Varangian: The Assassins of Teneo Mundus (The Varangian Trilogy Pt.2) by Atkins Sabine K

Author:Atkins, Sabine K. [Atkins, Sabine K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-11-11T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6: An unsettled hell

Baldwin awoke with the sensation of a thousand tiny tongues licking him.

First, he thought he was having one last feverish dream, but when he slowly opened his eyes, he saw (and smelled) a monstrous beast sliding by him.

Its thick body was covered with small mouths filled with revolving rows of pointy teeth. The mouths spread putrid slime all over him, obviously marking (and preparing) him for consumption at a later point in time.

Somehow he managed to lie perfectly still until the beast had slithered out of the cave and into a row of bushes growing between boulders on the foot of the mountains.

He saw light smoke wafting from tiny bubbles forming on his breast plate, which lay next to him.

"Oh, dear God!" He jumped up and quickly undressed himself.

He even took off his cross and the compass. He quickly glanced over to the others: everyone was still sleeping. He grabbed his breastplate and ran down to a small waterfall nearby and collected water in a large leaf. Then he started to scrub the piece of armor with a mixture of fine gravel and grass.

Arannamea woke up. "I shall help you."

He wasted not a single thought in hiding his nakedness. "No. Please go back to sleep."

She scoffed and got up. "How can I? You are sitting there, cleaning your armor!" She kneeled down next to him. "What has happened?"

She reached into the bag on her belt and pulled out another one of her tins. She opened it and tore a leaf from a bush heavy with drops from a thunderstorm that had come through the area during the night. She scooped a large amount of its scented contents onto the leaf.

Baldwin wiped sweat from his forehead. "A beast, with mouths where skin should be, spat on my armor."

Arannamea began to clean the pieces of the armor that Baldwin had already scrubbed off. "This will help prevent further damage."

Baldwin noticed that Nora, Tymon, Egor and the younger children were waking up.

He saw that the legs of his underpants were being dissolved by the slime. His undershirt was already completely gone.

Ligia and Nora quickly unsheathed the small knives on their belts, grabbed his underpants and cut their legs off.

Nora scraped out a little bit of the substance from the scented tin, transferred it onto the shorter underpants and gave them to Baldwin. "They need a good cleaning anyway." She drizzled more of the scented substance into his hand. "And Your Grace needs it as well."

The boys snickered as they took away his armor, gesturing to him that they would continue removing the slime from it.

Baldwin stepped underneath the waterfall.

He wondered why it had been just him who the beast singled out for consumption, but he was glad that it was. He assumed it was because he was the tallest in the group.

The waterfall was too cold for him to remain underneath it too long.

He quickly scrubbed himself down and washed his underpants. He saw Arannamea approaching with a blanket over her arm and holding something in her hand.

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