209) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 41 -- The Beast, Part 2

Dominic and Gorb thundered down the path, pushing the horses to their limits. For about 45 seconds. 

Only Dominic’s instincts saved him, and just barely. His peripheral vision caught the movement a moment before impact, and he ducked and pitched forward, as a huge cat-like creature slammed into his horse. The crunch was sickening. The horse flopped uselessly on the side of the path, squealing, while the beast landed on its feet, whirling around to find the prey it had somehow missed.

Dominic scrambled back to his feet, long daggers drawn. His bow lay on the path, too far away. “RAAAAAHH!” He rushed it. At the same moment, its tail hit Gorb in the ribs, knocking him from his horse.

Dominic’s daggers found nothing but air as the creature disappeared. Somehow, it was behind Gorb! Dominic threw both knives, then rushed it without thinking, drawing his sword as he ran.

But Reality split apart into screams and flames, and the creature disappeared. It reappeared right beside him, tail-hooks stabbing into his arm, knocking his sword flying. In sheer desperation, he reached out, grabbed the beast’s tail, and held on. 

The beast shimmered and the screaming cracks disappeared. Gorb’s enraged bellow accompanied his war-hammer, smashing down on a hind leg with a satisfying crunch. Twisting, screeching, its front claw smashed into Gorb’s shield; he staggered under the blow, but his hammer pummelled that hind leg a second time. The creature jumped back, unsteadily, tail-hooks slicing deeply into Dominic’s palm as they wrenched out of his grasp. 

As Dominic lost his grip, the cracks reappeared, but just for an instant as Gorb launched himself head-first into the beast’s side.  

“RRRRUNNN!!” he bellowed. “Get de girls!” 

The tail-hooks sliced toward him, but glanced off his shield. Mimicking Dominic, he grabbed them with one gauntleted fist, smashing his hammer again and again into the creature’s mid-section. The tail whipped back, lifting him right off the ground, but he hung on, landing on his feet, frantically dodging side to side to avoid its claws.

Dominic ran, trying not to think about the fact he was leaving Gorb to die. 

A Klliik curse was shredded by Gorb’s scream, but Dominic didn’t stop. They did need the girls, if there was any hope at all.

* * * * *

Two minutes later he charged into the clearing where the girls still sat with Melkorn. The beast lay beside them in a pool of black blood. 

What? Dominic stared for just a moment, wondering how the creature could be alive and dead at the same time. 

“DAMMIT!” Of course! There was more than one! Probably a mate. He cursed himself again. Such an amateur mistake! But now was not the time for self-blame. 

The girls looked up, startled.

Hands on his knees, chest heaving for air, he gasped, “Help Gorb! We got attacked! There’s two! Two! Come! NOW!!” They stared at him blankly.

“Leave! Leave Melkorn! Or we’re gonna die!! NOW!!” He was screaming by the end, sobbing as he staggered back into a run, waving them to follow. 

Lenny swung into action first, sprinting right behind him. Devona and Kohra grabbed Reilly, dragging her with them. 

“NO!” she yelled, squirming out of their grasp and falling onto the ground. “He’ll die if we leave him!”

“COME ON!” Devona yelled even louder, sprinting after Lenny, leaving Reilly on the ground. 

Kohra held out her hand. 

“Reilly! We have to go! It’s the only way we can save Melkorn! But we’ll come back! Okay? We’ll come back!”

“RRRRRRRGGGGHHH!!!” Reilly growled, getting back to her feet. “I HATE YOU!” But she ran, too fast for Kohra to keep up. 

The next two minutes seemed to take forever. Kohra thought she couldn’t run another step, when suddenly she was there. Two dead horses lay on the heavily scuffed, blood-pattered roadway. But nothing else. Gorb was gone. 

“This way,” Dominic rasped, panting. He motioned into the woods, along a path of newly broken ferns. 

“Just a sec…I need…breathe,” gasped Kohra. “Also, remember?” Panting. “Kylryvyn said never go,” panting, “into the trees?” 

“What else can we DO?!!” he yelled, eyes sparking with frustration. Nocking an arrow, he stumbled headlong into the woods.

Half-cursing, half-crying, Kohra followed numbly, Devona and Lenny right behind. Reilly was…. Where’s Reilly? Then she glimpsed her through the trees, still back on the path, stuffing pebbles into her pockets. Smart.

