21. Arrick

Chapter twenty-one

Arrick

T he soft ground gives way under the pads of my heavy feet. Decaying tree and shrub matter hinders my every step.

We stay off any established trail, not willing to risk overhead exposure. Kalevi walks in front, keeping saplings from snapping me in the face, cutting through the forest like a blade through butter.

Mist rises from the convergence of heated ground and cold, moist air. The eyes of unknown creatures watch us as we pass. Their intense focus causes the hairs on my body to prick in awareness, but nothing ever attacks. Nothing engages.

We sleep untouched, even as haunting sounds ring out in the damp night air. I've never known fear like I do here. I feel helpless and out of control for the first time, as if something could latch onto me and drag me into those green depths, never to be seen again. A shiver rattles my spine, now understanding Yera's terror in those first few days.

The first night we made camp was jarring. Sleep didn't find me easily while the red irises of creatures I've only pictured in my nightmares reflected off the firelight.

Three days have passed. Kalevi insists on me retelling how I encountered Yera nightly. He asks with such enthusiasm that it breaks my heart, so I recant everything—constantly. I don't care at this point. He knows the story inside and out, though I obviously omitted the details where she let me touch her. I keep those to myself and let them run on a loop in my head when we sleep.

She makes me ache more than anyone ever has in my one hundred and fifty years of life. I've needed no one since adulthood, never craved another being as I crave her.

Her loss is a pain in my heart that breaks me every morning when I wake up and she's not in my arms. How could I become so attached? How could that intelligent, beautiful, soft human affect me in such a way that I'm willing to endanger myself and my land for her?

A sapling Kalevi missed with his long knife wheels back and snaps me in the face, like the forest is telling me to wake up and focus. All this sentimental distraction isn't bringing her any closer. The heavy, wet greenery seems never to end. We have gained little elevation, so it's been impossible for me to make out the lay of the land. I'm just walking sightlessly, cutting down rows and rows of ferns and rotted overgrowth.

Charlie contacted me to let me know he saw her, and that she was safe. He also told me she could hear thoughts from close ranges, making my heart leap in my throat. She's magic, but I knew that the first day I saw her. Not magic in any way I have experienced, but extraordinary nonetheless .

The day creeps on slowly as we axe through the ever-thickening forest. Showers fall infrequently, or at least not in a pattern I can predict.

The sun collapses behind the towering mountainside, so we find some flat ground to camp. Everything is wet, and our small bit of treated hide to block out the moisture makes poor protection against this weather.

Kalevi seems immune to the almost constant onslaught of water vapor and rain. He never complains. I've never seen his fingers prune. He is almost like the ferns and moss around us. Fuled by the very enviroment that created him.

If it were just me, making a fire would be fruitless. But with Kalevi, everything lights at the snap of his fingers and stays lit even though the wood is waterlogged.

The rain falls softly around us, bouncing off leaves and branches. Red eyes reflect off the firelight in the distance, but I've become used to it in the past few days. The creatures watching us from the woods no longer stir a primal fear.

The night is pitch black. Overhead, clouds block out the moon, and the air is heavy with thick sheets of mist that stand still in clearings like ghosts.

I don't think I like it here. It's beautiful in many ways, but wild.

It's become apparent in the past few days that there isn't much of a settled civilization. Some creatures live at the castle and do the Mother of Monster's bidding like a makeshift court. We have passed a few small homesteads, but nothing you could call a town or a village.

Another reason this place bothers me so much. In all my years of protecting the forest, I have never felt alone. Someone was always in my head or waiting for me when I rounded a corner. I lived a nomadic life, but the villages and towns were never over a week or two walk in any direction, if porting wasn't an option. I understand more about Kalevi and why he reacted so intensely when I showed him Yera. It also explains why he continues to have me repeat our story frame-by-frame.

Kalevi is quieter than usual. At least from what I've expirenced thus far.

erie jolts at small snaps and cracks from swaying trees. His deep, moss eyes dart from one point of interest to the next.

"Is everything okay?" I cave and ask. His focused eyes lock on me.

"I'm not sure, actually." His fingers fidget at the long braid of hair resting at his side. "Something feels off. It's a sensation I've never experienced, and I can't quite grasp what it means."

"Could you describe it to me, somehow, and maybe I can help you identify it?"

He thinks on that momentarily, pressing his fingers to his temples, considering.

I instantly get a wave of uncertainty. The feelings rip through my body like a storm, like fresh and wet bones snapping. A severing of sorts.

