Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2013 10:58:06 -0500 (EST)
From: DOGG <nphillydogg@aol.com>
Subject: warrior realm-11

[READER'S NOTE; The Warrior Realm is a mythical world of witches and
warlocks. Set in no particular time period, it parallels the journey of a
young barbarian (Nomad), a young magician (Liam), and a mystical minotaur
(Hoof), as they search for self...]

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WARRIOR REALM
Chapter-11/DREAMWEAVERS


"No one asked you to awaken us from our sleep...!" yelled the angry
Minotaur as he emerged from the webbed cocoon husk that kept him dreaming
of the life he never had! "I was enjoying my new life...! I had a wife...,
kids..., a home! I was happy!" screamed the half man/half beast, swinging
his battle axe at his one-time friend and companion...


"The dream wasn't real, Hoof...! It was a lie!" informed Nomad, deflecting
Hoof's mighty axe with his sword, causing a bright spark between the
clashing metals!

"It was not your place to judge!" argued Hoof, backslapping Nomad across
the room!
	Nomad slammed into a stone wall, then crashed to the dirt ground
hard!


"Someone was manipulating our thoughts..., making us believe things that
weren't true! Things that we obviously wish WERE true!" reasoned Nomad,
climbing to his feet as pain rippled through his muscled body. He kept a
wary eye on Hoof, so much so that he didn't even noticed Liam coming up
from behind...!


"I was with my parents!" screamed Liam, touching Nomad softly on his back
and causing a tremendous shockwave to erupt throughout his entire body as
the dark room burned bright with the energy crackling all about Nomad's
electrified body...!
       Nomad screamed in severe pain as his entire body felt as if it was
being roasted from the inside out! "I searched long and hard for my
parents..." continued Liam, tears streaming down his cheeks! "...only to
have them ripped them away from me again!"


"I...was...only...trying to...help...!" struggled Nomad through clinched
teeth as he tried to endure the pain pulsing through to his very soul
[blood now dripping from his eyes, ears, and nose]...!


"WHO asked for your help...??!" asked Liam, turning up the juice as Nomad's
body burst into a profuse sweat, smoke beginning to smolder from his very
skin...!


"No one...that's...what...friends...are...for...!" struggled Nomad, before
passing out!
	Liam [suddenly coming to his senses when he realized he was killing
his best friend] turned off his magics just in time to watch Nomad fall
limply to the floor in a heap [smoke rising up from his overheated body as
the smell of charred flesh drifted throughout the chamber]!


"Oh shit...! I'm sorry, Nomad...! I'm sorry!" apologized the magician as he
ran to his friend's side, rolling Nomad over onto his back...!


"I'm not sorry...!" said Hoof, standing over top the two men with his
battle-axe primed overhead, ready to strike!


"HOOF..., he's hurt...!" said Liam, feeling sorry for his friend!


"WE'RE ALL HURT!!" yelled Hoof, lifting his front hooves off the ground for
a much harder swing...!


"Hoof...NO...you can't...!!!" screamed Liam, covering Nomad's body with his
own as Hoof lowered his heavy axe in a fit of absolute RAGE! The axe came
down hard, ricocheting off an invisible shield and causing a backlash of
energy that sent Hood soring into a nearby wall! The Minotaur fell to his
hands and four knees, wepting for the loss of the family he may never
know...!


::PT-2::


	Hours pass as Liam and Hoof watched over Nomad's healing body, with
Liam practicing practical magic to create a `healing' spell to counter the
attack he did earlier! Using old wood [from left behind furniture], they
burnt a small flame for heat, keeping his body warm while he
recovered. "How long will he be OUT like this...?" asked Hoof, pacing
around anxiously!


"I don't know..." said Liam, placing soaked leaves across the barbarian's
brow! "...the BLACK BOOK Of Spells aren't easy to decipher..., one wrong
incantation and the spell could go from healing to killing...! I need to
have the precise ingredients!"


"Maybe you shouldn't have used your hocus-pocus on him in the first
place...?" suggested Hoof!


"Maybe YOU shouldn't have tried to KILL HIM with your battle-axe...?!"
asked Liam, defensively!


"That was AFTER you hit him with the debilitating spell that left his body
lifeless...!" countered Hoof!


"Look...bickering back and forth won't bring him back..." argued Liam,
"...we BOTH are to blame for why he's lying here right now...!"


