Chapter 12: The flight

May whimpered as she slowly began regaining consciousness. Her whole body was sore, and her head felt like exploding. She felt cold wind on her face and heard a strange monotonous sound, just as if someone kept shaking a leather coat. Her eyelids felt too heavy to lift them. May shifted and tried to make herself more comfortable, as she was pressed against something hard which made her bruises from the fall only more painful. She carefully drew a breath, a shallow one, because she felt pressure on her stomach, preventing her from inhaling the air properly. May slowly opened her eyes.

 

And she closed them again immediately, thinking that her brain must have had a sort of malfunction as a result of hitting her head. She opened her eyes once more and saw fluffy ethereal white objects around. With horror she realized what they were - the clouds. May carefully glanced down and regretted it. She was sitting on in the saddle on some kind, but the creature was no ordinary horse. It was the creature from before �" the winged beast. Its dark long tangled mane was billowing as the leathery wings batted the air. Below the animal she saw distant ground, trees and even buildings. They were very far away though. May paled as she realized that the creature, she was on, was actually gliding in the sky high above the ground. She squeezed her eyes shut, praying for it to be just a bad a dream. However, when she opened them again, nothing changed �" she was still flying high above the ground on the monster’s back.

 

Terrified, she instinctively searched for something to hold onto; May gripped the edge of the saddle so desperately that her fingers went white. She began trembling, her breathing shallower.

 

The girl felt the pressure on her stomach increasing. Slowly, she turned her eyes on its source. An arm clad in a steel vambrace was wrapped tightly around her stomach, holding her waist and the reins. May shivered slightly as she saw that the nails were abnormally long and sharp, actually more like claws than nails. She froze in terror. She recalled seeing such claws not so long ago. May kept staring at the arm, too scared to look behind her. After a while, she shifted slowly in the saddle and looked over her shoulder.

 

May was already expecting it, but nonetheless, she gasped in shock. Behind her sat no one other than the black-haired demon. She stared at him in horror. The man was towering over her, even as they both were sitting �" the top of May’s head didn’t even reach anywhere near his shoulder. She had to nearly twist her neck to look upwards. The girl was pressed tightly against the breastplate of his armor, not being able to move freely. The man was looking at the horizon; his face showed no emotion. Then he looked down at May. The girl shivered as her eyes met his cold gaze. She felt as if she was a cornered prey and panicked. Instinctively, she tried to push herself away from him, but he only tightened his grip, nearly crushing May’s ribs. She continued to struggle with him as he narrowed his golden eyes and emitted a growl. That caused the girl to stop for a moment.

 

“Stay still, woman,” he said to her harshly, his voice giving out his irritation.

 

However, May didn’t listen to him and kept trying to wriggle out of his steel grip, so tight she couldn’t even draw a proper breath.

 

“Let me go!” she screamed at him. The demon didn’t budge, clearly unimpressed by May’s frantic attempts to set herself free.

 

“Let go of me!” May didn’t stop screaming. Suddenly, she felt the pressure on her stomach disappear, as the man removed his hand. Then, without any warning, he pushed her from behind. May felt herself slipping off the saddle and tried to grasp something, anything, that would prevent her from falling �" she didn’t make it.

 

May fell off the creature’s back only to stop in midair. Her limbs were dangling; she saw the solid ground in the distance. Her heart felt like it stopped for a good while and her vision went blurry from fear. She would surely die if she hit it from this height. She closed her eyes, expecting the impact but felt nothing. The girl slowly opened them after a brief moment to discover that she didn’t fall. The demon was holding her sash. He pulled her roughly back on the saddle. May hissed from pain as she felt her bruised body slam into his armor. The man placed his arm around her waist again and looked as if nothing had happened.

 

May couldn’t calm herself down; she had just nearly died. The girl kept repeating to herself to keep cool head and not to panic. She tried to control her hitched breathing as she analyzed the situation she was in. She was in the foreign world and just got kidnapped by a monster who almost killed her just now. She didn’t actually see it, but she was almost sure, that he had singlehandedly murdered Abrran and all his best warriors. What on earth was he?

