Stepping up from the dark, I took a moment to get my barrings. There seemed to be no one around and the only light in the room was the soft flickering candle that seemed on the verge of going out. I didn't mind the dark it was a part of me after all and now it was hiding me from the world. I knew that my father--Kyrell would tell everyone back home where I had gone. But, I wasn't sure about Iejiel. He deserved to be told. I couldn't find a way to say the words. I had watched him the last few days trying a hundred, a thousand times to say the words that were floating around inside my head. I just couldn't figure it out.
So, I had sat down and written them all down. It was this letter I sent off to leave for him. He deserved at least a goodbye even if the letter might not be the type he wanted. But, I knew I couldn't come face to face with him. I knew because if I spoke to him I would never be able to leave him. Placing the letter on the table I was sure that he would find it along with the ring I had set carefully on top of it. A moment of silence as I fought the urge to take the ring and put it back on my finger. It felt naked without it. Funny how my hand looked to me as empty as my soul felt at this moment. Shaking my head I turned and walked back into the shadows whence I had come. There really was no going back sometimes you just had to move forward wherever that might leave.
Memories like mist keep floating through my mind too surreal to catch and yet there just under the surface as they threatened to come spilling over me like a tidal wave. I didn't want to remember. Remembering meant I would have to face my decision and I would rather be buried within the sliding landslide of my drifting mind than allow that to happen. Yet, fate, funnily enough had ways of making you see the things you didn't want at the exact moment you didn't wish to see it. I could still remember the day I meant Ie. The day that everything faded away and for a moment I forgot everything but us.
It had been raining that night and the trail of my footsteps could be seen along the muddy path leading down through the woods. . I had heard from some of the villages on the outskirts of my territory that some people had gone missing in the woods. A collections of them but mostly it seemed be kids probably because they had a natural urge to wander into the woods to play. It didn't matter. I was going to get to the bottom of it. I might have thought that they had simply wandered off into the woods and gotten lost but the numbers made it seem more than a few isolated incidents. Perhaps, some sort of animals was picking them off. If so I needed to find out what and kill it.
"Damn it." I said as my foot got stuck in a deep patch of mud as I moved from the path to wander into the deeper paths of the wood. The foot sinking down as I yanked it out losing my shoe watching as it sunk down into the mud as I fell on my butt from the force of pulling my foot out. It would seem it was going to be one of those days I thought as I stood up and began to walk with only one shoe as I stumbled a bit on the path before removing it and throwing it off into the distance in frustration, a low hanging branch snagging in my hair as I did so and I let out a yelp of surprise. Okay, quiet wasn't one thing I was being very good at in this moment. And it was that moment I heard it. The high pitch whaling that caused me to cover my ears trying desperately to block out the noise.
I hadn't heard anything like it before. That didn't mean anything however there were all sorts of things that wandered the woods that I bet no one had ever seen before. Staring down the path the small light of the fading day was shining a small path across the dark woods. I moved forward. Taking my bow from my back prepared for what ever might be coming from the shadows as I moved. The arrow set as I moved carefully, my steps slow so not to fall as I moved, twigs snapping under my bare feet.
I was not prepared for what I would see in the clearing. The last bits of sunlight shining down casting everything in a rather strange reddish glow. The graveyard for lack of a better word laid spread out in front of me. Bodies of those that had been lost in various states and conditions. They were in various states of devoured. Some were only bones that were discarded and forgotten as one might discard a chicken bone when done eating. Others were partially eaten, the legs gnawed off, the insides hanging out, some with their chests ripped open as if someone had decided to make a salad of their insides. I fought the urge to vomit as the smell rose up around me wafting across the clearing causing me to stumble into the nearest tree.
