What...?
For a moment, Vyrl found himself unable to act, temporarily overwhelmed with confusion. Had he not been sitting on the floor behind the closest corner of the hall, that might have cost him his life.
Since the moment he'd laid eyes on the undead soldier, he'd been trying to work out what it was, trying to anticipate what might happen next so he could turn it to his advantage. Initially, it had been his intent to stop Lia from killing the thing, and its stubborn refusal -- or was it simply that it could not understand him? -- to follow his suggestions -- it galled him to be unable to command the thing properly -- was perhaps indicating of an overconfidence that Vyrl very much wanted to understand fully.
Then there had been that scream. Absolute, raw fury.
And then the killing had begun.
He dared not look. Already, he trembled faintly at how close he'd come to the carnage -- physical combat was
not
his strong suit at all, and he did not fool himself into believing that twin knives, however well hidden, would save him from Lia and... whatever it was. But he was, for the moment, safe, thanks to his --
the bird!
He scrambled to his feet, eyes darting about. In his fascination, he'd completely lost track of the thing. He dared to hope that Lia had not seem him in the crowd of vampires, but if she had not... by now, most everyone knew about Vyrl's "pet." She would recognize it, if she saw it.
Move. He had to move, now, while she was still in a rage, and not thinking clearly. He strode down the hall, stepping as quickly as his legs could take him without breaking into an outright sprint for his chambers. He reached a nearby staircase and began to climb.
A moment later, something heavy struck his shoulder and nearly sent him sprawling down the stone steps. The creature knew -- somehow -- that it could not stray far from him. There was no better way to summon it than by running for his life.
10-Nov-2019 02:17:17