He ran over to Talon and shook him violently to wake him up. “Valeria’s in trouble!” Teryn shouted. “We have to rescue her!”
Talon muttered something unintelligible under his breath and got up slowly, wiping some gunk from his eye. “Again?” he said at last.
“What do you mean, again?” Teryn glared at him. “You came to stop me last time, not rescue her!” He pulled on his face and started pacing. “Never mind that, we have to go after her!”
“I know, I know,” Talon responded. “Did you at least see which direction she went?”
Teryn shook his head.
“I thought so. Let’s look for clues.”
As badly as Teryn wanted to race deep into the forest after Valeria, he had to admit Talon had a point. They wouldn’t find her if her captor had gone the other way.
The two started rummaging through their few belongings, looking for some sign of a struggle or anything that might give them information about Valeria’s captors or where they went.
About halfway through their search, Teryn heard another scream off in the distance to the east, near the center of the forest.
“Help me, Teryn!” the voice pleaded. His heart lurched. There was no denying it was Valeria’s.
“I’m coming!” Teryn shouted, running off in the direction of the voice.
“Wait!” Talon commanded. “We don’t know what’s out there, we need to be prepared!”
Teryn paid the old soldier no heed and kept running. Talon shook his head in disbelief and ran after him, catching up quickly. Soon, they were both running madly towards the scream. Talon pulled out his glow-sword and activated it while Teryn prepared a few attack spells.
The path forward was hampered by several bushes and branches that acted like whips on Teryn’s legs as he ran, leaving a couple of vicious red marks in their wake, but he kept going. There’d be time enough to tend to minor scratches when Valeria was safe again.
After a couple minutes of running, Teryn stopped, winded. In his haste, he hadn’t thought to cast any spells to keep his stamina up. Talon stopped next to him and silently tapped his foot while hovering over him.
He only got a few seconds to rest before Valeria’s voice came through the trees, pleading once again for his help. She was decidedly closer this time. They were catching up.
“I’m coming, Valeria!” Teryn yelled, hoping to calm her down and give her hope. Then he bounded through the trees again, running off in the direction of her voice.
“Wait, you moron!” Talon spat as he chased after Teryn. “It could be a trap!”
As Talon shouted those last words, he heard something crash through the trees in front of him and he skidded to an abrupt halt.
He glanced at the creatures that had caused the commotion and his blood froze. Standing not ten feet in front of him were four giant, bipedal ant-like creatures. Their exoskeletons had a purplish hue and they towered over him, easily twice his own height. Their upper limbs, which looked menacing enough on their own, had oddly-shaped blades coated in some sort of thick, greenish fluid.
Teryn thought he recognized them from Gallian’s book, but he didn’t have time to think about that right now, since the creatures took advantage of his momentary panic to rush him.
He instinctively put his arm in front of his face to shield himself from harm as one of the creatures swung a bladed limb at him, thinking this would be his end.
Fortunately for Teryn, the blow never connected. He faintly heard the whoosh of Talon’s glow-sword as it deftly cut through the creature’s appendage, leaving the beast reeling and flying backward. Teryn peeked through slightly-closed eyelids. All four beasts were backing away at the sight of the more formidable threat.
Talon took advantage of the beasts’ moment of hesitation and advanced. A moment later, the big man sliced clean through the middle of the wounded beast and chopped off the head of a second one. The creatures’ acidic blood bubbled and hissed as it fell off his blade and onto the ground.
Teryn watched Talon’s swift, economical movements with a sense of amazement. He’d never seen anyone move like that. Even so, Talon’s quick movements had only delayed the counterattack. The two remaining creatures advanced on him again, this time ready for a true fight.
One of the beasts lunged at him with a wild swipe for his middle. He yelped and rolled out of the way, the blade passing mere inches from his body.
He panted a few times from the exertion and stood to face the beast once more.
“Use your magic!” Talon shouted at him as he dodged his own opponent.
But it was no use. Teryn, who had never seen a real battle or faced truly imminent danger like this before in his life, was using all of his attention just to dodge the next incoming strike.
“Kill them!” Talon growled, turning to face him.
The ant-like creature attacking him used this momentary distraction to its advantage and swiped at Talon’s midsection with a bladed pincer.
Teryn heard a clang as the sickly blade connected with Talon’s metal armor, sending the big man flying backward.
The sight of another in trouble galvanized Teryn, at last granting him the courage to act. He mumbled a few words of a gustblast spell and closed his eyes as he unleashed it on the two bugs.
Not a second later, he heard a loud crash, followed by a high-pitched wail and the crunch of shells shattering. He looked up to see the final two attackers’ mangled bodies slumped against a nearby tree trunk, beady, lifeless eyes staring up at him.
Talon got up from the ground and dusted himself off. “Good job,” he said, patting him on the back. The simple act almost made
