“Yaling?” D’Argen yelled as soon as the last of the screams faded into the dark. “Yaling?”

There was no response. It was not the first time he had been split from the others, but he knew how to find them. Yaling’s scent of citrus mixed with Abbot’s oil always left a tingle in the soft spot under his jaw. This was usually how he found them again. Now though, the scents were so faint, as if the others had not used their mahee at all. The air was so cold and crisp, but it had a tinge of mould and pine to it, so it could not be either Lilian or Thar, and there was something sweet tickling at the back of his throat.

D’Argen closed his eyes, tried to reach out with his mahee, and though he got a general direction of forward, he could not pinpoint an exact spot to run to. He ran slowly through the dark, keeping his mahee open to try and connect with the others but not enough to make the world fade away. In this terrain, with the rocks and trees around him, he would see nothing but a dark grey smudge. The ground under his feet started crunching as he walked over snow and, even in the dark, he could tell he was now in the clouds, a thick mist covering what little light he got from the moon.

On his next step, something felt strange. D’Argen stopped and looked down. Instead of snow under his feet there were tiny broken icicles. It could have been some type of planet before it was frozen over. A quick look around revealed more of them all around him, sparkling in the faint light from—

D’Argen looked up when he realized the light was not natural. “Abbot?” he called out.

“D’Argen?”

“Abbot!” D’Argen was so happy to hear something other than screams that he started running towards the light that Abbot was releasing with his mahee.

“D’Argen! Where are you?”

“Is that D’Argen?”

He heard Yaling’s voice, and she sounded so unsure and scared. D’Argen had not heard her sound like that in such a long time that he almost stumbled on a step. The light from Abbot’s mahee was not enough to guide him, bending and breaking around the trees.

“Yes, it’s me! I see your light!” He was almost on them.

“Stop!” Abbot yelled.

D’Argen slid to a stop and heard the crunching of more ice under his feet.

“Do not come any closer!”

“How do you know it is him?” Yaling hissed out.

They sounded close yet he still could not see them.

“It sounds like him!”

“They can mimic voices!”

“Are you alright?” D’Argen yelled out. He could see the brightness of Abbot’s light barely a few trees away, but he could not see either Abbot or Yaling. Or the other two. “Where are Lilian and Thar?”

“Stop!” Abbot screamed again though D’Argen had not moved.

“Abbot? What’s happening?”

“I do not know. We got attacked. They split us up.”

“Split you up? Who split you up?”

“The demons!” Yaling screamed in response.

D’Argen immediately unlatched his bow and snapped it into shape.

“Can you not see them? They are keeping us here. We cannot come to you.”

He looked around him as he tightened the string. He saw nothing.

“Do not come to us,” Abbot continued. “They are not attacking, but they are not letting us leave either.”

“Demons?” D’Argen drew an arrow. There was nothing other than shadows and mist between the trees and rocks. Abbot’s scent of oil was faint, even if he was using his mahee to keep a light going, but there was a twinge of something even fainter under it. It smelled almost sweet, a note of sugar that he knew none of them carried in their scents.

This time the scream that echoed through the forest was much closer and more familiar.

“Yaling!” Abbot called out her name even as D’Argen recognized the fear in her voice.

D’Argen ignored the earlier warning and opened his mahee, jumping the short distance to Abbot’s light in a few quick steps.

“No! Demon!” Abbot screamed as D’Argen came to his side.

D’Argen quickly turned around with his bow raised and arrow ready. Maybe one of the demons followed him without him noticing.

There was nothing behind him.

Abbot screamed again and when D’Argen turned to face the other man, he saw a sword coming at him. He dodged quickly, jumping out of the way, but Abbot turned just as fast and attacked again.

“Abbot! What are you doing?” D’Argen used his bow to parry the next attack. The weight of the sword had his hands shaking and he dropped the arrow. The sparks that flew when metal hit metal were brighter than the light that Abbot was shining out of his hand.

“What’s happening?” D’Argen asked as Abbot attacked him once more. D’Argen was able to use his bow to deflect the sword safely and he took a few quick steps back.

