Beyond the Hell Cliffs by Case C. Capehart Read Free Book Online

that if he fell asleep during the night they might both be killed by the Demonic Fire Monkey who raged about the countryside at night.
    “Demonic Fire Monkey?” Raegith asked, disbelieving his partner.  “Bullshit, there is no Demonic Fire Monkey around here, or anywhere else for that matter!”
    “Shhh,” Ebriz chastised him.  “Do you want the monkey to hear you?  Just because his ears are unholy flames doesn’t mean he is without exceptional hearing.”
    “You are so full of it!  Forget it, I’d rather stay up all night than put up with this nonsense.  Just go to sleep, you crazy little man.”
    “I can’t sleep now,” Ebriz grumbled like a child.  “Not when I think you’re completely underestimating the hearing capabilities of the Demonic Fire Monkey.  No, milord, I will not trust my life to sleep if you will not promise to alert me the moment you suspect the presence of such a horrendous beast.”
    “You know what, I think I can do that, actually,” Raegith replied, exasperated.  “If you will shut up and go to sleep, I will promise to tell you the very second I see a flaming monkey on the loose.  Surely on this moonless night, such a spectacle could not possibly go unnoticed.”
    “Well… you might be surprised.”
    As the cart slogged along, despite the brightness of the Spring morning, Raegith dozed infrequently, until a bump in the road or some noise brought him back from his upright sleep.  While at first having the sun on him in such an open space was exhilarating, the glowing sky orb was quickly becoming his enemy.
    Within a few hours, a pair of men on strange mounts approached from behind the cart.  As they got closer, Ebriz called out to Boram and Tavin.  The pair were returning from the village, with the rest of the party following an hour behind them.  It was the first time Raegith had seen either of them aside from the night he was brought into the camp. 
    Boram wore an odd assortment of armor, with plate armor over his chest, held together by leather and fur.  On his shoulders were massive skulls of some vicious-looking beast and strapped across his back was the giant sword.  He rode upon a large, armored ox with wicked horns that curled out in front of it.  Tavin was dressed like a hunter, in green and brown clothing, a leather vest with several pouches and pockets about it and high, leather boots.  An elegant recurve bow was at his back and a large, fat-bladed knife was sheathed at his waist.  He wore an archer’s hat on his head and a wooden whistle on a string about his neck.  On his shoulder rested a fearsome bird or prey that stared sideways at him and flexed its enormous talons.  It must have been the “Carver” the man referred to the night before.  Unlike Boram, his steed was horse-like, but with a wider body and padded paws instead of hooves, making it much more noiseless than his partner’s beast.
    “You two managed to make it through the night alright, it seems,” Boram bellowed.  “The kid looks a little disheveled.  What did you do to him?”
    “He kept me up all night, is what he did,” Raegith proclaimed, sitting up to meet his comrades.  “Feeding me some nonsense about a flaming monkey demon to keep me awake.”
    Boram and Tavin both looked at each other in surprise.  Suddenly Boram spurred his mount up to the side of the cart and had Raegith by the collar, pulling him halfway out of the cart as it rolled down the road.
    “Didst thou see the Demonic Fire Monkey?” Boram asked.  He reached back and gripped the hilt of his sword.  “Does the demon follow us even now?  Speak boy, before my sword determines your true worth!”
    “What?  No!” Raegith exclaimed.  “He’s not following us, he… wait, the monkey’s real?  There’s really a flaming monkey out there?  I thought Ebriz was telling a joke!”
    “Why would he joke about something like that?” Boram screamed at him, his booming voice nearly deafening the prince.