Animus in the temple / The Man Eating Trees attack

Animus looked around after squeezing through the exit to see where he was. The peasant knew he was just outside the castle; he carefully avoided the soldiers, climbed over the castle gate and snuck past the soldiers to get through the second and first gate. He sprinted through the woods just as he saw a horse with a saddle and a soldier urinating in the bushes. Animus looked around and found a large rock that was the size of a grapefruit and threw it at the soldier and hit him in the head, knocking him out.
The young man climbed on the horse and hoped that he wouldn’t get bucked off. Without a word Animus shook the reins and the horse whinnied as they charged though the forest to Shadow Mountain.
The moon revealed itself in the night sky. Animus felt the cool breeze hit his face upon the humidity. He was at Shadow Mountain and unfolded the map to see how he could enter and navigate through without endangering his life.

Shadow Mountain was a carved face of a skull into the base of the mountain that was produced thousands of years ago. It camouflaged the citadel that was inside the mountain. The temple, inside Shadow Mountain, was timeless and forged by rock and stone unfolding in and out as a huge triangular pyramid. Animus didn’t know how long the temple existed, but heard it was built prior to the carved skull and was the resting place for Furrengee’s mask. Furrengee, the greatest warrior that ever lived was written in story and legend. The legend and source of power of the mask involved the dead warriors who wore the mask during battle.

Animus looked at the entries on the back of the map, written by his father, which revealed that anyone who entered the citadel. The elders spoke of Shadow Mountain as a place where goblins kidnapped little children years ago to sacrifice them. Animus got off his steed and turned around to look at his horse, “I wish you could go where I’m going friend, but you should be set free.”
The horse nudged its head into Animus’ face and nickered just as the peasant laughed. He took off the saddle and reins while thinking about his challenge. After he was finished he gave the horse a quick slap and it galloped away.

After minutes of thinking, Animus began walking to Shadow Mountain. Every step of the way the farm boy had fear of what would happen to him. Animus walked inside the skeleton mouth of Shadow Mountain and saw the torches already lit. This struck the farm boy as odd and he wondered if someone was already here. He continued through a long corridor with a torch he took off from the side of the wall.

In the distance of about twenty feet he came to the sight of the temple. It looked creepy and evil, but he continued on until he was able to touch it. He examined the temple and it looked almost bigger than the castle of Aria and he slowly touched the rough brick wall with his fingers with the torch in his hand. He was looking for a secret lever to open the secret passageway as it was described on the piece of paper. Suddenly, Animus felt a weak impression in the brick wall and pushed it in and an opening in the wall revealed itself that was the size big enough for a person to fit through.

The farm boy walked inside and felt the intense humidity as though he were inside a volcano and began to perspire quickly. Big bats, the size of buzzards, flew past him with their high pitch noises and one of them attacked him bit biting his face. Animus screamed in fear because he had never seen bats that big and struck the bat as hard as he could with his hand.

It was dark, stale and a long corridor of torches filled long spaces. Animus could barely see in the gloom of smoke and he wiped the sweat that dripped from his forehead. The sight of skeletons and statues holding torches made Animus’ stomach turn. The immense space of darkness in between each sight of torches made it difficult to know what to expect. His father was right about the temple and knew it was going to be difficult to get the mask. Animus, suddenly heard a grinding noise from behind and turned, waiving the torch to see the secret doorway had closed.

Sweat perspired from his forehead again and he continued to wipe it off as he turned around to continue down the tunnel. Animus didn’t like the feeling of being trapped in the temple and thought about Aarilina and the way she treated him. He was sad because he fantasized about their wedding and how great it would be. Maybe if he got the mask she would love him again and the hurtful things she said would go away.

The peasant took a deep breath and wiped the sweat from his face as he opened up the map and read the entries his father wrote. He learned that the warriors who entered the front entrance would endure worse than when he entered the secret doorway.

The farm boy pulled his hair over his ears and turned the map around to see what was ahead. He could hear the sound of water dripping from the sweat of the ceiling while biting his lip to read what details laid ahead.

He looked over the map that showed the way through a maze of tunnels marked with blood, marking all the traps in the citadel. A feeling of hopelessness filled such mind as Animus looked ahead of the path and realized that he missed something. The map revealed there was a cross road up ahead, but he could see the tunnel was going straight ahead. He suddenly walked straight into an invisible barrier and hurt his nose.

