Eternal Beasts

An Unexpected Twist

Resigned to the fact that he'd be spending the next few months with the nomads as they traveled by ground to Findias, the last of the stone cities of the Tuatha, Jared nodded. He could probably cover the distance in half the time by himself. But if this was part of the whole process of bringing the flights back, and wouldn't negatively impact their timetable, then he'll play along. At least, for now.

He scooped up the book and returned it to his satchel and was preparing to follow Seth when, without warning, there was a shout from down the hill. Automatically he looked up, to see if dragons were circling overhead. Then Jared was grunting as Seth threw himself onto the big human and bore him to the ground.

Just in time to avoid a gout of searing, black-tinged flame that suddenly occupied the space they were just in. A whoosh of heated air overhead then they were in the beast's shadow as the dragon went by not ten meters off the ground.

Grimacing, Jared threw Seth off. That close, he could not only sense the dragon's thoughts, but those of its rider as well.

"They're coming back around!" he grated as he grimly pushed aside the filthy sensation he now felt in his mind from touching the rider's corrupted soul.

Nodding, Seth stayed low and ran towards the camp, Jared tight in his shadow. As they traversed the ridge, the big human took a look down the slope. And he felt his insides twist with dismay at seeing no less than a dozen cholim troop carriers sitting on the ground at the bottom of the incline.

"They must've come in low to the ground to avoid being seen by our sentinels," Seth said over his shoulder.

"How did they know I was here?" Jared asked as they ran into a copse of mountain evergreens.

"I doubt they knew, or even now know," the nomad leader said as they finished their traverse of the stand and were back out in the open.

This time a look down the slope yielded nomads and cholim locked in fierce combat. As they surged back and forth, Jared tried to get a measure of the enemy's strength as male and female voices shouted in anger and pain, swords flashing in the light and metal clanging against metal. Only to fail, the chaos making it difficult to count while running.

Then Seth speaking again pulled Jared's eyes to him.

"From the size of this force ..." He paused to let a pair of dragons streak by just in front of them, the big heads swinging back and forth looking for isolated targets. "They've been preparing this attack for a while. I'd wager they struck every nomad camp within range as soon as you jumped out of the shrine. On the chance you had used the magic to portal to an ally."

The darklings weren't wrong, ironically. That's exactly what he had done. And their suspicions were better than both Jared's and the book's knowledge, because the book, despite being the great Watcher, the living history of Ethaeron, had no idea where the stones would jump him to.

"We need to get you to safety, my lord," Seth said as they worked around a rock formation. On the other side the nomad camp was visible, stretching out over a plateau with a veritable city of tents. A city under siege!

"The camp is compromised," Seth growled in frustration, anger, and dismay at seeing several pockets of fighting inside the camp itself. "We'll have to take ... uuuuhh!"

The nomad leader was abruptly driven off the path by no less than three cholim soldiers. A surge of energy through his body and Jared's sword was in his hand. Then he was surging forward at top speed.

The first cholim, dressed in dark brown and greens in an eerie echo to the nomads' camouflage, he pulled off Seth by his hood before slamming him into the ground. Where a quick downward stab with his sword punched through the dark elf's metal-reinforced cuirass to pierce his heart.

Pulling the cholim's dagger free, Jared then threw it at the second cholim from his knees, the weapon going end over end to bury itself in the side of the soldier's neck. Grunting in pain then going limp, the cholim fell away, leaving Seth grappling with the last one, the two combatants struggling back and forth as the desperate nomad used both hands to keep the dark elf from splitting his head in two with an axe.

Jared made to go help him. Only to be forced to turn and face the owners of several pairs of booted feet he heard running up behind him. And found over a dozen cholim charging towards them.

Another surge of energy through his body and he found a long bladed dirk in his off hand. Then the same fury that had filled him at seeing the observers and their escort raged through him like a tsunami of fire.

"For the Prophets and the Light!" he roared, the words leaping out of his mouth before he could stop them. Then three running steps buried him deep in the cholim front rank.

Instinct took over them, muscle memory burned into him from the brutal homunculi training and everything became a blur. Blocking became attacking, two, sometimes three cholim going down at once in the same flurry. Then it was back to defense as their fellows attacked simultaneously, forcing Jared to weave a quick web of steel to keep points and edges out of his body.

Plucking a dagger from an abruptly limp hand after he had buried his dirk in the cholim's chin, Jared twisted and threw in a single motion to plant the dagger in the back of the neck of the cholim struggling with Seth. Then, pulling his dirk free, he double blade blocked a cut at his body before a hard backhand opened up an attacker on his right.

Two more tight slices using both edges of his sword and, for the moment, he was clear of enemies.

"Seth?" he called out over his shoulder as he kept his eyes downslope where he could see more darkling soldiers.

"Alive, thanks to you," the nomad leader called back. "You are as mighty as the codices said you'd be. But you are still vulnerable without your griffon. We need to get you out of here!"

Jared's expression hardened with resolve.

"Right after I even the odds a bit more!" he growled. And he immediately grimaced.

A sword he could summon, and now a dirk. But what he really needed was a bow! Yet again he gave himself a mental kick for not having Merik go back and retrieve his handmade bow and arrows, along with his throwing knives.

- Put the dirk against your sword at a right angle, - the book tautly instructed without warning. - That will trigger the transformation into a bow! -

Jared's brow as he looked down at his two weapons. Really? It was that easy? Mentally shrugging, he did as instructed. And nearly laughed out loud when, with a golden surge of light and motion, he found himself holding a powerful-looking longbow. Then he was drawing an arrow from a quiver that, at the same time his blades transformed into the bow, had appeared on his hip.

Nocking it in a smooth, economical, and practiced motion, Jared loosed it at the advancing darkling soldiers. Then another, and another, and yet another, not stopping until he had six arrows in the air at the same time.

He smiled tightly in satisfaction when six of the soldiers dropped virtually at the same time. Then he was emptying his quiver as quickly as his improved strength and speed allowed, scything down the remaining darklings with deadly precision.

"My lord!" Seth suddenly cried from the ridge behind him. "Another platoon seeks to flank you!"

Meaning to turn and ask the nomad from which direction, Jared began to twist his head. Only to catch sight of something on rapid approach with his peripheral vision. Reflexes kicking in, he tried to jerk his head out of the path of the object. Only to feel it hit and his left eye seemed to erupt right out of its socket with a fiery explosion of pain.

Staggered, Jared desperately tried to catch his balance. But the fire in his eye only got hotter and hotter, stealing his strength and bearings. Until, head spinning wildly, he felt himself topple over. Instead of hitting the ground, however, he dropped into a bottomless pit.

- JARED! - a woman's voice screamed, filled with fear and pain. Then everything went away as he fell into a world of twisting streamers of light against a background of strobes accompanied by moaning and half heard babbling. Frantically he looked around for something to grab onto, something to anchor him in this chaos. But there was nothing. With a long, agonized scream, he fell and fell and fell.

****