Of Thorns and Glamour

Shattered

I hoped they found safety soon and closed the door. I changed it back to town and Kiev and Korv were outside. "Lily, change it. Now!" Korv cries out as they both come inside.

Before I do I try to feel for Caleb and my children, and then I see something glow in a pillar of dark smoke. It's Caleb, fighting some kind of gigantic snake creature with wings in the sky above the burning buildings. My children are with him, and they blast the creature with different spells.

"Kiev stop her!" Korv yells out as I start to run out to fly. Kiev grabs my arm and I spin to look at him.

"Not again. Never again." I tell him, my resolve showing in my eyes as I open my wings out. "Please, Kiev. I can't loose them too." His eyes waver, but then he nods his head once.

"Fight like a crow," he smirks at me and lets go.

Korv eyes widen as Kiev puts out a hand towards him to stop him. "No, she's going to get herself killed you idiot!" But I'm gone before he can stop me. "Lily wait!" he cries out.

"I have to save them!"

I pull out my sword and fly to Caleb and the black winged serpent. It looked like a snake with a thousand red wings, and had the tell tale sign of something made by Nuir with floating black symbols floating all down its long body. My own body had changed enough that I was glowing white with my armored scales and the moons glowed red on us through the smoke. It was vicious and nibble enough to avoid most of their attacks, but it did not know I was behind it yet. I took an opportunity when it was about to strike Caleb to slice off a wing with a heavy swing.

"Mamma!" One of my children yelled and the onyx bat one with red eyes came over. I told her to stay back, and scales flew through my vision as she was snapped between the jaws of the serpent.

"NO!"

My heart plummeting as I see her gone in one bite. The snake doesn't stop for a moment and comes right after me. Then suddenly it freezes as it looks confused. Its mouth starts to open and I see a person with a black hand on one side hold the jaw open. Then the bottom jaw pops open and I see a black figure that looked just like my child but the same size as me holding its jaws open.

I hear her yell as she grabs a giant fang and rip it out of the snake. Blood gushes from it and she turns it upside down as it clamps its jaw shut again. The fang instantly pierces through the skull of the snake, and its head whips back and forth wildly in pain. Its jaw opens again and she pulls herself out and flies away just in time. The snakes wings go limp and it falls from the sky.

She's covered in its black blood and her waterfall of midnight black hair covering her body to past her waist and almost to her knees. Her wings are large, and she flutters just like a bat as she wipes her face off. "Mamma, did you see that!" She says to me and comes over. "I killed that big snake that was after daddy!" Like a child achieving their first accomplishment, she was giddy and her red eyes glowed in the smoke. Then her face dropped as she looks at something behind me. "Momma!" she cries out.

Pain shoots through my chest, and I look down at a black sword stabbing me through. I hold up my hands to it, but then I felt my body weakens as I feel the same majick the staff had as this sword drained me.

Nuir's creation.

I flap my wings and they barely keep me up in the sky so I can turn to see who held its handle. Then the sword pulls out of me floating in the air with majick, and blood gushes out of me. "Momma no!" my mothling cries out again. But it's too late as blood fills my lungs and I cough it out. I try to cast a shield around me but the sword strikes again and breaks it instantly. I try to deflect it as it attacks me, but I see my child fly to protect me. I push her back with a spell before the majicked sword can hit her. It stabs me again in the process, and I finally lose all my remaining energy and go limp.