Fights With Monsters sighed, “and use our light so you can see.”
Runs With Danger shivered, staring at his own feeble light and comparing it to the bright light that shone from his fellow warriors’ weapons. He then took a stance close to Dabbles With Peril.
“Do you think we’re close to the creature’s lair?” Runs With Danger asked.
“Well, if we are, it’s probably heard you coming a mile away,” Dabbles With Peril growled as the four warriors came upon the mouth of a large cave, “so do try to be quiet.”
The cave opened into darkness, and a number of animal carcasses were strewn near the cave’s mouth. The four warriors raised their weapons, shining the torches into the darkness.
“It looks clear,” Fights With Monsters whispered to the others, “I’m going in.”
Runs With Danger watched as Fights With Monsters ventured through the mouth of the cave, followed closely and cautiously by Dabbles With Peril and Wrestles With Menace. Not wanting to be left alone, Runs With Danger followed them into the cave, and into darkness itself.
He tapped his weapon gently, trying to get the light on the sight to glow a little brighter, but if anything the light’s glow actually diminished a little. He arched his eyebrows with worry as the light started to blink on and off, eventually going out completely.
“My lights not working at all now,” he groaned, moving closer to Wrestles With Menace.
“Just keep quiet,” Wrestles With Menace growled at him, “if the creature hears us approaching, we’re done for.”
As if to highlight the issue, Dabbles With Peril suddenly let fly a scream that could curdle milk, spinning upside down on his central axis and hurtling sideways into the darkness, carried away by tiny, almost invisible creatures with large teeth. A chuckling sound could be heard beneath his screams as both noises disappeared into the gloom.
“What the hell was that?” Wrestles With Menace said, fear filling his voice as he pointed his gun after his fallen warrior friend.
“Don’t you start,” Fights With Monsters said angrily, “it’s bad enough listening to that cowardly custard complaining all the time.”
Fights With Monsters looked into the darkness which had swallowed Dabbles With Peril, narrowing his eyes as he watched. But he could see nothing.
“We’d best keep moving,” Fights With Monsters suggested, ‘there’s no point hanging around for those little beats to get us too. We need to get to the creature that protects them, after that they’ll just run scared.”
Runs With Danger had his doubts.
After all, when he’d tried to fire his gun at whatever had taken Dabbles With Peril, it hadn’t fired. Probably because no one truly trusted him, he’d been given a dud.
As the remaining three warriors ventured further into the cave, their two functioning lights shone on the remains of other warriors, some spanning back hundreds of years. Runs With Danger swallowed nervously.
“If these warriors couldn’t stop the creature,” he stuttered, “what makes you think we can?”
“We have something they didn’t?” Fights With Monsters grinned widely.
“What’s that then?” Wrestles With Menace asked, starting to sound as doubtful as Runs With Danger.
Fights With Monsters smiled faltered a little, “Why, we have skills and training that are second to none. No one in thousands of years has been as well trained as we.”
Runs With Danger still had his doubts. Unseen by the others, he placed his non-functioning weapon on the ground, picking up one of the centuries-old forgotten weapons that a former warrior had dropped, probably just before he’d been eaten. He’d seen them in the history books, when he’d been getting trained. It was a blunderbuss, and it appeared to still have some ball bearings inside. Even if it didn’t actually work when it came to the crunch, it was much heavier than his own weapon, and would do far more damage if he swung it at someone or something’s head.
Holding the gun by his side, Runs With Danger trotted along, trying to catch up with the others. He caught up to them just in time to smell something rancid in the air.
“What is that?” he asked, holding his free hand to his nose, “It smells like rotten meat.”
“It’s probably just the smell of all the corpses down here,” Fights With Monsters suggested, “so many have died down here over the centuries, it’s bound to smell bad.”
But the last group to come down here would have been years ago, Runs With Danger thought to himself. Any flesh would have gone with the ages by now.
As if to prove him right, Runs With Danger heard a low grumbling noise, and for once it wasn’t him.
“Did you hear that?” he whispered, “What the hell was that?”
“It’s most likely just the wind, blowing through the caverns,” Wrestles With Menace suggested, though he didn’t sound like he believed that himself. Runs With Danger looked over at where he was stood, on a thick patch of strangely coloured moss, his weapon hanging by his side. Runs With Danger looked at the moss, it’s slightly orange colour flickering in the torch light, every so often seeming to disappear all together. His eyes widened as he saw the moss lift gently, then fall back to the earthy ground.
“Wrestles...” Runs With Danger began, sensing something was terribly wrong, but he was too late. With little or no warning, the orange moss lifted completely from the ground, wrapping around Wrestles With Menace and dragging him into what looked like another cave.
But it wasn’t a cave.
It was the gaping maw of the creature for which they sought.
