Winds to Light up the World

Chapter 15

That day was one of the most entertaining days ever. The four friends laughed, joked and most important they planned their journey. They were joined by Notera and Gremer around lunch. It turned out Shayla knew a lot about magic, old legends and the layout of Iphya. Tanora was surprised at all the knowledge Shayla had.

While Shayla, Rane and Cove made lunch, Notera and Gremer offered to show Tanora the horses they could use. They went out to the large barn, which was also filled with a shelter for cows, a chicken coop, a pen for pigs, a huge pile of hay and food and a separate room for various machines, where Tanora saw five beautiful mares. All different shades, from gray to dappled to brown as warm as a fawn's coat to the darkest, shiniest black.

"They're beautiful," she breathed, stroking the brown mare's nose.

Notera went over to the black horse. "We don't have need of all of them here. They're better off with you on your adventure. We'll keep this one," she gave the black horse a pat on her sleek neck. "She's our strongest."

Tanora hugged them both and thanked them. They were walking past the little forest that started at the edge of their property on the way back to the house, where hopefully lunch was ready, when they heard a growl to their left. Tanora, expecting the worst, turned her head, shoving Notera and Gremer behind her. The thing snarling at her was a beast born from the worst nightmares. Its fur was grey and red so dark it was almost black, the perfect color to blend into the shadows of the forest. All six legs had claws as big as her hand, ready to shred anything to bits. The tail ended in a barbed ball of spikes which looked just as lethal as its claws. It snarled again, revealing even more teeth, all of them sharp and ready to slice flesh, than just the large two hanging out of its maw.

"Go back to the barn, now!" Tanora whispered. The barn was closer than the house, even if it was less safe. "I'll distract it. If there's a different way to the house, go get the others."

Notera and Gremer retreated and the beast growled. He could not get to them with Tanora standing there. The only weapon she had on her was a dagger-slash-knife for slicing food. Not very practical in this situation. Frantically, she looked around for anything to defend herself and found a large stick lying next to her. Keeping her eyes on the beast, now pacing at the edge of the trees, she picked it up and positioned herself in what she assumed was a defensive stance.

Without a warning it pounced. If Tanora hadn't been monitoring its very breath she wouldn't have noticed the tensing of muscled and she would've been shredded to pieces. With a leap she brought herself out of harm's way, for a moment at least. The beast's large ears twitched, its nose mirroring the movement, searching for any noise that would give away her position. It hunts by sound and smell, Tanora noticed. It attacked again, making her jump out of the way. It was only cause to her running and zigging that kept her from being struck. Panting, Tanora circled the beast which was starting to tire too. Before it could attack again, she threw her stick in direction of its head. First, she cursed herself for not thinking ahead because now she stood defenseless in front of a nightmare. But by sheer luck the stick hit the beast's face and knocked one of the long teeth off which fell to the ground. The beast fell back to the forest edge and Tanora took the chance to snatch the tooth which was a lot more useful than a stick as it was about as long as her forearm and a lot pointier. Snarling at her with even more hate in its glowing yellow eyes, the monstrous creature attacked again. But not by jumping at her. It swung its barbed tail at her, catching her unaware. She swallowed her scream of pain as the barbs hit her leg, striking a long and hopefully not too deep gash.

Tanora had to finish it off soon. The blood slipping down her leg was just enraging it more. She shifted on her feet to take the pressure off her injured leg all the while watching the beast, including the tail.

Tanora didn't give the creature any indication of what was to happen. Rallying her strength, she let go of a big gust of wind that had building up in her. It hit the monster making it stumble but otherwise it was just a bit confounded. Not pausing Tanora called up some more air to swirl in different places around the beast, making it hard for it to know where she was. Its ears were twitching, trying to catch every sound and figure out where Tanora stood. It was trying to find her by scent too, but Tanora had entwined her scent in her winds to confuse it some more.

The use of her magic was draining her strength. She hadn't used it to this extent in ages. Through whatever means the beast had located her. It turned in Tanora's direction but before it could leap, she was on it, pushing the long fang into its side. The beast gave a howl of rage and anguish. Tanora pulled the improvised sword out and plunged it in again. Then she went to the tail and stabbed it just where it met with the back, making it useless for the beast, a dead weight. The beast turned and managed to scrape its huge paw across Tanora's arm. She batted it away with a burst of wind and finally rammed the tooth into its hateful eye. She watched as the creature twitched and eventually its chest stopped moving.

Tanora sat down next to a tree. She didn't feel bad for killing the beast. In fact, it was the first life she didn't feel bad about ending. And using that amount of her magic had set something loose in her. Without her really willing the air to move around her little whirlwinds were moving around her, ruffling her hair. She didn't have the will or strength to stop it.

Where had the beast come from? She had never encountered such animal in the small forest close to Riva. Sighing she stood up and gasped at the pain shooting through her leg. The gash must be deeper than expected. Along with the less bad scratches along her arm it would have to be cleaned and bandaged soon. Tanora yanked the tooth out of the now dull eye and broke off the other tooth as well. It had proved itself as a quite useful weapon.

 Limping she set off towards the house.

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Big surpriiiiise! What do you think of it? 

Did I do ok on the fight scene? I have no idea if anyone else but me can unterstand it... 

Have a nice day!