by Ross Turner
“But why?” Vivian urged. “Why now?” But Emerson shook his head.
“I don’t know.” He admitted again.
“Perhaps they’ve been preparing?” Kael suggested, piping up from his somewhat withdrawn silence. “Perhaps they’ve been gathering their strength, and now they want to flush you out and kill you?” He suggested, before adding a final comment. “And they nearly managed it…”
“Perhaps…” Emerson conceded.
“Where have they come from?” Vivian asked then.
“I’m sorry Vivian.” Emerson apologised then, speaking very openly and honestly. “I really don’t know. I only know what I have to know, just the same as you.”
But then, veering off topic somewhat, cutting straight through to the line of questioning that was really bothering her, Vivian cast another query at the great red bear.
“Where have you been, Emerson? Why haven’t I ever met you before? Why didn’t Clover ever mention you?” The questions tumbled from Vivian’s tongue in a single, flowing breath, without giving Emerson chance to answer even one of them.
Vivian had realised, for some reason, that it had never been something she’d considered when living with Red and Clover. She’d never even though to ask, though now it seemed an all too obvious question, for Clover had never even mentioned the notion of Red’s father.
Emerson sighed deeply, and Vivian could see immediately that, not only had he expected this question, but also that it pained him deeply.
Suddenly she felt immensely guilty, realising in that instant that it had never been the great red bear’s decision to leave, but instead that he’d had no choice in the matter.
And sure enough, Emerson’s response confirmed Vivian’s suspicions, for his words were laden with the pain of loss and responsibility.
“I had no choice.” He said first, cutting straight to the point. “The Redwoods told me that I needed to remain separate from my family, for there were some very important things that absolutely had to happen. They told me that those things couldn’t come to pass if I remained with Clover and Red…”
Immediately, at the mention of their names, Emerson’s voice thickened heavily, and he struggled to fight back tears. Vivian had never seen such a majestic creature cry. Even Red had not cried when his mother had died, and the sight tore at the young Featherstone’s heart terribly.
“Why?” She asked then. “What had to happen?”
“I don’t know.” Emerson admitted then, though Vivian sensed he was not being entirely truthful, but instead that his response was designed to protect her.
It didn’t work.
She knew then, instinctively, amidst everything, that the reason was altogether to do with her. A massive wave of guilt surged through Vivian, knowing that, for whatever reason, it was because of her that Emerson had been denied a life of love and happiness with his family. She had taken that from him, and then, as if that wasn’t enough, she had allowed his soul mate and his son to die at the hands of the Greystones.
Vivian’s heart felt suddenly heavy with regret and sorrow, weighing her down like a stone in her chest.
“I’m sorry Emerson…” She managed to choke, her voice welling up suddenly.
“Please don’t apologise.” He pleaded of her then, seeing Vivian’s revelation in her haunted eyes. “You are wrong.” He told her, his voice even a little stern. “It’s not your fault. It was never your choice, just as it wasn’t mine. Had I not separated from my Clover and my Red…”
At those words Vivian’s barriers fell and tears began to streak openly down her cheeks, but Emerson continued nonetheless.
“Then you may as well have died at the hands of the Greystones all those years ago, when you were just a girl, for things would have played out very differently, and the world would likely have been lost to the Greystone plague.”
Vivian nodded, understanding his words, though she sensed he was simply offering her his best guesswork.
It did little to soften the crucifying blow of her guilt however, and that terrible feeling settled deeply inside of her, and would remain there for the rest of her days.
“I have no regret.” Emerson told her then. “Sorrow, perhaps.” He admitted. “But no regret.”
“But the plague is still here.” Vivian managed, composing herself as best she could. “What was the point if I still didn’t manage to kill it!?”
But Emerson was prepared for that question also, and the long, hard stare he gave Vivian then spoke volumes, and was through and through the look of a parent.
“I am not the one to answer that question.” He told her. “I don’t have the answer, and you know it.”
Vivian nodded meekly, knowing she’d been out of line. Her question was not meant for Emerson; it was meant for the Redwoods.
Suddenly then, rising to his feet in a swift, deadly movement, Emerson let from his throat a deep, terrifying growl, so similar to Red’s that it took Vivian back years into her memory, even as her body responded to the sound.
“What is it!?” She hissed through clenched teeth, springing to her feet, glancing all around, keeping her voice low.
The heavily falling rain above hammered against the roof of the tattered barn so loudly that it had blocked out the sound of their entire conversation, but still Vivian and Emerson spoke in hushed whispers.
Kael immediately raced for the barricaded barn door, and removed the bar from across it. Hauling the heavy barricade to the side, he pushed the doors open, creaking and wailing on their rusty hinges.
Without wasting another second, knowing without the need for words what was happening, the three of them took off into the night, soaked in an instant by the heavy raindrops, yelling at the tops of their voices, rousing the farmstead once again for battle. The falling rain barraged Vivian’s face harshly as she tore through the darkness, Kael beside her to her left, with only a slight limp now, and Emerson to her right, his great, looming silhouette terrifying in the night.
