The Forest Hunt
Run Xander run. Wait, what are you doing? You're supposed to be helping, not running away. You can do this. Okay, turn around on the count of three. One ... two ... three! Xander spun around gripping the hilt of his sword with both hands and saw the creature charging at him like a rhino on two legs. The ground shook as its thick hoofed feet pounded the earth at every stride. It had an enormous upper body covered with dark brown fur. Its hands, with three fingers each, appeared larger than Xander's head. Between its yellow glowing eyes, a long horn extended outwards, curved downwards and then curved back up like a giant fish hook. In its right grasp, it held a four foot long wooden mallet. Buckets of cold sweat poured down Xander's back. He was frozen, overwhelmed by the awesome beast charging towards him. A weak slap could have knocked the sword out from his hands.
Xander heard the snap of a crossbow and saw an arrow impale the creature in its thigh. It hopped staggeringly for a moment, but continued charging.
"Amiculum!"
A warm balm swept through Xander's body.
"Xander don't move!" Willow shouted.
His head swerved looking to see where her voice was coming from. He was standing on a dirt path and to either side of him was dark forest. Only moonlight revealed the creature, which was now slowing down and looking left and right as if it had suddenly lost sight of its prey. Xander's heart pounded as he edged backwards, his eyes locked on the demon. A huge burst of orange light flew through the air from Xander's right and struck the demon in the head in an explosion of spitting fire and crackling sound. The horned demon stumbled dizzily and dropped its mallet to the ground. It grasped its head with both hands and let out a groan of pain as a figure walked up to the creature in a calm confidence. It was Willow. Her hands glowed yellow and she raised them above the incapacitated creature to cast a finishing spell, but the demon jumped unexpectedly and rammed her hard in the chest. Grabbing its mallet, it smacked the ground, and in a deafening boom, the demon vanished leaving behind a white aura that soon faded.
Xander ran to Willow who was sprawled back first against a tree.
"Will! Oh god, are you alright?" He knelt beside her and placed his hand behind her head.
She moaned and then looked up at him. Her eyes widened. "Where'd it go?" she demanded eagerly.
"I don't know, it was here and then it vanished. How do you feel?"
"Like mashed potato."
"How come it stopped chasing me?"
"An invisibility spell."
"Oh. Didn't know you could do that."
"Well actually, I just made you look like a tree."
"Oh. Still very timely."
She tried to get up.
"Whoa whoa easy. You should rest, the others-"
"Xander I'm fine. You know how important this is." She released herself from his arms and gently let her palms fall to her sides. Her body rose in the air and without a glance back at him, she was gone over the tree tops.
"Yeah sure, no problem. I can handle myself. If I see one of those things again I'll just ... stand there and look like a tree. " He snorted.
He heard grunting and the clashing of weapons in the distance. Holding his sword upright, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and ran to offer his hand in the fight.
. . .
She slid a hand in the bag of bolts at her side. Only four left. It didn't matter though since they were about as effective as a bag of feathers. Buffy straightened her back against the tree and held the tiny crossbow tightly against her chest. She gently slid a bolt behind the string and heard a quiet click as it snapped into place.
The ground trembled and she looked cautiously around the curve of the tree. The beast was standing alert, swerving its head side to side and sniffing the air. It snorted spewing snot from its giant nostrils. It held his weapon lazily letting the wooden head fall to the ground, then its other hand started glowing purple. The surrounding darkness lifted as the light swelled into the forest. Spike was standing ten feet away behind a tree looking ready to catch the demon by surprise. He made a sharp nod to Buffy. She quickly shook her head. "No! No!" she mouthed. "Why?" he mouthed back. She made a circle motion with her finger to get him to attack from behind, but the message didn't get across. He made a baffled expression and then tossed his hands in the air. He jumped out from the tree and rushed the beast head on.
Buffy rolled her eyes and whipped out the crossbow. She snapped the trigger and heard the arrow whistle through the air as it sunk into the demon's temple, just then, Spike jumped and plunged a metal blade into its chest. The monster howled in agony and flailed its head knocking Spike backwards to the ground.
"Spike!" Buffy sprinted towards the demon who was staring at her with angry eyes. She shot one more arrow before throwing the crossbow away. It knocked away the projectile with a wave of its arm. She didn't know if her physical strength could match the demon's, but she thought she'd give it a go. The demon swung its enormous mallet sideways at her body, but Buffy was fast and ducked the attack. Just as she threw her leg to kick him in the belly, there was a blinding flash of light and a powerful force knocked her backwards in the air. She landed hard on her arm and rolled until she collided with a tree trunk.
