Lair of Beasts [Book I in the Curse Of Blood Saga]

Chapter XIX - Monsters in the maze

I froze.

My icy heart careened to a complete, sickening halt and withered in my chest. The fear, a cold and liquid panic, gushed into my bowels as though my very stomach had ruptured with blood-curdling terror.

Run! The thought came instantly to mind, but every muscle had since atrophied; my brain continued its desperate screaming though I could not move.

Run, Aria!

The creature before me — still submerged in shadowed obscurity — had not yet stirred, though I could clearly see, where the moon's muted glow disturbed the gloom, it's thick breath misting in the freezing night air. It watched with unblinking, yellow intelligence; crouched and waiting. I dared not breathe, I had no breath to offer up for it had died in my lungs. I could not run either, instinct adhering my feet to the frigid earth, for the large shadowed creature would not release me from it's transfixed gaze — as if it's ravenous stare held me in thrall and congealed the very marrow in my bones.

By some morbid affliction of mind, irrational and fleeting as it was,  I actively wished to see the thing emerge into the full moon's glow. I could almost make out its odd shape in the darkness, where it yet stared at me inertly with a frightful, preternatural silence. I could not attribute it to any beast known to me thus far for it was too large to be a wolf, and yet retained not quite the right profile to suit a bear.

My eyes shifted down to where I still clung to the bone-chilling, wrought iron bars — where Lucian's fingers had warped the metal mere weeks ago, when last I stood here — and I noticed how corpse-like my hands were from gripping the latticed gate so frantically. Slowly, I began lifting each bloodless finger, one by one, and as I did so a low, ominous growl gathered threateningly in the animal's large chest. Without warning it leapt, lightening-fast, at the gate!

I was flung violently from the portcullis, the force of the creature's attack hurling me back so that I cracked my skull against a rock on the ground behind me. I rolled onto my stomach, somewhat stunned by the blow, as pain shot through my head, but I soon became aware of the deafening clamor of metal as the wild beast continuously threw its hefty bulk against the gate; the iron groaning dangerously beneath the brute's colossal weight.

I screamed, my cries mixing discordantly with its own resonating grunts, and tried to crawl away, but the creature's reach was long and true. It shot a grotesque paw beneath the leaden bars and stabbed its murderous claws at me, ripping into my right arm before I managed to wrench myself away and roll to safety.

I spared a quick, panicked glance at the deep and jagged lacerations in my forearm, but the agony of my seeping wounds — inflicted so viciously by its razor nails — was naught to the absolute shock of experiencing my first horrific glimpse of the beast as it howled rabidly; it was now quite visible in the silvered light and howling at me balefully.

The monster, for monster it certainly was, stood no less than ten feet high on its hind legs, still slamming and pummeling the barrier with enough force that I felt the terror pool into my gut anew. From whence the foul beast came, I knew not, but I had explored every inch of that maze and seen nary a hint of what stood snarling hatefully at me now. 

But that was not exactly true — there had been clues! What of the strange paw print in the maze? This beast was, without a doubt, the owner of that massive, bloody imprint I'd seen in the tunnels during my earlier explorations.

Although I had initially mistaken this thing briefly for a bear, in consequence of it's impossible size, I saw now that it was not; the facial structure was unmistakably canine, albeit it's ears were longer and narrower than a wolf's and situated bizarrely lower — exactly where a man's might be. Its coat was sparse and coarse, the pale skin clearly discernible beneath the bristled, dark-grey fur, and in place of where a tail might be, it possessed only an ugly, hairy stump that protruded from it's backside. It's unnatural paws were neither bear-like nor did they resemble a wolf's, but uncannily something almost human instead; despite the long black nails jutting from those distorted digits.