“I see it!” Yaling called out and D’Argen finally saw her. She had a whistle between her lips and was looking right at him with narrowed eyes.

D’Argen opened his mahee to take a few quick steps back and out of the area of her focused sound attack. Though it did not touch him, the tree a few steps back cracked like thunder. The archer turned to look at it with wide eyes but he had no time to wonder at Yaling’s attack. Abbot rushed him once more with his sword.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

When the sword came down, D’Argen used his mahee to dodge it and he almost ran into a tree. The clearing was too small. Another attack had D’Argen dancing on the rocks and then looking down at Abbot’s feet. D’Argen’s mahee kept him perfectly balanced but Abbot could easily twist an ankle and fall.

Yaling came at him with another focused attack and he jumped in the air just as the rock under him shattered. She was not kidding around.

“What are you both doing? It’s me!” D’Argen yelled. He had to jump twice more to avoid Yaling’s attacks before she took a breath to prepare for another one.

Out of habit, his latest jump had him landing closer to Abbot. The artist, however, only rushed him once more, swinging his sword from high. D’Argen blocked the hit with both hands on his bow.

“Abbot! It’s me! It’s D’Argen!”

“Lying! Stop lying, you demon!” Abbot pushed away and then attacked again and again. His footwork was clumsy, and he held his sword in one hand, the other raised to the sky to shine the light of his mahee around them.

There were no demons, yet the other man was attacking as if D’Argen was one.

Yaling started up her whistles again, standing a comfortable distance away.

D’Argen jumped away from Abbot and opened his mahee, running to one of the trees. He pushed off it with a crack and Yaling’s whistle turned it into splinters barely a moment after he was gone. He slid near her and Yaling dropped the whistle to scream instead. It was not a focused attack like earlier but the sound had D’Argen dropping his bow to clutch at his ears.

“It’s me! What are you doing!?” D’Argen tried to yell over her scream.

The moment the sound faded away Yaling was on him with a dagger. He barely dodged her in time though the sharp blade did cut at the length of his winter cloak.

Something was wrong.

D’Argen ducked and rolled to return to his bow. He picked it up just in time to block another downward strike from Abbot’s sword.

“Abbot! Stop!” D’Argen kept avoiding the attacks, dodging under the blade, or hitting it away but did not even think to try and attack back. “Yaling. It’s me! It’s really me!”

“Demon!”

D’Argen opened his mahee and rushed at Abbot. He dug his shoulder into the man’s stomach and knocked them both off their feet. Abbot landed with a groan and D’Argen was right on top of him. Then Yaling’s whistle came again. D’Argen rolled out of the way and Abbot was back on his feet.

A dark shadow moved in the corner of his eye and he turned to where Yaling had stood a moment before. She was not there but the shadow remained.

Yaling’s whistle had him running once more. A quick glance back revealed red eyes, glowing in the black shadow where the face would be.

Demons.

Abbot rushed him with his sword again.

“Not me! There, there!” D’Argen tried to point out.

Abbot did not listen to him but Yaling did. Her whistle turned another two trees into flying splinters but the shadow remained. The shadow = moved slowly, leisurely, towards Yaling. The woman was looking around her with wild eyes as if she could not see it.

“Yaling! Get down!” D’Argen yelled and dodged another attack from Abbot. He knocked an arrow in his bow and let loose. It passed through the shadow as if it was not there and struck another tree.

Yaling had listened to him though. She dropped down.

Abbot rushed him for another attack and D’Argen was getting tired of it. He stepped closer and twisted his bow through Abbot’s sword to disarm the man. The string of his bow snapped and slashed at his face, but he was too focused on Abbot to register the blood on his cheek. In response to being disarmed, Abbot thrust his other hand down and right into D’Argen’s face.

D’Argen screamed, the light in Abbot’s palm was so bright that it blinded him. He stepped back quickly and right into another tree. If Abbot attacked again, D’Argen avoided it successfully.

