Fennessy Ofeig did not sleep that night. The span of days since Tomas had been taken seemed like only moments. She sat alone in her room as the sky began to lighten towards the east. Sitting at the edge of her thin goose feather bedding, Fenn stared with vacant eyes at nothing in particular. The feeling of falling into the pinprick of that twinkling red light would jerk her awake before again succumbing to her recent memories. That thing had smiled down at her with the face of Tomas, a boy she had watched over since the day of his birth. Fenn felt numb as her mind stumbled through her memories of him, her eyes focusing onto a table that squatted against the far wall. Atop it lay her collection of precious stones.
She often spent time wading in the shallow river that flowed around the back of the village. The younger children would see her standing with her dress hitched up around her waist, sorting through the rainbow of river stones. Any child who came to disrupt her search would inevitably find him or herself working of behalf of Fenn. One child would attract another, until before the day was out, a dozen or so screaming meemies would be splashing around seeking the particular shade of green or purple or yellow she was looking for. She would only collect one, the rest being prizes for the children to take. Of all the children, Tomas had been her most valued asset. She thought back to this last week when she had found out how he always picked the best rocks.
“Is this it Fenn? Is this the one yer looking for?!” Tomas screamed at her from thirty feet away, splashing towards her. He reached her panting, water coursed down his small wet body, a questioning look etched the soft features of his face. His hand waved around wildly, shaking frantically under her chin.
“Tomas, this is the third day you’ve brought me the color i’m looking for!” Taking the small green stone from him. “Where do you find all these?”
“SECRET!” he screamed, then went running off to where he had come from.
Feeling both curious and mischievous, she followed him from a distance. Two curves of the river later, she rounded a third bend and saw Tomas heading full tilt towards a forbidden area. The water deepened and came much closer to the dark wood. His little body suddenly plunged underneath the water and did not come up. Fenn gasped, crashing through the cold water in a panic towards where he had vanished.
“TOMAS, TOMAS!!!” she bellowed into the moving currents.
She felt a freezing splash as he burst out behind her, his hands cupped with bright piles of stones. He climbed onto a rock just beneath the surface of the water proudly holding out his treasure.
“Don’t you ever scare me like that again Tomas!” Fenn said, grabbing him by the shoulders. “You know you shouldn’t be here; do you know how much trouble i could be in for letting you this close to the dark wood?!”
Tomas cast his eyes down to the pebbles in his hand, pushing through them with a finger as she scolded him.
“What about this one?” he said quietly, thumbing one particularly vibrant river stone to the forefront of his outstretched hands.
She signed at his persistence and took it from him, still bellybutton deep in the water. It was the exact shade of green she had been looking for. It smelled deeply of earthy mud.
“Alright, alright. It’s IS really pretty. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t. Lets get-” she paused mid sentence as she noticed a strange twinkling of white light just beyond the shade of the forest. “-going, alright now? Let’s get going this very instant, and I don’t want you ever coming back to this part of the river, ok?
“Yesh, Fenn” he muttered, still looking at his rocks
Did you hear me Tomas, never come back her, got it?”
“I said yea, ok Fenn?” and with that he threw the stones back in the water, marched back into the shallows and ran back towards the village. Fen let out another sigh. She began to make her way back as well; all the while glancing over her shoulder, seeing nothing but all the while feeling fear building in her chest.
*tink*
Fennessy’s vision was broken by the soft noise and her eyes focused in on that very stone of forest green Tomas had given her. Her forehead scrunched in. *tink* The rock moved across the table. It had jumped clear over the rock next to it. She continued to stare. A whole two minutes passed. She took a breath in to move when *tink* it jumped again. She unfolded her legs, leapt off the bed and moved swiftly towards the table; a hunter after it’s prey. She paused halfway across the room as a nearly undetectable waft of wet earth brushed past her nose. *tink* The stone bounced up like a cricket and onto the floor, rolling towards her. Fenn knelt down, inspecting the excitable pebble. The colors held out even after the rock had dried off; yellow shot with autumn green like the sun through a leaf held up. Leaning down towards it, she jerked her hand back at the sight of a brackish oil leaking from beneath it. Spreading out, the dark liquid produced little puffs of vapor smelling vaguely of two rocks rubbed together vigorously.
“Ew” she muttered, taking another step back.
The ink stain spread out over her floor. Without taking her eyes off of it, Fenn reached behind her and grabbed the quarterstaff leaning against her dresser. Fenn hovered the stout stick over the black substance that was now the size of a small doormat. Lowering it until it was juuuuuust over- *thuuuuup!* The oily liquid shot into the staff causing Fenn to once again leap back, this time with a yelp. The smoking liquid wormed its way in as quickly as a snake between rocks and ended with a brief puff of vapor. The room filled with the aroma of freshly cut wood. The staff did not move. Indeed, it did not even fall. Resting at an impossible angle the length of oak seemed to have dispensed with gravity all together when- *snap* the staff righted itself and commenced to bouncing about the room as if possessed.
Possessed…oh nonono, could it be? Another type of Dybbuk?!
Considering that possibility, a white hot rage build up inside her. The death of Tomas, the fact it had been living in his rock, the entire village now believing her tainted. Without another thought she marched over to the dancing stick and grabbed it with both hands.
“Get out of my staff you miserable demon; how dare you come into my room and start bouncing around like you own it! You get out before I burn you and this whole house to the ground!”
To her surprise the staff immediately fell into her hands as the murky substance poured out the end of it, followed by the smell of burning oak. Stumbling back, she stared down at a glassy puddle, which was drawing up into itself until it was a small glistening orb the size of an egg. The surface of the thing moved in strange rotating herringbone patterns. It had no discernible eyes, yet she could feel it looking at her with expectation.
