Chapter 4

In the forest, smothered with the fog

of mistake, we tread through

I can feel her-

His-

A presence behind me

To guide.

The figure in shadow is shone upon

As I am

thrown away, to hide my face.

To protect

It drapes me in the haze.

I am alone as The Wound opens.

She is not the hunt.

***

I was thrown out of the nightmare panicking. I screamed, but my body was frozen. The feeling from the dream was gone, but I still felt scared. The words Fell spoke scared me, thinking about them made me panic. It took me a minute of laying there to realize that it was not the early morning, the day was older than that. Grandpa had been avoiding me since the argument. I wasn’t surprised he hadn’t asked me to check on the kiln, he must’ve done it himself. Grandma knocked on the frame of the door, I was still stick.

“Sarah, are you okay? Grandpa and I could hear you from outside.”

“Nightmare,” I said. I could feel my body start to relax, I had been awake for a couple of minutes.

“Seems like a pretty bad one if you ask me. You sounded like you were dying!” she walked over and sat down at its foot to rest. Her age had started to catch up with her, she had to sit a lot more than she used to.

“I was frozen when I woke up. It was about The Fell Mom and I saw. In the nightmare it knew I was there, but just left me alone.” I could feel my back tense up as I remembered the dream.

“Well, now you’re awake now, so let’s forget that dream and get out of bed. Work to do today.” She smiled at me as she carefully pulled herself up and walked towards her work space in the other room.

“There’s still breakfast in the pot. Wash it out at the creek when you’ve eaten. Umo’s stall needs to be cleaned today, so do that afterwards. I’ll have more chores for you later.”

Cleaning Umo’s stall was the worst, and the smell had gotten worse lately. Everything had gotten worse lately. But, at least Umo’s stall wasn’t Grandpa asking me to do things.

He wouldn’t ask me, he would ask “child”.

I could feel the anger from yesterday. It wasn’t as strong, so I was able to breath it down as I went to heat up the pot. Mom had made mushroom stew before she left in the morning. I grabbed one of the logs from outside and revived the fire with some of the embers under the ash. I walked by Grandpa, who kept his head down. I wasn’t sure if he even knew I had walked by, he was elbow deep on the Travis Path order. The pot looked like it had a few more days to go before he fired it, if he worked late.

It was overcast today, so at least the scarf and hood were practical. I wasn’t about to risk another incident, especially with how yesterday turned out. I spent most of yesterday outside next to Umo, alone as Grandpa and Mom argued. In the end, Grandpa had agreed to show up to council, but I could not attend the equinox. Grandma was upset I wouldn’t get to say the familial prayer, but to tell the truth I was happy it wasn’t me. I didn’t need another reason for Grandpa to hate me.

I had begun to get Umo’s mess out of the stall when I felt Grandpa standing behind me. I kept shoveling Umo’s mess out, trying to ignore him. I did not want to talk to him. He kept standing there, it seemed like he wasn’t going to let me go.

“I don’t want to be bothered right now. Grandma says she has more chores for me”

He didn’t reply, but I could tell he was unhappy. I could feel yesterday’s anger in my throat as I turned around.

“Why do you hate me?!” I shouted.

No one was there, Grandpa was at his workbench. He looked at me, stood up, and walked over. I went back to shoveling, hoping he’d get the message. I could tell he didn’t as I heard him walking through the grass behind me. He cleared his throat and spoke. It wasn’t his normal stoic tone, it was low and quiet.

“Child. I do not hate you.”

“Then why won’t you call me my name? Why do you want me dead?” I threw at him, hoping he’d leave.

“Child, you know I do not speak much. Um-”, he sounded like he was crying. “I protect you because I love you. I made that promise. I promised to your mother that I would protect you, always. Your birth made my life more difficult. All of our lives more difficult. When you were born, we had to make a plan. We knew it would be hard. When a plan goes wrong, it’s easy to forget the always. I broke that promise. I am sorry you think I hate you because of it.” He left me alone. The wind got the last word between us.

