by J E Mueller
Oh no, this would be terrible. “Yes,” I replied excitedly. Curiosity had the better of me.
“What’s something you don’t like but aren’t full out afraid of?” Ze asked.
That was a nice consideration. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. “Hmmm, maybe moths. They kind of weird me out, but they aren’t scary at all. I can handle them.”
Mare stopped, halting the group. “Well, go on, let’s get this fun bit out of the way.” Mare seemed more amused than anything, likely having seen some of this before.
Ze smirked and closed his eyes for a moment. Opening his eyes he nodded at my hand. I watched as a moth landed on it. I could feel it walk around. The life-like feel it had was crazy. Another appeared and fluttered in front of my face before landing on my nose. It instantly made my nose need to be itched and I swatted it away. Wait, it wasn’t even there and I needed to swat it away.
“That’s really good,” I said shaking the other one off my hand.
He laughed and just as easily as they appeared they were both gone into thin air. “It’s a lot of fun.”
Part of me swore I knew him somehow. Maybe a recent dream? It would have had to have been since he had only been here three weeks. If it was important, I’m sure it would come to me. Things were coming back to me much better now, even if it was slow and just one thing at a time, so that was a good sign. I hoped more bits and pieces would come together soon.
As I followed Mare, I realized we had never passed by the back door before. Seeing it was not terribly far from the safe zone, I was surprised. It led out to a spacious outdoor seating area, and a chill ran through me. An image of running full force from the woods and barely making it inside as something slammed hard into the doors came to mind.
Maybe I didn’t need to remember everything…
Mare carefully opened the door. “Inside and outside are too different.” She whispered. “I have to be outside to sense where things are.”
After looking around for a few moments she took a step outside. Magic sparkled around her hands more than normal as she started to see what there was, likely reaching as far as the magic would allow. A few moments more and she was satisfied, waving for us to follow. I summoned my bow without hesitating. It surprised me how quickly it came to me this time, but the threat of death and danger was greater here. Better to be ready now than sorry later. Ze looked equally on guard.
“Be ready to muffle our steps,” Mare said to Ze, who just nodded as we slowly started to move.
No part of me remembered where the gardens were so I had to carefully follow Mare toward the side of the house, while also keeping an eye on every other thing near us. The wind was blowing gently, rustling the leaves on trees just enough to my stomach twist. I couldn’t remember what types of creatures could be near us. Part of me didn’t know if I wanted to know what monsters awaited. That bit of a memory was unsettling enough.
When Mare finally stopped, I held my breath. She stood motionless as the seconds seemed to tick on and on and on. Then quickly she turned to Ze. Surprised he pointed to himself and waited for her nod before I saw his hands glow. A blue purple light gently crossed his fingertips and was gone. Mare looked over at me and then at Ze putting one finger up to her lips signalling silence before motioning a bit in the distance.
None of us dared move or say a word. Just near the entrance to what I guessed was the garden maze I saw something. It was large and hunched over, a huge, tattered and worn cloak covering most of it. There was no mistake, it had spider like legs. The cloak couldn’t cover the six of them. It scurried over to the entrance and seemed to peer in before turning around and heading into the nearby forest. It was still several more moments before Mare nodded that we were in the clear and could more on again.
We had taken a few steps when suddenly we heard a scream that froze us in place. Someone came running out of the forest toward us. Even from this distance I could tell they were worse for wear. Tired, and bloody, they were making a beeline right for us.
Ahead, I could see two stone columns with ivy spiraling up them. The garden maze was surrounded by a decent size stone wall. It was just a bit taller than me and every bit as built to be a maze as you’d expect for this death filled land. That was closer to where they were, why didn’t they run for cover there? Maybe they thought we could help?
The creature we recently saw enter the woods appeared hot on their trail. My hands tensed for a moment around my bow.
“It’s just a Dreamer,” Mare sounded slightly annoyed.
