Here is the rewritten version of the previous one, which I will be deleting.
Chapter 12: El Patron’s Mine
The first thing that was noticed was the dark. If it weren’t for the torch that Sam held, and Smelly leading the way through the dark, they would have been hitting their heads on walls, tripping over tiny cracks, and getting completely lost. The second thing noticed was the chill. Not the regular cold that emanates from a cave that never sees the sun, but an unnatural chill, saying that there was something unnatural about these mines.
Not only was it dark and cold, but it was completely quiet. Other than the sound of the Sorcerors’ boots stepping onto the stone beneath them, there was absolutely no sound coming from the cave. Any water that was within these tunnels was still.
“This place is dead quiet,” Sharktooth muttered.
“Don’t use the word dead please,” Zolina responded.
Davy was quiet himself. He decided to examine the tunnel they were going through for what felt like the hundredth time. It wasn’t very wide; perhaps three people could stand side by side in it. It was probably about three meters high, with some small stalactites dangling from the roof of the tunnel. Occasional stalagmites stuck out of the ground, but they were less than a meter high. There was very little of anything in the area that showed signs of life, or living death, in the tunnel other than the occasional torch. Oddly enough, most of the torches were still burning. The group noticed, but didn’t comment or ask questions. They all knew the answer to how they were still burning deep down.
The tunnel that they had been following for the past five or ten minutes suddenly made a bend, and the group emerged into a large, circular cavern. The roof of the cavern was far above them, with massive stalactites looming overhead, some big enough to impale an elephant. There were three other tunnels leading to other parts of the mine at each side of the cavern. In the center was a large slab of stone with a wooden totem standing on it.
“What have we here?” Davy murmured as he walked towards the totem. He examined it, rubbing his hand across the strange object. On the face of it was a skull carved out of bone, attached to a diamond shaped piece of wood. Bits of straw poked out of the sides, giving it almost a mane like a lion. It was attached to the stone beneath it by a thick piece of wood.
“This looks like a grave,” Dan observed.
“This whole place is a grave…” Kate muttered.
“That be true, but this grave is a wee bit more special!” a voice said. Smelly growled and bared his teeth, and the group turned to see who intruded them.
Two ghostly men stood before them. They had a blue mist, meaning they weren’t too hostile. Either way, the Sorcerors kept their blades handy. The one that stood on the right wasn’t too tall, and was a bit heavy set. He wore a straw explorer’s hat, white suspenders, and loose fitting pants that would be easy to walk for long distances in. He looked like an explorer of some sort, someone with some brains. The person that stood next to him was the exact opposite. He wore similar clothes, except he had a Spanish Conquistador helmet upon his head. Probably the former’s bodyguard, he had scars across his face, signaling that he was not one to mess with. Strangely, the two figures carried no weapons.
“Who are you, and what is your purpose here?” Billy demanded, hand on his dagger.
“Who are we?” the explorer asked. “My name is Bellrog. Dr. Bellrog actually. This here is my bodyguard, Kudgel.”
“Kudgel destroy!” the bodyguard exclaimed excitedly.
“Shut up you nincompoop!” Bellrog said, smacking Kudgel across the face. Davy thought for a moment that Kudgel would beat the daylights out of Bellrog, but Kudgel just looked down, ashamed. “Ahem, anyway, long ago, and by long ago I mean hundreds of years ago, our purpose here was to map out these mines. That’s who we were. Explorers, trying to get a map of this area to give to our government. Unfortunately for us, we were smack dab in the middle of the battle between Tiberius Fireskull and El Patron. You do know the tale, yes? You do? Good. Well you see, when Captain Fireskull sealed the mines, he not only sealed El Patron and his crew in here, but he sealed us in here too! We survived off rations we had for a few weeks, but we eventually starved to death, and our souls were sealed here forever.”
“Wait a moment,” Meg said. “You said that you’ve been trapped here for centuries? That means that you know the location of El Patron!”
“Of course I get no sympathy,” Bellrog muttered. “Bloody pirates. I do know his rough location. I have not dared venture into the depths of this mine, even with Kudgel here.”
“Then you could tell us,” Guy said.
“Ehh, I suppose I could,” Bellrog said. “You should turn back though. He’s not as weak as you may think. I can’t remember the exact tunnels, but find the tunnels that take you into the deepest areas of the mines. El Patron’s tomb is in one of the deepest areas.”
“Thank you Dr. Bellrog,” Davy said, politely bowing. “We owe you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind…” Bellrog muttered. “Come Kudgel! We must be off exploring! Even though we’ve already seen everything here…”
“Yes mustard!” Kudgel excited replied.
“ITS MASTER YOU IDIOT!” Bellrog boomed, slapping Kudgel again.
“Wait!” Zolina said, holding out her hand.
“Yes, young lady?” Bellrog asked.
