Wild Fae

The ranger girl loped along on long skinny legs. She had her bow in one hand and her pack and quiver over her shoulders. She always had her bow close by. Even when she was eating, it rested across her knees. She touched it constantly. When she slept, she draped one leg over it and held it close to her face.

Fen struggled after her, trying to ignore the pain. A ranger wouldn't complain. A wild Fae wouldn't complain. She wasn't going to act like a baby.

They had given up trying to fix her dress after the first night. She had expected the ranger to have magical skills with a needle and thread, but between the two of them they had managed to fray the cut piece beyond repair and now the thing was only good for rags.

"Practical skills. Are important. In a forest," she muttered to herself.

Now, she wore Taliette's spare shirt and a pair of leather trousers with bits of armour sewn in. The clothes made her feel powerful, as though she were a ranger herself. Her white dagger hung at her hip. Gwynn's cloak flowed in the wind majestically. She felt like another type of person, a person who could escape and roam free across the world.

She was glad the dress was ruined. It felt tainted, it made a piece of her scrunch up inside when she thought about it. Her back itched where Rinler had run the knife up it. Her chest and side stung beneath the bandages where she had been burned.

When she thought of the ugly little man touching her with his hands, she felt a bright spark of pure rage ignite inside her. Even though he was dead, he could still burn her. Magic was difficult like that.

East was the direction now, away from the setting sun. She would go see the mountains another time.

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The monster stalked through the greenwood. The Aden thing trailed along behind her like a lost puppy. It was wearing her spare clothes. Better that, than going naked and getting itself all scratched up, she thought.

The Aden had an interesting way of walking, like it had springs in its legs, almost as though it wasn't touching the ground at all. At night, it shone and kept her awake, though she had to admit the light was useful for finding things in the dark. Sometimes when they woke up, flowers had bloomed in a ring around it like some kind of stupid Paternoster decoration.

Always, the calling of her soul's price pulled her eastward. She tried to picture the terrain from her memory of the maps that had hung in her father's hallway. A lot of forest, then a river with villages on it that ran south to Teleth Kier. On the map, the villages had been labelled "The Sisters" in squiggly italics, though they all had their own names written underneath in small writing. Country-sounding names, no doubt full of country-sounding people.

She had never been in a big forest before. The wood behind Gintas house was much smaller, you could walk right across it in an hour. This was much bigger, like being at the bottom of a shallow ocean with the green flickering surface somewhere overhead and the shadows rushing and dimpling all over everything. Moss hung down from the branches like dirty old beards, the birds kept up a constant racket, some even in the night time. There were bugs and worms and centipedes that crawled up your back when you were sleeping and got their silly legs tangled in your hair.

She acted the part for the Aden. The little shining girl was pathetic, watching her every move as though everything she did had significance. As though she wasn't just making it up as she went along. She had taken to doing pointless things, waving her arms to see if the Aden would copy her, sometimes lying on her belly as though she sensed danger, or rolling around behind a log.

Despite everything, she was freer than she had ever been. She could go anywhere, as long as it was East. She could kill anyone, as long as they didn't work for Gintas, and they weren't part of any of his schemes.

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Experimentally, she dropped back a little, letting the Aden go first. She drew an arrow and levelled it at the girl's back. She tried to let go, but her fingers wouldn't let her. The silly blonde thing was part of Gintas' plan then.

"Clever," whispered her heart.

"Thanks," she said.

"You're welcome," called the Aden over her shoulder.

Killing the trappers had been revelatory. Frankly, it had been completely and obscenely glorious. She found herself thinking about it all the time, how the fat one had stopped crying, and a second later his brains had splashed out of the back of him, all over the leaves. How the skinny one had lain there pinned to the ground by his leg while she strolled over to him, casual as could be, putting a little sway into her walk, arrow half drawn while he cried and cursed and could do nothing. She wanted more.

"I want more," she said.

"More what?" said the Aden, still walking in front.

"You'll always want more," whispered her heart. "It's in your nature."

"I want more now."

She drew an arrow and shot a little bird that was singing on a branch nearby. It popped apart in a shower of bits and feathers. The arrow sailed on upwards into the sky and was lost, but it wasn't the same. There was no resonance to it, no pleading or begging, just a pointless ball of fluff.

"I've got some cheese," said the Aden over its shoulder. "If you're trying to catch dinner, I mean. I've been saving it."

The monster drew her knife and mimed striking at the girl's back, pulling a crazy face and making her eyes all big and round.

"Stop it," whispered her heart. "She'll see you."

"More please," she said. "Give me more, and I'll stop. I'll stop giggling. I can't stop giggling."

"What are you laughing at?" said the Aden girl, still walking.

"I'm hungry," she said. "Let's stop and eat. I want to eat something now."

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The cheese, wrapped in a little packet, had a funny sort of squashed look to it, so Taliette shared her provisions instead. Gintas had put lots of sticks of dried meat in her pack, each individually wrapped in wax paper to keep the moisture out. She chewed at the salty stuff, trying to get it into a shape that she could actually swallow.

"Why do you talk to yourself?" the Aden asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know," she said, spitting little bits of meat out. "I always listen to my heart."

"Hmmm," the Aden nodded as though it made complete sense and there were nothing further to say on the matter. "My name is Fen," it continued. "It's short for Fentallion. I'm named after my Aunt, but she's dead now."

"How did she die?" asked Taliette, her mouth muffled with salt and saliva.

"My Grandfather was a king, but he went mad and killed all his children, all except my mother."

"No, I mean how did she actually die?"

"Arrows," said the girl. "Lots and lots of arrows. She had an armoured heart of darkness. She had two daggers made of smoke, and she could move faster than you could blink, but they shot her full of arrows until she couldn't move, and then they cut out her heart and buried it in a lead box under the city wall."

"Did she happen to have a great big sword with writing on it by any chance?" she asked.

"No, but my Aunt Meriviell did. Green, as long as a tree trunk, and Llenadriel had a yellow one, the colour of spring flowers."

"Not black then, with stars in it."

"No, not black."

"If your aunt could move so quickly, how did they hit her with the arrows?"

"I don't know," the Aden sounded annoyed now. "Maybe something happened to her foot. You ask a lot of questions."

They sat in silence for a minute. She took the opportunity to pop another stick of dried meat in her mouth.

"How about you," the Aden said after a minute. "Why are you out here, ranging around?"

"My father sold me to a wizard when I was little."

The Aden slapped its hand over its open mouth. "Oh, that's awful! I'm so sorry! However did you get free?"

"I'm not free, I'm still bound, but he lets me go where I want for some reason."

"Oh, you poor thing, how can you escape?"

"I have to buy back my soul for three copper pennies, but," she held up her hand as the Aden started rummaging around in her satchel, "they have to be the right copper pennies."

The Aden had its hand over its mouth again. Its pale blue eyes were wide open. It laid its hand on the back of her hand gently.

"I will help you win back your soul," it said. "I, Fentallion, Miradel of Erinthrain, do swear it."

Taliette almost smiled. Surprisingly it felt pretty good to have someone offer to help. Behind the Aden, swirling slowly at the base of a tree, was a mousehole. Maybe if she just gave the Aden a little shove, just like so...

"Don't," whispered her heart, so she didn't. There would be plenty of time to kill the girl later. She could kill everyone later, and no one would ever be able to stop her.