I feel myself teetering from exhaustion and Cran holds me stable upon my feet. I watch as my friends disappear into the forest, each exhibiting different levels of excitement. Lilith seems to be leaping through the forest barely able to contain her enthusiasm for tomorrow’s schemes, contrasting with Gareth’s more pensive gate. Ashe appears to be comforting Mary, and Esther like me watches her comrades with earnest joy. I feel myself stumble and I know I need to take a rest, especially considering what is to occur tomorrow but there is still something I desire to do. Someone I long to talk to.
Cran removes himself from my hand and I plummet to the ground. Cran whistles as if to chuckle at me and says, “I’ll prepare some fireworks. I don’t need to be with you for everything, so go to her.”
“I know we’ve been together for over a month, but I still can’t get used to you being in my head,” I say pushing myself off the ground and taking a few tentative steps forward, “you sure you can stand to not be with me for a bit?”
Cran hits me over the head and pushes me forward saying, “We each need to prepare for our own role tomorrow. This will be your way to prepare. Go and check to see if your path through the alleys is secure, and don’t make too much noise. Gehenna is most likely going to be watching and listening to Uzuri’s door.”
“Thanks for telling me that. Imagine if I accidentally blew the fact that we are rescuing her tomorrow and Gehenna learned that because I was careless,” I say thinking that perhaps staying home and sleeping would be of more help than going to see her one last time before tomorrow.
“Maybe I should go with you,” says Cran spinning in front of me, “I mean the temptation to try and save her tonight may be too much for you. Right now, you could climb under the wall and only Gehenna would be in your way. All you would have to do is kill him and you’d be home free.”
“I don’t think that Gehenna would risk himself so openly,” I say considering Cran’s words, “If he wishes to lure me, and knows of my strength, he very well must have a plan that involves more than just him watching Uzuri’s door.”
“Then what are you going to do?” asks Cran and I feel myself rooted in place, “Are you going to go see her knowing the risks, or are you going to wait till tomorrow when you will see her face to face?”
“Cran, are you trying to convince me to stay,” I say confused as to why he would prompt me to leave but give me reasons to remain here.
“Not exactly… I sensed the desire of your heart, but also, I wanted to voice my concerns and give your internal doubt a voice as well,” says Cran floating next to me.
“I hate even after learning about Gehenna’s motive, I still don’t think that we know what we need to fully approach tomorrow. We are out of time though, and Gehenna’s schemes appear to be out of reach for me and my friends,” I say clenching Cran in my hand, “I want to trust Mary, but would Gehenna even tell the matriarchs his true plans. All I know is that he is setting a trap, and beyond that I have no idea what he truly desires.”
“He desires to be the high priest of the village, that’s what Mary said at least,” says Cran transforming into his human form and guiding me to the bench in front of my parents’ house. We both take a seat, and he lights a fire in the firepit in front of us.
“I want to believe Mary, but Esther also knows her husband and she thought that he wouldn’t want to be a high priest,” I say biting my lip trying to review all I know.
“Does Esther really know her husband though?” asks Cran and I can’t refute his claim. Esther may live with the man, and have been a victim of him, but that doesn’t mean that she inherently knows his thoughts or has his trust. The man does what he wants and says what others need to convince them to help him commit heinous deeds.
“What has he wanted in the past?” I ponder aloud to try and think of other roots of action he would have available to him.
“He wanted your mother, but I’m sure he knows he can’t have her especially considering your father is protecting her. Speaking of your father, he wanted him gone, but he’s already banished,” says Cran running through desires that Gehenna acted upon in the past.
“Esther is the sister of my mother, so his goals to breed a superior generation to fight the teratolion is still a possibility,” I say thinking with a frustrated sigh trying to think like that horrid monster of a human being, “Is the only reason that he is keeping Uzuri around just to give him time to produce more progeny. Then again, why hasn’t my aunt had more children if that was his goal?”
