Hiding Royalty

3

"How much longer are we going to walk until we take a break?" Lyra asked grabbing Liam by the arm, stopping him.

"We won't get far if you keep stopping us every five minutes," Emma stated, crossing her arms as she glared at the spoiled princess.

"Excuse me, who asked you? I was talking to him," Lyra said returning Emma's glare.

"He has a name, you know," Emma huffed, but she calmed after Liam put a hand on her shoulder.

"My name is Liam. So both of you quit your squabble. Now!" Liam stated, looking at both girls.

Lyra just walked ahead of the group, while Liam internally rolled his eyes and Emma followed with her arms still crossed.

"We will make camp in a couple of hours or until we come across a town," Liam said leading the group, and glanced behind at the girls. They were avoiding eye contact with each other, but each kept glancing at Liam.

"That's fine," Lyra whispered. She was fed up with these two trying to tell her, a princess, what to do. Nobody except her parents told her what to do. She just wanted to get this journey done and over with.

The trio traveled for about an hour when they saw a group of men blocking their way. There were around five men, one man stood in the middle of them, indicating that he was the leader.

"Halt!" The leader boomed raising his hand, "We do not want to hurt you but we will if you do not comply to our wishes."

"What are your wishes?" Emma asked, putting her hands on the hilt of her daggers.

"You will give us all your gold and any valuables that you have," The bandit leader explained.

"What if we refuse to comply?" Liam asked stepping forward and putting a hand on his sword.

"Haha, well I guess you will be dying today," the leader laughed along with his goons. The leader nods at three of his men. The start charging at the trio.

Liam and Emma stood between them and Lyra. Two went after Liam and the last one went after Emma. One of the bandits tried to strike at Liam with his sword but he dodged it and kicked the bandit in the ribs. The bandit flew a feet few and hit the ground. Emma was dancing around her opponent, dodging and striking with her daggers. She finally decided to quit playing and finish it by kicking the bandit to the ground and stabbing her daggers through his legs. Liam had the last bandit by the wrist, the bandit swung but Liam blocked it and struck him in the jaw with his elbow. The bandit crumpled to the ground unconscious.

"Looks like you are out of men to beat," Emma said, removing her daggers from the bandit and flicking the blood off of the blades.

"Let us retreat men!" The leader shouted. The remaining bandits picked up the unconscious bandit and they retreated through the forest until they were out of sight.

"Wow, you guys sure need to learn to fight better," Lyra said plainly.

"We just fought off a group of bandits!"Emma said, stomping right up to Lyra.

"Those buffoons were not skilled at all, just barbarians trying to intimidate people," Lyra said, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at Emma.

Emma didn't back down from her glare, but returned it, "Skilled or not, we still fought them off. Can you at least pretend you are thankful?"

Lyra just stood there glaring at the back of Emma's head. Liam shook his head and rolled his eyes at the two women.

"Come on, let us find a shelter before it gets too dark to see," Liam said motioning for Lyra to come.

As they followed Emma, Liam felt a sharp pain go through his body. It wanted to come out. Liam fought off the pain, while looking down at the cloth in his hand. The cloth belonged to one of the bandits, he snagged it while they were fighting. Liam already figured out what to do with those bandits, though he hesitated about going through with it. If he used it too much it would cost him dearly but it was the only way to make sure the bandits wouldn't bother anyone again.

"Liam! What are you doing just standing around?" Emma asked coming up to Liam, and even Lyra stopped.

Liam was just staring at the ground dazed, "Oh, nothing. I thought I heard something."

'That was a close one', Liam thought as he continued to walk.

As the sun was about to set, the group found themselves a small town. It even had an inn, a blacksmith, a couple of houses and a merchant shop. They headed straight for the inn and booked two rooms. One for Liam and the other for Lyra and Emma. They begrudgingly obliged to room together, for the promise of Liam to buy them some food the next morning.

The girls retired to their rooms pretty early, while Liam still drank ale and talked to the innkeeper, who was a retired guard for the King. He silently made his way to their door and listened for any sign that they were asleep; when he was sure that they were asleep, he headed for the door, taking off his clothes except his undergarment.

"Are you not going to head for your room, sir, and certainly in nothing but your undergarments?" The innskeeper whispered putting a hand on Liam's shoulder.

"I am going for my nightly walks, it lets me be one with nature, and if you would please put them in my room it would be much appreciated." Liam exclaimed, shrugging off the hand of the innskeeper.

When Liam closed the door to the inn, he buckled from the pain he was enduring in front of the girls. His head felt as though it were splitting in two, his skin felt like a dragon was burning him alive, and his bones ached like he was used as an ogres club. He always felt this pain before it took over.

It was called Yamach. It is worshiped among some indigenous tribes. It was a curse to those who bore it.

He ran to the woods until he was out of sight of the town. He brought the cloth up to his nose and inhaled deeply. Suddenly, his form began to change. His hand became claws, his head became that of a unholy beast with a mouth full of sharp teeth and glowing pale eyes. It's arms became longer and more tougher, and it's legs became digitigrade, so it could walk on all fours or on two. Small spikes covered from the base of its skull to the beginning of tail, which was long and powerful. It stood on his hind legs, it roared loudly and took off in search of its prey.

It was fast and it was closing in on its prey. The bandit camp was near, the light from the campfire was illuminating the surrounding area. It stopped near a tree that was close to the bandits. There were about ten of them, all hollering and rough housing, unaware of the sinister presence that was watching them. One of the bandits spotted the Yamachs shadow and alerted the others.

"Come out of hiding now and we will go easy on you!" One of the bandits shouted, drawing closer to it and threw a stone at it.

Suddenly, the Yamach leapt at the bandit, and slashed at him with its claws while still in the air. The bandit was decapitated as the Yamach landed on all four of its legs. All the bandits were frozen in place. The Yamach looked at them and slowly got up on its hind legs and attacked. The bandits never stood a chance.

Spread around the camp was the bodies of all the bandits, body parts were lying all over the place and standing in the middle of the devastation was the Yamach. Standing four heads taller than the average man on its hind legs. From afar all you could see of it was it glowing pale eyes, but up close is even worse.

"Wake up, Liam. We have to get going," Emma said shaking Liam awake. He opened his eyes to see he was lying on the floor of the inn.

"What were you doing sleeping on the floor?" Lyra asked.

"I took a walk last night and I guess I was so beat that I couldn't make it to my bed." Liam laughed as he went to his room to get dressed.

So our trio barely escaped an encounter with some bandits, and then The Yamach was revealed. Why can Liam transform into this hideous creature? You'll have to wait and see...

- TheHowlingWolves