Tempus

Chapter 2-Huntress

    Without warning, William hoisted Lilith over his shoulder, and shot off into the woods. Lilith, who had yelped after being ungracefully thrown over his shoulder, glared at Williams's back.

   "I could have ran myself. I am not a baby." 

   "I am well aware of that fact." William gritted through clenched teeth, slightly out of breath. "I needed to get away quickly, and bearing thee away seemed to be the best option."

    "But why must we run?" The girl persisted. As if in answer, a knife whistled by her head, lodging itself in a nearby tree. The whole forest seemed to groan in pain, but the duo paid it no mind, stumbling through the thorny underbrush as the rain of throwing knives became thicker.

When William finally pushed away the last branch, he realized in dismay that they had ended up by the river. That in itself would not have been necessarily bad, but the river and the fertile land around seemed to have become a breeding place and home for the monsters. Lilith slipped off William's back, landing in a heap by the riverbank. She got up, and prodded the water cautiously, leaping back when a large mouth opened to swallow her hand.

     Letting out a short, high pitched yelp Lilith scrambled backwards, as a huge, creature suddenly reared its ugly head. It was best described as a crocodile, but only in the loosest definitions of the word. Snapping at the small girl it revealed a skull which had no skin or muscle on it,a horrifying grin of sharp teeth, and cold,intelligent, catlike, yellow eyes. The monster was easily 9 metres, with stone-like protrusions that served as scales and were splatted with something that looked horribly like blood.

     William shot arrow after arrow, but they did no good, and he could not risk aiming for the softer underside, with Lilith so close. He moved to grab his surrogate daughter, but the reptilian animal, irritated by the arrows, leapt in the air, and then let itself slam down on the water. A wave swept over the two, knocking them off their feet.

    After William wiped the water away from his eyes he quickly got up and looked around frantically. The water was calm, and there was no sign of either the crocodile or Lilith.

    Lilith screamed and thrashed, but she was held securely in the crocodile's mouth.The teeth around her had been retracted, but a layer of sharp fangs in its mouth cut into her back and shredded the fabric covering it. When she kicked once, teeth suddenly popped out, digging deeply into her skin and after that, she gave up on trying to get lose.

     Abruptly, the monster took a dive, and just when Lilith started to see black spots, they surfaced. Unceremoniously, she was thrown on to a hard surface. Lilith immediately sat up, ripping a piece of cloth off her pants and pressing to her leg, vainly trying to staunch the heavily bleeding gash. After tying it to her leg, she locked around, seeing only roughly hewn stone walls, and the pool from which she and the crocodile had entered.

     "Good work, Esta." The now-familiar high, gloating voice broke through the silence.

     "Of course, Mistress." A voice, deep and gravelly and resonant, spoke. It  seemed to come from the walls, from the pool, from the ground itself, but Lilith knew, instinctively perhaps, that the voice came from the large reptile, who bowed its head in some sort of bow.

     "Esta's what I call P37-A It suits the leader of the Nax much better, don't you think?" The light-haired girl said conversationally, appearing out of the dark gloom that shrouded the room.

    "No," Lilith said, speaking calmly in spite of her rapidly beating heart. " I am afraid I do not." The other girl walked closer, and her arrogant smirk fell suddenly.

    "Well this blows!" She complained. "Look at you," She pinched Lilith's cheek."You're adorable. Hardly a challenge."

     Lilith scowled, pulling away from the other girl. "I am not! Now, who art thou? And why hast thou taken me here?" For some reason, her speech seemed to amuse the girl, who smiled rather condescendingly.

    "Who are you, Shakespeare?" At Lilith's nonplussed expression, she sighed, shaking her head. "Never mind. As to why your here. Well that's the million dollar question, isn't it?" Ignoring the confused and irritated look, she received, the blonde girl continued."And I'm Huntress, though that won't really matter now, won't it?"

     "Why won't it matter?" Lilith was horribly aware of what was the answer was mostly likely going to be. Backing up against one of the stone walls that trapped her, she could feel her heart sinking.

    Huntress laughed as if it were the silliest question she had ever heard. "Why, because after I'm done with you, I doubt you see another living soul again." She slowly unsheathed a long knife from her side. "I could use a gun of course, but I think this way will be more fun." Then, with the grace and air of a tiger, she leapt forward to strike.