Florian

11. Nightmares

Demien and Jax had still been on her balcony. The book was closed and placed on a small coffee table nearby. Demien was standing up in front of Jax, about to hand her another ball of his magic when they both heard a loud eerie 'roar' off into the distance. Jax shot up out of the hammock and looked around into the night sky as they then heard loud flapping from the manticores' wings. Once one of them was in view, it roared again, forcing the ground to shake slightly. 

"He didn't..." Jax began, watching one of the ungodly creatures perch itself on top of a nearby mountain, staring directly at Jax. "What the fuck is that?!.." she exclaimed. Demien looked the creature over. It was a lion at best, with bat-like wings, exaggerated claws and a scorpion stinger for a tail. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"A pain in the ass is all." He said. In one swift motion he turned around, placing a hand on the side of the estate. This sent a bright white flash of light up the side of it, once it reached the top it flew into the sky, popping like a firework. This alerted the guards who slowly began to light up the estates perimeter with small floating flames. This made the manticore on top of the mountain screech loudly, the other three flying over it and towards the city. 

People in the city began to turn on the lights in their homes, rightfully startled. Demien shook his head. "Shit.." He began to engulf himself in black smoke when he felt Jax grab his forearm, so he stopped. He turned to look at her. "You want to fight these off with us?" He asked.

"They were sent because of me." Jax said, locking her eyes on his. Demien didn't hesitate another moment as he nodded, pulling her close to him as they both disappeared off the balcony. When they both opened their eyes again, they were in the center of the city. He snapped, covering Jax in a cloak like the one she wore when she arrived. He pulled the hood over her head as she looked at him.

"What's this for?" She asked. He grabbed her hand and began to pull her through the streets.

"We don't need two reasons for citizens to freak out tonight." He responded, letting go of her when they reached a small park. Not even a few seconds after they stopped running, one of the beasts landed in front of them.

Demien raised his hands, pointing the palms of his hands at it before letting an accretion of matter attack the creature. The matter surrounded the beast, wrapping it up and tightening itself around it like an anaconda would its prey. The beast struggled, slowly dying. Jax watched him, trying to learn as best as she could, when she felt as if she should turn around.

As she turned just in time to see a manticore heading her way, she spawned two daggers in each of her hands. As the manticore approached, she jumped up slightly, forcing the daggers down and into the beast's neck. With her hands still on the grips, she pulled herself up and onto the manticore. As she did so, the beast flinched in pain, trying to shake her off of him.  This caused Jax to lose her footing, falling onto the beast's back as it flew up into the sky. Fear filled her as Demien became almost a speck below her. The other manticores heard this commotion, turning their attention onto Jax now in the sky.

Down below, the royal guard began swarming the streets. Citizens ran out of their homes to see what had been happening. The beast Demien had killed was now a spectacle as everyone surrounded it, yet kept their distance. Guards pushed past the crowd, and as they made it to the creature, they all looked perplexed. When the manticores began screeching, everyone looked up, guards readying themselves for an attack. 

Jax had been fighting the manticore's tail that had been trying to sting her, without falling off of it. In a swift motion it swung its tail back at her, knocking her over onto one of its wings. Jax spawned another dagger and stuck it into its back, clutching her side as she winced in pain. As the manticore screeched, the other two attacked it, no longer caring to kill one of their own. One of them bit the creatures head off, immediately killing it and sending it flying towards the ground.

Guards down below noticed this and began to run towards where they thought they would land, the port, where Auroras trading and fish sales would happen. Demien disappeared, sending himself to the port before anyone got there. He could barely see her, but realized she was stuck on the beast's back as they fell into the water. The other two manticores stayed right above where they had fallen in, waiting for Jax to pop back up.

She didn't have a chance to take a deep breath before falling in, so the moment she opened her eyes underwater, she unclipped the cloak she had on. She thought for a moment and looked up, seeing two large shadows over her. As she looked down to see where the manticore was, she noticed blood coming from her stomach. Without hesitation she grabbed the daggers out of the manticore quickly, swimming up as close to the surface as she could, throwing the three daggers up at one of the shadows, using her magic to send them off at full speed. The figure soon fell down into the water, dead. Jax swam down towards it, grabbing the daggers out of its stomach.

Before she could pull the same move to the other, as she swam back up, she didn't see the shadow anymore. Jax decided to swim all the way up, gasping for air as soon as her head was above water.  She felt dizzy for a moment, closing her eyes and leaning her head back so she floated for a moment. When she heard wings flapping above her, she opened her eyes. Her vision took a second to straighten out, then she could see the manticore's large claws coming for her torso before it was literally blasted out of the sky. She looked over at a large vessel with a ton of guards on it, Demien standing on the quarterdeck. She sighed, smiling at him as he half-smiled back.

A crowd had gathered on the beach, though Jax hadn't really noticed as she swam back to shore. When her feet could finally touch the ground was when she looked ahead of her. A large crowd had begun to clap as she walked out of the water and onto shore. One by one each person began walking off onto the sand towards her before one older gentleman spoke up.

"Wait!" He yelled loudly. All heads turned to him, though Jax kept walking until she was out of the water.  Demien approached her, wrapping her up with a thick blanket. "She's a Florian..." he said, everyone in the crowd turning back to her. Some squinted to get a better look, others began to look angry. They began to whisper to each other, though nonetheless most of the crowd started yelling and getting closer to them. It seemed as though they were only missing their pitchforks. Demien put a hand up towards them. 

"She's returned on good terms. She just saved us from at least two of those monsters, sh-"

"Oh of course you'd say that! She's here to feed your darkness!" The man snarled.  Demien and Jax furrowed their brows as they both looked at this man. Jax shook her head, placing a hand over her stomach as she began to feel nauseous. She took a deep breath, and as she stepped forward her vision went black as she fell to the ground.