Crown of Vengeance Read online

  Ryan stood in rapt silence. His expression was dour, and Lee knew that Ryan’s mood was vacillating between the opposing forces at work inside of him. Lee waited patiently on the young man. As if dragging a heavy weight, Ryan finally brought his eyes up to meet Lee’s.

  “It’s worth a try,” Ryan announced rigidly.

  Once the youth had said the words, it was as if one part of him was unlocked and freed. He looked intently at the ground all around them, and without a word, walked over and picked up a fallen branch off of the forest floor. Placing one knee on the branch to pin it to the ground, he began ripping away the smaller offshoots growing out from it.

  When he had stripped the branch bare, Ryan rose up and started walking back up towards the summit of the hill, continuing to examine the ground. Lee followed behind him quietly, continuing to watch.

  Using the stripped branch, Ryan scraped around, revealing the rough edge of a jutting rock. Utilizing the edge of the rock, he patiently worked at one end of the branch until it was crudely sharpened.

  He turned back to Lee, gripping the rough spear about midway down its shaft. Ryan looked into Lee’s eyes, and something a little more firm and resolute was within his gaze now.

  “Then we can start with this,” Ryan proclaimed. “Start with the weapons, and then look to the rest.”

  Lee stifled a smile, proud. It was one less thing that he had to worry about in the midst of the unbelievable situation.

  “Well done, a good job,” Lee commented, with no hint of being patronizing, in sincere appreciation of the young man’s fortitude.

  Lee walked by Ryan, pausing momentarily to pat him gently upon the shoulder. Another elongated, stout branch, which probably had been broken off during a powerful storm, lay a few feet beyond them.

  Lee picked up the branch and began to strip it.

  ERIN

  “Okay Lynn, what is this?” Erin asked, irritated and unnerved at the relentless fog swirling all around them.

  The fog had encircled them fully, forbidding any forward vision and cooling the very air around them. She could feel the damp, chilly vapors brushing against her arms, face, and lower legs.

  “Come on, Erin. It’s time to get back around that fire,” Lynn said resolutely, reaching out and taking her friend’s hand.

  “We can hardly see a thing, though,” Erin replied, squeezing Lynn’s hand firmly in her anxiety as they turned to make their way back to the campsite.

  “Then we go slow, and we call out for directions. Just follow the voices of Uli and Razor in. We’ll probably walk right into them. It won’t be a problem at all,” Lynn stated. She took a few cautious steps forward, gently tugging Erin into motion behind her. “Come on, let’s start this way. Watch your step. Be careful.”

  Progress was painstakingly slow. The encumbering fog prevented Erin from catching even a glimpse of the campfire, though she was certain that it was just a short distance away.

  “Hey! Razor! Uli!” Lynn called out loudly. “Where are you guys?” Her voice carried off through the fog, as silence settled back in around them.

  They stood still for several moments, waiting for a reply from their friends to help with their bearings. None was forthcoming.

  Again, Lynn yelled out to their compatriots, and once again there was no response.

  “This is no time for jokes,” murmured Erin in sharp displeasure, delicately stepping over the trunk of a fallen tree that was in their path. She did not recall stepping over a tree trunk when she had gone into the woods, and began to worry that they might have oriented themselves in the wrong direction.

  “They had better not play around with us,” Erin remarked acidly, her uneasiness fueling her vexation. “They know I will give them hell. Believe me, I will. Unholy hell.”

  “Tell me about it,” Lynn concurred tersely. “But remember, they are just the type of dolts to try and pull something like that, especially if they figure out why we are calling out to them. They couldn’t have packed up the camp and moved it away in a couple of minutes. We’ll stumble into one of them sooner or later, no matter what.”

  “Hopefully sooner,” Erin responded, shaken by the utter lack of visibility.

  The two picked their way over yet another fallen tree. They continued onward cautiously, methodically making their way over a fairly open clearance of ground judging by the more sporadic contact with the trees looming out of the fog.

