I had been the producer and the audience for many levels of screaming in my time on this planet, or rather on earth. Not as much here on this one. I would like to claim that I knew a great deal of ranges for the purpose of the loud outburst of air and fear or excitement.

  They could signify a fright, a joyous celebration, an exhalation of passion to the ceiling, or just someone showing themselves to be a fan of childish tantrums. There really was a diverse array there, with each having their own nuances and situational uses.

  This scream was one of pure terror. I froze on the surface of the water, my heart pounding as I scanned for where it came from. The kids near the river, who had been watching me, were bolting away in a panic.

  I watched them run past the adults to their large encampment and into the arms of the women there as the other adults, mostly men turned back to the water before they began shouting to one another. Some backed away slowly while others stood their ground, looking all the world like they were about to throw down and fight to the last.

  This stance prompted my own slow mind to follow the water up to the spot their gazes were locked upon. There was nothing there, or rather there was nothing visible there. What I saw instead was a large circle of deep ripples and a line of disrupted water forming a massive wake following an equally massive shadow hidden by the pitter-pattering raindrops making the surface opaque.

  And of course, the shaded monstrosity was heading directly for me.

  This is where I want to say I acted in the selfless style of a hero, bounding away to distract the beast so that the menfolk could either escape with their charges or also heroically come to my aid in some wildly spectacular flanking maneuver of magic and might.

  That is not what happened.

  No, I took a step in the opposite direction and ran.

  My feet dug into the surface of water beneath me feeling all the world like I had taken that first lunge from a trampoline where your lead foot will sink before you move your weight and get propelled forward with speed. My weight shifted with my next step, and I hastily formed the thought required to step away from the water and into the air.

  I took a step and another step even as I felt the air behind me grow cold. I knew not to turn and look, it would be a mistake to do so; it always was. Instead, I ran up into the air as fast and far as I could get my little legs to carry me.

  Why couldn’t I have been brought back as a tall amazonian princess with a six-foot body and legs for days. No, no, I needed to be a petite, little, elf-girl of proper and perfect rescuable carry-size.

  My back was suddenly showered with a spray of water as I felt a surge of air around me as something missed snagging my feet by what I was going to pretend was more than inches.

  I climbed higher and higher, wanting to escape the water-bound beast quickly. I put my head down in that way children do when they think it will help them move forward faster and that was then I saw the water below.

  The shadow of something was swimming just as quickly as I was fleeing, it seemed to be keeping pace with me.

  “Keep moving, Olea.” Corvin squawked through the forum.

  I nearly shouted back some retort before I realized I had slowed down to track the thing below us even as I lost altitude. I was still thirty feet above the water, surely that was safe enough for now so long as I kept moving.

  I picked up the pace again, not wanting to tempt fate and stick around. It could have friends, or there could just be some over-powered Rok flying around in this empowering rain just waiting for some wonderful elf-snack.

  Another thing occurred to me, and I changed direction slightly, veering more east than south as I climbed higher and soon made my way above the treetops on the opposite shore. Even if the creature could walk on land there was no way it could follow me from below while there were so many trees in the way. Right?

  I had barely made it fifty feet past the shoreline before a deep reverberating eruption of water sounded from behind me. I grinned as I pictured the beast reaching the shore to realize my plan of leaving it behind.

  The sound that followed would have set me to smiling had its cacophonous moan of anger not been located behind me and not below me.

  I could not help it; this time I looked back.

  And there it was, the hidden monstrosity that had made grown men quake and tremble. It was now understandable why they looked so determined.

  The monster resembled a Chinese dragon dancer seen in many parades. It had a long sinuous body snaking out behind its massive tooth filled maw. There were at least three sets of arms or legs separated by no less than twenty feet of body each. The tail was similar to eels swishing side to side with a long fin of sorts running down the length of it.

  It was an overly majestic creature, or it would have been if it were not cast in that sickly red on black color pattern that reminded me of my previous bovine attackers. What made it all the worse was the fact that I could see stubby tentacles ringing the oversized head as if in mockery of a lion’s mane.

  The part of its body that made the least sense was its lack of wings. I know magic exists and it was somewhat hypocritical of me to be a judge when I obviously had none of my own, but how could something so Dragon-Esque fly without wings?

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Because obviously it was flying, and quickly.

  “Run!” came the voice of reason that was my bonded familiar.

  I needed no further motivation as I turned and burned across the sky.

  I had been regenerating mana and stamina more quickly than I could use it before with my casual pace, but now I could feel my resource pools slowly dwindling down as I pushed faster.

  I cast Vigor to increase my stamina regeneration while my mana was still near the higher limit even as I pumped my legs faster. I threw away my sense of heroic style and suave movement for the sake of producing more speed and sensed that while not gaining ground I was at least not falling closer to the monstrosity behind me.

  I did not want to get eaten, cursed, or hen-. Yeah, I was not even going to think of what-ifs for now.

  Best to keep running.

  I soon attained a state of mind where my body did what my body did as my brain focused on keeping track of my dwindling resources.

