THE END OF BEGINNINGS

SEVENTEEN (Part 2)

The groom's uncle was the first to notice when Moros ran back to the cart.  He saw the boy fighting with the clasps attaching the thick straps to the platform.  "What are you doing," he hissed, grabbing Moros by the shoulder.
"It's coming," Moros exclaimed.  Behind him, the thunderous roar of the oncoming dea'esh bellowed through the night.  A dusty cloud of debris rolled upward, barely visible in the silvery glow of the moon.
"Help me," Moros cried out to the older man.
The groom's uncle barely moved.  He shook his head once.  The ground under his feet, under all their feet, began to tremble and quake.  The heavy thumps of four massive, meaty paws stomping rapidly through the village grew louder and louder.  Moros looked back down at the clasps.  He felt the strap go slack in his trembling fingers.  Elation flashed through the seventeen-year-old.  But it was gone as fast as he had felt it.  There were three more clasps to untie.
As soon as the long belt was loose, the creature it was holding down shifted.  Moros stumbled back a startled step as quickly as he could.  The waking dea'esh moaned and growled.  It was a far more pleasant sight and sound compared to what followed.
The row of wooden abodes lining the edge of the plaza behind Moros suddenly exploded.  Structures that had stood for a generation were rendered nothing more than a storm of jagged debris and choking dust that sprayed across the holy gathering place.  Whatever was left of the ruined buildings bounced and rolled off the unstoppable body of the male dea'esh.  Its dramatic appearance unleashed a wave of loud gasps that immediately turned into piercing screams.  The mighty beast roared with all its might, nearly drowning out the cries of the frightened Aganni.
Overwhelmed by his own surprise, Moros jumped backward.  He tripped over his feet, bouncing off the side of the cart before hitting the packed earth of the plaza floor.  Over his shoulder, the awakening mate of the furious creature bucked against the straps still holding it down.  Its tired efforts didn't go unnoticed.
The snarling dea'esh that had stampeded through the village spotted the cart, its mate, and the sweating, old, man standing in front of it.  Moros glimpsed the change in the animal's leg muscles.  He traced a hurried line with his eyes up the front of the animal's body.  He tried to shout at the groom's uncle, to warn him to get away.  It was too late.  All too quickly, the raging beast reared back onto its hind legs.  Its upper body was in the air for less than a heartbeat.  Its thick, front paws slammed into the smooth, clay floor with enough force to crack it open.
The creature rocked and pushed itself forward in the same motion while the ground was still quaking under its feet.  Its dense skull slammed against the old man's torso.  A breathless scream leapt from his throat.  His feet were lifted off the earth as his bruised body was thrusted violently backward.  Moros dropped to his stomach and rolled under the wagon, barely avoiding being trapped under the wounded man.  He heard the crowd cry out again when the old man's body slammed against the cart.  He saw the legs and feet of the others that had been with them dashing away as they scattered into the shadows.  The groggy dea'esh, still trapped on the platform, growled loudly.  The male dea'esh roared, its voice ringing painfully through Moro's ears.
Sidonia was stunned by the sight.  Her stomach was in knots while her heart raced wildly.  This was a fear she couldn't remember ever feeling before.  It wasn't a fear for her own life, but a crippling panic she felt for a life she loved more than her own.
It took a her a long moment to find her strength, to snap out of the petrified stupor crippling her will to act.  A flickering instinct suddenly ignited in her when the massive, hairy beast roared again.  The silhouetted shape of Moros under the cart was the spark that ignited her drive.  Her strength was a mother's strength.  The boy wasn't her child by birth, but Sedonia had come to love the youth as if he were her own.  No matter how he felt about her, she knew how strongly she felt about him.  It made her unstoppable.
"Come on," Sidonia shouted over the screams of the crowd around her.  She gripped Gerania's shoulder, shaking the girl out of her own terrified gaze.  "We have to help your brother!"
Just as they started to move forward through the crowd, a sharp, sleek arrow sliced through the night.  It raced past their heads, rocketing across the plaza toward the pair of dea'esh.  It nearly hit the hulking male that was focused on the boy under the heavy platform.  It hissed loudly from the sharp sting of the arrowhead glancing off its back leg.  The creature pulled its head away from where it had been trying to lift the weighty cart with its snout.  It peered back toward the bright, bleeding line on its shin.  If the creature wasn't possibly that angry before, the shallow gash in its flesh raised its rankled temper to a whole new level.
Its fiery, golden eyes turned toward the crowd, making the watching Aganni shout in fright.  The sentry that had unleashed the single arrow yelled above the panicked voices for other guards to do the same.  Aganni watchmen stepped from the shadows beyond the light of the burning crystals.  Their bows were drawn, an arrow nocked and ready to fire in each.
With their hands trembling, the archers unleashed a volley of the razor-tipped missiles.  The half dozen slender bolts whistled past the crowd.  The targeted dea'esh didn't flinch.  It turned the broadside of its bulky body toward the assault.  The long hairs on its fuzzy skin suddenly changed colors, the tips growing dark as each one bent sideways to cover the animal's flesh like a shirt.
