Roots | Cycles Book 1 | ONC 2024

V : Screams

Before Umirin can even consider running when the earth begins rumbling under his feet and the foliage starts shifting, it is upon them.

At first, just a dark shadow that falls over their forms from the forest, but then—the body breaks between the trees.

An Elder Soulbiter.

Umirin yanks on Shani's hand to pull him as far away as possible, his heart hammering like a battle drum immediately.

He brandishes his spear before the massive densely striped beast.

Its head and body is shaped like that of a wild horse, but its soulless, milky white eyes are at the front of its face. A predator. The long snout opens as the Soulbiter looms above them, revealing a maw of gleaming fangs and bladed teeth.

"Huungryyyy..." it croaks, voice hoarse and garbled, clearly straining to manage even the one word.

Umirin grits his teeth at the awful chill that overcomes him when he hears it speak. He wonders briefly which of those first five hunters this one is.

"We can't outrun it," he whispers to Shani behind him, glancing down the length of the beast's long equine legs. They appear as normal until the very bottom of them, where the hoof would've been. Instead there is a mangle of roots buried firm into the earth. They cannot lift their legs nor walk as one might imagine proper walking to look like, but they leave rows of burrowed out earth in their wake as they glide instead. And they are still deathly fast.

"So we fight it off," Shani mumbles, his voice trembling but determined.

They get no time for more words before the Soulbiter descends upon them, cracking through the soil as it plows forward, maws split wide open and ready to bite.

Umirin jumps to the side, his body thrumming with energy, and he sees Shani do the same.

Though knowing there's little point, he wields his spear and drives it into the Soulbiter's side with all his might. It glances off its smooth leathery skin but the beast does feel something, it growls and spins its neck around to snap at Umirin's arms.

He jerks away before those jaws can clamp on, his ears ringing in rhythm with his thundering heart. He can taste the bitter aftertaste of fear on his tongue.

The Soulbiter burrows in a half circle to turn on him, hissing and plowing forward. Umirin backs up until his back hits a tree trunk, his body tensing up. He holds his spear, his body overcome by trembling as he stares up into the beast's lifeless pure white eyes. Better him than Shani, is all he can think about as the beast opens its maw toward him. He hopes his beloved will save himself from this place.

However, before the Soulbiter can strike, Umirin catches a glimpse of Shanirin heaving up a tree across from them, climbing above the Soulbiter. He wants to yell to his husband about what he is doing, but before he can he sees Shani launch himself off the tree, leaping down with his spear held to his side, directly onto the monster's back.

Umirin's mouth goes dry with shock when Shani slams into the beast, rearing himself up to sit atop it, swinging his spear around its neck and catching the other end of it in his other hand. He yanks the beast's head back, the shaft of the spear pressed across its throat.

The Soulbiter howls and jerks, swinging side to side to throw Shani off, but he tenses his body and stays on.

"Run!" Shani yells at Umirin now that the Soulbiter is distracted from him.

Umirin scowls and shakes himself off from shock. He is not leaving his husband behind. He sees Shani struggling to hold on as the Soulbiter snaps its maws angrily and slams its head around, trying to get at Shani who is yanking its neck backward.