What got my attention was the inhuman roar that I heard. It was unlike the typical hissing I heard from demons, so I turned my attention towards the source of the noise. I was supposed to be guarding Sreya's back while she kept our enemies in check; however, my attention wavered when I saw a magnificent beast with the body of a salamander, but larger, complete with sea green scales and spikes that elongated from its back and neck, stretching down towards its thick tail that stretched for at least five metres behind it.
It bared its teeth, revealing long sharp fangs that were probably the length of Katana, and roared. Our forces quivered, but to my surprise, so did the demons, although they did a better job of not showing it.
This beast, whatever it was, or wherever it had come from, was not allied with the demons. It raised its head from where it was hunched over a supine figure, gazing directly at me with smouldering blue eyes.
I noticed my brother sneaking up on the beast from behind. Tom, his face contorted in fury, lifted his sword, aiming for the beast's hide.
Before his blade could make contact, however, he jerked back as an arrow narrowly missed him. He whirled about, his eyes seeking for the perpetrator.
"No! Leave him alone!" Penny shrieked, swimming as fast as she could from the top of the barracks towards them. As Tom started forward, Penny dived into him, pushing him back as far as she could. Surprised, Tom relented.
Forgetting Sreya, I swam towards them, dodging various other fights that were happening between both sides. "Penny, what are you doing?" I shouted.
Penny didn't answer, instead releasing her arrow towards an approaching demon. "Keep an eye on him!" she ordered us, clearly referring to the creature that clearly stood about three metres tall (beside it, I felt like a fish - believe me, I rarely ever feel as useless as a fish).
"Keep an eye on that that?" Tom gaped at the beast. "It's attacking Tristan!"
"What?" I shrieked, inching closer to the beast to get a better look. True to Tom's word, I noticed the familiar outline of a merman writhing in the beast's steely grip. Horrified, I backed away - hurriedly. "What's going on?"
"I don't know, but I'm going to kill it before it hurts Tristan even more," Tom said menacingly, approaching the beast with a newfound confidence. He didn't falter; he didn't back down. He kept coming, his blade ready.
That is, until Penny shouted, "Are you two stupid? My sorry excuse for a boyfriend is protecting you!"
We froze.
The beast roared in response, its growl echoing across the dunes, so fierce that even the sand shifted.
"No way is that Brendan," I managed to stutter, but the resemblance between this beast's eyes and Brendan's own were unmistakable. How had he managed to turn from a merman into such a creature? The others had acted as if he'd lost his magic.
The beast seemed to huff before tossing Tristan's now unconscious body towards us, before coming to kneel at Penny's feet (well, tail). She grinned, swimming upwards to sit upon its - no, his - back. The beast then bounded into the fray with Penny taking aim at any demon she could, nearly scaring the wits out of Sreya.
The demon forces balked at seeing Brendan's massive form, and Penny sitting atop him, her onyx eyes glimmering with almost the same amount of darkness.
No matter how strong we were, we looked like helpless goldfish compared to the pure strength and terror that Penny and Brendan emitted. And from the awestruck expressions on the faces of my brother, Commander Oli and Harley as they watched the beast and his rider, they knew it too.
YOU ARE READING
The Cursed Mermaid
Fantasy[Fairytale Series, Book 4] The underwater kingdom of Narmia had been left alone for millennia. It was forgotten from history books, and never appeared in maps. Princess Arya, fourth in line to the throne, had grown up with the knowledge that Narmia...
