These Old Bones

11-2

He heard a roar from outside the still unblocked window and turned towards the noise, raising Notch, ready to strike, and holding the buckler before him. When the shape burst through, past the rotting frame, he gave an answering roar, bringing Notch down towards the blur of a shape rolling on the floor.

"Stop! Stop! It's me!" At the last second, he diverted the blow, sending Notch thudding into the water thickened floorboards. Tiera, on her backside, two halves of her spear in her hands, stared at the blade, a mere inch from where her head had been.

"Tiera, you mad bloody fool!" He swapped Notch to the other hand, and offered her help to climb to her feet. "How did you get away? What in Patrons' names is it?"

"I don't know what it is. It's big, but somehow manages to hide under the water." She reached up to wipe a smear of blood from a cut above her eye, breathing heavy. "I had to get my pack and weapons roll from the horse before that too went under."

She pointed to her pack and weapons roll on the floor, near where she had landed. Standing upright, she drew in several deep breaths and then looked at the pieces of her spear in her hands, as if seeing them for the first time. Shrugging, she tossed them aside and bent down, pulling a sword from her weapons roll.

"I can't stay ..." Viriili stirred once again, trying to move, her eyes rolling in her head. "I don't want to kill you. I must ... I must ..."

Both Brorzjav and Tiera dropped beside the girl, urging her to stay down. Tiera felt Viriili's head and then touched the back of her fingers to the girl's cheek. She looked at Brorzjav and he knew she shared his concerns. Viriili was getting worse. Yet, they couldn't do anything about it. He doubted any healer could help her. The only things that seemed to make Viriili better was healing people or the 'invisible hand' exploding out from her and they couldn't leave her alone for that to happen.

They both heard a sound outside, like something slithering, or dragging along the surface of the ground. At first the noise came from one side of the hut, then from the other, then from outside the door. Another sound accompanied the slithering, dragging sound. A deep, rumbling, gurgling sound. Brorzjav saw Tiera's head turn, following the sounds, as he reached over for his pack, to find water for the girl.

"I know I hit it, with the spear. That's when it broke." Tiera stood, crouching, turning in a circle, following the noise. "And when I hit it, it roared. In pain, I think. If it can't be hurt, it can be killed."

Something thumped against the wooden walls of the cabin, then scraped down against it. Brorzjav jumped up, brandishing Notch in that direction. He could feel his heart beating, fast and fluttering. Nothing produced fear more than the unknown. If he could see his enemy, he could work out how to best it, but this enemy hid. This enemy used terror to its advantage and Brorzjav wondered if it was some dumb creature, after all, or whether some kind of malevolent intelligence powered it.

"Whatever happens, the girl cannot be the last of us to die." Brorzjav moved back-to-back with Tiera. "If she has to die here, let it be by our hands, not a slow, lingering death from this monster."

"Agreed." He felt Tiera tense.

Silence blanketed the entire cabin, for a second. Even Viriili seemed to fall quiet. And then something smashed through the kitchen shelving, sending wood pieces and splinters flying in all directions. This battle had truly begun.

-+-

Brorzjav ran to the window, readying Notch to attack, but whatever had hit the shelving had now disappeared. For the last foot or so, he slowed, edging towards the opening, his boots crunching on the shards of wood that now littered the floor. Reaching the open frame of the window, he eased closer, looking outside, ready at tiniest notice to slice whatever was attacking them. All he saw outside was the encroaching fog and the trees in the bare distance resembling tortured, twisted figures from nightmares.