“I would like to spend quality time with you too, Clover. I’m just sorry it had to be at a time like this.”
“I’ll take any time I can get with you,” Clover assured, resting her head on his shoulder while her fingers laced with his. “And I mean it, I’m not taking my eyes off you. Especially if there’s even the remote chance I could lose you.”
“You’re not going to lose me, Clover. You’re not going to lose any of us.”
Clover nodded as she breathed out slowly, her eyes gazing ahead at the fallen centaur homeland with a remorseful frown coming across her face.
“I know exactly how she’s going to feel,” she softly said, with Daniel looking to her curiously. “I know how it is to lose one’s home. She’s going to be so torn up when she sees this.”
“We’ll be here for her,” Daniel assured, giving the elf’s hand a light squeeze. “She won’t be alone in her hour of need. Whatever happens to her in life, her family will be right there by her side the entire time to help her through.”
*****
“NO!” Kroanette screamed as loud as she could. All around the dark woodland monsters of The Sisterhood laughed as they watched the centaur being bound in sticky webbing by two arachne. The shrieking princess thrashed about in a futile attempt to get away as the arachne rolled her around while covering her body with their netting, her legs being pinned in place beneath her while her arms were held down at her sides.
“LET ME GO!” Kroanette cried out as she was turned around again and again, the arachne only responding with more laughter as they used their legs and hands to quickly wrap the centaur in a thick covering of sticky silk.
“She’s a real screamer,” a troll laughed.
“She’s big and fat,” a mite droned while drooling. “Lots of meat to eat.”
“Our leaders like that in their prey, don’t they?” a gremlin chuckled.
“Well they certainly liked the centaur empress who screamed like this,” an arachne replied with a shrug. “Perhaps they’ll fancy this one as well.”
“Wait, what?” Kroanette screamed as she turned her head to try to look at the spider. “What did you just say about the empress? What did you say?”
The monsters stopped spinning the centaur in their web and snickered while Kroanette struggled to budge.
“You don’t know?” one of the arachne asked. “You mean you haven’t heard?”
“Heard what? Explain yourself this instant!”
An arachne grabbed her hair and forced Kroanette to look up at her, the monster leaning closer with a sly grin while gently holding the centaur’s head with her other hand.
“Oh my, are you just now returning to Ruhelia from one of your little deliveries? You poor girl, you haven’t heard the news yet, have you?”
“What are you talking about?” Kroanette strained out as her head was being held at a painful angle.
“The centaur empress… is dead,” the arachne hissed in her face. Kroanette stared at her in shock as her heart skipped a beat. “Our glorious leaders devoured her on her throne room floor of her palace. Last I saw of her the old hag’s corpse was strung up in front of her bastion for all to see.”
“You see we were in Ruhelia a few days ago,” the other spider mentioned. “It was a lovely visit. So much to do and eat there. I had the time of my life eating a few of your precious children.”
“No…” Kroanette breathed out in horror. “You lie. You’re lying… you’re lying! You can’t… you didn’t… NO!”
“Heavens, no,” the arachne holding her gently replied. “I’m not lying at all. I was there when it happened. I saw it with my own eyes. The centaur empress had her innards ripped out until there was nothing left in her carcass. She’s dead, little horsie. She’s very dead.”
“NO!” Kroanette screamed as she thrashed around in her binds, her cries escalating further as tears started coming from her eyes. “It can’t be true! My home! My mother! No! You fucking demons!”
“Mother?” the arachne wondered. “Did you just say the empress was your mother?”
“Yes! She’s my mother! I swear to the heavens if you touched a hair on her head I’ll-”
Her head was yanked back by the spider, the centaur wailing in pain from her neck being bent sharply before seeing the spider chuckling at her.
“I never laid a hand on her. Our leaders however touched her all over. And inside as well. But if you don’t believe me you can ask them yourself, we’re taking you straight to them as a prized catch.”
“So sorry for your loss,” the other arachne laughed before they began spinning Kroanette around in their webbing again. “And I’m even sorrier you didn’t witness your mother’s cries of agony as our leaders ate her alive!”
“NO!” Kroanette shrieked. “MOTHER! NO!”
The monsters around laughed as they watched the centaur being wrapped up in the spiders’ netting, the girl screaming as loud as she could not out of fright now but rather sorrow. Kroanette screamed and cried as she was spun around before the arachne pulled the webbing across her mouth, muffling the centaur’s shrieks as she was nearly covered from head to tail in the sticky coating.
“I do have a bit of good news for you though,” the spider said holding the crying girl’s face towards hers. “I heard from some of my friends that there was another centaur who called the empress her mother. Did you by chance have a sister?”
Kroanette screamed into her gag while nodding, her eyes wide in terror as the arachne chuckled and leaned in closer to her.
“Well, you’ll be happy to hear that she was not eaten alive by our leaders, or any others in our little circle of friends.”
Kroanette whimpered and breathed sharply through her nose as the arachne showed a wicked smile while caressing the girl’s cheek.
“No, she wasn’t eaten. Instead she jumped out of the palace tower to her death,” she laughed, with Kroanette screaming loudly into her gag again. “Dropped like a rock into the river! So there’s something to be thankful for, right? She probably died instantly from the impact… unless of course she survived the fall and drowned instead. Oh well, at least she wasn’t eaten, right?”
