Secrets & Treasons

Fifth Movement: In the Shadows of the Mists | Blood & mud

"By the Eternals!" cried Childeric! "It must be..."

"The Mother!" shouted Lord Arkartin as he stood between the beast and the children.

"It's going to be a bitch, I can tell," Bud said as he joined them, followed closely by his twin brother.

"But... you can count on my axe!" Gir'Hen said cheerfully.

"And my sword," said Half Moon, who had just taken her place next to them, as well.

"Take care of the children, woman!" belched Arkartin.

"That is exactly what I am doing, human! My place is with you, between her and them!"

Lord Arkartin grinned in surprise and drew his heavy two-handed sword.

Hawkeye stood up, his hand on the bandage around his head.

"Stay with us!" said Blue Lotus, clinging to him with all his might; "don't leave us!"

"What happens if they get sideswiped by the beast and we're all alone here?"

"As always," replied Hawkeye, "we'll fight! Okay, I'll stay with you, just in case..."

In front of the children, the battle had resumed, with one major difference: the animal knew what to expect and she had experience. Her instincts told her to flee, the opponents were far too numerous and armed, but her pain was too powerful and blinded her with hatred and resentment. Childeric and Half Moon had set out to kill the beast faster than her cub, with a quick and fatal blow to the brain, but to do so they had to climb on top of it, and as if she had perceived their attempts, which had failed so far, she did everything in her power to prevent them from climbing on top of her from any possible place. In return, she was attacking them with her impressive adult tentacles with the obvious intention to make them dive into the putrid waters of the swamp. Half Moon scarcely managed to avoid them, they were incredible fast and unpredictable, Childeric was luckier and stepped over them with the grace he was used to. Yet, he was unable to reach the back of the beast. He tried various angles of attack and infiltration, but the animal foiled all his attempts, as if it knew precisely what Childeric was going to do, long before he did.

Lord Arkartin and Gir'Hen attacked head-on, hoping the beast would eventually give up the fight or be unable to avoid the blow. It had to be over quickly: the fight against the youth had already been difficult and they had had no respite. They had a vague feeling that if it wasn't concluded quickly, the fury of the animal would overtake them at some point in the fight, and it would be more than dangerous to be around. What was incredible, was that most of the blows did not reach her at all! Her eight eyes must have had something to do with it, of course, but that didn't explain everything, because she had dead zones where she couldn't see anything, Lord Arkartin was sure of that, and yet she almost always managed to avoid the blows they dealt her. There was something else. They had to find out what it was quickly, because for the moment, the advantage was clearly on the side of this big mass.

Cyd and Bud, acting on the flanks, had come to the same conclusion after slicing through the void for the umpteenth time.

"It can't be true! What is this thing made of?" grumbled Bud.

"It's as if it anticipates all our blows," remarked Childeric,

"No, that would be incredible! She could read our minds?" said Lord Arkartin hallucinating.

"If that's the case, we're in trouble!" remarked Cyd, "How can we coordinate if we don't talk to each other?"

"And if we do this quietly, there's going to be carnage on both sides," confirmed Gir'Hen.