The only problem with the fish was that their flesh tasted foul, anyone who ate one raw often quickly regretted their choice. To avoid the problem, the flesh was sliced from the fish, boiled and then left to marinate with berries and other such spices pulled from the swamp. They had a big pile of fish to get through and an even larger pile of berries and herbs to prepare them with, so it was going to be a long day of marinating fish. The demons huddled around a small campfire, chatting and throwing banter with each other as they tirelessly worked. Amnur, however, was silent, absorbed in his own thoughts and ignoring their attempts to bring him into the conversation.
A few days after the expedition had passed through he had visited Wintergate for himself, along with his daughter. The sight appalled and worried them. For such a thing to happen so silently was worrying and practically on their doorstep too with no one having any idea that it had. They looked around for a while, observing the damage to the buildings and the lacerations on the bodies. It was not a creature he had come across before that had caused the damage. Just as he decided it was about time to leave, something caught his eye; a blood trail, but it was fresher than the others around.
Scratching at it, it became obvious that it was still damp, no more than a day old he reckoned. Whoever was injured might still be within the area. Keeping his footsteps quiet, he followed the trail to a house. The door had been pushed open, leaving a bloody handprint on the woodwork. Amnur inspected it from his position on the outside wall, judging from the size and shape of the handprint it looked to be human.
He bent down to allow himself through the door, slowly peering around the corner. A pool of blood greeted him, but there was no one collapsed in it. The blood trail extended no further to indicate the person had dragged themselves away and had died elsewhere. As he got close to the blood pool it was evident whoever had been there had lost a fair amount of blood. If they had somehow sealed their wounds back up, they would be heavily weakened and would likely struggle to return to the nearest settlement. Esterbrook had made no comment about receiving someone that badly injured, however, whoever it was must have headed for Winterdale further north.
Towards the edge of the pool sat a blood-covered lump. Amnur lifted it out and wiped it against a rug on the floor, revealing a small obsidian pendant. The same obsidian pendant the Ranger woman had shown to Crono a few days previously. He cursed, for her to have returned so badly injured indicated that they had met nothing pleasant in the Commons.
Sakura, however, didn’t have such a peaceful experience; while her father investigated one part of the ruined town, she had opted to look elsewhere. Using some inedible berries as a form of ink, the demon rubbed it against the scarring on the building walls. As she painted over the surface, the deep gouges ran under her fingers, revealing the concave structure. One by one she repeated the procedure, each slash on the building showed a similar profile. Whatever creature had done the damage was the same each time or at very least, the same species. Her sensitive hearing told her of a disturbance nearby, but it did not appear to be Amnur. He knew better than to approach her unaware.
Cautiously, Sakura focused on the sound, picking up the information of its position and potential heading. It was emanating from above her, on the rooftop of a building. Slipping her hands to her blades, she shifted her weight to a position ready to spring at the first sign of danger. The tense coil of demon kept her back to the wall, cutting off one route of attack while the sound drew closer. Taking deep breaths, Sakura became hesitant when the noise suddenly ended, glancing upward to the flat edge of the rooftop.
With no warning, a figure charged off the roof, landing just shy of her body. A set of scythes descended from above only to be interrupted by her blades thrusting upwards, catching the creature’s attack mid-air. A power struggle ensued. The strange creature stood taller than her and was bearing down. Mustering her strength, she desperately pushed against the lethal scythe arms. With a grimace, Sakura could see it was not a battle in her favour, she needed to throw it off her somehow.
Holding position, she shifted her legs to the left and used the leverage to throw the creature to the right. The move caused the scythe arms to grind against the building, raking dents in the stone wall. It whined at the move, placing all of its four legs firmly on the ground, gazing somewhere in her direction. She noticed that it didn’t seem entirely confident in her position, a fact which she put down to the lack of obvious eyes on the creature’s crested head. Silently, Sakura crept around it, giving just enough distance to be out of immediate range. As she went, it slowly gathered her position, yet it always lagged behind her current location. The wall near the creature was in sight so when she finally got close enough, she ran at it and leapt off, launching herself into the air and landing on its back. The neck violently swung around in response, but she had already positioned herself, locking her legs tightly on the side of its body.
Aggravated by the demon’s actions, it seethed mana up its spine and burst it into flames. Sakura cried out and drove her blades down its back, before throwing herself away from the engulfing flames. Shocked by the immense pain, it staggered into the wall and fell over, shattering to pieces as it hit the floor.
It was a strange death, but it was a relief to see the creature stopped.
With a sigh, she fetched her blades from the steaming shards and limped away, looking to find her father. When Sakura found him, she was shocked by the sight he was crouched by. Amnur glanced up towards her, worry spreading over his face as he saw her slight wobbliness. She informed him of what had occurred, and he scowled, it became obvious what Lauri too had encountered. Given the continued existence of one in the town, they evidently hadn’t managed to kill them all. Hastily he ushered them to depart, carrying her out despite her protests, only putting her down when they were a decent distance away.
