Forgotten Embers

Chapter 23: Shadow Beasts

'Hm...' Benjamin crouched down, sitting back on his heels beside the freshly laid soil and examining the new growth. 'It shouldn't be much longer now.'

The clouds moved out of the way of the sun, warming his face and illuminating the gardens.

He smiled. 'That should help.'

He stood to his feet, turning his face upward and closing his eyes, soaking in the brilliant sun of the afternoon, and he watched the light seep through his eyelids. When he opened his eyes, the sky was a brilliant blue, painted with white clouds moved by the wind. He looked to the west as the wind blew eastward. Silver storm clouds loomed in the distance, making their slow march towards him.

'A storm then.' He looked back to the bright green sprouts peaking out above the soil. 'The rain should help, also.'

He thought to return to the library, but something stopped him, catching his glance as he turned. There, in the distance among the trees, there was a strange mist like a dark cloud of smoke moving quickly over the forest floor and out into the open field. His muscles tightened and he felt his stomach twist as a burst of adrenaline rushed through him.

'That can't be good.'

The mist came rolling like waves from the woodlands, passing through the line of foliage and surrounding the trunks of the trees with an eerie haze of deathly darkness. It continued to expand into the field and began to envelop the grass far off in front of him. As it approached, he could see the image of two beasts running in the midst of the darkness. Their slender forms were like that of wolves crafted from smoke and shadows, their bodies a clouded phantom grey, and their piercing eyes a glowing purple which pulsated through them.

'What are those...?'

He turned and ran as fast as he could back towards the main doors of the library, the creatures following behind him with unnatural speed, vanishing and reappearing as they came nearer and nearer. He rushed onto the steps and up to the portico, propelling himself forward towards the doors and desperately grabbing hold of one of the handles. Still, the beasts were racing towards him, speedily closing the distance between them.

He lunged forward as he threw the door open, compelling himself through the doorway onto the floor inside and slamming the door shut behind him with a single fluid motion. He stayed on the ground, supporting himself with one of his elbows and looking back towards the doors, his heart beating as he breathed heavily, catching his breath.

'Some sort of shadow creatures... doubtless, some sort of sorcerer's magic, but... it's nothing like I've ever seen, unless...' he looked down at the bandages wrapped around his arm and his teeth clenched. 'Lord, I hope not.'

He watched as the strange mist captured the world outside the windows of the library's main hall. It began to rise and thicken until the sunlight fled and the room was held in darkness. He could hear the beasts on the portico, their soft steps and heavy breath a sound of threatening to their helpless prey. He felt his chest tighten, and he began to slowly push himself backwards, away from the doors and the bloodthirsty horror of the animals behind them.

He glanced back at the fire which burned in the bronze brazier behind him.

'You'll have to help me.'

Everything stopped. The beasts howled, and there was a brief silence.

'Is that... it, then?' He paused, hesitant to believe it. 'No, but the mist is still here thickening.'

He had begun to raise himself to his feet when a deep pain suddenly entered his left arm, finding its focus in his wrist. It was a pain like needles which tore at him with the ferocity of an animal biting at his flesh and erupted, quickly breaking through his skin and muscles, entering his veins and filling them with the fierce burning of acid, each cell of his very blood bursting forth into a source of terrible agony and rehabilitating pain. He let out a terrible scream, grabbing tight hold of his arm with his other hand as he fell to his knees, writhing in pain.

"Yaaaaaaaa!" he cried again, and the mist darkened, beginning to seep through the cracks between the doors, entering between the door and the threshold.

He was still doubled over in pain, holding his wrist and pressing his fingers into the bandages with force, wishing to pull the insides out and somehow stop the pain. He couldn't think. He couldn't move. There was only pain and burning. He clenched his teeth tighter, wanting to scream again, but unable to think to manage. Instead, he dug at his arm with his thumb and fingers and let out a low sound of painful moaning, his breathing coming near to a whimper.

"Save me," he choked the words out through his pain, "lest I die. The pain is too much."

The wolves howled again, and the pain left him altogether. He breathed a sigh of relief and began to cry, falling forward on his hand.

"Thank you," he muttered, pressing his watering eyes.

He heard the sound of ghostly wind, and he raised his head again, watching as the two magical wolf-like creatures materialized in front of him, fading into view from the nothingness of the air. They were grey ghosts with ornate markings which pulsated purple and glowed like their menacing eyes, blind and without features. There was a circle on each of their foreheads with lines beneath their eyes and up their pointed ears. Each dog had stripes on either side of their bodies which ran from snout to tail and a circle at the connection of every joint to its body. They growled, bearing their needle-like teeth, their sharp ears pointed back as they crouched as if to pounce.

