At a steady yet fast pace, Vaeludar was catching up to the thieving riders galloping at the horses’ fastest speed. Their agile stamina could even match those of a cheetah running in a wide, open field.
Just as he neared the last rider, a Black Dog jumped from the bushes, its sharp teeth and claws digging into Vaeludar’s skin. Vaeludar rolled onto the ground when the Black Dog ambushed him.
Vaeludar crashed and tumbled along the ground before having his back crash into a tree. He was forced deep into the tree’s bark, which cracked and fell over him.
The tree collapsed over the hybrid’s impact.
The Black Dog managed to slip away from Vaeludar’s crash. The wolf-shaped creature howled in victory.
However, Vaeludar came soaring from the collapsed tree. His mouth was wide open and a small fireball launched at the beast, lighting the Black Dog on fire. Vaeludar saw the little hound running away, with its fur caught on fire.
Vaeludar swung his head back to the galloping riders running off the road. They disappeared around a corner of a group of small trees with green leaves hanging on the branches. Vaeludar soared back into the air with a single flap of his wings. He soared to where he saw the three baby trees that still had green leaves attached to them.
This would be a great mark of where to turn when tracking back to a hideout, thought Vaeludar. Even though it’s autumn, tree leaves are supposed to be in brown and yellow color, not green.
Vaeludar picked up the scent of the horse hair and followed after it, and it was strong like smelling a pile of trashed food littered over cow droppings. Vaeludar held his breath from smelling the trashed scent and had to take in the scent of where the riders fled with the horses.
He would fly every few feet to smell the horses’ scent then hold his breath from smelling the disgusting side of the horses; it smelled like the horses hadn’t been washed in months.
Flying beneath the autumn trees and soaring passed many tree barks was making Vaeludar somewhat uncomfortable. Flying in a forest with such trees in the way could make him feel like it was too crowded and had to walk on his feet. He felt the thieving riders had a hideout somewhere and had to be close; turning off-road at a trio of green-leaved baby trees was not a coincidence.
As he walked through the woods, not knowing if another Black Dog would be lurking behind any tree, Vaeludar trailed the scent to a large grey boulder. The scent disappeared at this large boulder and he couldn’t pick up another trace anywhere else. He had come to a dead-end.
Suddenly, a loud noise of trampling bushes came from feet away. Vaeludar stood by the boulder and wrapped his wings around his body. He knew his wings would blend to the color of the grey boulder like a chameleon. He left a small open area in his wings so he could see outside.
He saw a large shadowy figure walking from crumbling trees. A giant, muscular human-like figure of twelve feet with a big-rounded eyeball was walking passed the hybrid.
A Cyclops!
STRANGE ENEMIES AMONG ENEMIES
V
aeludar saw the Cyclops passing him, as if Vaeludar was just a broken rock from the standing boulder. First the Minotaur attacks. Second, a pack of Black Dogs attacks. And a human giant walking in the middle of daylight, thought Vaeludar. Trouble can’t seem to get away from me, can it?
Vaeludar removed his wings concealing his body after the Cyclops passed him, having gone around the other side of the boulder. Vaeludar couldn’t belief his eyes when he looked at the Cyclops.
The Cyclops was humanlike; two arms and two legs were very much the human qualities. But its big, rounded, domed head was bald and his shoulders were broadsided. It was bare skinned and its skin was solid, very much like the texture of a solid rock. Its single eye was also humanlike even though the iris was crimson, with the black pupil being smaller than the iris.
Vaeludar was picking up the scent of the horses again, but it was coming from the Cyclops walking around the big rock. He saw the Cyclops wasn’t carrying any horses or holding any animals in its arms. But if he was picking up the scent and couldn’t detect the scent of any humans with the horse scent, he had to follow the Cyclops, and hopefully find where the riders were hiding.
But how could the Cyclops lead him there? Humans and Cyclopes were enemies. Knowing humans were enemies with the evil creature he heard of: Banshees, Basilisks, Black Dogs, Chimeras, Cyclopes, Harpies, Manticores, and other Minotaurs. All these creatures are considered to be enemies of the human race and Vaeludar thought the Cyclops would kill the thieves upon first sight.
Vaeludar did need to follow this giant creature and see if it would lead him to the thieves and the horses that belonged to Geraldus. After the Cyclops had walked around a tight corner, Vaeludar followed.
At first, he was just tracking down the thieving riders. Now his path came across a giant no human had seen in some centuries. Even the Minotaur he fought hadn’t been seen for centuries. The stories and legends he heard when he was a kid of big monsters like Cyclops and Minotaurs had been beaten by ancient heroes and thought to be in hiding in snowy mountains.
But here was a monstrous giant that he was following out in the open walking without drawing attention from human eyes. Vaeludar followed the giant. He lost the scent of the thieves, but he could pick up the scent again coming from the Cyclops and felt he needed to follow the giant.
After
