Three Assasins, A Short Story by Croak Drago [longish]

Three Assassins
By Croak Drago

1
‘Beauty and talent is a deadly combination!’ said Lizzy. She turned to me, ‘Did you see his head explode?!’

‘You only hit him because we wore him out. You couldn’t hit the ground if you fell,’ I said.

‘I admit I’ve had a bad day, but he was one shifty bastard.’

Ginsu advanced on the gristle and entrails. ‘Check the bodies. We’re running short on healing salves and, though I can’t wait to get off this fuckin’ tree, we’ve got a long trip ahead.’ As he pulled off The Don’s armour and weapons, he went on, ‘100,000 gold. As if we ever saw that much money we would give it to him.’

Evie was going through Calzone’s backpack, oblivious to the bits of brain and bone scattered across its surface.

‘You sure have some sweet moves, pretty lady,’ Blade said to Evie as he stepped up to search Calzone’s body. ‘You and I would be something together.’

‘Give it a rest, Blade,’ I said, ‘she’s celibate – she could no more be with you than commit a crime.’

‘To ignore the song in my heart would be a crime,” said Blade with eyes only for Evie.

I could only roll my eyes. Evie had ignored Blade’s advances with stoic grace for the past two weeks, but even I doubted how long she could last. Although he was Human, even I would have dropped my leggings for Blade Smoothcharm by now.

Ginsu cried out ‘Would you look at this? Croak, what do you think?’ Although we had been together for only a short time, Ginsu had quickly caught on to our various strengths. He knew one of mine was a curator-like knowledge of creatures and things.

I took the ball he was holding and knew almost instantly. ‘It can’t be! It’s the Astral Dominae. He had it on him the whole time. But how did he get it from the Savant?’

Ginsu was smug. ‘Excellent. Not only did we save 100,000 gold but we taught those damn Razuka a lesson.’

Evie was a bit more neutral, as usual, ‘We were lucky – Calzone and The Don were close to holding a class of their own.’

Lizzy couldn’t resist the opportunity to gloat, ‘No way! Not with Lizzy in the battle.’

Only Lizzy could get an immediate reaction from Evie. Seeing her eyebrows rise, I quickly cut in ‘There’s only one thing we can be sure of. The Razuka will hunt us with every last goon they have until we get off this forsaken planet.’

The thought of yet another enemy brought everyone back to their senses. Ginsu voiced everyone’s thoughts when he said ‘Bring them on. There isn’t a creature on this planet that we haven’t been able to take yet when we work together.’

Blade turned to Lizzy and high-fived, ‘All right!’ they said together. The lithe human and the towering Lizardwoman respected each other’s fighting ability, developing a rapport before we made it out of the monastery.

Those two days after crash landing here seemed like a lifetime ago, it was hard to believe it had been only two weeks. We had been a quarter way across the continent, making it to the city of Arnika and eventually here to Trynton.

When I had met this bunch back on the doc’s home world, I was the last one in and I assumed they were a well-seasoned team together. Boy was I mistaken.

2
I hurried into the meeting room knowing I was several days late. Looking down to make sure I was presentable, I only just managed to stop before running my snout into Lizzy’s chest. Dracons are a full head taller than most humans are, and I am tall for my race, but the Lizardwoman dwarfed me.

‘Thanks for droppin’ by,’ she sneered.

‘Croak!’ Dr Poofter greeted me, ‘I was beginning to think you had changed your mind. That would have left us two people down and desperately short of magic capabilities. Grab a seat. We only have about 10 minutes before your ship leaves, just enough time for final instructions – besides you’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other during the flight.’

As the doc spoke, I took in the other people in the room. In addition to the Lizardwoman standing in the doorway, there was an Elven woman in robes sitting on a straight-back chair, a masked figure I recognized as a member of the Black Hand, and a familiar-looking dark-skinned human lounging with arms wide on the couch.

‘As I was saying, we’ve traced the Dark Savant to a small planet in the Oberon system. We know he has possession of the Astral Dominae and suspect the other two artifacts are on that world. You primary mission is to stop him from getting those other artifacts, either by taking them yourselves or ending his life.

‘But make no mistake. If he finds out you have the Destinae Dominus or Chaos Moliri he will stop at nothing to take them from you. He has a several Trooper divisions already on the planet and facilities for creating more. I must admit, it does look not good.

