Caroline closed her eyes to avoid the steaming drops of bestial saliva coming from the hungry jowls of the monstrous thing pinning her hopelessly to the ground. Her hands quivered as she continued trying to force the beast off of her, putting all of her strength into the effort, but it was no use. Breathing heavily, Caroline gasped silently as a glistening fang touched her forehead. Before any pressure could be applied to the princess’s skin, though, a flash of sparks and flaming oil exploded against the head of the beast, causing it to pull back in shock. Caroline rolled her head to the side and saw, at the far end of the street, a crowd of a couple dozen soldiers operating a large catapult that they had rolled down the street to meet the beast.
Screeching wildly, the side of its head still on fire, the beast pulled its front legs off of Caroline and began batting at the flames. The tower-sized royal quickly slipped herself out of the beast’s grip, taking several steps back, out of the way of the catapult’s range. She looked over worriedly at the group of men, already loading up the next shot. Her gaze shifted back to the other side, where the beast had managed to wipe out the last of the flame, leaving a smokestack piping from the side of its face. Caroline cringed to see a large patch of fur missing from the beast’s left cheek, leaving a raw red patch steaming painfully in its wake. The mother grumbled, shaking its head side to side and smacking one of its horns cleanly through a house that was miraculously still standing before turning back to face not Caroline, but the catapult. The princess looked back nervously at the weapon, which still wasn’t loaded. It was less than three feet tall to Caroline, and next to something that was as big as a bear, the odds made her nervous. Her heart pounded in her chest again as the beast began lumbering towards the end of the street, sending shockwaves through the ground and crumbling another house as it passed. The soldiers panicked, attempting to more quickly load the launcher, but they weren’t moving quickly enough.
Throwing caution for her own life to the wind as usual, Caroline pushed off from the ground, sending a spray of cobblestone into the air as she leapt at the beast, grabbing onto its side. It had been so focused on the catapult, it was completely unprepared for an offensive move, and smacked down onto an already collapsed structure. Its legs flailed wildly as it tried to regain its standing position, and Caroline straddled its back, feeling that being above it, where its claws and jaws would have a much more difficult time reaching her, would be the safest option. She climbed forward along its rippling, greasy shoulder blades and wrapped her arms around its neck, hugging herself to it. The beast gasped in surprise, clearly having never had a foe attack it in this way, and it turned around several times, momentarily forgoing its terrifying, satanic visage in favor of spinning around like a confused dog. It began to screech, distressed, spraying spittle all over as Caroline continued clinging to it.
After a minute or so of this, though, the beast became a little smarter and stood still, reaching a back claw up with surprising dexterity, acting like a gorilla and using its toes like fingers, and yanked Caroline roughly from her perch on its hairy back. The princess’s massive weight smacked into the ground, crushing a couple of abandoned fruit carts underneath, as the beast turned to face her again. It opened its mouth and uttered the same raging roar that Caroline had heard from all the way inside the castle. The princess covered her ears in a futile attempt to keep out the noise as the beast opened its jaws to the nearly full extend, echoing its battle cry across the land. Then, it planted a padded paw on the ground, coming toward the cowering princess again. But before it could act again, another fiery explosion took place against its side. The catapult had loaded up again.
The beast screamed in agony, trying to reach the burning spot with its paws, but it was a little more difficult due to its girth, and the awkward place the fiery blow had been struck. Caroline watched, almost feeling the slightest grain of sympathy for the monster, as the fire began to spread across its greasy fur, the oil allowing the fire to catch quickly along its body. The beast body-slammed to the ground, knocking over a few smaller structures around the area and rattling Caroline’s body as it dropped onto its side, rolling around roughly against the stone ground. It kicked its legs in squalor, trying desperately to force the spreading flames from its body, kicking over an entire three-story building. The princess grimaced, praying that everyone in the area had been smart enough to flee for cover. After a moment of rolling, the beast had extinguished the flames. As it stood, shaking slightly from the pain, Caroline’s mouth hung open as she saw most of its side having been completely ravaged of fur, leaving the bald, burned spot with several bleeding cuts along it from how hard it had rubbed itself against the ground to put out the fire. It looked to the sky, shaking its face from side to side again, and howled like a wolf into the glaring sunlight.
