Chp.28: The hydra

Haku woke up with a gasp when he heard a strange sound, similar to the howl of a wolf. He lifted himself from where he was lying and looked at Darbi, who was up in a tree and was watching in the distance. "What happens?" he asked him.

"I have no idea" his brother replied. "It started suddenly"

Haku looked at Kotaru. She too had woken up to the constant howling and growling, but she was just as confused as he. Those cries indeed sounded like those of a wolf, but they were strange; it almost seemed that the wolf no longer had a throat and vocal cords that worked properly.

During the last week, it had been easier for them to continue in some aspects: being only three, it wasn't difficult to stay united even using the invisibility rune and find places to hide. Thanks to this they had been able to keep up with their siblings, even though they had a decent advantage. After having seen the wyvern a week before, in fact, Tikka and Teramon had immediately ran off to warn the others, not even leaving the three of them the time to say goodbye.

Following their siblings had been more complicated due to the constant use of the invisibility rune that everyone was doing now. By now the sky was almost always filled with winged patrols of humans and sometimes beastmen, so remaining invisible was a must. Therefore, following the traces of their family hadn't been easy. But despite everything, they too had finally reached the woods. With any luck, they'd reach the desert in just a few days.

However, Haku wasn't calm. The sudden shift of the battlefield between humans and beastmen worried him a lot. He feared that if they didn't hurry away, they would end up in the middle of a battle between the two sides. He would have preferred to continue the march, but he was tired and like him were Darbi and Kotaru, so they had decided to stop and rest. Unfortunately, being only the three of them, even taking turns on guard duty, each of them would have been forced to reduce their sleep time, but they didn't have much choice. It was still better than sleeping with no one on lookout... and those monstrous and twisted wolf cries confirmed it.

"I don't like it" Haku muttered. "Which direction are they coming from?"

Darbi did his best to locate the source of the sound. "I would say... from the north"

"So they come from where are the others?" Haku's heart started racing and a bead of sweat formed on his scales.

"Let's calm down, it's too early to jump to conclusions" Kotaru said. Soon after the wolf's cries stopped. "Mh. See? Even if that animal had met them, they managed to handle it"

Haku tried to calm down a bit. Indeed, a wolf was hardly a worthy opponent of his siblings. Each of them would have been able to kill him easily. However, he felt that there was something horribly wrong with the situation. The wolf's cry had seemed distorted and unnatural to him; also, wolves were pack animals, so why didn't he hear other howls? Most importantly, his nose picked up no scent of any wolves in the vicinity… just some carcasses… no, a lot of carcasses. Too many carcasses, in truth.

"Something is wrong here" he murmured narrowing his eyes. "Maybe I'm paranoid, but... I think it's better to go and check"

"Yes, a check certainly won't hurt us" Darbi said, suspicious in turn.

Kotaru sighed. "Okay, but let's stay away from our siblings, okay? I don't want them to be alarmed by hearing us approaching and thinking we're a predator. We'll get close enough to check everyone's okay, and then we leave, okay?"

"Yes, we are okay" Haku said hurriedly. Even though he was normally more composed, right now he urgently wanted to go and check that none of their siblings had gotten hurt. His instincts told him that something dangerous was approaching, and he wanted to make sure that there was no problem.

The three dragons ran into the woods making as little noise as possible and being protected by the rune of invisibility. In a short time they were close to the area where they could smell their siblings coming from. Very silently, Haku climbed a tree and watched them from afar. None of them had any obvious physical injuries and they appeared to be sleeping peacefully. He mentally breathed a sigh of relief. He noticed that Rhaegal and Teramon were in a tree to act as lookout, and that not far from them there was the corpse of a wolf, probably the same one that had emitted those verses. Apparently he had really worried too much: his siblings had handled the threat without problems. Maybe his intuition was wrong for once. "Everyone looks fine" he said as she climbed down from the tree.

Darbi and Kotaru seemed reassured. "Well, that's good news. See? There was no need to worry so much" her sister said with a smile, but she suddenly stopped staring at a point in the trees.

Darbi and Haku looked in that direction and they widened their eyes in surprise. A shadow was running towards them and in a short time it reached them. With a roar, the creature hurled itself at the three dragons, but they dodged it easily. Finally, the dragons were able to recognize it for what it was: a tiger. But it was no ordinary tiger: it was surrounded by a strange miasma and a black aura emerged from its skin. The eyes were glassy and red, and the right side was completely emaciated, with part of the guts emerging from it.

"What the...!?" Haku didn't know what to think. What the heck was that? A reanimated tiger corpse?

Kotaru and Darbi were also quite confused. "I didn't know that tigers could survive even with their intestines open!" her sister exclaimed.

"Who cares!" Darbi growled. "Let's eliminate this crap! Haku, I'll distract it, you take off its head!"

"Yes, brother!" Haku answered. Darbi then attracted the tiger's attention, and it lunged at him; as soon as it did that, Haku's tail severed its neck in two, and its head rolled to the ground.

Normally that would have been the end, but this time it was different. The tiger's body trembled, and then it walked over to the severed head and crouched down, bringing its neck closer to it. In just a few moments, the two halves stitched together, and the tiger stood up snarling.

