“Um, hello,” Morwen said. The insect kept clicking. Shadows fell across her face, and loud thuds shook the ground around her. It was as if she were standing under a giant apple tree during a gust of wind. A dozen chomites joined the first.
They were seven foot, if you imagined them standing upright. The legs resembled swords and bristled with deadly-looking spurs. Their bodies were covered in the same hard, gleaming exoskeleton as the heads. Each one was as well-armoured and armed as a knight.
The chomites surged toward them as one. Their deadly mandibles clamping shut then opening ready to bite into their victims’ flesh.
Morwen sliced deeply into her scarred palm with her dagger. The wounds hadn’t healed properly after the fight with the toadoks. Blood gushed from the deep gash and dripped from her fingers onto the trampled wheat. She thrust out her bloody hand and muttered a word,“ Kroduv.” Every shadow within several feet was sucked into her hand. “G’uo.” Shadowy tendrils shot out her fingers, entangling the chomites and leaving them ensnarled. They struggled furiously against their bonds.
“Run,” Morwen screamed. The ties wouldn’t hold long.
Which direction, though? Continue to the farm or run back through the grass? She stood still panicking at her indecision. Caroc made the decision for her as he pushed past heading to the distant roof of the farmhouse visible above the wheat.
Goron abandoned her too. He didn’t have an obese demon standing on his backpack and snapping his hair like the reins of a horse.
Two chomites crashed down in front of Caroc who froze in fear. Goron charged past. His axe whirled in a wide arc and sliced into the first bug, separating its head from its thorax with a spray of seafoam-green gore. The momentum sent him into a spin, and he crashed shoulder first into the next. The chomite slammed into the ground and was trapped as Goron collapsed on top of it. Its legs flailed, trying to saw into him, and the deadly mandibles snapped at his head. Goron had to use all his strength and both hands to keep the jaws from tearing off his face, and that left the warrior powerless to kill the bug.
Morwen flung her leg over Goron’s head and stomped hard with her foot. Her weight pulverized the bug’s skull and her sandal sank into the green ooze. The immediate danger over, Morwen grabbed Goron and helped him to his feet. They dashed after Caroc who’d already disappeared through the grass.
A cricket sprang at Morwen from the left. “Kroduv, birm.” A shadow bolt exploded in the insect’s face and sent it somersaulting backward.
The nearby grass thrashed around, and dark shapes sailed through the air. Caroc decided he was safer behind Goron and his axe. The warrior cleaved anything that got in their way. If they didn’t get to the farmhouse soon, they’d be overwhelmed, and Goron would have no room to swing his axe.
“They’re gaining, giddy up, giddy up,” Szat shouted. She couldn’t run any faster. Her throat felt like it was flayed, and her legs were so weak they could barely support her let alone run. Panic began to cloud her mind, but the feel of her hand, slick with blood, gave her strength. So long as that flowed, she would be okay. “Watch out,” Szat yelled.
Morwen ducked in time as two mandibles snapped together above her head. She sent a shadow bolt sailing over her shoulder and heard the satisfying hiss as it struck.
A thud and a curse ahead, Goron had found the porch. It was obscured by the sea of wheat which had grown up and over it. Morwen barely had the strength to climb after her two companions and was too relieved to refuse Goron’s extended hand.
The farmhouse had become a beacon to every chomite in the area. Hundreds streamed toward them. Goron positioned himself with his axe while Caroc and Morwen hurried to the door. It wasn’t locked, but the hinges were stiff, and Caroc needed to throw his weight against it before it swung open.
A chomite jumped clean over the porch railing. Goron opened its belly as it flew overhead, showering himself with guts.
Another tried to scramble up the railing. Goron surged forward and brained it with the knob of the axe. Others to the left and two more straight ahead thudded into the porch.
“There are too many,” Morwen cried out. Goron raced for the door as Morwen shot a shadow bolt at the closest. Her aim wasn’t perfect. The magic glanced off a front leg, but it was enough to slow the creature down.
Goron dived through the door, and Caroc slammed it shut, crunching through a probing leg that broke off. Within seconds, the chomites threw themselves at the door in an attempt to get inside.
It took all of Caroc’s strength to hold it closed. “Morwen, check the windows, block them any way you can.” Goron yelled.
Morwen was taken back. Wasn’t she the one who was meant to be in charge? Nevertheless, she bit her tongue—brutal and bloody combat was Goron’s area of expertise. There were only five windows. Morwen blocked them with whatever she could find, sacks of mouldering flour, barrels, and whatever furniture she had the strength to move. When she had finished, the room was thrown into darkness.
Szat’s lit a fire in the hearth with a broken chair Morwen had thrown aside. The flames leapt up the chimney just in time. They heard the sound of desperate scrabbling on stone, and a shower of soot belched into the room. Szat shot a fireball up the chimney to make sure the chomites got the message.
Goron, meanwhile, had moved a large wardrobe to block the door. Morwen noticed the warrior was covered in cuts and scrapes, whilst she and Caroc were virtually unscathed. She was almost grateful for the warrior’s bravery, not that she’d been a slouch
