Alin wrapped his good arm and legs around the fae’s lower half.
Thin with joints that bent in all the weirdest ways meant it was like trying to hold a greased up giant snake.
A true story, not his, but his uncle’s.
So, there he was, wrapped around the fae like that time when he was a kid deathly afraid of the lake his mom was trying to take him into.
It hadn’t helped that he had seen the size of the monstrous fishes and other things his dad had taken out of it earlier in the day.
The fae would’ve stabbed him or thrown him off had it not been occupied with Lera.
His little cousin forced it to parry and weave against her strikes.
Not with her club, which was lost somewhere in the dark, but with her dented chestplate.
She had taken it off to use as an inelegant, but effective bludgeon.
The cold iron rendered the bone blade mundane and stripped the fae of its ability to heal nearly instantaneously.
Alin felt like he was inside a violently shaking snow globe, but instead of fake snow, dying leaves and tiny animal bones swirled around him.
The impacts sounded like gunshots.
They were so loud that his helmet’s automatic auditory system dampened them.
One particular fierce blow cut the chestplate in two and snapped the bone blade.
The fae’s dying animal scream cut right through Alin's helmet protections.
He bit his tongue again.
Lera jumped, shoving the jagged edge of the cold iron into its screaming mouth.
They all toppled over.
Alin at the bottom of the pile with two wrestling bodies on top of him.
His cousin was heavier than she looked, while the fae was simultaneously heavier and lighter than it looked.
An iron weight in one moment and a small sack of leaves the next.
It was all he could do to hold on for his and Lera’s lives.
Being taken to the fae Realm didn’t sound like a good idea.
They rolled around like wet cats in a sack.
Lera went for the eyes, digging and gouging for gold.
The fae palmed her face like a ball, pushing with all its faerie might.
She fish-hooked the side of its mouth, stretching until she ripped it a wider smile.
It stabbed with half a bone blade only for Alin to deflect it out of sheer luck with a desperate swipe of a re-initialized hardlight blade.
Sword turned into dagger with a cybernetic thought.
Alin plunged it through dying leaves thigh armor.
He worked it like a saw before ripping it out.
Dead leaves and animal bones sprayed him in face, smearing across his faceplate.
Lera planted her knee between the fae’s legs.
The blows made Alin feel like he was in an earthquake.
The fae somehow elbowed Alin in the head despite him being below its waste.
A second elbow knocked Lera’s head back.
The broken bone blade struck like a snake across the side of her face, creating sparks against the side of her helmet.
She bit at its exposed fingers, spitting out dying leaves and animal bones while the fae screamed.
It lashed out, striking her off it with another elbow.
It kicked Alin off and stomped on him for good measure, driving the wind from his lungs and planting into into the grass and dirt.
Lera, ferocious cat that she was, pounced on the fae’s back.
Fingers dug into eyes and unhealed holes from Alin’s pistol.
It spun around, trying to rip her off.
Alin pulled himself from the small Alin-shaped crater.
He couldn’t concentrate with the pain, so he had to do it by hand. He pulled his dangling arm tight to his body with his uninjured one.
“Lock right arm. All joints.”
The undersuit obeyed.
His eyes watered and his vision darkened for an instant.
The arm stayed in place as though in a sling.
Next he tried to reload his recoilless pistol, which wasn’t easy with just one usable hand.
The fae and Lera were moving further away in the wild, spinning struggle.
A loud boom knocked him face first into the grass.
Bright light lit up the night for an instant.
He glanced back as his faceplate cleared.
Wiping away the smeared leaves and bit of animal bones, he saw a dozen still forms crumpled around the witch ritual circle.
There was no sign of the eye-like opening, in its places stood two fae.
One witch remained standing.
The one with the longcoat and tricorne hat.
She flicked her coat open and drew two pistols, spraying the fae with bullets that sparked like fireflies.
Ranger Captain Swan Princess was on her knees, but she sent a trio of spell orbs swirling around the fae, firing spells in a bright torrent.
The fae parried with blade and blocked with shield.
The witch and the ranger were spent from the effort to close the rift to the fae Realm.
They’re remaining power didn’t last long.
The fae leapt from the circle, cutting and thrusting at the down forms.
One, two, three, four rangers lost their lives in an instant.
A burst of machine gun fire sent them dodging or ducking behind the shield.
Rangers finally emerged from HQ.
