Chapter 18 - Part 13

Soft snow crunched beneath her feet as she walked across the broken earth. There was a trail of sorts, or at least a fairly level ribbon of ground that snaked between smoking pits and upthrust hills. The information that she had said that the trail led to Festering Holt, but that the way was treacherous. This did not scare her. Treachery was burnt away by the Flame, and faith made all endeavors possible.

These were her second set of boots. Shortly after slaying the demonic version of a mountain goat she had stepped in some snow that was made of acid. She’d jumped back in time to save her feet, but not her boots. If not for her fellow priests insisting that she pack an extra set of footgear, she’d have lost her ability to walk to frostbite by now.

I could use the horse, she thought. But not yet. I am not yet able to keep him the entire day.

Something moved behind a large upthrust rock, a piece of blood-red granite larger than a barn that could be hiding another. The bugbear lifted her broad nose and drew her flametouched iron longsword. Whatever it was, it was going to come her way soon.

With a terrible roar, a thing of white, leathery skin and red, smoking eyes came charging around the corner. It had a broad shield of bone reaching up from its skull and over its neck, from which two long horns projected. Another shirt horn, this one curved, shot up from a mouth that ended in a sharp, beak-like opening.

Fiendish dinosaur, she thought, dodging the first charge and laying a strike along its side. The beast was large, and barely felt the scratch. It turned and struck her breastplate with its horns, knocking her down. She rolled away, and sprung to her feet with her blade in hand. The demon-bred thing breathed a greasy plume of noxious smoke at her, but she dodged it easily.

“Flame protect me and guide me,” she said, backing up so that she could circle. “The Silver Flame is my beacon, and with it I am safe.” The dinosaur snorted in contempt, and watched her movements with beady eyes, preparing another charge.

A great arc of lightning shot down from the cloudy sky, hitting the dinosaur-fiend dead center, and splitting it apart. Roasted demonic meat gave off a foul odor that competed with vehement ozone in her nostrils. Her vision was full of the lightning bolt, but she blinked her eyes for a minute until the afterimage cleared.

She looked up, seeing only clouds in the morning sky. Happily she fell to hear knees and began to sing. Loud hymns in praise of the Silver Flame rolled across the desolate landscape of the Demon Wastes.