Wrestles With Menace didn’t even have time to scream before the teeth of a creature so huge that it couldn’t be seen in one single viewing clamped down on him and began to chew. Runs With Danger and Fights With Monsters stared at each other, both their faces a mask of terror, before Fights With Monsters turned his weapon on the creature and began to fire. Lasers shot from the end of his rifle, tearing into the darkness where the creature could just be seen, but the laser light passed through the creature, lighting up the tunnel and revealing the tiny creatures who had taken Dabbles With Peril.
“It’s not working!” Fights With Monsters screamed, sounding terrified as the creature flickered in and out of the visible spectrum, sometimes a tooth, or an eye, or a smoke-belching snout, but always he could see the moss covered tongue and smell the foul breath that reeked of rotting meat. Fights With Monsters fell to the ground, his arms wrapped around his weapon as he shook and shuddered with fear.
Without even thinking, Runs With Danger raised the blunderbuss and levelled it at the creature, or at least where he assumed a part of the creature to be. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, he fired the blunderbuss at the creature, emptying the barrel of small ball bearings which streamed through the air toward the creature. Most of them missed, but one hit the creature in the left eye, while two others shot into each of its nostrils. They hit home, and the creature’s remaining good eye widened blindly before the creature fell dead to the cave floor.
Runs With Danger stared at the creature as, for the first time, it completely came into view. He looked across the cave at Fights With Monsters, who was still sitting on the ground, tears running down his face. Then, realising that the creature was dead, he wiped his sleeve across his eyes and got up from the ground.
“We say nothing of this,” he said, an air of threat in his voice, “when we get back to the village we tell them that we bravely defeated the creature together, as a team, and that we sadly lost our two colleagues in the fight.”
Runs With Danger shrugged, “Whatever,” he said, “I’m not fussed about the glory, so long as I can retire after all this.”
“You won’t have to retire,” Fights With Monsters smiled, “we’ve defeated the creature, so there’s nothing left for us to fight. The smaller ones will not attack without the larger one for protection.”
Runs With Danger nodded dumbly, then looked around the darkened cave, “Why do you think it was so eager to kill ?”
Fights With Monsters shrugged, “He was a monster,” he said, preparing himself to leave the cave, “he was probably just hungry or something.”
“Maybe,” Runs With Danger said absently, but he had his doubts.
As he looked on at the carcass that had so recently threatened their lives, he noticed something glimmering near the creatures rear leg. Squinting, Runs With Danger noticed that the object he could just see was one of many.
“What is that?” he asked himself, taking a brave step towards the dead creature, “Is that... are those eggs?”
Fights With Monsters stopped his preparations and stared at Runs With Danger, “Did you say... eggs?”
“Yeah,” Runs With Danger replied, holding an egg up for Fights With Monsters to see, “they look like ostrich eggs or something.”
“We should smash them before they hatch,” Fights With Monsters warned, “before we’re faced with more of those creatures.”
Runs With Danger’s eyes widened as the egg he was holding fell to the cavern floor, “Oh, no.”
“What is it?” Fights With Monsters asked cautiously, “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t you see?” Runs With Danger said, terror in his voice, “They’re eggs!”
“I know,” Fights With Monsters nodded, “so let’s destroy them.”
“But if they’re eggs,” Runs With Danger observed, “then the creature must have had... a mate.”
Before Fights With Monsters could react to the words spoken by Runs With Danger, and echoing cry of anguish boomed from behind them, and the two brave warriors screamed as they witnessed the appearance from the darkness of another moss covered tongue...
Originally Posted 5/10/2015
Result - Joint 3rd Place
The clan member known ironically as Runs With Danger had been forced to join a group of warriors who had been challenged to bring an end to the entity once and for all. Although not the bravest of his peers, it was believed that his ability to run at a speed never before recorded by the clan would enable the rest of the warriors to gain time to bring down the beast. If nothing else, they could capture the beast as it pursued Runs With Danger, who many jokingly referred to as Runs FROM Danger.
The forest was even darker than usual as Runs With Danger brought up the rear of the hunting group. The clan’s bravest warrior, Fights With Monsters, took up the lead, while fellow warriors Dabbles With Peril and Wrestles With Menace, followed close behind.
“Is this really a good idea?” Runs With Danger asked nervously, “I mean, just because we have these new fangled laser rifles doesn’t mean we’re going to be able to take down the creature that lurks in teh darkness.”
“Don’t be such a coward,” Fights With Monsters hissed quietly, not taking his eyes off the path ahead of him, “we didn’t want you on this run, but what the chief says goes, so just keep quiet, keep back, and once we’ve killed this creature you can bask in our reflected glory.”
