Fire of the Inquisitor

Lucia felt her heart start to beat faster as she watched the creature that had been following her for so long now emerge from the black fog that had crept over the high plateau. She had approved of the inquisitor’s plan, was eager to fight back instead of running, but seeing the beast now in a better light she couldn’t help but feel a little timid. That wasn’t she reminded herself, she was the girl who never shied away from a fight or to take on men twice her size during sparring practice. She felt herself reaching for the coin her father had given as the memories of her training came back to her.

But how could God let such an ugly beast like this exist?

Lucia unsheathed her sword and waited for the inquisitor’s signal from her hiding place amongst a large rock pile. The Umbragoth had said before that the beast was stupid, but at that moment, it hesitated and stared straight at Lucia as if it had sensed the trap. The young woman’s heart skipped a beat as her eyes shifted from the bird-like face of the creature to the inquisitor who lie motionless by the edge of the plateau. If the monster had truly noticed her it didn’t consider her a threat as it continued to its real prey.

Lucia kneeled forward, expecting the signal from her ally to come at any moment. The creature hovered over the inquisitor, tilting its head back and forth in a very birdlike manner. Lucia couldn’t understand why the inquisitor had not signaled her to execute the plan yet, letting the monster’s maw come dangerously close to him. Lucia was about to spring the trap without his signal when it finally came, a spiral of smoke became a flame in the hand of the inquisitor causing the beast to hesitate before snatching its prey up.

Lucia swung her sword down on the rope beside her, snapping it in two and causing the crude picks they had constructed to shoot up from piles of leaves and dirt they had been hiding under and into the beast’s fleshy side. The young soldier watched the monster struggle as she ran out of her hiding place sword in hand. The trap that pinned the beast down came from the very village that had imprisoned the inquisitor to long ago. Lucia approached the beast’s eyes dodging desperate swipes from the creatures reptilian like claws.

She was about to thrust her sword into where the creature was most vulnerable when something odd struck her. Within the surprisingly beady eyes of the beast was something sad and almost human. The familiarity of those eyes froze her in place and made her feel sick to her stomach.

“Put it out of its misery,” the inquisitor shouted. He stood with the jagged metal and rope in his arms that were the second phase of their plan.

Lucia could appreciate what the inquisitor was trying to do, appeal to her compassionate side by comparing the monster to a wounded animal, but it didn’t feel the same to her. The creature shook violently, breaking some of the pikes that held it down. Lucia was aware of the inquisitor shouting at her, but she couldn’t hear him over the commotion. It didn’t matter, she knew what she had to do. She thrust her sword deep into the creature’s eye, spilling a large amount of black blood on the ground.

The beast let out a mighty scream like they had counted on and the inquisitor wasted no time delivering on his part of the plan. Lucia was tossed aside by the flailing creature, but not before seeing the inquisitor toss the improvised metal hook into the creature’s mouth. Lucia rolled out of her fall and ran toward her ally, who was struggling to push the boulder they had tied the rope connected to hook over the side of the plateau.

Lucia hit the rock hard, nearly knocking the wind out of herself, but she pushed with all of her might. It didn’t take long for the boulder to start to slide off the cliff and soon the beast was being pulled over the edge with the falling rock. Lucia jumped out of the way of the ensnared creature and as she did she was immediately struck with a realization. She watched as the creature screamed and went over the edge, but at the moment was more focused on trying to find the inquisitor.

As she had feared he was nowhere in sight.

“Inquisitor!” she shouted, running toward the edge of the cliff. Lucia couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought about how the weakened Umbragoth was going to get away from the falling beast when they had come up with the plan. Now, she couldn’t bare the thought that she might have lost another comrade they way she had lost the scouting party.

“Could you please pull me up with some sense of urgency?” the inquisitor’s voice said from just out of sight.

Lucia looked down from the cliff to see the inquisitor holding on to a small chunk of rock that was sticking out the cliffside. The young soldier fell to the ground and reached for the inquisitor’s hand. He grabbed it and just as he did the rock he was holding gave away. Lucia grunted as the weight of the Umbragoth threatened to pull her over the side of the cliff. Luckily for her, his weakened body did not weigh much more than hers, and she was able to pull him up not too much of a struggle.

“Are you okay?” she said, unable to keep the victory smile off her face.

“I appear to be unharmed,” the inquisitor said.

Lucia frowned. “Aren’t you going to say thank you?”

The inquisitor looked at her from beneath his bone mask. “If you hadn’t hesitated to strike the beast, I may not have been placed in such a predicament.”

“You can’t be serious?” Lucia said, picking herself off the ground. She held out her hands to help the inquisitor up.

He took them and stood up. “Why can’t I?”

Lucia rolled her eyes as they started to walk away from the cliffside. “Anyway, we won the battle.”

“I suppose we did,” he said.

Lucia found her sword nearby and ran to pick it up. “Don’t sound too excited about it.”

“Why was it your first battle?”

“Of course not.” Lucia looked down at the sword covered in black blood. “I suppose the creature wasn’t that large when you were close to him.”

“Indeed, not the size of a dragon.”

Lucia cleaned her sword by wiping it in the faded blue grass of the plateau. It would need a better cleaning when she could find a cloth, but for now, she sheathed it. “So, what should we do know.”

When the Inquisitor didn’t answer Lucia turned to see the man lying on the ground. She never even heard him hit the ground.