The dream of reason produces monsters.

-Goya

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Taurus all but grabbed us by the scruffs of our necks and threw us into a run. The sky grumbled above angrily, as if the will of the gods was raining judgement down upon us. The elf was quite a bit taller than both Aldyth and I, and it became difficult to keep up with him as he leaped and tore through the woodlands like a mad stag.

Taurus paused for a moment several strides ahead of us and appeared to tighten the straps on his pack before crouching down and leaping up to grab a thick branch that. He had hauled himself a third of the way up the tree before I had to chance to call out, "Taurus!"

The elf threw his head directly backwards to look at us. The motion itself would have been enough to snap a human's neck. His large slitted eyes widened in surprise and he quickly released his hold on the tree. "I'm not used to traveling with people!" He said loudly. I wasn't entirely sure, but I could have sworn that Aldyth muttered under her breath that we weren't used to traveling with him either -- but I was unable to verify completely over Taurus's yell of, "Hide, close to the ground! Quickly now! Quickly!"

He ran us another span before pushing the two of us into the nearest ditch he could find. The elf leaped down beside us and cringed up against the wall until the sheath his sword dug into my leg. My heart snapped painfully against my rib cage when the first screech drove its spike into the ground. Aldyth squeezed her eyes shut and Taurus dug his fingers into the ground.

I craned my neck slightly in an attempt to catch a glimpse at the sky. It could have been a thunder of dragons; the beats of their wings were so loud, in fact, it would have been better if it were a thunder of dragons.

It was the creature from the previous day, the one that Aldyth and I barely escaped while on horseback. I closed my eyes tightly and prayed that the white, wing'ed monsters wouldn't find the three of us cowering in the ditch. It seemed unlikely, for it wasn't just a single creature tearing after us, this time, there was flock of them. The flock flooded the forest above us with the sounds of thunder and screaming. There were at least twenty of them, each as tall as Taurus and as white as newly fallen snow. I ran my tongue nervously over my lips as the herd hovered above our hiding spot, momentarily convincing us all that we had been spotted. One of the creatures screeched, causing the rest to bellow in deep throaty sound that resembled the call of a war horn. Then simultaneously, the flock turned in midair and barreled off toward the West.

No of us dared to move for a long time. Neither of had noticed at the time, but somehow Aldyth and I had managed to worm our fingers together and were both at the point of breaking the other's hand. We looked down at our arms then quickly let go with the faintest of disturbed smiles. Taurus had his hands snaked over his long pointed ears and, his eyes were squeezed shut with a vicious ferocity.

I nudged him with the toe of my boot. In response, he cracked one eye open and leaned over to look at the sky. Slowly he brought his hands down from his head and opened his eyes. "I hate Atrixes," he spat as he got to his feet.

"What were those things!?" I demanded as I also got up and helped Aldyth to her feet.

"Atrixes," Taurus repeated and shot nervous glances up at the sky. "Dwellers of the highest mountains -- and the only natural enemies of the elves." He pressed his lips together into a hard line. "I have never seen so many this far south before... This is very, very bad. Make haste. I don't want to be here if they decide they're coming back."

We moved quickly through the woods, casting glances over our shoulders at almost every step. "What are they? What do they want?" Aldyth asked breathlessly.

"Angels," Taurus muttered almost to himself. "Those, those things, are the origins of your people's winged guardians." He scoffed angrily, as if he were disappointed in our humanity. "They're the real monsters. If monsters exist at all, then it is them."

"One of them," I paused to remember the name. "An atrix chased us out of the valley yesterday." Taurus stopped in his tracks. I continued hurriedly. "It was going to kill us, but we lost it in woods. When we got back to Gris, the East had already taken the village."

"Then you're lucky to be alive," Taurus replied. "Atrixes will eat anything." He glanced over his shoulder at us. "Anything."

"Are they, like us?" Aldyth asked quietly.

"What do you mean?" Taurus asked warily and started walking again. Aldyth nodded at me and the both of us went to walk on either side of him.

"Are they like us?" She repeated, her brown eyes growing wide in a way that suggested she was pleading. The look on her face had completely changed in the last thirty seconds. She reached out to grab Taurus by the arm, sinking her nails into the skin beneath his jerkin. To Taurus's credit, he didn't flinch. "Do they think? Do they know what they're doing? Or, or are they just animals?"

Taurus pried her fingers from his arm before answering forcefully. "Yes, they are aware. They are a sentient species that has full capabilities over their actions. They could choose to be civilized, but they don't."

Aldyth grew impossibly still as the elf turned away again and started off. I hung back with my childhood friend, unsure if it were better if I stayed or went. Her eyes were red, I noticed for the first time, like she had secretly been crying when no one was watching. "They fed his body to them, you know," she croaked before I could say anything. "He'll never be buried properly."

I took her small hand into my own and squeezed her fingers in a show of comfort. "But he'll be remembered properly." I looked up to find that Taurus had all but abandoned us to the woods. "Let's go. There's nothing we can do about that now."

A/n

Trailer above by Tinkertaydust