Darren's Game

13

They had found an area with a large, hollow tree. From the scratch marks and digging into the ground, they could tell a creature had made it but now had left it behind. The shrubbery around the large base helped to create more of a shield from any nighttime predators, giving everyone room to lay down and rest while one watched guard. 

"How much longer until Hilke comes back?" Brune asked as he tossed more sticks into a pile. His stomach was audibly rumbling, and eating plants forever wasn't going to sate the appetite he had worked up since the night before. "I'm hungry..."

"You could catch some bugs and eat them," Cassia spoke as she smacked another small insect away from her bare biceps. There was one not leaving them alone, mainly trying to bite them for blood. "Pretty sure all these vampire flies would fill you up. Would get them off of me too..." 

Brune would scrunch his face up in disgust and bat one of the insects away from himself. "No thanks. I'd rather find a mantis to eat over a usually diseased bug."

"The vampirism disease has been eradicated, though," Paskalin would chime in.

"From people, yes. But we don't know about the bugs that share the name with the illness... I don't want to risk it." Brune would then collapse himself to the ground and lean against the outside of the tree. A sigh would leave his lips and he'd glance up at the canopy above them, mostly consisting of dead branches blocking off the stars above. 

Eadward was listening in, but not much as he kept out an eye for Hilke. She was on the hunt for a small animal or anything that could fit into the hunting dog's mouth she had transformed into. He'd sometimes glance over at Vesta, who was working on an illusionary shield to cover their current location. There was still something gnawing inside of Eadward with how Vesta acted earlier. Not wanting to tell Cassia who had saved her life, it still baffled him being told not to say it. A sigh would only slip out, quiet enough that only he could hear it, as he turned to look again in the direction Hilke had gone.

Out in the distance, a fog had formed. It was difficult to see past it, but the moonlight helped to show the fog apart from moving targets and solid objects. It had mainly stayed a cool gray to the eye, but a small bit of movement could be seen. Eadward would keep his gray eyes locked on the moving figure, seeing it gain height as it got closer. He also could see that whatever it was happened to be jogging, hurrying in their direction. It wasn't Hilke...

"Something is coming closer, and it isn't Hilke," Eadward spoke to the group. He didn't wait for their response either as he went to grab a large rock off the ground and prepared to use it as a weapon.

The odd figure only grew closer, still masked as a black silhouette as it seemed to slightly alter in shape. The top of it seemed to increase in size, showing off wings that could not be identified. Lean, tall, and tiny wings were enough to make Eadward assume it wasn't a fellow soldier coming toward him. It was one of the monsters.

He'd bend his knees slightly, giving a small bounce as he loosened the tightness in his shoulder to help give momentum to the rock in his hand. He took a few trial swings forward began to build up the movement needed before he turned in on himself and spun back out, releasing the large rock into the air and at the nearing figure.

A shout could be heard from the figure as it seemed to notice the incoming rock. A sound similar to the sucking of air filled the area around them before a small purple light was engulfed by a black darker than any in the night scene already. It quickly engulfed the rock before disappearing. The large projectile was now missing from its place in the air.

"What the..." Vesta began after seeing the strange distortion where Eadward's weapon was once at. "The hell just happened?"

Eadward would stay tense,  not sure what had just happened himself. He replayed the imagery in his head of what just appeared in front of him. A dark mass, purple light, and the object disappearing from its place in the world. Magic. But was it from an ally or a being that could use magic?