Page 21
Story: Held
A water basilisk perched on the edge of the riverbank. Its beady eyes were fixed on her, its big, scaly body coiled in a way Briar really didn’t like. She hadn’t encountered many water basilisks, but she’d seen her fair share of regular ones, usually when she was trying to sneak through a dungeon.
This basilisk was ready to strike. And this wasn’t some weak, underfed basilisk languishing in some nobleman’s dungeons. This was a well-nourished bastard with gleaming scales and strong, sharp fangs and a strong snake body that was almost as big as her.
Briar eyed her pack. It was several feet away from the basilisk in the long grass, her dagger strapped to the side.
This is what I get for not staying close to my pack,Briar told herself.Rookie mistake, Copperwood.
Briar looked around, careful to only move her eyes. There were no rocks in reach to throw at it. What were the basilisk rules again? Make herself really big? No, it was moving slowly. Usually, she had a sword to stab them with, and she never had to worry about running into them in the wild.
“Nice basilisk,” she whispered, bending as slowly as she could manage. “Don’t mind me. Just picking up a rock. Nothing to do with you.”
The basilisk’s eyes followed her as she moved. Briar stared back at it, cursing herself for being such a city dweller. She foundherself in enough forests to know what to do with a damned water basilisk.
She dipped her hand in the water. The basilisk’s tail twitched.
Briar tensed in preparation. Her hand closed carefully around a river rock. It was only as big as her fist. She would need to get in a good shot, then dive for her pack and hope for the best.
She drew her arm back to throw.
The basilisk lunged.
Briar swore and lobbed the river rock. It bounced off the basilisk’s cheek, disrupting its path.
Briar dove for her pack. She could hear the basilisk hiss and rear up to follow, a flash of scales racing over the riverbank toward her. She braced herself to fight off a scaly body while she wrestled for the knife?—
—only for a loud noise to make them both look up.
Wick sailed out of the sky, teeth bared.
He slammed into the basilisk feet-first. Scales and flesh splattered into the grass, the wet noise immediately drowned out by the agonized basilisk’s scream.
Wick roared back at it. His wings flared, a clawed hand whipping out to slash the basilisk’s throat in half.
The basilisk’s cry fell silent. Its body fell into the grass, limp and partially headless.
Wick growled. His clawed foot rubbed against the holes it had carved into the basilisk’s body, as if he wanted to drag its head from its body entirely. Then he paused and turned to her. He had a sack over his shoulder, filled with fruit.
“Briar,” he said. “Are you alright?”
Briar stared. She was propped up against the riverbank, naked and dripping. But she barely noticed the water running down her back or the grass against her hip. She was too busygaping at Wick, who was standing over her with his claws bloody and his wings arched.
Several days ago, it would have been something out of her nightmares. Now, she wastouched. Even as she tried to beat the feeling down, it made her heart flutter and her sore cunt throb.
Wick lifted his head. Sniffing the air, Briar realized. He was looking at her like he was searching for fang marks.
Briar pulled up a smile, wringing out her wet hair and flipping it over her shoulder in a way that drew focus to her bare, wet body. “My hero! You should become a guard. You would get a lot of coin.”
“I am not made to be a guard,” Wick said after a moment. His gaze had dropped to her breasts, she noted with pride. His attention was easier to deal with when he was interested in her body, not in her safety.
Briar climbed out of the river. “You’re getting basilisk blood on my clothes.”
“What? Oh.” Wick stepped away from her pile of clothes. His claws had been dripping blood onto her pants, which were thankfully black for the very purpose of hiding blood.
He looked so concerned about her clothes that her heart clenched once more.
She stepped up to him. Despite all her intentions, her voice was annoyingly earnest as she said, “Really. Thank you for protecting me. I would have been basilisk food if you hadn’t shown up.”
Wick blinked. He held out the bag of fruit he had dangling from his non-bloody hand.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21 (Reading here)
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79