by B. C. Morin
“Oh Kaleb and I were going hunting. We wanted to get out for a while and thought that would be a good distraction.”
“May I join?”
Tristan looked at Kaleb and was given an agreeing nod.
“Let us go.” He smiled at her.
They stalked the perimeter of the Kingdom. Staying low to the ground and ducking behind hedges and mounds of fallen brush as well as boulders.
“Do you guys feel like there is someone watching us?”
Tristan and Kaleb looked at each other before looking around.
“I do not.”
“No, I do not feel anything either.”
“Evy, if you want to go back-” Tristan moved closer to her.
“No, I’m fine. Just had a funny feeling that’s all.”
They continued walking around looking for prey, surprised that by now they had not seen a hare or deer.
“Wait, now I hear something.” Kaleb looked at Tristan.
“Trist, look over there-“ he said pointing to a nearby bush
Tristan glared into the bush and saw two yellow eyes looking back at him. “I see it.”
“Them.” Evyette threw in.
“Them?” Tristan looked again but saw nothing this time, “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I have heard more than one voice.”
“What do you think-“ Tristan’s words were interrupted by a group of Goblins that jumped out from behind the bush. They were screeching and baring their sharp teeth at the group of faeries. Each of them holding a weapon, either a dagger, an axe or they had their enormous hands ready to shoot magic at them. Evyette readied her bow and arrow and shot at one hitting it in the shoulder but he was un fazed. He broke off the arrow and continued toward them.
“Oh.” Tristan said as he watched the goblin toss the arrow to the ground. “I think it is time to go!”
Tristan grabbed Evyette by the hand pulling and tugging her along, with Kaleb running on the other side of her. They looked behind only to find that the Goblins had not lost step and were actually getting closer. They ran between bushes and patches of brambles. Evyette felt the thorns catch onto her boots, some even piercing through to her skin but there was no time to look for another route. The Goblins hesitated to enter the brambles but proceeded anyway. The three fae continued running through, cutting themselves on the large thorns. Once out the other side they tried running in a different direction but the Goblins had seen them and took off in the same way.
They came upon a clearing with a serene looking pond in the middle. They paused for a moment trying to figure out how to get around it as the trees that surrounded it were grown very closely together. The only other way out was to the left, through another briar.
Kaleb looked at Tristan. “Do you hear that?” He walked closer to the edge of the water. “It is beautiful.”
“Kaleb lets go. The brambles didn’t slow the goblins down by much.”
Kaleb was at the water’s edge, enchanted by the song he was listening to, when he saw a beautiful woman’s face begin to emerge from the water. He began to lean in but was forcefully pulled back by his collar just as soon as the mermaid reached out of the water with her long thin fingers and razor sharp nails trying to grab him. Kaleb felt the cold of her nails slice against his face as he fell backwards. Infuriated for not having caught him, she hissed at the group, baring her sharp teeth before diving back underwater, making a final splash with her tail.
“That was close.” Kaleb began, touching his face and looking down at the fingers covered in red. “Thank you Trist.”
“Anytime. You need help with that?” Tristan nodded at Kaleb’s torn skin.
“No, I will attend to it.” Kaleb muttered but a few words under his breath and the wounds stopped bleeding. “This will do for now. We cannot stay here.”
“Alright then, let’s move.” Evyette was about to go through the briar first when Tristan gently moved her aside.
“Let me go first. We don’t know what is in there.” He stepped in and put his hand behind him waiting for Evyette to put her hand in his so he could guide her along.
The three entered the briar without incident, although they soon found out why the Goblins had not followed them in. Tiny angry gremlins dove out from between the branches trying to grab at them and bite them.
They ran through as quickly as they could but the briar emptied out into a part of the forest they didn’t recognize. They searched for the Kingdom but could not find it.
As they were walking around trying to get their bearings, a low growl came from behind Evyette. Tristan and Kaleb who were in front of her turned slowly to see what was there.
Evyette had decided that not moving would be the best option for right now. Keeping her sight fixed on Tristan and Kaleb that had begun to lose color, Evyette wrinkled her nose in question to them.
“Lupus-dem.” Tristan whispered, slowly unsheathing his sword.
Evyette closed her eyes for a moment. “A demon wolf,” she sighed, “of course.”
It growled at her again. It’s hot breath seeping through her clothes and enveloping the air around her. It was a strange smell of sulfur and blood. The front body of the wolf was beastly with huge muscles bulging from its shoulders, back and chest. Drool dripping off of it’s gums and enormous teeth.
Evy looked down at her new mark.
She closed her eyes and called upon some shadows. They ran across the clearing spooking the wolf for a moment but he swiftly returned to his stance. She concentrated hard and called upon several shadows to advance on him.
