"Perhaps that?" Harmony suddenly croaked, recoiling at the snivelling creature stood not ten feet away.
I thought it was a man at first, because some of it was. Holding two curved blades, its human body was as greasy and burly as any wrestlers, but at the neck grew the oversized head of a rat. Two fur-less ears pointed to the sky, it had a protruding snout with sprouting whiskers and a snarling mouth full of razors and disease. Kat removed his sword then rushed back to defend us. With a hurried step and limp, Wisp came too whilst Harmony screamed at another half man/half rat, arriving behind.
"What are they?" I yelled, arming my short sword.
"Our home!" hissed one. "Our home!"
"Just passing through!" stuttered Eddinray. "And may I say what a pretty home you have!"
"Our home!" both freaks repeated, moving in on us.
Kat swivelled his katana and the spear of Wisp threatened the air, but the rodent man facing them showed no fear, and presently sprang for the old merchant's unseen face. A match for the mutant, Wisp thrust the spear forward to stick his enemy's throat. The mousy man dropped with a gargle, and Wisp finished it off with a skewer through hair and guts. Impressed by Wisp's swift strength, Kat and I faced the last of them.
"Our home!" he said, retreating. "Our home…”
Back and back this cowardly rat went until disappearing behind a corner.
"There will be more,” Wisp panted. "Too many."
"Then let's get a move on,” I said, with shifty eyes. So faster Kat lead us down hopeful corridors to heart sinking dead ends, encountering no well, no super-sized rodents or anything else. It was only when our quest for the centre seemed futile, when we questioned the point most in our minds, that we turned a right corner, and were startled by pure starlight. At last, we had reached the heart of the labyrinth…
"Beautiful,” gasped Wisp, stumbling. "It is beautiful."
And certainly it was. A healing aroma of syrupy light and tickling pixie dust, the well was a sumptuous garden feature in the middle of a circular stoned enclosure. Like the hedonistic bath of a Roman Emperor, its glazed water were filled to the brim and a rainbow arose from it, shooting beads of health off to the further reaches of Hell, and the souls needing them most. In awe, we stood before its majesty, that resurgent life force.
"Made it old man,” said Kat, patting Wisp's hunched over back.
The craggy merchant drooped both shoulders under that tortured cloak — long had he searched for this treasure, and we had found it for him. He limped alone from our group with the spear flopping in his withered hand. I found myself escorting him with a lone eyeball fixed on the enchanted water — could it really repair my sight?
"You first,” said Wisp, placing a palm of green hair on my back. "Please…"
A hungry grin curved at the corner of my mouth, but I refused. "This was your quest Wisp. You'll be first."
The others shared my opinion — my eye could wait a few minutes for this creature to regain his former glory. Taking a grateful bow, Wisp lumbered forth to the pool of diamonds. The spirit of the well seemed to know whenever a soul approached, for it reacted with popping bubbles to this weary presence.
Three wide steps led up to the water, and Wisp took his time with each; we heard his brutal heaving under the weight of the cloak before at last, he conquered the last step. The water was far from welcoming and ready to open my mouth with encouragement, I need not have bothered — Wisp audaciously leapt into the bath, and was instantly consumed. Hurrying to the stony edge, we searched through the churning bubbles to see nothing of Wisp.
Two minutes past, and worry set in.
"He must be drowning!" cried Harmony. "It is water after all!"
Ten seconds later, I decided to take action with a run up the three steps. "I'm going in!" I yelled, the water reacting ferociously now.
"Behind you!" blared Eddinray, causing my insides to spasm. I turned to see one dishevelled rat man stuck like a spider to the wall. All of me froze as that vermin kicked itself off from the stone with a mouth closing in for my face. Shutting my eye to the inevitable, I suddenly felt a spray of hot liquid drench me.
Trembling, I glanced an alarming peek to discover my clothes now covered in the blood of the rat, and Kat standing over its corpse with a dripping katana.
"There!" announced Harmony, petrified. "And there!"
More came sniffing around the corner, dozens upon dozens into the centre of the labyrinth.
"Our home!"
We were surrounded, the filthy filling the grounds and sticking to every available plot of stone.
"I feel we're done for!" Eddinray wheezed. "Absolutely!"
Hastily, Harmony removed an arrow from the quiver, pulled it back on the longbow and fired. "Cumbersome thing!" she moaned, as the arrow hit granite.
"Our home!"
Without warning, a violent scream — the raw sound of a being born again — erupted from the well water. Godly light exploded over the circular enclosure, startling all the rats away. We four covered our eyes until the blast had settled, and with the rats gone, the regenerated body of Wisp was free from its cloak, and revealed to us.
From that point, everything moved in frame-by-frame slow motion. The most disturbing scene played out before me now as I witnessed the spear of Wisp bore like a drill through the centre of Kat's face. "For Grutas!" said Scarfell, tugging his lance free from the wound then examining Kat's brains on the blade.
The samurai dropped dead. Blood flowed from his open skull as a triumphant Scarfell stepped away from the wells shimmering illumination. "No!" I chocked. "It can't be…"
No longer was the wizard's flesh burnt to a crisp, no longer was he old and fragile — but younger, virile, and all our doing.
"Kat!" shrieked Harmony, rushing to his twitching body and falling to her knees. Blood soaked her gown through as she shook him, but nothing could be done. The samurai was beyond hope.
"He's gone Harmony!" screamed Eddinray, pulling at her shoulders. "Gone!"
I slithered in a shambles down the steps and away from the wizard, ripping out my sword and taking a chunk from my own chin in the melee. I cried out, pressing my hand over the wound.
"No one to save you!" Scarfell announced. "No-one at all boy!"
He reached out for me, so upward I swung my blade, snapping the spear in pieces from Scarfell's hand. I then lunged at the wizard, but he kicked up his feet and flew — flew — over my head, magically levitating above the labyrinth walls to observe the chaos he created.
"Come back here!" I roared. "You fucking coward!"
"I will be waiting for you Fox!" he replied, laughing. "At the end…I'll be waiting!"
Promptly, Scarfell disappeared in a puff of scarlet mist, and spinning sick, my mind sped through thoughts and consequences — Scarfell alive — Kat dead. Numb, I glanced at Harmony, watching her emotional wreck attempt to drag Kat's dead bulk up the three well steps.
"Of course!" I exclaimed and springing from my heap I snatched Kat's cold wrist whilst Harmony pulled on the other. Together, we grunted and hauled him up those remaining steps as Eddinray held out his sword to the returning rats. "Come!" he dared. "Taste my fury!"
"No!" panted Harmony, grief stricken as Kat's body began to break down and sift through our fingers. We could no longer grip him, his whole now melting to the faint ball of blue plasma. Quickly and without another thought, I snatched this speck of life in my hand and leapt with a splash into the well water.
Shell-shocked, Harmony turned to witness the hairy masses swarming a lonely Eddinray.
"Our home!"
Mincing her teeth, Harmony joined Eddinray's side, and steadying an arrow on the longbow, she fired at the nearest. "Together!" said Eddinray, fending off one as the well blustered with activity, a gassy outrage of bubbles shooting me out as fast as I dove in.