Eternally Luminous

Chapter 11

“Where are we even going Leeroy?”, Royan asked quietly but agitated.

“If I knew, I would tell you”, he said in the same tone.

They had broken into  slight jog, but seemed to have been jogging for atleast half an hour. They had encountered nothing, no one, not any sign of an army or guards. Leeroy stopped and they all followed, he unlit one of his hands while holding the other, blazing one, out infront of them so they could all see each other. They gathered in a small circle around his flaming hand.

“Maybe we missed an opening, or some small door… we’ve seen nothing since we got in here”, he said scratching his head and looking around confused.

“No, theres been nothing. I checked the walls…plus Royan would be able to tell if she sensed another person if they were behind any kind of door”, Thomas said equally confused.

Suddenly Ana’s eyes darted away from Leeroys flaming hand and looked off into the pitch black darkness that was ahead.

“Don’t any of you hear that?”, she asked them, walking off into the darkness.

Leeroy, Thomas and Royan all looked at each other and shrugged. They followed her cautiously but it looked as though Ana wasn’t taking any caution.

Leeroy lit his hands even brighter, pushing himself to illuminate the cylindrical structure.  He looked behind him but then sharply looked forward as he followed Ana’s gasp.

They all ran towards Ana but stopped suddenly.  She had gone around  a corner and was standing infront of a huge beast. It’s back just touched the roof of the tunnel. It looked like a huge wolf-like animal but had the greatest muscular build of any stallion Ana had ever seen. It’s black, short fur loosely hung and swayed with it’s deep breaths which Leeroy, Thomas and Royan could smell from ten meters away. It’s piercing yellow eyes stared at Ana, and were filled with a hunger. Teeth and fangs at least a meter long bared from it’s hungry, smiling mouth.

Ana stared at the creature, mystified by its appearance as she’d never seen such a beast. Then she realized that this creature was going to eat her. She pulled her sword from it’s sheath and swung frantically at it’s paws that were firmly attached to the ground. The beast dodged her attack and bared it’s teeth ever more with a large aggressive growl. When she ran back towards the beast, this time aiming at it’s chest, she swung with precision and struck the beast between it’s from two paws. The beast howled and staggered but then lunged at her. Suddenly Thomas threw himself onto the beast and was stabbing it’s back repeatedly while the beast staggered and grew confused as to the painful pricks it was receiving. It bucked upright like a horse and bashed it’s head onto the roof of the tunnel.

“Ana!”, Leeroy yelled and ran towards the beast with his entire body lit. Royan cowered backwards and hid around the corner.

The beast was delirious, and Ana looked around to see where Thomas had gone after the animal had smashed it’s head. He was regaining his unsteady stance, clutching his two daggers. Ana thought it was weird that everyone had reacted so slowly to this beast and that their attacks were sloppy and inaccurate. The beast was bleeding furiously and Ana ran over to it, striking it in the throat. A green, metallic coloured liquid spurted out from it’s throat and gushed onto the ground.

She wiped her sword on the animals fur, clearing the green goo from it. Leeroy was walked around the corner to where Royan had cowered to while Thomas was walking over towards her.

“What the hell was that? It was like the beast tried to take control of me or I was just consumed by some clouded mist in my head. I couldn’t think straight” Thomas said, standing next to her, shaking his head clear.