“But…” I began, fearing to finish the sentence that maybe my last to him.
“Leave now!” he cried and the metal doors were forced open.
The Grattican stood, dark and fearsome; their energy bullets were sent towards the men and women in armor, their shields covering the majority of their bodies. My father’s line of defense, I don’t remember how but within a second the ceiling collapsed after my sister was forced away by one of the other Knights. There my father laid over me, his muscles bulged as he fought to keep the metal roofing from collapsing on me and my narrow form. We may be strong, but I knew then, even he wasn’t invincible. “Kal, protect your sister. Honor our name. Don’t forget I love you both.” Those were his last words before Dante wrapped me in his arms and fled. By the time we exited the building the whole thing collapsed before being set into a firework of explosions and colors.
We searched high and low and one day, my father’s body was found. Since that day, my sister and I were never the same. His sword was standing erect as if unaffected by the large stones that held up the building. They seemed to have perfectly parted around it, I could see a shimmer around the sword—a dome like structure—a barrier. Ever since that day I’ve kept my father’s sword with me.
My sister found our mother while I was on Earth by the time I returned she wrote to me saying that she had found our mother and that she was living with her. Our father never said much about our mother but when I tried to bring up the topic he would have a mask of sadness and wariness. Seeing him like that made me feel guilty and ever since then I mimicked the way my father carried himself, I became impassive.
*.*.*
I wake to a damp sensation on my forehead. Forcing my eyes to open to a blinding light I can strongly feel a presence beside me. Without thinking, I griped the wrist of the unknown person and twisted it away from me. Hearing a familiar voice gasp at my strength I forced my mind to return back to reality with great effort. There sits Lucinda, wide eyed with shock and fear, her face twisted in pain. I remove my hand and mutter, “Sorry. I thought, I thought I was...” I begin to tell her; I thought I was on the battlefield once more. I thought I was on the ruined plains of Sparta. The retention, deluges my mind and I push it aside, trying to differ the reality from the memory.
“It’s okay.” she said with a smile. “My father and the town healer told me that you wouldn’t wake up like everyone.” I blink at her words and try to register them. Like everyone? I wonder what they had meant by that. Then I sit up straight. My head throbs with pain and the room continues to shift. I can’t even remember much other than-
“Where’s the women!” I cry with anticipation and fear my voice sounding horse and my mouth dry like sand paper. Lucinda tries to force me back down and I oblige but I continue to question, “Where’s Altair, Varden and the demons?”
I find it difficult to fathom that around me, it seems like yesterday’s incident were, nothing but a dream. The weakness of my stomach says otherwise. I wonder; how long I’ve been out? How long I’ve been without food? Lucinda appears to have read my mind and rises from the wooden stool beside my bed. “You must be hungry. I’ll fetch you something.” With that she flees the room leaving me to my thoughts. She later returns with a steamy chicken soup, she believes to quell the hunger pain. I woof it down quickly the warm liquid relives the hunger pain gnawing within me.
My mind jumps to people in poverty. How long had they have to go without food for their stomachs to bloat? When I think of things like that it makes my pain lessen, there are others in this world less fortunate than me in this universe who have nothing compared to what I have, even though some believe I have less. That is not true nor was it ever; I’m content with my standard of living. Just give me opportunities to release my pain—to feel something—I’ll gladly give away some of my fortunes to a beneficial cause but sadly, we are not allowed to, if fortunes are given away, death will befall the receivers and the givers.
“Where are the others?” I ask Lucinda as I hand her my bowl. She doesn’t meet my gaze. “Lucinda where are the others?” I repeat and this time she meets my gaze but with a painful expression. Had something happened to them? Was Varden abducted? Were they killed? All these questions ran through my mind at that single glance.
“Varden and Altair are gone. So are the women.” she declares and my heart stops there.
