“The wilds of Xen’drik,” Auftane said quietly, wonder in his voice. “I can’t believe we’re really here.”
“I can’t believe we’re back,” Janik said.
“Have you been into the wilderness before, Auftane?” Dania asked, peering closely at the dwarf. “You grew up in Stormreach, right?”
“I did, but I’m as much a child of the city as you can be in a small city like Stormreach. We used to dare each other to go into the uninhabited ruins around Stormreach, but that’s as much as I’ve ever seen of Xen’drik’s wonders. I’ve traveled quite a bit in Khorvaire, of course, but I’ve stuck mostly to the cities. Remember, we’re farther from Stormreach now than we were in Sharn, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Are we really?” Dania exclaimed.
Janik pulled his rough map from his coat and measured with his fingers. “A little bit, yes,” he said. “Huh. I never thought about that.”
“Which is another way of saying we’re more than twice as far from civilization as we were in Stormreach,” Mathas said with a scowl, and the others all laughed.
“So the cities of Khorvaire were like my neighborhood,” Auftane continued. “This is the wilderness!”
“That’s right,” Janik said, his voice suddenly serious. “It doesn’t get more wild than this, and we all need to remember that. This is not the city, where danger is predictable and lurks in dark alleys. Some of the animals here will try to eat us. Some things lurk here that should not exist in a sane world, and they’ll try to do worse than that. Be on your guard, starting now.”
As if emphasizing Janik’s point, a large, smooth rock jutting just above the water suddenly began to rise. Water streamed down a hulking, crustacean form and two huge claws reached out toward the keelboat.
“In case you thought I was exaggerating,” Janik muttered, his sword springing into his hand. “Dania, get us to shore! We can’t let this thing tip us.”
“What is that?” To his credit, Auftane sounded genuinely curious rather than panicked, and he gripped his huge mace. “What’s the best way to kill it?”
“It’s a chewer,” Dania said, pulling hard on the oar while keeping a close eye on the creature.
“Chuul,” Mathas corrected, thrusting his hand toward the creature and sending a blast of frigid cold toward it. It slowed momentarily as the water pouring off its shell crystallized into ice, but the thing kept coming, spraying tiny shards of ice around it.
“Stay out of its claws!” Dania shouted.
“I could have guessed that,” Auftane said, and then the creature was upon them. Auftane swung his weapon, smashing it into one of the chuul’s claws. Janik drove his blade under the carapace just above the other claw, drawing a gout of greenish blood. Above them, a mass of slimy tentacles writhed like a nest of worms, dripping thick slime into their boat. Dania kept rowing and they surged forward, but the creature leaped toward them again, landing on an oar and snapping it.
“I guess I’m done rowing,” Dania said as she drew her sword. The chuul was behind the boat where only Dania could reach it, and its momentum brought its tentacled head down within her reach. In a flash, she cut a gash just above the tentacles, spraying herself with a mix of blood, slime, and seawater.
“Hold still a second, Dania,” Auftane said just behind her. She felt his hand on her shoulder.
“Hold still?” she shouted, dodging to her right as the chuul’s claws came down on either side of her. Even as she dodged, she felt a surge of strength and knew Auftane had augmented her armor with his magic.
Mathas reached out to touch Janik’s sword. “It will cut deeper,” whispered the elf, and he patted Janik’s shoulder. “Good luck.” Janik gave Mathas an incredulous look and then turned to the chuul.
The creature slammed the rear of the keelboat, lifting the prow out of the water and propelling it forward a short distance, where it plowed into a sandbar, turned sideways, and lodged firmly. Janik jumped out of the boat, landing in water about knee-deep. He splashed toward the chuul, shouting in a vain attempt to frighten the monster away.
He got the creature’s attention and it edged along the boat to reach him, giving both Dania and Auftane the chance to land more blows on its back. Auftane managed a solid blow, crushing the hard shell on its back and causing blood to ooze freely around it. The creature turned away from Janik and grabbed Auftane in one of its claws, lifting him into the air. Janik jumped forward and drove his sword toward the chuul’s underbelly as it raised both claws, but its belly was as heavily plated as its back, and his sword glanced aside.
The chuul raised Auftane toward the writhing mass of tentacles at its head, and they twisted like giant, slime-covered worms around his limbs, neck, and torso. The dwarf’s dark skin paled as the slime penetrated his skin, sending a paralytic venom into his muscles. As Janik jabbed in vain at the creature’s legs, the dwarf struggled and then froze. The tentacles drew him closer, and beyond Auftane’s stiff body, Janik could see a set of mandibles beginning to open and close in anticipation of tasting the dwarf’s flesh.
Janik thrashed with his sword, hoping to distract the chuul again, but he couldn’t land a solid blow from where he stood.
“For the Flame!” Dania’s cry turned Janik’s head, and he saw her leap from the keelboat onto the creature’s back. She had sheathed her sword and pulled out a dagger, and as she landed on the thing’s shell, she found a spot to drive the thin blade between the armored plates, drawing a fresh gout of blood. Janik saw a stream of green join the water dripping from the chuul’s mouth as the thing’s mandibles started tearing at Auftane’s flesh.
“Hold on, Auftane!” she called out. “I’m coming for you!” Dodging the chuul’s claws as it reached over its back toward her, she scrambled to the tentacles that held Auftane and started hacking at them with her dagger. Each slash of the small blade sliced a few tentacles, cutting some off and making others recoil, loosening their hold on the dwarf. As Janik watched from below Auftane, fell into the water with a splash that drenched Janik.
Janik’s relief at seeing Auftane freed disappeared in an instant when he realized that the paralyzed dwarf was lying still, completely submerged in the water, right between the chuul’s front limbs. Carefully, Janik advanced, on guard against the creature’s pincers, which flailed wildly in the air.
Then the claws stopped flailing and Janik dove forward to grab Auftane and pull him out of the water. The dwarf wasn’t moving, but Janik could tell he was breathing properly. Janik looked up at the chuul just as a cluster of glowing blue bolts of magical energy sped over his head and into the creature’s carapace. Mathas had chosen his spell carefully, for Dania was now wrapped in the creature’s tentacles.
She was not yet paralyzed, and she struggled fiercely, prying tentacles off with one hand as she slashed with the dagger in her other hand. The pincers that had caught her had left ugly marks—the right side of her armor was torn open and Janik could see blood in it—and the chuul was using both pincers in a frantic attempt to keep hold of her.
Janik started to circle the beast, looking for the right place to drive his sword for a killing blow. He kept one eye on Dania to make sure she was still fighting—and still occupying the chuul’s attention. Mathas cast another spell, not enough to distract the creature from Dania.
Maybe this will finish it, Janik thought as he plunged his sword deep into the joint where the chuul’s rear leg joined its body. The creature gave a bizarre howling screech and Janik wrenched the sword hard, hoping to hit some vital organ inside its monstrous body.
Dania took advantage of the creature’s pain to plunge her dagger into its tiny eye, causing it to squeal. This time, the sound was weak and short, and the chuul’s legs gave out and its body dropped into the water, splashing Janik with water, green blood, and slime.