The Ghosts of Herak Part 5

We walked briskly through the forest with me in the lead, followed by Pandora my sister, Ameria and the fiery guardian. We walked in single file as the underbrush was thick.  
 
Pandora was getting tired and clung to my arm. I encouraged her as much as I could as I wanted to reach Orcus before sun up. I was having a strange sense of being watched, but upon glancing at the guardian and Ameria, I was reassured that it was my imagination as they didn’t seem to notice anything.  
 
We came upon a break from the closeness of the forests, several hours later. It looked like a wide track of land, without anything growing on it. The land, which seemed like a wide road leading from somewhere to another, was dry soil, well-travelled by vehicles of sorts. There were shallow marks of horse hooves on the dry hard ground. We stood there looking at it for a while, and thought how easy it was to follow the road.
 
As I step on it, something seemed to move underneath the soil. I recoiled instantly, and stumbled. Pandora fell on the ground near me and Ameria  clutched the guardian’s arm in fright. The soil seemed to move and undulate, and all of us, gasped stepping back, cringing against one another inn fear. Even the guardian looked fazed.  
 
The soil burst upwards and a dark creature, which looked like a bat burst out. its eyes were blazing red and its mouth was filled with fangs that seemed to look like needles. It hovered for a while and then step on the ground, it stared at us for a while, and then growled at us.
 
“You are trespassing…who are you…?”
 
I was getting tired of all the things that were blocking us.  I was terrified but I was not about to let the ugly monster stop us from getting to Orcus. We needed to get to him to save our village. We needed to get to him by sunrise and it was far past midnight.
 
“We are looking for Orcus! Get out of our way…!” I said, glaring at the ugly monster, advancing as menacingly as I could towards it.
 
It recoiled with shock. Perhaps nobody had ever spoken to it like that before.  Pandora held my arms, pulling me back, as I unsheathed  my sword.
 
“Grace, no…!”
 
The beast glared at us.
 
“Looking for Orcus? All of you? Even you?” it asked, glaring at the guardian.
The guardian shrugged.
 
The beasts sighed…and slowly it turned misty and then sparkled brilliantly. We gasped, as it turned into a beautiful woman, with long black hair cascading over her shoulder.
 
I sighed. Will we ever get to Orcus…I thought.  
 
The woman smiled at me, as if she could read my thoughts.  
 
“My name is Desire, the Enchanter …I will take you to Orcus. I will demand a prize, but time for that later,” she laughed, her laughter like brittle glass breaking the almost-morning air.
 
To be continued…