The Expedition Continues

[Turgus]

Hey guys, its been a while since I have posted a story. But now with classes over "for now" I have a bit of time to do some more writing.
Here is what I have so far, enjoy.

The harsh desert sun beat down on Turgus as he slowly dug deeper into the sand. He glanced over at his trusty friend and companion Chomper (a big green devilsaur) laid out in the one piece of shade that could be had, cast by a large rock.
He couldn’t help but say, “Maybe I should have befriended a wolf, maybe then I could get some help digging this retched hole.” A slow smile appeared across his face as he knew Chomper could hear him.
He heard the big guy snort, sending a cloud of sand into the air from his resting place.
The digging was taking forever, for each ten shovelfuls of sand he digs out; at least one shovelful would fall back in. After an hour more of digging Turgus paused for a moment, took off his first mates hat and wiped the sweat from his brow.
“You want to help me now? We are going to be out here until I am done.” He said over his shoulder to his snoring companion.
After another hour the big guy stirred, opened his big yellow eyes and looked at his companion. The green skinned troll looked kind of silly out there in the sun. Only his shoulders and head were visible now as sand was periodically tossed out over his shoulder by his shovel. He slowly got up to get a closer look at what his friend was up to, and maybe, just maybe, help out a little. Devilsaur’s weren’t moles after all.
He tromped over to the edge of the hole and peered down, just as a shovelful of sand came flying up. He quickly closed his eyes and shook his head sending sand flying everywhere.
“Oh, sorry big guy, I didn’t see you there.” Turgus said as he looked up. “I think I am going to take a break.” He slammed his shovel down into the sand and there was a loud “Clank!” as the shovel struck something.
“Ha-ha that is a beautiful sound!” Turgus exclaimed as he picked up the shovel and started digging again with more fervor. In just a couple of minutes ancient stones were visible at the bottom of the hole.
“Get back big guy, I am going to blast our way in.” Turgus said as he fumbled through his engineering box, finding a Seaforium Blasting Bomb. He quickly climbed up out of the hole, set the bomb and tossed it in, before turning and running as fast as he could.
The blast wave from the explosion sent Turgus and Chomper flying. A huge plume of sand was thrown into the air in the shape of a mushroom. “Ha-ha!” Turgus yelled through the flying sand,”Maybe I should have used a smaller charge. But where is the fun in that!?”
He heard what would best be described as a rumbling laugh come Chomper. Apparently he was just as amused by this as he was.
After the sand settled, they dug themselves out and shook themselves off. He hated it when the sand got down his back. Turgus looked over at his companion and it seemed the big guy was not amused either by being covered in sand. He was shaking side to side, and spinning.
Turgus couldn’t help but laugh at his goofy companion.
Chomper promptly gave him a stern look and snorted at him.
Turgus just smiled at the big guy and in short order a big toothy smile came across the devilsaurs’ face.
“Let’s see what we found!” Turgus said as he ran over to the hole.
What they found startled him. The hole in the sand had gotten much bigger which was no big surprise considering the explosive that he used. The sand was flowing through a large hole that had blasted in what could only be described as the ceiling to some large ancient structure.
What he could see from the hole boggled the mind; the building was huge in size, with an intricate spiraling staircase aligned with huge statues. If was difficult to make out the details so Turgus grabbed a flare from his belt, lit it and tossed it down. The red light fell for over ten seconds before it hit the ground, of what he assumed was the ground.
“Wow, ten seconds… at around 30 ft per second that means the bottom of this building is at least 300 ft deep!” Wow that means there HAS to be some real good loot down there!” Turgus said with a smile already digging into his backpack for the long length of rope.
As he glanced at Chomper, the big guy took a couple of steps back away from the hole, a dubious look on his face.
“Oh come on! You know you want to explore it with me.” Turgus said as he tied the rope to the large rock Chomper had used for shade.
“Just because the last building we explored imploded on itself in flames almost taking us with it. Seriously, that was over a month ago, you should be over that by now,” Said Turgus.
He then dug around in his engineering box again and pulled out a large backpack. “I even made you a special parachute just for you, personalized and everything.”
