13 The Headless Horseman

Everyone's ears and eyes were now alert and a tense atmosphere settled over the group.

Each one of them wanted to urged their horses into a gallop but knew it was important to save their energy if they actually needed to get away form something fast. Which it seemed like soon they would be needing to make a quick escape.

Demarcus say with his bow in his hand as his cat eyes scanned the woods.

Ciall could smell Makoia up ahead on the trail, he was definitely dead and stunk of his own blood.

"There might be a trap up ahead, don't let it distract you." She said knowing her party members were much more sentimental.

Idris peered around, then she thought she saw something in the train and looked ahead. As she looked closer she could see a figure, it was Makoia's body. He was sitting on his knees, his shoulders leaning on two sticks set to prop him up. And his head was gone, nothing but a bloody mess of torn tissue was left on his neck. The blood dripped down his torso and left a small puddle between his legs.

"Hey it's the headless horseman!" Said Demarcus making a joke about the folktale. Idris gave him a shocked and horrified expression.

"Idris put up a protective spell," Ciall commanded while ignoring Demarcus's remark. However, no one could see that her lips were upturned ever so slightly while pulling out a crystal ball from her saddle bag.

Instantly a black force field covered the the group and Idris with teary eyes held her wand up with deep concentration.

Ciall pulled the ball out and spoke into it, "show me the keeper." Yet as soon as the last words left her lips an arrow shot out from no where and landed into the crystal ball shattering it to pieces.

Ciall looked down at her hand. It was littered with blood and glass. The arrow that broke the crystal ball was now lodged into her arm halfway up her wrist.

With her other hand she ripped it out of her skin and sniffed at the arrowhead.

"Motherfucker has pixie dust on these arrows. Your force field is useless, put it down we need to get out of here fast." She said and they all put their starters horses into a gallop.

Demarcus sent an arrow into seemingly a random spot as they took off down the path.

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Meanwhile a tall man stood lightly on a tree branch. Caith's eyes were alive with excitement as he balanced in the tree like he a small ground squirrel. A bow in one hand and a quiver on his back. He had his back to the tree and he was grinning ear to ear.

He was wearing a brown shirt that was split open on his shoulder. A little bit of blood oozed from his wound, yet it was rapidly shrinking.

Caith carefully peaked around the tree and saw the party taking off. His eyes were focused on the archer in the back, and he saw another arrow fly directly at him. Quickly he dodged it, drew and arrow and launched it right at the elf. It hit him right in the elbow as he went to draw another arrow from his quiver.

"Fuck," he screamed looking at his now useless arm.

Caith laughed to himself as he aimed another arrow but the group was already out of sight.

'Time to really have some fun!'

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Idris looked back at Demarcus after she heard him swear and saw the arrow clean through his elbow.

Her heart thudded in her chest, 'who is this monster?'

As they raced down the mountain path they saw started to see a large object in the distance in the middle of the road.

As they got closer they could see it was a carriage without any horses. Ciall recognized as one of the Keeper's carriages for transportation.

"We need to stop and search it!" She yelled making everyone make expressions of shock and fear.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Bohan said angrily.

"Our mission was to retrieve the tracker and find out what happened to the fox. That was our goal, if we fail do you really want to deal with the keepers wrath?"

Bohan gulped but didn't say anything. Ciall knew they were close because she could smell the day old corpuses from afar. Now they were close enough everyone could smell the horrible stench.

"When we get there everyone dismount but keep ahold of the horses. Bohan cover Idris so she can heal Demarcus, we need our archer back." She said shortly before they all came to a stop. She dismounted and went inside the carriage. It was empty, she stepped back out.

Bohan had ripped the arrow out of Demarcus and Idris was healing him. They needed to act fast, she thought as she looked around. Quickly she checked the first corpse it was bloated and wearing nothing for pants besides underwear. She then rushed to a cloak on the ground between her and the second corpse. 'Nothing!' She screamed internally, and drew her sword while heading to the last corpse. This one was horribly mangled and was bleeding from one hand and his ankle. She quickly checked his pockets and found nothing. In frustration she kicked over the man's corpse that was previously held up by the tree.

'Didn't your mother ever tell you to respect the dead?'

She heard a voice speak inside her head.

"Who the fuck are you?" She screamed into the forest while holding her sword out in front of her.

The party was now staring at their leader who seemed to be ready to defend herself from something in the forest.

When suddenly they hear the sound of bone and tissue being ripped apart followed by a dull thud.

Demarcus and Idris looked up at Bohan who stood headless next to them for a moment, before falling backwards revealing a gigantic wolf with Bohan's head at his feet. The wolf was all black except for strange blue markings that matched his violent blue eyes.

'I am your demise.' Said the voice now echoing in everyone's head.