Kroanette’s muffled shrieks only brought about more laughter from the dark fiends, all of them watching as the centaur wailed in agony as she was wrapped tightly in the webbing. The arachne chuckled and pinched the girl’s cheek playfully before waving the ogre over towards them. The lumbering giant stepped closer and picked up the bound centaur in one hand, the screaming girl then staring in fright at the groaning brute that watched her with a vicious scowl.
“Don’t crush that one,” the arachne ordered. “We don’t want her bruised or dead before our leaders get their hands on her. They want her alive so that she can scream while they eat her up after all.”
The ogre groaned and nodded then looked at her hand with a disgusted grimace as she shook the bound centaur about who was also stuck to her palm now. The monster leaned in to chomp down on Kroanette who continued to scream into her gag before a rock struck the face of the ogre, causing the brute to pause for a moment before looking down to see a troll shaking her head at her.
“What did we just say? Our leaders want that centaur alive. Don’t kill her.”
The ogre growled and nodded before shaking the sticky prisoner around a few times in annoyance.
“Alright, let’s collect the others we have nearby and return to camp,” another troll said waving them forward. “I’m starving. I could go for a bite and a good fuck from one of the men we have.”
“Me too,” a gremlin hissed. “All this scouting has worked up an appetite.”
The ogre groaned and started walking along with the other fiends, holding the screaming centaur in its hand while a few of the monsters continued laughing as they watched her crying. Kroanette shook her head and struggled to move, her body held firmly in place not only by the strong webbing of the arachne but also the muscular hand of the ogre. As she was carried off with
her captors her heart broke apart further and further by the second as she dreaded what the dark monsters had taunted her with being true.
‘Mother! Hollia! Maria! Ruhelia! This can’t be happening! Please, somebody wake me from this nightmare! DANIEL!’
*****
Hollia watched the sight of a few lanterns passing by quickly on the tunnel walls as she and her companions rode the rails with the ant girls in their underground convey. Glancing to those near her she saw Sasha examining the velarite she had procured from Mika’s home along with the sword that was once wielded by another reptile girl. Beside her Mika was looking down at the floor with one leg propped up and her arm resting on it, the hunter keeping her eye downward while she remained silent just as she had been during the entire ride back to the ant girls’ nest.
“How are you holding up, Mika?” Hollia asked, only getting a fleeting glance from the hunter in response. “When I lost my family and home I was a wreck for days afterward. But you appear to be focused still on the same day that you’ve lost so much. How do you do it?”
“I don’t have a choice,” Mika replied shaking her head. “It’s not like I’m holding up well on the inside at all. My home is destroyed. My sisters are dead. And my little brother could be as well if not worse. Inside I’m screaming in pain. My entire life has been taken from me all in one day.”
“You seem to be keeping your resolve rather well considering all that,” Hollia mentioned.
“That’s because crying won’t solve anything!” Mika shouted at her, catching the ant girls and centaur by surprise. “The only thing I can do is track down The Sisterhood, find out what happened to Max, and kill them all for what they’ve taken from me! I can curse my life and this world until the sun goes down afterwards, but until then I don’t have the luxury of giving up and going home. I don’t have a home to go to anymore, I don’t have any family left beside me. All I have is my revenge to seek out, and I will have it.”
“Heard that before,” Sasha said looking to Hollia. The centaur slowly nodded as she watched Mika lowering her head again, the hunter clutching her sword tightly while her other hand formed a fist.
“For our fallen family and homes,” Hollia proposed. Mika turned her eye up to see the centaur smiling a little at her. “Seeking revenge is something we share in common. It’s nice to know a sorceress like you shares the same path as I do.”
“Why’s that?”
“It will be a big help to have your magic fighting on our side.”
Mika watched the centaur in silence then looked back down while her hair fluttered in the wind, not saying a word as she thought about the path she was on now very carefully.
The clacking of the wheels rolling beneath the group of monsters and lone human echoed through the tunnel as the ant girls driving the convoy squeaked repeatedly with each heave and ho of the teetering beams they worked. Hours passed while the returning scavenging party of the fallen home of the monster hunter rode the rails, not a word being spoken or squeaked among those riding with the salvaged goods. After traveling through the dimly lit passageway the ant girls driving the convoy started to apply the brakes to slow down the ride, the screeching of the wheels sounding off in the tunnel as everyone took notice of a light coming closer further ahead. The cars rolled along the rails before slowing down as the transport arrived back at the underground station where other ant girls were waiting. As the wheels screeched and the convey slowed to a stop Mika and her party noticed every ant girl in the cavern was now a lot less lively, with most of them seeming downright depressed while a few were huddled in groups as they appeared to be crying.
“What’s going on?” Hollia wondered.
“I believe news of their queen has finally reached them,” Sasha speculated.
“Hey,” Tabitha called out. The group saw the neko along with Scay standing near the ride while ant girls were pushing ramps over next to it. “What’s the hunter doing back here with you? Wasn’t she returning home?”