"Some MORE to blame than others..." mumbled Hoof under his breath, dropping
another log on the fire...!
	Liam closed his eyes and began an incantation, chanting as he
pressed the soaked leaves to Nomad's brow! After several long hours, Nomad
began to stir...


"He's coming to...!" said Liam, pouring more leaves onto his body to soak
up the heat from his inner body. "How do you feel...?" he asked when he saw
his friend finally opening his eyes...


"Like HELL..." said Nomad, sitting up as he looked about the room. "...what
did you do to me...? It felt like my insides were on fire...!"


"They were...!" said Liam, not exactly sure HOW he did what he did.


"Where are we...?" asked the barbarian, standing...


"It looks like we're inside an underground dwellings of The Lost City!"
surmised Hook, having recon the chamber while Nomad lay unconscious.


"How...? Last I remember..., we were sleeping OUTSIDE the city limits with
our steeds...!" recalled Nomad.


"Then someone..., or something, took us in our sleep and encased us in
these coffins!" said Hoof, pointing down at the cocoons they awoke in.


"We've seen many of these around the city..." recalled Liam, walking over
to one and bending down to inspect inside. "...except the others were old,
dead, hollowed husks full of dust...!"


"Not mere dust..." said Hoof suspiciously, taking a closer look at the
cocoons as he sniffed the insides. "...the dusty decay of human
remains...!"


"Human remains...??" asked Liam, spooked, stepping away from cocoons...


"That explains what happened to the people who lived here...?" asked Nomad.


"Explains what...?" asked Liam, lost.


"The people of The Lost City did not simply disappear..." explained
Nomad. "...something or someone TOOK them, and encased them in these
cocoons to die...! Like they did US!"


"But who...? Why...??!" asked Liam,

"Why does an insect cocoon anything...?" asked Nomad.


"To transform into butterflies...?" asked Liam, naively.


"For food!" answered Hoof.


"Exactly!" agreed Nomad. "We were abducted and cocooned for food for
something...!"


"Something that implanted us with beautiful dreams of our deepest desires
so we wouldn't resist...!" added Hoof, thinking about his imaginary family.


"So we could die a slow lingering death while the lives were slowly drained
from our bodies...!" concluded Nomad. "Diabolical!"


"But..., who has THAT kind of power...?" asked Liam.


"Not who..., --WHAT?" asked Nomad, looking at an entrance leading down into
a deep dark cavern.


"That looks like the only way out..." informed Hoof, having surveyed the
opening.


"Then I suppose we go that way...!" said Nomad, pulling his sword.
	Armed with their weapons and a torch they found nearby, the three
warriors began descending into the cavern. The walls were narrow and the
rocks were sharp, as the heroes descended into the wondrous abyss.


"These caves seem go down under the city forever...!" said Liam, as the 3
came upon a fork in the road.


"Perhaps this is how they were able to surprise an entire city...?"
theorized Nomad! "Burrow up under it, and attacks its citizens while they
slept...?"


"How do we know which cave to take...?" asked Liam, hovering behind his
friend.
	Nomad placed the torch up to each entrance, using the burning flame
to check for air drifts...


"I think THIS way...!" he chose, picking the cave on the right.


"Are you sure the way OUT of here is by going DEEPER into the caves...?"
asked Liam, nervously.


"I'm open to debate if you have a better idea...?" asked Nomad upon his
descent. "Watch your step..." he said to his friends, realizing the cavern
was far steeper than he first imagined. "...it's kind of
slippereeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...!!!" he yelled, as he lost his
footing and started sliding down a rapid
chute... "AAAAAYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEE...!!!" screamed the barbarian, unable to
stop himself as he flew out the end of the cave opening, falling 50 feet
into a large web. His companions came tumbling after him, all getting
caught in the same odd ominous webbing...


"WHAT THE HECK IS THIS...???!" asked Liam, having fallen face down into the
trap.


"Some sort of giant SPIDER'S WEB...!" said Nomad, struggling to get unstuck
from the sticky silky fabric...
	From the ceiling descended a humanoid figure with six
limbs... "HOOF...!" called Nomad, gesturing up at the unsightly THING! The
creature [bald, pale, eyeless with no visible facial features] screamed
loudly in its approach, long sharp vampire fangs drawing from its widely
opened mouth...
	Nomad noticed Hoof wasn't afraid when the creature dropped in front
of him, reaching out its many arms as if to welcome him into its
bosom. Nomad suspected by the charmed look on his friend's face that the
creature was mucking with his mind again, making him see something that
wasn't there! Nomad gripped the handle of his trusted sword tighter, then
[using all of his young might] pulled at the silky bands until his arm
broke free, swinging his sword around and cutting through the creature's
neck!


