Shadowed by Moonlight (SAMPLE)

Chapter 1.c

I blinked, not sure if I believed what I was seeing.

Running amok in the village were at least ten demons big enough to swallow me whole. They were black as tar, with mottled crow-like wings protruding from their arms and an eel-like tail instead of legs. Their heads and torsos were vaguely human, but the similarities stopped there. With bulbous eyes and beaked mouths, their upper halves were a mashup of man, bird, and squid.

Everywhere villagers ran screaming in panic. Some looked stunned, turning to the high chiefs for direction.

The high chiefs looked equally baffled but they wasted no time. All nine of them fell into action. Alani's father jumped into the fray, smashing demons with his spiked club. Alani darted in circles behind him, sinking her daggers into one demon's back, then pulling them out to slash at another's wings.  

Father rallied the men and women who had the mettle to fight and had them form a barrier for the children and the elders fleeing the area. He took a spear from a nearby hut and joined the battle, stabbing at demons that snaked his way.

I should be helping. I needed to be helping. What kind of chief would I be if I froze up like this every time there was trouble? I gritted my teeth and flexed every muscle in my legs, willing myself to move forward, to run, to do something. But my body wouldn't comply. 

Fight, you coward, I screamed at myself, FIGHT!

Ori of the Navigator Village batted one of the smaller demons up with his oar. Alani slashed it down with her knives. Tāwhiri and his mother stood back to back, quarterstaffs whirling in the air as they struck down oncoming demons. High chief Moe hit one demon with a club in his left hand, then caved in  the skull of another with the rock he held in his right. All around me splotches of black feathers rained down and eel tails flopped to the ground. The battle was almost over, and I hadn't moved a muscle.

Coward.

Suddenly, there was another shriek, this one louder and much, much, closer. The sound of it shook the trees and made my teeth rattle. Those who weren't finishing off a demon looked around, eyes wary as they brandished their weapons.

"Form a line!" Father yelled, "Form a line! No matter what monster comes out next we must protect the villagers!"

The high chiefs and their successors obeyed, regrouping for another attack. They looked to the skies, searching for the new threat.

Seconds later another demon erupted into view--this one bigger and more terrifying than all of the others combined. Its winged arms were muscled and instead of a beak it flashed a mouth full of rowed teeth.  Spit flew from its fanged mouth as it snaked through the air, taloned hands aimed directly at me.  

Panic gripped my heart as I watched my impending doom come closer and closer.

I should run.

I should hide.

I should do something, anything. If I couldn't save myself now, how could I hope to be chief someday?

"Move, son!" roared my father. He barreled into me, sending me flying. The demon was less than a stone's throw away. I watched in a daze as my father braced himself, his spear ready.

But before the creature or my father could attack, a blur zipped out of a coconut tree and struck the demon on the side of the head. The demon shrieked, halting midair. The brown blur wound around its body, and the demon started to writhe. It plummeted down, then jerked up. It clawed at its head as it flew higher and higher, arcing in a backwards loop before spiraling towards a nearby clearing. The earth shook beneath my feet as it crashed.