  The ground seemed to be flatter, certainly more so than the downward sloping angle that the hillside had, but Erin attributed the perception to her momentary disorientation.

  Both Lynn and Erin continued shouting out to their friends, repeatedly, with less than satisfactory results.

  “This isn’t it. The area where we were had a lot more trees,” Lynn observed, a noticeable tension in her voice.

  “Well, then let’s turn back,” Erin replied, matter-of-factly. It mystified her as to how they could possibly have gotten far away from the campsite.

  “I wish it were that simple. Don’t forget, there are cliffs not too far off from the camp. If we keep walking, we will have to go really slow. I don’t want to step off the edge of a hundred and fifty foot drop, and I don’t think that you do either.”

  Erin certainly had no argument to that.

  The fog seemed to be thinning somewhat off to the right, as Erin could make out the outlines of trees a little farther away than before. Elsewhere, it was as dense as ever.

  Lynn had evidently taken notice of the variance as well.

  “Wait a second, Erin. Maybe we should go in this direction. It looks like the fog’s not as thick that way,” Lynn suggested. “At least it will be a little safer for us in this area, being able to see a little farther ahead.”

  “I’m with you on that,” Erin agreed, relieved that they would have a few strides warning before coming to the edge of a lethal drop-off.

  They took a few steps to the right. Erin reached out and felt the texture of one of the trees as they passed by it. She drew a little stability from the solidity of the trunk.

  Gradually it became easier and easier to see farther into the trees ahead. The two women were finally able to concentrate more on the ground under them, than what was coming up immediately in front of them. Even so, Erin’s sense of caution did not lessen.

  As they continued forward, keeping a careful watch on the ground, Erin had no more doubts that their visibility was steadily increasing. Strangely, the illumination in the area was increasing as well.

  “Full moon should be helping out, but this much?” Erin asked Lynn, taken aback by the rising ambience.

  “I don’t have an explanation for it,” Lynn responded. “But you are right, it is getting much brighter around here.”

  They took a few more steps, when both Erin and Lynn came to a stop. Erin saw that the fog was visibly receding around them. Looking over at Lynn’s bewildered expression, she knew that her friend was as struck with the bizarre phenomenon as she was.

  With great apprehension, Erin stood with Lynn as they waited to see what the fog’s dispersal would reveal. Hoping for a landmark, a sign of their campsite, or even a member of their group, she scanned the growing periphery with great scrutiny.

  The amount of light continued to expand, until the last layers of fog started breaking up to reveal a blue-green sky spread far and wide above them. Forested hills rose up all around them, as they found themselves at the base of an incline that led towards a long ridgeline.

  After the initial shock of the sight of daylight and unfamiliar terrain subsided, Erin looked to Lynn to see if her friend was as stunned as she was.

  “Where are we? That’s not normal. Something’s wrong with my eyes,” Erin said, looking at the teal hue of the sky, panic surging. “Something is wrong with me.”

  “Then something is wrong with me too,” Lynn replied in a voice just above a whisper, her lips barely mouthing the words.

  “Then what is it?” Erin asked Lynn after a few more uncomfo
rtable moments had passed.

  It was not what she had wanted to hear from Lynn. Erin had hoped that the problems rested with her alone, and that Lynn did not see what she was seeing. Whatever was affecting Erin’s vision was also altering Lynn’s.

  “We’ve gotta find the others,” Erin went on, before Lynn answered. “Something’s gone wrong with us, Lynn.”

  “So that’s how we walked all the way to the bottom of a hill, moved into another entirely different area, and found ourselves here? Is that right, Erin? And we’ve suddenly gone from night to broad daylight in less than half an hour? And how come everything but the sky is the right color, if something’s wrong with our eyes?” Lynn queried.

  Her barrage of words stung Erin. She wished with all her heart that they were experiencing some shared hallucination, but knew better.

  Erin frowned as she looked over at Lynn. “Then how do you explain this?”

  “You think I know?” Lynn countered sharply.

