Calathus

Prologue

Dedicated to tjgarrett for helping me jumpstart this story and for writing a super awesome epic one himself.

Prologue

Jaws broke bones and claws ripped flesh. The number of bloody limbs and headless, disemboweled torsos piled higher as she ran. Fiery chaos surrounded her, ashen dirt falling heavy on her tongue.

The shrine. She had to get to the shrine. It was safe there. Mother was there.

Her scrawny arms fanned the smoke away as she raced down the only cobbled path in her village: the one that lead to her destination.

She had always hated being so small. Such a small girl, but today she was grateful. Her tiny stature had secured her safety. As long as she kept running. The beasts were drawn to slower, meatier prey and there was plenty of that around her. For once, being a flea–bitten peasant had saved her life.

Someone crashed into her. It was a boy. His brown eyes glazed up at her and red marionette lines outlined his chin. He was dressed in the burnt orange jacket of the village nobles. The black crescent of the Raven House sewn to his breast confirmed it.

"Mi'lord!" she said, but it wasn't till she noticed his body's missing lower half that she realized she had bumped into a corpse.

She screamed and kicked it away, her wide eyes set on the wound. It looked as if someone had bitten the lower half of his body. As she recoiled from the sight, something fell on the boy's face. It was a stomach.

"What?" she whispered.

Chunks of flesh accompanied by red rain fell upon her. Ropes of slime curled around her arms and shoulders like slithering, blue–purple snakes.

She looked up and gasped.

A man towering the size of four stacked huts stood over her. In his hands were the squished remains of people. Threads of red oozed between his fingers, and a human arm dangled from the corner of his chewing mouth. It must have descended from the mountains because of the blood in the air. If she could smell it, she was sure the giants could as well.

She held her small hands to her lips and crouched down as the giant walked over her. Again, she was glad she was such a little girl. She watched as it continued to pace toward the horizon, probably pleased with its snack.

She stood up and flung the gore and organs off of her. Her run continued. She was so close to the shrine now. She hit the village outskirts that immediately gave way to a forest of vitis leaves; the vines outlined the path like walls of a maze. She jumped over more corpses, but as she neared the shrine, their number decreased, and the smoke around her wasn't as thick.

The temple's wooden doorway at last greeted her.

"Mommy!" she cried as she ran inside.

The small room was the same as always. The three wooden statues of hooded figures—one yellow, one white, and one blue—stood on top of their own mismatched pedestals.

"Mom!" she called out again, but only the statues were there, gazing at her with blotched out eyes.

She heard footsteps behind her.

She smiled and turned around. "Mommy!"

A snarl answered her. It was one the beasts attacking the village. Its puma–like body was sleek and grey. It reminded her of the mercurius liquid a traveling sage had once shown her.

"Mommy," she whispered out of fear this time.

The beasts opened its mouth. As it did, neon purple slits—its eyes she guessed—opened from its skull. From there, the purple started to streak across its body like veins.

The girl backed away only to bump into the altar behind her and fall. One of the sculptures, the yellow one, dropped onto her lap. The Saint of Art and Poetry. What good was that to her now?

She grasped it nonetheless, a desperate weapon.

The beast inched towards her. Its fangs now glowed with the same neon purple that ran throughout its body. There was something hanging from its jaw. A necklace she recognized.

"No!" She threw the wooden figure at it.

A sword descended from the air and impaled through the creature's skull. Bright violet claws scratched the wooden floor as the monster squirmed, its snow white blood trickling down the black blade. Caught between the sword's guard and the beast's head was the yellow statue.

The girl let out a shaky breath as her eyes traveled up the hilt to the gloved hand that held it. The seal of the Dracarr Kingdom, a ring of four arms grasping each other's wrists, marked it. Her sight continued up the arm wrapped in a dark blue uniform, to the neck framed by a white collar, and came to a stop at the stoic face splattered with white blood.

She had never seen one before, but she knew she was looking at one now. The silver eyes that bore into her were the tell-tale markings of one. They were unnatural and devoid of anything she could put a name to.

The girl licked her lips. "Thank you, s–sire."

He retreated his blade out of the beast, its carcass dropping to the floor. Just like that, his sword had killed it while even her village blacksmith's best couldn't.

The man pulled the statue off from his weapon and tossed it at the girl. She caught it and hugged it as she watched the man exit the shrine. She turned back to the beast. The purple was gone from its body, blood pooling out of its head. The necklace was still in its jaws. She untangled it and held it in both her hands. The leather cord was bloody and broken, but the amulet was intact.

"Mommy," she sobbed even though she now knewher mother was dead.