The halls are empty, glass shattered, tiles cracked. People used to roam these buildings bustling with life. Now they are empty and hollow. As are we.
Loss, so much loss. How to come back from this? I do not know. All of us are in a world broken like the windows. Each loss carves a piece of ourselves out and leaves it behind in the broken ruins. Then when all is lost and gone, we are a shell, hollow with echoes of what once was.
-Doc Vorran date unknown, the time is near.
TALEA:
A white wall blusters ahead of me, cold snowflakes sting like beads of glass against my face. My eyes can open only for a second before closing again to protect my vision. The wind howls with the anger of the void. The full vengeance of the rage has hit us and we are vulnerable to its fury. We are lost in the cold, starving, slowing, dying.
We have no shelter, no haven from this death dealing storm, and with every minute it gets worse. We’ll die out here unless one of the scouts comes back with something. Anything. At this point, not even the tent will not protect us, in this wind it’ll either be swept away or torn to ribbons.
“Talea!” Lesedi yells to be heard over the storm. “We won’t survive out here for much longer!”
I grit my teeth. “I know!”
Even the nightstalkers are faltering. I squint to look at the nearby zigon. Patterns of ice have formed over their formerly black cloaks, all of them look like snow covered humps. They once rode with straight backed pride and ferocity, now they hunch over barely able to cling on. Even nightstalkers have a limit. We’ve reached it. The only way Lesedi is able to go on is by huddling under two zigon skins with Echo behind. Othin and I hold each other beneath two cloaks, I’m practically in his lap, his body shivers.
I do my best to fight back panic, but I don’t see a way out. We’ve been searching for four days and nights for shelter. We’ve only managed the occasional break for rest to keep the zigons going. During those breaks Othin and I continued scouted everywhere under the suns, rotating zigons. In desperation we had to break the pack apart into groups to search while pressing forwards. Nothing. We are alone in the hills with nothing but brush and a smattering of trees. Not even a campfire can chase away the ice encroaching on us, if we could start one in the first place.
I feel Lesedi lay a gloved hand on my shoulder as more snow spatters across my face. “Talea, we need to stop! There’s nothing out here!”
I turn to look at the narrow opening beneath the skins where two eyes stare back at me. Snow blows past in sharp streaks, gone are the nights of soft floating flakes. Within those eyes I see fear, terror, a person facing her death. I should be empathetic, kind, loving. But instead my frustration bursts into anger.
“Stop and do what?!” I bite at her. “If we stop, we’ll die!”
Lesedi’s eyes begin to water, she looks away and wipes them. “We can herd the zigons into a ring, all of us huddle together within with the skins draped on top of us. We might stay warm enough to make it through the storm.”
“You know as well as I do the zigons would be dead by morning! Then we’ll all be stranded in this blizzard buried under snow!” I roar at her, more from anger than a need to be heard over the wind.
Lesedi pulls the skins away to reveal her face, flush with fear and stiff with ice. “Talea we’ve run out of options! We’ll need to take the risk and ride out the storm!”
Heat flashes to my eyes and I can feel them turn red. “The storm could last weeks! We’ll die!” I turn away to look forward and push Guzu forwards. “We’ll keep riding! There has to be shelter somewhere!”
I can hear Lesedi’s voice behind me. “You’re killing us Talea!”
I’m taking a risk. Huddling in the snow hoping not to die while our pack falls one by one is a skysinger solution. Nightstalkers do not hide and wait, we fight, we run, we take the risk or die trying. I’m gambling with Lesedi’s life and I know that, it weighs on me, but I can’t do things her way. She’s run by the fear of a daypeople mind, that won’t work out here. I know there’s shelter out there, I know there’s something. There has to be.
“Tu’kari!” Viko’s voice is faint on the wind. I glance to my left to see a snowy zigon barreling towards us. Its movements are labored.
I push Guzu into a run that’s beyond her limits. She moves anyway. The snow and ice slices at us as we burst through the blizzard. The world is dark and blurred by white, but through it all I can see the glint of a smile on the twin’s faces.
I smile in return. “You found something.”
“Yar burrow. Big one.” Viko hollers with a giggle into the storm.
I take a sharp icy breath getting my hopes up. “Big enough for zigon?”
Viko nods. Lesedi gasps loud enough to be heard. “That’s not possible! Even if it was, that would mean a large group of yars. It’s dangerous!”
I holler back at her. “So is staying out here!” Viko meets my gaze. “Signal the pack! We follow you!”
The twins nod in agreement. Viko pulls herself to her feet atop the mount, turns her head to the sky, and lets out a haunting screeching wail that can be heard across the hills and then some. Her screams float among the howling winds to find our searching pack. I swallow hard and trust they’re not too far away to hear, or unconscious.
