Monsterboy Quest – The Devil's Playground by taiyakisoba
The maze of defiles and ravines seemed to have no end. Levinja slumped back against the side of the rocky wall and stayed there, unmoving, for a long time.
She tried to convince herself that she was merely tired, that she was taking a rest – but she recognised all too well that dark coldness spreading throughout her chest. Despair. It had haunted her for so long, haunted her even when she had fled into the arms of the Church. But she had tasted little of it since she had started this quest. The everyday exertions of her body, the combat she had undergone had renewed her, reminded her of who she was.
She smiled without humour. Combat? Truly? Well, yes, there had been combat – the wilderness was no safe place. But more than the combat, her wrestlings with the beautiful monster boys she had encountered were truly what had purged her of her despair. And now that despair had returned. This maze of tunnels had little to do with it.
The werewolf boys. Rom and Rem. Her thoughts often went to them, no matter how hard she tried to forget them. She knew she had done the right thing, leaving them behind. They had found mates and would be happy. She knew the happiness of having a partner, of sharing children with one you loved.
Yes, she had done the right thing – but the pain remained with her. Lonely days in the wilderness, and worse – the lonely nights, sleeping alone, where once she had had smooth, slender boyish bodies pressed against her on both sides.
Her body tingled. Gods, even now she could not free herself of this lust! This lust which controlled her, had led her heart to be broken again.
No, she must go on. Levinja Verana would not give up. She could not give up. The Tower of Maona was not so very far away now.
She pushed her back against the rock and set herself back on her feet. Yes. Keep going. It was only when she stopped moving that the despair caught up with her.
She broke into a jog. Yes. Good, her body responded by translating her lewd energy into movement. She felt joy in the gentle burn of her muscles, the filling and emptying of her lungs as she regulated her breathing. That dark emotion ebbed away.
Levinja raised her eyes to the sky. Dark, filled with smoke, and yet it was beautiful, tinted pink by the fiery summit of the volcano which had been her constant companion for the last week, a great black pyramid on the horizon, appearing and disappearing behind the canopy of the woods where she had abandoned the twin wolf-boys. The woods had thinned, replaced by badlands, and now she was skirting the foothills of the volcano itself, the summit hidden by the steep defiles and walls of pitted volcanic rock which she had to traverse. The going was difficult, even here where the path was sure, but the challenge was welcome. Yes, this place was stark and beautiful, yet she could have done without the ever-present spoiled-egg smell of brimstone.
She came to an arch which passed over a deep cut in the rock. The acrid smell was replaced suddenly by a deep earthiness wafting up from below on the hot air. Levinja glanced down. Ah. A sluggish grey river wallowed there, bubbling. Clay, boiling hot. She glanced at the arch. A happy coincidence? Of course not. It was artificial, carved from the rock. She had noticed many signs of habitation in this place. Imps, no doubt. Her mind flashed back to the map the Reverend Mother had shown her. Yes, imps – those heat-loving demihumans who made their homes wherever the earth's fiery heart broke close to the surface. They were dangerous, known for their sadistic tendencies. It was one of the reasons they were so often confused with demons in the minds of the ignorant. But whereas demons where true supernatural beings of darkness, imps were as much flesh-and-blood as humans. They feared the cold and stayed close to the heat and could see in the dark and favoured stone to earth.
She crossed the arch and was straight away faced with the dark mouth of a cavern. Yes, most definitely the entrance to tunnels used by imps as a lair.
Levinja's fingers teased the hilt of her sword. Her heart sang with the promise of combat, but she felt the tingle of fear as well. Imps were no problem alone, but in groups they were dangerous. And their tunnels were filled with traps. She would have to be careful.
She strode into the cavern. Immediately the small stone around her neck flickered forth its magic. Yes, a present from the Reverend Mother – a stone containing distilled starlight, harvested over many years. She knew it would make her visible to the imps, but she could not see in the dark, and the glittering blue light that spilled forth cheered her heart.
Levinja had traversed such underground complexes before, and she knew the ways of monsters. She avoided any tunnel which gave a sense of having been travelled extensively or recently and she kept to the outer ones, skirting those which most likely led to the lairs of imps.
The tunnels burrowed deep into the earth. Darkness and stone filled the hours of her journey. Occasionally she thought she heard the clicking sound of hooves on stone, but far away, and sometimes the half-imagined sibilant whisper of voices. But not often.
Levinja knew she must have passed the greater part of the imp's lair by now – it had been a long time since she had encountered their hoof-prints in the dust, the absent-minded scratching of talons on the walls.
The atmosphere lightened as the tunnel led upwards. Yes, she was approaching the surface! Levinja's heart lifted at the promise of daylight again and she hurried onward.
Suddenly, her left foot was yanked from under her and she fell forward, just barely bringing up her hands in time to stop from planting her face onto the dusty floor of the tunnel. She gasped and pushed herself up, her heart racing. Stupid! She'd tripped on something – some tree-root, she guessed, by the smooth living surface she still felt curled around her heel.
She turned her ankle, seeking to free herself of the unseen root – but as she tried to slip her foot from under it, the root shifted to prevent her.
Levinja bit back a cry of panic as she felt the smooth bark slip around her ankle and up her calf like a snake. She rolled, her hand flying to the hilt of her sword – but it never reached it. Another tentacle surged out of the dark and wrapped around her wrist. Lifted up bodily into the air, she kicked savagely with her free foot until it too was snared. She tore at the wooden tentacle within reach of her left hand and ripped a strip of bark free. But further tentacles whipped out from the wall and clasped her hand, wrapping it tightly.
She couldn't move now, beyond twisting her torso or bucking her hips. But even this became impossible when the tentacles straightened and lifted her higher still. She turned her head about and saw that the tentacles were indeed tree roots, but ones which twisted and curled in the air by their own volition – enchanted plants, and clearly a trap left by imps for the unwary.
More roots came out and deftly relieved her of her sword, cuirass and pack, their tapered ends cutting dexterously through the leather thongs. The cuirass fell with a clang to the floor of the tunnel and was quickly joined by her greaves. The tips of the roots toyed for several moments with the sleeves of her jerkin and the hem of her tunic, but then fell away. So it seemed they were to render their captive harmless rather than totally naked.
Levinja swung her head around and bit the length of root wrapped around the wrist of her right hand and ground it with her teeth. She tasted the bitterness of sap as she tore the bark free. Then another tentacle, with something like exasperation, slid around her neck and squeezed.
Ah. A warning not to fight back. Well, she had done all that she could. She would have to wait for the imps to come. No doubt if they had designed this trap to kill intruders, it would already have done so. It was intended to capture enemies alive, then. The imps would come to have their fun, and Levinja would use the chance to escape – or at least, to fall fighting.
Her eyes scanned the half-light, her ears straining to hear the soft tap of cloven hooves. But for a long while she heard nothing, hanging there, alone in the dark, with only the occasional squeak of a root tensing or relaxing. Time began to lose meaning to her.
The imp was already right in front of her when she noticed him. Exhaustion must have dulled her senses, or else she had fallen asleep for a brief moment. He stepped out into the corridor from some side passage she had not noticed. He turned his head towards her and stopped dead. Shock registered in his amber eyes, growing even larger than they already were, and Levinja knew he had not come here to find her but had merely stumbled upon her. Perhaps this was an old trap, one which was seldom triggered, since she was so far away from the well-travelled tunnels of the imp lair.
