No Ordinary Gnasher Part 1

Taryn stared down at the mangled corpse before her, heart racing, face flushed with sorrow. He was utterly unrecognizable, if it weren't for the little bit of his torso left behind, she couldn't have known it was even male.

The crushed body looked as if he'd tried to crawl away as he was killed. Taryn felt a pang of guilt in her mind as she wondered, Was it painful?

The gnasher has killed three new slayers since it had emerged in the Shattered Isles. She gripped the hilt of her war pike, feeling the firm metal grip against her palm while she turned away from the body.

"Wow," Micah exclaimed as he came up behind Taryn, noticing the grisly scene. "I've never heard of a gnasher eviscerating its prey."

"Neither have I," Taryn replied. She gripped her pike more firmly, a sense of dread in the pit of her stomach. "Let's join with the others."

She and Micah walked along with the land, carefully jumping from one segment to another, making sure to get plenty of space to run and jump as any misstep would be their deaths. The idea of falling from the land down to the ground made her skin crawl. It would be a painless death, she was sure, but death none the less and she had no desire to die barely into her 19th year.

The flare went off to the south, the booming echo filled the air and Taryn looked over to see the remnants of the light, indicating the others of the party had found their mark.

"Let's go," Taryn said and sprinted across the ground with Micah close behind. They ran through a small gathering of trees, hopping over roots and avoiding flora that might be good to collect come a less dangerous day.

"Stay down," Rudy said as they approached. His gray hair was kept short, and his beard hugged his angular jawline well, accenting his shape, making him look a bit like a bird. The lines around his eyes deepened as he frowned and stared ahead. "I haven't seen Miles. Have you?"

"No, we just came to the flare," Taryn returned.

"I didn't send up the flare."

"Then it was Miles'."

Rudy looked up, his jaw clenched. "Damn. This is not a regular gnasher. This is a ragetail, see the segmented growths on the top of the tail? If that hits you, you're being ripped apart and crushed. You're not ready for this fight. We need to get Miles and extract as soon as possible. I'll go right, around this section and into the trees to search for Miles. You two go left, meet at the landing point for extraction with a blue flare."

"Ok."

Rudy went off quickly and quietly, his spry, lithe frame darted through the trees as the chain blades hung at his belt, swaying slightly as he ran.

Micah and Taryn traveled around the left as instructed, following an outcrop of ironthistle before reaching trees that they traversed toward the central clearing where the gnasher consumed the aether from the earth.

If Miles were anywhere, it would have to be in the trees.

After a solid 10 minutes of searching, there was no sign of Miles. Taryn turned north and crouched down, trying to see any sign of Rudy in the distance.

The gnasher released the occasional chitter as it fed, its large body hunched over while it consumed the aether from the nearby vent.

It was then that Taryn saw what appeared to be a human lying motionless beside the vent and fear filled her mind.

"Is that Miles by the vent?" Taryn inquired.

"I can't tell, it's too far away," Micah replied as he knelt down beside a tree.

"I hope not. But if it is, we have to confirm it, don't we? If it's him we need to know if he's dead."

Taryn withdrew her pike from across her back and held it close, taking a deep breath, she threw a flare into the air, a bright orange-yellow that signaled the attack.