Ballad of Kyanoko: A Risky Rescue

Prompt- Draw or write about your character fighting the boss!

Word Count: 513

_____

One moment Kyanoko had been attempting to fling her fire at the great crystal wyrm. Between never having proper combat experience before and seeing the wyrm as being too akin to the sacred dragons of her world, the tanuki was terrified. This fear became compounded when the wyrm shifted its focus to her, swiping a paw toward her. In the time it took for her to gasp in shock, she’d been swept off the ground and brought a dizzying amount of feet in the air.

There was a moment of weightlessness before the wyrm sent her hurtling toward the ground, driving its palm into the side of the mountain. Had the impact of the creature grabbing her not knocked the wind out of her lungs, Kyanoko would have screamed. Instead, she stared in wordless terror as she saw the ground rushing to meet her both impossibly fast and impossibly slow.

The moment of impact sent a great pain through her back, and she made an odd noise as what little air was left in her body escaped. But nothing felt broken and she certainly wasn’t dead. The earth beneath her had shifted ever so slightly to cushion the blow. Barely out of the corner of her vision, she could make out a pale being who nearly blended into the background with his arms extended in her direction.

She gasped for air and clawed at the wyrm’s hands, trying to pry it off of her. But it pressed the tanuki further into the mountain, an unholy rage flickering in its cold eyes. Kyanoko felt her eyes rolling involuntarily into her skull when she suddenly began to feel relief. For a brief moment, she thought her element had suddenly shifted as she realized that the earth around her had begun to envelop her and harden into impromptu armor.

But the relief was temporary as the stone and crystal began to crack and shatter. She needed to get this beast off of her now or never. While the Kyanoko Village technique of turning herself to stone couldn’t work with her aligned element, she could still borrow from it. Changing it into her own needs, she allowed her flames to go out of control, setting her whole body ablaze. 

But her magic reacted oddly to the pale being’s earth magic. They combined and twisted, turning into something new and greater than the sum of their parts. Her fire heated his earth, hardening it even further. The beast cried and reeled in pain, releasing its grip from her as metalline thorns ruptured its skin. Kyanoko fell forward but caught herself before she tumbled down the mountain.

“I wasn’t sure that was going to work!” relieved the pale creature, who was suddenly at Kyanoko’s side. He was a human-like boy, not even into adulthood with ears taller than his head. “I’m glad you’re okay. I’m Paiko. You?”

“Kyanoko. And thank you.” the tanuki was grateful to him but felt shame. There were children in this fight braver than she had ever been in her three hundred years of life.