It went on with tireless brutality.
The sun dipped below the horizon, the evening air colder as night closed in.
From one crucial heartbeat to the next, he misread Wrath’s next move.Whether from fatigue, being outwitted, or outmatched, Saer attempted to dodge a biting attack.She swiveled against her feint and slammed the end of a cruel winged talon into the center of her brother’s chest.At the same time, she jerked her head to the side and found purchase with her open jaws on Saer’s lower abdomen and hip.Runeak thrust him onto his back and a hollow, gasping cry left him.He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think through the abrupt suffocation of his punctured lung.
Runeak’s razored teeth found his intestines and began ripping them out of his body.
Her mandible crushed into the tender, bloody entrails.Saer attempted another intake of breath when she reinforced the strength behind her wing talon.With ribbons of dripping, meaty flesh hanging from her jaws, Wrath growled and pulled back just enough to bark against Saer’s skin, “Do you yield, Eldest?”
Saer could only nod.
Runeak used her wing’s leverage to pull herself higher on Saer’s body.Blood flowed at an alarming rate across his chest and pooled under his torso.Thrusting her clawed hand into his torn, abdominal cavity, Wrath screamed into his tortured face, “Say the words!”
His mind howled even if his throat wouldn’t work.Saer tensed his jaw, forcing all his concentration into speaking that which Pride hated.“Y..ess...I—” he gasped, coughed blood through a mangled jaw, then finished with a gurgling exhale, “yield.”
An unholy grin spread on Wrath’s muzzle.She threw her head back and roared with such volume, the ground shook.
Around them, the army joined in a raucous cry.
Runeak pulled her trembling wing back.The talon left Saer’s chest cavity with a wet, sickening sound.One of her legs jutted at an awkward angle.Wrath slunk away on her clawed hands and one good hoof.
Pride had lost.
25
Saerlaylikeadead thing, his shallow and broken breaths the only indication of viability.
From the corner of his vision, he witnessed Runeak’s original form sink into her body, crimson flesh darkening, wings collapsing and disappearing into her naked back.She stumbled with the change, though she refused to collapse, even as she leaned on a single, bloodied leg.By the time she finished, her followers brought dozens of lit torches near, as well as a blanket to cover her sweat-and-blood-slicked form.The firelight flickered towards her, and as her Daemoenic flesh absorbed it, her exhausted tremors lessened.
Runeak cleared her throat and gave orders with an authoritative rasp to her nearest captain.Saer understood but a handful of the words.Fire.Tent.Bring him.
Distant human voices approached with caution, their language equally incomprehensible.
The first touch of true fire on Saer’s mangled tissue brought a spasm.He gasped, though the sound erupted as more of a gurgle, and startled shouts rose.
Someone piled logs next to him, the sounds of their clattering discordant in his throbbing head.Crackling soon followed as they caught flame, and Saer turned his maimed body towards the heat.
Saer metaphysically wrenched at the flames as he gained more awareness, devouring their warmth.The fluid in his lungs cleared, the damage to his bronchi sealed, and he took in a full, relieved, trembling breath.
Shadows of early morning greeted him when he opened his eyes.He hadn’t sensed any man-sized heat signatures near him, and so the handful of humanoids standing watch over his body startled him.They stood in a circle, conversing in low voices, and he extended his senses with renewed purpose their way.
Not one carried warmth in their veins.
Something was wrong.He was wrong.Had to be.He’d sustained too much damage to read the situation right.Saer closed his eyes, intending to shake his head, but dizziness overtook him.He blinked to push the sensation away.
He tried again, heat sense activating.
Not even a hint.
What in all the Hells…
The human shapes grew agitated, one of them pointing to the sky as it lightened.Their impatience became clearer when a trio approached Saer’s still-prone body and prodded him.He stiffened, intent on warning them.
They touched his wet blood without burning.
What are you?
The three—two women, one man—spoke in hushed and urgent tones.Saer just faded from consciousness when a sudden and intense, horrific pressure slammed into his stomach.Pain and umbrage ripped a roar from his throat, eyes shooting wide open.
