227 P.F.

Gideon writhed in pain on the festival green, hands clawing into the soft grass. He ground his teeth as the agony washed over him. His hazel glare tracked the beast that had tried to take down Ava.

The two of them locked eyes as it paced languidly in a wide circle away from him. The demonic red hue of the hound’s skin and beady black eyes sent a wave of wrongness through Gideon.

Motion from the flow of agony inducing tendrils drew his attention as they withdrew from piercing through him and the ground.

He shuddered, recalling his actions to help Ava. They had been running, Ava barely keeping pace while the demons drew closer. What he had mistaken as a good luck charm had been blaring its three chirp and beep sequence. Somehow, that charm had sent a signal to her family’s summoners.

Strong flows had surged towards Ava while they ran, but each time the vitava tried to pull her away, the beasts’ flows had responded with two more piercing flows stabbing through her. Every pull would slam into the other flows and disperse into the pierced ground.

To Gideon, the whole process felt as though the summoners were trying to summon the land itself with the demon flows anchored into the ground. He knew that no rescue would come from the summons. He knew that they were doomed.

He chastised himself as his dark thoughts resurfaced. I could have gotten further away if I had just run as fast as I could.

He glared at the demon hound that trotted back to its pack. They had slowed and withdrawn their flows of vitava. His eyes trailed after the hound that had attacked them.

He sighed to himself thinking. Why did I react that way?

He had been seriously considering abandoning her when that hound had leaped for her. He only reacted because of the change in the flow piercing her. Her prickly flow batting at the demons’ had quivered and shifted towards a blackness and void that he associated with death. In that moment, he found himself tackling Ava out of the way, his body reacting on pure instincts guided by the changing hues of the flow of vitava around him.

There was the overwhelming agony from the demon’s vitava tearing into the core of his being followed by the melding of his and Ava’s flow. Darkness pressed in around his vision but receded with his shifting jump.

There had been a twisting path of light that his body followed until the darkness dispersed with them crashing into the ground. He never had a moment of celebration as he felt Ava ripped away from beneath him.

Apparently, his interference with the demon’s vitava had been enough to interrupt whatever anchoring was holding Ava there. He should have been happy, he supposed. But now here he was in the middle of the festival green. A pack of demon hounds from who knows where in front of him with the promise of a grizzly death.

He chanced glancing over his shoulder to the festival grounds. He spotted Kellan shouting at the kids. Several adults seemed to be rallying by the bonfire grabbing branches and tent poles to defend themselves. None of the adults seemed to be moving to his aid.

His eyes pressed forward toward the demons as he bit down on the acidic emotion churning his guts. He started stepping backwards trying to match his strides with the encroaching demons. They were fanned out wide on his flanks, their intention to cut off his path of retreat clear. His eyes glided over the grounds from the beasts to the defending townsfolk and all around to the nearby tents.

He tried to steady his breathing to avoid hyperventilating as he did his best to judge the distances. Again, he eyed the nearby hounds.

The distance is too great for me to make it to the bonfire near the other defenders.

He eyed the hounds as they snapped and growled at him. This time he estimated the distance to the nearby tents with their scattered supplies and wood piles.

Obstacles that way. Maybe I can grab a tent pole to maintain some distance that way…

Gideon slowly turned with the approaching beasts to keep them in his line of sight. He felt they would charge him the moment he showed them his back. He glanced back towards the bonfire and noticed that the hounds had successfully drawn him further away from the safety of others.

He faltered in his steps as he noticed several adults holding down his wailing mother.

“Mom…” Gideon whispered through a cracked voice as tears threatened his vision. His arm was outstretched towards her.

That momentary distraction would cost him though. The hounds were darting towards him now. His mother’s wail grew louder in the night.

Red and black hues of vitava crushed down upon him as he sprinted away from the pursuing hounds. His vision narrowed into a tunnel-like view as he picked a path through the darkness.

A shroud of darkness seemed to envelop his senses as he found himself whipping his arms and legs as fast as he could. Only the tents in front of him and to his right held color in the world.

He did not dare look to his sides where the black abyss held the advancing demon hounds. All that existed lay within the colors before his path.

A path whose colors were being voraciously consumed by the ever-advancing void of darkness with its promise of death.

The color split.

Two ways stood before his path.

One in gray where he could weave between the tents.

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Another with only ever slightly more color amongst the wood stack that Kellan had hidden within earlier.

He hesitated for but the briefest of seconds. The thundering pounding of the hounds and their growls on his tail.

That moment blinked the weaving path out of existence into the void of darkness. No more hesitating! Stay in the moment!

He lurched forward toward the graying path and vaulted himself over the wood pile. The world bloomed back into color as he gasped for air. His eyes darted around looking for the entrance flap to the nearby tents. There, he found the firm worked wood pole of the tent holding it up.

The darkness returned pressing in upon him. He darted forward and yanked with all his might on the tent pole. The tent shuddered from his actions and began to collapse forward. A yelp and bloom of color told him that he had succeeded in delaying one of his pursuers.

He did not dare to delay checking on just how successful he was as he continued his mad dash through the tents. Quickly he fell into a pattern of zig zagging through the field of tents. One moment darting down a line of tents before changing directions or vaulting over other supplies.

His veins and lungs felt like they were on fire as he gulped down air. Still the darkness pressed in on him.

Push forward! Need to keep running! Go!

His limbs were slowing down, fatigue taking its toll upon his body. On he ran through the tents, always seeking a colored path. That was until the world turned grey and only darkness lay beyond in every direction he looked.

He took in pained deep breaths as his eyes searched for any path of escape. All he was met with was a curved surface of darkness from which stepped five hounds.

He was trapped.