We sit atop our mounts, shivering with snow building in our boots, waiting for the pack to return. If they can. I shake the thought from my head, they’ll come back to us. I know it. I flex my gloved hand in the wind itching with nervousness. My brows frown, snowy white crystals begin rapidly forming on my gloves as if my hand is being swallowed by ice.
I turn around and see the same thing happening to the skins Lesedi and Echo are bunkered beneath. “Les! What’s going on?”
She reaches a gloved hand out from her eye hole and then gasps. “Ice storm!” She coughs from the cold air in her lungs.
My teeth are chattering, and I can feel Othin’s body go still. “Wh-what is that?”
Lesedi pulls the blanket tighter. “R-rapid temperature d-drops. Too cold. We need shelter n-now or we’ll all die.”
I frown. “B-but the pack. They haven’t f-found us yet.”
Aggressive ice piles on top of itself along the zigon fur and climb up our cloaks lightening their color. “Lesedi’s eyes change from afraid, to authoritative. “Leave them.”
“No!” I gasp. “We can’t!”
The blanket pulls away exposing Lesedi’s face. Crystals of ice form on her cheeks and start moving through her face. “Then we die. Now. Here.” The ice makes its way through her face; she remains stoic and firm despite her teeth chattering and her body shaking. “You are a leader. Lead. S-save who you can.”
I take in a deep breath, it feels sharp, like breathing in needles. “Daku, lead the way. Viko, scream. Hopefully the pack can follow us to shelter. Let’s move!”
Daku nods with approval as their zigon turns and pushes into a hard run. It groans in protest and I’m afraid it’ll drop dead in the snow. But it doesn’t, hardy animals, though I know we’re dancing on the border of their limits. Viko grips her sister’s shoulder for balance with one hand and with the other cups her mouth to broadcast even louder. Guzu charges into action following the twins through the snow. Viko’s screams howls into the wind giving the hills a haunting quality. The snow thickens and the ice sheets push forward into everything they touch. We lose sight of the zigon ahead, but through the wall of white we follow Viko’s screams.
For once that scream is a beacon of hope, not a signal of terror. I remember creeping up to the door at night as a child, opening the slit, and hearing those screams echo from the hills. I remember those screams sending shivers down my bones, now that scream means our pack’s survival.
Charging through the screams into the wall of blindness, trusting my moonrunners with my life, I realize how we can change so much in such a little time. Even more so when staring death in the face, multiple times. I realize as we charge through this blizzard, that with every decision and step I make, I move farther away from that tempestuous girl on the farm. I will never be her again, nor do I want to.
Our zigons come to a stop before a massive cave. This is not a yar burrow. An enormous oval shape extends high above our heads with the bottom ending in a square flush with the ground. A metal frame sticks outward jammed in place; it looks like a pair of enormous doors. But I’ve never seen doors that aren’t a solid piece of metal. Above the towering structure a rounded roof sticks out as if to shield the doorway from weather. The snow here is shallow and looks more like dust blown into an otherwise clean area. I don’t have time to stare in wonderment of this place, we need shelter and we need it now.
We push the zigons forward into the sheltered place, they fit with ease. Plumes of snowflakes blow inside with us as we enter. But even though it’s exposed to the outside, it already feels warmer. I look up and I can see nothing but darkness as the ceiling climbs up out of sight. The snow dusts the floor in a line from the doors until we reach clear ground. The zigon heels click against it like it’s stone.
I look around in awe. “What is this place?”
Lesedi pulls her head from the blanket. “Interesting, but not good enough. We need to find a place protected from the outside or we can still freeze to death.”
I nod and turn to the twins. “Viko, keep screaming until your throat can’t do it anymore. Give them every chance to find us.”
Viko nods. “Want the scream until suns rise Tu’kari.” With pride they position their zigon inside the doorway as she screams out into the white nothingness.
I turn to Othin. “Let’s split up and try to see if there’s anywhere else in this place that would make better shelter.” He doesn’t respond. “Othin?” I shake him and his body is so still.
His eyes are closed and he’s unresponsive. My heart drops from my chest and the panic forms into a scream. “Lesedi!”
She bursts from the blanket and immediately tends to him. She pulls open his eyes to look, rests her fingers on his throat, looks at his extremeties. Her face is one of worry as she looks at me. “Was he shivering?”
“A little while ago yes, but that stopped. What’s wrong?” I struggle to control the panic building.
Lesedi strips off his cloak and starts taking his clothes off. “It looks like hypothermia.” She looks up into my uncomprehending face. “Dying from cold.”
I frown. “But he’s a nighstalker.”
She rolls her eyes. “He’s still an animal! We all have limits at some point.” She continues ripping off all of his clothes and doesn’t even balk when she gets to his pants. “Nightstalkers have the ability to compensate for all cold temperatures by converting food into as much energy as they need. As long as they’re eating, they don’t need protection from cold.” She grunts as she finishes stripping him naked and then pulls a dry shirt from her bag.
