The Last Shadow Witch

35. Manticore

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Finally across the pool which had been returned to its formal position and the fish back to jumping in and out of the water, we set off to pass the next obstacle. Ace fingers laced delicately with mine, with such fragility I felt that any slight wrong movement would cut off either of our fingers. Elle was generous enough to carry Ann on her back since she was tired. Leaf was also exhausted, they had both used their powers more.

"The next line says let the banshee wail," Elle informed, looking at me questionably. I shrugged.

"Well, you and Ace have been playing the role of a leader so far, especially you, Elle. I'm sure you can figure something out." Ann said weakly.

"Hmm, maybe someone would hurt himself or herself," Gomez said unsurely.

"And so far, Gomez has shown no sign of wisdom," Leaf sniggered. I laughed and shook my head, the others chuckled.

"Banshee," Ace said thoughtfully. "Could be a banshee. Gomez, what do you hear?"

"That's the confusing thing, I hear nothing but us, our voices and heartbeat," Gomez replied through gritted teeth. We stopped right at the edge of a crack. The place was dark, a little bit light but not bright enough. I could see some torches on the walls, like six of them. Ace blew a kiss, a little flying flame flickering out and passing through each torches.

"Wow," Gomez said, looking down at the crack. The crack was very large, separating us from the other side. "This wouldn't be too hard to jump over, right, guys?"

"Not so," Elle said, looking at the book. "The crack leads to a bottomless pit. You can't jump over the crack when it opens, it would pull you and all of us in. We better think of another way."

"We better check what's down there," Ace said as he walked to the edge. He fisted his palms and released them, small fireballs growing out of them. The balls grew bigger as he joggled them, smiling like a creep. He threw the balls down at the pit. We all looked at it, watching the ball fall until it was out of sight.

"There's something down there," Leaf gasped. "It just stirred." She said panickingly.

"I can't hear anything,"

"You can't but I can feel it, I can feel animals and there is something down there Ace's fire just awakened. We need to get out of here before…" She closed her eyes. "Too late, it's coming."

We all stepped away from the edge. "What's coming?"

"I don't know, but it's not something that'll love kisses and hugs," Leaf said, still panicking. Right on time, the thing climbed out.

The creature looked extremely wild; red with pale manlike blue-grey eyes and three rows of sharp teeth stretching from ear to ear, the face of a man, the body of a lion, and a tail ending in a sting like a scorpion's. Its rows of teeth were set in its upper jaw and three in the lower; these are exceedingly sharp and larger than the fangs of a hound. Its ears also resembled a man's, except that they were larger and shaggy; its feet and claws were like those of a lion. The sting of his tail, which was like a scorpion's, was over a cubit in length; and had stings on either side. But the tip of the tail above all doubt was bound to give a fatal sting to anyone who encounters it, and death is immediate.

In this case, us.

Scrutinising its tail, I saw that its stings could be fired like arrows, sideways, and it could shoot a great distance. If it discharges stings straight ahead, it would bend its tail back; if however, it should shoot in a backward direction, as the Sacae do, then it would stretch its tail to its full extent. You see, the stings I'm talking about were a foot and a few centimetres long with the thickness of a bulrush. One sting and we were doomed; dead, goners, corpse. Did I forget to add that it had horns and large dragon-like wings? Well, it does and his mane also has spikes. I am sure he can fire.