Enlightenment - Chapter VIII

Chapter VIII

Take two breaths and get up Melfina!

Inhale.

There was plenty of meat on Forrester's body. Obviously whatever began eating it wasn't finished yet.

Exhale.

The missing chunks of meat were cut cleanly from the body. It had sharp teeth.

Inhale.

The grunt came from behind the tree she was leaning against. It was time to leave.

Exhale.

Run!

Melfina gets up and pushes off against the tree to help her get started. But then she remembers her books on the ground. She snatches them up, and her curiosity and fear take over and she can't help but turn around.

As tall as her waist, it was covered in blue scales. Sinister eyes locked with hers. It stood on two stubby legs and its hands were attached to two stubby arms and had sharp claws that looked ready to dig deep into her flesh. Its hunched back made it look ready to pounce. Its head flowed straight from that hunch with no apparent neck, and sharp teeth shown from its gaping mouth. It was hungry.

Melfina backs away and the creature matches her pace for pace. She's never seen something like this. She's never heard of something like this.

She turns and runs.

Whatever it was, it was quick. Every time she looked over her shoulder, there it was. Despite its short legs, it never lagged behind.

She runs faster. It does the same.

She turns her head to look again but then an intense pain flares up in her shin, and she falls. The adrenaline racing through her veins keeps her alert, and she tries to instantly get back to her feet, but she can't.

She's been paralyzed.

She tries her hardest to move, all the while anticipating the first slice of pain to cut into her back, as she helplessly stares at the patch of grass in front of her.

It expels a loud grunt of dominance, and then a rhythmic screeching noise pierces the air and twists her stomach in knots. Her mental struggle to move intensifies.

Come on! she yells inside her head as she feels her arm twitch.

The noise changes to a soft ripping as she feels the paralysis wearing off. Whatever it was doing, it wasn't eating her yet. Ever so slowly, Melfina makes it to her feet. She doesn't bother with her books this time and just wants to run.

The noises have stopped.

She turns around, and sees it standing there amongst the remains of a crystal elemental. The monsters claws and teeth drip with blood as it just stands there and grins a fearsome grin at her.

Melfina steps backward, and again, it matches her pace for pace.

Its eyes widen and it breaks eye contact with her and scans the ground. Melfina see what caught its attention. The red ribbon attached to Forrester's key is easy to pick out amongst the greens and browns of the forest floor.

In the blink of an eye, the creature snatches at the key and pops it into its mouth and swallows.

"Give that back!" she yells instinctively.

It spits out the key into its hand walks toward Melfina.

"Stop!" she yells. And it does.

She takes a step back, and it doesn't follow. She takes another. It just watches. She limps to the left, and it remains still.

It really stopped.

"What are you?"

The creature grunts.

"Why did you stop?"

It makes grunt that sounds like confusion.

"Do you understand me?"

Expecting another grunt, Melfina is shocked when it nods.

"Put that down," she says as she points to the key.

It does.

Ok, Melfina. It's not attacking you. Just pick up the key, calm yourself down, and recall back home. You'll never see it again.

She slowly steps up to the creature, picks up the key, and goes back to collect her books, with the creature always within sight. As she picks up the book of necromany, it hits her. She flips it open, scans the page, and walks back to the creature.

It looks up at her with its yellow eyes.

He heart beats faster as she asks, "Are you a horde minion?"

It nods its head with a grunt of assent.

"So… you're my familiar?"

It nods again.

"You won't hurt me?"

The horde minion doesn't even grunt this time. It squints its eyes in confusion.

Melfina slowly walks up to the creature, "Stay… stay…" she repeats as she forces herself to walk closer to it, and pat it on the head. She doesn’t feel the cool touch of scales and instead feels fur beneath her palm. She takes a closer look and sees tiny hairs poking up through the scales, extremely short and impossible to see unless you know its there, but hairs nonetheless.

"I guess you're kind of cute. But I can't take you home with me."

Stark would kill me. Or it.

She thumbs through the spellbook again, and does the banishment spell. Nothing happens. She tries again, but it still just stands there and stares.

I can't just leave it here. What if gets attacked? What if it dies?

What if it somehow follows me home!

She shifts her weight and a sharp pain reminds her of her injury. She looks to see a clean slice across her shin bone, and casts heal. I'll have to get this repaired again, she thinks as she thumbs the cut fabric.

She looks at the bloody carcass on the ground, and the sharp crystals that used to protrude from the elemental's back, and realize that's what she had tripped over. That's what had paralyzed her. And the horde minion defended her.

Looking upon the remains makes her thoughts drift to Forrester's body, and the key he needs to get back to his wife. As she stares at the scattered remains, one piece in particular sticks out. She steps up for a closer look. It wasn't part of the elemental. She moved the mental image in her head, and saw that was one of the missing pieces of Forrester's body.

She looks down the path she had come from, and sees the flattened grass the elemental had made, with signs of her footprints right down the center. She had run down the exact path the crystal elemental had used to make its escape when it had originally heard her coming. It was still a juvenile and not big enough to digest a body whole, so it used the sharp crystals on its back to cut pieces away and eat it piece by piece.

She looks back and the remains and tries to put it back together in her head. There was too much missing.

She speaks the command from the book, "Horde minion, empty all contents."

It opens its mouth and pieces of crystal elemental fall out.

She performs the banishment spell again, and the sound of a tight cork popping off of an ink bottle accompanies the disappearance of her horde minion.

Just like it said.

She starts a small laugh as some of the tension leaves her shoulders. Her laughter quickly and uncontrollably builds until she has trouble breathing. She laughs at the whole situation. She laughs at herself. She was frightened by her own spell, and ran straight towards what she thought she was avoiding. And it had actually run from her and only paralyzed her after she tripped over it.

After a few moments, her laughter changes to wheezing, then stops altogether. She takes a couple deep breaths, then recalls home.

* * *

Dear Diary,

It protected me. I think it protected me. Unless it just kills whatever's in sight that isn't me. I'll have to test that out. That means I'll have to summon the horde minion again. I've already done it once. Casting a necromancy spell a second time can't be much worse since I've already done it.