“Wyreya!”

            Lloyden ran to her side and jerked her arm, startling her out of her frozen state.  Lloyden began to pull her as hard as he could towards the stable, and she had no choice but to follow.

            The man-bulls began pouring into the tiny clearing, and their soulless cries echoed through the trees, distorting and shattering the silence of the forest.  With each moment they were coming nearer – Wyreya could hear their muffled steps, moving faster than they could run.  There was nothing left now but to pray that they would get to the stable in time.  The little hutch building came closer and closer to them.

            They were through the doors!  Before Wyreya could realize what was happening Lloyden was swinging her up onto one of the plow horses, and climbing on the horse himself.  Wyreya grasped her brother’s back and buried her face in his shirt as Lloyden kicked the horse into a gallop.

            A leap, a charge, a howl form the monsters, and when Wyreya lifted her face again a few seconds later the man-bulls were behind them, pursuing then into the forest.

            The horse was galloping as fast as it could into the forest, yet every time Wyreya looked over her shoulder the creatures were a little closer to them than they had been before.

            “Faster, Lloyden, faster!!!,” Wyreya screamed, even though she knew it was no use.  Lloyden was already urging the horse to its limits. 

            Without warning Lloyden reigned the horse to a complete stop, smashing Wyreya into her brother’s back.  She recovered instantly and looked over his shoulder to see what the matter was.

            Before them was a wide, deep ditch, which would be impossible to cross in a hurry.  They were trapped.

            “Lloyden,” Wyreya started, but before she could finish Lloyden wheeled the horse around to face their oncoming attackers.

            “Lloyden!” Wyreya said again.  “Have you gone mad?” 

            “No,” Lloyden said.  He yanked his scythe out of his belt.  “There is no other way.” 

            And with a violent war-yell, Lloyden began galloping the horse towards the man-bulls. 

            Wyreya screamed as they plunged into the midst of the beasts.  Lloyden began wielding his scythe like a sword, severing heads from necks and causing other such damage to the creatures.  The monsters were so unprepared for Lloyden’s action that they had no time to defend themselves or move away from his attack.  Lloyden reached the far side of the group and whirled around to go at them again, but by this time the creatures were wise to his attack and had begun to move into defensive positions.  Lloyden saw that it would be no use to try and fight them now, so he galloped the horse back toward the clearing. 

            The first thing that met Wyreya’s eyes as they reentered the clearing was the sight of the house and the stable, both in flames.  She had no time to weep, for the second thing she noticed was that there were still some of the monsters left in the clearing. 

            “Lloyden!” she shouted, but it was too late.  The twenty-odd man-bulls had already seen the horse and its passengers and were leaping toward them.  Lloyden changed directions for a third time and the horse fled into the forest again. 

“Lloyden,” Wyreya said as they crashed through the trees.  “We’ll never make it.  They run faster than the horse can.” 

            “Let’s hope they wear out faster than the horse does,” Lloyden replied.  “Use the kitchen knife.” 

            The kitchen knife?  Wyreya remembered and fumbled to untie the bag without spilling its contents onto the fast-moving ground.  She pulled the knife out and held it in her right hand, gripping tightly to Lloyden with her left hand.

            “Now what?” she yelled as the sound of the man-bull’s pounding feet came closer. 

            “Try to turn around in the saddle and jab at the monsters!”  Lloyden yelled back.

            Wyreya twisted around as far as she safely could and held her knife at the ready.  The creatures were right behind them, almost close enough to touch the horse’s galloping legs.  One of them reached out a clawed hand to grab Wyreya and pull her down, but Wyreya stabbed at the hand with her knife as it came close.  To her surprise the hand came completely off, and the beast fell to the ground, howling in pain.  The bull-men fell back a little, startled at their comrade’s injury, but before long they were back, running right behind the flying hooves of the horse. 

            “Lloyden!” Wyreya screamed.

            “Just keep swinging it!” Lloyden yelled.  “Don’t stop, Wyreya!  Don’t stop!”

            Wyreya slashed at the nearest pursuer, doing significant damage to the beast’s face.  Wyreya screamed at the sight, but she continues slashing.  She stabbed one of the creatures in the chest and he fell down dead.  Another received a severed throat, and yet another lost several fingers on the hand that bore his weapon, yet still the ghastly faces came ever closer to her own. 

            One beast reached up his weapon and dealt a glancing blow to Wyreya’s face.  Wyreya yelped with pain, but she stabbed nonetheless and gave her attacker a mortal wound.  The creatures were suffering greatly, but Wyreya’s arm was getting tired. 

            “Lloyden!” she yelled.  “Lloyden, I can’t do this anymore!  I can’t!”

            Lloyden wheeled the horse around, preparing to give one last attack, when a man with dark red hair and a drawn sword leapt out of the woods and started fighting with the beasts.

            “Flee!” the man shouted.  “I will take care of the monsters!”

            Lloyden obeyed and rode some distance into the woods, where he stopped and swung Wyreya onto the ground. 

            “Stay here,” he said.  “I’m going back to help.” 

            He drew his scythe and rode back the way they had come, leaving Wyreya standing alone in the woods.

            “Lloyden!” she called after her brother, but he was already gone. Wyreya could hear sound of fighting coming from the distance.

            Wyreya reached up tentatively and felt her face where the beast had struck her.  It was bleeding all right, but it didn’t appear to be more than a scratch.  Wyreya opened her eye cautiously: she could still see just fine.  She would probably only have an ugly scar after a while.

            Wyreya clutched her knife and stumbled back towards the fighting.  She still had a weapon, and she wasn’t going to wait for the bull-men to kill her brother and then come find her. 

She arrived at the edge of the place where the fight was going on, being careful to stay hidden between the trees.  There had been at least thirty bull-men pursuing them, but now there were less than twenty.  Lloyden and the strange man stood with their backs against a stout tree, surrounded by a ring of the foul creatures.  The men were fighting splendidly, but it looked like they weren’t going to last much longer. 

            Wyreya crept as close to the bull-men as she could without being seen, and then leapt out of hiding as quick as a snake and stabbed the nearest beast in the back.  He fell down dead, and his companions turned, shocked at this new development.  Wyreya sprang back, but she had forgotten how fast the monsters were.  As fast as she could she clambered up the nearest tree, the bull-men on her heels. 

In the tree she had a bit of an advantage: the monsters evidently were not as good at climbing as she was, but even still they were not far behind.  Without thinking, Wyreya stabbed down at the head of one of the beasts as he came climbing up the tree.  He died instantly and fell, pinning two of his companions beneath him.  Four more bull-men started scaling the tree from the other side, but Wyreya knew better than to let them come.  She knocked the first one’s weapon out of his hand before she stabbed him in the gut, he also fell and took is comrades with him. 

 The bull-men became wise to her defense and began scaling the tree from all sides, but by that time Lloyden and the strange man had leapt to her rescue.  They cut the creatures down from the tree and killed them swiftly. 

Wyreya climbed down from the tree and looked around, realizing that all those who had been pursuing them were dead. 

“Come,” the strange young man said.  “There will be more of them if we don’t leave quickly.” 

“Who are you?” Wyreya asked.

“That can wait for later,” the man said.  “But for now, my name is Erion.  Grab your horse: we must ride out of these woods and reach the main road by nightfall.” 

Lloyden found their horse hiding in among the trees and brought her out.  Erion left for a moment and reappeared with his horse, a trim-looking stallion, and the three of them rode off toward the north with Erion in the lead. 

**Note: As these stories are still in the making, all names, places, and events may be subject to change.** Copyright 2008 Cherise A. Do not reproduce at all without my express permission. If you like what I do, you can link to me instead.