FOREVER KNIGHTS: #5 Subjugation of Beasts

Outside Marshtown, Grier Country

RHYERS

Rhyers had been tracking a creature which wandered into Grier. A woman.

Sort of.

Clearly Firoque. She was hideous. A round face with black eyes. Black blotches with twining veins stretching from them. Rot.

She moved like in a haze. Stumbling in the trees and working her way slowly. With purpose.

Where’s she going? He elected to follow her. Despite that it’s excruciating. Rhyers’ arms dangled to his side and he took dragging steps. Nearly mimicking her movements in sheer boredom.

Just outside of Mane Country, the woman waited on a boulder near the NetherRunnel. Swaying as though in a drunken stupor. Her eyes turning deep red as she rocked back and forth, unbalanced.

Rhyers heard a rustle in the trees and moved further back to avoid detection. He watched a pale human creature scuttle into the meadow next to the Runnel. He moved sideways on all fours. Wearing sparse clothing to cover his genitals. Barefoot and sliding his hands over the grass.

“Liiiiiibby…” He called almost lovingly.

The black-eyed woman turned her head but stared at him as though she didn’t see him.

“She’s this way.” He said.

“Show…me…Essius.” She murmured.

As he’d followed the woman throughout the day, Rhyers noticed the deepening gray of her skin tone.

And I haven’t seen her eat yet.

Essius stood to run along the bank of the NetherRunnel looking over it. “First we get across.”

“Across…” Libby closed her eyes and sighed. The ground under the meadow began to shiver.

Rhyers stepped back eyeing it. An earthquake?

He registered what was happening when he saw mud banks jutting the surface of the NetherRunnel. Dense enough to withstand the river. For a time.

Libby numbly walked across it. Shoulders hunkered forward. Essius at her heels like an anxious hound.

Rhyers’ jaw hung as he watched them navigating across the violent torrents. He waited until they were well from sight headed up the hill into Mane Country before he took the perilous journey across. By then the Runnel had washed away much of the mud mounds. Leaving only a thin strip above the water.

Rhyers was highly tempted to go over. But taking to the sky will certainly draw their attention!

Rhyers took it at a sprint, arms outstretched as he balanced precariously. Unwilling to slow down for fear the banks would fall any moment. Once across he dropped to his knees and heaved ragged breaths. That’d be less terrifying if I could swim.

Delacroix Hall, Mane Country

Rhyers’ breathing calmed and he straightened. Heading forward. He followed their winding trek up the hill.

Slow as molasses, these two. Especially with Essius often leaning over to drag a long serpentine tongue up Libby’s dirty shin beneath her skirt.

Rhyers grimaced in distaste. Horrifying.

What next, her feet? He worried. It’s not totally out of the realm of possibility for this odd duo.

Once beyond the hill, he saw the meadow drop to a spot of saplings. Clearly a fruit grove. Interspersed with a few quill trees. All through this little valley was green grass, except where it directly embraced the large house. Rhyers was astounded to see a strange patch of snow completely circling it.

Something’s not right. He saw Libby and Essius standing eerily still behind a couple trees. Their gazes fixated before them.

Beyond them, Rhyers glimpsed what kept them so mesmerized.

A young woman was crouched, patting the snow aside to collect plump apples. She smiled softly.

Rhyers was astonished by the woman’s uncommon beauty. She wore a light dress as if unaffected by the cold. As she straightened and her skirt fell into place, he glimpsed bare feet amid piles of loose snowflakes. What is this?

Rhyers had a sinking feeling. Something bad is going to happen. Animals were quiet and no wind stirred. It was strangely soundless.

As if nothing dares creep this close to the house.

What is she? He realized he was about to find out as he saw the Firoque duo head for her. He was still a distance up the hill, but burst into the furred form of his wolf. A brown creature with a slashing cross over its face. White striped over his eyes and down his nose.

He surged into a lope to get to her.

The Firoque already attacked.

The woman screamed and the red apple slipped from her fingertips to sink in white snow. She turned to run toward the house, but Libby reached her. Catching her dress in a fist and bringing her to a stop.

The woman spun to face her attackers just as Essius bounded toward her on all fours. She shot out an open palm and snow covering the ground rose up over Essius as he stared at it in shock. It slid up his legs and froze as it moved. Turning his limbs to ice.

“No!” Essius shouted. Trying to reach for her but his hand was frozen solid before he ever made contact.

Libby caught her forearm and twisted it up to keep from meeting the same fate.

The woman shrieked again.

Rhyers was still running down the hill in an effort to help. Eyes sliding to the house. Shocked no one had emerged to see what ruckus this was.

Where is everyone?

Why is no one coming to help her?

The woman hissed in pain, staring at Libby’s fist on her forearm. In a panic she lurched toward Libby and slapped Libby’s cheek. The touch instantly sent a sparkling sheen of ice over Libby’s gray, black-veined skin. Libby blinked black eyes. Mouth opening on a wrenching scream of agony.

Just before she became an icy statue, the woman turned her arm and jerked free of the biting grip that’d held her. Gripping an injury where the Firoque’s evil touch burnt and blistered her skin.

Without ever seeing Rhyers’ mad flight to assist her she turned and let her basket fall to the snow as she fled barefoot back toward the house.