Book 1: Woven Worlds

Chapter 32

I woke, sweating and panting. My nails had sliced the plastic arms of my seat. We were on the highway, driving smoothly. I bent down to check my phone as it charged. It was one in the morning. I reclined back into my seat.

Mortimer looked to me in the rearview mirror. "Are you alright, Beta?"

I'd taken a seat up in the front, which put me right next to him.

I reclined, trying to take steady breaths. "It's just nightmares."

"Terribly sorry."

I reached into my bag to pull out a Jane. I held it between my lips as I lit the end. "Don't act like you care."

"It would be rude if I didn't-"

"Just shut up."

I shifted a handle that opened the window by an inch. I knew the high wouldn't last long but it lasted long enough to help.

I watched the window take the wisps from my nose and mouth as Death would with poor souls. Like the poor souls he claimed at that camp...I watched him take everyone except me.

There's a legend that tells the day the Gods first spoke to their creations. They told us that if we were praying for mercy from pain and ultimate suffering and our prayers weren't answered, we should then turn to Death to deliver us from that torment. The Gods gave us a prayer that would summon Death to take us in our sleep to then bring us to the Gods for judgement. It's a prayer that Druids and others are born knowing.

It's said that the Saviors were created because Death made a complaint to the Heavens that he was being summoned by over a million Beings in Camelot. Death demanded action to be taken so that lives could be spared.

I remember sitting in the darkness, licking the ground to get water, and listening to the shaky prayers. After the little sleep I'd gotten, several Druids were stone-cold by the time I woke up.

And when they'd broken most of my body, mind, and spirit, I prayed to Him. 'Death, true Lord o'er all, take me into thy sweet embrace. Kiss me like a mother doth kiss her babe and pull me into your arms.'

He never came.

I prayed so many times but he never came. Since then, I've been convinced that the Gods wanted me to die there and that Fate hated me. Was it because the Triskele was on my wrist? Was it because I was a Demigoddess? Or if He just wanted to use me for His amusement? I didn't know.

But I defied all odds and survived. I escaped certain death and insanity at nine years old. I became the fastest and strongest trainee in the world, then I became the youngest Beta in history. I won a war at sixteen while attending school. Many say it's just in my blood to win but I disagree. It's in my blood to fight. I've known that since the war of Rhode Island.

That war was the most important event in my life.
We marched onto the battlefield. Lightning dented the sky while the sky sobbed. I gave the Bear Druids a hard glare as they stomped on the wet earth and roared. They were bare chested with metal breeches wrapped around their legs and arms, matted hair put into braids, and scars showing. With our shoulders pulled back, armor tight against our bodies, and weapons strapped in, we were more than ready to win. I heard the steady thumping of their hearts. Each body thrummed like drums and I set the tempo.
The Bear Druids cried as their Yudon shouted to them. 
"Blood will be shed from both sides! But theirs shall soak this battlefield!" I shouted. "This is our land and you will fight for it, fight till you have no breath left in you!" 
Thunder clapped. "You will not stop clawing and kicking until you drop dead as a doornail! And I'm not planning on losing to Bears! Ready yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, because this is about to get bloody!" 
I turned to Alpha as the Bears stomped. He nodded to me. 
I lifted my hand. "Archers!" The back two rows of Druids pulled arrows out from their quivers and loaded them onto their bows. 
The Bears charged forward as their General sounded a charge. I let my hand go. Arrows whizzed through the torrent of rain, and half of them landed in the charging Druids. But it wasn't enough. They were getting closer. 
In unison, we pulled our swords out. I gripped the soaked hilt as the Bears lifted their weapons. 
We collided in a blur of bodies and armor. My men screamed as they were hacked in half, while the Bears roared as we relieved them of their arms and their heads. I ducked under an axe and jabbed my sword into the exposed waist. 
I wasn't going to fight on the battlefield. I was hunting for bigger game. I honed in on the Ceannaire of the enemy. He had been Ceannaire for so long that he had gained a bond with his men, or so I'd heard. It was time to test that theory. His eyes flashed with fury bathed in bloodlust when he saw me.
I pulled out my bow and notched an obsidian arrow onto the bowstring as the Ceannaire took up his axe. 
I released my arrow at his heart. A shield flew out from the battle field and knocked my arrow out of the air. I spun to meet my challenger as he thundered towards me. It was the General . 
Yudon, you little fucker.
He spun his axe at my head. I jumped back, slipping the bow back on my back both and taking up my swords again. He swung the axe above his head and brought it down upon me. I darted forward and drove both my swords through his stomach. He struck me, sending me rolling. The General ripped my swords out of his flesh and threw them to the ground as I sprinted at him again. I slammed into him so hard that I forced him on the ground. I leapt on him, sinking my claws in his shoulder and biting at his arm.
He pulled at me when I kicked his axe out of his hand. I lunged to take a chunk out of his face.
Yudon smashed his head into mine. His skull was pure stone, cracking open an oyster as his forehead connected with my jaw. I felt my jaw fracture and a sudden numbness pulled me off him. 
He took up his axe, grumbling loud enough to be heard over the rain, "We've all gotten tired of the stories we've heard of you, Avi." The world tried to balance as I watched him get to his feet. "I'm not really surprised you don't live up to those tales."
He threw his axe above his head to split me in two.
I rolled out of the way just as he brought it down on me. I slid my bow out. He ripped the axe out of the mud, shouting nonsense. I shot two arrows into his chest and ran at him when he staggered.
In a flash of green light, I knocked him over. 
I slammed my paw into his face and went for his throat. My fangs pierced through the soft flesh under his jaw and I ripped away. Blood gushed from him as I spat out the remains of his throat. 
I gave a message to my army: The General is downed. Kill the rest. 
Without the strength of their General, the Bears would now be looking to their Ceannaire for orders. But he was next.
I bounded across the field until I broke into a speed. Their Leader was mine to murder.