Prologue – The Golden Gargoyle

“All off the record, Amdt. Only you and Luci.”
– Orion Aldenberg, then a Senior Hunter of the Flint Castle.

Ten Years Ago –

The Crown, a land mass which sat atop the world. Most of it existed in never ending night and colder than most people could endure. Yet people had lived there for as long as people had lived.

               Thankfully, they weren’t heading into the heart of The Crown. Rather, Luciana Doran and Orion Aldenberg were moving through temperate forests. Both Flint Castle members were in Tarrage, one of the ‘overhang-states’ which created a land border with the north of The Mane, bridging both continents.

               Deciduous giants surrounded the pair, prickly arms twisting outward to feebly block their path. Rusty caws from crows reigned, interspersed with melodic twittering from songbirds. Occasionally something scurried around the craggy, brownish-grey bark of a tree, disappearing into the pines. Scratches in the dirt told of a wolf presence, and of a deer population.

               “We’re not alone in this hunt,” Luci said, with a sigh. “The owners of that hamlet talked about an elf, with a fancy lookin’ crossbow. Of course, they assumed because we’re strangers too, we knew ‘em.” Luciana was a broad-shouldered woman on tall legs. Her pale skin contrasted with her moss-coloured eyes. A flat nose sat above a thin hard mouth which seemed incapable of smiling, and mud-brown hair was tied up into a bun.

               Orion stopped to take in his bearings. “Got to be looking for the same game.” He stabbed the tip of his longbow into the bed of dead pines at his feet. “I didn’t want things to get dirty, but I guess we’ll have to shed blood.” He grimaced. The Flint Castle had rules, which came as a surprise to most. Whilst members could defend themselves, they couldn’t actively do harm to other sentient species. Of course, this hunt was not on the books.

               “Thankfully he doesn’t seem to be a Castle member.” The notion of having to cover their tracks did not appeal, but she trusted Orion implicitly.

               “Somethings go beyond the rules people make. Life isn’t that simple… Sadly.” Orion turned and smiled encouragingly. The man was a force of nature, attuned to the natural world like nothing Luci had ever known – and she had been a feral gladiator, thrown against every kind of animal known. She had been more beast than human when Ori liberated her, only eight years ago.

               The aspiring Castle member, currently in a senior position and clambering the ranks like a mountain gorilla, was tall and lithe. He reminded Luci of a big cat in how he strode. Orion was bald, which was done by choice after he once contracted a blood-sucking type of lice during a hunt, ailing him brutally. Though his beard was more than enough hair; haggard, honey-blonde, enough to get fingers through. His right eye was an enchanted prosthetic, replacing the original, ripped out by an ash lion. It mirrored his natural, bronze eye perfectly, whilst purple bruising marred the socket, granting him a perpetual black eye.

               They wore the same hunting attire. Rich brown behemoth bone infused with steel and trimmed in grey and blonde bear fur. Upon the torso of each was the Flint Castle insignia, inlaid in ivory; an arrow crossing a spear, with a typhoon’s head in the top corner, a pheasant’s head in the right corner, a crested lizard’s head in the bottom corner, and a hyena’s head in the left corner.

               “It’s taken us years to find this one, Luci. I doubt some interloper will get to it first. Likely, not even a hunter, just after riches,” Orion added.

               Luci grimaced. “There’s far too many of them.” A hint of frost tickled her cheeks, drying out her eyes. “Looking to make their fortune off an animal, rather than doing this for the sport… For the challenge. And I said a fancy crossbow.”

He turned and gave Luci a pat on her armoured shoulder. “Be wary. Greed makes people to stupid things. With any luck, we’ll actually have to defend ourselves, and break no rules.”

               She smirked. “With any luck… Even with the secrecy, these expeditions still feel like hunting. I’m glad of that.”

               “Me too, Luci. It’s a fine simplicity. At least it should be.” Orion chuckled a bit, then sighed. “With so many borders, and bleeding hearts it’s getting more restrictive. If an animal is hunted to extinction, well, that’s just Nature, isn’t it? It’s unfortunate, yes. But that’s just the way of things. To go against this, would be unnatural. Too many in the world are keeping us from growing, blunting our potential.”

