The Dagger and the Crown

She could hear them. The horrible sounds the Razor Boars are making. She’s heard plenty of stories about them, about how they are one of the most deadly predators in the jungle. But she never imagined them being this deadly. She left the castle with 20 to 25 of the best guards. Now 10 of them are dead and being eaten by the pigs. And some of them weren’t even dead yet before the feeding began. She could hear their screams of pain even after the fact that they were dead. “Please,” She thinks to herself. “Please Azazel, rescue me. Please!” The only thing keeping them safe for the moment is their very large campfire, thanks to the pigs’ fear of fire.
“Lady Lillian!” One of the guards exclaims. “Just stay in there. Hopefully, these hogs will grow bored of us and leave.”
“Are you insane?” Another guard says to the first. “These things will wait as long as they need to. And in case you haven’t noticed, we are starting to run out of firewood. We have maybe a days left. And what happens when we run out? Pray to the gods that a miracle will happen?”
The two guards then argue back and forth but Lillian continues to block them out. Instead, she looks inside of the cage that they are taking back to her kingdom. As she is looking into the cage, a pair of bright golden eyes are looking back at her, making cooing noises as she hands it another piece of meat. She smiles as the young creature eagerly but gently takes it and begins eating. She scratches it at the base of its neck and looks back out, praying that Azazel might be able to find her.
Meanwhile, Azazel and the others are racing towards were the caravan is despite being tired and sore, powered by shear determination to save the girl he has fallen in love with. “Azazel!”
Azazel looks back and sees Malum next to him. “What is it!?”
“Slow down! I know you want to save her but we can’t do it on our own. We have to wait for Selene and the others to catch up.”
Azazel growls with anger but reluctantly agrees as he slows his pace down. Alan, Selene, and the others soon catch up. Selene goes up to Azazel and says, “You sure seem awfully determined to rescue the princess. Even more so than your partner. Is there something that you are aware of that the rest of us aren’t?”
Azazel tenses up at this question, not sure on how to answer. Thankfully, Malum comes to the rescue as he says, “No, not really. Daemon has always been the one who always tries to get the job finished down as quickly as possible.”
Selene looks at the two and simply says, “Alright”. And walks off. As Azazel and Malum both sigh with relief, Selene thinks to herself, “There is something very strange about that shorter assassin, Daemon. And I swear that I have seen those eyes from somewhere before.”
Before long, after their rest, the group is off again towards the caravan. After what seems like hours, they finally reach the site. Thankfully, the fire is still high and the Razor Boars are nowhere in sight. The group slowly creep into the camp, trying to remain undetected, which would’ve been easy for Azazel, Malum, and Selene, being light weight and wearing light clothing/armor but for the knights, a deaf man could hear them. After they manage to sneak into the camp, they begin calling out to the knights and the princess but get no reply. Azazel starts to become fearful until he hears shuffling inside of one of the carts. Azazel walks over to the wagon and opens the tarps and sees Lillian, who looks back at him with a look that was at first fearful but is now happy beyond all belief. He smiles and begins to say something but a sword enters his peripheral vision and he manages to just narrowly dodge it. “I wont allow you to lay a hand on her, you damned assassin!” The guard screams at him.
Azazel begins to pull out his dagger until Alan comes over to the two and punches the guard square in the jaw, knocking him to the ground. “Get up and sheath your sword! This is an ally and you are to treat him as such!” He then walks over to the cart and asks, “Princess Lillian, are you alright?”
“Lillian nods and says, “Y-yes, I’m alright. At least now I am. Thank you. But, why a member of the Hidden Blades here?”
“I could very well be asking the same thing. Your father insisted on hiring two of them to help track your caravan. I hate to say this, but it is a good thing we brought them. Especially this one, Demon or whatever his name is.”
Azazel, putting his dagger away, walks up next to him and says, “It is Daemon, which does mean demon in the old tongue.” He then turns towards Lillian, bows, and says, “My service is now in your hands, Mi-Lady.” He looks back up and winks at her, causing Lillian have a slight blush on her cheeks.
“T-thank you.”
But before they could get acquainted, a guard yells out, “THEY’RE BACK!!!” Everyone looks over towards where the sound came from and see that, indeed, the Razor Boars have returned.
Azazel jumps into the cart with Lillian and says, “Don’t worry Mi-Lady, I will protect you.” Lillian blushes even more as her dear assassin vows to protect her. Suddenly, a noise that sounds like whimpering is heard from behind her, coming from a cube shaped object covered with a tarp. Azazel, curious, grabs the tarp and yanks it off, only for his eyes to flare open as he sees something that he is not expecting; A Bone-Hound pup. He looks over at Lillian and asks, “What in the name of Ormazd is a Bone-Hound pup doing here?!”
Lillian sighs as she says, “The whole point of me going to another kingdom was that they were offering a peace offering. This Bone-Hound pup is that offering. I don’t know what my father is planning on doing with him but what I do know is that if we do not get out of this jungle and away from those Razor Boars, it wont matter anyways. Besides, this little guy is rather cute. And very sweet, even though we pretty much stuffed him into this cage.”
Before Azazel could say anything, there is a loud screeching sound and something collides with the cart, sending Azazel, Lillian, and the Bone-Hound pup all flying. Azazel looks up and is face to face with the creature that collided with the cart; a Razor Boar. It is even uglier up close with its’ black-grey skin, multiple warts, huge tusks, and orange-red bristles covering its body and it is easily the size of a bull. The boar again screeches at Azazel and attempts to attack him but is stopped by rocks being thrown at it. The creature looks over and sees Lillian with a rock in her hand and the pup standing next to her. “Leave him alone, you big ugly brute!” The boar then turns away from Azazel and begins slowly moving towards the two, saliva hanging down from its gaping maw. It then mock-charges, causing Lillian to freak out and trip over herself. As the boar shrieks and charges at her, she quickly grabs the pup and attempt to shield it from the boar. As she does, the pup lets out a cry of fear. A moment of silence occurs and right after, an unholy and terrifying roar is heard throughout the jungle, causing all of the Razor Boars and everyone else to stop in their tracks. Another roar soon follows, much closer than the last, before a large creature leaps from the foliage and tackles the Razor Boar attacking Lillian and the pup. Azazel gets a good look at the creature fighting the boar and realizes with fear at what it is; a full-grown, furious Bone-Hound. And soon, even more of its pack shows up. Azazel looks around at all the Bone-Hounds fighting to protect them. No. They weren’t protecting them, nor were they fighting for food. He looks over at the pup, realizing that they are here because they heard the pups cry for help. He then hears something large and heavy coming up from behind. He manages to turn himself around and sees the very thing that he was dreading. The Great Scarred One has arrived.