Bound in Spirals Ch. 08

He was jolted from his thoughts as Feima spoke. "Wh-What...?" She sat up, rubbing her head where Sam had hit her. As she saw him crouched down next to her she shrieked. "Y-You! You savage! My mother will find me and kill you!"

"Hey now, no need to be rude. I don't need you anymore so you can go back. Belleby can escort you." Sam replied as he stood up.

She glared at him. Her eyes softened slightly as Belleby hopped toward her and gave her face a long lick. "Agh, Belleby! This is not the time, can't you see?" Feima stiffened, and Sam guessed that he had just spoken to her. "Wha... How?"

The hoshind looked pointedly at him, then back to Feima. "I made him your familiar. Now you can talk to each other mentally. It's pretty useful." Sam explained.

'Just leave. I'm letting you go. Don't cause anymore problems, I'm too tired for this.' He prayed silently. Her glare turned on him again, and he sighed. 'Not the type to make things easy I guess.'

"Like I said, I'm back with my friends now. So you can just go back to your family or whatever. I just want to go to bed."

Her scowl deepened and she made to tackle him. Sam was too exhausted to be afraid at that point, he'd dealt with enough irrationality for one day. 'Letta, can you scare her a bit? Just so she leaves and doesn't come back.' He asked as he lazily sidestepped the elf.

'I will put the fear of death into her.' Letta replied ominously.

'Be careful. I wouldn't want her to be traumatized for life or anything.'

He heard her snort loudly behind him. 'Fine. I will just chase her off.'

A rumbling growl shook the air. Feima stumbled, her fist missing Sam. Her eyes bulged to the point that Sam thought they might pop out, apparently seeing Letta for the first time. Wind blew his hair into his face as Letta let out a menacing howl. Feima tripped as she tried to back away, falling hard on her backside.

Suddenly, Letta stopped. Sam spun, frowning at her. 'Why'd you stop?' He asked. She lifted her snout, sniffing the air. Her head cocked to the side, obviously puzzled by something. Sam turned, peering out into the dark forest. 'Is something coming?'

Then Letta growled again, and he could tell that this one was not feigned. 'A pack of hoshind are surrounding us. I believe there are elves with them as well. I cannot tell how many.'

Sam felt his hands start to shake. His fear threatening to overwhelm him. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He grabbed it. Darrel had tossed him his sword. Dettella looked at them confusedly.

"Get in the carriage, princess." Darrel said, still sounding calm. "We're about to have company."

Sam looked down at the sword in his hand and smiled. His hands stopped shaking and he felt adrenaline surge through him. In the back of his mind, almost subconsciously, he felt that the excitement that suddenly took him was wrong somehow. It was disturbingly similar to the demented glee he felt when he held his magic too long.

'Sam! Control yourself!' Samson said, his worry permeating their bond. Sam shook his head trying to get rid of that wrongness.

"Slap me." He said to Darrel, barely noticing as Fenella pulled a pair of large knives from her chest.

Darrel looked at him for a moment, seeming to understand somehow, then backhanded him. Sam reeled from the blow. He hadn't expected it to be so hard. Blinking repeatedly, Sam worked his jaw. He tasted coppery blood, but didn't summon his magic. His mind felt clear now, calm and focused. He still felt it, that excitement, like a weed that refused to pull out. But it was lesser now, it wouldn't control him.

"Belleby, get Feima out of here. I wouldn't want a kid to get caught in the crossfire." Sam said, glancing at the hoshind who was looking around worriedly. He looked at Sam and gave a nod.

The elf girl glared at him indignantly. "I'm not a ki..." She was cut off as Belleby started dragging her by her loose shirt. She looked at him. "No! I'm not leaving. I will see these barbarians cut down. I must!"

Sam didn't bother getting annoyed by her stubborn refusal to cooperate. He heard a soft rustling noise beneath Feima's loud protestations.

