FOREVER KNIGHTS: #4 Battling Black Roses

Chastain called for him. Voice shrill and terrified. She was wandering uphill blindly. Branches cracking under her stumbling footfalls.

He twisted in panic. She’s heading for the cave. Rushing back her way, he busted through low-hanging branches and veered around a broken log.

Chastain heard the rasping hiss and the sound of something huge loping toward her. She was frozen in horror. Turning slowly, she saw nothing but blackness. There was a snap very close to her left. The hip high creature eased from the trees making the sound. She glimpsed orange eyes flecked with red as it lunged at her with open jaws.

Gasping she stumbled back and fell. Closing her eyes against the impact. Knowing it’d land on and devour her.

But there was nothing.

Peeling her eyes open, she saw it lying next to her. Motionless eyes staring back. A long dark tongue lolling out pitifully. Its skin was bare, dark and ugly. Whatever life it’d had, was long gone now. The face sucked in with a slurp and the body almost seemed to be melting into something smaller.

She made small, scared sounds as she sat up. Terrified if she strove to retreat, it’d leap to attack, she was still as a statue.

Acharius peered from beneath a low branch, and between wide leaves. Seeing her trying to work it out.

A Targue.

I killed it, mid-attack. He’d lunged from the trees and bit into the column of its spine. Paralyzing it with one brutal jerk. The animal dropped. Acharius’ powerful jaws ripped down it’s flank and tore through the vulnerable artery.

The animal laid there unable to move as it quickly bled out.

Dead before it could react. Now Acharius ducked far enough under the tree, he hoped she’d not see him.

But as she crawled backward, she caught the flash of yellow eyes beyond the dead thing. Lifting her head slowly she met the wolf’s feral gaze. Staring at her from between heavy dark leaves. His silver fur catching moonlight and twisting it nearly white along his back. Those eyes fluoresced in the dark.

“Go back.” He said into her mind.

Back to the safety of Meredith House.

Sighing heavily, she managed to get to her feet and bungle her way in the general direction of the House. Barely hearing a throaty whisper as the fog lifted around her.

“Follow the firelight.”

Peering over her shoulder she saw the hazy glow from the house far downhill.

He wasn’t consoled knowing only he saw that even in this darkness, each time her foot touched dirt, grass rose. Flourishing into blooming flowers surrounding her ankles. As her fingertips blindly skimmed bushes or trees to find footing, they grew lush, heavy with leaves and fruit. She’s no idea.

Radix sent a Targue to kill her. Not knowing I was here.

It was so close to getting a taste of her. Acharius shoved his face and neck against a trunk next to him to coax the Cimmerii blood from his fur. Long tail swishing, he jaunted back into the woods.

Unaware she caught the noise.

Her head swiveled to look back over her shoulder. She glimpsed the shine of the silvery furred tail in the moonlight.“You saved me?”

That stopped him in his tracks.

Stone Peak, Black Mountains, Battling Border

Through the eyes of the dead Cimmerii, Radix saw. Lip curling in disgust. “No!”

His bony knuckles fisted. He raised one Heavenward and shook it threateningly. His robes drug as he twirled to look at the first yellow skinned man he saw. “One Targue should have been enough to kill her!” He hissed in frustration. “It will have to be Chavias!”

“But…difficult.” Okine croaked.

“He is also the best.” Radix paused thoughtfully. “Bleed him first.”

“Strong enough-” He questioned.

“He will be.” Radix waved a dismissive hand. “He always is. That bloody man restores faster than you do.”

He walked further into his den. The ground blackening and withering beneath him as it burned to smoldering embers.

But destroying the Netherwoods wouldn’t be as easy a stroll. That much was clear. Not with the girl restoring everything in the western portion, the Merwood. Contaminating his work.

“What upset, Master?”

“All that blossoming in her wake.” Radix rasped. “Urging breath into the death I wreak.” He huffed.

“My Cimmerii have found her. Now it falls to you to ensure he destroys her.”

“One less.” Okine nodded. “As command.” Lowering his head, he backed from Radix’s view.

Radix sat on his stone throne and seethed. Orange eyes bleeding to red.