George Adamson Lives with Apes

Ruby's Nightmare

Something stirs behind Ruby, the young girl feels it shift the very fabric of the air and it instantaneously roots her body to the ground with a thousand tonnes of fear. The young girl forces herself to look. Her eyes meet the doe brown eyes of the boy again, just in time to see him smile sadly, and then his head jerks sidewards and his body follows as he falls to the ground in a cloud of dust. There is nothing left of him.

Dressed in the blackest robes a figure steps forward to occupy the space directly where he had been standing. This being seems to suck all of the light out of the air around them as if it were made of nothing. Inside the hood is not a single feature but a screaming chasm of pitch black. The nothing seems to look forward, past Ruby and towards her George. A finger made of bone, juts out from the draping sleeve of the black robe and hones in on the figures stood around the lifeless body and the elf.

Panic jolts Ruby forward, towards death, with her arms outstretched and her scream written in the fog of her frosty breath, but she can not reach it in time. A light as bright and blinding as the midday sun leaves the boney outstretched digit and crashes into another of the children at Georges side. This time the grey cloak folds to the floor with a strange beauty as the figure inside completely disappeared.

"BLANCHE"

Utters Ruby, and as she sees the name form in the air before her, it renews the young girl's anger, pushing her onwards. George's face contorts even more now and he gently places the body he has been clutching on the floor beside him. The three remaining of his friends flank him fearlessly as all four children turn to face death.

Ruby pushes herself the few last desperate steps to where the light begins to disappear around the black cloaked figure. It does not seem to notice her as she approaches just inches from it, and then with all her might she draws her hand into a fist and hits the thing, square in the face exactly where she would expect its jaw to be. Ruby's hand disappears inside it's hood and comes back out the other side. Pain slices inside her arm and she withdraws it back towards herself. Nothing happens to the thing and it fires off another stream of blinding light towards her friends.

The group advances on the figure now and at the front is the tallest. Ruby massages her poor arm but the burning will not stop and so she grits her teeth and runs head first into the hooded thing.
Everything around the poor girl is pitch blackness, and an all engulfing pain burns every inch of her skin searing through her whole body. Ruby scratches and tears at her own flesh as she begins to fall. She plummets and plummets until she lands on the ground beside the hooded figure. As she looks up she sees the fastest of the group has reached them and attempted to run the dark creature through with his huge sword. The hooded figure is too fast, it grabs the sword which crumbles into dust and fires another beam of light from its finger. The tall grey figure side steps the beam and charges again. This time he manages to knock the creature from its feet and pin it to the ground. Ruby looks towards George from where she is laying upon the ground and sees that he is tinged with blue sparks that dance about his body and leap out from the tips of his pale silver hair. The small girl drags herself up onto her feet as the grey cloaked figure fights with all his worth. He extends two pearl white fangs of considerable length ready to bite, but the figure on the ground has wrestled free its boney arms and as Ruby holds a hand in front of her face a white light shines again and the vampire has disappeared.

"SIR GILES."

Whispers Ruby and the letters float off into the breeze.

Now comes the small caped girl, her soft black skin has been replaced with ebony fur, and her delicate human features have become the canine snarl of a wolf. She roars into the face of death and knocks it back into the dirt. A stray shot of its magic light fires off into the air completely missing any of its intended targets.