Memories to treasure forever
Ilonka stared in horror at the diminutive figure before her. Her attempt at speech turned into a confused gabble as Vlad grabbed her and shoved back away from the child. The others rose up from where they'd been resting, eyes wide.
She was giggling. This was trouble, and they all knew it.
The little girl raised a stick over her head and shouted, "Fight!"
Atranztipac charged Vlad, whirling the stick and still giggling. Trazik jumped in to try and grab her from the side and took the stick in the side of his head, roaring out in anger. She turned to deliver another rousing blow to him, but Vlad yanked the stick from her hands and held it up too high for her to reach. She promptly kicked him in the shin and lunged at him with her teeth. Trazik got a hand on her ankle and she fell in the mud, giggles turning into shrieks of outrage.
Ilonka sat on her.
"Atranztipac! Stop it!"
"No!"
The little girl writhed and hollered, trying to dislodge the woman atop her. Thoroughly frustrated, Ilonka smacked the back of the girl's head.
"Just stop it! We're tired and we don't want to play."
"No! Fight!"
Ilonka growled and looked up at Vlad.
Who suddenly disappeared. Ilonka frowned. A hiss of raindrops blew across her face. Vlad was gone. She blinked and looked around.
At first she though somebody had dug a trench and wondered if they'd stumbled into someone's farm without knowing. At the end of the trench she saw a big boulder, and lying nearby she recognized Vlad. With a cry, without any thought at all, she leapt up and stumbled across the mud to the body. Heard a thump, ignored it. People began screaming. Heavy footsteps as the entire mob began running.
Vlad lay face-up. His body seemed strangely deformed and his tunic leaked red all over. Ilonka fell to her knees and shook him, her voice distant and hollow in her ears. Another thump and she saw a spray of mud and water as another boulder slammed into the crowd, drilling a long path out of the meadow. Bodies cartwheeled through the rain. Somebody grabbed her and began dragging her away from Vlad, who wouldn't get up.
She knew she was screaming, flailing, struggling, but it all seemed so quiet as Vlad got smaller and smaller.
*****
Elena stretched up to look over the crowd, trying to find Arrafin. The absent-minded girl had wandered off while reading, and Elena was worried. Some day that girl was going to step wrong and twist her ankle or something and then they'd have to carry her back to civilization.
Not that Arrafin weighed enough to be a serious impediment, but it was the principle of the thing. Elena hated to see people not taking their situation seriously. Arrafin had to wake up and realise how serious things really were.
Elena told herself all this in a stern internal voice, but sighed and gave up. She just couldn't be stern with Arrafin, who'd become like her little sister in the past few weeks. She'd become like everybody's little sister. Everybody's absent-minded, charming, brilliant little sister who got more excited about conjugating ancient verbs than anything Elena might consider... conjugal.
She sighed again.
She missed the ranch. The cottonwood trees along the river, the guitar from the barrio coming up to the casa at night. The roar of the rexes in their paddock, disputing some patch of territory. Her brothers.
Elena smiled to herself at the memory of sibling battles, screaming and hollering and Mama threatening them all.
She looked up, confused, at new screams.
*****
For the thousandth time Aubrey promised himself that never again would he ever go anywhere without paved roads. Heck, getting him to go anywhere beyond the walls of Pavairelle was going to take quite an effort. Or even outside his apartment, from now on.
The great outdoors could stay right where it was, thank you very much. His boots were ruined, his cloak hung in tatters and he hadn't been dry in weeks. Nor had he had a decent meal, a comfortable bed, pleasant conversation or even a good drink.
And horrible monsters were trying to kill him. Aubrey looked up into the rain and pondered the whimsical nature of fate. And why it hated him so much.
He saw Arrafin flying backwards through the air and frowned.
*****
Philip worked on his cigar. He only had two more so he was trying to make this one last, but whenever he wasn't paying attention he found himself gnawing at it with great energy, and it was getting shorter much too quickly. Bits of tobacco in his mouth kept him awake, anyway, as he moved along the edge of the crowd, trying to keep an eye out for trouble.
For the most part, the citizens of Chimney were dealing pretty well with everything. They didn't complain much, just kept on moving. Sheer terror had a lot going for it as a motivating force, he considered.
Automatically he scanned the packed mass of frightened humanity for his friends. Elena, tall and broad-shouldered, helping a struggling mother over a muddy patch. Nevid, deep in conversation with two Yshakan men, their bright woolen ponchos stained grey and dark with muck. Aubrey, still with a cheerful grin on his face, winking at a little girl to make her smile. And Arrafin, head bowed under her hood, walking with careful steps, and next to her, a little girl...
Red face. Black hair.
Philip yelled and started running, drawing a pistol, already too late.
