Cody watched as the two new guests kicked the wriggling chunks away from their feet. Despite the growing panic that he was starting to share with the two buffoons, the wide-eyed stare Maddison paid him nearly pulled a laugh out of him as the hulking man pointed at the moving creature in the smoke. “Shoot it again!”
“I did my part.” Cody huffed, propping his chin to hide his exhaustion. He stared at the cloud with a pit of dread, running through a list of spells in his head that he might be able to pull off with his remaining energy. Nothing could finish the beast like his fire lance.
He watched a chunk of meat half his size drag itself through the smoke, disappearing into the moving shadow.
Could it be finished?
“My, I’ve never seen a worm like this! It’s doing the spider thing,” Sariel said, seizing the attention of the group as she held up a small piece of squirming flesh by an invisible strand. Hord’anne had joined her side to stare at the oddity, the two sharing a look of playfulness.
“Gods! Put that down.” Endris spat.
Cody froze as he caught a glimmer of a thread pinched between Sariel’s fingers. He grabbed it from her, trying to catch the magic in the light as the small piece of flesh wriggled about in the air. “It’s a spell.” Cody looked around, catching the fleeting strands of magic expanding from the cloud, paper thin and nearly impossible to see in the smoke. But for a moment he could see a glimmer. A cluster of threads coming out of the smoke and stretching skywards to a new destination. He pointed at the larger house that had once sat in the barrier with them, the dark wooden mansion that bore the lopsided white tower like an odd hat. “The spell, it’s attached there!”
“Maynard’s house,” Endris growled, “We need to stop him.”
Everyone froze as a curdling roar ripped through the town square, its power trailing into a gurgling bellow unlike any beast its audience had heard. A scaly arm shot through the smoke, digging its bloodied claws into the dirt as it began to pull the rest of the mass out. Ribbons of wriggling flesh were still hanging from its neck and head, trying to find their places in the misshapen beast. But it had recovered enough to stretch its crooked jaw with another curdling howl.
“We won’t get anywhere if we stay out here fighting that thing while he heals it!” Endris yelled, pointing to the houses that Cody had singled out. “We have to stop Maynard.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Cody replied, “Hord’anne, I need you to keep that thing distracted!”
Hord’anne snorted in acknowledgment, giving Sariel the gentlest head pat his pudgy hand could muster before barreling at the dragon with a blood-curdling roar. Hord’anne swung to give its jaw a clean uppercut, dislodging the entire thing as it hung from torn flesh that quickly roped itself back together.
But the dragon hardly stopped at the assault, shoving past Hord’anne to crawl its way across the burnt grass - Straight towards the group of wide-eyed adventurers.
Cody grabbed Sariel by the arm. “Run!”
The group scrambled to escape the beast, flames licking at their heels as Hord’anne grabbed its tail and barely managed to stall it. The dragon lurched forward, creating just enough of a tug for its loose tail to tear clean off in Hord’anne’s grasp.
The beast began its pursuit once more. Crushing small huts under its wriggling body as the group sprinted for Maynard’s front door. Sariel yoinked Cody in by the arm, the two of them barely dodging a chunk of wood as it went flying at the door. Maddison felt a force shove his back before he could check how close the dragon had gotten, losing his balance as he tumbled between the pieces of debris sitting in front of the door.
All he heard was Endris’ voice as he picked himself back up.
“You get that son of a-“
A loud crunch cut her voice, the last bit of natural light illuminating their surroundings blotted by the thick wooden beam that had fully sealed off the door.
Maddison jumped to his feet, trying in vain to tug at the debris and clear a hole. “Endris!” He gave in quickly when the wooden beam didn’t budge, pressing his ear against the blockage to try and listen for her voice above the snarling howls of the zombified dragon. His heart sank as nothing came, and he began to search the floor for any signs of red.
“Wooaahhh! Can I touch it?!”
Maddison flipped around to stare at Sariel. She was busy admiring Cody’s flickering hair, nearly losing her mind at how it lit up the small area with enough light to see.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Cody gently grabbed her hands and lowered them away from his head. “Later. It’s not glowing any brighter than last night, and we have to be quiet, we don’t know where this guy is.”
“The demon is right, hush up unless you want to die,” Maddison said.
Sariel frowned. “You was just wailing that lady’s name there Mr. Maddison. Don’t be gettin' hypocritical on me.”
“You don’t even know what that word means.”
Cody stepped up between him and Sariel, a small flame pinched threateningly between his fingertips. “I’d hush up unless you’re fireproof.”
