Chapter 27: The Hand

Walking for several hours in the scorching sunlight, Avery raised his eyes to look at the sun. Realizing there was no sun, he wiped the dust and sweat from his face and gasped: "There is light but no sun? Why the intense heat and no use of the flaming star?"

Toru noticing Avery's exhaustion answered: "We have been treading this land for three hours now. Perhaps a brief respite is necessary."

"No! I will not stop. Mere fatigue is nothing when my homeland is in danger," Avery said shaking his head vigorously. His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth as he could feel the utter dryness of his gums. His stomach growled loudly, emitting a ferocious lust for food. Looking down upon his boots, he winced in pain as the sores on his feet rubbed against his plated boots. With each step he could feel his toenails cracking under the continuous pressure of traversing the strange world. Still he knew that he had to persevere. Bodily pain was irrelevant to him when his deepest desire was to save his love; Princess Sasha and bring her back to his homeland unscathed.

They walked on for thirty more minutes until it began to grow dark while the atmosphere was still dry and humid. Suddenly as the youthful prince limped along, a skeletal and blood stained hand with jagged fingernails seized his ankle; Viciously attempting to dig its razor sharp nails through the Prince's plated feet. "Something is grabbing me!" Avery shouted while attempting to jerk loose of its strong hold. Toru, Boru, and Halu, who were previously walking ahead of Avery, ran back to him hurriedly. The three exasperated knights could not however, reach to the Prince's aid in time.

The hand which held Avery's ankle with a powerful pull, jerked itself up from the barren ground from which it lay. Avery gasped in shock as an emaciated creature with long limbs, a bent back with rotting stank flesh hanging from its form, stood menacingly before our Prince. Avery shouted, covering his nose, from the awful smell of the figure. His eyes became almost too watery for him to see.

"Avery!" Toru cried stepping in front of him with his sword drawn.

"Get away from him now!" Boru exclaimed standing beside the other two men with drawn weapons.

The figure not moving, with a terrible grinding noise like that of metal rubbing against each other, opened his rotting mouth to speak. Its teeth were blackened and bloody, creating a more terrible stench than the one before.

"O men from the outside, I have done nothing as of yet to this youthful creature. I only utilized him as a sturdy tool in which to pull myself from the grave from which I was lying."

"Your eyes speak against you, foul odorous monster. See how hungrily you gaze on our young Knight," Halu said with his weapon still drawn.

"I have been buried for ten years, ye odious and naive human. I have had nothing to eat as of ten years ago. There was once a woman who crawled about this land seeking a way out. Having no other resources and being in desperate need, I devoured her whole. Not a single bone of her was left. Even the blood was licked up from the ground, for I have had nothing to drink. And knowing I would never escape myself, I dug this grave from which I came and lied for these ten years; Until this weak minded human disturbed my resting place," It answered, pointing its nasty finger at Avery.

"Murderer, I will rest your head from its foul flesh," Avery cried, now drawing his sword and stepping towards the creature.

"Be warned. For I could have done so to you as I have done to the woman. I only spared you because I know that even satisfying my hunger, I could never leave this desert. I am banished here forever for refusing to serve the mighty Azackton," The creature hideously hissed.

"It serves you right. For if you kill an innocent being, you will most definitely do so again," Said the Prince.

"Let us not waste time here. We have important matters to attend to," Toru spoke beginning to walk away and sheathing his sword.

"Fools! Why do you stride against the almighty wizard? There is no escape. For if you manage to leave this place, you will only return to another place of Hell and death," Shrieked the beast, covering its hideous face with its rotting hands.

"How do we escape then? You will tell us, or I will hack you to pieces," Answered Avery impatiently.

"Only the one who's blood is spent can hope to step foot from this world."

"What does that mean? We just want to get out. Our world is in crisis," Toru spoke looking earnestly at the creature.

"Spill the blood of the young one," It answered, pointing again to Avery.

"Vile wretch! I shall never strike the young lad down!" Halu shouted clenching his still raised weapon in anger.

"You can kill me if you so please, stupid little human. I have only said the truth. Deny the truth, and you all shall spend an eternity here." With that said, the beast leapt like the speed of a cheetah towards Avery, and snatched the sword from our astonished Knight's hand. Taking the sword, it cried out: "May death free me!" And it fell upon the sword so that it sank through its chest and the creature fell sprawled upon the ground; Wetting the ground with its reek of blood and seared flesh.

The four knights stared at the limp carcass in silence, having watched it writhe once and then lay still.

"What is to be done? This thing must have been seeking to deceive us," Boru spoke up looking desperately at Avery.

"No. It was not. For just now, the only truth that this disgusting beast has ever said in its lifetime, has been revealed to me in truth. We must do what is necessary," Answered Avery, still staring down at the dead corpse.