Solaris stepped back. "It seems you have enough to deal with without me making any threats, my apologies."
"Well, I would expect one who was teleported to know where they were going." said the elf. "This village is near the edge of the continent, and the blight has taken half of the forest around us."
Romel walked over and looked around a bit. On one end of the small village were shops. They were deformed like the trees, all worn and abandoned. He peered down the road in the other direction. The condition of the buildings seemed to improve as his gaze went from the northern half of the village to the southern half. There was 1 lone house near the end of the road that was unaffected by the ruin which the city had fallen.
"I assume you live in that house there" Romel pointed to the undamaged house.
"Maybe so," the elf said with a hint of suspicion in his voice.
Others emerged from the house and began to approach the 3 slowly. Solaris noticed them and bid them to come.
There were 3 of them: 2 elves, and 1 beastman. Romel just couldn't contain the questions….
"And they are friends of yours I assume, and that must be a beastman?"
The tall creature with the basic shape of a human, with ears like a cat's, large pointy teeth, and claws...big ones. The creature towered above them all, and had a long furry tail, which happened to be holding a spear.
The creature looked down at Romel "BeastWOMAN" she corrected him in a voice nearly as deep as his own.
"Oh damn, sorry!" Romel said, scared and embarrassed.
Solaris jumped in "Careful, he pisses himself if you scare him. He also doesn't get out much, so pay his antics little mind."
The first elf spoke up. "That's Tara. She's the reason the few of us are still alive. Most other's tried to get out. Not sure if they made it or not. Anyways, I'm Toan, this is my daughter Ellie, and my wife Jinyu" he looked at the short elven girl and the taller elf woman.
Just as the introductions finished, the air suddenly grew cold. Tara grabbed the weapon from her tail, Toan rushed his wife and daughter back to the house. Solaris's eyes began to glow again.
"What's happening" Romel asked as he drew his sword.
"The creature is coming for another of us" Toan said with fear in his voice.
He'd barely finished his sentence when Romel glanced over to the house. A strange dark creature stood in front of the house. It stood tall, higher than the house itself, had 4 legs, and at least 4 arms from what he could see, and had dark purple skin. The creature caught Ellie before she could get back inside and snatched her up in one of its hands. It bolted towards them all in the middle of the road, heading back towards the woods. The creature moved with amazing speed and was upon them in the blink of an eye. Toan stared up at the creature, and was pummeled, knocked into one of the wrecks of a building left in the village. Romel swung and was kicked, knocked down to his knees.
Tara made a stab with her spear, and the beast let forth a mighty roar, showing the long, sharp, yet decayed fangs it had. Solaris drew his sword and swung as well, letting forth a thunderous blow that took off one of the creature's legs. It writhed in agony and grabbed Tara in one of its mighty fists. It threw Tara straight at Solaris, who, was knocked to the ground by the large cat like woman. The shaft of her spear landed across her head, dazing her for the moment. With this slight distraction, the beast was gone with Ellie, off into the woods as suddenly as it had come. Though this time, there was a trail of dark blood marking its path.
Solaris got up and looked down the path, then around him, surveying the damage. He helped Toan out of the pile of what once was a shop. Romel had made his way to his feet, and was leaning against a house on the other side of the path. Jinyu rushed to her husband's side in tears.
"It took our daughter!" She sobbed hysterically.
Tara looked down at the couple. "I'm sorry I could not stop it."
Solaris and Romel apologized too.
Romel spoke "I know this isn't the time to ask for supplies, but, I'm in desperate need of a shield, is there one left in this village?"
Toan pointed to the house. "We've been keeping useful items there, food, weapons, and medicine"
Romel ran inside picked a shield, and met up with the group. He looked at Solaris. "You know what we have to do right?
Solaris nodded. They went to the northern edge of the village. Solaris turned and shouted "We'll be back with your daughter soon, and that beast's head."
Tara ran behind them, with speed nearly matching that of that creature. "I'm coming too. This bloodshed shall end today."
The trail of blood marked their path as they set foot into the dismal woods that lay before them.
Tara muttered to herself with tears in her large green, cat-like eyes "Ellie, we are coming."
Fragments - Sun Book 1 - Draft 1
Table of Contents
An Encounter Ch 2 - Citradel of the Flame Keepers Ch 3 -The City of Azidon Ch 4 - City of Silence Ch 5 - A brush with the Blight Ch 6 - Showdown in the Sanctuary Chapter 7 - The Runaway Guide Ch 8 - Flowers and a Dragon Ch 9 - The Royal Pain Outtake 1 Ch 10 - A Conflict of Elements Ch 11 - You Called Me What?! Ch 12a - The end of a Journey A Small Stack of Bonus Content 12b - The end of a Journey Ch 13 - Rise of the Dark Sun Ch 14 - The Trial of the Solar Eclipse Ch 15 - Beast Mode... ?! Outtake 6 - Ponies! Ch 16 - Torment at Fujima Outtake 7 - You Did What?! Ch 17 - The Binding of Frost and Flame Ch 18 - The Break of Power and Silence Ch 19a - Pages from Their Past Outtake 8 Outtake 9 Ch - 19b - Pages from their Pasts Outtake 10 Ch 20 - Home, Bittersweet Home Ch 22 - The Aftermath Ch 23 - An Unexpected Reunion Ch 24 - The Elven Scholar Ch 25 - The Student-Teacher Ch 30 - Academic Warfare Outtake 13 - And You Are...?Ch 5 - A brush with the Blight
Following the trail of blood made tracking the beast easy. Bones could be seen littering the path which they walked as well. They quickened their pace. This thing was hungry, and it didn't care what it had to do to get its dinner, nor who or what its dinner was.
