Episode 2: The Thieves' Grotto (Part 5 of 5)

Gripping the door handle tighter, Locke turns the handle and attempts to push the door open, which opens very easily, with barely a creak as a bright light from the inside of the room flashes over their faces. Locke and Lil have finally reached the twins' lair! As their eyes adjust to the brightness of the room, they notice a large chamber with a massive glowing fireplace in the upper right hand corner. In front of them in the back of the room sits a throne; however, in front of that throne also stand the culprits behind their wild goose chase. Madoco and Maroco take up the rear, while three Human Rabbles stand ahead of them as their defense. As the pair enter the room, their eyes immediately meet with the band of thieves.

"So, which of you saps are Morrocco and Adobo?" Locke cries in demand. "Because I've got a bone to pick with you. . . Or rather, a sickle to jam into your damned heads!"

Madoco turns to her brother, flipping her long black hair over her left shoulder, "Who let this scum in?" She mutters before she turns to face our heroes. "Why, I'm Madoco, handsome. Now that isn't the right way to talk to a beautiful lady, is it?"

"Woman," Locke begins. "You're beautiful, for sure, and it's going to pain me to rearrange such pretty features, but nobody plays my friend and I like fools!"

Lil growls, punching Locke in the shoulder, "Stop wasting our time; you can chat up ladies any other time. For now, let's get them!"

"For the money!" Locke cries as the duo head into battle.

Madoco, with no hesitation, charges at Locke before she unsheathes her dagger, and after licking its blade, she points it at his face.

"It'll be such a shame to mar your handsome features, but this is business, you see."

Without notice, the female thief then dives at Locke, taking a swipe at his face. However, Locke leans backward, with the blade of Madoco's dagger simply taking off a few strands of his long hair. Clutching his sickle, Locke thrusts it upwards in an attempted strike of his own, but Madoco anticipates the counterstrike as she leans backwards herself and reaches her arms behind her, performing a back flip away from Locke.

Locke finally retorts, sarcastically spitting, "Well, woman, if I beat you, I'll take you out later."

Coolly, Maroco makes his way towards the front of the room, his mace swinging slowly at his side.

He simply states, "Well, while my sister is busy―" He pauses, glancing at Lil, who he now stands before, grinning, "Well, well, well, what do we have here? You're not so bad for a wench, are you? If he's courting my sister, how about we make this a double date?"

Lil frowns in disgust, "Why does everyone keep calling me a wench today?"

"Wench, just shut up and fight!" Locke cries from her side to which Lil growls, but before she can respond, Maroco begins his attack by swinging his mace at her legs. The mace successfully strikes Lilanei's legs, forcing her down to her knees as Maroco sidesteps swiftly to the side.

Watching his masters at work, their armoured lackey stands back, awaiting the opportune moment to attack. However, his female ally does not display such patience as she side steps to her right before she rushes at Lil head on, swinging her club in a wild fashion, but as Lil is in a crouched position, all she has to do is lean forwards, sliding onto her belly which causes the club to land in the floor beside her. Lil, fuming, quickly rises to her feet before she thrusts her hand forward, aiming a Magic Missile attack at the female's face. The energy collides with the Female's face, completely engulfing her head in silver energy until the energy flies into the back of the room – revealing the female's face to have been taken clean off and leaving only a skull as the Female drops dead.

Meanwhile the lackey clad in robes approaches Locke's left side, flanking him before he takes his club in both hands and thrusts it head on towards Locke's waist. The robed assailant's strike misses however as Locke reaches out and grabs the club in his palm where he wraps his fingers around it and tightly grips it. Struggling slightly, he then exerts force through his arm, shoving the robed male aside.

With a sideways glance, Madoco notices her previously fallen minion, the female lackey, and with a sly grin, she stares Locke down, "Well, well, your girlfriend is pretty feisty – I bet you must be all man to handle that much spunk."

"Believe me, lady, she's too much to handle. But then again, so am I. Put up your dukes!" Locke replies defiantly.

