Ch: 121 Baa Dee Yaa…
Towering sequoias, taller than any tree had a right to be, cast deep shade over the valley they rode through. Among the giants, other life flourished as well, alder and hickory, herbs, vines and brambles all vied for the open spaces and meadows. Thick mosses and ferns blanketed the forest floor beneath the towering redwoods, supporting a dazzling array of critters that climbed, crawled and flew.
Just the slugs were a rainbow of slimy, snotty wonders, from deep violet to screaming crimson, there was a shell-less gastropod for everyone. Gary kept dismounting to run touch new examples, getting poisoned twice for his trouble.
“That’s a nasty neurotoxin! I gotta catch some of those guys…” He muttered as Tawny cleansed his throbbing, burning, swollen hand.
“Ye will nae bring snot globs of poison intae my house, boy! Nae wi my children!” Shai seemed inflexible on the point.
“I have a friend, Hubert… he’s a slug and snail rancher, among other things. I’ll introduce you when we get back.” Vreek said softly. “My wife won’t let him in the house either…”
#
He had to admit, traveling with this band was entertaining. The two with the ‘difficult’ auras were not so bad, once one got accustomed to them. They stopped for lunch, picnicking on the mossy turf beneath a sequoia three hundred feet tall.
While the others ate and gamboled around the soft, springy lawn, Vreek noticed the musician, slipping into the forest alone.
He was wrapped in a potent gift of distraction and dispersion, hiding his aura, muffling sound and concealing his movements. Scent, however… was poorly concealed.
“Humans.” He chuckled softly, remembering an old quip about human buttcheeks.
Following the man proved challenging, even with a scent trail to track, he was elusive and quiet. The hunter had to be on constant alert for the lingering wisps and tendrils of shadow that gently twitched and crawled in his wake.
From the boughs of a tulip tree, Vreek spied on the strange human. He laid a thick clay tile of some kind on the forest floor and began driving small wooden pegs into the earth in a circle around it.
Within a minute or two, the tile was surrounded by a shining silver cord, decorated with trinkets and fluttering ribbons. The sharp scent of blood crossed his nostrils, just a little, but surprising.
The man had cut his arm and carefully drew a few lines and marks on his tile in his own blood with a brush pen.
Something cold, vile and wretched beyond all enduring, swirled into almost being over that horrid tile. A writhing mass of semi solid air, filled with red brown tendrils of decaying blood and horrifying bronze fright masks, revolved chaotically over the strange object.
“Hello again shitbag, I’m going to keep it up until I pluck you bare. When you run out of souls to hide behind…” The man’s musical voice was all cold, hard edges as he spoke. “I bet it’s getting pretty empty in there huh? Just show me your face and we can end this.”
After a moment, he reached in and plucked a mask and placed it over his face. His shadow stepped to the right, gave a wild whoop of exaltation and vanished in a cloud of black mist, that reeked of strange spices and otherworldly herbs.
A moment later he repeated the process. Another shadow stepped away, this one gasped with relief and fell to its knees. An instant later, it was a low hanging fog that dissipated into nothing.
Again and again he plucked masks out, donned them and somehow… The crawling sensation of witnessing something deeply private and taboo shivered over his body as he watched, too mortified to turn away.
The madman harvested dozens of human and near human faces from his hell bush of evil, tossing them out into the forest without a care. Strangely, none of the shades lingered, each vanished entirely, with a subtle and refreshing burst of joyous elation.
In an eye jarring display of incongruity, the man’s shadow stepped out of his shadow and took on a nearly solid form. The small, red clad man in scarlet and white face paint held out his crimson gloved hands, as if to halt a runaway horse.
“Yeah, you’re right Ziggy. That’s enough for today… there's just so many.” The figure in red nodded, and slipped back into his shadow, silently.
The strange musician smudged his bloody marks from the tile, banishing the wicked monstrosity from sight, though its clammy, clinging sense of unclean menace lingered for a while.
“Did you enjoy the show, Vreek?” The man called, while pulling up his tiny silken fence. “I’m impressed you were able to follow me… a hunter indeed.”
“Stalking wary prey is challenging, we can praise each other’s sneakiness later. Tell me of this thing you do, releasing spirits into my woodland territory.” Vreek huffed as he leapt to the soft, mossy turf. “Have we not enough wandering shades?”
“Ohh, right. That would seem suspicious.” He grumbled in embarrassment. “Those spirits left right away, they were so done with hanging around.”
