Page 29 of Of Realms and Chaos

“Can you feel it?” I asked Henry, hoping he realized just how successful—and dangerous—a situation we had found ourselves in.

Stories told us that we would face evil like the world had never seen. A beast larger than a cottage with razor sharp teeth and a love for the blood of men. It had consumed hundreds of unsuspecting or unwise mortals that found themselves within its vicinity in recent years. There was no surviving it according to legends. Which was the very reason we were here. Either risk our own deaths now or face the very real possibility that Eoforhild would fall.

“I feel it,” he answered, his heavy drawl a whisper in the wind. “The nearby village was evacuated when a group of men tried to scale these mountains. Those who chose to remain, the prideful and disbelieving, were slaughtered. Hundreds reduced to fat and flesh. Food for flies and wild animals.”

I blanched at his words, the image bringing back memories of Haven painted in gore to my mind.

My nerves got the best of me when a sharp crack sounded to our left. I jumped, smacking into Henry’s side. The Sun careened forward, his arms grabbing onto me and sending us both to the ground. We hit the rocky terrain hard, pained groans replacing comprehensible words momentarily.

“Watch where you are going!” he shouted once he caught his breath, knocking me off of him and onto the ground. I gasped, my outrage palpable.

“You were the one who knocked us over!” My bristling earned me nothing more than a glare as he stood, dusting off his trousers and not so much as offering me a hand up.

“Sorry that gravity exists,” he mumbled, straightening up to his full height. With a moan of annoyance, I smacked the ground and proceeded to stand as well.

“Gravity is for the weak. Learn to fly or move over.” Before he could think of a retort, a rock fell from somewhere ahead. The sound of stone hitting stone left both of us holding our breath. After a moment, we finally looked at one another. Henry’s eyes were wide, as if he were pleading for some sort of reassurance.

Sadly, I had none. Lifting my hands and shrugging my shoulders, I silently conveyed that I, in fact, had no fucking clue.

“Could be a ghost,” he whispered, eyes darting away from me to look around.

“Could be Luca,” I offered in the spirit of being delusional.

“It is not Luca.” His chiding tone had me leveling him with a look of disbelief, because how was what I said any less likely than a ghost? “Maybe it is friendly.”

“It mutilated two men last week. It is likely even less friendly than I am, and I have to fight the urge to castrate you daily.” A gasp of horror left his lips at my words, and I had to bite back the laugh that threatened to escape me.

“Oh, shut up and go,” he ordered, pointing in the direction of the sound.

“You go!”

“No, you go!”

In the end, I was the one who took the first step forward, sending my power out to search for any creature that might be prepared to brutally slaughter us. For the dalistori.

Something was there, though it was more of an afterthought. Like a feeling of hollowness that differed from the empty feeling of the non-sentient world. A blank spot where there should have been something more.

It is here. We need to head east.

Henry did not flinch when I spoke into his mind. He was used to the silent form of communication by now. With a stiff nod and a heavy breath, I began moving, the Sun on my heels.

The deeper we wove between the daunting mountains, the more my skin seemed to crawl. With the sun creeping closer to the horizon, we sped up. We had wasted far too much time at that tavern, relying on my ability despite my clear inadequacy when it came to interpreting the foreign tongue. Now we had to rush, my feet slipping on uneven rocks and Henry’s hands shaking with nerves as he took the lead.

“Are you sure you sensed it here?” Henry whispered as he turned to face me. I nodded, trying to conjure the words that would explain the feeling of such a thing. Before I could, another voice came, the haunting sound of it echoing like a melody of death.

“Yes, she did sense me here.”

Whipping my head in the direction of the voice, I caught sight of a pair of yellow eyes about five feet above our heads. The dalistori was nothing at all like the legends and rumors had suggested. What was described as a man-eating monster ten times the size of its prey was actually far less sinister in appearance.

“I see that my food has come hunting me for once. What an exciting turn of events. Do tell me why the two of you have traveled so far just to die.” Even the gravely and deep voice of the dalistori seemed less foreboding when paired with the form of it. I clenched my teeth together, determined not to voice my thoughts and struggling immensely.

It was just so…adorable.

“A cat?” Henry said, baffled. That was all it took for me to lose every one of my senses. I moved forward, desperately wanting to touch the silky gray fur of the feline creature above.

“I am not some domesticated pet!” it screeched, its tail and the fur on its back reaching up, but it did not attack.

It was small, barely larger than an average cat. It had wide, circular eyes the color of the setting sun behind us—a deep yellow that was nearly gold. Pointed ears stuck out of the top of its head, the inside of them the same soft pink as its little button nose.

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