Animus made sure that he didn’t have a nose bleed and touched the invisible barrier. He touched it with both hands and gently leaned his forehead on it to see through it was a dark long corridor.
The farm boy pulled out the map to see the thick hollow line crossing over that symbolized path. The young man’s eyes glared at the dwindling flame of his torch and knew that he needed a torch or fuel for his fire. Animus ripped his old, cotton, vest given to him by his grandfather to feed the fire. He wrapped the fabric around the torch and watched with relief as the flame grew.

Animus looked at the map and realized there was a way around the invisible barrier and to the sub level to another chamber. He walked down the stairs and found himself in another corridor.

When he stepped off the last step he noticed a lot of spider webs. Animus suddenly got nervous and walked slowly past them. Each spider web he passed was bigger and he felt his muscles tighten up and walked slowly past them. Every step of the way, Animus held the folded map and looked around for whatever creature that would appear before him. Suddenly, he was caught in a giant spider web but he managed to pull himself through to stay on the path.

He stopped in shock as he waived his torch to see the skeleton remains of animals the size of sheep dogs. The peasant wiped the sweat from his brow and looked at the map to see there were dozens of traps ahead of his path. Animus continued onward; walking carefully in the dark with the torch. Then something in the distance was crawling on all fours like a dog made its way in his path and he heard it make grunting noise. It looked like a rat and Animus whistled at the creature ahead of him hoping it was a dog. Animus kept moving ahead but then screamed in terror when it moved towards him and tried to attack him. He could see clearly now that it was a rat, a very large rat.

“What in Ayana!” exclaimed Animus as his eyes widen to see more rats, the size of large dogs, walking towards him. From the path ahead of him.

The rats looked at him with their beady eyes and they licked their lips to attack him. They hissed at Animus and moved in closer as the young man swung his torch at them, to keep them from eating him alive. One rat jumped at Animus and bit his arm, but was pushed and kicked back, burned by Animus’ torch. The rats heard the screaming of their fellow rat and smelled the burning meat and then they retreated back through the holes in the walls.

Animus continued to stoop and walk through the tunnel until he walked into a large room. He looked around to see it was filled with boulders, statues and a stream of fire that was lit on three ledges along the walls and four corners of the room. He opened the map after taking a few minutes to look around and noticed that it wasn't hot like it was in the tunnel, but it was warm. He felt a strange unrest in the air, the room looked like an arena for a challenge, but what was the challenge? Animus was relieved that he wouldn’t have to worry about giant rats attacking him, but something caught his attention. Goosebumps covered his arms and he knew something was wrong.

He looked to see a silver sword, bow and arrows, morning star, javelin, and a shield which were held in the hands of the statues. Animus moved quickly to grabbed each one and realized that the weapons were shiny and hadn't been used before. The six foot long javelin had a button that worked like a lever which could be reduced in size to a foot long cylinder. The shield was made from a strange material that was very light just as the sword was but was very strong. The morning star had a button on the handle so that the ball and pins would become a flail. Animus looked around at the empty chamber and gathered the weapons. He looked at the map when suddenly he saw a bright light emerge from inside a tunnel ahead of him and entered the doorway.

The soldiers engaged the catapults with steelies lit with fire to kill the giant and save the princess. In Animus’ mind he could feel the hits from the fireballs and wanted to step on them, but was once again warned to not fall into temptations. Animus moved quickly to the second gate and stepped over and was now in the city.

The fireballs flew through the air and collided into the middle of the giant’s back. Furrengee turned to see where they came from and saw numerous catapults shooting more fireballs at him. Animus moved through the city quickly and carefully but had to deal with soldiers shooting at him.

Animus knew he couldn’t do anything physically, but knew he could backfire the negative energy onto those who were attacking him and make them suffer. Furrengee raised his right hand in front of his mouth, with his hand flat and blew. He made a blowing sound like a light breeze, which was a curse.
Aarilina held onto the mighty chest armor of Furrengee while watching the battle carry over from the top of his hand. Furrengee turned around to continue the long journey to the first gate and watched the archers, before him, shoot their arrows loaded with fire. The arrows stuck deep into his chest but the giant wiped them with his hand like bread crumbs. A fireball flew through the air and hit the giant in the back of the head. Furrengee turned around and held his hand out to catch all the fireballs. He clenched his hand tightly and crushed the steelies and threw pieces of the debris at the soldiers which made the men stop and pick up diamonds. Furrengee watched them throw their weapons down, to kneel and picked up the diamonds like greedy beggars. The giant turned around and continued the march to the first gate. 

Furrengee stepped over the gate with a simple stride. He was now in the forest; the jack rabbits and squirrels ran away from the giant’s path to take cover in the woods. He was strong and powerful while slowly reducing his size to twenty feet so that he could blend in with the trees.

