by Terah Edun
For some reason she didn’t think it realized it was just her. Just as she had thought it was a back-up force of troops upon approach. Of course, when comparing the two, this thing, whatever it was, had definitely gotten the better end of that bargain.
Her hand was trembling now as she kept her sword upraised and she thought about lowering it permanently in defeat but that flaming weapon was all she had right now.
Mae did stay standing where she was in the hopes that perhaps it wasn’t looking for her after all. It didn’t seem to note her presence or even react to the sight of her. It just kept walking forward as it completed its turn of the corner and flared its nostrils in scent.
Unfortunately just by walking it was going to run straight into her or rather that dangerous looking horn would.
She couldn’t go anywhere with the door to her back. She thought about trying to escape behind the tapestry again but that would involve not only darting to the side but also fiddling around with a secret door handle while she hoped a massive creature didn’t take an obvious dislike to sudden movements along the wall.
Knowing she didn’t have much choice, Mae began to slowly and steadily ease to the side. She was taking the better part of valor and stepping aside from the field of battle against a creature she definitely couldn’t win against, especially with a distressed knee.
Swallowing tightly, Mae noted that it seemed to be working. The creature’s head wasn’t following her progress. In fact it was just swinging its massive nose back in forth scenting the air.
The problem was the closer she got to the hidden tapestry door, the closer she also got to the creature as it walked forward.
Not wanting it to run into her and certainly hoping it didn’t have the bright idea of cutting her off, Mae tried to warn it away a bit. Not actually physically seeking to hurt it, she just wanted to intimidate the one-horn into backing away from her only exit.
So she made a fatal mistake.
Mae increased the flames of the sword until the brightness was enough that eyes were squinting in the light.
It was fatal because the beast didn’t seem to like this new development and it wasn’t backing away. In fact, it lowered its head where a long horn that had to be two feet in length and ended in a sharp point resided. Then it snorted out of its two nostrils as it pawed the stone floor with broad flat feet and before she could say anything it charged her!
Mae had never seen anything so frightening in her life.
Two massive tons of a creature bearing down on her with nowhere to run and nowhere to turn…but forward. Mae didn’t want to go that way but if she was going to be smashed, she’d rather she did it while giving the creature a wound it would never forget at the same time.
With a yell that was more frightened scream than brave shout, Mae charged forward herself.
The pain in her knee was gone.
The trembling in her arms subsided.
The only thing she was thinking as she swung her flaming sword over the creature’s head was Maybe I’ll give it a scratch as I go.
She tried to duck under its head at the same time as it speared its horn towards her.
To her shock and relief, it missed her!
The swing of its massive horned head did catch a victim though.
The stone statute to her right took the brunt of the attack that Mae had thought was aimed at her. Mae took the opportunity to dive to the side of the stamping feet as it roared in fury. She didn’t even bother trying to wound it. If the creature was this angry at missing a goring, she would not want to see its fury if she so much as nicked it with a cut from her sword.
Mae squinted her eyes and stared at it some more. It couldn’t seem to get a fix on her with its beady little eyes, the only thing about the one-horned monstrosity that was in any way small. Unfortunately, she was still trapped in the corridor with it and she realized too late that its body was now blocking the secret tapestry that lead into the elder’s sanctum.
So that was out too.
Realizing that her sword was going to be useless and would only serve to get her in further trouble, Mae thought about a way to get around the creature and perhaps throw it off her scent. She knew it was relying almost exclusively on hearing and smelling now that she had evidence that its eyesight was poor. Well, this area was already filled with her scent from her adrenaline-filled scuffle with the mercenary and she wasn’t making a sound unless forced to.
So until she moved, she was safe.
Sweat pouring down her back Mae knew that wasn’t going to last long because sooner or later the creature would stumble across her by the simple fact that it was so large that any steps it took forward guaranteed she would be at its feet when it did.
Swallowing heavily, Mae prepared to make a mad dash for freedom.
With the help of a formerly flaming sword.
22
Fear and anxiety caught in her throat; Mae tamped down on every bit of magic she had.
She didn’t want any sort of glow whatsoever coming over the sword or her hand.
The creature was so close that with four steps it could crush her and she couldn’t afford to make a single mistake.
She gripped her sword with a slick palm and lifted it silently. It was a strain on her arm but she did not waver. Then so fast she was dizzy, she stood up quickly and threw it with all her might against the far door that the mercenary had so helpfully barred behind him as he fled.
The sword hit that door with a mighty clash that made so much noise even she winced.
The creature however bellowed in rage and charged straight at the offending sound.
Mae didn’t wait, she took off as if lightning was after her.
Bolting for freedom as it ran in the opposite direction.
They passed each other a hair’s breadth away. But the one-horn was so focused on its clattering target that it didn’t see or feel her as she brushed up against its side in her scurry to get to the exit. On Mae’s end, she was aware of it, every second that her escape was happening in.