“GET BACK!” Emerson roared, seeing the farmhands they had alerted approaching the tree line, weapons at the ready, blinded by the night.
They withdrew automatically, fearful not only of what lay within the trees, but also of Emerson’s powerful approach. He pounded the ground with his great strides as he ran, tearing up vast chunks of earth and mud. His fur was dripping from the rain and clung to his huge, muscular, hulking body.
Above the heavy pounding of the rain, slamming against the cold ground, the array of howls and baying cries reached Vivian’s ears, ripping through the air over and between the trees.
They had but mere seconds before the black shadowy beasts exploded from the undergrowth, disguised amidst the darkness beneath the heavily fortified clouds and rain.
When the wolves attacked, launching from the trees with renewed vigour and malice, Vivian lit them up with great streaks of flames, unquenchable even in the thundering rainfall, allowing the farmhands at least the chance to see the monsters they were supposed to be fighting.
Cries and yelps and screams of pain echoed out then, as the humans and the plague ridden beasts clashed. Emerson bellowed a terrifying and earth-shaking roar, and began to methodically crush every monster he came to face.
Vivian too dealt her own devastation, and Kael darted in and out, left and right, his replenished leg holding up well, swiping and attacking here and there, always striking the most vulnerable and vital parts of his enemies. His hard life had moulded him well, making his wiry muscles strong and his reflexes sharp, even following his injury.
The battle raged on.
The freezing cold rain continued to fall, saturating everything until finally it had run its full course. The clouds eventually lifted to reveal a full moon, shining its reflected light down upon the battlefield, strewn with fresh bodies and blood.
But the tables seemed to be turning, and though the plague infected wolves had begun to fall in great numbers, more and more of their kind poured from the woodlands, their ranks
seeming to swell limitlessly, overwhelming Vivian and Kael and Emerson and Jared and his men.
It wasn’t long at all before they seemed fated to lose, their defences being brutally and methodically ripped to shreds.
Then however, and not for the first time, something very strange happened.
Everything seemed to slow for Vivian, as if time itself was grinding to a halt. Even amidst the fighting and clawing and biting snarls of their enemies then, she felt eyes upon them.
She glanced around, her eyes wide in the new light of the moon, and saw hundreds upon thousands of animals in the tree line, watching and listening, looking on eagerly, waiting.
Instinctively, and entirely without thinking, Vivian threw a desperate request out to them, asking, begging, pleading for their help. And then, amazingly, as if she’d expected her efforts to be futile, they responded.
The armies of the Redwood Forest itself poured out from the trees then, turning the tide of the battle once more, overwhelming the plague ridden beasts and engulfing them almost entirely.
Vivian’s mouth fell open when she realised what she‘d just done, as wolves and bears and foxes and even deer streamed out from the trees, kicking and screaming and clawing and slashing at the wolves, churning the ground into a muddied bloodbath.
And so the fighting would have continued, probably long on through the night, had it not been interrupted…
A terrible roaring screech echoed out high above them then, ten times louder than even Emerson could have possibly managed.
All heads turned, casting their gazes high up into the sky, above the sea of Redwoods, illuminated so by the dazzling moonlight.
The sight they beheld was accompanied by the sound of tremendous flapping wings, and the silhouette of a black, devil like figure, somehow even darker than the night itself, loomed overhead, blocking the light from the moon and from the few peeking stars, engulfing everything.
“THAT’S IT!” Jared cried, pointing up and the menacing silhouette, gripped by icy fear. “THAT’S THE SOUND!”
Clearly Vivian had been wrong. The roaring screeches that the farmhands had all described had not been Emerson after all, she suddenly realised.
But her epiphany came too late.
From high above, swooping down in a long, graceful arc, clear to all of them even in the dim light of the night, the demon was illuminated by the moonshine. The enormous creature, silhouetted against the glittering blanket above, easily five times the size of Emerson, was a dragon.
Fear seized Vivian for a moment, immobilising her, for she had always assured herself, rightly or wrongly, that such things were only the beasts of fables and fairy tales.
Clearly she had been wrong, as the devastating power of the creature above then became all too apparent.
The monstrous black dragon swept down, skimming the tips of the trees as it did so, screeching deafeningly out into the night. Vivian could even feel the hatred of the beast, a menace and lust for revenge instilled within it by the Greystone’s plague, greater than that of all the plague ridden wolves combined.
The wolves immediately fled back into the forest, though at first glance it seemed to Vivian that their retreat was tactical, planned, rather than created out of fear, for they did not seem afraid in the slightest.
“GET DOWN!” Vivian suddenly screamed, coming finally to her senses, realising suddenly the danger they were in as the terrible serpent swept overhead. She threw herself to the ground and was followed closely by Kael. He landed right by her side, bleeding profusely from his left arm.
Emerson however, was not given the opportunity, and he was a much more obvious target than the humans. The dragon snatched at him with its massive talon like claws as it swept in, monstrous and powerful, plucking the huge bear from the ground seemingly without effort, digging its claws deep into his sides.
The great red bear roared in pain and struggled desperately to free himself. But the reptilian beast, taken straight from myth and fantasy, was simply too strong, and the more Emerson struggled, the deeper the monster’s claws sank.