The woods were dead silent. No sounds of fighting; no moans or cries; even the birds had abandoned them. Dominic slowed, as though the gloom had penetrated his panic, reminding him to be careful, to heed his training. He pointed to the forest floor, whispering, “Blood. It’s limping.” 

A dozen paces later, he held up his hand and everyone froze, staring into the tangled branches, seeing nothing to indicate why they were stopping. Putting a finger to his lips, he bent down, whispering in Reilly’s ear. She nodded, then he turned back to Kohra and the others, using hand motions to explain that there was a nest, somewhere in front of them. He and Reilly were going to circle behind it, then drive it toward them. Kohra tried to indicate “no,” to argue, but there was no time, and no point.

Then they were slinking into the forest, Dominic in the lead, moving slowly, silently. Occasionally he pointed something out to Reilly on the ground, and soon, they were out of sight. Not a single snap betrayed their presence. Kohra stood perfectly still. Silence was their only shield. 

Lenny whispered in her ear. “When it comes, all three of us shoot separately. Spread our shots out, like Reilly’s stones. I’ll shoot behind it, you to the right, Dev to the left. As soon as any of us hit the damn thing and it shimmers, grab my shoulder and we send it back to the Hells.” She looked in Kohra’s eyes, her gaze cold and hard. Kohra nodded. 

Lenny whispered the same to Devona, who nodded as well. Carefully, quietly, they inched into position, standing in a tight line with Lenny in the middle, waiting for the rush they knew would be coming if Dominic was able to flush it out as he intended. 

Suddenly the gloom was lifted as a wall of flames whooshed up a short distance away, throwing the nest into stark orange light.  

Then the Reaper was coming, straight for them, crashing through the trees.

“Now!!” Devona screamed. 

Kohra opened to the Flux, managing a ball of flame the size of a plum-pit, burning momentarily in her palm; she hurled it, aiming to the right of where the beast seemed to be. It hit nothing, fizzling out in the air. She tried to conjure a second flame ball, ignoring what was going on, just focusing, focusing on what she needed to do. But the sky opened into flame, and screams cascaded all around her. OH GODS, NOOO….

The screaming stopped abruptly, the sky closed, and the creature was standing right in front of them, shimmering while Lenny blasted it with a wide spray of frost rays out of all her outstretched fingers. Lenny screamed something, repeatedly, but everything was in slow motion and nothing sounded like words. Reflexively, Kohra reached forward and grabbed her shoulder. 

Then that rush, that exhilarating rush, her energy, her essence, trickling out, co-mingling, waves of Lenny and Devona, oscillating back and forth in a frenzy. Kohra felt her terror, rage, grief, all of it like a black river pouring straight from her heart. She kept nothing inside, the door smashing wide open as a second lightning bolt erupted from Lenny’s hands.

Pain exploded as something hit her chest. Kohra flew backward, crunching spine-first into a tree. She crumpled, a red lump, unmoving. 

The Arc dissipated. Lenny fell forward, her face frozen in shock, slumping to the ground, her entire body smoking. 

Devona stood alone, still throwing balls of dark energy at the writhing, screaming beast, when from the side, Dominic leapt, slamming both of his long-daggers deep into its, collapsing as they fell together. 

Devona stood still, dark flame burning in her palm like a black torch. All around her, everything…red. 

She saw Reilly, sitting, unmoving, eyes wide, face slack, aware of nothing. A shapeless clump, like red foam, on a sea of blood. 

Devona turned in a slow circle, taking it all in. She followed the direction of Reilly’s eyes, and Kohra’s body came into focus, barely distinguishable from anything else in this monochromatic world. 

Like Melkorn, her chest was torn open, blood pumping freely down her stomach, into the dank earth. 

Lenny lay completely still, focusing on breathing, nothing else. Her back felt like it was on fire, but she couldn’t move, nor feel anything below her ribcage. She didn’t look. Her breath came in tiny gurgles, like her lungs were filling with something other than air. 

“Have to go,” Devona mumbled to nobody in particular. “Healers….” She stumbled through the trees. 

Kohra heard her, tried to rise, to go with her. Need to get help. Need to….

But nothing happened, her brain communicating with nothing. She looked down on the lumpy redness that was herself. 

Everything was quiet. She was far away. It was getting darker. 

Must be time to sleep.