A sudden playful shove brought his attention back to the current situation; the fire warming his body, the fish in front of him. He looked at the culprit with an unamused expression, causing the demon to flinch and back down. It was unusual for Amnur to act in such a way. Worried glances were exchanged between the others present, though they were too afraid to directly ask what was bothering him. He sighed and stood up, casting his gaze over to a particular house.
“I need to speak with Crono,” he stated and walked off, being watched the whole way.
* * *
Ferdan, Ciel and Drake had found the edge of the swamp, unaware of just what danger the boggy ground hid below its unassuming surface. It had not been long before they had managed to get themselves stuck in one of the many bogs around Linlake, with the additional weight of the demons they had been dragged down further. Against recommendation Ciel had been struggling, causing him to get sucked in further. The muck was well past his waist, and it was sticking fast to his wings. Drake had waded in to try and pull him out but soon found his feet unable to move and he was still too far away to pull Ciel out, the limited mobility of his legs preventing him from unsticking his feet.
Ferdan watched on helplessly, unsure how to help. His magic was of no use when it came to lifting people out of bogs, nor did he have anything to throw out to Ciel to try and pull him in.
“I take it you’re not locals,” a voice from behind chuckled, drawing their attention to a tree a short distance away. “The first rule of bogs; no struggling,” it continued. Whoever was speaking could not be obviously seen from their position. Ferdan looked around desperately, trying to locate who was speaking to them. A current of wind clipped his back as a short, female demon landed beside him, brandishing a length of rope. She tossed one end out to Ciel who grabbed it tightly before turning to Ferdan, indicating for him to grab hold of the rope to help pull Ciel out. Ferdan nodded and grasped the rope, and the two of them pulled, slowly reeling Ciel towards them. The rope stung Ferdan’s fingers, but the female demon was unfazed and continued pulling with her full strength.
Minutes passed as they continued to drag Ciel free un
til he reached the most solid path, exhausted, cold and smelling rather rife. Ferdan helped the boy out with food and some water while the female turned her attention to Drake, who was looking rather worried. She walked up to his side, taking a close look at the ground behind him. Drake, however, was stuck at a bad angle for him to see what she was doing.
“The ground behind you is solid if you sit down, your weight should tug your legs free,” she said with a hint of laughter in her voice, he was hardly even stuck.
He did as he was told and soon enough had his legs free, a wave of guilt hitting him. If he had known earlier, he could have possibly helped Ciel before he got so exhausted.
“What’s your name?” Ciel panted from behind, in between sips of water.
“Sakura.” The name obtained questioning looks from all of them. It was an unusual name for a demon. They were not commonly named after trees or plants, more so one that wasn’t even native to the Central Isles; the tree only grew on the vast northern continent. “And yours?” Sakura asked in return. They, in turn, told her their names. Her mind hung on the name Ciel, it was familiar to her, but she couldn’t pinpoint where she knew it. Regardless who he was, she could not leave them stranded out in the bog, so she offered to show them a safer way towards Linlake. They wholeheartedly accepted, not wanting a repeat of that incident. Drake decided he would carry Ciel for a while to allow him to rest. The move did not elicit any protest from the exhausted demon.
As they walked Sakura pointed out things to look out for, such as reeds and other plants that indicated drier land and the more tell-tale signs of a bog, for future reference. She continued her informational tour of the swampland, pausing for a moment when something strange caught her eye. A slightly raised patch of the boggy ground, the light around it was tinted an eerie blue colour. Kneeling down at the edge of the solid ground, she drew out one of her blades from her belt and lightly poked at the lump, her followers warily watching what she was doing.
Before she had time to react to the lump violently moving back, deep blue pincers grabbed her leg, and a creature burst forth from the bog, slamming her hard against the floor. Pain seared up her back, stunning her for a moment and causing her to cringe. The shocked sound of the reactions behind her told her that her assailant was cause for concern.
Forcing her eyes to focus, she was startled by the sight in front of her. A creature with a pitted azure hide held her in the air by her leg, its face lined with crystals and illuminated by their cyan glow. From the look of the damage to one of the crystals, she must have stabbed it when investigating the lump. The belly looked to be covered in curved auburn plates, though from her position it was hard to see much. It had yet to completely surface itself, however. Behind her she heard the sound of blades being drawn and threw her gaze back, eyes wide at what she saw.
“Behind you!“
Her shout was overridden by an ear-piercing screech that made her ears feel as if they were about to bleed, causing her to clutch them in pain. Ferdan peeked up at the newcomer, grasping his staff tightly and blasting the creature with an icy bolt. It had little effect, the creature simply responded with a snort before swelling the fleshy sack attached to its head with air, preparing for another wail.
Ciel was faster, however, rushing into the tree with help from his wings and slipping his blades into the creature’s face, ripping the brightly coloured sack to shreds and sending the creature scrambling, letting off no more than a high pitched squeak. He tried to balance himself on a branch but soon found himself falling, the original wail still playing havoc with his ears. Drake reached out and broke his fall, the large demon himself having to lean on the ground to stay standing. Demons often had better hearing than their human and angel counterparts; such a potent sonic attack could be devastating for them.