Madoco smiles, "I do like it rough."

With that final word, Madoco brandishes her mace and takes a forceful swing for Locke's head. The mace collides violently with the side of Locke's face, but fortunately for him the spikes on the mace harmlessly avoid his face, instead the metal orb which holds the spikes slamming into his face – the force of which impairs Locke's vision as he stumbles and begins to mumble incoherently in a daze.

"It must be your lucky day, then. . ." Locke slurs as he simply stumbles to Lil's side.

"Dear oh dear, madam, your boyfriend appears to be having a tough time of it with my sister. Why not join us, and then you'll know what it's like to associate with a real man!" Maroco says with a dirty smirk as he steps in front of Lil, taking her gently by the chin in all his suave charm. Lil merely snarls, thrusting her head back as she spits on his face.

"I think I'll pass," Lil states angrily.

"Ah, pity." Maroco says as his tongue slithers out of his mouth, licking the spit off the top of his upper lip. "You do taste sweet. . .” Maroco hooks his club to his belt so it dangles off his hip as he reveals his sharp, deadly looking dagger. "I bet your blood will be just as sweet!"

Wasting no time, Maroco holds the dagger sideways so that the side of the blade is horizontal to Lil's throat before he quickly lashes out forwards in an attempt to let side of the blade plunge into Lil's throat. The blade presses into Lil's throat, but the force of the blow knocks Lil to her backside, meaning that the wound is only a flesh wound, albeit one that draws blood.

The armoured minion, who has up until this point watched from the rear notices the dazed and confused Locke and with a grin behind his helmet approaches our Hero, swinging his club in a circular motion over his head. He attempts to hit a harsh blow with the club, but Locke simply stumbles to his right as the club hits the door frame behind him. Bleeding, Lilanei clutches her throat before coughing as a small trickle of blood begins to drip from the corner of her lips. Despite this, she musters enough energy to rush past Locke, retreating to the back of the room before she intakes a desperate swig of one of her potions.

"Yes, why not get comfortable in that chair back there," Maroco laughs as he views Lil retreat towards the back of the room. "Once we've disposed of your friend here, you can get to know us a little better." He says with an evil smirk, before adding, "Especially me."

The robed male approaches Locke in an attempt to attack him; however in his stumbling state, Locke accidentally shoves himself shoulder first into the minion's chest, forcing him to stumble backwards and trip over his own robes.

"Pitiful," Madoco observes before shoving her minion further to the side as she approaches Locke. Madoco once again raises her mace and readies a forceful blow. The mace once again rains down upon Locke's skull, this time one of the spikes piercing the top of Locke's head which sends blood rushing immediately down his face. Madoco emits a cruel cackle before she moves to the armoured male's side, joining he and her brother as they line up in front of Locke. Down on his knees, Locke looks up at the three villains in front of him, the realization that they could finish him at any time lighting a fire within his spirit, causing adrenaline to secrete and rush through his body almost as if his body has administered to him a potion of its very own. Somehow, Locke finds the energy to stand as he spits blood into Madoco's face before he takes his crossbow, loads it, and then swiftly points it at Madoco; pressing the trigger, he sends the arrow swiftly flying at her face. Madoco wipes the blood dripping from her face and then sees the crossbow fire just in time, to which she simply turns, allowing the arrow to fly past her until it stops by embedding itself in the wall at the far end of the room.

"Well, if you're going to be like that," Madoco begins, "then forget about our date, and forget about me sparing your wretched life!"

Bored with her sister and her quarry, Maroco turns and makes his way to the back of the room where he approaches Lil with an evil smile. Seeing her slightly hunched over the floor, Maroco raises his foot and swings it forwards; however the foot simply brushes past the side of Lil's face, causing her hair to be ruffled by the gust of air from the swing.

"Come on now, dear, give it up. Pledge yourself to me, and I won't harm you!"