While he spoke, ominous and disturbing sensations slowly gave way to sweet birdsong and the buzzing, chirping melodies of the forest. Whatever hideous thing had occupied the meadow was gone without a trace.
The two men found themselves in a fresh springtime glade, untouched beyond a few small holes in the turf.
“I think you’ll dig this little spot next time you pass here. I kinda leave some residue where I do this; the local fae and spirits usually enjoy my antics.”
“Ah, your hill woman’s superstitions have rubbed off on you. I’m surprised you believe such silly tales…” Vreek slowed his chatter, as the madman began to smile in a very distressing way.
“Really, leaving milk out for the pixies and gnomes is harmless, but we are not children.” He finished lamely, as his new acquaintance grew more excited.
“Bro, you just watched me pull three dozen souls out of the grasp of a monster and send them off to the next life. Are you really gonna say that fairies are kid stuff?” He demanded, still grinning that way.
“Let’s get back to the group. They know what I came out to do, but they might worry about you.”
They strolled back together, once he hid that awful tile away. Within a few yards, Nara, in her dark and menacing armor joined them, followed by Luna, slipping from the trees in silence.
“Did anybody not follow me out here? Annie?” The fool peered under a fern, as though the giant beast might be hiding among the fronds.
“How many people remain in that filthy thing, boy? I’ve watched you do this almost every day for a couple weeks now.” Luna shifted uncomfortably in her armor as they walked. “Still creeps me out.”
“If it bothers you, don’t watch. I have to keep going until it’s done. As for how many…” He shrugged and kept walking. “I’ll know as soon as I pull the last person out. That’s when things will get interesting.”
They strolled back into the camp, just as the party was preparing to move out again, bustling about and packing things away. Blankets, pillows, camp furniture and wicker baskets of food began to vanish.
Each item that was pressed onto him by his kin vanished into the musician’s shadow as he walked. His family of organized lunatics seemed well accustomed to shoving all manner of cargo and goods into the poor creature.
He accepted his role with good humor, strolling among the group collecting supplies and belongings from everyone. Just as strangely, several of them put things in and came away with musical instruments instead.
“I promised to keep things under wraps in town, out here though… Sorry Vreek, just hold on and enjoy the ride.” Gary sang cheerfully from the tailgate of the cart, with a guitar on his lap.
The afternoon vanished in a blur of fast moving scenery and strange music. When evening began to close in, they stopped beside a wide, shallow river, running off from a very large lake.
“To have traveled so far in less than a full day is a little worrying.” The hunter murmured as he unsaddled his pony. “I trust your strange magics will not harm my Lulu..” Nobody answered, but the pony mare seemed happy and relaxed.
He was pretty engrossed in brushing his pony down and massaging her neck, so when the music started back up, he ignored it.
Poor Vreek turned around when the music ended and the steam column began perfuming the area with its mineral and herbal scent.
“Gods and spirits… it really just moves around…”
Lulubelle got tired of standing outside the gate, staring at the lovely, clean stable… and that human house too. There was a fresh hay crib just inside, dressed with grain and molasses, just how she liked it.
She chomped gently onto his collar and pulled her valet inside the stable, politely of course. Vreek was only a biped, poor silly thing.
#
“Try it, you’ll like it.” Nara murred from the bath, lurking in the steamy pool with a small flannel folded up on top of her head. “I hesitated at first too… but perhaps you are not curious.” She needled and poked, until he sank slowly into the bubbling liquid.
“Oh!” He exclaimed. “Ohhh! Ahhhhhhhhhh…” Nara’s smug grin merged with those of the other occupants of the steamy garden pool.
“Welcome to the club…” Dannyl smirked and passed him a cup of tea.
“This promises to be a most unusual journey… I am only your guide, but I question the wisdom of bringing children.” He muttered to the small group in the bath. “Even such minor haunts are unfit for children’s eyes.”
Liam stretched and had a good long yawn before answering. “Our littlest members are hardly simple children, they are Adventurers. They have seen more ghosts and spirits than you would ever believe.” He chuckled quietly.
“Yes, I know you witnessed one of his little rituals in the woods. Those are quite alarming, yet he harms no one but himself. He sees the destruction of that thing as his most important work and pays a cost for it every day.”
“What was that horrible thing?” The cat man sank low in the pool, relishing the novel sensations and luxuries. “I nearly fled when it appeared…” He growled softly in displeasure at the memory. “Some demon of stolen faces?”
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“As good a description as any.” Khan said, as he and Luna joined the bath. “He claims he will pluck the thing bare and then force its master’s secrets from the thing.”
