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Before we begin,
for those unfamiliar, "FTR" stands for "First Time Reading".
Please feel free to register your FTRs with the friendly dragon above.
She isn't a guardian of treasure for nothing!
Enjoy reading. I will see you in Chapter 8.
--- Coris Hadrian
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The sun had disappeared behind the castle's hill. Tonight, Crosset prayed, would mark the end of the famine.
Darkness chased them, swallowing the men in the rear as they wound around leafless trees, batted aside low-hanging branches and sloshed through muddied, half-melted snow. Crossbows and pitchforks jostled on their backs, falling loose from makeshift rope harnesses.
Bailiff Johnsy's plan was straightforward—get the boy, and they would get food.
He didn't give any directions for everything in between.
Each man had given up the last of his oil to keep Draken's lamp alive, and he'd burned most of it leading them in circles. It may be wise to pour what little was left onto kindling and wait out the night, but how many more of their children, women, and elders would succumb to hunger that night?
No, it all ends tonight.
The lamplight illuminated a fallen tree on their path. Even sideways, its girth reached Draken's midriff. Draken sighed in relief at the marker, set his lamp on the log, and prepared for the climb. He'd swung one leg over the curve of the trunk when a commotion broke out behind him.
"Move it, pig! Or I'll snap your neckbone in half!"
The hulking bald man snarled as he gave the leash another vicious tug. The fat little boy at the other end of the rope lurched forward. His muddied face contorted in pain as the leash's noose cinched tight against his windpipe. Once he'd regained balance and breath, he surfaced with a sneer,
"Spare me your empty threats. You need me alive to bargain with my father."
The boy's eyes gleamed silver with bravado, but he couldn't staunch the tremors bleeding into his voice. Smirking, the man hunkered down before his hostage,
"Your body does mighty fine, I say. Skinned, quartered, butchered, diced. Fried in lard scraped from the wall of your belly. First meal in weeks for me boys—"
"—First and last, Krulstaff!"
Draken marched over as the boy blanched in terror. Krulstaff spun around. Draken told himself to stand firm as he locked eyes with the giant,
"Chione ain't even half done with us. We keep the boy safe in Crosset, his father keeps us fed through winter. That's the plan!" He explained to his troublesome neighbor for the umpteenth time. Krulstaff rolled his eyes at the Heights.
"Why don't you give me that, Armorheim?" He spat, his spade-like hand swiping for the lamp. "Unlike your son-of-a-whore in Meriton, me sons are dying while we muck around in this blithering forest!"
Blood drained from Draken's wind-battered cheeks. He snatched Krulstaff by the collar,
"Don't you dare—!"
The other men hauled Draken off Krulstaff before he retaliated.
"He's got a point, Draken," huffed Brodel the Butcher. His free arm hooked firmly around Draken's, he indicated the sniffling boy with his pig-butchering knife, "Dun need him awake. We'll move faster with this manure sack on our backs than oozing down here."
Draken glanced at Brodel, swallowing his anger as he remembered all that was at stake. Heaving a frustrated sigh, he gestured carelessly at the boy,
"Cuff him one on the noggin—with the handle, mind! And give Krulstaff the blade if he dun't shut it about me son."
After one last glare at the seething Krulstaff, he barked at the remaining men, "Move out!"
Before Brodel even took one step towards their squealing captive, the sharp crack of a breaking branch tore through the silence. The men turned as one to the wall of trees. Crossbows raised and pointed, they slowly retreated—then an arrow sprung from Krulstaff's bow.
"For the love of—!"
The scream of a young girl drowned out Draken's feverish curse. He knew that scream!
"Meya? That you, lass?"
Draken dashed in to see to the poor thing, but a gust of wind sent him flying backward as something barreled past, crashing through the trees to land before them.
A blinding flash of white, then the shroud of night swallowed the forest whole. The moon hadn't risen. Their lamp was lost. The only pinpricks of light were two disembodied, glowing green eyes hanging in mid-air above their heads.
The eyes darted in unseen sockets, glaring at each man spread out below as though the being saw them clear as day, then blinked out as it issued a roar of rage and pain.
The ground shook. Trees shuddered. Startled birds fled into the night. Out of the black, a fan of orange flames blasted toward them. The kidnappers flattened themselves to the snowdrift for dear life as bone-melting heat scorched the tips of their hair.
The inferno collided with the trees behind. Dying branches burst into flames, flooding the clearing with light, but the sight that greeted the men had them wishing to be cast back into the dark—
A reptilian creature armored in gleaming metallic scales. Trees trampled like hay under gigantic silver claws. Acid-green eyes blazed above a long, narrow muzzle. Tendrils of smoke trickling out between silver fangs.
Its claws carved deep welts into the earth as it spread its leathery wings wide. It dashed forth, snatching the stunned young boy between its talons and soaring off towards the west, trailing the boy's pathetic screams as it disappeared into the night sky.
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Check out the COVER and CHARACTER DESIGNS for Luminous, courtesy of
artist Aximetrik (https://www.instagram.com/aximetrik__/) !
Copyright© 2020 Anchisa Utjapimuk (jeidafei)
All rights reserved. No portion of this book maybe reproduced in any form without permission.