“Abbot? Yaling? What’s going on? Since when are—”

“Shut up, demon,” Abbot interrupted him but his voice sounded… tired.

D’Argen snapped his mouth closed. He could not see anything but a bright white light. Yaling’s whistle could seriously damage him if he did not move. He opened his mahee as wide as possible, making the world fade away into dark grey smudges.

Two black silhouettes were not that far from him.

“D’Argen?” the artist sounded scared as he called his name.

“It’s me, Abbot. Don’t attack,” D’Argen immediately responded but he focused on the second silhouette. It was a black smudge that was not moving. “Yaling? Abbot, is Yaling okay?”

The artist did not respond. D’Argen closed off his mahee before it started itching at his feet to run. He needed to stay here.

“My head…” Abbot finally said after a while. The scent of oil faded away completely and the forest became too quiet.

A scream echoed through the mist but it was neither of his companions.

D’Argen blinked once, twice, but he could not see anything. His vision was still hindered. Instead of the bright white light he saw earlier, it was now completely dark with bright flashes at the edges. There was not a single tree or person in sight.

“Abbot?”

No response came.

There was only the wind passing through the tops of the trees and another horrible scream in the distance. With his sight gone, D’Argen had to focus on that distant scream and try to consume it and fill up his mahee. He was tired. But there was something off about the sound. It was the same as the screams they had all been hearing since they got higher up the mountain. For some reason though, D’Argen could not take them into himself to wet his parched throat.

“Yaling?” he called out softly.

Still nothing.

Adrenaline kept D’Argen from panicking. The knowledge that his friends were in danger kept him going even through the darkness and the white spots in his eyes. He saw one of the shadow demons earlier. They used a person’s shadow to take form and then used their same abilities. Though D’Argen had never seen one of the shadow demons use Yaling’s sound to the same effect, it was still extremely dangerous.

D’Argen quickly dropped his bow and unsheathed his sword instead, pointing it in front of him in a defensive position with one hand. He used his other hand to form the shapes that would guide his mahee into a spell to better his sight. Once the spell was completed it only made him close his eyes tight. It hurt. The bright spots flashed into his brain like icicles. He grit his teeth to keep quiet and quickly disengaged the spell. The failed spell only confirmed what he had expected. He was sure that his vision would not clear soon. Abbot's light was a completely different attack.

Slowly, D’Argen started shuffling through the trampled snow and broken ice crystals under him.

“Abbot, this isn’t funny,” D’Argen hissed out quietly. Abbot had been right in front of him earlier. “There’s a shadow—” D’Argen stopped speaking when his foot hit something soft. With a tight grip on his sword, D’Argen slowly crouched. His hand searched the snow then it touched skin.

“Abbot?” D’Argen whispered into the dark. He grabbed the other man’s hand but still got no response. He shook it and nothing. His fingers moved through the fur edging his wrist, up the leather buckles, until they reached the fur that edged the hood of his cloak. From there, he quickly found the skin of a cold cheek. “Abbot?” his fingers trembled and were so cold, but he found a nose and a mouth. He tried to still his shivering and fear both as he held a finger under Abbot’s nose and waited.

A warm brush of air had him finally relaxing. Alive but unconscious.

Somehow. D’Argen had barely even touched the man in their exchanges. There was no way he hurt Abbot let alone enough to knock the man unconscious. It must have been the shadow demon. Whatever this demon wanted, it felt more like a game than a hunt or an attack.

There was only one thing that was strange though. Shadow demons would not be able to make Abbot think that D’Argen was one of them. There was something else happening here.

D’Argen grit his teeth and started shuffling slowly to where he had last seen Yaling. As with Abbot, she was lying unconscious in the snow, breathing softly in sleep.

“Fuck me,” D’Argen breathed out quietly. He was stuck, in the middle of the forest, most likely filled with demons, completely blind, and with two of his companions unconscious.

A scream in the air had him clenching his fist in anger but it was immediately followed by the sound of metal striking metal. That sound he knew. And that reminded him that he had another two companions somewhere around here.