“Yeah, and I think I know how. Look, you can see all the bullet holes in the walls too.” Nero glanced at what I was looking at and then back down at the bodies before picking up one of the long thin bones that looked more like grey sticks with a sharp end.
“I think these are Harpy bones,” she told me, making me look at the bone again in a different light and seeing that yes, its light curve would lend itself to being that of a wing.
“Hey, you don't think this is where your mum could have…?” That sentence died in her throat the second we heard the demonic roar above us. we both looked up in time to see one of the Hellhounds hadn't stopped in time and had literally run and leapt off the edge of the staircase. We then watched as it fell down the centre, scrambling with its legs trying to reach the sides so it could stop itself. This was to no avail as it landed with an echoing thud that kicked up dust and broke the bones of the dead Harpies it had landed it on.
The Hellhound whimpered as it wasn't yet dead, but it was wounded enough that it still moved but couldn’t get up. The glowing lava in between its cracked skin was also starting to extinguish, telling me it didn't have long. A howling haunting sound from above made us both look up to see the other two hadn't made the same mistake and were now circling the edge while snapping down at us.
“It won't take them long before they discover a way to get down here,” Nero said, and I knew this was true as I could see them testing ways through the drapery of the soul weed trying to get through. then suddenly one of them took a brave leap and landed on the lower levels of the staircase having only one hind leg get tangled in the thickest of the thorns.
It snarled angrily back at its leg, chomping at the soul weed trying to free itself whereas its brother had decided to make the same jump also. Only this time it managed to go that little bit further, so it missed not only the soul weed but also his trapped brother. After this he pounded down the staircase, telling Nero and I it was time again to be on the run.
“We haven't got long before they'll be down here, and it seems to me like there's only one way out,” Nero said nodding to the broken door that looked as if it had been opened with a battering ram. I felt Nero taking the last of our weapons from behind my back and before I could ask what she intended to do with it, she gave me her obvious answer by thrusting the sword down into the Hellhound’s head.
I raised a brow in question, making her hand the sword back to me as she walked past telling me,
“Just in case.” I had to agree because in this place you couldn't be sure if anything was really dead. We both ran through the doorway and along the corridor, making me wonder what would face us on the other side this time. Of course, when we finally made it through, I could barely believe my eyes.
What faced us the moment we were through was literally a river of fire, cutting off all means of escape. We also looked to be in the belly of some mountain that’s only purpose seemed to be where this raging river of blue fire cut through the tunnel. It started at one end and disappeared through the other as it crossed the space like a flaming blue snake.
“At least it's not lava,” Nero commented and she was right, it was black water with a blueish flame flickering on the surface, as if there had been an oil spill and this had been set alight, creating the unusual colour of flame due to some chemical giving it that blueish green tinge. This in turn reflected off the cave walls giving the appearance of being under a blue moon. There were also holes in the rock that created flaming waterfalls as this strange liquid was gushing from the top and feeding this river to Gods only knew where.
Basically, this also meant we were screwed because there was nowhere to go, and stranger yet was the weirdest feeling