Episode 4: Food for Thought (Part 3 of 5)

"That's the breaks, little man," Locke taunts as he sheathes his sickle once more and looks to Lil. "Are you alright?"

"A little worse for wear," Lil begins, “but I think I'll be okay."

"Good," Locke replies. "I don't wanna lose you, especially to some pint-sized, pot-bellied little man with an ego problem."

Lilanei, as she slowly pushes herself onto her feet once more, looks to the bookcase with a frown and says, "He sounded so eager to keep that baby. . . I wonder what for?"

"Well, considering he said that after he was done with you all you'd be fit for is scrubbing his feet, maybe he's into some kind of slave trade," Locke answers.

"I hope not!" Lil exclaims. "That's disgusting!"

"Either way," Locke begins. "He's not dead yet, and those two morons downstairs have surely heard the commotion. We should find that baby and get out of here. Which way should we go?"

Lil looks to her immediate left and still clutching her bleeding shoulder, she walks slowly to it and slowly presses her ear against the door. Lilanei concentrates for a few moments, before deciding that the room is empty – of life, anyway.

"Empty," Lilanei finally says. "What should we do?"

"Let's try another door," Locke replies. "But quickly! I think Bront's beginning to stir."

Locke looks back at the bookcase, seeing that it is beginning to twitch slightly. He then walks up to the door closest to him on his right. Likewise, he presses his ear against the door and like Lil hears nothing. He shakes his head and looks to Lil.

"Nothing here," he says, then looking past Lil towards a door at the end of the hall, before he announces, "The baby must be in there; let's go!"

With a nod, Lil immediately turns to her left and walks forwards, placing her hand on the doorknob as she attempts to open it. The handle turns, and with a click the door opens. Lil opens the door to see that inside the room, a large crib lies under a window. As the light from the hallway further fills the room as Lil opens the door wider, Lilanei sees a Dwarf woman standing in front of the crib, a small sheathed dagger in her hands.

"Get away!" The Dwarf cries. "Leave this place, or suffer my wrath! You shan't have this baby – it belongs to us!"

Locke walks past Lil, further opening the door so he can walk into the room. He stands in front of the Dwarf and towers over her, peering down at her as he notices the shake in her hands as she holds the Dagger.

"Woman," Locke begins. "I care not for your reasoning. That baby is coming with us. I've already made a mess of the almighty Bront out there, and if you wish to suffer the same fate, or even a worse one – you'll try and stop us."

"I. . . I wish not to use any force," The Dwarf announces. "But if you make me, heaven help me, I'll kill you both!"

Lil now steps between Locke and the Dwarf, her hand on Locke's shoulder as a sign for him to relax as she speaks.

"Why is this one baby, which doesn't even belong to you, so important?"

The Dwarf doesn't answer; instead as Lilanei asks the question the Dwarf swiftly unsheathes her dagger and swipes towards Lil's hand, who withdraws it just before the Dwarf is able to successfully hit Lil.

"Oh, that does it!" Locke growls as he withdraws his sickle once more. "Woman, you've just made the biggest mistake of your life. Let's go!"

Although she hesitates at first, Lil wishes to defend herself, and because of this, she withdraws her own dagger once more and slashes at the Dwarf's body. The dagger catches the Dwarf woman's clothing, as she wears no armour, as well as piercing her chest underneath her top. The woman cries out in pain, as the baby also begins to cry as it has been disturbed. The Dwarf woman collapses to her knees from the strike with the dagger. Seeing that Locke and Lilanei are serious in their bid to take the baby, the Dwarf reaches under the baby's crib and pulls out a Warhammer, which she holds now in both hands.

"You've forced this!" The woman cries. "Intruders, prepare to die!"

