It was a long way down from the rafters. Janny had elected not to come, in favor of protecting the torch, below. So, I watched in breathless terror as the supposedly flying animal strangled a treetop to an inch of its life to keep itself upright.
Its four wings flapped like mad to hold its position. The trunk bowed heavily under its tremendous weight. Its eyes gleamed with furious intent; as if a bed of coals smoldered inside those ocular portals. It glowered down on something. It was too far to tell, but it seemed like there was a creature in the middle of that great, flat green; frozen in either fear, or desperation to escape the predator's malice. Then, the titan spoke, with a voice that was all gravel, and no molasses.
"It isn't as difficult as you might think, child..." he boomed, like a monsoon asks permission to enter a shelter of reeds and stone; knowing full well that the structure has no recourse but to be subsumed in its winds and rain. "I tir-re of these games, and my patience is a ver-ry r-rare thing to waste."
My heart leapt from my chest. Hell... His voice was so utterly final, as if my entire genetic structure was designed from the ground up to heed his order, without any objection. I couldn't stand before him!
I felt a miserable shame at the thought; remembering how vast my spirit was enkindled, only a few moments ago. The juxtaposition between that mentality and the current was so stark, it bordered on paradoxical. I knew, if those glowing red beacons of fire turned their gaze upon me, that I would have folded in seconds; not minutes. My only salvation was in that he had yet to even notice I was there. I marveled at the target of its gaze. What was that thing?!
They seemed to be vaguely bipedal, with their arms and legs splayed out like a star. Its furry coat of tans and brown stripes looked so familiar, like it had stolen the very clothes off of Rilah's back.
Its limbs were outstretched, with digits spread wide like a ward against this apparent evil.
I didn't understand how it had stayed alive for so long.
If I didn't know better, I'd think that they were Rilah; but that was impossible. Those leaves may appear solid, but it was truly just a thin veneer of fragile leaf coverage supported by twigs and stems. Even Rilah couldn't hope to float on the surface like that, no matter how clever she was.
Fimbs was a much more experienced climber, so she had to climb down from her scouting perch in order to be within earshot of eachother. We wouldn't dare shout with such a ferocious predator waiting only yards away. Now was merely the time to observe the way he hunted. Perhaps it might give us a clue as to where it may have deposited our friend.
"Zoel!" she hissed, pointing to the figure stretched out across the delicate leafy platform. Given what was at stake, I took the risk to dislodge my hand from the surface of the tree for just long enough to hold a finger to my lips. I absolutely couldn't gamble on being noticed by that loathsome curse.
We were sitting swallows in the limbs like this. She switched her hold, and walked her body around the trunk in a way that allowed her head to swing about to come closer to mine; so that her whole body clung upside down.
'Show off,' I thought to myself; a little astonished, a lesser bit jealous, and a greater part impressed at the acuity with which she scaled the tree. She scaled like a gecko; clambering upon icicles with their non-slip cling pads.
I opened my mouth to whisper something teasing to that effect, but she shook her head, and put her lips to my ear. I flushed at the sudden proximity of her face to mine... The ordeal of the smile that she carved into my head, before, was something I had not fully recovered from.
What she said, though, wrenched my eyebrows fast. "Rilah is here! Hurry, she's right there!"
"What?" I asked, innocently enough. I didn't initially understand the words. I wanted to laugh it off, and point out her mistake —considering I had almost mistaken the shape on the surface of the green for a human myself— but a pang in my heart told me to look again, first... just to be sure.
Before I could turn my head, though, I watched horror fill my partner's face, as the nightmare fell upon the figure on the green. Its talons were broadswords; its wings, a guillotine. By the time I finished the motion, a rancorous clang resounded, as the massive creature met the surface of the green. It was over. A rush of wind reached me from the moment of inertia, and threatened to tear me from my uncertain perch. Violently, the treetops churned, and swayed. It felt like a tornado had touched upon our precarious scene. Susurrus turned to psithurism, then stillness.
Yet, despite the speed and accuracy of the strike, I marveled at what was shown... The creature was still there! Impossible. Even the green had barely been jostled.
"What?! How?!" I strained to peer moderately closer.
