Deadly Beasts

Prologue

The cave was extravagant; bright blue crystals lined it's interior and large, ancient rune stones lied in a pattern around the large cavern. A shallow, glowing pool waded in the center of the amazing scene. I looked around for the ancient soul. It was nowhere to be found. Maybe all the bright things in the cave were distracting me from what I was trying to find. I pulled out the Agrios Manuscripts so I could decipher the words on the rune stones. No use. I looked at the top of a stone and saw an octagon shaped hole, I looked down at the crystal shard that I found days prior and realize that it must be a key to something. Taking the shard from around my neck, I stuck it into the hole. The words in the stone began to glow and spread onto the ground and the other stones until the glowing path reached the top of the cavern. I looked over at Achilles and he was watching what was happening with a look of suspicion spread across his face. The roof of the cave rumbled and a few pebbles fell into the pool. Achilles bounded over to me and shielded me with his large wing until the rumbling stopped.

When Achilles moved his wings, a bright sphere was floating on the surface of the water. My eyes widened, "That's the soul of Agrios", I said in amazement. I reached my hand out to take to future of my land and return it to its original state, but as soon as I made contact with it, something that wasn't supposed to happen happened. The walls of the cavern began to crumble again and the soil began to break as creatures emerged from it. Achilles shrieked at the emerging goblins that were running to take our lives. They wielded swords, scythes, axes, bows and arrows, maces, and any other type of weapon you could think of. Achilles stood his ground and grabbed one of the goblins, using him to knock down the others. I took out an arrow and pulled it on the bow's string before letting it fly through the air and hit one of the goblins chests. It shrieked and fell back before falling in defeat and dying. By then, Achilles was up circling in the air, shooting his sharp quills at the disgusting creatures until one of them threw a small dagger that hit his wing. He plummeted to the ground and I tried to run to his aid, but the goblins had already reached him and they were pummeling him with their weapons. I tried my very best to kill them off but there were way to many. I could hear Achilles cry out in unbearable pain as a goblin climbed on top of him and stabbed his side with a sword. I began to lose hope as I saw a griffon, a majestic and powerful creature of rarity being defeated. Finally the swarm of horrible monsters began to subside and I rushed to Achilles. He was panting and bleeding all over the place. I pulled his head into my embrace, realizing that I couldn't do anything to save him. If I pulled out the sword in his side, he would continue to bleed to death, and I didn't have enough healing elixir for him. He was going to die, and just like he stayed with me during my adventure in the forest, I stayed with him as he suffered a horrible death. Wounds covered his muscular body and his talons had been cut off by the goblins. I watched as the griffon took his last breath. Achilles was dead, and it was my fault. This was the end for him.

"I thought fairytales had happy endings, but I guess I was wrong", I sob into his bloodstained feathers.