Some say you can't put a price on love, but in the end everything is for sale.
Deep in the woods that swaddled the village of Yorn, the clattering of stone and the gentle crackling of smoldering wood set a calming tone that contrasted with the happenings that would soon occur. A young woman was busy at work arranging a pile of smooth, marked stones atop the hide of an elk, occasionally checking a weathered book illuminated by the small bonfire nearby. This little tome took ages to find, and her dignity soon followed in order to actually get her hands on it. Honestly, the book scared her. For all the promises of what it can give, it felt like it didn't belong here. The yellowed pages felt cold to the touch, letting out a sigh with each turn that barely registered in her ears. However, tonight it will be the key to granting her wish. At least she hoped.
"There we go." She muttered to herself with a sense of accomplishment as she placed the final stone in the center of the arrangement. Not even a breath later did the stones start to shimmer faintly, jostling in place atop the elk hide. "What was I supposed to do next?" She muttered as she flipped the next page, checking the diagram and the translated parchment stuffed beside it. As her eyes poured over the instructions, a small gurgling, cooing sound found its way traveling into her ear. A sigh of exasperation and annoyance forced its way past her lips as she turned her head back to the bundle strapped to her shoulders, "Silence, you embarrassment." She ordered in a quiet voice, her eyes boring into the source of the sound.
She knew the little abomination wouldn't listen, or even understand what she was saying, but it made her feel better to at least focus her troubles on something. Time was of the essence, for both this ritual and her own schedule. Her husband may sleep like the dead, but he always woke up the same time every morning, and dawn was soon approaching. Looking back to her notes, she finally found what she was looking for. "Ah, yes, the heart." She exclaimed as she reached into the satchel at her side, producing a clothed parcel. Unfurling the cloth revealed a the large still heart of the very elk before her, but what was different was the many stitches sewn here and there along the large muscle. Threads of green, blues and reds weaved to create symbols of power unknown to the woman. All she knew was that it needed to be done. With a healthy amount of worry, she carefully placed the elk heart in the center of the arrangement, completing the ritual. As the vessel left her fingertips, an ethereal thrumming echoed in her surroundings. Sounds of drums beating and whispers of an unknown tongue bounced within her skull, threatening to turn her mind into mush as it grew louder and carried more purpose. As she staggered to and fro on unsteady feet, she saw the elk heart begin to beat. Slowly at first, before picking up to match the beat of the tune in her head.
'By the Gods..." She muttered as she steadied herself against a nearby tree, watching this sorcery unfold. Her eyes seemed to deceive her as she saw the once dry heart pumping out radiant blue blood from its arteries, splattering against the hide of the dear and the marked stones. As this unnatural blood made contact with the stones, the markings glowed fiercely while the very stones themselves began absorbing the blood. Pathways began to link between the stones, like enlarged veins as they circulated throughout the arrangement. The baby on the woman's back began to cry, pulling the woman out of her stupor. "Shit!" She exclaimed as she pulled the bundled baby to her front and clamped a hand over its mouth to muffle the sound, She didn't know if this little cretin's wailing would ruin the spell, not even considering her own cursing in the equation.
"I swear, if this child wasn't useful I would have left it in the woods to get eaten by wolves." *She thought as she watched the linked stones and beating heart sink into the hide itself. In horror she saw the elk hide begin to rise in an unnatural manner, as if a hand plucked at each portion of the hide a bit at a time. First the back, then the left front leg followed by the back right until it all limbs found themselves moving. The headless hide began to flutter despite the lack of wind, floating just off the ground due to lack of hooves. The drums and voices in her head began to quiet as the...thing before her settled into its form, and all sound around them ceased to be as if a spell was cast, as it very will could have been.
The woman shivered as she looked upon the thing before her, one of her hands clutching tightly to the book while the other nearly suffocating the baby to keep it from wailing. She knew she was supposed to speak to it, but everything she has witnessed screamed at her to run away, to cancel the ritual and just forget all this ever happened. As her eyes shivered and her feet shuffled to try and escape, the thing before her made all her thoughts of escaping vanish.