My eyes start watering. “But we just ran out of food yesterday. That’s not that long.”
Lesedi grunts and looks up at me. “Why do you think the food lasted as long as it did?”
I pause as realization hits me. He stopped eating long ago, to make the food last, for me. I reach down and grab his face, his skin is so cold. “You stupid stubborn man.”
Lesedi finishes drying him off then spins the shirt into a long twist and snaps it at me. “No time for that! His body has been trying to still run like it’s accustomed. But without food. Which means his body is consuming itself to stay alive, we need to stop it by warming him up.”
I pull my fingers through my wet stringy hair. “If he’s dying from cold why did you take his clothes off?!”
Lesedi barks at me. “He needs to get dry! The wet keeps sucking heat from his body.” She turns to Echo. “Be useful. Drape one of those blankets fur side down and get off the zigon.”
For once Echo doesn’t respond with a snarky remark. She drapes one blanket across the zigon’s back with the fur side down and leaps away without a word. Lesedi relaxes, she had mentally prepared herself for an argument. She rolls Othin over onto the skin side of the blanket and then tucks his knees up to his chest, then she pulls the other blanket over him.
She turns to me. “Now, you, take your clothes off and dry your body. His best chance is to share your body heat. Wrap as much of yourself around him as you can and do not leave those blankets. Not even after he wakes up.”
I nod in agreement and Lesedi climbs down from the snow covered back. I rip my clothes off as fast as possible. “What are you doing?”
She takes in a deep breath and I see courage on her face. The purest kind, bravery when you have no other choice. “Echo and I are going exploring. He needs food. All of them do. Or else we might end up with nightstalkers eating each other.”
I cringe, but I realize she’s right. I climb naked into the blankets with Othin leaving nothing exposed but our faces. I want to go with her, help her, protect her. But right now, Othin needs me. I sigh. “It’s dangerous out there. Please be careful.”
Lesedi nods and pats Echo on the shoulder. “If we run into yars I’ll throw Echo at them.”
Echo laughs. “Then we can eat!”
My sister gags in response, she’s been forced to eat meat provisions for the past week since it’s all we had. She’s not a fan. I can hear the echoes of their bickering against the massive walls as they disappear into darkness. In the opposite direction I hear the warning wails of Viko’s persistent screaming. Beneath my arms I feel Othin’s skin so cold.
I stroke a finger along his cold gaunt cheeks. My voice is a chattering whisper. “Please Othin, come back to me.” Tears escape my eyes and run hot down my cheeks. I lean my face against his. “I was finally used to being in love.”
Then all at once, even though we’re teetering on the brink of death and failure, I find sleep for the first time in days. The world falls away and I only hope it’s still there when I wake up.
✽✽✽
LESEDI:
This room is enormous, by far the most extensive structure I have ever been in. It’s a pity that it’s so dark and I have nothing to illuminate with. I should have brought my lantern, but in my rush and panic it slipped my mind altogether. At least I’ve made substantial improvement in my night vision while travelling in perpetual darkness. I miss the sun. It’s only been one month, but I miss it so much. At home even though we’re pent up during lune we still get breaks during the day to at least take in a few minutes of sunlight.
The farther away we get from the opening doors the darker it gets until we’re groping for walls without even the best night vision to help us. My hands reach out to in the very least protect me from tripping on something. I don’t know what I’m expecting to find. There’s no food here, there’s nothing. But I know how nightstalkers work, I’ve observed them and studied them.
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“Worried they’ll eat Talea huh?” Echo’s voice rings out in the darkness, unable to remove her typical caustic tone.
I sigh. “It is a concern.” I gulp and swallow fear as best I can. “They’re already teetering on the edge of controllable. They’ve gone a day without food and the only thing keeping them distracted from it is seeking out shelter. Once we’re all settled and warmed in this place, they’ll see to their next problem.”
“Maybe not.” A surprising optimistic outlook escapes Echo.
I roll my eyes. “Talea is not the only nightstalker expert just because she-”
“Is thracking one?” There’s the cousin I know. She laughs.
I sputter out a frustrated breath. “I was going to say bondmates, but essentially, yes.”
My fingertips touch cold stone and I pause. I can hear Echo’s footsteps move around me as she continues walking off into the darkness. Her voice, ironically, echoes. “Don’t get yourself so worked up. There’s yars here, we’ll kill them, we’ll have food.”
I rest my palms against the wall and move along it. Several steps to my left the wall continues and I know I’ve reached more than a simple pillar. “This isn’t a burrow. It’s clearly a ruin from our ancestors. We have no way of knowing if yars inhabit it.” I hear my voice bounce off to my right as if there’s a hallway. I begin trying to move that way. “Even if we did find them, we don’t stand a chance of killing them. It would be better if we found something less threatening like moss to eat.”