With that, the Dwarf rises to her feet and throws the hammer upwards in an uppercut like motion in a bid to strike Lil in the chin. The hammer swings up in the air and knocks Lil square under the chin, the force of which forces her head to snap back. Locke, at this point, has seen enough. He takes his sickle and lunges towards the woman. Holding the weapon in his right hand, Locke grabs the woman by the front of her collar with his left hand and pulls her towards him. As she rushes towards him, Locke thrusts the blade of his sickle into her lower abdominal area. The sickle sinks deeply into the Dwarf woman's stomach causing her to cry out in pain before blood begins to rush out of her mouth. Seeing this, Locke pushes the Dwarf away by the head who drops to the floor, dead.

Immediately sheathing his sickle, Locke looks towards Lil before he places his hand on her shoulder and looks at her face to check how she is, "Lil, talk to me. Are you okay?"

Grimacing, Lilanei replies through her gritted teeth, "I'm hanging in there."

"Do you have any potion?" Locke asks.

As if just realizing it, Lilanei reaches into her bag and retrieves a potion. Popping the top off, and immediately chugging the liquid, Lilanei begins to feel refreshed as her wounds become less painful.

"Do you have any left?" Locke asks, to which Lil shakes her head.

"I have a feeling you're going to need more," Locke replies before he reaches into his bag and pulls out another bottle of potion, saying with a grin, "I have two; why don't you take this one? Make the most of it – I don't normally share my gifts with you."

Smiling sheepishly, Lilanei accepts the potion which she slips into her bag, "Thank you."

"No problem,” Locke answers before he looks to the still crying baby in the crib; he looks back to Lil and says, "Well, go on then."

Lil immediately looks to the crib, which she walks over to in order to peer at the baby. Inside the crib, lies a small Dwarven baby nestled in a pink blanket with a small toy beside it.

Lil's gaze immediately softens as she sees the baby, which she now strokes lightly on the forehead, "I'm so sorry you had to see that. . ."

"Lil, come on," Locke announces anxiously. "I hear those two fools moving around downstairs and Bront looks like he's trying to get out from under the bookcase. Pick up the baby and let's go!"

Without a thought, Lilanei quickly but carefully snatches the baby up from the crib as well as the toy that lay next to it, which she places in her bag.

"Alright, let's go," Locke says anxiously as our Heroes rush out of the room, across the hallway, past Bront, and down the stairs. Once they reach the bottom of the stairs, Locke and Lilanei stop in their tracks as they're met by the two Dwarves who they snuck past earlier on. They appear unarmed; however, they are also undaunted by the sight of our two Heroes.

"Let that baby go!" The smaller of the two Dwarves demands. "You shan't pass with it!"

Lil cries, as she clutches the baby close to her, "I'll never let you have it!"

"Then we shall fight!" The taller Dwarf, who has a full beard, cries before he withdraws a crossbow; his brother then picks up a Warhammer.

"Ha ha, okay," Locke laughs, before he once again withdraws his sickle. "But you aren't going to last against Locke the Mighty!"

He then turns to Lil, before motioning with his head towards the back door. Lilanei, however, hesitates.

"But. . ." She begins, but as she utters the word, an arrow flies from the bearded Dwarf's crossbow, catching one of the stairs behind Lil in a warning shot.

"You two aren't going anywhere!" The Dwarf brothers cry out in unison.

Having no use of her arms as she clutches the baby safely against her, Lil instead settles for brute force as she raises her foot in front of the short Dwarf standing before her and thrusts it forward in an attempt to kick him. As she lashes out with her foot, the flat of her boot collides with the younger Dwarf's face, the impact of which knocks him to the ground. Lil then dashes to the back of the room behind the table, where she rocks the now screaming baby.

"Lil, get out of here!" Locke cries in desperation as he looks to the two Dwarves in front of him.

With a scowl, Lil yells back, "I'm not leaving without you!"