“There was nothing out there for me to return to,” Mika replied standing up.
“Her home had already fallen under siege,” Hollia explained standing next to her. “Her brother wasn’t there, in fact half of her house wasn’t there either.”
Ant girls quickly ran up the ramps and started taking supplies from the cars while Sasha got to her feet carrying her salvaged ore, the reptile girl seeing the scurrying monsters hastily unloading the first car of what supplies it had before she trotted down the ramp along with Mika and Hollia.
“Her home was attacked by The Sisterhood,” Sasha said glancing to the human. “However it wasn’t just The Sisterhood who were there. A number of their grunts were already dispatched when we arrived.”
“Her brother killed them?” Tabitha wondered. “Not bad for a kid.”
“We don’t believe so,” Hollia said shaking her head. “The way the fiends were slain was too precise and powerful for a young boy to have done. Someone else killed them, though who that was we’re unsure of.”
“So what happened to him?” Scay asked tugging on her hair. “Where is he?”
“The only ones who can answer that for me are The Sisterhood,” Mika scorned. “I’m going with you to Green Haven to find some answers, and also to pay them back for taking everything from me.”
“You’re coming with us?” Tabitha dryly asked. “Didn’t we already go over how this is something you’re not-”
Mika grabbed the neko by the neck and lifted her up, the choking cat grabbing her arm in surprise while ant girls around them stopped to watch.
“They killed my sisters! They destroyed my home! And my brother is either in their clutches or dead! I’m going with you to find out what happened there, and I’m going to annihilate every one of those accursed monsters who ruined my life! You got that?”
“Okay!” Tabitha coughed out kicking feet. “Okay! You can come with us!”
Mika shoved Tabitha over into Scay’s arms, the naga quickly holding onto her friend while wrapping her tail around her, then slowly looked around at seeing ant girls watching her with troubled expressions. She took a slow breath then looked to her hand that she flexed slightly, creating a flickering crimson casting ring over her palm briefly.
“Hunting monsters is what I do,” she announced. “Count yourselves lucky to have a hunter like me helping you exterminate those vile demons out there.”
Holding her hands to her head she tried to calm herself, the lingering echo of Aeon’s voice sounding off in her ears again as she held in her furious growl in contempt of the Dark Queen.
“I’m going to go for a walk to cool off,” she said before turning to Hollia. “I’ll meet up with you all later. I just… need to clear my head.”
“Take your time,” Hollia replied with a nod. “We won’t be leaving for Green Haven until tomorrow. We’ll be with my knight when you’re ready to return.”
Mika started walking away before stopping, her eye looking down as she thought about something before glancing back to the girls. They were watching her in silence along with the ant girls nearby while others had resumed unloading supplies from the convoy.
“Something else?” Sasha asked raising an eyebrow.
Mika shook her head then walked off with her cape fluttering behind her, the ant girls in her way stepping aside as the hunter made her way out of the cavern with a focused expression on her face.
“Great to have her on the team,” Tabitha grunted rubbing her neck.
“She could be useful,” Hollia mused. “With her magic aiding us fighting against The Sisterhood should be easier.”
“Where’s she going?” Scay wondered. “She’s all alone. What if the ant girls give her trouble for being down here?”
“I pity the ant girl who tries picking a fight with that sorceress,” Sasha commented looking down at her supplies. “Let her go, she’ll be fine on her own. Let’s go inform my master what we found and then I can get to work fixing my sword.”
“Where is my knight anyway?” Hollia asked holding her spear up at her side.
“He and the others went back to the cave with the drinks and brawling ant girls,” Tabitha said pointing to a tunnel to the side, her eyes remaining locked onto the one Mika ventured into.
“We were waiting for you to come back,” Scay happily said. “And not just because Forrus scared Tabitha earlier by snapping at her.”
“She did not scare me!” Tabitha shouted at her. “The only reason I’m here is because you dragged me away before I could skin that mutt for trying to bite me!”
Hollia and Sasha glanced to each other with smirks then started walking off while Tabitha was being held back by Scay and waving her fist around in the air.
“What was with those looks?” she shouted at them. “Like fucking hell a filthy lycan would intimidate me! Hey! Are you listening to me?”
“Never do,” Sasha plainly called out.
“See you later, you two,” Hollia replied with a wave of the hand.
Tabitha growled in frustration then pushed Scay off her with a grunt. The naga smiled nervously and giggled with a twitching eye as Tabitha slowly calmed down before looking back to where Mika left.
“Tabitha?” Scay asked. “Is something wrong?”
“That look she had in her eye,” Tabitha cautioned. “Something else is going through her head right now.”
Mika made her way down the tunnels of the ant girl nest, her gaze remaining forward while ant girls were scurrying about all around her in their daily routines. Many looked at the hunter curiously while passing by, some slowing down and stopping to watch the woman walking through the corridor without giving any of them a second glance. After rounding a corner an ant girl stepped up before her along with a few others, the monsters squeaking at the human while having pickaxes held over their shoulders as they stood in her way. Mika slowly eyed each of them before stepping aside to move around them, the monsters then quickly getting in her way again and squeaking at her with stern expressions.
Chronicles of Eden_Act XI Page 2
