breaths. I quake as it comes into view, barreling down the narrow canyon as though it is giving chase.
My nerves entirely overcome me as I stand petrified and stare at the draeg, so terrifying in its size and might that it seems surreal, like something I imagined from a nightmare I need to wake up from. Even down on four legs, the top of its head peaks up nearly a quarter of the distance to where I am. How could it not simply leap up on its hind legs and snatch me?
In sheepish hesitancy I begin to cower and delay trying to get the beast’s attention. It stops near the pool, lashing its head around frantically as though it has lost track of what it was pursuing. It could very well leave soon if I don’t do what I was put here to accomplish. Yori and Wade are counting on me.
“Up here!” I call out as loud as I can, but it doesn’t look up.
I do more of the same, screaming all sorts of things, but nothing seems to work. Either it can’t hear me above the water from this height, or it simply doesn’t care to. I need to think of something else.
My eyes scan the summit where I stand, and I quickly get another idea. I walk over to the edge where a large rock is resting and grunt as I push and send it crashing down near the draeg. It looks around confused, but not up. I find another and do the same, this time crashing a blow onto its neck.
“That’s right,” I
boast as it casts its gaze upon me. “Can’t you—”
A loud crack, like thunder, immediately shoots through my whole body, the tremor following it knocking me back as though a gust of hot wind had blasted into my face. I slip and collapse onto the rocks. I get up slowly, dazed and confused, and reach up to feel the back of my head, withdrawing my hand to find some blood smeared on my fingers, a high-pitched noise blaring in my ears like a quiet scream.
Once I’ve collected myself, I glance toward the eastern pass where the explosion occurred, but just then another thunderous crack resonates from the north. This time I am prepared to withstand it as I lean forward on my knees and behold the scene play out. Balls of fire like clouds erupt from the pass to the north, the canyon walls there crashing down and blocking the way out as the stunned draeg watches on.
I shift my gaze to the other entrance, which has already collapsed into itself. The draeg moves frantically toward it and tries to find some route of escape, but even broken, the canyon walls are too high and the dirt and rock too loose for the beast to find any success. The trap worked, but we’re not done yet.
My feet are difficult to find again as I stumble up only to slip once more. The echoing in my ears is very distracting, making me nauseated and disoriented. Yori warned me to be prepared for this, but it’s worse than I expected, though I must push on.
“Come this way you monster,” I yell before choking on my words and coughing.
It is quick to respond this time, much to my surprise, but instead of deliberately heading my direction, it charges right into the wall of rock below me, sending a quaking up my way that nearly tosses me over the edge. I rebalance myself, leaning back and holding to a boulder before completely losing balance, recovering and grabbing the rope Yori left for me.
The draeg does it again, though I’m able to keep my footing this time. It then begins clawing up the canyon wall, springing with its legs and getting within a few dozen feet of the top. One time it gets a good enough grip to be able to reach its front claws right to where I am, but it can’t get any higher.
Studying around, I realize that it might not be coming for me but is rather trying to find a way of escape. The summit I am standing on is the only place in the canyon low enough for the draeg to reach, and likely the only spot from which it could jump and get over the edge of the falls and into the marshes.
At that moment, Wade suddenly appears from a dark thicket of trees behind the draeg carrying something, and I cry out once more to keep the beast’s focus on me.
“You’re never going to make it,” I ridicule, speaking from deep in my throat and gut so my voice carries and demands the draeg’s attention.
Wade pulls something out of his pack and it immediately lights up, a red glow like a fire, but with a pinkish hue and burn like nothing I’ve ever seen. He hurls it toward the beast as he continues to run toward another thicket of trees closer to where I am.
Wade holds his arm up to shield his face when the flame lands as another explosion rumbles the ground and shoots orange flames up toward me. The draeg recoils and stutters to the right, its front paws leaned against the canyon wall to keep it from collapsing. I hold my breath as it slips at the edge of the pool, hopeful that it will fall and this can be over, but I gasp as it instead recovers and begins slowly moving toward Wade.
Rather than backing off, Wade instead begins running toward the draeg, removing a small pouch from his pack and tossing it right at the beast’s head. He then stops, draws his gun, and fires, producing a small but effective burst of flame and smoke that stuns the draeg, prompting it to scamper back to the pool.
Again it slips at the edge, but doesn’t fall. Wade continues forward, firing a couple more shots from his gun, this time directly at the draeg. It twitches as the bullets embed themselves into its dark skin, moving slightly backwards with each blow and cornering itself that much more between the wall beneath me and the pool below the waterfalls.
Once Wade stops shooting, the beast recovers slightly and drops down once more on all four of its legs. But to my surprise, it doesn’t charge at Wade, who has pulled out another one of the pinkish-red flames and is holding it in his hand. Neither moves for a moment, that is until Yori comes into view, circling the shore of the pond from the north.
He holds the same sort of torch Wade has as he moves in, waving it in front of him to keep the draeg from considering charging at him. He stops about the same distance from it as Wade is standing, fifty or so feet, and then removes a large bag from his pack. This, I presume, is more of the dark powder.
The draeg recognizes this as well, but instead of trying to push between Wade and Yori to escape another explosion, it begins violently slamming itself against the canyon wall. At first this seems like nothing more than the desperate and terrified thrashings of an animal that considers itself hopelessly cornered, but then as the walls begin to crack, I realize what it is doing. It is trying to bring a rockslide down on Wade.
Unfortunately, Wade doesn’t recognize this and steps even closer to the wall as Yori moves in to prepare for the final explosion that will send the beast into the pool. I try to call out to Wade to warn him, but he doesn’t seem to hear me. He hardly has a chance to react as a torrent of jagged stone begins pouring down over him, knocking him unconscious.
Without thinking, I grab the rope next to me and tie it quickly and securely around the boulder I’m leaned against. I then launch myself off the cliff and begin sliding down as fast as I can, so fast that my hands begin to sting. I ignore them. If I don’t hurry and find a way to get the draeg’s attention, Yori won’t have a chance to finish what Wade started.
I turn my head toward the base of the canyon as I descend to find Yori doing his best to keep the beast from charging at him, firing his own gun and also tossing out small bags of powder and shooting them like Wade had done. Wade remains motionless among the piles of rocks and boulders.
It seems like only a few seconds have passed once I get to the same level as the draeg’s head. Its back remains toward me, its tail continuing to beat against the canyon wall. I have to jump out of the way a few times before I find a safe place to lean against, at which point I am ready to get the draeg’s attention.
“No, look at me!” I scream, the beast immediately turning and thrashing out at me with its claws.