Carmine

I watched as he blinked at me. Nothing came to my mind as a solution to this terror. He moved forward with such speed and grasped me up in a swift roll of me.

My shoulders became squeezed in his large hands. Feet elevated, I got twisted mid-air. My midsection hit something, hard. I lost my breath. My throat gasped for air. I grasped his arm to the cloth protruding from his armor. A hopeless task, I felt nothing as my arms reached.

“Wha-?!"

His pauldron stabbed into my stomach with every step he took. My legs and hands dangled like a newborn baby, but I tried to fight this disgrace, yet my punches and nails made no dents in his stride or armor.

This bastard monster of a man infuriated me, for I was being carted around like produce.

“Let me go!” I shouted.

The Terison remained silent. His shoulder heaved into my body with each step, it was clear I was in a very bad situation. I feared my death.

No, I could not die here. Dying was not going to happen to me.

Garth, where was he? Why was he not doing his duty? That old man lied to me.

I slid my arms grasping the giant’s arm. Leveling my leg backward, I bashed his arm with my knee.

“Where is Garth?!” I exclaimed.

He stopped. I was still. He grabbed the collar of my shirt. My body propelled forward as he easily adjusted me on his shoulder.

“You are quite a torment, ah?” The man said. A sigh escaped him. “Hold on.” The metal chided against my skin. His hand pointed forward.

I looked over in the immediate direction and got thunderstruck with a rush of distraught. Tears threatened to flow, but no tears came, for I could only stare at the body slumped and paraded with no grace on the dirt floor. Specks of plants nestled around him. It was somber, yet so horrible.

I only gasped and looked to my right, at the killer's face, half of it anyway, the sick bastard. His eyes held no warmth or remorse.

That face was devoid of everything my face was showing. I turned back and raised my hand as if I wanted to grab Garth up to carry him with me.

My hand twitched back, for something moved. A tall shadow appeared. It was slender and it motioned itself in front of Garth’s body.

His shoulder bounded into mine and rocked me on my unrequested pedestal. This killer was laughing.

I shook when my feet touched the dirt ground, yet my back shuddered in confusion at the new transition of events.

“I had a feeling someone was around, though you took your time. Either you're confident or an idiot.”

The shadow had not spoken. Actually, I made out little from my position. No light touched the top of his body from the glow of the moon above us, but I made out the dark brown of his trousers over the animal-skinned slippers from dim reflections.

“Give me the girl,” the shadow said.

“No can do good sir, I have to carry this woman to my employer. Find your own woman!” the Terison retorted.

“She is Carmine, she is my goal! Place her down and leave with your life.”

The urge to throw up was high. What was I supposed to do, I was previously carried on the shoulders of one man with another asking for me as if he owned me. What kind of madness was this?

“Sorry, but I am a bit stubborn. The man who paid for Carmine paid handsomely, I would rather collect that payment. Besides—you can’t beat me,” the Terison said, menacingly.

"I will kill you both then.”

My heart skipped a beat. I watched the Terison produce a small axe that rotated in his palm. My feet gave way; shaken to their early death with all those pleas to the grim reaper for my soul.

“That makes it easier for me to decide. If you want to kill her you will have to go through me!” The Terison shouted back.

The air exploded and a vast spring of leaves bespattered all around me. A clank, it was loud and echoed low. My teeth clattered in synch when I moved farther back. Sword and axe met, and the shadow was like me, a Shyia.

The Shyia's skin darker than the shade of earth in the once moonless night fought with such vigor.

He wore no armor, yet a thick suit patterned in shades of brown and gray to blend into the night gripped around his legs and arms in intertwined puffs. It was.

How had he moved from there so fast though? The Terison’s face morphed into an uneasy fidgeting of his cheeks and his shaking lips. His feet cleaved along the ground, he was being pushed back.

“Infernal Champion!” The Terison said with grit teeth.

A who?

What the hell was that?

“Which witch sent you?” The Terison asked. My heart almost stopped. A witch, had they said witch, as in those world-destroying, magic-wielding, devil-adoring witches?! A witch was trying to kill me?