Then, without warning, it spun back to its feet and began bounding diagonally toward the catapult. The troops had already begun setting up a new load, but the beast’s angle was far too tricky to reach, and it was already nearly in pouncing distance. Caroline pulled herself to her feet, rushing forward. The monstrous mother beast was fully prepared, though, and without even stopping to give the princess the time of day, raised a back claw into the air and scraped it hard along Caroline’s forearm. The young girl cried out in pain, clutching her bleeding wound that spanned (what looked to Caroline like) at least six inches long. Fighting back tears of pain, she pushed forward, but the moment she had taken for herself had already cost her too much. The beast pummeled the catapult with two swipes of its claws, sending a shower of wood and flaming debris raining down into the street; the soldiers were forced to flee for cover in different directions to try and regain some coherency to their plan. Over the houses, Caroline could see several dozen more soldiers dashing bravely to aid their comrades.
She gulped, looking at the beast as it returned its attention to her. Her fingers shook with fear as blood droplets began trickling between them and to the dusty ground far below. The beast’s snakelike nostrils twitched, smelling the blood from its safe distance. Its tongue lapped back across its blackened lips. Caroline’s skin ran cold again, as she began taking cautious steps backward. The partially deformed beast, missing massive patches of skin on its side and face, blood beginning to trickle disgustingly from a variety of locations on its wounds, starting stalking determinedly back toward its enemy, leaving a small trail of dark brown in its footprints.
Caroline’s eyes fell back to the destroyed catapult. Blinking a few times in the blistering sunlight, she realized that there were two support structures used along the length of the actual catapult arm, emblazoned with bronze. They were the only parts of the machine that had survived intact, being made of a thick, heavy metal to ensure the arm didn’t snap. Each one looked, to Caroline, to be a couple of feet long, each with a wider base where they attached to the cart, becoming thinner and sharper along to the top. And then the princess got an idea.
Luke had been madly struggling with his tight bonds for a while now, his incessant grunting and violent motions not doing him any good. Despite his impressive physique, he was embarrassed to find himself unable to break free. He had been immobilized completely by his love. He was a bit embarrassed to admit this fact, but at the same time found his feelings for Caroline multiplying by the second. He only hoped he would live a long enough life to finally reach the extreme level of care and compassion Caroline already possessed as an 18-year-old. She had, admittedly, done what he doubted he would have had the bold, uncompromising determination to do in the face of impossible odds, were he in her position.
Twisting his shoulder into an awkward position, the prince grunted in pain and quickly pulled back into his original spot, until he realized he had felt the slightest bit of slack falling along his bonds. Smiling in satisfaction but at the same time wary of what he knew was necessary, the prince gritted his teeth. This was for Caroline.
He twisted with all his might in the uncomfortable and unnatural position. He heard his shoulder pop as he pulled it out of the socket, but felt the slack growing. A bit further, he thought painfully. Sweat now rolling down his forehead, he roared mightily as he yanked his arm out of the tight bond, draining the blood from it and twisting it a final time. He gasped for breath, his arm throbbing as blood flowed back through it, returning color to it. But there was no time for rest. He quickly set about slipping his hand into the tie of his other arm. With some effort and a great deal of pulling, he managed to slip the other arm loose. This was made difficult and all the more painful because of his shoulder, but it was necessary. With his other arm free, the prince grasped his shoulder with his free hand and clenched, snapping it hard up and to the right, back into place. It cracked loudly and he yelped in pain, heavily breathing for a few moments as dizziness pervaded his vision. He cursed at himself for how long this was taking, then set about on the other bonds on the railing and doorway. In very little time, he had these undone as well, and found himself back inside the palace in a guest room. He charged through the empty halls, as all guards had departed for battle while the staff were aiding the hiding royal family. Taking the palace steps four at a time as he raced up the three flights to his room, he practically kicked his bedroom door in as he raced for the corner of the room, where his effects all rested neatly, newly polished, on an armoire. He grasped the hilt of his sword and yanked it from the sheath.
Locking eyes with the steadily approaching monstrosity, Caroline slid the ball of her foot across the wracked cobblestone ground, bending at the knee. The beast seemed to sense this, twitching along one leg as it placed its padded foot back on the ground. The princess narrowed her eyes, concentrating. She clenched her fists together, hearing them crack loudly in a sound that echoed for a few village blocks. Her tongue licked her upper lip slowly in thought, her vision trained on the catapult. Then she ran, pushing off from the ground like a sprinter and dashing for the rubble. The beast pounced but was too late to sink its claws into the gargantuan maiden, landing with a smash into another line of deserted homes. Caroline stooped low to the ground as she reached the pile of destroyed catapult, curling her toes against the stone ground to stop herself. A cloud of dust rising into the air as the massive woman came to a stop, she slipped her fingers around the cold, battered steel of the supports and raised them up, holding them like a pair of dual-wielding short hip blades. She pointed one of them directly at the monster to keep it at bay, using the other to hold at a diagonal angle across her chest for defense.
