Flowered Metal

"I want the woman first!" The James declared as his group of vagabonds tailed the barbarians through the open-land that acted as a buffer between the wildlands of the valley and civilization. When his men began to protest, James spoke up again. "I'll let you all have a turn after! But as the leader, I get the first of her!"

James wasn't a large man by any standard. In fact, he was the shortest of the 15. He was also the only one learned enough to navigate the law. He could read maps, read the sky, read signs, and he seemed to know every fence in every city from Wilfred's Holdfast to Saphire Keep on the coast. It'd been how the 15 had been able to operate for years. The others weren't as dimwitted as they were greedy. James kept them alive and kept their pockets full of silvers.

"Fine," One of the men snorted. "But I get to fuck her mouth numb while you take her!"

"Aye, you do that," Another made chortled. "But if we lay her sideways, three can fuck her at once!"

"OI, you fucking twat!" Another interjected. "You can't do that, I've seen your cock! You'd have a hard enough time just fucking her from behind!"

"And where have you seen my cock?" The chortling man hissed back. "Don't tell me you swing that way. If ya do, you can fuck the guard!"

"Are you fucking stupid?" The man hissed. "I saw it when you fucked that girl last week! You could barely fuck that child, and she was only half your damn height! Who knew the only thing they made big about you was your fucking muscles!"

"Keep your voices down!" James hissed. "You fucking spook them!" As James said, the beastkin was already speeding up. The group began to holler and jeer. James cursed for running with idiot peasants. They were as wild as they were stupid, which bode well for him most of the time. However, as the scholars usually said. Arrogance and stupidity went hand in hand.

The six spurred their mounts forward, each of the men was clothed in roughspun and mail. They no longer hide their intentions, and openly charged after their target. The city guards in the distance didn't care in the least. No one held love for the wildlings, which made them the perfect targets when they stuck their stupid little ears out.

However, James had a bad feeling about this. His gut clutched and without alerting the men around him, fell back slightly and moved aside. An arrow whistled through the air where he'd been. Jame's felt relief run through his veins. The attack also riled the men up. One of them pulled his crossbow from the satchel on his left. Already strung, he dropped an arrow in it and fired back.

It was done. The guard had little space to dodge. He tried to move away, and only managed for the bolt to pierce his left arm - narrowly missing his heart. The two wildlings began to panic as the wagon began to speed up more. Jame clicked his tongue. Those overgrown lizards the wildlings used as mounts were slightly faster than horses, so they'd have to kill it before it could go faster.

Now that there was blood in the water, the men were whipped into a bloodlust as they waved their weapons in the air. Thundering hooves filled the air as they approached the rattling wagon. Their taunting and vulgar words barely audible through the noise.

A ball of fire came arching from the sky before James knew it and it exploded harmlessly about seven paces off the road. The girl was a mage! That was an insult to James, who barely managed to be taught words and maps. And this stupid little whore knew magic!

I'm going to enjoy fucking you till you die! James growled to himself as envy coursed through his veins. You won't be shit when you're dead!

However much he wanted to shove that pretty face into the dirt and plant his cock between her legs like a farmer, he wasn't pushed enough to forget to be careful. Another fireball arched towards them, and the stupidest of them was hit. Man and horse were wrapped in reds and oranges as they veered off the path just as they crossed into the forest. The screams of the horse were cut as it passed through several pine trees on the left before it smashed into a thick one. But the bandit was still screaming.

No one cared they lost one man. In fact, the courting of death seemed to arouse them further as they all began to laugh in unison. A weakly drawn arrow flew at the group, only to fall short and stick itself in the dirt before being trampled to pieces. The weak attempt only caused more jeers to fill the air. The guard was struggling to notch another arrow when the forest came alive.

Just as they rounded a bend, the thicket opposite of the river exploded almost a 100 paces ahead of them. A large monster appeared on the large path, its body glowing with yellow lights over its head and legs --- James didn't know what it was, but it was huge. It came out with a large roar that seemed to make everything vibrate with it.