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"Speak" It ushered in a harsh whisper, its voice rough and dry like a parched field. Despite its lack of head and eyes, the woman could tell that it was looking right at her.
"A-ah, yes, powerful and wise creature." She uttered, her eyes clouding over as she tried to comprehend the thing before her. What should have just been a hanging elk hide somehow had substance, and when she tried to look at the portion beneath the hide, all she could see was a void of shadow. What manner of monster had she summoned here?
"I...summoned you to fulfill a wish. One that only you can make happen." She declares, loosening the grip upon the baby's mouth, to which the baby began breathing once more.
"Tell me your wish then, so that it may be granted." It wheezed with a hint of impatience, the hide rippling once before going still once more. "Know that a price must be paid, equal to the wish you desire."
"Of course, great and wise creature." She replied, unfurling the blanket from around the baby. One look could tell that it was not hers. Her complexion was as white as snow, and her eyes an jade green, while the baby was tan with a peculiar pair of amethyst colored eyes. "My husband and I have been trying to have children, but no such luck has befallen us. All we have is this child from his late wife." She said with a hint of spite in her voice. Oh how she loathed how her husband doted on this child that wasn't even hers. The sparkle in his eyes that seemed to look back upon his late wife through this child, like his current wife was merely a shallow replacement. "I desire for children of my own, fathered by my husband. I wish for his love to be directed towards those children! In exchange," She dangles the baby before the creature, "I give you his child, to do with as you desire. Eat him, flay him, whatever needs be done to grant my wish!"
The creature remained silent for the briefest of moments, silent breaths causing the hide to rise and fall like the waves in the ocean. It slowly drifted towards the woman and the outstretched child, stopping just before touching the pair. It's focus seemed to be on the child itself, possibly weighing the scale of both the wish and the payment. "I shall grant you your wish, but the child shall remain with you for now. I shall collect it at a later time."
The woman was initially happy that her wish would be granted, but upon hearing that she would still have to hold onto the baby for now soured her mood. "Why must I still provide for this child, oh wise creature?" She asked as she brought the baby back into her arms to make herself comfortable. "If he stays too long, he might inherit my husband's business, leaving my children with nothing. How long must I wait?"
The creature sighed at the ramblings of the woman before him, of the worries that will happen far into the future. "It will be neither too long or too short, and then your desires will be fulfilled." It huffed, before a shadowy tendril reached out from beneath the hide, snaking its way to the baby. As the tendril landed upon the chest of the child, the creature entered a state of silence. The woman, scared to be even this close to the creature, quaked in place, fearing if she moved too much she might be consumed by the shadow creature that possessed the elk hide.
"...13 years. 13 years you must care for the child, and only then I shall take him." He said as the tendril slightly dug into the child's chest, yet the child did not cry out in pain. What remained after the creature removed its touch was a faint symbol, a tattoo of an eye surrounded by bramble. "I shall also be taking this tome from you, as it does not belong to you in the first place." It said as one of its tendrils snatched the book out of the woman's hand, bringing it beneath the elk hide before it vanished into the shadows.
"Lay with your husband once the sun rises, and you shall find yourself laden with children." It said as it backed away slowly, "Ensure the child in your arms is healthy and cared for, or you shall find your children sharing the fate you foisted upon this one."
"O-of course, wise creature!" The woman bleated out in panic and terror, the thought of her future children being devoured by this beast. "You must want to fatten this child up for later! I'll make sure he grows up healthy enough to be worthy of a king's meal!" She assured as she turned tail and ran away from the woods, all the way back to her home and her sleeping husband. As the creature watched the woman escape it thought to itself while waiting for the first rays of sunlight pierce the forest's canopy, "13 years should be long enough to settle what needs to be done."
Once sunlight hit the elk hide it possessed, it slowly faded away as if the deal never happened.