Suddenly we hear Rio a few yards away.
“We’re saving the world here guys, you might want to lower the purple Wave count!”
*********************
The growl sounds as if it came from hell itself. I look up to the ceiling of the cave. I tell myself it’s in my head. Then I look around and every single being in the cave is on high alert. There’s a silence in the air and it’s pregnant with fear.
We wait.
“It’s a Cray,” Ameana whispers, with a slight tremble in her voice.
Ameana’s trembling? This is so not good.
“What’s a Cray?” I whisper.
“It’s just one,” Marcus says hopefully.
“No, there’s a cluster out there and they’re coming,” Tony replies.
“Every growl accounts for a Cray. So far, there’s only one out there,” Miku says.
“What’s a Cray?” I ask again.
“We should move,” Wolf says.
“If they aren’t on to us now, they will be once we start running. The best thing to do is stay still. Like Marcus said,” Jay says.
“All of us put together should be able to handle a Cray,” Isabelle says, mostly trying to convince herself.
“Damn it guys, what the hell is a Cray?” I ask, not for the first time.
“A beast that lives to hunt and feed. It’s Lucy’s oldest creation. It can’t be killed,” Rio explains.
“Does it want confessions like the Pity Snake?”
“No,” Miku says regretfully.
“Then what does it want?”
“Flesh”
I really, really need to remember to stop asking questions…
“They can’t see us,” Tony says.
“No, but they can smell us,”
Another growl makes it’s way into the night sky.
“That’s two,” Rio reports.
Suddenly the single growls give way to a chorus.
“It’s a cluster, we gotta move!” Marcus orders.
Everyone darts out of the cave and heads outside. The team tries to take to the air but a swarm of Fire Swans hovering above make it impossible to take off. Marcus instructs us to head towards the castle. He grabs my hand and we take off at top speed into the thick of the forest.
It is then that I get my first look at the Cray. They’re so horrifying they stop me dead in my tracks. I tell myself that I can’t just stand here and wait for the beasts to attack me. I tell myself this is stupid and I need to run. But no part of my body would listen to me.
The Cray towers over me. It looks like an enraged bull cross-bred with a demon. The blood from his last meal drips from his fangs and down on to his blue-black skin. There’s some kind of left-over body part sliding down his long claws. I look harder and make out teeth and what was once an eyeball.
Dear Omnis…
The Cray growls loudly and bares all his fangs. I’m shaking before the beast. All efforts to move are in vain. I stand there frozen before him. In a few seconds it will be my eyeballs sliding down his claws, my teeth.
Dear Omnis…
I’ve seen this in movies before. I would yell at the screen and tell the stupid girl to run. What I didn’t know at the time was that the girl in the movie is
telling her body to run but the body has a mind of its own.
“EMMY MOVE!!!” I hear Marcus but I can’t get my body to comply. The Cray cuts through the air with his claws. I see them coming toward me but there is some kind of disconnect between my brain and my muscles. I can’t even close my eyes because like the rest of me, my eyelids are frozen.
Run, stupid girl, run…
Marcus swoops in just in time to push me out of the way but not in time to save himself. The Cray knocks him down to the ground and strikes him with his claws. I watch in horror as four long, deep gashes form across Marcus’s chest. A silver substance quickly springs from the wound.
My Angel is bleeding…
“Marcus!” I shout.
“I’m fine, go!” he shouts.
I don’t move until I see that he’s well enough to get up from the ground. Then and only then do I take off. I want to stop and help when I see Jay trying to fend off two Crays.
“Emmy, go!” Jay says, as if he could read my mind. I force myself to take off further into the woods. I’m so far in now that I can’t hear the battle raging on behind me. The entire forest is on mute.
I creep through the forest scared to death that I’m not alone. Something moves to the right of me. I turn quickly but don’t see anything. Something moves to the left of me. I turn and again there is nothing there.
I hear something crack beneath me. I look down, it’s only a branch. Relief washes over me. I remind myself to breathe. Before I can make it to the next tree I see them - three Crays marching straight for me.