The Ruso Antrum Descent Chapter 1: No Choice But To Go
#2 of The Ruso Antrum Descent
The first chapter to The Ruso Antrum Descent. Do not start here. There is a prologue.
Gebun stretched his arms out and yawned. "Ahhhhh... I had a good sleep. How about you Baruhn?"
Baruhn sat up from the small piece of fabric on the ground and stretched his arms yawning. The fabric on the ground was a brown canvas that originally belonged to a sack an adventurer was a carrying. It was folded over itself to create what could possibly be the most comfortable spot in the entire Ruso Antrum. "Ya, I did." Baruhn turned his head to Gebun and then smiled. "I had fun last night."
Gebun smiled back. "Me too." He then sat up, rubbed his eyes and then sighed. "Today is gathering day, isn't it?"
Baruhn nodded. "Yup. We have to gather our food or we'll starve for the next week."
"I know, I know." Gebun said back. "I just don't like doing it. It's soooooo boring..."
Baruhn laughed. "Come one, get dressed. I'll meet you at the usual spot." Baruhn stood up, picked up his glasses from beside the bed, put them on then proceeded to put on his loin cloth. Clothing wasn't much of a thing that any of the humanoids in the Ruso Antrum worried about. It's not like there's a tailor around anyways. Most of them just wrapped any kinds of fabrics they could find around their bodies. Baruhn's loin cloth was simply made from torn curtains that were found in the castle ruins. It used to be white, but now it was a grey with brown spots all over it.
"See you soon." Baruhn left the small room whiched seemed to once be a storage room for the castle.
Gebun stood up rubbing his eyes once again. "Man. I'm still tired..." Normally imps would would two horns that sat on wither side of their head, but Gebun had a third horn in the middle of his forehead. He was the only imp he knew of that had this third horn. Gebun picked up his loin cloth and put it on. Gebun's loin cloth was a little more fancy then Baruhn's. It was made from a leather belt which used to belong to an adventurer. Gebun used a knife to alter it to his size. Wrapped around the front of the belt and hangin down was a carefully cut out square piece of dark red cloth that used to be part of a much larger banner. It was found on the ancient corpse of a knight in the castle ruins. Gebun had cut it out so that the coat of arms was still on it, two swords crossed with demon like horns on either side. The coat of arms had a glossy gold color.
Ggebun scratched the top of his head and decided that he was ready to go. He spread out his wings and starte to flapping them to get off the ground. He then flew off out the room and into the air. He soared upwards until he was out of the castle and then glided south to the outcropping he was on yesterday. Baruhn was there waiting for him. "Baruhn!" Gebun landed on the outcropping beside Baruhn. "Shall we get started?"
"One second." Baruhn said. Baruhn leaned in to Gebun and kissed him on the cheek. "Now we can get started." The two turned to face the entrance to the Antrum. "I heard that there's going to be a lot of adventurers coming in today. We may be able to pilfer enough food to last us two weeks."
"Who's the source on this information?" Gebun asked.
"Baruhn adjusted his glasses. "Strud."
"Strud is unreliable." Gebun said in a stern voice. "I'll only anticipate the usual one or two adventurers that come in."
A long while passed and still no one came in. "Man... It seems that Strud was way more off then he usually is." Baruhn said. "Damn... I wasted our time."
Gebun laughed. "No, you didn't. Strud did. We'll wait one hour, if no one comes in we'll have to find foor elsewhere."
Baruhn shook his head. "One hour? That's a long time to sit and wait."
Gebun smiled. "Then we won't just wait." Gebun reached over to Baruhn and ran his finger down Baruhn's red mohawk. "I can think of something to kill the time." Baruhn smiled back then backed up along the arch until his back was against the wall. He then waved his finger beckoning Gebun to come over to him. "Oh yes." Gebun put on an even bigger smile and quickly moved over to Baruhn wrapping on arm around his neck and the other around his waist. Baruhn held Gebun the same way and pulled him closer so that their bodies were touching. They kept smiling at each other for a moment before Gebun moved in for a kiss.
Both of them had their eyes closed sharing a deep and passionate kiss, both of their tongues moving through each others mouths. Baruhn moved his right hand from behind Gebun's waist down to his butt and gave it a squeeze. Both of them were at full mast. Gebun pulled away from the kiss and slowly moved down onto his knees. He looked up at Baruhn and smiled, then he looked ahead of himself. He lifted up Baruhn's loin cloth revealing his fully erect cock. He wrapped both his hands around it and was about to put it in his mouth when there was a faint voice that said, "Wow. What a place." Both Baruhn and Gebun looked at the entrance. Standing there was a lone adventurer wearing leather armor with a sword at his waist and a wearing a backpack that looked like it was full to bursting.
Gebun stood back up still looking at the adventurer. "Son of a bitch..."
Baruhn laughed. "Don't worry, there will always be later. Food is higher priority then our pleasure."
Gebun looked at Baruhn and then smiled. "When we get back to the storeroom, I'm gonna give it to you from behind while giving you a reach around."
Baruhn's eyes widened. "Let's get this done quickly then!"
Gebun picked up two knives off the arch which they kept there for their gathering days. He held them so that their blades were facing down. "You know the procedure Gebun."
"Of course I do." Gebun said back as he jumped off the arch. Gebun spread out his wings and glided down to the adventurer and landed on the top of his back pack.
"What in the bloody hell?" The adventurer said as he looked back at Gebun. "Oi! You little bugger! Get off of me!" Gebun grabbed the bags handle with his feet and the began flapping his wings lifting the adventurer off the ground. Imps are small, but their wings are very powerfull. "Oi! Put me down!" Gebun then used the knives to cut the arm straps which made the adventurer fall to the ground. He then flew down the hall. "You son of a bitch!" The adventurer yelled at Gebun. He stood up then pulled a crossbow from his back which was hidden by the back pack.
