Into Damnation

Chapter 8 The Feather Made of Steel

Apollyon and Katya walked through the desert until they came to huge mountains that blocked their path.
"So where do we go now?" Katya says looking up the tall mountains.
"Up. You know how to climb right?" He asks looking at Katya with a smirk. Dread filled the pit if Katya's stomach, this was not going to be an easy feat.
"Okay" she says and starts climbing, Apollyon watched her and laughed. "What are you laughing at" Katya says with a grunt as she pulls herself up a rock. He stood there and watched until she was at least twenty feet up which took her a while as she wasn't used to climbing. "Are you coming or not?" Katya asks annoyed, looking back at Apollyon who just stood there watching.
"Climbing? No but I will take the path up" he says laughing and pointing to his right. Katya looked and sighed heavily before dropping herself back down to the ground.
"I hate you" she says angrily as she stormed up the pathways.

The two finally reach the peak of the mountain, only way left it to go down. Taking a break and sitting on a rock Apollyon takes note of the way down while Katya sits.
"So Apollyon.." Katya starts but is interrupted when the rock she is sitting on starts to shift and moving. She falls off and turns to see a giant rock golem growling at her. Apollyon runs to her side and helps her up just as two more golems appear.
"Shit" Apollyon mutters under his breathe. The two stood back to back with their weapons raised, waiting for the attack. The golems swing their giant fists making them both dodge in different directions. Apollyon strikes his sword but it just bounces off the golems rock skin. No matter how many times he swung he did no damage to him. Katya was trying to deflect every swing that went her way, taking a step back each time but the ground behind her ran out and the cliff dropped very steeply behind her. "Apollyon!" She screamed as the rock golem hit her one last time sending her flying off the cliff.
"Noo!" Apollyon yelled as he ran off the cliff after her, his wings shooting from his back. Grabbing her quickly he wrapped his wings around the two of them and collided into the ground below.

The dust around them settled as Apollyon laid on the ground, Katya in his arms protected.
"Apollyon?!" Katya cried as she saw the unconscious man underneath her.
"Relax" Apollyon coughed out, "I am fine, are you alright?" He asked reaching up to her bloody arm. She looked down and saw on of his feathers embedded in her arm, "yes I am fine" she says plucking the feather out. Apollyons wings were different from what you would expect, his wings were made of metal, each feather as sharp of knives. Katya examined the feather in her hands, it felt like metal but weighed nothing.
"Here" she says handing him the feather but Apollyon shook his head, "you can keep it, it chose you". Katya got up and helped Apollyon up before reaching into her pouch for some wraps. Ripping the fabric into threads she tried the feather up and made a sort of necklace. After putting it on she looked at the feather one more time before smiling up at Apollyon, "thank you"

Katya took a few steps away from where they landed and saw the most beautiful forest, lush trees and green land. "This place" Katya gasped as her eyes lit up and widened. Apollyon laughed, "I thought you would like this place" he says with a smirk. As Katya walked through the forest she came to a halt when she saw a big buck standing in a clearing. "Look!" She gasped quietly, it had been a while since she had seen one and it made her heart skip a beat seeing a place that reminded her so much of home. Apollyon stood back and watched her with a smile on his face. Slowly Katya walked towards the buck, it turned to look at her but did not run away. Gently she reached her hand out for the buck to smell, when he stopped he nodded his head letting her know it was okay to touch him. Katya took a step closer and pet the soft fur on the top of his head, she marvelled at his bug windy antlers. Her own antlers were much smaller but looked very similar. The buck nuzzled his head against her face and she giggled.
"Come back here!" Apollyon angrily whispered.
"Oh hush now" Katya says ignoring him, "It is just a buck, he won't hurt me" she says, unbeknownst to her that is not why he said that.

Apollyon rest against a tree and watched how happy Katya was until he noticed some shadowed figures in the distance. Apollyon his behind a tree and whispered dangerously, "Come back here!" But Katya did not listen, the figures were in sight and he noticed an insignia on there coats. Demon Hunters. "Shit" he mutters to himself.

The Buck stopped what he was doing and looked behind him before running away afraid. Katya followed him with her eyes, confused as to why he would run.
"Well well well, looks like we found a little nymph all on her lonesome" a man said catching Katya's attention. She looked around for Apollyon but could not see him anywhere.
"We were hunting deer but it looks like we bagged something better" one man snickered to the other. Katya took a step back in fear. Reaching back she tried to grab her Scythe but two of the men grabbed her before she could reach it and pushed her to the ground. One man on each of her arms pinning her to the ground as the third man walks over to her.
"Apollyon?" She calls out but gets nothing in response. Did he leave her here? Was this how she was going to die? The man pulled out a carving knife and tested the sharpness of the blade, "we were hoping for some good deer antlers but I feel like yours would be worth so much more" the man says as he crouches down over her.
"APOLLYON!" Katya screams, tears falling from her eyes as she fears that he had just abandoned her to be carved into pieces by these humans.