Fire of the Inquisitor

Lucia trembled as the walls of the cave vibrated with the voice of the beast that continued to pursue her. Most of her own trembling came from the freezing cold inside the cave than actual fear. The walls of the cave seemed to be made of ice, although it was unlike any kind she had ever encountered. Smooth with a blue tint, it was warmer than the air surrounding it and its surface was more reflective than any mirror she had ever used. It was within these walls that the flame she was following appeared and it was currently leading her deeper into the cave.

“Where are you taking me?” Lucia whispered.

The better question may have been why was she following it? The flame had kept her away from the beast, but it also seemed to be taking her around in circles. For all she knew she was just imagining it in some near-death hallucination. She wasn’t even quite sure what it was, but the flame was moving slow enough for her to follow and so she did.

A strange yelp and growl told Lucia that the beast that was following her was having a personal crisis of his own. There was something odd about her persistent nemesis. She could have sworn that after her long tumble down the hill she had passed out for a moment, so why didn’t it finish her off? It had been following her relentlessly ever since she had been separated from her unit, but always seemed to hesitate when it got close. Lucia couldn’t help, but think that whatever was using the flame to guide her was also confusing her attacker.

Lucia followed the flame toward an incline where the passage became narrower and the space ahead darker. She slowly stepped into a rounded chamber like room where the flame dimmed near a thin crevice on the other side of the room. Lucia looked through the crevice and saw nothing but darkness.

“No, I don’t think I could even fit,” not sure who she was talking to.

Suddenly, the flame started to dance around the walls growing brighter, then dimmer as it went along. Lucia spun in circles, trying to follow its path and making herself dizzy. That is when the beast showed up, or at least its image. At first, she saw it in the corner of her eye as she was spinning, then she saw it move at her feet, and another time it was above her head. She cried out and drew her sword and bashed it against the ice where the creatures face growled back at her. The ice shattered and sprayed her with small fragments of cold.

“Where are you?” she said, before shattering some more ice when the monster appeared behind her.

The creature roared and more ice cracked, but it wasn’t from her sword. The flame then grew to its brightest with its center falling on the small crevice it had tried to lure her to before. Lucia staggered toward it as the walls around her erupted into small shards, some sharp enough to pierce her skin. The young soldier threw her sword through the narrow opening, not believing it would fit if she carried it with her. Next, she dropped her shield knowing that she would have never fit with it strapped to her back. Lucia slipped through the crevice sidewise making it to the center before becoming stuck.

“Please!” she cried.

She felt her sword at her feet and kicked it farther toward the opening with the blade making it through but the hilt stayed in the crack. As she squeezed herself farther into the narrow passageway something slender wrapped itself around her wrist. Against her better judgement, she turned her head to see the beast’s open maw looking back at her, its long tongue trying to pull her toward it. Lucia screamed and pulled herself toward the opening of the crevice.

“Let go of me you filth,” she growled.

She felt the beast’s tongue let go of her wrist but knew that the creature was not likely to be giving up. With a roar that shook the entire hillside the beast rammed its body into the walls of the crevice, an impact so violent that it shattered the ice around Lucia and allowing her to squeeze half of her body through the opening.

“Just a little more,” she gasped.

The monster complied, unleashing another might roar before slamming its body against the ice. Lucia was ejected from the hole in the wall like blood from a punctured vein. The young woman on her hands and knees struggled to pick herself up off the ground but knew that the beast could break through at any moment. She looked back to find her sword had fallen behind her and used it to help herself up. It was at this moment that Lucia glimpsed her reflection in the ice.

She looked horrible. Covered in dirt and blood and swollen with bruises, she did not even recognize the person looking back at her. She was so disturbed by the image that she hardly even noticed the loud cracking and shaking of the ice around her. It took the reappearance of the flame for her to focus on leaving the frozen prison.

With the beast contained for the moment, the flame rushed through the ice caves at a quicker pace, just barely waiting for Lucia to keep up. This time, there was no backtracking and dead ends, the fire sent her through the ice and out into open where she could see the mountainside in front of her. She could actually see what was in front of her.

There must have been a magma fountain nearby, not close enough to see very far, but enough that she wasn’t completely blind. What she saw in front of her wasn’t exactly what she called inviting. Stretching out in front of her was a small bizarre mountain that looked as if it had been hollowed out from the inside out leaving large pillars of stone that looked like they were holding up the top of the mountain like a roof. Lucia couldn’t stop her imagination from creating an image of a giant demon smiling back at her with a wicked grin.

Trying to blink away the image, something caught her eye on one of the stone pillars and she immediately recognized the light of a small fire. She knew that it must have been her flame that she was seeing. It had gotten her this far, saved her life even, so even though she had no desire to be near the ominous mountain she continued toward the light.

Into the jaws of the beast.