01_-_The_Alchemyst

Looking around, Dee could see no sign that any of Hekate’s guards had
fallen in battle, and was suddenly frightened: what did the goddess have
guarding her realm? He reached under his coat, pulled out the sword that had
once been called Excalibur and set off down the path to where the huge tree
rose out of the morning mist. The sunrise ran bloodred along the ancient
black blade.
“Birdmen,” Scathach muttered, and then added a curse in the ancient
Celtic language of her youth. She hated birdmen; they gave her hives. She
was standing at the entrance to the Yggdrasill, watching the creatures appear
out of the forest. The mythologies of every race included stories of men who
turned into birds, or birds who transformed into half-human creatures. In her
long life Scatty had encountered many of the creatures and had once come
perilously close to death when she’d fought a Sirin, an owl with the head of a
beautiful woman. Since that encounter, she’d been allergic to bird feathers.
Already her skin was starting to itch and she could feel a sneeze building at
the back of her nose. The Morrigan’s creatures moved awkwardly, like
hunched-over humans, dragging their knuckles on the ground. They were poor
warriors, but they often succeeded by sheer force of numbers.
Then Bastet’s cat-people appeared. They moved slowly, stealthily,
some standing on two feet, but most moving on all fours. Here, Scatty knew,
was the basis of the great cat legends of Africa and India. Unlike the birds,
the cat-people were deadly fighters: they were lightning fast, and their claws
were capable of inflicting terrible damage. Scathach sneezed; she was also
allergic to cats.
The strange army came to a halt, perhaps awed by the incredible
building-sized tree or just confused by the sight of a single warrior standing
framed in the open doors. They milled about; then, as if driven by a single
command, they surged forward in a long ragged line.
The Warrior twisted her head from side to side and rolled her
shoulders, and then her two short swords appeared in her hands. She raised
them above her head in an X.