Chapter 2 - Claws and Blood
Claws came against swords.
Canines against flesh and bones.
Arrows rained in the air.
More blood spilled against the walls and the floor, turning the celebratory white flowers into crimson.
Screams.
Growls.
Agony.
Chaos.
"Protect the Queen!" Haron ordered with fury in his voice, and it was only then that Ismena realized that she had being running towards him.
In a flash, Ismena felt herself being hoisted off the ground.
"Haron—-"
"I will come back to you." He charged into the chaos without looking at her.
The distance between them grew rapidly. Her heart drummed loudly with fear, her mind spilling with dread of something at the edge of it.
Then she was in the castle and just as the castle door slammed shut, she heard Haron yelled in pain.
That was when the dread became clear to her.
The image flashed vivid in her mind.
The Sunflower that did not glow.
Panic.
"NO! Take me back! Take me back!"
"Your Majesty—-" the Second said, not letting her go for a moment while he ascended the stairs.
"Take me back! Now!" Tears were starting to stream down her cheeks. She slammed her fists against his back but he did not budge.
"I cannot disobey the King's order. I will protect you with my life."
"He will die!" She snapped, her mind crashing on itself. "That is why the flower did not glow." Her voice broke. "It is because he will die by the hands of that monster."
"What flower?" He asked but she couldn't even hear him at that point.
"It didn't work!" her voice raised with fear. "None of it worked! Take me back—-"
The door flung open, making both of them halt, their attention instantly drawn to it.
Horror spilled in Ismena veins.
A wolf. Mightier than any she had ever seen. Black fur matted with red horror. Canines like jagged blades. Twlerrifyingly sharp claws that carved deep lines into the floor. Eyes of the devil… serpent red… and blood… all over it, there was blood.
Blood.
Whose…
Haron's yell of pain echoed in her mind and grief consumed her.
That monster had killed her husband.
"NOOOO—-" a scream tore through her just at the moment the Second put her down and shoved a blade dripping with thick black liquid into her fist.
"Run!" He said, as he pulled out his own twin swords and began to approach the monster. "You know where."
But his words were colliding with her grief, and she couldn't move. Her control over her own body seemed to have vanished. Instead tears kept spilling down her cheeks, her body shaking with hatred and a sense of loss too great for her to bear. Her lips trembled with the name of her husband.
Silent, yet too loud.
Haron.
He was dead.
Dead!
The flower had not glowed.
It had tried to warn her… but she…
Warn her?!
It was supposed to have worked but it didn't!
And now her husband was dead!
DEAD!
Woe unto everything!
"Your Majesty, run!" The Second's voice sounded like a strained echo in her thoughts. The misery was too much, her legs trembled from the weight of her.
"Live for the King!"
Live?
More tears.
But he was dead. Her Haron was dead.
"Live for Haron."
Growls.
Clashes.
"HE WANTS YOU TO LIVE!"
That snapped her back to reality.
She ran without looking back.
It would be too much victory for the monster for it to get to kill all of them.
She would not have it.
She would live today to kill that beast another day.
For Haron.
The grief gnawed at her but she forced it down.
For. Haron.
Ismena took a sharp turn, her feet moving too fast yet not fast enough. The echoes of the monsters growl filled the hallways, the Second shouting too, until the latter was gone, and all that remained was the monster's.
Ismena jammed her hand against the brick wall, forced to catch her breath. She looked back instinctively to see the shadow of the monster consuming the hallway. Quickly, her gaze snapped back to the wall, her hands moving the small bricks in an intricate manner already.
The shadow kept consuming the hallway.
Ismena's heart raced.
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
Closer. It was closer.
It was only a second but everything felt too slow to Ismena.
Things weren't happening fast enough yet that monster drew closer and closer!
A strange wind made the torches hanging along the walls begin to flicker rapidly.
Finally, the brick walls pulled open. Ismena jumped in, jammed he me hand against the golden lock trigger and watched the brick walls begin to close rapidly.
CRASH!
A force sent her crashing against the ground. Pain slammed into her head, her whole body wreaking with agony and shock.
And fear.
Absolute fear.
She struggled to rush to to her feet and run, her heartbeat almost deafening her.
But a force slammed her right back to the ground.
This time with a deadly presence..
A heavy paw against her chest.
Claws sinking into her flesh.
Face to face with a beast that would certainly kill her.