What had taken them so long?
Alin failed to realize that what had felt like an eternity to him, had been only a handful of minutes at most.
A modified golf cart tore across the gas.
Guns barked.
Cold iron bullets tore holes that didn’t heal.
They tipped the balance of levels with numbers and the fae’s vulnerability.
The two new arrivals vanished in a puff of leaves and ash, but didn’t reappear.
A loud scream ripped the night.
The Baron of Forest Decay had Lera pinned beneath its boot.
It raised a gnarled horn made out of no earthly animal to its lips.
“Don’t let it call the hunt!” The witch with the bone-adorned staff had risen from unconsciousness.
Bang!
A single shot blew the horn to bits along with a few of the fae’s fingers.
Ranger Captain Aims, another legendary name, fanned his antique revolver.
Cold iron bullets ripped into both eyes, wrists and throat.
The second revolver replaced the first in the blink of an eye.
Shots tore through elbows, shoulders and knees.
Lera heaved the fae off her and leapt on it.
She punched and pounded cold-iron spiked fists on its chest like a blood-lusted, prime silverback.
Dead leaves and animal bone filled the air around them.
Her face twisted into a rictus of rage as the assault showed no signs of abating.
The rangers rushed forward to cover her and pull her away, but the witch shouted and they held back.
Alin staggered to his feet and pushed his way past the circle around his cousin and the fae.
“Lera… Lera… Lera!”
She stopped, fists raised high over her head.
He approached slowly.
“Lera, it’s me. Can you hear me? It’s over. You beat it.”
The fae was already crumbling into dead leaves and ash.
She turned to face him.
Her face was a battered mess.
Blood leaked from her nose.
One eye swollen shut, the other shadowed in dark purple.
Her left cheek was twice as big as the right, while the right had red welts.
She opened her mouth to speak, revealing missing teeth.
“It’s over?” She looked up at him with tears.
He continued his slow approach.
“Yeah, you did it. You beat it!” he smiled despite the pain in his face.
His armor had kept him alive, but not uninjured.
“Deep breaths, remember what your dad said about control. You don’t need to fight anymore. You don’t need to be strong.”
“They never leave me alone. I was happy playing with all the kids and you and they ruined it like always.” She sobbed. Her fingers twitched, clenching into fists and opening repeatedly. “Now I’m going to have to go back and I don’t want to. There aren’t a lot of kids and the ones there don’t want to play with me.”
“Hey, it’s okay, we don’t know that. You beat it, right? So, maybe they’ll think again before trying.”
“No! They always do!”
He was within hugging distance, but had to be careful.
In her worked up state she could accidentally hurt him.
He had the undersuit on, but I might not be enough to escape broken ribs and ruptured organs.
She bawled.
Full on, ugly baby crying.
She went to wipe her eyes when she realized that she had armored hands.
Fuck it! he thought.
He hugged her tightly.
She hesitated a long moment before returning it.
Tight, but not painful.
He didn’t know how long they stayed like that.
He had dim memories of more rangers and SCSDF guardians flooding the area.
They took care of the injured, took the dead away and set up defenses around the two of them.
All he knew was that he didn’t feel safe until someone flew down from the dark night sky.
Either his aunt or uncle, he didn’t know because he passed out at that moment.
He thought he was prepared for a real life or death fight.
Oh, how wrong he had been.
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Alin woke from the shaking.
“Wake up, concussion boy,” Uncle Eron grinned.
Brain fog had him blinking in confusion.
“Do you know where you are?”
He looked around.
It looked like his room at his aunt’s house where he stayed during the week because of school, ranger and regular.
Was that right?
“What day is it? Year? Who are you?”
He grimaced at being forced to think.
The headache was real and painful, like stabbing needles behind his eyes and why was the light so bright.
He closed his eyes, which made things spin.
“C’mon, Boy. I got to check.”
“Sunday? 2046. I’m me.”
“Technically it’s Monday, but close enough.”
He shot up and regretted it instantly.
“Is—”
“Lera’s fine. No more fae. You’ve got a concussion, which is good because without that fancy armor you’d be dead from blunt force brain trauma. Your elbow got broken, ligaments and tendons torn. Good news is that doctor Skills and healing magic means that your concussion is only good for about three to four hours. The elbow’s gonna take about two weeks. Your mom wants the lesson to sink in,” he shrugged.”
“My mom!”
