RedRavenPoems

Eternal Nightmare : Rise of Three

The next part of the story is here! You met Garret in the last piece, now for another new character! A lovely lady known as : Anemone.

Anemone

“Bloody hellfire!” the coarse words flew from her lips, as she vented her frustration. Aggravated beyond belief, Anemone Verbane ran hard, harder than ever before. Panting heavily, her chest heaved as she struggled to escape her pursuers. Chest heaving, lungs burning, legs ok fire from the strain, she pushed doggedly on, through the thick jungle like forest. Behind her the crash and thrash of the predators on her tail could be heard, as they barreled through the foliage without pause. How hard was it to lose these bloody beasts she wondered to herself. Apparently, pretty damn hard.

  Three days. That’s how long she had been fleeing; and how long they had been after her. Really it’s was just her luck she surmised. Her first ever solo trip, and she had to have the attention of a bealz pack. The large demonic canines had caught her scent almost immediately upon her entry, and came in force for a bite. One or two she could have easily handled, without fail. She was skilled enough to even handle several more. But twenty of the blasted monstrosities? Not likely.

   She hadn’t even known their packs could get to such size, they didn’t back home. In fact none of the manuscripts she had studied ever recorded it. Here in the Eternal Tower, it seemed unusual was the order. Expected the unexpected welp, the voice of Master Bull flitted through her mind. And then nothing shall catch you off guard. Even running for her life Anemone couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the cranky mystics sayings. Let’s see you deal with twenty Bealz old man she thought. The sad thing was he probably could she lamented. He might be cranky and two steps this side of senile, but he was still a highly skilled bastard.

Her lapse in concentration nearly became her undoing, as her foot caught on a root, causing her to slip forward. Anemone pitched backward balance was stolen. Arms windmilled in all directions, attempting to salvage this mess. Hands striking hard upon the ground made it clear she failed in that regard, but there were other ways. She rolled pushing upward from the earth, fingers digging deep into the loam. Like a rocket she catapulted upward for close to half her own height, spinning back over as she went, to land on her feet. Graceful as always She thought with a smirk. Still, that had been far too close and more importantly, it had cost her time she didn’t have. Already the furious howls of the Bealz had gotten closer. At this rate they would catch her soon, seems she was running out of options.

Anemone’s eyes darted around, searching desperately for something, someplace where she could have an advantage. All she could see were the trees encircling her, each a monolith towering towards the heavens. Their leafy green foliage thick and suffocating surrounded her on all sides. The ground here was bare, close-cropped grass from some herbivore or other grazing it. A clearing it seemed. Hmmm perhaps she could use that to her advantage, but how? She looked higher. There, about thirty feet up was the answer! A thick branch, wide and curving, jutted out from one of the woodland giants, striking against another. That high up, the Bealz couldnt touch her, but she could touch them. It was perfect.

More howls cut through the air, a panicked frenzy that rose in pitch as they realized their quarry was near. It was now or never it seemed. Decision made, Anemone bent low, pushing all of her strength into her legs, pouring every fiber of her will into them too. She felt a rush flood through her, stronger even than the adrenaline that had fueled her the last three days, as a faint blue glow lit the air. It caressed her skin lightly, a whisper of a touch, a promise of more if she would give in, but not today. Focusing, the glow shifted to a haze that centered on her legs, and then she leaped upward. Anemone soared high, propelled by the power she had summoned, easily climbing to well over ten feet as she slammed against the tree trunk nearest her. Rebounding instantly she shot upward again, towards another tree. Like a ping pong ball running wild, she bounced from tree to tree until she was above the branch she sought. Only then did she allow the power to fade, and her body to drop. Here she settled, waiting for the coming carnage.

The wait wasn’t long. Already the lead Bealz was nosing around the edges of the clearing. Excited its prey was close, but still wary of the unknown, of why she had suddenly stopped fleeing. More and more lupine forms cast dark silhouettes against the gloomy backdrop of the forest. Red eyes gleamed balefully as they searched about for her. Soon one of them would step into the light revealing their forms entirely to her. This thought both repulsed and aroused her curiosity simultaneously. Bealz where not common on her world, on the other side of the thin veil separating this realm from hers. There they existed only in the remoter mountains, the wild places, unlike here in the Tower, where they seemed to be prolific.

The Bealz huddled and hunched in the shadows beyond, baying like a pack of hell-spawned coyotes. The shrieking sound, akin to nails on glass, sent shards of pain needling into her mind, forcing her to redouble her grip on the trunk in order to keep steady. Anemone struggled to remain calm, understanding this too. It was the first phase of their hunt, with prey close. These cries were similar to the mental assaults an Infern would launch before the the physical strikes. A type of psychological warfare that was aprelude to the actual battle, it normally worked to disable weaker creatures. But she was not weak, and she was much better than that.