Tara's ears went up. She charged ahead down the path of broken woods, turned and shouted back "We are getting close, I head Elli screaming!" She turned again and continued ahead.
"That doesn't tell me too much, a beastman can hear a horse sneeze a half mile away."
"Does a horse sneeze loudly" Romel asked
"Not really, but Elli's life is in danger. Stop talking, start running, you can catch up" Solaris replied and he sprinted ahead.
Solaris caught up to Tara and they reached a clearing. They saw the creature, and it saw them. They drew their weapons. It dropped Elli. She landed on the ground and let out a yell of pain. Tara rushed to her, but the monster swung and smacked her into some nearby trees. She recovered quickly, this time not taking the most damage from her own weapon. Solaris dropped his bag in the corner of the clearing and charged for the beast. He called to Tara "You get the girl, I'll distract this ….thing".
She nodded and again made an attempt to reach the girl, this time met with a foot. She dodged it, but was caught by the monster's hand. She showed her teeth and took a hearty chomp of the creature's hand, spitting afterwards.
Solaris laughed as he deflected an onslaught of bones that the creature threw at him. "What's the matter, it doesn't taste good?"
Tara dropped to the ground and looked at him with rage. "GET THE GIRL!" she snarled.
"Yes ma'am miss beast woman" Romel said as he came into the clearing with shield and sword in hand. He ran up to the beast and swung, The blow seemingly had no effect of the thing. He blocked the counter's counter attack with his shield, but was still knocked to the ground.
Tara finally made it to Elli, picked her up and made her way to the edge of the clearing. The beast took an awkward leap since it was missing its left front leg, and cut her off. She cradled Elli and prepared for the strike.
She looked up a few seconds later to see Solaris standing over here, glowing intensely and holding the beast's fist. It swung at him with another arm, this one wasn't blocked. Solaris was sent flying into the trees which broke upon impact. Tara cringed at the sight and sound of it as she leapt away still holding onto the terrified Elli.
Solaris pulled himself from the pile of rotten trees and raced back to the battlefield, Romel threw his shield to Tara, who tossed him her spear with her tail. The beast went after Tara and Elli yet again. This time Romel intercepted it by impaling its remaining left leg with the spear. The beast let out a deafening roar and kicked. Then it pulled the spear from its leg with another agonizing scream. Solaris charged to Tara and Elli, picked them up, and quickly carried them to the other edge of the clearing. Immediately after putting them down, he realized he hadn't burned them. He looked down at them, and then at Romel struggling with the creature. "New plan! Tara, give Elli to Romel! Romel, give her back her spear. You get to babysit!"
They did as they were told and traded tasks. Solaris instructed Romel to go to the village. He started heading there, and exactly as Solaris expected, the beast gave chase. He and Tara were waiting and simultaneously attacked the crippled creature. Each attacked one of its lower arms. Tara's spear pierced right through it. She pulled back and the arm lay dangling, useless.
Solaris summoned his full power for a second, and let for a swing at the bests lower right arm. The sheer force of the attack severed the beast's arm clean off. It fell to the ground twitching, moving at its own will, then stopped, lifeless. They stayed close to Romel as he headed back to the village. His pace slowed since he was carrying Elli, and had been fighting for a while.
The village was just in sight when the beast turned itself, using its 2 right legs as if they were the only 2 it ever had. Its speed picked up and it lunched ahead and caught up to Romel, who dodge rolled out of the way with Elli. The beast let forth a mighty right hook which sent Romel flying though the trees. Elli saw home and ran, showing off her elven speed. The beast was still far faster and landed right in fron of her, facing away from the village. Solaris and Tara caught up to the beast again and prepared to attack it before it could grab Elli again.
Then suddenly, the beast turned around. Arrows could be seen in its back. Jinyu and Toan were firing at it from the edge of the village. Solaris and Tara took this moment to plan a quick attack. Solaris's eyes blazed with light, the darkness of the woods around him began to recede and life sprang forth into some of the closest trees. Tara jumped up and landed on his left arm. Solaris catapulted Tara towards the beast, and she trust her spear forward in mid air, letting forth a cat-like roar as she flew. She connected at the base of the creature's neck, dealing a fatal blow to the being. It fell to the ground in a bloody and lifeless heap.
Elli ran to her parents and embraced them tearfully. Romel pulled himself out of the trees. He was bruised and bloody, hardly able to stand. He staggered over to Solaris who looked at him and said "I hope you aren't expecting me to carry you or something."
Romel replied "Nah, just looking at that crazy power of yours, What was that? I deserve an explanation, you know, since I survived and all." He hardly made it back to the house before collapsing inside.
They all gathered inside and rejoiced over the safe return of Elli.
"We can't thank you enough for rescuing our daughter. Toan told them all.
Solaris looked at them with a serious expression. "What's happening to those woods, is known as the blight, right? And there may be more creatures like that?"
They all nodded
Then there is something you can do to thank us" Solaris spoke slowly, and very deliberately.
"And that would be?" Jinyu asked?
"Let us get you to a safer city. The 4 of you out here can't last forever."
Jinyu and Toan looked at Elli, then at Tara. Toan spoke: "Many of the villagers tried to leave, most didn't make it. Their belongings were found alongside their bones in the woods. I can't risk that happening to my family. We are safer fighting here."
Romel chimed in, "Right, you are safer, close to an area where there could be more of those…things?"
Now Tara spoke "I think it best for us to go with them. We stand a far better chance of escape with these 2 by our side."
Jinyu nodded, and Toan agreed. It was settled. They would head south for the city of Inzel once everyone had recovered.
A few days passed, and everyone recovered enough to travel. They packed and recovered their belongings, in the case of Solaris who left his bag at the monster's lair. They grabbed all they could carry and bid Xine, the city of Despair, farewell.
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