The Ivory Witch

CHAPTER TWO

I groaned as the transport came to a halt and I sat up from where I had been laying down. Blinking, I rubbed my eyes trying to get rid of the crust that had filled them from my sleep. I stared expectantly at the door, waiting in the pitch blackness as I listened to the shuffling outside.

After a moment, I heard a sharp noise as someone outside banged out the wall of the wagon. I frowned as I listened, at first I had assumed that we had reached the destination, but now I felt unsure about that as they would have opened up the door. Putting my ear to the wall, I listened through the thick wood to the strange sounds outside, sounding as though something metallic were being dragged across the ground. I felt my blood run cold as I recognized the sound, something I have heard before.

Someone was dragging a corpse across the hardened trail. Judging by the sound, most likely it had to be one of the guards that I had come with. Another sound caught my attention, and I squatted down, ready to charge the door as it slowly started to creak open. My muscles tensed, and I waited a heartbeat, holding my bated breath. I wanted to see any hint of who, or what, could be my enemy.

I saw a metallic hand grasp the edge of the door and relaxed a small amount when I saw one of the guards open the door, his helmet missing and eyes wide.

"What happened? Are you alright?"

"Shut up! We need to go, and we need to go now before it comes back," The man said, his voice gravely with how quiet he attempted to be, "Hurry, I don't know how long we have."

I hastened my way to the door, but I slowed down when I heard something that caught my attention. Before I could react to it, or say anything to warn the guard, he vanished with a scream of agony. It happened so quickly that I never had the chance to react before the wall to my right exploded inwards, showering me with pieces of wood and metal, and a gigantic head collided with me.

I screamed in pain and agony as the head shoved me hard against the opposite side of the wagon before that too gave way. I found myself slamming into the mud covered trail, before laying on my back for what felt like too long a second, staring up at the evening sky. I scrambled to my feet and spun towards the wagon, catching the glimpse of the scaly head retracting into the darkness and out the other side.

I cursed and looked around wildly, finding the corpse of one of the guards near me, his jaw completely removed and horror evident in his eyes. In his hands he still clutched a large broadsword that had been covered in blood, most likely his own.

I ran to it, and tore his hands from it, picking it up to hold it across my chest to guard against anything that attempted to attack me. As soon as I turned around, my foresight in the placement soon became a reward as the large head struck at me again, but reared back when the cold steel of the blade cut into it.

The head belonged to an enormous creature, the size of the wagon behind it. Fur that bristled like metal needles covered the great brute, and it's neck swung about while never taking its eyes off of me. I couldn't believe the length of the neck for a moment, it had to have been several feet long, impossibly long. The head looked to be a mix between a Grunding Bear, and a Leviathan Snake, with four eyes that sat precariously on the front and sides of the monster's head.

The thing's mouth opened and a guttural scream came out, and I could hardly hold my shock. It sounded like a human, as though the monstrosity had taken some poor souls voice and used it for itself.

"Help me, by the mercy of the Archking, it hurts!" I recognized the voice of the guard who had opened the door before.

My first thoughts were that this... creature, I had no other name for it, had somehow come from the man I had seen; but that idea soon became dashed when I looked behind it and saw the man lying with dead eyes staring at me, throat gouged out.