A Glimmer of Hope (The Avalon Chronicles #1)(87)
“Why?”
“I’m in control here. You don’t have the power to stop me.”
Layla looked over at Terhal, who was on her knees, screaming at the world around her. “This is where you lived? It’s beautiful.”
Layla walked off toward the stream and saw brightly colored frogs sitting in the mud of the bank. A low growl broke the peace, and a large cat-like animal with six legs bounded down the bank toward a larger animal that looked like a deer crossed with a unicorn. The six-legged creature was obviously the predator, a fact that was reinforced when the prey turned and jumped over the stream, running off.
“A deericorn,” Layla said to herself. “I really wish people were here to hear me be clever.”
“They’re called dromath,” Terhal said.
The brown and white dromath skidded to a halt and then turned toward the predator, spearing it in the side with its sharp horn.
“Nothing here is helpless,” Terhal said. “Everything is prey, but everything is dangerous too.”
The predator swiped with one paw, slicing through the side of the other animal’s neck, but the dromath was not only larger, it was also faster, and the fight was soon over as the dromath’s horn pierced the underside of the predator’s throat, killing it.
“The cat-like creature is called a tyori. They’re vicious but stupid creatures.”
The dromath, instead of fleeing, lapped up the blood of its defeated opponent.
“Like I said, everything is dangerous.”
“And you were the apex predator?”
Something that looked a lot like Terhal sprinted from the nearby long grass, colliding with the dromath and knocking it to the floor. It grabbed hold of the horn and yanked it back, ripping it out of the creature’s head and casting it aside, before it set about feasting.
“We were the top of the food chain. Beings who could hunt and kill with a strength and speed that few others matched. Each of us had the ability to transform ourselves depending on our surroundings and needs. It took a few days of being cocooned, but once we emerged, we could grow limbs, wings, and night vision; whatever we needed to survive. We were as close to gods as this land got.”
Layla looked over at Terhal and discovered that her frightening appearance from before had changed. She still had the ridge around her skull, but there was now skin around her mouth. “And then you were taken.”
“We were physical in this world, but in your world we lost that ability; we became spirit-like, bonded to a scroll for all eternity. Those of you who created these scrolls thought nothing of what they did—they just wanted to create power, and damn the consequences.”
“I’m sorry about what happened to you. Did you live in families or alone?”
“Are you asking if I had a family? The answer is no. We were solitary creatures for the most part, only coming together to mate and be on our way. I do not wish to see this anymore.”
“Why?”
“I do not wish to be reminded of what was.”
“Is that why you torture me? Because of your anger at missing this place?”
“I torture you because I cannot torture those responsible for my current circumstances. I torture you because it is survival of the fittest, and you have not proven yourself to be anything close to it. And I torture you because if I’m going to have your hate and disdain, I might as well do something to earn it.”
“Why would you have my hate or disdain?”
“I’ve seen other people when they’ve taken a spirit scroll. I’ve seen the way they speak about the drenik, the fear and loathing they have for them. It does not make me want to help you. And no, not all of the drenik in scrolls are like me; some are kind and sweet, some want to bond with the human to create something better. I’ve listened to my hosts speak to many umbra over the years—the drenik are not a one-size-fits-all kind of species. Just like humanity.”
“Why not work with me?”
“Because you won’t let me out. You’ll keep me in here until you die, and then I get to wait another hundred years or longer until I can go through this whole thing again. The spirits in here hate me, do you know that?”
“Have you ever given them a reason not to? Gyda feared you, and then you murdered her people.”
“It was my first time out. I reacted like a cornered animal would have, and then I realized the more I deliver the evil they expect of me, the harder it is for the human to take control. I get to live outside of this facade so long as I behave in a way that you people would consider evil.”
“Doesn’t sound like much of a life.”
“Rosa was the only one who understood me even slightly, and even she was scared of what I could do if I were ever allowed to take control. Rosa kept me locked down unless it was an emergency, and beyond that, I just sat in my cage and waited.”
“You’re saying that those who took the scroll were wrong about you, that you’re not a cruel, vindictive monster?”
“I’m drenik. We believe that the strongest survive and the weakest are there to serve us, or be our next meal. Gyda was weak. Rosa was not, but by then she’d heard from Gyda and Servius and distrusted me.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because you are not afraid of me. You challenged me and brought me here; I’ve never had a host able to do that. Rosa sat and spoke to me, but it was more about learning than actual bonding with her. As if she wanted to get to know me just enough so that she could accept me, but never enough to actually go beyond that. She didn’t want to understand me, or where I was from. Gyda and Servius had already imparted their stories to her by then.”