Trail's End

Wrote this story earlier this year. Hope you like it.

Trail's End
By Dominic B.
“Hurry up guys!” I called back over my shoulder to Oslack the Mighty and Fin Urland as I approached the inn. “This is it guys, I’m sure of it.”
“It had better be!” grumbled Oslack, “I’m sick of this trail, and so far we’ve seen nary a thing!” he spoke the truth, we had been on the trail for months, and we hadn’t seen any sign of Garn. We had just run into clue after clue after clue.
“Trust me, this is the place, I’m positive. If he‘s not here, then the rumor was false, he hasn‘t returned yet.” I responded assuredly, though I wasn‘t really sure. With that I went through the door of the inn, and surveyed my surroundings. It was a pretty typical inn, dusty, the usual burly fixtures laughing at the bar, and the usual mysterious cloaked stranger, sitting alone at the corner table.
“What now Durmund?” whispered Fin. “There’s no place in here big enough to fit a 20 foot demon!”
“You two spread out and search the rooms for secret doors, I’ll cover this area.” I whispered back.
“Right on it” replied Oslack, as he moved toward a large set of wooden double doors near the back of the bar area. As Fin moved off, I began to look under the tables. As I moved from table to table, crawling on my hands and knees, looking for a button or knothole or something, the bartender began to watch me. As I came out from under one of the tables, I looked up and the bartender was right in front of me, staring at me.
“Can I help you?” he said sternly.
“Er, uh no sir, I’m looking for, uh, something.” I stammered.
“Well, what is it, you’re scaring the customers.” he replied. Then I heard Fin calling from the next room.
“IN HERE! I FOUND IT!” I scrambled to my feet as Oslack burst from the wing he was searching and charged across the bar. We went through the door Fin had gone through, and there, in the hall in front of Fin was a huge black door that had emerged from the ground. On it was a relief sculpture in silver of a skull with two arrows crossed behind it.
“What’s all this?” the bartender asked, flustered.
“That’s the right symbol; Garn has to be in there.” I said in a determined tone.
“Wait who’s garn?” the bartender said timidly.
“YES! We finally found it!” Oslack exclaimed, brushing off bartender’s question and grabbing a torch from a bracket in the wall. “What are we waiting for? Let’s hunt some demon!”
“We can’t just charge into a labyrinth entrance you fool. It could be a trap!” said Fin. “I’ll check the door.” Then he began feeling the crack of the door and the sides of the entrance. When he was done, he stood up and spoke to Oslack and I “Ok, its fine.” he said.
“Good then, I’ll go first.” I said, and drew my sword. Then I stepped up and kicked in the door. As we peered in, we saw a shadowy staircase descending into the gloom. “Ready?” Fin asked.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” I mumbled, and I stepped down into the shadow. As we began to descend, the bartender yelled after us.
“Wait who are you? What is this ent-” And his voice faded beyond the limits of our hearing. When we reached the bottom of the stairs we emerged into a small room, roughly ten feet by ten feet. On each of the three walls that we hadn’t come from was a door, each in a different color. I dug in my pack and brought out the map that had lead us to this point.
“Which way?” Oslack asked. I looked at the map. It was unclear; the only thing written was a riddle.
“There’s only a riddle. It says: ‘The door of least resistance is the one of many hues, the door of the great matches morning dew, as for the third and final door, I haven’t a clue.’ I suppose that the door of morning dew is the blue one then.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” exclaimed Oslack. “That’s the door for us!”
“Wait just a minute Oslack.” Fin retorted. “How do we know that this ‘door of the great’ isn’t swarming with monsters? I say we take the door of least resistance, which is obviously the striped one!”
“Look guys, arguing doesn’t get us anywhere, and the longer we stay in one place the more likely we are to get caught. Let’s just take the white door on the left there and be done with it.”
“Fine, fine” grumbled Oslack.
“I guess that would be all right” mumbled Fin.
“Good then,” I said, and I walked over and kicked in the white door. As the torchlight filtered into the next room we saw that it was a long rectangular room, with a door on the far side. And between us and the door, on the far end of the room, were five goblins. They were interesting little creatures, about waist high and all green skin and blue armor. The second they noticed us, three charged and two took out tiny bows.
“We got company guys!” I said taking a step back.
“Finally, a fight!” Oslack yelled, and he took out his battle axe from the sling on his back and ran at the little goblins.
“Hmm, always the foolish one.” Fin said with slight amusement as he knocked an arrow in his bow. Then a goblin arrow whizzed past my face, barely missing me. I hurried to join Oslack and ran at the goblins as well. A moment later an arrow flew from behind me and hit one of the goblin archers square in the nose, instantly killing it and splattering purple blood on the dungeon wall.
“Good shot!” I called back at Fin, as Oslack and the three goblin warriors collided just ahead of me. I saw one get knocked to the ground as they hit, and as I reached Oslack’s side he cleanly cut one of the goblins in half. Then another goblin arrow glanced off the dungeon wall and caught Oslack’s cheek, giving him a nasty cut. As if in answer Fin’s bow sang out behind us, and the goblin that had hit Oslack was dead on the ground. Then the other two goblin warriors stabbed at me, and I easily parried both thrusts. I then speedily struck back at the one to my right. My blow hit home, going right through a seem in the goblin’s armor and coming out the back. I instantly pulled my sword out, and from the corner of my eye saw the last goblin taken down by an arrow. As Fin ran up behind me I turned to look at Oslack’s wound. “Are you okay?” I asked worriedly.
