Chapter 2 #2
A sudden weight snagged around her wounded foot, yanking her down with a yelp as the toe of her boot caught an exposed root.
She flung forward, arms sprawling out. Spread before was what appeared as a tiny valley, decorated in rocks of all sizes.
The basket that slung around her arm went flying, the fruit within spewing forth and launching across the small gorge.
Her eyes widened mid fall, twisting in attempt to catch the fruit.
The fabric wrapped around it danced through the air like a makeshift cape. Her prized treasure!
Tumbling down, Griselda grunted. It felt like every rock and stick on the way clashed with her.
Time seemed to slow. Each bounce crunching her joints and bones further into a screech of irritation.
She grit her teeth, clenching her eyes closed as sharp jabs and blunt impacts bounded further across her flesh, sure that this would end in an even more painful stop.
Suddenly, her back smacked against a hefty boulder and ripped the air from her searing lungs.
Her head lolled onto a softer surface. The entire world was spinning, tempting an unsettling feeling from her stomach.
Her lips pulled back, air hissing between her teeth.
She really didn’t want to vomit after all that.
Griselda’s legs crumpled in front of her body, tired and wounded from the unexpected run and tumble.
Tired and exhausted from this entire day, in fact.
In a stupor, she tried to place her hands on either side of her face to orient herself.
A sudden gust of hot air wafted over her. Splaying her hair back as twigs and leaves fell from the ivory strands.
More hot air.
She inhaled, thinking it nothing more than the warm breeze from earlier. Damn, that breeze was more humid than she remembered.
Inhale.
More heat. More moisture. It smelled wrong. Like blood and oolong. Metallic but earthy.
Inhale.
The air sliced in front of her, as though it was being sucked into a small vortex.
Exhale.
She swore humid droplets started to form on her face. Realization struck.
Those aren’t my breaths.
Griselda snapped opened her dazed eyes, focusing as hard as possible on the shape in front of her. Arms trapped on either side of her shoulders, larger than any man she’d seen in the village.
Another puff of hot air gusted across her face, causing her to squint and pull back.
In the glimmer of the moon light, red and white points spiraled around the space in front of her disoriented body.
They were almost the size of her palms.
An icy fear pricked her spine worse than seeing those yellow eyes.
Her gut sank as her body broke into a tremble, a small whine building in the back of her throat.
Before she could act, the sharp points slammed toward her throat and pinned her against the boulder. A scream caught in her chest as tight pressure formed around her ribs.
Her hands reached up, clutching the pendant sitting on her collarbone.
More hot air wafted down to her trembling fists as it puffed around her pulsing throat and clenched in odd wavering moments.
Tears swelled and pricked the corner of her eyes, scrunching shut to hide the possible last thing she saw.
If this was to be the end, then she was going to hope with all her might that the pendant’s supposedly blessed promise of keeping her safe would uphold its duty.
What use was a promise if it broke apart the moment it was needed?
This is payback for not holding faith, isn’t it?
The breaths battered around her face as they intensified their speed, pulsating as though in pain.
They sharply cut after a long inhale. Those dagger tip points unclenched, leaving behind small pricks of blood that aided in tormenting her stomach.
Pressure nosed the base of her throat, humid air focusing into a bubble around Griselda.
Her hands were forced to unclench and fell to her sides as the pressure around her ribs crunched overbearingly, leaving the obsidian pendant in full view.
Damn the High Priest. Damn him to—
“Why…” A gravelly voice whispered at her throat with such malice it made every hair on her body stand on end. It sounded as though the source needed a hot tea to soothe the decades of dust caked onto its vocal cords.
She snuck a glance downwards in hope of catching full sight of her would-be killer.
To at least have the knowledge of who it were, should she die by the claws of a mythical creature from these strange woods she grew up with.
The full moon hazed brilliantly above them.
Delicate beams danced off the black pebbled surface in front of her as piercing yellow irises burrowed into her soul, blocking focus on any further feature.
Their intensity held her gaze sharper than any dagger she’d encountered.
“Where did you find this?” Hissing followed the last breath as devilish lips curled back, the air sticking heavy to the final ‘S’.
A long razor sharp claw pricked at her necklace.
Griselda’s heart pounded in her throat. This wasn’t a creature of myth.
This was a devil in some twisted incarnate with a face like a python larger than her own head.
Its stare so carnal that she felt her spine shrink into the earth below.
But at the same time, she was entranced by the beauty of the oily shimmer that bounced off the scales before her.
Scales that outlined more needle sharp teeth than she could count and a blue hissing forked tongue the size of her hand.
Beauty and danger. Everything she was ever warned of.
And here it was. A devil holding her broken form against a boulder with such malicious intent she was certain if it roared that her soul would ascend to another plane of existence.
So much for never encountering danger after dark.