They Come To Feed

Chapter 10

"We must learn all we can of these monsters," began Grimm. "We must find a weakness and exploit it."
    He was addressing Freyja, Marula, Tonga, N'tibi, Wazu, and Cartenio. They sat within N'tibi's hut once more.
    "We are still many days from making the Osprey seaworthy, and the monsters further damaged the ship in the night. They don't want us to leave the island. We are trapped like cattle," spoke Cartenio glumly. "They will slaughter us all before we escape."
    "You mentioned the other day that you had an idea forming, Grimm. Will you share it with us now?" Freyja asked.
    "It was Wazu's story that planted the seed in my mind. He said that the skin of the lindworm, Gulkun, seemed resistant to the monsters' acid. We might use this knowledge if we can locate Gulkun's lair" Grimm expounded, and Tonga translated the words for the Gambusi.
    N'tibi spoke suddenly, "I will travel into the spirit world this day. In the spirit world I will speak with the Old Ones to learn what they might know of our enemy, and also I will seek for the hidden lair where Gulkuna sleeps."

    N'tibi lay on a mat of woven grasses in the shade of her hut. Several of the young women of the tribe sat about her chanting, drumming, and shaking gourd rattles in a syncopated rhythm. One young woman carefully poured a small amount of some dark potion into the old woman's mouth, then drew a ve-ve upon N'tibi's deeply furrowed forehead.
    N'tibi's shade navigated through a world of mist and swirling lights. It was not a landscape wholly unfamiliar to her, having travelled here many times. She wandered through the mist-shrouded forest toward the Great Mountain, when at last she found whom she sought. It was her own mother and grandmother.
    The shades of her mother and grandmother spoke to N'tibi of many things. They told her of the vast Empire of Atlantis, and its outpost here—now the ruins of the Big Stone Hut, they spoke to her of an ancient war between the Atlanteans and Those Who Come To Feed. Most importantly, they told N'tibi of the Kytelle, an artifact of Atlantean sorcery, a weapon forged to combat the star-spawn. The Kytelle was housed in the Big Stone Hut, which was now also the lair of great Gulkuna.
    N'tibi learned much of Those Who Come To Feed. She learned that they are like a beehive with a single heart. The Hive has Hunters which attack the Gambusi village by night, and Guardians who protect the Hive under the light of the sun. But most importantly, N'tibi learned that the hive has only one heart: The Mother, and that only by destroying the Mother could they destroy the Hive. They needed the Kytelle, only the Kytelle could slay the Mother of the star-spawn. If the Mother dies the hive dies.
    When N'tibi returned from the spirit realm, she sought out Tonga and Grimm, and explained all that she learned in great detail. And so it was that Grimm began to lay out a plan.

    Grimm took Freyja, Tonga, Wazu, and the boy M'boto with him to survey the area and work out his plan as best as he could, relying on Wazu and M'boto's knowledge of the lay of the land. They brought the supplies which Grimm had directed.
    They were now near Gulkuna's lair, the ruined citadel. Much of the fortress sat above a sheer cliff face, on the side of a low plateau, its shining white spires reaching toward the heavens, but its collonaded marble entrance was at the base of the cliff and was built directly into the surrounding stone.
    A little more than one hundred yards to the left of the entrance was the mouth of a narrow canyon, whose presence Wazu had told them of earlier. They explored the canyon, following it as far as they could go. It was just as Grimm had hoped, the canyon became more narrow as it bore its way into the plateau, and eventually it was too narrow for all but Freyja and the boy to worm their way into before it abruptly ended. Next, they climbed to the top of the canyon and found many large boulders strewn precariously along its edge.
    Grimm sent M'boto running back to the village to gather the other men and the rest of the supplies they needed. The four that remained began to make the rest of their preparations, while Grimm made sure that they each understood their role in the ordeal that lay ahead.

    The party gathered outside the door to the citadel, both pirate and Gambusi alike. They had already made all of their preparations and laid in the supplies they would need. Cautiously, the warriors crept in through the great marble portico, the heavy doors long fallen from their rotted hinges. Grimm was at the fore with Wazu and Tonga, several Gambusi archers fanned out behind them, bows at the ready.  
    A reptilian scent assaulted Grimm, causing the hair on his neck to rise. Thin light filtered in through cunningly cut holes high above as they entered the inner chamber. Then Grimm saw it, the lindworm, Gulkuna. Gulkuna was massive, coils as thick as an oak tree were coiled about a dais and a tall marble pedestal. Upon the pedestal stood a cube-shaped block of polished obsidian, and sticking out from its top was the dagger-like Kytelle.
    Grimm's eyes took in the lindworm. The serpent's most unsettling feature was her porcelain white hide of armour-like scales, contrasted by her unblinking eyes of fathomless jet, gleaming like the hungry night of the Abyss. The only part of Gulkuna's squamous hide that wasn't purest alabaster was a ragged ring of crimson scales that radiated around her eyes. She did not stir.
    On Grimm's command, Tonga hurled one of the grenades of Arcadian Fire at the far wall of the chamber behind and a little to the right of Gulkuna. They did not want to throw the liquid fire too near the Kytelle, rather their aim was to rouse the serpentine monster. A flaming arrow struck the oily pool, and instantly it exploded into flame, licking Gulkuna's plated flank.
    They ran from the chamber in great haste, slowing only to empty more of the Arcadian Fire in the short passageway, and ignite the reeking fluid. They knew it would not stop the monster's inevitable pursuit, they merely wished to buy a few moment's time.
    As the men rushed from the portico they broke right and reached the ropes that they had earlier secured to the clifftop, and climbed for their lives.
    Only Freyja, the fleetest of them, remained behind. She stood framed in the great doorway. Then she saw it, the massive ophidian head, larger than the head of two warhorses combined. She loosed an arrow, but it skittered harmlessly off of the lindworm's stone-hard plates. Malice blazed in Gulkuna's slit pupils as she spied her tiny human antagonist.
    Freyja broke right and ran, faster than she had ever run. She could hear the thunderous rush of Gulkuna behind her as it crushed rock and snapped small trees with her passing. Freyja ventured a glance over her shoulder, the beast was a speeding engine of destruction, a scant few yards behind. The lindworm slithered with a velocity unbelievable in such a gigantic form. Freyja was losing ground. She bounded like an antelope, and still white death stalked her like a tsunami of muscle, bone, and venom-oozing fangs.
    Then Freyja saw it, just a few more yards ahead, the entrance to the canyon. She dared not chance another look behind. At last she was there, she turned down the narrow path between walls of rough stone. Gulkuna was right behind, and gaining rapidly, her scaly flanks spraying loose rock from the canyon walls sending it a dozen feet into the air.
    Freyja dove into the narrow crevice at the termination of the canyon. As she squeezed into the confined space she felt the stone reverberate and crack as Gulkuna's head impacted the entrance to her tiny refuge. Freyja squirmed around to face the beast. She could feel Gulkuna's breath, as the serpent tried to force her head into the crevice. Freyja desperately squeezed herself back as a droplet of caustic venom dripped onto her naked thigh leaving an angry red welt. The stone was crumbling and would not last long. The great white head reared back to strike again.