With Taryn’s sword grasped in my hand, still in the scabbard due to his unusual request, I could only listen to the sound of the lizards with a bit of trepidation. Where and how the leaves rustled, the amount of hisses that came from different directions, all of that information helped me to deduce there were at least three of the lizards present.

An amount that would prove fatal if any of them scratched me. If Taryn had been alright and I had my Shatterblade the fight would’ve been easily won by us, but with the current circumstances a fight seemed impossible to win. My left hand tightened around the scabbard of Taryn’s sword, a light tingling sensation playing at my fingers, while I surveyed the terrain nearby.

The stream continued to flow through the jungle, the trees so high that I had no disillusion on how hard they’d be to climb. Even if I wanted to ascend to a safe spot I’d need to abandon Taryn on the ground, which was an idea that I would never follow through on.

I made my choice to flee at that moment, I’d rather wait for Taryn to recover than try and fend off invisible assassins amongst the thick jungle undergrowth. Before any of the lizards could make a move I darted to the fallen Taryn and scooped him up onto my right shoulder. Like a hefty sack of potatoes I gracelessly carried him as I ran northward alongside the stream.

For a brief moment I thought that they would not give chase, an unusual silence in the wake of my hasty retreat. Then the flurry of activity came as the various lizards realized what I had done and tried to catch up, giving up on their cautious approach.

The unsteady and wet ground made for a difficult path, as my feet constantly slipped on the moist grass that bordered the stream. The canopy above grew thicker as I headed deeper into the jungle, the sunlight that managed to pierce through the veil growing dimmer by the second.

With my breath growing more ragged I tried valiantly to stay ahead of the lizards that hounded my steps. I had been forced into a position where I needed to wait for Taryn to recover, a single person fighting against all of those venomous creatures would only be easy prey. The problem was that I had no idea how long it would take for him to recover.

If I could find somewhere like a cave that had only one access point I could maybe stand a small chance, but so far the jungle had shown only open areas overgrown with plants. For those who ambushed it was an amazing place to live, but for my current situation I could only curse the Gods for giving me such an inhospitable battlefield.

While I was distracted by seeking out a proper place to fight my left foot slipped on a flat rock moistened by the nearby stream. It was a small issue that I normally would’ve recovered from with at most a stumble, but burdened with Taryn I could only wildly windmill my arms as I fell over flat onto my face.

The leaves that covered the ground were soft enough to help me avoid a broken nose, though I could definitely feel a strong surge of pain from my left cheek. My knees cried in protest as they struck the ground hard, while I tried to catch myself with my right hand and instead sprained the wrist. Taryn tumbled free from my shoulder as I hit the ground and rolled amongst the grass and weeds.

The sound of the lizards that chased me came to a sudden stop at my fall. Their cautious nature returned when they realized what had befallen me, and only the slight rustle of leaves as they encircled me warned me of what would soon be my fate.

My hand tightened around the scabbard of Taryn’s sword as I prepared to draw the blade. Though he had wanted me to avoid doing so there seemed to be little choice in the matter. I struggled to stand up, my body aching in various spots, while I mentally readied myself for the inevitable fight.

The first lizard to strike leapt free from the bushes, foregoing the camouflage that made them so hard to keep track of. It was a hasty and perhaps greed driven attack that made for an easy problem. With claws outstretched toward me and mouth agape I doubt that it anticipated what I would do next.

With a quick forward step toward the creature I drove the handle of Taryn’s sword directly into the face of the lizard. The right eye squished audibly beneath the force of the blow. The power of the attack was enough to toss the lizard back into the bushes from whence it had come.

More of the lizards came at me, two from the left and one from behind, while I tried to seek a way out of the fight. The two on my side tried to claw at my legs, using the cover of the shrubbery to obscure their near invisible bodies. If not for the noise they made as they moved I would’ve been hit and poisoned, but instead I managed to quickly step away even as their claws cut through the air.

The one from behind was about to pounce, an assured strike due to the distraction granted to it by his brethren. Yet before he could leap his entire body went rigid as though stricken with paralysis. All other noises in the nearby jungle went still as well, while the lizards that had gathered about me became deathly still.

A scent wafted through the jungle that surrounded me, a hint of rotten meat which made my nostrils inherently cringe. A sweetness carried along with that offensive stench, a smell that reminded me of sugared fruits often served to children for dessert.

When it came I could only feel all of the blood in my body drain, as a shudder of fear coursed through my body. Three of the lizards died instantly when a sphere fell from the thick canopy above, though they were not squished by what descended.

