Scolopendon: A Fictional Narrative

I awoke to Finn shaking me, “Breakfast time,” he said.

I just yawned and combed my fingers through my hair, I saw that he was wearing the simple uniform, so I shooed him out of the room, asking him to get some food and save a spot for me. I changed and even put on the scabbards for the swords we’d use to battle the Scolopendra.

I went downstairs and found the table we’d sat at last night, there was an empty seat between Finn and Neek, I took it and Finn slid a platter of eggs and coarse bread to me. I ate the meal and leaned on my hand.

I yawned and almost the entire table copied me. I looked at Neek, “When are we getting our weapons?”

“By the stables, Alida and Etzel are giving them to us as a precaution before we go into the forest,” Neek said. I yawned again and nodded.

Breakfast ended and we were commanded to go outside and

wait outside the stables after saddling our h, orses.
Finn chose a gentle looking blue roan while I chose a bit more spirited paint.
We led them outside and noticed Alida and Etzel outside with a wagon piled with the standard blades. We stepped forward and grabbed two blades and sheathed them at our sides.
"C’mon," Alida commanded, "We're moving out."
I swung myself onto my horse and trotted after the group. We reached the beginning of the forest, the trees seemingly touching the cloudless sky. It was terrible and beautiful all at once. The giant trees, with their reddish bark, so unique and marvelous, but the gut wrenching fear of the death and gore the Scolopendra hiding among those magnificent trees could bring.
Here Etzel spoke up, "We expect that you obey every command given to you, if we say run, you run, if we say fight, you fight, if we tell you to get help, then you better get the whole damn regiment! Do I make myself clear," he yelled. Grudging replies of yes were chorused and we rode into the forest.
As we rode through the forest Alida and Etzel explained everything from how they put out rotting animals to attract the Scolopendra to the renowned strategy Captain Steel devised and utilized to capture them.
They explained Scolopendra tunneling systems in much more detail than was covered in training. And finally they arrived at the nest that was cleared out several years ago; the most successful mission in Scout history.
“Go in and explore the tunnels, it’s an amazing example of their burrowing talents. But be on your guard, sometimes wild animals take up residence in the tunnels,” Alida warned.
Some kid with dark hair and freckles went in first. Cautiously more trickled in, tying their horses’ reins to fallen branches.
I was among the last to enter, but before I’d gone many meters a girl screamed, “Scolopendra! Get out!”
We ran like terrified animals we were, spurred by the haunting screams of memories and comrades, alike.
I saw Etzel shout something, at a terrified Amber, and she hopped on her horse and galloped away, she was getting help.
I stumbled back, over my own feet as the first Scolopendra appeared. Its tail whipped around, catching me on my head. My vision went blurry and hot blood trickled from the wound into my eyes. I tripped forward, landing on my face, before the tail could do more damage.
I picked myself up and ran, pulling out my blades. I faced the monster that’d caused my pain, but before I could even strike, it fell with one last dying shriek.
Alida and Etzel hopped off of its back, Alida covered in yellow goo and Etzel sword smeared with it.
I gazed at the sibling in awe, these were my heroes in action. They did what I couldn’t, years ago. I shook myself and remembered the battle.
A Scolopendra’s scream made me jump. A boy was facing the beast, terror painted on his face. Blood stained his shirt and matted his hair together. I ran behind the Scolopendra, unnoticed.
I stabbed a blade through a chink in its armor, using that as leverage to pull myself up. The Scolopendra wailed and turned around, to face the pest now on its back.
I climbed to its head and sunk my blade into the back of its neck, pushing it in to the hilt, it fell forward and I pulled the sticky blade out, yellow ooze dripping in sheets from the tempered steel.
I leaped off and saw Rissa facing two Scolopendra ganged up on her. I was frozen in fear as Rissa was swept off her feet by the biggest one’s tail and thrown into a tree. Her face hit the bark and blood exploded everywhere, her neck snapped and she slumped against the tree, her head lolling at an awkward angle.
I couldn’t move. Rissa. Was. . . . Dead. She was. . . was. . . . Dead.
I couldn’t save her, it was like my mother all over again. Rayne’s dead body flashed in my mind. Tears dripped down my cheeks, mixing with the blood from the wound only minutes old. In only ten minutes, I’d killed a Scolopendra, saving someone I didn’t know, but I also failed to save someone who could’ve been a valuable friend.
My gaze swiveled around, resting on a bloody and battered Alida, she was shouting something, lost to the battle. I followed her gaze up, to the Scolopendra’s bloody maw. Etzel was held there, already dead, almost for sure. Its millions of razor sharp teeth crunched her brother easily and he slid down its throat, really and truly lost to his sister forever.
“Etzel!” She screamed painfully, “You should’ve let me die!” Tears streaked her face and as loud as she was keening it was a surprise to see the beast disregard her, and face me instead. It picked me up by the arm and Alida, must’ve heard my yell.
Because she straightened up and though she was still surely torn apart by the death of her brother, she ran for the Scolopendra, screaming at the top of her lungs, “You’ve killed my mother, my father, and my brother, but you will never kill Merren’s future!”
She climbed on the Scolopendra’s back and stabbed it wildly.

Screaming with each burst of blood the blade brought forth from the monster, its grip on my stinging arm growing looser with each cut. Eventually she reached its head and sunk her blade into the back of its neck, a spray of warm, yellow blood coating my arm, shoulder, and head as it dropped me.

I landed with a thud on the ground, the Scolopendra’s body landing dangerously close to me. I staggered up, stick and dripping with both my own blood and the Scolopendra’s. I looked over at Rissa’s broken body, I looked back at Alida’s retreating back as she ran into the thick of the battle. I looked at Rissa again.

I’ll avenge you too Rissa, and Etzel, and everyone else lost to these monsters. I wiped some of the thick, gooey blood from my face and flung it to the ground. I retrieved the blade I’d dropped when Rissa was killed and with one last glance at the once bright, beautiful and living Rissa I headed into the battle with renewed resolve.

I helped Chris kill one of the monsters before the sound of hoof beats on soft ground reached my ears. What . . . ? It’s the

reinforcements!
What little hope our dwindling numbers had was increased by tenfold. Heads went up and a collective cheer was rand through the sounds of fighting. The sight of our beloved Captain Steel lifted the weights of dread in our bellies a bit and the sheer amount of our backup was utter beauty to our battle weary eyes.
Seeing the carnage and gore strewn about the trees, our backup leaped off their horses and ran, screeching a terrible battle cry to a higher, celestial being of sorts, into the battle.
The dying shrieks of the Scolopendra, pounded at all of our ears and the terrified screams of our own all but stopped as the reinforcements gave the Scolopendra something to think about.
The battle was almost won. But, the elation stopped dead in its tracks as I saw Finn about to be plucked right off the ground by a Scolopendra.