I stalk down the narrow halls of the Central Building. I need to find him; I need to find the Mayor. I push open a door and close it behind me. There sat the Mayor speaking to the towns’ Sheriff. The way he looked at me with repulse and utter failure made my blood boil. No one dared look at me like that unless they wanted me to gouge out their eyes. “Well, look who it is. The bitch of a Knight.” he spits and I enter the room. Glaring at him.
“Hudgens that’s no way to talk to a lady!” growls the Mayor.
“She’s no lady but a dog for the Order.” he hisses and turns his back on me. Wrong move! I stalk over to him and lock my fingers around the back of his neck, forcing his head over. I knee, him—hard—square in the face, the armor on my knee only adds to the impact. I toss his body on the floor and take his seat.
“Who’s the mutt now?” I remark as he holds his bloody nose—crawling on the ground away from me. I turn to the stunned Mayor. “Was that all the women who were taken?” I ask. The Mayor shakes his head. There was two more or should I count three; including myself, Lucinda and Mary. The demons I know will be back for the rest.
“There are only you, young Lucinda and Mary.” says the Mayor and I hear a crashing sound before a familiar voice screaming. I rise from my seat and run to the window. A winged demon held Lucinda and dragged her away in the air, shifting its footing and tossing her like the piece of meat she was. I scowl and race outside. Aiming my crossbow I fire my arrows. My steel arrows puncture the wings of the demon where it crashes down in the snow meadow that surrounds the town.
Lucinda lands not too far from where the demon laid on the white snow her form is not moving and I pray she’s only unconscious. I sprint towards her and haul myself over the wooden fence. I slide along the snow and towards her where I place her head on my lap and try to rouse her. She was still breathing only unconscious. I sigh in relief. The demon seemed to have slowly dragged itself away from me. I don’t think so! I pull myself from the ground and stalk over towards it—where it crawls away from me on all four paws.
Its jaw stretches open and screeches towards me where I pull out my crossbow. This is not the best day to piss me off. I fire several arrows which it avoids and slips into the adjacent frozen forest. I sprint after it. The trail of blood along the snow is the only lead I have to follow as it managed to vanish from my sight. It is too quiet and I can hear the demon’s pounding heart and smells its decaying form. I slip my hand around my back and open a compartment on my utility belt that carries a wire. I secure it around my arrows and realize that I just might be injured doing this but I guess I have no choice.
If I can drag it down and reach into its mind I just might be able to find where the others were. The question is when? The women have only be taken yesterday and I just hope that none have been raped if they have well their demon children will kill them before I can even consider killing the winged demon. I just hope it hasn’t come to it yet. Demon children only needed a day to be born. The worst part is no woman survives the birth as the child turns on them as a source of food. I’ll have to move quickly.
A snapping sound of wood from the left of me can be heard and I turn my head to the sound only to be forced across the forest floor attempting to keep the powerful jaws of the demon from swallowing me whole. My hands bleed as I force open its mouth. I’ll have to think of something and fast, I’m not as strong and I can feel my muscles tiring. I’m forced against a tree and the demon rips its teeth from me with a piercing growl and I duck as its jaws wrap themselves around the bark of the tree. I slip under it and climb over its large fury and sticky shoulder, its claws fight
to rip my off its neck while the other fights to free its teeth from the tree.
I straddle its neck until I can comfortable reach its head. Placing my hands before it I close my eyes-images of a cave and women flood my mind. Demons of different sizes and the smell of it are dry and warm. The connection is lost and the demon frees its teeth, it bucks under me and forces me from its back where I land hard on the ground. My lungs are lightly winded and I crawl to my feet. Its spiky mace like tail is sent towards me and I’m flown several feet across a clearing and over the side of a frozen cliff before land with a crack on a frozen ground. “That hurt…” I manage after some time.