“That is a good question. Gareth doesn’t seem like Esther’s child and more your mother’s child. He’s large and brawny, and everything that Gehenna would want in progeny, yet he didn’t make more children knowing that Esther could produce him children that he wanted,” says Cran leaning forward to look closer at the fire.
“That’s because her pregnancy nearly killed her,” says my mother approaching us from behind.
“Does that mean she can’t have children anymore?” I ask trying to work out more details to try and figure out Gehenna.
My mother nods and sits with Cran and I on the bench, “Gareth, was an enormous child for her to bear. He nearly ripped her in two, and well it was a miracle that she survived. Gehenna still wanted more children but every time she got pregnant; she would miscarry. Something about Gareth’s birth left her barren, but maybe that was a miracle as well. Gehenna was wanting to use her to make as many children as possible and would have risked her life every time she got pregnant to achieve his goal. When she could no longer have children, he eventually gave up and she no longer had to endure him.”
“I’m guessing that the high matriarch wouldn’t let him remarry because of tradition. Thus, Mary may be telling the truth. He could change tradition if he were the high priest, and he could remarry and have more children. But why wouldn’t the matriarchs stop him?” I ask with new hatred boiling in me knowing he might be using me to abandon his current wife so he can make an army of his own progeny.
“The matriarchs convinced their husbands to support his atrocities, what makes you think they wouldn’t spread their legs for him?” says my mother cynically, “I’d personally believe that his end goal is to become some new prophet of the goddess to sleep around.”
“If he has an army then he wouldn’t need Uzuri, but he still needs her until his army forms,” I say still not fully believing that this could be the reason Gehenna is trying to entrap me. In fact, why would capturing me and executing me give him authority over the village? Do they really think that I’m some demon that came to town one day to warn them of their sins? Would killing me really make the village believe that somehow Gehenna exorcised a demon and raise him to the position of high priest? My thoughts are heavy, but again we don’t have time to learn more, we must act or face spring and the Amolacrimae of sin.
“Makes sense to me. His goal for me was to be his brood mother, so why wouldn’t he try and make the village his bitch,” says my mother wrapping an arm around me, “let’s kick his plan to the curb tomorrow. He doesn’t know when we are coming, or how we plan to save Uzuri, so we are leagues and bounds ahead of him. Tomorrow, we undo all the evil he’s done and make it harder for him to commit anymore horrible deeds!”
“Maybe I’m just overthinking with all that is going to happen tomorrow,” I say with a yawn escaping my mouth, “I still want to go and visit Uzuri though.”
“No! you are going to bed and resting up for tomorrow,” says my mother and I was about to protest, but she puts a finger to my mouth, “before you say anything, I’m still your mother and I might as well mother you as long as I can. You won’t be here much longer after all.”
“Right… soon my debt will be called to be fulfilled,” I say my body growing weaker by the second, “I guess I could wait just little longer to talk to her again.”
“Come on Skath you have an important role to play tomorrow, and if you don’t fully recover from your fight with Dargot, who is to say you and your friends will be successful,” says my mother lending me a hand to lift myself from the bench and she then leads me toward my room, “rest well my son, as tomorrow everything changes for you. I hate to say it, but tomorrow may be goodbye.”
“Good luck tomorrow son,” says my father from his chair as my mother tries to hide her tears from me by closing the door of my room. I stand in my room and hear my parents whisper behind my door. I run my hand along the walls of my room as I pace this nostalgic space.
I opened the cabinet that once held all my herbs and ointments, and now it was absolutely empty. What I had left that was spoiled had been thrown out by my parents, and I felt like to a certain extent much of who I was had been erased from this room. No herbs were hanging to dry, and my deer stuffy had gone missing. My room was just furnished by a bed and a desk and what little of me remains seems to disappear as I continue to search for myself in this place that used to be my own.
I heard a knock at my window but didn’t move to open it. The window opens and Cran floats up beside me. I didn’t look at him and continued to stare at the sorry state of my room. A shredding sound erupts behind me, and a little insectoid wooden soldier flies in front of my face.
