WARNING - CONTAINS DEPICTIONS OF GORE AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE

Chapter 5: A Fate Worse than Death

“On the corpses of lions, the dogs celebrate, believing they have won. But lions remain lions and dogs remain dogs”

-Old proverb.

The wizard took a brief moment to contemplate what has just transpired, trusting the marauding Northmen proved to be more costly than he had anticipated. It was supposed to be just a simple job: take the girl, leave no witnesses, and get out of there unnoticed. Not only were they unable to complete such a simple task, but they also let their target escape, completely razed the entire village, and slaughtered innocent civilians. He knew they had to get out of clan territory as fast as they could, the Clan Irfis would not take this affront kindly.

He looked down at the priest’s body and frowned, the problems only seemed to pile up more and more every time. Now he would also be at odds with the Church. Of course, he had planned beforehand that the blame would ultimately fall on the Northmen, but still… He had to find the girl first.

The wizard took a small handful of men with him and walked away, there were very few places where the girl could go. Searching through the forest at night would be extremely difficult, and he didn’t want to stay near the razed village in the case those Clan warriors appeared. It would be most convenient to just wait until the morning.

He would let the Northmen do their thing, however; their leader took the loss of so many of his own at the aging priest’s hands really personal and really pissed him off. They would probably look for the girl through the entire forest if they had to. It didn’t really matter to him, even if they found her, he would just take her from them later.

Meanwhile, in the forest, the young priestess kept crying for a few minutes more, Nina just knew at the bottom of her heart that her mentor and friend Verkan was no more. She couldn’t explain how she knew it, but she was sure of it. The poor girl was now facing the grim fact that she was all by herself now.

But she stopped crying when she heard something in the woods. She wiped her eyes with her sleeves and looked around frantically but couldn’t identify the sound’s source, and she couldn’t see anything past a few yards due to the dark. The girl took a deep breath, stood up, and began running away again, maybe she was getting justifiably paranoid, or it was just her mind playing tricks on her, but she could swear that something was following her footsteps. Nina turned again, but the result was the same as before. She could hear, however, the unmistakable accent of the north language being yelled in the distance. She realized the raiders were still looking for her and the danger was far from over.

Nina kept running at a slower pace to save her strengths, she had a couple of miles of advantage, and they would only be able to spot her in the dark night if they were close enough. If she kept quiet, she would remain undetected.

The thick foliage and the broken branches lying on the ground made it navigate through the forest extremely difficult. The cloudy sky didn’t help either, as moonlight was lacking, and even though her eyes were slowly getting accustomed to the pitch-black night, she couldn’t help tripping from time to time.

“Come on, think Nina, think!” the girl kept telling herself, her mind was blank, and as much as she tried to organize her thoughts, she found herself unable to focus. Up until now, Nina kept jogging through the forest without putting much of her mind into it, almost completely by instinct. The only thought she could keep in her head was of poor Verkan, and she teared up every time her mentor popped up on her mind.

After mindlessly drifting through the forest for what seemed hours, fatigue inevitably took its toll from all the jogging through the difficult terrain. But as much as she wanted to catch her breath for a little bit, the distant echoes of their yelling, and the sight of torches through the foggy forest forced her to keep moving.

But as the terrain was getting increasingly difficult to traverse, she realized she was getting closer to the mountain range. “Follow the edge of the mountains” the girl recalled her mentor saying, she figured that as long as she ran along the uphill side of the mountain, she would be on the right path.

Nina heard something through the bushes again, this time much closer than the last time. She turned again only to find nothing again, which only increased her nervousness. She kept walking through the uneven terrain for a few minutes more until she heard the same noise again, this time even louder than before, she turned yet again.

This can't be happening.

Suddenly, Nina found herself running again as fast as she could, the poor girl realized to her utter horror that there was now four dark, blurry figures giving her chase in close pursuit, getting dangerously closer by the second, like a pack of predators chasing down their prey. Those damn raiders managed to find her through the woods and were now following her footsteps just some distance behind her. They must have followed me after leaving the village Nina thought. She was breathing and panting so quickly and loudly that she wondered if they could hear her. She bit her lip to try to remain silent, and could only run away as fast as she could, desperately trying to lose her pursuers.

But she still could not understand what in oblivion was going on. Her mind was still racing, trying to comprehend her current situation. Back in the village, her mentor quickly deduced that those men were looking specifically for either him, or her, but it didn’t make sense at all! Why? What could they possibly want?