"Are you kidding me!?" Haku exclaimed seeing that scene. How was that possible? It wasn't logical! But he didn't have time to ask himself any questions: the tiger attacked him again, but it did it much more slowly than before, as if it were still groggy or something. Haku dodged it and then hit its head with his paw, tearing it into small pieces. Flesh and blood scattered across the ground.

Just like before, the body didn't fall lifeless to the ground, but began trying to reconnect with the head pieces. However, now the head was completely crumbled. Haku wondered if the body wouldn't keep searching for all the pieces until it was whole again, but after just a minute the headless body shook and fell to the ground without moving.

"Ugh... it's over" Haku murmured. "Apparently, the only way to kill it was to completely destroy its head"

"What the heck was that?" Darbi grumbled. "What kind of animal puts its head back on after it's ripped off?"

"I don't think this is an animal. At least... not a living one" Haku replied looking at the tiger's body. Now that she was still she could clearly see how deteriorated it was, and judging by the smell it must have been dead for several days.

"Di you mean that ib your opinion this was a reanimated body?" Kotaru murmured.

Haku nodded. "Tikka and Teramon told you about something like that, remember? That creature, the hydra, had the power to convert its victims into its minions"

Kotaru remembered the conversation she'd had with her two sisters, who had explained to him the characteristics of all the various animals on the bounty list. "I remember that... but that doesn't make sense. The hydra is supposed to live in a dead place covered in poisonous vapor. This forest certainly doesn't match the description"

"Maybe we're on the edge of its territory, and this tiger and the wolf that our siblings encountered were just out to explore their surroundings" Haku said, but he didn't believe that hypothesis too much. If the minion encountered was only one, he could also have considered it valid, but two? Two animals infected by the hydra were unlikely to leave its territory. Not to mention that they would have had to come a long way, since when he climbed the trees he hadn't noticed any dead areas, so the minions must have come a long way. "Or maybe..."

Kotaru noticed his concern, and she didn't like it. "Maybe...?"

"Maybe our information is wrong... or this hydra is different from those normally known by humans" Haku said. "Since our sisters told us that the information comes from an experienced hunter, I don't think they can be wrong, therefore... I think the latter hypothesis is the most likely"

Kotaru and Darbi stiffened. "Do you mean..." his sister murmured. "...that the hydra could be nearby now?"

Haku grit his teeth. "It's a possibility" he replied.

Until then, both they and their siblings hadn't been too concerned about meeting the hydra, because from the description they had received it left distinctive signs of its presence, and therefore it would have been enough to move away as soon as they were noticed. But if this hydra didn't leave any marks… then it could have been anywhere... and in a dense place like the woods where they were, it could have easily blended into the environment.

"Kotaru, Darbi, go warn our siblings. They won't listen to me, but they will listen to you" Haku said. "We need to get away from here now. Tell them to activate their invisibility runes and proceed north. They must..."

He didn't have time to say more. A new whiff of smell hit him, the smell of rotting flesh. It was as if a large number of corpses were approaching. "Shit! More are coming!" he growled, his voice trembling with concern.

Darbi immediately got into attack position. "Sister, go warn the others!" he told Kotaru. "Haku and I hold them"

"We don't need to warn them, Rhaegal and Teramon are already waking them up. They smelled that things too" Kotaru said pointing to their siblings in the distance.

Haku narrowed his eyes. "Go to them in any case. If so many minions are coming at us, it means the hydra knows we're here. We're going to need all the help we can get, we can't stay divided now. I doubt they'll refuse to help you and Darbi"

"They won't let you die either, Haku" Kotaru told him.

Haku let out a puff from his nostrils. "It doesn't matter now! Go!"

Kotaru looked annoyed, but wasted no further time and ran in the direction of their siblings. Haku and Darbi were left alone and used their noses to understand the trajectory of the hydra's minions. They were coming straight towards them; even if they ran, they would not be able to outrun them. "Activate the invisibility rune. With a little luck, they'll pass us by without noticing us" Haku said.

Darbi nodded and became invisible along with his brother. The two remained motionless, making no noise. Very soon, the fastest minions arrived. It was a group of jackalopes, who were horribly disfigured by the black aura. Haku expected them to pass them without considering them, but immediately the jackalopes lashed out at him and Darbi. "Shit!" his brother yelled, kicking them off with a tail. "The invisibility doesn't work!"

"They must have some other method of locating us!" Haku growled. Maybe they could sense their body heat, or their electric field, just like dragons could? "We have no choice, if the invisibility doesn't work we have to fight! Remember, always destroy the head!"

"I already remembered it, but thanks anyway!" Darbi said as he shattered the heads of the jackalopes.

The rotten smell and the din of dozens of paws pounding the ground all together grew louder and louder. The two dragons opened their mouths and unsheathed their claws, ready to fight. Very soon various tigers, wolves, lions, deer, wild boars and other animals appeared in their field of vision. Haku and Darbi were confident they could face them. But then they noticed something... among the walking corpses, a huge shadow was coming!

The revelation hit Haku like an arrow, and his body shook. "Shit! It used the minions to get close without us sensing it!" he screamed.

Soon after, the branches of the trees split and numerous snake heads hurled themselves at them. The two dragons had a moment of panic when they saw the hydra appear.