“Hey Yoyo, try out this trick,” said James, excited to share a new discovery with his brother. “Squint your eyes and look at the fire.”

Yoyo squinted his eyes until they were shut, then turning toward James, he shrugged.

“No, not like that. Don’t close your eyes all the way. Keep them open a tiny bit.”

Yoyo used his fingers to keep his eyelids ever so slightly open. With a face colored red from the campfire, he stared directly into the flames. A smile formed on his face.

“Do you see it?” said James.

“Uh-huh,” replied Yoyo.

“It’s cool, right? Doesn’t it remind you of the inferno video Dad made us watch?”

Yoyo kept his face toward the swirling flames, seemingly mesmerized by the trick.

James stood up and walked around the fire carrying his newly whittled stick. Small embers floated away in the wind as he prodded the pile of burning wood and ash. Satisfied, he put his arm around Yoyo and beamed a smile.

“Good thing you decided to stay up with me. You would have been sad if you missed out.”

Fully enjoying the fact that it was night time and he was the oldest one still awake, James couldn’t help but feel giddy. Tena insisted she’d take over if he felt tired, but he wasn’t planning on falling asleep early like yesterday. As the leader of the night watch, he was in charge, and that meant doing whatever he wanted.

“You know, this fire is already pretty big,” said James, speaking in a playful tone that only his brother would fully appreciate. “I don’t think you should put another stick on the fire.”

A subtle grin appeared on Yoyo’s face. He trotted over to the pile of kindling as blue light from the pendant escaped from his pocket. Finding a stick, he promptly returned to the fire.

“Like this?” said Yoyo, his grin growing larger.

“No! Don’t do it. You hear me?” James said in the same playful tone. He could barely hold in his laugh.

Yoyo tossed the stick on top of the fire and ducked for cover as if he had just thrown a hand grenade. James burst out laughing as Yoyo giggled in delight. Imitating their Dad’s empty threats was always good for a laugh; the Don’t Do It game was one of James’ favorites.

“Don’t throw a stick in the pond, okay?”

Yoyo went to the pile of kindling again, this time with a purposely funny walk that perfectly imitated their Dad’s gait. James giggled with the sillies, nearly clapping at the show before he caught himself. They were having too much fun to risk waking up the others.

As his brother sorted through the pile for his stick of choice, James walked to the edge of the rock, the view overlooking the pond. He imagined the upcoming splash as a meteor strike with maximum destruction. The water would form a hundred foot tall wave, the force powerful enough to wreck the surrounding forest, bending the trees backwards and stripping all the leaves from the branches. No part of the forest would be spared. His giggly euphoria heightened the anticipation.

With a blue hue announcing his arrival, Yoyo appeared beside him with a stick in his hand.

“Don’t do it, Yoyo. You hear me?” said James, smiling widely.

Yoyo arched his back, aimed the stick above his head, and released it into the night sky. James’ anticipation peaked like the crest of a killer wave as the stick went high in the air. The descent was fast, the landing faster, and the pond received the stick with a single plop. The excitement was over.

“Aww…” groaned Yoyo.

James slumped to his knees in disappointment. The lily pads floating on the surface of the pond absorbed the ripples of the plop, and soon the water returned to its prior condition, silent and still. The moon reflected its own image, but the forest beyond the pond was dark, and no moonlight extended into the shadows.

He scanned the area for anything else that might be interesting, but all he found was a yawn. Was he really getting tired already? He rubbed his eyes to chase away the long blinks, then sat back on the rock to listen.

The hoot of an owl called to the night and the fire crackled as it burned. There were no sounds of horrible beasts, no monsters roaring, not even the crack of far-away thunder. Perhaps the purpose of the night watch was overstated, after all, nothing had disturbed his rest the night before. But his train of thought was interrupted as Yoyo took out the glowing pendant and dangled it in the air.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

“What are you doing?” asked James.

Yoyo moved his hand back and forth and the glowing pendant swung like a pendulum. The effect was as mesmerizing as staring into the fire. His brother moved closer to the edge of the rock, James dangled his legs over the side, and together they watched the reflection on the pond, the image like a magical willow-o-wisp from Nona’s bedtime tales.

Suddenly a black shape appeared on the other side of the pond, its height low but flying fast. Passing the reflection, it flapped its wings and gained height, approaching with a speed that allowed no time for discussion. James shrieked as the thing narrowly missed his head.

“Whoa—what was that!? It came right at us!” said James.

Yoyo let out a gasp. His palms were empty, the blue light was gone. Realizing what he had done, he started to sniffle.

James crawled back to the edge of the rock and looked down. He saw the pendant still glowing bright, but it lay tangled inside a bush on the bank of the pond. All was not lost. They could retrieve it.

