Caleb

"OK what the hell was that?" Reyna asked as soon as they were on solid ground again. She stood just outside of the hollow of the tree, her back braced against bark, her hand on the dryad sword, as she peered into the night sky.

Caleb glanced at her, noted and approved of her caution; at the same time finding it odd that such a cautious pose seemed rather natural and elegant on her.

Caleb scowled at the stupidity of that his own comment, and wondered wheather his latest acts of insanity were gettign worse by the moment.

"Caleb...what was that?" she asked again, startling him out of his distraction and bringing him back to the seriousness of their current predicament.

Immediately he felt fear slipping its icy fingers around him, but he shut it out. He was used to doing that.

He swallowed and shrugged, wearing a false air of clamness.

"It's a Severack. It's supposed to be dead"

"Well it's obviously not..."

"Oh really?" he asked a bit irritated. He dragged his hand though his hair and Reyna saw just enough to realize that his hand was shaky. They were obviously in the same boat.

"Look I..." she started, but Caleb held up a finger.

"It's supposed to be dead I don't know why or how...just that it's supposed to be dead...okay?"

She breathed and nodded.

"So what now?"

Caleb flexed his jaw. "I can't beat that...at least not one of me..."

"The Romans slayed giants, dragons, drakons, cyclops and we are mortals...you're a demon...aren't you more powerful than us?" she asked in that irritating tone that Caleb often associated with pompous little rats who often got themselves tied up to football post butt naked for an entire night.

Caleb let out a tense breath and squinted his eyes at her.

"Yes...I am...but that's not a giant or a dragon or drakon or whatever you Romans have slayed. The Severack has the body of an animal because it is in fact, first of all your fancy monsters...and because it was the first, it is the most powerful... it has the power of 100 mid-level demons...which makes it a lot of times more powerful than me...and by the way...you Romans couldn't beat me...much less for that"

Reyna wanted to argue that point, he could see it in her face, her stance even when her body shook slightly; and despite having no whims about proving her wrong...he really didn't want to, at least not now.

He eyes left her face, and returned to scanning the sky. There was no sign of the Severack, but he wouldn't take the chance, not with Reyna there. If the creature was still there, they would both be defenseless against it.

Well it was actually still there, he could smell the stink of it in the air, and at least he believed the stink was the Severack, though it smelled slightly different than what he remembered.

Absentmindedly he noticed that the darkness of the forest of growing, it was almost suffocating.

Caleb closed his eyes, and he was transported from the forest, and he could see the battles he fought as though they had occurred just an hour ago. He could see all his soldiers, the fallen ones, the brave ones, the wounded, the living. He could see the Severack clearly, cutting away at his soldiers, he could feel the sting of his own wounds, feel the blood on his hands. Blood that didn't bother him, because it was the blood of his enemies, it was the blood of darkness. Then the scene shifted and he was in another place at another time. The all of the bodies of his fellow men lay slaughtered on the ground. The three gods of light stood before him, Verlyn, Rezar and Cam; they were turning away, one by one deserting their posts, and he was cursed to be a slave. The slave of the one he fought against. It shifted again, and he saw her dying once again.

Caleb opened his eyes and stared at his surrounding, his body was covered in cold sweat. The forest was darker than it had been a few minutes, and he this vague feeling of fear crawling up his body. He stood, hands hanging limply at his sides, the memories still swirling in his head. He had no idea why he had thought of those things.

He looked around, trying to find Reyna, but he couldn't see her.

He breathed in her scent and walked slowly to his right, being careful not to make noise.

Then he saw in few feet in front of him, stood Reyna, her face was a mask of panic, her mouth opened and her eyes wild. She stood in one spot, her head swinging from left to right. He walked up to her and touched her shoulder, as he did that, he saw what she did.

I own nothing.