Chimera

Chapter Twenty-five: Lance

Lance Esposito slowly reached out a hand and touched the Las Lagos wall. It was smooth to touch, and warm, heated for seasons and seasons by the harsh desert heat. Camila placed her hand against the smooth stone too. Her fatigued legs gave way and she fell forward, then caught herself with two arms on the wall. She slumped, leaning against its surface, eyes up to the wall walkway where a group of sentries were nearing.

"Get down," she hissed to Lance. He dropped from a standing position to a squat, pressing his back against the wall until it hurt and willing himself not to be seen.

They had made it.

It had been a gruelling journey. They had moved as fast as they could, traversing caves and fields and the desert, spurred on by the knowledge that paradise was so close within reach to their people. 

With the map Callista had given to them, they had made it home in just under two days. They had only seen one large animal mutated by the Chimera Mutation. It looked like a brown bear, except its back and forearms were covered in thick black plating and it had claws like a mole. 

The creature, which Lance recorded as a Bear-mole in his catalogue, was industriously digging a hole. It had snorted angrily at the pair when they had come past, but when they steered clear of it, it had ignored them.

After that, they had passed a skeleton, one with a few strings of flesh clinging desperately to dry, ivory bone.

It was an Aerosnake. The Aerosnake. The one Lance had slain, what felt like a millenia ago. The two watched silently as flies buzzed around its skull and maggots festered in the thick, rotten skin.

Then they had moved on. An hour or so later, Las Lagos had come into view. Lance knew the rotation of the Slayers from their training. They timed it perfectly, crawling stealthily through the bushes, advancing exactly every twenty six minutes, when Lance knew that the Slayers would rotate and swap sentry duties.

"We'll have to make a move somtime, you know," Camila said.

"I know," Lance answered, pulling his grappling hook from his satchel. He turned it in his hand, checking that it was in shape before he stood, satisfied.

"This is gonna be harder than last time. We'll have to climb the wall," he said, tying the rope around his hips. Then he tied a double-knot just in case.

He went a few more minutes in silence, counting in his head.

Twenty-five minutes fifty-seven seconds, twenty-five fifty-eight, twenty-five fifty-nine...

Sure enough, he heard the guards stir. They would then climb back down the ladder, go to the Slayer compound, and get the new rotation.

That left Lance with half a minute. It might not be a lot of time, but he could make it work. Lance readied himself, pulled back his arm and then threw. The grappling hook sailed into the air and then fell, on a course for the railing. Close, oh-so close...

The hook clanged just below and bounced off the wall, falling back down to him.

"Damn it," he hissed. Still, he had twenty-something seconds left. He had time to try again. This time, the grappling hook hit its target, going over the rail. When it fell back, it hooked onto a metal beam. Lance gave the rope a pull, and the hook stayed in place.

"Wish me luck," Lance said through gritted teeth, running and then leaping. He got a few feet off the ground and morphed in the air. His fingers turned swiftly into claws, stabbing into the wall. He quivered from the impact, but his claws didn't come loose. Slowly, carefully, he reached out another paw. Pushed it forward, embedded his claws into a hole in the rock. It stayed.

"Good luck," Camila said. Lance reached out another claw, and another, and another. Then his feet scrabbled on rock, catching up to his paws.

Hi guys, Sylver here!

I hope you enjoy this brand new chapter. Some new and exciting things are coming to the story - a riveting quest and a thrilling battle. Will they succeed and make it beyond the wall? And even if our heroes sneak their way back into Los Lagos, they still have massive challenges threatening against them - after all, this is not the world beyond the wall that they have become accustomed to. Mayor Norwood still rules here.

If you've enjoyed reading this story, don't forget to vote, comment and add it to your reading lists. I will be adding a new chapter every day. If you have any tips for how I can improve my writing, or what I did well this time, please feel free to tell me (in a nice manner). Thanks so much for reading my story!

Thanks again, Sylver!