“Cran, I’m not in the mood right now,” I say my thoughts being relentless with me and my body exhausted, “Can you believe this used to be my room? It’s as if I’ve been disappearing for a long time now, and I don’t really know how to feel about that.”
“Well, would talking to Uzuri cheer you up?” asks Cran carving a smile into the face of his insect soldier.
“I should stay here. If I go tonight, I may spring a trap, and get into a situation that I’ll have to fight my way out of and not getting into a fight is the whole point behind our pigheaded scheme. I want to avoid needless violence at all costs. On top of avoiding conflict tonight I am extremely fatigued. I’m tired from a month of intense training with my father, and slaying Dargot. My body desperately needs a rest. My mind needs one as well,” I say sitting down on the edge of my bed.
“I thought of all that, and right now one of my soldiers is traveling to the back wall of Gehenna’s home. In fact, I feel him crawling through the hole in the wall as we speak,” says Cran buzzing in front of my face.
“Wait, you went in my stead?” I ask looking at Cran, and though I wanted to go in person this is truly a gift for me.
“If Gehenna finds me, my soldiers look like wooden dolls. It will appear that she is talking to a doll. In addition, there won’t be footprints to follow and no evidence that you were anywhere close by,” says Cran flying around my head, “I figured that this would help you prepare for tomorrow.”
“Thank you so much Cran,” I say, and I let my vision jump to Cran’s soldier, and I catch him as he shoves himself through the hole in Gehenna’s back wall into Uzuri’s room. Details are always fuzzy when I use essence vision to see, but I can make out a few things in her room. I see various painting supplies on a desk and that she paints upon what I think is the fabric of old dresses on an easel or sorts. I wander the room and I see her, or rather her smokey persona and her soul. She is sitting on her bed staring at the painting currently on her easel.
What was teratolion about her was diminished, as it appears that her human side is dominant. She has the teratolion large bat like and pointed ears, but they are significantly smaller than a true teratolions’ ears. She didn’t have a snout but did have whiskers which was the only true difference her face held from a human’s. I didn’t notice the night of our first escape, probably from because of the stress and excitement I felt then, but her hands were also a tad larger than a human hand. Her hands being gloved that night also hid her claws. I was curious to know if she had a tail, but the dress she had on hid that knowledge from me.
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I extended my hand out to her to try and touch her face, but my vision jumped back to my room and I see my hand caress the air in front of me. Even though I can see her, I am not there with her. I return my vision to her room and watch as the little soldier makes its way to her side and sits next to her.
“Just talk to me and I’ll repeat what you say to her. I’ll attempt to make my voice sound like yours, and her voice sound like hers when you talk,” says Cran who I assume is in front of me, but with my vision cast into Uzuri’s room I can’t be sure.
“Uzuri, it’s me,” I say, and I watch as the little soldier’s mouth moves, and I see Uzuri startle looking for the source of my voice. She walks over to the hole in the wall almost following habit, but then notices the little soldier. She crawls over to the soldier tentatively. Suddenly, the floorboards erupt from below.
A man begins to yell and look around the room. Gehenna bursts into the room and pulls a hidden rope. I move my vision to the alley and see that every alley is being swarmed by guards. What once was sacred, was sacred no more under Gehenna’s leadership. I would have been surrounded in seconds by the entire village guard if I had gone to visit Uzuri tonight, and now that I know that there is a guard in the hole I made, I’ll have to be extremely careful. I don’t know how Gehenna snuck a man into my hole without Gareth or Esther noticing, but if Cran hadn’t come up with his plan to give me one last chance to talk to Uzuri we may never have known about the potential trap we were walking right into.
I watch the paths of the guards as they search for me, but I see each guard give up on their search. They must have not found any evidence of my being in or near the village, and each returned to report to Gehenna. With each report Gehenna receives, Gehenna flails his arms and what appear to be prosthesis hands in the air. I think they are prosthesis hands as the essence in Gehenna’s new hands is different from the essence contained in his body. Our little run in with each other must have led to his hands being amputated and being replaced with what I can assume are wooden hands.