A deep and intimidating voice filled the air as if a god was speaking to them. All the horses whined in fear as they whipped their heads side to side as they came to a sudden stop. The voice spoke in the wildling's tongue, and the wagon passed under it without harm. Its oddly shaped head didn't move, but what appeared to be its cock pointed itself down at them.

James didn't hesitate. He forced the horse to turn and began to gallop away. The other men, filled with lust and murder, saw their mark pass the beast and thought to do the same. They charged forward as James ripped his eyes away and began to escape.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!

The air was filled with an ear-piercing roar, drowning out the screams as James disappeared behind the bend. The world fell into a deaf ring but he dared not to look back as he felt the world tremble. He braved a peek over his shoulder and found most of his men were following. Terror filled their faces, and James spurred his horse on needlessly. It did not need any motivation to run from the angered beast that tore through the bend behind them.

It was bulky and slow, but it tore through the large tree by the bend as it rammed its leg into one of the fallen men.

Then its cock like appendage turned towards them. It roared to live with fire and death; black earth sprung in a thick line through the group. Men and horses alike sprayed blood as they fell - one horse's head was ripped in half as it fell. The group had gone from 15 to seven in a minute.

Jame's horse jolted forward, and for a moment he thought he was going to die. But no. The horse began to lead the group further and further. The distance growing as both rider and mount wished to disappear from that reaper behind them.

"Go! Go! Faster you piece of shit!" James roared as his heart thundered in his chest.

BRRRRRRRRT!

Without thinking, James pulled the horse to veer to the right. A line of earth cut past him as it rose. He dared not to look back, lest it causes the horse to slow. His ears were slowly beginning to recover and he could hear the terrified screams of the few surviving men left. Along with the deep thumbing of death as it chased after them.

Up ahead, the town was growing larger and larger as the guards began to assemble on the ramparts. The hill it'd been build on had been shoveled away to leave defensible position wildlings and monsters alike, and the gate was cracked open as a guard waved him threw. The horse had become the wind once again and it lost no speed on the incline. Its hooves carrying it up and up until it plateaued; James crossed into the town and came to a stop to dismount the crazed horse.

He needed to see what came next.

The horse more or less kicked him off before it whipped off into town. But James could care less as he ran to the gate. He hadn't realized just how fast his horse had gone. While he'd already reached the town, his men had barely made it past half the open field. The monster wasn't chasing them any longer and stood clear as day just outside the forest - just by the river.

The deathly fire never came again. The last dredges of his men were working up the 100 paces tall man-made hill; their horses out of breath from carrying their heavy loads. They struggled and panted as the guards urged them on. But James somehow knew it. They were dead. All of them. In the distance, the roars of death came once again, but not in a sharp quick call.

It came in short and paced screams as fire erupted from the distance. Thick bolts of red cut through the sky, one after the other. They rose slightly from the top of the monster before they fell down towards the group on the hill. It'd only been a moment or two at the most. Then, the road erupted as if lightning struck. Thunder shook the town as the guards cowered behind cover.

James did not. He watched on in stiff terror as the dirt erupted like a geyser of dirt and blood. Pieces of horse and men flew high as four claps of thunder rang out before. The attack lasted only four heartbeats. That was when the body parts began to land all around them. A string of horse entrails landed on top of the gate's branch thick archway. It caught and wrapped a few times before it swung to a stop.

Blood dripped from it the hanging end before dirt and blood followed after. The screams of the townsfolk fell over deaf ears. The guards closest to the explosions stumbled away from the short wooden barricades while a few cowered with their hands over their ears. James just stood in the open gate like a statue. His wide eyes watching the distant monster slowly back into the forest.

The red lights that covered its body turned yellow momentarily, then they turned blue. A moment later, they died away as a single barely visible ring of blue beneath its body glowed in the shade of the forest. Jame had the best eyes of any man or woman he ever knew. Red was no longer the eyes of death. It was also yellow and blue.

That was what he thought as the beast disappeared behind the forest. A single small dot followed it from above. The clouds near the dot stirred like a school of fish stirred with a shark swam through them.