Shadow Hunted

by L. A. Johnson

  She stomped on the brakes in a squealing haze of smoke and came to a very abrupt stop just as she lightly bumped a Beamer in front of her. The Beamer jerk started yelling.

  “Yeah, yeah,” she yelled back. Then she got an idea. It was a very bad idea to stop and get the magical satchel when she was doing sixty miles an hour on her way out of town. Now that she was stopped, it was a very good idea. Two birds with one stone.

  She threw the car in park and lunged into the backseat, reaching for the satchel. Judging by the honks and the yelling, that’s when the light turned green again.

  “Give me a minute, I’m doing something,” she yelled. The terrifyingly fast stop at the red light had thrown the werewolf onto the floorboards face down. He was still sleeping, but that made it harder to reach the satchel. There was more honking, but Lydia knew that this would be her one and only shot. She lifted the werewolf’s head and located the string around its neck. Then she pulled it gently over his head. Got it.

  She got back into the driver’s seat as quickly as possible. Just as the light in front of her turned yellow again. “Oh, no you don’t,” she said. She threw the car in drive and floored it, honking her horn to warn other drivers of her intention to go through the intersection. A chorus of horns returned the favor.

  “Same to all of you,” she shouted, making a beeline for the highway. She gunned the engine again and several traffic violations later she was speeding on the highway instead of the city streets. That’s when she heard a groan from the backseat.

  “No, no, no. Hang in there, Earthshaker.” She was already going nearly a hundred miles an hour, but she gave it more gas. She would have to unload him very soon if she wanted to keep her car from experiencing complete destruction by an enchanted troll returning to his true form. She was pretty sure that would not be covered by her auto insurance. There was another groan.

  “Drat! Where are you? I could use a little help right now.” She said it loud enough for the gnome to hear if he was listening, but not loud enough to fully wake up the groggy werewolf. She hoped.

  There was no response from Drat. He had magic in him that he abused with regularity. He could come and go as he pleased. Usually, that meant he would leave the minute she needed him.

  “Fine, I’ll do it the hard way. By myself. As usual.” She knew that Drat had been right. She’d never make it to the bluffs. The edge of the forest was only a five-minute drive, and the bluffs were another half an hour away. She cursed quietly. She had promised herself she’d never go back there, but now she had no choice. The decision made, she exited the highway. Three minutes later, she pulled into the dirt parking lot. The trees loomed at her. In fact, had she not had to deal with Earthshaker, she’d have probably had a full-blown panic attack. She grabbed the magical satchel she got from the werewolf and put it in her jacket pocket.

  Then she jumped out of the car, ran to the backseat, and opened the door where Earthshaker the shaggy had somehow managed to get up to a sitting position. She was out of time.

  “Ummrnadhghhhhhhr?” he asked.

  “Absolutely,” she answered. “That about sums it up.” She reached down to help him out of the car, and that’s when it hit her. The smell. Wet dog, rotting food, and body odor. She gagged. Well, it wasn’t the first weird smell she’d have to get out of the interior of her car and it probably wouldn’t be the last. She held her breath.

  “Come on, Earthshaker, let’s get you back to the woods where you belong.” She hauled him out of the car, grateful that he was still a werewolf and not a troll yet. Whew, that was a close one. “What on earth were you doing in the middle of the city, anyway?” she asked him. “And why did you burgle magical items in the first place?”

  He didn’t answer.

  It was a good question, though. Trolls generally kept to themselves and stayed outside of town. Despite their size, they were exceptional at disguising themselves to look like the natural environment. Most people could walk right by them without even noticing. Occasionally they would get curious and wander into town, but never on a mission to commit magical grand larceny and traffic roid rage.

  She threw one of his arms around her shoulder and ignored the smell. Then the two of them made their way across the parking lot. They hadn’t gotten very far when suddenly she heard another poof.

