𝙽𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝙽𝚘𝚝 𝙰 𝚅𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚒𝚗 || Shadow and Bone

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 10

"I lost all of the money... Senia! You crow!" Jesper put his hands on his waist and stood like a child in front of an amused Senia.

"No, no there's only 16 pounds." Arken exclaimed.

"Can we do it on 16?" Kaz slowly turned his gaze away from Jesper before asking Arken who looked at him with uncertainty in his eyes.

"Never been done before."

"Oh, well. Here's to our first death." Senia sighed and sunk further into the corner of the train.

Voices of the men from outside the train were heard along with the sound of landmines going off. Inej and Kaz looked at Arken questioningly.

"Both of you sit here and never shift your weights," Arken instructed Senia to sit closely beside Jesper as she glared at the man for causing trouble.

The train moved into the fold and unlike Senia's first time, the enclosed walls of the train gave her comfort that the volcra will never again get to her. But she knew that was unlikely.

Metal clanging was heard which Arken then explained to be the system of timers he erected himself to let him know of the pace at which the train is going. Kaz continued to ask Arken about sorts of stuff that concerns physics and engineering which Arken said made his travels successful but so did a divine intervention.

"The fold is thick with volcra, and the tracks aren't complete. Coal, please."

"I'm sorry-" "apology denied." "not you Senia. Did he just say the tracks weren't complete?" Jesper asked horror clear on his fine face.

"I said they aren't complete." Jesper tried to stand.

"No moving. We're a tad late. More coal." Arken demanded still looking at his watch.

"Back to the real issue." Jesper started.

"Yes, now why'd you have to be so stubborn!?" Senia exclaimed clearly still annoyed with Jesper's antics a while ago.

"Well, why do you have to be so easy to persuade? Anyways, we're on tracks that don't connect to other tracks?" Senia huffed in annoyance beside Jesper and looked at the goat as it made a noise almost as if teasing her. So, she opted to glare at it instead as the others continued to bicker and throw in reassuring and panicked words towards each other.

All of a sudden, Senia heard that haunting whisper directed at her.

"Now there's a nest nearby. But we'll be fine if they haven't attacked us in..." Senia's suspicions were confirmed when she heard the nasty screech of the volcras and the flapping of their enormous leather-like wings.

"Now we've got a problem."

"Obviously." Senia spouted despite the fear swallowing her insides.

"How do you fight them off?" Kaz asked and saw Senia's alarmingly ashen face more than normal.

"I outrun them."

Arken made orders to throw in all their coal and complained to Jesper for not getting enough coal when they heard a volcra nearing their train then the sound of solid flesh slashing through metal.

"The stupid thing impaled itself on a spike." Arken looked back at them.

"So this is how we die?" Jesper asked in a daze.

"No! I'm going to kill you myself!" Senia yelled in Jesper's ears and took a hold of his arms.

"Jesper, grab the goat."

"I'm not throwing out the goat!"

"Grab the damn goat! It's not bait, it's for you. I need you to calm down. Hug the goat. Shut the hell up."

Another timer went off.

"We should've hit that 20 seconds ago. Which means that the train stops inside the fold... and we die."

"So soft." Jesper hugged the goat and Senia slowly tapped it. "Oh yeah."

"There's more coming. You may want to make your peace." Arken said as he pushed himself in a corner.

Jesper stood up with the goat in his arm and pistol on the other. Continuously he fired and fired and fired his pistol towards every volcra he sees from the inside. Never missing a shot.

"Are they all dead?" Inej asked when a loud scream from the volcra was heard above them.

Jesper pointed his pistol towards it, closed his eyes, and pulled the trigger.

cheers to all the amazing people I've talked to in the comment section and messages.
thanks for reading
( ิ◕㉨◕ ิ)

𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜. 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧.