Erinne hitched up her skirts and stooped, removing the knife from her boot and looked through the hallway. Her breath rattled out of her and the baby in her stomach had gone strangely still in the wake of her fear.
How did it get inside? The guards were still scrambling to lock up the entire castle. Had it already been inside? Had it somehow broken down a yoked door? She worked to calm her mind, calm her racing heart, when she heard a woman start screaming somewhere inside the castle.
No...Erinne shook her head, it's a man.
His scream was pure, high pitched terror. The kind of scream that drove people to the brink. Her ears buzzed as it fell quiet in the castle again. Andol clung to her as tears rolled down his face, instinctively understanding that they were in danger but he stayed quiet. The same could not be said of a child in the other room.
A pit sank into her gut as they all started crying out at once, "Mommy?! I want my Mommy!"
"What was that?"
"I'm scared!"
Andol shoved his hands over his ears and more fear crept into his small frame as he started shaking. She could hear a servant trying to get the children to be silent but she was failing. They were sitting ducks, waiting to be killed, drawing in the monster with their wails of terror. She looked down at Andol. She should move him now. She should take him down the hall and lock them both in a room. It just wasn't in her to abandon innocent children. She couldn't leave babies to be slaughtered.
Erinne rose from her crouched position and grabbed Andol around the wrist, "Come on, baby, we have to help them!" She dragged him along behind her as she bolted back towards the room she'd just left behind. As she ran inside, she shouted, "Quiet! Everyone quiet!"
The older children were startled into silence while several caretakers still struggled with some of the smaller ones. "She won't stop!" The wet nurse cried out.
"Make her stop!" Erinne hissed. If she didn't, they'd all die. The woman looked terrified and uncertain, but another took the baby from her and pressed her hand over her mouth, quieting her cries.
"Shhh, shhh, baby." She rocked her, eyes wide and panicked but the infant started to settle.
"Move to that closet, quickly!" She urged them and turned back towards the door, motioning to Andol. "Baby, see that wooden plank? That yoke?"
Snarling filled the hallway outside, she could hear farther, distant shouts as guards scampered around the castle, searching for the animalistic beast. Erinne's heart ran cold as she saw out through the open doorway, her hand resting on the wooden door. She could see it.
Her hand trembled as she closed the door with agonizing slowness so she wouldn't draw it's attention while the women and children shuffled towards the closet. They didn't move fast enough. They should have been running.
She finished closing the door as gently as she could and twisted her head. Andol was frozen just feet from her, staring at the door that now blocked his view, but it was clear by the terror on his face that he'd seen it. He'd seen the monster out there. Still trembling, she kept her hand pressed against the door and pointed at the yoke again, "Andol," her voice was low, "come my little warrior, be strong, get the yoke for me."
She heard him gulp and the color had drained from his face, but somehow he turned and walked towards it, lifting it with more strength than any human child his age could. When he brought it closer, she took it from his hands and hoisted it upwards to lay it across the door when something slammed into it.
A short gasp escaped her lips as the wooden door was flung back against her, the wood breaking and shattering. It rained down around her head as a chunk of it collapsed onto her and knocked her backwards. She felt her back collide with the wall next to the door, somehow keeping her balance but the dagger slipped from her hands.
Children screamed, caretakers and servants scrambled. She saw a dark mass streak by her as the cursed orc stumbled inside and drew to a halt almost immediately. Blood coated its muzzle and it leveled its gaze on her, a string of bloody drool hanging from it's slightly open mouth. She couldn't move, she was trapped.
It gave a gruff snarl and took a step towards her and then Andol roared and threw a wooden toy at it. Fear struck her hard as its crudely shaped head swung around towards her son, elongated teeth parting wider, tearing at its own jaw as it focused on little Andol.
"No!" Erinne didn't have time to think, just threw herself at the monster as its jaws snapped at her son. She ran into its side, hoping against all hope that she somehow swayed it. She didn't even cause it to misstep but she must've angered it because it turned back on her. One forearm lifted off the ground and it swung wide. She scrambled backwards but hit the wall in two steps and felt sharp pain lance across her chest and blood welled up and spread across the front of her dress.
She expected it to come for her, but the other children were panicking now, running and shrieking and it wheeled on them. This was a buffet for a predator and it leaped into the fray, it's massive body knocking several of the kids down.
Fighting was grounded deep in her blood. Panting for breath, sluggish and pregnant, she pushed off the wall, springing after it. She grabbed a chair as she ran, ignoring the pain in her chest for the sake of the children. Even winded, she lifted it above her head and managed to crack the chair across its spine and this time when it wheeled she moved with it, albeit as much as her body allowed her. She wasn't nearly as fast as she should be, her belly was slowing her down. When it tried to bite her, she barely managed to get the chair in front of its jaws. It's teeth crushed straight through the wooden chair with an ease that was frightening. She let the crumbled pieces fall to the floor and planted her feet, letting loose a battle cry that earned her nothing but a replying roar from the creature as it glowered at her.
It opened it's mouth again, rearing for her, when something shattered over it's head. "Andol!" She gasped as it growled at him. He curled his lip and growled back, throwing a second vase. The monster bellowed and charged but she grabbed its tail to stop it. When the tail pulled taut, it jerked her forward and her distended belly unbalanced her and she staggered but Andol had thrown another object and it was wiping at it's own face with it's paw.
Now was the only moment they had and she screamed, "Run! Get out the door, go!" Everyone should be anywhere but here with the beast. Something in her words must've triggered the children's brains because the poor kids ran for the door and one of the servants did, too, before she lost focus on them, springing away from the monster as best she could, and turned to look for Andol.
He was chucking another toy at the beast's face and she ran to him, grabbing his hand, but when they tried to bolt past it, it turned on them, pulling back one of it's awkwardly shaped arms and tried to slash them again. She fell back out of reach, dragging Andol with her and it reared up on it's hind legs, snarling and she kept scrambling backwards, not sure if she was out of reach of those long forearms or not.
It was just moving to strike when it abruptly yelped and cringed away from her, just as her back hit another wall. She recognized the next opportunity and shoved Andol hard in the direction of the door as several archer's moved into sight. "Run!" She told Andol and he did but the monster whirled again so she snatched a picture off the wall and tossed it, distracting it so her son could run to safety.
The creature cringed again, another yelp shrieked from it's chest, and she saw four arrows protruding from its flesh. She would've taken that chance to run towards the other side like Andol had, but then the archers shrank back against the wall, shouting at each other to move, and something came tearing into the room with a snarl just as fierce as the orc's.
Her heart pounded in her chest as fur and fury exploded in the room as a second creature threw itself into the other. "Wren?!" She gasped and then shrieked as the two beasts rolled her way. She dropped low as they crashed into some furniture and it broke apart. A toy somehow launched into the air and smacked her leg. She tried to run again, but then the cursed orc lifted Wren into the air and terror filled her heart as it threw him, but the beast that was Wren wasn't phased. It shoved back to it's feet and ran at the cursed orc again, but now they were in front of her again, blocking her path out.
"I want my mommy!" Erinne's heart sank when she heard the child's cry and whipped around, spotting a little girl not far over her shoulder. "By the Ancestors," she gasped and bolted for the child. "Come here!" She hoisted her to her hip but screamed and ducked away as both beasts crashed into the wall right next to them. They were so close that spittle splattered on her face and she tried to run but they were on the hem of her dress.
The girl was screaming in her ear now as Erinne hit her knees, struggling to keep her hold on the child, hearing the cloth rip, but then the beasts were in front of her again and she pressed them both into the wall, closing her eyes. It wasn't safe to run but it wasn't safe to stay!
"Ancestors!" She cried out. They were crushing every piece of furniture, every toy, everything that got in their way and she tightened her grip on the child, thinking about the baby inside of her.
"Erinne!"
"Cold Hammer!" Erinne cried as she lifted her head. He was bolting across the room, dodging both beasts. "Look out!" She shrieked too late as they tumbled into him and he flattened out underneath them, but they rolled right across him and he clambered up to his feet. Her heart was in her throat as she watched him run to her.
When he reached her, he didn't pull her to her feet, he just gathered her in his arms and lifted her and the child off the floor. She managed to get one arm around him, burying her head against his chest while the girl hid against Erinne's neck. They both screamed when the beasts fell into Cold Hammer, nearly knocking him down, but somehow he stayed upright. It terrified her to think that they could've crushed her and her baby if that would've been her standing there instead of him.
He ran them right out of the room and into the hall, going several paces down before he stopped and set her down and she opened her eyes as her feet touched the ground. She was shaking, the child she held was trembling, and Cold Hammer's hands were shaking as he cupped her face. She heard a sob and then Andol threw himself at her legs, squeezing hard enough to hurt her but she didn't care.
"Run!" Cold Hammer's voice was hoarse. "Take them, go!"
She nodded but before she could move, the wall busted and fell apart and both monsters tore through it, ripping and snarling at each other. They left a trail of blood across the floor as they hit the wall on the opposite side of the hall. Soldiers shouted and lifted weapons. Archers aimed. Cold Hammer shoved her back into the wall, standing in front of her and the children as he hoisted his hammer out of it's holster and into his hands.
One of them was trapped underneath the other and she was horror stricken to realize it was Wren until he kicked with his hind legs and the cursed orc stumbled back. It shadowed the hole in the wall as it shook itself and roared and Cold Hammer didn't hesitate, he swung. The hammer landed hard and true and the beast fell backwards into the room, and then he scrambled away, shouting, "Shoot it now while Wren is out of the way!"
The archers opened fire and each arrow that pierced it made it wail, but when the last arrow fell, before they could nock more arrows, it was already snarling again. Nothing slowed it. Nothing stopped it.
"Watch out for the king!" One of the soldiers shouted and she saw several of them duck and move as Wren sprang back to his feet and disappeared into the room and Erinne leapt forward, staring through the hole in the wall as he collided with the cursed orc again. He rammed into it so hard that it stumbled again, it's back cracking against the window on the far end of the room. Then he sprang again, but the beast grabbed onto Wren.
Before Erinne could even scream the king's name, the two creatures crashed into the glass and tumbled out the castle window.
***Author's Note: Thanks so much for reading! There will be a new chapter posted every Monday! Stay tuned for more Rise of the Warrior of Everfen***