“Well, that’s more like it.” She eyed the tiny demon egg nervously. Edging towards the side table that still held the kava bowl from last night.
“Why don’t you just crawl back in the rock that you…came…from?
Before she could even finish her words she watched as the egg rippled downward and grew a dozen or so little hands that in turn grew dozens of more little hands out of the fingers of the first set. She imagined those sets of hands also were growing hands on and on and on but it was much to small to see and by then it had started skittering, undulating, crawling across the room in a nauseating motion towards the lone pebble it had come from. Just as it was about to reach it’s former home, Fenn leapt across the room and crashed the wooden bowl down atop it, pressing down with all her strength.
“Gotcha, didn’t I, you little sucker?” She yelled into her hands. “Let’s see you get outta this one!”
The bowl began vibrating ever so slightly as the room became infused the the pungent scent of kava.
“Bet you thought I’d let you get back into my favorite rock, huh? Well let’s just see what you’re going to do about being stuck in-“*BANG*
The kava cup exploded upward with so much force that it lodged itself into the ceiling, plaster drifting down in small rivulets. She swore at it and massaged her stinging hands. Fenn watching the ink-like demon as it lowered itself down from the ceiling in a fashion as disturbing as it’s crawling motion had been. Pouring itself in multiple directions it would solidify in patterns akin to spun sugar, with it’s own liquid dripping down itself before meeting back up a few inches later and repeating its motion. The needle thin drip-structure reached all they way down to the pebble and *thuuuuuup!* sucked itself back into the rock.
“You son-of-a-”
The door banged open and her father stood staring down at her, more plaster drifting down from the force of it. Fenn was sprawled across the floor along with her staff and river stone. Geir Looked up at the ceiling and then back down at his daughter with sorrow across his face.
“Quite the racket your making this early in the morning, but I suppose we are all frustrated about the happenings of late.”
“I…I guess so.” Fenn said gathering herself to a sitting position.
Her father closed his eyes briefly. As they opened she saw a hardness to them.
“Gather your travel bag Fenn, it has been decided. You will leave today, within the hour, to be tested by the swamp witch”
“What?! Father no! My name day is not for another half-”
“Fennessy.”
“I…I just, i’m not…”
“I know.” He said softly. “None of your family think you have the taint, but the Andorns…the Andorns are blinded by their grief and have the elders riled up. This is the deal I could broker with them. They wanted you banished Fenn.”
“It’s not fair father!” She shouted. “I loved him!”
“I know that Fenn, I know.” Geir rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “We all did. But your trial with the witch would have had to happen in another year anyway, you’ll come back with your name and the Andorns can do nothing to speak against you or our family again. Gather your things. We will be in the neck, awaiting you.” Without waiting for a response he walked out, shutting the door behind him.
Fenn let out a whimper and glanced over at her favorite rock, now inhabited by the little ink demon.
“I guess it you and me, you little squish.” She said to it, resigning herself to her fate.
The kava cup came lose from the ceiling and bounced off her head.
Wren’s eyes opened to a full moon shining through the small glass window across his room. Squinting against the persistent light, he rolled to the edge of the bedding and looked over. Wren watched motes of dust drifting past his nose along invisible air currents passing through the moon rays. Dark shapes cast by the sparse wooden furniture loomed large in the pale illumination. He slid out of a creaking bed, the furs about him crackling with the static. The floor was cold and one foot was still asleep. Shaking it violently, he hobbled over to his window to look out through the frosted glass.
The forest.
Moon light pooled at the edge of the black and forbidden wood. The light seemed to quiver and move about in his vision, just behind the rope barrier. Sleep fled him as rubbed his eyes in wonder.
Strange. He thought. The moonlight is shining in the shade of the forest.
The young boy began pulling on his oiled boots and patched vest; grabbing his wooden sword and a long stocking hat, dyed deep red. Slipping out his tiny window with practiced ease, he dropped into the snow bank that had drifted against the cabin. His eyes adjusted to the brightness of the moonlit snow. Sucking in deeply through his nose, he let it all out into a burst of vapor. The smell of winter was sharp and thrilling. Stars above him jostled about as he marched evenly towards the oddly lit patch of woods. The crunch of frozen snow sounded with each footfall and Wren tasted unfamiliarity on his tongue.
It can’t be as dangerous as they say.
His parents voice drifted in from his earliest memories. Repeated so many times it was almost a mantra.
“There are only three thing you need to know in this world, son. Get along with other folk. We will love you, no matter what. But most important of all, never, never go into those woods alone. Got it?”
The milky white splotch of moonlight had brought the boy to the cusp of the forest edge. He looked up at the thick white ropes crisscrossing the forest boundary and the strings of keepsakes that hung like sheets from them. Wren stood in front of his own family’s relics. The shimmering moonlight rested just behind his own mementoes; intricately woven bracelets that had broken off him, feathers he had daringly gathered from the edge of the forest, small white rocks found in the riverbed, his first lost tooth. The relic barrier was made of the townsfolk most precious objects. Carvings, metals and prayers, woven into cloth, peppered the great hanging cords for as far as Wren could see. Reaching out to his tokens he pulled them aside. There, just beyond the barrier, was a thin path laid out in moonlight reaching deep into the wood.
Dare I?
Wren had never crossed the boundary before without a trio. The people of his village foraged in groups of three. One to watch the ground for wild ginger, fiddleheads, mushrooms and other hidden edibles while the other two looked deep into the forest for…well no one had ever told him. Stories were told around cooking fires of the dangerous denizens of the wood, but they seemed to be nothing more then tall tales. He looked again past the barrier and this time he took a tentative step. The trail pulsed and seemed to move farther into the shadows. Wren’s eyes opened wide and he ducked under the barrier.