The sound of a screech fills my ears and I look up to see that the demon has leapt from the side of the cliff and landed on the icy floor with me. The problem being it doesn’t appear as though it’s going to keep firm forever as a crack is slip between us, from the demon—it rises to me the area between my legs and I feel something shift beneath me. This can’t be good. I think as I feel the ground slightly slip from me. I roll to the side quickly and the ground gives way, revealing deadly—cold—fast—flowing water—definitely not in favor.
I may be stronger and tougher but that can still kill me I’m not exactly in my full form. The thought of touching that freezing water didn’t sit well with me as the demon’s claws embed themselves in the frozen ground. It screams at me and I point my blade at it. “You happy now ugly!” I snap and it runs towards me, I towards it. I slide under its legs slicing inner parts of it, I only manage to slice it lightly—it’s like a graze.
The sight of it frustrates me.
The demon stomps its feet, the cracks occurring under us more and more. I am suddenly, knocked to the side again by its mace for a tail and I slide along the ice before coming to a stop. The demon pins me down with one of its front claws before it brings up another claw to probably gut me. I place my forearms before me and my shield is brought up. The shield shaped like a diamond with sharp corners should we be in situations like this. I grasp the edges of my shield while trying to avoid the demons desperate claws. Its teeth, claws and nose seem to bash into my shield forcing my curled form more and more against the ice which if I were a human would no doubt kill me or do some serious spinal injury.
In a break of its attacks—I shift my shield and force it against the hand that pinned me down feeling its release I roll to the side and squat before pouncing on the side of its neck where I swing myself under it, effectively landing on the top of it. I pull out my blade and plunge it into its neck. It screeches again and attempts to pull my from my position with its large claws I use my shield on my left to protect me from most of the impact before I lay on the neck of the demon—it’s claws miss me, barely.
I re-position my shield and bring up my blade again before plunging it, this time, further into the demons neck. Blood is drawn and the demon stands on its hind legs only momentarily before forcing its front paws in front of it. The cracking of the ice continues more so but this time under its paws where it begins to shatter apart bits of ice is removed and the demon fights to keep itself afloat while I hang on. Scanning the ground around it, I plunge my blade further. It screeches and begins to sink. I pull my blade from it and rise from its neck and turn around and run towards its tail where it is locked on to the last bit of land. I jump and roll. The land stable under my feet and the demon begins to sink into the icy cold waters. Hearing cracking sounds turn behind me and see that parts of the ice begin to shift and the ground disappearing along the frozen waters. Not good!
I turn and sprint.
12:Captured and Conquered
© 2014—All rights reserved by author
The rushing water seems to catch up to me, I try and push myself harder—adrenaline pulsates through my veins. I feel stronger and faster. I pick up my speed. Seeing a large gap between the two lands of ice; one is breaking up now and the other that seems to be sitting there unaffected as if waiting for me to successfully land on it. I had to pick up my speed some more, if I were going to make it, my muscles ache as they are pushed harder than normal. I hear the wind calling in my ears and the cold ever so more on my dry lips. I leap with all I have and see the land coming to greet me before something strikes me in the shoulder.
I turn to the pain—I see a dagger—a throwing knife; pinned to my shoulder and cloak. My momentum is interrupted and I fall into the icy cold waters.
With a splash, I enter the dark strong fluctuating current, my body feels cold as it shifts and moves along something that scraps into my back. The sun is there and I’m in contact with the thick ice ground. I bang at it and nothing. My body begins to feel numb and I don’t know how far I’m pulled down stream for but however long it was—I refuse to die here. I embed my curved dagger into the ice—my lungs slowly begin to give in to the icy cold waters—I don’t though. I forced the ice apart as my dagger made its way to the surface of the ice. I push open the thick solid ice blocks and throw myself on the edge. The current continues to drag my body. The air is colder than it was before. No thanks to the water. I rest on the ice and before I knew it I had lost consciousness.