‘The planet is home to several races, including Humans, Trynnies, Rapax, and several factions of Rattkins, including the Razuka organized crime syndicate. We believe the Humans and Trynnies are already overrun by the Dark Savant’s forces and won’t be of much help to you.

‘However, the Mook, Umpani, and T’rang have all sent forces. You may be able to get help from any of them – if you can keep them from killing you first.

‘Well, there’s no more time to lose. Get on that ship, and good luck.’

3
Evie’s voice brought me back to business, ‘I’ve got a short blade, some healing salves, and Calzone’s doublet is salvageable. Blade, I think this will fit you. Take off that cuirass.’

‘I thought you’d never ask, baby.’

Ginsu tossed a pair of chamail pants into Blade’s smiling face, ‘Take these too, Blade. Everything else of The Don’s is wrecked but these should match that doublet.’ He turned to Evie ‘And I think that blade matches this one from The Don. If I’m not mistaken, they’re thief’s specials.’

‘Looks like those are yours, too, Blade,’ I said. ‘Who’d have thought our resident thief would get the most goods from a den of thieves.’

Blade lived up to his surname, ‘already being in the company of such beauties, who’d have thought I could get much luckier.’

Lizzy returned from going through the rest of The Don’s apartments, ‘I think this is the key to the Breeder’s apartments Madras was telling us about. I found a couple of trapped chests, too.’

‘Blade, check out those chests. But leave anything we don’t need, we’re already overloaded,’ Ginsu instructed.

‘All these spare weapons are slowing me down. I don’t even know how to use these things! I’m a musician!’ I said to Lizzy, ‘Can you take some of this?’

Ginsu gestured to an empty chest, ‘just leave whatever you don’t need here. We’ll pick it up on the way back down to the Trynnie trader.’

Lizzy sniggered ‘that guy was worthless. He wouldn’t take half of what we had and his prices were a rip-off.’

I was feeling defensive ‘I tried my best; I know we need the money but these Trynnies are real cheapskates.’

Lizzy responded ‘If we hadn’t lost most everything in the crash landing we wouldn’t need so much money.’

As he came back to the room, Blade caught the tail-end of the conversation, ‘I don’t know. I’m outfitted pretty nicely, now.’

‘You’re more charming when you’re not so smug,’ Evie said as she brushed past him.

Blade followed her with his eyes, brows raised in a growing grin, like a shark sensing a distressed swimmer.

I had shed the worst of my equipment during the exchange. I turned to Ginsu, ‘All right, let’s go take care of these Breeders. Although I still think it’s an unnecessary risk.’

Evie backed up Ginsu’s earlier decision, ‘The Trynnies may not have much to offer, but we need all the friends we can get.’

Lizzy managed to stifle a laugh with a most unladylike snort, ‘you didn’t say that when Ginsu lost his temper with The Don.’

Ginsu turned for the door, ‘C’mon, let’s finish off these Rattkin breeders and get out of here. I hate this fuckin’ tree.’

4
We sat in an ancient cargo vessel. There were no amenities and I began to wonder if the old bird had N-space capability. The member of the Black Hand dropped into the gravnet next to me and the other three sat across from us. As we strapped in for the trip, I took stock of the team.

The Lizardwoman had seen a fair bit of action. Tattoos for the numerous campaigns she had fought decorated her scales. Extensive scarring backed this up. It also meant only serious blows could cut through to hurt her.

Her belt sported a quality longsword and wicked looking dagger. Both weapons were well cared for, as were her travelpack and leggings. This was no alley brawler but a well-trained fighter devoted to her craft. The combination of size, experience, and professionalism made me glad she was along.

Next to the Lizardwoman was the dark-skinned human. To call him beautiful would have slighted his rugged masculinity. His limbs moved with easy grace and his hands deceptively nimble. My instincts had me reaching to check my money purse. Something clicked and I remembered where I had seen him before.

Blade Smoothcharm was notorious across half the galaxy for his philandering ways. I first saw him on a Daktari newscast arrested for a daring raid on a prominent trader’s mansion. He managed to seduce the panel of three judges, a local prosecutor and her secretary, and at two guards to affect his escape. Rumour had it he even seduced a meat pie vendor outside the government complex to grab a meal on his way off planet.

In fact, there were so many rumours about Blade that I was not sure what was true. One tale said that he was not just a second-story man, but also a killer for hire. Still another said that he worked as a secret agent for the Galactic council.

