The Heavenly Host

Antefalken rolled his eyes. “Okay, so everyone get ready.” They braced themselves as the bard moved to the handle, slowly placing his hand on it and then twisting and pulling. Tom was not sure the demon was strong enough to open the giant door. However, the door moved. Demons were very strong for their size. But then the door stopped moving with a soft clank. Antefalken shook his head. “It’s locked.”

“I don’t suppose you know how to pick a lock?” Boggy asked.

Antefalken gave him a withering look. “I’m a bard! Of course I can pick a stupid lock. You don’t need to be rude.” He shook his head and reached into his belt pouch to pull out some lock-picking tools. “One nice thing about D’Orc-sized doors: the keyholes are good sized. Hearthean locks are quite the pain. And due to both size and complexity, they are quite complex. They are excellent locksmiths and lock picks!”

The bard fiddled around in the keyhole for a short time before there was a clicking noise. He put his tools back in his belt and nodded to everyone to be on guard. He twisted the handle and pulled. Surprisingly, the door did not make anywhere near the screech Tom had expected. It was not silent but relatively quiet. Antefalken looked through the door, and then stuck his head through the door. He pulled back and opened the door wider, gesturing for the others to go through.

On the other side of the door was a corridor running perpendicular to the corridor they had just come down. This corridor went some distance to the left and right, with various openings and doors every so often.

“So now we enter a more fortress-like environment,” Antefalken observed softly.

“Are we sure we want to go this way?” Estrebrius asked. “It seems way too populated.”

“Well, the hydra hounds are the other way, and if this area is more populated, there must be an exit somewhere,” Boggy noted.

“I believe the barracks we saw are that way.” Talarius pointed to their right.

“So let’s go the other way,” Tom suggested. The knight nodded.

They began moving carefully down the hall away from where they thought the barracks were. They continued down the corridor for several deminutes, ignoring doors and side passages. Eventually the corridor ended in another T intersection.

Tom gestured right and the party turned the corner.

“Aaagghhhh!” A rather high-pitched scream erupted in front of them, followed by a clatter of what appeared to be a stone sword falling to the floor. Standing there was a rather short, thin D’Orc, mouth agape and screeching. The D’Orc immediately turned tail and began running madly in the opposite direction, shrieking, “ACHTUNG — INVADERS! WE UNDER ATTACK! PREPARE FOR BATTLE! INVADERS! INVADERS!”

“Okay, not quite what I was expecting,” Tizzy observed, pulling out his pipe and puffing away. There was a commotion distantly echoing from the direction they had just come.

Talarius pointed his sword in the third direction. “That way, fast!”

They all charged into that corridor. Suddenly gongs were ringing from multiple directions, although none seemd to be coming from the direction they were going, which was good.

Tizzy was scrambling along on his four legs and came up beside Tom. The hallway was rather wide at this point. “I always hate it when a home invasion goes wrong!”

Tom glanced over at the demon, troubled by his statement. He guessed that technically this was a home invasion. Sort of like when he invaded the dragon’s lair. His stomach sank with a bad feeling. “That D’Orc seemed a lot smaller than the ones we saw in the barracks; you suppose they have children here?” Tom asked the group.

“Looks like it!” Rupert said.

“Anything is possible. We saw both men and women and if you’re spending thousands of years locked under a mountain, sex is probably a popular pastime,” Antefalken called back.

“I wish you hadn’t said that! Now that you put the idea of them making babies in my head, something has come up that’s making it harder for me to run!” Reggie yelled.

“Demons don’t have families,” Talarius retorted to Antefalken’s claim, ignoring Reggie.

“Tell my dad that!” Rupert pointed to Tom.

“If your god is dead set on not making any more of your kind, babies are the only way to maintain or grow your population,” Tizzy noted.

“Why would they be doing that?” Boggy asked Tizzy.

“More soldiers for a war of vengeance?” Tizzy noted.

“Damn it, octopod, you’re starting to make too much sense,” Talarius harrumphed.

“Do you hear barking?” Estrebrius asked while flying down the corridor.

“Crap.” Now that he tried, Tom could hear barks and howls that sounded like hydra hounds, as well as the clamoring of what sounded like shields and spears, mixed with shouts and commands.

“It sounds like hounds and a small war party,” Talarius commented.

“That could be a problem. Adult D’Orcs are the best of the best when it comes to orc combat. Most of them are major demons and their leaders are greater demons,” Tizzy said.