Onward to Adventure: Chapter 8

As Brinvok ran through the village, the people who not a few minutes before were such happy sights were now obstacles in his way as he raced through the busy streets.  The crowed blurring into what Brinvok perceived as almost a huge person, with a thousand pairs of eyes and one big inaudible voice.  Once he finally burst through the old wooden gate, he raced up the dirt trail through the forest until he got to the clearing where his house now formerly stood.

There in the clearing was the smoldering remains of his family's house, countless questions flooded Brinvok’s mind.  He wondered where his parents were and if there was anything he could have done to prevent this.  Suddenly all of his questions were answered as a giant shadow blocked out the sun and the only light he could see was the last few embers that had yet to die from the spot where his house stood.  He looked up and saw a sight that would be singed into his memory like a hot iron.  A massive Guardian, the famed Qucsceradeinos, for years its legend was passed through the lands, that it could destroy an acre of land in a heartbeat,  and yet it only targeted his house.  

The Qucsceradeinos was covered from head to claws with emerald green and black feathers that seemed to be so dark that they appeared to trap sunlight.  It had a long reptilian face with brilliant orange eyes that flickered like torches in a cave.  It had long black wings that sounded like thunder when they flapped, the trees moved with each gust, they ebbed and flowed like a big green ocean.  The Qucsceradeinos has long thick legs that end with a foot that has four clawed toes on each foot.  A long tail that ended with a thick bushel of feathers that blend from black to bright green.  These mighty beasts of the sky started massive fires by rubbing its claws together near a combustible surface, such as hay or a thatch roof of a house, the sparks that can fly from the claws would then ignite the desired object and spread.  

The legend goes that the Qucsceradeinos only harms humans for sport.  While it is told to eat meat, it is told that they resent humanity for driving their population to a few dozen.  These mighty beasts hunted mankind in their early years, until the day that humanity invented metal weapons to combat the Qucsceradeinos and other such Guardians.  

Brinvok stood motionless staring at the behemoth in the sky, the beast did not even seem to notice his presence.  The woods were silent, all that was heard was the deep sound of the monster’s wings flapping and a distant scream.  Brinvok looked up at the monster and saw his mother in the beast's clutches.

He watched in horror as the Guardian looked down, it had noticed our hero and gazed into his eyes.  Brinvok later would swear that the monster smiled as he let one claw loosen around Brinvok’s mother. Two claws loosened, then three, she was holding on for dear life to the last claw of the monster.   The beast flicked its claw, like a human flicking a louse off of its finger and Brinvok’s mother plummeted to the earth, crashing through the trees and hit the ground with a muffled thud.