Maddison reached for his sword, but stopped at the sound of pattering steps. They all saw the small shadow as it ran up the stairs in front of them. A small child, or perhaps something far more sinister. What they could all accept is that whatever it was, it knew they were there now.
Maddison and Cody exchanged a silent nod, making their way towards the steps.
“My what a lovely house,” Sariel exclaimed, rubbing her finger across a polished desk to produce a waxy squeak. “Do you think I’ll get to live in a house like this someday?”
Cody’s irritation melted as soon as their eyes met. “Of course.”
“Shut up Sariel, if you keep making noise you’ll get us killed,” Maddison growled.
“Killed? Did you let a monster inside?”
Cody and Maddison flinched at the squeaking sound of a child, the two of them readying their weapons at the small boy stood at the top of the stairs. He let his sandy hair hang over the stair rail with him, a smirk catching Cody’s light as he looked down on the three.
“Hiya Mudface! Bloody dragon outside, did you see it?”
Sariel gasped. “That’s what a dragon looks like? I’ve always wanted to see one!”
“Right… but a lot further away would have been nicer.” Tim replied, “This place is safe for now, come on up. I’ll introduce you to my old man.”
“Your old man’s Maynard?” Maddison spoke up.
Tim nodded. “Lost a bit of his senses like my brother, but harmless. Come on up! Take a breather before you pop back out to kill that dragon and whatever’s got the town loopy.”
Maddison held back his intent, softening his caution to an almost chilling calm. “Right then, lead the way.”
Cody eagerly cut up in front of Maddison as they climbed the staircase, joining Timber’s side to invite a conversation. “your father. Is he a sorcerer by any chance?”
“Not a chance. He did some transcriptions for the Hero Guard a while back. Nothing magical though. What’s it to you Mudface?”
Cody frowned, exchanging a glance with Maddison. “You sure? No magic?”
“You tryna accuse my pops of something? He ain’t no warlock like you.”
Maddison snickered when he caught a glimpse of Cody’s scowl.
“What’s wrong with being a warlock? At least I have magic on my side,” Cody replied through gritted teeth. “There’s a strong enchantment on this house, so I was wondering if he may have had a hand in it.”
“Don’t know nothing bout no enchantment, just the curse,” Tim retorted. Without much more to say, he quickened his pace to jump the last few steps, slipping his socks along the polished floorboards as he led the party down a dark hall.
The house was decorated inside more to what Maddison would have expected from a lord of a tiny village. There were more handcrafted decorations than paintings upon the walls, with the few they could see sparsely bordered with embellishments beyond carved wood, and depicting pieces important enough to pay for the paint.
In this case, it appeared to be Maynard’s family. He eyed the larger portrait of the man he had seen in the square, younger and more confident in his posture. One hand rested protectively upon the shoulder of one of two blonde twins, and the other gripped the waist of a raven-haired woman.
Maddison eyed the woman curiously until he felt Cody bump past him, the sorcerer giving him a judgemental side-eye as he kept walking. “Eyes up front.”
Tim slowed to take Maddison’s side as they continued down the hall, “That was my mum.” He dipped his gaze to the floor for a second of thought as his voice fell somberly. “She got sick before the village went crazy.”
Maddison kept his gaze ahead. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“My dad said it was a witch. You ever kill one? They all look like Sariel there?”
“They look like whatever you want them to look like.” Maddison sighed, shooting Sariel a disappointed look. “I kill monsters and men with coin on their heads. Some of them might have been called witches, but that’s not my business.”
“What about that witch of the Westlock? You ever seen that one?”
Maddison’s lips flattened at the name. “No.”
“You think it’s here?”
“If it was, we would all be dead by now.”
Cody scoffed. “Maybe you.”
Maddison hid a laugh at the cocky comment. The Witch of the Westlock was a creature with a bounty of gold big enough to swim in. So many riches that it would be impossible to spend it all in one lifetime.
An appropriate prize for a creature that was impossible to kill. The most Maddison had seen of the creature were sketches, with only a name to tie them all together. From a hauntingly beautiful woman, to a man eating spider, to a chimera of human and monstrous parts, the eyewitness accounts were deliriously described at best. Images burned into the retinas of those who sat on their deathbeds, unlucky enough to have crossed paths with it.
But where Maddison was lucky enough to have never faced it in person, he had seen the aftermath. It could rot entire fields over night, raise abominations from the soil, and turn bustling villages into accursed ghost towns. It was the walking calamity of the last decade, and well deserving of its title as an agent of death.
He eyed Cody, the sorcerer always seeming to catch his gaze and greet it with a scrunched nose. What was the spell caster going to do if he saw it? Light it on fire and hope for the best?
