Chương 6: Chapter 6
“Nym!? What’s wrong? Jeremiah check her!” Sara yelled out as she floored the gas pedal.
Jeremiah lurched and turned in his seat, already moving when Sara yelled. Nymia’s eyes were still closed, maybe unconscious or in shock, but the black veins covered her entire stomach, and under her clothes, he could see it creeping up her shoulders.
“Oh god, Sara, those black veins are up at her shoulders now, they weren’t even growing before! What do we do?” He asked quickly, turned to look at her.
“We need to get there, that’s what! We aren’t far, a few miles down the road there’s a trail head, and just a few minutes in there’s another space like the one in the tree. That’ll be the Nexus.”
Nymia screamed out again, this time her eyes shot open, and she gasped, her eyes shooting over to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah grabbed her hand “Nymia, it’s gonna be ok! We’re going to get you to the Nexus and you’ll be ok!”
“We’re close Nym, ok? We’re nearly there!”
Nymia grabbed his hand and held it tight, nodding as they both spoke “Ahh…oh goddess, alright…”
Jeremiah squeezeed her hand gently just a few times before looking over his shoulder back at the road “How close are we?”
Sara answered by turning off the roadway and into a small, dirt parking lot way too fast, sending dirt and stones flying across the space. “We’re at the trailhead, get out and get her up! Just follow the trail straight to the tree!”
Jeremiah nodded “Alight, Nymia, I will be right back!” He said as he let go of her hand and threw open the car door, jumping out and running to get the back seat open. As soon as he did, without even a second to think he pulled Nymia out, one hand looped around her back, the other under her knees holding her close to his chest.
She put an arm around his shoulders and leaned into him, her breath heavy and ragged, her other hand clutched at her stomach “Th-ahh god…Thank you Jeremiah.” She shuddered and groaned as pain wracked her body, but she smiled a quick second “I could most definitely get used to you carrying me like this…”
“It’s good to hear you still have that sense of humor. Sara?” He noticed she wasn’t helping him with Nymia, and looked over at her standing a bit away from the car, her eyes glowing as she peered across the road into the tree line.
“Sara, what’s wrong?” Jeremiah asked quickly, feeling even more panic rise in his gut, this kept getting worse every second.
“Monsters. At least twenty, maybe more. They’re coming for you.” She turned to look at him and Nymia, both of them looking back at her. Jeremiah in desperation, not knowing what to do and Nymia in fear and pain.
“Take her and run, Jeremiah. Run to the Nexus. I’ll cut them off in the woods and hold them off.”
“Sara, you can’t fight them all alone!" Jeremiah said, shaking his head, trying to figure something out as Nymia forced herself to speak.
“Sara, no you can’t! What if they hurt you, Sara I’d-” Her words were cut off as Sara yelled at them both.
“Jeremiah doesn’t know how to fight and Nym, you are DYING! So, you two are going to run, and I am going to save you and hold them off, then you’re going to come back and we’re going to go home!” She had tears in her eyes as she spoke “Now stop wasting time! Go!”
Jeremiah swore under his breath, his legs felt like lead, he wanted to help her, he didn’t want to lose her. He just met these two, but he felt so close to them already, and he was so close to losing Nymia already. His mind flashed to the fire, to Charlotte, to those kids he couldn’t save. He could save Nymia.
He turned and ran, all the strength he had in him went into running with all his strength down this trail into the woods. Nymia yelled out to Sara, calling her name, begging her to run to the Nexus with them, to be safe, but Sara ignored her, and Jeremiah could barely even hear her as he focused only on the path ahead of him. His feet pounding into the soft earth beneath them, winding and twisting through the forest.
Sara ran after them for just a few moments, so she was at least into the woods and off the road of the parking lot. She turned back and looked towards the road, where the creatures she had seen advancing through the trees were now sprinting across and towards her. They were more or less all the same, these Monsters were tall, about seven and a half feet easily, and were built like tanks. Muscled and covered in a thick chitinous hide, colored like oak bark and moss, their feet slammed against the ground like hammers as they closed in.
