The Beast

After nearly a week the six of them had finally reached the fork in the road that led to Nythe which meant it was little more than a day before what was likely to be an intense battle. Although Midori, Rune and Sahaela were pleased, the other three seemed worried. And as the group came upon the remnants of a brutal slaughter it was hard not to then understand why.

A bristleheart boar lay in the middle of the road, a pool of blood surrounding it with it’s insides strewn all over the road, the blood had not fully dried and was now sticky. And on the beasts hide a visible bite mark, darkened purple skin around the wound.

“Poison,” Rune said definitively. Brow furrowed while wracking his brain with thoughts of what beast could do something like that.

“We should move on quick as we can,” Grey said with worry in his gruff voice He glanced around rapidly, almost like he were half expecting some beast to emerge from the trees.

“Why?” Rune said, which surprised Midori as she expected him to know immediately what it was that terrified the trio.

“This is where we encountered The Beast,” Beau said with gravity, making sure to put emphasis on the final two words. He recalled the events with all the gravitas of a horror movie, how some incredibly fast creature had come at their platoon—which answered Midori’s curiosity over why their forces were so few—and that they were barely able to get away.

“All I know is that it is some kind of animal, it’s got fur I felt it when it raced by me. And it’s eyes… two glowing orbs that stared right through you, like you’re just some midnight snack to satiate some rabid, unsalable hunger.”

There was a pause before Rune broke the silence.

“Sounds neat. Hope I get to fight-”

Whether rising to the challenge or just to be a pure annoyance a tawny blur blasted by Rune knocking him to the ground. He clutched at his arm, pulling a hand back to reveal the visible bite mark near his elbow, small rivulets of blood trailing down his forearm.

“That…hurt,” was all he could manage before suddenly dropping to the ground.

“It’s The Beast!" Roy shouted with a terrified certainty.

Rushing toward him Midori was thankful to see Rune still alive, his breath disturbing the dirt slightly, but his muscles had tensed up to the point that he could barely blink let alone move.

And with practised ease the trio of Roy, Gray and Beau leaped into action surrounding not just Rune but Midori as well. Gray cracked his knuckles and put his fists together before the earth began to shudder as it rose up around them forming a solid barrier between them and whatever it was attacking them.

“It’s The Beast!” Roy shouted, quickly taking command of the situation. “Protect Rune and Lady Midori! Lady Sahaela we need your eyes in the sky!”

“A please wouldn’t hurt!” She shouted while soaring upward into the sky giving her a birds eye view of the perimeter, which allowed her to see the movement to the right.

“Coming in at 3 o’ clock!”

Just as the words left her mouth the rock barrier was shattered with a powerful blow, scattering packed earth and bits of dirt across the ground before the beast disappeared again in a blur of incredible speed.

And before Roy had time to rebuild that portion Sahaela’s voice again came from overhead.

“9 o’ clock!”

The rock shattered and one of the flying rocks hit Midori hard in the side of the head, pulling her hand back from it revealed a streak of crimson. It was warm and sticky on her fingers.

“Lady Midori, stay down.”

Gray gently pushed her lower to the ground before Beau began applying some kind of balm to the side of her head. It stung both the cut and her nose, the cloying pine scent remained stuck in her nose even after the young boy had put the cap back on the balm.

“We can weather this storm, Lady Midori,” Roy said through gritted teeth. He was already starting to sweat as he rebuilt the wall for the second time only for a hole to be punctured in it a moment later.

“Midori!” Sahaela shouted from above before floating down above her. “I have an idea, but I need to borrow your body.”

“You need…what!?” Midori was confused and her head was throbbing with pain. She wasn’t even sure she had heard the woman correctly.

“I have a plan to capture it but we can’t weather any more attacks while you conjure.”

“Okay…uh, I mean I guess so?”

Without any hesitation the ghostly woman seemed to almost drop into her.

It was an incredibly strange feeling, like an ice cold sheet being draped over her. She felt the skin prickle on her arm before her eyes glazed over and she watched—and felt—herself rise from the seated position she’d been in.

She could hear the muffled shouts of the trio calling for her to sit, to not engage.

