Season's Change Winter's Plight Book 1

2 Victory

He stood his ground and faced his attackers. He had heard about these foul beasts and what they did to unwary travelers. He expected them to come after him, to try and kill and eat him. He hadn't anticipated them traveling in a pack. That would be his downfall and undoing. He had been a little overmatched by ten of them. He felt the poison from the arrow that had grazed his skin burn as it worked its way into his body. He hadn't heard about that. The poison on the weapons was new to him and would be the last thing that he would know. Perhaps that was yet another reason why that little fact went undiscovered by his people. No one survived it. He could feel that he didn't have that much longer to enjoy his life. His mother would be disappointed. She cried the night he left the village on his journey. He wondered if she cried when his brother left too. He washed the thoughts from his mind as he watched the little monsters prepare to bring him to an end. The moon, which had been bright and full was covered by a dark cloud, so his eyes were not as useful as his ears. He heard them more than he saw them. In the darkness, his eyes swept the space around him. He sensed another presence and saw a darker shadow, vaguely humanoid in the shadows between two of the denizens. He watched. He waited. He prayed. He didn't want to die, didn't want to become food for the Fallen or whatever, whomever, was standing between them. He knew that was what he would become if he fell there that night. So, he prayed to whatever gods were listening.

One answered his call. The moon suddenly burst from behind the cloud and bathed the area in its glorious light. In his hands, his sword began to glow. The stone within its hilt took on the moon's silver light, runes formed along its blade and a blue-white light erupted along its length. He looked out at his enemies again. His were eyes drawn to the void of light between the denizens to his left. Two pinpoints of silver light pierced the night from that darkness and transformed into one of the most radiant and beautiful creatures his eyes had ever rest upon as the light from the moon shone down on them all. There before him stood a silver-eyed member of the Faye. Known to be fiercely strong and slight of build, the elite warriors of the land, with long silver hair, and black skin. Her blades just appeared in her hands and instantly ended the lives of the denizens that flanked her. The last sound that the denizens on either side of her heard was the sound of her blades being freed from their sheaths. They didn't even have time to scream as she drove each blade up through their chest and lungs and into the tiny organs that served as their hearts. They were dead before their bodies hit the ground. She had moved the moment the warrior saw her, raising her eyes to meet his, moving a split second after the light of the Goddess revealed her to him.

His own sword came up and moved impossibly fast, cutting down one denizen and nearly beheading another. His blade was suddenly lighter and much sharper than before. He struggled very briefly to adjust his footing and body to the changes. Four denizens were dead in a matter of seconds. Two were left standing. The remaining denizens cautiously eyed the human and the Dark Faye and weighed their options. The human and the Faye had killed 4 of them with ease, like batting flies from their hides. He had been struck by an arrow and would soon die, but the Faye was untouched by their weapons. The poison wouldn't work on her anyway. They could run and live another day. Come back for the meat once those two were gone. Maybe she would kill him for them. There was so much meat on his bones and man flesh was so much better tasting than Fallen flesh.

They lingered too long deciding. Her movements were blinding. Her bowstring thrummed twice and any decision the Fallen would have made was negated by the arrows that passed through each of their tiny brains. They fell dead to the ground in pools of foul black blood. There would be no meat for them that night.

Moon fire still danced along the blade as the warrior turned to face her. She watched as the tip of the blade pointed at her. This human. This foolish, hapless careless human would not back down. Stupid. He had to know he was dying. Were humans so dense that they could not feel the poison of the Fallen flowing through them? Did he not know that she could defeat him without bringing a single weapon against him? He was poisoned and therefore doomed to die a lonely death. How was she supposed to save him anyhow? Why did her Goddess command her so? He was just a human. She had saved him from the Fallen, wasn't that enough? He was poisoned. There was no stopping that from running its course. She could see the sickness invading his body, weakening him and destroying him from within. Soon he would not be able to see or hear, what he could, would be distorted and false. Then his body would fail his mind and his heart would stop. His life would be at an end. She would build a pry for him and burn his remains, so he could not be eaten. That was the most she could do for him. There was no reason his flesh should give life to the Fallen or help to create more of them, there were too many as it was. She was ready to dismiss him, content to watch him die for his foolishness, such was the way of the land, but again she was commanded. "SAVE HIM!"