Light of Epertase 01: Legends Reborn by Douglas R. Brown Page B

spun as though taken by tornadic winds. Reason told her it wasn’t the trees that moved at all. Her feet grew numb until she no longer felt the ground against her soles. She staggered to a stop. Her legs slowly turned to mush. When she tried to take another step, they didn’t answer her command and she teetered to the side before crashing face-first into the weeds. Her stomach cramped and she thought she might be ill.
    She pushed to her hands and knees, which quivered beneath her weight. Her shins and thighs began to tingle. She swayed. Her left elbow gave way and her face slammed the ground again. With her last bit of strength, she rolled onto her back and stared up, hopelessly, at the spinning trees.
    A thousand needles stabbed her – first her fingers, then both of her arms. The last thing she felt below her waist was her bladder letting loose. Blair’s screams, in the distance, weakened to low agonizing moans.
    Her neck stiffened. Her ears began to ring, drowning out every other sound until even the ringing was gone.
    The outlines of the spinning trees dulled until she couldn’t see their dark edges any longer. Her breathing slowed to an occasional gasp. She realized it was only time before her lungs ceased to draw air and was terrified at the thought of suffocating.
    She tried to close her eyes but her eyelids no longer worked.
    The blur of the creature’s face replaced the trees. It tilted its head from side to side. A long, stringy glob of drool hung from its mouth and then dripped onto her cheek, though she didn’t feel it. The ochrid lowered its head and its snake-like tongue swiped across her brow; she wondered if it tasted her.
    The creature roared into her face though she didn’t hear it. Then it opened its mouth.
    Do it now, monster, she demanded as her breath grew faint.
    The ochrid lunged forward but froze before taking a chunk of her flesh. Something moved behind it —a man’s figure landed on the ochrid’s back. The creature pulled its head away from her cheek, ready for its next fight.
    Blair, you came for me.
    Alina’s shallow breaths slowed until they stopped altogether.
    The ochrid thrashed to the side, trying to buck its attacker.
    The world faded to white. Is this death? she wondered before she was overtaken by nothingness.

    T he ochrid screeched and flailed back and forth, Rasi’s strap wrapped tight around its neck. The creature whipped its spiked tail toward Rasi’s exposed back. A strap curled around the tail, stopping it short of its target. Rasi wrapped both arms around the creature’s neck. The ochrid wrenched its head over its shoulder, lunging with snapping teeth. Rasi leaned out of reach.
    The strap around the beast’s tail squealed and fell limp to the ground, a black leech-like creature attached to its side. Rasi’s fingers started to tingle.
    A couple more straps curled around the beast’s gut, squeezing, refusing to let up. The tail lunged again toward Rasi’s back. This time, instead of defending against the leeches, he dove to the ground. His straps, however, held strong.
    The ochrid galloped into the thick, thorny brush. Rasi bounced against the hard ground with his worthless limp strap dragging behind. Thistles and branches beat against his arms and face, opening small, stinging cuts wherever they struck.
    Release, “Unh!” him! Come on you idiots, release … “Unh!” As he pleaded, he knew his pleas were in vain. He had seen his straps’ insatiable bloodlust before and knew they would not quit until their prey, or Rasi himself, was dead. Let go, he pleaded.
    Another strap tangled the creature’s front legs and tightened. The ochrid’s growls and hisses were replaced by pitiful cries as its front two legs snapped and it crashed to the ground. The creature caterwauled while struggling to its other feet.
    The suffocating strap around its waist quivered as it squeezed tighter. Another strap coiled around the ochrid’s open jaw while a third wrapped around its