KING OF BEASTS (Hiatus)

The next few days passed by eventfully. The group travelled for three hours, stopped for a break, and then continued that until they had walked for about nine hours for the day. Ares checked on Emerli often, as secretly as he could. She seemed to gain more and more strength with each day, and was able to keep up with them. The first day had been rather slow, but by the third day she was quite able to keep up with them.

“Ares,” said Kask. “We have an issue.”

“What’s the matter?” Ares squat down to where Kask was pointing to.

“Biant Boar.”

“Biant Boar?”

Kask nodded and then motioned with his hand towards the tracks on the floor. “These are normal boars. This heavier print is from a Biant Boar, a boar that’s slightly larger with two heads.” He looked over to Ares. “Unfortunately they are tough. Agile and nimble…”

“Are they worth a lot?”

“A lot, yes, but…”

“But?”

“Biant Boars aren’t our issue. Where there’s a Biant Boar, there’s many more creatures about.”

“What kind of creatures?”

“Drakes.”

“Drakes? Drakes are easy.”

“No, not those kind of drakes.” Kask looked up. “The worst kind.”

“Flying wyverns?” Ares asked. “You mean…” Ares looked up into the sky. ‘Flying wyverns? That’s so damn cool!’

“We should be wary.”

“I want to slay some wyverns.”

“We do not want to slay anything right now.”

“Why not?” Ares asked.

“I will need to search around to see what else is around here. The wyverns might be key in keeping other creatures in check.”

Ares sighed and then crossed his arms. He tapped his fingers against his biceps in thought. ‘Well if Kask is saying that… then I guess I’ll have to listen to him…’ He continued to tap his fingers against his bicep. “Very well, I won’t go killing anything… unless it comes at us.”

“Very well, if it would please you.”

“Don’t worry about me, Kask. When it comes to this kind of thing I’ll be relying on you.”

“I am honoured by your words, Ares-kin.”

“It’s just Ares here.”

Kask raised his brows towards Ares. Ares smiled and then nodded before they continued on their way. They were still travelling across the plains, which kept them from going too quickly as the grass was rather awkward to travel through. Ares used his ring to cut a pathway forward, as if he was some kind of grass trimmer.

Ares spotted something in the distance and narrowed his eyes. He could see a tiny hoard of creatures moving from right to left ahead of him. As he continued to squint he noted the creatures were boars, or at least that’s what he could assume.

“Kask, board up ahead,” Ares said.

Kask looked on ahead but then turned to Ares. “Where are they headed?”

“Right to left, not towards us though.”

“We should remain here for the moment then. If you are the only one able to see them they may be far enough that they haven’t noticed us. Let us take a few moments to gather ourselves.”

“Kask…”

“Yes Ares?”

“Wyverns are flying creatures, right?” Ares asked as he continued to squint, now looking up at the sky.

“They are,” Kask said. Kask looked up to the sky. “Those are not wyverns though.”

“Yeah, I gathered as much,” Ares said.

Up within the sky was a large creature. It was a bird, or at least it looked like one from this distance. Ares had no idea just how big it was, because it was already quite a large blot and he assumed that it was much further away than he realised. He could even make out it’s face, with was quite thing and it’s beak was rather long, more like a spear than a beak.

“What the fuck is that?” Ares asked.

“It has many names…” Kask whispered. “Gorro is what we call it.”

Mutterings from behind distracted Ares for a moment as the others began to talk amongst one another.

“A Gorro?” Azzo asked as he looked up towards Ares and then Kask. “That’s bad news.”

“Bad news,” Anka echoed.

Teorn nodded and Emerli wrapped her robes around herself tight as if to protect herself from the news.

“What’s a Gorro exactly?” Ares asked.

“A harbinger of death, a mythical creature,” said Kask. “We do not want to provoke it.”

“Now I really want to fight it.”

“No,” said Kask.

Ares did not expect the finality within Kask’s voice, to the point he looked over towards Kask in surprise.

“It is not to be reckoned with. This is no Black Viper, Ares. This is a Gorro. It is a creature made from nightmares and an Ill God.”

“An Ill God?”

The others shuddered visibly from the words and even Kask’s fur went on end. Ares just nodded and then dropped the discussion, though he was tingling. He really wanted to fight the creature now but then suddenly he stopped and thought about it.

‘Wait… why do I want to fight it? I’m not a battle junkie or anything… my goal should be to protect my people and my family.’

He looked back to Emerli who had crouched down to block out the outside world. He walked over and placed a hand on her head.

“We will stop here then,” Ares said. He turned to look up at the creature before everything went cold.

The Gorro had turned and now was making it’s way East, towards them. “Uh… Kask…”

“Drop down!” Kask dropped and then crawled over away into the grass that had yet to be cut away by Ares.

The others scampered as well as they hid themselves within the grass. Ares followed Emerli, keeping her close to him. She was shaking as though a sudden coldness that had through her body. Ares brought her head to his chest and he kept her close.

“Don’t worry, I’m right here, okay?” Ares whispered as he looked around between the strands of grass to see the others were mostly hidden. He looked up to the sky to wait and see.

Many moments passed as they all remained silent. Then the roar of the wind passed over them and Ares grew much colder. He was looking up ahead but the wind stopped him from looking too clearly as he raised an arm to protect himself from the wind.

Darkness encompassed him for a short while, much longer than he would have liked before he realised it was the creature’s shadow. It was flying quite low, about twenty metres above them, and it was absolutely huge. Ares wondered how large it was, it was… it was… he couldn’t even put a comparison on the creature as it then continued to fly towards the East before veering to the North. Ares noticed that glued to it’s beak were close to ten boars all speared through it and it had plenty of space for more, and the beak wasn’t that long in particular.

‘Holy shit that’s huge!’