The Changelings Part 25

I heard the unmistakable rumbling sound again, this time coming from a tree next to the big one with the monster in front of it. The black liquid and smoke started to bleed out of this new tree too. All around us now, the trees were cracking, releasing the demons that had been trapped there, probably a very long time ago if the dark state of this forest was any indication.

I heard Finn's voice, but it made no words a just a sound. "Ahhhh ... " It sounded like the beginning of a song.

"What the h.e.l.l?" asked Spike. "What are those things?"

"Orcs would be my guess," said Tony, sounding much calmer than I was feeling.

"What the f.u.c.k is an orc?" I asked angrily. I'm pretty sure Dardennes should have warned us that 'obstacles' could mean 'acid drooling orcs'. That's just common decency.

Tony sighed. "Didn't you guys watch Lord of the Rings?"

"I did," said Chase.

I glanced at Chase and saw him squeezing the handle of Becky's knife in one hand and the handle of his gun in the other, never taking his eyes off the monster.

"Any chance you can put the breaks on that green energy, healing thingy?" asked Spike with a nervous laugh.

"I'm not sure. But I don't think I should. Yes, it's releasing these ... things ... these ... orcs or demons or whatever a but if the trees are green maybe they can help us."

"Not sure that's gonna matter too much if we have an army of these monsters against us. Vines and branches are okay for Ladies in the Lake, but probably not so much for these guys."

He had a point, but something told me it wasn't right to stop the awakening of the forest. It's not that I was willing to die for green trees or anything a I mean, my self-preservation instincts were alive and kicking, telling me to get the f.u.c.k out of there right now. But my trees hadn't let me down before. They'd even sent Robin Hood or whoever he was to help me once, so I had to keep the faith ... and probably kill off some orcs in the meantime.

The first orc we had released seemed to finally wake up to his situation. He was free of the tree that had kept him imprisoned and there was a group of smallish pale things a us a standing in front of him.

The drool was freaking me out. "G.o.d, it keeps salivating. I think it's hungry."

"Wouldn't you be? Trapped inside that tree for who knows how long?" said Finn.

That was a cheery thought. I was going to be dinner a or maybe just an appetizer. Chase was more main course material.

"Stay close," said Chase, "we need to keep our backs together. If one of those gets behind us, we're done." He raised the gun up and took aim at the monster who'd made its first step towards us.

I was just about to make a wisecrack when the thing lifted up its head and let out the most awful sound I'd ever heard. I'd thought that the water wh.o.r.e had the worst voice ever, but no a this guy's was the worst. It sounded like a demon dinosaur a not that I'd ever heard one of those, but it's what I imagine one would sound like. It nearly made my heart stop in fear.

We heard answering roars all around us. There were now at least thirty green trees, spewing black stuff. Ten of those piles of sludge had turned into fully formed, agitated monsters.

"f.u.c.k me. This isn't possible. There are hundreds of trees in this place, hundreds! We don't stand a chance!" I was losing whatever cool I had left.

"Don't freak out," said Chase, the voice of reason. "We need to stay calm. Use your weapons. Go for the throat. Try to stay away from them as best you can. I think they move slow. If we can start running, we can outrun them back to the Green Forest."

"I think we should run towards the waypoint," said Finn. "How far into the Dark Forest is the final waypoint, Jayne."

I wracked my brain trying to remember what the forest looked like when I was up in the tree. "Um, the waypoint is in the center of the dark area. Once we get to it, we'll have to go for at least a few hours to get out."

"Maybe Dardennes and his buddies will be waiting for us at waypoint four," said Finn, hopefully.

"I'm not sure that they know about or will be prepared for this little monster problem that we'll be bringing with us," said Tony.

With our luck, Tony was probably right. We couldn't expect Dardennes and his group to do anything to help us. All they'd done from the start was put us in harm's way.

The other monsters suddenly roared from behind me. The first orc roared back and then started advancing on us.

"Stay together!" yelled Chase.

I held up my sharpened stick. "Blackie, don't let me down!" I yelled, just at the moment when Chase and the monster started fighting.

The thing reached out to grab him and Chase brought his knife down, slas.h.i.+ng the beast's hand.

