Chapter One - Part 2 - Into the Frying Pan

“So what’s your name and why were you following us, Daemon?” Rayne snarled across the fire.

Lirael interjected, “Rayne, we must keep the peace, here…” He looked to the stranger, “I apologize for our rudeness. My name is Lirael, and this is Rayne. We are mere travelers.”

“I am XIII,” The Daemon informed the two of them.

“Thirteen?” Lirael and Rayne asked together, puzzled.

“Yes…”

They all paused. Lirael and Rayne sat feeling slightly uncomfortable while XIII sat grinning devilishly at them. Finally, XIII spoke again.

“Don’t you find it strange that we are the only ones who were wandering around out in the rain and needing shelter here?” He asked them, somewhat rhetorically.

“Well, I suppose we can’t really know for sure if we really are the only ones here, now can we?” Lirael replied, looking suspiciously towards the three doors in the room that no one had bothered to pay any attention to yet. “Rayne, why don’t you go and see if the door over is locked or not?” He asked, pointing to the door to his right.

“I’m on it,” Rayne replied, as he stood and walked over to the door on the right side of the chamber. He gave it a good pounding after discovering that it was indeed locked. “Hm, it’s definitely pretty solid…” He noted.

XIII mumbled something about trivialities and stretched out his bedroll to lie upon and rest his eyes. There would be no way he would actually get any real sleep though, as Rayne took a running start at the door before slamming his body into it with full force. Surprisingly the door held its ground. Rubbing his shoulder, Rayne backed up once more to give it another go. But as he ran at the door, a colossal clap of thunder roared from the clouds outside and shook the entire structure. As Rayne was about to hit the door again, all three doors in the chamber were rattled off their hinges at once and they fell with yet another loud crash to the floor.

Before any of them could gather their senses, the sounds of squeaking filled the air as a pack of terribly fat and grimy looking rats swarmed into the chamber from the doorway on the back wall. Acting upon his animalistic instincts, Rayne drew his sword and stabbed the first rat that approached him into the ground. It struggled for only a brief moment before its life force was completely extinguished.

XIII, excited by the death and scent of the rodent’s blood, jumped to his feet from his bedroll and lunged at the first rat he saw, digging his dagger-like claws deep into its flesh and shoving its now mangled form between his razor sharp teeth.

Meanwhile, Lirael used his Eladrin Feystep to teleport himself over to the swarm and slash one of the rats dead with a sickle he pulled from his belt as Rayne was being bitten by a rat that had attacked him in a panic. Practically before he could even smite the rat that was already biting him, the pack of rats swarmed in on the trio all at once, biting them all with their sharp, nasty incisors.

XIII devoured another rat out of exhilaration, but choked on the putrid flesh and gags. This only amuses him more, and he laughs a little, maniacally, while blood and bile drip from his jaws.

Seeing that everyone was being attacked by the rodents, Rayne became enraged and, like a ram, he hurled himself at what remained of the pack, nearly smashing into Lirael, who dodged at the last second, with his crushing blow into the stone floor. XIII would have been struck if he hadn’t instantly vaporized into a cloud of mist and floated away. While he did obliterate the last of the rats, Rayne also left a sizable dent in the floor.

“Watch what you are doing, Rayne, you gargantuan boor!” Lirael exclaimed in his moment of fluster.

Brushing dust and gravel off of himself, Rayne stood up and apologized for nearly flattening Lirael over a couple of rats.

“That…” Lirael said as he straightened out his clothes, “Was absolutely absurd.” And with that he sat down pompously beside the campfire, still irritated by Rayne.
  
XIII giggled as he pet a dripping rodent’s skeleton which had only bits of flesh left to dangle off of its splintered bones.