397 Beasts

Kyera felt numb, the world around her devolving into chaos. She sat on her knees on the stage, blood drenching her hands and the edges of her dress where it touched the growing pool on the ground. The people had scrambled to take up the defense, disappearing into the woods to find the invaders.

Bryson was helping the Matriarch off the stage, acting as a wall so no one could touch her. The other royals disappearing  through their own escape routes. Kyera sat alone on the stage accompanying the fallen musician and her apprentice who was desperately trying to pull her away.

"Princess, we have to run… Princess!" she yelled but Kyera didn't hear her. She had failed. The woman's lung was shredded by the arrow,  there was nothing she could do. Even if she had moments longer, her spirit energy wasn't enough. So much had been lost by a single arrow let loose.

The portal closed, the Matriarch would die without the nectar to nourish the flower, and with her death all the Snowdrop trees would wither and die. The land would become barren again. Normally they would open the portal again, and try once more as a emergency. However, the Portal Keeper is dead, and her successor too young to know the song and ritual of the shadows. No one was skilled enough in shade magic to open the portal, and the one who was didn't… didn't know how. Kyera felt anguish in her heart as his name crossed her mind.

Clovis… lost in the world of Shadows, alone with  no idea why she abandoned him. Would he die thinking the worst of her.  Kyera felt her heart scream in agony. What she didn't do, was hear the heart felt cry of a woman in pain, as though she was being torn in half. She didn't feel the tears that trailed down her cheeks and dripped into the blood pool growing around her. She didn't realize she was being lifted up and carried away, her mind retreated from another loss, a loss she couldn't mentally contend with.

***********************

The Shadow Realm: Garden of Souls

The sky swirled in its deep grey colors, as if thunder clouds filtered the sunlight. Shadow creatures moved through the underbrush, unaware or without care for the man who had just walked into their world. It was the time of the fleshling, and smaller demons were well aware that even if they completed the kill, there was a good chance the larger creatures would steal the best parts of the soul, like the displacer beast that currently chased after him.

Somehow in the short time he had been here he had managed to lose his coat to a creature who clawed it off of him, wich he barely escaped. His leather pants got coated in a black sticky ooze that was pulling him under, but he managed to escape that one by taking them off. At this point he was wearing the short pants that went under the fur leather pants to protect his jewels, and his necklace. That was it. Oh and he had managed to retain his sword, but he had a feeling it didn't have much of a chance against the beast hurdling after him.

Presently, Clovis landed in the muck, his momentum throwing  him forward as he zigged and zagged through the trees, changing his trail every few steps so that he wasn't predictable. If the creature got ahead of him, he was done for.

The black panther like creature leaped up onto a branch and ran across the river. Its four long tentacles, ending in toothy maws was hot on his trail. If the creature was just a bit smaller, Clovis would have been its dinner by now. 5 sets of green eyes were trained on him as the creature navigated the forest. The problem was, it didn't seem to be overly angry that it had not caught him yet.

That made Clovis uneasy just as he came on the reason why. He threw his breaks on, digging his heels into the dirt skidding to a stop a few inches before the point of no return. The fourth prince managed to fall onto his butt, his feet skidding forward to dangle over the edge.