  Lydia turned to see what was going on with Earthshaker just as the hairy arm she didn’t happen to be holding became troll sized. She let go of him and jumped out of the way, just in time as fate would have it. Earthshaker sprang back to his true form, only this time, she was the only one around to see it.

  Back to being a troll, Earthshaker stood there dazed and confused. Then he wobbled perilously, causing Lydia to back up even further, just in case he fell. Finally, he sat down with a thunderous jolt and the sound of scattering rocks.

  Lydia gave him a moment and then approached. “Hey, big guy. Are you okay?”

  Earthshaker looked around for a moment and then turned his brown mossy head in her direction. “Where is Earthshaker?”

  His breath was a blast of damp earth, mushrooms, and decaying plant. If anything, it was even worse than the wet dog smell of the werewolf.

  Lydia coughed and waved her hand in front of her face, hoping to dilute the new smell. “You’re outside the city now. At the edge of the forest.” She eyed the trees warily. “I’m sorry if this isn’t super close to your actual home. We were in a hurry, you see, and I wasn’t sure exactly where you lived.”

  “Why did you bring me here?” he roared accusingly.

  Lydia didn’t know what was worse, the accusation or the new blast of troll breath. “Look, you,” she said in between fighting the urge to hurl due to the smell. “I saved you. You were rampaging like Godzilla in the middle of downtown, right in front of everybody. And even worse, you stole a bunch of magical potions and artifacts. You changed form like, four times. If I hadn’t gotten you out of there, the police would have gotten you. Or even worse, a bunch of asshole mages.” When she looked back up at him, he looked more tired than angry. “Of course. You must be exhausted.”

  She slapped her own forehead, kicking herself for not thinking of it sooner. He was depleted after what he’d been through. There was no way she was going to be able to have any kind of conversation with him if he was in this state.

  She got an idea. “Hold on, big guy. I’ll be right back.” Lydia headed back to her car where she always kept an emergency supply of food, water and blankets. In her line of work, she had to be prepared for anything. She grabbed all the food in her kit. Then she made her way back to where the troll was sitting quietly. Now the trick would be getting close enough to give the food to him without getting squashed. She waved to get his attention before approaching. “Look, Earthshaker. I have food for you. Are you hungry?”

  He nodded his head. She hesitated, took a deep breath, and took a few steps forward. When she was within arm’s reach of him, she dropped the food and retreated again. He reached out and grabbed the food, making short work of it.

  He perked up a little when he finished eating. “Thank you,” he said, staring at her.

  His eyes looked just like rocks. She stared at them for a moment, but then she remembered that she wanted to get the hell away from this forest as soon as possible. Now that Earthshaker was calm, now was the time to figure out if he had anything magical still on him, because if he got up and walked off, there wasn’t going to be a damn thing she would be able to do about it.

  Earthshaker looked around, still breathing heavily. She could see the weary look on his face and knew he wasn’t going to stick around much longer. She decided to go for it.

  “Um, just one more question, can you empty your pockets?” Lydia asked.

  “You want to steal from me,” he roared, standing up. “I knew it.”

  “No, no. Nope. No stealing,” Lydia said, holding her hands up. “I just need to check, and I’d like to get out of here as soon as possible. This forest makes me nervous. Li
sten, if I were going to steal from you, would I have given you the food?”

  “It’s a trick. I’ve been tricked before,” he answered.

  “Look,” she said, “I’ll back up, see how far I’m backing up. It’s just that the people I work for said you took a bunch of magical items and they need them back. Or they’re going to come looking for you. And I don’t want that. I want them to leave you alone.” She was almost all the way back to her car now.

  Earthshaker looked dubious. “If I show you my pockets, then you little people will all leave me alone?”

  “Yes. Absolutely. And I don’t want anything of yours. Only magic stuff.”

  “Earthshaker hates magic.”