“Don’t worry, she can’t yell at you tonight. Some stuff went down at your place. Again, don’t worry, she’s fine. Slight casualties, no deaths, but your off the hook for now.”
“Did the fae—”
“Nope, your mom’s problems were spawn zone related. Damn things are going crazy. That’s why you didn’t have a lot of ranger support. A festival might have not been the best idea in such troubled times.”
“The festival—”
“Relax, it’s not getting canceled. So, your little date is still on. Unless her parents got freaked out by the close call tonight. You and your friends got awfully close to some real terrors. I wouldn’t blame them if they decide to keep the kids at home tomorrow, er, today.”
“Wait… how do you know about that?”
“You were crying about it when you were going in and out of consciousness.”
“Aww man…”
“Don’t worry about it. Only me, your aunt, Fed, the doctor, the nurse, the healers and a couple of others were there. Just be happy you didn’t shit and piss yourself. That happens a lot more than you’d think when people get fucked up in a fight.”
“So, I’ll be okay to go… er…”
“On your date?” Uncle Eron snorted. “Sorry, it’s bed rest for you until the doctor says otherwise,” he sighed. “Damn faeries. They just won’t leave her alone. It’s not fair. She’s lonely.”
“I… uh… figured that out.”
“Yeah, that’s why she’s been so happy here. She got to be a normal kid. Running around terrorizing the neighborhood. Ditch’em, water fights, hide and seek, all the kid stuff I remember. Annoying your older cousin.”
“She’s… uh… not…”
His uncle laughed.
“She is and that’s perfectly normal. Anyways, thanks again for getting Lera’s back. Your parents are probably going to punish you.”
“Worth it.”
“I’m biased, but I agree. It takes balls to go up against a fae noble without powers or Skills. Badass gear, admittedly, but it wasn’t even your full power armor. I might have a word with them. What’s the point of having it if you can’t use it when you really need it?”
“I… agree…”
“Don’t worry, I won’t mention you said anything. I’ll frame it as a concerned fellow parent and from a tactical and strategic standpoint.”
A heavy, pattering tread sounded on the stairs and in the hallway.
Tiny feet, but heavier than she looked.
Lera tromped over with their Aunt Rayna.
“I heard you,” Aunt Rayna poked Uncle Eron in the side.
“Ow, why?”
“Because you’re the worst.”
“He deserved to know what he could’ve sacrificed to help my daughter. Which was I was getting to, Boy, thanks for giving everything you could to help Lera.” His uncle sniffled. “I just… family’s the only thing that matters and I’m happy that you and her have got that bond. You know, boon companions facing the darkness back-to-back against the nightmares of this cursed world.”
“Would you stop!” Aunt Rayna held Lera close.
“I’m sorry,.” Lera’s voice was small.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Alin said without hesitation. “It was the fae’s fault.”
No one mentioned the murdered rangers though their sacrifice was in their thoughts.
He regarded his little cousin.
Her face looked a lot better from what he remembered through his hazy memory.
No swelling. Cuts already scabbed over. The bruises that made her look like a raccoon were already fading. She was still missing teeth and her eyes were red and she had to wipe the snot from her nose with her sleeve periodically.
Her naturally quick healing combined with the doctor’s and healers’ efforts almost minimized the scale of the mortal danger she had just faced.
She approached shyly, then threw her arms around him.
Tight, but careful to avoid pressing on his arm in a sling.
He returned it with his good arm.
“Sorry, I know I promised you could braid my hair and paint my nails, but maybe once I’m better. Two weeks, right?”
Lera sniffled snot on his shirt.
“Yeah, unfortunately, Lera’s going home in a few days,” Uncle Eron sighed. “Once your dad gets back, we’re taking her and the witches back.”
“Oh… well, I guess I can visit you next time or you guys are coming for Christmas?”
“Better chance for the former. Christmas time is a busy time for me and not exactly the best time to be outside of the safety of the coven. You know how solstices get with fae stuff. Hey, it’s not all bad. You’ve got a few more days to braid hair, paint nails and party tea.”
“I don’t want to go,” Lera whispered.
Lera was a smart girl.
She had seen people murdered by the fae and, justly or not, it was a consequence of her presence.
Hard questions would be asked about how much one was willing to spend just to give her the opportunity to live like a normal child for a few months.
But for now they would do their best to insulate the children from the real world.
