by Liara Woo
"Ummm…probly 'grammatically.' Isn't that a great long word?"
"I know one even longer. 'Reptilian.' And 'brainless.' Aren't those brainlessly long?" Garbage grinned.
A new voice joined the conversation. "Grammatically has more letters, you idiots. Now get back into formation. When these two wakes up, we kills 'em, but until then we just wait for our turn in the fighting."
"Yessir, Garrock." Murder growled.
"Sorry, sir," Garbage added.
By then Katie had regained full consciousness, and somehow the presence of the demons gave her strength. If they give me strength, why don't I join them? she wondered woozily. Then she remembered: These guys like to kill people. I definitely don't. Then with a jolt she realized: If they like to kill people, then they'll be killing me next!
Quickly she leaped to her feet and drew her sword, backing up against Loriina's unconscious form. "Leave me alone!" she shouted. Then, acting on an impulse, she called down a sphere of Darkness to engulf her as protection (she didn't realize that the ball was so powerful any elf within a mile felt suddenly dizzy and nauseous; Halthren was forced to his knees and gained a gash on his back).
"Master Shape-Shifter?" the one called Garrock asked uneasily. His words gave Katie an idea. She manipulated the Darkness with her mind to take the form of a cloak over her shoulders.
"Yes," she said, imitating the hissing voice as well as she could. She tried not to notice how the demons towered over her. "Do not harm me or this dragon. Come closer." The Dark side of her was rising up. If I can get them close enough, I can behead them all with one strike. And then my instincts for fighting will kick in, and I can take on all of these filthy monsters!
Wait. I thought… I thought I didn't like killing.
I don't. But if this saves me and Loriina, then… it's okay. Right?
"I'm confused," Murder said, scratching his chin with one long talon. Katie gathered more Darkness to her.
"Come closer," she repeated. "Or I'll turn you over to the torture masters. I'm certain that I can craft a Darkness-stealing knife as well as a Light-stealing one. Would you like to have part of your soul destroyed?" It would serve them right, she added silently to herself. After what they did to Halthren…
Quickly every demon who'd heard her gathered close. She could hardly breathe; the stench was so terrible—like spoiled milk and rotten fruit and decaying meat all rolled into one. It made her feel completely sick. Or do I feel sick because of what I'm about to do? She shuddered, her insides roiling, but raised her sword anyway as the demons looked down at her, oblivious and trusting. She bit her lip. I can do this. On three. Ready? One…two…three…
Ssshhhiiing!
The demons closest to her crumpled, their heads gone. Katie felt like throwing up; not only had the smell gotten worse but the sight was horrible…like a PG-13 movie, only in real life. And the fact that she'd been the cause of it made tears sting her eyes. What kind of heartless, cruel, evil monster am I?!
The surrounding demons instantly realized the truth.
"You ain't the Shape-Shifter!" Garbage shouted. Garrock and Murder were both dead, so he took command. "Come on, you dogs! Get her!"
But by the time he'd finished the sentence, he was dead. Katie was a whirlwind, letting her instincts and elven powers kick in. She leaped high into the air and landed on the closest demon's shoulders, dispatching it quickly before moving on to the others. She dodged weapons and deflected blows with her shield, killing demons with her sword flashing. She was unstoppable, but there were too many of them, and soon she knew she'd get tired. Tears streamed down her cheeks with every demon she killed; she felt strangely cold and hollow and utterly despicable and it hurt her heart.
At that moment there came the sound of battle not far from where she was. For one moment the demons were distracted, and Katie dispatched all that were near her. Then she came face to face with a massive green dog monster. A Verdecolossal.
"Oh, no," she whispered. The dog drew back its lips in a terrible sneer, revealing rotting yellow teeth.
It swiped at her and missed, but on its second try its paw slammed into her side, sending her sprawling on a pile of rocks. Katie lay motionless, winded and terrified, as the Verdecolossal advanced. Its spiked tail was wagging with delight.
Suddenly Halthren was there, his silver-blue eyes burning, his small sword gleaming in the torchlight. Lightning flashed. Thunder rumbled. And the dog faced Halthren instead.
Halthren charged, racing towards the beast. It tried to flick him away, but he ducked and rolled under its paw, reaching up and sinking his blade into its foot, all the way to the hilt. As he finished his roll he wrenched it back out and got to his feet, backing slowly away.
The dog howled, lifting its injured paw and shaking it. Then it turned back to Halthren with new fury in its eyes. It let out a thunderous bark, and two more Verdecolossals approached. Uneasily Halthren stepped back another pace.
I have to help him, Katie told herself. The two new dogs closed in on Halthren as the original one went back to Katie. She reached for her sword, but it wasn't there. It'd flown out of her hand when she'd landed on the rocks, and she couldn't see it anywhere.
Oh, no, she thought as the Verdecolossal drew closer. Quickly she unslung her bow from her back and drew an arrow from her quiver, aiming carefully yet quickly. She let go and the arrow embedded itself in the dog's chest, but the beast was too big for the arrow to get to its heart.
