Swapped Fate

21: The Hound of the Abyss

Fear.

Over the years, I had been through a couple of nerve-wracking situations that made my breath hitch and hands tremble.  Fear was not a foreign feeling to me, and yet the word didn’t quite suffice to describe my current situation.

In the moment, I saw dread, and I saw the very embodiment of a bad omen. It rendered me paralysed while fostering slight tremors through my body. I was not afraid but terrified.

Before me was a mountain of an animal, nay, beast. Its coal black coat was fur, but not quite, for it danced wildly on its body like black flames. Four paws, it possessed, except from them grew curved and sharp talons.

The beast’s snarl reverberated in my being, and my wide eyes followed the thick glob of drool plop down from its bared razor sharp teeth—the four canines as long as tusks. The beast was the size of a cottage, and nearly four times taller than me. If only I could shrink to avoid its gaze!

That wish was lost, for its eyes were glued upon me. Glowing ruby eyes that glared down at me with such intensity, the back of my neck damped with sweat. Its eyes were the most terrifying, letting me know that once it pounced, I would be mangled in seconds. If the abyss were to have guard dogs, this beast would surely be one of its hounds.

The only course of action I thought of taking was running as fast and as far from the beast as I could. Only, the terror had frozen me in place.

It was the sound of a gunshot that startled me out of my stupor and broke the beast’s intense gaze on me. Both of us turned our heads in the direction of the gunshot and saw Tristan pointing a pistol at the hound. He fired another and with a crazed expression, hollered at me.

“Run! Now!”

I needn’t be told twice. I sprung up, wincing from the pain in my elbows and took off into the forest. Behind me were more gunshots and snarls, but they soon faded out the further I went.

My heartbeat pounded in my ears, my breath came out in short panicked breaths and many a time, I stumbled over roots but didn’t cease my escape.

But why...was I running?

Why was I running and leaving Tristan behind?

That beast was a true devil—bloodthirsty and unlike any ethereal I’d ever seen. No doubt I would not survive if I faced off with it. Yet....Tristan was facing it alone.

I came to an abrupt stop. I couldn’t let him.

And so I searched around for something, anything at all that I could use as a weapon.

Blast, it was all sticks and stones! It was of course, a long shot that I could find an abandoned spear or sword in the middle of a forest.

With trembling hands, I gathered a few rocks and darted back the direction I had come, praying to the deities that Tristan was still alive.

As I approached the clearing, the mountainous silhouette of the beast was no more, and the same for Tristan.

My footsteps slowed as I inched closer, my eyes scanning the area for signs of either of them. There were none. I held my breath. Had the hound gobbled up Tristan and went on its way already?

Suddenly, a palm pressed over my mouth and I was dragged away and down behind a tree. I was startled at first but Tristan revealed himself in an instant, stopping a fight before it happened.

“I told you to run,” he hissed, sliding down the tree to sit.

“I went to get ammunition,” I hissed back.

Tristan glared at my rocks and rolled his eyes. “A couple of stones won’t scratch that thing. My bullets weren’t able to.” He unloaded the revolver.