Sueño: Priest of beasts ~ Past

They didn’t have time to think about anything before the beast had already broken through the entrance. If he was alone, Herm would have jumped through the window without the kid to escape through the roofs. Unfortunately, there was an enormous impediment to what would otherwise be a relatively simple escape.

Raz was looking back, hugging the kid, and physically unable to do any escape of that kind. Any kind of risk related to the second story window was unacceptable. The only way out would be through the doors on the first floor.

“Follow me and run when you see an opening.” Whispered Herm to Raz, before grabbing the kid by the shirt and carrying him to the stairs. The villagers were about to start climbing up, but Herm unsheathed his sword and swung it to make them stay back.

“Don’t get any closer or I’ll kill this kid!”

The sound of Raz’s facepalm could be heard all the way to the first floor. Certainly, Herm had forgotten that the kid was in danger too for associating with them, and they would kill him anyways.

Even so, the dumb stunt did confuse them enough for Herm to kick the closest guy on the stairs, who by tumbling back, also pushed the others behind him. To clear the rest of the space, Herm swung the sword to his side, slashing a nasty cut into the arm of a villager that was about to try to pinch him with his pitchfork. When they both stepped back Herm could finally step down into the main room and kick open the last door of the house, the backdoor.

The men did not expect such resistance, and at the first sight of blood retreated from whence they came. Which meant Herm now had to deal with the real problem they had from the start, meaning, the beast that had broken the door in the first place.

The beast was just as big as the crab-eyed creature from before, but unlike that one, it had a great fin on his back akin to a shark. His eyes were a couple of black dots on his plain face that had a snout like a dog. The monster seemed confused when he saw Herm, but it didn’t take long for it to lunge forward and try to grab him.

“Now!”

Herm dropped the kid on the ground and jumped forward, stabbing the creature in the chest with a single thrust of his sword. The impulse pushed both of them forward until they hit the opposite wall. Raz ran down the stairs and grabbed the shocked kid, trying to take him with her out the back door.

“No! My mother! We can’t leave her behind!”

The kid had finally snapped out of his shock, but it was too late. Raz had grabbed him and was taking him through the backdoor. Unfortunately, there were also people on that side of the house who noticed their escape.

Meanwhile, the creature inside the house seemed surprised by the sudden attack, but quickly reacted by trying to give a blow to Herm’s head. He barely managed to dodge the arm of the beast by ducking and then retired the sword by pulling it upwards, cutting the creature up to the neck.

The monster trembled for a moment, water started coming out of the pores of his arms while he tried to grab Herm, but finally collapsed dead into the ground. The floor of the house started becoming black, covered by an ever growing pool of black liquid that mixed with the blood of the beast.

The people who could see the fight were terrified, none of them wanted to be the next to die, and so none of them dared to move. Herm used the chance and escaped through the backdoor, just on time to see Raz fighting back against a couple of villagers who were trying to take her away.

When they saw him running towards them they let her go and grabbed their weapons back, but when they saw the blade rusting away with the black liquid the beast let out when dying, they decided the fight was not worth it.

The three finally reunited, and although the kid started crying for his mother again, Herm did not give him the chance to go back. Pulling him by the arm, the three of them slipped through the alleys until they reached the exterior of the village.

“I can’t run anymore, this is too much.” Said Raz, completely out of breath and holding her belly.

Raz had managed to follow Herm and Ases around because her pregnancy was not as advanced as it was now when they started their journey, but now it had become an ineludible problem. From the start she was over exerting herself and now that they needed to run away she could not do it anymore.

“I could try carrying you, like how we did before with Ases.”

“Don’t be foolish, you can’t carry me by yourself. And if they saw us leaving, they could catch us in no time.” Said Raz, still heaving, and not in the mood for any stupid ideas.

“Then what can we do, and what do I do with him now?” asked Herm, still holding the kid by the arm, who was trying to free himself from his grip.

“Let me go!” the kid was saying, but even then, trying not to scream. Seems like even in that situation he knew it would be better not to be caught by the villagers.

“When we entered the city we passed a building that seemed like an inn, maybe we can ‘borrow’ a cart, if we happen to find one in there.” said Raz, also ignoring the kid for the moment.

Although, seeing him fighting to be free, it reminded her of the obvious optics of the situation she had been willfully ignoring until now.

Certainly, this looks like a kidnapping doesn’t it?

“Kid, sorry for bringing you here. We shouldn’t have entered your house, but if we didn’t bring you with us, the others would have attacked you.” Said her, trying to reason now with the kid.

“Let me go, I need to go for my mom” Said the kid, now on the verge of tears.

“Of course. But just a question, what happened to your mother? Do you know why she doesn’t wake up?”

They reached an animal pen on the outside, seemed to be an inn, but there were no horses around. There was an empty cart they could use to escape, but without an animal to pull it they could not do anything about it.

“It’s the beast's fault… that thing said he was a priest and that he would heal her, but then she never woke up.”

The dam that contained all his emotions had collapsed. The kid was still speaking but they could not understand anything through his crying. Raz hugged him, while Herm looked around in thought. If the cart was there the horses had to be nearby, but there weren’t any on sight, even in the stable. Did they hide them beforehand so they couldn’t use them to escape?

Suddenly, screams could now be heard from inside the village. People were running around, the sound of metal clashing with metal resounded through the air.

Herm guided Raz inside the empty inn. Through its window, they could see the commotion inside the city. At least three beasts were dead on the ground, and six more were fighting with the villagers who were looking for them before.

“I see my words did not get through your little heads, my fearful citizens!”

A creature, neither beast nor human, was standing in the center of the plaza. His clothes were quite elegant, like a religious figure, different to the uniform blue tatters all the other beasts wore. In his face, his head was covered by a hood, and his face covered by a blank mask that blocked any view of his face or eyes. He was smaller than any of the beasts, but had a bigger presence than any of the others had.

“As you have rejected the hopes of salvation, I’ll be merciful, this will be a swift end for you all!”