Despite the violence with which Jurgen’s life was extinguished, besides Theseus’s cries, the night remains eerily silent — even as the shadows at the edges of Ellie’s fragile circle of lamplight thicken. They cluster over the blood in the snow, more drawn to Jurgen’s fading screams, but one’s gotten the taste for Theseus now, and it won’t be so quick to give up its prey.
They let Ellie keep trudging on, occasionally creeping into her circle of light to test how much fight she has left in her, how hard she can continue to swing that torch and hold them at bay. As time passes — seconds? Minutes? It’s meaningless in this seemingly endless darkness — the attacks grow bolder. Two of the shapeless forms surge forward to attack from either side, aiming to force her to choose which of them to thrust the torch at first. Another launches itself at Ellie from behind, aiming to slash and catch at her ankles to bring he down to to ground.
Like a bolt from the blue, a feathered form dives out of the sky, slamming into the monster coming up behind Ellie — a streak of flame trailing after it. It’s a bird of some kind, carrying a burning piece of wood in its beak that it savagely drives into the creature under it. It lets out a hideous sound, and the light smothers out on contact with its body, but not before it dissipates.
Ellie won’t have long to dwell on it, though. There’s a flash of magic then a man is beside her, grasping at her arm and holding a fresher, blazing torch in his hand, scarf wrapped around his face. Obviously one of the guards, maybe even from the outpost she’s trying to get to, and he holds a steel blade in his hand. The bird goes winging back up to the sky, circling, temporarily gone from sight.
“Drop the wolf and hold on to me!” His gravel-rough command comes through his scarf, muffled, as he warily assesses their surroundings to see if the attack has discouraged their enemies or only made them bolder. “The spell can’t take you both!”
somehow, i don’t think ellie is gonna go for this idea
They let Ellie keep trudging on, occasionally creeping into her circle of light to test how much fight she has left in her, how hard she can continue to swing that torch and hold them at bay. As time passes — seconds? Minutes? It’s meaningless in this seemingly endless darkness — the attacks grow bolder. Two of the shapeless forms surge forward to attack from either side, aiming to force her to choose which of them to thrust the torch at first. Another launches itself at Ellie from behind, aiming to slash and catch at her ankles to bring he down to to ground.
Like a bolt from the blue, a feathered form dives out of the sky, slamming into the monster coming up behind Ellie — a streak of flame trailing after it. It’s a bird of some kind, carrying a burning piece of wood in its beak that it savagely drives into the creature under it. It lets out a hideous sound, and the light smothers out on contact with its body, but not before it dissipates.
Ellie won’t have long to dwell on it, though. There’s a flash of magic then a man is beside her, grasping at her arm and holding a fresher, blazing torch in his hand, scarf wrapped around his face. Obviously one of the guards, maybe even from the outpost she’s trying to get to, and he holds a steel blade in his hand. The bird goes winging back up to the sky, circling, temporarily gone from sight.
“Drop the wolf and hold on to me!” His gravel-rough command comes through his scarf, muffled, as he warily assesses their surroundings to see if the attack has discouraged their enemies or only made them bolder. “The spell can’t take you both!”