by Alice Wilde
“My shirt,” Ero says, holding out his hand toward me. I hand it over and look away but can’t help glancing over at him as he pulls his shirt over his head, tucking haphazardly into his pants before running a hand through his hair.
“How are we going to find them?” I ask.
“I don’t know, but we’re going to have to be careful. Hopefully we’ll be able to find something to track them with, I’m not sure that I’ll be able to catch their scents after the storm we had last night.”
“I know I’m usually the one all for adventure,” I say slowly, “but what if they aren’t in trouble and are making their way back to camp?”
Ero raises an eyebrow as he looks at me. “No, we both know that Roan’s far too attached to you to leave alone for any longer than absolutely necessary. I should have realized something was off last night, but…”
My cheeks flush as he trails off, knowing exactly what he’s referring to. “Very well, then let’s go. I don’t want to leave them alone any longer than necessary, especially if there’s any way we might be able to help.”
“Do you want me to carry you?” Ero asks after a momentary pause.
“We’d probably make better time if you did…but no,” I answer. “We should focus on tracking them. It’ll be easier for us both to search if I walk.”
Ero nods in agreement, throwing the makeshift bag of things he’s gathered over his shoulder, and we set off in the direction Roan and Li went the night before.
We walk quietly for some time, trying to find something, anything that will help us know where Li and Roan are. But the heavy rain seems to have washed everything clean, resetting the forest and any signs they may have left behind.
“This is hopeless,” I say after searching for a while longer, trying to keep my voice steady.
“We’ve barely begun,” Ero says.
“Barely begun? We’ve been searching for at least an hour!” Ero doesn’t respond to this, which makes me worry even more. “Aren’t you going to say something?”
“Say what?”
“That I shouldn’t worry,” I say. “That everything’s going to be fine…something.”
“No,” Ero says, standing up from the ground where he’d been picking over the leaves and branches.
“No?” I say with a snort. “Why not?”
“Because saying any of those things would be a lie.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, my voice coming out higher than I mean it to.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I don’t know!” Ero snaps, and then clenches his jaw, his nostrils flaring. “I’m sorry, Annalise. I just…I don’t know where they’ve gone or what’s happened to them. I don’t want to make assumptions.”
We stand quietly for a long, awkward moment.
“What should we do?” I ask, breaking the tension.
“First, we need to decide if we’re going to keep searching for them or go back to camp and hope they make it back.”
“Of course, we’re going to keep searching,” I say without hesitation.
“Fine. Now you have to decide whether or not you’re going to let me shift to continue the search.”
“Will it help?”
“Possibly.”
“Then shift.”
Ero’s mouth twitches. “Are you sure?”
“Why not?”
“Just…after the trouble we’ve been having with shifting lately. I can’t promise what will happen after the shift, or when I’ll be able to shift back.”
I furrow my brow, trying to think carefully. I’d forgotten they’d been having trouble with shifting forms, and we still didn’t quite know why or what caused the issues… I take a deep breath and look up into Ero’s face.
“We have to try. If you think shifting will help at all, we have to try.”
Ero nods reluctantly, as if coming to terms with the idea himself. Sighing, he hands me the items he’s been carrying and then begins to slowly undress, handing each of his garments over to me. “Alright, but just remember, you’ll only have yourself to blame if you never get to see this beautiful body again.”
I chuckle softly, but secretly I swallow the lump growing in my throat.
“See you on the other side.”
Ero’s playful grin fades, and he closes the space between us.
“As you wish, princess,” he says, tucking a finger under my chin and lifting my face to his. Ero presses his lips softly to mine and then steps back, snarling as his body and muscles tremble. The next moment I’m standing next to my huge, blue-eyed snow leopard. He immediately begins searching the area, pressing his snout to the ground and sniffing the air.
“Can you sense anything now?” I ask after a few minutes of following him through the forest in various directions. Ero turns back to look at me, cocking his big head to the side as if trying to figure out how to communicate with me. “You can just nod or shake your head.”
Ero shakes his head and then moves closer to me, rubbing his head against my side and nuzzling my hand. I run my fingers through his soft fur, massaging his ears as I try to understand what he’s trying to say. Ero lets me pet him for a minute and then he pulls away and cocks his head to the side again. After a moment, he starts to circle me and then he lays down and jerks his head over his shoulder a few times.
“Oh, you want me to ride?” I ask.
Ero purrs loudly and inches forward toward me. I smile, momentarily forgetting this giant leopard is really a man and not some massive pet cat. Climbing onto Ero’s back, I nestle down into his fur, clinging to him as he rises and then bounds off at tremendous speed through the forest. I don’t know how he’s able to move so quickly and still explore the area for signs of Li and Roan, but I don’t question him. Instead, focusing my efforts on not falling or getting knocked off his back.
Suddenly, Ero freezes, and I barely manage to hold on as his whole body comes to an abrupt stop.
