Hope could hear Ethan and Ian screaming voice, shouting many things that Hope couldn't hear clearly, because the only thing that she could focus now was the head of the spear that coming down toward her.
This is it? This is it?
Hope didn't believe she would die like this? Seriously! Only if she was not a guardian angel and a witch instead, she would be very glad to turn this man into a frog!
With the last strength that she had, Hope pushed herself to roll over her body, dodging the spear only by a fortune.
The head of the spear stuck on the ground where she was sitting only a millisecond ago. It could split her skull into two if she moved any slower or her brain freeze any longer.
That was a close call!
With a groan, Hope forced herself to stand up. She cursed under her breath when she put her weight on her injured ankle and her back screamed in agony. Hope could feel the wound reopened again because of her movement.
How great! She was stabbed a few hours ago and a few hours later a crazy man, who literally saved her life by tending her wound, wanted to kill her in the same way!
Didn't he think that he had wasted his previous work?!
Ugh! Nevermind!
Hope stopped blabbering inside her head and focused in the matter at hand. She had to find a way to stop him without killing him, which was an impossible task to do.
The hunter roared and started to chase her, throwing the spear, yet Hope dodged it again with the help of the siblings' instruction, as she didn't have time to even glance over her back.
When Hope was trying to think while running for her life, she heard a horde of footsteps from afar. The sound of it was very loud until she felt the earth was shaking.
Out of nowhere, Hope was being surrounded by… Hope didn't know how to name them. She was so shock until she fell on the ground, kneeling. Her eyes pondered at her surrounding and her mouth slightly agap, yet there was no voice that came out.
What are they!? The question was ringing inside her head without being able to escape her lips.
In this point, Hope failed to notice the danger that still lurking from the last hunter. Seeing Hope dropped to her knees, he used this moment to throw another spear in his hand toward the girl when a harsh voice rung in that gloomy night.
"ENOUGH!" His voice was very powerful until the hunter freeze in his place and the birds that perched on branches flew away, too afraid to stay and watched another scene unfolded.
Hope swallowed hard, she was circled. She took in the man who was shouting at the hunter to stop him before, the man with voice that laced with dominant.
However, he wasn't a man at all.
He was very big, probably as big as Kace's beast. His shoulders were broad and they dropped into a ripped torso, his body built with muscle, but the part of him that captured Hope's attention was his waist down.
Because… the lower half of him, from the torso, was horse…
Hope shook her head, she thought she was daydreaming, but she was not. First, because this was not day anymore as the sky as dark as her hair and second, it was hard to say that it was not reality that she witnessed before her eyes. They looked very real!
They are centaur!
"Centaur…" Hope finally could say it even in low voice that barely a whisper. Her eyes wide with shock. Even after she confirmed it was a real thing, Hope still questioned her sanity.
Hope shouldn't be this shock since she lived surrounded by supernatural creatures like werewolf, lycan and witch, but she used to think of centaur as imaginary creatures, yet here they were, standing tall before her eyes.
The centaur near her looked amused. "Indeed we are."
Shivers ran down Hope's spine when she heard he talked specifically to her. She didn't know what to say with this turn of event.
Hope started to consider the option that she had; she couldn't run, but even if she could she wouldn't be able to outrun centaurs, especially when there was so many of them.
"I will kill her!!!" the hunter was still hell bent to kill Hope, once again he raised the spear in his hand and rushed toward the girl on the ground.
However, before he could do any harm, the centaur in front of Hope stepped forward and effectively stopped him for the second time. He clasped his hands in front of his bare chest. "I am the chief."
"Step aside, Chiron! She and her friends killed my men! They killed our people!" the hunter didn't seem afraid of the centaur named Chiron.
"That's not how we handle this matter Leroy," he spoke in deep and shooting tone.
Inside the cage, Ian and Ethan also didn't know what to say as they were as quiet as the gentle breeze.
"I don't care how you will handle this matter!" Leroy spat, "She killed my friend and now I will kill her!"
"As long as I know, it is that beast, who had killed your men." Chiron nodded at the beast, not far from them. "We don't kill human."
"What do you know!?" Leroy was wrathful. "You are not even a human!"
His last statement earned a wave of displeased from the other centaurs.
"We stand together in this land to protect our people. Human or not." Chiron spoke after the chorus died down.
Leroy still looked having a difficulty to contain his anger, but gradually he knew his mistakes. "They killed our people!" yet still stubborn with his argument.
"I can see that…" Chiron spoke in gloomy tone as he gestured to the other centaurs to bring back the dead body. "But, the priestess wants to see them."