Beyond The Shadows

Chapter 11: Monsters from the shadows

Turns out it could be very bad.

When we arrived at the edge of the ocean, we found a tiny ship that could pass as a huge boat left for us by the older soldiers. We had to leave our horses behind as they were too much for the ship to handle. Wow.

We had finally finished loading our items onto the boat and started to set sail, when I felt sea sick. Oh God! I rushed upstairs onto the deck to get some fresh air.

The cool  air relaxed my senses and I felt calm again. Olivia also came and sat next to me. 

"Feel sick?" she asked

"Yea"

"Well, so do I. though, I doubt it's because of the sea. The thought of going to Ellepthia feels so unreal and gut wrenching to me"

I nodded as there was nothing else to say.

I could understand. Ellepthia was felt as just a story before, told to scare children and make them behave. I still remember my mother, Hassel  used to threaten me when I was a small child saying that if I misbehaved, a monster from Ellepthia would come and take me away and I being me used to believe that. But now, we were all entering this place of doom, searching for a crystal that might not work.

We both started talking about our life before, and other things when, Raymond came from below deck with three cups of milk and some bread. 

"Heard you and Olivia were out here, thought I might join the party." he said and soon, all three of us were laughing away with the help of Raymond's silly jokes and stories.

I hadn't realized  how close we were to Ellepthia, until I saw the mountains, covered with black clouds. The other's below deck must have also noticed, as all the soldiers and prince Ernest came above to see the mountains. 

"Well, this is nice" said the prince

We soon reached the edge of the sea and finally got off the ship. I could hear my heart hammering as I set foot on the ground. I had somehow expected demons to crawl out of the ground and swallow me whole.

Hmm... maybe I was overthinking, maybe Ellepthia isn't so bad after all.

____________________________________________________________

 I could not have been more wrong.

All we had done was walk a couple of miles, moving swiftly through the forest when a we saw a creature flying at us- with three eyes, slimly face and two horns on the side.

It dived towards us and just as it was about to attack the nearest soldier, prince Ernest blasted it with the help of his magic. His magic was still something that we still did not understand. He and his magic were a closed book.

After the creature got blasted into nothingness, we took a breath of relief.

Too early. Several more similar creatures descended from the sky and attacked us. We tried to fend them off but there were too many.

The prince looked drained out after blasting at least twenty of them, but however many we killed, more returned. My arms felt heavy after slashing my sword blindly, trying to get the creatures away from me. I had many scratches from their claws and I guess so did the others. Wait, the others. I had gotten so determined to save myself I had forgotten that I was not alone.  

I quickly looked around and saw that half of the soldier's were nowhere to be found. My eyes found Raymond and he was in bad condition. The others also looked as if they could not hold on any longer. I was a bit more safe as Prince Ernest was near me but I couldn't survive any longer either. Finally, "We need to run" I stated the obvious.

"Wow detective", the prince said sarcastically  from somewhere, but he sounded  breathless and tired.

"I will hold them off you all should run" the prince then shouted. Someone wanted to play hero.

"We will not survive without you genius" I screamed at him.

"I am glad you think so highly of me" he replied. "Then what are we supposed to do?"

"RUN!" someone else shouted, sounding panicked.

"Yes, yes, that was suggested."  the prince said lazily, while still blasting monsters.

"NO, RUN!!" This time it was Raymond and he sounded scared.

When I looked over to see why he was so scared, I could understand. A freaking dragon was coming towards us.