by Justin Wayne
***
Outsider watched Cuke windwalk through the tunnel and smiled at his wily friend. Good for you, Cuke Barleybeard, he thought and lowered his bow. Knowing his friends were safe, a tired weariness set into his limbs and he felt the overwhelming urge to sleep.
Maybe just a quick nap.
He closed his eyes when a roaring voice met his ears. “You won’t escape me so easily, you insignificant little runts!”
He managed to sit up slowly and watched as the large form of Cancer struck out at the tunnel then bowed his back with a deep inhale. Recognizing the demon’s firebreath, Outsider feared for his friends who were stuck within the tunnel which would surely be a slow walk.
Willing his arms to work one last time, he took up his bow once more and aimed for the demon when a thought struck him. He had only one hand. Staring at the stump that oozed red rather than spurted as the coagulant Cuke had given him was a strong one; he hooked the string on his bracer and struggling to calm his trembling, aimed high to lower his aim onto his target as he had been taught.
However what he found within his sights now, over the demon’s head, garnered much more appeal. With a shallow breath, he inhaled as deeply as his one lung would allow and steadied his hand.
Her song hummed on his lips.
He thought of Natalia and the way she had believed he was truly different; judging him by his actions and not his race.
He thought of Thom and the way he had always kept faith in him; even when he had no reason to.
He thought of Cuke who was his oldest friend and was always there for him; no matter how dire the situation.
And he thought of Merlon who saw the light in him; and told him he could be more than he had ever hoped.
He drew back his bow and released, then had the second arrow on its way before the first had even hit. The arrows soared across the chasm and he laid his head back to watch them; utterly exhausted. The bow fell from his limp fingers.
The first arrow struck the vortex of wind and blasted a hole in the churning wall of air momentarily; just long enough for the second to pass through unhindered and explode against the mountain shelf nearby.
A great plume of white and grey erupted.
Cancer paused and stared up at the sky just as the avalanche collided with the vortex in a massive white wave and thunderous rumbling. The demon backed away from the mountain slowly, eyes wide and unbelieving, head shaking slowly, and watched as the torrent of ice punched through the vortex and rode along it; creating a titanic downpour of thousands of tons of snow.
The demon unleashed its pent up firebreath in a furious rage, refusing to die, and melted away the wall of white above it in a shower of flames.
For a brief moment at least, before the entire shelf broke off under the sheer weight of the colossal avalanche and promptly crushed it with a deafening implosion. The massive wave of snow destroyed everything in its path; shattering trees like glass then burying them under a mountain of ice; the hot lake vanished among a cloud of steam.
Outsider watched the demon disappear beneath the flood and smiled vengefully at its death. He laughed faintly with his short breaths as the path of destruction he created rushed toward him with an earsplitting roar. The intense cold reached him first so he took a deep breath; the sweet scent of cold and pine he so missed the last thing he smelled, and the snow his last sight.
Her song still hummed on his lips and grew louder and louder in his head.
He closed his eyes just before it hit.
Saleane.