The last guard enters Gehenna’s home followed shortly by Gareth and Esther. I see Gehenna yell at his family to go to their respective rooms, or at least that is what I guess he ordered. Gareth and Esther quickly enter two rooms and I see Gehenna talk to the last guard before he runs out of Gehenna’s home. Gehenna paces the floor whilst the guard that was under the floorboards and another guard who wears a top portion of a boar skull as a pauldron enter the home. The floorboard guard trembles in the presence of these two men, and they walk together out of the house.
Guards were now positioned at the entrance of every alley as the three men walked down the main road and into the woods. All three men walk deeper into the woods, until they reach the place Gehenna desired. A small clearing with a solitary stump at its center, with a hammer leaning against it. Gehenna yells for the boar skull wearing guard to push the floorboard guard toward the stump and he obeys immediately. The boar guard forces the floorboard guard to his knees and plunges his knee into the floorboard guard’s back. The boar guard then forces the floorboard guard’s arm and hand onto the stump.
Gehenna walks forward giving a little speech and then takes the boar guard’s place. Gehenna thrusts his knee into the floorboard guard’s back and presses down on the guard’s arm resting on the stump with his prosthesis hand. The boar guard for a brief moment looks confused, and hesitant at what his leader is doing. Gehenna shouts an order, and there is a brief moment of resistance as the boar guard says something to his leader, but Gehenna threatens the boar guard, and the boar guard shrinks under the pressure his leader is placing on him to comply with Gehenna’s will. The boar guard picks up the hammer, and I see the floorboard guard begin to struggle and beg with Gehenna and the boar guard, but his pleading falls on deaf ears. The hammer falls, and his hand explodes in a bloody mess on the stump. Gehenna gets off the floorboard guard’s spine and kicks him to the ground and then walks into the woods with the boar guard.
“I’m sorry that you haven’t had sound to go off of as I rushed my soldier into hiding when the town guard barged in, but I’ve successfully snuck my soldier to intercept Gehenna and the guard with him, do you wish to hear what he is talking about,” says Cran and I nod as I see his little soldier enter my field of essence vision.
“We cannot afford false alarms,” says Gehenna to the boar guard, “That boy is pivotal for reestablishing the village’s purity. Soon, all the pieces will be in play, and all that was lost will be returned.”
“Gehenna, did we really need to break Levi’s hand? He’s young and made a mistake,” says the boar guard clearly regretting what he had done.
Gehenna glowers down at the guard, who is significantly smaller than him, “Are you questioning me captain? Should I speak with your wife about the insubordination you attempted when I called for you to perform my will, and your apparent lack of faith in the goddess’ plan she has given the high matriarch which I seek to perform with exactness? Perhaps, you wish to join your kin and have me smash your hand like Levi’s?”
“No Gehenna. I too desire the village’s purity,” says the captain of the guard avoiding Gehenna’s gaze.
“Good, and you understand that Levi’s mistake could have lost us everything,” says Gehenna placing both his false hands on the captain’s shoulders, “I know to a certain extent my summoning the guard with the emergency signal may have been rash, but the boy does act on his own. We may know he has allies now, and his allies may believe he will work with them, but this doesn’t mean he may not try something on his own.”
“You do make a good point,” says the captain of the guard who’s shoulders slouch under Gehenna’s weight, “more the reason for us to be highly cautious moving forward.”
“Exactly, with each false alarm the guard may get sloppy, and we won’t catch Mr. Demon,” says Gehenna with a laugh, “His time is short if he wishes to avoid the trials of Martog or us hunting him down for attempting to avoid his birthright to die during the trials, so it could be any day now that he tries to free Uzuri with his traitorous friends. However, the more time he spends, the stronger he becomes, which is exactly what we need.”