I don’t hear a response. “Echo?” My inquiry calls out and softly bounces back. “Please.”
The fear starts bubbling up again, I don’t want to be alone in the darkness. It’s too much. I look over my shoulder and can’t even see the direction we’ve started from. I turn back to the wall as I move along it, as if it’s my only friend in the world right now. My fingers slide along the stone and I can’t help but notice how smooth it is. As I examine and hypothesize what material it is, it must be hardstone, I touch what feels like metal. A hard edge bumps out from the otherwise smooth wall. My fingers climb up onto it and I can feel the embossing of symbols and letters. My curiosity manages to tamp down my panic. What is this place?
I curse under my breath. “Thrack! If only I had some light! I should’ve grabbed my lantern!”
A chuckle sounds behind me. “I knew I was a bad influence on you.”
I turn around and see Echo, bathed in green light. Smiling. I gasp. “Where did you find those?”
Echo tilts her head. “Down that tunnel. They grow all over the place.”
Her hands are filled glowing green mushrooms. They look like a dozen pairs of green open lips help up by a wrinkly throat. I’ve never seen it before, and I did go through an extensive fungi phase. I can’t help but smile, despite everything that’s happening, I can’t fight my joy and curiosity of learning something new. I reach out and take a cluster of mushrooms as the green glow follows and lights up my hands. I breathe a sigh of relief as it chases away some of the darkness.
“The problem is, I don’t know what species this is. Mushrooms can go either way, it can be edible, it can make us sick, or it can kill us all together. There are some closer examinations I can make but we’ll have to go back and look at them in the light for warning signs. Although I could-”
Echo grabs a mushroom from her hands, pops it into her mouth, and eats it. I gasp and before I can rush to pull it from her mouth, she swallows. “Seems good to me.”
My mouth falls open gasping. “Are you serious?! Echo! You have no idea if that will kill you!”
She smirks. “That’s part of the fun.”
Her smirk drops as her eyes widen. She starts coughing and gasping as if she can’t breathe. Her hands start shaking and her eyes roll back into her head. Her lungs wheeze harder and harder as she collapses to the ground shaking all over.
I scream and drop to my knees. “Echo!”
Foam forms in her mouth and dribbles down her cheeks as I hold her in my arms. I go through everything from my medical books but there’s nothing I can do. Even making her throw up the mushroom can’t reverse the toxicity, but it could reduce exposure. It’s better than nothing, better than letting her die. Her body begins seizing as her limbs twitch and her chest bolts up and down. I reach down to open her mouth and induce vomiting.
Her eyes flash open and she smiles. “Gotcha.” She sits up and wipes her face, then starts laughing.
I slap her in the face. “This was no time for jokes!”
She winces and rubs her cheek with an even bigger smile. “This was exactly the time for jokes!”
My breathing turns shallow and I start shaking. I stand to my feet with tears forming in my eyes and turn around to face the wall. I won’t let her see me cry and mock me. “You are just-” I take in an unsteady breath. “I can’t believe-” I can’t form a complete sentence. “I-” Despite my best efforts, I start sobbing.
The laughing stops behind me. “Ah, thrack. I didn’t think you’d start crying on me. I expected you to gasp and give me a lecture.” Her voice lowers in an almost soft tone. “It’s funny when you’re mad.”
I shake my head and cross my arms. The mushrooms are now scattered at my feet and I can’t will myself to pick them up. “Why are you like this? You’re so-”
“Mean?” Echo spits the word out with mockery.
“Sadistic.” I speak with a controlled monotone. My tears stop and I pack my panic away. “The nightstalkers are harsh and twisted. But you, it’s like you choose to be cruel in order to push everyone away. You, unlike them, know what it is to have a family that loves you. We want you. We always have. But you have never wanted us.” Echo responds with silence, for once. I drop my arms in a sigh and start to turn around.
“Stop.” Echo barks at me. So, I stop. “If I have to look at you, I’m just gonna make fun of your hair.”
I sigh. “Echo. Please, I’m tired.”
“No, just, stop for a minute. I’m bad at this.” For once I hear sincerity from her. “No matter how much I’ve tortured everyone, you’ve all been my family. On purpose. You chose me. In fact, for some reason, the more I do to piss you off the closer you all pull towards me. I-” She pauses trying to think and I can hear her struggling over her words. Another first. “I, um, I lo-” She pauses again. “Thrack it. I’m gonna be less of a prig ok? Because you’re my-”
I turn around and smile. “Family?”
She crosses her arms. “With that hair, I’d say you’re related to the yars.”
I glare. “Echo.”
She shrugs. “Hey, I warned you. Not my best work. But you have to admit that mushroom gag was.”
I take a deep breath and let it go. Echo is Echo, it’s what we’ve always said. She loves us though, I know it. Even if she can’t bring herself to say it. “The foam was a nice touch.”
“It was.” She smiles with pride.
