"What is going on?" She heard someone say as the ongoing shouts of the people from outside the restaurant penetrated through the walls.
"Something is attacking!"
Kiera got up from her chair at once. The prince did the same, one look and she could tell they had the same thought running through each of their heads.
They were one of the few that left the restaurant in a hurry, the wait staff of the restaurant did their best to calm the dining patrons. As soon as they left, they were thrown into a state of madness. The Farrington she saw a few hours ago was nowhere to be seen, replaced by the horrifying scene of chaos as people scrambled and ran through the streets. Kiera caught the fear-filled look in their eyes as they fled.
"Of course this had to happen now of all times." Her eyes pulled away from the scene when she heard Sam mutter under his breath. She watched him, astonished as he bent down to retrieve a small scabbard of a knife he had hidden away inside his boot.
She shook her head when he tried to hand her the knife.
"Take it, Kiera. You don't have a sword with you and I'm sure you can put more use to this knife than I ever could." He held up the scabbard in between them as people continued to bump into them.
Kiera placed her hand over his. With the mayhem of the scrambling humans around them, desperately running for shelter, she firmly pushed his closed fist containing the knife away.
"No. This knife is yours," she added before he could argue with her, "you forget I have a much sharper weapon." To enunciate her point, she briefly flashed him a look at her canines.
"Kiera, no, you can't transform here."
"Don't worry." She smiled and against the push of the crowd, she pulled the back of his head in for a quick kiss on the lips. "I'll lead it away before I transform."
She turned on her heel to face the direction she thought was the origin of all the commotion. Whatever it was that was attacking, she heard its roars. The cobblestoned streets rumbled below her feet.
Before she ran off, she yelled over her shoulder at him.
"Don't come after me!" She left his side, and the crowd of panicked humans made it so she quickly lost sight of him in a sea of bodies. Her stomach churned at the thought of leaving him alone, but she did not have the luxury of focusing solely on him at the moment.
Kiera ran through the crowd, fighting against the current of people. At last, she escaped the congealed mass of humans when the crowd finally thinned. That was also when she first got a look at the source of all the roars.
At a glance, she saw a monstrous creature with razor-sharp teeth biting down on the leg of a man. The man's screams were terrible as they reverberated across the square. The monster shook its elongated head, tearing into the man's skin even further. There was a small relief in her when she confirmed it wasn't an attack from a Deranged Beast but a monster. Her relief was soon interrupted by the man's pleadings for help.
"Help!" The man was clawing at the cobblestone ground, trying to get away, but that only made the monster lock its jaw around the man's leg. Another couple of moments more and the creature would rip the man's leg right off. A few paces away lay a woman on the ground with all the skirts of her heavy dress splayed around her. She was in between fits of sobs and shrieks as she watched the man get attacked in front of her.
Kiera did not squander any time. With incredible strength, she lifted her foot, sending a powerful kick into the monster's side. Her boot connected with the jaw of the monster, hitting it right where she was aiming. She took great satisfaction in hearing the crunch of bone as her foot connected.
The monster opened its maw, releasing its hold on the man's leg. Kiera and the monster's eyes met each other. A monster recognizing another monster.
It took off after regarding Kiera for a second with its bloody red eyes.
The woman on the ground stopped her screaming, watching Kiera in amazement as the paint on the lady's face streamed down the length of her cheeks. Strands of her hair stuck to her oily and tear-stained face.
"Oh John!" She crawled on her knees, dragging her dress on the ground as she went to the man bleeding out from his bloodied leg. His mangled left leg was in tatters as it laid at an odd angle. Kiera knew that kind of injury would require an amputation.
"Help! Help him!"
Kiera left the Mated couple, the woman shaking as she extended her hands out helplessly to the man whose screams continued all this time. She chased after the monster, hoping that someone would hear her cries and stop to help the couple.
For her, she had the task of Hunting down the monster before it attacked again. Like Beasts, monsters were also capable of regeneration, and that type of monster would take almost no time healing the hit it had suffered from Kiera.
She sniffed the air, her nose picking up the hideous scent of the monster and the human blood on its maw.
The scent led her to a deserted part of the area. She halted, eyes on the disgusting black-furred monster as it paced. Its red eyes locked on Kiera, understanding she was the one who had injured it. Her expertise was on the Deranged, but whenever the situation arose, she would also fight against any monsters that appeared in the Forest.
She was always told the monsters in her homeland were different than the monsters everywhere else, but if that were true, then why was she face-to-face with a monster she had fought before?
Kiera made sure she kept her sights on the undead monster, watching with disdain as blood dripped from its mouth to the cobblestones on the ground below. This particular monster dinned on flesh and drank the blood of its victims. It was said it took the souls it killed straight to the underworld.
"Barghest."
It opened its mouth as it heard Kiera, letting a giant string of slobber mixed with blood hit the ground.
All the humans had fled the vicinity. That meant it was only the Barghest and Kiera out on the street.
She stretched out her hands, hearing the cracking of her fingerbones. She was on the precipice of her transformation, her inner wolf sensing the oncoming battle that was about to take place.
Her clothes snapped and ripped as her body gave way to the transformation. Once her wolf form took over, she shook her furry body and let the cloth remnants fall in a heap all around her.
The Barghest released a roar and Kiera felt a growl vibrate out of her throat in response.
Then with a kick of her hind legs, she ran to meet the Barghest in a scramble of teeth and claws. She was smaller than the Barghest, but that allowed her a clearer access to the neck of the monster.
Her fangs sunk in deep into the jugular of the monster. She heard its cries as blood spurted everywhere, splashing Kiera on her face. The Barghest tried to shake Kiera off of it but Kiera held on like a flea to its neck.
It swiped at Kiera with its massive claws, managing to hook one or two into her side. She registered the searing pain but refrained from letting go. Instead she took her pain and bit down harder.
More blood flowed out and the monster roared once more. She felt the monster finally begin to lose some of its strength as the amount of blood loss was beginning to effect it.
That was the push Kiera needed to finish the monster off. She opened her mouth and bit down at the other section of the neck.
It released one last cry before its body slumped. The monster's red eyes hauntingly stared out as it died for the last time.
She let go of the monster's neck, letting the head fall lifelessly to the ground with a thud.
She panted, her tongue sticking out of her mouth as she tried her best not to taste the blood of the Barghest. An undead monster's blood was poisonous and she needed to avoid taking in its blood as much as possible.
She thought of the fountain at the square and took off, planning to clean the blood from her mouth with the clean water from the fountain's bottom layer.
Sun was setting when she arrived at Farrington's square, but she couldn't fully step out onto the square because of the humans there. Her blue eyes landed on the brown wig of the prince. She saw him fastening a tourniquet made using his belt around the injured man's leg. There was a group of onlookers that had jumped in to help Sam take care of the man.
She lingered for a while, watching as he worked hard to preserve the man's life. His jaw was set in determination even as the man's blood covered his hands.
The impression of him in that kind of setting stirred a feeling inside her and her heart warmed.
Kiera tore her eyes from his face and slinked away from the square, leaving to find a place to safely transform back into her human form.