Mounting euphoria crept up his spine as he took a step past the barrier, then another, each foot imprinting into the snow of the moonlit path leading him away from the safety of his village. It was a hundred paces into the wood when it occurred to him; his steps were no longer making any noise. Wren looked down at his feet. He shuffled one around. Utter silence. Wren laughed and stopped with in inaudible gasp, he could hear not one bit of it. Delicately, he leaned over and stepped his right foot off the moonlight pathway and was rewarded with a satisfying crunch. The moss that lay underneath the inch or so of snow lay green and bright against the white powder. Laughter burbled out of him to greet this oddity. Wren stomped each foot, his right leg vibrated and his left feeling no impact at all. He began running full pelt on the edge of the path. His right foot crunched and crashed over twig and branch, his left made not a whisper. He began swinging his head back and forth giggling madly and howling. Wren’s voice cut in and out in time with bobbing of his head through the rays of muffling light. Wren promptly made up a song.
“Ho!
I go!
I go through the woods like a fool’s shadow!
Ro!
Toe!
I know true good, I’m the moon’s arrow!
Lo!
Foe!
I grow rude shouting at all the wood’s snow!”
The path began winding through pale birch and dark pine, curving around thickets and over boulders that were strewn about the forest floor. Wren finally slowed down in a flailing exhausted manner. He stood panting with a dumb grin spread across his face for a full minute. Taking a step, he watched the path move up into the shade of the wood. Another step and the path grew that much more. Looking up he could see a small slice of the moon between the trees. The canopy seemed to part ever so slightly at his arrival. Wren continued to follow a moon that slipped between branches. Time passed. He enjoyed the silence of his body, the totality of it. He listened as hard as he could. A ringing began pulsating from his ears from the lack of sound. Lowering his eyes, he listened ever harder. Low-key whistles seemed to fade in and out making it impossible to tell if they were real or they were just caused by the ringing silence that followed his movement. A thought froze Wren in his tracks.
What if something is right behind me?
Tales from the village storytellers came flooding into Wren’s mind. Packs of wolves with human eyes dragging children into their dens, mists that stole the minds of those that entered them, and earthen monsters composed of the forest itself. If one of the stories were even half true he no longer wanted to do much exploring.
He glanced back to make sure he was still alone and a stab of panic seized his chest. The path of light had been disappearing behind him.
I’m lost.
The terrible thought echoed over and over in his mind. He walked back the way he had come; relief flooded down to his very toes as he remembered he could follow his footprints back to the village. Wren quickened his pace. The wood seemed to darken around him as he retraced his path.
I was having so much fun I forgot where I was!
Looking up ahead, Wren saw the moonlight ahead disappearing at the rate of his footsteps. He began to try and outrun it, futilely, causing the end to rush towards him. Approaching its end he slid to a halt, panting shallow quick breaths. Casting his eyes about the silent woods around him, he noticing that the faint whistling coming from the depths was very much real. Wren looked into the darkness of the path he had taken. His footprints were disappearing with the moonlight.
Oh no no no, don’t go.
He took another step and watched a boot print become unmade, making the illusion of someone unseen walking towards him. Three steps left, two, one, and the light stopped. It wavered like water on the edge of land, lapping at his foot. He looked back at the path behind him that lead still deeper into the woods, feeling a curious pull that was at odds with his dark imaginings.
Further or try to find my way back?
Wren stood at the threshold for long moments. The imagery of a story his older sister would tell him came to mind. A giant beast that hunted children who trespassed into the forest, one who’s eyes glowed red in the darkness. It was the one that had scared him most.
Nope! Burn all this; I’m getting out of here.
Wren took a step off the shore of light and was plunged into darkness, the path winking off behind him like a door shut. The sounds of the wind and woods came back violently to his now sensitive ears. Numbing panic gripped his very core and he ran, crashing in the direction he believed the path had flowed. He could now hear the unknown whistling increase tenfold. He felt as though it took on a closer, quicker cadence, the fear of this spurring his body on faster and faster. He imagined a red-eyed monster bearing down on him from behind. It’s sickle-like talons hanging from stretched fingers, attached to impossibly long arms. It would have a barrel of a body with no discernible neck and such towering legs that the glow of the red eyes would look down upon him from afar. It wanted to crush his body and rend the flesh from his bones and it would probably be gaining on him. Adrenaline coursed through his body and he ran faster still. Shadow drenched trees flew past in a blur; branches whipped his limbs and his foot caught under a snow-covered root. Wren pitched forwards and crashed into a thicket of prickle vine. He laid panting and cursing for a time before his eyes adjusted to the now dim moonlight that cast indifferent radiance in intricate patterns upon the forest floor.
The moon itself seemed to have shifted positions in the sky and Wren knew again the terror of being lost. The cold of the night now sunk into his skin. The thick wool vest no longer kept him as warm as when we had been on the path. Despair crept into his heart, his fear consuming him. Images of himself dying alone, starved and frozen in place flashed through his mind. The red-eyed monster always just behind him. The fear became so intense that his body began shaking violently, causing him to crouch down into a ball as he dry heaved into the snow, thorns pressing into his knees and palms. Crawling out of the bush, he fell forward, sobbing into his arms. The moon had again moved by the time he stopped. He looked up at the wood around him and wiped the snot from his face. He heard no whistles, nothing but his no steady breathing. With his fear exhausted, shame and anger made itself at home.
What in shit and ash am I doing crying on the ground? I’m probably not ten minutes from the edge of the forest. I get a bit turned around and this is all it takes to fall apart?
Standing back up, Wren wiped his eyes dry. Taking a deep breath he took stock of his situation; a scowl on his face.
