She Awakens

by Caitlin Denman

  Raven snorts. “You can answer that one, Silas.”

  Father laughs. “Haha okay. Well first, you must know Raven has perpetually been incredibly ornery. She was supposed to stay in the stables that night, but somebody was not about to be told what to do. She wanted to follow her father into battle. So, she snuck out and did just that.”

  I glance from Oak to Raven throwing my hands up in exasperation. “Wait. Oak, you’re Raven’s father? Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

  “You never asked,” Oak answers nonchalantly like it’s no big deal.

  I am about to retort, but as I open my mouth, our camp materializes into view.

  16

  Attina

  When we make it back to camp, Raven immediately kneels down to make it easier for Father to get off. Like usual, Father doesn’t show an iota of weakness as he dismounts but I can tell he is still extremely sore so I help him sit down by the fire pit before checking his stitches.

  When I get a chance to inspect the stitches they’re red and angry, he winces when I touch around the wound, but the stitches seem to be holding just fine. The sun is setting so I get a fire started for him and start taking care of the things which need done right away in camp.

  I start putting away the things Father put in our saddle bags and then begin unsaddling the horses before I leave to find wood for the night. I get Oak unsaddled, brushed down, and settled in the open meadow by camp for his evening meal. Then I move to Raven to start unsaddling her but as I grab for her cinch she moves away slightly. I stare at her confused.

  “You have to collect and split wood still right?” Raven asks.

  “Well yeah after I get you unsaddled and brushed down.”

  Raven moves back towards me, walking to my side so I can climb in her saddle if I wanted.

  “Well, why don’t we both collect wood today? It’ll go faster if you’re on my back and I can also help carry wood back.”

  Without saying anything I pick up my bow and arrows, strap them on again and swing my body up into the saddle. The only thing I still haven’t figured out is how to effortlessly get into a saddle with a sword strapped to my side. So, getting on Raven is awkward, but I make it on, barely.

  I wave to Father as we walk out of camp and behind me I yell, “We’ll be back! We’re going to get firewood.” I don’t hear a reply so I glance over my shoulder and my father is still sitting where I left him watching us leave with a big smile on his face. I turn around to face forward as Raven and I head back into the woods.

  I scan around us and I feel so at peace. I feel like this is where my soul belongs, in the middle of nowhere, in the woods, with my father’s horse and my mother’s sword on my hip. The birds are chirping, and the air feels fresh and cool against my exposed skin, the smell is so crisp and inviting.

  I take in a deep calming breath but then Raven stops moving without warning. I automatically climb off of her without really thinking. I walk in front of her searching for a downed tree or something I can break down into smaller pieces for firewood, but when I take a scan, I see nothing but big green healthy trees.

  I turn back to Raven and see her staring at the ground with her head hanging low, dejected. I walk over to her and I put my hands on either side of her soft baby doll head.

  “What’s wrong, Raven?”

  “I feel terrible and I’m sorry.”

  I drop my hands and take a step back staring into her eyes, “What do you mean? What’s going on with you?”

  “I’ve been incredibly awful to you over the years. I’m so sorry. I was just a babe when I was around your mother and I just completely idolized her. I’ve been thinking about her and how I’ve treated you over the years, and I finally realized how horrible I’ve been to you. Your whole life I’ve expected you to live up to my skewed version of your mother. An image, which would be impossible for even your mother to live up to, I’m sure. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.” And then she looks up at me with a sadness behind her expectant eyes.

  “Raven, growing up I wanted so badly to be your best friend, that wasn’t the way things worked out, but there’s nothing to forgive. I understand completely, and I just hope one day I can call you my friend and partner.”

  Raven bends her head down. “Thank you. Nothing would make me happier than to be that for you, my lady”.

  The words “my lady” confuse me. Oak’s called me the same name ever since I first found out he could talk, but it sounds normal coming from him. Coming from Raven it sounds like the words hold more meaning, they seem heavy, like they carry weight with them. I pet Raven on her forehead and walk back to the saddle and climb on without saying anything more. We start our search for firewood again. We walk for a while and that’s when I notice it—the silence. All the birds have stopped chirping.