  Mana: 234/316

  Stamina: 276/312

  My legs felt like leaden weights as the first hour passed by, all raw exhaustion and fatigue. This feeling led me to use the Vigor spell more than I probably should have to keep my stamina flowing inside.

  It alleviated the bulk of the strain on my poorly conditioned body, but I could tell that I was using it too soon. I needed to cast it only after the bonus to regeneration the spell granted with each cast ran out, not before.

  My mana pool was also suffering from this mishap as I could feel that I was definitely losing more mana than I was able to keep up with. It was also becoming harder to passively generate more than I was using as I continued forming my air-based constructs as the lower my tank dropped the lower the rate of regeneration would creep.

  The beast was still behind me, though I had gained a few dozen yards with the past several miles.

  Believe me when I say that I knew this was not an acceptable level of distance when fleeing through the sky.

  I had been gaining more altitude as time marched on, hoping something would change so that I could try something to get more distance once I was high enough. Honestly, any change right now that did not actively hurt me would only be welcome.

  I could see my destination in the distance. A small bastion of hope lit up against the rolling plains and sparsely forested land on the other side of the massive lake, each wall lit by a multitude of tiny pinpricks of mana-infused orbs.

  The roar of the nightmare behind me caused me to leave that little glimmer behind as I focused once more on putting one foot in front of another.

  Corvin cawed somewhere above me, he was flying higher so as to follow the movements of the beast. For some reason it had no interest in him at all, even when Corvin flew nearly in line with the monster it would not deviate from its path.

  Its focus was purely on me; I was not flattered.

  Mana: 157/316

  Stamina: 216/312

  My mana kept dropping as my legs continued to protest the abuse, at this point I was certain that my muscles were going to rip away from the bone at any moment, my tendons screaming as they were stretched and strained.

  I was much higher now, having climbed to at least twice my previous height. I was not panicking this time as I knew there was something much worse than a sudden stop and splatter awaiting any fright-induced mistake.

  No, now I was going to attempt to change something. To force a slight change and maybe gain some more distance.

  I sent a mental nudge to signal to Corvin above even as I dove down, creating a step at my feet to push against; increases my downward momentum.

  The air was whipping past me at speeds I had not been able to attain while running even with all my passives literally streamlining me. I quickly reached maximum downward velocity travel forward and down at what I hoped was something close to forty-five degrees.

  It was a brief moment later than I felt the familiar feeling of claws wrapping around my arms as my course corrected slightly.

  Corvin had told me this could work after a brief outline of my idea, though he had let me in on some pertinent details.

  His size shifting had costs. It was the reason he did not maintain his larger form. He derived his stats from my own which is to say that my paltry levels of Strength and Constitution were not enough for him to effectively use the larger forms that came as we increased our power.

  In fact, if not for my higher Wisdom he would quickly burn through the entirety of his energy as he had to actively use mana to keep him aloft as the purely physical stats could not maintain the proper force or lift required for his increased mass.

  What he could do was serve as a temporary glider to help me gain a few seconds reprieve while diving downward to hopefully increase my lead.

  We stayed that way for a very brief time as I fell toward the water below, having finally reached the lake. It was amazing the pace one could maintain when being chased by a tentacled monster of nightmare conjuring proportions.

  I cast a Vigor spell on my companion, burning through another ten mana to help sustain Corvin through the stresses of our flight even as he released me and resumed his smaller, more agile form.

  It was such a short-lived respite that I was sure we had lost some of our lead for just a few moments chance to stop flailing my numb legs. I created a series of steps to shift my orientation even as I slowly reduced my weight again, grabbing the next step above me to swing my feet the rest of the way beneath me.

  Finally upright and able to dig in once more I waited for Corvin to spot our pursuer.

  I could now see the dots of light on the other side of the lake more clearly. They were close enough that I almost slowed down to take in the rate at which we had covered the distance as I fell and had no idea how to even calculate it in my mind. Surely it had taken more than those few moments to cover a dozen miles.

  No use thinking about it now.

  Mana: 129/316

  Stamina: 176/312

  I pushed faster, urging my overworked body forward even as my mind sought the safety of a dream of hope.

  I was so remarkably close.

  Maybe the beast had flown off as we neared the city, the guard’s presence having caused it to pause.

  “Olea, dodge!” came a shout in the space of my mind even as a shadow loomed over me.

  I pushed off a hastily made step causing my ankle to twist even as I moved quickly to the left.

  In the place where I would have been I watched as the long form of the monster plummeted through the space before it hit the lake below causing a cascade of frigid water to shoot into the sky.

  The water failed to find purchase on my body, but I was quickly chilled as it stripped away the ambient heat in the air around me. It would seem that I was overly optimistic with our thoughts.

  I saw the deep glow of red eyes before I realized I was standing still and stepped forward again, moving into a sprint. I was no longer aiming for height as I raced forward a mere twenty feet above the water.

  With thoughts of death and magical enslavement still fresh in my mind I ran.

  And ran.

  I was closing in on the walls of the city even as I missed a step and fumbled my balance causing me to fall even as I heard the beast leaving the water behind me.

  I had been so close; I could see the monster drawing nearer even as my speed bled away with my small misstep.

  And then a small blue orb crashed into the monster.