Once they did, she drew her sword turning to face him. The wolf panicked slightly at the sight of the shadows but saw that Evyette had turned and lunged at her. Kaleb and Tristan had done the same to the wolf but were not close enough to hit it in time. The wolf slammed into Evyette knocking her down with a howl. The tip of her blade, just barely poking out of the monstrous back of the creature.
Tristan and Kaleb ran over and pushed the huge beast off of her as she gasped for air.
Evyette stood, breathing heavily and trying to ignore the pain radiating from her shoulders. Tristan pulled her sword from the wolf and cleaned it on its fur before giving it back to Evyette.
“Evy, you are hurt.” Tristan began reciting the spell to make her wounds stop bleeding before she could even respond.
Evyette looked at her shoulders still dazed and looked down at the wolf that lay on the ground, her blood drying on his nails.
“We need to get out of here before anything worse happens.” Evy can you communicate to one of the Magisters?
She closed her eyes and concentrated but made no connection.
“No,” she looked around. “Is it me, or did it get very dark, very fast?”
“I don’t know but I think it has to do with the area we are in.” Kaleb spoke to them, not taking his eyes off of the area around them keeping his sword at the ready.
“I know where we are.”
“Where” Evyette and Kaleb responding in unison.
“The Aberrant Woods”
“Tristan, do you really think so?” Kaleb continued scanning the perimeter.
“Think about it. Brambles everywhere. Creatures we hardly ever see around the kingdoms.”
“Wait, the Aberrant Woods are real? I thought it was a myth! The enchanted forest, where the most evil of creatures live, the bizarre and the unwanted live … that is where we are?” Evyette looked around in a panic as if waiting for something else to come at them now that they had realized where they were.
Kaleb and Tristan shook their heads.
“How did we even get here?” Evyette tried to slow her voice, trying to keep the panic from rising inside her.
“That does not matter now. What matters is finding our way out.” Kaleb eyes shifting from Tristan to Evyette.
“Alright, how do we get out of this place?” Evyette’s voice shaking slightly.
“We can not.” If Kaleb felt any hopelessness he wasn’t conveying it. He
looked around arduously, “The only way out of the Aberrant Woods is to find someone willing to help us.”
“Oh well, that should not be a problem at all,” Tristan retorted throwing his hands up, “considering everything so far has tried to kill us!” He half yelled.
Evyette’s attention was drawn to a tree nearby. She noticed a tiny faerie like creature peeking at them.
“I think I saw a sprite”
Kaleb and Tristan looked in the same direction but saw nothing.
Then from above a tiny faerie that was just a bit larger than their hands began buzzing around them, hovering in front of Evyette.
‘Follow the sprite.’ The voice she heard was so clear that she looked around to see if someone else was there. When she saw that Kaleb and Tristan had not reacted, she realized that it was in her head.
‘Follow her to find your way out.’ The sprite had turned and was flying away from them.
“We need to follow the sprite.”
“What?” Tristan grabbed her hand as she started to walk toward the sprite. “Evy, how do we know she is trying to help us?”
“I do not know how. I just know we need to follow her.”
“Trist, I don’t think we have any other choice. I agree with Evy.”
“Alright then, let’s go.” Tristan continued forward falling into step with Evyette.
They trailed behind the sprite almost losing her a couple of times as she had a bad habit of disappearing around trees. She came up to two Giant Oak trees. In between them there was a large hedge that made a wall. The sprite flew to the top and sat on hedge.
“Well now what?” Tristan asked still keeping an eye on the sprite.
“We go through.” Evy responded without taking her eyes off of the sprite.
“Through?” Evy walked towards the web of leaves and branches without hesitating
“Evy!”
But she didn’t respond. In a single moment she was swallowed up by the hedge.
“Evyette!” Tristan ran at the hedge with Kaleb close behind and they both found that they were able to walk right through it. As if the hedge had allowed them to pass.
Evyette stood waiting on the other side.
“Evy, do not do that again.”
“I am sorry Tristan. I do not know what came over me. From the moment the sprite showed up , I felt like I was in a trance. Once I heard the voice-“
“Voice?”
“Yes, I heard a voice in my head that told me to follow her. It was so strange.”
“Do you think we are out?” Kaleb kept his sword at the ready as he turned to survey the area.
“I think so. This isn’t the same kind of darkness that we saw in there.” Tristan said motioning toward the hedge.
“It is pretty dark though… how long were we in there?” Evyette looked toward the sky searching to see where the moon stood and how many stars had revealed themselves, but found that the tree tops blocked much of her view.
“I don’t know but it had to be a quite a few hours” Tristan said looking around as well.
He looked at Evyette who was clutching at her left shoulder.
“I think we should perform some healing spells before we continue though.” Tristan grabbed Evyette’s arm and began reciting some spells that caused the wounds to begin healing.
Kaleb and Tristan performed a few on themselves for the deeper wounds but paid no mind to the minor ones.