“I sure hope you know what you are doing,” says the captain of the guard, “Any guesswork and the village could be in extreme danger.”
“I never guess or gamble, I always win,” says Gehenna cracking a devilish grin, “When betting against an enemy, why not load the dice before casting them? That is exactly what I have done, and I’ll soon know what I need. Be prepared captain and keep your guard at the ready.”
“I wish you would just tell me all you know, instead of giving me orders and informing me later of your plans,” says the captain of the guard still turning his face away from Gehenna in what I assume is shame, “though you haven’t led us astray yet. Protect us our chief, as you always have.”
“I intend to do just that,” says Gehenna while making a gesture to the captain with his wooden hands. The captain, recognizing Gehenna’s gesture runs back to where they had left Levi the guard. Gehenna stands alone and begins his journey back to the village.
“If you are going to have a conversation with Uzuri, now may be the time,” says Cran and he begins to fly his tiny soldier back to the village, “the guard are now stationed away from Gehenna’s home, and Gehenna himself isn’t there protecting it either.”
The tiny insectoid wooden soldier flies quickly back to the village. I look at the village from a skyward view and a weird nostalgia comes over me looking at the alleys I used to roam. I still remember the day I found the loose board and wandered the alleys for the first time. The memories of the joy I felt discovering the alleys and the thought that I had finally found a way to be a part of the village rush back into my remembrance. The daring escapes, of when I had overstayed my welcome into the night and narrowly avoided the matriarchs and watching from a safe distance as life continued without me inside the village; so many memories flood my being. Eventually the memory of the fateful day I met Uzuri caresses my mental scape.
I was walking the alleys and I heard a girl crying behind a wall. I knew that stopping and talking would be risky, but I felt that I should take that risk. I whispered through the hole in the wall, and from that moment forward a secret friendship between the village’s demonic children blossomed. Being overwhelmed and lost in thought I hadn’t noticed that Cran was reporting a new sound to me. I heard her crying.
“Uzuri it’s me,” I say my eyes snapping to her room again.
She looks at the flying soldier with skeptical eyes and says, “Skath that can’t be you, can it?”
“I’m much smaller than you thought aren’t I,” I say jesting with her, and I notice that the little soldier was morphing in appearance, until a little me was standing on her bed.
“Where are you? Are you safe?” asks Uzuri picking up the small me from the bed to get a closer look at the doll version of me.
“I’m in my parents’ home across the valley, and right now we are talking thanks to a friend of mine,” I say looking at her and desiring to see her and not just a misty outline of her.
“It’s been so long. Every day I’ve wanted to hear your voice, only to have Gareth or my goddess tell me that you were somewhere preparing to save me. That you have been doing all within your power to save me,” says Uzuri wiping the tears from her eyes to try and look strong for me.
“I wish I could have been here for you more,” I say feeling regret that I had essentially disappeared for months at a time leaving her almost entirely alone, “Believe me when I say that my heart has been with you throughout all I’ve done.”
“Wait, what are you saying,” says Uzuri and I think she is blushing like I am. I had slipped up, but I think that I can’t just hide my feelings anymore. Ashe suffers hiding her feelings from Lilith, and I’ll probably suffer as well if I don’t tell her how I feel at least once.
“I love you Uzuri,” I say again raising my hand to her spectral face knowing that I’m reaching out into the dark of my room, “I’ve gone through all manner of pain, and come back from the brink of death for you. I may not be who I once was, but my feelings are the same. I love you.”
“You haven’t even seen me,” says Uzuri clutching the figure to her chest, “I’m a hideous creature.”
“I see you right now,” I admit feeling a little awkward that I was technically standing in her room uninvited, “all I see is a girl with a beautiful soul that just so happens to have whiskers, claws, and pointed ears.”
I see her somewhat panic as she touches her face, “How can you see me, is it the doll. You must have gotten an eye full when I plunged it into my…”
“No uh, my vision is currently hovering somewhere close to your easel. I’m not the doll, though I may envy it slightly,” I jest to get her to cheer up.