Her mind was racing just as fast as her heart, trying to recollect all the events that have transpired recently and led to this very moment. Just a few hours ago, she was spending the evening in a nearby village, in the company of her mentor, and some of the townspeople, they were gathered around a bonfire, telling stories, and past experiences when all of a sudden, a band of armed men came out of nowhere and attacked the village. The villagers put up a valiant resistance but were eventually all killed. Then they faced off her mentor and friend Verkan, an aging priest, and, as it turns out, a legendary warrior formerly known only as Rudo the Vanquisher; in an attempt to draw their attention away from her. The old man bravely held his ground long enough for her to sneak behind the attackers' backs and escape.

Nina did the only thing she could have done at the moment: run. Unlike Verkan, she was too weak to fight back against adult men, even if she knew how to. But she could still hear the echoes of screams, and clashing steel not too far behind, a sign of the fight that was still going. Even alone, and hopelessly outnumbered, the old man gave them hell. Until she heard two powerful explosions one after the other, then everything went dead silent. What could possibly have happened? Nina didn’t have a clue, but she somehow knew that her mentor and friend had perished in the battle.

Now she was all by herself.

But there was no time to think about it, as the shouts of the men chasing after her filled her heart with the realization that she has been located by at least some of them. She could only keep running for so long, and the Northmen chasing her down were getting dangerously close. Without hesitation, she jumped down a ravine, landing on the bank of a stream several meters down. Luckily for her, a soft spot on a sandbank absorbed most of the force from the fall.

This has to be the stream Verkan was talking about! Nina remembered. She quickly jumped onto her feet again, and looked up, watching her pursuers over her pausing for a second, trying to find a way to descend after her. She took advantage of their hesitation and followed the stream down as fast as she could run on the knee-deep stream until she could no longer hear them.

She found an old, giant log that served as a bridge, crossing over the stream at the deepest part of the ravine, and sat down under it. Nina was breathing heavily trying to catch her breath, and regain at last some of her strength, but had to cover her mouth with both hands when she heard her pursuers again. She sat in silence for a couple of minutes, praying for them to leave, and trying to remain as quiet as possible.

Nina could hear their conversations, even though they were talking in their distinctive tongue that she was unable to understand. She closed her eyes, and clutched her legs tightly in front of her, trying to be as small as possible, hiding between the rocks, and the tangling roots of threes that were under the shadow of the log bridge.

The small band of Northmen kept looking for her for a few minutes but soon decided to keep looking for her elsewhere. After hearing her pursuers walk over the log bridge, and follow down the path in the forest above, Nina slowly crawled from her hiding position, trying to find a way to escape in the opposite direction they went. The stream’s loud current and the strong winds howling through the woods helped to suppress some of the noise she was making.

Nina was trying to climb the ravine again, which at this point was not so steep compared to the spot where she had previously jumped when she heard something disturbing the water behind her, followed by a loud splashing sound, and hurried her pace. After successfully climbing back the ravine, she quickly hid behind some bushes. She tried to look through the bushes she was hiding behind, to see what the sound’s source was but again couldn’t see anything. Nina looked at her surroundings and noticed something strange on the ground. Even though her eyes were still getting accustomed to the low light, she gasped loudly in recognition.

She was sitting over the footprints of something.

She started to panic quickly, besides the Northmen that were chasing after her, now there was also some kind of wild animal lurking around. She recognized the tracks from the kitchen at the other village this morning. Could it be the dragon? she thought. Great, just great, first the Northmen, now it turns out the dragon has been following me around? she cursed. Nina tried to go back on her tracks slowly, and take the narrow trail in the opposite direction her pursuers went when she began to hear their voices through the woods again.

But then all of a sudden, Nina tripped on a small yet deep hole, as her face met the ground when her entire leg got stuck in what was most probably the den of some small vermin. The loud crack of the dry leaves and old branches that broke under her body could have been heard all over the forest on the silent night.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Nina cursed in panic and mentally chastised herself upon hearing the startling noises her pursuers were making not too far away from where she fell. Of course! They would be still around! she cursed mentally. She tried to remain as still as possible, holding her breath, looking down the trail, and trying her hardest not to make absolutely any noise, but she could only stare in horror as the blurry silhouettes of the Northmen slowly walked the trail towards her.

There was nowhere to run.

Her heart stopped when they spotted her, Nina found herself in the line of sight of her pursuers, and without thinking it twice, she made a run for it. She was now on the verge of tears, cursing her luck, and running again as fast as she could. With the raiders following closely behind, so close that she could smell their nasty breaths, and hear them taunting her with obscene words in her own accursed language.