“Come on he’s getting away,” declared one of the knights to the greedy soldiers picking up the diamonds. A soldier jumped to his armored steed loaded with every weapon imaginable. Other knights loaded another steely into the catapult and were preparing to light it on fire.

The flickered light of fire streamed from their torch as they were about to cut it. Suddenly, the steelie exploded with a thunderous boom and there was a high pitch ringing in the soldier's ears that sounded like an alarm. The whole catapult burst into flames and so were all the knights running in all different directions, screaming as loud as they could and died. Other soldiers ran to the nearest cow bath, but died of shock. Men on horses pulled the catapults with other men to follow the giant out of the castle.
Twenty fireballs flew through the air to hit Furrengee in the back until the giant made an abrupt stop; turned around, thrust his hands out in front of the fireballs that were flying at him and they stopped immediately and fired back. The fireballs flew back at the the catapults and blew them to pieces. The knights screamed in pain as they crawled away from the explosion of fire. The soldiers that were on fire or barely escaped the explosion, moved quickly to take off their armor and when they did, they peeled off their flesh with the metal armor. They cried in pain and screamed in agony inside their own pain of imprisonment.

The peasants and soldiers observing the attack had never seen a display of power like this from such an adversary. Battles were always fought with great armies, but what made this different was that it was against one man, a giant. Two knights watched the giant from a distance and realized who it was.
“This can’t be who I think it is, is it?” said Sir Bombardis.

“It is,” assured Sir Jenkins as he realized it was Furrengee and continued. “Wake up the king! Someone has got the mask.”

“When was she taken?” asked the king as he got out of bed, rubbed his eyes and tossed the blankets aside. He enjoyed his royal sleep but disliked being woken up for insignificant things, but this took him by surprise. King Owen was upset with what happened to his daughter. They had ended the night bad and they weren't on speaking terms and now she was gone and he couldn't face her to apologize.
“She was just taken your highness,” replied Sir Bombardis.

“Princess Aarilinus is the only living heir to the throne,” whispered King Owen as
he tried to think who would betray him. His gut was telling him that Animus
was involved, but he remembered that the Dark Wolves would have ripped his body apart.
“Assemble the rest of our knights and our five visitors! Whether they like it or not, they’re going to retrieve the princess,” he ordered.

“Your highness, the princes' are gone and many of the peasants are gone as well to chase after the giant. Men who aren’t the ones you’ve selected have already left to rescue the princess,” informed Sir Bombardis.

“I’m coming to join my knights to see this giant myself,” ordered the king. “There is nothing to see; it towers the castle, it has no fear for the soldiers because this giant has made diamonds out of our fireballs that have been fired at him and this giant makes the catapults explode, killing our men!” replied the knight angrily as he turned away to let the king dress.

“I must say your majesty, is it possible that the legend of Furrengee exists? That the power of love exists in a mask that unleashes unlimited power of invincibility?”
“Yes, those things are true,” began the king as he remembered the past.
“I always thought of the parables as bedtime stories and never the real thing,” the king lied.
“How do we stop something that’s invincible?” asked Sir Bombardis.
The king paused while getting his pants on and could sense that the knight knew what was going on. The problem was that it wouldn't matter what he said now his daughter was still gone and he needed her back.

King Owen buckled his pants and put a sweater on over his shirt as he turned around to face the knight who slowly turned around to face him.

“The mask resolves around the feeling of pure love. With this power a man uses mask’s power to stop anything or anyone in his path. As long as the person wearing the mask did not inflict pain on the innocent, all would be well. If the person wearing the mask was destructive or greedy, the person would be punished.

“My lord, if I may ask, if the mask resolves around love. Why send suitors to retrieve it?”
“I wanted my daughter to marry somebody who could not only protect her, but broaden the road of wealth and royalty for my family line. My wife passed away seventeen years ago and I learned that this mask worn by someone pure could bring a loved one back to life so I began sending warriors to locate and if possible retrieve it. The mask has unimaginable power of invincibility, but it also makes people around the bearer jealous and greedy that is why it is hidden.”

“You didn't know where the mask was?” asked the knight.
“Not until my wife passed. I thought it was a legend or a silly story,” said King Owen.
“Sir, how do you know so much about the mask, what did happen to our queen long ago?”

