Emily cursed under her breath for the fourth time in the last four steps. Low-hanging branches swatted her face and skeletal shrubs clawed at her clothes, obstructing her path.
When she saw the tracks leading off into the forest, she felt confident she would be able to trail after these people like the fox she was. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for their trails to scatter out into disorganized footprints and disturbed snow. At a certain point, all broken twigs started to look like clues. It was only when she was a ways into the forest and had lost sight of the paved road, that she realized she didn’t have the slightest idea how to track people through the wilderness, let alone a frozen forest. Her world had been one of lairs and beach resorts, sometimes snowy lairs in the Arctic, but her henchmen had dealt with all the menial tasks.
Emily sighed, longing for the warmth of a cozy room with a roaring fire, and the comforting heat of a body beside her.
Instead, she was trudging through ankle-deep snow in what felt like the dead of winter.
She was just eyeing a frozen stream, wondering if it was traversable when the sounds of battle up ahead caught her attention.
Curious, Emily followed the stream uphill until she came to a small rocky area, where what looked like a nest had been built on an outcropping of stone.
A couple of things jumped out at Emily. The first was how large the nest, and by extension, the inhabitant, was. The next was that several of those foul gremlin creatures were currently climbing up toward the nest with hungry smiles. At the peak, nested a bird, having already spotted the interlopers. The thing reminded Emily of a raven, though its feathers were snow white and it had two sets of eyes on either side of its face.
That, and it was the size of a Labrador, with an impressive wingspan and sharp beak. Both of which it was putting on display now to warn the little hunters to back off. Though some of them paused, their numbers were too large to falter now.
Emily watched their creeping numbers thoughtfully and looked around the rest of the clearing. When she found a spot under a canopy that had remained blessedly free of snow, she crept toward it and settled in.
The battle was already underway, the first gremlin having climbed up into the nest only to have half of its face torn off by the raven. Before the bird could even recover though, two more gremlins climbed up behind it and smashed their clubs into one of its wings.
It was pretty obvious why it hadn’t chosen to fly away, but Emily was more than happy to take advantage of a little territorial dispute.
It seemed life was savage no matter where you lived it.
Keeping low to the ground, Emily moved towards the base of the rocks.
Gremlins were still climbing so their attention was on the bird, but Emily was watching for something else. It came moments later when the raven swatted the first gremlin it had mutilated off the side. Still very much alive, the thing screamed the whole way to the ground.
When it crashed down into the snow, Emily pounced on it.
She still only had one good arm, but that's all she needed when her prey was dazed and
heavily wounded. Sinking her teeth into its neck, she stole its remaining strength.
The rest were too busy with their kill to pay attention to the death throws of their ally.
When the next gremlin came over the edge, Emily happily rushed over to grab her next meal. This leg’s arm was twisted at a harrowing angle, but it still had some clarity in its eyes. So when it saw Emily reaching out for it, it screamed bloody murder, and she was only too happy to oblige.
Looking up from her second pruney victim, Emily saw that the nearest two gremlins were staring down at her from their perches.
Smiling up at them, Emily spat the taste of blood from her mouth.
“Don’t mind me, keep fighting.”
The two gremlins snarled and at the same time, a high-pitched cry came from the nest above.
It was difficult to see from this angle but the raven had to have been hurt. The two gremlins scampered down the side of the rock and made their way towards her, clubs raised.
Emily used that time to send some of the life force from her chest into her arm and pulling her new dagger into her left hand. Bone took the most energy to heal but if there were two of them she wanted the use of both her arms.
The break had been clean, with only minor splintering, so by the time her first dance partner arrived, the shards of bone had knitted back together.
Brandishing the dagger Emily swiped horizontally at the thing's eyes, surprisingly it stopped its charge just short and avoided the edge of the blade only backing away with a small nick on its cheek. Seeing her opening Emily clenched her newly healed fist and advanced, putting it through the gremlin's glass jaw. Shacking her hand out as she did so, she took another step back to make some distance.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The second gremlin didn’t like that though, because when it arrived it swung wide and Emily just managed to arc her torso out of the way. She wouldn’t be earning any points for gracefulness but it meant that on the creature's backswing, she had free rein.
So she stomped on it, sort of.
With a kick that would make a spartan proud, she slammed her heel into the gremlin's chest.
The little thing crashed to the ground, but she brought her boot down on its chest with a vicious stomp. Gremlin number two wailed in agony, but Emily couldn’t afford to hesitate.
Turning back to number one she was going to attempt to repeat the maneuver when she saw a third gremlin running past it screaming.
Emily's molars ground together as she risked a glance at the nest. By the looks of it, the raven had taken one more before succumbing to its wounds.
That meant of the seven, four remained.
This was not how she’d hoped things would go, but she needed to be prepared for the incoming gremlin.
Just when Emily was getting ready to sidestep the little beast, a blinding flash of pain exploded from her temple. A rock crunched down into the snow, followed by drops of red.