  “Raven, do you hear that?”

  Her ears perk up and rotate around, listening. “It’s too quiet. The birds vanished.'' Both of our heads are on a swivel now, but we don’t see anything out of the ordinary. I begin to worry at my necklace, moving it back and forth along its chain, my nerves getting the best of me. I don’t think it’s safe for us to be out here alone anymore, I seriously don’t want to run into another werewolf.

  I lean down and ask, “Lets head back to camp. Better to be safe than sorry. What do you think?” Raven immediately nods her head and effortlessly spins around.

  On our walk back, I’m completely on edge. I’m straining my ears, hoping and praying to the Gods to hear any animal out in the forest and for everything to be okay. Raven hasn’t said a word but I can feel the tension radiating off of her from under the saddle. It feels like I’m riding a stiff tree trunk instead of a fleshy horse.

  I hear Raven nervously murmur, “We have enough wood to get us through the night anyway.”

  “Yeah, there’s no real reason we need to be out here this late,” I say trying to reassure myself.

  Then I hear that war cry again. The same one I heard when the werewolf was trying to get at me and Raven in the cave. Raven stops moving.

  At the same time we both breath out, “Oak.”

  I scream, “Let’s go!” and kick Raven in her sides as hard as I can to knock her out of her shock. She rears and takes off like we are being chased by the Gods themselves. She’s running with every bit of energy she has, and I’m pushing her harder and harder the whole way. When we reach the edge of camp, everything is pure chaos.

  The whole camp is smashed, shattered, and on fire. Our things are strewn all around the forest, and our tents are even hanging from trees now. The lighted logs from the fire I started for Father are strewn all over the place catching the ground and forest on fire.

  How could this have happened?

  I hear a woman scream at the top of her lungs right before I see Oak flying through the air out of the forest. He slams hard into a tree on the edge of camp. I hear the distinctive crunching of bone before Raven and me both scream Oak’s name at the top of our lungs.

  Before I can process anything, Raven has us next to Oak and I’ve somehow gotten off her and I’m kneeling on the ground next to him. He’s lying unmoving in the grass at the base of the tree he was thrown against. I put my hands on Oaks neck, stroking him gently, praying to the Gods he can survive this attack. Then he coughs and crimson blood trickles out of his mouth. As soon as he feels my hands touch his fur he shudders in pain and tries to scoot away from me.

  “Oak, old man, it’s me Attina, it’s okay I’m here.”

  I stroke his neck in the softest, most calming way possible, putting every bit of healing energy into him as I can. Oak opens his big cream-colored eyes and he visibly relaxes.

  “My lady,” he chokes out, his eyes are soft like he’s happy to see me.

  He tries to get up but only makes it up to a sitting position. Then as if he’s smacked with reality he glances quickly between Raven and I. Behind us I hear the woman’s scream again. She sounds like a wounded animal howling for its life.


  “What are you two doing here?” Oak shouts over the screaming woman.

  “We came back to help you and Father.”

  But Oak is no longer speaking to me. Anger coats his features. His brow crinkles, and his eyes sharpen and darken as he glares directly into Raven’s eyes.

  “Do your duty, damn it!”

  This confuses me. I search between them scanning their faces for an answer. “What?” But no one is paying attention to what I have to say. Oak and Raven are in their own world.

  Oak screams, "Take our future queen away right now! Why would you bring her into this kind of danger?”

  The woman wails again and then there’s an explosion. It sounds like a tree is shattering. Oak turns towards the sound then back to Raven.

  “Leave now! It’s Titania.”

  But Raven seems to have gone into shock again. She can’t take her eyes off of Oak. Another tree explodes in the distance and then I hear Father’s yell from behind me. I turn and see him race behind a tree, I assume, to hide from the woman. Before Oak or Raven can say anything or stop me, I race toward Father, pulling my bow from my back knocking an arrow as I move.