The armoured minion then turns his attention away from Locke, opting instead to shift his position and assist Maroco, which he does by raising his club in the air, planning to slam the club into the top of Lil's head. His attack is successful as the club harshly slams into Lil's face, shaking her senses as she slips further down towards the floor. Ignoring the sexist brute in front of her, Lil glares upward at the armoured minion and taking her dagger strikes in an uppercut like motion. The blade pierces his leather armour, which unfortunately for him was cheaply made as the twins wished to save money on their purchases – meaning the blade easily passes through the armour, runs through his chin, and fatally strikes the inside of his head, killing him instantly. Lil pulls the dagger from the now dead minion before she swings it to her left, allowing the blood splatter all over the thief, Maroco, who still stands beside her.

The robed minion, frustrated by his previous blunders, decides to rush to Locke's side where he makes a sweep at him with his club, striking Locke in the side of the throat. Madoco then swiftly strolls around to Locke's right side and, tired of his attitude towards her, shows no hesitation as she swings for his features with her dagger – but the dagger simply misses Locke's face, who meanwhile makes an attempted attack of his own with his crossbow. With his weapon in his hands, Locke darts about ten feet away, so he is no longer flanked by the robed man and Madoco. He turn around and loads his crossbow before he aims the bow at the wall above the door and quickly fires off a few arrows in succession which ricochet off the wall and rain down in a barrage of fire at Madoco and the robed minion. Madoco gracefully begins a flurry of flips and cartwheels to avoid the arrows; however the robed minion is not as lucky as all of the arrows which rain down upon strike, eventually killing him as he bleeds to death.

The dead armoured minion's blood dripping from his limbs causes Maroco to frown before he raises his mace into the air.

"Now. that's not the appropriate way for a woman to act now, is it?" As he completes his remark, he swiftly slams the mace down, again aiming for Lil's head, this time hoping to hit a fatal blow. The mace strikes Lilanei in the forehead, a spike just penetrating her skin, which causes her to cry out in pain. Maroco pulls the mace back, and blood begins to run from Lil's forehead. Still on her knees, she breathes heavily due to her great pain, but nevertheless Lil musters the energy to press her palms together in preparation for an attack. A brief moment passes by before she slowly separates her palms to reveal a growing orb of magical energy.

Lil casts Maroco a stony glare and cries, "Then you won't like this!"

She then thrusts the orb of energy forwards which collides directly with Maroco's chest, exploding in a mass of shards upon impact. Meanwhile, still gripping her dagger tightly, Madoco gracefully strolls up to Locke before suddenly taking a sideways swipe for his chest. The dagger slashes Locke in the chest, ripping apart his flesh and causing blood to spurt out of the long, fresh wound. Upon seeing the strike land, Lil gasps as she observes Locke stumble backwards clutching his chest before he lets out a long howl of great pain.

"Locke!" She cries in fright as she watches Locke fall onto his backside.

Groaning and shaking his head in an attempt to stay conscious, he reaches for his pouch and withdraws a bottle of potion. He rips the cork out of the bottle with his teeth before spitting it up at Madoco and quickly takes a long swig of it, restoring his vitality. Feeling invigorated, Locke takes his crossbow once more and aims it up at Madoco who avoided the cork and was too busy laughing at the feeble attempt of a hit to notice that Locke has prepared an attack. Locke fires the crossbow and as the arrow flies up into the air, it catches Madoco under the chin, the arrow sinking in to Madoco's skin.

Still reeling from Lil's last attack, Maroco growls and drops his mace in anger before tensing his fingers, clutching them into a fist, which he thrusts out forwards violently with the fist snapping into the top of Lil's nose, landing with a sickening “Crack!” and causing blood to rush out of Lil's nostrils. Lil wheezes due to exhaustion as she removes the last potion from her bag and gulps it down, its effects immediately taking hold which stop the blood rushing from her nose. Slowly rising to her feet, Lil shoots an angry glare at Maroco before she begins to chant beneath her breathe. During her chant a large ball of fire suddenly takes form behind an unsuspecting Maroco, its hot flames reaching for his back and immediately burning his skin – the burns turning to bleeding wounds with each passing second.

