The Swamp Dweller

Shyana shuffled backward, trying to understand the creature before her. It was as big as the trees around them and just as dark. The monster looked like it was the very spirit of the forest come to life; vines and branches tumbling off it with every ground-shaking step.

Vikas dove to the side just as a giant, branch-like arm slammed down between them. He twisted around, when a vine whipped out trying to match his own weapon.

Shyana raised her sword and quickly avoided the root which rose from the ground and tried to trip her. "Revarian! What is that thing?!"

He quickly abandoned his past fight and turned his attention in their general direction, as Reuk swooped all around the mighty beast giving him a visual.

"It's a Hyinac! A swamp dweller! Watch for its arms, they'll crush you!" He yelled as he threw one of his daggers straight at the creature's empty eye sockets.

Shyana lunged forward and drove her sword into the beast, only to find that it vanished into the plant-like body. With the sudden disappearance of her weapon, Shyana gasped, pulling with all of her might to retrieve it.

Vikas was going whip-to-vine with the creature on its left side, roaring at his soldiers. "What are you doing? Attack!"

Quick to come out of their trances, the Thurucaln men attacked the giant beast with arrows, daggers and a scythe on a chain, but nothing seemed to be more than a mere annoyance to the Hyinac.

Shyana finally pulled out her sword, grimacing at the stream of green slime that flowed with it. "How do we kill this thing?"

Revarian climbed up a tree quicker than her eyes could follow. He waited for the large creature to step forward. "Bring him towards me! You'll have to work together!"

Shyana glared and Vikas spat in her direction. "We don't need your help! Boek, bring this thing down!"

The soldier nodded and turned his arrows up at the swamp monster's face, releasing one after another at an almost blinding speed. While it did hinder the Hyinac, the assault didn't stop it and Shyana could see they needed it to back up under Revarian's tree for whatever he was planning.

With an ear-splitting crack, the Hyinac brought one of its huge arms down and smashed it right on Boek, crushing him instantly. It then see-sawed its body and slammed through the warrior on its left like he was nothing more than sand on a hot day.

The crumbling of their bodies froze the Thurucalns in their tracks. Vikas eyes widened — two of his best fighters were gone, just like that. Two men he had fought and trained with since childhood, taken out in mere seconds. What else could he use against it?

Shyana slid low, her blade aiming for one of the massive legs, only to have the Hyinac swipe her aside, flinging her against a tree like a ragdoll.

She gripped her torso, hoping none of her ribs were broken and tried to find another solution until a roar sounded, though it wasn't from the creature in front of them.

She turned just in time to see the golden flash lunge out in front of her and leap on the swamp dweller. Akiem fully transformed; something she hadn't seen in many, many years.

Her jaw dropped. as she watched her oldest friend abandon his human face and release the beast within.

"Akiem!" She screamed as the enormous lion pounced, digging his claws into the Hyinac's vine filled body and biting down with his powerful jaws.

Everyone was just as shocked at the transformation, but it didn't take long to see what Akiem was planning; he was forcing the swamp beast to the right where Revarian was waiting in the tree.

Shyana rushed to the side to keep it going that way. She wasn't sure how much more Akiem could handle, as each tearing of the monster's body, released buckets of the green slime down his jaws.

Revarian leapt down from his perch and on top of the Hyinac's swampy head, with a vine from the tree in his hand.

Slamming the vine into the creature's scalp, he brought another and another until the trees started to move and virtually swallowed up the Hyinac into their roots.

Akiem dislodged his jaws and fell off of the swamp dweller, before the final tree wrapped around it. He hit the ground, landing on his massive paws, before stumbling and falling to the forest floor.

Shyana rushed forward, ignoring the lion's massive size and running her hands around his body. He groaned under her touch.

"Akiem….Akiem can you hear me?"

His muscles started to twitch and convulse, until they shrunk back to their normal size.

Shyana felt the golden fur beneath her hand bubble and transform from soft hair into smooth skin. His giant paws, which were much bigger than her feet, with claws the size of her fingers, shriveled back into his normal hands.

She held Akiem's face in her hands and searched his eyes, which were closed in pain. "Akiem? Speak to me."

He gasped. "I'm all right…. I'm all right….."

She looked up to Revarian, who approached them with Reuk on his shoulder. Though she was worried, the general hadn't forgotten for a second that she was only meters away from her enemies. "Take care of him."

She stood and picked up her sword, stalking closer to the clearly shaken Thurucalns. Shyana extended her blade. "Servile advisor you say? Feast your eyes, Prince Vikas, for Akiem did what your weakling soldiers could not. Now, where were we before that interruption?"

Vikas turned his topaz eyes from the transformed man, to the fierce woman standing before him.

His arm curled, summoning his whip back to himself. "Don't speak ill of my men, Makea, they're braver than any pet you picked up on the side of the road. And we were going to defeat it if you and yours hadn't gotten in the way. Thanks to you, two of my best men are dead."

Shyana's smile dripped venom. "Oh, many more than just two have been killed by my hand."