Trojian Horse
Chapter 24

Arien kept his eyes closed as he was dragged rapidly along the river bed, grasping desperately at any roots and reeds on the river bed hoping to get a strong enough grip before he ran out of breath. He had been holding his breath for too long, had been twisted and turned so much that he had no sense of which way was up or down. His chest was burning, crying for him to take one breath to free himself, he felt a root for a fraction of a second and clutched at it with both hands, holding on as tightly as he could. The root groaned and stretched under the strain but held firm. He kept repeating to himself how he refused to die here in such a pathetic way. The grip around his leg loosened for an instant as he kicked and struggled against the pull of what he could only guess was a tentacle. That was all he needed. He opened his eyes and burst out of the water with such force that half his body was thrown out of the water. Taking in a gulp of much needed fresh air he grabbed onto an overhanging branch and hurled himself out of the water just as he felt the tentacle reach for him again but only manage to lick the soles of shoes. In one smooth action, he swung on the branch and threw himself in the direction of the bank which he wasn’t even sure was there. He landed on the dry ground with a thud.

For a few minutes his thoughts were of how grateful he was to feel the soil on his skin, to breathe freely, to stare into the sky through the thin green leaves floating among the branches. He was alive! No amount of recollection of the series of events that had brought him to the dry bank could explain his amazingly quick reflexes. He was grateful but confused how he had managed it. When his senses had sufficiently recovered, his thoughts turned to Turo. He had no idea how he would begin looking for her in this vast swamp, surrounded by trees, water, thousands, possibly more, hungry mouths all eager to feed particularly when he still didn’t know what had grabbed him. Unless he wanted to die hungry and alone in that swamp he would have to find the courage to venture out into the swamp and find her. At the very least he had to be sure that she was undeniably dead. Breathing deeply, he rose to his feet and scanned his surroundings. There was a dense forest of trees with exposed roots all planted firmly into the water and he was standing on quite possibly the only bit of dry river bank along that part of the river as it meandered into densely populated ground with barely a speck of dry ground visible. It was a collection of all the right ingredients to formulate his recipe for escape all coming together at precisely the right time. He placed his hand on the branch that hung steady over the flowing river below it.

He was staring back into the steadily flowing waters, absent-mindedly, when he noticed that the water was flowing in the direction he was being dragged. Naturally he wondered where he was being taken. Maybe Turo was taken to the same place, back to the beast’s lair. Perhaps the creature lived in that direction which meant he would have to go that way. He broke a dry branch off a dead tree to use as a weapon, waded into the water and began walking slowly down-stream unsure of what he hoped to find. The water was shallow only reaching up to his waist and was so clear he could see the small grains of sand tumbling along the river bed. He hoped Turo would find a way to stay alive. She was resourceful and tough so if anyone of them would survive against the odds it would be her. At least that’s what he hoped for.

The trees grew sparser the further downstream he walked, replaced instead by tall reeds along the river banks and lines of miniature trees just behind the reeds on the banks. The trees formed a complicated network of roots deeply embedded in the swamp floor while the water got shallower as he progressed. This part of the swamp was well lit and Arien could see the twin suns Illa and Ille descending over the horizon while Illara, the biggest sun hanging high in the sky, where it always stood. It was headed toward the end of the day judging by the setting twin suns although that was of little consequence considering it was eternally day. He kept walking clutching the branch in his hand tightly when he saw something glint brilliantly in the water, catching the light from the suns at precisely the right angle. The stream was shallow so he waded across to the other side of the river where he had seen the gleam Lying on the river bed was Turo’s blade which he recognised immediately. He stooped down to pick it up and felt himself shudder for a moment. Turo was close. The river continued in the direction he had been headed until it meandered away from view behind a clump of trees along the river bank and though he wanted to continue in that heading he felt an inclination to take a moment right where he stood. The blade was magnificent with a hilt made of a shiny tough material which was not quite metal but not like anything else he had ever felt or seen, while the inscriptions along the middle of the blade, on only one side, spoke of intention. It seemed an odd inscription to etch into a blade to him but he did not know much about this sort of thing. Some green, thick residue remained just above the hilt which he could not identify. Just then he noticed a barely visible path formed by something that had rolled through that part of the reeds. Whatever had gone through there had left a path of broken twigs and reeds that had been pushed over but were slowly moving back into an upright position. He couldn’t be sure but he thought it was worth finding out whether Turo had been dragged this way. Leaving the river, he walked tentatively into the forest, the wet earth squishing under his carefully placed feet. The blade replaced the branch as his weapon of choice. Walking deliberately slowly he made his deeper into the forest taking a few moments with each step to make sure all the signs around him still indicated he was walking in the right direction. The river had been relatively silent except for a few bird calls but further in the forest he thought he heard larger breeds of beasts lowing, groaning and grunting. His grip on the blade tightened with each new sound. It seemed she had put up quite a fight as she was pulled away judging by the reeds that had been uprooted and dead branches that had been picked up and, presumably, smacked against her assailant until they snapped and were thrown down again when another branch had been found. Somehow, he felt she was close.

