Guardian

*Author clears throat*...ahem....me again. (Dodges projectiles) I know this took forever and I apologize. I've struggled really hard to get this where I want it to go and had to muddle through ALOT of crap before I got something decent out. Writer's block sucks. But I've got some fresh ideas I'm pretty excited about and something new I'm going to try in the next addition. Anyways....MERRY CHRISTMAS....

I have some art up if you guys want to check it out. Links are posted below.

http://brownholly.deviantart.com/#/d35jvnp

http://brownholly.deviantart.com/#/d35j0iw

http://brownholly.deviantart.com/#/d35jeny

http://brownholly.deviantart.com/#/d35jkrq

Chapter Eighteen

The world around me became a series of passing images. Black trees were silhouetted against the lightening sky. The whining cackle of my captors was the only sound that broke the silence of the forest.

I had stopped screaming, because the pounding in my skull worsened with the effort. Who would hear me anyway? I no longer grabbed roots or stray weeds, it only resulted in more pain…and I was ready for the end, for the peaceful bliss of oblivion. I was terrified into a stupor.

When the dragging stopped I opened my eyes with a half-sob. The nasty little vermin were scrambling around a rock face, screeching angrily at each other. Their bickering never seemed to end.

The one that had ridden on my chest screamed especially loud, sending the sound to rip through my head like a blade. I felt the knot on my forehead begin to pound in time with my heart. I swallowed thickly, fighting back nausea.

Their little claws began to dig into my legs again. I opened my eyes to see, not the rocky wall that had once been there, but the opening of a cave mouth, leaking a fetid stench I did not have to guess about. It had the same noxious odor as three-day-old road kill.

For a few moments there was no sound but for the harsh rasps of my breath. The hobgoblins had gone quiet, their cocky little frames suddenly hunched and weary. Angry screeches had been lessened to jaded hisses. My throat grew thick with fear—

Something moved in the darkness, and I gasped, pulse redoubling, and limbs freezing in horror. I fought to hear past the frantic beat of my heart…to listen to that almost-nothing sound.

It was the soft slither of flesh on dirt and the dry wheeze of breath from open lips. The stench was growing, becoming sour. I wanted to gag on it and choked.

Agony tore through me as I lifted myself to my elbows and drug my body back. The hobs didn’t try to stop me. They had fled long ago.

I couldn’t move fast enough, as I heard the creak of my own bones. The terrified flutter of my heart knew there was no escape, but that didn’t stop it from faltering when a slimy hand thrust out of the darkness and wrapped around my twisted ankle. It reflected the light like an oozing blister as it drug me forward.

Then it spoke, releasing its foul breath into the air. I heard the sneer in its syrupy lisp, “Hello child.”

I thought I didn’t have breath left to scream, that my throat was too raw and bloodied to carry a hint of sound…I was wrong.