I reach out and take her bundle of mushrooms. She frowns and reaches for them. “Hey! Stealing, now are we?”
I turn back towards the wall. “Nope, you made me drop mine. Those on the ground are yours now.”
She murmurs and grunts as she picks up the fungus from the floor. I move my light over the embossed metal with excitement. It’s a sign of some sort. Words form on the top of the sign and then reveal what looks to be a map fitted inside a square. Below the map are more words each with arrows pointing different directions. My mind begins buzzing with the implications of this.
“I need my journal.” I mutter to the walls.
Echo snorts. “And your lantern.”
I nod as my eyes look over every detail absorbing as much as I can. I feel like my mind is exploding with the implications and possibilities.
“Can you read that?” Echo leans over and squints as if that will make the language more intelligible.
I smile. “Not yet. But I will.”
OTHIN:
I feel weak, as if all of the strength has been pulled from my body. My limbs ache and my head pounds like someone cracked it open and poured hot metal inside. With great effort, I force open my eyes. I peer at the world around me through small slits. I see an orange glow across a stone floor, I see shadows cast upon a stone wall, I hear voices. My eyes close and darkness falls over me.
I open my eyes again and the shadows have moved, the voices have changed, things feel different. I feel like I am floating between the waking and sleeping world. Every time I open my eyes, I feel like time has passed me but my mind is too muddled to understand what is happening.
I can feel my eyes opening again and this time I force them to stay that way. I push any strength I have into my arms attempting to prop myself up on my elbows. I will not fall back into the darkness, I need to know what is happening, I need to know Talea is alright. I groan and murmur with frustration as a hand presses against my chest and I fall back to the stone ground.
I hear a familiar, beautiful voice. “Steady, it’s my turn to boss you around.”
I smile. “Talea.”
She comes into my vision and I reach up to touch her face. My arm cannot make it, but in her kindness, she grips my hand and places it to her cheek. My fingers move to feel the smoothness of her skin. I let out a breath of relief, she is alright, I can handle anything so long as she is alright. I almost content myself to fall back to the darkness and let it consume me, but I cannot bring myself to close my eyes and stop looking at her.
She runs a finger along my forehead and brushes hair from my eyes. “We almost lost you.”
I grunt. “It feels that way.”
A laugh tries to make its way up, but it dies in her throat. “How long were you skipping meals?”
I cringe. “Food needed to last. If you starved, if the others went hungry-”
She cuts me off. “I know. But how long?”
I feel like a child being cut down by a grown one. “Since the beginning.”
A hand covers her eyes as she takes in a deep breath. “How long since you ate anything at all?”
I do not know; I cannot remember coming to this place. I do not know how long we have been here. “Since the last I can remember, it had been two days.”
She sighs, and slaps me on the bare chest. Her face fumes and flushes with rage. She takes a deep breath with closed eyes to calm herself. “You can’t do things like that Othin.” She takes another breath and lays her body across my torso giving me a soft peck on the cheek. She stays flung across my chest and traces shapes on my throat. “You can’t make decisions like that. We are us now, not you. If you don’t take care of yourself, you don’t take care of me. We live or die together.”
I nod. “I am sorry. I was afraid-”
She pushes a finger against my lips and hushes me. “No more of that. We’re moonrunners. We fear nothing.”
I attempt to protest but my voice is muffled by her finger. “But-”
“No.” She shakes her head. “If we’re scared to lose each other, we can’t do our job and we’ll do something stupid.” She raises her eyebrows and nods towards me. I get it. “We fear nothing. Understood?”
I nod. My stomach flutters with a mix of pride and awe within this mate I chose. She is strong, independent, brave, but she does not allow it to turn her cold and bitter. She is unlike any person I have ever met. She is confusing and challenging and I would follow her into the coldest of blizzards. She reaches over to take a bowl and rests it on her palm. Inside are strange green glowing plants. I raise one eyebrow with confusion and cringe.
She smirks. “Don’t give me that, these have been keeping you alive. Along with everyone else.”
My lungs inhale with a sharp breath. “The others?” They had not even occurred to me. I press into my memories, the last I can picture they were gone in the snow.
Talea smiles and then presses a green glowing thing into my mouth. It tastes as disgusting as it looks. “They made it back. Every single one.” Her smile drops with disappointment. “Even Rala.”
The thing in my mouth feels like it refuses to be chewed. The texture is wrinkly and the flesh is dense, the whole thing makes me want to spit it out. In response Talea pushes her hand over my mouth. “Swallow it Othin. It’s all we have.”
With a throat that refuses to cooperate I manage to swallow the food. If it can be called that. I am grateful I have been lost in the darkness so much, if only to be fed while asleep these revolting things. I look over to the glow of orange. A small fire burns on the stone floor, I look around and see we are surrounded by stone. Where does the fire come from?