She followed the narrow path through the forest, jumping to avoid roots, and branches that were scattered on the ground, prying at the Gods that the men chasing after her would trip on them, or slow down somehow, wishing desperately for a miracle to happen. The night was particularly dark, with the thick foliage blocking what little light could make it through the dense clouds, making running through the woods with such poor vision incredibly difficult.

But before she could react, however, someone violently tackled her from the side, pinning her to the ground. One of her pursuers stealthy went through another path and intercepted her while she was looking behind. The poor girl cried in pain, desperately trying to set herself free to no avail, soon the other Northmen caught up with her, and dragged her by the hair to a small clearing at the side of the trail. Nina was now at their mercy, crying loudly as her pursuers started to kick her on the ground for all their troubles.

The poor girl expected to be killed soon, as they showed no mercy to the others back in the village, but she slowly realized, to her utter horror, that the Northmen had other plans in mind. One of them, their leader apparently, as he was the oldest one, commanded the others to hold her tight. He started to hurriedly unbutton her leather tunic, ripping her linen clothes beneath, and groping her teenage body without a bit of shame.

The sheer realization of what they had planned to do to her filled her heart with immense disgust, anger, and utter despair. Nina tried to resist as hard as she could, even biting one of her captors' hands only to earn a powerful slap in the face in return. She kicked the man groping her in the face while he was trying to force her legs open, but the man was just too strong for her.

She recalled the small knife hidden on her boots that her mentor had given to her back in the village, she tried her hardest to get hold of it in one last desperate attempt to free herself or end her life before the Northmen had their way with her. But sadly, the two other bastards restraining her by the arms were also too strong.

One of the Northmen, the youngest of them, tried in vain to stop the others from going all the way only to be threatened with violence and yelled back into submission. It was clear that the young boy was too scared to stand up to his fellow raiders. Nina looked at him, and for a brief moment, the young priestess and the young north boy stared at each other with tears in their eyes. The boy couldn’t stand the horrible scene and looked away, clearly disturbed by what the others were about to do but powerless to do anything to stop it.

Her chastity belt was now the only piece of clothing left on her that prevented them from taking her maidenhood. Nina could only cry in despair, as it was only a matter of seconds before they could tear the leather strap off. She begged them to stop, denounced them in the most offensive terms, but they only laughed at her in mockery. She then implored the youngest of them, but the scared boy could only look away. Finally, she begged the Gods, to all of them, she put all her dread, her sorrow, her anger, and despair into one last prayer.

“Merciful Father, creator of all, please, open your arms and receive this soul”

Her fighting spirit had completely left her as only a miracle could save her now. The poor girl surrendered to her fate and braced for the worst, now death would be welcome. Memories from her life flashed before her eyes. Her mother, her mentor, and all the people that she loved, and cared about, that had left the mortal world and were waiting for her in the afterlife. She could see them clearly as if she were right there, Nina begged them for their forgiveness one last time, as she would soon join them.

Crack!

Then suddenly, Nina felt her face and her entire body being splattered again with a warm liquid that she immediately recognized as Northman's blood, and some other bits of small, soft fragments quickly followed by the most heinous sound she ever heard; something resembling a watermelon or some other fruit being smashed on a hard floor.

What just happened? The poor girl had barely recovered from the shock when the lifeless body of the Northman that was about to defile her fell limp over her body, and between her legs, pinning her to the ground. A mixture of relief and utter horror flooded her heart after watching in gory detail the exposed brain through the giant opening in the back of the Northman's head right next to her. She realized that the small bits she was splattered with were rests of flesh, bones, and brains from the inside of her would-be rapist’s head.

The realization that she was covered with the insides of someone else’s head hit Nina hard. Somebody or something hit the Northman with such force that made the back half of his head disappear. She was in shock, her mind went blank, and she was completely unable to utter a single word. The poor girl felt the Northmen's grip on her getting looser, and quickly pulled her arms free from them to push the dead body that fell over her to the side, purely by instinct.

Nina then tried in vain to cover herself with her torn clothes, and quickly backed until her back hit a tree behind her, shielding her body with her arms and legs. She didn’t want to watch, but she was unable to take her eyes away either, she felt the deep urge to witness what the hell was going on. The cold night air was disrupted by the sudden outburst of the Northmen's angry, and confused screams. The group of raiders didn’t know what just happened but after hearing something ahead in the nearby bushes, and with their weapons at the ready they demanded to know what was hiding behind the woods, the bushes, the dark, and the thick mist.

-“Leave… her… alone…” a raspy voice echoed through the dark.

