“That kingdom has over a thousand soldiers, more so than any human settlement in the region. Just how many friends do you think it will take for you to match that?”
The gemini laughed in unison, their haunting voices echoing throughout the hall as they slowly approached the empress.
“You’re right,” Jovian agreed. “Rockhelm has many female and even male warriors to defend itself with. They may even have some wizards within those walls as well.”
“And you think you can beat that?” the empress quipped.
“Do you have any idea how many tribes of goblins there are in the wastes?” Jacqueline inquired.
The empress slowly glanced around at seeing the crowd of monsters showing no fear or caution to her words but instead seemed eager to draw more blood.
“How many clans of trolls there are?” Jovian questioned.
Hollia listened carefully as she began to get a very bad feeling about where this was going.
“How many gremlins are slinking about out there?” Jacqueline asked with a smirk.
The empress looked back to them as she seemed speechless, her eyes going from one sister to the other as they approached her on either side.
“Those are just for starters,” Jovian giggled as she gently brushed the woman’s hair. “We’ve found many more who wish to join us, many more who will put an end to the human reign in Rockhelm.”
“You’re mad,” the empress breathed out.
“So now our search for party guests has come to you,” Jacqueline said kneeling down next to her with a calm smile. “With that, we’ll offer you two choices, both of which we’re perfectly fine with you choosing.”
Hollia felt her throat dry up as she gripped her spear, her anxieties growing as she saw the two invaders getting very close to her mother.
“Either you be our horses to ride into battle with,” Jovian proposed as she got in the face of the empress. “Or you can be meat for our friends.”
The empress grit her teeth while glaring at the girl, both Jovian and Jacqueline watching her from behind their masks with wicked smiles as they awaited her answer.
“We know centaurs are really fast,” Jacqueline complimented. “What do you say? Be our horses and help us bring the humans to their knees. C’mon, pretty please?”
“We centaurs will not engage in war,” the empress snapped. “Attacking the humans as you wish to is suicide for any monster, but even if you were to ask for our help slaying a smaller human village the answer would still be no!”
“No?” Jovian and Jacqueline curiously asked.
“We don’t need to attack humans, we have no need to wage war against them; we are neutral among the conflict in this world. We run a respectable courier trade and are given all the men we need in payment, there is no cause for us to draw our spears and charge senselessly into death’s arms just to subjugate any of them.”
“So… no then?” the gemini repeated with bored expressions.
“The answer is and always will be no. We will not bow to you, we will not become slaves to you, and we will not follow the dreams of bloodthirsty demons. No matter what you do, you will never control us. Centaurs will always run free.”
Silence filled the hall as the crowd of monsters waited to see what their leaders would do. Hollia held a hand over her mouth as she tried to remain brave and quiet, fearful of what her mother’s fate would become now. After a while the gemini nodded and removed their masks, in doing so causing the empress to jump with a startle as she saw their multicolored eyes.
“You know what else we know about centaurs?” Jovian taunted before she ripped open the woman’s dress in the front.
“They taste delicious,” Jacqueline purred as she tossed the centaur’s clothes aside.
The empress looked between the two with quick gasps as the gemini pushed her down onto her side against the bloodied floor. Hollia shook her head as she saw the two invaders holding her mother down, with Jovian licking the woman’s neck while Jacqueline held two of her legs and licked down below in her private area. The empress trembled against the floor in fright as the sisters smiled wickedly at her with their multicolored eyes.
“Mother,” Hollia whimpered.
“Hellspawns,” the empress quietly condemned.
Jovian and Jacqueline giggled as the empress was held down, the two monsters baring their teeth as the woman’s eyes widened in horror at seeing what they were going to do to her.
“Scream for us.”
Hollia stared in total shock as the Jovian lunged down and mauled her mother’s chest while Jacqueline dug her hands into the centaur’s lower body and tore open a gash to feast upon. The world around the princess turned deathly quiet, her heart skipping a beat as her eyes were locked onto the sight of her mother being eaten alive by the two monsters. The sounds of the crowd of monsters cheering and shouting didn’t register, the shrieks of agony from her mother were muffled, the sight of her innards and blood being spilled onto the floor by the evil girls became clouded through her tears; everything fell out of focus as Hollia felt her heart break apart.
‘Maria… mother… no…’
It was then she became overwhelmed in anger and sorrow, a furious yell escaping her mouth as she pounded on the doors with all her might.
“NO! MOTHER!”
Jovian and Jacqueline turned to the doorway from her cry, their faces covered in blood while their cold multicolored eyes took notice of the princess. Hollia saw them clear as day, their images burning into her mind as the ones that cast her life into hell, and the ones she swore would die by her hands.
“Oh look,” Jacqueline mused while wiping some blood from her mouth. “There’s another walking meatbag.”
“And it appears we killed her mother,” Jovian laughed. “Oh that is simply rich. I love it!”
“YOU!” was all that Hollia could properly pronounce through her incoherent shouting.
“Us,” the gemini giggled before pointing towards her. “Kill her!”
The crowd of monsters roared and charged at the doorway in a thunderous stampede. Hollia took one last look at the two murderers of her family before she took off running, not looking back once as she heard the sound of the doors being blasted open by the horde of bloodthirsty monsters. She ran as fast as she could, her cries of agony keeping her breathing short while her heart felt like it was bleeding out all her strength.
