Rumerra - The Journey Begins

Chapter 10 - Strange happenings (Part IV)

Saying this, he walked to the edge of the room and picked up a bloodied stick. The fresh stains of blood on it and the boy's bruises made it clear that the two were already familiar with each other. "Last chance! Tell me where the entrance to the academy's treasure chamber is!"

"Please..." the bound young man heaved. "I told you...everything...."

"How could you, the highest ranking student, not know a thing like that?" the Magnus holding the stick cocked his eyebrow in disbelief. "I'm not believing that for a second!"

With that, he raised the stick above his head and struck down against the prisoner's naked flesh, making him scream in pain. Arianna watched in horror as the boy got beaten for several minutes before the assailant finally felt it was enough. "Ready to talk now?"

"Pleah..." was the only thing he managed to get out before breaking into painful sobs.

"Maybe it's time I just kill you off," the other Magnus threw away the stick and picked up his next weapon of choice——a short and sharp dagger. "We've been doing this for more than three months now and still you're not telling me anything useful. Maybe you really don't know. I'm just wasting my time coming here to feed you and give you water, keeping you alive. For what purpose? So you can just tell me you don't know anything and cry every time? Useless."

"I don't...I don't want to die..." he spoke through tears.

"Then tell me something useful, damn it!!" the young man questioning him stabbed the knife into the wood right next to his head. Arianna got startled by this and let out a small squeak. Both Magnuses turned their heads towards the small bird on the window.

Just act natural, Arianna, the girl told herself. You're just a mockingbird. They'll never realize I'm actually using a transformation if I don't speak or make strange movements.

The boy pulled out his knife and walked towards her, leaving his twin behind on the rack. A sly grin painted itself across his face when he neared the window and it made her feel uneasy.

"You're a pretty little birdie, aren't you?" Magnus spoke, stopping about a meter away. She decided that now is a good time to fly away. But just before she managed to take off, the boy hurled the knife at her. It just barely missed her and grazed her wing, causing her to tumble down. She flapped her other wing as hard as she could to soften the fall and reverted back to her human form upon landing, holding her bleeding arm. "How did he know?!"

There was no time to think about this, though. Arianna winced in pain and forced herself to get up and start moving. 

'Magnus' appeared out of the castle to find her running across the ruined castle's courtyard.
"I knew you were following me, silly girl!" he shouted. "But I couldn't exactly kill you at the academy——that would raise suspicion. So thank you for coming out all the way here, where nobody will be able to hear you scream as I tear you apart!"

Arianna stopped running and turned around. "Who are you?! What did you do to Magnus?!"

The boy started laughing as he walked towards her. His appearance began to change. His skin melted off and turned into a black ooze that dripped down to the stony floor. What was left underneath was a pitch-black skin, covered with scales that looked similar to that of a snake. When the skin of the face melted, two bright red eyes were staring at the startled girl and a wide smirk painted itself across the strange creature's face.

"It'sssss nice to finally meet you face to face...Arianna," it spoke with a distinct womanly voice, the split tongue hissing on every syllable that included the letter "S".

"What the...what the hell are you?!" Arianna was completely taken aback by the woman's new form. She assumed it was a woman because of the voice, but it could have just as well been anything.

"Who I am issss none of your concern, girl," the lady that looked like she was a snake given human properties replied, unsheathing a long katana-like sword that was sitting on her back.
Arianna held her bleeding arm and realized that the only real option she had left was to fight this thing. Whatever she transformed into right now, her right wing would be damaged and she wouldn't really be able to fly away. And she doubted that she could outrun it on foot.