Twilight Wings: A Supernatural Romance/Action

Chapter 7: Takers

AZ'S POV

As they charged at us, Mr Tholos was the first to get into the fight. The big Steel Monger rushed right at the enemy lines, crashing into the Clattering Cadavers and scattering about five of the skeletons. Tessa whirled her hand and a magical rune appeared on Slate Face's chest. The rune glowed and exploded, sending the Texan Ironking flying backwards. The Nightmares and Sir Slaughter went for Jacob and I. Lord Malice just stood back, watching the whole thing with interest in his eyes.

I swung my scythe and cut one of the Nightmares that was coming at me in half. The creature exploded in a plume of shadow energy, but three more came at me. I ducked under the claws of one, and that one slashed apart the enemy opposite it. Two more. I swung my scythe up into the chin of one of the Nightmares and flung it into its comrade.

And then Sir Slaughter was on me. The massive knight swung his broadsword down at my head, but I held my scythe in both hands at the ends and blocked the strike with the haft of my own weapon. The massive knight kicked me back, and I fell over, smashing into the ground and nearly dropping my scythe. As I lay there, Sir Slaughter raised his metal-plated foot to stomp me again. I couldn't do anything, but suddenly, a rock slammed into the side of the knight's helmet.

"What the..." Sir Slaughter said, looking to the direction where the rock had come from.

Emma was standing there, waving her arms and screaming "Come get it!" Sir Slaughter gave a metallic laugh and started walking towards her. I cursed and struggled to my feet, running after the knight. I swung my scythe at his back and cleaved through the metal into the energy underneath. Sir Slaughter let out a growl of pain and spun around, smashing a fist into the side of my face. As he did so, Jacob slammed into him with a roar. Sir Slaughter toppled over, but as soon as he had come, Jacob was carried away as a horde of Nightmares attacked him.

Suddenly, I heard Mr. Tholos call out.

"Retreat! Let's move!" he cried.

Jacob flung the Nightmares off of him and ran over to Emma and I, picking us up on his back. Mr. Tholos grabbed Tessa and we dashed off. Mr. Tholos actually was really fast, and he almost outpaced Jacob. We dashed through the trees, and I honestly had no idea where we were going. Finally, we reached a small cave in the mountains. Mr. Tholos and Jacob stopped and let us off of their backs.

"That was a success. Good job, kids," Mr. Tholos said, sitting down with a thunderous crash.

"What now?" Emma asked him.

"Now, we get out of here and try to find some allies. There have to be some others in the magical world who would be willing to help us bring those guys down. Also, Tessa, were you going to teach Emma some magic?" Mr. Tholos asked.

"Yeah, sure!" Tessa said with a wide grin.

"Well, we can get to that tomorrow. For now -" Mr Tholos said before getting cut off.

A long horn was blowing through the forest. The horn blew a long, low, sad note. Like the type of thing you would hear at a funeral...The ground underneath us gave some barely detectable tremors and from back at th eclearing, I could hear the sound of, well, clattering. I could hear bones clacking together, armor jangling, and feet tramping across the open ground.

"Sir Slaughter's calling some more of his Cadavers. Come on, we need to move. Once we get out of the town, we'll be alright. Tomorrow, we'll start formulating a plan," Mr. Tholos said.

_____________________________________________________________________

We ran for about ten more minutes, until Jacob made a stop at the grocery store to buy some necessary supplies with the money he had packed beforehand. We then ran for a couple more hours until we were out of the town. We finally stopped on a wide, grassy plain beside a stream. I could see the outline of a small mountain in the distance, and behind us, the lights of the town were gone.

Jacob let me and Az down and took a quick drink at the stream. Mr. Tholos lumbered over to the stream and found two massive boulders from the riverbed. He brought them out, clashed them together a few times to get rid of the moisture on them, and then planted them on the ground in an A shape. He found one more and placed it over one of the empty sides of the A, thus forming a triangular cave/tent/house thing.

Jacob, Tessa, Emma, and I crawled in, but Mr. Tholos was content staying outside. He turned back into his human form and promptly fell asleep. I guess Ironkings didn't get cold. Jacob turned back into his human form as well and leaned up against the wall of the cave with Emma on the floor near his feet. Tessa stayed in the back of the cave. I waved my hand and dismissed my scythe and uniform and fell asleep near the entrance.

Our journey had begun.