The Kingdom

Then I saw it! My heart froze over within me at the sight of a creature that could only have been designed by the fallen Malachim of Sheol.

What was before me was the body structure of a large powerfully built man. He was moving about between the bodies, stopping occasionally to tear into one before moving on. The resemblance to that of a man stopped at the upper chest area where humanity blended into the head of a lion. I had heard rumors of these creatures as a child, but it was said that they were all dead a long time ago. However, the opposite reality was right here before me.

How was a hybrid being of this sort even possible?

My eyes took in more motion further on down the line of wagons and I saw more of the Lion Men headed this way. Fear mobilized me and I backed away from the knoll top and circled back around for my horse.

The way it looked, these Lion Men were working their way back down the line of their savagery, looking for victims that they had missed the first time. I would be discovered instantly as these creatures no doubt possessed some of the instinctual abilities of the big cats that had been bred into them.

My foot was on the stirrup of my horse's saddle, when a scream belonging to a woman rang out in a tone that expressed extreme terror. Unable to stop myself from looking I turned and saw the body of the shrieking woman thrown from a wagon to the ground by one of the Lion Men, who burst out in a language that I couldn't comprehend, but which sounded too dark and animalistic for the surrounding air to bear.

The sounds of words, understood or not, coming from the mouth of a lion set upon the proportions of a man was beyond unsettling. Unsettling or not, the fate of the woman cried out to me.

The other Lion Man on the ground was even now tearing at the clothing of the woman as she twisted about on the ground in a desperate attempt to be free. Her terror was so great that I couldn't leave. I just couldn't.

I forsook my attempt at a stealthy retreat and ran towards the unnatural aberration of a man now bent on corrupting the defenseless woman with an unholy seed of demonic manifestation. I was beyond scared, but I was who Kuri had taught me to be. To have left the woman would have been cowardice, and yet to attempt to save her surely must be suicidal on my part.