As he leaned over to adjust his straps, I noticed the bandolier of daggers around his waist. I also caught glints of daggers up his sleeves and at his ankles. If his personal armoury was any indication, he was definitely more than a simple thief.

To his left sat the robed Elven woman. Her monk’s garb belied her vow of poverty. I chuckled that Blade would not be lifting anything from her pockets during the flight. I also wondered if her vow of chastity would be as difficult for Blade to steal.

As an Elf, it was likely the woman was a member of the Gyutu sect of Oberon Pi. Their three tenets of poverty, chastity, and non-aggression made them virtually insufferable. Fortunately, their training had evolved to include extensive self-defense focused around incapacitating opponents; their masters were the best fighters in the galaxy, in spite of using no weapons. This made them useful friends to have.

As she brushed her dark hair from her mouth, I caught sight of the sepia inking on her right temple, the mark of a disciple of Sykie. That would mean she had mental powers to harm and to heal. But she was young for an elf, so I had to wonder if she was sufficiently trained as either a fighting monk or mentalist. I was hoping the latter as we obviously lacked a metaphysical specialist. I knew we would soon find out.

Although I could not see his eyes behind his mask, I sensed the man next to me watchingwas sitting next to me, as ing my eyes I sized up the others. His dress was classic Hand mission wear: the mask to hide his identity, the loose Gi intended to hide their sex and race, and the Tabi boots. Rumour had it that the boots magically endowed their wearer to higher stealth, but I knew better. The Hand did not need magical augmentation for their shadow training to be effective.

I thought back to what else I knew of the Black Hand. Even with my extensive storehouse of lore, the details were sketchy. They were, quite simply, assassins, and damn good ones.

During my lifetime, they kept a relatively low profile, but I had heard stories of a past when they were much more active in galactic politics. The Black Hand did not run for office in the democratic systems, nor were they an obscure line of royal blood from elsewhere.

They used stealth and subterfuge to gain access to their targets. Hand training covered the full range of weapons, from swords to flails to staves, including dual weapon Katas and anatomy training to increase their attack efficiency. Many were also reasonably skilled alchemists. As such, the style of kill could be anything from a throat quietly slit in the night or an accidental blow by a passer-by on the street to a well-placed bomb or a poisoned drink. Perhaps the variety of the individual assassins’ styles had much to do with why so many commentators thought them less active of late.

I could not see any weapons under the Gi, but it could not hide the tiny Faerie frame. The Faerie affinity for magic made me suspect this member of the hand was an accomplished alchemist.‘ ‘Lizzy is over the top but don’t let her intimidate you. As long as you’re on her side you have nothing to worry about.’ The voice confirmed I was beside a Faerie male. ‘I’m Ginsu.’

He did not offer his hand, and I knew better than to initiate contact with a member of the Hand. ‘Croak’ I said.

Without turning, he said ‘lute player.’ He must have noticed my pack as we were boarding. I was suddenly conscious that Ginsu’s senses missed very little.
‘Yes. I often sing for my meals and a room.’

‘A Dracon musician must spend considerable time hungry on the street.’ Was he smiling behind the mask? The Hand wasn’t know for its sense of humour.

‘Actually, very few,’ I miffed. After a pause I qualified, ‘although sometimes I suspect the novelty factor earns my keep as much as my skill.’

‘You better be good. With Peck not showing up, we’re woefully short on magic power.’

‘Really, the doc had lined up Peck? I thought the only way the old codger would come out of his tree would be in a body bag after blowing himself up.’

‘I suspect Peck got caught up in one of his experiments and simply forgot. On the other hand, perhaps a rival faction decided we needed a handicap.’

The reality of the situation hit me. With my natural story telling and sense of humour, I had been fooling myself about the adventure. Ginsu reminded me that this could very well be a one-way mission for all of us.

5
As we stepped into the outer room, Evie waved her arms in a downward motion from the doorway on the other side of the room.

Lizzy unsheathed her weapons, ‘we have company.’

As he moved forward, Ginsu said, ‘I hate this fuckin’ tree.’ He drew from the folds of his robes a short cane with his right hand and a wicked looking three-pronged sticker, a sai, with his left. ‘What have we got?’

I leaned over to Blade and muttered under my breath, ‘I’ve seen Ginsu use a lot of weapons, but I’ve never seen those before.’

Blade had a wry smile, ‘I found the sai in one of the chests, but as for the staff? I think Ginsu found something on The Don for himself.’