Sweat beaded his skin. His eyes dilated as his heart thundered in his chest. Both of his hands gripped the tent pole as he waved it in front of himself to ward off the beasts.

None of the five beasts seemed content to commit themselves to the first blow. Each seemed to probe him. Cones of darkness narrowed in on Gideon with each probe. Each time he managed to send them back a few steps.

This is how I die… Food for these red skinned…

Gideon’s thoughts drew to a standstill as he recalled the night his mother talked to the neighbors about how his father died. The night the two of them were hunted down by red skinned wolves or hounds.

Gideon couldn’t fight down the nervous giggling that erupted from him. His eyes were wide with fear and panic as he batted away a snapping jaw.

Mom always said I was just like dad…

His swings became wild as his vision blurred with tears. The darkness was closing in on him, barely held at bay by the swinging of the tent pole.

“Gideon!” His mother yelled nearby.

The darkness retreated several feet as the hounds seemed to focus on his mother. He breathed in deeply before his voice became caught in his throat.

If I call out, then she will come to me. She will die.

The wood creaked slightly beneath his death grip as he focused on the nearest hound. It was distracted, sniffing the air for his mother’s scent. Silently, Gideon leaped forward and swung down with all his might on the hound’s head.

The snapping of wood echoed through the night accompanied by the whine of the hound. His hands felt raw as he lifted the broken jagged edge of his wooden tent pole. The hound staggered on its legs as it pulled away.

A cone of darkness swept in on Gideon, a signal to dodge the attacking hound. His foot caught onto an unseen stone and sent him tumbling to the ground. Darkness leapt at him as he twisted and contorted his body to get the jagged edge of his broken tent pole between him and the attacking hound.

Several things happened at that moment. First, color returned to the world. Second, a warm sticky liquid dribbled over his face and torso from the impaled hound. Third, his mother’s shouts grew more frantic.

“Gideon! No! Not my Gideon!” His mother wailed as she stormed towards his prone body. Tears streamed down the side of her face.

He could see now that he was near the bonfire. He must have managed to weave his way through the tents and got closer. Beyond his mother lay the villagers swinging every implement they could find to fend off the attacking beasts.

There was a whirling mass of tendrils flowing out from the forests. Gideon knew in his bones that more were coming. His panicked gaze went back to his mother. Their gazes locked onto each other as she ran closer to him.

Time seemed to slow for Gideon as the remaining three hounds that had been chasing him leapt for his mother. One went for her throat, another her ankles, and the last for her outstretched arm towards him.

“No!” Gideon screamed in horror as they tore her to the ground.

Her cries filled his ears as he scrambled from out beneath the dead hound. The sickly gnawing of jaws upon meaty flesh pounding his ears as he tore his improvised spear the felled beast.

Her cries became liquid filled choking sounds as he screamed at the beast with a primal yell. Adrenaline flooded his veins as he tore into the assailing beast with his weapon, stabbing as best he could while trying to avoid injuring his mother.

One beast went down after a lucky stab lifted the creature off his mother. He pressed his foot against the beast, bracing himself to pull his weapon free. He had but a moment to register the retreating light of the world before he managed to twist to the side in time to be barreled to the ground by one of the remaining beasts.

Jaws snapped at his hands and forearms as he held them defensively in front of his face. Blood dribbled from the wounds as he scrabbled for purchase upon the ground. He searched his surroundings desperately for any weapon he could use against the beast. He simply did not have the time to grab anything as the demon continued biting and clawing at his torso, rending his clothes, and staining them with his blood.

In frustration, he shouted and jammed his left arm down the beast’s throat. Blood flooded the beast’s mouth from the fresh puncture wounds as Gideon squeezed the beast tightly into a full-bodied hug in an attempt to limit the beast’s claws on his torso.

On they struggled for several minutes until death finally took the beast. Pain lanced up his arm and all over his body as he slowly pried his ruined arm from the beast. He sat there dazed for a moment as he caught his breath.

“Gid-” Ren choked out through bubbled and labored breath. A liquid cough spattered out from her. The last hound sat entangled with her, a dagger sticking out of its throat. She cleared her throat with another wet cough. “Gideon. Are you…” Another wet cough gurgled out from her. “Okay?”

Gideon fought back tears at the sight of his mother. He pulled himself forward on the ground as he answered hoarsely, “I’m okay, mom. I’m okay.”

She reached out to him with a shaky arm. They grasped each other and pulled themselves closer together before resting their foreheads against one another. She closed her eyes and buried the pain on her face behind her gentle yet shaky smile.

“Good… Good…” She gasped for air. She turned her gaze towards the starry sky. “Galin.”

She coughed and sucked in a wet rattling breath. “I’m sorry, Galin. I never wanted to leave you.”

Gideon squeezed her hand tightly as his eyes watered. His mother looked him in the eye.

“You’re just like your father. He loves you.” His mother whispered through ragged breaths. “I failed him that night. But not tonight.”

Her eyes became unfocused as Gideon whispered, “Stay with me, mom!”

“I couldn’t let me boy suffer the same fate.” She crowed.

“Help! Help me! Please!” Gideon cried. “Anyone! Help!”

“Shush. Don’t worry, baby. It’s the parent’s duty to worry about the child.” She coughed weakly. “Not the child’s. Never the child’s duty.”

Her breathing grew labored. Gideon clutched her tightly. He could feel her slipping away from him. The thick reassuring flow of vitava that had been there all his life was growing weaker. He now realized that he had always been following that flow while the beast had been chasing him.

He wailed into her shoulder and cried, “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, mama!”

“Remember… to… live…” She choked out before gasping for breath and writhing beneath his arms.

“No! Don’t leave me, Mom!” Gideon begged. “Don’t leave!”