“Better to slay it and be done… like that wretched worm.” Luna’s sour tone lingered, even as she sighed and sank into the steaming waters. “Letting such a thing exist is a crime to my mind. Where is that boy?”
#
Out in the public garden pool, the mounts and children were splashing about happily, while Gary and Shai chatted with Axio.
“You provide a lot of interference, Gary… but this forest feels normal and healthy to me. I’ll know more as my spores spread and expand my influence. Perhaps in a few months I will have something for you.”
He scrubbed his face with a soft cloth and sighed happily. “I shall cherish these memories long after you have passed to your next lives, my friends.” The creepy little fellow murmured.
“We’re gonna take that in the spirit you meant buddy, but kinda tone that down… Mortals don’t usually enjoy being reminded of the inevitable.” Gary grabbed the little guy up in a hug and gave him a good squeeze. “Just keep being you pal.”
“You are very free with these physical intimacies…” Axio mumbled. “It’s quite intoxicating.”
“Thirp says the same thing, I went a long time, not being hugged, I’m not going back again.” With one last, firm squeeze, he released the entity to float around the pool.
#
Early morning found the wetland rainforest… wet and rainy. They rode out in the kind of slow, steady rain that is definitely going to stick around.
Khan and Luna had matching hooded cloaks of some shiny black skin that repelled water and didn’t get clingy or flap around when the wind picked up. The rest were kitted out in their usual oiled leather, under cloaks of worsted wool.
“Muktar the alchemist taught me a waterproofing formula… It works pretty good.” Gary sang to the chorus of ‘Singin In The Rain’. They did work pretty well, Gary’s cloaks kept the party as dry and warm as one could hope from mundane gear.
Silvery beads of water formed on the surface of their colorful cloaks and sheeted off. The water just declined to soak in, with a polite ‘No, thank you very much.’ before departing.
#
The kids rode under a canopy, with the curtains rolled down, so they were comfy, but bored nearly to tears.
“We near what you humans call ‘The Fringe’... really it’s just all the lands outside human domains.” He purred happily at the thought.
“Truly, monsters and strange things occur more frequently there, but I think perhaps that has as much to do with most tribes that live there being rather insular and averse to travel.”
“How will we know we are outside human lands?” Gary wondered aloud, just enjoying a ride in the warm spring rain.
“Order is mainly worshiped and Contracted among men. Beyond the lands of men, his gaze is lessened. War, likewise, is rarely Contracted by the peoples dwelling there, as war is an unnatural state for most of us.”
Vreek eyed the company and smiled. “Those Contracted with those gods will feel a difference immediately.”
“The sensation is difficult to describe, but not unpleasant.” Khan said quietly. “I have little affinity for War, but my Contract with him becomes less pronounced beyond the fringe. Liam will certainly feel the same, others find it troubling, especially young clergy of War and Order.”
“Diligent and mindful practices will alleviate the problem, if it troubles you.” Bannock called from the front. “Nearly every member of War’s legion is Contracted to War, save for clergy of other gods. As a servant of Order, I too will feel distanced from my lord. Only discipline and mindfulness are needed… and a good company of friends.”
“Wise words, sir Bannock.” Vreeck chittered happily. “Many humans become unnerved when the pressure of Order and War’s gazes lessen.” He swayed along with his pony, in a red and black plaid cloak, seeming much more relaxed.
“Those few of us who follow those cults are always startled when we travel into human lands for the first time. Many remain on the fringe, working as Adventurers and mercenaries… or hunters and smiths.”
“I did notice, you guys didn’t have a job board with monster notices in town… You have a local crew?” Gary asked, strumming a uke under his cloak.
“Yes, Cheri is captain, I scout, we have seven in all. We can call up some local retirees at need, or sometimes we call on human friends for… unusual jobs.”
“You said human ghosts and zombies were wandering down into the village… I haven’t seen or sensed one yet. Are we sure about the source?” Gary was on the wagon seat, huddled in his cloak, trying to keep his instrument dry. He looked miserable, but sounded oddly chipper.
“My friend has been enjoying your lovely rainforest, she says there’s no sign of undeath around.”
“The husks are not true zombies or works of any artifice. They wander aimlessly in more or less straight lines until trapped, or attacked. Following the trail back to their source was child’s play.” He grumbled unhappily.
“If destroyed, they dissipate almost immediately. The shades do the same, though immaterial. They drift by leaving no trace and eventually disappear entirely.”
