Beyond the Dream by Oliver Kennedy

Author:Oliver Kennedy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: angels, fantasy, magic, dreams, dragons, demons, giants

Chapter Eleven: A Brave Captain

Pain is a distant sensation to the silver claws; it is a warning, a sensory experience to highlight injury and threat. It is something of which they are aware, but it does not hinder them in any way, it enhances them. So when Captain Asgoth awoke he felt pain, his body was telling him he was hurt. In truth, he had a hundred hurts and when The Gentle Death had collapsed around him he'd expected his own swift demise. But it had not occurred, he'd found his feet, he'd found his will and he'd staggered from the wreck. Find the Lair, bring down the mountain, eliminate the threat. Asgoth had recited his mission over and over in his head as he'd staggered through broken hawk eggs and broken rocks towards the enemy.

Asgoth had murmured his mission even while he was unconscious and now he was awake it was at the forefront of his mind, along with the pain. Despite his grogginess it did not take long to identify its cause. When he lifted his left arm and noticed that half of it was missing, then he knew where his pain originated. A silver claw without the claw. They'd taken from the elbow joint to the tips of his razor sharp fingers. It was a clean cut and there was no blood to be had, just an emptiness, a hollow socket of darkness.

There was no way of telling how long he'd been out, a few seconds, minutes or days he had no idea. Long enough to carry him down into this dark hole. The cell was made from natural rock which had been hollowed out and fitted with a thick iron door. There were no windows and what air the room held was still and silent, outside his cell the world might have ceased to be for all that Asgoth could see or hear of it.

Despite a few impressive dents it was obvious that the door was not going to give way under brute force. He'd half lifted his left arm to slash the door to pieces with his claw before he'd glanced at the stump, remembered and felt the pain come back.

There was a small opening along the back wall of the cell which formed what could have been a bed for a smaller being but was barely adequate as a bench for the Captain. He sat upon it and wondered how long it might be before the dogs returned to finish the job. He was not waiting long.

The sound of a wheel turning heralded their arrival. After a few moments of metal screeching on metal the door swung open silently. There stood a stooped jackal, its fur mostly turned to grey with the odd patch of original black. The darkness of his eyes had not faded with age, their pitch was as black as the moonless night and colder than the crypt. He seemed to be alone and Asgoth was not one for missing opportunities, he ran towards the tiny jackal with his one gauntlet clenched into a fist.

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