The foremost monster that was the largest and colored more darkly than the other shouted at her as he bounded forward “Give up the boy wolf girl! Laricus demands it!”
She took a deep breath as her nails began elongating into claws, and her eyes began shining like moonlight. Rivlets of white began dancing down her black hair as it changed like a wave from root to tip into a brilliant white. “Come and f*cking take him.” She said as her voice transformed into a deep growl, as she was enveloped again by the moonlight. As it shattered, she bounded forward as her wolf shape, and slammed into the first Monster.
It went down, bowled over by her momentum and size as she raked her claws against its skin, carving huge furrows through its hide as she just kept moving, her back legs slamming into its chest, collapsing its ribs, as she charged to the next, quickly realizing though, that the others are all much closer together. She was going to get outnumbered and swarmed quickly if she wasn’t paying attention.
Just as she got close to the next monster she pivoted and kicked, sending dirt, dust and stones into its eyes, causing it to reel back and cover its eyes. Taking advantage of the distraction she turned around fast enough to smack it in the chest with her forepaw, sending it sprawling to the ground. Three other monsters closed in, charging her. She bounded forward towards them before leaping up over their heads and landing on one of the others, crushing it beneath her paws.
All the remaining Monsters, of which there were many, closed in and began working to surround her, she whipped her head around as she took them all in and let out a loud resounding howl, echoing through the trees, as she felt her fur wave in a breeze, tingling with the familiar feeling of her magic.
Jeremiah did his best to ignore the howling, to ignore the sounds of fighting as he ran. To ignore Nymia as she begged him to let her go, to let her do what she could to help Sara. He didn’t even entertain the thought of it, with this magic affecting her, she couldn’t even break out of his grip. There was no way she could fight.
He was looking frantically around for a tree like the one with the glade, she just said a few minutes down the trail. Was that running or walking? Had it even been a few minutes? This was all such a blur in his mind he was just realizing that he didn’t even know if he was looking for the right thing. He swore under his breath again.
“It’s ok, we’re almost there Nymia, don’t worry…I’m gonna get us there.”
Nymia groaned again and tried to push away but barely could “Goddess…d*amnit Jeremiah, please! Please let me go, let me help her, I can still…” She paused, “I can…still…” Her eyes fluttered closed, and she felt heavier in his arms.
His eyes shot wide as he ran “NYMIA!? Nymia, are you still with me? Please come on, hold on Nymia!”
She let out a shuddered breath, her body shaking, but still breathing. “I’m..still here.” She said weakly, barely above a whisper.
“Good, you stay that way, you hear me?” He said as he kept going, until finally ahead of him he saw it, just like the other tree. A weeping willow with leaves and branches that drooped like a curtain around it. He ran with every ounce of strength his legs had left, and nearly leapt through that boundary as he got closer, finally passing through and into the nexus.
He skidded to a halt, just a few feet from a sheer drop off. Where the other space had looked like a forest glade, this one looked like a circular building of a shining gray and silver marble, the boundary appeared as deep blue curtains from this side and they ringed this brilliant, shing room, hung on walls that reminded him of a Greek or roman temple. Which housed the Nexus. A sheer drop-off into a massive pit dominated the room but rising out of it was a blue and silver fire, easily fifteen, twenty feet above the floor, which was another five or ten feet above the top of these pillared walls.
The fire didn’t roar and crackle, instead it sounded like a great rush of wind, collecting swirls of silver moonlight around it, drawing them into its depths. Jeremiah looked up towards the sky and saw that centered above the fire, silhouetted by the beautiful starry night sky, was a massive full moon.
He walked to the edge of the put and knelt down, holding Nymia close to his chest and smiled, making sure she could see it, her eyes were half lidded, as a small waning smile graced her lips.
“It’s beautiful…and it’s going to save us.” Jeremiah said to Nymia.
“Yeah…it is.” She said with a nod, before letting out another shaking breath, before going limp in his arms.
“Nymia…Nymia!”
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