Runs With Danger swallowed uncertainly, but soon realised that what Fights With Monsters had said was true. He might not be the best warrior, but he’d still be considered a successful one if this attack went off without a hitch. He took a deep breath, puffing out his pigeon chest, then exhaled as he continued to follow the three warriors into the heart of the forest.
The trees seemed to be closing in on the four warriors as their journey into the forest took them into an area with little or no light. Fights With Monsters held up his hand for the others to stop, indicating their laser rifles.
“There are torches attached to the top of your weapon,” he reminded them, “I suggest we all switch them on and keep our eyes peeled for any sudden movements.”
Dabbles With Peril and Wrestles With Menace slowly lowered their weapons to adjust the torches, while Runs With Danger hurriedly snapped his light on without any pause for thought. The light flickered as he forced it on, but his clumsy handling of the weapon led to the torch twisting too far, and the light flickered down to a dull orange glow.
“I think my torch is broken,” he said fearfully, watching the orange light barely making contact with the ground by his feet.
“You must have twisted it too hard,” Dabbles With Peril told him.
“You have to be gentle with these weapons,” Wrestles With Menace agreed, “they’re meant to be handled with care, not with clumsiness.”
“Just stay close to us,” Fights With Monsters sighed, “and use our light so you can see.”
Runs With Danger shivered, staring at his own feeble light and comparing it to the bright light that shone from his fellow warriors’ weapons. He then took a stance close to Dabbles With Peril.
“Do you think we’re close to the creature’s lair?” Runs With Danger asked.
“Well, if we are, it’s probably heard you coming a mile away,” Dabbles With Peril growled as the four warriors came upon the mouth of a large cave, “so do try to be quiet.”
The cave opened into darkness, and a number of animal carcasses were strewn near the cave’s mouth. The four warriors raised their weapons, shining the torches into the darkness.
“It looks clear,” Fights With Monsters whispered to the others, “I’m going in.”
Runs With Danger watched as Fights With Monsters ventured through the mouth of the cave, followed closely and cautiously by Dabbles With Peril and Wrestles With Menace. Not wanting to be left alone, Runs With Danger followed them into the cave, and into darkness itself.
He tapped his weapon gently, trying to get the light on the sight to glow a little brighter, but if anything the light’s glow actually diminished a little. He arched his eyebrows with worry as the light started to blink on and off, eventually going out completely.
“My lights not working at all now,” he groaned, moving closer to Wrestles With Menace.
“Just keep quiet,” Wrestles With Menace growled at him, “if the creature hears us approaching, we’re done for.”
As if to highlight the issue, Dabbles With Peril suddenly let fly a scream that could curdle milk, spinning upside down on his central axis and hurtling sideways into the darkness, carried away by tiny, almost invisible creatures with large teeth. A chuckling sound could be heard beneath his screams as both noises disappeared into the gloom.
“What the hell was that?” Wrestles With Menace said, fear filling his voice as he pointed his gun after his fallen warrior friend.
“Don’t you start,” Fights With Monsters said angrily, “it’s bad enough listening to that cowardly custard complaining all the time.”
Fights With Monsters looked into the darkness which had swallowed Dabbles With Peril, narrowing his eyes as he watched. But he could see nothing.
“We’d best keep moving,” Fights With Monsters suggested, ‘there’s no point hanging around for those little beats to get us too. We need to get to the creature that protects them, after that they’ll just run scared.”
Runs With Danger had his doubts.
After all, when he’d tried to fire his gun at whatever had taken Dabbles With Peril, it hadn’t fired. Probably because no one truly trusted him, he’d been given a dud.
As the remaining three warriors ventured further into the cave, their two functioning lights shone on the remains of other warriors, some spanning back hundreds of years. Runs With Danger swallowed nervously.
“If these warriors couldn’t stop the creature,” he stuttered, “what makes you think we can?”
“We have something they didn’t?” Fights With Monsters grinned widely.
“What’s that then?” Wrestles With Menace asked, starting to sound as doubtful as Runs With Danger.
Fights With Monsters smiled faltered a little, “Why, we have skills and training that are second to none. No one in thousands of years has been as well trained as we.”
Runs With Danger still had his doubts. Unseen by the others, he placed his non-functioning weapon on the ground, picking up one of the centuries-old forgotten weapons that a former warrior had dropped, probably just before he’d been eaten. He’d seen them in the history books, when he’d been getting trained. It was a blunderbuss, and it appeared to still have some ball bearings inside. Even if it didn’t actually work when it came to the crunch, it was much heavier than his own weapon, and would do far more damage if he swung it at someone or something’s head.
Holding the gun by his side, Runs With Danger trotted along, trying to catch up with the others. He caught up to them just in time to smell something rancid in the air.
“What is that?” he asked, holding his free hand to his nose, “It smells like rotten meat.”
