Forsaken Fields: Godspawn Part 7

Prompt 1: Fighting a godspawn

Pervious part (image): Godspawn Part 6 (paperdemon.com)

Ianira flew above the forest, sharp eyes tracking the path below. She clacked her beak, tilting her head to see a white blur running along the path below her. She clacked her beak again and flew quicker, watching the path wind. Little creature. Where little creatures? Not creature. Big nest. 

She crowed and turned again, swooping down to the path to fly just above Lock who asked, “See anything?”

No small creatures. Big nest! 

Lock huffed, focused on the path as wind from Ianira’s winged buffeted her fur. 

Sure enough, coming around the corner a huge mansion came into view. There were details on the door of some horrifying creature not from this world sprawled over it. Details like the ones in the book she and Ianira had picked up from the library. 

Lock snarled and barrelled towards the door, slowing and banging into the doors to come to a stop. 

Ianira croaked, landing and hopping towards the house as Lock bit the door handle, pulling it open. 

Ianira turned back into her more humanoid form as Lock led the way into the dark house. 

Movement was easy to hear ahead, something snarling wetly, the clicking of claws other than Lock’s own on the floors as they passed paintings of terrible tentacled creatures and monsters that resembled the mockery of human forms in horrible poses and doing horrible things to all kinds of creatures. 

The two of them pushed into the house, tensed up and ready. They reached the main hall of the house, stairs on both sides that led to the second floor balcony. There was a terrible creature pacing the wooden floor boards, gore dripping from her eyes as she whipped around and shrieked, wooden chips tearing themselves from old boards and flinging themselves at the two of them. 

Lock dashed towards the stairs, the splinters getting caught up in her fur before they could reach her while Ianira ran on her other side, protected from the chips by Lock’s bulk. 

The Godspawn screamed, meeting them at the top of the stairs, mantis claws slashing. 

Lock bellowed and threw the Godspawn back, slamming into her so quickly that she was thrown into the wall, shrieking. 

Lock got out of the way in time for Ianira to send a blast of wind, so compact the wind took the shape of several ravens only visible because of the dust and motes of wood that got swept up with them as they pinned the creature to the wall, Ianira coming in to slash with her sharp claws. 

The Godspawn screamed, trying to free herself and wrenching an arm forward, slashing at Ianira, but the half harpy managed to nimbly dash out of the way. Lock lifted her head as Ianira distracted the creature, sniffing for the boys. She could smell them but couldn’t see anything strange beyond the pictures in the hall and patches of stronger, newer wood here and there. 

The creature escaped from Ianira’s blows, throwing herself at a seemingly distracted Lock, who snapped her head around, biting into the Godspawn’s wrist and launching her over the banister down onto the first floor. 

The Godspawn laid there, gasping and writing, finally quiet enough that Lock could hear something other than it and her own breathing. 

“Hello!? Help! Please!”

“Boys!?” Lock called, lowering her head and tilting it back and forth to get a better feel for where they were as Ianira leapt lightly down to the first floor with the help of her wind ravens to continue dealing with the Godspawn, who had managed to get to her feet, swaying slightly. 

“Lock!?” Thomas’s voice came again. “Lock! Please help! We’re in the walls! We fell in!”

Lock made a guess as to why the floorboards in one patch were so new. “I’m coming! Hold on!”

She turned and leapt over the banister, landing hard enough that wood crunched under her feet and the blind Godspawn had to dodge to the side with a horrified shriek. 

“Can you keep her busy?” Lock asked and Ianira gave a nod.

“For a little. Hurry please.”

Lock nodded and pounded into the halls under the second floor balcony. 

“Thomas!” she called, looking for another response for him to respond to. “Is Keys with you!?”

“Yeah! You wouldn’t happen to have healing books on you, would you?”

Lock growled and paced back up the hall, going into a room. “Yes. What did you two get yourselves into?”

“There was this creepy librarian and-’

“Yeah, I met her,” Lock said, finally up against a wall she was sure the boys were behind. She went down the wall slightly to keep from scattering wood chips and nails all over them, especially if they were hurt.

