The Hunted

"What in the Hells is that thing?" Gary whispered to Saul.

"I don't know, I've never seen anything like it." Saul replied, not taking his eyes off of the creature in front of his, some distance away.

"Caleb, Tom, get the nets ready." Saul ordered quietly.

"You can't be serious, you saw that thing kill that fanged deer." Caleb protested.

"What? That thing has got to be worth more than the beasts we've captured so far. I've never seen one before, that makes it rare, and if it's rare it's valuable." Saul explained.

They were a group of hunters who specialized in capturing prey, not killing them. Mercenaries could train magical beasts, becoming something akin to a beast tamer. They could use the beasts to fight for them, or do other tasks such as guarding an area or campsite. Not many choose to do this, as it costs some amount of money, but those that did would pay large sums of money for a very rare magical beast.

They had already captured a few wolves, two fanged deer, and even managed to capture a juvenile griffon. They got lucky on the griffon, it wasn't paying attention as it had just made a kill and was eating, much like the creature in front of them now. All the captured beasts were currently in cages back at their campsite about ten miles from this clearing. They had to trek long distances in order to locate the beasts.

"I don't know Saul, rare could mean strong as well. I have a bad feeling about this one." Tom said wearily.

"Stop your bellyaching, get ready, we'll move in a minute." Saul said grumpily.

Saul had been doing this almost twenty years, he had a mountain of experience. All that experience was telling him this creature was one of a kind, if he passed this chance up he wouldn't get another one. The creature was in a clearing, so they were already at a disadvantage. It could fly as well, so they had to be fast. They were downwind, so at least it wouldn't smell them.

"Alright, just like with the griffon. Tom, cast your concealment magic, Caleb, prepare the tranquilizing potions; I don't know how many it will take so use the rest that you have just in case. Everyone group up, let's move out." Saul ordered as he tightened his grip on the rope he was carrying.

"Latebra." Tom muttered out.

Soon, the four men became fuzzy, blending into the background. Tom's magic didn't turn them invisible, it just made a certain area blurry, getting rid of any sharp lines and making the colors blend with the surrounding ones. The grass was waist high, so the four men crouched and moved quickly, surprisingly not making any noise. They've all been doing this for a long time, not as long as Saul, but still were very experienced.

They had a bit of ground to cover, it was over a thousand feet to the spring, and the winged creature was eating right next to it. The four men focused all of their attention on the creature, the closer they became, the greater their fear. From afar, and with the height of the grass, they couldn't get the full picture of what they were hunting. Now that they were closer, they could see it completely.

It's golden scales were reflecting the afternoon sunlight, making it sparkle like thousands of gold coins. Its wings were the same color as its body and were tightly folded against its body, almost perfectly, they could hardly see the seams. Its large, horned head continuously ripped chunks of meat off of the deer carcass, tilting back to swallow each bite.

They were now only about fifty feet or so from it. The four men stopped and started to slowly spread out, with the spring in front of it and the men behind, as long as they clipped its wings it shouldn't be able to escape. They prepared the tools they held, Saul had the ropes, Caleb the potions that he would throw, Tom the net, and Gary a sword, just in case things didn't go well. Nobody moved a muscle, they all waited for just the right moment to strike.

Sif wasn't some brainless beast, she could sense that she had been surrounded. If she felt threatened at all she might have taken off already, or at least acknowledged their presence, but she wasn't threatened at all. In fact, she was a little excited. There was a little bit of her that wanted to fight, wanted to struggle to the top. That's why she acted oblivious, she wanted to see what would happen. She was just waiting for them to make a move.

They didn't make her wait very long, the one holding the potions made the first move. He tossed two bottles in an arc, covering the distance between them quickly. He made now sound when he threw them, but Sif could sense it nonetheless. In the blink of an eye she unfurrowed her wings, and with her powerful wings, thrust herself up into the air. The two bottles struck the ground and burst apart, mixing together and causing a gas to fill the air where she was previously.

The four men didn't panic, they quickly changed tactics. The one that threw the bottles fell back and pulled out two more as the one with the net prepared to throw it. The one that held the sword sheathed it, then pulled a crossbow off of his back. He knocked an arrow that had a rope attached to it and quickly set it. He took aim, then fired the makeshift harpoon.

Sif didn't bother to try and dodge the arrow, she let it hit her unfolded wing. A normal crossbow bolt wouldn't be able to even scratch her steel like scales, let alone one that had been attached to a rope. The arrow harmlessly bounced off of her, silently falling to the ground. Now it was her turn to make a move.

Seeing the creature charge at them from the air, they finally decided to retreat. They'd lost the element of surprise and knew when it was time to call it quits. Gary managed to roll out of the way of the first charge, getting back on his feet and taking off towards the forest. Everyone else soon followed, dropping their equipment in order to run faster, they could always come back for it after they lost the creature.

