D & D - Red Sands by Paul B. Thompson, Tonya R. Carter Page B

word and went to the donkeys. He unstrapped a nearly empty pannier from the pack animal and dumped the remaining victuals into the next basket.
    "This should burn nicely," he said. The dry wicker hamper would indeed blaze well.
    Jadira felt in her sash for her flint. It wasn't there. She ran desperate fingers around her back, trying to find the precious firestone.
    "My flint is lost!"
    "Ob, filth!" exclaimed Marix.
    "Worry not," said Tamakh. "Fire is the sacrament of my god." He set the pannier upside down against a flat section of rock wall. He held his hands, palms up, a hair's breadth from the wicker. Eyes clenched tightly shut, Tamakh moved his lips in silent concentration. After what seemed like a long time, wisps of smoke rose from the hamper. The priest slowly closed his trembling hands into fists. . . .
    Crack! A flash of heat struck their faces when the pannier burst into flames. Tamakh snatched his hands away and toppled over, breathing hard. When his friends hauled him to his feet, they noticed that his robe was soaked with sweat.
    "An exhausting task," he said with a sigh.
    The fire crackled in the lively air. Nabul whittled strips off a haunch of dried mutton and seared these in the flames. Fat sizzled out of the meat and made the fire blaze higher.
    Marix wrinkled his nose. "What is that smell?" he said.
    "It's the mutton," said the thief.
    Jadira made a face. "No, I smell it, too. Ai! It's awful!"
    "I don't smell—"
    The rock behind the fire cracked, sending a shower of gritty fragments over them. Everyone scrambled away, dropping whatever they were holding.
    "It's getting worse!" said Marix, pinching his nose. The odor was truly sickening—an overwhelming stench of carrion.
    The rock wall collapsed, burying the fire and many of their possessions. By the glow of the last scattered embers, they saw that a hole had opened in the stone wall. And within the hole, a circlet of red jewels glowed. A loud rasping issued from the hole.
    "By the unholy—! Find a weapon! Find one now!" said Marix.
    A claw the size of a lute pushed out of the dark aperture. It opened and closed with a metallic click. A second claw appeared, translucent red like the first. With a flurry of many legs, an articulated body covered in glistening red armor scuttled into sight.
    "Scorpion! A giant scorpion!" cried Jadira.
    The monster sallied out, aroused by the fire built on its nest. Its deadly tail flexed upward, a stinger as long as a man's arm oozed black poison from the tip.
    The tail lashed out at the nearest target, Marix. He slashed at it with his sword, but the armored hide of the monster was too tough. Jadira, though dazed with horror, leaped in and cut at the thing's right claw. The tail plunged at her. Marix shoved her aside, and the stinger met only air.
    The last bits of flame winked out, and the battle went on in darkness. Uramettu jabbed from a kneeling position with her spear; Tamakh's cudgel thumped one of the monster's red stalk-eyes. Faced with such determined resistance, the scorpion sidled around and backed away.
    "It's going for the donkeys! Stop it! Kill it!"
    Marix duelled with the stinger every step back to the tethered donkeys. While engaged with the monster's tail, he failed to keep track of its claws. One clamped hard on his leg. Marix screamed and fell. The tail thrust down—
    —and was knocked aside by Jadira's scimitar. Tamakh pounded on the hinge of the claw, but it refused to open. Uramettu, strongest of them all, hobbled forward and thrust the spear point into the thing's palps. A gust of rancid air gushed from the monster. The claw opened, and the scorpion swung around, the spear still buried in its face.
    "Nabul! Don't let it get away!" Jadira cried.
    "Get away? Get away?" the thief yelled back as the battered monster scuttled toward him. He gauged the distance and let fly his dagger. The point skipped off the armored thorax and the dagger fell harmlessly aside. That was enough for Nabul. He ran. "Get