NanoWrimo Days 5-6

Morkia tossed and turned. She wasn’t used to sleeping during the daytime. And her father's words gave her plenty to think about. She watched her father, eyes closed, breathing evenly, looking for all the world like he was asleep. She knew he wasn’t though. His body was tense, like he was waiting for something to happen. She could almost believe the creatures were after Raylin though. He had a hereditary trait, fire conjuring. One night while out camping, the wood was soaked and didn’t want to light. He had sent her off for more firewood. On her way back to the camp, she saw him chanting over the fire, and it burst into flame before her eyes. Her father had asked her to keep it secret, said he didn’t want the attention or something like that. But who knew? Perhaps there was more to it. She was thinking to herself, lost in thought, when suddenly his eyes popped open. She could see his ears flicking back, and his nose following an unknown scent in the air. “Someone's approaching!” He whispered. Raylin leapt up, motioning Morika to crawl under the cart. She scrambled under the cart, kicking up sticks and moss in her hurry. She twisted around in time to see a large beast come crashing through the bushes. If it had fur, it was mostly torn off, and matted. Pink scars crisscrossed all over its muscle bound body. It was oozing green blood from an ugly gash on it’s side. In another life, it may have been similar to a giant rhinoceros. But instead of a horned head, in its place was the head of a serpent. Morika recoiled. Biting her lip to keep from screaming out in horror. Ignoring Raylin, the creature charged the cart, knocking it into the air, and sending it crashing against a tree. The serpent head coiled and lunged, trying to bite Morika. She thrust her plate at it stumbling backwards. It crushed the plate with a snap of its powerful fangs and coiled, ready to lunge again. Raylin hit the back side of the creature like a thunderbolt, naked sword in his hand. Bellowing, he drove it deep into the creatures hind flank. Hissing and spitting, the creature turned to face it’s new foe. “Up the tree Morika!” She got to her feet, breathless, heart pounding with fear and adrenaline. Clawing her way up the tree, she turned to watch her father. As she turned around, she saw the snake head strike her father in the shoulder. He grunted with pain, but swung again, also lashing out with his other hand, which held a set of 3 iron claws. Hissing with pain, the creature reared on its hind legs, coming down with a force that made the woods tremble. The serpent struck again and again, hitting dirt and logs, but sometimes striking her father, who was moving slower and slower. She bit her lip, not knowing how to help, and could only watch, horrified. Before long the creature had her father backed up against a tree. It reared its head, preparing to strike. Sobbing, she closed her eyes and turned away, unable to watch her father die. She heard her father shout something, in a strange language. There was a flash of light and heat, followed by a scream. She gripped the tree branch afraid to look. Then she heard a voice right below the tree. “It’s alright you can come down now.” She peeked her eyes open, and Raylin was standing beneath the tree, wincing and out of breath, but alive. His right shoulder was bleeding, and his left arm looked as if it had been bitten more than once. She glanced at the monster, then wished she hadn’t. Laying on the ground, it was somehow more grotesque than when it had been alive. Blood was oozing out in multiple places, and it’s head was burnt and severed, eyes still wide open staring at nothing. Stomach churning, she reteched, still clutching her branch. Then slowly climbing down, she rushed into her father's arms. “There there, it’s alright, it’s all over now.” he said soothingly. She sobbed in his arms. When she felt better, she helped her father right the cart and collect the supplies that had been scattered across the forest floor. Her father worked at repairing the damage to the cart, stopping every once in a while to rest his shoulder. Morika wondered if the snake had any kind of poisonous venom. Raylin seemed to be in a hurry to leave, and she couldn’t agree more. She didn’t want to stay near the monster a second longer than they needed to. Their primary problem was finding their horse. At the first sign of the creature, the horse had taken flight and bolted. It was some time before they located her, and she flatly refused to return to the camp and the smell of the creature. In the end, Morika stayed with the horse, and her father laboriously wheeled the cart over to the trembling mare. Once hooked up, they were on their way again. “If the larger creatures had time to travel this far, then the scouts are probably ahead of us, searching.” he said darkly. “I’m afraid we’ll have to make tracks, and fast.” He lifted her up into the cart, then climbed in. They traveled straight through that evening, and well into the night. The cart was bumpy, and made sleep near impossible. Twice her father picked up a scent on the air, and they had jumped out, abandoning the cart to hide in a tree until he deemed it safe enough to return. The first time they saw and heard nothing, so after a half hour or so of sitting up in the branches, they came back down and continued on. The second time, they had scarce gotten out of sight when a pair of scouts had passed by, looking for all the world like a pair of black panthers themselves. She almost called out, when Raylin put a hand hastily over her mouth. He gestured, and she looked again, and recoiled. The panthers had evil faces, with burning red eyes, and they hissed at one another, spitting every so often, a green saliva that caused the plants and grass to wither on contact. They sniffed around the cart for a while, conversing in their strange tongue. After what seemed an age, they left, wandering through the forest. That time they stayed in the tree an hour before climbing back down. The horse had behaved, standing quietly, but eyes wide with terror, and sweat coming down it’s back. Morika petted the horse, talking soothingly to it. Her father had always said that she had a way with animals, and she could feel the horse calming as she petted it. They remounted, both too tired to talk much, as the cart rattled on into the forest.