The beast seemed undeterred by this development, refocusing itself and coming nearer to Caroline, this time with more resolve, an angry grumble echoing from its foul throat. The black steam shot from its nostrils again as it came to a stop at pouncing distance from Caroline. The princess’s mind rushed into overdrive, trying to recall everything she had ever read about sword-fighting in the countless books she had read, detailing sword clashes both real and fictional, with human opponents and voracious beasts. She recalled her time as a young child where part of her schooling had incorporated some basic maneuvers using a blade. Many had frowned upon this practice of letting a delicate lady such as Caroline take a blade up in hand at the tender age of 10, but Richard was insistent, saying he needed to know his daughter could defend herself should the worst ever arise.
“And now it has arisen,” gulped Caroline quietly to herself, her hands beginning to shake and grow sweaty as her fingers were clenched so tightly around the metal blades that her fingers were drained of their blood. The beast’s hind legs quivered. Then it pounced.
Caroline felt the adrenaline take over as the beast lunged through the air at her, its massive girth looking strangely graceful as it leapt through the air. Caroline swerved to the side, planting her right foot onto some rubble with a firm smash and flash of dust, and she held both arms out, laying both blades in the path of the beast. The relatively blunt end of the blades carved along the side of the beast, slicing off greasy hair and cutting into the outer layer of its flesh. With a scream, the beast’s practiced landing faltered, and it staggered for a moment, turning its head to look at the now-bleeding slices on its side. Then it turned to Caroline, bearing its teeth like a dog and rocking its horned head to the side. The princess couldn’t help but feel some sympathy for the battle-hardened mother beast, seeing so many wounds on it, and yet it continued moving.
“I’m so sorry…” whispered Caroline, wishing with all her might that the animalistic terror would understand her perfectly truthful words. She looked down at the bronze beams still held in her hands, each one stained with a spatter of the monster’s brown blood. She flicked them quickly, knocking stray beads of the fresh blood to the ruined ground, and then wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. The beast didn’t bother setting up a pounce this time, and instead chose to bum rush the princess. Her own arm still bleeding and staining her dirt-covered sleeve crimson, Caroline reared back and swung at the beast. She felt one blade meet thick muscle in the monster’s front left leg, but her other blade was suddenly forced from her fingers as the beast sank its claw into her wrist. Both Caroline and the monster yelped in pain, pushing off of one another and backing up, having found themselves at a draw on that particular strike. The wrist of the arm not bleeding was now beginning to dribble, although it wasn’t as deep a cut as the one on the princess’s arm. Biting her lip and muting a continuous moan of pain, Caroline looked around rapidly for her other blade.
She wasn’t given time, though, as the beast was suddenly rushing at her again. Caroline frantically backed up, keeping the blade pointed straight ahead at the beast. It bounded toward her, smashing a few more houses with its footfalls and batting upward at Caroline with a meaty padded paw. This attack was met with a swift stroke from Caroline’s blade, and the beast pulled back, rethinking its tactics as it continued pushing Caroline further and further back down the street, moving closer to the palace. Caroline swiped several more times, trying to stay focused, but ended up with a few more scratches on her fingers as the beast clawed aggressively at her, refusing to back down despite her weapon, its back hairs bristling threateningly as if closing in on its terrified kill. Caroline began hyperventilating, then almost tripped as her calves were backed against a stone terrace; it was a change in elevation in the village that went up. She stumbled, dropping to a crouching position to avoid falling, but ended up with the beast standing right over her, its paws planted on either side of her; shocked, her knees gave out and she found herself lying down, leaning against the terrace. Her hand still hung in the air, gripping the bronze blade tightly, her hand clamming up. She locked eyes with the bloodshot stare of the mother beast, whose child she had caught, and she could almost feel the hatred of the beast burning down into her eyes. Her fingers weakened with this realization, her skin growing ice cold, and the creature calmly batted at Caroline’s hand, sending the blade flying off to the side before planting its paws squarely on Caroline’s elbows, pinning the princess deftly to the ground. Its tongue lapped around its throat one more time before it emitted its loudest roar yet, shattering windows for a mile around. Caroline felt her ears pop, and her head rattled with the strain, her eyes watering. Her throat went dust-dry as the beast re-opened its mouth, descending upon her face.