"TALES OF SHADOWS, TALES OF BEASTS, UNRAVEL AS THE SHADOW SPEAKS"
Aeraji; the continent of magic, the mother of legends, old and new. A place where gods and heroes, monsters and witches are very much real. Despite hailing from foreign grounds Arden...
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THE BEAST WAS ILL-FORMED; it snarled and howled at the air in a misshapen mass of browns and blacks. It stood on its hind legs, strangely resembling a human form - a terifyingly skinny, deformed human form. Abnormally long legs bent at the knees, scrawny limps leading to a ring-thin waist, a wide and bare ribcage and finally a long neck holding sharp-contoured head. A mouth was open wide, revealing razor sharp teeth that bit the air as it screamed.
Strangely enough, they sounded almost humane.
Through her howling thoughts and the panic of the crowd Arden managed a few steps further from the edge, scrambling to reach the ladder that would lead her down. But was this the right decision? From a hasty glance she saw the monster lunge at the audience, tearing apart the the wooden fence protecting it, splinters flying about. The audience screamed running around like flies. If she went down, she'd be one of them - and it'd be a miracle if she didn't get trampled over. But if the monster knocked the ladder during its rampage...
Her thoughts raced. Her head hurt.
Fuck it, she decided.
Underneath, there was chaos. The monster raged, people tried to flee. Arden caught the tiniest glimpse of bodies on the ground. Were they breathing? She almost didn't want to find out.
"Run!" she heard someone scream. The beast was no longer alone; more of its kind, some had teared through the fabrics of the tent, other had sprouted like parasytes between the crowd.
Five, her heart skipped a few beats, lodged in her throat. There are five of them.
A woman with her children fell. A man screamed as he lost himself behind the colourful fabric of the tent. Another form knocked at the side and Arden hit the ground with a thud. Her head hurt. Something had hit it as she fell - someone in their haste to get away.
With thoughts in a jumbled mess, she looked around. The monsters destroyed everything on their path on the opposite side from her spot - tall, strong, absolutely terrifying. Screams had flooded every cranny of the tent but they sounded distant in her ears. Her own heartbeat echoed from a faraway place. In her hazy vision she thought she saw dancing light travelling up some parts of the tent.
It was on fire.
If only her head stopped spinning, she could get up, she could escape this hell.
Imari, where's Imari?
A scream pierser than any she had heard broke through the barriers around her ears for a few seconds before it was drawn out. But Arden looked and the sight made her blood turn to ice.
The monster had its claws bared - long, slender and unbelievably sharp. The woman had her wide-eyed, crying children in a protective embrace - as if that was going to repel the beast.