  “We got lost in the fog, and lost sense of time,” Erin said.

  “For how many hours? And that explains the sky color?” Lynn shot back.

  Erin glared at Lynn, unable to come up with a verbal response but not about to concede anything either. A heavy tension weighed the air between them down, as they continued to glower at each other.

  They were given little time to resume their argument, as a loud, piercing screech shattered the still air. A broad, dark shadow swept across the ground, passing swiftly over their position and bringing their eyes hastily upwards.

  “My god! What the hell is that?” Erin cried out, looking skyward, where she beheld the sight of a horrific-looking creature that was flying just above the tops of the trees. Its fierce, reptilian visage gazed down hungrily upon them, as it circled over their position.

  The body of the fearsome creature was well over ten feet in length. Its extended jaws, opening with each ensuing outcry, revealed an arsenal of whetted teeth, arrayed into the unmistakable maw of a very formidable carnivore.

  “Run! Just run!” Lynn yelled, giving Erin a hard shove to urge her onward.

  Erin broke out of her momentary trance, lurching into a full run, needing little inspiration to hasten her strides. In an instant, both of the women were running as fast as they could across the forest ground. Lynn, with a slight lead, angled towards the rounded base of a nearby hill.

  Behind them, the creature glided low just over the uppermost tree branches, relentlessly tracking the young women. The beast skimmed above the trees, its keen eyes searching carefully.

  When it reached a larger break in the forest canopy, its wings tucked in suddenly, and it swooped downward with deadly grace and force as it leveled out beneath the trees.

  The creature’s wings folded close to its body whenever it passed by the trees in its path, spreading wide in the gaps between the trees, and snapping down in the open spaces, giving bursts to its pursuing flight. The beast closed fast upon the two desperate women running before it.

  Legs straining to the limits, Erin and Lynn reached the bend at the base of the hill. Dodging trees, and adroitly leaping over another fallen tree trunk, the two women looked frantically about for escape.

  “To the right!” Lynn shouted quickly, breaking sharply to her right, running towards a wide creek.

  The creek had cut a deep embankment, as its waters coursed steadily along their meandering route. Erin realized Lynn’s desperate notion at once.

  Glancing back, Lynn checked to see that Erin was still close behind her. Erin was following right on her heels.

  Erin looked over her own shoulder and stifled a scream as she saw that the huge predator was deftly flying just a few feet above the ground, gliding rapidly just a short distance behind.

  It was closing on them far too fast.

  “Down! And stay on this side of the bank!” Lynn yelled as they reached the lip of the bank.

  In a flurry of motion that was a mixture of falling, twisting, and slipping, Lynn dropped and rotated to press herself against the near side of the bank. Erin tumbled in awkwardly behind her, almost falling out from the bank in the process. Swiftly, Lynn reached out and grabbed Erin’s shirt, pulling her in tightly. Mud and water was spattered all over them.

  A second later, the creature shrieked in rage. It hurtled by just overhead, streaking across the surface of the creek as its prey evaded its imminent grasp.

  “It will probably turn around! Let’s go!” Lynn said, anxiously watching the winged nightmare.

  Once the beast came back from the other direction, their position would be abruptly turned from a means of refuge to one of vulnerability.

  The cry of the monstrous creature suddenly changed pitches, as the sound of a great, sonorous roaring intermingled with it. The forest was filled with the deep-toned eruption, the furious cacophony shaking the air. Erin knew at once that the roar had not come from the flying entity.

  The shrill shrieks of the flying monstrosity and the horrible roaring of the other denizen of the forest escalated, with both creatures now well beyond Erin’s line of sight.

  Erin was not about to wait to see what the cause of the tumult was, or what had become of the flying creature. Most certainly, she did not wish to see the source of the deafening roar.

  Neither did Lynn evidently, who was already up and on the move, dragging Erin into step behind her and urging her to hurry. They dashed down along the edge of the creek, their frenzied steps throwing up splashes of water with each impact. Erin was pumping her legs as quickly as she could, several times almost stumbling and falling in her unrelenting haste.

