She could hear the snarls and growls of the creature behind her as she ran. She dared not look back, not because she feared seeing the creature, but because she was worried she might trip over a root or run into a tree if she was not careful. It was already gaining on her, and she was not about to risk her life for another glimpse, she already knew what it looked like. A tall grey humanoid figure wrapped in loosely fitting bandages, long sharp claws, white pupil less eyes, and six large black crystals circling it. It was a Gorae, an unintelligent reanimated corpse meant to drive off grave robbers. They were usually quite peaceful unless you provoked them, which is exactly what Ariadne had done.
She heard a whistling noise behind her and ducked out of the way just in time as one of the gorae's crystals smashed into a tree, ripping apart its dark brown bark. "One down," she thought, "five more to go." Her caretaker Iman had continuously warned her about the gorae, and since he did not trust her to keep herself out of trouble, decided to teach her how to defeat one. The gorae's crystals were its only way of attacking and defending itself. If you got to use all 6 of its crystals and attacked before they had time to regenerated, you could kill it. Ariadne had never fought a gorae before, she had done her best to avoided them in the past. This time however, she had accidentally trespassed on a burial ground guarded by one of these monsters. It had mistaken her as a grave robber and was now trying to kill her.
She heard the whistling noise once again and two more crystals shattered on the ground in front of her. "I'm lucky these things are stupid," Ariadne thought, "Just three more to go." Ariadne was already beginning to feel exhausted from the running and jumping, her body was growing weaker and weaker. Then she made a dangerous decision and looked behind her. Fully aware of what could happen if she did but needed to know how close it was. Her head spun around just in time to see another two crystals flying toward her face. She dove to the side as the two of them slammed into a tree and almost knocked it over. Large dark green leaves the size of her head fell to the ground as a result of the impact. Then, she proceeded to land on her face and inhale the dirt, leaves, grass, and whatever else was in her way.
She quickly flipped over and sat up just in time to see the gorae speeding toward her. It bared its rotten yellow teeth, and the final crystal began to spin, it was preparing to attack. Ariadne reached for the sword strapped to her back, but she was too far away for it to do any good. She was too vulnerable on the ground; she was much slower and would not be able to dodge the attack this time. Completely out of options, Ariadne decided the only shot she had at survival was trying to hit the crystal with her sword. She had not even managed to unsheathe it before she heard something hit the ground. Her attention was now back on the gorae, which looked much less menacing than it had a few seconds ago. Its crystal had fallen to the ground and the tip of a sword was sticking out of its chest. It let out one final screech before collapsing into a cloud of dust and bandages. When the dust had finally cleared away, she was able to identify her rescuer.
"Iman!" she exclaimed, and quickly stood up brushing herself off. But when her eyes met his, the look of annoyance on his face quickly dampened her mood.
"How many times," he said putting his palm to his face.
"It wasn't my fault! I didn't know it was a burial ground!" Ariadne protested.
"Exactly why I told you not to explore this section of the woods!" he shouted. Iman was a six-foot tall Scorpiona, a humanoid being that had a scorpion tail, with medium length dark blue hair and a beard. He had chalk white skin, light blue eyes, and blue triangular markings below them. He sheathed his sword, a long-curved blade with no hilt, and picked up the fallen crystal. "Gorae crystals are popular in the elixir making industry, seeing as they are so hard to come by." With that he tossed the shiny black gem up in the air and caught it. "This could be worth a small fortune to the right buyer." Ariadne was hopeful this meant she was not going to be reprimanded further,
YOU ARE READING
The Sage of Paridonia
FantasyAriadne has lived most of her life in a secluded treehouse in the Aura great forest. Though she longed to see the other regions of Paridonia her caretaker Iman always seemed skeptical. He never let her see anyone and barely ever took her into town...
