by Brindi Quinn
“We are not safe here,” he said in a voice that was barely audible “Someone lurks.” His eyes pierced the distance.
“Wha-” But he put his finger to my mouth before I could finish. He cupped his right ear to amplify the echoes of the unseen threat.
What sort of ‘someone’?
It didn’t take long for my nerves to kick in. In an instant – or possibly even less – I felt endangered by the unknown thing that was ‘lurking’ around on the sand somewhere between the rocks and crystallized trees.
Nyte glanced back at Ardette, but the lagging Daem was already readying his saber. Its blade looked dull under the overcast sky.
What? I don’t hear anything . . . . But then I did. Wait, what is that . . . ? It was a pounding noise, very distant. And then, something that sounded like a growl. Maybe an animal?
Nyte motioned to Ardette, and the two of them were suddenly comrades on the warfront, exchanging a silent battle strategy. Ardette nodded and grabbed my arm. He started to pull me away from Nyte – a motion I immediately resisted in an almost thoughtless and automatic reaction. I hadn’t read into their exchange of gestures, but I shook my head when I now realized their plan.
No, don’t make Nyte go investigate alone! Are you crazy? It’s obviously dangerous!
For a moment, I wished Ardette could still hear my unspoken pleas, but he only tightened his grip and pulled me harder. I let a burst of air go through my nose that was almost a snort. It wasn’t as convincing as I’d hoped, but it was enough to make Nyte turn back and look at me. His face was stern, but it softened when he saw my worry. I bit my lip and tried to look as disagreeing as possible, but my efforts were futile. He only shook his head, grinned, and winked, before unsheathing his sword and darting away.
No!
The pounding sounded slightly louder now, and Nyte was racing unwaveringly in its direction, straight into the mouth of danger. Ardette pulled me back, but I rooted my feet into the sand, trying to become like the heavy, immovable boulders littering the horizon.
No! No! We don’t know what’s over there! We should go with him. We can both help him fight!
But Ardette was much stronger than I was. He easily pulled me under the cover of a nearby rocky overpass.
While he barred me from chasing after Nyte into the territory of the pounding, I was complacent only long enough to strain my ears to evaluate the out-of-eyesight situation. It didn’t take long, for after only a moment of such straining complacence, a commotion of growls alerted me that Nyte must have met the pounding creature – or creatures.
There was a clang followed by another series of thumping pounds.
“Hya!” Nyte’s voice echoed into the overpass.
“What’s going on over there?!” I mouthed.
My thoughts ran rampant with images of snarling snaggle-fanged beasts thumping toward Nyte in pounding gallops. With thoughts like those, it was impossible for me to remain still.
“Uh!” Again I tried to push Ardette away.
He didn’t let go, and instead shook his head like he was reprimanding a child. So what if I was being childish? There was no reason why we couldn’t go help fight. We were both capable too!
“Stay,” he breathed.
Like hell, I’ll stay!
He squeezed my arm threateningly before pulling up his hood and darting after Nyte into the battle. I was annoyed, to say the least.
Leave me out, will you?
My days of letting others fight for me were long gone. I’d been filled with power when the Creator had spoken to me and delivered the Song of Healing from my body. I knew I could help. I was a songstress. I could help them fight, or at the very least, heal their wounds. Ardette had been crazy to think I’d stay behind. I waited for him to get a good head-start then sprinted after his distorted, sandy footprints.
Luckily, the white sand was shallow and easy to run through. I held my hood and searched my memory for useful ariandos. I intended to be ready, should the need arise.
As I neared, I heard more snarling – a cautionary notice that something sinister prowl ahead. Louder and more treacherous than it had been from my perspective back at the overpass, the growls were mixed with more pounds and the angry jabber of two vicious fighters, one Elf, one Daem.
When I reached the spot where they were fighting, at first I thought the two of them were swinging at nothing, but then I saw it: a white beast.
What is that?!