Talea takes in a deep breath and shrugs as her head tilts towards the small flames. “Ah, yeah. We’re in an underground tunnel of some kind. Lesedi knows more. It keeps us protected but we’ve needed a fire for extra warmth.”
I frown. “What do we burn? There is no brush like there is on the hills.”
She nods and purses her lips. “The food. Those mushrooms are all that’ll catch, it’s not ideal. But they seem to grow all the way down these tunnels so we should be ok. For now.”
I reach for the next mushroom in her bowl. She stops my hand by lying hers on top of it. “You need to wait awhile. Too many at once makes us sick. Echo learned that.”
Echo’s voice shouts from somewhere within the tunnel. “They taste even worse coming back up!”
I chuckle and close my eyes with contentment. We are still alive, that is all I ask the Moon Mother for. I hear the bowl click against the stone as Talea sets it down and pulls her entire self under the cover with me. I can feel her shift as she takes her clothes off beneath the blanket and curls up beside me.
Lesedi’s voice calls to her. “You don’t have to do that anymore. His temperature is safe now.”
The taunting voice of Echo replies. “Maybe she fancies a quick thrack. You don’t know.”
I look to see Talea roll her eyes and pull the covers over our heads entirely. She traces a finger along my chest muscles and bites her lip. “It has been quite a while.” Her hands follow the lines of my torso down my abdomen. My breathing quickens and then she stops. “But you just got your strength back. We’ll give you some more time.”
I groan with disappointment and it only makes her smile more. My muscles tense as I pull her in close to me. For now, having her in my arms is enough. Having her with me at all is enough. I hear her sigh with the same thought and together we lie beneath the blankets content. In this moment the Moon Mother has brought us peace, she has given us each other. We can be satisfied with that and relish in the quiet while we have it.
It does not last long. We fall into the darkness of sleep together and wake to screaming.
✽✽✽
TALEA:
I rip the covers away and leap to my feet, which are still a bit uneasy. We’ve been in the tunnels for two days now, but handfuls of mushrooms only go so far. All of us are weak and a bit dizzy with no choice but to push forwards. At least it’s not the snow, at least we’re still alive.
I look around me to see the orange of the fire has died down to a burnt pile of gunk. Glowing green mushrooms cover the tunnel floor save for the spaces we cleared and consumed. In the green light I see Lesedi and Echo pull themselves to their feet with startled confusion. Lesedi races to calm the zigons huddling together resting along the tunnel walls, they can travel this space with us, but a stampede could kill us all. Screams bounce towards us from down the tunnel, looking down I can see dark silhouettes moving in the distant glow. They’re in danger, that thought alone propels my instincts into action.
I race down the tunnel as Lesedi calls to me. “But Talea-”
I glance over my shoulder. “I’ve got to help them!”
I see Othin pulling the covers off himself to jump into the fray and I stop in my tracks. “No, stay with Lesedi, keep those zigons calm!”
A glare comes over his face and frustration pulses from him. Every inch of his body wants to leap into the fight, to protect us, me. He hasn’t recovered enough, and I can feel shame from him over it. I hear another scream; I don’t have time for his feelings right now. Sometimes you just have to move forwards and keep going.
We share a glance, he stays silent. I smirk. “Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to pull my hide from the fire.”
He laughs and gives me a weak smile. “Go crush them.”
With a nod I bolt into the darkness. The glow creeps up the stark black walls of the tunnel, Lesedi says it’s hardstone. A lot of it. Two metal bars line the floor, they’re placed far enough from each other that a zigon could walk over each one with space to spare between them. She says this was used as a transportation tunnel, but I don’t see how they could convince fands or even orbig to travel down here. Zigons are fearless, and even they are having trouble.
Following the clumps of glowing mushrooms that spread away from the metal bars I reach the rest of my pack. I suck in a deep breath of anxiety. Yars. Bodies move in the dim light in a blur of confusion. Weapons clank and fighters flip and jump to get around the fighting shadows. I’ve never seen one in person before, neither have I paid enough attention when Lesedi talked about them.
They’re big and powerful, but not as large as zigon. Their bodies glow a bright green in the light, my guess is they’re green in daylight too. The light down here distorts everything, the nightstalkers hair looks green and it turns their eyes a fearsome black with specks of green reflections. It’s unsettling but I need to focus on the problem at hand. A yar charges past its enemies and sets its sights on me. Its body looks graceful and thin with long limbs like a fand, but there’s a thickness to the haunches and shoulders that show its power. The legs end in three sharp claws per paw, ideal for digging and slashing, I guess. But the claws don’t look smooth like nightstalkers, there’s a weird texture that reminds me of lorrenberry thorns.
Two narrow black eyes peer at me from within a diamond shaped face, with tufts of fur jutting out from the cheeks. The fur doesn’t look right, but I can’t figure out how. It sets its sights on me and makes a powerful leap into the air over the chaos of fighting. It lands with the grace of a nightstalker in front of me and swishes its tail. I take a deep breath, I’ve got this, and reach for my hammer. But my fingers touch nothing but skin.
