"The Start" by Sara Dungavell

“Stay out of my way.  Bill was sensible, he climbed the tree,” growled Slate as she jumped over one of the beast’s swinging paws, dodged a fanged mouth, and tried to shield Lucy from the same.

“Maybe it just doesn’t understand us,” Lucy mused.  “My sister and I do not want to fight you,” Lucy tried again.  Slate was forced to push the small black haired girl out of the path of another paw swing.

“Grar!” she cursed as that push brought her within reach of the beast’s claw and it ripped across her stomach.  She tried to shake it off and collapsed on the ground. Ignoring the injured warrior, the beast turned towards Lucy who still lay where Slate had knocked her, leaning against a large rock.

“Please, we don’t want to hurt you . . .” Lucy began as the great tigerish beast stalked forwards across the dusky orange ground.  The beast’s emerald eyes froze her to the spot.  “Please . . .” Lucy whimpered as the beast drew nearer.  It was about to spring on the small half lightning-bird when a large piece of wood suddenly hit the tyger on the head.  In anger the beast spun around, freeing Lucy from it’s gaze.  Quickly she spread her canary wings and flew to the safer reaches of the sky.

The beast now raced towards Bill, where he threw branches from up a tree.  The tyger was at the base in seconds.  As it leapt up towards Bill’s perch, the beast was assaulted once more from behind.

“Leave him alone,” growled Slate as she grabbed the beast’s tail (careful to avoid the sharp barbed end) and yanked back as hard as she could, breaking its momentum.  Her half-brother collapsed in relief on his branch as the beast whipped towards Slate again.

The giant cat and Slate faced off, each growling low in their throats.  Suddenly the beast sprang, and Slate dodged, trying to spin up and around to get a clear, safe shot at the beast with her knife.  The stomach wound slowed her down though, and her spin didn’t quite take her out of range of the claws.  With another shout of pain Slate was gashed along the side, and she fell once more.  As the beast lunged at her she rolled as far away as she could manage.  The beast stalked towards her.   Slate tried to get up, but could only struggle to her knees.  I’m not having a good day, she thought as she faced the beast.  A sudden bright flash of white separated the two of them.  The silver haired half cat-warrior squeezed her eyes shut against it, and tensed for the beast’s spring, but it never came.

Slate opened her eyes and saw the beast fighting a green skinned warrior, dressed in white, with a long sword.  A much more useful weapon, Slate thought.  In flashing movements he scored the beast across the head, chest, and back, but still the beast fought on, as furiously as before.

Slate struggled up to her feet, thanking the great cat for the dimensional portal that had just, by wonderful good fortune, deposited the dark cinnamon haired warrior there.

The warrior fought on, but despite inflicting multiple wounds on the beast, it didn’t falter.  The tyger was even fast enough to catch the warrior with one of it’s great paws, and it sent him sprawling to the ground.

Slate, feeling better despite the loss of blood, jumped to his aid, throwing her knife with deadly accuracy into the beast’s neck, the knife wasn’t all that useful as a hand weapon anyway.  The beast turned towards Slate.  The knife hadn’t stopped it, but Slate hadn’t really expected it to since a sword hadn’t.  Slate pulled another knife out of the top of her hair, she had a few worked into her long silver braid.  She threw that one two, aiming it at one of the beast’s eyes, now that it was facing her.  The knife embedded itself in the tyger’s cheek.

Slate threw another knife, and another, she was starting to run low by the time she decided the giant cat was just too fast and it was still coming towards her.  By then it was very close actually, but the stranger had risen again, and he attacked the beast from behind.

In fifteen more minutes of fighting the beast seemed no worse, but Slate and the stranger wore new claw slashes, and were worn out.  They were side by side when the stranger’s sword was broken by a swipe.  Before Slate could toss him a knife, the beast gathered itself to spring at the green warrior.  The stranger raised his hands towards the beast and began to chant.

“Amuni, claviree, totht!” he shouted, but nothing happened.  “What the-” cursed the stranger, a  an angry and surprised look stuck to his face.  The beast sprang, and Slate knocked him out of the way.  The beast sailed over the two of them harmlessly as they fell in a tangle of arms, legs and tails, but was quicker to turn around to attack them again then they were to get untangled.  Slate could see it as it crouched to pounce again, but neither she nor the stranger could move.  The beast’s eyes glittered with delight, its leg muscles bunched, building power that would bring it devastatingly down on the helpless warriors.  Suddenly a large rock fell from the sky, landing squarely on top of the beast, and crushing it flat.

Finally untangled, Slate and the stranger stood and looked up, leaning against one another for support, as they watched Lucy slowly circled down to land on the ground.

“Poor thing,” she said looking mournfully at the stone covered tyger.  “I couldn’t let it kill you though,” she sighed.  “Oh but you’re both hurt!” she exclaimed, and quickly the bottom of her long healer’s dress was torn up for bandages.  She cut away the frayed material of both Slate and the stranger’s clothes, and bound their wounds.

“I was a healer in Zirca’s serenity gardens before that dimensional portal dropped us here you see,” she said as she dealt with the stranger’s wounds, though the torn dress did rather proclaim that anyway.

“She has serenity gardens now?” the stranger asked bemused.  Slate looked at him questioningly, but before he could answer, Bill, who’d descended from the tree approached them.

“You’re Drako,” he said in awe.  The green skinned stranger nodded.

“He’s Zirca’s only child, his father’s the Dragon Lord, hey, that means we’re half-brothers!” Bill exclaimed happily.  Slate wrinkled her nose in revulsion, she hated the Dragon Lord.  She wasn’t very fond of being related to one of his children, and now she’d fought next to another of them.

“You’re supposed to be Death though,” Lucy said from where she was wrapping material, now from Draco’s voluminous robes, around another of his countless wounds.

“I was, I was thinking about coming back to life though, and then this portal dropped me here.”  Draco shrugged, understanding what had happened to him as little as the others did.  “I’m certainly not Death anymore, I tried the powers I used to have . . . .  And I feel alive.” He winced as Lucy tightened one of his bandages.

“I recognised the incantation,” Bill said to Lucy, she smiled up at him as she finished her bandaging.  Since they were both now bandaged, Slate, Draco, Lucy and Bill started off down the road westward again.

“Why are we walking west?” Draco asked, “Don’t one you have a portal with you?  We should go back to my mother’s place, I need actual treatment, and so does . . ?”

“Slate,” Bill volunteered, “and our portal’s don’t work.” He tossed the useless silver circle up in the air and caught it again, stuffing it back in a pocket.  “Lucy thinks walking westward will lead us somewhere, so we are.”

“I know there’s something calling us westward!” Lucy stated emphatically, Bill shrugged, and so did Slate, then Draco did as well.

The four slowly made their way along the road westward towards the mountains in the dusky orange country.  Behind then a large shape stopped to sniff at the rock which had fallen in the road, and then raised it’s head in a howl.  Swiftly it slunk away from the rock after the travellers.