I had already readied my bow. “Doesn’t matter to me.” I loosed an arrow, piercing the creature on its shoulder.
With a screech so horrible we had to cover our ears, it paused its running. It slowly raised its arms to lower the hood over its head, and I realised this was probably a mistake. I had no idea what that thing was, but a clay creature come to life and gone horribly wrong came to mind. It’s face was sorely misshapen. One eye was set much higher than the other, and was far larger than it should have been. The mouth was very two-faced. One side was frowned down, and the other all I could see were horribly sharpened teeth.
The Dreamer never stopped running for us, but the creature’s eyes weren’t on him anymore. Instead they were focused solely on me.
“Can we beat this thing?” I frantically readied another arrow hoping for a good answer.
“Us? Fuck no,” Mare stated, voice shaky. “We might be able to hide from it.”
“On it,” Ze declared with a far calmer tone than I expected.
“And the Dreamer,” I said. Otherwise this would all be for nothing.
“No problem.” Ze nodded as he took in a deep breath, exhaling and releasing a strong wave of magic.
I aimed another shot and hoped to catch the thing in the throat so it couldn’t scream again. I missed and nailed it in the forehead. I hoped breathlessly for a moment it would collapse as the Dreamer joined us. Instead it shrieked and rushed toward us for a moment before stopping. Ze tapped my arm and pressed his fingers to his lips. The Dreamer was breathing heavily at Mare’s side.
“Shhhh,” she urged him before carefully motioning for us to take steps away from where we were.
I tried to walk as softly as possible, the Dreamer still couldn’t catch his breath and the creature seemed to have a lock on them. It slowly started moving toward us again. With nothing to lose, I took a few more steps back and aimed another arrow. This time I struck it right below it’s throat. That had to at least hurt.
The creature paused and looked my way. Staying put I waited. Not being able to pick up on where I was, it continued to follow the sound of the Dreamer.
“For real guy, relax. It can’t see you!” I just about screamed at him as fear started to overtake me.
The creature, hearing my voice started sprinting for me. I took several steps to one side and held my breath. It ran right by me and I prayed inwardly to every god and goddess I knew. The thing couldn’t get a lock on me and the Dreamer finally seemed to stop making noise.
Carefully, I took a few more steps and fired an arrow into the back of it’s head. The creature shrieked and looked around. It had no idea where the source of pain was coming from. Did this thing even bleed? What would it take to destroy this thing? I had never in my life hated being outdoors so much. This place was an endless nightmare bedtime story reject.
9
For a long time we all stayed still, no one daring to breathe too loud or speak. After what felt like an eternity the creature gave up and walked slowly back into the woods, arrows still lodged in it. After some time, and once we were sure it was finally gone, Ze released his magic on us as he breathed heavily. The strain on him was a bit too much.
“What the fucking hell was that?” he turned to ask Mare.
Mare still looked a little pale, but managed to give out a shaky laugh. “I believe that is called a Sagloumn. It’s a rather unpleasant sight. It only feels a little bit of pain, as you can tell. I’m not sure how to
actually kill it. I’ve heard you need to pierce its heart, but it’s heart isn’t in the spot a normal one is so good luck guessing.”
“It didn’t even bleed,” I managed to choke out, still astonished. The whole situation had me shaken.
“Well, I won’t pretend I know creature anatomy.” Mare shrugged and gave a half hearted laugh. “I just know I can’t freaking kill it.”
“Okay, okay, well that sucked…” Ze said, taking a breath to steady himself, “But the thing is gone, so we’re good now right? Let’s try and get back on track so we can get the freaking hell back inside.”
“Right,” Mare agreed, taking back control. “We can short cut this next part fairly easy with your little talents Ze. Want to climb the garden wall all invisible like and tell us if anything is moving in there? I can’t scan the next area until we go in.”
Ze nodded. “Is the wall considered part of the maze? Because you can climb up with me and scan in case I miss something.”
“Oh, even better plan.” Mare nodded. “We’ll find out.”
