Vile

Prologue

    The morning air taste stale and dry as the first beams of sunlight streamed into my tent. I rolled over in my grimy bedroll and breathed in the smell of the hard ground.  As I tend to early in the day, I found myself quite comfortable and began drifting off again. Its not like the whole camp would collapse because one soldier didn't make it up at dawn. However, I seemed to be mistaken as my dreamy state was shocked away by a heavy object crashing into my rickety tent collapsing it on top of my prone form. I gave a muffled yell in surprise and tore at the rough fabric above, eventually after a good deal of squabbling I found the edge and cast it away. As I had wrestled with my quarters I was sure that my whole patrol had its attention locked on me and that the quartermaster would have my head.  But it wasn't human eyes who met mine when I cast my gaze from the verdant grass.

     The figure in front of me was was so emaciated I could see its every bone. The skin was soot black and had a texture like ancient papyrus, stretching and warping over its skeletal frame as it moved.  The eyes had to be what unnerved me the most, the irises were murky crimson and sunken so deep in its grotesque face you could barely tell they weren't just hollow holes in its head. The beast lacked a nose completely and had a perpetually open mouth ringed in gangly pointed teeth.  It wasn't fully facing me originally but it had adjusted itself accordingly during my originally shocked state. It was standing rather quizzically twitching its disgusting head and moaning in a raspy way. With no provocation other than my blinking eyes it launched itself at me with lightning speed, claw-esque fingers scraping at me as I dodged away. It landed, nay, bounced off the ground back to its feet where it immediately lunged again. I tripped on my fallen tents post and fell flat onto my back. I gripped at the ground in a feeble attempt to back myself away from its grasp, but my hands came up with only dew soaked soil. The beast took another high leap and flew over the top of me but not before cutting gashes in my chest with its clawed hands.  The pain was unbearable, though the wounds were shallow, with only a few small drips of blood having welled up and streamed over my midriff.  But the marks burned like they had been branded onto my flesh and the blood in the surrounding vessels turned dark, making it look like I had spilled an ink well under my skin.  I slowly rose and clasped a hand over the gashes, the blood should have been warm, but instead ran cold like a mountain stream. I heard the beast slam into the ground somewhere past where I lay. The creature was back on its feet long before I had recovered and began stalking towards me stooped over at an awkward angle. Its back was twisted unnaturally and a bleached bone skewered out of its dragging left arm.

     "What... are you?" I wheezed. It tilted its head quizzically, like it understood my tone, but not my exact words. The creature let out a deep gurgle and licked a dry tongue around its lip-less mouth. Now it was just playing with me. But its fun, if it can be called so, ended quite abruptly.  A golden shape streaked down from the sky right on top of it with a great whoosh, pinning it to the ground and sending a shock wave of air in every direction. I was buffeted by the blast and stumbled backward. The mysterious streak then stood up to his full height, pulling his mighty silver blade out of the beasts torso.  He was around the size of two grown men, and when turned his golden gaze to me I immediately recognized, it was an angelic warrior.

     His face was perfect as all angelic being's were, his hair was the purest blond and fell over his pale chiseled features in unruly waves. He was wearing a massive silver suit of armor trimmed in gold over an ornate white tunic. A golden emblem of a sword with feathery wings was emblazoned proudly over his heart.  His body rippled with muscle and had a voice as rich as a king and deep as the lowest stone caverns.

      "Young one," He thundered voice echoing in my ears," You must come with me now, your absence from combat is in dire need." I was not one to argue in my current state, especially not to an angel and agreed. He looked down at my wounds and his face softened a little, he took a swatch of his pristine tunic and tore it off. I took it from his massive hand and bound it around my chest tightly. The fabric was extremely light and comfortable, despite how tightly I had wrapped it and my current state of health. I then reached up and grabbed a hold of one of the interlocking silver plates of his armor. He unfurled his massive feathered wings and took off with me hanging on for dear life.  We sped up quickly as he gained altitude and for a moment I thought my grip might slip from the smooth polished metal I clung to. But our speed decreased gradually and my adrenaline quickly cleared my head of the pain my wound pulsed with. The angel turned his head to check I was still there and began to speak. "I and many others are under orders from the high general to bring all women and children to our citadel, you may ask any questions you have when we arrive," He paused speaking to dodge an incoming arrow, " Or you may address them to me as we commute."