*****
The Yshakan language spoke volumes about the way these people saw the world. Things Nevid took for granted like past tense, subject/predicate and the distinction between statements of fact and opinion didn't seem to exist. It fascinated the young Saijadani and he kept drawing other phrases out of the Yshakans walking with him, finding translations for objects or phrases, trying the words out in his own mouth, looking for connections and clues to the grammar.
It kept him from crying with fear. Nevid, with nothing but time to think about what was following them, with no action to be taken in front of him, felt his mind filling up with nameless terrors and shuddering cowardice.
"Okay, tell me again. How do you... If I don't KNOW something, but I THINK something, how do I say? You understand? THINK, not KNOW..."
Screaming. At first Nevid wanted to drop to the ground and hide but he realised he was running straight towards the screams. Arrafin's screams.
*****
Boyce frowned at the sight of Elena. Strange. Such a big, farm-healthy girl. Carrying that great big sword over her shoulders. Scowling all the time like that.
But when she smiled, well...
Never mind. He had better things to think about. More serious things, anyway. He and his lads were laden down with more gold and jewels than they really ought to be carrying, but he was glad to be able to make SOME profit out of this trip.
Assuming they survived. Boyce had an optimistic nature, always had, and yet even he was having a hard time picking a scenario in which they got out of this. So far, it seemed, they were alive only because those monsters hadn't tried to eliminate them. If they should happen to try he couldn't realistically give himself and the others much of a chance.
He shrugged. Deal with it when it came. He manuvered for a better view of Elena, grinning again.
*****
Arrafin gaped, her legs still moving her forward. The little Kishak girl walked alongside her, close enough to touch, staring at her curiously. Arrafin tried to speak, failed, noted idly that since she was already soaked to the bone, she wouldn't be able to tell if she wet herself. She carefully put her book back into her bag. Didn't want to lose that.
"Show me your power."
"I, uh, um, oh."
"You lie. You are without power. You die. Now."
Her neck broke. That was Arrafin's initial diagnosis. Even before she felt the impact, before she crashed to the muddy ground, arms pinwheeling and legs stiff, she figured she'd broke her neck. She wished she'd written to her father before she left Fort Burnoll.
Rain plunged from straight above onto her face. Dazed, Arrafin smiled at the sensation. Distantly she realised she could hear screaming. Feet and legs trampled past her, splashing mud across her limbs. She shook her head and pushed herself up. Neck not broken.
The little Kishak girl stood only a few paces away, staring at her. Her dark eyes burned.
"You are food."
Child legs stepped toward Arrafin. A chubby child hand extended forward.
Arrafin clutched at her book bag. The realisation that she was really and truly about to die brought perfect clarity to her mind. She hoped it would be quick as she fell to her knees.
*****
Elena was running before she knew what was happening. The ground shook and off to her right it appeared through the rain, towering and pale and roaring like a thousand wild hungry beasts. She watched rocks detach from its hand, boulders an arm span across arc through the air towards the screaming crowd, pushing this way and that.
She broke free and ran along the edge of the mob, shouting at them to get moving, trying to organize the group. Panic erupted everywhere but enough heard her and saw her and slowly, so slowly, the crowd began to move as a unit, away from the giant.
While she was running she couldn't draw her sword so Elena stopped herself and took out her weapon, keenly aware of how useless it would be. For now the huge creature seemed content to stay at a distance, watching the tiny humans shriek and claw at each other. Elena shook and turned , gestured with her sword over her head like famous heroes in stories were supposed to do.
She didn't feel like a hero in a story. She felt helpless and frightened and doomed. She yelled to keep people moving in the right direction, started jogging over the meadow alongside terrified townsfolk who were sobbing and trying to stay upright. Over her shoulder she kept an eye on that immense creature. It just stood there watching them.
"Elena! Please help us!"
Turning, she caught sight of one of the coffee house guys, the tall skinny one, dragging the girl, Ilonka with him. Thankfully she sheathed her sword and ran over. He was babbling.
"Vlad's dead! One of those rocks, it, oh god..."
The girl seemed unconscious but unhurt. Elena slung her over one shoulder and kept going. She didn't listen to the sobs. There were going to be plenty more of those.
*****
People ran in all directions, at first. Nevid clawed past terrified faces, surging towards where he heard the Naridic girl crying out. He burst into a clear area and barely had time to take in the two figures staring at each other before he bowled right into the little red-skinned one.
He thought she'd be cold, but she felt alive, not like the horrible undead monster he knew she was. For a second he was afraid he'd hurt her. Then she roared and smacked him.
Nevid flew up in a graceful arc and slammed into the mud with his shoulders. Arrafin watched, impressed. A sudden rush of townsfolk came through then and the screams got louder, nearer. She blinked as something smacked her across the mouth and looked down at a leg. A man's leg. It was hairy. The sudden stink of hot blood made her head spin. She saw Nevid struggling to his feet, more people screaming, horrible tearing sounds and that roaring sound the little girl made.
Arrafin started to cry.
