Chapter 71

Ashley hoped this assault wouldn't last long; it arrived in the form of an advancing surface of sand and debris; which may be miles wide and several thousand feet high. It blows with little warning, making venturing conditions hazardous. Blinding them, and the choking dust was reduced to their vision. Sandstorms last only a few minutes, but this was a different storm altogether. They could barely breathe and snuggled together. They prepared to die. As suddenly as it began, the storm stopped. It crossed over them. They coughed and sputtered and panned out the dust and dirt from their clothes. Anna looked around. The storm has not passed them by. It was now all around them. They stood within a swirling surface and circled the mayhem like an enormous corral.

"This is probably the eye of the storm," exclaimed Ashley. She had heard such a thing but had never experienced it. As if they were at sea, this cyclone of sand had a center of comprehensive stillness, and they had entered it. All around them surged the unfathomable curtain of cyclonic storm and dirt. The trio snuggled in a circle of complete tranquility.

Anna glanced up at them all with amazement. "Oh my goodness! It's wonderful." It looks remarkable. They turned to look at an incredible wonder. Not too far from them stood a massive ancient tree. They looked upwards. They could not see where the tree ended. It just faded away into the clouds of sand and debris. The tree was gigantic; it was not only very high but at least a hundred feet around. Its tangled slab of roots was no doubt anchored deep into the ground. It could not move with the stir storm, yet it confused them, how could it be in the center of it? Eve rubbed her eyes. Is this a hallucination? It could not be. The others saw it as well. Were they under some kind of spell? It must be an enchantment or something else. Powerful illusion? But it felt so real, are they on the other side of the devil's now?

When out of nowhere they heard a whoosh of the leaves in the wind. Whoever prowled there had a hunter's skill for blending into the natural background. Anna suddenly summoned her fire and without a doubt, it alerted her inner fire. They heard a soft growling. The fiery glow of eyes reflecting the firelight from Anna's outreach hand. Pair of eyes, all around them. About five. The biggest male creature trudged and glided out behind the tree. It concentrated on Anna's fire, seeming to recognize its equal.

Ashely speculated that it may be related to the storm of sand as it appears from nowhere, yet they emerge in shadowy ghosts-like with no individual pattern, yet it has two eyes and two ears. It was an odd creature and none of them had ever seen before, a Sandjinn, a hybrid combination of several animals. And was about twice the size of a human. However, their bodies had been concocted and forged out of two different species. A serpent-like creature with scaly wings rises from its shoulders with enormous horns on a grossly disproportionate broad eagle head. Though It has a human-like body with flaming eyes. It seems like they came from the sands as they buried themselves together.

"Careful everyone, those creatures can strike fast with venom on their saliva and kill their prey," Ashely announced. As the creature showed no fear of its target. It seemed to hardly size up how the event would be taken. It growled.

"What kind of creature is that?" Harry asked in an utter panic that he had never seen such monsters of this kind. Won the outrageous not to have his wolf fight with this beast.

"They are the Sandjinn, the guards of the entrance." Ashely rolled out Harry. She had never seen one before, but she identified them from stories. She acknowledged she could tame this thing with a whip of her sword, but five of them? That was another tale altogether.

"What entrance? I can't see any entrance." Harry asked and surveyed the cyclone.

"Only a daughter of the Moon Goddess could see it," Ashely added. Glancing towards Anna, she hoped that this time the healer would choose the right path knowing something the rest didn't.

When the smallest of the creature approached them, Ashley took her silver dagger and planted them in the ground followed by her golden dagger and her serrated knives at closer intervals. The smallest Sandjinn saw her approach, it immediately launched for her, propelling itself at her as though thrown by an enormous hand. But it rolled over the dagger in the scrape, which cut morsels of sand out of its body, and that very same moment Ashely disappeared. Harry and Anna gasped in surprise. Harry suddenly felt something, he felt like his bones were tearing apart. Total mayhem. A new feeling of freedom like he was free from the pain and the fear. He felt it. He felt his wolf. It was screaming to get out. Unexpectedly, the skies darkened and he shifted into her massive golden wolf in a blur that Anna's eyes couldn't even recall happening in front of her. He was massive. Harry's wolf was gigantic and shimmering. It was a golden wolf, so beautiful and radiated very powerful energy and roared at the beast but the monsters roared in return louder and scarier than his wolf but Harry roared again and this time the beast trembled in fear.

