Blood and Shadows

by Dayne Edmondson

  The companions, now four strong once again, trudged eastward through the dark Harren Woods in search of the creature. They had set out from the inn before dusk and arrived at the edge of the woods when full night had fallen. The woods were cut back a few miles from the city walls, so anyone approaching the city could be seen from a distance.

  After several minutes of walking through the woods, they reached a clearing. Dawyn set down his pack and the others followed suit. He opened his pack and took out a horn. As he drew it to his lips, Alivia interrupted him.

  “Wait, why are you blowing the horn? Do you want everyone within a few miles to know we are here?”

  “That’s the idea,” Dawyn said. “We are trying to draw the creature out, after all. I don’t expect anyone other than the creature to be out in the woods this night.”

  Alivia rolled her eyes and whispered something Dawyn couldn’t hear, but nodded for Dawyn to precede.

  Continuing, Dawyn drew in a breath and blew. Aooooohhhh. Dawyn blew the horn twice more and then replaced it in his pack. He looked up at the others and smiled. “Now, my friends, we wait.”

  “We just wait here?” Horace said. “Like sitting ducks waiting to be slaughtered?”

  “We are the bait,” Dawyn said. “But unlike a duck or a deer against a hunter, we are far from defenseless. I would suggest getting rest while we all can, it may be a long night. Let’s make a fire so we can keep warm as well.”

  Together, they gathered wood for a fire and Alivia lit the pile on fire. They all settled down on the ground, but no one slept. Anxiety hung in the air as the group watched the shadows and kept their ears open for any movement.

  There, movement by one of the trees! Alivia threw a fireball at the object in motion and a squirrel dropped charred to the ground. “Oops,” Alivia said, abashed. I thought it was….”

  “A ravenous killer squirrel?” Dawyn asked, trying to contain a laugh.

  “Oh shut up, you,” Alivia replied. “You’re the one who dragged us out here.”

  Dawyn was about to retort, but stopped as he heard the sound of underbrush cracking in the distance. He held up his hand for silence and listened.

  Coming from the north was the sound of brush something very large. The amount of brush being displaced seemed to be more than even a boar could move. Dawyn had never liked boar hunting much, though the king went on special occasions. Dawyn had always tried to find some excuse to remain behind while the king and his court went out.

  No, the sound was too loud to be a boar. It had to be the creature.

  The others heard the sound as well and were sitting still as statues. Dawyn motioned them to prepare their weapons and spread out. They stood, arranged like a four-pointed star, with Dawyn closest to the sound. A moment later, the creature appeared.

  It was tall, dwarfing Dawyn by about a meter. It stood on four crab-like legs that bent at the knee. Barbs were located all along the legs. It had a torso that almost looked human, though its face was distinctly insectoid. Two thick arms that ended in hand-like appendages featuring an opposable thumb and three fingers were attached to the torso. At the end of each finger was a long knife-like nail. On its face was a set of large pincers that curved inward and a large mouth filled with teeth. It had two sets of eyes, one on top of the other, and wore a type of natural carapace armor on its torso, arms and back. The back armor stretched over its head and down to just above its eyes, making it appear that it was wearing a helmet of some sort. In all, this thing could tear apart anything that came at it and looked well-defended.

  As Dawyn watched the monster, studying it, the creature seemed to be looking back at him with one set of eyes, while the second set studied his companions. An interesting advantage, Dawyn thought. Being able to watch an opponent with one set of eyes, while keeping an eye on the peripherals or a second opponent, would be a valuable advantage for any predator. From the way it was studying Dawyn, he had no doubt it knew what it was doing.

  With a fluid motion Dawyn drew both blades from the scabbards at his waist. These blades had been forged for him many years earlier, and felt as though they were an extension of his body and will.

  Alivia let out a gasp as she saw the creature, Anwyn gripped her quarterstaff tighter and Horace drew his daggers. Dawyn assumed Alivia was surprised by its ugliness and size of the creature.

  “Krai’kesh,” Alivia said in a whisper.

  “What did you say?” Dawyn asked, surprised, turning his head toward her while still keeping an eye on the creature.

  “The ancient texts speak of these creatures,” Alivia replied. “The Founders wrote about them, though by all accounts the creatures were not from our world. The Founders describe them in great detail and told of how they had fought these creatures among the stars in mighty steel ships. These creatures were described as the greatest enemies of humankind and the Founders warned they would soon come to our world. Many prophecies were written about the Time of the Saviors, as it was called. The Founders did not know when the Krai’kesh would come to our world, but they foresaw heroes that would be known as the Saviors coming from beyond our world to save it. Prophecy says…”

  “We’ll have time to talk more about prophecy after we kill this Krai’kesh,” Dawyn interrupted, his voice sharp. “For now, can you think of anything in the ancient writings that spoke of how to kill it?”

  Alivia looked thoughtful. “Yes, I do recall one passage that said how their armor was so thick that they had to be ‘shot’ in the head region above the neck or near their legs. Anywhere else and it would take a greater amount of time to kill the creatures than most men could stand.”

  “All right, let’s move.”

  The Krai’kesh had been standing still during the exchange, as if studying its prey. When the companions turned to face the creature, instead of running, it let out a high-pitched yell and clacked its mandibles together. It had expected the companions to flee at the sight of it, not fight.