It was still difficult to register fine details from the distance we were, but I could clearly see all the hallmarks of a human being. I actively searched for anything that could disqualify her, but it was a fool's errand.
Four limbs, in regular proportion, a disheveled mop of honey-golden hair draped over an oblong skull, face-down so that I cannot verify a snout or muzzle, and the tail that I assumed had been tucked to the leeward side could even be explained away as a trick of the shadows in the dying sun. A faint shimmer surrounded her diminutive frame, like a haze of heat above smoldering coals.
My heartbeat rushed, and I swallowed hard. "R-rilah...?!" It was a plea; a prayer; a hope beyond all sense, and rationality.
The scene grew awash and cloudy as my vision swam in a font of tears. I blinked them clear for only a moment's reprieve, before the accursed flood stole the glory of her body away from me, again. Tears streamed down my face, as I sobbed in desperation; biting my lip in a vain hope to muffle my relieved, and desperate cry.
"No, no no no no!" Fimbs chided, anxiously. "You have to keep it down!"
"I'm sorry..." I whimpered, my words staccato in between the hitching breaths made inconsolable in my exhausted state. "I can't see her clearly, so please. Please, tell me if she's okay. Is she breathing?!"
"Calm down, we can't—" she urged, glancing back at the black being that was bigger than the glade's village hall; who was simpering heedlessly into a monologue that seemed to confirm our initial projections.
"Give it up. No one is coming, child. Do you r-really think that anyone w-would be so foolish? Not in ow-er ter-erritor-orry. Your people ar-rare weak. They believe you dead, child. And soon, you w-will be! Unless you come. With me. W-willingly." he finished, seemingly proud of the bastardization of our language that he had just displayed.
A deep, throaty laugh—one that sounded much like a mortar and pestle as it ground corn into meal flour—vibrated the air in my lungs, even from this distance; sending all the canopy residents finally scattering into the shade. It was getting more and more impossible that Rilah was still alive.
"Uwlak, ulak, uwak, uwlak, kwalk, uwak, lauk, lawk." He cawed, the recognizable sound perverted in his fowl voice. "Walk, caulk, ualk, wak." His call forced shivers through my body in a way that I didn't entirely understand; and like a trained hound, I cowed while he boasted.
He couldn't have made it clearer. For whatever reason, he needed Rilah, and she was impossible to take by force. Which meant, this was evidence that she was still alive. My heart sang at the thought! After all this time, the slightest hint to the unfutility of my quest was almost ecstatic, but it seemed that fortune wasn't yet satisfied. I noted movement in the supposed corpse.
Even through the veil of tears, I wouldn't mistake that motion for anything in the world, as she lifted her head in the shallowest of defiant gestures. She shook her head slowly, and said something that stopped his celebrations short.
"W-what?!" he shouted, though you could hear the teasing sneer in his voice, even without the benefit of a mouth to curl into a smile. "You could not be more pathetic. Do not confuse arrogance with bravery, child. The choice is to come now, or-r perish. I w-will find another, if you make me."
She spoke again, and the feathers along his back visibly ruffled. I couldn't believe it. I was seeing a human, negotiating with a creature of the forest!
I asked, hopefully, "Wh-what is she saying?! I can't make it out!"
My friend just looked helpless in return. She was just as far away as I was. Then, as if to signify her resolution with the issue, she began the descent to the ground. Janny would have to be informed of the developments.
Sighing, I understood that she was probably making the right decision at the moment, and was chagrined to follow behind her.
That is, until I heard the creature say something that stopped me in my tracks.
"Zoziii? Was that his name? Lawk, wauk, lauk! He would never come for you! I saw. He r-ran off. Like all the humans always do. W-when in the presence of actual strength, the prey will have no choice, but to flee! I'd bet that he is mourning you as we spea-"
"No!" I bellowed, loud enough to send another scattering of the layer's fauna in a flurry of fur and feathers. I could endure many things, but I would not let Rilah give up on me. "He's wrong, Rilah! I'm here! I'm right HERE!!!"
And in a fractional instant, the stolid form of his incomprehensible girth became a streak of blackened midnight stain, as the top of the tree that I was hanging onto was cleanly shorn from its trunk by a pair of mythrill, razor sharp talons, which were as wide in thickness as any doorway of a home is tall.