It took me a moment to get my footing when I heard something moan. My eyes darted towards the bodies thinking someone must be alive in this mess. And I was wrong it was more than someone was alive. Many of them were alive some sort of magic keeping them alive while they were being fed upon. A small child crawling towards me his legs gone as he moved his torso towards me his intestines hanging behind him as he crawled across the ground reaching out for me. "Help me?" The desperate plea in his voice caused the tears to well up in my eyes as I could see them all. Some with their flesh peeled off, others with no faces, all of them looking at me. I could hear the cries of their pain echoing through the trees as if whispered to the wind. Taking a deep breath I knew I couldn't heal this and that even in death I couldn't give them release. The condition of the bodies meant I could never make them whole to return to the goddess, they would be lost to wander the darkness.
I wanted to scream, cry, throw something but instead I knew I needed to figure out what had done this. Something was keeping them alive and the only thing I could offer them was oblivion. It was that moment when I felt the tree I was leaning on shift or what I had thought was a tree. I glanced up in shock my eyes darted to see the set of teeth as they darted towards my arm. I glanced up surprised as I fell on my ass and scuttered away in the dirt away from the hulking monster in front of me. My eyes glancing up at the gnarly skin that had made me think of tree bark. I wondered now looking up how I had ever thought that.
Massive legs like trunks raising out of the ground, the skin a brown color coming off in scaly flakes under my feet as I kicked at it as it moved closer to me. The high pitch whine for earlier echoing across the area as I once again covered my ears, reaching for the bow and arrow that I had dropped when I fell. I lifted it up towards the creature whose slit like, blue-grey eyes were now blinking at me, the long jagged row of teeth snapping together as it darted towards me so incredible fast as I let the arrow fly towards it, as I rolled, the arrow bouncing harmlessly off it as the laughter echoed around me and I noted that the clearing was surrounded by trees that were creeping towards me. I realized the trap only after it was too late like so many before me.
Nothing here but bodies and trees. No monsters what ever had eaten them was long gone but the trees were the monsters and this was there nest, their home, their feeding ground and I was alone. I needed a better weapon than the arrow something that could pierce whatever their hides were made of but even if I could find something could I really take them by myself. I frowned thinking that I was so going to get a lecture for not getting help. I had never heard of any creature like them as I tried to search my mind for answers as I moved away from the first to realize I was being herded as one would reach for me and I would dart away, only to barely escape the reach of another. One long skinny claw, grazed across my shoulder and I tried out in pain as a piece of flesh came off being raised to the mouth as I screamed in frustration. The animals of the woods would answer my call if I asked but would it be fair to involve them and risk their lives?
I didn't have time to consider as I slipped in the mud under feet looking up for a moment, the rain had begun to fall making my wet hair cascade into my face as I looked up breathing hard, waiting for the first blow of what was to be a slow and painful death. But, the blow never came for in that moment something moved across the clearing, something that moved like lightning across the now dark sky. I barely noticed him, the blond of his hair glistening against the dark hood that he wore. One second I was on the ground the next the monster was falling at the ground next to me. My eyes widening in surprise as a weapon of some sort was pulled from it's head as the man spun it in his hands, his eyes on those closing in as he offered me a hand up.
Taking that hand I was pulled to my feet stumbling into him as I looked up and for a moment, the world stopped. He looked down and his eyes got wide as if he was seeing me for the first time. My green eyes glancing into his blue ones, I could feel the connection as I took a deep breath, studying the dark tattoos that sprayed across his chest underneath his black shirt. "Are you alright?" He said his voice barely a whisper as I nodded my head just in time to see him spin me around behind him as I realized the first body of whatever those things were had vanished, nothing but a faint trace of dust to show it had been there. Another charged and the same small sword for earlier was stuck up throw its neck into the skull as it poofed like the other and he spun around again.
He moved across the clearing so fast I could barely keep track of his movements as he moved eliminating one enemy after another. They moved around him trying to corner him like they had me but he flipped over them and I heard him call out. "Dunk." As he threw a knife at one that had come to loom behind me in my interest in watching him as it dropped down before vanishing as well. When the dust settled the young man stood there in the center his eyes darting back to me. I heard the release of magic as the last of them fell and disappeared whatever they had been using to keep their food alive broken as the bodies collapsed all around us. I fell down to my knees in front of the child that had first drawn my attention as I closed his eyes. "May the goddess take you home." Despite the fact I knew my people would say such things were not possible I believed if I could ask anything of the light it would be to forgive these souls and allow them to come home. If anyone deserved it--they did.