Pulling her auburn hair back from her eyes, she waited, as the leader of this pack finally emerged. He was big. From his flat tooth-filled maw to the tip of his bristling tail he easily broke fifteen feet in length. Coal black fur, streaked with iron gray markings covered the bulging muscles of his body. Each of his massive paws easily dwarfed her head in size, they would be able of crushing her by themselves, she was sure. He lumbered forward with echoing thuds, a testament to his size, mouth gaping in a horrible pant, knife-sized canines on display. A shimmering purple mark, similar to a branched box, was pulsing sinisterly in the middle of his eyes, the mark of the alpha.

No one ever puzzled out how the Bealz alphas got their mark. It was a mystic mark, that much was obvious, yet who places it? Did they hold the mark within, just waiting for them to prove they were worthy? Or perhaps some higher power bestowed it on them, as a divine favoritism of sorts? The jury was still out on that, as every researcher who went after the Bealz generally ended up chewed to bits. Either way, she chided herself, did it matter? It was not a necessary piece of knowledge key to her survival here.

Now the rest of the pack came forward, a hodgepodge of colors and sizes, though not one rivaled the monstrosity that was their leader. Cautiously they fanned out slowly seeking, noses high or low, inhaling every scrap of her scent. They closed slowly, a fanned-out circle that edged ever nearer the tree. Her refuge for the coming storm, she thought wryly. Anemone’s hand slid low to her thigh, where a strap of silver knives hung. Slipping them out, she painstakingly waited for them to get into range. Once there they would learn that this kitten had claws, and she knew how to use them.

The range was now, it was time. Anemone shot her hand forward, like an arrow released from a bowstring. The knives flew down, streaking outward like silver bolts of thunder. Four of the Bealz shrieked in pain as the blades bit deep, but she wasn’t done with them yet. Yanking back, thin wires arced from her hands to the blades. Like a puppet master with marionettes, the blades flashed back upward. Sending a wave down the wires she thundered the blades back into them again.

Blood spurted high, and howls rent the still forest. Still, the battle raged on. Anemone tore her other hand free from the bark, plunging deep into the pouch on her other thigh. Now another four blades sang through the air, joining the others. Eight metallic blurs whipped this way and that, stinging, seeking flesh from her foes. The Bealz bayed, charging here and there, seeking to escape the sting of those metal shards. Burning red eyes would glare up at her, promising terrible retribution if they could but just sink their fangs into her. Not a shiver escaped her though. Anemone was beyond fear, for she had lost herself to the battle.

A steady blue glow erupted from her again, and sizzling ozone filled the air. She crackled with power, just as she cackled with madded delight. Her rage, festering for days at this mess, was given an outlet, one she gladly took. The Bealz howled, and she shrieked back. They would snarl, and she would give her own in return. The Blue glow raced down the wires, and now the metal hornets, the blades, shimmered with a delight of their own. Racing faster they tore into the Bealz gleefully, sending sprays of blood splattering across the clearing. Rending fur from flesh and letting it fly away. The pack broke and ran. In her fury, the madness of her power, and battle lust, she stretched out to slay them all. She stretched too far and moved too much. The branch creaked and she was tumbling. The glow vanished in her shock, as she slammed heavily against the ground, the impact knocking the breath from her lungs in a harsh gasp.

Groaning, Anemone rolled to her knees, kneeling painfully on the ground. Well, that sucked. She thought to herself, shaking her head. The crackling of twigs snapped her head upright, to look into a pair of red eyes. Ones with a maw filled with yellow knife-sized teeth, and marked by a purple haze between the eyes. One that was only inched from her own face. The alpha had not run, she realized, blood draining from her face. He had stayed, and she, well she was going to die now. 

The alpha lunged, then stopped. A billowing black cloud had attached itself to his hide quarters. The cloud yanked, and the alpha flew high. The black cloud flowed upward, circling around the alpha, who bit at it, raking claws through the intangible, yet strangely solid mass. The miasma wrapped around the beast’s head. With a sickening crack, the Bealz dropped lifeless to the forest floor, head twisted backward, empty eyes wide with death. The cloud descended, molding itself into a humanoid shape. Then it solidified, becoming a tall man wrapped in dark cloaks, with a staff held tightly in one hand.

“Well well, little kitten. Seems you still have much to learn.” the voice boomed out, echoing around her. Anemone dropped her head with a sigh. “Come now. Lets go back, you need more training.”

“Yes Master” Anemone whimpered. She had failed.