Or a shield.
One by one the six arrows slapped against the wiry armor the animal had formed over itself, ricochetting harmlessly away.  But the dea'esh hand't stopped moving.  As swiftly as a dancer, the creature spun itself around.  Its stiffened tail whipped outward with a sonic crack, the barbed appendage striking a series of the smoldering crystals.  Balloons of broiling fire burst upward where the cracked, heavy shards landed amongst the screaming Aganni.  One of the guards shouted for everyone to run, to retreat away from the scene.  Another called for the sentries to rally and charge the beast.
Meanwhile, Sidonia helped a woman in front of her get back on her feet before leading Gerania forward.  Another smoldering crystal burst apart, becoming a bright, searing fireball that went skipping into a nearby hut.  She realized she'd been distracted by the sight too long almost too late.
"Mother, look out," Gerania yelled, pulling back on her mother's hand.
Sidonia turned her head in time to see the vexed dea'esh charge at the dispersing crowd.  It swung one of its front legs through the smoky air as the sentries approached.  The claws of its meaty paw accidentally hooked the flower-wrapped arbor of the abandoned altar.  Mother and daughter halted their dash toward the embattled platform.  They watched helplessly as the weaponized decor crashed against the closest watchmen in one heartbeat, coming apart as it knocked the men violently down.  In the next heartbeat, the dea'esh flung the tangled wreckage away from itself.  It barely watched as the dangerous cluster of wood, tacks, and vines ricochetted off the ground on path directly toward Sidonia and Gerania.
A young voice shouted at them.  Then, young, muscular arms ensnared them, pulling them down and away from the debris.  He kept his back toward the wave of shrapnel that trailed behind the arbor's remains.  After a moment, Shero finally lifted his head, glancing first over his shoulder and then around at the scene before him.  A few others had been hit by the free-flying, wooden rubble.  He looked at the mother and daughter pair.  They, to his relief, were okay.
"Thank you," Sidonia said getting back to her feet.
"It is not safe here," Shero said hurriedly.  "We must leave this place!"
"No," Sidonia said sternly.  "Not without Moros."
The massive dea'esh roared angrily again as Sidonia started toward the mobile platform.  The furious beast pounced at a group of watchmen to her right, leaving her path across the fire-lit plaza open.  Without the altar in the way, she could see the silhouetted form of Moros on the opposite side of the long, heavy wagon from where he'd started the night.  He was struggling with something in his hands while doing his best not to be distracted by the dea'esh still trapped on the platform.
Sidonia was almost there.  She could see the muddy dirt staining his face.  She could just barely begin to hear the rustle of the flint clasps between his fingers.  She could practically reach out and touch him.  The adrenaline surging through her body, carrying her across the dangerous space, was no match for the flash of dread that struck her like a lightning bolt.  It was the look in Moros' eyes as she closed the final distance, when he turned his head up toward her.  She wasn't what had captured his attention.  She wasn't what made the boy inhale sharply.
Sidonia didn't turn her head.  She didn't glance back and she didn't turn around.  There wasn't any time.  A cloud of hot breath billowed past her.  The moment to act on anything other than instinct was long past.  She ducked as low as she could, tossing her body onto the ground all in one rapid, frightened motion.
The enraged dea'esh behind her slammed its dense skull against the side of the long cart.  The flat wagon, weighed down by the animal's mate, was almost no match for the power of the ferocious beast.  The female trapped on the platform growled and roared as loudly as its mate.  Its front claws extended, digging into the thick beams it was lying on.  The seven inch, retractable razors punctured the long board when the uplifted mobile stage settled back to the ground.
Moros hadn't been able to finish untying the coarse bindings knotted around the thick, flint rings.  He had followed his step-mother's lead in the fleeting moment before the attacking dea'esh had charged.  Now, he rolled onto his side as the stone wheels landed back against the hard clay.  There was a sound of something breaking, like small rocks being pulverized by the impact.  Moros' eyes immediately spotted the broken clasps he had been working at.  The bindings slipped free as the long strap disappeared behind the hind of the bucking female.  The captured creature was still strapped under one more leather belt.
Moros wanted to free her.  That had to be the way to end this.  He started to sit up.  The male dea'esh shook off whatever minor trauma the collision might have caused it.  Its eyes locked onto the boy moving nearby.  Moros saw its back straighten as it raised itself onto its feet.  It leaned toward the cart at the same time it looked ready to attack.
"Moros, stop," Sidonia said over the noise from the animals.  "It doesn't understand what you're doing."
"I just want to help," Moros yelled back, getting up onto his knees.
The male dea'esh snarled as it watched the boy move with unblinking eyes.  It reared back, ready to lunge, trample, and tear the little being apart.  Moros cringed, but didn't flinch.  Not this time.  Sidonia sat upright.  She braced herself against the the hard floor of the plaza.  She was ready to jump between the boy and the beast.