The Goddess (Lady of the Light book 1)

Ch. 13

The air literally glistened with what looked like pixie dust, Em was almost afraid of breathing it in. The other side of the archway was the most breathtaking place she had ever seen, tress tangled with vines of every colour imaginable and flowers bigger than her head. Everywhere she looked was filled with overwhelming beauty and colour it was almost too much at times.

Maelgywn and his knights were fanned out in front of her and Lillabeth as Em led Golds, the other horses had come through the arch but refused to move away from the entrance. There were many complicated hand gestures as the men scouted ahead looking for clues as to where the flower could be. When Em had asked Golds her answer had been that there was too much magic in the air to pinpoint a magical flower, that's if all the flowers weren't magic.

The men had spent most of their night arguing over tactics and how they would approach whatever made its home here, so far the most threatening thing Em had seen was a rabbit so she waiting for the threat to arrive.

There was no clear path that they were following and when she'd asked Lillabeth for a description of what the flower was supposed to look like Lillabeth had laughed and told her since only Wanderers knew she really couldn't say.

Suddenly the forest seemed to end, a vast grassy plain with shimmering knee-high grasses waved in a non-existent wind. There was nowhere to hide in the vast open space. The party gathered at the edge of the forest. Still remaining mostly in the shadows of the trees as they gazed over the hilly plains.

"Where do you think we should go?" Maelgywn asked Em

Em looked up at the King, a little shocked that he'd asked her "I don't know, everything has looked bright and pretty, but nothing stood out. I don't know how to identify the flower apart from all the other flowers in the forest" she answered hesitantly

"You're the only one that can see the flower so that should be a good indication" Maelgywn dryly remarked.

"But I don't know what you can't see, everything has looked weird and out of place, this entire area is-"

"WHO TRESPASSES ON MY LAND" the voice was deep and loud, the shout reverberated around the party and causing birds to take flight in shock.

Standing in the grass was a massive creature, it was looking right at the group with an open maw. Its head was a deep burnt orange and looked like a lion with a mane of feathers. As Em watched its body parts seemed to shimmer and change, a batwing high on one shoulder, a deep brown feathers wing on the other side. Then the feathers changed colours as though they could not decide what they wanted to be.

The only thing that seemed unchanging was the lion face, however its eyes were a deep black from this distance, with what looked like reptilian pupils. Trying to keep up with the constant body changes was making Em feel nauseous and she had to look away.

Maelgywn drew his sword and in the blink of an eye the others followed suit, the creature snarled, its growl rumbling as they started to run towards it.

"Do they even have a plan?" Em asked, her heart in her throat as she watched them charging across the field. She desperately looked for Telen, he'd barely said anything to her since Lucan had caught them together, every time she'd tried, he had been short with her walked away.

It was Golds that answered her yeah, they are going to stab a powerful magical creature with their little swords her tone suggested that she thought that the men were idiots.

They can do it through? Em asked this must be what's guarding the flower.

That creature is filled to the brim with power, so much so that it's expelling magic by changing its body at will. I do not think five knights and a boy are going to beat it unless they have some kind of magical talisman or power that they have not shown us Golds replied thoughtfully