In the chaos caused by the arrival of the second creature, the first creature seized the opportunity to drag Sakura down into the bog. As her body was being dragged under she reached out and grasped the first thing her hand felt. A small rock, one that was hopefully well stuck in the mud. Using her free leg, she tried to kick at the pincers that were dragging her down, her foot connecting several times. The creature did not relent, her flailing only annoyed it more; a feeling that was confirmed when a wide area of sheer pain hit her. It had bitten into her flailing leg, stopping it dead and using its newfound leverage to try and pull her down further.
Intense pain ran up her leg, and she let out a cry, attracting Drake’s attention towards her. By her desperate attempt to hold onto the rock it didn’t take him long to work out what had happened, but he was still disorientated. He had to help her, though.
Forcing himself along the ground using his arms, Drake reached her side and thrust his arms into the murky bog, trying to locate the creature below.
Ciel had since gone back to the tree in search of the remaining creature, being greeted by a fast-moving ball of water. It stung his skin as it hit, although he didn’t mind it too much, the water from the attack cleansed the residual bog muck. The second creature stood on a far branch, and for the first time, he got a good look at it. Its skin was pitch black, only broken by a bright blue underbelly and green banding on the edge of its seemingly stiff wings. An elongated yellow crest ran down the middle of its head, flanked on both sides by a band of cyan crystals in the place of eyes. It waved a tail around that possessed two groups of rounded crystals, a frontal green group and a blue rear group. The blue crystals flared as it pelted him with more stinging water bombs, preventing him from moving off the branch.
Ferdan below had been coming up with an idea, if his pure mana had not been affecting the creature then possibly if he converted it to a more physical form it would be able to connect with its body. To put this idea to the test, he formed thick icicles and sent them flying at the creature’s tail. It struck home, piercing right through the crystals. The colour faded from them, causing it to wobble and fall, dropping onto the waiting ground below and shattering into tiny shards.
By now Drake had managed to locate the creature hidden below and grabbed hold of it, crushing its head with one hand and the body with the other. The besieged creature had let go of Sakura’s legs in an attempt to retaliate to the overwhelming force it was experiencing. He heaved it from the bog, as the frantic creature flailing its now revealed clawed feet around, trying to nick the demon’s skin. It was being held in such a way that put the feet nowhere near its target, though.
It started hissing at him, in denial of its inevitable fate. Cracks emerged across the deep blue body; the light from its crystals began to fade away as its body caved in.
Once it stopped entirely, Drake discarded it back into the bog, where its broken body sunk into the water it had been hiding within. He was surprised by the resistance of the creature’s body, whatever it was made of, it certainly was not ordinary skin. There was nothing soft about the body.
Sakura had managed to heave herself free of the muddy bog and was clutching her leg. Past the thick mud, black streams of blood were becoming evident. The drops began seeping down to the ground by her foot, creating a watered down black puddle. From the coating of mud, it was unobvious how deep the wound was, but the pain told her it was more than a surface scratch, in addition to being aggravated by the dirty mud of the swamp.
The commotion brought the other two back from the shattered corpse of the shrieking creature, with the blood around her leg causing Ciel notable concern. Ferdan rushed over and examined the wound, teasing one of the punctures open to check the severity of the wound. It was not to Sakura’s appreciation; the word she used was not one he knew the meaning of, yet he didn’t need to know the language to pick up on what she had just said.
“I can use my magic to heal the wound, but it would need to be thoroughly cleaned first,” he remarked, obtaining a weak nod from the girl. She tried to stand, but Ferdan kept her on the floor, her expression showing her disagreement with this action. “Do not let her walk with that wound.” He looked back
towards Drake; the demon was still shaky on his feet, but he had managed to remain standing, no longer requiring his hands to move himself along.
Drake bent down and lifted her up. She protested verbally, but her body relaxed in his grip, feeling the welcome warmth of his skin. Ciel came up behind him and gave the demon a celebratory pat on the back. No one had died or been fatally injured, he would consider that a victory for now.
Ferdan looked around for his horse but saw nothing, the animal must have fled upon seeing the creatures. He would have to leave it for now, though, Sakura’s wound needed to be treated.
The rest of the distance was calm and uneventful, to the relief of the group. Sakura was wearily directing them along from her position nestled within Drake’s folded arm, reassuring them that Linlake was close, based on what she was seeing. Ferdan pointed at a column of smoke that was rising out from a patch of trees ahead of them. Ciel breathed a sigh of relief at the news, his body was starting to ache from the repeated assault of the creature’s water bombs.
An opening appeared at the opposite side of the trees, and they were greeted with the suspended huts that made up Linlake. The demons around the fire noticed their arrival, hesitant at first at the unknown company before noticing Sakura waving to them, her exhaustion was visible on her face. They rushed over from the fireplace to help them out, curious as to what had occurred.
Skies of Fyir Box Set Page 25