Chereads / Through Fear and Darkness in the Highlands / Chapter 6 - A Fate Worse than Death

Chapter 6 - A Fate Worse than Death

"On the corpses of lions, the dogs celebrate, believing they have won. But lions remain lions and dogs remain dogs"

-Old proverb.

The wizard took a brief moment to contemplate what has just transpired. Trusting the marauding northmen proved to be more costly than he had anticipated. It was supposed to be just a simple job: take the girl, leave no witnesses and get out of there unnoticed. Not only were they unable to complete such a simple task, but they also let their target escape, completely razed the entire village, and slaughtered innocent civilians. He knew they had to get out of clan territory as fast as they could. The Clan Irfis would not take this affront kindly.

He looked at the priest's body and frowned. The problems only seemed to pile up more every time, now he would also be on bad terms with the Church. Of course, he had planned beforehand that the blame would ultimately fall on the northmen but still… He had to find the girl first.

The wizard took a small handful of men with him and walked away. There were very few places where the girl could go. Searching through the forest at night would be extremely difficult and he didn't want to stay near the razed village in case that those Clan warriors appeared. It would be most convenient to just wait until the morning.

He would let the northmen do their thing, however; their leader took the loss of so many of his own very personal and really pissed him off. They would probably look for the girl through the entire forest if they have to. It didn't really matter to him, even if they found her, he would just take her from them later.

Meanwhile, in the forest, the young girl kept crying for a few minutes more, Nina just knew at the bottom of her heart that her mentor and friend Verkan was no more. She couldn't explain how she knew it, but the girl was sure of it. The poor girl was now facing the grim fact that she was all by herself now.

The young priestess had to force herself to stop crying when she heard something in the woods. She wiped her eyes with her sleeves and looked around but couldn't see anything through the dark.

The girl stood up and began running again. Maybe it was just her mind playing tricks on her but she could swear that something was following her footsteps. She turned again but the result was the same as before. Nina could hear, however, the unmistakable accent of the northmen language being yelled in the distance. The girl realized the raiders were still looking for her and the danger was not over.

Nina kept running at a slower pace to save her strengths, she had a couple of miles of advantage and they would only be able to spot her in the dark night if they were close enough. If she kept quiet, she would remain undetected.

The thick foliage made it difficult to navigate through the forest. The clouds didn't help either. Moonlight was lacking and even though her eyes were getting accustomed to the dark, the girl couldn't avoid tripping from time to time.

"Think Nina, think!" the girl kept telling herself. Her mind was blank, as much as she tried to organize her thoughts, she found herself unable to focus. Up until now, Nina kept jogging through the forest completely by instinct, without putting much of her mind into it. The only thought she was able to keep on her head was poor Verkan, and she began to tear up every time her mentor popped up on her mind.

The priestess was getting tired from all the jogging through the difficult terrain. As much as she wanted to rest a little bit, the voices and the sight of torches in the distance forced her to keep moving. She didn't have much of a choice but to keep going.

The terrain was getting increasingly difficult to traverse, which meant that she was getting closer to the mountain range. "Follow the edge of the mountains" the young girl recalled her mentor say. She figured that as long as she ran along the uphill side of the mountain, she would be on the right path.

The girl heard something through the bushes again, but this time didn't bother to check what it was. "It's probably nothing" she thought. Nina kept walking through the uneven terrain until she heard the same noise again, this time louder than before.

Suddenly, Nina found herself running again as fast as she could. The poor girl realized to her horror that there were four blurry figures giving her chase in close pursuit. They were getting dangerously closer by the second, like a pack of hungry predators chasing down their prey.

Those damn raiders managed to found her through the woods and were now following her footsteps some distance behind her. "They must have followed her after her escape" she thought. Nina was breathing quickly and panting heavily, almost bordering on exhaustion, desperately trying to lose her pursuers.

The young girl still could not understand what in oblivion was going on. Her mind was still racing, trying to comprehend her current situation. Back in the village, her mentor quickly deduced that those men were looking specifically for her. But it didn't make sense at all. What could they possibly want?

Nina tried to recollect in her mind all the events that have transpired recently. Just a few hours ago, they were spending the evening at a nearby village, in the company of some of the townspeople. They were gathered around a bonfire, telling stories and experiences when all of a sudden, a band of armed men attacked from nowhere. The villagers put up a valiant resistance but were eventually all killed.