The leader of the monster hissed. Its snaky-like tongue tasted the air that carried its essence. It backed up a bit into the tree. "The golden Alpha. Impossible," it whispered, suddenly aware of Harry's powerful spirit.

The eyes of the others moved scarcely forward, dropping off and gliding into the sand, and prepared to attack. When the leader Sandjinn squealed as it jerked its tail from behind. Something or someone pulled the creatures into the tree out of their sight. Its outcry cut off in a squeal of injury. One of the surrounding Sandjinns jumped out of the sands towards Anna and Harry's wolf. However, unexpectedly Ashely leaped through the air, blocking the Sandjinn. She met the creature with a crunch, and they rolled out to the surface in a considerable bang. Then she stood up, victoriously, her blade leaking with Sandjinn dark blood.

Anna suddenly summons her fire as she lets her fire engulf the other creature that was about to attack Harry's wolf who seemed confused and unmoved in the back. He stood surprised as she attacked the creature and hoped this could save her life but she doubted it as another squeal cut through in front. Another Sandjinn flew out from the tree and settled in the dead mound for all to see. It snarled its teeth, eventually, Anna plunged from nowhere and touched down on the other side of the now headless creature. Four down, and one to go. Anna had no time to sort out what was happening.

Meanwhile, the remaining Sandjinn pounced and attacked Anna, she rolled out into the ground as the Sandjinn about to pounce her back, suddenly Harry's massive wolf runs and leaped towards it and used his claw as spears, poking out its eyes and slice its throat. He stole a glance at Anna, then she spins and slices more into its throat furiously than he had ever been. He wasn't tiring and getting wasn't sloppy. The adrenaline course through his veins.

Slaying a crossbred creature was one thing, but these creatures were massive. Its peculiar nature resulted in frightening and unforeseen revolting behavior, but she had been catching on quickly. Finally, giving it a perfect slice through its neck, she severed it, and it rolled into the sands. But unbeknownst to her, the monster's blood went onto her wound as well, poisoning her blood as her head was heaving and her eyes blurry.

The burning sensation hurrying from Anna's heart to her palms. It wants out. She felt it running towards her outreach hands. Her blood was fighting it and it was so strong. The poison was weighing her down and taking all her power from within. Her fire couldn't fight it. 

A fiery glow covering her arms, so brilliant that she wanted to cover her eyes then suddenly it stopped. Disappeared. It was the most startling and the worst experience of her life after so many years of playing with her fire. She was losing it. She knew she was dying. Her eyes hazed for a while and she was losing her senses when a thick and dark heavy tear escaped them. She blinks to clear them off, Harry wolf watched her in fear for her life, but it doesn't work. She wanted them out. Instead, she used her shaky hands to wipe them clean. The substance leaking was sticky and dark and moving. She squinted for a moment harder, forcing herself to see anything, and she saw the outline of her fists, Harry and the cyclone still covering them yet the dark tar-like entity coating them. She wanted to scream for fear yet none left her throat. It was choking her. She opens her mouth to cry out, but suddenly, her throat closes up again.

The sudden instinct to cover her ears was imminent. "Harry, my fire is coming out now! I don't wish to burn this terrain and this mountain. I don't know if I could hold it any longer, or this fire inside me will flare, and it might make an avalanche and I don't prefer that to happen," Anna asserted. Harry's wolf stared at her as he changed into his human form. The chaos in his mind overwhelmed him with its mess. Then Anna collapsed.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He asked, he could feel the sweat-drenched skin, the pulsing of his own eyes, and the ringing shrieks vibrating in his ears, and the thumping of his heart against his chest. His fingers were curled into a fist, nails digging into his palm. He swaddled Anna, she was unconscious from the sudden attack of poison on her bloodstream and it made him nervous. He looked around and searched for the woman. He can't hear his abrupt breathing, but he can feel the oxygen flooding in and out of his lungs. Hesitantly, his eyes look at the dead creatures before him. Fear troubles his guts, churning his stomach into severe cramps as he steals a glimpse towards the woman. "Help." He shouted and carried Anna.