She could smell its pungent scent as the creature’s sweat filled the area with stink.
She felt the brush of its strangely smooth-yet-hard skin as the grey massive beast brushed by her with one focus on its mind, the stone floors themselves trembling under its rage.
She didn’t stop as she scrambled to turn the corner because then Mae heard the one-horn reach its destination with a resounding crash. With that something even more frightening hit her. The ear-shattering sound of its horn spiking into the metal door and carving it apart as the sound of the metal gave way in scraping shrieks.
That more than anything else convinced her knee that all wasn’t so bad at all.
Mae sprinted to the right with all the desperation she could muster, convinced that if she could just get to the corridor that led to the doors into the inner bailey she could get out of this massive creature’s way.
Let someone else deal with it for a change, Mae thought victoriously as she saw her way out come into sight. Or rather the daylight becoming visible near her, signaling a corridor was just ahead.
Too late however, she realized that it wasn’t quite the corridor she envisioned.
Mae gasped in dismayed as a landing came into view. One that predicted a steep staircase just ahead.
Wrong way, her mind shouted at her too late.
“No!” Mae screamed to herself without thinking.
She was halfway to that massive staircase landing before she managed to stop her feet moving forward and turn around. Only to see the one-horn already loitering at the corner and its tiny ears flutter as the sound of her voice reached it.
“Oh no,” Mae breathed out as softly as she could.
It wouldn’t have mattered if she had shouted again at that moment, because the massive creature’s head had already swung in the direction of her voice. And this time Mae didn’t have anything to throw and distract it to go in the opposite direction.
She was alo
ne, unarmed, and caged in by a staircase and banner rail with a three-story drop below. She couldn’t jump, not just because of her still-unsorted knee but also simply because she wouldn’t survive, but she also couldn’t run. Because there was nowhere to go now that the creature once more stood between her and freedom.
Knowing she was alone, Mae tried to think of what to do but her mind was drawing a blank. She began to back away softly. Hoping to get more space between her and it although there were already more than a dozen yards between them, she knew that it wouldn’t take the creature long for it to build up speed once it started raging again.
Once that momentum built up, she would have no chance of surviving.
Looking around nervously, Mae tried to find a new weapon or projectile. Nothing came up. The corridor was as naked as it could be with only a small path worn right into the stone of the floor itself to signify it was well-traveled.
Breathing heavily, Mae tried not to make a sound as she kept backing away.
But the one-horn had locked in on her, or what it thought was her, already.
So she braced herself as it pawed the ground with nervous excitement.
Maybe it’ll go away on its own, she thought with hope.
But that was not to be the case. It confidently turned the corner and positioned its full body in the center in the hallway. Head lowered with horn placed for maximum impact, it charged.
Watching it in motion was like seeing a runaway carriage with a team of six horses barreling down on her with nowhere to go and nowhere to run.
Fear lit through Mae’s body as she did the only thing she could do, she called up every drop of magic she had and let the fire take over her arms and hands.
Then she began to wave her arms in a circle in an effort to throw the massive creature’s focus off. With fire coming at it from the left, right, up, and down, it had to have been startled but it didn’t slow down. The fire was beautiful and to her terrifying. To it, it must have been just bright flares in the air coming at it because they weren’t effective. Mae watched, with increasing disappointment, as her fire flares bounced off its hide like dandelions in the wind.
Not having anything else in her arsenal, Mae continued to throw rings of fire at the beast with ever-increasing desperation.
Soon enough she was spent and her arms were tired.
Frustrated Mae darted to the side to avoid the massive creature’s horn but it had gotten wiser to her tricks and turned at the last half second to follow her to the ground.
Rolling quickly Mae somehow came out on the one-horn’s other side with all her limbs intact despite traveling directly beneath its underside with angry stomps all around her head from its tree trunk-like legs.
Panting heavily as she crab-walked backward Mae kept scampering on her hands and feet as quickly as she could until she hit a wall.
Then she cringed there while the one-horn roared and twisted around in the corridor trying to find her. Fortunately it was so tall that its head was almost six feet above her when she was crouched down and it couldn’t seem to see her with its tiny eyes on either side of its snout.
Taking advantage of that blind spot, Mae began to crawl along the wall staying plastered to the edge so that it didn’t detect her movements.
By this time her body was trembling from magical and physical exhaustion and as she reached the top of the staircase she was practically dragging herself and had to use an unsteady grip on a banister to raise her torso up. Still she didn’t give up, she was drained of fight and magic, but that didn’t mean she would just lay down for the count.
But as the creature bellowed once more and Mae couldn’t gather the strength to turn and look at what it was doing now, frustrated tears sprang up in her eyes. She realized that no matter how hard she fought or run, that this was it. She could do no more. She was going to face her final moments alone and forgotten as a beast stamped out her life in the heart of her family’s home.