Die alone? Fine. We all die someday but not tonight I don’t. Lost? I’m fine. Stupid moon path thing. I’ll find my own way back. Monster? Fine. I’ll just run faster then it. I’ll stare it right in it’s red beady eye and tell it to…
Wren then noticed two things simultaneously. The first being his boot prints off in the distance. The moonlight path had swallowed his prints but he had forgotten his game of running along its edge, leaving a sparse trail of right boot prints leading back to his village. The second thing noticed was a noise similar to that of an animal being skinned just behind him. Turning slowly, Wren watched in morbid fascination as a six foot wide section of moss bulged upwards like a bolder being pushed out of the ground. The earth beneath his feet began writhing and convulsing, causing him to stumble backwards into a young tree, powdery snow raining down upon him. He tried to move but could not look away from the moss mound that was still piling upon itself.
Wren felt unusually calm as the surreal event continued around him. Exhausting himself of all emotion just moments before had given him a detached perception of events. He watched himself watch the moss continue to grow. The undulating mass seemed to move in slow motion, lurching into shape in fits and starts. Wren was still applauding his newfound acceptance of surrealism when two orbs of cherry red light appeared in the center of the moss mound that was now steadily rising into the air.
Oh burning shit. He thought. Wren found suddenly that he did indeed have a new and very large supply of fear to utilize. He turned and ran for his foot steps.
Fennessy Ofeig awoke to the clanging of the warning gong. A clatter of iron and wood arose from the smooth wooden floor. She could hear her father waking her brothers in a low baritone voice.
“Let Fenn sleep, she need not be bothered by this one.” He could be heard to say.
Do they think i’d sleep through another eoton attack? She thought.
The small bedroom brightened as the watch fires outside were lit. Her family’s dwelling was one of the first in the neck, the funneling of the walls that encased the village. Building a complete wall between them and the forest only had brought out beasts large enough to destroy it. The village now accepted that the eoton would come and they could do nothing but await them with iron in hand. The forest was life and life was war.
Fennessy pulled herself up with a grunt and gazed out the small window. Looking out past the neck, she squinted into the darkness and looked for what came for them this night. The sleep would not rub out of her eyes and played tricks on her. The tree line seemed to lurch forward then back. She swung her legs around to stand up and immediately pitched forward as her wounded knee gave out, slamming her face into her oak dresser with a thud that shook the windowsill.
“Blast it all to the abyss!” She swore while clutching at her bleeding forehead.
The voice downstairs had stopped and she could hear her mother’s steps down the hall. Fennessy took a moment to stand up, pressing the throbbing right side of her face with her hand. The door let out muted creak as her mother poked her head into the room.
“Fenn are you all right?” Her voice wavered.
“Yea.” she said, moving her knee side to side. “I forgot you gave me a full mug of kava before going to sleep.” She stared down the offending dresser that held the empty wooden cup.
“It’s just as well your awake” Ignoring the hand Fenn held to her face. “We need you in the square right now, if you can manage with your knee.” He mother said in a tight voice.
“What, why?” Fenn said, letting the pain of her throbbing brow burn away the lingering effect of the sleeping drug.
“And bring your fire brand with you, we think it’s a dybbuk.” her mother said as she turned away and walked down the stairs with hurried steps.
No!
Fenn’s heart doubled it’s pace. She watched her mother leave, frozen in place. She forced her body back to her window and looked again to the forest. She leaned forward and squinted; breath catching as she caught a small flash of red/white light flitting near the lower slope. Billowing soot seeped from the dark forest edge, pulled by a single pinprick of twinkling light. The color shifted between red and white in metered intervals, bringing a cloak of darkness towards the opening of the village walls. It wandered, to and fro, never leaving the ground more then three feet. Her two brothers running past her window broke the spell of fear on her. Bracing her knee, she leapt off of her bed with a grimace. Grabbing a cloak and her firebrand from the wall, she bolted out the door. It was a dybbuk, a smoke beast.
A man will die tonight.
Fenn sprinted out into the night to halt behind her family. Her family’s manor was granted the privilege of second closest to the neck. Only the Andorn family’s home stood closer; having the number of heirs and fighting prowess that was needed to sustain living on the threshold of the struggle.
“Where are my brothers?” Fenn whispered to her mother and father who stood behind a line of Andorn women.
“They are gathering the others from the village into the center square to protect the men.” Her mother spoke back, not looking away from the black mist gathering across the field. The dybbuk’s light twinkled in the night breeze and began moving in a direct line towards the village.
Fenn watched the three Andorn sisters, Keln, Terren, and little Min finish wrapping their spear tips in strips of oilskin so that the blade was just visible. The trio rose in unison and walked instep to one of the burning torches that lined the timbers of the neck. The spears lit immediately, igniting brightly for a moment before settling down into the blue flames that the girls could fight with. They looked into each others eyes then back towards the group, nodding.
Emika Andorn, looking away from her three daughters, spoke to her. “Fenn, go join the others in the circle, the women need more bodies to form around the men and you cannot help here” Her face softened as she met Fenn’s eyes. “I’m counting on you to protect my husband and son if we fail here.” Her gaze moved to the last three men still near the walls opening. Her Father Geir Ofeig, Erik Andorn and his youngest son, Tomas, nodded at her in turn and began walking towards the center.
“Father” Fenn called to him.
Geir slowed his pace, waiting for her. “I know your tough girl, but you shouldn’t be out of bed” He looked down at the bandages around her knee that now wept blood from her recent movement and sighed.
“We need every woman in the village, you know it’s a dybbuk.” She responded after a moment of walking.
He paused to look at her. “Yes, my darling. I know what it is.” Her father looked back at the wood before shaking his head and continuing down the path. Fenn prayed a selfish wish to herself.