Katie fired again, and again, and again, until ten arrows stuck like porcupine quills out of the beast's chest. The Verdecolossal was thoroughly annoyed, and it was done playing around. It raced forward just as Katie fired her eleventh arrow, which plunged into one of the dog's eyes. She didn't watch, mortified at what she'd done, as it howled in agony and reared up, eyes screwed shut. Come on. Focus. You're no help to Halthren if you stay still and whimper like a child. It was the Dark side of her, she was certain, but it gave her strength. She carefully snuck up on the Verdecolossal's blind side and stood directly underneath it, aiming for the heart. She let her arrow go, and it sank deep into the monster's chest.
And it still didn't reach the heart. "Oh, come on," Katie complained, fresh tears stinging her eyes. Why can't this just end?! She raced out from under the dog and fired a thirteenth arrow at it. The arrow sank into the dog's ear and stuck there like a really odd earing. Eight arrows later, the dog was completely blind but nowhere close to dead. Katie felt no better than the demons that had tortured Halthren for prolonging its suffering, but nothing she did could kill it. And now she only had ten arrows left. This looks so much easier in the movies.
Lightning flashed, and the solution came to her. She raised her right hand and pointed directly at the Verdecolossal. "CELED VORELLO!" she screamed, and the largest lightning bolt yet struck the beast. The force of it was so powerful that it knocked Katie backwards into the rocks again. She hit her head hard and everything went black for a moment. When she could see again she stumbled to her feet and saw the smoking corpse of the Verdecolossal before her. "I hate this," she murmured shakily, sitting back down and burying her head in her hands. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Why can't battles be won by two champions playing chess?
Halthren was desperately trying to fend off the blows of the two remaining Verdecolossals although he grew weaker every second from the presence of the Darkness. Determinedly he kept fighting, jumping out of the way of their paws and leaping over them, managing to land blows upon them every few seconds when he was fast enough to run around behind them and stab at their hindquarters.
Katie rejoined the fight, sneaking up behind one of the dogs as it landed a blow on Halthren's chest that sent him hurtling through the air; when he landed there was a sickening crunch. Then the Verdecolossal responsible for that crunch found itself with a human girl on its back. It bucked and jumped, writhing and twisting in an effort to get rid of her. Katie struggled to hold on until the dog paused to catch its breath. Then she jumped off, and wh
en the monster turned to face her she fired three arrows at once directly into its forehead.
But the massive dog just got angrier. The Verdecolossal was attacking again, and Katie didn't feel strong enough for another lightning bolt.
A crowd of demons had gathered around them to watch the Verdecolossals fight. They were cheering and booing and not doing much else besides that. That's disgusting, Katie thought, grimacing. They have so many soldiers that half of them don't even need to fight.
She joined Halthren, who was breathing unevenly and clutching at his chest. He probably had at least one cracked rib. There was a large spot of blood on his upper arm and an even bigger one on his side, and he favored his right leg. And that was just from the last five minutes of fighting; there were other assorted injuries elsewhere on his body as well. "Are you alright?" Katie asked.
"I've been better," Halthren admitted. "What about you?"
"I'm a bit out of breath," Katie responded. All of this running and battling was hard.
As one, the Verdecolossals charged. Katie lunged at the dog to her left, noticing the gashes all over its body that it had received when fighting Halthren. Hopefully it gets tired soon, Katie thought. As she charged it, she spotted a discarded demon sword lying on the ground and quickly hefted it. When the dog attacked, she danced around it. Then she grabbed its ear and pulled herself up to its back. With a shriek of rage directed both at herself and at the demons, she buried her sword deep into its fleshy neck, but before she could realize what was going on the other dog leaped up and slammed its paw into her, knocking her off and pressing her into the ground. Help! she wanted to yell, but the massive paw on her chest stopped her from breathing. She managed one tiny gasp, but the dog pushed harder, driving all of the air from her lungs. All the while Halthren was slashing it with his tiny sword while dodging blows from both dogs. They hit him hard, sending him deep into the mud, but he got to his feet instantly and resumed his attack. Katie heard the battle going on around her as if through a long tunnel, and her vision blurred and went dark.
* * *
She awoke to see wide eyes, dark blue with silver ringing the pupils, peering anxiously into her own. Katie groaned and closed her eyes again. Sleeping in a nice warm bed sounded like a great idea. But for now the cold, wet, muddy ground would have to do.
"Come on, Katie. Wake up. You're alright. Just a bit bruised."
Slowly she sat up, and Halthren helped her with one hand on her back. He was more than a bit bruised himself; his right eye had swollen almost completely shut and his bottom lip was puffy and bleeding. He was also soaked through and covered in mud and blood.
"What about the dogs?" Katie mumbled.
"Dead," Halthren assured her. He pulled her to her feet. "Come; we must get out of here."
"How long was I unconscious?" Katie asked, confused.
"Less than a minute," Halthren replied. He pressed her original sword into her hands. "The demons who watched us fight aren't very pleased."
For the first time, Katie noticed the demons racing towards them, yelling angrily and brandishing their weapons. "Not good," Katie murmured, tightening her grip on her weapon. Together she and Halthren faced the oncoming horde.