The Dreamer guy looked over at us. “What is going on?”
“Well, you’re stuck here in a dream that is pretty damn nightmare-ish. You should wake up, right?” I stated simply, not knowing what else to say.
The guy looked surprised. “A dream?” It was like a spell breaking. As he muttered the words he faded away.
“Does that work on everyone?” I asked, surprised.
Mare laughed. “No. Usually it doesn't work at all. At least that solves that issue. As much as my heart goes out for those people, I just can’t babysit them when we need those plants so Leta doesn't die.”
Oh, fair point. I just nodded tiredly and followed them over to the garden wall. As they climbed I kept an eye on things where I was. Nothing seemed to be moving, and I figured Mare had a pretty good hold on things. If we could continue to sneak around easily, and not run into anymore Dreamers, we should be done with this soon. I didn't trust luck to hold up that well. It already wasn’t holding up at all.
My eyes kept darting back to the forest. That creature, likely lingering and wandering just on the forest's edge was so close to the house that it made me nervous. How did we go from first floor easy to a creature that could not be killed in a few hits? Opening a door should not have that much of an impact, and yet… I shuddered to think what it could do. Clearly it had razors for teeth, but did it have claws? Did it have magic? What could that thing do aside from give me nightmares for the next two lifetimes.
It was several minutes before the two climbed down from the wall. Both of them seemed tired just from the view and use of magic. Still, we had to press on.
“I couldn’t see anything moving,” Ze admitted as he leaned back against the stone wall. “It seems to stretch on for too far.”
“I could sense something in the back, and of course that is exactly where we’re heading,” Mare admitted. “If we can figure out a good distraction we should be able to pick the plants needed and get in and out before anyone can be hurt.”
I nodded and motioned for Mare to lead on. “Let’s get going then.” The less talking, the less things we would attract.
Mare confidently led the way in and I remembered her saying she had come here before. It was only more recently she said things had gotten bad. Hopefully that meant that the things lurking around the garden weren’t too bad then.
“What things are normally out here?” I asked softly, as we carefully made our way through the maze of plants, bushes, and trees.
“In here? Depends. Some things are more humanoid creatures, but mostly it’s bugs. They can get fairly big if not kept in check,” Mare replied, slowing her pace. “And of course it’s one of the bugs I sense.”
“What kind?” I asked. A heads up would be perfect for being ready to take it down.
“A bug. I can’t quite tell what kind. Or how big,” she said softly. “Bugs are really hard to tell. We need to get closer”
I didn’t realise how limited a Tracker’s gift could be. It occurred to me that she may just have all the creatures and things placed in the house memorised. There had to be enough differences in how they felt for her to tell them apart but what was it? I was about to ask when she stopped us.
“Spider,” she whispered as she pointed out some bushes in the distance that were fairly thoroughly covered in spiderwebs.
Oh geez. This was something that was easily straight out of a nightmare. I didn’t recall being tangled in a spiders web ever, and I shivered to think how easily possible it could be.
“What now?” I whispered, hardly daring to make a sound.
“I wish we had fire.” She tried to chuckle.
Ze nodded. “Me too. Maybe a fire illusion will scare it away?”
“Maybe? Or it would draw it closer. I don’t know.” Mare didn’t sound up to the job anymore.
In a land of nightmare fuel, everyone had to have their limits.
“Okay, how do we kill it?” I asked, trying to concentrate on the task at hand.
“Stab it’s underbelly and hope not to die.” She swallowed hard.
Well, at least it was an answer. “It may be small.” I tried to be reassuring.
“Heh, no. There’s no way.” Mare shook her head.
I took several steps forward to look around the next corner of bushes. There were a lot more webs covering a much larger scale of things. We were going to be right in its den. This was a huge hell no. I backed up several steps and took a breath.
“These flowers aren’t elsewhere?” I asked as I came back over to her.
“Not that I know of. Even Clove suggested the garden,” Mare admitted.
