At first she’d been a single leaf, shaking among the multitudes. But her color was too pale to attract attention. Then she’d been the wind filtering through the branches, but she merely joined in the howls. She was the grass and the mist and the mud, all of it went ignored.
Yidhra was unsure if this was due to her weakening influence or the fright of the dream. Clearly, this was a creature Leo had encountered before, and it had that much more power over him. As it charged the helpless boy, she’d tried to ring out her screams into something resembling a warning.
But she could see the silver threads of her chime become tangled and muddied in the boar’s hooves. And it all unraveled when the sight of white bone speared Leo’s thigh.
The trees shook and the ground rumbled in response to her anger, but it all lent into the suffocating atmosphere as Leo was tossed onto the ground. The boar’s tusk glistened crimson, spraying the field when it shook its head.
Yidhra could see the thickness of the spell, weaved in between each individual bristle. No longer was the caster content to trap Leo, now they sought to kill him. Deep as they were, there was no way to tell what effect the wound had on Leo’s sleeping body.
He could be sluggishly bleeding into his bed, shortening the time that they had. Yidhra could not afford to wait for Leo to notice something amiss.
The beast squealed again, charging for the final kill. Risking a great deal and hoping that this would work, Yidhra flung herself into the creature. She grabbed hold of every line of magick, twining it between her fingers and tugging with all of her might.
Her body was much stronger this way, and she could feel the might of its gallop under her coal colored hooves. But the spell was already turning against her, working to get rid of whatever had dared to intervene Leo’s demise.
She snarled something in an Old and Dark language, cursing the spellcaster and swearing retribution. With a herculean effort, she reigned the boar until it was only hovering above Leo, kicking and screaming with impotent rage. She could not control Leo’s actions, but she could give him time and an opportunity.
♞—⊱The world was swimming, and it took him moments to realize he was on the floor, the red rain that fell, his blood. The mass above him, his enemy. The incessant praying, his.
Time slowed down.
So this was death.
Hello, death. Take me.
Be quick about it.
Don’t make me suffer more than I have.
No—no it didn’t. The beast was flailing above him, but not attacking, as if yanked back by a collar. He was in awe, trapped staring for moments before he thought to act. He stretched a hand out to his side, grappling for his fallen sword eyes never leaving that of the creature. Fingers brushed against his hilt and in a swift motion he picked it up and stabbed the creature where he hoped its heart would be.