They then faced off her mentor and friend Verkan, an aging priest and as it turns out, a legendary warrior; in an attempt to draw their attention away from her. The old man bravely held his ground long enough for her to sneak behind the attackers' backs and escape.

She did the only thing she could have done at the moment. The girl was too weak to fight back adult men. Not wasting a second to look back, Nina quickly found herself with no idea where to go.

But Nina could still hear from not too far behind the sound of screams and clashing steel. Sign of the fight that was still going. Even alone, and against a band of several dozen men, the old man gave them hell.

Until she heard two powerful explosions one after the other, then everything went silent. What could possibly have happened? she thought. The young girl didn't have a clue, but she somehow knew that her mentor and friend had perished in the battle. Now she was all by herself.

But there was no time to think about it, as the shouts of the men chasing her filled her with the realization that she has been located by some of them. She could only keep running for so long, and the northmen chasing her down were getting dangerously close. Without hesitation, the girl jumped down a ravine, landing on the bank of a stream several meters down. Luckily for her, a soft spot on the sand absorbed most of the force from the fall.

"This has to be the stream Verkan was talking about!" Nina remembered. The young teenager quickly jumped onto her feet again and looked up, watching her pursuers trying to descend after her. She took advantage of their hesitation and followed down the stream as fast as she could until she could no longer hear them.

The young priestess sat down under a giant log used as a bridge, at the part of the stream the ravine was located. The girl was breathing heavily trying to catch her breath and regain some strength. She sat there in silence for some minutes, hearing their voices again. She covered her mouth with her hands, trying to remain as quiet as possible.

Nina could hear their conversations, even though they were talking in their distinctive tongue that she was unable to understand. "They apparently had lost her trace" the girl thought. She closed her eyes and clutched her legs tightly in front of her, trying to be as small as possible and hide between the rocks and roots that were under the shadow of the log bridge.

They kept looking for her for a few minutes. But after hearing her pursuers walk over the log bridge and follow down the path above, she slowly crawled from her hiding position, trying to escape in the opposite direction they went. The stream's current and the wind howling through the woods helped to suppress some of the noise she was making.

The young girl was trying to climb the ravine again, which was not so steep compared to the spot where she had previously jumped. She heard something disturbing the water behind her and hurried her pace, and after successfully climbing back the ravine, the girl quickly hid behind some bushes.

Nina tried to look through the bushes she was hiding at to see what was the sound source, but couldn't see anything. The girl looked at her surroundings and noticed something strange on the ground. Even though her eyes were getting accustomed to the low light, she still could not see very well in the dark night. But after a more careful glance, she gasped in recognition. She was sitting over the footprints of something.

The young girl started to panic quickly. Besides the northmen that were chasing after her, now there was also some kind of wild animal lurking around. She recognized the tracks from earlier back in the village. What is this? First the raiders, now it turns out the dragon has been following me around? she thought. Nina tried to go back on her tracks slowly and take the narrow trail in the opposite direction her pursuers went when she began to hear their voices through the woods again.

But then all of a sudden, the young girl tripped on a small hole, most probably the den of some small vermin. The loud crack of the old branches that broke under her feet could have been heard all over the forest on the silent night.

Shit! Shit! Shit! The girl cursed in panic and mentally chastised herself upon hearing the startling noises her pursuers were making not too far away from where she was. Of course, they would be still around she thought. She tried to remain as still as possible, holding her breath and trying her hardest not to make absolutely any noise.

But she could only stare in horror as the blurry silhouettes of those men were slowly walking the trail towards her. There was nowhere to run.

Her heart stopped when they spotted her. The girl quickly found herself in the line of sight of her pursuers and without thinking it twice, she made a run for it. She was now on the verge of tears and running again as fast as she could. With her pursuers following closely behind. So close that she could hear them taunting her with obscene words in her own language and smell their nasty breaths.

The girl followed the narrow path, jumping to avoid roots and branches that were lying on the ground and wishing that the men chasing her would trip on them or slow down somehow. Wishing for a miracle to happen. The night was particularly dark with the thick foliage blocking what little light could make it through the dense clouds. Navigating through the woods with such poor vision was incredibly difficult.

