The Lone Kirin

Invading Tyrants

I paw against the ground and step down from the rock. I somewhat worry that mother will sleep until its dark. Monsters and beast will come out, and I don't want to deal with that.

Mother surely knows how to find appropriate shelter. Even if I don't have anything to compare us to, on my knowledge, I do still know that there aren't any beast strong enough for her to worry about. But I am not that lucky.

I am focusing on my eyes to look straight at my snout. Where my mother's horn resides, all I have is smooth skin. It will probably grow out, once I'm older.

I lower my head to eat some grass. As much as it isn't gourmet food, I do still want to try everything edible once. Tastes were something, I didn't learn anything about when going through the memories, my mother shared with me.

Thinking about it, I notice that tastes likely are something subjective and all that she could have left me, was an impression of hers, that would most likely differ from mine.

All in all, the grass wasn't anything special. But this experiment was indeed worth it. I let my tongue through my mouth and notice that my teeth are sharp and potentially a dangerous weapon. Knowing this, my confidence rises somewhat.

I start trotting over to my mother and swat a fly away. These things are getting on my nerves. I can't wait for the time we leave this insect-infested place.

My ears twitch instinctually. I raise my head and point it towards the strange noise I heard. Did anything already find us? I hope not?

[MOTHER!]

Her head jolts up, at my sudden and powerful call.
But before she even manages to get to her feet, several shadows bolt out of the underbrush, surrounding her.

[RUN, CHILD!] her voice thunders through my skull.

Confusedly, I look about. Should I leave mother behind? She probably isn't strong enough to tackle multiple opponents. Is she? They seem to be prepared.

I turn my head around and see two creatures standing right before me.
They had the lower bodies of spiders, without the head. Where the head would be, the upper body of almost a human sprouts out, covered in a black exoskeleton. On top of that sits a weirdly formed head, sporting the shape of a human's and the exoskeleton and mandibles of spiders at the bottom.

My mother's memories tell me that these are soldiers of these lands, that occasionally send people to exterminate her. It seems that they want these mountains Kirin free, as to build mines.

For centuries she declined all their offers until they decided just to eliminate her.
They looked at me with their ten, unmoving eyes. As my mother whinnies in the background, I hear something combust and feel a silent scream of a life fading.
This wasn't the time to hesitate.
One of the two hunters swung a pike at my leg, and I dodge, only to get bound by a rope the second one threw over my neck.
A rope? I maybe equine shaped, but my pride doesn't allow for something as rude as this to bring me down.
I feel my primal rage taking over, and in a blur, the rope becomes porous, crumbles, and lets me kick the rope guy's torso. He keeps his balance, their eight legs working in their favor, but both are so surprised by the rope not working, that they couldn't even react to me bolting right through their defenses, vanishing into the forest.

My mother will handle herself. I am sure of that.

From what I learned during my short time alone, is that my family seems to be rather potent, even for our standards. A few eight-legged ruffians won't strike her down.

I gallop, weave, dodge, and jump my way through the underbrush, but can still feel the soldier's presence behind me. Having no real experience with such scenarios, I don't know what to do. And going at this speed for the first time doesn't allow me to think about anything other than my movement.

"It's faster than expected! Give a signal to the scouts! If we can capture it fast enough, they will be back in position for when they are needed!"

They should reconsider shouting this loudly when I am near enough to hear them. I feel one of the presences vanishing, and I was distracted long enough to trip and fall over a root. I don't know how to measure speed, but I fell far enough to reach a massive river and tumble into it.
This wasn't the time for me to learn how to swim. And just about now, I notice five, no six presences closing in on my position. I kick as hard as I can to stay afloat, and some primal instinct allows me to make the right movements.

There is no way I am escaping this. This stream is relatively slow in comparison to me, but it is strong enough for me not to escape. In the meantime, several soldiers appear at the edge of my vision, smartly moving, not to fully enter my sight.

They think they're smart, don't they? They probably haven't the slightest clue of Kirin anatomy whatsoever. Not that I have, but I don't need to know. All I need to know is how to escape this situation.

"How exactly are we supposed to get it out of there?" one yelled.

"I don't know, but we have around a minute before that thing falls off into the local dungeon system. So try everything!"

Hmmm... dungeons. For some reason, my mother left me with only good impressions of dungeons. A dungeon's concept alone seems antithetical to them, ever feasting on the living and all the other things they do. But once you get strong enough, to overpower normal dungeons, they become food dispenser, so maybe her memories are not that far off.

Still... I am way too weak to enter a monster-infested cave! But getting caught would just be a way would only be a way to throw my life away.
Once they realized that I began swimming with a goal in mind, they started to act frantically.

Some had spun improvised webs on the fly and threw them at me, missing, of course. The soldiers from before shot some sort of hooked thing at me, but the water stopped their projectiles from reaching me. One even fired a dart at me. It got deflected by my scales and flew into the water next to me.

Never underestimate the hardness of scales, even if they are those of a newborn. While kicking as hard as I could, I saw the guy that shot at me getting punched by one of his own. They don't want to kill me? I can do that. Non-lethal force probably isn't the way to go in this situation! It works for me.

I can hear the waterfall now! Wait... How high of a fall can I survive? I just ragdolled about for quite a distance so that this fall won't do much, I hope. I am not sure about the specifics, but I shouldn't fall faster than what I just reached by running... Well.

Still better than to get caught by those people... probably. And mother will have a rather direct path to me, too. She surely can just follow me down there.

Whooooooo!

There I go! This feels amazing! This something other than the wind that I felt when running. It is way more... It feels as if I am free. Free of any worry.

Is this the feeling my mother wants me to bring to the others once I am grown up? Probably.

My surroundings suddenly change. There was a giant hole in front of me, I failed to notice until now. And at the rim of it are gigantic spikes...
Is this a long-deceased beast? With this size, it seems, it could eat the whole forest in just a few days.
Scary.
I am wondering where I will land. Hopefully, not in a monster's nest. After about 30... seconds?
Maybe?
I am still not sure about all this weird terminology... Alas.
I am falling for more than half a... minute?
And what is this weird "imperial system"?
It seems stupid.
Measuring like that is just way too inefficient.
The metric system... oh. It's dark. The walls around me aren't well illuminated, and the only source of light vanished as the sun was behind me when I fell. Man.
I am falling for quite some time. And it's getting cold.
Although... This coldness is quite soothing if I do say so myself. I feel the high from falling slowly fading. It just sparks more and more worries within me. Will I survive the fall? And where did my pursuers go? Are they trying to find a way to me?

Ugh... this howling wind is truly pesky. I wish it would go away. Not that I want to lan... Ahh! There's the ground, I belie...

Thwack!