***

A week had passed, it was the day of the equinox. Grandpa was still avoiding me, and Grandma kept asking me to do chores instead. They had both gone down to the council six days ago. We were lucky. When the incident was mentioned, Grandma and Benevolence were able to dismiss it by saying Grandpa and I were in Tarvis Path to collect the commission fee for the storage pots. It was probably a prankster faerie. I still had to stay home for safety reasons. I probably could have convinced Grandma to let me go, but the less I talked the less reasons Grandpa had to talk to me. With that in mind, I kept quiet.

Night was coming in earlier. The bells of the temple struck five as the sun set over the horizon and I began to make dinner. I had moved Umo’s trough next to the door so I wouldn’t be alone while I ate. I had been by myself at night before, but not at Grandma and Grandpa’s. I walked through the house bored, trying to figure out a way to pass the time. I was used to the house being cramped. There were a few times I would try to talk to Grandma, thinking she was working behind me. I immediately remembered every time I tried to talk to her. At around six, I decided to make a fire out front. The Fell come closer to settlements during the equinox, and after last week I did not want to come any closer to one.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The knife Grandpa had lent me was still home, so for fun I decided to pretend I was the bandit queen again, showing those stupid townfolks who the boss is. I swung the knife in made up battles as my group of outcasts swarmed the village who had kicked us out!

“Do not mess with the queen of battle!” I shouted. Umo, who was across the fire, whinnied. I look over, and past her, to catch a figure at the edge of the Oaks. The moonlight hit it through the autumn clouds. I could make out its body, sewn crooked tendrils. Its deep black “face” did not shine under the moonlight. Instead it glowed like a red gem that had broken and scattered. It was a Fell. Staring at me. I could hear the dream come back to me.

She is not the hunt.

I grasped Umo’s reigns, and led her inside, keeping the knife pointed towards it. It did not move. As the moon become covered by the clouds once again, it joined with the gnarls of the oaks at the edge of forest. I barred the door. My breath fogged the window as I looked outwards to where the creature had been. Every time Umo whinnied my stomach dropped. It was going to come in here. It was going to hunt me. I was going to die. I should have gone to town. I would have been safe. My hands were sweating as I gripped the knife harder.

I fumbled my knife as I heard the bell of the temple began to ring. It was not the ring of a new hour. It was the ring of danger. There was an emergency, the bell-ringer was ringing as fast as they could, and as loud as possible.

I started to breath fast. I was in out of town, surrounded by a forest with Fell, and the only safe place during emergencies was going to be the temple. What if we were being attacked? I couldn’t be here by myself, it was too dangerous. If Umo and I rode fast enough, we could make it to town. It was safer than by myself surrounded by Fell.

I leaned against the window, to make sure there were no Fell in front of the door.

“Umo, up.” I could feel my back tense up, and my breath shortened. I was moving, but stiff. Umo remained sitting.

“We can’t be here. We need to go.” I pulled at her reigns as she grunted and stood up. I ran to my room and shoved some hay from my pillow into my sack, I had to keep Umo going if she got tired. I opened the door, and mounted Umo. We sprinted into the Oak forest towards town, the bells of the temple still ringing.

We were making good pace, but I kept almost falling off. Riding Umo with a saddle was painful for me, and I could tell she was tiring. We were going to have to hide, so I turned us towards the river. If there were soldiers, I didn’t want to hide on the main path. The roots of a large tree draped over part of the bank provided good cover from the moonlight, especially on a cloudy night like that one. So I scrambled behind them, pulling Umo with me. The bells had stopped. For a while, there was only stillness as I waited for Umo to recover.

I reached into my bag for some hay for Umo, when I heard water splashing. Someone was running up the river. I couldn’t see them until they got closer. It was a girl. I couldn’t tell what color her hair was, until moonlight poked through the leaves. It was black, her skin was pale, almost blue. It was Michaela, she was almost out of breath. I needed to know what was happening. Why did she run all of the way out here? As she approached my hiding place, I spoke.