She struggled to lift her head and see what had happened. A figure was floating in the air about five feet over the demon raining down balls of energy with furiously flailing arms. Buffy had never seen Willow so awesome and horrifying before. Her attack was relentless, her face was as fierce as a mad woman's. The creature underneath the bombardment was swaying back and forth from the powerful blows and finally, it collapsed in a heavy thud. Still, Willow continued her onslaught.
"Willow stop now!" Buffy yelled sounding in pain. The light from the magic was blinding and the deafening sound was like high pressured air popping.
Willow caught sight of Buffy waving her arm and she stopped her attack. She landed on top of the demon's back. It was motionless.
Willow was grinning. "God Buffy what a rush! Did you see that? Did you see me? I've never felt so amazing in my life!" Her eyes were jet black and her hands were still glowing. Her purple flowered top and black Capri pants blurred as if there was a hot magic field around her body.
Buffy got up slowly holding her injured arm. Her gown was torn in several places, but that didn't matter since it was going to magically repair itself in a few hours. Her main concern was Willow. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Her smile faded. "What are you so angry for? I killed it didn't I?"
"Yeah but you nearly took me out along with it."
Spike was walking over to them rubbing his chest where the demon had hit him.
Buffy sighed. "Just try and be more careful nextime."
"Oh well that's just great!" Willow said. "You know, you try and do something good, but they just end up biting you in the ass."
Buffy frowned and stared at her. "What are you talking about?"
"You think I don't notice? You all tell me: 'Willow don't do this, Willow don't do that, Willow be more careful, don't use your magic, blah blah blah, blah blah blah.' I'm getting sick of it."
"You are blowing this way out of proportion." Buffy looked at Spike and exchanged worried expressions.
"Why does everyone have to be so afraid of me? Maybe they should be happy for me instead. Happy that I'm not some pathetic girl anymore dabbling with magic like an amateur."
"You know what Willow?" Buffy said not wanting to argue. "They should be afraid. Afraid of what you might do if you go all ... Mickey Mouse and not be able to control your powers."
Willow looked confused and Spike shared a similar expression. "Mickey mouse?" Willow asked.
"You were doing great up until then," Spike said smiling behind the hand rubbing his mouth.
"Well you know," Buffy said child like. "The whole thing with the dancing brooms and mops and buckets of water- oh come on. Am I the only one with a childhood here? Fantasia? Ring a bell?"
Willow slowly shook her head. "Sorry. Never saw that one."
"The li'lle mousey got lazy and enchanted broom sticks to do his chores for him," Spike said with a smirk. His gaze fell on Willow. "Made a mess of things they did."
Buffy raised an open palm to Spike. "Thank you," she said gratifyingly.
"Is that what you think?" Willow said not sounding hostile anymore. "Buffy I'm doing this for you. Because I made a mistake and I'm trying to fix it." The magic aura around her was fading.
Buffy walked up to Willow and put a hand on her arm. "I know."
"So," Spike said. "We have one heart of the- what's the beasty called again?"
"Vorshal demon," Willow responded. "It's always moving between realities and they know some pretty powerful magic, which is why we have to act fast if we want to get all the organs."
"Just so you know, there is no way I'm cutting any demon open," Buffy said.
"Oh don't worry I'll do it," Willow saw Buffy's eyes widen. "But I won't be cutting with a dagger or anything gory like that. I have a less messier approach." Willow moved to the demon's dead body and bent down over it. The demon's chest glowed blue and suddenly a piece of flesh appeared and rested on top of it. Willow took a plastic bag from her pocket and wrapped it around the heart.
"Yeah ... still gross," Buffy said nodding.
"How many more do we need?" Spike asked.
"Well, we need a lung, a liver and a brain from three other different Vorshal demons."
"Oh god!" Buffy shouted. "Xander and the others!"
"Don't worry," Spike said with a sigh. "The dope's probably dead already."
"Spike," Buffy scolded. "Where are they Willow?"
Willow looked in all directions trying to sense them. "Over there." She pointed to a section of the dark forest.
Buffy darted off. Willow looked back at Spike who stared at her with a dark expression. "What?" she asked.
"Nothing. Best get air-born. You can get there faster than Buffy."
She looked away curiously and levitated off the ground. After a few seconds of hovering, she came back down. "I guess all that magic drained me."
Spike looked away coldly and started walking in the same direction as Buffy. "On foot we go then."