  “I know, right?” Lydia said. “Me too. It’s so irritating the way mages act like they’re so much better than us because they have magic.” Lydia realized she was getting off topic. It was a sore subject for her since she had no discernable magic despite being part fae. “I mean, can you just show me your pockets really quick? Then I can go back to those irritating mages and tell them to get off your back.”

  Earthshaker stood. Then he rotated his head from side to side making tree branch cracking noises for a moment before refocusing on her.

  Lydia looked on in horror as the troll was wearing only a tiny cloth thong that barely covered his considerable man-troll parts. If she had known that before he stood up, she’d have never asked to see inside his pockets. There was no point. Unfortunately, she had asked him, and he was complying, and the process now could not be stopped. Unfortunately, it also couldn’t be unseen.

  Earthshaker brought his giant hands to what served as pockets and pulled them inside out. “Earthshaker doesn’t use pockets.”

  Lydia peered just long enough to confirm that the pockets were empty, then looked away. “Good to know,” she said. “Just for the sake of asking, where do you put things when you carry them around?”

  “Don’t carry things,” he said, “carrying things is stupid. Only little people carry things.”

  Lydia pulled the satchel with the huge leather strap out of her jacket. It crinkled with the sound of broken glass and other vials that still had potions in them. “One more thing, Earthshaker. Is this yours?” She held the satchel up for him to see. If it was his, she wanted to return it as a show of good faith. After she dumped out the magical contents that were left, of course.

  Earthshaker squinted at it, shook his head, and turned to leave. He didn’t seem to recognize it.

  The first footstep as he walked away knocked her off her feet and into the dirt. She stayed down, knowing it was best to wait. She could hear her car shifting and creaking as the earth rumbled with each footstep. And then he was gone. The earthquakes turned into tremors and then she couldn’t see where he was even if she squinted. Which she tried. Nope, nothing.

  “You’re welcome, by the way!” she yelled after him. Then she instantly regretted it. How could she have forgotten where she was? And that she wanted to get out of this place as fast as possible, and to not attract any attention at all?

  She nervously took a deep breath and stood up, wiping the dirt off the back of her jeans. Her heart beat loudly as she scanned the tree line for anything out of the ordinary. That was a close one. She got the troll out of her car in time and now she could get the hell away from the woods. At least, that was what she was thinking when something awful peeked out from just behind the trees.

  Three

  Lydia screamed. The tree-sized creature had orange eyes deep set in an angular face. Its eyes were tracking her like prey as it made its way out of the forest with lightning speed. Her mind raced. She had always heard that this forest was haunted from reliable enough sources to make her very nervous, but she never fully believed it until now. It turned out she was right to be afraid. She never stopped screaming as she got up and sprinted toward her car. When she got up, though, her keys fell out of her pocket.

  She turned back to retrieve them. She knew that speeding away in her car was the only way she was getting out of this parking lot alive. When she turned back, though, she knew it was too late. Her last thought before the creature was on her was how nice it would have been to have her sword. Stupid Kade.

  By all rights, what came out of the woods simply shouldn’t have existed. And as a supernatural creature herself, well supernatural-adjacent, she still couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It looked like a giant, demon-eyed, stick monster. Its hands looked like swords, and although it moved with frightening speed, it barely made any noise. It was the small noise that accompanied its frenzied approach that got her attention because the sound, very much like a Morse-code-style tapping, seemed to happen before its movements. The disconnect between motion and sound only underscored the horror and unreality of the moment.

  In fact, she doubted her own eyes right up to the moment when it swung one of its sword hands down at her head.

  She jumped out of the way, having no choice but to leave the car keys behind and run. The creature screamed when it missed her head. A trumpety noise. She only got a few steps in before she heard the tapping sound again, though, and then it was in front of her. She froze. So did the creature. She had no idea what to do next.

  It slashed a giant hand in her direction again, this time aiming at center of mass. This time, even though she dove out of the way, it contacted her right arm, slicing the skin. She gasped in pain. Then it rushed her again before she could move out of the way. She wasn’t a match for its speed. It reached down a tree-branch arm and grabbed her around the waist. It lifted her into the air, toward its mouth and glowing eyes.