*****
Philip just leaped right over Arrafin, both guns out now. He extended his arms and planted the barrels of both pistols right in the little girl's face.
Her head blew apart in fragments of bone and blood and flesh and her body flew backwards, arms pinwheeling. People going in all directions, crashing into each other and knocking each other down. Philip dropped his pistols and drew the big old-fashioned sword that was all he had left of his father's estate.
Sure, he'd just blown her head right off. He had no illusions about how badly he might have hurt her.
Aubrey arrived at the same time and weapons out, they advanced on the girl's body.
"Ew."
Her skull knit itself back together even as they watched. Philip wasted no time. With a panic-tinged yell, he wound up two-handed and delivered a terrific wood-cutting chop to the girl's torso. Aubrey's rapier was unsuited for such manuvers so he just stuck her where he figured her heart would be.
They were both yelling loudly, and surrounded by screaming people, so it took them a moment to realise that yet more noise was being added to the pandemonium.
The beast, the towering four-armed white-furred monstrosity, had roared. It was looking right at them.
Aubrey turned to Philip.
"Grab Nevid."
He sprinted to where Arrafin still sat in the mud, hauled the girl up and dragged her along behind him. Philip did the same with Nevid and the four of them took off.
*****
High ground. There wasn't much in the meadow, but Boyce, Nervaine and Michel found a low rise and dropped their gear. Yanked out the muskets and knelt, sighting on the big beastie plowing into the crowd.
Boyce had seen battle. He'd fought with the King against the rebels in Lasseux, and he'd seen men turning each other inside out, weeping with rage and screaming with terror. Or possibly the other way around. Watching this thing push its way into a frenzied mass of men, women and children, sending bodies flying in all directions, stuffing shrieking, struggling figures into its maw, filled him with a cold fury he'd never known before. Boyce squinted down the barrel of his musket through the rain.
"Go for the head."
A set of sharp cracks and they set down the weapons. Nervaine and Boyce grabbed the other pair of long-barreled guns while Michel set about reloading, and methodically the rogues began pumping lead shot into the monster's skull from a hundred feet away.
*****
After Elena took Ilonka, Trazik looked around dazed for a few seconds. He saw Iseut with Karel and ran to them, and the three of them kept moving.
"Don't look back. Just keep running."
Something roared. The ground shook with monstrous footsteps. Iseut looked back.
Trazik came to an immediate halt at her scream, holding himself steady against the onrushing crowd of terrified villagers. He pushed through the crowd to her, and only reluctantly looked up.
The massive clawed hand reached down and grabbed them both. Trazik felt his a sudden pain in his side, something scraping along his rib, and then his chest began to collapse in on itself as the beast squeezed.
He kissed Iseut. He thought of Ilonka.
*****
Chipucuaro let the younger men drag him along for a ways, but proudly he shook their hands off. The old man stood as tall as his stooped frame would allow and nodded.
"Go. The Queen of Serpents claims me now. Go."
He turned away, back to where the huge monster stood. It bit into something and gore spilled down its front. Chipucuaro raised his hands. Behind him he heard his people reluctantly leaving.
Between him and the beast now there were only a few people standing. Some were running straight for him. He recognized these. He smiled.
*****
Philip, still with Arrafin over his shoulder, came to a halt in front of the old Yshakan guy. Aubrey and Nevid (who'd gotten himself on his feet) did likewise.
"Hey, oldtimer. You coming with us?"
Philip remembered the old guy didn't speak Yshakan. Nevid tried.
"Why do you stay?"
Chipucuaro kept smiling. He nodded at the barbarians. Behind him he heard muffled explosions and red spots appeared on the monster's face. It staggered backwards, swatting at nothing.
Aubrey shrugged.
"I'm not staying here with him. Let's keep going."
The four (Arrafin muttering to herself, facedown over Philip's shoulder) headed past the old guy and on across the meadow, stumbling in the thick mud.
Chipucuaro saw the girl approaching. He knelt and asked the Queen of Serpents to grant him strength.
Her fist punching into his chest hurt more than he had thought it would. But he felt no pain as he watched her withdraw his heart and stuff it into her mouth. Only sadness that somebody had done this to a little girl.
*****
To Boyce's surprise, the bullet hits seemed to be having an effect on the creature. It stumbled backwards, roaring and bellowing, as one impact after another struck its face. He yelled in triumph and laughed as Elena and a couple of townsfolk ran up.
"Look at that! We're pissing him off real good!"
"Yeah, great. Good for you."
Elena's face was streaked with mud and tears and she dropped to the ground, panting, to catch her breath. She looked up as Nevid, Aubrey, Philip and Arrafin came up the hill. They stood for just a few seconds and then turned to see the girl, the little red-skinned girl, marching determinedly towards their position.
Struck by sudden inspiration, Elena drew the huge sword over her shoulder. With both hands she could barely hold it upright.
"Alright. I'm spanking that bitch."