Mae looked down at her hands, still glowing from the flames and bitterly turned off the last of her power with a push down of her magic.
Electing to not flinch, she stood tall at the top of the staircase as she waited for that horn to pierce her back and end her life. It didn’t take long for her to feel its hot snorts coming for her neck. But the creature misjudged its ability to gore her with its horn while also frantically scrambling backwards to stop itself from tumbling over the staircase it was only now just seeing.
If Mae had been smart, she might have used the steep drop-off and lured the beast to its death as it stampeded over the ledge but it was too late now. It had already managed to slow its momentum down until it was only rearing above the edge. Of course in its efforts to stop its movement, its front leg kicked out and hit her with a glancing blow to the back.
Sharp pain went through her shoulder blade as she felt what generously was a kick that had only a hundredth of the massive creature’s strength behind it. It still was enough to not only bruise her but also send her tumbling over the edge of the stairs herself, though Mae was quite sure that hadn’t been its intention.
Still she screamed as she tumbled down the first flight.
She tried to stop her fall but with the momentum built-in of the massive creature practically tossing her end-over-end she couldn’t stop. She continued to tumble across the wide landing of the second flight of stairs and over the edge again without pausing.
The second flight of stairs was even more painful than the first in addition to realizing just as she fell, the one-horn decided to take its rage about losing its prey again, out on a nearby column next to the first flight of stairs.
Falling, Mae heard the sound of a harsh crack above.
She couldn’t see it because she just kept tumbling all over herself with her limbs splayed helpless but when she was briefly turned back towards the visual of the upper staircase and the creature stomping in anger atop of it, she saw something even more frightening barreling down on her.
The one-horn had somehow managed to dislodge the entire column in its rage.
The carved pillar was now coming towards her with rapid speed. As she fell down the second flight of stairs, the column was already finishing its descent down the first. There was no way to avoid it. The pillar was as wide in length as the staircase was. So with irony, Mae watched a new death approach her as she landed painfully on her back at the bottom of a final, third flight of stairs and she listened to the creature’s enraged bellows above her.
The creature wasn’t happy she had escaped its clutches and Mae almost laughed at the irony.
“Don’t worry that column is coming for me,” Mae told it wearily as she got up and tried to stand but her bum leg slipped out from under her.
Before she could even really ready herself for the impact, the column slammed into her at the bottom of the stairs.
There was a bit of a dip where she landed so while it hit her legs with a ferocity, she ended up lodged into the dip rather than just crushed to death as she had surmised. That, however, didn’t help her. Because she was now pinned by a pillar made of stone that weighed more than ten people combined. Pushing at it ineffectually did nothing for her situation.
Her legs were trapped and so was she.
Mae looked up in horror as once more the one-horn bellowed its intent and this time it came charging down the stairs with its eye on the prize.
Her.
With all the rage in its body barreling down on her, Mae couldn’t tear her gaze away this time.
It was coming and it was coming fast in the charge that she was beginning to see was its signature stampede. Stairs wouldn’t stop it. She couldn’t stop it. But this time she wouldn’t look away, so Mae stared up at death coming down the stairs and she didn’t flinch.
Mae wanted to say she was brave as the lumbering massive one-horn came bugling down that staircase with all the finesse of a runaway wagon cart.
The truth was she was so frightened she peed her pants.
Not that she’d ever tell anybody that or there was anyone to tell.
First flight down, she thought to herself in a daze as the creature practically jumped the whole flight of ten steps in its initial charge.
As it landed on its front feet and kept charging, the whole staircase, built of stone and mettle that had been hand-carved into the walls of the greater holding itself, shook. Mae looked up and saw cracks appear in the wrap-around banister that guarded the staircase as a long division appear right down the middle of the second staircase—starting where it landed.
That didn’t stop the creature from careening down the second flight of stairs with massive speed built up.
“One more flight to go,” Mae said serenely.
The last flight. The one at which she lay at the base like a broken doll with her legs trapped, as fear inched up her spine despite herself.
23
Mae braced herself for the second heaviest impact of her life.
After the pillar, you would think anything else would be easy, but looking at that one-horn barreling down at her was no less terrifying.
She cringed as she wondered if it would rush over the pillar and stomp her to death or merely slam down straight on the pillar, crushing her in the process. Either prospect was no less appealing than that other.
Rage was written into every line of its being as the one-horn stomped down and hit the second staircase landing in seconds. Mae could have sworn the very building shook on impact.
As she raised a hand uselessly to ward off the anguish that she knew was coming, Mae felt time slow. The daylight streaming down the stairs grew bright in her eyes and the dust particles floating through the air slowed down so much that she could have individually picked them out of the air if she could reach that high but her limbs, the ones that were still usable, were too tired to do more than rest against the pillar that pinned her to the floor.
She had given up minutes ago trying to push the column off her, it was too much work.