“Michaela. It’s Sarah. Please don’t be scared. I can see you, I’m hiding.”

She stopped.

“Oh no. By the Ten, no!” She was panicking. She wouldn’t be quiet. I didn’t know how to make her stop.

“Shhhh, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.” I said, trying to calm her down.

“Why should I trust you? You’re a demon. Benevolence says to not trust demons.” She asked, I could hear the fear in her voice.

Why should she trust me? I wondered. I didn’t have the time to explain anything. She needed to get to safety, and I needed to know what was happening.

“I’m not a demon, I’m the bandit queen!” I said.

Michaela giggled.

“I guess a demon is better than raiders.” she said.

“Raiders?”

“They attacked during the prayers. I couldn’t get to the temple, so I ran into the woods. Some of them were chasing me, but they stopped after a while. I kept running, just to make sure.”

I came out of my hiding place, lowered my hood, removed my scarf and handed it to her. She stared at me, holding on to the scarf loosely.

“Wear this around your face. We need to hide, and your skin is too easy to see in the moonlight.” I said.

“Holy shit you are a demon.” Her mouth was wide.

“I’m not a demon. This whole thing-” I pointed to my face “is not my fault. If you don’t want to get hurt by the Fell, do what I say. I promise.”

“The Fell-?”

“I saw one earlier. We need to get back to my Grandparents’. I have a fire going, it should keep them away.”

“Got it.” she said, as I helped her wrap the scarf around her face.

“Umo, stay.”

Umo would have to stay behind, if we were going to be get through the woods without being heard. Her hooves were too obvious. The Fell would hear us. We would die.

We climbed up the bank of the river, towards the main path.The moon would intrude through the canopy, but not enough to be too useful. I grabbed Michaela’s hand as I guided her towards home. We were making good progress, and had not seen any Fell yet.

Then, I felt a presence behind us. I turned to see nothing, at first. Then I began to make out a faint red gem. It was a Fell. It could see us. I Tossed Michaelah into a bush away from the creature, and jumped into one on the other side of the path. Hopefully it did not want us. Hopefully, it would just leave us alone. I could hear the leaves crack. It was coming towards us. I made a silent prayer to The Ten, hoping just once that they would hear me.

I could see its pitch body through the specked moonlight above There was no sound when saw it “breath”, only dread. It did not walk, it simply shifted. It was standing between me and Michaela, looking down the path. Maybe it will go away, I thought. The Fell turned towards my bush, and slowly reached a tendril inwards. It grasped my wrist. I wanted to scream from the pain, but I couldn’t. Something in the tendril stopped me. It dragged me out of the bush, and raised me upwards. The red glow of its face disappeared. It’s “face” was pestilence. It was disease. It was famine. II was death. I felt the presence again.

Something was behind me. At my shoulder. I spoke. But it wasn’t me. It spoke.

“Par skit.” It said. Its hand raised, finger pointed. It was my hand. My finger was pointed.

The Fell stopped.

“Par skit.” It repeated. I repeated.

The Fell responded.

“Toril par skit.”

“Par skit.” It repeated. Finger still pointed.

The Fell dropped it. Me.

It shot its tendril into Michaela’s hideaway, dragging her out. I think she was screaming. I could see her face move. I could feel it. But it was so distant. She was dragged to the red orb. I could feel the crack of bone. The wetness of flesh. It knew this sound. I knew this sound. Her lifeless body, torn, was dropped to the ground, her pale skin reflecting the moonlight.

“Par skit.” The Fell said, as it drew back into the forest.

The presence, it, was gone. My ears were ringing. She had screamed. I couldn’t move, my arm burned. I fell forward. I had failed. I was going to protect her. I promised. I promised. I promised. She screamed when I killed her. When I spoke to the fell. No, it spoke to the fell. Two, terrible words.

“Par skit.”

She is the hunt.

It went black. I did not dream.