               Orion hated the concept of borders. Land belonged to Nature, and carving out swathes of it for ownership was something he considered unnatural.

               “I’ve not seen any sabre boar, though. And we know how I get when I’m hungry.” Because all hunts had to be sanctioned by the Castle, Orion had to register a destination, and what prey they were after. Officially it was sabre boar; stocky with tusks used to gut attackers.

               “Everyone in the Castle knows what happens when you’re hungry… Most taverns in The Sigel…” He grinned wryly. “Besides, they know how good they taste, so they know to hide.” Not that they had been actively stalking the boar, but Luci wanted one on a spit soon.

               An overcast sky brought a premature dusk. With nothing to look for yet, the pair were not worried about spooking their actually prey and continued casually. A few shrill cries from hawks and falcons broke over the sweet melodic chirps now, and more than once there were howls.

               The gloom was beautiful, wavering browns, greens, and the rusty hues of dead pines against the soil. The sharpness of the frost in the air suited this land too.

               “It’s been a while since we went anywhere cold,” Luci said, watching the steam rise from her words. “I’ve missed it. I prefer it. Heat just makes me sluggish.”

               “Most people wouldn’t see any beauty here,” Orion replied, marching on, his eyes going in every direction as he traced another bird call, or skittering vermin. “Ignorant twats would say it was too dull, or too cold. But look at the depths of the darkness in the pines and moss, or the patterns in the bark. Where I came from, it was always hot, and the rain was predictable. Seasons came and went, though the environment hardly changed. I never expected to see a land where the horizon wasn’t awash in shimmering heat.”

               Luci found it odd when Ori talked about his former home, as the Dytrentians had razed it – though the people had been able to escape. His former life. He never smiled when he spoke of Eitimovel. But when he spoke of Denise, he looked a whole different person. It was hard to see Orion a married man, coming home at the end of the day to a wife. Luci dared to think it unnatural that someone like Ori could have been so domestic. He had been a forester, but nothing about the work was sporting, or even a challenge to him.

               Her own start in life was violence. Sold or kidnapped, Luci didn’t know, but she had been thrown into fighting arenas, against just about every species of animal known – even aquatic animals in flooded arenas. She envied Ori’s past life, somewhat, and loved him like something between a father and a brother. He didn’t just save her, but brought her into the civilised world, restoring her life, and teaching her how to be human.

               To be the master of her own will was something which took a long time getting used to. It had been such an unnatural idea, not to be owned, not to have to obey. Orion had stayed with her, worked hard and never gave up on her. He emphasised that Luci’s previous life was unnatural.

In the end Luci knew she didn’t have to stay with him but chose to. At the time she couldn’t articulate it, but Ori was the first person in her life to care about her, to look at her as a human being, and go out of their way for her. Orion would forever be a paragon and hold a place in her heart.

               “Diversity is one of the most natural things in all the world. It’s good for us. The Sigel, now that’s a place to reside. We get it all, don’t we?” He continued. “Mountains so high they hold their own icy worlds, rainforests, and jungles so thick as to be untouchable by sentient-kind, deserts, vast grasslands, seas, plenty of grand cities, and at the centre of it all, the Ashlands, where the almighty phoenixes reside. It’s not a wonder it’s one of the most well-established places the world over.”

               Luci added, “And there isn’t a type of storm that hasn’t battered it.”

               “Our role as sentient-kind is to experience all of nature, and so many are ignorant about their own existence. To weather a hurricane, it’s a magnificent, empowering, feeling. Yet, to sit still in the mild, soft evening as the sun goes down… It consolidates the spirt. I recall my first hunt, at five years old. A roe buck. There I was, my little yew bow in hand, and for all the size of the arrows, I may as well have been throwing darts. But when I drew on the animal, its marble eyes lost in grazing, its little spiky antlers bobbing… I’d never felt more a part of anything. Nature was telling me that I belonged. That everything it had for me, beauty, pain, strength, trials, it was all for me, to make me a titan. It appalled me later when I came to see how few people understood this.”

