Leo and his companions had decided to take the road by foot. They traveled for several hours into the late morning before they stopped to take a rest. They hadnt exchanged very many words. Simply walking. Leo thought on his dream.
How odd? How did the demon know he was coming? He had never met him before. So this was his enemy...?
Twilight spread his wings and left them for awhile to go hunting. He hadnt really eaten much in the 2 days they had traveled and a couple of good sized deer sounded like a treat.
While they sat there by the stream they had happened upon, Leo drew scribbles into the dirt with a stick.
Sateria sat down beside him.
"You haven't been very social. Care to talk?"
Leo looked over at her.
"Its not something I want to talk about," he replied.
"It's just playing over and over in my mind. It felt too real. I could feel it all. We clashed. He seemed strong. I don't know if its a gift or a curse. But I think we actually spoke. Being that as it may I've never seen him before."
"What did he look like?"
Sateria placed her hand on his.
Leo opened his mouth to describe but he froze.
"His eyes..." He said slowly.
"His eyes were evil. They look like that of a demonic nature that thirsts for blood. He lusts to kill. Its just cruelty. Theres nothing good there...."
He looked over toward the stream. Jasper could be seen squatting by the water looking down at the small fish that traversed it.
Around them the sound of crickets and birds chirping filled the air. The sun was high in the sky as if to say it was afternoon.
"Let's have some lunch," Sateria said in a soft tone.
"Gotta keep you fed so you can be nice and strong for dealing with that psycho."
She stood up and walked to the bank of the stream to dig through her bag for rations.
Leo stood up and joined the two of them.
"Might as well enjoy it," he said.
"Twilight will be awhile."
Hours later as the sun began its descent from its noon peak high in the sky, Twilight still hadn't returned. Leo took a bite from a bread loaf and stowed it away in his pack.
"Yeh I don't know when Twiligh will be back. So I think its almost time for us to get back on our way. He'll see us from the air."
Hours went by as the three companions travelled the road. Its lack of use over the years had made it just as decayed as a corpse that had been left in the sun.
The cobblestone was cracked and full of weeds and tall grass. The breeze blew lightly and upon it, whispered the oncoming night.
Jasper bent down and picked up a flat stone and tossed it out toward the stream, watching it skip across the water. But just as they were about to continue, they froze at what came next.
A whistle from the opposite bank of the stream called out to them from within the trees. Leo stood there squinting his eyes.
Jasper crouched down looking over at the banks. Sateria had stopped a ways up the road and looked back at them.
"Whats the hold up?", Leo asked.
Sateria held her axe at the ready, stepping back toward them.
Leo blinked and looked back over at the opposite bank. And there it was staring back at them.
"By the Creator's hand, what is that?"
He slowly dragged his broadsword from its sheathe.
There stood a lone figure. Well not just standing there exactly but rather growing and transforming into a much larger more wicked thing.
Its head looked like that of an animal's skull.
Its body was half covered in fur and rags. What didn't have either was pale skin and rotten flesh. Its body snapped with its movements, accompanied by putrid growls of an unearthly beast.
It wasn't demonic....but it wasn't natural. This held some other unholy energy that none could quite explain.
The air grew thick with fog and a dark mist.
None of the companions knew what to do as they circled shoulder to shoulder, weapons ready and facing in every direction.
Everything was silent. The birds. The insects. Even the running water of the stream. It had grown colder than normal too.
They could likely hear a pin drop a mile away.
The silence was broken by a distant scream that made all their blood run cold.
Next was a shadow in the mist for only a second before appearing elsewhere.
A deathly swipe flashed across Leo's vision before he found himself writhing in pain, twirling through the air.
He let out a gasping grunt as he slammed into a tree not far off. Next thing he saw was the thing itself rushing toward him on all fours.
Having lost his sword in the little flight he just took, he instinctively went for his dagger.
Just as he had yanked it out, he was met with a spike that took little time to nearly reach his chest.
He rolled just in time to see the unnatural freak of life tearing its arm from the gravel.
For once he was actually scared. This creature looked like an undead, starved minotaur....with clawed feet instead of hooves. Its body contorted in ways that would make even a hardened soldier wince.
Its voice is absent aside from guttural clicks and snarls. He looked for his sword but couldnt see it in the fog.
"Hey Sateria? Jasper? HELP!"
He backed into the tree as the creature rushed toward him.
He shouted in horror as it closed in. It opened its jaws, displaying a gruesome number of excruciatingly long teeth in an ever growing void of a mouth.
"No....no. NOOO!....."
His vision blurred. He was surrounded by darkness.
"Oh...I suppose I'm dead now."
"Are you?"
A deep, familiar voice sounded behind him.
He turned and there stood a white dragon with glowing icy blue eyes.
"Why do you cower so willingly as if expecting your death to take you so easily? Have I chosen the wrong boy to share my soul with?"
Leo stood feeling slightly insulted. But the words struck him with the reality that whoever said it was right.
"Are you....?"
"Yes. I am Bærlon Dashâr. I believe I've introduced myself before.
And before you ask, in this moment I am rescuing you."
"How?" Leo asked in a demanding tone.
The dragon turns its head and gives him a stern side eye.
"By taking control and enhancing you. We've are engaged in battle while you and I have a little chit chat. We've done this before.
But soon I will only be able to come if you've reached for me. I will not continue acting on my own accord."
Leo nodded, knowing the dragon was essentially telling him that he was supposed to be in control. But he wasn't.
"What is that thing?", He asked regarding the being he and his friends encountered.
The dragon shook his head.
"A curse on the land, the Wendigo," he says with a shudder.
"Time can be cruel to lose and tortured souls.
And these are the victims of such circumstances. They turn into beings of horror that will prey on those who find themselves misguided enough to run into them."
The dragon lifts his head up and stares into the void.
"You will be tired. Your companions will be in awe. I give you this as a parting gift for now."....
Leo found himself engulfed in the flame of his power, shoving the wendigo into the wall of a cliff, driving the creature back with no effort.
He slammed his fist into the skeletal head, chipping it. Its black and red eyes searched for a way out but to no avail.
Leo was an unstoppable powerhouse of brute force now. He would not stop until he was finished killing this thing. Several good hard snaps and the wendigo released a final defeated scream before going limp.
Leo let it drop to the ground.
He wanted and cut off his connection to the power.
He fell to his knees, sweating and trying to catch his breath.
Jasper and Sateria walked up slowly behind him.
The wendigo was no more.
Its body crumbled to dust that withered away and floated off on the wind.
Leo turned to look at his friends.
Jasper's face remained expressionless.
Sateria gave a nervous smile and a wave.
"Its dead," Leo said between gasps of air.
"Lets take a little time."