Briony was petrified. She had only just met her father and now he would be taken away from her. She wouldn’t let it happen.
“Under the table...” Arion said quietly. Her voice fell away when a horde of terrifying creatures crawled through the splintered doorway, their teeth glistening with blood.
“They found a way past the arch,” King Eldan whispered in disbelief. The gremlins lunged for the remaining guards inside the room, tearing them apart with little effort.
One of the creatures spotted Briony and growled ferociously, standing on its hind legs to run at her, jaws agape. She fell back against the table and the sharp glint of a blade brought the creature down before it could reach her. King Eldan’s blade was stained with blood and she and Arion hurried to stand behind him. Briony wished desperately that she had something other than a fork to protect herself with. She really did seem to have the worst luck.
Suddenly, a barrage of gremlins hurtled towards the three of them and Briony stumbled back as her father took the brunt of their aggression. These beasts meant to kill them all, to extinguish the newly reunited royals and end Eldan’s line. Briony fervently wished she was back at her house, drinking coffee and watching scary movies. When did her life get so complicated?
Arion screamed and Briony pushed her out of the way as one of the gremlins leapt toward her. It landed on Briony’s chest, knocking the air from her lungs as she crashed to the moss-covered floor. Her fork clattered away, and the king looked at her as he fought away three of the ferocious creatures himself, absolute terror on his face. Arion ran at them, but a creature knocked her away, sending her halfway across the room.
The gremlin’s breath was nauseating as it snapped at Briony and she could see chunks of rotted meat between its sharp teeth, reeking of death and decay. She gagged, holding it away with her hands until her shoulders burned and ached. Tears streaked down her cheeks and she wondered if this would be how she died, stuck beneath a writhing monster dead-set on tearing her apart. Suddenly, the creature shrieked, and a warm sensation flowed over Briony’s torso as its body fell away. She took a breath and realized the creature’s blood was all over her, soaking her clothes and body. Cirro was standing above her, looking murderous, his hunting knife dripping. For a moment his eyes were feral, like a wild thing cornered within the banquet hall. He steadied his breath as he crouched down toward her.
“Did they hurt you?”
“No,” Briony told him, feeling a weight lift from her mind at the sight of him. When had his presence become so vital to her?
Cirro pressed a hand to her cheek, stroking his thumb softly beneath her eye to catch the tears. She rubbed them away quickly, embarrassed, and Cirro murmured, “It’s alright. It’s okay now.”
Cirro put his hand out and Briony got to her feet, catching sight of the gremlin bodies lying prone on the blood-stained moss. The rest of the guard must have followed Cirro and now the savage creatures were no more. King Eldan ran most ungracefully around the long table in his fine robe and looked his newfound daughter over, panicked.
“You’ll never know how grateful I am, Cirro,” he said, grasping her savior’s forearm in solidarity.
“Arion,” Briony cried, remembering her new friend’s still body lying on the other side of the room. She ran to her, kneeling down in her sullied dress and cloak. She felt for Arion’s pulse under the cool skin of her neck. “She’s breathing,” Briony murmured in relief.
The king’s defenders were in all corners of the banquet hall, some cleaning their swords, and others mourning their fallen comrades. Eldan ordered that Arion and the other wounded be taken to the infirmary, and a handful of servants tended to them, while others began the messy work of clearing remains from the hall. Briony leaned against the long table, in a partial daze as she took in the scene. Cirro took her hand gently, watching her.
“Well,” he said, his mouth turned up in an impish smile, “how did you like your first day as a princess?”
“Minus the flesh-eating, murderous gremlins, I think it went just fine.”
Cirro chuckled and Briony smiled back, her heart steady. She finally felt as if she was where she was meant to be. She was home.
Coming Soon!
Book II in the
Call of the Forest Realm Series:
__________________________________________________________
Daybreak
About the Author
Beryl Kelland has been dreaming up fantastical tales all her life and began writing them down as a way of sharing them with others. She loves reading, writing, and sipping coffee alongside a piece of dark chocolate. Beryl lives in the countryside with her husband and their menagerie of pets.
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First Light (Call of the Forest Realm, #1) Page 4