I’d originally missed it because it had been camouflaged by the sparkling ground, but there it was, angry and ravenous, with a tail like a paddle. The giant, cat-like creature was unlike anything I’d ever seen, covered in white, reflective scales that clanked upon sword and saber contact. It had sharp, salient claws stretching from each of its four paws, but it seemed its main source of defense was that paddle. It used it to swing at Ardette and Nyte, each of whom was taking stabs at the creature, seemingly ganging up on the clearly-annoyed beast.
“Wait,” I angrily yelled at them, “what are you doing?!” We could have easily gone around the terrifying brute, but they’d both insisted on attacking it senselessly. Why? This hardly seemed like a lurking ‘someone’. “Don’t kill it for no reason!”
“Miss Havoc?!” Nyte spun around. “Go back! Why did you follow us? Ardette, cover her!”
Ardette shot me a furious and reprimanding scowl before falling back and taking a protective stance before me. “Why did I actually trust you’d obey me?” he sneered, all traces gone of his usually-indifferent self.
“You have no right to be angry with me!” I retorted. “Leaving me behind and attacking a creature that we could have easily avoided-”
“Kyaa!” A high-pitched cackle emitted from the beast’s mouth, interrupting my lecture.
Wait? A cackle?! My eyes widened at the beast’s strange utterance.
“There you are! I’ve been looking for you!” The voice was sweet and girly, but it had most definitely come from the scaled cat.
“It’s . . . it’s intelligent?!”
“Of course it’s intelligent!” Ardette was still furious. He glared in my direction before dodging another aggressive tail-swing. The tail’s paddle hit the place where he’d been standing, smacking the hard surface below the sand and rocking the surrounding ground.
Oops.
“You smell delicious, but boo me, I’m not allowed to eat you today,” said the beast in a pouty voice.
I stood frozen like a fool, eyes wide. I couldn’t believe such a voice belonged to the armored cat. Never have I ever heard of something like that. An intelligent beast with the voice of a woman, taunting and pouting?
“How dare you say something so grotesque?” growled Nyte. “You will not be feeding on her today, nor ever. I will leave your corpse as a message to your master. Let it be known that any under The Mystress, nay anyone at all, seeking to cause her harm will meet a death riddled with torment and agony!” He sprang forward and pierced his sword into the creature’s claw.
“Nyte?!” What was with such a brutish speech all of a sudden?!
The beast cackled again. “How cute! It’s like a trundlebee-sting.” This time she didn’t refrain from using her claws. She swiped at Nyte, but he limberly pulled his sword from her paw and jumped out of the way. A fresh rivulet of golden blood seeped from the puncture, staining the side of her white paw.
Its blood is gold? It’s sort of beautiful somehow . . . . Argh! How foul of me to be thinking of blood as beautiful, especially at a time like this!
“Get out of here, would you, my cherry pit? I can’t focus on fighting with you here.”
Indeed, Ardette had entirely given up on the fight and was now shielding me from the tail with his body while I still stood pathetically gawking at the oddity that was our opponent. Luckily, we were just out of reach, though the beast swatted at us, pounding the ground just ahead of where we stood.
“By the way,” continued Ardette, “I’m quite upset with you right now. I’ll mak
e you make it up to me later. Now, can’t you see you’re only serving to distract us? Quit putting yourself in danger for no reason, and go to where you’ll be safe!”
“Ugh!” Hurt, I finally dropped my vacant on-looking and scowled at Ardette. For some reason, his words had cut me. True, I wasn’t doing anything to help the situation, but that didn’t mean I was only a ‘distraction’.
Quit treating me like I’m fragile! I’ll show you, stupid Ardette!
His suggestion of my worthlessness fueled me with anger. I started up a song.
“Earthy tones beneath my stand,
I beckon you with song’s command.
From your slumber rise and fall,
Crushing evil’s toying call!”
The ariando was one I’d never tried before, but it obeyed me like I’d rehearsed it a thousand times. Wind from nowhere swirled around me, pulling my hair outwards in a fury of power, and quaking the earth below us. It wasn’t only the ground that was shaking, either; it seemed each grain of crystal sand was reacting to the song, obediently trembling, independent of one another.