“Alright” Kaleb squinted his eyes and began looking around, “we will need to begin reciting some of the revealing spells in order to find the Kingdom again.”
“I agree, but what direction should we begin walking in?” Evyette looked around as well but saw nothing that would help her to see where they were.
“This way.” Tristan began walking ahead of them, “I think.”
All three drew their swords, preparing themselves for any sudden attacks.
As they walked, Evyette watched all around them. Listening to noises that she determined the boys had not heard since neither had said anything or reacted. They sounded a lot like whispers. So faint she could not make out what they were saying, all of a sudden she saw a movement by some trees that they were passing.
“Did you see that?”
Tristan and Kaleb stopped to look in the direction Evyette was pointing to but saw nothing.
“Evy, I don’t see anything.” Tristan walked next to her and put his arm around her waist, turning her to him. “Are you alright?”
She looked down for a moment and then back at him. “Splendid. Just eager to get back I suppose.” He leaned in, gently pursing his lips against hers. “We’ll get back soon. I promise.”
He released her but continued holding her hand for a while as they walked.
“Over there.” Kaleb looked over to an area that was full of vines and brush and noticed a blur around the area. “That’s the glamour around the Kingdom.” They recited more spells and slowly they each began to see a bit more of the Magi Kingdom.
The dark shadow crept along the ground as a serpent headed toward them. Evyette thinking that she heard something glanced at the leaf-strewn ground but could not see it amidst the fallen leaves and branches and the darkness of night that had already begun to surround them. The shadow lunged at her leg and scraped her with it’s fangs but wasn’t able to bite since Kaleb had seen it prepare to strike and pushed Evyette out of the way.
Tristan pulled Evyette behind him as Kaleb stood beside him, both forming a wall in front of her.
They looked around but could not see the serpent.
They heard some leaves rustle beside them and pulled Evyette aside again as it tried to strike once more. This time when it landed on the ground it immediately began to rise up. No longer keeping the shape of a serpent, but taking a shape much like theirs.
Evyette froze as a glimmer of moonlight escaped through the trees and lit the face of the Venator Animus. The Deep red eyes burning into her, keeping her in place, the skin around the nose and mouth decayed leaving nothing but slits in place of features. Although she knew that she needed to recite some spells, she could do nothing but stand there frozen, no sound coming from her mouth.
As the Venator-Animus held Evyette’s gaze, another came from behind a nearby tree, knocking into Tristan and Kaleb sending them to the ground.
Evyette still frozen, could not move to help them. She tried reciting the spells in her head but fumbled for the words. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that now there were two shadows fighting Kaleb and Tristan. They heaved their swords at them but because they were in spirit form it sliced right through them having no effect. They tried using defense spells, but the animus seemed to not weaken.
The sensation was slight that Evyette felt, circling up her leg and then around her waist. Her heart was beating so fast she swore it would burst forth. Her breathing was shallow, fearful of the creature crawling toward her chest. Suddenly with a flash of light the shadow that had been holding Evyette’s gaze, keeping her from moving was knocked over.
She heard spells being recited loudly but they weren’t coming from Tristan or Kaleb. She regained her composure and began reciting spells as well and calling on other shadows to help her remove the animus that was now coiled around her waist bearing it’s fangs toward her heart.
Shadows poured in from all around her, pulling at the viper that was poised to attack. She felt the pull as it was yanked off of her and she dropped to her knees. She turned her head in the direction of the voices she had heard reciting the spells and saw various steeds and Magi faeries. When she sat back on her heels she noticed that Magister Torin was next to her reciting what she recognized to be protection wards.
“How did you find us?” She waited until he was done to speak.
“I am not sure exactly. Must be luck, because we have been searching for hours for you three.”
Tristan ran over, standing beside Evyette breathing heavily. “We got caught in the Aberrant Woods.”
Magi
ster Torin looked to his fellow Magisters and guards with shock.
“How is that possible?”
Kaleb walked over, joining them explaining about the goblins that chased them into the woods and everything that had happened since, including the voice that Evyette had claimed to have heard.
“Evyette.” Magister Torin looked at her solemnly. “I am afraid that someone has been countering our protective wards against you.”
Evyette opened her mouth but no sound came out.
“Who?” Tristan spoke the word that was caught in her throat.
“We do not know. But this attack would not have happened if the wards had not been tampered with.” He brought his hand to his chin. “The problem now will be finding the culprit.” He began to turn to walk to the horses.
“But someone is trying to help me too.” All eyes turned to Evyette.
“I know it sounds deranged, but I don’t think the voice I heard earlier was my conscience.” She looked down at her new mark which along with her spell casting mark had spread slightly.
“Whoever gave me this, knows who I am and what is going on. She might be the one helping me.”
“Or the one trying to get you killed.” Tristan countered.
“I do not believe that. This mark was to help me. If she wanted me dead, she would have never bestowed it upon me.”