How was I well rewarded for holding my hunger in check against the girl. Her young blood would have hardly provided for me so well as this feasting. Ecstatic, I ripped into his throat with my corner teeth, releasing the life-giving fountain of his blood. Thus did I feed, swallow after swallow, like a drunkard draining a cask of ale in one draught. When finished, I let the man's limp and empty body fall at my feet, then stepped over him to pursue his friends.
They'd grown both bold and fearful. Having determined he was not where he should have been, they called his name, hesitantly at first, in whispers, then more loudly as their alarm and annoyance increased. Again, I waited until another came close enough and dealt with him in the same manner as his fellow, holding him easily despite his best efforts to escape.
The last man, realizing that things were very much amiss, fled back to the camp. Or at least tried to do so. The wolves took it as a sign to strike and were upon him before he'd gone two steps. And so as I crouched over one man, supping on his blood with even greater relish than before, my pets tore the other to pieces, making their own evening's banquet. His shrieks of terror and agony provided suitable music for our gathering.
As a rule, I do not encourage the wolves to feed on humans, lest they become too fond of an easy hunt and abandon their natural prey of deer, but on this occasion, I judged an exception might be allowed, since it would bring about the desired effect of putting the fear of all the hells into the hearts of the rest of the bandits.
Hell. Now there was an idea.
Leaving the wolves to their meal, I returned to the edge of the camp to observe the progress of things. Nine or so men had emerged from the cave, wide-eyed and quivering as they faced the part of the woods where their companion's wrenching screams (too quickly over, alas) had sheered through the darkness. All had armed themselves. Most had swords, but a few had arrows nocked and ready in their longbows. Despite their fear, they looked as hard and as experienced as any soldier that ever had served with me in days long past. Even so, I could have charged into their midst and taken on the lot with no great inconvenience or danger to myself.
But that felt wrong, somehow. An antic humor had seized me; perhaps it was inspired by the reviving flush of fresh blood, but I was of a mind to tailor their punishment to suit their crimes.
Though wolves frequently howl to work themselves up for a hunt, I was able to persuade them to break with habit and set up a truly hair-raising clamor for the entertainment of these spoilers. As the pack was a large one, the row was not only petrifying, but nearly ear-shattering because of their proximity.
The men did not remain petrified for long, though, and almost as one retreated into the shelter of their cave. The opening was rather narrow; it was most amusing to watch as they all fought to jostle through at the same time. Once within, two of them held nervous watch, peeping out from the cave mouth like frightened birds in a nest awaiting the snake's unstoppable approach.
Neither noticed my small winged shape flitting across the abandoned camp to lightly land on the rough stone arch of the entrance, well over their heads. Using tiny claws to grasp equally tiny irregularities in the rock, I clung tightly to its face and listened and observed.
The chamber where they sheltered was fairly large, and I sensed another deeper in. Relinquishing my hold, I few over the men to reach these areas, guided by the subtle differences of sound echoing back to my extremely sensitive ears. Past the first room, I made a quick circuit of the second before lighting on the dusty floor to become myself again.
This second room was just as large, and with a little quiet — so very quiet — exploration, I discovered a crevice leading even farther into the earth to others. This was of interest to me, since I was always glad to know about places that might offer safe refuge for the day. I'd have to make a thorough investigation of this place sometime soon.
It was a dead cave, this portion of it, anyway, since no sound of trickling water reached me, and no bats clustered along the ceiling. Bats prefer a very humid incubator for their young and for those times of the year devoted to hibernation; a disappointment, as I might have employed them to further bedevil the men. However, there had been bats roosting here in the past, the remains of their now dry droppings layered the uneven floor to a depth of several feet. Well and good. I would find excellent use for it.
Picking up a small quantity of guano and cupping it in one hand, with the other I fished out a packet of sulfur tucked away in a pocket. Combining the two into a little ball and urgently whispering the necessary words to bring forth the power was the work of a moment. The ball took on a feeble blue glow that warmed gradually to green, yellow, red, and finally to a pure and brilliant white. As the colors supplanted each other in turn, the thing grew in size until it was nearly two feet in diameter. With a final word, I gently placed this highly lethal globe on the floor and lost no time commencing the change back into the form of a bat.
"What's that?" cried one of the men. He'd been drawn to this second chamber by the white light, and he and the others stood rooted with awe as they gaped at my transformation from man into animal. I have been given to understand the process is not an especially pleasant sight to witness, and doubtless this was a contributing factor to their shock. The delay was happily received by me, though, for I am rather vulnerable for the duration of the change and preferred not to have to deal with the complications of an attack from them while so occupied.
But once finished, I darted up out of reach of their blades. My movement prompted them to move in turn. One of them had recovered sufficiently from his surprise to take a swipe at me with his sword. I felt the wind of its passage ruffling my belly fur when I had to dive low in order to slip into the crevice that would take me deeper into the cave.
Thoroughly stirred up by this, some of them seemed determined to come after me, to challenge my unnatural threat. They'd have been better advised to retreat, to leave the cave altogether despite the wolves outside. But they angrily insisted on trying to follow me while the others paused to examine the gloriously beautiful ball of light I'd left behind on the floor.
Not for long. In order to prevent just such a retreat, I'd arranged for only the absolute minimum of time it would take for me to change and escape before the power within the globe finally burst forth. And burst it did, far exceeding my expectations. Confined as it was by the relatively close walls of the chamber, the blast was vastly more intense in its destructive force than it should have been — that, or my progress at spellcasting was more improved than I'd lately suspected. Of course, the very combustible bat guano lining the cave may have had something to do with it.
I flew as fast as I could, veering sharply to the side to avoid the fiery storm blowing through the crevice. Not fast enough. The wild, burning wind rushing in caught up with me, sending me tumbling helplessly end over end until I finally crashed hard into an utterly unforgiving surface.
Then I couldn't seem to move at all. Great billows of roaring flame rolled over my frail body, smashing me flat. I felt the fire eating away at the parchment-thin membrane of my wings, and screamed, adding my tiny voice to the shrieks of the men in the other chamber. A broken winged thing, I writhed, twitching and snarling as the heat seared us all together. But as bad as it was for me, they had it far, far worse.
The last wash of it passed, though, and I lay still and panting from the pain. Nearly deafened, I was still able to discern the low roar of fire and their last pitiful screechings as it consumed them. But I had no pity, not for these careless butchers. They'd despoiled that which was mine, and they were paying the price of it.