Eternal Beasts

A Hurried Reunion

For good reason: the centaurs represented that factor of uncertainty that the book had warned them about while they were still in Findias. Motivated by their own, unknown agenda, these soldiers of the forest could just as easily fill them with arrows as well, enraged that they had invaded the Danath without their permission.

With that in mind, Jared swallowed noisily then turned completely around. And found himself indeed looking at creatures right out of Earth mythology.

There were four of them, three males and one female. All carried great longbows, just like they did in Earth myths, centaurs epically gifted archers, a quiver of long arrows slung over each of their backs. The males were almost uniformly massive, their human halves broad and powerful and their horse halves as muscular as draft horses. Where their nysim torsos ended they blended smoothly into the horse chest, the joining masked by thick, curly hair. One had a leather band tied around his head, holding his long hair back. And all three wore multi-pocketed vests of tanned leather, fanciful designs stitched into the fabric with colorful thread.

The female too had a band tied around her head to keep her hair back. And she too was powerful, although not on the scale of the massive males, who easily stood a good two and a half meters off the ground, if not more. She also wore a vest, stitched with colorful fabric. But hers included a cord in the front that allowed her to tie it closed over her nysim breasts, leaving only a full cleavage visible between those large and firm breasts. They swayed slightly as she stepped forward, her eyes narrowed as all four of them looked past Jared and Gereth back down the way the jaffa had come. In the dim light it was hard to make out their faces with any detail, so their intentions towards the two mortals was still unclear.

Jared swallowed heavily once more. But before he could ask what the centaurs intended to do with them, there was a bright flash of blue light from behind him. Twisting around, he watched as a column of blue light dropped out of the clear night sky to pound into the ground, sending a wave of energy rolling away from the impact point. As it expanded, they heard the screams of more jaffa dying. Which could only mean the blue energy was being used to defend someone against a jaffa attack!

"This way!" Jared snarled, plunging into the thick bush in the direction of the light. Gereth was only a step behind, with the hard charging centaurs a mere heartbeat behind the muuler.

It didn't take long for the big man to plow his way through the low shrugs and clinging branches. Stepping through the last bit of grasping brush, the big man stepped into another open glade. Where he found a fantastic and horrifying scene unfolding before his very eyes.

It was two women, standing back to back as a veritable horde of jaffa attacked them. One was surrounded by a nimbus of golden light, armored in plate and chain mail and swinging a two handed war hammer in her gauntleted hands, the weapon energized with some sort of magic allowing it to solidify the dark soldiers enough to crush the life out of them with hard, precise blows. And the other ...

"Nikeera!" Jared breathed, eyes flying wide. Even as he laid his eyes on her, her hands were moving through a complicated gesture before she launched a devastating battering ram of blue light ripping through the bunched up jaffa directly in front of her.

Throwing himself recklessly forward, the big man smashed into the outer ranks of the horde trying to reach the tuathan wizard and her companion. Then, as they turned to face him, he flipped up his eye patch.

The first golden blast turned to dust a full third of the jaffa company. The second, and the last he could summon, another full third, the blasts doing heavy damage against the tightly packed jaffa. Then Gereth was beside him, the centaurs emptying their quivers behind them, and the lot of them were fighting for their lives against a numerically superior force even with the vast gouges Jared's orb blasts had ripped out of their numbers.

A storm of blue light and crystal shards swept across the battlefield and, for a moment, Jared stood alone, sword and dirk glowing with griffon magic as he looked for another jaffa to kill. And when none came at him out of the dark, he was sheathing his weapon and turning to where he had last seen Nikeera.

The tuathan princess slowly let a breath ease out of her nostrils as she released her magic. Then she turned toward where she had last seen her Jared carving his way through shadowy jaffa, his weapons glowing with subtle griffon magic. In time to have him gather her up in his arms.

"My sweet, beautiful man!" she sobbed against his neck as a wave of relief washed through her, his powerful arms holding her tight and hers around his shoulders and neck holding her close. Then she was raining kisses all over his face and neck.

"I love you, Niki," Jared rumbled just over her shoulder, bending in to kiss her on the neck.

"Oh Jared!" she said, leaning back enough to put her hand on his face. Then she was kissing him deeply and passionately, the tears she was crying wetting his face as well.

When the kiss finally broke, she whispered against his lips.

"I love you, my heart, my very soul!" she breathed, kissing him again.

"While I don't want you in danger, Nik, I'm so glad you are here with me," the big man said hoarsely when that kiss broke, his eyes devouring the tuathan princess's beautiful face.

"Nysim, tuathan," one of the male centaurs said in a low, booming voice, speaking flawless westerling. "Dark soldiers have penetrated deep past our defenses on the perimeter. We are not safe here. We need to withdraw!"

"I agree, Blessed Mother," the woman in the armor said, still looking warily around them with her war hammer in her hands. "We are exposed here. We need to seek shelter!"

For his part, Gereth looked at the centaurs, his expression questioning.

"You're willing to take us with you?" he carefully asked as he quickly walked across the devastated glade to join Jared, Nikeera and the woman in armor. The centaur swung his gaze to look down on the stocky muuler.

"Of course, mortal," the big creature flatly stated with a frown on his chiseled face as if the question somehow offended him. "While we care not about the alliances your mortal races of Light and Dark forge between themselves, we exist to protect the vulnerable. And this attack by the Soulhunters has shown us how vulnerable you are."

He made a gesture and the other two males galloped off towards the south. He then turned back to the four mortals.

"We will return to your camp so you can gather your things," he said in a tone that invited zero discussion. "Then we will escort you to one of our nearby outposts where you will shelter for the night."

"You have our thanks, protector of the forest," Jared said respectfully, the title coming from his study of the book during those long winter nights he spent huddled in his shack. "Lead on. We will quickly break down our camp and follow you!"

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