Evie was briefing Ginsu, ‘It looks like Calzone hit an alarm or something. I’m counting at least 7 of their goons supported by as many archers.’

Ginsu surmised the situation; there was a tight hallway between the tree platforms and us. ‘I don’t think we can get more than three wide, but that means neither can they. Evie and Lizzy, form up with me on the front line. Blade, test out those new goon-stickers on anyone that gets past us. Croak, magic support.’

I grinned and pulled out a war drum, ‘I think a little extra speed will do us all well in this one.’ I also slung a Harpie’s Siren around my neck, in easy reach.

Ginsu took the point, with Evie on his right and Lizzy on his left. Blade watched Evie’s walk from behind and said, ‘Thank you…’

The Razuka goons were waiting for us – not really an ambush, as they knew we would see them. I think they hoped to overwhelm us in the tight quarters with their numbers. They were not prepared for what happened next.

As Ginsu rounded the corner, he tossed a fireball into the front rank of goons. They shoved back into each other and pressed against the rails, but as the smoke cleared, several were clearly on fire, and others were trying to douse the flames. The archers in back were in complete disarray.

Evie and Lizzy took advantage of the confusion to launch into the front row. Her training augmented Evie’s natural Elven quickness; I’ve never seen anyone move so fast in combat. She landed six quick blows with her fists on the goon pressed against the right railing. As he crumbled, Lizzy thrust with her stiletto, taking the front, left goon in the ribs and then pummeling the back of his neck with her sword handle, knocking him out.

Blade, ever the opportunist, slit the throat of the fallen goon as Lizzy advanced past.

I had been beating the war drum and chanting the magic words. My spell took effect as the goon archers recovered, hasting everyone in our party.

Evie’s manic speed increased to a blur. She advanced on the next goon, her hands blurred and the goon opened his guard, allowing her to strike his throat with a knife-hand thrust. He crumpled to the ground. Ginsu waded in behind her. He parried a goon’s sword thrust with his sai and brought the new cane up under the goon’s unprotected armpit. The goon turned to dust.

I had brought the horn to my lips and started playing, but I could see Blade’s face light up with laughter. ‘New toy, Ginsu?’ he asked as he cleared bodies out to prevent Ginsu and Evie from tripping.

Lizzy roared as arrows began raining down around her while she held off the two remaining goons with a whirlwind swing of her sword and stiletto, but two arrows had found their mark, one in her shoulder and the other in her thigh.

The piercing tones of my horn cut short the hail of arrows. Several archers looked around dazed. One jabbed his bow into the archer beside him. The Siren’s wail had driven them all insane.

It was turning into a slaughter. Evie and Ginsu used their speed to engage the archers, who were more interested in shooting each other than defending themselves. Two fell immediately and the outcome was inevitable.

As the goons turned to face the friendly fire, Blade stepped in front of Lizzy, easily slipping a knife into each goon’s ribs. As the goons crumpled, the shocked Blade stared at his new daggers in disbelief, ‘these babies find vital organs on their own. I hardly have to try.’

I used Blade’s cover to get up next to Lizzy and treat her arrow wounds. She had already pulled the shafts, an act that would have killed a healthy member of most races. As I poured a healing solution into the wounds, I noticed how little blood she shed. The Lizardwoman’s hide was as tough as a Deadwood tree.

As the last archer fell beneath Ginsu’s sai, Lizzy let out a cry of frustration. ‘I never have any fun! The three of you are too fast!’

Evie turned, out of breath, ‘we could have worse problems.’

‘Yeah, like what to do with all these goodies,’ Ginsu said.

Blade looked around, ‘I count three decent swords, six undamaged bows, at least 5 score of arrows, and enough armour to stock a shop. Oh, and I think our healing problem is over for the time being.’

I thought aloud, ‘If we can get this junk to market it will do wonders for our money position.’

Ginsu gestured to Blade and Evie, ‘take the potions and cache the rest back inside with our other stuff.’ He walked over to Lizzy, ‘how’s the damage?’
Lizzy snorted, ‘nothing worse than a mosquito bite.’

Ginsu turned to me, ‘you’ve become quite a field doctor. Be sure to replace what you used from whatever Evie and Blade find.’

I nodded, thankful for the praise, and walked over to Blade and Evie. It struck me how easily Ginsu slid into the leadership of the group. I scratched my head and wondered back that no one ever questioned his role and that he never gave us reason to.

