Power of the Gods

Chapter 18

Sam and Porter were looking at some of the houses as they came across them. They were walking near the edge of the village, practically right next to the forest and Sam would occasionally stop to examine a few of the old buildings. Porter stood by and whistled while Sam stopped to examine another house.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Porter finally asked her. "What's so special about these houses?"

Sam ran her fingers along something on the wood. "This is what's so special," she said. She was examining what looked like claw marks that had run deep into the wood. "I'm trying to figure out what could've caused this. They look recent too."

Porter stood behind Sam and leaned over her to see the claw marks. "What kind of animal is it anyways?" he asked her.

Sam pushed Porter back as she stood up. "That's the weird part," she said. "The animal that can do that shouldn't be anywhere near this area."

Porter got off the floor and brushed himself off. "Then it can't be that animal, right?" he said. "What animal is it anyways?"

Sam's froze and her face turned pale as she stared at something walking from out of the woods behind Porter. Porter noticed her face and followed her eyes to see a large lion walking out of the woods. "That would be the animal I was referring to," Sam said quietly.

"Oh," Porter said. "But why is it here?"

"Because it's hungry for a snack," said a voice from behind the lion.

"Who's there?!" Sam shouted in the direction the voice had come from.

"Show yourself!" Porter demanded, though he and Sam were still slowly backing away from the slowly creeping lion.

As if to answer them, a figure emerged from the woodlands. It was a tall and muscular man. The man was wearing a pale, yellow-orange sweater that matched the lion's fur. He had on black pants, and had a big belt on. The belt reminded Sam of the kinds that wrestlers got when they were crowned as champions, except instead of saying "World Champion" on a golden plate, it had a big symbol that looked like the spade that you find on a poker card. The man had long and wild pale brown hair that looked like a lion's mane. His face was covered by a mask of a smiling lion face, fangs sticking out, with black lines going down from the eyes, as if the lion were crying. The man even had a lion tail coming from behind him.

"You two aren't really in the position to make demands," the man said. He held up his hands, there was what looked like fur sticking out of the sleeves of his sweater and his nails looked more like claws. "After all, you are outnumbered."

Porter scoffed. "Yeah right," he said confidently. "As far as I can see, it's two against two."

The man laughed. "Then you're not looking far enough," he said. A few more lions came out of the woods and stood next to the man, prepared to pounce on them if they try to escape.

Sam looked at all the lions, then at the man. "Who are you?" she asked.

The man laughed. "My name is not important, but since you are going to die here, I might as well tell you who your killer is," he said. "They call me Lion."

Sam rolled her eyes, completely forgetting about the hungry animals surrounding her and Porter for a second. That's a shocker, she thought. "Don't mess with us," she warned the man, trying to scare him off. "We're here with our friends, and we're all very powerful."

Lion cracked his neck. "It's no use to try and scare me off," he said. "I already know about your friends. I didn't come here alone either. There are three others, and they're already taking care of your friends as we speak."