Half-Bloods R • 2 : Growing Shadows

C • 1 : Shadows on Leaves, Light in Streams

She hopped up and crawled into the thick branches of the thick red tree that sprouted out of the entrance to the ruined hospital. She climbed further up, clasping onto bricks, vines, and branches with an extra pair of arms, and eventually neared the canopy, then she stopped and looked out into the abandoned forest city of San Antonio. She put a hand to her mouth and whistled.

From a distance below her, a howl sang through the trees and broken concrete. A texas red wolf, a beast once extinct, walked out of the foliage, its ears high and head low. With it, strode a massive wild boar, a beast that while once rampant in Texas, very few still stood.

"Vos Belial!" She called to the wolf, then to the boar, "Vos Ke'Ala! Keep searching, it can't have gone far!"

The animals disappeared back into the brush as Villin slid back down, her tangled mess of dark hair occasionally catching on a twig or vine. She silently slipped through the dense layers of leaves and paused when she heard a bird call. She pushed up against the thick tree behind her and twitched when a small itch ran up her leg, she looked down and found a small, richly colored ox beetle had landed on the side of her calf. She picked it up and studied it for a moment, watching its legs frantically twitch and squirm, its elytra expand and close.

To think people are so scared of these helpless little creatures, I guess they're just as helpless.

She popped the small insect into her mouth and crunched down. She looked around herself and listened for the bird call again, it was moving away. She chased after it, quietly stepping across twigs and stones, ignoring the uneven dirt and cobble beneath her feet. To her right, in the distance, she heard a howl and a squeal. Her beasts had found a hint too, they all followed the same trail, it was close. They ran out, through bushes, and into a clearing where a large, brackish pond stood.

Drinking from it was a massive rhinoceros, its thick and dark hide speckled by the sunlight that just barely peeked through the treetops. The beast huffed when they stepped out. Villin's wolf, Vos Belial stepped to her left, while her boar, Vos Ke'Ala poised itself at her right, huffing and puffing.

The rhino readied itself to charge as Villin stood calm. Her beasts dodged out of the way as the rhino quickly closed the distance. Villin darted to the side, grabbing its horn and dragging it down headfirst into the dirt. She grew an extra pair of arms and placed her three right hands on its head, pinning it. The beast snorted, dust kicking up into the air as I fell asleep, magic pouring into the dust surrounding its nose.

She pulled out a bundle of paper when the beast settled into a slumber and unwrapped it, revealing a deep crimson eye with a violent orange iris. Its nerves were replaced by roots, roots that spilled out and wrapped around the wilted sclera.

"Give me a path," she said, one hand still on the rhino.

She and the rhino were suddenly shoved through the realms, and through red, murky water. They then resurfaced back in San Antonio, in an old abandoned zoo. Vos Belial and Vos Ke'Ala suddenly appeared out of the shadows next to her, and she walked forward, heaving the rhino along with her right arms. Eventually, she arrived at the old rhino enclosure and dragged it through into the dust. She let go, its large head thumping against the sand. She looked around herself, listening to the bird calls as she tapped the rhino with her foot, shaking its thick hide. The beast woke up, its hide shaking as it stumbled to its feet. She patted its side and stepped away.

She looked down at the eye that she held in her hand, "Growth."

Vines and roots erupted out of the ground, spreading outward beneath her feet. Flowers and patches of grass spiraled from the ground, two bluish-grey trees erupted from the earth in the distance.