literature

Dances with Unicorns- Chapter 2

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      The area where the arrow had landed felt hot, so hot, as if my flesh were being burned by a fire under my skin. The heat started to course outward everywhere from the initial spot. It didn't just burn, but it throbbed too, as if a thousand needles were piercing through me.

      The shouts of the humans grew louder with each passing second, and my pace was beginning to slow. The pain pulsated throughout my body and I ground my teeth in frustration. They were steadily gaining on me, kept coming, kept following. I couldn't outrun them. I couldn't fight them. My mind whirled with so many scenarios, compared all the possibilities of my fate, and then I noticed the forest I was so close to.

     I dashed into the cover of the trees, scraped past ferns and branches. The humans chased after me, slapping their horses in urgency for more speed, when the miserable creatures were tired and hungry. More arrows raced past me, barely missing. I leapt over a mossy log and veered right, hoping to catch some of my pursuers by surprise. One horse refused to jump and sent the rider hurtling forward into the trunk of a wide maple. I stopped and breathed deeply, then quickly resumed galloping. I wove through the maze of trees, felt the sweat and blood trickle down my chest, then suddenly stumbled over a root and crashed onto the ground.  

     The humans surrounded me before I could stand, and three simultaneously threw a rope around my neck. My hooves slid on the damp ground, rendered me unable to get up. Two more ropes caught onto my legs and tightened. I thrashed against my bonds and screamed to the heavens. I was not going to lose so easily. I was not going to die so soon.

     The poison had settled into my bloodstream and seized me whole. I felt as if I were a raging inferno, a fiery beast with a will of steel. I realized that I was now paralyzed and heavily intoxicated. I became limp and the cries died down in my throat. The humans dismounted their horses and cheered.

     "You think this knife will do?" a short, round man asked.

     A woman replied, "As long as it's sharp."

     "How should I kill it? Should I cut it's throat?" asked the same man.

     Another man said, "I heard it's better to cut the horn off while it's alive. That way there'll be more magic in it."

     The knife-man spoke again, "Can someone hold it's head still while I saw off the horn?"

     My breaths were ragged as two men stepped right beside me and touched my neck with their cold, cold hands. I shivered and snapped at them, and they just laughed in my face. There had to be someway out of this…there had to be something I could do. The diseased woman from earlier abruptly flashed before me and I knew what to do.

     I squeezed my eyes shut and concentrated all my remaining energy into my horn. A bright blue light emanated from the tip and engulfed everything for a brief five seconds before fading away. The people murmured amongst themselves and dismissed my final act as a failed attempt to flee.

     One man wrapped his arms around my head and another pressed my neck against the moist earth. The knife-man placed his blade against the base of my horn…and then a scream pierced the silence. A diseased man had tore off a chunk of one of the men's necks and continued screaming as the dead man fed eagerly on his flesh. Moans and shrieks soon echoed through the woods as more and more diseased shuffled from the shadows and attacked the humans that had chased and hurt me. Some of the people mounted their horses and tried to escape, but the trees and the dark and the panic overwhelmed the horses, and bony, rotted hands reached up and pulled them down, and the horses fled without their riders.

     A diseased man wearing rags knelt in front of me and gnawed at the knife-man's arm. In all the chaos, the three men whose task was to cut off my horn were caught between the trees and the bodies of their companions, ensuring their ruin. The diseased man was no more than a skeleton with some patches of skin, and vines twined around him as if he were part of the forest. His toothless mouth sucked at the insides of the fallen men, and his moan was silent as he had nothing to produce sound. I felt the blood of the humans raining upon me, staining the ground and soaking the small plants and fungi. It was warm and comforting to my frozen body, and the sounds of the diseased ravaging the humans like wolves to deer was almost like a lullaby to my slipping conscious.

     I let sleep wash over me like a soft wave rolling through an ocean of carnage and sweeping me into a pleasant darkness.
Chapter 2 to my horror/fantasy novel about zombies and unicorns, narrated by a unicorn! XD

Chapter 1: [link]
© 2012 - 2024 DarkMysticRose
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sevenofeleven's avatar
Kudos to you for this.
Would like to read more in this series.