Curse of the Stars Book 1

Chapter 17

Chapter XVII

Stygian faced off her attackers. They spat their gibberish to each other in frenzied, hysterical voices as if afraid of her, but they never backed off.

"Don't you know I'm a god?!" She bellowed at them, half believing it after the one had shot her straight through with an arrow. She had hit the ground, unconscious, knowing she must be dead. But then she'd felt pain and found one of the scoundrels raking at her wing with his tool. Blood spurted out of the raggedy torn scales where his blade rubbed back and forth. He was making a mighty fine mess of her wing! She didn't hesitate to roar her defiance and agony at him, but he ran past her range and she did not see him again. Another sharp stab of pain bolted up her tail and she swivelled around to find the same man, his blade plunged deeply under her tail, blood gathering in a pool underneath him. At the sight of her awake, his eyes clouded with determination and he continued to saw, faster, harder.

Pain flared within her and she roared. He continued to saw, the blood running down his fingers as he let his knife glide like a sail through her flesh. She did not hesitate to lunge at him, grab his abdomen and catapult him as far away from her as she could muster. His blood slid down her throat as she did so but she didn't stop to savour it. She didn't wait to see where he landed or to make sure he was dead

She faced her remaining enemies with loathsome patience, challenging them to dare attack her again.

Stygian knew that arrow should have killed her. And indeed it hurt like no pain she had ever felt—no matter, it only helped to feed her rage. Humans were such stupid creatures, worshipping you as a god one moment and trying to murder you the next. And yet...

And yet I'm alive. I should be dead. I should be. But she remembered the Wishing Dragon's curse. She would be alive until she was the last of her kind...and only then would her fire be snuffed out from her. That meant she could undergo as much pain as they dared inflict upon her but she'd never find rest. She'd never find release.

This only fueled her rage all the more.

And so she attacked without mercy, even as arrows ripped into her leathery wings and bounced off her armoured scales. She took their blows and then dealt her own.

Hers did not miss.

She knocked the one over with her tail and pounced on another, ripping his head off in one swift motion. The other turned and ran for his life but it only agitated her more to watch his fleeing shadow. She hopped after him, unable to use her wings, but far faster than he ever could have dreamt of being.

Down he went, under all the force and weight of her fury, and was crushed as she ground him into the stones. She did not relent until long after his death, and then turned to look for the one she had tripped but he was long gone, lost amidst the hulking shapes of buildings.

Dare show your face again to me little man!

She breathed in deeply, still tasting the second's blood on her tongue. She found something cold in her mouth instead, something cold and sharp like the little weapons the men had used upon her. It was as if their arrows had become her teeth—she hadn't the faintest idea when that had happened but there they were...metal teeth. She didn't think she liked it, it was just a little bit more of alien thrust in to quicken her curse, and yet though it made her jaws like a metal trap to devour, it did not comfort her on even the smallest degree.

Am I God to you people or not?! She wanted to scream. Gold dragons and arrows, gold dragons and arrows, was there nothing inbetween?

She ripped at the remaining arrows in her wings, holding back her screams as pain rippled through her anew. Her own blood dribbled from her lips as she surveyed the city. All was not quiet or at peace, for many had witnessed the attack at her angry roars and windows had been slammed shut, the fires going out from deep within as if the ignorant creatures thought that in darkness they would be safe. Little did they know that creatures like Stygian could see in the dark.