"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...!!!" screamed the monster, falling
backwards into its own web [white pasty goo |which the creature used for
blood sprayed everywhere], it's head tumbling out of the webbing to fall
straight down into the dark abyss below!


"HOOF...! Are you alright...??!!" asked Nomad, watching as his friend came
out of his trance...


"huh...? What...!? What happened...???!" asked Hook, deliriously. "The LAST
thing I remember was Bovina, my WIFE..., reaching out to me..., CALLING
me...!"


"It was a TRICK, my friend...!" said Nomad, cutting himself from the
web. "These creatures have some kind of psychic abilities..., giving us our
deepest dreams and desires...!"


"Dreamweavers...!" said Hoof, as Nomad began cutting his friends free.


"You've heard of them before...?!" asked Nomad.


"Just stories...!" said Hoof, "Leeches...! They live underground, afraid of
sunlight! They come out only at night to feed upon the living! They've been
known to spring up underneath cities and devour everything and everyone
inside!"


"WHY did you not mention this earlier...?!?" asked the barbarian, helping
free Liam.


"No one's ever seen one before and lived...!" said Hoof, "They strike fast!
And their venom is known to paralyze so they can leech off your soul
slowly...!"


"THIS one won't be leeching off anymore souls any time soon...!" said
Nomad, staring down at the dead body as it oozed a never ending supply of
gooey white blood...


"Dreamweavers don't travel alone..." said Hoof, looking up as more figures
started to gather and descend from overhead, "...they come in PACKS!" he
yelled, as strands of silk webbing began to spit from the creatures
mouths...!


"They attack!" informed Nomad, using his trusty sword to cut the
strands. But the Dreamweavers were many, all descending from the higher ups
as they glided down on silky threads.


"There's too many of them...!" said Hoof, swinging his big battle axe
wildly back and forth, keeping the monsters at bay.


"AAHHHH...!!" yelled Liam, just as he was snatched up by one of the
Weavers, his blood boiling on fire!


"LIAM...!!" cried Nomad, seeing his friend taken away from reach!
	Liam could feel long boney fingers grabbing onto him as the blind
vampires sought to suck the essence from his very soul. Using the BLACK
BOOK, Liam fought the creatures off as best he could, swatting at them with
the flat ends of the book!. However [unexpectedly] something began to
happen as a spark of light flickered through the dark pages! Liam continued
to fight for his life as he slapped away his opponents! The flicker of
light grew brighter, turning into a blaze of fire, lighting up the cave's
overhead and illuminating the mass of webbed cocoons the Dreamweavers
reside in!
	Unable to survive the light, the creature's skins began to burn and
buckle! The Dreamweavers screamed collectively, their psychic cries
piercing the minds of the Warriors as they covered their ear and grit their
teeth to endure!
	Liam fell backwards after the hands holding him began to chard and
break off! He tumbled back down into the webbing holding his friends,
falling straight through as all three warriors fell another 200 feet
through the abyss, landing in a body of water! Above, the air burnt crisp
as ashes of Dreamweavers showered the cavern, flaming webs falling like
fiery strings through the air!


"We have to find a way OUT of here...!" yelled Nomad, swimming towards the
banks! Having lost their torch, it was about to get very dark as soon as
the fires overhead burnt out!
	Liam emerged from the water, creating an eerie glow with his hand,
holding it overhead like a lantern as they ventured deeper into the caves!


"I see daylight up ahead...!" thrilled Nomad, running towards the light!
The warriors felt the sun beaming down on their skins for the first time in
what felt like days! They were no longer in the city, but a few miles away
as they could see The Forgotten City somewhere in the far distance!


"Looks like The Dreamweavers were burrowing their way to Newtonia...!"
reasoned Liam, calculating the direction of the caverns!


"They would have burrowed their way in at night, and slowly killed off
every citizen in the kingdom!" said Hoof, realizing they'd just saved the
city from a horrible fate!
	After walking back to The Forgotten City, the warriors reunited
with their loyal horses [who waited outside the city's limits], then
continued on with their journey...!



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