6
Seconds after the explosion rocked the ship, the captain’s strangled voice came over the intercom, ‘brace for impact… emergency landing on the planet’s surface.’

Ginsu danced back to his gravnet and muttered softly, ‘I thought we were close to our destination.’ Another explosion rolled the ship, dropping him into his seat as if he intended it, ‘I guess they set out a welcome committee.’

‘Which they?’ I asked.

Ginsu finished strapping himself down, ‘we’ll find out soon enough.’
The last minutes of that flight should have been terrifying. The ship was dodging enemy fire, re-entry forces were heating the air and rattling the hull, and smoke and warning sirens clogged our senses. However, some part of me drifted out of my body.

The peripheral sounds and smells of disaster faded, the shaking of my vision steadied almost to slow motion. My awareness heightened, my senses sharpened. Each scale of Lizzy’s face was as big as a dinner plate, Blade’s whoops and laughter resonated in my head like church bells, and Evie’s face glowed like a sun.

I remember wondering why I wasn’t worried about dying. I think now there was already a subconscious belief in the team and our mission. Looking back, everyone’s reaction to the stress of a crash landing on an alien planet was unusual for the situation: Lizzy’s stoicism, Blade’s glee, Evie’s serenity, and Ginsu’s confidence. More than just blessing our activities, I think the Cosmic Lords blessed us individually.

I snapped back into my body as we struck the planet. I assume we were striking the planet, as the cargo ship was bereft of windows. The painful jarring to my body was only the tip of an iceberg assault on my senses.

The shriek of tearing metal, the smell of burning oil and rubber, smoke filling my eyes, the taste of blood in my mouth. It only lasted seconds, but when the world was finally still, I felt I had just wrestled with a thousand screaming wyverns.

Ginsu was the first up, ‘Take what you can, this bird is sinking.’ He headed for the cargo door on the back of the ship.

Lizzy went from wax statue to dervish, ‘sinking? We’re in the water?? But I can’t swim!’

I headed for the cockpit to check the pilots.

Ginsu shouted back over his shoulder, ‘don’t bother, they didn’t make it.’

How he knew what I was doing, or what would be the outcome, I could only guess. I opened the door to the cockpit anyway, and quickly closed it again. The g-forces had forced the pilot’s entrails out of his body openings, and the co-pilot’s body hung over the broken view port while his head bobbed in the water outside.

As I turned back, I spied a footlocker tied down against the fuselage. I grabbed it and headed for the back door. Evie and Blade were already wading ashore while Ginsu was trying to convince Lizzy the water was safe.

‘C’mon, it’s only up to my waist. It won’t even reach your knees, you big baby,’ he said.

Lizzy stepped forward without a sound. I would later think back that this was the only time I’d ever seen her respond without a smart comment.

Ginsu took her arm and led her to the shore, cooing softly as you might to soothe a child. I hopped into the water behind them, the footlocker over one shoulder.

The plane was smoldering but the water had appeared to put out the worst of the fire.

Blade met me at the shore and took one side of the chest. ‘Just like my birthday, I wonder what’s inside,’ he said.

‘Hopefully a medical kit but probably just the overnight bags of the crew,’ I said.

Evie was looking around, ‘This is an old monastery, probably some local order, but it looks deserted. The construction is very similar to a sect I’ve seen in another system. If these monks are star worshippers like the others, we’ll probably find an outdoor platform across the water and a viewing deck somewhere near the top.’

Ginsu stepped away from Lizzy without mentioning her fear episode, ‘all right, let’s take a look around out here before heading inside. If there’s any nasties about we want to make sure we don’t get taken from behind.’

Blade had worked open the lock on the chest, ‘let’s see, some medicines, a sling and stones, and a change of clothes. Everything the bachelor needs for an overnight trip off-planet.’

Ginsu said, ‘keep everything. We don’t know where we’ve landed or how much help we’re going to get while we’re here. If nothing else, we can trade some of that for food or repairs.’

As we split the things into our packs, Lizzy said, ‘Time to fight.’ It was then I noticed the group of sand crabs advancing on us.

The crash had left everyone shaken, but Evie calmed the group. ‘Relax, this will be easy.’

If Evie was the group’s soul, Ginsu was our brain. ‘Okay, four across, Evie on my left, Blade to my right. Lizzy, you’re with me. Croak, give me a fighting song.’

