The Fire Within (Pt. 2).
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Olivia, hands moving fervently, flipping pages in the manual.
Threat level 9.
Her pointer finger skims over texts as she reads them out loud, hands shaking in nervousness and uncertainty.
"An ancient predator, named after Norse mythology, blah blah blah... many headed wolf... radiates an unnerving madness, found to take it out on its prey... found hanging the dead from its tentacle like fur."
A repulsive fear settled in her voice.
It appeared as if reality fused centuries of nightmares to spew out a physical form. A grotesque, multi-headed creature sprawling across the forest floor, its body stretching and twisting, unfit to exist in nature.
The head of dogs, stitched together, sticking to the bow of the body, jutting out in all unnatural directions. Each one snarling, screaming or baring their teeth towards us. Their mouths gaped at different angles, some of their jaws opened impossibly wide, showcasing their jagged teeth sprawled across the rim of their mouths, each one the size of a human arm. One by one, a face would give us a twisted snarl, seeming almost animalistic, almost tortured, pleading to be set free from its shackles.
Clothed by a hazel fur coat matted together in uneven clumps, the chocolate mousse like fur blends in with the darkness of night. While beneath it, bodies hang, pierced by thousands of strands of hair coated by microvilli. Muscles torn, bones crushed, blood dried on the mangled corpses, making them look like unfinished creations slowly dissolving by acids.
The top of its head was nearing the top of the canopy, approaching five metres in height, towering over us like a monolith. Its body elongated horizontally, overgrown skeletal limbs protruding on the sides of its torso, reflecting a dim shimmer of their metallic nature.
The ground beneath it looked heavy and rooted as if fused into the environment.
It's been there for a while.
A deafening roar breaks the silence, dried leaves and loose dirt run away from the howling winds.
My bones became afraid. My body became heavy, like it would give out at any moment. My eyes were glued to the ground, no longer able to lift even a centimetre of the monster in view. My breathing became rash.
My dad calmly rises from his tree stump, resting a gentle hand on my head.
He tells me in his usual stoic tone, "It's gonna be alright," but this time it was slow, holding a heavy gentleness in his words. I can still see the bright smile he's giving me as I glance at his heels. It makes me feel warm inside.
He takes his bow off his back, arrow slotted, half pulled on the draw string. Only seriousness remained on his face.
"Iri, where are you going?" Uncle Mayim questions my dad's intentions with slight anxiety, "There's no way you'll fight that thing."
But Dad tells him, "Stay put and protect the kids, we can't escape cause of the river around us. I'll handle it real quick and be right back. This ol' man has some tricks up his sleeve."
A reassuring grin on his face as he turns his head to say, "Don't worry, I've killed this thing many times."
A lie, picked up instantly by Mayim, but he still believed in his brother's confidence that he would return. He always did. From every scrape, every fight, he always made it through.
Mayim kept the lie a secret to protect the kids. Iri had entrusted them to him, he was going to keep them safe. His mind calmed down from the million thoughts, no longer jumbled, lost, unguided, now focused on a goal. Stay here and protect the kids.
Dad lets out a beastly growl, charging in while continuing to yell his gibberish battle cries.
A vine of hair launches towards him, but it narrowly misses his body, as he returns an arrow into the eye of one of the heads.
His body zips through the trees, fusing into a blur of white and black. Moving like a living omen, he slashes using a small obsidian dagger along one of the vines, leaving behind a trail of blood, echoing ruin to the monster's existence.
His eyes held no warmth for the creature, only the calm certainty of someone who accepted that either one of them would die here. This fight was simply another form of survival of the fittest. Loading his bow with an arrow, he releases. The arrow collides with the incoming metal arm, chipping the arrowhead while creating a small dent in the arm, pushing its trajectory down by the slightest margin. The arm sweeps beneath his feet as he uses it to push off into the air.
His presence bent the air around him, not with brute force, but with precision honed from a life of experience, as if reality itself had already agreed to step aside. He was in the air.
Knocking half a dozen arrows, he glanced at Olivia and Solyn, they were his world, the people he was fighting for. And maybe also the other 3.
Solyn's face was mesmerised. It was the first time seeing her dad in real combat. Eyes wide open, her gaze was caught lingering on him, like she was trying to replay what just happened. Her mouth slightly opened in a childlike wonder, pondering if she would be able to do that.
Iri let go of the drawstring as he muttered to himself.
"Cute''
Saying it just quietly enough so no one else could hear.
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Uh, so chapter 3 was too long, so chapter 4 is now chapter 5, and chapter 3got split into chapter 3 and 4 again.