“Okay, so, Lera’s mostly fine, but Boy, you can’t sleep yet, so normally I’d just throw a movie on, but watching things isn’t good for your eyes right now,” Uncle Eron said.
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
“So, I guess that means it’s story time. How about it? Interested?”
He scooted over to give Lera space as she burrowed into his blanket to cuddle.
The urge to shoo her away came and went quickly.
His cousin had superpowers and if he was being honest, he had always been jealous, but for the first time he had seen firsthand what she had to give up in exchange for them.
The fae’s face… the twisted reflection… it lingered in his memory.
The knowledge that it intended to take Lera away chilled him to the core and more that it had been a close thing despite her powers.
Lives had been lost to stop just three of the things.
“What story do you guys want to hear?” Uncle Eron pulled a desk chair over to the bedside.
“Not too late for Lera. Remember the doctor said she needs to sleep,” Aunt Rayna said before leaving the room to do ranger stuff.
“I don’t want to sleep,” Lera muttered.
“Don’t worry, Baby,” Uncle Eron soothed. “You have your mom’s charm and the dreamcatchers, right?”
Lera fingered her necklace.
Alin remembered the witchy looking decorations in Lera’s room.
“And they’ve always worked, right?”
Lera nodded.
“Can we get a story that, um, isn’t one of your usual ones?”
Alin had enough of nightmarish creatures and entities for one night.
“Crap… okay… that’s kinda limiting my options, you know?”
His uncle fell into silent thought for a minute or two before brightening.
“Okay, I got one! Lera, I don’t think I’ve ever told you the story of how I met your mom. So, anyways, there was this skin monster…”
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The brain fog was real the next day.
Not being allowed to sleep made his head feel weird.
It was boring more than anything once he accounted for the aches and pains since he couldn’t really leave bed unless it was to go to the bathroom.
Real food wasn’t even a thing because all he had was the Threnosh nutrient drink.
A large supply had been sent over.
It was perfect because it had all he needed without triggering the nausea and urge to puke.
They had even given it a variety of flavors.
He preferred the fruity ones to the savory ones.
Drinking strawberry was good and normal. Drinking fried rice and orange chicken was not.
Kat took a sip of his lunch.
“I can taste the hamburger and the curly fries… how?”
Their planned festival date had turned into her reading from a random book plucked off the shelf.
It was about a sword-wielding mouse defending his abbey from rats, weasels and a snake.
How had he missed it?
There was a whole series and he suddenly wanted to know everything… especially about those badger lords. They sounded like proper badasses!
His friends had come in small groups to check in on him before heading back to their homes or the festival depending on how strict their parents were.
His uncle and Lera were in the backyard painting nails and partying tea with the recovering witches.
It was interesting to learn that only two of the witches cackled.
The one with the pistols laughed like a normal person.
“They distilled the flavor profiles into complex molecular chains that remain separate within the liquid.”
“Yeah, okay, but how am I tasting both at the same time, but completely separate from each other.” Kat took another sip. “I could get used to this and it has all the nutrients I need?”
“Yup. Healthier than real food too. You like it?”
“Yeah?”
“That’s weird.”
“You’re weird!” She raised a fist toward his arm, halting when she realized it was in a sling, so she leaned over him to punch his other arm.
She got really close to his face when she did that.
The blood rushed to his head, which was bad for his dizziness, forcing him to close his eyes for it too pass.
“Oops, sorry,” she giggled. “Do you need the nurse?”
A rotating number had been coming in and out of his aunt’s house all day in one hour shifts.
“No, I’m good,” he yawned.
“You haven’t slept at all?”
He shook his head.
“That was crazy last night. The rangers took us to a bunker, but we could still hear stuff. It sounded like thunder.”
“Yeah, uh, I don’t really want to talk about it.”
“Oh, yeah, obviously, sorry. I’m glad you and your cousin are okay.”
What remained unsaid was the number of rangers that hadn’t made it out of the fight okay.
Alin knew because he had witnessed it. He didn’t know how much of the full story Kat knew and he didn’t want to ask.
“Um, thanks for spending time with me, but if you need to go do stuff…”
“Oh, it’s cool. I can’t go to the festival anyways. My parents won’t let me out until it’s ‘safe’.”
“But they let you come here?”
“This is probably the best defended house anywhere right now. Rangers, guardians, your uncle.”
He yawned again.
Her eyes narrowed.