Before she could react, however, someone violently tackled her from the side, pinning her to the ground. One of her pursuers stealthy went for another path and intercepted her while she was looking behind. The poor girl cried in pain, desperately trying to set herself free to no avail. Soon the other men caught up with her and dragged her by the hair to a small clearing at the side of the trail. The young girl was now at their mercy, crying loudly as the men began to kick her on the ground for all the troubles.

The poor girl was expecting to be killed soon, as they showed no mercy to the others earlier in the village. But she began to realize to her utter horror, that these men had other plans in mind. One of them, their leader apparently as he was the oldest one, commanded the others to hold her tight. He started to hurriedly untie her robes and rip her clothes beneath, groping her teenage body without a bit of shame.

The sheer realization of what they had planned to do to her filled her heart with immense disgust and utter despair. The girl tried to resist as hard as she could, biting one of her captors' hands only to earn a powerful slap in the face in return. She kicked the man holding her in the face while he was trying to force her legs open, but the man was just too strong for her.

She had a small knife hidden on her boots that her mentor had given her back in the village. The girl tried to get hold of it in one last desperate attempt to free herself or end her life before the men had their way with her. Sadly, the two other men were restraining her too strongly by the arms.

One of them, the youngest, tried in vain to stop the others from going all the way only to be threatened with violence, and yelled back into submission. It was clear that the young boy was too scared to stand up to his friends. The girl looked at him and for a brief moment, the young girl and the young boy stared at each other with tears in their eyes. The boy couldn't stand the horrible scene and looked away, clearly disturbed with what the others were about to do but powerless to do anything to stop it.

Her chastity belt was now the only piece of clothing left on her that prevented them from taking her maidenhood. The girl began to cry in despair, as it was only a matter of time before they could tear the leather piece off. She begged the men to stop, but they only laughed at her in mockery. She then begged at the youngest of them, but all the scared boy could do was to look away. Finally, she begged at the Gods, to all of them. She put all her dread, her sorrow, and despair into one last prayer.

"Merciful Father, creator of all, open your arms and receive this soul"

Her fighting spirit had completely left her as only a miracle could save her now. The poor girl surrendered to her fate and braced for the worst. Now death would be welcome. Memories from her life flashed before her eyes. Her mother, her mentor, and all the people she cared about and loved that had left the mortal world. She could see them clearly, Nina begged at them for their forgiveness one last time, as she would soon join them.

Then, suddenly.

Then all of a sudden, the girl heard the most heinous sound she ever heard; a sound resembling a watermelon or some other fruit being squashed on a hard floor. At the same time, Nina felt her face and all her body being splattered again with the warm northmen's blood and small bits of flesh, bones, and brains from the inside of her would-be rapist's head.

What just happened? The poor girl was still recovering from the shock when the lifeless body of the northman that was about to defile her fell limp over her body and between her legs. A mixture of relief and horror flooded her heart after watching in gory detail the exposed brain through the giant opening in the back of the raider's head. Somebody or something has hit the northman with such force that made the back half of his head disappear.

The realization that she was covered with the insides of someone else's head hit her really hard. Nina was in shock, her mind went blank and she was completely unable to utter a word. The poor girl felt her captor's grip on her was getting loose, and quickly got her arms free from them to push the dead body that was over her to the side, purely by instinct.

Nina then tried to cover herself with her torn clothes and quickly backed until her back hit a tree behind her. The girl shielded her body using her arms and legs. She didn't want to watch, but she was unable to take her eyes away either. She felt the deep urge to witness what was going on.

The cold night air was disrupted by the sudden outburst of her captor's angry and confused screams. The northmen didn't know what just happened and with their weapons in hand, they demanded to know what was hiding behind the woods, the bushes, the dark, and the thick mist.

-"Leave… her… alone…" a raspy voice echoed through the dark.

The young priestess could do nothing else but cry for the overwhelming burst of relief she felt after hearing those words. Nina had always fantasized about being rescued by a dashing knight in shining armor, like those in the stories she read in her books. But she could not see the one who spoke those words through the dark. All she could see were the raiders that were holding her just a few seconds ago, standing in front of her. They were still trying to figure out who has just spoken.