She covers her chest with her arms and pouts, “you are awful sometimes. following a confession like that with a crude joke.”
“I’m sorry. I was just trying to break the tension a bit,” I say knowing fully well that what I had said was inappropriate, “You are my oldest friend and it’s nice to just talk. Almost all the conversations I’ve had recently have been filled with stressful planning, crammed learning, and dark postulations, so it’s nice to joke around for a second. I’m sorry that joke came out, but I did unintentionally streak today in front of my family, Gareth, Esther, and Esther’s friends. That may be the reason why I made it.”
“Wait really,” says Uzuri chuckling to herself, “What happened?”
“I went to take a bath after completing my training, and Ashe stole my clothes. I charged into the house searching for my clothes and everyone was sitting waiting for me to join them to plan for your rescue,” I said telling the tale of my humiliation at the hands of Ashe.
Uzuri laughs and says, “I’d like to meet everyone that is trying to save me.”
“I think they would all like to meet you as well,” I say realizing that we had gotten off topic, “Whoops, right, I was confessing.”
“Right,” says Uzuri her face getting a tad more serious, “how did we change topics from you confessing your love for me to you streaking?”
“Hell, if I know,” I say shaking my head, “this is not exactly the conversation I envisioned when I thought about telling you about my feeling for you over the years.”
“I’m surprised by our conversation as well. I never thought you would confess. I was close to confessing my feelings for you because you never really picked up on my hints,” says Uzuri laughing again and before burying the doll into her chest again, she places it to her side.
“Does that mean you have feelings for me as well?” I ask and I feel my heart racing in my chest.
“Yes! Yes, you dork! I love you so much, that it hurts to not hear your voice whenever you disappear for seasons at a time. I love you so much that it’s been your face, not the stars that consume my mind every time I think of the outside world. You were there for me in the darkest moments of my life and kept me going. I love you, and wouldn’t be here without you,” says Uzuri looking at the easel, “I’ve wanted nothing more than to be with you, and those feelings have only grown stronger every day you were gone. I know that you say that we can’t be together, but I still want you.”
My heart trembles within me as I hear her say these things, “The deepest desire of my heart is to be with you as well.”
“Then why can’t we be together,” says Uzuri her eyes not deviating from the painting on the easel.
“My life and death belong to my Uncle, and you are a princess. I’m just me, and my path will take me all over the world… and…” I say and to a certain degree I don’t fully understand why we can’t be together either. I’m the grandson of the god of the teratolion people, I don’t see why my pedigree would be a problem to Upendo. Have I not considered that how the village perceives me and my father isn’t how the teratolion view me?
“Why can’t I come with you?” asks Uzuri and I am left dumbfounded.
“I don’t know…” I say confused, as what I’ve learned about the teratolion may permit me and Uzuri to be together when I’ve been told the contrary for so long, “maybe your grandfather will want you to stay with him? Then again, he wants nothing but the best for you and might relent and give into your desires, so maybe we could be together.”
Uzuri gets up from her bed and fiddles with a drawer in her desk and pulls out a piece of fabric and then moves in front of the easel as if trying to figure out where my gaze was in her room. She collects the doll from her bed and places it on top of her easel. I move my vision to be by her side, and she takes a breath to collect herself and says, “I made this for you. I know that the Amolacrimae makes it so women can’t marry men older than themselves, but I still made one for you. Skath will you be with me?”
“I would love to be with you from now into eternity,” I say watching her tie the fabric to secure the doll to the easel, “Let’s hope that fate will no longer be cruel with us.”
We both hear a door slam, and I know that our conversation needs to end, “I’ll come to claim this engagement band sooner than you think.”
Uzuri kisses the doll, and waves goodbye and my gaze returns to my room. Please hope don’t crush me beneath the heel of disappointment. My heart full, and hopes in the stars, my fatigue catching up to my soaring dreams, I collapse on my bed longing for the lips that graced my effigy.