The creature flew back up into the air after barely missing Gary. Tom conjured up a fireball, then shot it towards the flying serpent. If he managed to hit it great, but he was just hoping to scare it off. It nimbly dodged the fireball, showcasing its aerial acrobatics, looked at Tom and hissed, clearly enraged. Tom's stomach sank, not only did he not scare it off, he managed to piss it off and become its target.

Seeing that Tom failed to drive it off, Saul yelled out. "Split up, make a break for the forest. We'll regroup at the campsite!"

Everyone started to sprint in opposite directions, momentarily confusing Sif. She hovered for a moment before deciding to go after the one that tried to hit her with the ball of fire. He was the furthest away, but it didn't matter to her, she could fly several times faster than the fastest runner. No matter how fast they were, she was faster. She tucked her wings in, turning into a missile. As she neared the ground she spread her wings out, stopping her freefall, but keeping her speed.

She was currently moving parallel to the ground, about six feet above it. She rapidly approached the man, her wings propelling her forward. The man turned his head in time to see a golden scaled tail approaching his head at unbelievable speeds. Sif could feel her tail pass through a little resistance, almost like crushing an egg. As she pulled up, she turned her head to see a decapitated corpse roll and tumble in the grassy plain. Blood continued to spurt out of the empty neck, the heart not knowing the man had died, and continued to pump for a few seconds.

As Sif gained altitude, she scanned for her next target. The three remaining men were still running, but she could hear shouts and curses coming from them as they realized what had happened to their comrade. Although they had mostly split up, two of the men were still somewhat close together, maybe only fifty feet apart. Sif began to sparkle with light, she was still reflecting the sunlight, but now there was also a blue light that seemed to be much brighter. Arcs of the blue light were randomly jumping across her body, some into the air. She paused for just a moment, looking in the direction of the two men, before a massive bolt of lightning zig-zagged across the sky and struck the ground between the two.

A deafening boom struck Saul as he was running, before he could turn around to see what had happened, he was pushed to the ground by a massive shockwave. He unsteadily got back on his feet, his ears were ringing, he couldn't hear a thing. As he stood he looked over to see a fire had started. In a perfect circle, the waist high grass was burning, the grass around the fire was brown and appeared to be dried out. Past the flames stood two bodies, they were charred and their legs looked to have split open, exposing muscle and bone. The ground between the two was shiny and almost perfectly level, he could tell it was glass.

Saul didn't dare stay still, the fear of death motivated him to continue running to the forest. He had lost almost his whole crew, the men he worked with for many years. He had never seen a creature that could do what he had witnessed, and he never wanted to again. The only thing he could hear over the ringing in his ears was the frantic beating of his heart. His mouth was dry, his face was numb, he'd lost all rational thought as the only thing that mattered was getting away.

He could see the forest getting closer and closer, he was nearly to the safety of the trees. His legs continued to pump up and down, driving him forward, lungs gasping for air. He thought of nothing else other than running, he didn't care that he was getting exhausted, he didn't care that he could hear nothing other than his heartbeat and the ringing in his ears. He could only run.

Sif lazily slithered after the man, easily keeping pace with him. She wasn't purposely toying with the man, just wanting to see how fast she could move on land. She hadn't had much time to practice her abilities, this whole conflict was her testing things out. Satisfied with her speed on land, she sped up to catch the man. She didn't try to be quiet, but was rather stumped by the fact the man didn't try to dodge or at least change direction as she caught up, it was like he didn't even know she was there.

Not bothering to think on it any longer, Sif opened her maw and bit done on the man's shoulder. He screamed a blood curdling scream as he was drug to the ground. He continued to scream until Sif shook her head violently, cutting off the noise. Seeing that her prey was dead, she nodded in satisfaction.

She had gotten a lot stronger since she killed those disgusting, dirty little goblins. She guessed that as long as she continued to grow she would increase her strength at the same speed. She inspected the body, looking for anything that Marcus might like. Not seeing anything, she moved on to the other bodies. She didn't find anything interesting, she was hoping they had something on them she could gift to Marcus, but she was sure just seeing her would be enough.

She thought about eating them, but was already full from the deer, and she didn't know how Marcus would feel about her eating people. After checking the bodies a second time, just in case she missed anything, Sif took off into the sky. She had to go retrieve that pouch she left in the tree, then make her way to Rosevalley. She had wasted enough time playing around, she had some time to make up.

........................

"They've been gone for too long." A burly man said to another man that was sitting across from the campfire.

Different magical beasts were locked up in cages behind the man, wolves, fanged deer, and one very vocal griffon. The two men were looking after the beasts and the campsite as their comrades went out hunting other beasts. It was nearly night out, the sun was low on the horizon, barely giving off any light.

"We can't go looking for them at night. We'd have to wait until morning, but I'm sure they'll be back soon, they probably caught a big 'n'." The other man said.

"Yeah, you're probably right, but if they're not back by tonight, come first light we're looking for 'em." The burly man said, a trace of concern in his voice.

"Of course, but like I said, I'm sure they're fine. Let's just keep the fire going until they get back, I'm sure it'll be any moment."