Night came, but there had hardly been any light during the day. Luci had been wary of the dark in previous years. When it was lights out in the cells, another struggle for survival began. Luci had never had a proper night’s sleep before Ori found her… She never knew how invigorating it truly was.

               Around a campfire, pine fox on a spit, Luci and Ori sat opposite each other. The flames writhed as if eager to escape the bonds of the wood pit which gave them life. A few shrill howls carried through the trees. A pack was making its presence known.

               Ori looked to her; an eyebrow slightly raised. Luci paused looking through her arrows and searched the murky pine-strewn ground for an answer.

               “Timber wolves,” she finally blurted.

               “Spot on,” he answered, and her heart skipped. Ori’s knowledge of the natural world was second to none. Luci had encountered academics, naturalists, and seasoned hunters at the Castle, and none of them held the vast knowledge base or discernment Ori had. He was academia’s loss, that was for sure.

               Having been a forester to the high and mighty, since childhood, Ori had been fortunate enough to receive an education – and a damned thorough one. He had taught Luci how to read and write, with fatherly patience, and then taught her languages which she took in like a sponge.

               “I’m not ashamed to admit I’m knackered,” Luci sighed, her mouthwatering at the rich smell of the meat. Luci’s tongue kept running over her canines as she spoke.

               “You should be young girl. At your age I was running up mountains. I’d be there by now if I didn’t have you tagging along…” Ori jested. Luci tossed a pinecone at him.

               “Little over a decade between us, but you may as well be ancient, aul fella,” she shot back, grinning. “You’d be bored anyhow.”

               Ori turned the game over against the waving flames. “Denise never fancied hunting. It was a great shame. My first love…”

               “And Denise was okay being your second?” Luci said nonchalantly.

               Ori looked up from the fire, his face awash in glowing amber, and burst into roaring laughter. A sense of humour had been a struggle for Luci when Orion had begun to ‘civilise’ her, or as she had pointed out later on, “To reintroduce me back into society.”

               “No matter the game, I always missed her. It’s like I wasn’t complete, out there. I travelled with various hunters, but in the end, I was out there, during the hunt, alone. I never knew real companionship in this, Luci, until I met you. A member of my pride,” Ori lifted his clay cup. “Thank you.”

               “If only I had the social skills to return the good words,” Luci smiled, her heart swelling and pushing heat up into her face. She lowered her head, the flames blurred in her vision. With a sniff she added, “Thank you. I’d be dead by now I’m sure if you hadn’t rescued me.”

               “The game tastes better when I know you’ve been a part of it, Luci. We’re too few. And I’m sorry I can’t tell you why I’m doing this, but the fewer who know in this world, the better. I trust you, like kin. It’s not a matter of trust. It’s just… The nature of this, of what’s behind it…” He grimaced, as if something ugly had come to the forefront of his mind. Luci had heard this before, on the other hunts like this one, she had followed him on.

               “I know,” Luci cut in. Ori looked back to her. “You say this every time.” She tossed a pebble at him. “You’re protecting me from something. Goodness, you’re protecting the world from something, and it’s enough that you’re doing that.”

               The wolves howled once more, filling the night as if trying to lay a claim to it. Ori looked to the right, to where the calls were coming from. “They’ll leave us be. There’s too much of a deer population down their way.”

               “If predators go for the path of least resistance when hunting, why don’t we?” Luci asked, curiously.

               Ori looked back to her, gave a thoughtful look. He chuckled. “Many do, sadly. But, broadly speaking, we know better. Self-awareness, or whatever they call it. A wolf will never progress beyond a wolf, and it can’t help that. But we have introspection, and can therefore learn how to grow, to be better, to recognise a challenge for what it is.”

               Academia’s loss, Luci thought again.

