He heard it moving about at the side of the courtyard, its breathing laboured and footsteps heavy, and he turned to look at it when the attack failed to come. He now saw the beast in full light. It was hunched over with its long arm-like limbs dragging along the ground, and was still easily six feet high. Fully upright, it might have been ten feet tall. Its hide was like charred flesh; black, bubbled and sickly, and its bones stuck out so far it almost seemed its skin would tear away as it moved. Its face was similar to human form, but with a snakelike curve from nose to forehead before it branched out to either side with the wide plate on top. Its jaw boasted sharp teeth the size of Jaden’s fingers while its claws were the size of his head. Its legs resembled its arms but were not quite as long, while its torso was wide and flat. If not for fearing what it may do, Jaden would have turned away from it in disgust. Everything about it seemed vulgar and nauseating. It was a crime against nature in every aspect.
Jaden wondered if it was partly blind in the light, noticing the glazed yellow eyes. It no longer seemed to be aware of him, pacing up and down along the railing for a while, twice bumping into it before sitting down and shaking its head. After sometime, it crawled away, leaving Jaden hanging on the vines without anything below to soften his fall.
The beast was gone. It didn’t make sense, but it was gone.
As Jaden relaxed, the bizarre sounds he had heard on the stone road returned in the silence, and he began to search for a way off the vines. Rain was beginning to fall lightly. He breathed in the fragrance of the vine’s flower next to him, allowing it to settle his nerves. It had started to have a toxic effect over him, as if the very reminder that it was there was enough to put him at peace. He picked another and again put it inside the Daijuarn belt, and then he began to climb toward the wall. It was too far to jump to either of the courtyards, but the grooves in the wall would be deep enough for him to use as footholds and handles. The smoothness of the stones worried him, as the rain began to make them slippery. He hurried across with as much caution as possible, trying to outrun the rain as well as make sure he didn’t miss his grip. As it began to pour, he had made it to the other courtyard and quickly ran for cover inside the palace.
Pointed arches marked a series of entrances all along the inner chamber, and he walked into what appeared to be the throne room. Its ceiling was high and there was a central discolouration of the stones along the ground, where a carpet may have once been, which led to the throne at its end. There were golden torch holders on the walls between the arches, burned out long ago but making Jaden wish for fire as the cold set in. The Daijuar garments were dry, but his skin was wet and subject to the chill, but he would not dare lighting anything now, in fear that it may draw the attention of the beasts. Thankfully, he found this room to be empty, and he made his way to the throne, where he sat and waited, recovering as he contemplated what he could do next.
Absent-mindedly he sat staring for a long time, listening to the peaceful patter of rain on the stones outside and catching his eyes on something new every time there was a lightning strike.
A loud bang followed a clap of thunder, alerting him that he was no longer alone in the palace. The dark figure of a beast lurched past the door at the other end of the room, seemingly ignorant of anything around it.
It hadn’t sensed him. It didn’t know he was there.
Jaden refused to breathe until he was sure the beast was no longer near, and then he stood up and made his way outside into the courtyard. He wanted to get away from this place, even if it meant braving the cold outside. He found another opening at the end of the courtyard and checked both ways to make sure it was safe. When he judged it clear, he made his way through the corridors, past the many rooms and through the seemingly never-ending maze of the palace walls. Too dark to see, he was forced to use the endobraces for light, but sustained their energy for no longer than a few seconds at a time. He had decided the beasts’ senses were not as powerful as they seemed, and could perhaps be easily tricked into believing the light of the endobraces were flashes of lightning, even if there was no way for the lightning to reach where he was. He walked by many more rooms, all of which were empty or with their contents spread over the floor. Few instruments or pieces of furniture were intact, but he saw that they had belonged to a primitive people, nowhere near the advancement of Waikor.
There was a decayed, moist smell, sometimes of dead flesh, in the air as he moved on, and his ears were soon met with the low growl of one of the beasts. There was something happening in the next room, but before he could turn and flee, one of the beasts roared and another screamed out in pain before being propelled out of the door and into the wall next to where Jaden was standing. The stone wall cracked with the impact, and the beast shook its head before noticing Jaden standing there. With its long gnarled fingers, it almost appeared to point at Jaden before screaming out again. The other beasts inside the room made their way out from the door, running into one another and becoming stuck as they did. Jaden turned and fled and the beasts gave chase.