Chomper slowly walked over, a definite questioning look on his face. He leaned down and Turgus carefully strapped it onto the Devilsaurs’ back. “See, I even made it perfect not to get caught in your back spikes.” Turgus said as he cinched down the last straps.
Chomper did seem to like it. That look on his face was all he needed to confirm it.
Turgus dug in his engineering box a bit more, pulling out several contraptions and a long steel cable that he looped around the rock. He then attached one of the contraptions to the rope and another to the steel cable before tossing them both down the hole.
“Just imagine if a gem-crafter or a leatherworker tried to get into these ruins! Shortest expedition ever!” Turgus chuckled.
He pulled out another parachute backpack from his engineering box, and strapped it onto his back.
“I will go first. You don’t have to do anything to activate the chute; it will open as soon as it senses you have fallen more than ten feet.” He said to Chomper as he walked over to the hole.
Chomper just snorted. Was that a hint of anticipation in the devilsaur’s eyes?
He looked down and saw that his flare was starting to go out. So he grabbed another off of his belt, lit it and tossed it down into the hole. Thankfully the sand had stopped falling into the hole which would make the fall allot easier.
Turgus took a deep breath, and then just two quick steps later he was falling down through the hole seemingly swallowed by the darkness. The air whipped his first mate hat from his head, and only his quick reactions kept it from disappearing into the dark as he grabbed it midair. The sudden jolt of his parachute opening slowed his decent tremendously.
Turgus looked up and saw a big shadow falling through the hole above him. It was getting bigger every second. “Oh come on…. Open!” He muttered to himself, as images of him being crushed by his companion flashed through his mind.
A second before they would have collided Chomper’s parachute opened slowing the big guys decent and keeping him from crushing Turgus.
“See, I told you it would work!” Turgus yelled.
Chomper responded with a loud roar.
“Ha-ha, I know you’re enjoying this!” Turgus responded.
It took a good 30 seconds before they touched the bottom, and Turgus was quick to get out of the way of his companions way before he landed on-top of him. Those images were still fresh in his mind.
He hit a switch on one of the straps which retracted the chute into the backpack.
“Stay still, I’ll get this for you.” Turgus said as Chomper fumbled with his tiny arms. But before Turgus could get to it, Chomper hit the button and watched as the parachute was retracted into the backpack. Chomper then rocked back and forth until the backpack fell from his back.
“We should do this more often.” Turgus exclaimed as he saw the big toothy grin across the Chompers’ face. The big guy was always reminding him that he was allot smarter than he looked or anyone suspected.
He quickly stuffed the parachutes back into his engineering box and pulled out a flashlight.
He whipped the flashlight about and was amazed at what he saw. These ruins were unlike any he had ever seen before. Large silithid creatures, ones larger than any he had ever seen were depicted upon the walls. Ancient writing the likes of which he had never seen adorned the walls right under the pictographs. It was all so ancient, maybe even predating the ancient troll empires, but he was not sure.
Turgus was a treasure hunter to be sure, but he was definitely not Harrison Jones.
Chomper was sniffing the air and moving off through one of the large archways. The architecture seemed to be designed with much larger creatures in mind than any silithid bugs he had ever seen. Chomper didn’t have to duck to go through the archway, not even close.
“Wait up Chomper,” He yelled as Turgus ran to catch up with his companion, “You find something?”
He could hear Chomper ahead of him in the darkness and as he turned his flashlight back and forth he was just able to catch a glimpse of his big green friend move around a corner and down another hallway.
“Come on man, wait up a sec,” Turgus said as he jogged after him. He hated it when the big guy went off on his own. Chomper always had a knack for finding just what he shouldn’t. Suddenly there was a deafening roar from down the corridor and the sounds of battle.
Turgus unslung his bow, drew an arrow from his quiver and drew the arrow taught on the bowstring as he rounded the corner. He had tossed the flashlight into his mouth and used it to illuminate his path as he ran. Images of Chomper fighting one of those giant insect-like creatures danced through his head as he rounded the corner…..

