The not-legit stuff I wanted to write ~ Sentinel/Indigo/ShadowSong

Sentinel - Alternative chapter 1 - Sacrifice

Her movements earned her a glare from Bostra. “What are you doing? You don’t need the dagger. Put it away,” he said. When she didn’t comply, he stopped and pointed his own blade at her. “I said, put them away.”

A tingle ran down Skye’s neck, stroking the hairs on the back of her neck to attention. “We’re not alone,” she said. The answer wouldn’t satisfy him, but it might make the others listen. “Something’s wrong.”

“The only thing wrong is that you have a man’s weapons in your hands,” said Derpy. Bostra snickered at the comment, but before Skye could reply with a challenge of her own she heard movement behind her. 

Lyria’s bow was already nocked with an arrow, something that the rest of the archers in the group were swiftly copying. “This is no time for arguing.” Bostra looked like he wanted to but as his counterpart in the group, Lyria’s words kept him silent. “Something is indeed wrong. I have not--“

The snap of a twig somewhere in the forest cut off her sentence. Lyria raised her hand at the same time as Bostra to take command, but neither was fast enough to stop the imp that leapt from the branches of a nearby tree and on to the face of a red-streaked archer. 

The archer screamed and dropped her weapon as the imp tore into her skin, grabbing and clawing at whatever sockets in her face it could grasp. As the rest of the group lunged for it trying to save her, the imp turned its black eyes on them and detached itself, sprinting for safety. 

“Ambush!” 

Someone ran towards their fallen member even as the forest exploded to life around them. Every few seconds, a new group of imps were falling from the sky, bombarding the elves with claws, horns, and whatever else their rituals had left them with. 

“Where in the nether are they coming from?” yelled Lyria. She fired, her arrow catching one and sending its body limp through the air. "Archers, bring them down!" 

Skye was left with no time to search for an answer to Lyria’s question as a smaller demon launched its own assault on her. Dancing back to evade its swipe rather than block it, Skye followed the limb with her dagger and caught it on the rebound, slicing through the tendons of the demon’s would-be wrist and bringing her sword around to finish it off. 

The demons pressed in on them. The song of arrows arcing from bows filled Skye's ears to the beat of claw on steel. She brought her sword down on a larger demon, narrowly dodging a swipe from another that thought to attack her left side. She recovered quickly, driving it back with her dagger before finishing it off. 

Over the feral squeals and cries of pain, Skye tried to keep track of the orders Lyria was firing off as she moved from one demon to the next but it was slowly becoming impossible to hear as they were swarmed. More than one elf in their already small group lay still on the ground. Even in the corner of her vision, they were easy to spot through the ash-like substance the slain demons had dissolved into. Bostra’s voice was nowhere to be heard. 

Realising she’d been pushed from them, Skye backed up to the group, trying to give the archers as much distance from the crowding demons as she could manage without becoming corralled by twisted bodies herself. She steadied herself, bouncing on the balls of her feet as the next wave of demons approached. 

The next few minutes earned her only a few scratches and a larger gash to her side. Others weren't so lucky. In addition to the elves from before, two more of the men lay still with their weapons scattered beside them.

This isn’t good. Skye backed up a few steps to catch her breath as someone moved beside her. 

"Lyria? Shouldn't you--"