Return of the House of Emerys: Merlin and the Basilisk
It was late in the afternoon; the sun had already started to retreat behind the horizon and the shadows became darker. The birds flew down from the clouds after hours of hunting to land in their nests and feed their young. The land animals such as badgers and deer skulked off to their burrows and hallows to rest for the night, a nest of rabbits lead by an older one turned in the direction of the forest as their ears twitched before the bounded off.
Five young voices echoed into the forest nearing the twilight hour. Three boys and two girls wandered happily through the fallen leaves and grass looking over the darkening barks and branches of the trees. The lead boy running around in what appears to be a children's knight costume, his brown hair peeking out of the sides of the helmet and his brown eyes shining with adventure. The second boy was wearing a makeshift forest elf costume with a wig of long straight golden hair, his sapphire eyes glistening in the sunset. The third boy was dressed in what appeared to be a Halloween Vikings costume, his black hair shined with the low light and his green eyes seemed to glow in the ominous light.
The first girl was wearing what appeared to be a form of leather armour and had a plastic dagger on her side, her face and hair were hidden by the hood and cowl she was wearing. The other girl, was wearing a typical Elf Princesses get up, her dark brown hair waving in the slight breeze and her stormy grey eyes scanning the surroundings.
Joseph, the boy in the knight costume, turned to Andrew, the elf, and Daphne, the girl with the cowl, before picking up a stick and raising it above his head "Come team, we must defeat the mythical Chimera who roams this forest" Andrew and Celestia, the Elven Princess, both picked up bendy crooked sticks and tied a piece of string on both ends so that they looked like bows "We shall assist you in this task mighty knight" The third boy David, the Viking boy, grinned and pulled a plastic Battle Axe off of his back "Bring it on, I'll crave it up and use its hide as my new coat".
The final child Daphne rolled her eyes but pulled out her dagger, she held it by her side and nodded to Joseph who grinned "Now onwards" the group continued to walk through the forest with determined expressions always on the lookout for the Mythical Chimera. Daphne turned as she heard snarling and quickly ran to the front of the group. She stood in front of the other four and put her finger to her lips then cupped her hand round her ear. The others listened and were shocked when they heard snarling, nodding to each other, they group of five quickly and quietly tiptoed over to a nearby bush and looked through. On the other side was a deer, its cold body lay across the group but that wasn't what had the children's attention.
In front of them over the deer corpse was a monstrosity of a creature, if they could try to describe it with a name they would call it a grey furless gorilla, it stood 6 feet tall, hunched over like a gorilla supported by its fore legs whilst standing on its hind legs. Its Light grey skin shined dimly in the low light and trails of saliva dripped from its maw and down its chin. Rows of sharp decaying teeth shined through and above them unusually large nostrils. And yet the strangest part was yet to come, the creature had no eyes, the spaces where the eyes would normally be, were just scrunched pockets of the same grey skin, Andrew took a step back in shock and landed on a twig, it snapped, the creature turned towards the sound and started growling and snarling.
The children all ran in different directions trying to escape the growling of the creature that they had accidentally disturbed. The moon was raising, and the silver shine could be seen through the gaps in the branches as Joseph ran further into the forest, he finally stopped to catch his breath, he sat down for a couple of minutes before getting up again. He was about to set off again when he heard a branch snap, he looked up and saw a glimpse of grey before everything went black.
Andrew picked up a couple of sticks whilst running and put them in the quiver on his back except one. He turned a corner only to see a glow of light in a clearing, he walked forward mesmerised by the glow until he was stood in front of something that boggled his mind. In front of him was what looked like moving shattered glass in cased in a golden glow, like a fracture, he walked forward and touched it, his had disappeared in to it before he pulled it back, his hand was perfectly fine. He watched it for a few more seconds before deciding on a plan, he walked into the fracture, nothing came out of the other side.
Celestia ran as fast as her legs could take her jumping over logs and rocks until she slipped and fell into a river. She floated along the stream moving closer and closer to the side until she managed to grab a rock and pull herself out. She heaved up the swallowed water and panted for a few minutes before a snarl came from her right, she turned and looked on in horror as the creature leapt at her, she didn't even get to scream.
David ran and ran until he found a small bush to hide in. he was there for about half an hour before he plucked up the bravery to move, he quickly got up and started to move towards the direction he thought they had originally come from, when he heard twigs snap behind him, he turned with relief on his face "So you guys-" the creature leapt from behind the bush.
Daphne sat in a tree waiting and watching as the creature stalked her friends, she was amazed by the abilities of the unknown animal. Its skin camouflaged perfectly with its surroundings when hunting prey and it was near silent and left very few visible footprints. She sighed 'So glad I took up Dad and Mum's lessons in survivability and gymnastics' she though as she quickly and silently leapt from tree to tree heading in the direction of town.
Silence echoed over the forest as the twilight hour raged. After 20 minutes after the twilight began Daphne finally dropped from the trees at the edge of the forest and ran to what she believed was a safe distance. She looked over the forest as darkness descended upon it, a tear left her eye for her lost friend's fates, only the distant sound of snarls caused her eyes to widen and skin to pale. She turned and ran.
By Tekuya Vermilion