There it was, the aqueduct: a vast slide built into the side of the next peek, fifty yards across with tall walls to funnel the water down the industrialised waterfall. It was long dead, its own tombstone, and hadn’t seen any torrents in millennia.

               “Something, right?” Ori said, coming to a halt as they left the shadow of the forest. “Built before the Wrathfire to channel water into a vast lake.” Luci couldn’t take her eyes off its scale. It ran up for at least a couple of miles to the peak. Despite nature trying to reclaim the site, the aqueduct was still a prevalent feature.

               There was a fort where the mountain plateaued, to guard the workers and engineers who kept the aqueduct functioning. This was where their prey resided… In theory anyway.

               Few trees stood close to the walls of the aqueduct, and the ground was open, rife with boulders and dead, rotting wood. Overhead the sky was holding back something brutal, grey clouds diffusing wickedly into black, glaring down on the pair as if daring them to continue.

               “The Wrathfire brought in some new weather, didn’t it?” Luci spoke, readying herself for the clambering ahead. “Like we opened up something we shouldn’t have.”

               “Absolutely,” Orion replied flatly. “Even I understand that somethings are off limits. It fascinates me that countless cultures, religions, and creation stories all have an interpretation of what we call the Wrathfire; when some fool tried to slay a phoenix.”

               “Nature’s crown… Not for us.”

               “Every continent holds a scar, where nature struck back,” Ori went on. He was referring to the Ashlands, the barren, lifeless regions which belonged to phoenixes and nothing else. Each continent had one of these regions – a complete no-go area, from which only one in a thousand returned. Prior to the Wrathfire, such land held multitudes of nations. Now nothing remained.

               Tarrage bordered The Crown’s Ashland, off to the north-west. The surging waters which once graced the aqueduct had come from the Ashlands but had dried up during the Wrathfire.

               “Wouldn’t you like to see a phoenix?” Luci asked as they moved over the lumpen ground.

               “Of course. It would be a magnificent sight. It pains me that I have never seen one.”

               “And it would possibly be the last thing you ever saw. It’s not like that’s always the case with lions, or even a leviathan.”

               “The phoenix can’t help its heat. Or its nature. They may prey on us, but that was our fault. But, when the time comes, and I’m too old to keep hunting, I think I shall wander into an Ashland, to see a phoenix, finally.”

               Halfway up, their hunt began to show promise. Ori spotted it before Luci did, but she was confident she’d have seen it. A partial print sunken into a particularly soft spot of soil between fallen branches. Cutting the print off was a small boulder, with a gash torn almost vertically down its lower side – a claw mark.

               Orion looked carefully over the mark. The surface of the rock had been carved into. “It’s the right size,” he continued, looking up the trail. Ahead, now that Luci knew what to look for, she could tell the difference between detritus, and what had been broken and shifted by the beast.

               “Fresh enough… A couple of days old. It’s dry. There’s been no rain in the past two days,” Luci spoke, keeping her voice low. Her skin tingled as hairs rose in anticipation.

               Ori pulled his longbow around, a stave of exquisite rufus wood with indigo tendrils running through the grain. The limb tips were hydra fangs, and the grip tanned from their skin. He nocked an arrow, rail hawk feathers for fletches, with an obsidian pile sculpted into a conical point. The obsidian had come through a volcanic quake caused by a behemoth, which when applied correctly to an arrow could shatter most surfaces. The rail hawk flights added a swiftness and force of impact which could punch the arrow clean through a fortress wall several feet thick. It could be overkill, but Ori liked to be certain.

               “We’re on its hunting ground now…” He said guardedly.

When the pair made it to the fortress the storm was ready to burst. Day fell to a premature dusk.

               “Holds up well for a geriatric,” Luci panted, coming to a halt, her leg muscles and back squeezing out waves of relief.

               “I heard that, girl,” Ori cackled.

               Luci laughed and waved him off. “The fort, you nob.”

               Straddled across the width of the aqueduct was a fort. Its front rose into a tower, coming to a bulbus turret. It looked wide enough to house a dozen people. The base structure was flat, infested with moss bleeding out of cracks, like a gangrenous infection. Beneath the building was the wide, dark mouth from which the torrents had long ceased.

