Title: Escape
Rating: PG-13 I guess for
violence.
Summary: This takes place
days before Ats S.3 “The
Price” and it ends exactly
where Connor bursts through
the portal in “The Price”
It’s a day in the life of
Steven and Holtz in
Quor-toth. Written for the
Connorficathon for Dana
(Happy Birthday!)
Requirements at the end.
Steven stood at the mouth of
the cave and sniffed the
air. It reeked of sulfur but
he had grown accustomed to
it. He was scenting the air
for the things that lay
under the sulfur smell, the
scent of prey and other
predators. He stood poised,
completely still, the
reddish light of the ever
present sun making him a
silhouette.
He glanced back
at the still sleeping man in
the cave. His watch would
be over soon, his father
would be waking and it would
time to go hunting. Lately
he had been doing more and
more of the hunting on his
own. Holtz was getting older
and while he insisted he was
still capable of hunting, he
seemed more and more at ease
with allowing Steven to do
the hunting. Holtz prepared
the food, gathered firewood,
sewed the clothing they wore
and helped Steven with the
tanning of the hides.
Steven walked
over to the east wall of the
cave and began sorting
through their weapons. He
selected a spear with a
sharp stone head. He tested
its balance, even though he
used it on an almost daily
basis. He ran his fingers
lightly over the edge. It
was still sharp. Holtz said
it was crafted from flint.
Steven felt
Holtz stir before he heard
him. He glanced over his
shoulder and confirmed that
Holtz was awake. The older
man sat up stiffly and
coughed. Steven rose and
walked across the cave with
a fluid grace rarely seen in
anything human. He handed
the water skin he carried to
Holtz. The older man nodded,
his eyes red and puffy with
sleep and age. He uncapped
the water skin and drank
deeply from it, handing it
back to Steven when he was
done.
“Going hunting?”
Holtz asked, gesturing to
the spear with a nod.
Steven nodded.
“We’ll eat the last of the
meat for breakfast.”
Holtz nodded and
stood up, leaning against
the rough wall of the cave.
He coughed wetly and set
about stoking the fire with
the meager supply they had.
Steven watched him with
careful eyes. His father was
getting older every day it
seemed. The atmosphere here
might not affect Steven
much but it was definitely
affecting Holtz.
“Wait until I
come back to go get
firewood,” Steven said and
walked out of the cave.
He prowled the
landscape, sticking close to
rocks and scrub brush. The
heat made the air shimmer.
It made the beasts gathered
around the watering hole
seem even more unreal then
the assortment of horns and
colored hides.
Steven crouched
behind a cluster of brush.
He sliced the stone edge of
the spear across his forearm
and held his arm over the
brush. He backed away from
the brush, leaving a line of
blood along the trail and
around a corner. He trailed
the blood all the way into
the small canyon and then
retraced his steps to the
mouth of the canyon. It was
the perfect ambush spot,
sheltered on three sides by
tall rock walls. He stepped
into a crevice in a rock
wall and licked his arm,
helping the wound to seal
up.
He waited
patiently until he heard
something snuffling toward
him, sniffing at the trail
of blood he’d left. He
watched as the creature and
its companion made their way
into the canyon. They
whispered between them in a
language Steven didn’t
understand. He waited until
they had come to the end of
the blood trail and stepped
out from his hiding spot. He
threw the spear and it arced
through the air. One of the
demons turned and looked up
as the spear arced, hitting
his right eye and thrusting
all the way through his
brain. The creature fell
where it stood.
Steven grinned
as the second demon rushed
toward him with a feral war
cry. He answered with his
own wordless battle cry and
ran toward the demon. They
met with a crash that Steven
felt shudder his bones. It
didn’t slow him down. He and
the demon scrabbled on the
dirt, each fighting for the
upper hand. Steven drove his
thumb into the demon’s eye
and kept shoving until he
felt the eyeball burst under
his thumb. The demon
screamed in pain and fell
back. Steven kicked the
demon’s knee hard and it
buckled. The volume of the
demon’s screams increased
and Steven grinned
maniacally.
Steven placed
one hand on the demon’s head
and the other on its chin.