He felt his heart skip a beat, and he exhaled sharply, caught in the tremors of shock and terror. He felt his voice forming in the back of his throat, but he was lost for words, and what came out was an inhuman gargling sound of muddled terror.

"What is this?" he voiced through clenched teeth in frightful terror.

A shot of adrenaline came, and he jumped quickly to his feet, cautiously backing away from the beasts and their threatening. "Yaa-aaaa!" he breathed nervously. 'What is this?'

He felt his heart quicken. "Again," he said, "please help," and with that he spun himself around, propelling himself forward, and began a mad dash back into the rows of bookshelves.

The wolves sprang forward, following fast behind him, their breath at his heels. He ran forward, faster than he'd ever ran, and stretched out his arm, hurling books down at them as he knocked them from the shelves, but they continued forward, bounding at him, nipping at his pants and ankles.

He grabbed a bookshelf and spun himself around to the next isle, changing direction. The wolves pounced at him in the moment when he paused, sending themselves forward and barreling clumsily into the shelves behind him, stunned for a moment as they fell flatly to the ground. He continued on with a short glance behind them. The wolves had begun to recover, slowly regaining their footing and positioning themselves again for the chase. He saw their purple eyes open and their jaws snapped at him with an unsettling bark of threatening agitation. He kept on, hastily making his way to the bookshelf with the corridor to the chambers below ground.

'Come on...'

He pressed the button at the flower center, and the bookshelf moved, the stairwell coming quickly into view. Relieved, he let out a breath and placed his hand against the wall to the side of the stairwell. He breathed and his heart warmed, his blood like a warm honey flowing through him.

'Please, help me... I trust.'

The light came like fire, filling the cracks in the stone and igniting the lamps as it flowed out before him.

He smiled, happily relieved. "Ha," he breathed with shallow breath. 'Thank you.'

He made his way swiftly downward, lightly proceeding from step to step with uncommon speed and careful stride.

'I must believe that it's my blood they're after. If I could only get to Kypher or Justice...'

As he went, the passage closed behind him, and he heard clearly as the wolves howled.

He closed his eyes. 'Oh no...'

"Yaaaaaa!" he screamed, the same pain again returning.

He stumbled, having lost his footing, and tumbled down the stairs, crashing violently into the wall and dropping to the ground below him.

"Yow..." he groaned.

He pushed away from the narrow wall and turned his battered face upward.

'Right, then. No more defensive maneuvers... for my health.'

He closed his eyes tight and blinked, fixing his glasses. The howling had ceased and, when he opened his eyes to see again, the mist had already begun to fill the passageway, the wolves materializing at the top of the stairs, their sights fixed steadfastly upon him.

He waved his arm and fire flew out towards them, causing them to shrink back. He smirked, pulling himself to his feet.

"Thanks for not breaking my glasses," he said with a sly smile, pressing his back against the wall.

'Come. Here I stand. Jump at me.'

The wolves pounced, looking to spring on him, but he patiently waited and fled quickly to the adjoining hall, leaving them to crash helplessly into the stone wall of the underground, leaving them stunned for a moment and buying some time.

He ran through the halls in a dead sprint, anxiously looking behind him for the hounds to follow. Again, the wolves appeared behind him, jumping out from the stairwell and bounding after him, effortlessly pursuing down the hall.

At once, he heard the sound of frantic footsteps, boots hitting hard against the floors beneath them, and he looked to a room up ahead of him.

"How about a hand there, Ben?" Kypher said, sliding from the doorway, and turning quickly, running past him to meet the beasts head on, his sword already in hand.

"Or two!" Justice added, coming barreling from farther down the hall, his sword drawn and at the ready.

"Appreciated!" he called back after them as they went rushing past him into battle.

"We heard you scream," Kypher told him, "figured it couldn't be good, and thought you might like some help."

"Very much! Thank you!" Ben called back to them, pausing to watch their fight.

"You handle the right, and I'll take the left," Justice suggested.

"You've got it, Atti!" Kypher replied with his usual lighthearted enthusiasm.

The two rushed at the beasts, swinging their swords with the same skillful display of strength and stunning precision which he had come to expect of the well versed fighters. Their sparking blades flashed with the light of the lamp fires burning as they sliced at the beasts and their swords passed through them.