“Okay Yoyo, listen,” said James. “Do you want to get it back? Everyone is sleeping so it’s up to me and you, got it?”

“I’m scared,” said Yoyo, still sniffling. He slumped down on the rock.

“It’s not that far,” said James. He figured if they hurried, it might take a minute or two, tops. The hard part would be getting the courage to go. “You coming with me?”

Yoyo covered his face with his shirt.

James looked back at the pendant. He didn’t feel any strict obligation to retrieve it but at the same time, they couldn’t just leave it there. Magic was real in Agoritha and that glowing pendant was proof. Maybe the item granted superpowers that Yoyo hadn’t figured out how to control yet, so to abandon it there til morning seemed foolish. Besides, his brother’s sniffles wouldn’t be solved by standing around.

“It’s alright, I can get it,” James muttered, patting Yoyo on the shoulder.

He slid down the backside of the rock and landed feet first on the dirt. The pond was relatively close, about a hundred feet from where he was standing, but the night was spooky.

Keep going. He rallied his legs to quietly walk forward, and held his breath to listen.

From the dark came the hoot of another howl, the rustle of leaves, the chirp of a cricket. Nothing too suspicious, but he hastened his steps to a jog. The less time the better, and before long he arrived at the bank of the pond to find the chain tangled in a thorny bush.

Careful now.

He reached into the bush, the blue light blinding his vision, the thorns scraping his arm. His fingers tingled as he touched the pendant, but he grabbed it firmly, then freeing the chain from the thorny shoots, he placed it over his head.

“Ha!” he whispered. “Success.”

Turning around, James saw Yoyo standing on the edge of the rock. He waved, but Yoyo didn’t wave back; he was pointing toward the pond. James’ hair stood on end. Something wasn’t right.

Another black bird was over the water, but this one wasn’t flying, it was hovering in one place. It had an abdomen bulging like an overinflated football and a thin, long beak. The bird looked odd. As its hovering became more erratic, James realized it wasn’t a bird at all.

The shock of adrenaline jolted James into a sprint as stirge flashed in his mind. Berwick had warned him. He pictured a screwdriver tip piercing his skin. Fear of the real thing made James sprint faster, but the fluttering wings of the beast had already entered his peripheral vision.

My knife! I need my knife!

He reached into his pocket, grabbing the leather bundle that held his knife but losing his balance mid-stride. He tumbled forward, head over heels, a mess upon the dirt.

Pain spiked in his wrist and shot up his right arm. The same arm was stuck underneath him—the beast flying above him.

“HELP!” James shouted.

He rolled onto his back, the beast in full view, its needle-snout stabbing the air at his neck. With his left hand he found his knife as the beast lunged closer. James jolted forward, slashing across his body. Blood splattered in blue light.

From the rock came yells and the panicked bleats of a goat. James rose to his knee, his left hand gripping the knife, his right arm throbbing in pain. The yells were for him, but all he could focus on was the stirge writhing cut open beside him, bleeding out in the dirt, the ground wet with blood.

“Run, James!”

Harley appeared by his side with a long stick set ablaze. Wielding it like a flag bearer, she swung it in wide arcs. The shadows retreated from the red flame. So did the stirge, as dozens of black shapes flew out of the bushes into the trees.

“Blood-suckers!” shrieked Tena, arriving beside James with a flaming stick of her own. She thrust the burning end into the dying stirge as the beast cawed an ear-piercing rebuttal of the flame against its abdomen. Soon it stopped writhing, flames engulfing its body, a beast no more.

James felt a pull on his arm, lifting him upwards. Tena grunted as she got him to his feet, then she pointed into the forest.

“We have to get out of here! Run!”

He ran by instinct before she finished her command, Tena alongside him, but the escape stalled as Yoyo arrived frantically waving his arms.

“Don’t stop, run the other way!”

Panicked, Yoyo grasped Tena’s torso, and as Tena tried to redirect him, the two of them toppled to the ground. James tried to help. He flinched in pain, wincing at the sharp sensation in his right arm.

“Fire!” shouted Harley.

A quick spreading flame had scorched the grasses from the dead stirge to a nearby shrub, and it was threatening to spread further to the bushes by the bank of the pond. Still wielding her blazing stick, Harley swung it overhead as the stirge flew erratically through the trees. The path of their flight was circular, jolting, like wayward bats. More and more stirge emerged in uncountable numbers, and a swirling swarm formed in the sky.

Tena struggled to her feet. Yoyo screamed. As for James, he held his knife blade between his teeth and pulled his brother up by his shirt. He still had one good hand—he wasn’t totally crippled. And he certainly wasn’t going to give up.