Princess Cari Scattered Arc Part Eight

The Centaur

And The Hydra

Cari took her step on the sand of a doc with only one man at a small station, who was still sleeping. She raised her arm to shield her eyes from the intense heat of the sun. It was so hot that Cari found it difficult to believe that people could live here. She could not believe the heat! She was sweating and her skin felt like it was slowly burning.

Surely there must be someone else here other than that sleeping man. She thought.

She looked at the Observer, who looked as if all of this was normal. She even looked at her as if to reassure her that this was normal. He gave her a nod as if to tell her that it was time for them to go. She then followed him, with a slightly unsure feeling as she did, after all this was the first time that she had even been in another continent.

As she walked out of the doc she had the feeling like she was stepping into another world, another culture, another way of life. It felt odd to her as she looked at the men in with cloth on their heads and women wearing their colourful vales with what looked like coins dangling off them.

“Be careful Car, the people here are not as to be trusted back home.” he said. “Now, we need to book ourselves into an inn as soon as possible.”

“Right.”

“We also need to make a bit more money too.” he said.

“Well, maybe we can get a bounty to go on.” she said.

“Of course you would say that.” he said as he looked at her, however it was all too clear by the look in his eye that he was clearly seeing that he was seeing someone else. This she tried to ignore so she punched her hand.

“Right, it's time we got on!” she said.

“Yes, lets!” he said.

They came to a purple inn where she saw a picture with what looked like a younger version of the Chronicler and an older version of Scar.

“Observer...”

“Yes, that's the Chronicler and Drew, see how alike you look?”

“Yeah, what's your point?” she asked.

“Well you can act like her too.” he pointed out.

Her eyebrow raised.

That's interesting.

“Right.”

“Although I did not know that you were a Bounty Hunter.” he commented.

“Not just yet, I still need to go on at least four more jobs until I'm a fully fledged Bounty Hunter.” she said.

He smiled.

“What was your first job?” he asked.

She told him.

“Well, I would not expect that you would go on that one.”

“It wasn't a dragon it was a wyvren.” she said as she looked at the board as of which she soon took one.

“Saving a centaur from a hydra? What made you pick that one?” he asked as he looked at it.

“Medmara.”

He looked at her, his face completely white as a sheet.

“Oh, has she called you?” he asked with a tone of his voice higher than normal.

“Yes. So I think that as the centaur is from the same place as her, I think that he can give me some information on her.” she said.

He nodded.

“Well, then I think that it would do us well to get a good night's sleep.” he said.

She smiled and nodded.

They woke up the next morning and were soon out the door and on their way. They soon came to the cave that was in the description. They walked in and spotted that the mouth and the cave itself was the size of a giant. This gave her a sense of foreboding and dread.

If this is how big this thing is than can I really take down such a beast? She thought as she remembered what the Dark Master Lord did to her and her body started to freeze for a moment but she shook her head and told herself to get over it and she had to remind herself that she ha taken down a dragon so a hydra should not be too bad.

She then came to a chamber of the large cave that, by the looks of things it seemed to have a wall and stairs carved out in front of her. This told her that once this cave used to be occupied by humans or people of some kind. This also hinted that this hydra must have driven or eaten away all those who used to be here. Who they were hardly mattered to her.

She looked for the centaur and soon found him. He was high up in a golden cage that looked like a birds. Her eyes followed a golden chain that the cage hung from and as she did in led down to the opposite side of the chamber. This told her all that she needed to know on that front so she then looked around and for the hydra and to her dismay she saw that the hydra was sleeping on the ground in between her and the lever. By this she was able to work out that there was nothing that she could do to stop her from fighting the creature as its advanced hearing would pick up on any and every sound that the metal will make.

So as she walked down the carved out stairs she looked cared fully at the hydra, thinking of what would be the most advantageous thing for her to do. She knew that if she fired her shots now, then it would most likely than not cause the hydra to damage the staircase, which would cut off their way out and the only time that the would be able to leave would be the next full moon and she knew that she did not want to wait that long after all Ryo and the Chronicler would have left this place by then, so she knew that the best thing to do would be fighting the hydra away from the leaver.

“Observer, I would like you to go and pull down the centaur while I fight the hydra.” she said.

He nodded.

“Alright, but remember-”

“You cut one head off and two more grow in its place, yeah got it.” she said as they got to the bottom and that was when she ran to the wall on the right and she raised her crossbow an fired one arrow at the head.

“What are you doing?” he shouted.

“Never mind Just focus on your job!” she shouted back.

That was when the arrow hit the eye of the head nearest to her causing it to wake and then all heads were on her. She then used her magic to set the arrow alight and soon it was roaring in pain. She then loaded the next arrow and hit another one in the eye and as she set that one alight the other two heads bashed themselves to where she was, seeing this she jumped and landed on the head on the left and then lowered the crossbow and then fire and fired at both eyes and jumped as the other head whipped forward and snapped at her.

Seeing that there was only one way to take this thing down she dived inside its mouth and took out a small knife and allowed herself to be swallowed by the hydra. Then, as she came to the stomach she dug her knife into the fleshy entrance to a massive stomach that smelt of nothing but death.

She than spotted the other three entrances to the hydra stomach. She then took out her crossbow and fired at a section above the acid pool lining and then fired. It was soon dug into the flesh above it. This, she knew would not be enough to kill it just yet. So she used her magic to get the arrow to pass even further deeper into the flesh. This worked until she felt pain erupt from her inner right arm and soon there was blood dripping into the stomach.

However she soon found out that that was not thee worst thing that she would be facing for she soon found that her air was running low and she soon found it was getting more and more difficult to breathe.

She then, with nothing else to lose she set her arrow alight and she willed the fire to become hotter and hotter. Suddenly the orange fire turned blue and soon she felt like there was a force pushing her out of the stomach chamber, by which point the air became thinner and thinner. She, soon to her dismay saw that the flame died out. But it did what she intended for it to do and the acid ran out of the stomach and out into the other arias of the body, dissolving everything in its path. She soon slit beside her and she soon spun out of the hydra.

She gulped down each breath as the air somehow seemed colder and fresher. She soon went over to the golden cage that was now on the ground. The Observer soon opened the lock. As the centaur was free he caught her as she fainted.

When she woke up they were in the cold desert and on the centaur's back.

“How long have I been out?” she asked.

“Five and a half hours.” said the centaur. “Now listen, I am sorry to say that I have nothing on Medmara, but as I am in your debt I will go to my superior the one know as Ringer to find out. I hope that I will find as much as I can on her. However I was told that she was made the weapon of the gods to keep those who challenge their authority from doing so shortly after the foolish prophecy of Phorap the mad. I wish that I had more on that but that is all I have.”

She looked aside and nodded.

Why would the gods think that I would challenge their authority? She wondered as her eyes met the Chronicler's and then her eyes slid to Ryo's with a relieved heart.