Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
I sit up, my limbs weak and my head foggy. Through a haze of exhaustion, I see R’jaal jump upon the ground, which looks like it’s moving. When it thrashes underneath him, I realize it’s not the ground after all, but something else entirely. I catch a glimpse of a massive mouth filled with sharp, tearing teeth, and whimper when something scurries overhead. I look up, staring at the strange vines and the sheer cliff wall—and something spider-crawls across the vines at top speed.
It…looks like Set’nef.
“Another!” cries Tal’nef nearby, and I jerk, trying to find him. I can’t see him anywhere, but the mushrooms in the distance shake violently. Set’nef leaps atop a nearby mushroom and then climbs after his brother, moving faster than I’ve ever seen a human move.
Not human, my brain reminds me.
In front of me, R’jaal snarls, flipping onto his back as the creature thrashes against him. He stabs with his knife, but then they roll again, and it’s impossible to tell if he’s winning or losing. His camouflage shifts wildly, and when he’s tossed onto his back again, the tip of one horn chips against the rock and goes flying.
I can’t sit back and do nothing. Frantic, I look around for a weapon of some kind. There’s a palm-sized rock nearby that looks strangely out of place, but I crawl over to it and get to my feet, looking for the right moment to fling it at the creature. It flips R’jaal onto his back again, and his blade sinks into the side of the creature even as the large jaws descend, snake-like, and look as if it’s about to swallow his entire head.
With a shriek of horror, I fling my rock.
I’m less than twenty feet away, so it’s easy to hit my target. There’s no force in my throw, though, and so it bounces off of the strange monster’s horrifying snout rather uselessly. The creature flinches, but it doesn’t stop.
R’jaal snarls and stabs it again, this time between the eyes. Blood splashes over him and I cover my mouth with my hands to keep from squealing aloud again. The thing shudders and R’jaal stabs it again, and again, its blood spattering his body. He rolls and then it’s underneath him, and he shoves his blade into the thing’s throat. Dimly, I realize it looks a bit like a cross between a crocodile and a snake, if a crocodile had a fat, rounded middle and six spindly legs. R’jaal shoves his blade into the thing’s throat, and then drags it downward.
“I think it’s dead,” I call out in a helpful whisper. “You got it, R’jaal!”
He looks up at me, dripping blood and gore, and then goes back to work hacking at the creature. He jerks on the knife, tugging it through tough skin and then tosses the knife aside and grabs the ribcage. I cover my mouth in horror as he cracks the ribs open, spreading them like a book. He reaches in and pulls out the creature’s heart, his arms covered in blood up to his elbows, and gives the juicy organ a look of pure satisfaction.
Oh no. His mind has snapped.
I press myself against the vines, trying to shy backward as R’jaal gets to his feet and scoops up the bloody knife. He slices the heart open with a disgusting spurt of fluid, and then a soft, glowing blue light pours out of the heart.
Despite my disgust, the learner in me is fascinated. What is that?
R’jaal approaches me with the glowing halves of the heart and kneels in front of me. He grins wildly, like he’s just won a prize, and holds the heart out so I can look at it. I peer in—and choke back another squeal of horror. There’s a thing in there. A glowing blue filament slithers and squirms, thrashing in the remains of the heart like a worm that’s just been pulled from the dirt. I put a hand up, flinching back. “Get it away, R’jaal!”
“It is the answer we have been waiting for,” he tells me jubilantly. “Take it!”
“What? No! Are you serious? I don’t want a heart-worm! That monster had parasites! Put it away before it hooks into you!” Now I wish I’d read more about worms and infectious diseases in my downtime at the library instead of writing fanfic.
R’jaal shakes his head, moving a bit closer to me. The intense look is back in his eyes and he leans in. “Do you trust me, R’slind?”
Trust him? Now’s a hell of a time to ask! He looks like a serial killer, bathed in blood and clutching a heart in his hand. But R’jaal has been so good to me up until this point. “I mean, in general? Or like right now right now?”
“Do you trust me?” he asks again.