 

The girl exhaled slowly, trying to remain calm despite the situation. She needed to stay calm and alive. Especially staying alive was a top priority. She decided that the man didn’t want to kill her, at least not right away. If he wanted, he had already had plenty of chances. Then why did he kidnap her? May couldn’t think of a logical answer. And how did he know her real name?

 

May yelped as she felt his grip tighten again and crush her ribs. She hissed from the pain and looked at her captor over her shoulder.

 

“You’re crushing my ribs. It hurts,” she said to him, her voice slightly shaking as she was terrified of the man. He said nothing, didn’t even bother to look at her, but the pressure lessened a bit. May decided to be polite for her own safety.

 

“Thank you,” she said.

 

Yet again, she received no answer. Actually, she was relieved because the man’s voice crept her out even more.

 

May had never been so scared in her life; kidnapped by a cold-blooded killer, she didn’t know what would happen to her. One thing was sure: returning home now was out of question. First, she had to know what exactly was going on, and she feared that to do that she had no choice but to ask the terrifying man who had kidnapped her. She shifted in the saddle and looked up at his face, unsure how to start a conversation without angering him and getting herself killed in the process. She stared for quite a while when the man glanced down at her with visible annoyance.

 

“What is it, woman?” he demanded.

 

May unknowingly flinched at the sound of his voice. She averted her eyes from him, not having enough guts to look directly him in the eye.

 

“Umm…” she started. “What are you going to do to me? What do you want? Why…”

 

The man growled and sent May an angry glare.

 

“Enough!” he hissed. “Be silent or I will kill you.”

 

May shut her mouth immediately. The man was dangerous and she definitely didn’t want to get herself murdered. However, she really needed to get some information about her captor and his intentions towards her.

 

“Err…” she began, careful not to anger the man. “My name is May.”

 

May waited for some kind of reaction, but there was none. At least he didn’t threaten to kill her, yet. She decided to carry on.

 

“What’s yours? You have one, right?” she asked the demon carefully. There was only silence. After a longer while he finally spoke up.

 

“Aedain mab Keallach de Ruanaidh,” he stated, not looking at May.

 

The girl blinked, hearing the long name. How was she supposed to remember that?

 

“Oh,” May uttered, surprised, that he in fact did answer her question.

 

The name was awfully long and nearly impossible to remember. Aedain ma… something… can’t it be shorter? She unsuccessfully tried to recall the whole name, but it really was too long. She decided to call him Aedain from now on as she couldn’t remember the rest of his name anyway. She stole another glance at her stoic captor and prayed, that she wasn’t pushing her luck. “What are you?”

 

The man didn’t answer, his face emotionless as though it had been carved in stone. May paled, when she noticed the small vein on his temple beginning to pulse dangerously. She mentally cursed herself for her stupidity �" she had just pissed the monster off.

 

“I’m so…” she wanted to apologize quickly but the words stuck in her throat when the man glared at her warningly.

 

“Silence,” he hissed out through the clenched teeth. May instantly clenched her jaws shut and hastily nodded. The golden-eyed captor finally looked away from her and the girl slowly let out the breath she was holding. Then, much to her surprise he answered her question. “I am one of the Laismarans. Humans call my kind demons.”

 

May stiffened, when Aedain himself confirmed her worst suspicions. The man, who kidnapped her was not human, but a demon. Indeed, it was the best word to describe the kind of creature he was. It turned out, that her fear of him was perfectly justified.

 

Then the girl felt herself lose balance as the winged creature, on which both she and Aedain were riding, started to fly lower. She frantically tried to reach for the saddle to grab on to something to support herself, but she couldn’t reach because of the demon pressing her to himself. As the nightmarish steed dove downwards, May could see the nearing ground and freaked out. She turned abruptly to Aedain and wrapped her arms around his waist. She pressed herself tight against him, desperate not to lose a hold of him and fall off the steed.