"Brother!" Madoco howls, seeing the giant ball of fire licking at his body; she turns her angry gaze back to Locke before grumbling, "You'd better tell your girlfriend to back off or you two just might not ever see the light of day again!"

"Ha, ask me nicely and get on your knees first," Locke laughs through the pain he is currently under.

She snarls, "It'll be you to get down on your knees for me, pitiful fool!"

With that being said, Madoco brandishes her mace taking a diagonal swing at Locke. One of the spikes of the mace slashes across Locke's already injured cheek that was slashed open in an earlier encounter, causing Locke to yell in pain before he instinctively covers the open wound with his right hand – blood trickling out from the gaps of his fingers before it runs down the front of his hand.

"Mind the face!" Locke cries in anger as he reaches for his sickle with his left hand, grabs, and unsheathes it from his belt. He takes his bloody right hand and grabs Madoco by the collar – pulling her into him as he thrusts the Sickle into her shoulder. The sickle pierces her left shoulder, forcing her to let out a cry of pain, which is cut off as Locke lets go of her collar and snaps his head forwards, headbutting her directly in the face which sends her stumbling back towards the door. In the mean time, the flames from the flaming sphere Lilanei summoned just earlier continue to ravage Maroco's backside, causing him to howl in excruciating pain.

Maroco falls to his knees in pain and grumbles, "Madoco. . . I can't―" However, before he can finish, a surge of pain causes Maroco to cry out, stopping him from finishing his sentence.

Noticing that her enemy is too weakened to move, Lilanei instead turns her attention to Madoco, who has just stumbled in front of the door. She raises her palms into the air and then directs the flaming ball across the room, over the corpse of the female minion, and to the female thief's right side. The flames of the ball begin to reach for her and burn her side. Before Madoco can respond, the flames lash at her once more, causing her further injury. Madoco shrieks in intense pain, much like her brother has begun to experience. This battle had gone a step too far.

Madoco whips her face forwards, her face portraying an intense picture of pain, "Maroco―" she speaks, "―it's time."

With that remark, Maroco slowly rises to his feet, Madoco following suit. They swiftly throw their arms down and a sudden puff of smoke fills the entire chamber.

"Oy!" Locke cries as he begins to cough while the smoke whirls around him, impairing his vision and causing him to lose his breath.

"Locke!" Lil screams. "Where are you?"

Before Locke can respond, a pair of evil cackles echo and fill the entirety of the room.

"You may have bested us this time,” the sadistic voice of Madoco looms over our Heroes, “but this is not the last you've seen of us, handsome!"

It is not long before the smoke begins to clear, and our two Heroes find themselves alone, notwithstanding the three dead corpses littered about the area. Their foes had escaped!

"Gone!" Locke cries angrily. "They've gone! We didn't get to finish them. Damn you Morocco and Adobo! I shall smite thee!" Locke finishes, waving his Sickle in the air. "Do you hear me, woman? This isn't over!"

Lil pants before she sighs in exasperation at Locke's foolish words, "I don't think they can ever hear you, dolt."

"I don't care," Locke snaps. "I'm making this promise to myself. I'm going to get those two back. I don't know when, and I don't know how, but someday we'll meet again and that will their final day in this realm."

Lil sighs once again and says, "You do that. . . Anyway, at least we've come out of this alive."

"I'd rather be dead!" Locke blankly states. "We didn't finish the fight. We'll never know if we were strong enough to best them. . . Akorinn's fighting spirit has really rubbed off on me," He finishes with realization.

Lil grins, "Well, I can kill you if it makes you feel better. But anyway, by the sounds of things, this won't be the last time we meet."

"I hope not," Locke hisses. "I'll pay them back. . .”

Locke then turns to face Lilanei before his eyes widen in surprise as he points to the chair at the end of the room.

"Hey!" He cries. "What's that?"