“Yeh, I’m fine, it’s not very deep.” he replied huskily. “You think those goblins have buddies around here?”
“I don’t know,” said Fin, “but either way, we better do something with these bodies or get out of here.”
“Let’s leave ‘em for the cave crawlers, and hurry and go through the door on the far end.” I suggested.
“Right then, lead on.” said Fin. As we approached the door and examined it further, we saw that it had some batter marks on it, as if the goblins had been trying to get through. “Not very strong, are they?” remarked Fin.
“No, but I’m sure it’s not too hard to get through.” I replied confidently. I stepped up and tried to kick the door open, just I had done to a hundred others before it. But this time when the door should have given way, I bounced off it like a pebble, and slammed on the cold stone floor.
“OW!” I shouted loudly.
“SHHH!” Oslack and Fin both replied.
“Sorry,” I murmured back, as I got up. “Um, Oslack, why don’t you do the honors this time?”
“Be glad to.” said Oslack, stepping up with his axe. He took a mighty swing that should have shattered any normal door, but this door barely moved. In slumped slightly on its hinges, and then we saw why I wasn’t able to kick it in. On the other side of the door was solid stone, the door was fake.
“A dead end!” spat Oslack.
“Not quite,” said Fin, who both of us had forgotten.
“What do you mean?” asked Oslack in disgust, as he turned toward Fin, who was fiddling with something in one of the corners. Suddenly we heard a crack, and beside the fake door the stone slid aside, revealing a bare passageway.
“That’s what I mean.” said Fin smugly.
“Oh” said Oslack. We all started walking down the passageway, and as we got further in we began to feel an evil presence, so thick in the air it was almost palpable.
“This has to be it.” Fin whispered almost inaudibly. Then, as we rounded a corner, we entered a room and saw the reason for the presence we had felt. The room was a large domed room, hexagonal in shape, with all sorts of strange mystical markings on the walls. And standing in the middle of this room, looking huge and menacing, was the thing we had been hunting for months, the towering demon Garn. He was about 20 feet tall, and his skin was a deep leathery red. He had two heads, each with 8 eyes clumped at the top, giving him a complete range of vision. In one hand he wielded a huge black serrated blade, and in the other he had a goblet full of black liquid.
“Are you the Demon Garn?” I yelled out loudly and surely.
“Yes.” It replied in an otherworldly tone that sounded like a hundred voices wheezing and gasping.
“I order you to return to the plain of Tartarus immediately, or face destruction!” I replied loudly.
“By whose authority do you command me?” He replied, and I realized for the first time he had no mouth to speak out of. “What mortal can give me a command? Who are you!?”
“Who am I!?!” I replied, raising my voice to an exasperated note. The tone I talked in was critical, if I sounded the least bit frightened I could ruin all we had worked for. “I am the famous demon slayer Durmund the Intrepid, wielder of the great sword Storm Parry, Bringer of Justice, and you will obey my command!”
“I will not be deposed.” Garn replied forcefully.
“If you will not take his word then listen to mine!!” Oslack yelled, stepping forward.
“And who are you, but another mere mortal?” Garn replied coolly.
“Who am I!?! I am Oslack the Mighty of the Northern Tribes, son of Sigmund the Daring, and wielder of the Amulet of Darksbane! You will retreat or be destroyed!”
“I will not.” Garn spat, beginning to waver slightly.
“You shall!” shouted Fin, stepping forward.
“Yet another mortal?” Garn questioned, amused.
“Not just any mortal, you fool! I am Fin Urland, keeper of the Elf Star of the West, and wielder of the Bow of Drendelon‘s Light! You will flee or be destroyed!!”
“I WILL NOT!” Garn raged, and with that he flung the black liquid out of his cup, and it landed in three puddles. Then out of each puddle rose a black demon, the size of a man, but skinny and starved in figure, each with a spiny tail and a trident.
“Zang Grata Et Flama Yudik!” I shouted, and as I did, my sword leapt to life with swirling flames, and tiny lightning bolts leapt in and out of it. The three demons ran at me, and with one smooth motion of almost superhuman speed I cut one in half, decapitated the other, and shot a bolt of lighting at the third. All three disintegrated and winked out of existence the second my sword left them. Garn roared with fury, and as he raised his sword a bolt of shadow leapt out of it towards me. Just as it was about to hit me and turn me into shadow dust, Oslack put his hand out and shot a bolt of brilliant light out of the amulet he was now holding. A look of dismay crossed the demon’s face, if it could be called that, as the light intercepted the shadow. The light instantly traveled up the length of the shadow beam, until it hit the dark sword, which shattered instantly.
“NOOOO!” bellowed Garn. “I WILL NOT BE DEPOSED!!” And out of the corner of my eye I saw Fin knocking an arrow, which began to glow with the power of his mystic bow.
“I SHALL NOT RETURN TO TARTARUS. I SHALL NOT BE DESTROYED!” The demon shrilled, as it took a step toward us. Then Fin loosed his arrow. It shot through the air and hit the demon square in the left shoulder.
“NOOOOOOOO!” Garn bellowed in despair. Then, the demon began to glow from the inside, and suddenly, in a thousand points of brilliant light, it exploded, and we slowly heard its dying shout dissipating into the dim light.
“We‘ve done it guys. Well done. We followed the path, and the demon is destroyed,” I said softly, victory and satisfaction in my voice. “Good has triumphed again, and at last, the trail is at its end."