Please, may the thing take anyone but him.
Geir looked down at his daughter, seeing the downward cast of her eyes. “Steel yourself Fenn. The creature has come only sparingly to our village over the course of generations. This is the first of your lifetime but not mine. It has never failed to take a man into the wood. Hold your fire close to those around you and we may yet break this truth.”
Fenn nodded and looked up to see the approaching village square. The circle was forming and the last of the villagers came out of the shadows holding their firebrands. Glancing behind her she was almost glad her injured knee kept her from the fight.
The three sisters began forming a wall at the throat of the neck. Her mother and aunt, heads of the healer’s sect, stood well behind them with aloes and salted honey salves that would help alleviate potential smoke burn. The deadly light in front of them pulled tentacles of dark steam in on itself and moved towards the girls who stood waiting in the channel.
Terran glanced down at her two younger sisters, seeing her youngest, Min, holding her burning spear with trembling hands.
“Choke up on the haft Min.” Terran said in a low voice. “Remember, this thing isn’t interest in us, we are here to protect our brothers in the village”
“And father?” Min whispered.
“Yes, and not just ours.”
“Andor women!” Fenn’s mother shouted from afar. “Do not forget, to breathe the dybbuk is death, our salves can help your bodies but if it gets inside there is no saving you.”
“Understood!” Terran shouted back as the three raised their kerchiefs “That light is its heart, strike there.” She said in a lower voice to her siblings.
Keln stiffened and shifted her stance. “Enough talk, it’s coming”
The dybukk had ceased its slow movement and now was hovering one hundred paces away. The oily smoke that emanated from it’s pulsing light gathered behind it as if crouching. The flickering of light stopped and it abruptly released a low hum and a deep red hue that was devoid of white. As swift as an arrow the smoke beast launched itself forward, covering the distance between them in a matter of seconds, then it was upon them. First Terran then Keln struck out with their flaming iron; one too high the other too low as the small light lurched under then over their thrusts. Min swung a wide cut as the other two leapt back to keep it from getting through. The smoke curled around the flames, burning in small wisps while welting any skin it touched. Keln grunted as a tendril brushed her shoulder, then began screaming as the pain burrowed in.
“Ignore it!” yelled Terran, seeing Keln begin to frantically slapping at the reddening flesh. Min and Terran closed ranks and unleashed a flurry of stabs.
“Aim for its heart!” Emika yelled from behind her daughters. The other Andorn women created a secondary wall that would push the creature back towards the young warriors. The smoke beast dodged each thrust of their burning spears, always evading the fatal strike by inches. The dark smoke would catch fire and separate from that sparkling center, only to have it produce more in humming batches. The girls worked tirelessly to hack and chop away at each extrusion, making noticeable progression at shrinking the cloud of noxious smoke.
Keln had fully recovered herself and was moving into forward position when Min suddenly launched herself directly at the cloud with a sweeping strike over her head. She had lit the haft of her spear ablaze so that a full four feet of weapon came to bare on the demon. The blazing arc of her spear lit the wooden walls on either side. The dybbuk jerked backwards too late and was split in half, narrowly evading it’s precious light from being engulfed in the flames. Even as Min’s weapon hit the ground and she cried out in victory, the creature burst forward to envelop her, Min vanishing into an oily mass. Her scream was piercing and abruptly cutting off.
“MIN!” The sisters screamed in unison.
Red light flared up from its center as the smoke beast shot between the gap and broke past the neck, leaving the writhing form of Min behind. It zigzagged between the elder women whose torches swung too slow. Passing them now, it shot towards the men who had gathered into the center of the village.
“Please tend to her” Emika’s voice whispered to Fenn’s mother and aunt as the Andorn women rushed past; leaving their fallen daughter alone on the ground with them.
Fen and the womenfolk surrounding the men braced themselves, brandishing their torches. As the two remaining sisters gave chase to their prey they shouted a warning from afar but the dybbuk had already arrived at the collection of men, women and fire. The smoke beast made maddening feints and thrusts toward the circle of bodies. Women screamed and shouted their fury at the beast as the men stood in silence, every other holding a brand overhead so as to discourage it coming down on them.
Fenn gasped as the creature slowed, then paused before her. The sound of the villages faded and she found herself staring into the depths of the monster. The smoke that poured from the pinprick of red light moved as milk in oil. She could now see that the patterns were specific symbols, fractal shapes that poured themselves over and over each other in alternating rhythms that she could almost pull meaning out of them. Swirling so close to her in hypnotic patterns they were speaking to her and if she could just…
“Fennessy Ofeig, don’t break that line!” bellowed Erik Andorn while at the same instant the hands of her father could be felt on her arm.
The panicked sounds of neighbors calling to her snapped back into awareness. Fenn realized she was now inches away from the impossibly small red heart of the beast; her feet had stepped well outside of the circle.
Screams and cries erupted as it slipped passed her and dodged the many flailing flames. Diving down, it boiled the flesh of exposed legs and feet of those that stood directly behind her. A flash of white followed by a wail went up from the gathering and all became silent. Fenn shook her head to try and clear her muddled mind as the crowd drew back to reveal a body lying on the ground. Ropes of black soot slid into his mouth with each inhale his chest made. Fenn walked towards the body in a daze and registered who it was.
Oh nonononono…not him, not Tomas.
Red welts erupted from the boy’s face and throat while his own body spasmed and jerked him in a backward crawling motion over the ground. Racking coughs brought up plumes of black powder. With one final rattle of his lungs, he was still, leaving only the whimpers and moans of his onlookers.
“Fetch the oil” Erik Andorn said in toneless words, eyes on his son’s blacked face, still boiling from the touch of the dybbuk.
