Page 29 of Prince of Blaze and Embers
My butt fell to the ground, and my back rested against the mossy tree. A smile crossed my face. “Much.”
He picked his head back up as water dripped from his dark green beak. “You didn’t feel anything?”
“I felt like I was about to die, thank you very much!” I folded my arms over my chest and gave a fake pouty face.
“We’ve got to discover what it is that can awaken your Rune Spirit and call upon the Gilded Radiance. If fear can’t do it, then we’ll have to try something else.”
“I’ll do whatever you ask, Cornelius. I want to find it. I need to find it.”
“Perhaps more fear…” Cornelius bobbed his head in thought. “Yes. I should’ve conjured five heads, not three… I should’ve…”
While listening to his words and watching the ancient tortoise mutter to himself about ideas of what could awaken my magic… Something felt off.
There was something out in the forest, something focusing on me. I couldn’t see anything in the night forest, but the insects’ chirping faded. The winds howled as they whooshed through the swaying trees, and I felt that familiar stench of fear through my nostrils and into the back of my mind.
Cornelius didn’t notice anything, muttering about different methods to scare the magic into me.
I stood, glaring out into the forest, feeling the dark gaze upon me. I had no weapon, only the mysterious shelled creature beside me.
The strong wind gusted past, blowing my hair into my eyes and whipping at my neck. I brushed it back behind my ear, scanning the forest.
“I think we need to leave this place.” The words left my lips before Cornelius finished talking to himself.
“What’s that?” His head angled up toward me, but then, catching my drift, his head stooped, and he peered out into the dark woods before us. “Something out there?”
“Yes…”
“I don’t see anything.” His legs stretched and his shell raised, glaring hard into the woods.
A branch snapped. Somewhere before us in the silent Faewood, the snap broke the silence, and then another snap sounded. That one was harder, and I didn’t want to find out what was heavy enough to break such a thick-sounding branch.
“Um… Cornelius… that’s not you, is it?”
“No,” he murmured. “I think you’re correct about leaving this place…”
I turned and threw myself over the fallen tree as swiftly as I could. Another snap in the forest echoed, and then another. Whatever it was, was moving fast. I sent all my strength to my legs, knowing Cornelius could disappear. But I could not. My legs and feet moved as fast as they could. The golden light of the house glowed in the distance, seeping between the trees. It was over three hundred yards and through the dense forest.
As the snapping and breaking branches behind intensified, I heard the monstrous growl coming from my pursuer's chest and mouth. It panted, as did I, as my entire body filled with dread.
I ran as fast as my legs could carry me. My hands drove through the forest, trying to repel the branches and sharp twigs. One snapped back into my face, slicing my cheek. The warm blood dripped down my breeze-cooled cheek, but I didn’t have time to worry about that.
My escape slowed to a crawl as whatever huge, destructive monster behind me shortened the distance between us. The trees around me were too dense, and my pant leg snagged on a sturdy branch.
“Shit!” My fingers fumbled to tear my pants free. “Shit, shit, shit…”
The roar of the monster awakened everything in the forest. It was so loud, so powerful, and so dreadful that the canopy above awakened with hundreds of birds and bats escaping from it, flying up into the sky, away from whatever destroyed everything in its path to reach me.
I tore my pant leg free with both hands, turning to see my pursuer. Behind me were trees too dense to run through. I’d have to squeeze, which would take time and care, and whatever was nearly upon me would just barrel through. There was no time, and there was too much distance between me and the forest house.
“You’re gonna have to face it.” My hands balled into clenched fists at my sides. “If I ever needed you to return, Gilded Radiance, it’s definitely right now!”
I faced the danger. I barreled through the forest with the power of a hurricane. And when it emerged from the thick wood, standing on two legs in the moonlight, my mouth fell agape, my eyelids shot up, and beads of sweat poured down my brow, trickling off my eyebrows.
Looming monstrously before me, twenty yards out, was a monster that stood fifteen feet tall, with massive arms, enormous meaty hands, a solid round torso, and two stalky legs to heft its immense weight. Its eyes were dark, like two pieces of charcoal on its scarred pale face. Its mouth was too wide for its round head, its bulbous nose was blemished with flaking skin and warts, and its dark eyes were fixed completely on me.
“It’s an ogre! And a huge one at that!” I heard Cornelius’ voice behind me say.
I scrambled to search my core for the magic that had once come to me but had hidden like a snail sliding back into its shell. Terror shot down every inch of my body. My mind raced, going through all my options, which were far too few. Running didn’t work, there was no use in trying to hide now, and with no weapon—not that I’d have any sort of chance in the Infernal Depths with a sword against that thing—magic was the only option.