I was jostled from behind and turned in time to see a slightly smaller orc, though still a foot taller than any of us, start grappling with Spike. Spike's slingshot was no help to him in this type of close-quarters combat. "Give me your gun!" I yelled at Chase. He handed it over without question. I turned and pushed it into Spike's hand. "I don't know how many bullets there are, so do what you can."

Spike nodded his thanks at me and released the safety. He shot the orc right between the eyes as it advanced again. It stood there for a second and then went down at Spike's feet. Spike lifted his foot and kicked its shoulder, causing it to roll over and away.

One down, ninety-nine to go.

The sounds of battle began to ring out around me. The guys had enveloped me in the middle of them, not letting me out to fight and not letting any monsters in to eat me. While I appreciated the sentiment, I knew I was an a.s.set they had to use. I bent down and put my hand to the ground, checking to see if I had any connection to the newly green trees around us. I could sense something there, but it was weak. There hadn't been enough time yet for all of the things around us to come alive a with the exception of the monsters of course.

I saw two orcs drop in quick succession, arrows protruding from their gooey black bodies. One staggered away from our circle with its arm hanging, nearly severed by a blow to it from the axe a the axe I was happy and proud to see drawing luminous blue streaks in the air each time my Tony swung it. The hum it emitted as it swooped through the air made my heart swell. It was obvious the orcs didn't like that axe one bit. They s.h.i.+ed away from it whenever they heard its hum.

Shots rang out. An orc that had nearly grabbed Finn fell onto its back, blood like black tar coming from its neck in a gurgling fountain. I worked to keep the bile in my stomach where it belonged.

The orcs were slow. It was the only reason we were still alive right now. I wasn't sure if they were always this way a maybe they were still tired from being cooped up in trees all this time. We needed to press our advantage. Soon we were going to be out of bullets, arrows and energy.

"We need to try and run to the waypoint," I yelled. Maybe Dardennes would be there to help. I didn't think so, but we had to do something. If we stayed in this forest, in this spot, we were sitting ducks just begging to be exterminated. I didn't want even a single drop of that nasty acid drool to touch me if I could help it.

We all started moving farther into the forest, staying back-to-back and moving as a group. The guys kept fighting the orcs off and I kept trying to get in a jab with my stick when one of them got close, but I wasn't very successful. The guys kept pus.h.i.+ng me back.

Then all of a sudden, one of the orcs broke through our circle. He knocked Finn over like he was a piece of paper and came right for me. I didn't think twice. I held Blackie in front of me and met him head-on. When he was about a foot away, I saw his skin up close and realized there was no way Blackie was going to penetrate that stuff. It looked like alligator hide.

Much to my surprise, Blackie didn't just penetrate it, it sunk in like a red-hot poker sliding into a stick of b.u.t.ter. The orc looked down and I saw the green light coming from my stick being reflected off the slimy skin of its face. It lifted its eyes to mine and snarled, its arms reaching up; but they only made it a few inches before that glowing red light in its eyes went dark. I felt the orc's body go slack and jumped to the side as it fell to the ground. I looked down at my weapon and it was covered in black goo. The green light was still coming from inside my stick and that glow worked to burn off the black orc blood. Within seconds, my stick was back to normal, no longer gooey and no longer glowing.

"Holy bat b.a.l.l.s, did you see that Tony?!"

Tony was too busy throwing his lightsaber axe all around, slicing and dicing orcs left and right.

I stepped outside the ring of guys, confident now that my bada.s.s Blackie and I could do some damage of our own. I stood with legs spread wide, Converse sneakers gripping the forest floor beneath me. I pushed up the sleeves of my sweats.h.i.+rt, quickly wiping under my nose for good measure. "Come on, you smelly b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Let's dance."

One of the smaller ones took me up on my challenge. He strode over moving a little faster than the others. I could see Chase out of the corner of my eye and I heard him admonish me.

"Get back in the circle, Jayne!"

"No!" I yelled, a fever in my brain. "I'm gonna kill me some orc!"

