Chapter 72: Tale 7, Ch 5: A Hidden Monster

Horal’s recently finished limb-turned-spear lies on the ground.

“Horal?” I ask, spotting a few parts of the underbrush shifting, as if the wind were blowing in isolated spots. I stop, putting my spear’s haft in both hands and feeling a slight sense of urgency.

“Where’d he go?” Iris asks, holding her spear at the ready.

I turn around. “Did anyone see Horal?” I squint, counting three times in a second how many people are behind me. Iris, Mally, Bay, Minnle leaning against a tree. “Where’s William?”

The others turn around and also find a lack of William. All I can see are my three group members and a few more patches of moving ferns. My eyes widen.

“Nobody move,” I say, shoving everyone against the tree. “Stick together — stick together and don’t move.”

“Horal,” Mally says with a shaky voice. “Where’s Horal?”

“Don’t move, just—”

A sickening growl shrieks out from the other side of the tree. All Minnle can do is mumble and open his eyes with fear while Iris, Mally, and I put our backs to the tree and our spears out. My heart surges as Mally turns toward it. But I sense something else going on here, shown in the fact that only one animal roared behind us.

“Face the front!” I shout as a green blur bursts from the forest floor. I duck down and thrust my spear upward, slamming the haft against a set of ribs protected by thick skin and fur. The four-legged creature yelps and snaps a long mouth full of canines at me as it tumbles to the side. Four more come in, two for me and two for Iris and Mally.

Mally shrieks as one latches its jaws on her arm.

Iris steps to the side and jumps backward, nearly plunging her spear into one of the stout creature’s hide.

I roll over as a second green-furred animal jumps at me, then stand and before the thing can turn jab the razor-tipped spear into the creature’s snout. It howls as it bleeds and one of the things jumps on my back, sending me tumbling over the dead one. I twist over and crack the haft of my spear against its head right as another one latches onto my ankle.

Screaming in pain, I let my leg go limp so the teeth don’t rip my skin and sit up, practically hurling myself onto the massive, dog-like creature as out of the corner of my eye I see a flash of gold-hued light come from nowhere. I twist my other leg onto the tuft of brownish fur on the green creature’s neck, latching on and pushing down. The force gives pressure on the animal’s head and forces his mouth open, allowing me to pull my ankle free.

Shouting a ferocious, animal-like cry I dive onto the body of the creature and wrap my arms around its stomach. It falls over and turns to snap at me, unable to reach me with my position behind it. It kicks and rolls and tumbles through the brush as I quickly pull a hand to my pocket and snap my knife into place.

With a quick thrust I stab the knife into the animal’s scarred ear. It howls in pain and pushes me away as I stab again, this time hitting its upper thigh. It bites down on my arm so I grab the knife with my other hand and stab at its skull, cracking the bone as I feel the sticky brain tissue soak into my palms.

The creature falls dead.

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I stand, not bothering to wipe my blade as I ignore the burning pain in my ankle. With my good foot I kick the spear I’d dropped into my hands and stand at the ready with my knife tucked under my palm and my spear thrust out.

Iris finishes plunging her spear into the side of one of the massive, dog-like creatures and catches my eye. A second one lies bleeding and dying next to her.

“Mally!” is all Iris says to me as I rush over to her.

Neither of us can see our fellow Meng but we hear her screaming on the other side of the tree. Without hesitation we both round the tree and spot Mally lying on the ground, bleeding all over, with three of the things mauling her.

Iris and I make sure the pack can see us and hold our bloodied spears out to meet the green killers. “Come on then!” I shout as a roar calls out from the woods that breaks my concentration.

The dog-like creatures turn to face the source and before even I can see what it is, a blade slices the first animal in half. The other two can’t even move before a man jumps out from the tall grass and jabs one clean through the side with the bottom of a wicked, spear-like weapon. At the top of the haft is a curved blade that the short, thickly-muscled man spins down and cuts clean through the muzzle of the last of the pack.

Two more creatures I hadn’t noticed race away and the man twists his weapon to separate the curved blade from the spear. He hurls the spear and skewers one of the creatures. Another flash of golden light goes off behind me as the last animal runs away.

The short man puts a horn-like object, hung around his neck on a leather strap, to his lips and blows out the same roar I heard before he arrived. Little tufts of grass turn into hidden creatures as they sprint away, some howling in anger at being deprived of a meal while they flee.

He retrieves his spear, not a bead of sweat or a sign of panting as he reattaches the haft to the sickle-like blade in his other hand. His clothes are a green-dyed leather. At his waist and stomach the material is thick and padded. Covering his arms, he has sown in a cloth-like material that attaches at the shoulder and knee to the thicker leather. On a belt he wears many small pouches and an assortment of knives, as well as a sharpened hatchet hanging neatly on his hip. When he turns around to face Iris and me he only gives a slight grunt and kneels down beside Mally.

“Meng!” Iris shouts.

The man puts a hand up to silence Iris then points down at Mally. Mally opens her mouth to speak as well but he silences her with a quick gesture, reaching into a leather pouch and pulling out a thin, fibrous plant. He stretches the plant around Mally’s neck.

He works for almost a whole minute, patching up Mally and rubbing in crushed plants and what looks like a gel from a little bottle. “She’s not going to make it, is she?” I ask, catching Iris’s hateful glare as she tries to help the man.

“No,” the man replies, looking at Mally’s pleading, fading eyes.

I hear a rustle of leaves behind me and turn, ready to face down another attack. Anger steadies my spear. Instead of another pack I see William. Blood covers his body from head to toe, especially around his neck. He breathes a sigh of relief after finding us and races over.

“I can’t believe you made it,” William says. “Where are the others?”

“I don’t know,” I say, stopping William before he can see Mally. “Mally’s…” I bite my lip as I shake my head.

A glimmer of light catches my eye and I turn to face its source. Patches of gold shine out from the edges of William’s quarterstaff, catching the sun and seemingly burning through the weapon. Chips of what looks like paint hang off its edges and strips of pure gold shine through the wood.

“William, what—” Iris tries to say before William steps around her.

“Out of my way,” William says and pushes me to the side as he kneels down beside the leather-adorned man, visibly holding back his fear as he presses his hand against Mally’s neck.

“What are you doing?” Iris gasps and tries to pull William away.

The leather-adorned man grabs Iris with an iron grip and holds her away from William, watching the man with curiosity as I rush over to see what he’s doing.

William’s quarterstaff shines like a star, glowing gold and bright and making me turn away. Strips of paint peel away from the wood with the intensity of the glow. After a long moment of confusion and fear, I blink my eyes and gasp.

Mally is breathing, her wounds sealed up, her blood dried. Were it not for the stains and scars all over her I’d say she was sleeping, lying on the clumped grass beside the dead bodies of the green animals. William kneels beside her, his quarterstaff an almost solid piece of gold.

The man in leather grunts as he and William stand, examining each other.

“You’re Meng,” William says.

“You’re a Prophet,” Meng replies.