Heat flushes to my face as realization washes over me. I climbed into bed with Othin and took off all my clothes, in my rush I never put them back on. I gulp. I don’t have time to be embarrassed right now. Find the weakness, every living thing has one. I stare down at the creature as it charges towards me. The nose is pronounced and sticks out like the snout of a fand does, but it looks sharper and takes on a distinct triangle shape. I know little about yars, all I have are guesses.
The charging beast roars and as it gets closer, I realize it’s much bigger than I thought. On all fours it almost stares me in the eyes, and I’m six feet tall. I can’t imagine how huge it would be if it stood up on its hind legs. Weak spots, it must have a weak spot. The only guess I have is that nose, maybe. I leap into its charge with my right arm extended, my hand forms into a cup shape and I press the heel forwards and up with all of my strength into the nostrils of the animal. I hear crunching and squeals as the animal stops and shakes its head in circle screeching. I know that will only distract it for so long before it comes at us again, even more enraged.
Someone else has the same thought. As if emerging from nothingness a body leaps onto the back of the animal wielding a blade and reaches around to cut its throat. More cries squeal into the air as blood spurts from the body. The animal staggers and shakes until it collapses to the ground.
I walk over panting and see Gi’mntnat leap from the animal. Smatters of blood cover his body, and everything else. Trying to disguise his panting he approaches me, as do the others. None of us have gotten back on our feet yet, none of us have the strength for this.
I try to pretend that no one has noticed I’m naked and command as much authority as I can. “How many yars?”
Viko leans against her sister. “One.”
One? Our whole pack is exhausted from one yar? I nod. “What triggered the attack?”
Jar’kog steps forward, his eyes narrow with anger. “I found a body.”
My heart sinks, I know what’s coming and I’m powerless to fight it. “Who?”
The pack steps aside to reveal a body lying against the tunnel wall. Meekala appears at my side and walks with me. “Jar’kog and I were checking the surroundings. We found a yar eating him. In instinct we attacked to save him, but we were too late.”
Lying lifeless on the ground is what’s left of Thrik. His legs have been chewed to ribbons and his torso ripped open. I gulp and try to swallow my nausea. “When did this happen?”
Meekala shrugs. “I do not know. Maybe it took him in his sleep. But, any moonrunner would have woken and fought.” She looks at me dumbfounded. “What do we do?”
I rub my temples; I can’t figure this out. But I know who can, and I hate to do it to her. I turn to the twins. “Bring his body back for Lesedi to look at.” They obey at once and I stop them. “Wait, I want you to leave the body on the edge of our camp. Go to Lesedi. Tell her what happened. Then, when she’s ready, bring her to the body and obey what she says from there.”
They both nod and Viko speaks. “Understand.”
I’ve learned by now I need to be specific in my instructions to them, especially with sensitive situations. The last thing Lesedi needs is to be tending to the zigons and they drop a dead body in front of her. I raise a hand and rest it on Meekala’s shoulders, she no longer flinches when I touch her. A sign of a blossoming friendship, she suppresses her attack instinct automatically around me.
I snap my fingers into the air. “Kr’thitch, I need you to run a perimeter. If there are any others nearby, we need to know.” His head gives a simultaneous twitch and nod. Before he turns to run, I snap again, he pauses. “Go in quiet. No need to wake anything up.” He nods again and I snap once more. “If you see any, do not start a fight. Come back here right away.” Another nod and he bolts off into the tunnel.
I tilt my head towards the yar and lock eyes with Meekala. “You know how to break that thing down. I want you to salvage everything you can from it. We need more food. Anything that can help us. Use Vrx and Gi’mntat to help you. Divide the work, don’t exhaust yourselves.” I give her a pat. “Something tells me, we’re all going to need to be at full strength.”
She nods. “I agree Tu’kari. This will not be our last fight.”
I smile. “Of course not. Moonrunners never have it easy.”
She grins. “Nor do we want to.”
I walk back to the camp feeling weak and drained. We’ve had our first casualty, and I know it won’t be our last. I feel like someone chipped a piece of me out and threw it into the muck. I didn’t know Thrik well, he was quiet and didn’t talk much. But he was always watching, searching for danger, keeping an eye on every one of us. It was his special job to keep all of us safe and he took it with all seriousness. But now, we’ve lost our bane. I’ve won the respect of the pack now so I don’t think they’ll turn on us, if they even know. Things feel a bit less secure anyhow.
I reach the camp and feel ready to collapse under the blankets again. Othin rushes to my side and through his worrying I realize I’m covered head to toe in blood. When Gi’mntat cut the yar’s throat, I was the one standing in front of it. I look down and see myself, naked and bloody, and can’t help but break into laughter.