“What is it—”
Ero lets out a low growl to quiet me and crouches low to the ground. I listen intently, Ero’s ears twitching back and forth and his tail swishing from side to side. It takes me a moment, but then I hear it too.
Voices.
I listen hard, trying to focus in on the sounds and they slowly become clearer. There’s the general hum of voices, as I’d already noticed, but there are so many other sounds as well. The thud of horses’ hooves, rolling of carts, the laughter and patter of children playing…
“A village?” I ask, whispering the question into Ero’s fur. He purrs low in response. “You need to shift. It’ll be safer to approach if we’re both human.”
Ero snorts at this but then rolls just enough to force me off his back. I watch nervously as the massive cat shudders, his muscles rippling. He sighs and glances over at me with his one good eye. I swallow hard, my mouth dry and my heart starting to race in my chest as I try to remain calm.
What if he couldn’t shift back?
What if, one day, none of them could?
No.
I clear the thought from my mind. I’m not going to start worrying about something that hasn’t happened yet, there isn’t time for it. I refocus on the present, watching Ero and doing my best to keep my worried thoughts at bay.
Ero closes his eyes, barring his teeth and wrinkling his nose, his claws digging into the dirt as he struggles to concentrate his energy. The longer I watch the leopard still lying next to me, the harder it becomes to keep my thoughts from wandering to darker places.
I wish there was something I could do to help, some way to trigger the shift to happen faster… All of a sudden, Ero’s eyes fly open and the fur on the back of his neck stands up as he looks around. Our eyes meet, and it takes me a moment to grasp that something is seriously amiss.
“Ero?” I ask nervously, trying and failing to keep my voice from shaking while ever so slowly crawling backwards away from him.
The enormous white leopard turns his body to
ward me, keeping it low and crouched as if he’s preparing to pounce. His teeth are still barred, but now he’s growling in a deep, threatening tone, his snout quivering. The leopard wriggles in place, his front and back paws moving ever closer together as he keeps a steady watch on me.
My mind races as I try to figure out what I’m supposed to do. If Ero is no longer in control of his beast form, should I run or play dead? I had no knowledge on surviving a leopard attack, and it doesn’t look like I have much more time to decide.
How far is the village? Can I make it in time if I try to run or would that cause even more trouble? What if he kills one of the villagers, or they try to kill him?
Perhaps I should lead Ero away instead…
I’ve already wasted too much time, I scramble to my feet and scurry away from Ero just as he pounces. One of his claws catches the back of my shirt, tearing it but missing my skin.
My ears are ringing, the pounding of my heart, my own breathing, and the thud of my footsteps the only sounds left in the world.
Swerve.
I turn sharply as the thought pops into my mind, changing direction.
Remember the deer.
Prey. I have to think like I’m being hunted…I am being hunted. I lurch to the side, changing direction again, winding my way through the trees as fast as I can. My breath is becoming ragged, my chest tight and aching. I won’t be able to continue on like this for much longer.
I glance over my shoulder and instantly regret my choice as I lurch forward, tumbling to the ground. The next second a snarling, blue-eyed leopard is standing over me. I curl into a ball, raising my arms over my face as I look up into the beast’s face, searching for any sign of Ero. My eyes widen in fear as the wild cat raises a paw, claws out to slash me.
“Ero!” I scream, closing my eyes tight as he moves to strike me.
The blow never lands.
I slowly open my eyes; my arms still held over my head and look up into Ero’s face.
“Gods, Ero,” I gasp, as my body relaxes and I finally manage to catch my breath.
“I…You,” Ero starts to say, still looking down at me, his brow furrowed.
“What?”
Ero’s body trembles, and he collapses onto the ground next to me, staring up into the canopy above. “I could have killed you. I almost killed you.”
“But you didn’t,” I say as reassuringly as possible, still finding it a little hard to speak. We lie in silence for a long while, neither of us sure what to say to the other. “I think we should get going. We still have to find Li and Roan, and preferably before night falls.”
Ero grunts in response, and I hand him his clothes which I somehow managed to keep tied in the little satchel still around me in all the chaos. As soon as he finishes dressing, we set off in the direction of the village we’d heard earlier. There’s noticeable tension between us as we walk on, neither of us speaking… Not that I don’t want to talk to him, but I just don’t know what to say.
I don’t want to worry him, but I’m still shaken over what just happened and I don’t know how to express myself to Ero without making him feel worse than he already does.
“I—”
“So—”
We both start and stop speaking at the same time.
“You first,” Ero says.
“I was just going to say that I think we should be getting close to the village,” I say.
“Oh… Uh, yes, I think you’re right. We should try to think of a way to approach them without causing too much alarm.”
“I doubt very much that will be possible,” I say with a nervous laugh.
“Why?”
“You mean besides the state of our clothes? I doubt they see people who look like us wandering around the forest let alone into their village very often.”
Ero cocks his head to the side, stopping in place. “Damn. You’re right, I hadn’t even thought about that. I wonder if…well, if something happened to the other guys, maybe it was because of Roan.”
