Rivers of Reverie

3. Touched By the Light

The creature's metal blade plunged deep into the tree's bark, right where Liryl was a moment before. Saved by reflexes she did not expect to have, she sprang back up and jumped sideways, to put the tree between her and her assailant before running away. But the hissing she heard from behind immediately crushed any hope she held of outrunning the reptile.

While running her heart out, Liryl threw a glance behind, but could not see the silhouette of her pursuer. It was her instinct that urged her to look up, and to dodge an instant before the beast leaped on her with all its weight. She let out another frightened scream, unbalanced and knocked down by her own impetus. 

The visibility was minimal, but her eyes still managed to glimpse the glint of the blade's edge. If there ever had been a moment in her life where her mind was a blank, that was it. Her labored breath, her blood throbbing in her temples, and a feeling of dizziness which preceded the only thought coming to her mind.

I'm going to die.

But the following howl was not her own. The creature stepped back as a warm gush of blood started pouring from where Sanya had stabbed it with her sword. Liryl shouted her friend's name, but the other girl did not reply. Holding fast the hilt of her weapon, she leapt on her enemy, ready to deliver the fatal blow.

Liryl's anxiety and anticipation, however, turned into a terrified cry when the beast, seemingly struck down, swung in return and knocked Sanya to the ground. The girl rushed towards her friend as the reptile collapsed.

"Sanya! Sanya! Answer me!" shouted Liryl in a trembling voice.

"Don't worry ..." Sanya tried to calm her, wheezing heavily. "It's nothing ..." But her face, twisted in a grimace of pain, felt much less reassuring than her words.

Liryl had a look at her friend's wound, but she realized immediately that the Sanya's condition was worse than she was willing to admit. The deep cut on her chest was drenched in blood, and if she did not got treated as soon as possible, she would bleed out.

Before she could voice her concerns, however, Liryl noticed a scared look in the other nymph's eyes, and turned. The beast was still there, standing up in spite of wounds that would have taken down any other living creature she knew. It was staggering visibly, but its metal blade was still firmly in its hold. 

Instinct urged Liryl to flee as far away as possible, but nothing could have convinced her to leave her friend alone. She grabbed her friend's sword and pointed it against her enemy, but the creature disarmed her with a single swing. The sword flung away and vanished amid the dark waves of the river.

Liryl backed away in fear, curling up on her friend's body in a futile and desperate attempt to shield her. What tormented her, however, was not much the knowledge that she would die, but that her best friend would die as well for having tried to save her, and there was nothing she could do to prevent it. Sanya would not even be there, on that stormy night away from her village, if it had not been for her. 

Previously, when the beast's sword was on the verge of killing her, she had felt an empty feeling of dismay. But now, tears were streaming down her cheeks, burning with anger and frustration. With her eyes shut, she murmured desperately until she burst into an anguished and prolonged "No!" to the beast, to the sky, and to the world which was about to take Sanya's life.

When her lids opened again, however, the creature was no longer in front of her. The blade which should have slain her was lying in the mud. Then, a stifled gurgle and a snap-like noise prompted her to look up. The reptile's body, lifted a few spans above the ground, fell down lifeless, crushed like a broken branch.