The pain of the projectile caused Emily to falter, and the gremlins saw their chance. Both gremlin number one and three charged at her and dove forward, one crashing into her hip and the other cracking his club into her hand, causing Emily to drop her knife.
Her yelp of pain was quickly tinged with rage.
Grabbing each of their sparrow-like necks, Emily squeezed and picked them up off their feet by their throats, slamming them back down into the dirt and kneeling on them. Their clubs were sent flying at the same time as they thrashed in the snow.
Glancing up she saw the fourth and final gremlin looking down at her from the nest. Another rock held up in its ugly mitt.
Growling with the same intensity as the gremlin, Emily stuck her hand forward and reached into her chest. Calling to her lifeforce, like always it responded by pulling her blood through the pours in her palm and shaping it into a dart in less than a second. The three-centimeter bolt shot forward and plunged into the forehead of the fourth gremlin killing it instantly with a sickening crunch of bone and brainmatter. Emily had reacted almost on instinct and the toll of using her power when she was so weak was immediate.
Pain splinted through her chest and heart, demanding payment, luckily she had some within biting distance.
Lunging at number three, Emily sunk her teeth into the back of its neck and drained it dry in a matter of moments.
Gremlin number one tried to put up more of a fight and crawl out from under her but Emily dragged the thing back. It nails leaving divots in the bloody snow. It attacked backward but from this position it only managed two shallow nail marks on Emily’s cheek, mirroring its own cut from her blade.
Finally, gremlin number one died, but Emily bolted up, heart racing in her chest. Searching for the last one. She thought it would already be up and charging her but when she spotted the thing still lying in the snow she relaxed.
A glance around to make sure she hadn’t missed stragglers confirmed there were no more threats.
Walking over to the remaining gremlin she sunk down beside it. Her stomp earlier had crushed its ribcage so the thing lay taking rapid shallow breaths. When it saw Emily it tried desperately to move but she just gently shook her head pushing its flailing arms aside.
They had all played the game, and it had lost, she couldn’t afford to turn down any life force at the moment.
So much so, that when the gremlin stopped moving, she turned her gaze to the nest.
Grunting to her feet, Emily collected her dagger from amongst the snow and hobbled over to the wall of rocks. Her gait improved as she walked, the life force from her chest rushing into her injuries.
Scrambling up the sharp icey stones was no easy feat, but eventually, she got an arm over the edge and pulled herself up.
The nest was bigger than she expected but otherwise the same as one’s on Earth. Birdshit, feathers, and bunches of dead leaves. One dead gremlin and the raven itself, Emily checked to see if either of them had any life left to give her but both had already perished. She searched for what she thought was the cause of all this and found them nestled under the raven's body. Five tiny eggs, the shell was sky blue and covered in speckles of white.
Nodding to herself Emily grinned happily.
“Sorry Mama Bird. It's cold out here without you, and I’ll need nutrients.”
The eggs were so small she could pick up all of them at once and shove them into one of the breast pockets of her cloak.
However, while digging through the mass of leaves her hand brushed against something warm.
Cocking her head, Emily grabbed it and pulled the object out, inspecting it.
It looked like a rectangular piece of metal with a red gemstone set into its base. The thing radiated heat and it was only after turning it over a couple of times that she realized it was some kind of clasp, probably for a cloak.
The heat it emitted enveloped her hand like a comforting hug, it was no wonder the mama raven had it in her nest. From the look of it, the little thing had no internal machinery or battery, and yet it was happily churning out warmth.
Well, whatever it was it would be helpful when night fell, her eyes glanced at the skies, already streaked with light hues of indigo and violet. As far as she could tell, the evening was approaching, though how long that would take was still unknown.
Clutching the clasp Emily stood up, giving her a slightly better view of the surrounding forest. The trees still towered above her, but it was a good vantage point. That’s also why when she looked around the rocky clearing below, she saw multiple white cloaks spread out through the area.
Eyes going large, Emily crouched back down into the nest and grimaced.
The fight must have been quite loud if it drew their attention this quickly. Were these the same ones that had killed her predecessor?
Emily heard voices now but nearly zero movement below.
Pulling the dagger out once more, Emily gripped the handle. She’d failed miserably in using it in the fight because she’d never bothered to learn how. The fact she hadn’t stabbed herself with it was a miracle, or worse gotten it used against her.
Her thoughts were interrupted when a gruff voice called up to her.
“Girl. We know you’re up there, you have five seconds to show yourself or we’re lighting the roost on fire! ”
Emily’s eyes widened further when she realized she understood that mishmash of consonants She understood their language.
The fact they knew she was here limited the cards she could play.
Taking on a few occupied gremlins was one thing but these looked like trained fighters, and with her reserves as low as they were she could perhaps manage one more ranged attack.
Taking a deep breath Emily let the fight go out of her body. At the same time, she abandoned the dagger amongst the nest's leaves.
She had one gambit left to play, and she was interested to see if the ‘lost maiden’ shtick worked here as well as it did at home.
Moving the clasp into her boot and forcing tears to her eyes, she stuck her trembling hands over the side of the nest.
“Wait, I’m coming out!”