*.*.*
“Kal! Kal!” cried Trinity. Her voice is what pulled me from my reprieve. The mud clung to my Idol skin. Why we had to go camping in our weaker forms? Why we had to go camping in our deceptive forms? I had no idea. “Kal!” Her voice continued to call to me and I snapped open my eyes. I turn to the sound and could see Trinity’s red hair hanging around her shoulders her hand is stretched out to mine. I try to remember where I am or what had happened but nothing came. All I know is I’m in mud and sinking fast. “Give me your hand!” she demanded and I stretched my hand out to her. I couldn’t reach her our finger tips only just brushed.
“Go. Trin. I can’t reach.” I said knowing there was no way out. I was either going to die in the mud and suffocate to death or I was going to be eaten by my demon child. I preferred to be suffocating though. At least that way I could die with dignity.
“You are not leaving me!” she cried. “I’ll never forgive you if you give up on me now! You’ll die a pathetic and unworthy death! Never surrender!” I turned to her and saw firmness in her features. The determination in her eyes told me that she wasn’t going to let me die here and now. I take notice of the screams of other women—they were close.
“Get me something.” I said and she scurried away before she returned with a large stick. She handed it out, her body planted on the ground as she handles the stick; my hands forced their way through the sticky and gooey feeling of the mud all around me. I couldn’t stop it nor did I like it. Why people on Earth had mud baths was beyond me? Then again I’m sure their mud baths didn’t try to kill them. “I almost...” I trailed off and clasped the stick in my hand before pulling my other hand up and wrapping it around the firmness I was reluctant to have in this pit of death. “Pull!” I cried and she pulled the stick under her arm. Shifting to her knees she pulled harder and I can see the strain on her face but the determination in her green eyes told me otherwise—she would bare it—she would endure it for my sake. She wouldn’t want to die alone and she wouldn’t want to die at the hands of the demons. Who would?
By the time I managed to be towed to the edge of the murky mud puddle. I grasp the edge; the hard soil that I was sure wouldn’t dissolve. I clawed my nails into the ground and locked my fingers around some roots. Trinity pulled my lower body up as much as she could and by the time I managed to make my way onto firm ground once more I laid out panting at the intensity of how close I was to death. Yet no matter how many times I was close to death none seem to compare to that. Not even all those fights on Earth managed to cause my heart to race the way it did and I knew than I wasn’t scared for me I was scared to let Trinity down. I panted and by the time my breath managed to return to normal I heard the sound of a shattering twig.
My attention snapped to the sound.
*.*.*
I woke to the warmth, of the air around me, and the sound o
f something crackling beside me—I couldn’t fathom at first what it was then, my mind return. It was a fire and I was in a cave wrapped in fur quilts. What on earth? I think as I move to sit up but didn’t as I felt my body begin to shiver uncontrollably. I wrapped my body in the quilts aiming to regain the bit of warmth that engulfed me feeling something much warmer beside me I snuggle deeper into it. I rest my head on the same firm warmth when my eyes snapped open. “Good morning, gorgeous.” says a deep voice, brown tresses, fall in curtains over his golden brown eyes as he watches me with humor. His lips pull themselves into a taunting smile. I push myself away.
“Lifet?” I ask, confused.
There is something really wrong with this picture. I think.
I realize suddenly, I’m lying in a pile of warm fur quilts with a naked Assassin. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? You filthy perv!” I snap and wrap my fur quilts around my frozen black scales which have slipped at some point to cover my breast, butt and virginal area. Not that it didn’t bother me, the fact that I was sharing the quilts with an Assassin—did!
“Now, before you get the wrong idea let me explain.” he says and I glare at him. I know he couldn’t have raped me or played with my parts because they were thick scales covering my bits but still I couldn’t help but feel very angry with this man. He holds up his hands gestures around the place. “I found you in the center of the Harland’s Mouth.” he says and I stop in my tracks, I would have remembered if I were at a river. Than it hits me—I almost drowned.
“The demon where is it!” I whisk my head around the cozy cave and find nothing.
A Crimson Tale Page 15