The crabs barely made it to us before they fell asleep to the sweet sounds of a Dracon lullaby my mother sang to me when I was still in the egg. After the four of them mopped up, Lizzy turned to me, ‘you call that a fighting song?’

‘It was the first thing I thought of,’ I said, a little defensive.

Ginsu smoothed over what could have become a wedge between us, ‘Don’t knock it, Lizzy, it worked well.' He turned to me, 'Good choice, Croak. Stick with it until we know how the different creatures on this planet respond to magic.’ He turned to Evie, ‘take us to that viewing platform, then once we secure this area we can head inside.’

She led us across the water. Lizzy’s usual bluster was back, ‘What kind of stupid monks put a platform out where you have to swim for it?’

Evie explained, ‘As star worshippers, they want as clear a view of the evening sky as possible. This is the highest point nearby where they can set up a platform, and by being away from the main building there is less blurring from artficial light sources.’

Blade slid up close to her and smiled, ‘all this and brains, too. Be still my beating heart!’

As we climbed the ramp to the platform, Ginsu’s senses picked up movement before the rest of us, ‘look, something’s moving. Is everyone ready to fight?’

Glad to be out of the water, Lizzy charged ahead of us. Evie set down her sling before releasing her shot, now that Lizzy was in the way. Blade realized this was going to get dirty right away and ran to catch up to the lizardwoman’s long strides, ‘hey, don’t start without me.’

Ginsu shot me a look, and his eyes told me he was not impressed. ‘Play that song again, we’re going to need help.’

A group of five crabs had engaged Blade and Lizzy, and two had managed to latch on to Lizzy’s legs. Her blows were bouncing off their hard shells without any apparent effect. Realising he couldn’t get through their shells either, Blade was trying to hack the pincers off the ones clawing Lizzy.

As Evie and Ginsu caught up, Blade and Lizzy were blocking the path, so they couldn’t get into the front to help. It was about then that I made my first mistake.

I went to play the lullaby, but I fumbled the strings as I pulled it off my pack. Instead of putting the crabs to sleep, I put Lizzy to sleep. One of the crabs took advantage and did some major damage to an artery in Lizzy’s thigh. On the bright side, this woke her up.

Ginsu grabbed both Blade and Lizzy by the shoulder and pulled them back so he and Evie could get to either flank. With more targets, the crabs no longer focused solely on Lizzy, but the group was taking a lot of damage; these crabs were turning out a lot tougher than the variety we first met.

‘Everyone focus your strikes on this big one,’ Ginsu yelled out. Evie managed to penetrate the shell with some blows, and Blade took advantage of it’s confusion to chop off an eye stalk.

Finally, I got the lullaby right. Four fell asleep; all but the one they were beating up on, fortunately.

Ginsu issued further instructions, ‘Work on them one at a time. As long as they sleep they can’t hurt us.’ The group realized the wisdom in this, and chopped and beat the crabs in sequence without taking further injury.

When it was over, an out of breath Lizzy advanced on me, ‘Who’s side are you on? You could have gotten me killed!’

Before I could take a breath, Evie jumped in, ‘if you hadn’t charged in all hotheaded, you wouldn’t have been in so much trouble.’

Ginsu spoke sharply, ‘Enough! We let that first group of crabs lull us into overconfidence. We’re going to have to work together to survive.’

He turned to Lizzy and Blade, ‘First of all, never advance without the team’s full support. If you get into a poor position, we may not be able to come up to support you. Second, you lost a prime opportunity to chop them down from a distance while they advanced. Evie here almost knocked you out with a bullet stone when you got into her field of fire.’

Then he turned to me, ‘I know magic isn’t easy, but what you did was plain clumsiness. You had better learn to how to use that thing without putting the rest of us at risk.’

Finally he faced all of us, ‘We haven’t gotten off to a good start with Peck not showing up and the ship crashing. So we had better learn to work together if we’re going to make it through this.’

After a pause to let it sink in, he said ‘all right. Let’s rest up and do what we can to bandage our wounds. Then we can check inside the monastery.’

7
We looked at each other, knew we had a job to do. We’d come a long way since the crash landing.

We stood in front of a huge locked door, easily twice the size of Lizzy and me put together. ‘It’s the only place we haven’t looked, so the Breeders must be in here,’ I said.

(...)

[ravenmaster]

thats a pretty interesting story. i think it was more like morrowind than wizardry 8 though. otherwise i liked it.