The Sky Demons Part One: Journey

Chapter Eleven- The stoat and hare

Senka- The stoat and hare

Serefk’na stared at the boy she had called Asher, her mouth hanging open in disbelief. Asher smiled obliviously back for a few long and silent seconds.

“Well, you two can carry on staring at each other if you like, just hope you don’t mind if Senka and I start heading off in the opposite direction of those town guard guys” said Tigre, bending down and hefting Nightshade’s body from the floor, then positioning her as best she could onto her back before shifting into a tiliger. She shook her black, orange and white body, shuffling Nightshade into a more secure position before giving a shake of her head, causing large sabre teeth to glisten and the black fur of her horse-like mane to bounce.

She then stalked off, her stripy plumed tail swinging behind her. I smirked and limped after her, putting a hand on Nightshade to steady both her and myself. Serefk’na snapped out of her daze and scrambled after us to support Nightshade on Tigre’s other side, with Asher trailing behind.

I raised my eyes to her and smirked again, trying to ignore the image of that dead hybrid laying somewhere behind us in the forest.

“So glad the two of you could join us.”

She blushed slightly at my tone, “shut up” she replied. Tigre made a strange noise in the back of her throat reminiscent of laughter and Serefk’na’s cheeks turned even redder.

“Who the heck is this stranger anyway?” I asked.

Serefk’na opened her mouth to reply but halted as a number of loud thuds sounded behind us. I spun round and Tigre hurred as she moved her head to look over her shoulder, whiskers twitching.

A huge smoky-grey jackalope hopped his way towards us, and stopped at Asher’s feet to sit up awkwardly on his scaly bird legs, careful to avoid squashing the long tail feathers protruding from his behind. His crystal blue eyes were angry as he chittered at Asher, rabbity ears flicking from side to side as he leaned forward and prodded the top of Asher’s leg just above the armour plate with an antler. I noted the red star glowing on the jackalope’s forehead and realised that he must be Asher’s familiar.

“I’m sorry Gensan, we didn’t mean to leave you behind” cried Asher “it’s just that-”

“You forgot about me!” screeched Gensan the jackalope in Asher’s voice; I stared at him as he plunged into a rant all the while speaking in the young hybrid’s speech patterns.

“You had me- little me who’s only existing defensive power is imitating sounds and voices- act as a decoy so Serefk’na and those others with her could get away and then you forgot about me!”

Gensan sighed and dropped down onto all fours, lamenting aloud. “I knew becoming a familiar was a bad idea, all it does is get me into troubles that aren’t really my business, we’re always on the run, barely escaping by the skin of our teeth; it’s only a matter of time before we end up dead.”

“I’m sorry we left you behind, but I have faith in you Gensan, I was sure that you’d manage fine on your own and catch up to us and I was right! Besides, inside that smokescreen I created it would have been impossible for anyone to find you with all that grey fur; and it may only be barely but we do escape every time and now we’ve got friends with us again, we’ll be fine” said Asher in what was apparently a constantly cheery voice.

Gensan turned a sullen face to stare at each of us in turn. “Like that’ll do any good, we’re just an even bigger target now and they’ll send an even bigger group to fight us next time, but I guess it is good to see you again after so long Serry.”