It glared at her like all this was her fault. Audrey gripped the sword tighter. This thing was not going to let her get passed it. It was not going to let her live. Just as well, because she was not giving up without a fight. Especially not to a piece of furniture!
It hissed at her, readying itself to seek vengeance. 'I'm sorry bed, but it is either you or me. And I'm choosing me!' She declared in her mind. She did not have the strength to say it out loud. Deep down despite all her bravado she knew she would lose but she would rather go down trying.
It charged for her, fury evident in its eyes. An uncharacteristic feeling of power surged through her. Enough for her to lift the sword and stand on her own.
It jumped in the air, front limbs aimed, claws out, mouth open. A perfect picture of a painful merciless death to come.
Just as it was about to make contact with its target, she buckled her knees. It missed its target, letting her slip underneath. She raised the sword and slashed from its neck down with everything she had.
The blade cut through thick hide, muscle and even bone like a hot knife through butter. Blue sticky blood and black guts gushed out from the wound and it stank worse than a dead rat soaked in two week old triggle juice. The beast gave one last loud roar before falling to the ground. Dead.
Audrey slowly walked to where its head rested. Only when the glow left its eyes did Audrey fall down ass first to the ground. Her legs and hands trembled from exhaustion as all the power from only seconds ago vanished. Her heart continued to pound, the pain of the wounds and the flames only slightly forgotten.
*****
She watched as the creature's body started convulsing. The spell was wearing off. She looked to her side were she had dropped the sword. She was going to need its asistance again. It would also give her the opportunity to take a closer look at the weapon. She was not sure she had ever seen or read about it before. If it had been in her family, her parents would have mentioned it earlier.
She looked but the sword was not there. The only thing left behind was a depression of its shape in the burning grass. She heard footsteps, shouts and screams. Audrey guessed everyone was out then.
"What the hell happened here?"
"Are they dead?!"
Someone gagged. "What is that terrible smell?!"
A few seconds later the fire died. With the flames gone Audrey's path of vision cleared and she found herelf looking over the beast's head and back at the forest. She felt a presence beside her and gingerly turned her head to see who or what it was. She winced with the effort.
A brown ram stood by her side, it looked her in the eye before bleating out.
"Someone is over there!" A woman called out.
"Is that not the Takilya girl?" Someone else, a man, called back. The woman's footsteps drew closer faster. "Audrey?"
She recognized the voice and she was surprised. Laila? She was the owner of the exotic ingredients shop. A foreigner in the clan who came at yearly intervals to sell her wares. Easily pegged an outsider by her excessive green hair and the tattoos that ran the entirety of her arm. The two of them had formed a friendship of sorts.
Laila had been coming to the clan for close to six years and never been invited to clan only ceremonies and rituals but looks like she had been invited to this year's ceremony.
The look she was trying to hide said a lot of things. For one, her injuries were worse than she thought. "Get a healer, she looks injured." she shouted to someone behind Audrey.
Someone left and another came close to them but stoped and fell down. "Dear Sakhet!"