  “Father!” I yell, running with everything I have wildly towards him.

  He leaves his hiding spot and limps from one tree to the next, dragging a sword behind him. Holding his stitched side, which is now a deep crimson, he turns my way. His eyes grow big and he seems shocked to see me. The tree he limped out from behind just seconds ago, explodes.

  Time seems to stand still as I see my father thrown through the air; huge hunks of wood flying after him. The chunks flying through the air are as big as a fully-grown man and look like sharpened spears, searching for a target to embed into.

  Father lands hard on the ground ten feet from me. I can hear his body smashing onto the earth with a wet, sucking, bone-crunching noise. I start moving, running to his aid, but on the edge of my vision, where the now exploded tree used to be, I see movement. I make it to Father’s side as I glance towards the movement and lock eyes with a woman. This has to be the woman Oak spoke of. This must be Titania.

  The woman, who rambles towards us, is more like a wild uncaged animal than any human I’ve ever seen. She might have once been beautiful, but such a time is long gone. Her clothes are hanging in tatters and caked in dirt. Her visible skin is covered in abrasions, with dried blood everywhere. Her hair is a tangled mess. It seems like at one time her hair was long, brown, and beautiful, but not anymore. Now her hair hangs in dreadlocks down to her waist. Her eyes are what shock me the most. They are a blazing red. The fire catching around camp is reflected in those red eyes, which only makes them shimmer more, like the fires of hell itself are bursting out of them.

  She locks eyes with me and wails. Not a scream anymore, but a pained wail like flesh is being ripped from her. I pull my bow string and let my knocked arrow fly. Its aim true until she grabs it out of the air right before it impales her in the chest. She cocks her head stares at the arrow in her hand like it’s something foreign to her. Then she glances back at me, I grab another arrow, but by the time I grasp it the woman has made it over to me, faster than the blink of an eye, and grabs my throat.

  I take the arrow in my hand and shove it deep into the arm seizing my throat. She screams and knocks me down onto my back, the bow flying from my hands. I move to grab my sword from my side but as I fall, I land on top of it and now it’s useless, it might as well be miles away. I reach for the hilt anyway, but by the time I touch it, the woman is on top of me pinning my arms down. She lifts her arm and now I see her long sharp claws ready to rip out my throat. I flinch and close my eyes, waiting for her to dig her claws deep into my chest in a vicious attack, which I'm sure will kill me.

  I wait and wait, but nothing happens. I open my eyes and can see her confused face a mere breath length away from my face. But she’s not looking at me. She’s staring at my necklace. When she threw me on the ground my necklace popped out from under my shirt and now the woman is just staring at it, completely entranced.

  Then, like a blur, my father jumps from over my head and tackles the woman off of me. I sit up and I see he’s holding the woman with her arms pulled behind her. The woman is snapping and biting like a rabid animal, but then our eyes lock and I feel something align inside of me and immediately a pain rocks through me like nothing I’ve felt before.

  Over the years I’ve split my legs open, broken bones, and almost frozen to death, but nothing I’ve been through so far compares to the pain I’m in now. I roll over and try to stand up but I can only make it to my knees and elbows before my body gives out on me. My head presses against the ground as my body begins to shake uncontrollably.

  As the world begins to sway from the pain, I snatch at the ground trying to hold on to anything to make the world stop spinning. I can hear Father yelling for me but it sounds like he’s a world away.

  The sky above me starts to cloud over as I fall to my side. The ground has started to shake violently, and I can’t keep my balance anymore. I manage to focus on my father who is holding the woman in a death grip, swaying around from her struggling and the violent quake of the earth. I can tell he’s losing his grasp on her. She’s too strong and the quakes are making it impossible for him to keep a hold on her.