Damn it. We were all thinking the same thing there.
“Ze, make me invisible,” I demanded.
“What? You can’t just go in there.” Ze shook his head.
“Well are you? Or are we just going to let Leta die?” I hadn’t even met Leta and I didn’t want to risk their life. Er, their last life? Whatever it was, I wasn’t giving up just yet.
“The flower is blue, with orange leaves along the stem. There are thorns too. It should be in more of a bush. Think roses,” Mare explained.
Ze sighed. “I’m coming with at least. Two can get the job done faster. We’ll split the room and hopefully avoid the damn spider.”
Mare nodded but didn’t say anything. She seemed fairly rooted into place. Well, it was what it was. Leaving her to stand there, I carefully approached the corner with Ze at my side. Once his magic was in place I slowly moved forward. I wasn’t feeling confident in getting this plant, but at least the spider wouldn’t see me.
Everything was covered in webs, including a good majority of the ground. I took a careful step onto the web and made sure my foot wouldn’t be stuck in place. It came up just fine. A few hesitant steps later I started walking normally while looking this and that way for the spider. Where the heck was it? Mare’s reaction led me to believe it would be right here.
She was never wrong on location. Holding back a sigh, I knew exactly where it was and slowly looked up. Sure enough, the beast of nightmares was taking up most of a series of trees. Stupidly large was an understatement. It’s purple and black body gleamed in the sunlight. Weren’t these things supposed to like shade? Whatever. As long as it stayed up here and left me alone down here I would be happy. I’d accept that it was way too big, and that it needed almost three trees for a home. Yep, totally wasn’t internally screaming. Totally wasn’t internally ready to cry.
What had I gotten myself into?
Ze followed my gaze up and looked like he was going to be sick. I nudged him, pointing for him to head back. Instead he shook his head, pointed to the right and started to carefully look at the flowers. Trying not to make a sound, I started on the left. The webs made it so hard to see colors.
Slowly I made my way around until I found the right flower. Of course it was near that damn tree the spider was in. That was the luck I had expected. Now how d
o we get it out? There were a lot of webs around it, and these were fairly sticky. I considered tugging it out but was afraid all the movement would alert our new spider friend to my location.
Instead I motioned, really flailed, my arms around until I got Ze’s attention. Pointing frantically at the flowers’ location Ze walked over. He motioned for me to pick it. I motioned up at the spider. Yeah, no. He shrugged. We needed a distraction.
I motioned with my bow to the furthest corner away from us that was not the door. Ze nodded and I hoped he understood what I was trying to get across. He cast a fire illusion at the area with a confident smile and I could have cheered. He figured it out! The spider seemed to come to life. Curious as to what was going on it carefully moved just a little. I shot an arrow at the fire so the webs around it clearly moved.
More curious now, the spider slowly descended from the trees and made its way over to the fire. Without hesitating I started picking as much of those damn flowers as I could grab while Ze did the same. The web wiggled upwards but the spider was across the way. Not noticing us. With a good handful we both started to back away.
What could go wrong now? A dozen things came to mind. Ze’s magic could drop. It was clearly tiring him. The spider could smell the flowers maybe. I had no idea if spiders had a sense of smell. The worst I could imagine was falling and getting stuck in the web. It was very sticky on my hands. I had zero worry of dropping the flowers. There was no way this stuff was just going to come off.
Somehow we made it back to Mare, and Ze dropped the illusion. With a nod at Mare, he started leading the way back. Mare shuffled slowly behind him and I followed, unsure how to take in her reaction.
We were halfway back when I finally just decided to simply talk to Mare. “Are you doing okay?”
“I can handle spiders. Sometimes. But not that big thing. No….” She shook her head. “Nope, nope, nope. That was not a thing that needed to happen.” She shuddered. “Okay, we’re good. Going home now. Where things don’t tend to have too many legs and a billion eyes, and oozing venomous fangs.”