The young priestess couldn’t help but cry in silence for the overwhelming burst of relief after hearing those words. Nina had always fantasized about being rescued by a dashing knight in shining armor, like those in the stories she read in her books. But she couldn’t see her savior through the pitch-black night, all Nina could see were the raiders that were holding her just a few seconds ago, standing with their backs towards her. They were still trying to figure out who has just spoken, unable to see anything.

-“I said… LEAVE! HER! ALONE!” the unknown voice yelled loudly.

This time, the raspy voice echoed through the dark forest with increased force, so much that the Northmen were able to easily locate its source. Calmly, yet defiantly, a small silhouette slowly approached through the dark towards the clearing where the raiders were holding the priestess in. Nobody could tell exactly who or what was walking toward them, but as the shadowy figure was closing the distance between them with each step, one thing was sure.

A pair of large, bright yellow eyes were staring them down, and it belonged to something that was not human.

After what seemed an eternity, the creature finally reached the clearing and stood under the moonlight. Even though the clouds were thick, they let through just enough light to highlight its features. Nina could see something but she was not sure exactly what her eyes were looking at, it had a strange shape that resembled something more akin to a wild beast than a person. It was not too tall, perhaps just a bit taller than her, it was, however, very well build.

Neither Nina nor the Northmen couldn’t see much of it in the dark, but what little they were able to see was that the creature’s back was hunched forward in a strange, and disturbing way, and most incredibly, it had a long and muscular tail moving back and forth behind him. Its eyes were shining brightly in the dark, and she took special notice of the creature’s rather large feet that ended in long, sharp-looking claws that she recognized immediately. Those feet looked exactly like the tracks of the supposed dragon. Was this thing the one that has been lurking around lately?

The beast positioned both its arms behind his back in a position that suggested it was ready to leap towards them, startling everyone. Whatever this strange creature was, it was something neither she nor the raiders had ever seen before. Its bizarre structure along with its mostly greenish hide that was barely noticeable in the dark gave the creature a distinctive predatory appearance.

The poor girl could do nothing but stare at the creature. This thing just saved her from a horrible fate just a few seconds ago. But the danger was not over yet, as the three remaining Northmen were still standing right in front of her, with their attention now turned towards the beast. A kind of beast that somehow could stand upright; had hands instead of paws, and most surprisingly, it could even talk! Was this thing even sentient? she thought she heard it talk.

Nina could only wonder if it was, as it seemed that the beast could somehow understand what the Northmen were trying to do and was hellbent to stop them. Or at least she hoped so, for right now, she was just as frightened of that weird creature as she was of what those raiders would do to her. But for a brief moment that seemed like an eternity, they just stared at each other in silence, the Northmen looked at each other in disbelief while the creature stood in front of them, staring back as if waiting for them to leave. But the raiders wanted blood for their fallen comrade, and the silence was disrupted again by the sound of unsheathing steel that echoed through the night.

-“Kill that sucker!” one of the Northmen commanded in Nina’s own language.

The two most fearsome raiders charged toward the creature with bloodthirsty rage. The beast just stood in front of them, patiently waiting for the Northmen to come closer, the raiders screamed loudly as they attacked the creature with avenging fury, launching violent swings with their swords, yet hitting nothing but thin air. After dodging the attack, the small creature leaped around and behind them. Its movement was so incredibly fast that Nina’s eyes struggled by just watching it. The raiders turned to face it again, but the creature sent one of them flying with a powerful kick in the chest, the unfortunate Northman impacted violently against the nearest tree, then fell to the ground.

The other raider turned his head again toward where his comrade has been hurled, the Northman found his friend laying on the ground, twitching in agony, and barely alive. The man was completely unable to move as his spine, and several other bones were broken, if not by the powerful kick, then by the impact against the tree.

The Northman then turned his head again towards the beast and charged at it in a crazed fury. The raider launched several wild swings at the creature, which dodged them almost without effort. The dragon then charged past the Northman in the blink of an eye, and positioned itself behind him with inhumanly fast steps, ready to attack. The beast hit him with three fast and powerful punches in rapid succession, each blow dented the raider’s breastplate and broke the man’s ribs behind it as if there wasn’t any armor at all. The Northman was lifted from the ground by the sheer force of the last hit at his stomach, and fell to the ground on his knees, yelling in pain.

Nina watched in shock as the Northman gushed blood from his mouth, but before she could even bat an eye the beast hit him the last time right behind the head with an inhumanly powerful kick, the force of which was so brutal that the man’s head exploded from the violent impact, sending all its contents splattering to the ground and against a nearby tree.