“Unfortunately, that wouldn’t surprise me,” I say.
“Let’s try to get a view of the village before we go any farther,” Ero says. “At the very least, maybe we can gauge how the people will react to seeing us. Can you understand anything they say?”
“I…I think so.”
“Good, try to listen in on the conversations and see what they’re talking about. Maybe we can find out what happened to Li and Roan without having to go into the village at all.”
“How?”
“Well, I imagine finding random travelers, and a red-haired giant at that, would be more than enough to stir up gossip. If they were here, we should know fairly quickly.”
I nod in agreement and we carefully make our way forward, listening intently for any sign of the village or danger. It takes us a good while to finally hear the noises of the town once again, and we move even more stealthily forward until we’re able to crouch behind a thicket where we’re able to look down onto the village.
The town is beautiful, lining the banks of a wide, sparkling river. A single stone bridge connects the two sides of the river town and long rope bridges swing high above the water between the colorful, multi-story buildings and overhanging walkways as people wander back and forth cross them. Across the bridge is a large square with an open market and vendors hawking their wares. My stomach grumbles at the sight of food, and the realization that we haven’t eaten for more than a day.
“Do you hear anything?” Ero asks in a low whisper.
I force myself to focus, closing my eyes in an effort to forget my hunger and listen harder. The dialect is strange, far different from the language used around the palace and it takes me a few minutes to start to piece together what the villagers are saying to one another. Most of the chatter is simple, every day chatter, but then my interest is piqued at the mention of a red devil. Listening more intently and doing my best to drown out the other nearby conversations, my heart starts to pound in my chest.
“Did you see him?” one woman asks.
“Oh yes,” the woman who had mentioned the red devil replies. “His skin was as white as the moon and his hair as red as blood.”
“What do you think he wants?”
“Trouble, these strange creatures only ever bring us trouble,” the old lady says. “The world is growing darker by the day. If we don’t find out what is causing these monsters to reappear—”
“You mean who.”
“Don’t interrupt me,” the old woman snaps. “As I was saying, if we don’t find out who is making these demons show themselves, we’ll all be doomed.”
“And what about the one who was found with him?”
“The pretty one?” the woman snickers. “Ah, a demon in disguise most likely. Here to seduce the women from their beds and the arms of their husbands. No doubt as soon as he’s won some ignorant fool to his bed than he sucks her dry and lifeless.”
“Oh no,” the young woman gasps in terror. “Surely our governor will save us. They’re to be brought before him today for judgement!”
“Him,” the older villager snorts. “It would be better to ask someone blind and deaf than to seek that imbecile’s judgement. No doubt he’ll invite them into his own home before heeding the warning signs.”
“You must convince him not to be merciful!”
“Me? What can little old me do to sway our high and mighty governor?”
“I don’t know… wait, come with me. If we can convince others in the village before the meeting then we can demand justice. Please, for the safety of our families.”
“And why should I do this? I have no family to concern myself with,” the old woman moans. “No, no… too much trouble.”
“If you do this,” the young woman responds thoughtfully, “I will bring you into my home and my family shall take care of and feed you in your old age.”
“Deal,” the old woman says without a moment’s hesitation. “We haven’t much time left, hurry and help me up an
d we’ll go fetch the village elders.”
As soon as they’re out of earshot, I turn toward Ero. “They have Li and Roan.”
“What did you hear?”
“They’re calling Roan a red devil, and they seem to think Li is a demon as well.”
“Li, a demon?” Ero snorts.
“I’m serious,” I say. “The villagers seem convinced that they’re bad omens, but there’s to be a meeting later where their fate is to be decided.”
“I still can’t believe anyone would think Li is a demonic entity,” Ero says. “Let alone his own people. Did they say anything else that might be important?”
“I don’t think so,” I murmur trying to dissect the conversation in my mind. “The villagers seem to be particularly superstitious, and I’m not sure, but it did sound like this isn’t the first time they’ve encountered some form of malevolent being.”
“They’ve had other demons here?”
“I can’t say for certain, but they seem to think something or someone is luring demons out of hiding.”
“You don’t say,” Ero mumbles, looking out over the town. “Maybe they’re right.”
Four
Roan
“What did we do to deserve this kind of treatment?” I shout, shaking the barred door before turning into the cell to face Li.
“They’re calling you a red devil,” Li says.
“What in all the holy saints’ names does that mean?”
Li sighs deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. “It means they quite literally think you’re a demon.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I scoff. “Can you not just explain to them what’s going on?”
“What do you think I’ve been doing? They won’t listen to me. Apparently, I’m a dark spirit just for entering the village with you.”
“They can’t truly believe this nonsense.”
“They can, and they do.”
“So, what’s next?” I ask. “They don’t have Annalise, and from the looks of things, they don’t have an army either. Why don’t we just make a break for it?”
“How?”
I look around our confines, searching for an easy way out. “Break down the door?”