 

The winged creature circled above a clearing in the forest and landed. Feeling, that they were no longer in the air, May slowly opened her eyes and pulled herself from the man, a little ashamed that she grabbed a stranger like that. She blushed abruptly and started blabbering nervously.

 

“Um… Oh… sorry for that. But I was scared that I will fall and I had nothing to hold on to… and my fear of heights…”

 

“Woman,” Aedain said warningly, annoyance visible in his eyes. May stopped talking.

 

The demon gracefully got off the beast’s back and grabbed unsuspecting May by her sash. Before the girl even had the chance to notice what was happening, he shoved her unceremoniously from the saddle. The girl yelped and fell on the ground with a loud thud like some sack of potatoes, gaining more bruises. May clenched her fists and glared at Aedain.

 

“What was that for?!” she screamed as she started to get herself back on her feet, fighting with the numbness in her legs and the numerous layers of the silk skirts.

 

Her beautiful royal attire was now dirty and torn, the long hair disheveled and the decorative golden circlet missing. She cursed quietly to herself and stiffened as she felt something poking her shoulder. She turned her head to see what it was and gave out a cry of fear and surprise. Aedain’s steed sniffed her curiously, the beasts red eyes glowing playfully. May’s eyes widened when the beast parted its jaws, showing row of long, sharp, needle-like teeth. She cautiously backed away, not really willing to find out if the creature wanted to hurt her or not �" it looked carnivorous enough.

 

She made a few steps back when she slammed into something. She turned around to see a very irritated Aedain. The demon gave her his most scary look and grabbed her arm. Then he began walking along the path, dragging May behind him. The black stallion followed them, folding the leathery wings and trotting a few steps after them.

 

“Wait! Let me go!” May protested and tried to wiggle herself from Aedain’s grip, but it made no impression on him; he didn’t even slow down.

 

The girl jerked her arm desperately, but he grabbed her tighter instead of letting go, his claws ripping through all the layers of fabric and puncturing the girl’s skin. May yelped in pain, but stopped struggling, not wanting to give him a reason to do her even more harm.

 

The girl knew that he was capable of killing her - she remembered the screams of slaughtered warriors. She flinched. What mess has she gotten herself into? Would she get out of it alive?

 

Finally Aedain stopped and May bumped into his back. She took a look of her surroundings. The demon had led her to a camp. By the fire was sitting a huge man in an armor similar to Aedain’s. He was bald, with black goatee decorating his chin. He must have been well over two meters tall and his body built nearly screamed: steroids. May flinched when she was a battle axe resting near the man.

 

As he saw Aedain’s arrival, he nodded in a simple gesture of respect. May noticed that his eyes were golden, just like Aedain’s.

 

Then, May noticed another person in a camp, who could be easily overlooked as an oversized black cloak was covering the little figure. A small hand reached to the hem of the fabric and slipped it off the head. The girl’s eyes widened, when she saw blonde, ruffled hair and innocent honey-colored eyes staring back at her.

 

“Eren,” she whispered.

Reviews

[Christopher Angel]

there is no way he'd kill her. No way! I like the demon - he's cool. You write him very well and May was impeccable in this chapter. She was not her usual bratty self and I'm glad she saw the sense in being at least respectful. The eclipse is intriguing and Aedain is such a complex enigma. I enjoy reading about him now more than anyone else.

There were a few jarring grammatical errors here though but you probably knew that.

[Gosia]

I'm glad that you liked Aedain. Actually he's my favorite character as well. I simply love those evil b******s ;-)

[Christopher Angel]

He's shaping up very nicely too

[JR Darewood]

I thought that was too easy when she was first leaving! May seems a bit outmatched. Hopefully she'll discover some kind of demon catnip or some way to drug them. Sureley the bird people are going to come into play at some point.