Amos Daragon_ The Mask Wearer - Bryan Perro [26]
Amos concluded that the enemy of Bratel-la-Grande exercised power over all living creatures, near or far, who were related to snakes. He had to be malevolent, treacherous, and very dangerous. Beorf was in great danger, and Amos wasn’t sure how to warn him.
BEORF, THE GORGONS, AND THE NAGA
The gorgons were in hot pursuit of Beorf. He ran into the forest, his head lowered as he tried to avoid the nighttime obstacles.
The first two days following Amos’s departure had been quiet for the humanimal. The gorgons concentrated their search in the city. In his hiding place in the forest, Beorf slept and rested in anticipation of the difficult nights to come. He also pondered at length the best strategy of defense against the invaders. The main idea, simple and efficient, was to get rid of the gorgons one by one.
Beorf perfected dozens of traps and set them everywhere in the forest. He guessed that after several nights spent uselessly searching Bratel-la-Grande, the monsters would inevitably begin to comb the surrounding areas. The gorgons would find various trails—all his own—and would follow them to try to corner any fugitives. The humanimal had purposely left footprints in the fields and in the forest that led directly to the traps.
So as not to be spotted when going from trap to trap, Beorf morphed into a bear. The gorgons were looking for the thief who had stolen the pendant, a human. Not a bear! These creatures would never imagine that the animal and human were one and the same.
One moonlit night, as the gorgons followed Beorf’s footprints, three of them encountered quicksand. Hidden from sight, the humanimal saw them disappear into the ground.
“Minus three!” he shouted.
Meanwhile, another small detachment of gorgons found itself in the clearing around his old burned-down house where he kept his beehives. Beorf ordered the bees to attack. The insects swarmed together to form a huge cloud above the gorgons and swooped down on them at full speed. Petrified in flight by the gaze of the monsters, the bees fell from the sky like a torrent of stones and pierced the gorgons’ bodies. The insects had sacrificed themselves, allowing Beorf to get rid of five more gorgons.
Soon Beorf noticed that the gorgons’ wings enabled them to glide for short distances, but that the snake-haired women were unable to truly fly. He imagined another ambush.
Ditches encircled the tilled fields around the city. These were filled with water through a dike; the water was used to irrigate the farmers’ land. Aware of this, Beorf dug several large holes in the fields and covered them with twigs and hay to hide them from view. The following night, eight gorgons fell into the holes. Beorf opened the dike. The water flooded the ditches and holes. All of the gorgons drowned.
Tonight Beorf planned a different snare. He had raided the knights’ armory and had planted spears into the ground and hung sabers and swords from tree branches. The only way to avoid these sharp blades was by using a particular path through the branches. Since the gorgons attacked only at night, Beorf had all the time he needed to conceive and set his trap. He trained all afternoon to make sure he knew how to escape the blades. The moment of truth was not far off now.
Beorf could hear the gorgons approaching. He couldn’t run fast on two legs. At least his snare wasn’t far off. He just had to maintain a good speed to save his life. Out of breath, he took the safe path through the branches. The gorgons, on the other hand, didn’t suspect what awaited them and entered the forest of blades at full speed. It was a success! Not one gorgon survived.
Pleased with himself, Beorf returned to his father’s library—his main hiding place—to rest for the remainder