  Far behind them came anther loud, high-pitched cry from the winged creature. It carried a noticeably different tone. Unlike the cries that it had made before, this one sounded like a cry of tremendous agony.

  It was followed a moment later by another thunderous roar. The piercing cry of the winged entity was then abruptly cut off, the roar ebbed, and the forest fell into silence once more.

  The cessation of the chaotic dissonance did not lesson the frightful panic that Erin felt racing through her veins.

  Erin and Lynn continued their urgent sprint, putting plenty of distance between themselves and the area where the creatures were. Only when her lungs were about to burst, and her leg muscles felt gelatinous from being pushed to their utmost limits, did they finally reduce their speed down to a jog and begin to reclaim their breath.

  “What is going on …?” Erin asked between heavy gasps for air.

  Inwardly, she cursed her life of sedate activity. Exhausted and winded, she knew that she was going to pay a very steep price for her prolonged lack of regular physical exercise.

  Calling up all her willpower, she trudged onward, keeping by Lynn’s side.

  “I have … no idea,” Lynn replied, between her own heaving gulps of breath.

  Though in better physical shape than Erin, Lynn was still far from prepared for the ordeal that they found themselves in.

  “Then, what do we do?” Erin asked, her voice despondent.

  She looked to Lynn, as she took a few protracted breaths. Her heart continued to pound rapidly in her chest, strained by exertion and fear.

  Lynn slowed down further, turning aside towards a spot where they could easily scramble up the bank. Before answering Erin, she dug into the incline, using her hands to help propel her upwards.

  When she stood at the top, she turned around and looked down to where Erin had come to a stop at the base of the embankment.

  “For now, we just keep going,” Lynn said.

  Leaning over and reaching out, she took Erin’s hand and helped her up to the top of the bank. Standing at Lynn’s side, Erin cast a distressed glance back down the creek. Fortunately, there was no sight or sound of any pursuit.

  A wave of dizziness then came over Erin as she stood still, sweat beading and beginning to trickle down her warming face. The young woman then hunched over, her hands braced upon her knees. She felt a light wave of nausea. It
was all that she could do to remain relaxed, and avoid the eruption of violent heaves.

  “Breath slow,” Lynn advised, placing a hand on her friend’s back.

  Erin closed her eyes and drew in a long inhalation, letting it out slowly. She repeated the process a couple more times.

  “We keep going, but to where?” Erin asked between breaths, teetering on the edge of vomiting.

  “I don’t know,” Lynn replied simply, after a long pause.

  Erin glanced over at her friend, who had straightened up, placed hands on her hips, and was now looking around them.

  The forest was quiescent, and the only sound in Erin’s ears was that of leaves rustling in soft breezes. Whether it was paranoia, or just keen perception, Erin felt a prickly sensation along the nape of her neck. She sensed that they were being watched.

  “Do you feel it?” Erin whispered curtly. “Like someone … or something … is watching us.”

  Lynn nodded quietly, her eyes wide as her gaze darted about.

  “We’d better get something to hit back with,” Lynn said at last, her eyes lowering as took a couple of steps away from the bank. She then warned, “We aren’t going to be able to run much more.”

  Making her way over to a tree with low branches, she put both her arms out, wrapping her fingers around on a strong-looking branch. With a forceful, backward pull that engaged her body weight, Lynn snapped the branch off the tree.

  Quickly, she set about stripping all of the extraneous shoots from the main branch.

  “For you,” Lynn announced to Erin, handing her the makeshift staff. “It won’t be brittle, at least.”

  Lynn walked back over and repeated the process on a similarly stout-looking branch attached to a nearby tree.

  “And for me,” Lynn remarked as she bared the branch.

  The branch felt solid enough in Erin’s hands, and she knew that it could deliver a crunching impact. At the very least, Erin knew that they now possessed usable walking staves.