Pain shoots through Emilia’s side knocking her over and ramming her into the nearest boulder. The familiar fangs of Borden snap at Emilia. He kicks burning coal and rubble at her when she rolls away. She pounces on his back then dashes up the mountain.
Borden chases after Emilia, but other beasts who are clearly not newbies spot her. The beasts break into a run bounding towards her.
A break in the ground, a cliff, rests ahead of Emilia. It’s a long jump to the other side, but she can do it. Just a little further. She can do it. Emilia tells herself over and over that she can make the jump while she sprints.
Boom! Red lava splatters knocking Emilia off her feet. Somehow, the ground has become more lava than rock. Luckily, Emilia lands on a stone floating on the lava in between other stones all resting like stepping stones.
Quickly, Emilia pounces from rock to rock gaining speed with each jump. Sharp pain shoots through her tail, and she turns around to find blue eyes thirsting for her. The beast licks his lips; he attacks her sinking his teeth into the fur coat of her neck.
Emilia attempts to swat the beast away, but he pins her down. He moves his mouth to the front of her neck, but Emilia bites his ear ripping it off. Blood spews as the beast howls. Emilia rushes off, but Borden dashes towards her. Emilia quickly turns around and run.
At the edge of the cliff, Emilia jumps with as much strength as her legs provide. She flies over a river below. Slowly, she descends, however, she’s not close enough to the other side of the cliff.
Goddesses, please save me. I don’t want to die. Emilia prays silently. When she closes her mouth, she latches onto a long thick root hanging out of the ground. Her body snaps with the rope, and she stops falling.
Once Emilia stops swinging back and forth, she presses her paws into the soil sinking her claws in securing herself. Emilia carefully climbs up then presses one foot firmly on the soil but instantly slips. The wolves above watch her struggle. Her body viciously snaps with the root vine on the fall downward. Emilia dangles once again swaying back and forth.
“Don’t worry! We won’t let you fall!” The beast who wanted to kill her, Borden, calls out. Emilia gasps releasing her teeth. She slides down but quickly latches onto the vine again.
Victor and his army dash through the thick forest towards the mines, but instead of entering the mine, they all climb over. The army runs until they come to a mountain top where the moon shines on a small blue sparkling lake.
A couple of beasts pace around, and a few beasts sit observing or cleaning their fur. Victor and his army hide behind trees as the wind carries the stench of the beasts to their noses, and he thanks the goddesses that the wind is not carrying the scents of the soldiers to the beasts.
Victor hides within the trees calculating how to attack the unaware beasts. He considers having the army surrounding the pack of beasts. If a few more beasts show up after the soldiers attack, the army can lose the battle.
As soon as the thought hits Victor, a couple of beasts rush to the lakeside. The new beasts growl and grunt then rush off the way they came taking several of the beasts with them. A uniformed man joins Victor’s side.
“Did you scout the area?” Victor whispers.
“The creatures are preoccupied. There’s a beast hanging off a cliff close to death.” The scout informs in a whisper.
“We need to attack now. Tell the soldiers at the mines to attack,” Victor watches the scout bolt into the forest as quiet as possible.