Oh, Buttercup, That's Where You Are Wrong

"What do you think, Polly?" Hanera asks as he strokes the long, white manes of the manticore. A female names Polly, apparently. "How do we take what's ours?"

"Rolyra is not yours, and it will never be," I snap.

Hanera cocks his head sideways and chuckles. "Oh, Buttercup, that's where you are wrong." He looked down at his hands and starts plucking on his nails. "Rolyra is mine, and no one, no one will stand in my way. Because if they do-" he laughed, and right after, all emotion drains from his face. I swallow. I hadn't viewed Hanera as scary. It seems like he sees all of this as a game, which, mixed with his accent, makes it hard to see him as threatening. But now... Now that his face is entirely expressionless. That's where I recognize the creature from the myth.

That's where I don't see the youthful face of my brother but the face of a true monster. The face of a creature that can destroy everything he wants. A creature that can control darkness and create things people fear—a true bringer of nightmares and death.

This isn't some goofy man that can read minds that we are dealing with here. This is a being truly capable of taking over the world single-handedly.

I try to swallow again, but my mouth has run dry from the fear running through my veins.

"Now, off you go. Go back to your little army and tell them-" Hanera's lips curl into a terrifying grin. "Tell them their nightmares are going to haunt them. Tell them they can not escape because I am coming for them. I am coming for all who try to stand in my way. And their deaths," Hanerea falls silent in between those enormous batlike wings belonging to Polly. Creating suspense. "Their deaths will be anything but pleasant, but oh so entertaining and fulfilling for me."

Hanera graces us with one last terrifying smile and urges Polly to turn around again. She growls at us and sprints off back to the mountains. To return to the darkness rising there.

I release a breath I didn't realize I was holding. My face is pale from fright, and my body is trembling uncontrollably. "Therion?" I ask unsurely. My voice trembles so hard I doubt Therion can even recognize his name to be said. Therion presses a quick kiss on my temple and leads me back to the city wall through the gates.

Inside, everyone stares at us expectingly. While Therion chats everyone up on what happened in the grasslands outside the walls, I walk into the big tent in the middle of the small camp we had made. Kayol is bending over some maps spread out over the oaken table. He is most likely trying to come up with some tactics. Or whatever advantages we can have on Hanera and his beasts.

"How did it go? Are they from up close really as terrifying as people say they are?"

I break down. I slump through my trembling legs and cry in my hands.

"Shit, Nives! Are you okay?!" Kayol asks worriedly. Quickly he finds his way beside me and lifts me from the ground. I cling to him as I cry. Gently, Kayol sits me down in the lean chair stationed in the back of the tent.

"He took his body," I sob. I stare straight into my best friend's eyes as tears continuously roll down my face. "His body. He took his body." Therion marches into the tent with a sad look in his eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Nives Darling. I am so fucking sorry you had to witness that."

"His body," I sniff. I pull my knees against my chest and start rocking back and forth. "He took his body."

"Therion, what is she talking about? What the fuck happened outside the walls? Who's body?" Kayol asks my husband sternly while rubbing my back.

"Hanera," Therion sighs. He drops to his knees in front of my chair and pulls me close to his chest. Immediately, I lean into his touch and continue to sob in his embrace. Through my teary eyes, I can see Kayol making his way to the other side of the tent, where he has a tray of water.

"I body," I slobber. My heavy, irritated eyes start to drop.

"Hanera uses Leo's corps as a host."

The last thing I hear before the darkness get's ahold of me is a glass shattering to pieces.