Lianna looked out into the stormy night. The trees bowed beneath the
ferocity of the wind, and the rain slit through the night air as if it were
a mere piece of dark weaving and the raindrops thousands of tiny pricking
needles. Her blue-green eyes swirled with concern as she looked outside
her window. Her father had gone out hours ago, sensing a coming storm, to
gather the sheep flock together and bring them back to their pen, and she
was worried. The child bit her lip and nervously tucked a tendril of her
hair behind her ear that had fallen out from her blond braids.
The omnipotent thunder roared again, causing even the foundation of the small house to shake and Lianna flinched, closing her small eyelids for a second as the lightning flashed and although she was afraid, opened one first and then the other. She planned to keep her vigil until he came back. She could feel her mom watching her with probing eyes. Her mother's face gave a warm smile of encouragement, but Lianna knew that by the way her mom clenched her hands so tightly together that she feared the worse too. Lianna wouldn't give up on her mom or dad, so she stood, braving the fearful parts of the storm. As her Great- Grandmother Leila had told her many times before she died, "a tad of courage and a good dose of persistence always got the job done."
She watched the window, fogging it up with her warm breath, each lightning flash causing her to duck her head below the window ledge, but she always brought her head back up in her persistent watch for her dad. In the next lightning flash, a rider came over the hill, and instead of ducking, Lianna narrowed her eyes through the next flash and as she say the rider's silhouette for a brief second, she shrieked with joy, jumped and flew out of the house straight into the pouring rain, never paying attention to her mom's cry of caution or the fact that the storm scared her, she ran through the mud and the muck and the drenching wet with her arms outstretched and giggling.
She opened her eyes just in time to see the rider slump off the horse and hear the splat as her dead father slumbered in death on the mud. She froze mid-step and braced herself, nearly falling into the slick herself.
"Da - daddy," she said, making a question out of the word, her pupils shrunken in fear. Dark silhouettes and red glowing eyes appeared behind her in the next lightning flash, but she was to in shock to notice them. "DADDY" she screamed, tears streaking down her face, as she bolted towards the still corpse.
A furry arm shot out and grabbed one of her failing little wrists so hard that the whiplash snapped her back and brought in her into a face of a snarling Barbarois. She stared and started to whimper in fright as the ranks smell of death clung to the beast, even in the thick of the storm, and she screamed bloody murder and struggled to get out of the monster's grip. She had only heard of monsters in tales long told, and the creatures that sometimes hid under beds. All she knew was that she wanted her mommy and she screamed her name.
A furry paw clamped her mouth tightly shut so that all that could be heard of Lianna's protests were murmurs.
"Careful Cirrus-s-s-s-s-s," a snake-woman monster sneered from behind the hairy one, "The Mis-s-s-s-stress-s-s-s-s-s wants-s-s-s-s this-s-s-s-s one alive."
The black furred creature that held Lianna, hissed at her like a giant cat, "But my hunger grows," he snarled, bending over so that Lianna shrieked as she felt his wet heavy breath and the itch of his coarse whiskers against her neck, "And she is so young, tender, and juicy." She felt his teeth poke her skin and she was so terrified that she began to cry hysterically.
A great scaly tail slapped Cirrus to the ground, and constricted Lianna into itself, but not before her frantic shouts calling her mother's name could escape her lips.
"Lianna? Lianna answer me," Her mom shouted, a dark figure standing in front of a lit doorway.
Lianna tried so hard to respond but her answers were muffled, she reached a tiny arm out to her, but the only thing she got in return was the tightening of the snake woman's tail around her.
"Cirrus-s-s-s-s-s, if you want blood, take that prey," the Naga hissed, pointing at Lianna's mother with a jagged nail.
Lianna cried and mentally pleaded for God to protect her mom, for anyone to come and protect her mom, but it all seemed fruitless.
Cirrus paused and gave a great big evil cat grin and slunk off into the night to hunt the woman that now walked out into the darkness with dread and the pure scent of fear.
The omnipotent thunder roared again, causing even the foundation of the small house to shake and Lianna flinched, closing her small eyelids for a second as the lightning flashed and although she was afraid, opened one first and then the other. She planned to keep her vigil until he came back. She could feel her mom watching her with probing eyes. Her mother's face gave a warm smile of encouragement, but Lianna knew that by the way her mom clenched her hands so tightly together that she feared the worse too. Lianna wouldn't give up on her mom or dad, so she stood, braving the fearful parts of the storm. As her Great- Grandmother Leila had told her many times before she died, "a tad of courage and a good dose of persistence always got the job done."
She watched the window, fogging it up with her warm breath, each lightning flash causing her to duck her head below the window ledge, but she always brought her head back up in her persistent watch for her dad. In the next lightning flash, a rider came over the hill, and instead of ducking, Lianna narrowed her eyes through the next flash and as she say the rider's silhouette for a brief second, she shrieked with joy, jumped and flew out of the house straight into the pouring rain, never paying attention to her mom's cry of caution or the fact that the storm scared her, she ran through the mud and the muck and the drenching wet with her arms outstretched and giggling.
She opened her eyes just in time to see the rider slump off the horse and hear the splat as her dead father slumbered in death on the mud. She froze mid-step and braced herself, nearly falling into the slick herself.
"Da - daddy," she said, making a question out of the word, her pupils shrunken in fear. Dark silhouettes and red glowing eyes appeared behind her in the next lightning flash, but she was to in shock to notice them. "DADDY" she screamed, tears streaking down her face, as she bolted towards the still corpse.
A furry arm shot out and grabbed one of her failing little wrists so hard that the whiplash snapped her back and brought in her into a face of a snarling Barbarois. She stared and started to whimper in fright as the ranks smell of death clung to the beast, even in the thick of the storm, and she screamed bloody murder and struggled to get out of the monster's grip. She had only heard of monsters in tales long told, and the creatures that sometimes hid under beds. All she knew was that she wanted her mommy and she screamed her name.
A furry paw clamped her mouth tightly shut so that all that could be heard of Lianna's protests were murmurs.
"Careful Cirrus-s-s-s-s-s," a snake-woman monster sneered from behind the hairy one, "The Mis-s-s-s-stress-s-s-s-s-s wants-s-s-s-s this-s-s-s-s one alive."
The black furred creature that held Lianna, hissed at her like a giant cat, "But my hunger grows," he snarled, bending over so that Lianna shrieked as she felt his wet heavy breath and the itch of his coarse whiskers against her neck, "And she is so young, tender, and juicy." She felt his teeth poke her skin and she was so terrified that she began to cry hysterically.
A great scaly tail slapped Cirrus to the ground, and constricted Lianna into itself, but not before her frantic shouts calling her mother's name could escape her lips.
"Lianna? Lianna answer me," Her mom shouted, a dark figure standing in front of a lit doorway.
Lianna tried so hard to respond but her answers were muffled, she reached a tiny arm out to her, but the only thing she got in return was the tightening of the snake woman's tail around her.
"Cirrus-s-s-s-s-s, if you want blood, take that prey," the Naga hissed, pointing at Lianna's mother with a jagged nail.
Lianna cried and mentally pleaded for God to protect her mom, for anyone to come and protect her mom, but it all seemed fruitless.
Cirrus paused and gave a great big evil cat grin and slunk off into the night to hunt the woman that now walked out into the darkness with dread and the pure scent of fear.