This is part two, sorry it took so long. i hope it lives up to the first... Enjoy
Tristan was aware of blood seeping through the interior of his boot. He grunted and looked at Gavin. “We need to stop. Now.”
Gavin turned his head to look at Tristan. He had a slight frown on his face, “What if there are more pirates around?”
Tristan nodded, recognizing the concern, “Yes, it is possible that there are more, but I don’t think so, and I just got shot in the foot, not to mention being your senior officer, so we stop”. He looked back at Gavin with an eyebrow raised, as if inviting him to argue. When no words came forth Tristan dropped onto a rock and gingerly took off his boot.
The sight filled him with relief. His foot was intact with minimal damage; the bullet had only grazed the side. He took out a cotton pad from his bag and pressed it onto the wound. With another grunt he began basic first aid for puncture wounds. He fell onto his back and brought his foot up above the level of his head to stop blood flow. Tristan applied another pad when the first was too wet with blood to be of any more use. Within minutes the blood had stopped flowing.
Tristan looked at Gavin. “Help me up.”
Gavin moved over to Tristan and grabbed him beneath both arms, hoisting him up onto the rock.
Tristan rummaged around and took out a small shot from his bag. He pulled a small plastic cover off a needle and poked himself in the foot near the bullet wound. Other than a wince he showed no sighn of any pain whatsoever.
“What’s that?"
“God's present to man: painkiller”. Tristan replied with a chuckle and then a grunt as the medicine numbed his foot.
Tristan applied a bandage and pulled his boot back on. He stood up slowly then hopped from foot to foot, wincing slightly. With a satisfied nod he turned and motioned for Gavin to head down the road, Tristan followed, a slight limp showing in his step.
********************
It hurt. It felt like fire was crawling around on his foot slowly eating its way up his leg. Pain medicine might be a gift from the gods, but no medicine on earth could make a wound absolutely painless, especially when it was being stressed.
“You don’t talk much do you?” Gavin asked.
Tristan thought for a second then replied, “A man named Tolkien once wrote something along the lines of ‘it takes a long time to say what you mean so we don’t say anything unless it is really worth saying.”
Gavin looked thoughtful for a moment then, “But Tolkien wrote fantasy, and he was talking from the perspective of the Ents at the time… I have trouble seeing how that would apply to the now.”
“You say he wrote fantasy?” Tristan asked, “at that time fantasy was a language with face creatures and charachters, magic was normally involved too. If you think about it though, would the world that we are in now not be classified as fantasy? So, he may have been talking through a fictional creatures perspective, but we are also fictional characters to those who came before us and who are yet to come.
Gavin laughed, “My god he’s an academic!”
They walked onto a large open plain with the steep hills of the mountains walling them in. Snow was falling in gentle waves from pearly white skies. Tristan stopped, a puzzled look on his face.
“I never would have thought that-“Gavin started to say.
“Shut up”. Tristan interrupted.
“What?.”
“Listen."
“No… there's noth-", Gavin started to say. Then he heard a rumbling noise, like a drill boring through hard rock. "Wait, I hear a humm... but, its coming from the ground!"
“Wyrms!” Tristan whispered, “Make your way up to the hills- the ground is more solid, they won’t be able to get at you there.”
When Gavin didn’t move Tristan pushed him in the direction of the hills, “I’ll make a distraction, go!”
Gavin turned and sprinted off towards the mountains. Tristan slipped a grenade off his belt and pulled the pin. He waited three seconds then threw the grenade in the opposite direction Gavin had gone. As soon as the grenade hit the snow a crack split the silence and filled tristan's ears with a dull hum. Fire spurted from the ground and snow melted in a twenty foot radius around the grenade. He pulled another two grenades from his pouch and placed them on the ground. He jiggled the pins around but left them in a little.
A sharp screech to his left brought his attention back from the grenades. A thick worm like thing leapt out of the snow and then slammed back onto the ground when the prey it had sought disappeared. Tristan picked his rifle up and emptied a clip into the Wyrm. Green blood flowed through the snow dying it the color of some kid’s apple ice-cream.
Tristan dropped the clip out of the gun and ran, following Gavins footprints. He stopped and inserted a new magazine into the holder, turning he fired three shots into the snow near where the grenades lay. Seconds later a giant Wyrm leaped out of the snow and swallowed one of the grenades.
“Boom.” Tristan whispered with a childish grin on his face.
The body of the Wyrm ripped open, sending blood flying into the air. Fire scorched the earth and turned the Wyrm black. Tristan headed towards the first body, his rifle up at his shoulder. He slowly brought his rifle back down when he was sure it was dead. He took another step towards the body and then a hammer slammed him in the middle of the back.
He landed on the ground, a sharp pain rising in his back. He rolled over to see a monstrosity coming towards him. Its body resembled that of a shark except there were two hard fins that helped to push the Wyrm along in the snow. Its head had a spike that was used to dig tunnels through the ice so that it could surprise its prey, as well as to sense vibrations in the ground. Tristan saw a small black ball lying close to the Wyrm. The grenade! Tristan thought.
The monster opened its mouth as it came towards Tristan revealing layers and layers of sharp, razor like teeth. Tristan rolled to the side as the Wyrm lunged, all the while keeping his eye on the grenade. The beast lunged again but Tristan brought his knife up into its soft underbelly. The beast screamed in rage and twisted, beating Tristan with its tail. He heaved and pushed the thing off of him. He rolled and tried to stand up, but his injured foot slipped, sending him sprawling in the green snow.
As he landed he rolled over and grabbed the grenade, now only a few feet away. Reflexively he pulled the pin and threw the grenade. He scrambled away on all fours. Before he had covered ten feet a sound unlike any other clawed at his eardrums and flame licked at his back and the explosion sent him sprawling. His head slammed into a chunk of ice and he was swallowed in darkness.
******************
The adrenaline of the fight had dulled the pain in his foot, but now the pain was unbearable. He gasped and opened his eyes. He was in a small room with white walls and a door to his right. He was lying on a small cot like one might find in a hospital. He tried to sit up but fell back down panting. When he was about to try again the door opened and a woman wearing a white dress stepped in. A red cross was stitched onto the center of the dress.
“I wouldn’t try to sit if I were you”. the Nurse said.
“Where am I?”
A rough voice to his left spoke up, “Home.”
“Hey, Sarge… what the hell happened?”
“You tried to play the stinkin’ hero, and nearly got killed for it you fool! Do you know what a grenade does to a person inside the blast radius?” the Sarge said angrily, “But follow the nurses advice and conserve yur’ strength, we don’t need any more problems right now.”
“Shit... Is Gavin ok? What problems?” Tristan asked in confusion.
"The Private's fine", the Sargent said dismissively, "No, there were more of those pirate scum. And even more 'onderfull is the fact that we 'ave some bull shit, what was it?" he paused, " Oh yea, 'Prince among Pirates." he said mockingly. "Anywhay the trash has a hearing tomorrow, but I have no doubt what the 'erdict will be. Everyone in their 'ight mind would clam to be an 'effin Prince rather than to die."
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