Lil turns her attention to the chair before she too notices the sack sitting before it. With a slight limp, Lil walks to it, lifting it from the ground, and displaying no hesitation, Lil opens the sack.

"Well," she says. "We haven't come out of this completely empty handed.”

Finishing her sentence, Lil holds the open end of the bag out to Locke, allowing him to see that within the sack lies their stolen money.

"Oh!" Locke gasps. "I'd like to make a withdrawal."

Lil chuckles before she closes the sack and places it on her belt, "We'll discuss that later. But first, let's find a way out of here."

Lilanei's eyes travel to the chair where a glowing bottle sits on one of its arms.

"What do you suppose that is?" She asks.

As Locke observes the bottle perched on the chair, he realizes that it's actually attached to the arm of the throne.

"I'm not sure," Locke begins. "But whatever it is, it must be valuable as it's attached to the throne. Somebody didn't want this going walkabout."

Lil frowns, "Well, can it be moved?"

As Locke reaches to try and pull the bottle from its perch, he notices that it takes little but a small touch for the bottle to tilt forwards, which instantly activates a mechanism in the throne that clicks loudly and echoes throughout the chamber. After a brief moment, hearing nothing but a grinding sound in the mean time, the throne rattles and shifts to the side, revealing to our heroes a secret hole in the wall containing a staircase leading back to the surface. Lil's eyes brighten as she sees the staircase.

"This must be how they're able to sneak about so easily on the surface!"

"Indeed," Locke agrees. "I just have to wonder if they'll come back and use it now we've discovered their secret."

"For the merchant's sake, I'd hope not," Lil answers.

"Maybe we should stay around for a while." Locke suggests. "In case they come back."

Lil narrows her eyes, looking up the stair case and seeing what she believes could be a glimmer of moonlight.

"As much as I'd love to stay in this musky old chamber," she begins, "I think I'd rather take my chances on the surface."

"That sounds like a better idea," Locke replies in agreement.

At last, on that note, our Heroes ascend the staircase, making their way back to the world above. As they reach the end of the winding stairs, the familiar glow of moonlight begins to shine on their faces. They emerge from the ground and find themselves standing within a hedge at the exit of the grotto where they had originally began. A nearby extinguished campfire offers a comfortable place to make camp for the night.

"Well," Locke states with a yawn. "I'm pretty beat up, not to mention weary. Let's turn in the for the night."

"Gladly," Lil agrees with a heavy sigh. Swiftly, the duo unfold their respective bed rolls and relight the fire that was used before them. and then lay down for the night.

Resting comfortably, Locke looks towards Lil and asks, "So, where do we go from here?"

Lil stares thoughtfully at the ceiling of the man-made cave and murmurs, "Hm. Well – I don't know much about Murrad, to be honest. I've never took the time to study it – I've always been more focused on magic in my studies, I guess. So I don't know where we can go next."

"Heh," Locke chuckles. "I've never been beyond this grotto myself, so I was hoping you'd have some idea of where to go next. I guess tomorrow we'll get on the other side of this place and then decide where to go from there. But do you think we should go after the twins, or should we just venture on and hope they come to us?"

Lil continues to stare blankly to the ceiling before saying, "Somehow – I think they'll be the ones who find us."

"I'll accept that," Locke replies. "I just hope we make more ground tomorrow. I'm eager to see more of Murrad and where this land will take us. We got quite side tracked today, eh?"

Lil grins, "Just a little."

"Hey," Locke begins. "What do you think Akorinn would've done in this situation? What do you think he'd be telling us to do next?"

"I guess," she states, "he'd just be telling us to carry on and stay strong."

"That's what I plan to do," Locke says with vigor. "How about you, Lil? You going to stay strong with me?"

Lil simply smiles, "Of course."

With that final word of confidence, the weariness of a long day's work takes immediate hold of our Heroes, sweeping them away to a land of dreams. Meanwhile however, far away on the horizon, a familiar pair of cackles floats through the night sky – as today is the day that our Heroes have made their first pair of long standing foes on their journey to becoming true adventurers.