“What the hell?” He glanced and saw more dogs pouring through the right tunnel entrance. He twisted and struck the dog on his arm with his tail. The dog spasmed and hung loosely on his right arm, its teeth still latched around his forearm. Tom twisted and shook his arm hard, sending the paralyzed dog over the edge of the chasm.
Reggie had fallen on his butt and was wrestling a dog, using his four arms to pry the dog’s four legs apart. Suddenly the dog howled at an incredible level as Reggie managed to ingloriously and bloodily rip the dog’s four limbs off. The writhing and biting head and torso fell onto his body. Reggie started shouting obscenities and began batting at the dog’s torso to get it off, even as it bit him in the shoulder.
Talarius had left a pile of three dogs behind him, but was now at the chasm’s edge with two dogs attacking him. Boggy and Antefalken were battling their third dog with Estrebrius periodically plunging down to skewer the dog’s body. Tom moved to grab one of Talarius’s dogs when from out of nowhere, two other dogs attached themselves to his legs.
Tizzy had four dog haunches, one in each hand, and was busy smacking two other dogs with them. Their pack mates writhed on the ground with no hind legs, and severely mangled or missing forelegs.
“Fuck!” Tom yelled, whipping his tail around to one dog to zap it into paralysis and then grabbing at the other with his right hand claws. He ripped the non-paralyzed dog off his leg and forcefully threw it into the chasm even as he saw a third dog join the two on Talarius. It was too much; Talarius overbalanced and went over the edge with two dogs on top of him and the third yapping on the ledge!
Tom lunged but the paralyzed dog on his leg tripped him up. He fell to his knees with a thud, attracting the attention of the dog yelping where Talarius had gone over the cliff. Tom used his other leg to kick the spasming dog off his leg; it took a couple of tries. Talarius’s third dog was now on him. Tom grabbed the dog by the maw; one hand on the jaw, the other on the snout. He pulled with all his strength.
There was a horrendous noise from the hound as Tom ripped its jaw off. He then tossed the dog and its jaw down the chasm and prepared to dive after Talarius. Even as he moved to do so, Talarius rose from the chasm, whacking at a dog still attached to his leg. The knight could fly! What the hell?
Whap! Talarius’s rod succeeded in dislodging the dog, and it fell into the chasm with a loud yelping noise. Talarius flew to the ledge and landed. Rupert had finished his previous dog and was just helping Boggy with the final dog. Reggie was standing in the bloody pulp of his dog. Tizzy was busy gnawing on the haunches of the dogs he had shredded. Apparently, he had worked up an appetite.
Tom stared at Talarius as they regrouped. “So you fly,” he said to the knight. Tizzy stopped eating long enough to stare at the knight.
The knight shrugged. “What people don’t know can’t be used against me.”
“Yes, but I’ve been lugging your fat tin-canned ass all over the place!” Tizzy sputtered, spewing chunks of bloody hydra hound meat. Rupert grimaced as a chunk hit him in the face.
“Watch where you’re spitting your food!” The boy complained.
“Thank you. I’ll fly on my own from now on,” Talarius said. Tizzy just shook his head and took another bite.
Tom shook his head and gestured for them to head down the remaining tunnel. As they started down, hounds entered the cavern from the same tunnel they had. There were at least another dozen, if not more, on that side. Fortunately, they did not seem capable of leaping the cavern.
“You lost them?” Lilith asked the prostate form of Rosecrantz.
“Yes mistress... I am so sorry...” One could hear the fear in the demon’s voice.
Lilith inhaled, savoring the smell of fear that the demon before her was radiating. She remained silent, allowing the fear to increase. She had no intention of punishing the demon, but neither did she have any intention of letting him know that.
Antefalken and the greater demon had gone through multiple boom tunnels to their next destination. Overall, given that they could go in any direction after leaving a tunnel, the wide-open spaces and the required distance her minions would need to keep, following them even through two tunnels was actually pretty decent. The question was, why had they gone through multiple tunnels? Did they know they were being followed and were purposefully obscuring their trail? That would be the most logical.
Lilith sat there pondering. After some time she realized that Rosencrantz was still groveling on the floor. “Very well. I am most displeased. Failure like this cannot be tolerated. I will overlook it this once. Return to your compatriot and stake out the greater demon’s cave; I am sure they will return.”
Tom had lost track of where they were. They had gone down the tunnel from the chasm cavern and made a few more turns. At several points, it had sounded like dogs could be heard within some tunnels, so they had chosen others. Tizzy seemed less and less sure the further they got. This was turning into a fiasco. The price of greed, Tom was sure Talarius would say. Fortunately, unlike humans, they had no need of food or water, or even air, so they had all the time they needed to find their way out. The trick was to do it without being eaten by hydra hounds.
Tizzy had stopped at a T intersection and was looking at the far wall of the right-hand passage. “What are you gawping at?” Boggy asked.
Tizzy pointed to what appeared to be a marking, a sign on the wall. It appeared to have been painted there. “Does this paint seem a little too fresh?” Tizzy asked.
Boggy peered closer and then reached out and touched it. “Yes. I’d say it’s pretty recent, within a few years.”
“Do hydra hounds use paint by any chance?” Rupert asked.
Tizzy and Talarius both shook their heads no. “I’ve never seen a dog that could paint.” Tizzy said. “It’s not like playing poker.”
“Do either of you recognize the language?” Tom asked the two demons, who shook their heads.
Antefalken and Talarius both looked. “Nothing I am familiar with,” said Antefalken with a shrug.
“Agreed,” Talarius stated.
“So we go the other way?” Tom asked. Tizzy shrugged. Tom glared at him. “You are our resident expert; can we go the other way?”
Tizzy squinted down the corridor to the left and shrugged. “It appears we can.”
Antefalken turned to look at Tizzy. “What do you mean, it appears we can? Will that passage take us where we want to go?”
Tizzy shrugged again. “Where do we want to go?” Everyone but Tizzy let out sighs of exasperation.
“We were going to the gold and silver rooms, but at the moment, I’d settle for a way out,” Boggy said firmly.
“Yeah. Well, I’m not sure,” Tizzy said.
Talarius let out another sigh. “Why are you not sure?”
“I don’t remember ever being in this part of the cavern system before,” Tizzy said honestly.
“You’re saying we’re lost?” Tom asked in disbelief.
“Well, I know where I am, and I know where you all are. So none of us are technically lost,” Tizzy said.
Estrebrius shook his head. “So then, where are we?”
“Here, at a T intersection.” Tizzy said overly patiently, as if talking to a child.
Rupert groaned. “So we are lost!”
“Shit!” Reggie cursed. “I am in a lot of pain right now; I’ve got all sorts of bite holes. I just want to get home and rest!”
“How can we be lost if we know where each of us are? I do not need to find any of you. You are here. If you were lost, we would have to search for you. Like when I misplace my pipe. It’s then lost and I have to look for it.”