Lyssa’s oldest brother Dyrik was the first to move and sprinted off towards the storehouse. The crowd stepped further back as the youngest of the Andor household began stirring on the ground.
“Keep back, it will make for the wood!” Yelled one of the elders.
Lifting himself off the ground as if control by a poor puppeteer, Tomas began shifting each limb independently and incongruent towards each other. Each lurching movement made Tomas rise further and farther. He shambled up to his feet. Not a whisper of sound was made as the village looked back on its dead child. But it did not move towards the forest. Tomas, stiff as a statue, slowly turned his headaway from the wood to look directly at Fenn. Swirling blackness. The village folk shied away from its gaze leaving her alone to confront it. Black mist poured out of the blacked holes where Tomas’s eyes once were. His pupils emerged as pinpricks of twinkling red and white light, shinning out of a swollen and raw face. His mouth opened and a grating hiss escaped his mouth, dark smoke pouring out. Gone was the sweet tenor of a young boy’s voice. Now, a low rasping sound raked the ears of those listening. The flesh it came from was still burning.
“Feeennn…”
The village collectively gasped at the sound. Lyssa brought her hand to her mouth in horror. The people in the village backed farther away from her in fear, leaving an even wider ring around the two of them.
Men possessed by dybbuk did not speak. She thought in panic. Men possessed by a smoke beast wander into the forest to be slowly consumed, they always have!
“Feeennnnnn…” it spoke again, this time taking a step towards her, it’s voice ending her name in a deep whisper.
This isn’t happening, she thought. She wanted to run to scream but her limbs had frozen.
Dyrik arrived back into the gathering panting and stopped short at the sight of the two. The creature took another halting step towards Fenn.
“Do it now boy” said Erik in a clipped, tight voice.
Dyrik blinked twice then hurled the thin satchel of oil into Tomas’s back. It burst upon impact, oil washing over the boy’s small smoking frame. Tomas didn’t seem to notice. His eyes had begun leaking black soot, gaze still locked onto Fenn. She finally stepped back, only to fall as her knee gave out on her.
“Come homeee child, come home with meee” The voice began high then ended in a tone so low it made her eardrums vibrate.
Terran stepped into the circle and rammed her still burning spear into her brother’s back to almost its end. Bursting through his chest, the tip of the spear stopped a foot from Fenn’s face. Fenn began clawing herself backwards, hands slipping on the cold wet grass. Not blood but smoke crept out of the wound, reaching for her alongside Tomas’s outstretched fingers. The oil ignited and Tomas was alight. He took another step towards Fenn, glistening pupils drilling into her very being. His body was now wreathed in flames.
“Fennnnn, come hooome” The inhuman voice erupted out of his throat, shaking the leaves on the ground as the flames consumed his flesh. His head silhouetted against the flames on his back, light began playing across his face as they licked around to his front, revealing a charred and blistered smile shining out of his ruined face. The hands of her brothers grabbed and dragged her out of the grasping of the possessed child. Dyrik shoved themselves backwards a safe distance away, holding onto his shaking sister. Her family now gathered around her. They watched as the boy stopped and lowered his hand. His head leaned backwards and he vomited smoke skyward. The fire became an inferno as the dybbuk caught fire inside the boy. The smoke itself ignited and with a concussion of air the burning remains of Tomas Aldorn collapsed in a heap in the center of the circle. Silence pounded Fenn’s ears, the smell of burning human hair and flesh wafting through the night air. The eyes of the village folk flitted from the body to Fenn and back again. Erik Andorn was first to move, breaking the circle; he walked slowly up to the corpse of his son.
“It is done.” He said, looking directly at Fenn with a hard eye. “Our families will speak of this later” He said, directing the statement towards her Geir.
Her father listened while staring also at Fenn, looking upon her with sadness in his eyes, nodding to himself. The village began dispersing in murmurs and whispering, each stealing glances at Fenn. Fear was glistening in the surface of their eyes. Terran and Keln stood behind their mother, a look of hatred upon her face.
“I made but one request of you, young Ofeig” she said in a trembling voice. “We Aldorns have sacrificed two children to the forest this night while the Ofeigs treat with demons. You are tainted. I will see you banished.” The three turned and walked into the night.
The Ofeigs now stood alone, circled around their trembling daughter and the smoldering body of Tomas in the center of the square.
“Eddy” The initiator whispered into his ear.
The young boy was experiencing a rather pleasant dream. He was running through the night woods after a small flying creature made of light. Leaping over streams and fallen trees, he was reaching, fingers closing in on the…
“EDDY WELLSTONE!” The initiator bellowed into the same ear.
“WHAT! what..oh. hello.” Eddy said while rubbing his eyes awake. “Wow, you really let me sleep today…” The amount of crud in his eye was a good indicator that he had slept through the entirety of the teacher’s lesson.
“Despite my rule to let my charges do as they wish, it does not extend past the end of my day.” The teacher spoke, giving him a stern look.
Eddy looked around the open room furnished with a circle of large padded pillows, noticing that not a single other youth was seated upon any of them. The rice paper walls let in the diffused light of a setting sun, playing over the intricately patterned rug that lay in the center of the room.
“Eddy, why do you come to my lessons if you’re to sleep through not one but all seven?” The older man said turning his shaven head and squinting one eye at him.
“Because you’re the best initiator in the town, your home is the most comfortable and you teach the finest truths of all the initiators.” The teacher looked at him with a raised bushy white eyebrow. “And I dream best while sleeping here” Eddy replied, arms out in front of him, stretching as a cat would.
