Chapter 4: 2. Death or Deliverance?
DEATH OR DELIVERANCE
~
Edge of the wild woods,
Skirts of the Village of Drift-combe,
Kingdom of Velicia,
Mid-night reigned by a full moon,
The Seventh Night of the Month of November,
Thirty Third Year of the Reign of King Jesse Crestings
~
Just as Amelia was feeling cold and moved towards her garments that were draped over the branch of the tree, she heard the sound of low, but deep growls from the woods around her. Fear began to grip her senses as she looked around, knowing that the beasts had arrived before she could make her escape.
Then, from behind the tree where her clothes were hung, a pair of deadly eyes opened in the seething darkness. There was a large and mounting shadow in the shape of a bloodhound that was approaching her humble figure.
She screamed and began running for her life, knowing full well that she was their prey. Many pairs of hungry, beastly eyes glowed in the darkness of the wild around her. Several of such gigantic lupine monsters came forth from the shadows of the night in the woods and chased Amelia.
In a few moments, she was breathless and surrounded by the ravenous beasts. She saw their ferocious gazes, long sharp canines protruding out of their jaws and saliva oozing down. They had thick fur manes around their necks and strong muscular bodies, sharp claws in their paws and danger resonating in their deep set eyes.
Some were stripped and others were dark. But the difference in their appearance deterred nothing from the ferocity that their blood thirsty expressions spelt.
She closed her eyes tight, crying profusely, her mind hurrying its prayers. The thick tension in the air was coupled with the deafening sound of their howls and ragged breaths.
Memories of a decade ago flashed in the eye of her mind at the prospect that she was cornered by the gigantic beasts. Tears burnt her eyes, threatening to fall.
It had been that day, when she had watched her entire native village perish under the onslaught of those very monsters that had consumed every human present in the area. It was like a judgement that condemned the land. And whilst she ran away, she was the sole one that had survived, with the memories of those hounds mercilessly consuming her kith and kin.
Amelia shuddered, for she knew that her final breath was near.
Then, one of the monsters venged towards her, hungrily, to devour her being. The sound of its growls compelled her to open her eyes and see the final sight of its approach, mounting greatly over her, and she screamed, turning away.
Just then, the expected pain of the beast's jaws overcoming her body had not arrived. She felt a heavy weight landing down beside her in a thud and she opened her eyes to see what had happened. There was nearly a lake of blood staining the grass around her and she turned to find that the head of the beast that had come against her had been severed and was lying on the ground, scarlet blood oozing out.
Just as she stared at it, disbelieving and shocked, she heard the sound of a blade. Looking up, she saw him:
A tall man: countenance hooded and capes flying, harnessing his large sword into its sheath, standing on top of the headless body of the gigantic monster he had felled. Her pulse was still throbbing at an ignited pace after nearly having brushed shoulders with death itself, but a part of her could not believe that she was saved.
When the shock of the beast's beheading had sunk into the surrounding, the other monsters that were encircling her began to come at her in open attack.
The man swooped down from his place on the exposed neck of the dead hound and advanced towards her. Amelia could hardly collect her senses before she felt his strong arm grip her waist.
Shoved against his chest, she held on to her towel in one hand and the gathers of cloak over his shoulder-blade in another. His movements were quick and he wasted no second to even look around. In a heartbeat, he reached out to grab a rope that was hurled towards him and they lifted off the ground.
It was a close shave before they escaped the fangs of the other beasts that had hungrily come to devour them.
Dazed, Amelia looked over her shoulder and noticed that there were a few other men in dark capes who were challenging the hounds and severing them. Within a few moments, the place was cleared. A couple more of the gargantuan monsters were killed by the unknown men and the other beasts had fled.
Then, they descended down to land on safe grounds. When Amelia's bare feet met the floor, she looked up to see that the man that had saved her was masked and she could only see his eyes. The shadow of his hood mastered a great part of his face. His collars were turned up and covering his jawline, although she had seen that it was sharp when the attire shifted.
His scent was fresh and masculine and wild, and the damsel had never quite found such odour upon anyone in her village like that before.
She felt his grip around her waist slowly and gently easing as he withdrew his arm. She quickly released her grasp from his shoulder and took a step back. He was much taller than her and he stood against the moon, with shadows over his already masked face.
Tucking a lock of slightly wet brown hair behind her ear, she whispered a "Thank you" to the man that had rescued her from the brink of death. He nodded, wordlessly.
Something inside her stirred with curiosity to know his identity. He seemed foreign from the faint hints that she could gauge. His eyes were fair. From the darkness of the night, she was uncertain of whether they were blue or green, but she knew that they were fair coloured, pupils dilated, possibly due to the rush of the occurrence.
And they were most engaging when he gazed into her eyes the way he did. In the silent ambience, it made her heart beat faster than it should have. Then, his gaze descended from her face down to her slight apparel.
Amelia could feel her cheeks and neck burning as she tightened her grip on her towel, feeling embarrassed. "I was taking a bath down in the river but the beasts came and I did not expect it...", she mumbled on, making the situation more difficult and awkward. Her voice ushered out in breaths and whispers and she was abashed.
His brows lifted and his gaze wandered to the river that was a distance behind her.
"I-I am finished now", she confirmed.
There seemed to be a shade of amusement in his eyes before he nodded again. A single lock of dark hair descended from beneath his hood, but he was swift to shove it away.
The other men that had discomfited the beasts, dressed in the same dark, hooded capes as the man before her eyes, assembled behind him and descended down on one knee, bowing. The damsel noticed that there were four of them, making the whole team a company of five, with the first man as the head.
They were the vigilantes that the villager folks had been blazing about.
~
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