Page 80 of The Anointed's Paladin

The roar came again, closer this time.

“Nidori!” I hissed.

“I was just trying to tell it—” she started, but before she finished, a massive beast crashed through the trees. It was over fifteen feet tall, with small black eyes that glinted with hatred. I was right; it was some kind of boar. Its thick skin was jet-black and covered with scars. Protruding from its snout were four wickedly sharp tusks.

It swung its head, snorting, searching for the idiots who had disturbed its sleep. I could hear more crashing behind it, and I knew I did not want to find out how many more. It had stopped moving for now, its little ears flicking around, searching.

Nidori had rushed onto my shoulders, clinging tightly to my head.

Kaine nodded towards the sea, and I started moving slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible.

Its ears swung towards us, and it let out another bellowing roar.

“Smouldering ashes,” I heard Nidori say in a tiny voice.

“Run!” I said, and we ran through the dark, our heavy breathing pounding in our ears as we rushed towards the ocean.

More crashes sounded behind us, thundering through the trees. I led us through a particularly dense section of trees, and I felt Nidori shift, raising her hand. I glanced back to see a mess of thick, thorny spikes tangled throughout the thicket. The giant boar wasn’t the brightest; it went headfirst into the trees and vines, slowing down its charge.

My lungs were burning, and the sounds of angry roars, followed by trees cracking and splitting, told me that it wouldn’t be long before it caught up to us again.

“Come on, boys!” called Nidori, launching off my shoulders and zooming ahead.

We staggered onto the stony beach, sweaty and out of breath.

Nidori was fluttering around the trees on the shoreline and landed on a tree that had fallen down and was somehow still growing.

“Let’s put you out of your misery,” she said, patting the tree. She closed her eyes, and the tree shifted, folding and warping beneath her into the shape of a canoe.

“No offence, Nidori, but could you work a littlefaster?” Kaine asked, eyeing the rustling coming through the forest behind us.

The boat moved towards the ocean, and Nidori opened her eyes again. “Ta-da!” she said, reaching down inside the boat and struggled back up with some oars.

I stepped forward, taking them from her and dropping my backpack inside. No time to take off my clothes, but I rolled up my pant legs while Kaine and Nidori made sure all our things were stowed and pushed the boat to the water.

Another roar resounded through the trees, and the giant boar emerged from the forest, crashing onto the beach. Another came behind it, lowering its head to charge at us.

I started pushing the boat out, and Kaine yelped, leaping inside and shooting me a reproachful look. I ignored him and heaved, pushing against the lapping waves to get us out far enough and away from the forest.

Nidori heaved a sigh of relief as I jumped in as well, Kaine grabbing my wet shirt and hauling me up.

The boars roared again, pacing on the shoreline and glaring at us with beady eyes.

“Ha!” panted Kaine, still out of breath from the run. He raised his middle finger at the boars. “Fuck you, after all!”

I leaned back on the side of the canoe and let out a deep laugh. Nidori jumped and Kaine snorted, before breaking into laughter too. Soon, all of us were in fits of giggles, tears pouring down our faces in giddy relief as the giant creatures glared at us from the shore.

Eventually, I picked up the oars Nidori had made and started rowing, making sure we weren’t going to float back to that beach. We’d escaped the boars, but it was going to take a lot of rowing to get us to the island before first light.

36

The first one falls

Talon

“Ican’t see anything,” I said, putting the oar down.

Kaine sat up and examined the thick fog that had settled down around us.

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