Chapter 142: The Creatures Beyond the Gate 1
Swanly stared down at the strangers.
Who the hell were these creatures?
Nobody moved.
Not Ironwood.
Not the strangers.
Not even the wind seemed brave enough to pass between them.
Dust slowly settled outside the new gate.
And as it did, Swanly finally saw them properly.
Her fingers tightened around her bow.
They were tall.
Very fucking tall.
The females alone seemed close to six feet, some even taller. Their bodies were shaped almost like humans, but there was absolutely nothing human about the rest of them.
Dark skin gleamed beneath the afternoon light.
Not ordinary dark skin.
Black-blue.
Deep violet.
Almost metallic in places.
Hard overlapping plates covered their shoulders, chests, thighs, forearms and lower legs as though armor had grown directly from their bodies.
And their wings...
Swanly stared.
Six.
Some of them had six enormous translucent wings.
Three pairs.
The upper pair stretched widest.
The middle pair folded close behind them.
The lowest pair hung long and narrow, almost touching the ground.
Blue and violet light traveled through tiny branching veins inside the thin membranes.
Their eyes glowed too.
Blue.
Silver.
Violet.
A few red.
Long dark antennae rose from their heads, twitching slowly as though tasting the air.
Some had claws.
Some had small horn-like growths around their temples.
The males were even larger.
Broader.
Heavier.
Their natural body plating was thicker around the chest, throat and shoulders.
Several held long dark weapons made from something Swanly did not recognize.
Not rough wood.
Not chipped stone.
Not bone.
Smooth black shafts.
Dark pointed ends.
Every weapon looked almost exactly the same.
That alone bothered her.
Beastmen made their weapons individually.
One spear might be crooked.
Another heavier.
Another bound with hide.
These were uniform.
Ordered.
Made deliberately.
Then Swanly’s gaze dropped toward the figures she had originally mistaken for mounted warriors.
Her mouth parted.
There were no riders.
"What the fuck?"
Arion glanced toward her.
Swanly ignored him.
The lower half of those creatures was shaped like enormous horses.
Four powerful legs.
Long tails.
Heavy bodies covered with dark hide and patches of the same strange natural plating.
But rising from where the horse’s neck should have been was a humanoid torso.
Arms.
Chest.
Head.
Antennae.
Glowing eyes.
Centaur.
Her brain supplied the word instantly.
Except these were nothing like the pretty creatures drawn in fantasy books.
One male stood nearly nine feet from hoof to head.
His forearms were thicker than Swanly’s waist.
Dark markings glowed faintly across his horse body.
When one hoof scraped the earth, Swanly felt the vibration through the wall.
Raku appeared beside Soren.
His eyes narrowed.
"What are those?"
Swanly answered automatically.
"I have absolutely no fucking idea."
Soren did not look at her.
His entire attention remained on the strangers.
He stood at the center of the wall.
Not Arion.
Not Kael.
Not anyone else.
Soren.
His people.
His settlement.
His land.
His decision.
Raku stood slightly behind him, already signaling warriors into position with short movements of his hand.
Kael moved closer to Swanly.
Not in front of her.
Close enough to reach her.
His black ears were completely flat.
A low growl sat in his chest.
Below them, the gate remained shut.
Heavy timber.
Stone supports.
Thick crossbars.
One of the first things Swanly had insisted on building after Ironwood began taking shape.
At the time, people had complained.
Too much work.
Too much wood.
Too much stone.
Now nobody was complaining.
Behind the inner wall came a muffled shriek.
"I SEE WING!"
Tilla’s voice immediately followed.
"GET BACK!"
"But Tilla!"
"Miko!"
"I need see!"
"You need to survive!"
Another little voice joined.
"Kairo need see danger."
"No, Kairo needs to sit down!"
"Papa outside!"
"YOUR PAPA HAS CLAWS!"
Then Lumi:
"I have teeth."
"You are a rabbit!"
"Good teeth!"
Swanly closed her eyes for half a second.
These children were going to kill every adult in Ironwood before the apocalypse managed it.
Tilla was not alone.
Three females were guarding the cub shelter now.
And apparently still losing.
A little black head appeared beneath the woven barrier.
A female caught Miko by the ankle and dragged him backward.
"MAMA!"
Swanly did not even turn around.
"STAY INSIDE!"
"But strange people!"
"Exactly!"
Miko disappeared.
Then Kairo’s face replaced his.
"I just look."
"No."
Gone.
Nilo appeared.
He looked silently.
Swanly pointed.
Nilo disappeared by himself.
At least one of them understood consequences.
Tilla’s exhausted voice floated out.
"I am tying them together."
Another female replied:
"Do it."
Miko gasped.
"No!"
"You keep escaping!"
"Need freedom!"
"You need rope!"
Swanly almost laughed.
Almost.
Then something beside her shifted.
Thalara.
Swanly turned.
The Root-Eyed Mother’s expression had changed.
All color seemed to leave her strange face.
Her central purple eye stared beyond the wall.
Not at one particular stranger.
At all of them.
Then her roots moved.
Fast.
They climbed around her ankles.
Her calves.
Her waist.
Swanly frowned.
"Thalara?"
"Do not tell them I am here."
Swanly’s humor disappeared.
"What?"
Thalara stepped backward.
"Do not allow them to see me."
Then the roots swallowed her.
Her body disappeared beneath the earth so quickly Swanly barely had time to process it.
One moment she was there.
The next there was nothing but disturbed soil.
Swanly stared at the spot.
What the fuck?
She looked back toward the strangers.
Druun had noticed too.
And Druun...
Druun was not behaving normally.
The giant stood near the back of the settlement.
Usually, around strangers, he watched.
Curious.
Quiet.
Maybe suspicious.
Not now.
His enormous shoulders were hunched.
His fingers dug into the soil.
A growl rolled from somewhere deep inside his chest.
Low.
Ugly.
The sound vibrated through the wall.
Several beastmen looked back.
Raku’s expression hardened.
Kael looked toward Druun.
Then back at the strangers.
Everyone in Ironwood knew Druun was gentle.
Annoyingly gentle sometimes.
The cubs climbed on him.
Tovan ordered him around like a living mountain.
Druun tolerated all of it.
If Druun hated these creatures on sight...
That was not comforting.
Outside the gate, one of the winged females looked toward him.
She smiled.
Not frightened.
Almost amused.
"Hello, friend."
Druun’s growl became louder.
His lips pulled back.
Swanly had never seen his teeth fully exposed before.
She wished she still hadn’t.
The female’s smile weakened slightly.
Interesting.
Then she moved.
Her wings opened.
The sound was soft.
Almost beautiful.
A strange humming whisper.
She rose several feet from the ground.
Not flying high.
Simply floating.
Then she lowered herself again.
Gracefully.
So gracefully Swanly could barely hear her feet touch the earth.
She stood before the others.
Tall.
At least five-foot-eleven.
Maybe six feet.
Her long black hair moved around her shoulders.
Blue light ran faintly through her six wings.
She lifted one clawed hand.
"We come in peace."
Nobody on the wall relaxed.
Raku muttered:
"Peace usually arrives with fewer weapons."
Swanly almost nodded.
Soren finally spoke.
His voice was quiet.
"What do you seek on my land?"
The female looked at him.
Her antennae tilted forward.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then a male stepped forward.
He was enormous.
Not horse-bodied.
Winged.
Nearly seven feet tall.
His shoulders were broad enough to make most beastmen look narrow beside him.
Hard black plating covered much of his chest.
Two thick antennae curved backward over long dark hair.
His upper wings opened slightly behind him.
"We wish to search this land."
Silence.