Connor Evans and The Binding Scrolls

I Would Run

My head was still swimming with the overflowing of thoughts and emotions I didn't understand. I had to focus all of my energy on marching forward. 

One step, two step, three step.

I didn't even know if we were still in America at this point, my eyes seemed to blur anything that wasn't the path in front me.

Four step, five step, six step.

"It should be around here..." I heard Stephanie say to me, she was matching my pace whilst cautiously gazing around corners and into the darkness beyond what my eyes could see in the pale moonlight.

Seven step, eight step, nine-

Stephanie yelped and I leapt into action, instinctively pulling my sword up and looking towards the attacker.

A tiny little black cat.

I relaxed, "Stephanie, really?" my head started to clear and I could feel that the night was rather humid and the surrounding trees were far more browned and dry than the ones I saw at home. We were on a road, an old one that looked to be a very, very long walk to civilisation. 

"What! It's dark and I wasn't paying attention." She retorted, the embarrassment showing very clearly as she crossed her arms over her chest. I rolled my eyes, preparing to continue on my mad march before I heard a low growl...

Slowly turning around, the tiny cat was growing, pulsating with a deep inky black ooze that dripped from the once silky fur.

"uh, Stephanie?" I said softly, now staring down the beady, yellow eyes of the creature before me.

"Yeah, that's the Belu. I would run."

I dodged, as a hulking mass of black, gelatinous flesh came hurtling down over my head, crashing into the ground with an underlying sludge that sent a pang of cold crawling down my back.

This thing was twice, maybe triple my size. Huge, bulky, fangs glistening with dripping saliva and claws like collosal battle axes. My mouth went dry, as the beast stared straight into my soul.

It howled, ripping up the concrete beneath it and barreling towards me.

"Connor, just stab it!" I heard Steph call, she sounded frustrated and in any other situation, her frustration would have been mildly amusing but right now, I was 99% sure that I was going to die.

I didn't even have the time to find something to retort with before I slid out of the way of the Belu. It was no longer my mouth that had gone bone dry, but now my entire throat was devoid of moisture and felt like it might shrivel up and split like a cracking oil painting.

Another dodge, another dodge.

I leapt across the darkened street for what felt like hours, before I finally snapped and called back to Stephanie.

"What the hell am I doing!" I yelled out, each syllable ripping at my hardened throat.

"Slice it, you have to remove a piece of it with the sword and it will... shatter, I guess?" Stephanie called it, letting out a frightened 'woah!' as the Belu tried to leap onto her like a regular cat on a ladybug.

Cut off a piece of it with Fortis. Easy, right?

Easy, so easy...

I breathed, and my nostrils filled with the familiar stench of impurity and death. This time, I knew it was from the Belu, and God did it stink. My eyes were watering, and I was short of breath as the reeking smell swarmed my body. I couldn't see, I covered my mouth and nose, not wanting to open my eyes.