Not responding, Locke instead takes his crossbow from his back and loads it with an arrow. He loads the crossbow and points it directly at the older Dwarf brother who stands across the room in a diagonal position from him. Immediately, Locke points the crossbow towards the Dwarf and shoots the arrow, which flies quickly from the crossbow and lands in the Dwarf's upper arm. Due to his small size, but large belly, the younger Dwarf struggles to rise to his feet, calling for his brother for help. The older Dwarf ignores his younger brother's pleads and instead withdraws his own crossbow to counter Locke's attack. He launches the crossbow and fires it towards Locke in an attempt to land a fatal blow with his arrow. The arrow connects with its target, the arrow catching Locke in the lower right arm.

Cradling the baby in her left arm, Lil throws her right arm forwards, pointing directly at the older Dwarf from her position across the table. Immediately, an orb of light begins to form in Lil's palm before it shoots fourth and blasts the older Dwarf in the chest. The blast shreds the Dwarf's attire, and the force of the blast sends the Dwarf crashing to the floor, his head banging violently against the wooden floor. With the older Dwarf knocked senseless, and the younger Dwarf still kicking and trying to get up due to his big belly, Locke grins and rushes over to the older Dwarf as he brandishes his sickle. Looking down at the Dwarf, Locke raises the sickle before he then immediately plunges it down into the Dwarf's already wounded chest. The blade slices through the Dwarf's burnt skin and immediately draws blood, causing the older Dwarf to lie back and struggle to move.

The younger Dwarf finally rises to his feet, where he quickly retrieves his own crossbow and loads it, pointing the arrow straight at Locke's back. He pulls the trigger, launching the arrow from the crossbow which flies towards Locke's upper back. The arrow lands in Locke's left shoulder blade, causing Locke to yell out in pain and surprise. The older Dwarf, now extremely weak from his wounds, tries to sit up but has next to no life left and instead groans and lays on the floor. Using the same tactics as before, Lil aims another magic missile, this time at the tiny Dwarf who stands behind Locke, and within moments the silver bolt flies from her palm and towards his head. The blast collides with the Dwarf's head, the force of which sends the Dwarf crashing to the floor again as he once more struggles to get up. Locke looks at both Dwarves who seem unable to rise up.

He then looks to Lil and cries, "Let's get out of here!"

He waits not before making a break for the front door. The older Dwarf simply doesn't have the strength to move, while the younger Dwarf kicks and cries to try and get up while also demanding that Locke halts. Seeing her opportunity, Lilanei rushes around the table, through the room, and out of the front door in order to catch up with Locke as our Heroes successfully escape Bront's house with the baby safely with them. Locke and Lilanei waste no time running out of the front door and running across the road, back into the ally where Yurla still waits in the shadows, her Unicorn standing alongside her. She sees Locke first and shows an expression of concern; however, when Lil is seen running into the ally with her baby, her gaze becomes calm and a smile spreads across her face.

"My child!" Yurla exclaims in relief. "Thank you, both!"

"No problem," Locke answers. "Those dwarves weren't so bad; I don't see why you couldn't have handled Bront yourself. But he found out who his Lord was, thanks to me!"

Lil, still holding the baby, plays and coos at it softly in her arms before she says, "She's such a cutie!"

"Why, thank you," Yurla replies as she waddles up to Lil, her arms out. "Please, I haven't held her in so long."

Lil complies and with slight reluctance hands Yurla the baby. Yurla immediately begins to waddle back towards the Unicorn as the baby begins to moan and then suddenly lets out a wail as it begins to once again cry.

"Jeez, you'd think it'd be happy now it's back with it's mother," Locke murmurs to Lil.

"I know. . ." Lil replies, slightly concerned, when all of a sudden a familiar cry echoes through the street.

"Stop!" The voice cries as a wounded Bront runs into the ally. "You don't know what you're doing!"

"What the heck?" Locke cries before he turns to see Bront and withdraws his sickle. "Little man, get out of here! Don't make me kill you!"

"But you don't understand!" Bront cries. "The baby is—"

Bront stops in mid-speech as he looks to see the baby still crying in Yurla's arms. Suddenly, Yurla's eyes begin to turn from a blue colour to a shade of dark red. With his back turned, Locke doesn't notice; however due to standing to the side, this doesn't escape Lil's glance.