“A man named Adam took one of my most beautiful handmaiden without me knowing. I got her back and realized he yelled in a curse to wish the queen to die giving birth to my daughter, which happened, and that my daughter would die on her seventeenth birthday. I got angry and killed his family and took away his property. Then somehow he found the mask and took the handmaiden away and I was left with a problem of my daughter dying,” replied the king as he cleared his throat after feeling a little guilty that everything was his fault.

“The legend of Furrengee goes back ten thousand years when five sorcerers ruled the land until a warrior stood up to them and their great army. A rebellion was led by this giant to free mankind against evil. A powerful wizard by the name of Xaggess joined Furrengee against the wickedness of the five sorcerers.

Furrengee and Xaggess exiled the sorcerers into an abyss to spend eternity. The balance of Ayana would be extinguished and life as we know it would be corrupt if they escaped. It has been predicted that King Animus Brokenheart would release these sorcerers and they would corrupt the land. I’ve only been looking out for my best interest when I heard my daughter was with a boy named Animus. It sickened me and I have no regrets for killing Animus by throwing him to the Dark Wolves. I’m hoping that they killed him without realizing who he was.”

“Then Sir,” began Bombardis as his eyes widened while the king nodded his head, “the Dark Wolves are the evil sorcerers and you were trying to break the curse by having the princess get married on her seventeenth birthday.” King Owen looked at Bombardis and said nothing but continued to listen.
“Sir I think Adam might have found out what you did to his son and plans to kill the princess.” King Owen looked at his knight suspiciously and in anger.

The Dark Wolves waited patiently after hearing the loud thunder transpiring from high above. The moment had arrived when a hole emerged from the ceiling for them to escape. Rampant looked at his fellowship, “the time has come for us to leave this prison and get our revenge!”


The Dark Wolves could hear the echos of footsteps above and the loud shakes that could only be caused by a giant and they knew it was Animus.

“It’s time to depart my brothers! Come, let us be free of our captor King Owen and raise our army to cleanse the world of humans!” shouted Rampant as he led his kin through the air and left the dungeon.
The giant was in pursuit by the king’s soldiers and the five princes were already on their horses together. Prince Tusk rode fast and well with Prince Domineer, Prince Lordoriouse, Prince Corsair and Prince Rubin behind him. Prince Lordoriouse and Prince Rubin had just arrived yesterday evening and met the princess at the royal ball. 

Sir Norcom, Sir Voles and Sir Jenkins were hot on the trail of the giant with their torches. Hundreds of catapults were being pulled by horses and men to keep up with the speed of the giant, but were falling behind.

Furrengee walked slowly and took his time until more hot steelies fired at him. One struck him in the back of the head again and the giant turned around to see ten more were headed in his position. The soldiers fired a huge number of fireballs at once and Furrengee raised his arm up as before. He pointed his finger back at the catapults and the fireballs flew through the air then turned around to the catapults. Furrengee unleashed his curse as before and watched the fireballs hit the catapults and blew them apart. The soldiers limped away in pain from the heat while others were were burned to death. The masked giant stood for a minute and watched the soldiers cry and scream in pain from the fire and then die.
Sir Norcom trotted on his horse and saw his kin fallen to the ground and going into seizures from the pain endured. Others were screaming in agony and reaching for their helmets to pull them off, but were screaming every time they moved it because their skin was fused with the metal. Sir Voles and Sir Jenkins jumped off their horses to assist, but were stopped by Sir Norcom.

“Leave the soldiers!” ordered Sir Norcom.
“But they need us!” said Sir Voles.
“They’re dead! We must pursue the giant that did this and kill him,” declared Sir Norcom.

The knights rode on past the first gate until they were directly behind the giant who suddenly began to decrease in size from twenty feet to twelve feet. The stranger turned around and looked at the three knights with ten soldiers. He was carrying the princess in his arms and saw she was asleep. He walked in the woods and disappeared from sight.

Sir Norcom stopped in his tracks and raised his hand up to signal the knights to stop. There was a reason why he was holding everyone back, but Sir Voles and Sir Jenkins were beginning to get restless in their desire to catch up to Animus who looked like Furrengee.

“Why do we not go after him? We can take him,” demanded Sir Voles.
“We wait for the king and the rest of the army,” ordered Sir Norcom.

