Three levelers scurried up the trunk toward Glissa’s home on long, triple-jointed legs. Their legs ended in spikelike claws that dug into the trunk as they climbed. Glissa ignored the pain between her shoulders and forced her feet to move again, jogging, then running, across the terrace. She was sluggish now and wondered if she had enough speed to make the last jump. She had to try.
She leaped off the edge of the terrace and sailed through the air toward the levelers. Remembering how easily her new sword had cut through the Tangle tree, she brought it over her head as she flew. At the last moment, she slammed the sword forward, piercing the lowest leveler’s head. The blade sliced right through the metal creature and bit hard into the trunk beneath the beast. Glissa landed on the leveler’s back and let her weight carry the blade down through its body before leaping off and grabbing a fold in the tree.
The gutted leveler fell away from the tree, plummeting to the terrace below. Glissa began to scramble up the tree, using familiar hand- and footholds to quickly move up behind the next leveler. The creature hadn’t even noticed the loss of its companion. It kept climbing mindlessly up the tree.
When she got close enough, Glissa swung the sword at the back legs of the leveler. The amazing blade cut through both legs without slowing. The beast continued to climb, leaving its rear paws stuck in the tree behind. After a few steps, the leveler stopped to look back. It skittered around in a circle until it was facing Glissa. The warrior froze. She had never been face-to-face with a leveler before. Inside her, the scared little girl was screaming. The beast had no eyes, only a giant, gaping mouth lined with jagged teeth. The mouth opened and closed again and again as the metallic beast descended. Like a fly caught in a web, the elf couldn’t move.
The beast’s curving blades were just above her. Glissa jumped away from it and caught a spire off to the side. The leveler turned and slammed its mouth closed again. Glissa willed her eyes away from the beast’s horrible face. Holding onto the spire with one hand, she steadied her feet on the trunk and drove the point of the sword into the leveler. Ripping the blade up and out, she cut a huge gash in the beast’s mouth, ripping through blades and legs as the leveler reached for her.
With only one set of claws digging into the tree, the leveler couldn’t hold on any longer. It plunged downward and disappeared. Glissa looked up at the last leveler. It was nearly to the front door. With her doubts and fears firmly tucked away, the elf pulled herself up onto the spire, crouched, then jumped toward it. She grabbed the creature’s hind leg with her free hand and swung the blade through the beast’s pelvis. The leg she held came free of the body, but the claws held, leaving Glissa hanging from the severed appendage.
Still, the leveler crawled up the trunk. Its front legs had reached the lip of the entrance to Glissa’s home. She had to stop it before it got inside. Flipping the sword over in her free hand, she grabbed the blade just above the guard and flung it like a spear. The sword sliced easily through the rear of the beast and slammed into the trunk of the tree, pinning the leveler.
The creature squirmed and pushed with its legs, but it was held tight against the trunk. Glissa grabbed a fold in the tree and found her footing again. She reached over and pulled the severed leg free, then began climbing up toward the pinned leveler. When she got close enough, she slammed the spiked paw into the beast, shattering the red dome covering its back and tearing off a huge chunk of metal. Still the beast tried to climb. Glissa smashed it again.
After the third blow, Glissa could see inside the beast. Curiously, there was no blood. The leveler was completely made of metal, with no flesh at all! Other than the Tangle trees themselves, all living things in the forest had at least some flesh intermixed with their metallic parts. Once one cut through the metal, there was flesh, bone, and blood underneath. Inside the leveler’s body, though, all she could see were metal rods connected together and moving back and forth. Glissa slammed down again, lodging the makeshift club between the rods. A horrible screeching sound erupted from inside the leveler as the rods bent, broke, and scraped against the embedded leg.
Smoke billowed from the hole, and the leveler tried to turn around. Glissa pulled on the leg, but it was wedged fast inside the beast. Weaponless, Glissa stared in horror as the creature twisted around, its sweeping pincer blades coming closer and closer, the grinding of the spinning blades growing louder. The elf grabbed for a knothole but couldn’t reach it. Just as she was about to let go and drop from the creature’s reach, fire erupted from the back of the beast. The force of the blast slammed the leveler against the tree, snapping two of its remaining legs.
The blades, an inch from her face, had stopped moving. She felt a pain and could see a gash across her forearm. A warm trickle of blood left a red trail down her arm to her shoulder. The beast appeared dead, but Glissa wasn’t taking any chances. She moved down to regain her footing, then climbed up and around the beast, giving it a wide berth. Once she reached the lip above the dead leveler, she reached down and grabbed her sword. She pulled it free of the beast and watched as the carcass fell to join its two dead brothers. Elated by her victory, she entered her home.
* * * * *
As Glissa stepped through the doorway, her heart leaped into her mouth. At least half a dozen levelers were crawling around the main room, grinding everything in their path and tossing furniture around with their waving pincers. They looked as if they were searching for something. From the spire rooms Glissa could hear sounds of more beasts.
Chairs, tables, and gelfruit lay in ruins on the floor, cut to pieces by the levelers’ blades. Pots and pans, mangled into unrecognizable shapes, were scattered amidst the shards of her mother’s bone plates. In the dim light coming from outside, Glissa could see a dark shape just below the entrance to her parents’ spire room. Dark splatters on the floor and wall near the body told Glissa all she needed to know.
Glissa whipped the sword up in front of her and screamed.
Almost as one, the levelers turned from their search and advanced on her. More of the gleaming creatures emerged from each spire. From the pincers of one of the beasts hung the gelfruit-laced tresses of Lyese’s hair. Glissa’s temples pounded, and her ears rang as the blood raced through her body. Tears welled up in her eyes and her hands shook. All her fears and nightmares had finally come true. The levelers had come for her, but she hadn’t been home, and her family had paid for that.
A battle raged inside Glissa as the levelers advanced upon her. The screams of the little girl could not be quelled, but the adult knew that emotion could be harnessed. She transformed the little girl’s fear and sorrow into a rage that quelled the tears and stilled her shaking hands.
As the first leveler came near, the elf ran and leaped over the gleaming blades, landing on the creature’s silver back. She plunged the sword down through the side of the red dome above its mouth, then wrenched the hilt down to rip the blade out and shatter the dome completely. Inside, she could see faceted gems on metallic stalks that turned and seemed to look up at her. She swiped at them with her blade.
The sword sliced through both eye stalks, and the twin gems tumbled down inside the beast. The creature hesitated a moment, then turned as if to follow Glissa. The elf was still standing on top of the leveler, though, and as it turned, it met the twirling blades of another leveler. Metal scraped against metal as the blades cut through each other. One of the blinded leveler’s blades dug firmly into the body of the other creature, severing its pincers and front leg.