The ghostly shadows of the beasts' clouded coats appeared to move with the swing of the men's swords, being pulled by the force of the wind, and they paused, suspended in their stride, neither moving forward nor falling to the ground, but they became as living statues before them. Then, within seconds, the smoky essence of the beasts' gaseous forms pulled back into place, and they began again as if unaffected, the stride of the beasts returning with the same speed and velocity as before the time of their suspension.

"What?" Kypher exclaimed as the beasts hit the ground in the midst of a powerful run.

"Even with the pyrite..." Justice muttered, considering the thing.

'Impossible...'

The dogs jumped up at the two men, coming at them with force as they sprung forward, continuing their run. They braced for impact, pulling their swords back at the ready, but the two beasts never impacted, instead phasing through their bodies with spectral indifference.

He froze. 'They're only real to me.'

"Run, Ben!" Kypher called out to him, turning around after the shadow creatures.

He did run, but too late. The beasts sounded a chilling call as they pounced on him, shrill and deafening, and a swirling portal opened up behind them as a stormy grey and purple vortex.

"What?" Kypher exclaimed again.

"It's magic, Kypher," Justice proclaimed dryly. "Sorcery."

The hounds leaped on Benjamin's back, digging their claws into his flesh as they knocked him violently to the ground. He fell under the weight of their force. He tumbled, and he felt the pain as his face and battered body hit against the stone covered ground, skidding and scraping his ivory skin.

"Aaa!" he let out a momentary cry, the beasts pinning him to the ground and pressing the weight of their paws against his head and body as they sniffed him.

He felt the power of the vortex pulling him backwards, and he tried to grab hold of the ground, but the wolves grabbed hold of him with their needle-like fangs and began to drag him back, their eyes and markings glowing red like blood.

He closed his eyes. There was pain, and then... there was light and the familiar sound of the rushing of flame. The wolves released him, lifting their heads, and he opened his eyes as he felt the warmth pass over him.

"Curse these villainous blood hounds!" a familiar voice chided from the far end of the hall with disgruntled agitation.

Benjamin looked up at the determined face of his friend and let out a sigh of relief, his body relaxing as he rested his face back against the cool of the floor. 'Thank you.'

"Webber!" Kypher excitedly exclaimed.

"Gentlemen," the man acknowledged with a faint smile of greeting.

"We thought you might be in need of assistance," the light voice of a woman pleasantly stated as its owner walked out into the hall beside him.

"Dorcus!" Kypher happily proclaimed.

She laughed. "Hello, Alexander."

"Excellent timing," Justice remarked.

"Just in time is a little late for my liking, but..." she looked to her partner.

"I'm afraid it's all that I can manage," he replied with apologetic embarrassment.

Benjamin felt the pointed pressure of the wolves' feet as they walked on him and growled, crouching low to the ground and baring their teeth with barks of menacing warning as they positioned themselves between him and his newly arrived companions.

"Oh, hush!" Dorcus upbraided, chastising the hounds, and the beasts' mouths shut.

"We'll have to shut that," Eliezer said, considering the portal.

"It should vanish with the beasts," she thoughtfully informed him.

"They don't appear to be fond of the fire," he observantly remarked.

"No, I can't imagine they would be," she replied, voicing her agreement.

"Well, then..." he said, bringing his hand before his face. "By order of the King, I hereby order your immediate dissolution." He stretched forth his hand and fire flew from it, consuming the creatures in the radiant heat of sparkling light.

The wolves cried and whimpered, collapsing into lifeless heaps of ghostly shadows, their red eyes quickly fading into darkness. Their bodies decayed rapidly, smoke like vapors rising from their fading forms, and the portal vanished along with them, as Dorcus had said.

Benjamin pulled himself up from the ground to his feet as he watched the beasts' destruction with awe, and he moved his eyes to his friends, who smiled at him.

"Yeah, we got them!" Kypher cried out in joyous celebration with overwhelming exuberance, jumping and pumping his fist.

"Good show, Webber," Justice said simply with his usual understated gladness. "Well done."

"Please," Eliezer said humbly, his face flushed with embarrassment, "what did I do?"

'That's twice in two days...' Benjamin looked to him and smiled with appreciative gratitude. "Thank you," he said, bowing himself.

Dorcus ran and hugged him. "Ben," she said, "are you alright?"

He smiled, returning the loving gesture. "Quite well," he quietly assured her. "Thank you."