Torches
Torches
Joran sat astride his silver-white mare, Shinar, and the two of them blended in perfectly with the gray trunks of the trees behind them. Unlike in Velana, the sky was clear, and the moon and stars cast silvery light on everything beneath them—the forest, the tall hill in front of him, the plains beyond that. Joran was fully aware that this could be the last time he could look up and see that Light, but he tried not to think like that. Optimism, he told himself. Have optimism.
On his left, Krenej sat astride his dappled gray mare, Mirian, gazing forward. On Joran's right, Mirian's sister, Meliara, stood waiting for her master to return.
Relenthus stood just beyond the hill in front of them, watching for when the demons arrived. Soon he returned at a sprint, streaking back down the hill and looking worried. "There are more of them than I hoped," he said in a hushed voice as he swung himself onto Meliara's back. "About seventy. Most have torches. Some have swords. A few have spiked clubs."
Krenej looked at Joran apprehensively. "Sire? Do…do we proceed?"
Joran opened his mouth to reply, but he hesitated. He could be leading these two noble elves to their deaths. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to, but my mind is set."
"I'll not leave you," Relenthus said firmly. "Not until my death."
"Nor will I," Krenej responded.
"Thank you," Joran said with a small, nervous smile. But I hope it doesn't come to that. Then he saw an orange glow appear over the top of the hill. "They're here."
It was only moments before the first demons crested the ridge. Joran drew his sword and urged Shinar into a gallop. Beside him, Krenej and Relenthus did the same. The demons saw them and shouted cries of disbelief and surprise. Then the largest one whirled his sword above his head and pointed it down at the approaching elves, roaring ferociously. The demons poured down the hill like waves in some Dark, evil ocean, shouting battle cries.
Joran struck at the demons all around him. Shinar was nervous, whinnying shrilly, and Joran did his best to defend her. In return she kicked and bit at all the demons she could reach.
There was a sudden high-pitched scream, and Mirian fell to the ground, never to move again. Krenej leaped off of her back to keep from being crushed, but there were tears in his eyes as he continued fighting.
The demons were everywhere. Most used their torches as weapons. Joran severed the flaming ends from the wooden ones, sending the fire to the ground. Shinar quickly kicked dirt over them to put them out, but soon there was a commanding roar from the large demon that was shouting orders at the top of the hill. "Leave the elves! Burn the forest!"
The torch-bearing demons raced from the fight and ran into the trees.
"After them!" Joran yelled, wheeling Shinar around and pulling Krenej up behind him on her back. Then he rode into the forest. Relenthus and Meliara followed him. The rest of the horde chased them, shouting and waving their weapons above their heads. The elven horses were faster and reached the forest first, and the three warriors managed to cut down many of the torchbearers from there. But most of the demons escaped and climbed into trees, setting the crowns on fire and jumping from tree to tree, spreading the flames.
"No!" Joran yelled, dismounting, unslinging his bow from his back and shooting wildly at the demons in the trees. But in his haste few of his shots were fatal, and soon he was out of arrows. He looked around, suddenly realizing that he was surrounded by a small ring of burning bushes. There was no way out. And the fire was spreading, thanks to a strong wind.
"Take my hand!" Krenej called, riding Shinar as close to the flames as he could and reaching out to the prince. Joran grasped his outstretched hand and Krenej swung him over the flames and onto safe ground.
"Is there any way to dig a trench?" Joran asked, pulling himself up behind the other elf. "Is there some way to save part of the Forest?"
"We can try, but the demons might get us first," Relenthus answered, riding alongside them.
"But we can still try," Krenej insisted. They raced through the burning woods faster than wind and fire and reached a small section that hadn't burned yet. Swiftly they dismounted and began digging a trench with their swords. But all too soon the demons closed in on them, and the digging had to be postponed.
The demons were full of fresh energy even though only about thirty-five remained. But the elves were beginning to tire. Joran lost focus several times, gaining stinging cuts on his arms and back. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw disaster strike.
Krenej was fighting fiercely one moment, and the next a demon tore a gaping wound open across his stomach. Krenej's eyes widened in horror and pain. He dropped his sword and clutched at the wound, hopelessly trying to stem the flow of blood. Soon his forearms were completely stained
crimson and he sank to his knees, his head bowed. The demon that'd caused the wound knelt beside him, forcing his head up and grasping his chin tightly. Krenej stared desperately into the demon's yellow eyes, his breathing coming in quick, shallow gasps.
The demon took Krenej's own sword and stabbed it straight through the elf's chest, five inches beneath the heart. Krenej slumped over, blood drenching his chest, his eyes searching for the stars above him…one final comfort. Slowly his breaths grew weaker. There was blood on his lips as he coughed weakly. He looked down at the ground, moaning in anguish, and collapsed on his side on the forest floor. But he was still alive although in great pain. The demon forced the sword even deeper until only the hilt showed. Then, with a last weak groan of agony, Krenej died.
Relenthus looked around for his longtime companion, and when he saw Krenej lying motionless on the forest floor, his eyes went wide with horror and he stopped fighting. "No!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "Krenej!"