Swiftly, she turns to face Yurla and cries, "What is the meaning of this? Who are you?"

"It's the Ettercap!" Bront cries in desperation.

"What's an Etter—" Locke begins to ask as he turns to see that Yurla's red eyes begin to grow darker. Suddenly, the long blond curly hair that adorns her head begins to fall away, and as it does, her mouth opens and becomes wider as large fangs begin to grow inside her mouth. Finally, Yurla begins to grow taller as finally the very flesh from her body splits open and reveals a large spider-like monster standing and towering before Locke, Lilanei and Bront – the baby now resting and crying in its one claw.

"What the deuce is that?" Locke cries in horror.

"It's the Ettercap!" Bront cries once again. "Our natural predator!"

"Predators?" Locke echoes. "You mean that thing—"

"— eats Dwarves," the Ettercap answers, saliva dripping out of its mouth. "We feed on the blood of young Dwarves. We thrive on it! And thanks to you two hapless idiots – tonight, I dine!"

"No!" Lil cries as she dashes forward and attempts an attack at one of the Ettercap's giant legs. "I won't let you do it!"

"You don't have a choice," the Ettercap cruelly replies as it kicks Lil back with the leg she tried to attack. "I tire of you, but while I take my meal home with me, you can play with my. . . friend."

The Ettercap motions towards the Unicorn, which until this point stood peacefully in the background. Now however, its eyes turn from a bright gray into a murky yellow. Much like the Ettercap, the Unicorn's body contorts and grows until the Unicorn's fur falls out and its body splits to reveal a large Deathjump Spider. Now revealed, the Deathjump Spider slowly begins to advance on our Heroes as an act of intimidation as the Ettercap now swiftly rushes out of the ally – its red eyes the last thing our Heroes see as the baby's cries continue to echo through the shadows. Locke looks at the Deathjump Spider before then looking towards Lil, who's currently on her knees with tears streaming down her face as she mumbles incoherently – the Deathjump Spider beginning to loom over her.

"Lil!" Locke cries in desperation, tears in his eyes. "Look out!"

"It's too late," Bront says to Locke. "It's all over. . ."

Locke watches on, feeling almost helpless, as Lil still sits on her knees motionlessly as the giant Deathjump Spider, which takes up the entire width of the alleyway, looms before her – its fangs twitching back and forth as its large bug eyes look down upon Lil. After a few moments, the Deathjump Spider's legs twitch before it then suddenly moves, only to jump and turns around in mid air. As it lands, it causes the alleyway to shake, forcing some brickwork from the buildings either side of our Heroes to crumble slightly. Locke and Bront watch on as the large spider's backside twitches before an orifice at its rear opens up. As it opens up, Locke and Bront watch on to see that webbing suddenly shoots out of the spider's backside, covering the width of the alleyway in webbing until it is fully impenetrable. With a screech, the spider then quickly runs off into the darkness, the clicking of the tips of its eight legs against the road being the last thing to be heard as it disappears from view.

Locke simply says nothing and watches on for a moment before he then runs over to Lil, who is still on her knees on the ground. He places his hands on her shoulders and looks down at her face with great concern.

"Lil," he begins anxiously. "Are you alright? Speak to me!"

"I. . . We. . . I. . ." She mumbles hysterically as tears continue to run down her cheeks, causing Locke to tighten his grip on her shoulders before he then begins to shake her.

"Lil, for crying out loud, snap out of it! Talk to me!"

Lil finally cries, "It's all my fault! I gave that beast the baby!"

"Yes, you did!" Bront puts in angrily as he now walks over to Lil and Locke, the fires of seething hatred almost literally burning in his eyes. "I hope you're both happy; you've given that Ettercap a great meal – my daughter! Because of you, my wife's dead, my oldest son is dying, and my daughter is as good as dead! How could you?"

