LMS VI: Shadows & Dragonfire - Chapter 1.4

Hi again Scar! I'm back for another installment of this whilst I should be sorting out excel spreadsheets. This is much more enjoyable and I am a queen of procrastination so here we are.

The format you've posted this in means that it works with having all the breaks and transitions between parts, but I'm not sure how well that would translate if I was reading this as it's intended (all as one chapter rather than sections within a chapter). There have been a fair few scene changes already so it's hard to see why they all fit in the same chapter. I'm not sure what will constitute an actual chapter change once we get to chapter two. Will hold judgement until then but just wanted to let you know what I'm thinking.

I also can't make up my mind about the info with Alvena in the start of this part. It seems like important information but I also feel way less connected to the character because we've heard it after the fact rather than straight from her. Might be an effect of me taking pauses between reading sections though!

The second part of this section however was actually my favourite of what I've read from you so far. There's some real tension here and the characters are in danger and I really enjoyed seeing how they responded to that. I was worried for a moment that it was going to be over really soon but I think seeing them struggle helps put into perspective how they fit into this world. I can see this bonding our heroes with the elf too. Everyone knows once you battle together you're friends for life, right?

Loving that the action is heating up, and ready to crack on with the next part!!

Icy

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),

Hi! I'm here to leave a quick review!! And we keep right on marching xD. I'm starting to fall a little in love with this dynamic at the moment. The slow pace is also just about slow enough to be a relaxing read without being boring so this is proving a wonderful choice to review on a Saturday morning.

First Impression: Okayyy well this is lovely, but which I mean it is terrible and therefore we are getting our first glimpse of a bit of hands on conflict here to be dealing with and we have our first sort of cliffhanger, as much as a thing can be a cliffhanger when its technically the middle of a chapter.

Anyway let's get right to it,

Their conversation with the elf woman was....enlightening, to say the least. And after three days of travel, the offer to rest in the village was greatly appreciated. They learned the elf's name was Alvena and that she was searching for her sibling, Avery. Apparently there had been rumours of an elf of indeterminate gender spotted in the area, so Alvena--or Vena, as she prefered--had come to investigate. Avery was long gone by the time Vena had arrived in the village, but had stayed because the villagers were plagued by monsters. Some kind of not-quite-dead creature that had started to dig up the tiny graveyard set a ways down the river.

Lorne had been...disturbed by the story of that. He'd exchanged a look with Sage and Cassidy over it while Emyrs continued to study his snake and Issy was busy with tending to his mare. Sorell had not been harmed, but she had been badly startled and was yet to calm down fully. A couple of the village boys had come over to offer the mare several slices of apple and a small bucket of what appeared to be some kind of oats.

The elf, Vena, wanted their help. She'd done her best to keep the beasts at bay, but was struggling to protect everyone. She'd been here for months already and had lost more than a few of the villagers. She was but one elf and even one elf could not protect everyone in the village.

Lorne was determined to help--and judging by the looks the others were exchanging, they were as well. It was the least they could do for the hospitality a clearly suspicious village of twenty-something were showing them.

So, with that in mind, Lorne and the others set themselves up in the only barn with Sage sitting in the loft, keeping watch in one direction while Alvena kept watch in the other. The elf had better eyesight and was keeping an eye on the tiny graveyard.

Lorne woke to shouting. He jolted upright in the straw, dagger drawn before he even realised what was happening. It took a moment for him to realise someone was shouting for them all to get up, that it was here. It was a call to arms.

Now that he was more awake, more alert, he could hear something snarling and growling, the echo of something large moving around and around the barn. He followed the noises as it moved, slowly climbing up into a crouch. The sounds it was making were extremely unnerving.

He swallowed and jerked his head up at the sharp call of his name to find Cassidy staring down at him over the edge of the loft. "What is it?"

"Less talk, more fighting!" Alvena yelled down and Lorne jerked into motion, swifting scaling the ladder up to the loft. He joined Vena at her window, kneeling beside her but out of her way so that she could keep firing into the shifting shadows that would pass beneath them every now and then. "Fuck, it's so fast. I can barely catch a glimpse of it."

"It's so dark," he said, squinting into the night. He had no idea what time it was, but he could see a handful of torches burning--and yet, that was not enough light to illuminate the beast. "How the hell are we supposed to stop this thing?"

Vena drew her bow again and fired, seemingly blindly.

They stayed still for a moment, just listening to the darkness. For several long, tense moments, there was nothing and then--there. A slight movement, a shimmer in the darkness. Lorne caught a glimse of torchlight reflecting off something. Eyes, perhaps, he thought, but it was unlike any eyeshine he'd seen before. Definitely not like Sage's, like a dragon's subtle glow and not any kind of prey animal he'd seen before. Definitely not like the wolves he'd sometimes spotted watching them from beyond a circle of firelight.

No, this was something....foreign to him. To perhaps even the region.

He frowned, but didn't have much more time to ponder on it as Vena fired in that general direction. Another yowl, a hiss. A low, rattling growl that set his teeth on edge and made the hairs on his arms stand up.

Vena fired again, and again there was the low growl, rattling and awful. The shadows moved and suddenly a large, black shape slinked into the tiny ring of firelight below them. Lorne froze, stunned, as red eyes stared up at him and fixed first him, then Alvena with a narrowed gaze. There was something...off about those eyes. Something...intelligent. They were a different kind of red to Sage's, something that was very...unnerving to look at.

This was no mere beast.

This creature was smart. It was a hunter, and they were it's prey.

Lorne stared right back into the beast's eyes, dread pooling in his stomach. He had a feeling that this was a fight they weren't about to win.