I felt the hand of my champion on my shoulder as I looked up. Before I could respond he grabbed my hand and pulled me with a swift motion to my feet and before I could stop myself I wrapped my arms around him and buried my head into his chest. He smelled like...I am not sure. Cinnamon? Or something like it I couldn't figure the scent out but it didn't matter. It reminded me of home. I could feel him tense as if the hug confused him as I glanced up to see those blue eyes of his studying me, a look close to wonder on his face as if he couldn't quite figure out what I was but his hand reached out his finger tracing across my face as he caught one of the tears on its tips. "I will protect you with my life." His words were said and they caused me to blink and stare at him in stunned silence.
It took me a few moments to find my voice standing there pressed against him, a graveyard of half eaten bodies around us. "Why?"
The question seemed to catch him off guard as he looked down. "I don't know. I just know it is true." A pause as he let his hands fall to his side taking a deep breath he spoke again. "I am Iejiel."
"Everleigh. My friends just call me Ever. Thank you." I replied.
"It seems I saved your life." He said as he stepped back a smirk forming on his face. "Do I get a reward?" His tone teasing.
"I don't know what do you want?" I said taking another step towards him wanting to stay close. I was still feeling shaky and standing there with the dirt covering my face, tangled hair, mud and blood splattered clothes, and no shoes I was feeling a bit out of sorts. Not to mention he was right he had just saved my life. "You were amazing." It was the truth I had never seen anything quite like it.
The smile on his face grew wider if such a thing was possible as he leaned forward and whispered into my ear. "I know." Taking a step back, he reached out his fingers moving through a few strands of hair as he shook his head seemingly trying to come to grips with something. Something that I coulnd't see. "What are you?" There was something in his tone something that I couldn't quite place. It almost seemed like a mix of confusion and wonder.
"I am just a girl. I witch if you want to be technical." My own voice sounded soft in the silence that had began to creep around us.
"No, you are so much more than that." Pulling me closer to him as my arms went around his neck, out faces so close as we closed the distance into a kiss. I was lost in that moment as I pulled away and heard his question. "Come home with me?"
I nodded. "I thought you would never ask."
I could hear his laughter as he pulled on my hand leading me out of the woods. I would have someone take care of this mess in the morning. Perhaps, make a memorial but at the very least take care of the remains. I had no idea for now the only thing I knew was I had other places to be and that I was lost in a different type of spell. I wasn't sure if this was what love felt like. The only thing I knew was I didn't want to leave his side ever. I trusted him to look after me. I trusted him to keep his promise and protect me with his life.
I moved after him coming to the edge of the woods as I looked at him. "Just so you know if anyone asks how we met. I am saying we met in a bar."
"A bar? That is boring. I don't even get to swoop in and save the dismal in distress?" He said as he wrinkled his nose in response to my words.
"Sure, I will say someone was hitting on me." I replied softly.
"I think the monsters were better. Shows off my skills." The smile forming on his face as he pulled me against him. "Don't you think?"
Mumbling as I pressed myself closer into him. "I will make it a big guy. Besides, if I tell too many people they might want to steal you."
Shaking his head at me. "They can't. I belong to you. Some day it will be you and me sitting together me as old as fuck and you still looking like you do today."
A laugh escaped my lips as I spoke. "You think? That sounds just fine. I am still claiming we met at a bar."
"Fine as long as the bar was attacked by monsters I am fine with that." He said as he led me to his bike as I raised my eye unsure what the thing was but I climbed on after him.
"Fine. Unless my father is around and then I will claim you were crazy it was just a really big guy. Because he will kill me." I said as I wrapped my arms around him.
"Perhaps we just shouldn't tell him." He said as he turned the key. "Hold on darling."
"As if I would ever let go." I leaned forward pressing my head against his back and off we rode into the dark.