I kept Blackie hidden by my wrist, revealing it only when the orc got close. I faked left, acting like I was going to run by it, with the intention of stabbing the orc in the side with my right hand as I pa.s.sed. My plan would have worked perfectly if the f.u.c.king orc hadn't closelined me. It stuck its arm out, making instant and direct contact with my face as I tried to run by. I went down like a ton of bricks, my stick never touching anything.

Another orc was right behind the one that had dropped me. It grabbed me by the legs and pulled. I found myself sliding across the forest floor, being dragged farther and farther away from my friends. I finally found my voice and started screaming.

I kicked as hard as I could, twisting my body around and around, trying to get the orc to let me go, but the f.u.c.ker had his claws good and tangled in my shoe laces and pant legs. The orc seized the front of my sweats.h.i.+rt, lifting me up off the ground, and then putting me in an unwelcome bear hug, pinning me to its disgusting body from behind.

The smell coming off that orc body was somethin' else, let me tell you. Four-day-old desert roadkill crossed with the world's worst body odor. Holy s.h.i.+t, it was so bad I started to retch. The monster started squeezing me to make me stop. I did stop but only because my olfactory nerves had started to go numb. The smell was seriously that bad.

I heard some roaring and grunting as the orcs communicated with each other. Heads gestured to my friends still fighting valiantly. I felt so f.u.c.king horrible at that moment, knowing they were doing so well and then I had to go and screw it all up. Chase had told me to get back and I didn't listen. He was going to hate me forever. I'd never get to kiss Spike. And Tony ... what was going to happen to my Tony?

The guys stopped fighting and the orcs backed away. One of them, a big one, was gesturing towards me. The orc that held me moved forward, showing the guys that it held me prisoner. I tried to tell them I was sorry, but the orc squeezed the breath out of me. I almost pa.s.sed out before it loosened its grip. I used my eyes to transmit as much emotion as I possibly could. I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry.

One of them grabbed some old, black vines from the forest floor and came over to me. It pulled me roughly from the other orc's grasp and shoved my shoulder to turn me around, grabbing my hands and securing them together with the vine behind me. I was now officially a prisoner of war.

The orc grunted and gestured to the other orcs that surrounded the guys and held up the vine. Its intent was obvious: tie up the others like the girl.

Now we were all going to be prisoners of war. On the bright side though, they weren't eating us. Not yet anyway.

The guys put down their weapons and submitted themselves to our captors. Tony tried to fight a little and one of them smacked him so hard he went down, unconscious. I saw him there on the ground not moving and I couldn't help but cry out. The orc that had been holding me cuffed me on the side of the head, making my ears ring.

"Why you sonofa ..."

It hit me again, only harder this time. I went down on one knee.

Spike shouted, "Stop talking, Jayne!" He ducked when one of the orcs came over to shut him up and took a hit to the shoulder.

The orc behind me pushed me, signaling me to get up and start walking. I stood my ground. I wanted to walk with my friends. I tried to run over to them, awkwardly because my hands were tied behind my back, but I didn't make it far. One of the orcs tripped me and I went down on my face. My mouth was instantly filled with forest muck. I was trying to spit it out when I saw a pair of leathery, disgusting orc feet in my face. The last thing I saw before the lights went out was that leathery foot drawing back to kick me in the head.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN.

I slowly came to, initially only hearing grunts and shuffling sounds, then eventually able to open my eyes, finding myself in a clearing, still inside the Dark Forest. I was tied to a tree, or rather, I was hung from a tree. The vines that had secured my hands behind me had been replaced by vines that bound my wrists in front of me. These vine handcuffs were then attached to another vine dangling from a tree branch above me. I had just enough play to sit with my hands suspended at about shoulder-height. I guess I should have been grateful that they moved my hands to the front of my body or that they didn't hang me from the tree, but I wasn't grateful at all. I was p.i.s.sed.

The trees here were green, but only newly so. I could tell by all the black and gray leaves on the ground that the trees had recently morphed into the beauties they were now. I wondered how many orcs currently made up the enemy forces a probably a lot. I was seriously regretting the rejuvenating of the forest at that moment.

