Turning on the spot, I found a monster standing on the path behind us. It was the size of two full-grown grizzly bears, with teeth six inches long, and claws the length of my hand. The beast snarled and stomped at the ground like an enraged bull.
While we might have been able to defeat the claws and teeth and size of this creature, something else caught my eye that killed all the hope within me.
Its fur shimmered with magic, protective, no doubt. Whatever we threw at it wouldn’t penetrate its hide. Or the beast might absorb it and be able to use it against us. We had no chance against this thing.
“Run!” I spun and broke into a sprint.
Behind me, I could hear Hatter’s heavy footsteps, and above me, the pixies’ fluttering wings sounded like a whistle screaming through the night.
The beast released a roar and charged.
I darted glances from side to side, trying to find an escape route. Would it be best if we dove into the woods? It would be harder to stick together. But if we stayed on this trail, the beast would have a direct shot at us, and I had little doubt that it would win.
Hatter and I could try flying, but I wasn’t very agile, and the trees in these woods grew freakishly close together. Plus, I was wearing the damn cloak, and the process of shrugging that off would slow me down.
My muscles burned, and my lungs spasmed as I pushed my body. Second by second, the animal grew closer, its bellowing cries and labored breaths resonating in my ear.
“Arghhh!”
My heart seized at Hatter’s cry, and I darted a glance back to find him gripping his shoulder.
“Henri! What—”
“Keep running and watch for the trees! They attack with fire!”
This can’t be real.
Impossibly, we pushed harder and gained some ground. Still, if we didn’t do something, it was inevitable the monster would catch us.
Taking my chances, I shot a ball of fire back at it, and twisted to see what would happen.
As I suspected, the beast’s fur glittered, and the fire dissipated all around it.
So elements couldn’t defeat it. The best we could hope for was to hold it back until we found a clear enough area to take off.
“Henri! Fling rocks at it!” I screamed.
I knew the instant Henri complied, because the beast whined and then growled louder.
Joining in the fight, I scanned the trail ahead, and directed the rocks in front of us to fly at the monster. I dared a glance back.
Well, fuckity fuck.
The creature’s eyes were bulging and glowing red. All my tactics had done was piss him off more while slowing us down.
“Henri! We need to fly!” I flung my bag of food at the beast so I could unclasp my cloak, but was interrupted as a tree somewhere in the woods hurled a ball of fire at me.
I leapt to the side, barely avoiding it.
“Dammit!” I screamed as I nearly collided with another tree, and my cloak went askew again.
“I’ll buy you time!”
Hatter’s wings snapped out to lift him into the air. More agile than I could ever dream of being, he wove through the trees and soared back toward the monster.
“No!” I yelled, but didn’t stop running because, at that exact moment, another tree launched a ball of flame at me.
I dodged it, and a stream of expletives left my mouth.