-"I said… LEAVE! HER! ALONE!" the unknown voice yelled loudly.

This time, the raspy voice echoed through the dark night with increased force. So much that the northmen were able to easily locate its source. Calmly, yet defiantly, a small silhouette slowly approached through the dark towards the clearing where the raiders were holding the priestess in. Nobody could tell exactly who or what was walking towards them, but as the shadowy figure was closing the distance between them with each step, one thing was sure. A pair of very large bright eyes were staring them down, and it belonged to something that was not a human.

The creature finally reached the clearing and stood under the moonlight. Even though the clouds were thick, it let through enough light that highlighted its features. Nina could see something but she was not sure exactly what her eyes were looking at. It had a very odd shape, so much that it resembled something more akin to a wild beast than a man. It was not very tall, perhaps just a bit taller than her, it was, however, very well build.

The girl couldn't see much of it in the dark, but what little she was able to see was that the beast's back was hunched forward in a strange way. And most incredibly, it had a long and muscular tail moving back and forth behind him. Its eyes shined brightly in the dark. Nina took special notice of the creature's rather large feet that ended in long and sharp-looking claws that she recognized immediately. Those feet looked exactly like the tracks of the supposed dragon. Was this thing the one that has been lurking around lately?

The beast positioned both its arms towards his back in a position that suggested he was ready to attack, startling the northmen. Whatever this strange creature was, it was something neither she nor the raiders had ever seen before. Its bizarre structure along with its mostly greyish hide that was barely noticeable in the dark gave the creature a distinctive predatory appearance.

The poor girl could do nothing but stare at the creature. This thing just saved her from a horrible fate just a few seconds ago. But the danger was not over yet, three remaining northmen were still right in front of her, with their heads now turned towards the beast. A kind of beast that somehow could stand upright; had hands instead of paws and most surprisingly, it could even talk. "Was this thing even sentient?" she thought.

Nina could only wonder if it was, as it seemed that the beast could somehow understand what those men were trying to do to her and was determined to stop them. Or at least she hoped so. Right now, she was just as afraid of that thing as she was of what those raiders would do to her.

For a moment brief moment, they all just stared at the beast in silence. The northmen looked at each other in disbelief; the creature was standing in front of the raiders as if waiting for them to leave. But the raiders wanted blood for their fallen brother and the silence was disrupted by the sound of unsheathing blades that echoed through the night.

-"Kill that sucker!" one of the northmen commanded.

The two most fearsome raiders charged towards the creature with avenging fury. For a brief instant, the beast just stood in front of them, waiting for the northmen to come closer. The raiders attacked the monster with their swords but hit nothing but thin air.

After dodging the attack, the small creature moved around and behind them. Its movement was so incredibly swift that the girl's eyes had difficulty watching it clearly. The raiders turned to face the beast again, but the creature sent one of them flying away with a powerful kick. The unfortunate northman smashed violently against a nearby tree and fell to the ground.

The second raider turned his head again toward where his comrade has been hurled. The northman found his friend laying on the ground, twitching in agony and barely alive. The unfortunate raider was completely unable to move, as his spine and several other bones were broken by the powerful kick and the force of the impact against the tree.

The northman then turned his head again towards the beast and charged at it in a crazed fury. The raider launched several slashes at the creature, which dodged them quite easily. The creature then dashed past the northman in the blink of an eye and positioned itself behind him with inhumanly fast steps, ready to attack.

The beast hit the raider with three fast and powerful punches in rapid succession. Each blow was potent enough to dent the raider's breastplate armor, and break the man's ribs behind it. The northman was lifted from the ground by the sheer force of the last hit at his stomach.

The raider fell to the ground on his knees crying in pain, and a gush of blood came out from his mouth. But before he could do anything else; the beast hit him a fourth time with an inhumanly powerful kick right behind the head. The force of the kick was so brutal that the raider's head exploded from the violent impact, and all its contents were splattered over the ground and against a nearby tree.

The creature then turned towards the remaining northman, the youngest of them and who was supposed to hold the girl at sword point. The young raider could just stare back at the beast in fear, trembling and barely able to stand after witnessing his fellow raiders being massacred.