“Aura!? What-” Startled, Nyte looked back at me while I held the song, but upon seeing my triumphant stance, he only grinned and turned back to the beast.
“My, my, have a trick of your own, do you?” asked Ardette dryly. He swayed and then crouched to balance himself.
“Hah!” I let out a smug cry then pushed the song harder. The ground rumbled angrily in reply.
The white beast stumbled to the side. “Waaah! What are you trying to do? I don’t like it when my food decides to get campy!” She unevenly started towards me, but Nyte jumped in front of her and held his ground, even amidst the minor earthquake.
“What is wrong, girl? Is my trundlebee-sting causing you more pain than you anticipated?”
Indeed, her paw was still slewing golden drops, and she appeared to be favoring it. “Gyaah!” she cried before starting forward again.
“Take not one more step,” shouted Nyte, “or you shall meet your end, foul beast of The Mystress!”
“Boo me,” said the creature in mocking reply, “have you forgotten me entirely, old comrade? What happened to the days when you’d rip a Daem to shreds just for looking at you the wrong way? Now you pounce in front of me almost like you’re guarding those two. I’m not allowed to kill the girl, but the Daem is fair game. I promise to share some with you; I seem to remember you liking the taste of shadow almost as much as I.” She ended the monologue with a low, hungry growl.
Nyte gritted his teeth and let out a guttural scoff, but he remained between the beast and us, holding his sword ready for another slash.
“Is . . . is she serious?!” I asked no one in particular. The question was more so a manifestation of my own horror at the thought. Did she really know Nyte from before? From his days with Druelca?!
“Aura, concentrate on that song of yours!” yelled Ardette, breaking me away from the disgusting images filling my mind.
“Huh?” The quaking had almost entirely stopped. “Oh, right!”
“Tch. And I thought you said it didn’t matter what he’d done. Already starting to regret, are you?”
“Of course not!” I gave Ardette another anger-infused glance before focusing my energy. The earth started to rumble once again.
“Hmph. Well then, on with your grand plan, heroine.” Ardette brought up his saber to block a tumbling rock that the beast had just pelted at us.
“Grand plan?”
“You mean you haven’t got one?”
Uh-oh. What exactly was I trying to do? Truthfully, I didn’t really know, myself. The song had been an impulse to prove my worth to Ardette, but the quaking wasn’t actually hurting the enemy, only making things slightly more annoying for her.
Maybe I really was only a distraction. I was embarrassed for not having thought the plan all the way through.
“Miss Havoc!” Nyte was still fighting the beast, clashing his sword against her tail every time she tried to get near. “There is a weak spot at her front. Attack her there!”
“Eeyah?! A weak spot?” The beast laughed. “I’m afraid you’re mistaken about that!”
“What’s he going on about?” said Ardette quietly to himself. “A weak spot? That can’t be right.” He squinted at the dueling pair, and after a moment, realization spread across his face. “Oh, I get it.”
“What?” I said, not understanding the unspoken discovery.
Ardette raised his voice to an almost too-loud volume. “That’s right, cherry pit, attack its front!”
“Uh, a-alright!” I didn’t know what the two of them were plotting, but I was without plan of my own, so I had no choice but to obey.
But how could I specifically attack its front? I focused my attention on the earth, but the quaking only intensified. No, that wasn’t right. I had to isolate my energy somehow. I needed to think of something more effective, some way of attacking with the ground . . . . With the ground? I looked at the jumping sand. That’s right. If I focused my attention on the individual grains . . .
I visualized them as separate entities, each skipping on their own. Instead of the ground itself, I narrowed my song-field to a small cluster of grains. Now, GO! A handful of sand lifted from the ground and pelted at the beast’s face, like tiny shards of piercing glass.
“How annoying!” The beast swatted the shards away.
Well, that didn’t do anything.
At first I thought the gesture had been pointless, but then I saw him. While I’d been concentrating on the sand’s isolation, Nyte had jumped to the edge of a boulder. He now pushed his feet against it, propelling himself from its side and jumping to the ground, sword downward and pointed right at the cat’s tail. He plunged it through the paddle and deep into the earth.
