Nephilim: New Dawn

Chapter 4: Revelation

For a few heartbeats, Loi felt like as if his heart and mind were going to explode, overwhelmed by what he's seeing and those searing amber eyes and the fear that came with it. The thing standing in the middle of the clearing was like nothing he has seen before, more beast than human. It has the upper body of a man, slim and fit yet packed with muscles under its short-sleeved leather shirt. Strange tattoos covered its pale arms, running from its wrists to its shoulders under the short, tattered sleeves. Its lower body was that of a raptor, long, slender doubled jointed legs end with four-digit feet covered in plated scales, each toe tipped with a curved, talon-like claw.

- Keto-s...! - As Haru was standing up and about to call out, he felt Loi's hand wrapping around his mouth and nose forcefully while the larger boy pressed his brother down to keep him from making any more sound.

- Shhh! - The tanned boy hissed and whispered with a cautious tone as he saw the creature's long pointed ears twitching. - It'll hear us!

- I can hear and see you just fine. - The creature said in an almost nonchalant tone, its amber eyes flickered under its bang of silvery white hair as it looks at the boys. It pointed at them with one clawed finger, gesturing them to get into the light. - Get over here, you two look ridiculous.

Again, Loi was baffled and terrified, it talked again to let them know that it could see them clearly as if to mock their pathetic attempt to hide from such monster. The creature wagged the tip of its tail impatiently, its eyes narrowed to mere slit as it stared deep into Loi's. Gods, those eyes, those fiendish amber eyes were cold and sharp, cutting into the tanned boy's mind as if trying to control him. He felt his limbs turned cold and numbed as he fell onto his knees, his mouth hung open with only the sounds of shivering breaths escaping his from his lips.

The world around them was silenced of every sound, even when they're inside the Forbidden Forest, this silence felt unnatural and different from before. It was cold and dark, shackling Loi's mind with dark tendrils of fear. He tried to flee, yet found his entire body frozen in place, unresponsive of any of his mind's commands, with only his eyes still able to taking the images of the beast slowly standing up and walked toward them. He started to panic, wordless sounds escaped his shaking teeth, sweats poured down from every part of his face, his entire body shivered in fear as the beast was mere footsteps away from him. The tanned boy closed his eyes shut and clenched his teeth, hoping that it would end soon.

- Rai! Rai!

- What?! - Loi flinched and yelped as he heard his brother's voice and felt Haru's hands shaking his shoulders. He turned to look at the smaller boy, somehow his brother was unaffected by whatever it is that he's felt when he sees...

- Oi, kid. You alright? - The creature was crouching in front of him, raising one of its eyebrows in an almost humanlike fashion.

- Get away from us! - The tanned boy lashed out, unsheathing his dagger and swung it at the creature while dragging his brother backward.

- Rai! Calm down! - Haru pleaded desperately, trying to calm his brother, pulling at his cloak weakly to break from Loi's grip. - He's not going to harm us!

- That's not entire true. - Quetz growled, licking the small cut on his cheek before leaping forward.

He landed on one foot next to Loi head while the other wrapped around the boy's neck, pressing him down onto the forest floor before bending down and forcefully removing the dagger from his hand. Having neutralized the boy, the white haired male swiftly rotated his entire body, using his momentum to throw his prey into the clearing and released his brother from his grip at the same time.

Loi landed on his back with a large thud before rolling a few more time on the forest floor, his ears rang with the sounds of a thousand chimes. He tried to pull himself up, tripping and falling from the slippery ground soaked with blood. Panic set in as the tanned boy could barely comprehend his surrounding, he flailed his limbs around, tossing up earth and mosses, scratching his hands in the process. Everything around him was blurred, shifting shapes and colors assaulted his senses, making him loose his balance and footings. In the swirling madness, there were only the footsteps and growling of the approaching beast. Loi could hear it, even with his senses dulled, he could still hear the splayed out clawed toes, the hissing coming out of the maw full of teeth, the sounds of the creature's jaws, cracking as it unhinged them to devour him.