Fern and Thor

Chapter XII

Fern looked at Thor. “Should we go in?” she asked quietly. Thor nodded. They edged forward, worried of what they would find. Fern had gotten her bow out of her pack and it gleamed with sweat as she held it ready. Thor shielded himself with his dagger, relying on the stiff iron point to weaken the Alp who might confront them. The Harpy helplessly followed them as they walked into the darkness of the hideout.

Inside, things couldn’t be any less like the adventurers thought. The room was filled with a strange unearthly green glow, as if it was alien territory. It was basic shape; nothing about the room itself shocked them-just what was in it. As Fern’s eyes became used to the lighting, she heard Thor give an intake of breath. When she saw what he was looking at, she did too. As much as she wanted to, Fern couldn’t turn her eyes away from the hideous sight in front of them.
“I…can’t believe it! What happened?” Thor croaked. “What did he do?”
Fern just shook her head in confusion. “I mean, why would he keep these?” She stared up at the rows and rows of capsules in front of her, each containing a live human body.

She went up to one and rapped her knuckles on it. “Solid -but breakable- glass.” She confirmed.
“Breakable? What are you suggesting?” Thor queried, raising his eyebrow.
“Wait..” Fern said. Something had caught her eye. “Look.” She pointed to the very back of each capsule. They all had a thick pipeline attached, about as big as a bow constrictor. It led off into another room. “Do you want to follow it?”
Thor shook his head. “Later. First, I want to free these people.”
“You mean-?”
He nodded. “Smash them.”
“You people are crazy.” They looked over to the Harpy, sitting there solemnly. “Master’s lair is dangerous. Why would you go here?”
“Because we have to.” Fern’s voice bounced off the walls in a persistent, dying echo. “Have to, to, to.” But the echo was about as confident as she was.
Thor shook his head. “Anyway, let’s smash these.” He walked up to one of the containers. “Ready?”
Fern weakly moved her head and waited. Thor stood back 1 meter and unsheathed his dagger. “Now!” Thor’s arm shot forward in a blur as the dagger flew from his hand. Immediately, he spun around in brace position as shards of glass flew past. Once he was out of danger, he stood up.
“Gross!” Fern stared in disgust as a green slime oozed out.
“Preserving liquid of some kind.” Thor said, examining it. The body lay breathing quietly nearby.
“Now we’ve got to do the other twenty.” Fern pointed out. Thor nodded and picked up his dagger. “Let’s do it.”

“So, are we all done here?” Fern asked. They had destroyed all the capsules so that all that was left was shards of glass, green goo and the bodies. “Let’s follow the pipe.” She sauntered over to it. Slinging her bow over her shoulder, she motioned to Thor and snuck silently over it.
“Stay quiet!” whispered angrily to the Harpy, as if it had already done something wrong. Fern began crawling along behind the pipe so that nothing could see her. When she came behind a large cabinet she stopped and stifled a gasp as she peered out.
What she saw was a man- he had a bang of black hair over one eye and the other gleamed gold. He held a long staff entwined in a stone snake. He was in shadowy robes that entirely obscured most of his body so only his gleaming boots and head was showing. But his face- Fern stared at it in fascinated horror. It was scarred and white, the eyebrows narrowed and an evil grin on its lips. He turned around suddenly and Fern knew who it was.
“Thord.” she whispered.