Emily reaches Blue and starts pulling monkeys off of him, her heart racing in her chest as she watches the ostrich panicking. She searches her memories for a spell, any spell that could help get the swarm off of him without harming him as well, but draws up short. She knows how dangerous wind can be. Does she really want to risk unleashing that on her poor little ostrich? As much pain as Blue is in, they’ve hardly broken the skin. But a misfired wind blade? Or an unlucky wind bolt?
Searching around, she finds a heavy branch on the ground and lifts it up into the air, swinging it from side to side in an attempt to keep the monkeys on the ground from swarming them. Blue furiously pecks and scratches around himself, his eyes wide in what Emily knows must be panic.
The fluffy horde slowly starts to overwhelm the pair, her sweeping branch and his furious claws and beak no match for good old pack tactics. The monkeys in the canopy start to drop down faster and faster, causing the pair to pause their sweepings in order to throw off the chomping beasts.
In the distance comes the sounds of furious footsteps, as Alastair sprints towards where he saw Blue and Emily running off to. His heart pounds in his chest, as he swears underneath his breath with each impact with the loamy ground.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck! Shouldn’t have done that. Should have covered the damned front.” He admonishes himself, as sweat beads his forehead in worry, and his heart seems to sink further and further down into his shoes. “Rule one of being the front line: Protect the damn front line.”
He smoothly jumps over a fallen tree and continues his mad sprint, the distant sounds of monkeys screeching and the occasional wind blast guiding him towards where he’s needed.
“She falls down and you rush to help her, but you let the damn mage run off after a murder ostrich and a fuzz ball swarm with teeth?” he curses, his teeth clenched. “Where the hell were you?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Meanwhile, Emily’s wondering the exact same thing, as the monkeys continue to drop on her and Blue. The aforementioned murder ostrich is on his knees, trying weakly to fend them off, while Emily blasts the occasional monkey back into orbit with carefully-aimed wind blasts, deeming the branch too inefficient considering the sheer mass of monkeys trying to eat them.
“Come on, Blue! Get up!” She pleads with the ostrich. “We’ve got to keep running!”
Blue eyes Emily and lets out a frustrated screech, his beak clacking shut afterwards.
“I know you’re scared!” Emily replies, as she sweeps her hand and slices apart another group of the furred bastards. “But we need to go!”
She hears the frantic sound of footsteps sprinting towards her from the distance, and with hope in her heart, she quickly sneaks a glance in its direction. She spots the frantic, sweating form of Alastair, his arms pumping up and down as his head swivels around, trying to find them. With hope blossoming in her heart, she sweeps out both hands, slicing a path through the monkeys.
“Alastair! Over here!” she screams, and watches in elation as he spots her and starts sprinting straight towards them.
That joy is short lived, however, as suddenly, a mass of monkeys drop from above and snatches Emily up in their little grabby arms, daisy-chained to each other.
“Huh?”, she manages to say, before the chain pulls in on itself, lifting her and Blue off from the ground and into the trees.
Alastair pauses his running for a moment, as he watches in shocked awe as Emily and her ostrich are lifted into the air by a chain of monkeys and swung through the trees, slowly picking up speed as they disappear in the forest.
“Fuck.”
He starts to run.
“Fuck!”
He watches as the chain speeds up, monkey after monkey passing their snatched prizes from one to the other.
“Emilyyy!”
He sprints as fast as he can, hoping against all hope as he watches his best friend and adopted sister disappear into the tall canopy.
Monkeyhanger? Because... They're hanging... From the monkeys...