“Huh… I’m sounding like the right guy for the job more and more. Tell me about this ‘keep’ in the hills. Have you been there?” He kept playing that ukulele with the children sitting in the back, half paying attention out of boredom.
“It’s not really fit for young ears” Vreek muttered.
“We have come mysteriously far, soon we cross over into the wilds. Perhaps we have a late lunch and an early camp?” Nods and approving whistles all around ended the debate, as Gary picked up the pace.
The musician switched to his guitar and grumbled something about “September… it’s the only answer…”
He started strumming a hard charging number, coaxing Ivy and Tallum to clap along on the beat. Shai and Becky fell in line from the dog cart, as Amy tried to follow the complex melody on her flute. Rio and Wilford were sharing the bongos and doing fine.
“Hold the flute love, you, Shai and Becky get the chorus and vocal fills… I need your outside voice on those, sweetie.”
Tambourines and small drums joined the complex beat, as Dannyl and Liam joined in with guitars. They picked complex parts that collided with Gary’s in the strangest, most invigorating way.
Do you remember
The 21st night of September?
Love was changin' the minds of pretenders
While chasin' the clouds away
His gift wound and entangled them tightly, synching them into a tight unit, a snug, comfortable pocket of magic and music surrounded them as Shai started following along with half remembered, mumbled lyrics.
Our hearts were ringin'
In the key that our souls were singin'
As we danced in the night, remember
How the stars stole the night away, oh, yeah!
Hey, hey, hey
Ba-dee-ya, say, do you remember?
Ba-dee-ya, dancin' in September
Ba-dee-ya, never was a cloudy day
The song lifted everyone’s spirits, and got their mounts flying down the road at a terrifying clip. When the sun peeked out and banished the rain, it just felt like the sky couldn't keep drizzling in the face of Earth, Wind and Fire.
#
On a low rise, overlooking a babbling stream far from any town or habitation, they built their home. The night came in so clear and the stars so bright, Gary and Shai lay out in the yard for a couple hours, watching the heavens spin.
Both moons were in the sky, nearer midnight than sunset, Gary slipped away from being Shai’s pillow, with a soft, apologetic whisper.
“Company at the gate love, a spirit is wandering nearby, trying to find a way in.”
Outside the garden, something shifted and moved in the night. A patch of less absolute darkness beneath the trees, circling their home slowly.
“How odd…” Axio muttered, right behind the pair, where they watched from the gate. “Not sentient, yet… there is something there.”
“Tis unnerving, it do move like an animal or summat…” Shai whispered, hugging her boy close.
“I’ma wait here, keep an eye on it. Shai, wake up the gang please.” When she bustled off, Gary turned to his buddy. “Whadda ya think?” He kept the spirit in the corner of his eye, where it was most visible as he asked.
“Spirits and shades are not exactly my area, but this feels more like a simple haunt than an undead entity. Less a spirit, than a cluster of memories and emotions, lost in the world.” He said softly, as the entity flitted closer.
“That feels right, kinda like what I conjure up, but without a guiding Will or even a hint of Animus…”
The gang came out in twos and threes, fully clothed, lightly armed and wary. “A ghost, Shai says…what’s it doing?” Becky mumbled, still rubbing her eyes.
“Nothing yet, I’ll go out and try and have a chat, when everybody is ready. I really want you and Shai’s stuff ready… just in case.” He nodded to the gathered companions and dipped out the gate with a smile.
As soon as he stepped all the way outside, beyond his extended wards, in the darkness, the entity changed its aimless drift. It stopped briefly, then directed itself his way. The haunt was nearly invisible, just a lighter patch of darkness in the shadows, or a darker patch of misty starlight in the open.
It approached slowly, hovering just beyond arm’s reach, circling him, as though unsure, or searching for something.
“Hello… Do you speak?” The faceless, shifting, amorphous entity didn't reply in any way, it just kept circling him in the darkness. He let it orbit a few times, then reached out and touched its trailing edge with a finger.
“Nothing, just like when I touch my shadow haunts, or living people.” He called back to his watchers. They were gathered in the pool of lantern light by the garden gate, huddled together in the cool night air… The creepiness probably had a lot to do with it too.
With a shrug he turned and started back towards the house. “Let’s see if it follows… yup.”
“That is unusual, they never pay mind to the living, they will drift right through a village, even passing through unwary people, without harm. Without physical harm… the sensation is unpleasant.” Vreek was still inside the gate, watching from under the lanterns.