               “Utilitarian, and still standing. And no doubt it will be long after we’re gone,” Ori spoke, awe bleeding into his words.

               “Dwarves?” Luci ventured, looking to him.

               “Undoubtedly. Anything like this built pre-Wrathfire, would have been exclusively engineered by dwarves. Sentient species didn’t diversify until after the Wrathfire.”

               “Come on but be wary. This beast will be hunting us too.”

               The fort was vast enough to house a hundred workers. Grim, even the many hues of green did nothing to liven the dank atmosphere. Four fifty-foot walls encompassed an open yard, with turrets at the corners.

               They found an entrance, arched, rimmed in moss. Luci stepped in behind Ori, the air dank. The tunnel ran both ways, consumed in pitch blackness. The breeze even seemed to make a shrill call as it escaped.

               Luci had her horn-bow ready, the same arrows as Ori in her bear-fur quiver fixed to her waist. The bow had been made from the horn of a wholly rhino, with unicorn horn limb-tips. It was beautiful in its minimalism, stone grey diffusing lighter, with glowing white tips.

               Silence was pivotal, Ori working his way gradually along the tunnel, soundlessly, hard eyes squinting.

               A whispering breeze kept them alert, and Luci made sure to watch their back. It was becoming harder and harder to determine if it was escaping air or a predatory hiss. Various rooms opened up to them, all bare – long looted for anything of worth.

               Lightning cracked violently from outside, brutal reverberations shuddering through the wall. It made Luci wince. Thunder rolled with the fury of a mountain exploding. Every bone in her body shook, and her heart jolted into her throat. She hated thunder and lightning with a childlike fretfulness.

               “Hear that?” Ori whispered. He’d come to a halt, the tunnel breaking off to their right, leading to the courtyard.

               Luci’s hearing returned to her after the overwhelming thunder, and she heard it to. Clattering, like heavy rain fall, but more melodic.

               The tunnel widened into a small chamber. The archway was ten feet tall and as wide. Outside it was indeed raining, but Luci couldn’t figure out just what was falling from the sky.

               She made to reach out, then Ori spoke. “Diamonds,” he gasped, mesmerised by the sight.

               Luci pulled her arm back, staring in awe, the glittering snow-like droplets falling in rainbow sheets. Before she could ask, Ori began to explain.

               “We’re so close to the Ashlands, that residual heat from phoenixes strays through the atmosphere, meeting the larger smouldering volcanos north of here, and does something amazing to the smoke and ash as it’s pushed this way by the wind.” He paused, reaching out with an open hand, collecting many of the tiny stones. “Their heat hardens the carbon and ash into diamond, then it rains down.”

               Another savage crack of lightning broke the serenity, and Luci jolted visibly. Then the thunder attacked her, and with a flurry of anger she thumped a fist into the wall. Ori chuckled, patting her on the shoulder. He then turned his hand over, spilling a king’s ransom to the ground.

               Out in the courtyard a few stone structures stood, huts barely large enough for a group of humans, and in the centre the ringed remnants of a well. True to form, the dwarves built a functioning well, and left it at that. No decoration, or reliefs. A ring, ten metres in diameter, with a metal and stone hoist.

               Lightning whipped at one of the hoist posts in a sudden, frightening flare of hot white and eye-stinging blue. Luci blinked away the after burns, and then blinked some more at what she saw.

               The post had been obliterated at the top, however, its remainder and the area spreading out from it for a few metres had been turned, through the sheer force of heat and pressure, to diamond.

               Ori added, “A once in a millennia weather event, and what a treat for us to see! Though I think it’s best we stay indoors until it passes… As much as I’d make a damned good statue if there was anything left.”

               “I could arrange it for you,” a voice hissed. Luci’s ears perked at the intrusion, and she turned. At the end of the side-tunnel stood their competition.