“Eyaa!” The beast screamed as her true weak spot was pinned. She let out an angry mass of snarls and started to claw at the sword in her tail, but the sword was too deep. Golden blood stained the blade’s handle.
With the beast distracted, Ardette flew in from the front, saber outstretched. He pierced his saber into the beast’s neck just along the back of her spine. In one swift motion, he pulled his saber up and ripped the scales from the creature’s body. The scales fell to the ground in a dull clamor.
The beast let out a cry.
And then . . .
What?!
It wasn’t a beast at all . . . .
. . .
But rather, a child . . . a young girl.
A . . . girl?
Yes, it was a girl, definitely under a decade old, clad in a gold dress, and holding one white scale. I stared in shock, not at all understanding how the thing had managed to transform from beast to person.
“Boo me! Looks like I’ve lost my armor for now! Guess we’ll have to continue this party later. I’ll be seeing you!” The girl mumbled a string of incantationous words, and then she was gone . . . just gone, leaving only a few puddles of leftover blood.
Astounded, all I could do was continue to stare in total bewilderment. The shaking ceased.
“A beast . . . girl . . . scales . . . gone?”
“Quite eloquent today, aren’t you?” Ardette walked over and dipped a finger in the golden blood.
“That was a fine bit of swordplay, Daem.” Nyte pulled his sword from the ground. There was now no sign of the paddle-like tail.
“You have no idea,” said Ardette, his voice riddled with sarcasm, “how much your praise means to me. I’m entirely flattered.” He curled his lip. “Eh . . . but alas, it was a good strategy on your part, I suppose.”
“Miss Havoc, are you all right?” gold-stained sword in hand, Nyte ran over to me.
“Scales? Talking girl-beast with scales?”
Ardette laughed deeply. “Every day with you is some new discovery, isn’t it?”
Nyte placed his hand on my wrist, but Ardette swatted it away.
“Ah, ah, ah,” said Ardette, shaking his finger. “Is now really the
time to send her into an ecstasy?”
Nyte gritted his teeth.
“I don’t get it. What was that?!” Finally, I managed to form the question I’d been meaning to ask all along.
“A very rare child,” said Ardette without interest. “The offspring of an Elf and Daem, though I don’t know what right-minded Daem would wish to breed with a gangly-”
But Nyte’s sword was at Ardette’s neck.
Careful, Nyte. If you really want his help . . .
“Fancy a drink of my shadow, would you?” Ardette lazily pushed the sword away.
Nyte flinched.
“Nyte, that wasn’t-” But I stopped myself. No, I wouldn’t question it. I could already read the pain in the farthest reaches of his eyes. The question didn’t need to be asked. It was probably true, and there was nothing we could do about it.
“Um, er- So, that creature was a girl the whole time?” I asked instead. “Is that really possible?!”
Ardette straightened the sleeve of his shirt before answering. Apparently, his ruffled cuff was more interesting than my bafflement. “Oh?” he said. “And why are you so surprised? It’s not like she’s the first of her kind that you’ve met.”
“She isn’t?” My tone was curt.
At first I thought he was jesting, and I was annoyed, but then I remembered. One of the officers of Yes’lech had been a very suspicious child with an inexplicable rank and a too-mature manner for a girl so young.
Then that means- “We just beat up a little girl?! Are you serious?!”
“Yes,” said Ardette calmly, “that’s right-”
I widened my eyes in horror.
“Ardette,” said Nyte, annoyed, “cease playing with her.” He turned to me. “Feel no guilt, Miss Havoc. That being,” – he eyed the spot where she had once stood – “was actually a woman. Offspring of an Elf-Daem pairing inherit a slowed aging pace from the Elves. That ‘girl’ was certainly more than two and a half decades old.”
“WHAT?!” I cried more obnoxiously than I should have. “Elves do age slower?!”
Ardette chuckled. “That’s the part you’re concerned with? Though, such a thought process is typical of you, I suppose. Well, Elfy, you might as well tell her that you’re really a granddad. I suppose it’s time she knew.”