  Any second now I just know she will break free of him and kill all of us and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. I lay there searching around desperately for anything to help me save everyone I love. I see a huge, splintered chunk of wood sticking up out of the ground a couple of feet in front of the woman. If my father or I could only push her down on top of that stake we could at least get away far enough to lose her and save our skins.

  I can’t move, I’m in so much pain, no matter how much I want to shove that stake through her heart, I can’t. I start picturing it in my mind anyway. Me pushing her with a hard thud, the sound of the spike sliding and squelching through her body, her sprawling out on top of it and the wood poking out of her body, giving us the time to run. I imagine it over and over in my mind until that’s all I am. I’m not lying on the ground writhing in pain, I’m pushing the woman down onto that stake.

  I see movement out of the corner of my eye, but I ignore it. All I can focus on is killing the woman. The rage rises in me along with the pain; the rage makes dealing with the pain tolerable, so I hold on to it with everything in my being. I feel my blood throbbing between my ears, my brain feels like it’s about to explode from the excruciating pain filling my body and the incessant beating of blood between my ears. With all this rising pain I feel a force rise right alongside it.

  I peek up and lock eyes with my father. His face has fallen, and his shoulders are drawn in. His eyes are wide and panicked, but the pain in those eyes of his breaks the tentative hold I have on my emotions. I close my eyes and scream from the pain coursing through me and from the frustration in the realization there is nothing I can do to fix this. In the back of my mind, I sense some force inside me awakening quick as an arrow.

  When I glance over, I notice the stake has started to shake drastically in the ground. Then in an instant the stake is gone, and I hear the sound of skin ripping apart and blood squirting. Once the noise hits my ears it feels like a weight is lifted off of my chest. I’m still in immense pain, but now I can lift my head and I’m able to get my own unrestrainable screaming under control. The next instant I see Father’s scared face in front of mine. He’s holding my face between his hands.

  “Attina, Attina are you okay?”

  I glance up to him and shake my head. I am definitely not okay. My body feels like it’s about to burst apart. I can’t even talk, but if I could talk, I would ask him to knock me out so I wouldn’t have to be awake for all this pain. I don’t know if me shaking my head registers with him since the world is shaking so violently, but the look in Father’s eyes tells me he understands.

  Then I realize I have no idea how he got rid of that woman and made it over to me without her mer
cilessly killing us all. I glance around searching for any sign of her. It doesn’t take me long to find her though. She’s lying on the ground by where Father was restraining her, blood pooling around her. If I hadn’t been frozen in pain right now, I’d be frozen in shock. The stake I pictured flying through the air and piercing her chest is sticking out of the middle of her sternum.

  Father scans around us and yells, “Raven!”

  Then in the next instant, his face is back next to mine.

  “Hang on, pumpkin we’re gonna get you out of here.” He glances back up in the direction I left Oak and Raven and calmly whistles this time, before yelling to Raven again. I don’t know how he is staying so calm through all of this, but I am extremely thankful for it.

  I look back at the woman, wondering if she’s dead, but as I stare, I can see her chest slowly rising and falling. I realize if she can live through a stake to the chest then we have no chance against her. With that thought, another wave of pain wracks my body causing my back to arch uncontrollably. It feels like my back is going to break. Through the haze of pain, I am faintly aware of hooves carefully walking up next to my head. Then there is a sensation of me being lifted off the ground and placed gently in Raven’s saddle with my head resting on her neck. I think I’m left alone, but then from somewhere far off I hear my Father’s soft calming voice.

  “Pumpkin, we’re getting you out of here. Raven will take care of you. Always remember I love you more than anything and you are the future of our people. Take your rightful place on the throne. Goodbye for now.” I feel him gently kiss me on the forehead.

  I struggle to say something, anything. I want to argue and tell him I don’t want to leave without him. He needs to leave with me, but another wave of pain wracks my body causing all the muscles in my back to spasm. I scream through the pain, but it doesn’t help alleviate any of the torturous agony, I feel like I am being crushed in a vise and no matter how much I scream it’s not enough.