The teacher chuckled. “Now there’s the true reason. Go on, get out of here and learn your own way, the woods are the only teacher you’ve ever listened to”
Eddy got up and sauntered out the door with a backwards wave. Traveling down the narrow pea gravel path that led back behind the initiator’s yurt and into the wood he crunched the stones beneath his bare feet. Under the shade of leaf and limb he breathed in the earthy aromas of the dried pine needles, listening to the swaying brush of the tillandsia moss that hung in sheets from the oaks bordering the path. The trial began to work its way up into the forested hills, past groves of sword fern and into the deeper, less traveled parts of the wood surrounding Eddy’s village. He paused suddenly, cocking his head to the side to strain his ear. Eddy’s face broke out in a smile and he moved off the path towards the sound, picking his way through a clump of thickets. He came out into a clearing amongst a copse of black saplings. Soft grass grew in playful clumps all about the open area, hiding the sharp needles that the surrounding trees dropped periodically. Walking up to one of trees, Eddy bent down for a closer look and chirped in satisfaction at finding a geometric pattern of small holes. Each hole the size of a pin was leaking brilliant white sap that ran down in stark contrast to the obsidian like smoothness of the young tree’s bark. Nodding in satisfaction, Eddy walked back into the center and plopped himself down into a comfortable lotus position and closed his eyes.
An hour went by, then another. He moved not an inch. In the third hour a small tinkling noise sounding, the stirring of ice in water, broke the silence of the grove. Eddy’s mouth formed a mischievous grin. Raising his arm above his head, he pointed his finger up above him as if to answer a question asked. A crystalline arrangement of transparent particles, tinted a robins egg blue, began collecting on Eddy’s fingertip. Opening his eyes, he watched as tiny parades of shimmering dust emerged from the pinpricks in the saplings around him. They floated lazily in thin lines to accumulate layer upon layer until Eddy’s finger had what looked to be and actual robin’s egg resting atop his fingernail. Lowering his hand to his face, he inspected the perfectly smooth object. Glass like in texture, Eddy rotated his hand, first left, then right, to watch the growing ellipse continue to collect the rivulets of sparkling bits that emanated from the ebony trees surrounding him. Watching closely, he determined the tint was closer to a sapphire. No sooner did he change his mind then the shape of the egg shimmered, forming into the tetragonal shape of a raw sapphire. The smile that was Eddy’s face since the purling organism announced itself widened even further. In quick succession the sapphire shape warped and twisted into a variety of flowers, birds and finally a tiny figurine of a classmate he fancied. The miniature version of the girl, Pebble, began making the same graceful movements as Eddy made in his mind. Slowly, the glimmering Pebble began removing her clothing. The girl spinning above his outstretched finger took off her skirt and holding it out, let it disintegrate, the dust flowing back around in particle form to make the form slightly larger. Now the size of his thumb, Pebble began reaching ever so slowly down her body to place her hand-
“Whacha doin?” A small voice said from just above his left shoulder.
Eddy’s body attempted to jump a foot in the air, tangled legs dumping him on his face while the Image of pebble shatter to pale blue dust.
“Burn it all to ash!” Eddy swore, looking up while spitting pine needles to see a rodere looking innocently back at him. The malleable dust was in the process of violently sucking back into the trees in all directions. Eddy looked longingly as the last of the organism tinkled back into it’s various homes.
In some way related to a stoat or weasel, Kip was one of the many denizen of the area. The little animal was three feet long and mostly torso. Its silky ears were nearly prehensile and grew long and thin, hanging halfway down its snow-white body. Blood red eyes stared at Eddy over a button black nose.
“Kip you bastard, I’ll have you know I was very busy just now!” Eddy’s red face sputtered to his old friend as he adjusted his pants.
Kip raised himself up on his hind legs and revealed his needle like snaggle tooth in what Eddy had come to consider a smirk. Looking up at eddy and then around the clearing Kip spoke again in a sarcastic tone “Oh I saw, quite busy you were. I think you’ve been busy a few times here this week”.
“Shut up you little rat!” Eddy yelled, throwing a clod of dirt at the animal that deftly dodged the attack.
Bouncing back over in long fluid jumps to perch his paws on his knee, Kip put his face right up to Eddy’s nose.
“You really shouldn’t be messing around with that stuff yah know, people have been known to accidentally kill themselves with what they think” Kip said, scrunching up his face.
“Yeah well not me, I know how to handle my own mind” Eddy said turning his head to the side and raising his chin.
“Obviously”. The rodere said, eyes moving to the trees and back to Eddy.
“Whatever. Hey, why are you here anyway? I thought your family was moving burrows or something this week.” Eddy said.
“That’s why I came to get you. Follow me.” Kip said, bolting off his knee and into the thick bushes that encircled the grove of black saplings.
“Hey wait! What are you talking about?” Eddy said while stumbling to get up.
Kips slender head poked through a bush and up at Eddy. “I found something”.
Eddy paused for a moment looking at his childhood friend while his face broke out into his grin. Diving into the thicket ahead of him he shouted “Well why didn’t you say so sooner, lets go!”
The two ran off into the deep wood to get a look at whatever it was that Kip had dug up.
Have you seen my unicorn?
You would know it by it’s horn
It’s pure white and glows with magic
Losing it would be rather tragic
It ran right this way I could have sworn
Are you sure you haven’t seen my unicorn?
I’ve heard they are very hard to steal
Mostly because no one knows that they’re real
Perhaps it joined a unicorn migration
or packed up a suitcase and went on vacation
I guess it’s gone, I’m sure i’m at fault
I should have invested in a unicorn vault
All the things I’ve lost couldn’t fit inside a wagon.
But now that I think of it, I’ve also misplaced my dragon…
Hey you, what are you bored?
Go check out the patterns
in your ceiling, walls and floor
Pretend your on saturn
and spacemen live in your drawers
Go on and walk out your front door
or the back if the front’s to much of a chore
Go lay in the grass
and look at the clouds
Go to the mall and
just stare at them crowds
For crying out loud, your on a rock hurtling through space!