In the center of the clearing was a fire. Something was roasting over it a it smelled like bacon. My eyes were still a little fuzzy, but if I squinted, I could see a little better. The thing hanging over the hot wood coals didn't look like a pig, or even a deer. It looked like ... like ... holy s.h.i.+t, they're roasting a dwarf. A large branch had been jammed down his throat and out his back end. An orc stood to one side, turning the speared dwarf from time to time, like a pig on a spit. I turned my head immediately, thoroughly repulsed by the sight, trying not to barf.

I looked around the camp in a panic, the fear rising up in my throat. I was pretty sure we were going to be the next few orc meals. Nearby I could see Tony and Finn, tied up like I was. Finn was closest. He had blood under his nose like someone had popped him one. I saw him looking at me and I got ready to yell out to him, but the look on his face stopped me. His eyes were bugging out and his lips set in a thin line. He shook his head very slightly, side to side. He was telling me to shut the h.e.l.l up. I did faintly recall the orcs didn't like it much when we talked. Maybe that's why Finn had a b.l.o.o.d.y nose.

I mouthed the words, "Where are Spike and Chase?"

I followed Finn's eyes across the camp. They were on the other side of the fire from us. I had to look past the roasting dwarf to see them. They were also tied up, both looking at the ground. Chase had some bruising around his face. Spike had a cut on his cheek that had bled down to his chin. I guess none of them had gone quietly.

I could see Tony on the other side of Finn. He was either sleeping or still unconscious. If he'd been unconscious this whole time a and I wasn't sure how long it had been, but at least an hour a he could be seriously hurt.

Silently I asked Finn about Tony, "Is Tony okay?"

I tried to read Finn's lips, but it looked like he said, 'They like him again.'

Like him? Then realization dawned. He hadn't said 'like', he said, 'hit'.

f.u.c.k. I sent up a silent prayer to the universe that Tony didn't have a concussion a or worse.

The orcs were scattered around the camp. Occasionally a new one would wander in from farther out in the forest a my guess was they were newly-freed ones, formed from the goo released by the trees. They grunted and growled at each other. The biggest one, the one Chase had cut on the hand at the beginning of our battle, seemed to be in charge. Yeah, that's just perfect ... I had released the leader with that first Ancient tree. f.u.c.king brilliant.

No matter where I looked, my attention was repeatedly drawn back to the fire in the middle. My brain entered into an otherworldly level of panic. A real human being ... dwarf being ... was roasting over a fire. My friends and I were tied up and sure to be next. Would they kill us first before they stuck the branch down our throats and out our a.s.s cracks? Or would the branch do the work? Would we still be a little alive when we went over the fire like rotisserie chickens? My mind wouldn't let it go. The panic was real and overwhelming. I started to whimper, unable to stop myself.

The nearest orc came over to me and smashed me in the head with its fist. Some of the spittle from its mouth swung out in an arc and landed on my arm, leaving a burn mark as it slid off. I'm not sure if the nausea I felt was from the beat down, the bar-b-que, or the drool.

When he hit me, it spun me around so I was facing outside the clearing. At least I don't have to look at that poor dwarf anymore. But I also couldn't see Tony or the others either. I forced myself to do some deep breathing, to keep the panic from rising up again.

Just then, a movement out in the trees caught my eye. Someone was there, and it wasn't an orc. The size and coloring wasn't right. I squinted to see if I could figure out who or what it was. The flickering light from the fire made it difficult to see what was beyond our circle of trees.

Then I saw a movement nearby, just beyond the tree I was dangling from. The figure slowly and cautiously crept closer. It moved close enough now that I could see its features in the light of the fire.

Jared! My eyes nearly fell out of my head. Jared is here! My heart soared. I didn't give a flying f.u.c.k if he was in league with Dardennes at this point. He couldn't possibly be on Team Orc. I'm pretty sure no one was in with these barbarians, seeing as how they'd eat a dwarf and all. Probably their smell discouraged friends.h.i.+ps, too.