The creature then turned to face the remaining Northman, the youngest of them who was supposed to hold Nina at sword point. The young raider could only stare back in fear, trembling, and barely able to stand after witnessing his fellow raiders being massacred. The scared boy didn’t waste much time, he turned hastily and ran away for his life. The beast watched him escape but didn’t attempt to chase after him, the Northman was no longer a threat, or perhaps he never was. Nina then let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, and the creature turned towards her immediately.

She froze. What the hell is this thing?! What could it possibly want?! These thoughts were racing through her head. Nina lost almost any form of control over her body, she tried desperately to cover herself with anything but couldn’t move a muscle, yet she could feel her heart beating hard against her chest as the creature began to walk towards her while at the same time looking at her squarely in the eyes. She could feel her heart pounding harder, and harder with each step the creature took. By the Gods, she could even hear the damn thing pumping! Her mind went wild about what could possibly happen next, she went through all the possibilities: Would it kill her as it killed the Northmen?! Would it eat her alive?! Would it leave her alone?! She didn’t know, but she desperately hoped it would be the latter.

The dragon stopped just a step away in front of her, still staring intensely into her eyes with its own large, bright pair. Nina stared back for a few seconds more until she couldn’t bear it anymore, she closed her eyes, and turned her head away, weeping loudly. She couldn’t help but tremble hard in fear and shield her body with her arms and legs. She could only sob in silence on the ground, shaking against the tree, shutting her eyes tightly. If the Northmen, and what they almost did scared the hell out of her; now this thing, this creature, and what it had just done outright terrified her.

Although the thought of being ravaged forever, and taken away to an unknown fate is something nobody on their sane mind would ever wish for; neither is it being mangled and mercilessly beaten to death by a wild animal. Nina had just witnessed how three imposing adult men were savagely mauled to death, some even beyond recognition, by something barely taller than her and yet strong enough to dent through freaking plate armor, and break flesh, and bone behind it with nothing but the sheer force of its bare hands and feet.

But she could swear she heard the creature talking! And if it can talk, then perhaps it could also understand her, if this creature has not killed her yet, there ought to be a reason. Something in her heart told her she could put her trust in the dragon.

-“Please don’t hurt me!” the girl pleaded.

The young priestess managed to speak without bumbling, she was still shaking nervously and was barely able to speak, desperately wishing to hear something, anything in return, and hoping that what the creature said before wasn’t just her mind playing tricks on her and that it meant something more than just a predator claiming its prey. She felt each second, each beating of her heart as several insanely long minutes, she then felt a small tap on her feet. Did that thing just kick me in the boots?! She felt it again as if the dragon was trying to get her attention. Her whimpering halted almost immediately, and she slowly opened her eyes to look at it.

She could not believe her eyes.

The dragon just stood in front of her, gently extending towards her one of its rather large hands still covered in Northmen's blood. She couldn’t see the creature’s face, as it was blocking with his back what little moonlight that came through the clearing, but she could see its bright, piercing eyes looking right through hers.

-“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you” the dragon told her.

-“They can’t hurt you anymore”

Nina let again the waterfall’s floodgates open, and soon tears went down her cheeks, though this time of relief and joy. She tried her hardest to hold them, but by this point, she felt oh so overwhelmed by relief that she just couldn’t help it any longer.

She grabbed her savior’s hands, and let herself weep into them, sobbing violently as all the pent-up feelings of fear, helplessness, and despair left her body and her soul. She was finally safe and thanking all the Gods and her ancestors for answering her prayers.

-“Thank you! Thank you so much!”

The dragon could only stare at her, confused, as she sandwiched his hands between hers, and pressed them against her face, and forehead in what was an obvious sign of thanks in her culture but that was not known to the creature. The stranger put one of its hands over her head trying to comfort her. He allowed her to cry for a few minutes more, he thought it would be better for the poor girl to let it all out. He knelt down next to her, and Nina let go of his hands, and instinctively put her arms around him. She kept crying over the creature’s shoulder as her tears seemed unable to end on their own while thanking the dragon once again who was now awkwardly holding her in his arms.

As the poor girl continued crying in unknown arms, she could only think about whom and what exactly was the creature that saved her from a fate worse than death, and who was holding her now in his arms. Nina left out a sigh of relief between her sobs, thanking the Gods and the dragon yet again for saving her from falling prey to the marauding Northmen. Feeling immensely relieved to be alive, safe, unharmed, and that the nightmare was finally over.

But little did she know that this wasn’t the end.

It was just the beginning.