“You said this tomb is a bit more special, what did you mean?”
“Ahh yes,” Bellrog grinned, rubbing his hands together. “Well you see, after El Patron’s crew was locked in here, there was one crewmate of El Patron's crew that blamed him for what had happened. He went by the name Foulberto Smasho. He rebelled against El Patron (Much good it would do them! Either way, they're stuck in this hell hole!) along with about half the crew. For about a week, the two sides, each with about thirty men, fought each other. Kudgel and I watched from the sidelines you see. El Patron; however, was too powerful and was able to capture the rebels. He tied up Foulberto and made him watch as he beheaded his four officers. Each one was buried in a tomb such as this one, with this totem to prevent them from rising from the dead.”
“So there are five of these tombs?” Dog asked. “One for each officer, and another for Smasho?”
“Actually, Smasho’s fate was quite different…” Bellrog said. “You see, he—”
Dr. Bellrog was interrupted by the sound of clanking coming from one of the tunnels. The sound of clanking was soon joined by what sounded like the unsheathing of swords.
“T’was a pleasure!” Bellrog said. “But now its time to go!”
“Wait!” Davy yelled.
Bellrog gave a smile, waved his hand, and dissipated into nothingness.
Smelly started growling, and soon erupted into loud barking at the mouth of one of the dark tunnels. The Sorcerors drew their swords and waited to see what was coming. Suddenly, the tunnel wasn’t so dark. An orange glow filled the tunnel, and out of it emerged about twenty ghosts, weapons drawn. Instantly, Smelly’s barking was replaced with whimpering, and he hid behind Billy.
“Should we…?” Sam started.
“RUN!” Sharktooth bellowed. They needed no persuasion. The Sorcerors ran down the nearest tunnel as fast as their feet would carry them. Behind them, the ghosts sprinted after them, howling in their horrible, unearthly voices. Some of the ghosts were armed with throwing knives, many of which were thrown at their fleeing prey.
“Look out!” Sam warned, deflecting an airborne knife, saving Davy’s neck.
“We can’t run forever! They’re gaining!” Dan said.
“Then I suppose we’ll need to turn and fight!” Davy exclaimed. “Go!”
The Sorcerors whirled around, each instinctively bringing down their sword. Most of their blades cut down a ghost, sending it straight to the floor. The other ghosts, caught off guard, were quickly charged upon. From there, the fight commenced. Each Sorceror had at least one ghost on them, but most had more. They were good sword fighters, but they were outnumbered. Smelly assisted Billy in the fight, barking and biting the ghosts that was attacking him. However, there was just one problem. The ghosts couldn’t be destroyed by a regular blade.
Sam lit his sword ablaze and gave a few good slashes to one of the ghosts that was attacking him, sending it to the floor. It got right up. Kate stabbed a ghost in the face, sending it stumbling backwards. It shook the wound off, and came right back. Sharktooth stuffed a grenade in the mouth of a ghost, and when it exploded, the ghost flew backward. It stood up as if nothing happened, and got right back into the fight.
“We need a new tactic!” Dog said between sword attacks.
Davy stabbed his sword into the ground, sending the three ghosts around him flying backward. He quickly took a glance up, and got an idea. Above them were loads of large stalactites. If these stalactites could impale an elephant, they would more than suffice for what he needed.
“Sharktooth! You’re grenade pouch!” Davy ordered. Sharktooth cut down the ghost that was on him and threw his grenade pouch to Davy. “This’d better work…”
Davy formed a ball of fire in his hand, and lit a small flame on the pouch.
“ARE YOU MAD?!” Kate screamed.
“FALL BACK!” Davy boomed. The Sorcerors ran back, away from the ghosts. Quickly, Davy threw the flaming grenade pouch upward, giving it an extra boost with some voodoo. It lodged itself in a crevice on the roof of the cave. The ghosts looked up, confused, giving the Sorcerors just enough extra time to get a little farther back before the grenades in the pouch exploded.
The mine shook with the force of the explosion, and stalactites and rock rained down from the roof of the tunnel. The ghosts screamed in anger. Some of the ghosts armed with knives threw a few in a desperate attempt to wound the crew before the stone sealed them off, but Davy didn’t see any knives get through. Most were deflected off falling rock.
After a few moments, the rock stopped falling, and everything was silent.
“Look’s like we’re not going back out that way,” Witchdoctor Dan said, raising an eyebrow.
“Everyone all right?” Sam asked.
“Ahh…” Pirate Guy said through clenched teeth. “That’s a negative.”
Zolina kneeled over the body of Pirate Guy. Davy approached and examined him with worry. One of the ghost’s knives had made it through after all.
--------------------------------------
Sorry that my last chapter was crummy. Note that this one is REPLACING it, so I will be removing the old post. Anyway, give comments on this one. Hopefully it is better.