The Sword in the Cave
"...Are what you are. Come," said Tygg, drawing his longsword. And they shrieked in agreement.
*
*
*
The cave, Drea understood, was not a cave, and the sword was not entirely a sword. Instead, a monster dimly
understood as a kethnod in Dohmite legend had come to inhabit this place, devouring life when active, sitting
unobserved when not. Kethnods tended to dominate a region even when doing nothing. Animals flee from an ever-
present sense of predation, and humans that remain ... well, the lore wasn't clear, but Drea had other things on her
mind at that moment. Like which end of the kethnod was up.
She had discovered that while poor Harna had roused the beast from its torpor by seizing the false sword, She could
hold onto it well enough to keep from sliding down its maw as it broke free of the mountain and shoved the world
aside in its wake. It's roars seemed to travel in all directions at once, making opening in the rock that closed again
just as fast. This could not go on. On top of that, the girl that was now a flying beast that had eaten most of Harna
was still flapping about, getting lost in eddies of air, trying to approach her for an attack but not being able to find
firm swoop as the earthen monster moved around her. Soon it perched itself like a ravenous bird on the black stone
from where the sword stuck out. It cawed at her, a horrible sickening sound, and the sword, which up until now did
not seem to be a sword, but part of the deception, wiggled slightly, as though it had a real blade that really cut and was
placed there by some enchantment.
The bird-beast inside the earth-beast snapped her cruel beak. Drea reached deep into herself, to a place where
darkness had grabbed her soul long ago, and out of it poured a cry that split the air. The bird-girl shuddered and
flapped away, the Kethnod paused, as if it heard something it did not know. And the sword slid loose, and fell, and
Drea went with it, down and down and down.
The bird-beast descended after her, like a thunderbolt in search of prey. Drea could feel it coming, All else was
silent. She closed her eyes and extended the Golden blade almost gently and her enemy fell upon it and shrieked
and died. Drea cut the blade free and extended it underneath her. She didn't know what it hit when it fell but when
it did everything resolved itself around her like she was the center of all things herself.
*
*
*
Tygg slashed through the monstrous women like his sword and dagger were themselves wings. He stayed constantly
on the move, lunging, slashing, keeping everything at a distance. He did not think about how long he could keep
this up. He thought only of how he could kill another furious shrieking monster, and better his odds still. He had
put three down so far. That was better than none. But he needed the fourth.
A jump off the hearth, and he brought his sword crashing down on a monster's head. Instead of screaming, it
spasmed and fell. Tygg felt hot blood on his face, and it warmed him, but he had to keep running. There were still
numbers of them, and they were still... everywhere.
He hacked at a form to the right of him, dim and shadowy, and though he felt the comfortable shudder in his hand
of the dagger striking true, again he heard no sound. But stranger than that, was what he did not see. He did not see
another enemy in front of him. He did not see the air filled with wings beating the air around him. He did not see
anything at all.