[Turgus]

What he found was not what he expected.
Chomper was in battle with a stout dwarf clad in thick plate-mail the likes of which Turgus hadn’t seen for quite a while. In the excitement he almost didn’t notice that the room that the two of them were fighting in was illuminated with a faint orange light.
“You be a beast like no-other!” Yelled the dwarf as he swung his battleaxe at Chomper, Chomper dodged backwards and turned swinging his tail around. The blow struck the dwarf on the backswing of his strike sending the dwarf back a few feet. But the stout warrior’s feet stayed flat on the ground.
“Good one beasty!” the dwarf yelled as he charged towards Chomper.
Turgus could see that his friend Chomper had been hurt, a few small gashes here and there and a deep one on his left leg had slowed his movement down. So he reached out and cast the one and only spell he had ever learned. Green tendrils of healing energy enveloped Chomper and closed the wounds on his friend.
A look of surprise came across the dwarf as he must have been lost in the battle oblivious to Turgus’s arrival, until now.
“You aren’t alone aye?” Bellowed the dwarf as he turned towards Turgus, “You shall feel the sharpness of my blade too!”
While Turgus was unsure of what was going on and how a dwarf warrior had gotten down here, those were all questions that would be answered later, after this combat was over. He quickly dropped a freezing trap on the floor and backed up sighting his arrow at the dwarf warrior.
“Stay your blade Dwarf; this is not the place for us to settle ancient grievances. If you prefer I can make sure you join the ancient dead in these ruins to be contemplated by later explorers.” Turgus said waiting for the slightest hint of aggression. Chomper backed off a few steps placing him in the perfect position to counter attack should he charge towards Turgus and roared at the dwarf.
The dwarf seemed to ponder his situation a moment a said, “You don’t fool me Troll. You are at a disadvantage down here, you have little room to maneuver and as soon as I close the distance you shall be at my mercy.”
Turgus smiled and said, “That would probably be the case any other time, but I assure you Dwarf, by the braids in your beard, that if you charge me it will be the last thing you do.”
The dwarf eyed the ground where Turgus had just laid a trap and said, “Traps will only slow down the inevitable troll. There is no way you can avoid my blade for long.”
Turgus continued to smile as he said, “Oh, the trap is just meant to slow you just for a second, just long enough for me to fire my bow. I assure you that you have never faced a bow like mine.”
As if it had heard his words the bow in Turgus’s hands seemed to come alive, the runes all started to glow brilliantly and green arcs of energy started to play along the surface of the bow.
“Let us loose.” A voice whispered in Turgus’s mind. “We shall rend his soul from his body.”
“No, I will fire you when I wish it, and not before.” Turgus whispered back.
A look of shock, confusion and recognition came across the dwarfs face, “By my ancient ancestors, you wield the Soul Rending Bow?”
“That I do Dwarf. Now, do you wish to die now?” Turgus said, the smile gone from his face.
The sound of the battleaxe striking the ground echoed through the ancient corridors.
“No,” said the dwarf, “you win Troll.”
The bow quivered for a moment as Turgus lowered his bow in what he could only explain as frustration as the bow had not being allowed to slay an enemy it had wished to.
“I had heard the story,” the dwarf mumbled, “But I couldn’t believe that someone had really found it, not even from the mouth of a fellow Dwarf.”
Turgus slung the bow, walked over to the dwarf and said. “Tell me how you got down here, Dwarf.”
“What is there to tell? I was riding along headed towards Un’goro Crater and suddenly after a loud almost deafening blast just over a couple of sand dunes away, the sand under my mounts feet collapsed in on itself and I fell down through the ground. When I awoke I was on-top of a mound of sand in a room a couple of rooms back,” Said the dwarf. “The name is Glint by the way.”
“Show me this room,” said Turgus.
The dwarf led them through several more corridors, to a large room with a large mound of sand in it. Turgus did a couple of quick calculations, and from what he could extrapolate, the dwarf had been just about a hundred feet away when he demolition charge went off.
As he looked over the room where the mound of sand had come from, it became very clear that he had been responsible for the Dwarf’s current predicament.
He couldn’t help but smile.
“Now we just have to find our way out of here,” Turgus said as he walked back to the room that he and Glint had met.
“What? You don’t know the way out of here either?” said Glint.
Turgus glanced at Chomper as if telling the big guy not to spill the beans as he said, “No, but now we are working together to find our way out.”
Thoughts of the ancient treasures to be had glittered and sparkled in his mind as they walked.

(To be continued)

[Saturo]

Yay!

[Bubbleme]

Brilliant! I was sure pulled into that one.. Write more, please!