  Dawyn studied their area. He had chosen an open clearing for the express purpose of fighting within it. The Krai'kesh stood at the outer edge of the trees. Somehow they had to draw the creature into the center of the clearing so they could surround it. He stepped forward, roaring a wordless challenge in response to the creature. “I want each of you to go near the edges of the clearing,” Dawyn said, not taking his eyes off the creature. “You’ll surround the creature while I draw its attention and try to kill it.”

  The creature, angered by the taunting Dawyn had done, scuttled forward, its arms bent with its hand-claws pointed toward him. It continued to open and close its mandibles as it approached.

  Dawyn had chosen to stand in the center of the clearing, so he would have plenty of room to fight. Once the Krai’kesh was in melee range of Dawyn, it slashed out with both claws, seeking to strike Dawyn down. Dawyn raised and crossed his blades, catching the claws on them. He strained against the force of the blow, but held his ground. Years of training with the blades had honed his muscles and he was thus able to withstand more than an average warrior could.

  Not daring to move any closer to the razor sharp mandibles, Dawyn shoved against the claws of the creature, pushing them back far enough for him to dislodge his blades, and slashed toward the crab-like legs. His strike was too slow, however, and its claws slammed down to pin the blades to the ground. The creature leaned in as if to snap at him, but Dawyn was able to slide his blades out and leap to the side, escaping his head being crushed or ripped from his body.

  The creature was fast and smart – it seemed sentient and to have fought warriors such as him recently. It knew what to expect and how to counter. Stepping back, Dawyn raised a hand, signaling his companions to strike.

  The earth around the tips of the feet of the creature seemed to ripple as if boiling for a moment. Moments later the creature’s feet began to sink into the ground. The creature, unsure of what was going on, tried to move its feet but found it couldn’t.

  A light appeared in Alivia
’s hands as she drew energy from the campfire. A large stream of pure orange fire, more powerful than if there had been no other source of energy around, streaked toward the creature, steaming the water in the air as it went. The bar of flame slammed into the creature and it roared in pain and anger. As the last of the stream struck it, smoke rose from its charred carapace. Dawyn held his breath and hoped the creature might be dead but, a moment later, it swung its claws around and continued clacking its mandibles. That would have been too easy, Dawyn thought to himself.

  Daggers thrown from Horace came next. The man, having traveled with Favio for many years, had much skill in the knife and threw with expert precision. One blade struck one of the creature’s rear legs, burying it hilt-deep, while another struck its back and bounced off. Another pair of daggers flew and struck the second rear leg of the creature. It howled in pain as its rear legs collapsed. Had the creature not been bound in the dirt by Alivia’s magic its rear legs would have crumpled. Dark fluid leaked out of the wounds.

  Anwyn, realizing she could not stand against the creature with a simple wooden quarterstaff, transformed herself into a large hawk. Because of the unique ability druids had, that of converting their own body’s matter and matter within other living creatures, a druid could convert all of their matter into the form of another living animal. The caveat was the creature a druid transformed into had to be a living creature and it had to exist in nature. Druids in the past had tried to draw fantastic creatures that may not have even existed and turn into them. Such attempts had been disastrous, as trying to replace the Mother of the World by creating a new species was not within their power. When a druid transformed into a creature, her entire mass was used up. Attempting to transform into a giant bear would result in turning into a bear that possessed the same mass that Anwyn had in human form. The same was applied to any animal, which was one of the reasons druids did not turn into flies or cockroaches, they would be huge and could die in that form.

  Once transformed into a hawk, Anwyn flew straight to the back of the creature and landed on its armored head. There, she pecked at the eyes of the creature and succeeded in poking out a pair of its eyes before being swatted at in anger and flying away. Transforming near her clothing, she dressed and picked up her quarterstaff.

  The Krai’kesh, having been immobilized, scorched, pierced and clawed at, was growing angrier than before, but it also appeared to be growing weaker. It was leaking a lot of its bodily fluid and, left alone, would die soon. However, Dawyn was not one to take chances.

  Striding forward, more confident now, Dawyn extended the time dilation effect around himself and his vicinity. The claws of the creature streaked out once again for him but slowed as they met the dilation field. Dawyn batted them aside and sliced down at its legs, each blade going for a leg. His mage-forged blades sliced through the monster’s unarmored legs with little difficulty and the creature toppled forward. Dawyn stepped back as it crashed to the ground.

  Despite its current position of helplessness, it had a lot of fight left. Reaching down with its claws, the creature used its appendages to hold itself up as it wagged its head from side to side, trying to ward off any attackers with it sharp mandibles. Fortunately, Dawyn had kept his distance after slicing the legs of.

  Dawyn studied the creature called a Krai’kesh and spoke at last. “Why did you kill all of those people? Why are you here? Are others with you?”

  The Krai’kesh watched Dawyn with intent eyes full of what Dawyn imagined to be hatred. Dawyn could imagine no compassion or remorse within a creature this sinister – only pure evil.

  Once it was clear the creature could not communicate with Dawyn, he drew back his blades, pointed toward the creature, and thrust them into its neck. The blades hit the carapace on the creatures back after slicing through the soft tissue before it and more fluids came pouring out.

  The creature began to let out a terrible, high-pitched shriek that seemed to be a death cry. Its arms collapsed and its head fell to the ground. The Krai’kesh twitched a few more times and was at last still.

  The companions gathered around the clearing while cheering in triumph. It had taken all four of them, but they had managed to kill the Krai’kesh. The woods were safe for the time being. Turning, they left the corpse of the creature, along with the pile of ash from the fire, behind.

  Chapter 17: Tales of Prophecy