The phantom stopped at the edge of his wards, at the limit of the dim lantern’s glow. Liam pulled a lamp out of Gary’s stuff and lit it by rubbing it three times… clichés are fun. He approached cautiously, but the thing only had eyes for… well, it had no eyes, but its attention was all on the musician.
The lantern shone through its gauzy, ragged form, illuminating the thing, but revealing nothing. Liam kept fishing out lanterns and hanging them from lamp poles jammed into the soft earth, to illuminate the area. Soon, the small verge between the limit of Gary’s control and the road was lit with a half dozen lamps on bamboo poles.
Gary stepped out from his ward and into Liam’s lighted area. The thing went wild when he stepped into the light, circling rapidly around and around in fluttering, flashes of black and gray.
Others came out for a closer look, most bringing another lamp with them. Soon, Gary was an island, surrounded by a misty fog of darkness, swirling round.
“Oh, I have no shadow, Too many lights guys. She wants to duck through my shadow and into the next thing…” He waved at his comrades happily. “Take the lights towards the house, once I cast a shadow she’ll…” Just like that the shade was gone, sinking through his new cast shadow like water into sand. A single, big, black bumble bee buzzed and clumsily flew up into the sky, headed drunkenly for the distant, golden moon so far overhead.
They watched its slow, clumsy flight, until it turned about and arrowed right back at Gary. It zipped in and jabbed its stinger into his butt, right in the meat.
“Oh, that’s something!” He yelped in mild surprise, a few heartbeats later. “Wow, that’s a shot in the… arm…” He smiled wide and began hopping rapidly in place, like his ghost friend, Cab.
“What did that do, Gary? Are you well?” Tawny demanded, while Shai tried to swat the vanished insect, walloping his sore cheek instead.
“Oww! It was fine, just a little sore. Thanks love, now I have to soak my ass. Beast gave me a gift that does… Something? I dunno, but that feels awesome… except for the sore back end.”
He complained, but his heart wasn’t in it. The madman gathered up his woman and bundled her off to bed with a happy giggle.
#
In the warm swirling waters of his private grotto, the boy was insufferable. He grinned, flirted, snuggled and cuddled for a few minutes, then passed out cold.
“Fie, silly man, fast asleep… an he still be harder than untempered steel.” She murmured happily, with a firm grip on her favorite toy, enjoying his radiant warmth.
“Young men are simply the best… yes?” Morrigan cawed from the lintel over the door. “They are such simple creatures, tug on the right thing and they are yours to control.”
“This be private time, whae dae ye disturb us so?” She demanded, pulling her sleeping mate closer.
“I will not disturb him… little could wake him in this condition. As for your fun and games… by all means,carry on; that will not wake him, nor disquiet me. Honestly he is such a prude, I get quite a tingle from flustering him.”
The shadowy, ragged bird cocked her head and cawed soft laughter. “We share that trait, I think. Use more wrist, you will hurt your elbow that way.”
Shai stopped her idle fidgeting and flushed bright red, glaring at the bird fiercely. “Lecherous an too familiar by any measure…” She grumbled. “Speak yer piece, ye dinnae come tae watch me burnish his sword; an ye did, ye are nae welcome.”
“If I wished to watch an inexpert handie, I have many other options available…” She clacked her beak in avian mirth and hopped a few times. “I have come because I wished to see up close, what Beast has thrown into my cauldron.”
“An what be this strange gift? He did let a shade possess his shadow, as he hae done before. Save that this one did fly out as a sugar wasp drone an sting his arse wi fury.”
Shai fretted and fussed, not noticing she had begun again. Morrigan failed to point it out… just to see how far she could drive the poor girl.
“The venom seems to be stabilizing his body and soul interface somehow, strengthening his soul attachment. I’ve never seen such a thing before.”
“So this does aid him somehow?” The young smith demanded, still unaware that she was ‘pumping the bellows’ while she spoke.
“At his current rate of dissolution, it certainly couldn’t hurt. Don’t work him too hard girl…” The raven cawed with mirth again, her laughter ringing off the stones. “With the cultivation, mind you. Your handjob is much improved and will certainly help him.”
The bird flapped her wings and vanished in a swirl of feathers with a final cackling call: “Watch where you aim that!”
“Wretched bird of ill omen…” Shai grumbled, while she washed her hands in the waterfall. The wretched boy was curled up, asleep as pretty as you please, with a smile of pure joy on his slumbering, stupid face… and still erect.
“Men…” She grumbled fondly, as he rolled over in some pleasant dream. A wicked grin spread over her face as she rejoined him in the bed. “My turn now boy…” She murmured happily, as he embraced her in his sleep.
#