“Maybe it’s okay for you to sleep now. I’ll ask the nurse.”
“No, that’s fine. I’m waiting on the doctor to check me out. I think she’s supposed to come around two. I fell asleep for like fifteen minutes before anyone noticed and the nurse sorta freaked out. I had a weird dream.”
“Oh, what was it about?”
“I was at the beach, kinda like during beach weeks. There were people and everything.”
“Was I there?”
“Um… I don’t remember faces or specifics like that. It was all kinda… foggy… yeah, a fog rolled in from the ocean or was always there. There were, like, shapes, I think, in the fog. Maybe people… I felt like I knew them or should’ve known them. Then I wandered a city and it was, like, the fog was following me. Then I think my dad and uncle were there, but they were fighting.”
“Oh, a monster! Wait, do you have paper and a pen? I should write this down. There was a dream interpretation section in one of the psychology classes I took.” She found what she needed on his desk. “So, I think your dad and uncle probably represent safety and protection, right?”
“That makes sense.”
“So, whatever they were fighting represents something you fear in your subconscious. Was it the fae thing? Because that’d make sense since you’ve just gone through a traumatic event that’s fresh in your mind.”
“No, not the fae… I think… they were fighting each other…”
“Oh…” her pen stopped. “Why don’t we start from the beginning of your dream.”
The scent of brine filled his nose as refreshing mist sprinkled his exposed skin.
A bright sun shined down.
The heat balanced perfectly by the cool ocean waves lapping at his legs.
Laughing shouts filled the air.
Voices he recognized and those he didn’t.
He turned expecting to see beloved friends and family.
Empty sand greeted him.
Creeping fingers caressed the back of his neck.
He spun.
The empty ocean was covered with a thin blanket of fog that obscured the distant islands that should’ve been visible. The pier to his right was quickly subsumed by the thick, gray smoke.
He heard voices again.
Hushed whispers this time.
Right in his ear, though he couldn’t understand them no matter how hard he tried.
There was something familiar about them.
The sinking sensation that he should’ve recognized them accompanied a great sense of anger and loss that simultaneously came from within him and from a place outside.
The pain was his. The pain was directed at him.
The fog halted before him.
Looking north, then south along the coastline he realized two things.
The fog stretched out into infinity and it didn’t pass him.
He reached out.
The gray wisps reached out in turn.
It almost looked like a hand reaching for his.
It felt familiar, like home and yet, he recoiled from it.
Turning, he hurried away from the shore.
The soft sand threatened to swallow his steps.
Creeping fingers of gray tickled the back of his neck and caressed the sides of his face.
He saw shapes, forms out of the corners of his eyes in the fog that trailed just behind him.
As a child he had tied a blanket around his neck pretending to be superheroes from his dad’s literature collection. He ran around pretending he was flying as he dragged the blanket all over the hotel. Sometimes his dad helped him fly for real. Then the sound of the blanket flapping in the wind filled his ears, competing with his laughter and joyful shouts.
The fog was like that blanket.
It smelled of home.
And yet, except for the incessant whispers, it was as silent as a proper graveyard.
Before he knew it he had walked into a city he didn’t recognize.
Tall buildings loomed in the fog that had spread out beyond his control to cover everything as far as he could see.
A sudden presence appeared overhead in the haze.
The sun.
A harsh glaring presence threatening to burn the gray away.
Then something more familiar rose. Out of the fog, but not of it.
The two clashed in the sky and then he woke up.
“Wow! What’s really weird is that you remembered so much detail. Usually, people forget their dreams as soon as they wake up unless they write it down right away.” Kat scribbled madly. “Have you had this dream before?”
“First time, I think…”
“Okay, so, I’m just trying to remember what we covered in class, but I’m going to identify important elements. So, the fog is obvious, then the sun and the other thing…” she looked at him expectantly.
“Er… I don’t know, home and safety was the best way I can describe it… but, a different kind of home than the fog stuff, which I know sounds like I should find creepier than I do.” He shrugged.
“Yeah, it sounds creepy to me, but it’s a dream so it’s supposed to be weird.”
They spent the rest of the afternoon until Kat had to go home coming up with dozens of ideas that led to nothing definitive.
Not that he was expecting answers.
He chalked the weirdness up to last night’s terrible fae experience combined with the concussion.
Honestly, he was more concerned with the fallout from said events.
What were his parents going to say?