AllFreeNovel
Share Us
With barely a wave, I set the largest tent alight from its base.
Humans come streaming out, scattering any hope of mobilization. I think I see little ones among them, hiding in the skirts of the women, but another pulse from my core sends them all flying off their feet. They stare up at me—those that can still see—to lay witness to my true form before they meet their demise.
The light intensifies, and I become a being of pure sight. Pure light.
I look into each one’s soul as the horror of their fate becomes tangible. My next blast scorches the entrance to the camp. A dozen humans shield themselves, only to crisp on contact with my brilliance.
My blazing feet land lightly on the sand, leaving footsteps of glass as I pass through the yawning opening. The ones with good sense flee. Others that haven’t quite grasped the severity of the situation are dragging away corpses of their loved ones, blood and ash smeared across their horror-stricken faces.
A woman nearly bolts past me, and I catch her forearm.
She shrieks at my touch, her green eyes bright with the light of me as her skin roasts under my grip. I drag her close and bury my teeth into her shoulder, drinking down her vital fluid before she slumps in my arms.
"All done with this one." I let her corpse fall at my feet and wipe my mouth.
There are eyes on my hands, at each fingertip, all across my back and my front, and every facet of my glowing essence, so that when a human male comes at me with the intent to attack, I’m already facing him.
It is one thing to rain fire from on high.
It is another thing entirely to be faced with their feeble weaponry and their brutish attacks at ground level. He doesn’t even get within ten handspans of me before I let all my glorious illumination roll over him. Flesh and muscle are sheared from his skeleton before the spearhead makes contact, melting into a spray of iron while his skeleton remains standing there, grinning at his own foolishness.
I'd almost pity them if it wasn’t so satisfying to watch them die.
I might have expected a better fight from the dark elves or the orcs. They never seem to know fear until it is too late. Humans, on the other hand, are crafted from fear and subservience. They are made for it.
I step over a corpse and move deeper into the camp.
Fires flare up around me of their own volition, and the surviving humans seem to have caught on to the nature of my visit. There is no mercy to be gained in this battleground. I only crave to water the desert with their blood.
“Give up your struggle, humans,” I say, letting the words radiate through the ether. “Your masters have abandoned you to my wrath.”
Those that have any sense scatter from my sight.
But a young woman with tattered golden hair weeps over a corpse with his eyeballs melted from his head. Her body heaves and tears cascade over her rounded cheeks. I find humor in the gesture.What wasted potential, when you could be running,I think, stoking the fires inside of me so that they glitter in her eyes before they consume her, too.
I take in the cool morning air, the sun finally beginning to rise.
Smoke curls up over the camp, drifting high into the sky, a testament to the destruction of those who dared to invade my territory. May it be a signal to others who might consider the same. True dawn sheds an impassive light across the camp, red and black painting its once-white tents. Their stores are scattered and burnt, the survivors fleeing and choking on ash.
My wings hoist me gracefully into the air for a better vantage.
From this angle, I can count the last of the humans spared from my indignation. I’ll give them time to regain their footing before raining more fire down on them. And when I’m finished, the merciless desert will weed the rest out.
Out here, in the middle of the Tlouz wilds, there will be no reinforcements.
I allow a wry smile to come over me, gloating—I’ll admit—at the beautiful devastation. Their wails were grating on my fine senses, and though the fires have been tempered for now, it won’t take much to accelerate the burn if they decide to start up again.
The camp is already alight.
"You have nowhere to run, locked in the crosshairs of my sight."
Other than the muted crackling of dry wood, a different sort of silence settles over the camp. One that’s punctuated with the distant, bleating cries of little humans, somewhere among the wreckage.
I let myself drop lower to pinpoint the sound, my interest piqued.
5
ARIE