"Hey!" Locke cries defensively to Bront as he continues to hold Lil in his arms. "We did no such thing deliberately! If we knew that thing ate infants, do you really think we would've done that? We'd have killed it first!"

"Yes, you had your chance there, didn't you?" Bront asks sarcastically. "And what did you do? You let it get away!"

"I. . . Erm," Locke begins before sighing. "Look, there was nothing we could do. That thing towered over us, it had another one of those large Deathjump Spiders with it, and it had your baby. We were backed into a corner."

Bront simply sighs, frustrated that he can't pass the webbing in front of our Heroes to try and save his baby. Instead he takes his rugged and scarred left hand and slams it into the wall directly to his left, the crunch of the brick breaking under his powerful fist echoing through the ally as dust swirls in the small wind around them.

"My daughter. . ." He whimpers.

Locke pays no heed to Bront and instead looks back down to Lil, "Lil, please say something. You're scaring me."

Lilanei doesn't reply. Instead she remains silent, tears streaming down her face which has now become a bright red from her anguish, her skin being stained by the salty tears.

Locke wipes a tear away from Lil's cheek and whispers to her, "It wasn't your fault, alright? We didn't know this was going to happen. And maybe. . . I dunno, maybe there's still time. Maybe we can stop that Ettercap, or something. There's got to be something we can do. . ."

"Yes!" Bront exclaims suddenly. "Yes, that's it! Venture to the Ettercap's Lair. I know where it is. We could all go, and we can rescue my daughter."

Wiping some of the tears from her face, Lil speaks with a slight crack in her voice, "We have to save that baby. . .”

"Just us three?" Locke asks. "I know I said we could rescue the baby, but I didn't think we'd do it alone. Did you see the size of those things? Granted, I'm a pretty fearsome warrior, but I dunno if we can fare, just us three against who knows how many arachnids—"

"You don't have a choice!" Bront bellows angrily to Locke. "You two shall either come with me to the Ettercap's lair and free my daughter, or I shall have you hunted by the people of Tuli and I'll kill you as mercilessly as you killed my wife! This is your chance to redeem yourselves. Take it now, or perish."

"Well," Locke grunts. "Since you put it that way, I guess we can't refuse."

Lil slowly stands, her knees slightly wobbling under her weight as she wipes the last tear from her eye; turning to Locke with great sadness in her eyes, she says, "If we don't get that baby back. . . I'll never be able to forgive myself."

"Then it is settled," Bront says, sounding slightly more hopeful. "We shall travel to the Ettercap's lair at the top of the Tuli Hill, vanquish the arachnids inside, and rescue my dear daughter. It's what my wife would have wanted. . ."

Within the hour, our Heroes reluctantly form a pact with Bront – both of them filled with shame that they intruded upon an innocent household and did Bront and his family a great misdeed. Still, the chance to redeem themselves in the eyes of Bront and his remaining family means too much to them not to help the Dwarf. Soon, Bront and our Heroes return to his home as he retrieves his Warhammer and crossbow before they then set off on one of Bront's true Unicorns. The trio make their way out of Tuli along the long stretch of road that takes them to the hill, which the Unicorn gracefully climbs up until they reach the top of the green mound. Once at the top of the hill, Bront halts his Unicorn and jumps off, Locke following suit before he then helps Lil down from the Unicorn. Immediately, Bront turns the Unicorn around and spanks it on its backside, causing the Unicorn to neigh in surprise as it runs back down the hill towards Tuli.

"Don't want my Unicorn suffering the same fate as many Dwarves," Bront states blankly to our Heroes before he then turns and walks through the long grass and trees at the top of the hill.

Locke and Lilanei follow Bront until they all stand behind a tree, which Bront peers behind from and looks to see a large cave mouth which lays above the ground. Locke and Lil also look on to that see that instead of the cave leading into the side of a mountain, this cave mouth simply leads down into the ground, almost like a vertical drop into a pit.