Jared put his finger to his lips, signaling me to be quiet. I slowly turned and got Finn's attention, jerking my head slightly towards the tree I was attached to so he'd look back. He looked at me in confusion, not understanding what I was trying to tell him. I took the heel of my shoe and slowly wrote J-A-R-E-D on the forest floor in front of me. As soon as he read it, I kicked the dirt around to erase it. I was pretty sure these grunting orcs couldn't read, but just in case ...

I turned to look at Jared again, getting up on my knees to ease the numbness in my hands. Finn turned too, also looking at Jared. Jared held up Becky's knife and pantomimed cutting the vines around our hands.

I nodded my head in happy agreement. Get me the f.u.c.k out of this nightmare. He must have been behind us, following our trail. I remembered Chase dropping the knife in the leaves during our earlier battle.

Jared was trying to give us his plan, charades style. It was more than frustrating. I thought what he was saying was that he was going to go around and release all of us quietly and then all at once we would get up and run. Sounded like a plan to me, or at least the beginnings of a plan. The question was, where were we supposed to run? I kept mouthing, "Where?" to him, but he wasn't getting it.

It soon became clear to me. This plan wasn't going to work. I plopped down on my b.u.t.t, resigned to the fact that we had a half-a.s.sed plan that barely had even a miniscule chance of being successful. I started to s.h.i.+ft my body, aware that my b.u.t.t bone was now resting on something hard, lumpy, and very uncomfortable. But just before I s.h.i.+fted, I felt something. A tingle.

A tingle in my b.u.t.t? Suddenly, I realized what it was. The Green. I was sitting on a root that had grown up above the surface of the ground.

I used the toe of my left shoe to push the shoe and sock off my right. I scooted over so my bare foot could touch the root. Now I could feel the connection much stronger. My clothes had been dulling the sensation. The connection was difficult enough to make here, in this dark place.

I sent out a tentative request, the beginning of a link, just with this tree. The Green was there. It was new, fresh, and just starting to awaken a but it was there.

Finn was looking at me, frowning, wondering what the h.e.l.l I was doing. He must have seen the smile on my face, because he smiled a little back at me. He probably thought I was happy about Jared a or that I had finally cracked under the pressure.

Things were looking up. We had Jared with a knife and I had a connection to The Green. Now I just had to figure out how to use this connection to our advantage. I thought it might be worthwhile to try a little experiment. I didn't bother trying to mime this to Jared. He wasn't aware of my little secret yet, and explaining my connection to The Green with charades? Impossible.

I connected into The Green using the link I had at my foot. I imagined a vine grabbing the foot of an orc off to my left, with the plan to trip it. I didn't see the vine, but less than a minute later an orc got up from the group sitting near Chase and started walking to the edge of the trees. It got two steps and then went down a face plant style. Victim of a vine tripping. b.u.mmer for the orc because its face plant at that particular spot put it partially into the fire. It jerked back, roaring, its black skin bubbling and smoking where it had touched the flames.

The stench that rose up from that bar-b-qued orc was even worse than their natural body odor. I could see why they weren't cannibals. Double yuck. My eyes watered at the awfulness. I even saw Chase and Spike get repulsed looks on their faces, and Chase didn't usually react to that kind of thing.

The burned orc got up, looking around to see what had caused it to trip, but the vine had long since disappeared back into the forest. The only thing there, several paces away, was Chase. The orc took one look at him and roared. Spike cringed at the sight and sound, but Chase sat stoically. He was one bad motherf.u.c.ker, that Chase.

The orc turned sideways while it was roaring, and I could see its mouth in profile. There was spittle dripping from its gnarled, pointed teeth and drool sliding down its chin. Boy was it p.i.s.sed! And now, since I had once again done a very bad job of considering the consequences of my actions, it was p.i.s.sed at Chase. Even though there's no way Chase could have done it, the orc was going to blame and punish Chase for tripping it.

It took two long strides towards Chase and backhanded him. Hard. Chase flew to the side as far as his bonds would allow, then swung back the other direction, like a human pendulum. Anger blazed in his eyes, fresh blood dripping down his cheek from a gash that had opened up over his cheekbone. The orc wasn't finished with him yet, though.

I saw Spike and Finn watching in horror at the violence playing out before them. Spike ducked with every hit, as if he was the one being beaten.