“Oh….. did you kill her?”

“Yes,” Lock said with a self satisfied grin. “I’m going to break through here. Stay back if you can.”

“Okay.”

Lock got up on her back legs, front paws up and slammed into a wall, getting a startled gasp from both Keys and Thomas. The wood splintered and on the second hit, it shattered. 

She was about to widen the hole when Thomas said, “No! There are wards to fix the house when it’s been damaged too much. That’s fine.”

“I can’t get in, though,” Lock said, poking her head into the dusty space, looking over Thomas and Keys who were now covered in dust as well. 

Keys looked rather pale, and the wall and floor around him were stained with blood. 

On instinct, Lock tried to push farther in, to pick them up and pull them to safety, but the wood caught in her thick fur and held her back. 

“We’re fine,” Thomas said, though his swollen leg said otherwise. Send in a healing book and we’ll be fine.”

Lock growled and backed up, opening the pouch on her front leg and pulling out a tome, shoving it in so Thomas could reach it. Thomas ripped out three pages, handing them to Keys before taking one for himself. 

“I’m not that badly injured,” Keys grumbled, taking the pages anyways. 

“Yes you are.”

“No I’m not.”

“Oh, yes, you so are.”

“Shut up, you’re probably concussed!”

“Boys,” Lock cut in. “Behave yourselves. Heal and then get out of there. I need to go help Ianira.”

“Who’s Ianira?” Thomas asked, but Lock was already turning and out of the room. 

Ianira was holding her own against the Godspawn, though she’d gotten a little sliced up. Lock barrelled into the fight, lifting her paw to slam into the Godspawn as it was on a trajectory to hit Ianira again. 

The Godspawn shrieked out a little wail as it fled the house, limping for the front door as quickly as possible. 

Lock chuffed over their victory and turned to Ianira, sitting back to fish a healing trinket out of her pouch. 

“Here you go. Thank you so much.”

“Of course,” Ianira said, panting a little and her feathers still ruffled up, the ones around her neck making her look like she was wearing a fluffy, warm, neck warmer. She took the healing item and sorted out her arm as the boys came out of the hall. Keys had the healing book tucked under his arm, his other hand wrestling with his ruined shirt to try and keep it on his shoulders. 

Thomas looked rather cheerful about the whole situation, grinning as they hurried to meet with Lock. Thomas flung himself up onto her back to give her a hug as far around as he could reach. 

“I am so glad to see you,” he said as Keys nodded to Ianira, tucking the book back into Lock’s pouch before burying his face and hands into the fur where her neck and shoulder met, 

She lifted a leg, pulling Keys against her chest and chuffing at him. 

“I was so worried about you two,” she crooned. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

“We won’t,” Keys replied, muffled in her fur. 

She chuckled and released Keys who stumbled back and turned to Ianira. “Hi. It’s nice to meet you. You came to help?”

“Oh, yes. I was in the scroll halls when she was. You almost ended up in the book of victims. I’m glad you’re alright.”

“Thank you,” Keys said as Thomas sat up on Lock’s back and nodded. 

“Yeah, we would have been dead for sure,” Thomas said, back to being cheerful. Keys was tired just listening to him. 

“Can we go home?” Keys asked. 

Lock nodded. “Yes. Ianira, dear. Would you like to join us? I think we have a spare bed you can use and we can make a nice breakfast. Least I can do.”

“No, you don’t have to really.”

“I want to.”

Ianira flushed and nodded. “Fine. Okay, then.”

The four of them started to head out, Ianira first out the door as Thomas, still riding on Lock’s back, talked loudly about everything that happened. 

When Ianira passed through the door she squawked loudly, a flurry of feathers filling the doorway before she pushed farther into the courtyard outside the house, now in her large crow form, the Godspawn’s good mantic clamped around her neck. 

“Oh, you’re looking for round 2?” Lock snarled. “Let’s go then!”

She raced out to help Ianira, Thomas hooting on her back with his sword drawn and Keys following behind, fire flaring in his palms.