"Gebun!" Baruhn yelled. "Crossbow!"
Gebun looked back to see that the adventurer did indeed have a crossbow and it was pointed directly at him. "Oh shit!" There was a loud crack as the bolt was fired from the crossbow and whizzed down the coridor. Gebun quickly dodged out of the way and the bolt flew until it hit a wall making a clink noise. Gebun laughed and flew towards to storeroom with Baruhn following close behind.
"There's tons of food in here!" Gebun exclaimed as he looked inside the bag. "It's like that adventurer had nothing on his mind but food." The bag was indeed full to bursting with various kinds of food. Bread, soups, meat, vegetables and so on. "This could last us three weeks!"
Baruhn and Gebun high fived. Baruhn then smiled at Gebun. "I believe you have a promise to keep."
Gebun smiled back. "Yes, I do." Gebun agressively grabbed Baruhn's shoulders then forcefully spun him around. Gebun then grabbed Baruhn's crotch and gave it a couple of squeezes.
"Oh, Gebun!" Baruhn said gleefully. Gebun pushed Baruhn onto his hands and knees and then got onto his knees himself. He ran both his hands up Baruhn's legs then grabbed the base of his tail and lifted it up. That's when a voice said, "Oh, now that's gross." Just then a rope dropped around Baruhn's neck and tightened lifting Baruhn off the ground and out of Gebun's reach.
Gebun scrambled to his feet and looked up and saw the adventurer on the top of the wall with Baruhn caught in a noose rod. "You bastards steal my food." The adventurer said. "You steal my money." The adventurer brought the noose rod up to his level and looked Baruhn in the eyes. "I should be able to get a decent price for you at the arena." Baruhn frantically scrambled trying to get the noose off of his neck. "Only one of you should be enough to replace the food. Thanks. Tootaloo!" The adventurer jumped off to the other side of the wall.
"Baruhn!" Gebun called out. "I'll get you back!" Gebun grabbed the two knives off the ground by the back pack and flew off into the air and over the wall. The adventurer, still having Baruhn in the noose rod, was runnnig across a rickety rope bridge that lead to the entrance. Suddenly, there was a loud snap as the ropes on the other side of the bridge snapped, causing it to fall with the adventurer and Baruhn. "Baruhn!" Gebun yelled in a frantic voice. "Baruhn! NO!" Both the adventurer and Baruhn fell into the casm below into darkness. Gebun listened with fear as both their screms faded to nothing. That casm went really far down into the much lower floors of the Ruso Antrum. Gebun's heart sank. He was afraid that Baruhn was going to die, afraid that he would be alone, afraid that he would never see Baruhn again.
Gebun landed on the ground, dropped the knives, fell to his knees and began to sob. "Ah... Baruhn... No... What am I going to do... Baruhn..." His sobbing became more intense until he began to fully cry. "Baruhn! AH, WHY?! BARUHN!" Gebun fell to his hands then lied down on his stomach, crying onto the dusty floor. "Baruhn... Don't leave me Baruhn..."
"I'm assuming Baruhn is the imp that fell." Gebun looked to where the voice was coming from. There was a lizardman peering his head over the ledge of the casm. Lizardmen usually stayed on the third floor of the Antrum.
"Ya..." Gebun replied as his crying turned into sobbing again. "I loved him so much..."
The lizardman climbed up over the ledge and then walked over to Gebun. The lizardman was much larger than Gebun. He stood up to 5"8' while Gebun was only 2"3'. He had pale green scales and spines running from the top of his head and down his back, much like a mohhawk. He wore a dark brown loin cloth held up with a belt that looked like it was made from rodent bones and leather. There was another belt going across his chest which held a crude iron spear on his back. "I can tell you he's not dead. At least not yet."
Gebun sniffled and then got up on his feet. "What do you mean?"
"They flew." The lizardman said. "The imp, Baruhn, began flapping his little wings, but the adventurer was too much for him and they fell again, but that time from a safe height. They landed in the Deep River. It runs down to the 50thfloor. They may very well still be alive."
Gebun felt a wave of hope flow over him. "Then... I got to go in that river myself!"
"Woah, woah, woah!" The lizardman said quickly, waving his hands in front of him. "That river is mighty dangerous. IF he did live through it's current, you may not. Then your rescue attempt would be worthless."
"I've got to go get him!" Gebun said angerly.
"I understand that." Said the lizardman. "But you don't got to do a suicide mission to do it. Besides, the things on the 50th floor would swallow you whole. Listen, if you want to save him, you got to not put yourself in unnecisary danger. Take your time, go down one floor at a time. Scour for any loot while you're doing so. There's powerful weapons and artifacts around here, especially on the lower floors. Gear up along the way, improve your abilities as you go. Then you'll be able to save him no matter what might get in your way on that floor. Believe it or not, but the people who built this place made it so that you improve your abilities as you decend."
Gebun listened to the lizardman and processed the information. "Go down floor by floor. Improve abilities. Gather powerful gear." Gebun shook his head. "From the stories I've heard, it would take years to walk down to the 50thfloor. Besides, the gear around here wouldn't fit me. I'm 2 foot 3."
The lizardman laughed. "Have you ever tried using the gear around here? One size fits all. Everything in this place is magically enchanted to be useful to anyone who claims it. Here in Ruso Antrum, steel plate will fit you as well as it would fit a giant."
Gebun was shocked by what he was just told. "So you mean I could use the gear around here? How do you know so much about this place?"
The lizardman crossed his arms. "My father made it to the bottom floor."