'Sam, bring Theodore and get on my back. We will flee. They will be distracted by these people.' Letta said, a hint of concern in her tone.

'What?! No, I won't do that.' Sam replied. 'Even for you that's a bit cruel.'

'There are too many to fight! I cannot protect you from all of them!' Letta plead, her tone becoming frantic. That she was scared frightened Sam more than he'd have liked to admit.

'It will be alright. They probably just want to find out who's in their forest.' He said with more certainty than he felt.

She did not say anything after that, but he could tell she was still worried. He turned and saw Theodore still lying on the ground in the center of the clearing. He quickly bound his sword to his back and picked up the unconscious Theodore. He hastily carried him over to the carriage. Dettella saw him coming through the window and opened the door for him.

"Please keep an eye on my friend. He's got bad wounds." He said as he carefully laid his friend down on the bench.

She nodded, looking him straight in the eye. "I will protect him with my life if necessary." She said, showing the knife she'd taken from Yalene. Her expression showed only determination, no fear.

"I... Thank you." Sam said, nodding back to her. He shut the door and strode up next to Darrel.

"Do not attack unless they do. Ideally we can get out of this without having to fight. It would be a difficult battle without my other men." Darrel said.

Sam looked around, suddenly realizing that the other two guards weren't there anymore. "Where'd they go?"

"I sent them to scout the road ahead. They are likely dead or captured." He replied, devoid of emotion.

"Damn..."

"If we have to fight, our best chance is to cut through their line and flee." Fenella said to Sam's right. She twirled the large, dark colored knives deftly. Darrel nodded, seeming to reevaluate her.

"You know how to fight?" Sam asked her.

"Better than you." She said. Sam wasn't sure what to think of that. She seemed to be as full of surprises as he was. Not for the first time, he wondered how old she really was.

The soft rustling slowly became a loud thud and scratch of many loping hoshind. 'There are probably less than it sounds.' He told himself. 'I mean, they have six legs so it just sounds like a lot.'

Gold and orange eyes suddenly seemed to appear in the darkness around the clearing. Letta snarled. Deep and angry. A dozen hoshind growled back. From the trees, a woman stepped out. Her bright blonde hair stood out against the pitch black darkness around them. A long, straight backed saber shone in the dim moonlight from her left hand.

"Mother?" Feima said, standing up.

"Feima." Was the only reply as the woman strode toward her daughter purposefully.

The humans just waited, watching curiously as she completely ignored them. At first, Sam thought she was staring at Feima. But, after looking more closely he realized she was focused on the hoshind cowering behind her. Belleby peeked around the elf girl, his ears pressed back, head lowered meekly.

"Have you come to save me, mother?" The girl asked.

The woman did not respond. She approached her daughter and shoved her out of the way. In a flash, she struck. A pitiful whine let out for a short moment as the elf woman swung her sword into Belleby's broad head. She slashed down, over and over. Sam stared in shock as she beat the poor creature's head into a pulpy mess of blood, bone and gray clumps of brain. Crimson splashed on the woman's face and gleamed on her sword. The loyal hoshind was dead before anyone could react.

Feima let out a wretched scream that was so miserable that Sam thought he could feel her pain through it. She continued screaming as she ran stumbling into the forest. Tearing red gouges in her face as she went. Her mother stared off after her daughter, looking as if she wanted to chase after her, but she did not.

"NOW!" She shouted, and all was chaos.

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Thus ends Chapter 8. I hope you've enjoyed reading it so far! Please leave a comment if you have time, I really enjoy hearing what people think. Any constructive criticism is welcome. Compliments or suggestions are also greatly appreciated. If you have any questions, related to the story or not, I'm happy to answer. What I'm getting at is that I really like to talk to people because I'm a sad, lonely man. P.S. I post progress updates in my bio incase anyone is curious about where I'm at. P.P.S Hehe, another cliffhanger... Chapter 9 fight scene hype!

~ DS