The scared boy didn't waste much time, he quickly turned and ran away for his life. The beast watched him escape but didn't attempt to chase after him. The northman was no longer a threat, and perhaps he never was. Nina then left out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and immediately the creature turned towards her.

The young girl froze in place. Who was this? What in the world was this thing? These thoughts were racing through her head. She couldn't move a muscle; Nina had lost almost all form of control over her body. But could feel her heart beating hard inside her chest as the creature began to slowly approaching her, looking at her squarely in her eyes.

Nina could feel her heart pounding harder and harder with each step closer, her mind going wild on what could possibly happen next. She went through all the possibilities: Would the beast kill her as it killed the northmen? Would it eat the poor girl alive? She didn't know, but she desperately hoped it would just leave her alone.

The beast stopped just a step away in front of her, still staring intensely into her eyes. The girl stared at it for a few seconds more until she couldn't bear it anymore. She then closed her eyes and turned her head away, crying. Nina was trembling hard in fear and shielding herself with her arms and legs.

For a brief moment, all Nina could do was crying silently and sobbing on the ground, shaking and covering her head with her arms. The girl was fighting hard not to look at the dragon. If those raiders and what they almost did to her scared the hell out of her; now this thing, this wild creature, and what it had just done to the northmen outright terrified her.

Although the thought of being defiled forever and taken away to an unknown fate is something nobody on their sane mind would wish for; neither is it being mangled and mercilessly beaten to death by a wild animal. The girl had just witnessed how three imposing adult men were savagely mauled to death and beyond any recognition by something no taller than her; and yet strong enough to dent through plate armor and break flesh and bone with nothing but the sheer force of its bare hands and feet.

But Nina could swear she heard the creature talking before. If it can talk, then perhaps it could understand her too. If this thing has not killed her yet, there has to be a reason. Something in her heart was telling her she could put her trust in the dragon.

-"Please don't hurt me!" the young girl pleaded.

The young priestess managed to speak without bumbling. She was still shaking in nervousness and barely able to speak. Wishing desperately to hear something, anything in return, and hoping that what the creature said before wasn't just her mind playing tricks on her and that it meant something more than just a predator claiming its prey.

Even though just a few seconds has passed since she pleaded to the creature, the young teenager felt that the time-lapse like several agonizingly long minutes. Nina felt a small tap on her feet. Did the beast just kick her in the boots? She felt it again as if the dragon was trying to catch her attention. The girl stopped whimpering immediately and slowly opened her eyes and looked at it.

The girl could not believe her eyes.

The dragon was standing in front of her, gently extending one of its hands still covered in northmen's blood towards her. Nina could not see the creature's face, as it was blocking what little moonlight there was with his back. But she could see his piercing bright eyes looking right through hers.

-"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you" the dragon spoke at her.

-"They can't hurt you anymore" he reassured.

The young girl felt again tears running down through her cheeks, this time of joy. Nina tried her hardest to hold them back as much as she could, but by this point, she felt so overwhelmed by relief that she couldn't help herself anymore.

She grabbed her savior's hands and let herself cry into them, sobbing loudly and violently as all the pent-up feelings of fear, helplessness, and despair left her body and her mind. The girl was finally safe and thanking all the Gods and her ancestors for listening to her pleas.

-"Thank you! Thank you so much!" the girl thanked the creature.

The dragon could only stare at her in confusion, as she grabbed his hands with both of hers and pressed them against her face and forehead. In what was an obvious sign of thanks for her but that was not known to the creature. The stranger put one of its hands over her head trying to comfort her.

The creature allowed her to cry for a few more minutes. He thought that it would be better for the poor girl to let it all out. He knelt beside her and Nina quickly let go of his hands and instinctively put her arms around him. The girl continued crying over his shoulder for a few more minutes, as her tears seemed unable to end. She loudly thanked the dragon once again, who was now awkwardly holding her in his arms.

As the poor girl continued crying in unknown arms, she could only think on whom and what exactly was the creature that saved her from a horrible fate and that was holding her now in his arms. Nina left out a sigh of relief among her sobs, thanking the dragon and the Gods once again for saving her from falling prey to the marauding raiders. Feeling immensely relieved that she was alive, safe, unharmed and that everything was finally over.

But little did she know that this wasn't the end.

It was just the beginning.