Instead each of the lizards had been seized in the mouth of a creature that I could not even begin to understand. At first I thought it was merely a group of snakes wrapped together, but then I realized that each of the snake-like parts was attached to a central core. It writhed and rolled even as it bloodily tore about the lizards that had been caught in the ambush.

The rest of the lizards were quick to abandon their allies, vanishing amongst the ferns as quietly as they could. Meanwhile the orb continued to thrash about wildly where it had fallen as pieces of dead lizards were swallowed rapidly by the multiple mouths.

Were they tentacles or arms? Perhaps they could be called legs? In truth it barely mattered, all that did was there were at least ten of those parts and each one ended in a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. No eyes could be seen, no nose easily made out, instead it was just a ball of death.

Somewhere amongst all of the bushes lay Taryn, crippled with pain by the venom of the lizards. I let out a sigh that expressed all of my disdain at the situation, the scabbard in my left hand raised up in front of myself. My right hand gripped the handle of Taryn’s sword, the wrist throbbing in protest, while I wondered if I could fight that unknown monster with just a sword.

When I started to pull the sword free from the scabbard there was a hesitation in my movements. The blade that was revealed inch by inch had an alabaster hue that seemed to glow a pure white. Even without the sword fully bared already a strange song hummed to life and filled my ears, a gentle tune that I couldn’t even hope to identify.

As the white light glimmered along the length of the blade I stared into it with a sense of awe. Though a creature that could rip me apart was close by for some reason my attention was fully enraptured by Taryn’s sword. A warmth filled my body and brought a sense of relaxation to every muscle.

It was the violin music that distracted me from the hypnotic glow.

With graceful motions of the hands the man stood there atop a field of black grass. Eyes half-closed while a smirk ruined what would otherwise have been a handsome face, the sound continued to expertly float free from his ebon violin without a flaw. The light breeze that ran across the open field of black teased at the platinum hair of the stranger.

“What naughtiness have you gotten yourself involved in this time, Taryn?” inquired the violinist.

“Um…” was my own response, as I stood in the same spot with a very obviously confused look on my face. “Who are you?”

My question brought an abrupt halt to the music, the man’s hands going perfectly still. When he turned brilliant red eyes were revealed, eyes that stared hard at me with a hint of hostility. He rapidly walked across the grass, his footfalls light enough that not a single blade depressed beneath his strides.

“You are not Taryn, so why do you smell like him?” the stranger wondered as he came in close enough that I started to brace for a fight. “Do not tell me he had a kid already?”

“What? No!” I exclaimed, my urge to smack the man rising by the second. “I’m Liliana! Who are you and where am I?”

The stranger paused in his actions for a moment to stare at me. With a light sigh he turned and walked back to his original spot, the violin lifted up to his chin. “So you are the one he told me about. Why would he have lent you the sword?”

“Some lizards poisoned him so he gave me the sword until he recovers,” I replied without hesitation. It was only after I had responded that the oddity of how I was so open with this stranger struck me, though that idea itself fluttered out of my mind as soon as it was thought.

“I am not all too surprised by his ineptitude,” the man commented, his hands already moving once more to produce music from the violin. “Though since he handed you the sword...well, I suppose I can help you.”

“What do you mean help? Who are you?”

The stranger ignored me and instead continued to play the violin. As I started to walk toward him Taryn’s sword began to glow with a brilliant white light. The light grew brighter by the second and soon all I could see was a field of white around me.

The audible crack of bones coupled with the tearing of flesh as it was gobbled down noisily instantly caught my attention. The tangleworm continued to writhe amongst the bushes as it enjoyed the feast the lizards had given it. The fact that I had drawn a sword and stood not too far off had yet to be realized by the beast.

“What in the gods?” I mumbled to myself, wrestling with the surreality of what had happened.

It was only when the tangleworm stopped eating and turned one mouth in my direction that I noticed another oddity. Tangleworm. Where had that term even come from? It was as though someone had placed the name of the monster directly into my mind. A thought came to me as I turned my gaze once more toward the glowing sword.

Pay attention.

Two words rang in my head that caused my gaze to jerk up toward the tangleworm, even as the monster rolled through the ferns toward me. Snarling, spitting, the creature dragged and rolled itself forward using the mouths to grab hold of anything solid nearby. It was a horribly inefficient way to move that made me wonder how it even managed to travel through the canopy without falling all the time.

