The Huntress of Iyhiri

CHAPTER 1

Her breath caught, heart pounding in her chest as Agnez gaped down into the valley, terrified by the creature she saw there. Made of gray vines, for Agnez did not know what else to call them, the tendrils slithered forward, climbing over trees, debris, and shrubs, slowly twisting and winding forward, as a snake would move. The earth sizzled and steam rose from the ground in the creature's wake. Crisp, brown crucith leaves that only moments before had been fresh and green were slowly being eaten by heat as though burning embers. Bright blades of grass turned to ash and danced around the monster. Everything it touched burned through, and fell dead to the earth.

Rajhani had pleaded with her not to hunt when she left the village two days earlier.

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"Please don't go, Agnez. I have a funny feeling. The birds are flying strangely. The wind is different."

Agnez turned around and walked back toward her sister, standing in the door to the hut, her left hand against the doorframe. Rajhani looked up at Agnez, eyes open wide, her slight frame hardly a sliver in the doorway. Laying her bronzed hand on Rajhani's shoulder, Agnez smiled then drew her sister to her in an embrace. Turning Rajhani around by the shoulders, Agnez gave her a soft shove back into the hut.

"Be careful," Rajhani said, turning back around. "There is something wrong with the day."

Agnez pivoted on her left foot and headed toward the wood line. She had noticed the difference in the wind and animals on her last hunt, two days prior.

"I'll stay safe, little sister," she whispered as she looked up at the clouds, swirling and gray. "Something is definitely strange today."

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The creature in the valley twisted and curled, making a crunching sound. Agnez stood staring, wanting to run but unable to move, her bow still in her left hand, arrow in her right. The people in her village were hungry. Her sister was hungry. But Agnez did not think of these things as she stood frozen to the earth, terror coursing through her body, heating her blood and widening her eyes. "You were right, little sister." It was hardly a whisper.

One of the tendrils attached to the vine-like creature stopped moving, retracted its small vines, and changed direction to snake toward Agnez. It climbed the valley hill, leaving a smoldering line of rot behind it.

Run, she thought, commanding herself to move. A hundred feet remained between her and it.

Seventy-five.

Run now! Sixty feet. She was frozen to the earth.

Run! Forty-five.

She turned and fled for the tree line. This thing, whatever it was, was killing everything it touched. Agnez, the elite huntress, the fiercest warrior of her village, was nothing more than a helpless child against this foe. If she fought, she was certain she would die. Death did not scare her. Leaving her sister behind did. Fear threatening to overtake her, she ran through the forest blindly as the tendril pursued her. She could hear the crunching and cracking of dense vegetation as the thing slid through the forest. The smell of rotting plants filled her nose.

Her foot catching on an exposed root, Agnez tumbled forward, twisting her ankle and landing on her stomach. Still gripping her bow in one hand and an arrow in the other, she rolled to her side to get up and saw the tendril coming toward her, seeming to fly over the earth. Steam rose up behind it as if the soul of the forest was escaping to the heavens. Bringing the arrow up to the string, she aimed for the center of the thing, hoping it had a heart to be pierced. The arrow hit its target with a thud and was sucked into the monster. It did nothing to slow its pace. Scrambling to her feet, Agnez ran. A hissing sound filled the forest. Iyhiri Forest, her home, was dying behind her, and all she could do was run.