He twisted and the crack of
the demon’s neck resounded
through out the canyon. He
pulled the spear from the
other demon’s head and tied
it at his waist. He crouched
and managed to sling the
much larger body of one of
the dead demons onto his
skinny shoulders. It was a
short walk back to the cave.
He could skin, cut and slice
the demon up there. This
particular demon had a set
of wicked looking fangs. He
decided he’d take those for
his trophy this time.
Steven stepped
side wise through the narrow
opening of the cave. He
tossed the demon carcass to
the dirt floor of the cave.
Holtz stepped over the
carcass and outside to
gather firewood without a
word. Steven went to work
gutting, skinning and
cleaning the demon. He
tried to keep the hide in
tact. If it could be
softened it would make good
clothing. It was tough hide.
The sun had gone
down and a dinner of fresh
demon meat had been eaten.
The fire burned low and
Steven was stretched out on
his side amongst a pile of
skins and hides. Holtz sat
against the smoothest part
of the stone wall with his
eyes closed. Steven watched
him with careful eyes. Holtz
coughed wetly, and Steven
handed him the water skin.
Holtz took it and drank
deeply. They had to find a
way out of here. From the
stories Holtz told, Steven
knew the other dimension had
beings called doctors that
cured people when they were
sick. He was fairly sure
Holtz required a doctor. The
sulfur air and diet of
various demon meats couldn’t
be good for him. He seemed
to age a bit more every day.
And then there was the
question of revenge, it had
to be paid and it could only
be paid in the dimension
Holtz came from, the
dimension that included the
vampire, Angelus.
“Are you ready
to begin the story where I
left off last night?” Holtz
asked.
“Yes, Father,”
Steven said.
“Alright then,
you see Paris fell in love
with Helen, even though he
knew she belonged to another
man. On the night they were
to leave, Helen agreed to
run away with Paris. She
loved him as he loved her so
he took her to Troy, knowing
it would cause a war,” Holtz
begin.
“That was
stupid, to start a war over
a woman,” Steven said.
Holtz smiled in
the firelight. “Why? Men
have wars over land,
religion and politics. Why
is it so foolish to have a
war over love?”
Steven shrugged
in the fire light. “It’s
just a girl. There are other
girls.”
“No, my son, for
some men there is only one
girl,” Holtz said in a half
whisper.
*
Steven had been
watching this particular
clan of demons for weeks.
He had seen several of them
leave this dimension. He had
even caught a glimpse of the
dimension they were going
to.
That night when he returned
to the cave he told Holtz
what he had been doing.
“There is this
clan of demons, they can
punch a hole in this
dimension and jump through
to another. They aren’t
really a fighting type of
demon. They growl and
posture but they jump
dimensions when they feel
threatened,” Steven said.
Holtz looked
down at his hands, examining
them and measuring his words
precisely. “There is only
one dimension for demons
leaving Quor Toth to go.”
“Yes Father?”
Steven said content to let
the man speak in his own
time.
“I did not think
it was possible but things
leaving Quor Toth can only
go to one dimension, the
dimension I left, the
dimension you are from,”
Holtz said.
The dimension
with Angelus lay
unspoken between them.
“Good. We need
to get out of here, and I
think I know a way,” Steven
said.
*
The demon
screamed as Steven slashed
at it with the curved
serrated blade he’d strapped
to his arm earlier that
morning. Holtz waited,
watched, from a protected
crevice behind Steven.
Steven slashed at the demon
again and it scrambled,
looking for an escape but
Steven cut him off at every
point. There was no where to
go. The demon shouted some
words in a language Steven
did not understand and
struck out at the air behind
him. A rip appeared and the
demon leapt through. Steven
cast a glance behind him and
saw that Holtz was already
on the move toward the rip.
Steven dove head first after
the demon.
Dana wanted:
No pairing but Holtz as a
father figure would be
welcomed.
2 things she wanted: Set in
Quor-toth or that dimension
plays a huge role in the
story.
Up close hand to hand combat
2 things she didn’t want:
No character death
Genre: action/adventure
and/or angst
Rating: G-R
Hope you enjoyed!
