It was supposed to be a simple walk through the forest, the death of the family's youngest had greatly hurt Samuel and his daughter Hannah.
Hannah was already despondent after the death of her mother last spring.
And now with the loss of her only sibling, Samuel didn't want to imagine.
And of course Samuel couldn't be there for his daughter due to his job as the sole guardsman of Cromb.
He couldn't be there for her even now, having to leave his grieving daughter with his sister.
But he was trying, this outing was supposed to be a point of change.
With taking on a few friends from his time at the imperial army and with them creating a town garrison.
Was meant to finally give Samuel time with his daughter, this little outing showing to Hannah that things were going to be different from now on.
…
As they walked hand in hand, Samuel and Hannah smiled as they made small talk.
Samuel had walked down this forest trail for as long as he could remember.
The trail cut through the forest and ended at a meadow filled with wildflowers.
The meadow was called Wild flower bay by his father, and the name just kinda stuck.
It was where Samuel had taken his wife for their first date, it was the place they exchanged their wedding vows.
To Samuel it was a place of discovery and promises, the perfect location for the first true father daughter outings they would have together.
Sounds did occasionally come from the thicket, but he did his best to ignore it.
But because he knew and could name every animal that lived in this forest and none would bring the two any harm.
Dire bears and dire wolves were weary around people, and nothing that lived here was big or strong enough to be a threat to either of them.
So Samuel decided to tell Hannah the story of how he and her mother met.
Hoping that all the noise he and his daughter were making would scare off whatever was near them.
Then there was a new sound, it started at the edge of Samuel's hearing.
And then started to grow louder and closer, until even poor Hannah started to hear it.
It was the sound of snapping, the sound was coming from deep within the forest.
But from the fact that sounds were coming closer, with the ground starting to shake.
Samuel knew they would end up meeting it soon, and that was something he would never allow.
He grabbed Hanna as he sped back towards Cromb, innately knowing that whatever was rampaging through the forest could not be dealt with alone.
Yet even as he ran as fast as he could, the thing decided that the two were his prey.
And soon the beast burst through the tree line, Samuel was horrified by what he saw.
A leonine body with draconic wings and scorpion tail, and the face of a man.
White fur and crimson mane, it ran on all fours and it still reached over ten feet tall.
It was a manticore, by the four it was a manticore.
The beast of cruelty, the smiling ripper, and many more horrid titles this species was branded with were well and truly earned.
Its massive body destroyed all in its path, including the towering trees that had surrounded Cromb for centuries.
It was a beast that needed a small army to slay it, Samuel felt his blood run cold as he continued to run for his life.
'we need to evacuate the town! Why is something like that even here?'
Samuel's mind was failing to even start to understand the situation, the smiling face of the Manticore only made the chill in Samuel's heart spread to the core of his being.
That is when the Manticore made its move, a simple swipe of its paw.
Samuel who had spent his entire life training and fighting, in that moment felt the hand of the grim reaper on his shoulder.
…
Adder was the first to arrive, his brother not far behind, but Adder was shocked by what he saw.
A beast that he only heard stories about, a beast that dwarfed the dire bears Adder had hunted.
A Manticore, the beast smiling as it circled its two victims.
A father and daughter from what Adder could tell, the father being obviously hurt.
He was unmoving lying against the only tree left standing in this part of the forest.
His daughter seemingly unharmed but begging her father to get back up.
Her tearful begging for her father to wake up only deepened the Manticore's smile.
Abner paused as well when he faced this horrid nightmare, but both brothers looked towards each other before launching themselves at this horrid nightmare.
…
The Manticore had been around for a long time, and his favorite prey still kept surprising him.
The Manticore had failed to keep his territory and had to leave, going west to this sprawling woodland perfect for its needs.
A lot of room, easy access to water, many places to hide, and of course easy access to his favorite food source, humanity.
Oh how the Manticore loved to hunt humanity, the thrill it had when his chosen prey gave up all hope and just dropped to their knees.
Crumbling to all fours and sobbing, unable to anything but cry out as the Manticore seized it's prey within its mouth.
Oh the taste, this divine flavour.
A flavor that could not be found anywhere else, the manticore loved the taste of hopelessness.
This hunt would be the first in his new territory, and the Manticore wanted it to be special.
And after much searching, he found the perfect pair.
Two humans that smelled of joy and anticipation, oh they were perfect for his hunt.
The first thing to do for hunting humans was setting the correct tone.
For over an hour the Manticore slowly stalked the pair, periodically making noises.
Flapping its mighty wings and low barley audible growls.
The younger one did not notice but the older one did at some level recognize the threat that was the Manticore.
And when the parent started to talk louder, The manticore knew it was time for the second part.
The Manticore then started to run and crashed through the forest towards his prey.
The trees shattered through his force, ground sundered, and boulders cracked.
Purposeful destruction, an elevation of the danger that he posed to his prey.
Before he even broke through the treeline they started to run, now this hunt was getting better and better.
The longer they fought, the longer they ran.Made them taste all the sweeter.
He shattered the treeline and ran towards them at the perfect speed, not slow enough to lose them but not fast enough to instantly catch them.
It took only a second for the older one to slow down, The Manticore took that as his que to start the third part.
With a light touch of his paw, he sent his prey flying.
Only stopping when he landed back first on a tree, a large crack sound signifying that the older was badly hurt.
Now it was time for the finale, his smile wide as ever manticore then destroyed the trees that surrounded the one that the two laid upon.
The oldest was now yelling at his kin, the Manticore recognized it as begging.
But the kin refused, oh how this meal would not be like any other The manticore thought.
So came the last stretch, The manticore circled them, slow and steady.
The Manticore had circled them ten times, when some new prey appeared.
Two yellow haired humans that were of a similar age.
The two immediately separated.
One who took the offensive, slamming into the Manticore's side.
Another took the defensive, getting the father and daughter and taking them somewhere safer.
The warrior had taken a branch of suitable length and size and used it as a spear, of course to little effect.
"Venomous Three!"
The boy roared as he thrusted the branch into the Mantiore's underbelly.
The two crimson serpents that coiled the branch sinking their teeth into the beast, but failing to peirce its hide.
The Manticore simply struck the warrior with its chitinous tail, the manticore could have ended it there if he had just stung the human.
But why do that? This was the first time in a long while that his food had fought with such ferocity.
And that kept the manticore's smile big and wide, its tongue undulated excited to savoir the four's growing despair.