Suddenly, the soldiers were visited by the five princes with torches in their hands and sat on their horses. Prince Tusk led them on his black horse and looked at Sir Norcom with a sneer. He looked at the king’s soldiers with a cocky smile as Prince Corsair and Prince Lordoriouse nodded politely.
“What’s this? Why the wait? Let’s go into the woods and slay the giant!” exclaimed Prince Tusk. “We must rescue the princess, are you cowards?”
“This creature entered the castle grounds and didn’t harm any of the men. Only those that attacked him received a severe punishment. If we enter the woods we may not escape,” replied Sir Norcom. “It could have a curse.”
“That’s ridiculous, you’re nothing but a coward Sir Norcom,” declared Prince Tusk.
“I think we should wait for the king,” ordered Sir Norcom.
“I for one am going in there to rescue Princess Aarilinus, who’s with me?” asked Prince Tusk as he pulled out his sword and raised it. Almost all the princes’ raised their swords and all of King Owen’s men cheered.

They all left, except Sir Norcom and Prince Rubin who stayed behind to watch them enter the woods. Prince Tusk trotted through the first group of trees and after about twenty feet he stopped. He looked around while moving his torch from side to side. The giant was nowhere to be seen and there were no tracks to be found.

Prince Tusk jumped off his horse as the other men did and walked around. There was something strange with the trees and the way they moved. There was no wind and suddenly the men began running back from the way they came in.

“The trees are alive!” exclaimed a voice.
Prince Corsair held out his sword and watched in horror as a group of trees started closing in on them. He could see their red eyes stare at them while they snarled with their big mouths and sharp teeth. The branches moved like arms and quickly attached to the soldier’s limbs.

Sir Voles swung his sword at a man eating tree that was creeping towards him in a slow crawl and moved with its roots, similar to how a worm moves. Almost all the men dropped their torches out of fear as the flames burned out on the ground.

The appearance of the man eating trees was the last thing they ever expected. None of them thought about using the torches to fight the man eating trees accept Prince Corsair, Prince Lordoriouse and Prince Tusk because they hesitated to think before executing.

Prince Domineer charged at one man eating tree with his morning star and struck it as hard as he could, but he only made it angry. It charged after the prince and grabbed him with its vine like branches. Prince Domineer felt the branch wrap around his legs to pull him down and dragged him along the ground. Prince Tusk let out a yell as he sliced the tree’s branches and freed his ally.

Sir Jenkins watched in horror as a screaming man was being eaten alive by a tree. It pulled the soldier into its mouth with its branches and began crushing its victim’s body until the screaming ceased. Then when it was finished it smiled at Sir Jenkins and started moving towards him. Sir Voles stood next to Sir Jenkins as its branches reached them and the two fought the creature, but another man eating tree emerged from within the shadows and grabbed Sir Jenkins by his ankle. Sir Jenkins screamed as he was pulled towards the man eating tree, “help me!” he shouted.

Sir Voles watched in despair as the man eating tree shoved the knight in its mouth with his arms and hands out`. Sir Voles was held back by Prince Lordoriouse and Prince Corsair.

“Let me go, I’m going to kill it!”
The young men watched the knight scream for help while his left arm and head was sticking out of the man eating tree’s mouth. Then there was one final scream before his head disappeared and they could hear that the tree’s teeth had crushed the man’s skull. His arm and hand slid into the tree’s mouth while the crunching sound popped into their ears.
“I could have saved him!” yelled Sir Voles as he repeated over and over again.
“I could have saved him!”
“Look around you fool! The trees have already devoured ten of your soldiers, we must withdraw!” ordered Prince Corsair.

Sir Voles looked around and saw a dozen man eating trees fighting over the last of the soldiers that were trying to fight them off and gave their lives.

Prince Tusk looked at his torch and then started one of the trees on fire while Prince Domineer was chopping a tree’s branch with his battle axe. The trees snarled and charged after the two princes to finish them off. All of a sudden, the twelve man eating trees doubled and they enclosed in a circle around the men. Prince Lordoriouse and Corsair left Sir Voles to save Prince Tusk and Domineer. Both princes' were able to cut their kin free, but realized that they were surrounded and cut off from Sir Voles. Sir Voles turned around and screamed before he was devoured by a man eating tree. The princes' watched him scream for help, but there was nothing that they could do.

The four princes' looked at each other as they watched the trees move in and waited for death to take them. Suddenly, there was a burst of light as arrows with fire shot and struck the trees. The princes’ spirits lifted as they realized they were saved. King Owen charged through in full armor on his white horse with Sir Norcom and Prince Rubin as well as the rest of his army. The princes bowed and kneeled before King Owen.

“Your majesty,” they said one after the other.
“Come, the trees are returning back to normal,” commanded King Owen as the princes' called their horses and joined the king to find the princess.

Property of Red and Blue Dragon Fantasy LLC. 

"The Culminate Amethyst"
Coming out in August 2019.