  “Oh hell no. I am not going out like this.” Lydia said out loud despite being squeezed. She struggled and freed an arm, digging into an available jacket pocket, where she found an old lighter. She held up the lighter between herself and the clacking teeth and glowing eyes that were getting perilously close. The tiny flame sprang to life, but what good was that going to do?

  Now she was eye to eye with the creature and the strangest thing happened. It was like she could read its thoughts, if you could call it that. Lydia had an image of the creature putting her head in its mouth. In fact, according to the horrible picture that was now in her head, it was planning on biting her in two. She had no idea how she could know its immediate plans, but none of that mattered now. All that mattered was the primal urge to stay alive.

  One more image popped into her head, from where she couldn’t tell, but it was all she had to go on. Based on that last image, she drew in a deep breath and held the lighter higher, at the creature’s face. Then she blew as hard as she could. The fire erupted into a roar, catching the top half of the creature in its blast. It made a high-pitched screaming noise and dropped her to the ground.

  Then she watched as it turned and ran back into the forest. She crawled back toward her car keys and then everything went black.

  Lydia woke up. That was pretty good news, all things considered. But she wasn’t home, and she wasn’t in her car. In fact, she had no idea where she was. It looked like she was on a small couch in a tiny living room.

  She sat up and looked around. She wasn’t tied up or anything and there was a comforting fire in the fireplace. “Hello?”

  The door opened and a tiny female came in. She was flying and sparkly and dressed halfway between hippy and goth. She did a double take when she saw Lydia.

  “Oh, hello there.” She had a handful of wildflowers and plants in her hand. “You’re healing even faster than I thought you would.” She held up the contents of her hand. “But if you’d like to get rid of that headache and internal bleeding, you should hang around a little longer.” She crossed to an old-fashioned pot over a fire in the fireplace and threw in the plants. “There, it won’t take long.”

  Lydia got the general idea that this creature was helping her, but she still wasn’t sure what was going on. “Um, thank you. For helping me. I’m sorry, but I don’t know your name. I’m Lydia.”

  “Oh, whe
re are my manners? My name is Kaylee. I’m a sprite.” She held out a snow-white hand for Lydia to shake.

  “Nice to meet you, Kaylee. I’ve never met a sprite before. Um, I have questions. Where am I? How much of what happened in the parking lot did you see? And how long have I been out?”

  Kaylee fixed her with a sly smile. “Yes, I saw you take on that tree goblin. And live. That’s not something you see every day, no ma’am.” She sat down heavily in a cozy-looking Lazy boy across from the couch Lydia was sitting on. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll answer your questions if you’ll answer mine.”

  Lydia thought about it. The whole situation was weird, but there was something she trusted about the sprite, who obviously wasn’t trying to hurt her. Not yet, anyway. She nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

  “Let’s see,” Kaylee said, “you’ve been here for two hours, give or take. And right now, you’re here, in my little cottage at the edge of the forest. And don’t worry, you’re in no danger from me. I plucked you out of the parking lot after your fight with the tree goblin and brought you here to my home.”

  “How did you carry me?” Lydia asked.

  “Now, now,” Kaylee said. “It’s my turn. Who are you?”

  “My name is Lydia Turner.”

  “No,” Kaylee said. “I mean who are you, really?”

  Lydia shifted on the couch. “I don’t understand.”

  “Well, I’m a sprite, obviously. A good one. And you’re something else entirely, aren’t you?” She got up to poke the fire and check the contents of the pot.

  “Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, I’m part fae, if that’s what you mean. I’m not sure how much that matters, though. I don’t have any magic, so around these parts I’m considered a dud anyway.” Thanks for pouring salt into the wound, she thought. She never expected to have to face her biggest fears in the forest today. And now facing her past lineage fail was making her feel even worse.