The ground squelched loudly under his feet as he walked so he resorted to crawling on the ground to avoid making too much noise. There had been a foul smell that had been evident from the broken bank where he found the blade but it was growing stronger as he walked on and he felt confident that smell and Turo shared a common destination. Hope was simultaneously ignited with the fear that he wouldn’t like what he found at the end of the trail but he had made up his mind that he would bravely face what lay ahead.

The path veered to the right and disappear behind a clump of trees. The reeds here were pressed all way down into the ground with sap still oozing from the damaged stems as if they had just been trampled over. Arien was on high alert listening for any movement around him. It was close, whatever it was, he was sure of it. The pungent smell was so strong it was nauseating now. He crawled toward a clump of trees at the point where the path veered right and peered beyond them.

At the bottom of a shallow valley lined with the blue-green Trojian grass, lay Turo. She wasn’t moving and just beyond her was the large mouth of a cave. Blood oozed from the top of her head but apart from that he could see no other signs of injury. Something about this set-up seemed too easy. He was eager to rush down and save her but it felt wrong as if there would be terrible consequences for rashness. He crawled back behind the cover of the trees and began working on the first bits of a plan to save Turo.

The first and most important piece of information was knowing what he was dealing with. He couldn’t think of a way of figuring that out without exposing himself. He opted to using a bit of inference. He looked back at the path the creature had dragged Turo through. This time when he looked he saw a little more than he had before. The path was almost two steps wide and, judging by the way the reeds were pushed over, it was large and rounded probably crawling on the ground. This made sense also considering the wet earth that seemed to easily give way when he stepped on it. Crawling was more efficient. Somehow, he would have to lure their attackers out and distract them so he could get to Turo and figure some sort of escape. There was no real way of telling if Turo was still alive but he needed even a moment to be sure. Slithering back along the path he found some dry branches and pulled of some leaves from the surrounding trees, and snapped off some reed stems then using them to make a crude rope. The plan he had was an incredibly bad one, not only because there was no plan beyond getting to Turo, but he had nothing to convince him it had any chance of success. He was in new territory.

For both of their sakes he hoped his plan would work. He was soon done putting together his contraption and set to work setting it up in front of the trees in full view of the cave, working fast keeping an eye on the mouth of the cave as well as keeping his ears attentive to any sudden eruptions of sounds, no matter how faint. Strangely enough he felt like his senses were incredible sensitive to what was going on around him. Suddenly he thought he could hear Turo breathing, despite the distance, and something else was breathing quietly somewhere in the cave. He really hoped she was alive.

The mouth of the cave was very wide, drilled into the side of a hill. There was very little vegetation around the mouth of the cave and Arien could see many of the same drag marks he had seen leading all the way up to the cave mouth. Once he had set up he stepped back behind the trees taking care not to make too much noise. It was time to put his plan into action. He walked away from the cave back towards the stream then walked upstream until he felt he had walked far enough then started walking back in the direction of the cave until he was on the other side of the valley just above the cave mouth. Luckily for him there was no breeze. Timing would be crucial and he knew he would have to get down very quickly once his plan was set in motion. He took a deep breath then whistled.

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