But her body did not listen.

She wondered if this was similar to an out of body experience, being aware of something but not the instigator. Her hands moved together and she created a small globule of water like the one she had painted, she smelled oil and canvas and suddenly the orb began to swell in size.

A rippling dome of water hovered above them before slowly beginning to lower over top of the group and the stone barrier protecting them.

“Now when it strikes the water will slow it enough for us to capture it,” it was Sahaela speaking but Midori’s voice, a strange overlaying of both voices like bad sound editing.

Almost as if on cue the creature struck and as she had predicted it crashed into the water which slowed the momentum enough for them all to finally see what was attacking them.

It was some type of large, squat and furry four legged mammal, the back legs bearing visible muscles indicative of their power and an incredibly long tail that moved almost like a separate limb. Long, wide ears sat atop an almost feline-like face though with a slightly elongated muzzle and long white whiskers near what she imagined would normally be a sniffling nose.

It almost looked cute, if it weren't

Floating in the water it looked helpless until it spun and propelled itself out using the rock wall as launching point. It coughed up water before stalking at the edges of the water, batting in frustration at the ripples.

Darkness began to eat into her vision until suddenly pain wracked through her chest and the dark claimed her fully.

-----

“I don’t breathe so excuse me for forgetting about it!”

Sahaela’s shrieking voice was the thing that greeted Midori after waking from her impromptu nap.

Head still pounding she sat up only to see Rune being lifted by the strange creature, it’s dewclaw cutting deep into him spilling thick spurts of blood onto the ground.

“No, Rune!” Midori shouted with as much strength as she could, but her chest hurt so much that it was barely above a rasping groan.

“Midori!” Sahaela shouted in relief, her face hovering a few inches away allowing Midori to see the concern in the ghostly eyes.

“What happened?”

“Well turns out since I’m a ghost and don’t need to breath I sort of…forgot how to do that. So you passed out. I’m really sorry I didn’t even think of that.”

“Rune, and the others?”

“It’s not good. I can do something but I need to take over your body again.”

She hesitated for only a second fearing that she would pass out again, but taking in a deep breath she nodded to her ghost mentor and once more felt the chill fall over her as her body slipped from her control once more.

Leaping to her feet she once again produced an enormous globe of water but instead of forming a barrier she fired it at the creature.

It dodged as much as possible but Rune—a portion of his strength returning—gripped onto it as hard as he could manage, slowing it down just enough for a portion of the water to grasp its leg and then a moment later had engulfed both Rune and the beast.

Ripping her hands apart the orb of water was split in two and the pair inside were separated, the water depositing Rune harmlessly onto the ground.

The creature rotating inside the water, the orb growing as it tried to thrash or swim free until it looked almost like a severely deformed möbius strip.

The chill feeling left and Midori felt a strange sensation in her hands, like being passed the reigns to a bucking bull. She tensed her muscles and dug her heels in trying to keep the thing in place.

“Okay, so it should run out of air soon and then we can just move on.”

“Wait,” Midori said, grunting as she almost lost her grip. “We’re trying to kill this thing?”

“Of course we are!” Roy said, groaning as he slowly stood and brushed the blood from his nose. “That thing killed countless innocents! We have to kill it before it gets anyone else!”

Looking at the creature she was not sure why but there was something more than just fear in it’s eyes, a pleading look that she’d only seen before on dying animals.

“Something else is going on,” she said before reaching out breaking the water with the tips of her fingers.

As she did the water erupted in light and while everyone else was blinded only Midori could see as some type of dark entity thrust from the beast in the water and seemed to be disintegrated in the light.

What was left in the globule of water was nothing like what had attacked them, it was half the size for one but it also seemed to be acting normally trying to fight against the water and escape.

Midori closed her hand and the water dropped along with the small mammal, that looked more now like a bearcat than whatever it had been before. She knelt in front of it and gently brushed some of its fur aside with a small smile.

The creature reached up and gently grasped her hand, and in that moment she was smitten.

Picking it up she cradled it gently and turned to the group with a bright smile.

“I’m adopting him.”