Autumn for Black Tree

Chapter 14 A Meeting of Monsters (4/4)

Meters from her strike, a blazing fury came between them. A fire-cat in all her glory stood before her beetle mother and roared a mighty roar. Caporia slowed and before she could react, Paxiss had jumped toward her with such force that she flipped her enormous body on its back. Her capable flaming paws smacked the face of the monster again and again. As she did Paxiss realized she still had the holster for the sword tied to her. Amazingly, it had not fallen off when she changed but it was now burning up. Paxiss' punches became softer as her paws became hands again and the flames died down. The sword fell from what was left of the sheath. It slid between the floundering beetle arms on her mothers belly. She reached for it just as Caporia's massive claw came down on her to rip her from her chest. Paxiss plunged the weapon into the middle of her reaching claw. A howl of pain rang through the night.

Paxiss was pushed down off of the beast as Caporia got up. She looked at the sword protruding from her monstrous hand. Even her fearsome face was able to contort in terror. She opened her rows of sharp teeth and green smoke began to waft out. Paxiss tried to get clear but it was too late. She billowed a thick green smoke all over the court yard. Barley, still hanging, was coughing violently while Paxiss was doubled over. The queen turned from the two and ran to the next tower on the opposite side of the courtyard. It had an entrance of two tall and narrow doors. It was a large space that the queen had dubbed her Festivities Hall. She broke through the doors and disappeared inside, out of view of the the knight and the servant girl who were still in a cloud of smoke.

They continued to cough profusely until the cloud dissolved into the air. Barley heard Paxiss' cough stop sounding so much like a cough and more like a laugh. He looked at her. She was trying to hold herself up now almost completely on the ground, but she was indeed laughing.

"What?" he said still hacking.

She looked up to him smiling between covering her mouth.

"I just keep thinking about how glad I am that my tail fit through the hole in my shorts," she said, "I think I'm a little too unreasonably proud of that right now."

They both laughed deliriously.

"Oh man, I gotta get down from here," said Barley, wiping a tear from his watery eyes. The vines on his back began to weaken as Barley's confidence grew. They suddenly became totally decrepit and they cracked under his weight. It was so quick that Barley barely caught himself on the floor with his hands when he landed. He got up and tried to shake the soreness from his palms.

"I need my sword back," he said.

Paxiss stood and looked at the entrance to the tower. "I'm sure she's got a plan for us in there if we go-"

"No, no, no," said Barley, "I can get myself a new one. I don't need the aggravation."

Paxiss face looked concerned, "We aren't going after her?"

Barley smiled as he deadened the wooden blades on his arms and used each hand to break them off. Paxiss thought they crumbled almost like crackers.

"No Paxiss, we are not going into the tower to kill your mother," he said with a chuckle.

It struck her then. What was her plan? He was right. They couldn't go and just slay her like any other monster. So what was the end game?

"But you're a hunter! What are we supposed to do now?"

"Well, I'm not really in the business of usurping thrones or tearing down kingdoms," said the knight, "I think we ought to take our leave."

He began walking back the way they came toward the rubble hallway.

"So that's it?" Paxiss asked following behind him.

Barley shrugged, "Yeah, I mean you can't just dethrone someone. It's not my place. Plus then it creates a power vacuum and the land starts to tear itself apart in civil war and it just becomes a whole thing."

He reached the fallen structure and began climbing over the mess of stone and branches until he made it to the other side. "Also you have to think of Toka. How would he feel without a mother or a kingdom? Your brother has to have some structure even if it-"

He turned around. She wasn't there. The silence had alerted him. He wondered how long she hadn't been following him. He climbed back to the top of the hill debris. He couldn't see her anywhere in the courtyard.