Though even as I thought about that the monster was already at my knees, mouths hungrily striking out. With a twist of the wrist I knocked aside one of the mouths, the blade sinking into the flesh with such startlingly ease that it made even the Shatterblade seem dull. Ignoring the pain that flared in my right wrist I kicked the other head away, the rest of my attention focused on decapitating the injured tentacle of the tangleworm.

The body of the tangleworm rolled forward as more of the tentacles surged out from the central mass. The mouths opened up, spittle flying free, while they hungrily sought out my flesh. With Taryn’s sword I easily sliced one of the ends in half vertically, even as I tried my best to avoid the teeth of the monster.

No matter how good I might believe myself to be even I could not avoid all of the tentacles that reached for me. One of the mouths managed to tag my left forearm and gouge out a small piece, while a second nibbled at the air right next to my stomach. It was close enough that goosebumps ran up and down my arms.

You are not much better than him are you?

It was a question that popped into my head, causing me to pause in my actions long enough to be a threat. Another mouth managed to nip at my right leg, a small sliver of flesh stripped so quickly that I barely even felt the sensation. I let out a quick yelp of pain while backing up, the point of the sword lowered to more readily catch the low attacks.

A thrum of noise came from the alabaster blade, that haunting melody that it often played sounding out loudly. The world around grew still as though in respect of the music that had begun. Even the tangleworm became complacent in the presence of the song, the ends of the tentacles bobbed back and forth along with the tune.

Though I didn’t understand what had happened only a fool would have passed on that opportunity. A quick push of my right foot and I surged up close to the tangleworm, right hand snapping out in a quick swing. In the haste to strike before the creature could respond my aim proved off, the cut deep but not enough to slice it in half.

Even with such a devastating wound the various tentacles continued to move, writhing wildly in response to the pain. Before any of them could attack I lopped off the ends of those closest to me, blood spurting forth from the stumps and dampening the ferns about us.

Although it was heavily injured the tangleworm moved with more energy than before. The entrancing melody continued to come from the sword, but the monster ignored it and instead tried to writhe toward me. Stumped ends slapped helplessly against the ground while the ball of tentacles tried to figure out a way to move while nearly cut in half.

A twinge of sympathy ran through me at the sight, I had after all steadily crippled the animal. However since it had already taken small chunks out of me only encouraged the lack of mercy. The fact that it was one of the ugliest things I’d ever seen didn’t hurt.

Before too much blood splattered onto me I drove the sword deep into the center of the tangleworm. Even nearly cut in half and impaled it still struggled, the will to fight overpowering the cloak of death. A tentacle thumped weakly against my leg, a light blow that would at best leave a bruise, while the others flopped about harmlessly near the central mass.

With a strong yank I pulled out Taryn’s sword before I drove it back into the tangleworm. Again and again I did this, as I sought out the most important vital parts of the creature, until finally a quiver ran through the body and it went still.

In the midst of the jungle I stood over the dead body and let out a long sigh. Red liquid dripped from the alabaster blade as though it couldn’t hope to even stain the weapon, a pool of blood forming rapidly next to my feet. I paused to stare at the sword, the light that it emitted almost as hypnotic as the melody that it continued to produce.

I scoffed at a thought that came to my mind, hands moving quick to place the sword back into the scabbard I had pulled it from. With no threat currently present I picked my way through the grass and ferns to where Taryn had tumbled.

He still lay there beneath the greenery of the jungle, his form curled up in pain as the venom of the lizards continued to assault him. If not for the fact that he had thrown up a mental barrier I too would be feeling what assailed him, a move on Taryn’s part that saved our lives.

Though he suffered I still threw him onto my shoulder and prepared to carry him once more. With no way to ease his pain, and no means by which to remove the venom, all I could do was continue our northward journey. I believed that Taryn would eventually recover on his own, but I had no clue how long that would be.

With fresh wounds that ached on my body I walked alongside the stream, ignoring the sensation of pain. The amount of blood that had showered the area, the fresh scent of death that clung, and the multiple carcasses would only promote the gathering of scavengers. In our current state it was doubtful that another fight could be easily won.

Especially given the eccentric animals that had shown up so far. The hellhound, the lizards, and that tangleworm were all completely different from anything I’d seen before. If there were even more oddities in the jungle then I’d rather face them with Taryn by my side.

It was the thought of the tangleworm that made me glance down at the sword in my left hand. While it slumbered inside the scabbard no longer did that odd music play, but still there had been something that had happened during the fight that bothered me.

“He’d better wake up soon,” I darkly muttered, as I wanted answers to questions that had begun to plague my soul.