Chapter 4: Shadow Prison

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Kelnmock was stunned to be gaining consciousness, (him swearing to have died), but what his dazed vision came to spot with the miracle came as only a spiked fear

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Kelnmock was stunned to be gaining consciousness, (him swearing to have died), but what his dazed vision came to spot with the miracle came as only a spiked fear. At first he could just sense the rocked motion of the floor he laid on, but with the mixed screeches of unknown spiking around and the damp flame light uncrossing his blurred sight, he found himself uncomfortably staring at a horrid ceiling. Stalagmites of strange material appeared to hang from the wood and he felt similar formation poke up against his back, this soon causing a burst of strength to throw him to his feet, four others appearing beside him.

"Calm down..." Kyplore, hood returned to his face, began to whisper when a booming voice of a beast shot through a lone of steel bars to their right.

"Keep quiet in there!" Its snarling teeth grinned, sending Kelnmock backward to trip into the rough textured wall.

"They're always watching..." Kyplore finished his sentence still, trailing off and a hand scratching his hidden hair.

"It's good to see you made it. I only wish you could have awoken to better circumstances." Balphamire made his presence known as his darkness figure walk into the red lighting, his previous selection of seating sealed in the darkest corner of the cell.

"Why haven't they killed us yet?" He puzzled the question, the five others all keeping their ideas shunned from the mind.

"We believe we're all that made it. The other cells appear empty at the moment." Balphamire added to the table.

"What was that thing anyway..." Kelnmock mumbled off now, coming to sit on the most comforting object he could spot.

"What?" Kyplore announced his presence by the cell door, his hood far over his concealed face and hands fiddling with some old dry bone.

"That thing that nearly killed you, what was it?" He rose his voice so they all could make understanding from his words, though he wasn't sure the point in asking.

"That brute I'm assuming? I believe its called an Orcine. Leaders of the small forces." Balphamire came in the conversion, his legs giving strength to stand as he began pacing the crusted floors.

"Leader?" Kelnmock questioned.

"The officers if you will. Not much is known to be honest but what information we've managed to gather it appears each platoon of these creatures has an Orcine leading it." He continued to add but was stopped then one of the grey skinned monsters rushed over and began banging the metal, this in turn sending Kyplore to leap to is feet in a momentary state of shock.

"If you all don't keep quite I'll cut out your tongues!" Its low pitched roar sounded off before the rugged armor clanked back out of view.

"Any idea where we're headed?" Kelnmock lowered his voice to dim whispers after a time, eyes beginning to notice the leak of small slimmers of light off the far wall of the cell.

"None I'm afraid..." Was his only answer. However, within moments of his curiosity growing toward the light, he found himself crawling up beside the wall and his vision puncturing the small space.

The hole revealed the familiar fog hovering over the near silent dance of waves. He felt it quite strange to see each bubble of water splash down into the dense haze and only barley able to pick up an audible indication it had in fact rejoined the ocean.

"Guess! I see something!" He slightly rose his voice with minor excitement when his eyes caught sight of something other than the ghostly presence of darkness.

"What? What do see?" Balphamire moved over next to him, both trying to share the small view, the others, other than Kyplore who remained with his bone, stuck closely behind.

"What is it?" One repeated when Kelnmock finally got a good view of a light tinted ship, clearly different from the others they remained on now. Yet it was just as he caught sight of the objects flag that the echoing shout around boomed out.

"Its Admiral Darksea's fleet!!!" He was shocked to find, and soon after the screams and cries of the monsters he managed to see red flashes of flames slam into the deck's side, return fire almost immediately after. This instantly forced him and the others to shoot back as tips of the arrows began smashing their way through the aged wood, small sparks catching miniature flames until within only minutes into the fight the entire wall had picked up fire.

"Shit!" Balphamire stumbled away from the smoke, even Kyplore snapping from his daze.

"Bring is about!" The voice of what seemed to be the captain could now be heard, though none cared, they only began slamming into the bars in hopes of escaping the choking smoke as it grew to consume all.

"It's no use! We need the key..." One of the random prisoners kicked at the bar, hand coming to carry a bit of his shirt cloth over his nose as the rest had.

"Move aside," Kyplore finally pushed, and just as the fire reached out for their sweated flesh, the bone snapped the lock free, all tumbling forward onto the wooden floor.

"Come on!" Kelnmock waved them all over to the central table of the room, their gear sloppily tossed across its surface when each man shot to their blades--opposition to such action clearly occupied by the madness that endured above. "Those flames are getting to big..." He added as his hands tightly grasped his blade, "We need to get off this vessel before we get cooked alive."

It was then that one of the other men, this man now carrying a massive iron ax, cried out by the stairway up, "Well then come on! Time we show these things what we're made of!" He smiled with the words leaving his tongue.

"Ahhhhh!!!!" They all shouted as the charge to the upper deck began, Kyplore's sword making first contact as the blasted to the chilled surface and sent the twisted head of a beast to the waters.

Yet, what they found had astonished their attack, for near all that had crawled the deck now lay burnt on the floor, tips of still raining arrows dug deeply in their throats.

"Find cover!" Balphamire instinctively shouted before one of the flames could send them down as well, Kelnmock dashing beside a mast and looking out to the ally fleet.

"They seem to be holding them back! We need to swim!"

It was at swim Kyplore protested, "cause that worked well last time--" at the end of his breath he was forced to engage a surviving monster, the battle short and swift as a lock allowed for him to toss its burnt body overboard.

"We don't have a choice! It's that or burn here!" Kelnmock shouted back, also noticing the flames of the sides starting to tower over the chipped rails. "Now's our last chance! Come on!" And so he dived, the smooth frozen surface of the water tightening around his skin as he flew through it, surfacing to see behind the bright glow of the monstrous hell finally begin to go under, his breath then allowed to shine as a misty cloud and his skin shiver.

"Hurry, we..we need to reach the fff..fleet before we freeze to death!" Kyplore shot up next to him, the men all throwing the last of their might as the light textured wood came ever closer. And soon they found themselves banging across the wall of the ship, surprised when an arrow quickly shot out to send a splash of blood from one of the men. Though luckily it appeared to be the last mistake as the firing above was replaced with ropes and calls of man.

Kelnmock even managed a slight smile when his body was hoisted up to the deck and his eyes lay sight to the man Darksea himself.  

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