“It’s probably just the smell of all the corpses down here,” Fights With Monsters suggested, “so many have died down here over the centuries, it’s bound to smell bad.”
But the last group to come down here would have been years ago, Runs With Danger thought to himself. Any flesh would have gone with the ages by now.
As if to prove him right, Runs With Danger heard a low grumbling noise, and for once it wasn’t him.
“Did you hear that?” he whispered, “What the hell was that?”
“It’s most likely just the wind, blowing through the caverns,” Wrestles With Menace suggested, though he didn’t sound like he believed that himself. Runs With Danger looked over at where he was stood, on a thick patch of strangely coloured moss, his weapon hanging by his side. Runs With Danger looked at the moss, it’s slightly orange colour flickering in the torch light, every so often seeming to disappear all together. His eyes widened as he saw the moss lift gently, then fall back to the earthy ground.
“Wrestles...” Runs With Danger began, sensing something was terribly wrong, but he was too late. With little or no warning, the orange moss lifted completely from the ground, wrapping around Wrestles With Menace and dragging him into what looked like another cave.
But it wasn’t a cave.
It was the gaping maw of the creature for which they sought.
Wrestles With Menace didn’t even have time to scream before the teeth of a creature so huge that it couldn’t be seen in one single viewing clamped down on him and began to chew. Runs With Danger and Fights With Monsters stared at each other, both their faces a mask of terror, before Fights With Monsters turned his weapon on the creature and began to fire. Lasers shot from the end of his rifle, tearing into the darkness where the creature could just be seen, but the laser light passed through the creature, lighting up the tunnel and revealing the tiny creatures who had taken Dabbles With Peril.
“It’s not working!” Fights With Monsters screamed, sounding terrified as the creature flickered in and out of the visible spectrum, sometimes a tooth, or an eye, or a smoke-belching snout, but always he could see the moss covered tongue and smell the foul breath that reeked of rotting meat. Fights With Monsters fell to the ground, his arms wrapped around his weapon as he shook and shuddered with fear.
Without even thinking, Runs With Danger raised the blunderbuss and levelled it at the creature, or at least where he assumed a part of the creature to be. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, he fired the blunderbuss at the creature, emptying the barrel of small ball bearings which streamed through the air toward the creature. Most of them missed, but one hit the creature in the left eye, while two others shot into each of its nostrils. They hit home, and the creature’s remaining good eye widened blindly before the creature fell dead to the cave floor.
Runs With Danger stared at the creature as, for the first time, it completely came into view. He looked across the cave at Fights With Monsters, who was still sitting on the ground, tears running down his face. Then, realising that the creature was dead, he wiped his sleeve across his eyes and got up from the ground.
“We say nothing of this,” he said, an air of threat in his voice, “when we get back to the village we tell them that we bravely defeated the creature together, as a team, and that we sadly lost our two colleagues in the fight.”
Runs With Danger shrugged, “Whatever,” he said, “I’m not fussed about the glory, so long as I can retire after all this.”
“You won’t have to retire,” Fights With Monsters smiled, “we’ve defeated the creature, so there’s nothing left for us to fight. The smaller ones will not attack without the larger one for protection.”
Runs With Danger nodded dumbly, then looked around the darkened cave, “Why do you think it was so eager to kill ?”
Fights With Monsters shrugged, “He was a monster,” he said, preparing himself to leave the cave, “he was probably just hungry or something.”
“Maybe,” Runs With Danger said absently, but he had his doubts.
As he looked on at the carcass that had so recently threatened their lives, he noticed something glimmering near the creatures rear leg. Squinting, Runs With Danger noticed that the object he could just see was one of many.
“What is that?” he asked himself, taking a brave step towards the dead creature, “Is that... are those eggs?”
Fights With Monsters stopped his preparations and stared at Runs With Danger, “Did you say... eggs?”
“Yeah,” Runs With Danger replied, holding an egg up for Fights With Monsters to see, “they look like ostrich eggs or something.”
“We should smash them before they hatch,” Fights With Monsters warned, “before we’re faced with more of those creatures.”
Runs With Danger’s eyes widened as the egg he was holding fell to the cavern floor, “Oh, no.”
“What is it?” Fights With Monsters asked cautiously, “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t you see?” Runs With Danger said, terror in his voice, “They’re eggs!”
“I know,” Fights With Monsters nodded, “so let’s destroy them.”
“But if they’re eggs,” Runs With Danger observed, “then the creature must have had... a mate.”
Before Fights With Monsters could react to the words spoken by Runs With Danger, and echoing cry of anguish boomed from behind them, and the two brave warriors screamed as they witnessed the appearance from the darkness of another moss covered tongue...
Originally Posted 5/10/2015
Result - Joint 3rd Place
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