I shrug. “Some fearsome leader I am.”
Othin gives me a smirk. “Indeed.”
I roll my eyes and place my hands on my hips. “This can’t be doing it for you.”
He shrugs. “It is the blood of your enemy. What more could a moonrunner want from his mate?”
I reply with a kind punch to his chest and move past him. I move into the orange light of a fire again and find it far more reassuring than green. Lesedi is leaning over the dead body examining every bit, she mutters to herself and takes notes. At least her natural curiosity surpasses her gag reflex at the gory scene.
As I open my mouth to speak Lesedi interrupts me without taking her eyes from the body. “I don’t know much yet. Please, go put some clothes on and clean up a bit. Then we’ll talk.”
Echo elbows her. “Why? You jealous?”
“Of that scrawny mess?” She mutters and shoots a glare at our cousin. “No. But it’s more than enough to have the nightstalkers running around naked. I won’t have my sister joining them.”
I blow a piece of hair from my eyes in a huff and march over to my stack of clothes. I rifle through my belongings and find the dirtiest ones I can to wipe the blood from my body. I find the cleanest ones, though none of the clothes are so much clean as they are less dirty, and clothe my body. I put on a pair of brown, used to be green, pants that are loose in the legs and end in a fitting cuff around the ankle. Over that is a light brown, used to be white, tunic with long sleeves and a black vest. Then of course, my socks that can barely be called that on account of the holes, and boots. I stopped trying to go barefoot when Lesedi informed me the mud that covers the ground is in fact animal droppings.
When all is said and done, I am in fact, clothed. That’s the best we can hope for at this point. Even Lesedi is starting to look like a mess, though she still clings on as best she can. Her hair even still looks like hair.
I crouch beside her and look at the body. I sent the twins away to help with breaking down the yar. Othin appears beside me and sits on the stone floor leaning back on his arms. Lesedi looks at us. “Crowding me won’t make the answers any easier.”
I shrug. “Humor us. What have you found so far?”
She sighs. “Well, he was partially eaten by a yar.”
I frown. “I thought you said we don’t have predators.” I pause. “Well, except for them.” I gesture to Othin and he flashes a smile of pride.
Lesedi takes in a sharp breath through her nose. “We don’t have carnivorous animals. No. We do though have carnivorous plants in plenty.”
My eyebrows pull into a hard frown. Wait, the fur that doesn’t look right. It looks like snarled scraggly twigs that twist outward from the body. Roots. “Suns! Are you telling me those things are plants?!”
She shrugs. “Sort of. They’re actually a half plant half animal hybrid creature.” She purses her lips in response to the blank uncomprehending faces. “Everything isn’t black and white, plant and animal. It’s a bit of a spectrum. Yars fall in the middle of that. The roots that cover their bodies pull nutrients and water out of the soil, thus why they create burrows.”
I shake my head; I should have started paying attention a long time ago. “So, why did it kill Thrik?”
Lesedi takes a deep breath to pull a mask of calm over her face. It must be borderline painful to have to slow down her brain so much to explain things to us. “Yars also have a gastrointestinal system. This makes them opportunistic omnivores. Down here they have likely been eating the mushrooms and absorbing nutrients from the feces. But when presented with a free meal, they take it regardless of what it is. Nutrients are nutrients.”
Othin tilts his head to the side. “Feces?”
Lesedi points up. “They’re not the only inhabitants of this place.”
I frown and looking up I can see the faint outline of something on the ceiling, but I can’t make it out. How did I not notice that? My eyes widen and Lesedi waves her hand at me. “Don’t worry about them they’re harmless. Also, barely the size of a bird, not worth causing a fuss over.” She pauses and realizes she got off track. “My point is, yars will eat an animal if presented with one. Like when they come across a dead animal out in the wild. If the moongrasss doesn’t swallow it, the scavengers will. It’s a free meal.”
“Ok.” I speak slow trying to comprehend. “But that yar ate Thrik. Meekala says she thinks it dragged him off while we were sleeping.”
She shakes her head. “No. A yar will only attack in a defensive measure. They do not prey upon animals unless starving. Here, they are far from starving.”
Othin squeezes my hand and takes a breath. He knows something. “Then if a yar did not kill Thrik, someone else did.”
Lesedi nods and shuffles down to his head. “His skull is caved in right here. That’s blunt force trauma. You’d get that by having your head smashed into something. It’s not how a yar would kill.” She sits back on her heels and rests her hands in her lap. “Someone else indeed. I think he was killed and dragged towards a yar who took the free meal.”
My eyebrows raise. “A murder. You’re saying on top of everything else, one of our own was murdered?” Questions spin in my brain; we don’t have time for something like this. We have so much else on our plate. “Who?”
My sister takes a breath, meets my eyes, and asks me the most bone chilling question I can imagine. “Where’s Rala?”