She raced past corridors and rooms all left in disarray, blood and corpses strewn about, fire spreading throughout her once beautiful and peaceful home, and vicious monsters that were striking down and slaughtering all centaurs that opposed them.
‘I don’t know who you two fiends are, but I swear I’ll kill you before I breathe my last breath in this world!’
Hollia raced around a corner and up a walkway, the sounds of monsters howling and chasing after her growing louder, her hooves clacking along the floor hastily as she no longer felt like she was in her home but rather a labyrinth filled with horrors and death. Running past a hall she just avoided being tackled by a group of goblins, then turned a corner just as a sword and pouch full of noxious gas struck the wall behind her. She could hear the monsters closing in on her from all directions, she caught glimpses of more gremlins and trolls racing towards her from adjacent hallways that she passed by, and she began feeling lightheaded and weary as her breathing couldn’t be steadied. Her steps became more off-balanced as she tried to flee from the horde closing in. Rounding another corner blindly she banged against the wall before stumbling forward in her run. It was then she looked behind her and saw a dagger stuck in her hindquarter, something she didn’t even feel or knew when it had hit her. The blade was coated with a sticky black tar, her vision becoming blurred as her breathing began to slow down.
“No… poison… dammit…”
She stumbled off to the side and crashed through a doorway out onto a balcony, her feet wobbling below her as she tripped about before catching the railing for support. Looking over t
he edge she saw the steep drop down alongside the palace walls towards a river that was flowing alongside the city. Turning her head towards the building she saw trolls and gremlins standing in the doorway, their glaring eyes and wicked grins becoming blurred as Hollia felt a wave of fatigue wash over her.
“You’re going… to pay for this…”
“Looks like someone isn’t feeling too well,” a troll snickered.
“You lookin’ beat,” a goblin chuckled from behind.
“What’s it going to be?” a gremlin hissed while lightly tossing a black pouch up in her hand. “You want to burn, or choke to death?”
Hollia slowly looked down to her spear as her body felt heavier for her feet to carry. Her hands feebly held it for a moment before dropping it down onto the floor with a clatter. She took a shaky breath and gulped as her mind began to blur before she lifted her front legs up onto the railing. Looking over to the side she saw the monsters laughing at her while a few were waving her off to jump.
“Their names…” she weakly demanded, only to be met with laughter. “Who murdered my mother? What… are their names?”
“Jovian and Jacqueline,” a troll sneered at her. “They are our grand leaders.”
Hollia nodded and looked down towards the river below, knowing she was dead no matter what she chose to do now.
“Tell them… they’re going to burn in hell for this.”
With that she jumped over the railing, throwing her body into the air and down towards the river. The wind rushing past her drowned out the sound of the monsters laughing above, her vision fading in and out as she saw the terrace quickly race up above her before she hit the water with a hard thump and instantly lost consciousness.
She gasped as she came to, her head rising above the water she was submerged in just enough to get air into her lungs before she dropped down again. Time became blurred as she awoke again from a daze coughing out water as she was washed up on the shore before she was dragged back out by the current. The next thing she knew she hit a rock underwater, the sickening crack of her front left leg being heard before she blacked out from the pain. Coming to once more she questioned if she was dead or not, her body feeling like it was floating as she was swept downstream. Her head lifted up above the surface of the river and allowed her to gasp for air before she dropped down, her memory of what happened next gone as she then found herself waking up on a sandy shore with the river gently tugging at her rear legs which were still in the water.
“Mo… ther…” she breathed out as she slowly crawled forward with her hands, eyes wearily looking down to her broken leg that she thankfully wasn’t able to feel in her current state then behind her as she saw Ruhelia in the distance. The sounds of screams could just barely be heard from where she was, the sight of fire and smoke spreading across her homeland tearing into her heart just as the memory of losing her family did.
“Those… monsters…”
She slowly crawled away from the river using her hands and feet that weren’t broken, her gasps for air that she sorely needed showing she was indeed still alive even after being washed away in the river. Her eyes looked down to her hands as she clutched the sand to drag her body a little bit away from the water. She glanced to her broken leg which had blood matted on its fur, then back towards her burning home, and then slowly she turned to see someone standing before her.
It was a girl wearing brown sandals, a short white skirt that hugged her hips, and a yellow short sleeved shirt which was opened down the middle and held together over her bust by a black belt with blue embroidery edgings. She had long blonde hair held back in a ponytail while her blue eyes were staring ahead at Ruhelia with a sense of fear.
“Fire,” Cindy breathed out nervously. She blinked then looked down towards Hollia as she seemed to finally notice her, the centaur softly panting while drenched from the river with a broken leg and a shattered heart.
“Please,” Hollia weakly implored as she held a hand out towards the girl. Cindy watched with a curious expression as the centaur tried to reach for her as she struggled to remain conscious.
“Please… I… I beg of you… help me.”
Artwork
Chronicles of Eden Act VII Cover
Doku - Harpy
Cilia - Fairy
Zoey - Elf
Twilight - Reaper
Monster Class - Humper
Daniel Sorres - Act VII
Triska x Kitten
Chronicles of Eden - Act VII Page 64