Vivian leapt to her feet and screamed uselessly after them, as the dragon took off again into the night, carrying the poor flailing bear with it, blotting the light from the moon once more as it flew off into the distance over the vast forest.
A hauntingly familiar feeling of loss, and a surge or regret, hit Vivian then, knocking the wind and the fight from her as if she’d just run headlong into a brick wall. Her knees buckled as she tried uselessly to run after them, the strength and the fight stolen from her, and despair overwhelmed her.
The great red bear, his struggles fading swiftly, along with his life, disappeared over the great ocean of blood red pines, and was carried off towards the peaks and mountains far to the south.
15
Some people were screaming and shouting, whilst others remained stood still and unable to move, shell-shocked. Then from the rear some began to run, fleeing back to their homes, whilst others had already locked and bolted their doors, far ahead of them.
Kael climbed slowly to his feet, grunting as the weight on his injured arm and his still not quite fully healed leg sent shots of fresh pain through his system.
The sound beside her rallied Vivian’s focus back, shocking her suddenly into action.
“JARED!” She shouted immediately, the sound of her voice penetrating the darkness sharply.
“Miss Featherstone!” He replied in an instant, rushing to her side, limping slightly himself.
“I need everybody looking for wounded.” She instructed. “Get everyone who’s still alive to take the injured back to the cottages and give them treatment.”
“What about…Wh…The…” Jared stammered, glancing nervously up above the trees, unable to say the word.
“Forget it.” Vivian told him. “I will deal with it. Do as I have asked.”
He nodded curtly and took off without another word, seemingly grateful to have been given a task that did not involve fighting a dragon.
The next hour or so was devoted entirely to searching the battlefield for any who were still alive, and then rushing them off to find shelter and give them medical aid. Vivian always kept one eye on the tree line however, all too wary that the wolves could return at any time.
She worked frantically, not stopping even for a moment.
It was all she could do to keep her mind from wandering towards thoughts of Emerson, and of the great, hollow cavern that had once again opened up afresh within her very heart.
Finally, after having scoured the waterlogged fields and sifted through the bloody remains of friend and foe alike, Vivian summoned Jared once more.
“I think that’s all of them…” The very weary farmstead owner reported, the look in his eyes something of a haunted one.
“Good.” Vivian replied, her tone authoritative and aged. “Get everyone back to their homes, and make sure that anyone who needs care gets it.”
“What of the dragon?” He asked again then, plucking up the courage to utter the unspeakable word at long last.
Vivian remained silent for a moment, churning his question over in her mind; but as much as she thought on it, somewhat resentfully, she knew exactly what she had to do.
“I felt something in the dragon, and in the wolves; something that I never expected to feel again.” She admitted, sighing deeply and glancing up and the moonlit night sky. Many more stars had appeared now and they danced across the black ocean above without a care.
“You felt something?” Jared asked, confused.
“I sensed the Greystones.” Vivian told him then, her words blunt and to the point. “Their plague lives on in those poor creatures.” She sighed again as she spoke, only this time she exhaled with great sorrow.
“But, how can that be?” Jared asked, knowing as all did that Vivian had banished their evil when she had returned to Virtus. “I thought you killed them all?”
“I did.” Vivian began to explain. “You’re right, but t
heir evil still lingers in these poor creatures.” As she spoke she swept her gaze across the bloodbath that was laid out all around them, and Vivian suddenly felt very guilty, about a lot of different things. “It’s all that’s left of them.”
Jared nodded but, not knowing what to say, didn’t reply. Instead, Kael placed a gentle and assuring hand on Vivian’s shoulder, and smiled as reassuringly as he could manage.
“I need you to keep your people hidden.” Vivian continued, looking very seriously at Jared. “I need you to keep them safe.”
“Where are you going!? What are you going to do!?” He suddenly exclaimed, terrified at the thought of another attack without their so called saviour there to defend them.
“I’m going back to Featherstone Keep. I have to find out how to kill it.” Vivian told him, unwillingly admitting with that statement that she actually had no idea what to do, and was simply resorting to that which she knew and was familiar.
“Can’t you just use your power?” He pleaded. “You killed the Grey! You can’t leave us to die! Can’t you just kill it!?”
The desperation in the poor farmstead owner’s voice choked Vivian, but she knew now what she had to do, and she wouldn’t leave them in danger. It wasn’t these poor people that the creatures wanted.
She had felt their lust for her before, and now it was no different.
“I won’t let them hurt your people anymore.” Vivian told him, but he would not listen.
“They’ve been attacking us for months!” He blurted. “And now since you’ve come to help us two dozen more have died!” Jared caught his tongue there, knowing he had overstepped the mark, terrified at what the consequences might be.
But Vivian did not respond. She only smiled ruefully, knowing his words were only the truth.
“I know, Jared.” She eventually admitted. “And that’s exactly why I have to leave. The Greystones have wanted me for my entire life. Ever since the day I was born, they’ve sought nothing but to claim me, to kill me. They will never be happy until they have me.”