               An elf, tall with shaggy blonde hair diffusing into light green, was holding a crossbow on the pair. The points of his ears jutted out from his hair, faded red in colour, an indication of his specific race. He wore a long navy coat, under which was dull grey, scaled armour.

               Ori looked unimpressed, and folded his arms, holding his longbow tight to his side. Luci placed her bow over a shoulder and leaned against the archway with her free hand.

               “Throw your bows down! I need bait, and you’ll do,” the elf continued, his aim steady, his dark eyes furious. He seemed confident.

               “Perhaps you should keep your voice down,” Luci said softly. “There’s something lurking in these ruins, and it’s viciously territorial.”

               “If people were casually wandering in and out of my house, I’d be defensive too,” Ori laughed. “This,” he nodded to his bow, “Isn’t just a result of sentient artistry, or what can be achieved through dedicated work… It’s a gift from Nature too. I’m not chucking it on the ground, thank you very much.”

               “I’ve got the draw on you. I’m the one with superior tech here, built and refined by the Tenseers!”

               “I did say it was a fancy crossbow, didn’t I?” Luci added.

               The crossbow ran in length almost as tall a longbow. Straight limbs where tight against the first third of the weapon’s length. However, the limbs pointed forward along the weapon, with the cams looping the string at its top. A pistol-grip was built in further back, with a stock, placed into the elf’s shoulder. The whole crossbow was a subdued maroon, and the string was so black it absorbed any surrounding light.

               Most thought of Tenseer technology as mere magic, like everything else of wonder, but Luci and Ori figured there was more to it. Rather it was engineering, carried out with materials and techniques not known to anyone.

               “I’m surprised you got any charge into that string. I’ve not seen the sun since we arrived. I suppose the Tenseer you stole that item from hasn’t seen the sun since…” Orion spoke with a grim tone.

               “Drop your bows, and move into the courtyard,” the elf reiterated, unyielding.

               “He’s doing a good job keeping control of the situation,” Luci remarked. “If you had a bow on us, then we’d be worried.”

               The elf’s eyes retreated in on themselves for a fraction of a second, his brow deepening. “What?” He hissed.

               “Aye. Don’t get me wrong. It’s an… Efficient weapon for hunting. But if you had any real skill, or talent, you’d have brought a bow to this fight.”

               “Efficient indeed, Luci,” Ori agreed, looking to Luci, but throwing out his free hand. From a sling came a pebble, launched at a furious force.

               With haste, the elf betrayed his poise by launching the bolt prematurely and jumped to the side. Luci and Ori dropped back, outside and to the cover of the archway.

               “We’ll do the honourable thing and give you the minutes it takes to reload!” Luci called back, giggling to herself. Ori barked with laughter.

               “Well, Luci, this looks like good old-fashioned self-defence, doesn’t it?”

               The shower of diamonds continued, raining countless riches over them, with small stones catching in their collars and wherever else there was room. Ori nodded to Luci, and the pair moved back from the archway, bows raised. Each moved off at a diagonal covering the portal.

               The lightning continued, cracking furiously around the fort, prodding at Luci’s concentration. Yet, she did notice the small round stone tossed out into the courtyard and was able to look away.

               A flash consumed the environment, and even with her eyes shut, bright red burned. It was enough, and the elf came charging out, first in a blur or greys and blues. When Luci’s eyes refocused, he was taking aim at Ori. The hunter rolled as the bolt was sent towards him missing. The elf then rushed him. Luci drew on the pair. Ori was leaning and lurching away from dagger slashes. He brought his bow around to block a thrust, and put his boot into the elf’s gut, sending him reeling. Luci didn’t hesitate and loosed her arrow at him. Yet in the haste of the elf scrabbling to get up the arrow only struck the ground.

               The elf scurried away from Ori, who moved with a casual grace as if the threat was lost to him and as if the violence of the storm was unknown. Lighting shrieked, and thunder struck like hammers on rocks. As the elf came to the lip of the well, he leaned against it. His face was ashen, pasty with cold sweat, lengths of blonde hair matted over it.

