The Two Sides of a Sword

Chapter Thirteen

Rocki flinched, wings drawing in tighter. Kofi's wing, however, stretched a little farther across her back. "It's just a lopenant. They make that noise to find each other."

Another one answered the first's cry. It was high-pitched like a bat's squeal, but long like a wolf's howl. A third added its voice, accompanied by scurrying sounds that seemed nearby. Before long, there were hundreds of shrieks attacking Rocki's ears and thousands of claws scraping against the stone-like ground.

Kofi made a pained noise, clapping his hands over his ears at the same time as Rocki. His wing tightened against Rocki. "There shouldn't be so many of them," he shouted. "I've never heard of them swarming before."

Hundreds of the creatures suddenly surged from their small holes, running around the two of them and over their feet. A few even tried to climb Rocki's leg, but she yelped and shook them off. Kofi was practically dancing as he swatted the creatures away with his feet, arms waving wildly for no apparent reason.

"Ow!" Rocki shouted when a lopenant bit her through her black dress pants. Her voice was muffled behind the mask, but she yelled at it anyway. "Burn you!" She kicked it as hard as she could, but it was replaced by two more on her other leg.

The creatures were still shrieking as loudly as they could, the sound practically deafening Rocki. They bit and clawed at whatever surface of her they could get at, which was mostly her feet and lower leg, but a few of them jumped to rip through her thighs.

"Kofi!" she shouted, not sure if he could hear her, but not sure what else to do.

His wings flared, hitting her across the face. She stumbled backward, almost falling into the hoard of animals. He grabbed her and hoisted her onto his waist like she was a toddler, circling his wings around them as much as he could as he continued to kick at the lopenants. He used one arm to support her, but the other blasted at the creatures with his plasma, although not nearly as quickly as either of them would like. It mattered little to the creatures though, there were so many as soon as he killed some they were almost instantly replaced.

"What do we do?" she cried, clinging to him. Not that he would be able to understand her behind the mask. There was no running—it would be like trying to push through quicksand. Fighting clearly wasn't helping since they were so vastly outnumbered. Her mind raced through dozens of scenarios, rejecting each one as fast as it came in. The piercing cries were driving her insane, almost more than the way they chewed up her legs.

"I don't know!" Kofi shouted; his face set angrily. He alternated between kicking and stomping on the vermin as well as blasting them. He tried to run forward, but almost fell, nearly taking both of them down into the frenzied creatures' jaws.

Are we going to die here?! Rocki leg snapped to the side, throwing a stray lopenant off her. Her heart was thundering in her chest to the beat of the scurrying and cries. Her mind begged her to come up with a solution, but in her panic she couldn't think clearly. She wanted to hide her face in Kofi's neck and just disappear, but he was blind in the darkness.

I never got to name him. I don't want my baby to die before he's even lived.

Kofi practically roared in pain as some of the lopenants leapt and sank their teeth into his wings, tearing the thin, leathery skin. Rocki's wings automatically flared out in shock from his loud cry, whacking one of his own assaulted wings. A few of the lopenants were flung off by the force, but more kept trying to get at him.

Her thoughts weren't coming clearly. All that she knew was the heavy, underlying rhythm in her head that chanted her demise, along with Kofi's.

"Hiiiieeeee!" A war cry rang out, high and sharp, over the screeching.