Chimera

Chapter Fifteen: Alana

After Alana had bought a broadsword from Eraros the ermine Chimera, she had decided to take another one from her father's weapon collection, just in case something happened to her first sword and she needed a replacement.

Now, it had proved to be a wise move. The handle of her first broadsword was obliterated, and the actual blade was an ugly, corroded mess, mangled and speckled with sickly red splotches of rust. She had been forced to drop it to the ground of the cave when she was fighting the Salamander, so as not to burn her own hand off. Alana had been left weaponless in the dark.

Luckily, Jaylin and Lance, with some help from Goldenstroke, the macaw-coyote, had succeeded in slaying the monster just in time.

After that, they had kept on moving through the caves for hours, nursing some injuries.

As she trudged through knee-deep water, Alana glimpsed a sparkle of light. When she moved forward, the light turned into a circle of white glare, so bright that it stung her eyes, which had become accustomed to the dim glow of the mushrooms. Squinting, Alana could make out the green of a ... yes! It was a forest, with leaves and grass and roots. The circle of light was a hole in the cave that revealed the outside world, an exit back into the sun.

"We made it," she said, almost in a whisper. And then her heart started beating faster.

"We made it! We made it!" she cheered, in a rare bout of euphoria.

She broke into a joyous sprint, splashing through the river.

The others were cheering and shouting behind here. They rushed into the sunlight, hands raised high in victory.

Alana looked around, smiling. She was in a vibrant forest, with grande oaks, elegant, lithe willows and pungent fir trees. The sunlight and birdsong enveloped her. After what had seemed like days in a horrible, damp cave, with no room to even stretch, almost completely devoid of light besides those creepy mushrooms... she was here! She had made it!

Alana practically bounced through the lush grass...

... right into the tail of a huge creature.

She stumbled back, eyes widening.

The animal turned to face her. It had thick mahogany fur and a long snout, where dark lips were peeled back, revealing huge ivory daggers that glinted angrily. Gigantic paws pounded the earth, churning the ground into mulch. It was a bear, a huge bear!

Two piercing eyes focused on Alana with equal intensity, despite their drastically different hues: one eye was amber orange, like a sun dying in the evening, and the other was blue, all the swirling azure lakes of the world frozen and packed into a glowing orb. The stare burned her stomach and chilled her bones at the same time.

It growled, low in its throat, and moved forward, with surprising grace for something that looked like a shaggy mountain.

"Bears normally don't attack people unless they are angered or protecting their cubs," Lance whispered to Alana from the corner of his mouth, staying stock-still.

"S-s-sorry, I didn't m-mean to land on your t-tail," Alana stammered. She glanced around. There were no signs of bear cubs hiding anywhere in the green grasses.

The beast roared at Alana. Droplets of saliva hit her face. She cowered as the bear rose to its full height on two thick legs.

"Great! We're doomed," she hissed to Lance.

"I concur," Jaylin said.

"Well, then I may as well go down fighting!" Alana said grimly. In Los Lagos, her father had told her about young sentries who had been so overcome with fear in the face of an enemy, that they stood completely still, petrified. In their frozen state, they were easily taken down. But if she resisted the fear and started moving, she would have a better chance of winning the fight, instead of making a stupid, anxiety-caused mistake, like dropping her sword. Her love of combat flooded back to into her, pouring energy into her sword arm. She was ready.