This world’s got weird smeared all over the place
You’ve gotten about 0% of yourself explored
Think about that next time you feel bored.
.
Hello, I am also you
you know what I say is true
I am because we are!
For your recollection
we’re all just reflections
made from the dust of a star
So whenever I greet you
It’s you you’ll meet too
Isn’t that kinda bizarre?
.
The pill bug to some folk, is nothing but an insect
Those people should have woke, from this one little defect
A lack of wonder for the world is what they’re missing
The small truths unfurled aren’t worth dismissing
We are creatures unknown to the microcosmic flow
Never better said then “as above so below”
Roly polie, chiggy-wigs, potato bugs:
These little guys can give themselves hugs.
Arm-ah-dill-ah-die-ah-dee, go ahead and say with me;
Armadillidiidae, if you see one let it be!
It’s copper based body, bleeds blue blood
Minding it’s business, it cleans up crud
No longer do you have to guess or suppose
Who’s responsible for what will decompose
You’ll find there is really nothing odd
about loving that little isopod.
Jack lied on his back and let him mind form images of Leah. Shadowed pieces of face and body appear in the darkness above his bed. A patchwork of soft memories seep into him, flowing into the various notes of nostalgia. He tasted the past and the feelings flit through. A caress of loneliness carries in it a sharp pang of sexuality. Images rushed by of remembered unfamiliarity. The first conversations spoke in the hours just before and just after sleep. Calling up moments of arguments and soft murmurs he revisited himself. Breathing in deeply, Jack released the stream of recollections and let his mind wander. Memories of the same places in different times washed over his half-consciencness. Walking down the high school hallway and the familiarity of it now. A blacked tree struck by lightning deep in the woods and the wonder that it had held. Now it had long since rotted, only the stump remaining. The very first time he had looked up and saw leah sitting in her chair.
damn
A vibration from his phone underneath his pillow causes him to slowly roll over and grope for it.
“Hello?”
“Hi, it’s Leah.”
“Oh? I was just thinking about you. I haven’t done it in a while”
“Yeah? That must have been it then. What are you doing?”
“I’m lying on my back in my room and thinking of our past. It’s sorta crazy to think of us back then and to think of us as we are now.”
“We grew up together.”
“I know. Sometimes I struggle with thinking of you as you were then instead of whatever you are now.”
“It’s been some time”
“What are you afraid of these days, Leah?”
“I guess of not reaching my potential, between that and being alone.”
“I sorta feel that.”
Why, whats your biggest fear now, Jack?
“Well, probably that we live in a closed loop of reality. That whatever we are is infinite macrocosm upon macrocosm that is desperately attempting to discover itself without the ability to. That it looks down on us as we do in the microscope, hoping our cells will give us the answer. That there is only unknowing in ever direction forever and progress is just a way to forget that all we can do is try and forget the truth of our complete solitude within ourselves.”
“Your such an idiot”
“What?! Why? You just asked me didn’t you?”
“Yeah, but your version of reality is ridiculous. Also, in essence you’ve just said the same thing as me.”
“Yeah, I guess so”
“What are you using to cope with it?”
“Wonder I guess…but sometimes I think it’s just another way to forget, like “giving up to wonder” or something like that”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.”
“You?”
“Style”
“Oh yeah? Haha, how does that work?
“I mean, like finding your style of existing. It doesn’t need to progress through the infinite, it’s your personal answer to it. You get to be an individual but can still be part of everything else.
“I like it”
“Thank you. So if I say “I like your style”, it is the highest compliment I can give.”
“Good to know”
“Jack, I’m going back to sleep now, i’ve got to get up early tomorrow.”
“Alright, hey Leah?”
“Yeah?”
“I like your style.”
“I know, I like yours too. Sweet dreams.”
“Night Leah”
“Goodnight Jack”
“The star catcher drifts through he dream of the night”
.
The star catcher drifts through the dream of the night
filling its net with falling points of light
no one knows why or for what purpose it does
but many suspect, it’s just because.
.
Flying, falling while slipping and gripping
its endless catcher that’s slightly ripping
no stars escape but the dust drifts down
to land in the dreams of the various towns
.
The children who woke to next morning’s light
found that the dust had enhanced their sight
“I can see forever,” one child claimed
“I can see farther then that!” another exclaimed
.
Adults of the towns all gathered around
to try and figure out what could be done
They whispered and worried in hush tones of hurry
until a man spoke of his son.
.
“My boy says he can see nine hundred shades of blue,
what’s worse then that is he’s gone and named them all too!”
“My girl says that she sees we all live forever,
and not to worry, there’s no such thing as never”
“My kid told me that nothing is at all what it seems,
that what we think of the world is just a thick dream”
“He then said his mind had been freed, thought are seeds,
and my aura was a particular shade of sea foam green!”
.
The adults all began yelling in bellowing shouts
clamoring to express the degree of their doubts
The frightened grownups could not choose a choice
Until the eldest council woman cleared her voice
.
“I don’t know what is with this fighting and fuss,
the problem isn’t with them, it lies within us.
Our children know something we’ve long forgot,
and it’s something we need and we need it a lot.
Just because it’s different don’t lose your reason.
Remember that we must love every season”
.
The grownups going home stopped listening to fears
and instead began listening with their own ears
The children were waiting with a gleam in their eye
to show the adults the star catcher in the sky.
.
Practical parents are right more often then not
but kids know a world that grownups forgot
We depend on each other, the young and the old
As we love one another it comes back tenfold
So keep your feet on the earth and your head in space
and look for that star catcher’s celestial chase!
.
Moss 