               Ori raised his bow, however the elf, his crossbow unloaded, began to draw a throwing knife. Ori drew in a race against the elf extending his arm. Then lightning struck the knife. With a blast of white, Luci forced to look away, the elf was thrown, reeling to the ground.

               When Luci looked back, the elf was staggering, hunched and gasping. He turned, and she saw that his lower left arm was missing. Grimly, a contrast to the beauty of precious stones, the reaming appendage going into the shoulder had been seared into diamond.

               “You got your fortune!” Orion barked, lowering his aim.

               But the advantage was lost as a roar shook the courtyard, and even drowned out the cracking lightning and hammer-strike thunder.

               Luci turned, the tower behind her looming into the bleak sky. From a gash in the structure, pulling itself out of the dark came the gargoyle. First its long, flat crocodilian snout filled with ivory fangs. Molten-red eyes glared wild like a forest fire. The obsidian talons glinted, extending from long arms which gave the impression it could run on all fours.

               But the singular feature, setting it aside from its own kind, was its gold skin. Whilst a gargoyles physical being was rock, mercury, precious stones, and ivory, this golden beast was only one of a handful that stood apart.

               The beast slithered out of its den, revealing its long body, dull gold with ivory nubs, and an ivory fin running from the nape of its neck down to the base of its tail. It was at least seven metres long and three and a half tall. Small wings clung tight to the animal, translucent crystal-like web between golden frameworks. Evidently it was built for gliding, not flight.

               The elf, upon see the sight scurried away between the few hovels.

               The beast looked to Luci, who glared back, just as fiercely. It expanded its wings, short as they were, and rose on its hind legs, to increase its size. Before she could think of anything, Ori was banging a gauntlet on his chest armour, shouting, seeking its attention. It worked. The beast looked to him and began marching in his direction. Ori expanded his arms and stood up straighter, making himself seem as large as he could.

               Luci took the opportunity and loosed at the torso, where the lungs should be. Yet, having caught her in its periphery, the beast turned, bringing a wing down to protect itself. The arrow smashed into the webbing, throwing translucent shards of debris outward from the impact. If the beast was hurt, it didn’t show, but charged Luci instead. She leapt away, but a talon caught her thigh and scooped her up.

               Two intensely cold hands grasped her. Breath, sour and metallic stuck to her face and ivory fangs filled her version. Despite the sudden threat of death, Luci found herself mesmerised by the beauty of the teeth.

               Then the beast howled, splitting Luci’s hearing, and dropping her. Ori had struck the flank, a reverberating clang hanging in the air.

               Ori went for another shot; a kill shot this time now that Luci was out of harm’s way. A lightning strike only feet away from him arrested the shot routine, however. Ori hunched over, his vision obviously awash with afterburn.

               The beast attempted to strike Luci. She kept under its torso as it stomped around in an angry, confused manner. Its gait, and density struck her, knocking her to all fours. Still frustrated the beast clambered around, searching, its snout knocking against the stone ground and shifting diamonds. Luci rolled away from under it, deliberately away from Ori, to get clear for him. As she tried to rise, the tail swung and struck her. Luci’s chest heaved, breathing becoming impossible, and she hit the ground close to the archway. Fighting for air, she leaned over, holding herself up by a fist. The behemoth bone protected her ribs and organs, yet she felt as if every bone had been shattered, and her lungs pulped.

               Even so, Luci brought her bow up, the beast tossing its head from Ori on one side, to herself on the other. Ori had his bow raised, and in unison they loosed their arrows into the sides of the gargoyle.

               Despite the arrows high-powered properties, they still made the troubling din as if clanging off a metal. The gargoyle gave out a gassy roar. It tried to charge forward, but as its mercury blood filled its lungs, the animal heaved and collapsed into its belly.

               Ori approached it warily, another arrow nocked. Luci looked to the eyes of the beast. Their magma glow died to embers, and with one last look at her, the glow faded completely.

               Around them the lightning still screamed, and the thunder howled. With a sigh, and a grin, Ori spoke above the tumult, “One more slain.”