The sensation is immediately sickening and disconcerting. It's like nothing I have ever experienced. I hold my hand to my chest, trying to calm the swirling guttural sensation. "When did this first start?" I ask through choked breath, trying to gain my composure.

"It started a little yesterday afternoon and has grown in intensity ever since. This is what I experience for about fifteen minutes every hour." He looks shaken, like deep connections in his being are ripping apart at the seams.

"Do you know what it means or where it's coming from?" My words reach desperately for an answer .

"I don't, and it frightens me. I feel like I'm losing a grip on the only thing I truly had control of." He also looks desperate, so I lie and try to ease him.

"You know, it could be just because of exhaustion. We have only been sleeping four to five hours a night and traveling far and fast each day. No wonder it's taking a toll on your mind and body." He knows I'm lying. It's written all over his face, but he politely nods and externally accepts my words. "We should try to get some sleep. The castle is only a day's journey from here. We can afford to have a peaceful night's rest." There isn't anything we can do about it tonight, as terrifying as the sensation is. If I were to guess the origins of that sensation, I would say we are heading in the right direction to correct the problem.

We pile the fire up to make it a full-on blaze, believing it will help protect us through the night. We lay back in our bedrolls, the rogue raindrops occasionally striking the only skin left open to the elements.

The feeling stays with me throughout the night. I find myself drifting off to sleep, only to be shaken back out and covered in a cold sweat.

I watch the sunrise, thanking the spirits for the break of the day. The gloom still hangs over me, like the gray swirling clouds overhead. It's claustrophobic and turns in the air, even though the sun's rays peek through breaks in the shadows.

Kalevi grunts next to me and shakes the bedding off his shoulders. We are both exhausted, blinking tired eyes at morning light.

Then I remember today, we reach the castle. Today, I save my lovely Yera. The thought of that gets me to my feet quickly. Exhaustion turns into anticipation.

I smile over at Kalevi, but his face is stone. Unmoving, he locks eyes with me. Something is advancing toward us .

Branches snap in every direction. I don't know where to focus my attention, and I spin with each unfamiliar noise that echoes into the canyon. I ready myself for whatever is progressing in our direction. I hold fast to the large blade Kalevi gave me to help cut our path.

The first creature breaks out of the wilderness with purple-gray skin, a bulbous, hairless head, and lanky limbs tipped with poisonous claws.

It jumps into the air and flings its body at us as if flying, swiping its black claws back and forth, trying to catch anything with the poisoned tips. It screams as it bounds after us. The whole of its mouth is inky black, and I imagine its bite is poisonous as well.

It lands on its feet, looks at us, and then hisses. It's lithe, and the lethal body runs at us full force.

Kalevi holds out a hand, missing the deadly creature's poison, and touches a finger to its forearm. The goblin evaporates into a cloud of mist. Kalevi looks down at his palm and then at me.

"I can't stop them without touching them," Kalevi confesses. "That is what the feeling meant. I've been severed from my full power." He pants a bit, still grappling with his loss. "Whatever is coming for us, we can't stand and fight. We must move and hope we make it to the castle before they overwhelm us." Fuck, the noises closing in are now more intense than ever.

"Which direction do we go?"

Kalevi points northeast. "There, and we run single-file. I'll lead and call you if I can sense anything coming up from behind."

I nod at his instructions.

We leave everything behind. There is only time to lace up our leather boots before diving into the dense overgrowth .

Immediately, three more goblins bound out of the thicket, claws and teeth bared. I get to the first one, vaporizing it. Kalevi takes down the next two, and we run again.

Branches whip at our skin, the noises from our attackers' screeches and gnarls behind us. They have sensed our shift in direction now that the evil living in these woods is hurdling our way.

Overhead, two winged serpents shriek past. "Look down!" Kalevi yells. "Don't make eye contact. They can turn you to stone!" The beasts fly past us, landing just ahead. We halt before them, eyes shifting to watch their taloned claws pick and scratch at the dirt.

Kalevi tips his head toward mine. Wait for them to come to us. All they have to do is make contact , he says into my mind, and I hope we can still block others from our conversation, or we're fucked.

Basilisks pace the ground just ahead. Their massive serpentine bodies, raven wings, and raptor heads swivel back and forth with their movements. How to provoke them? We need to move forward, to get ahead of the wrath quickly moving in our direction. I can hear the hoard of beasts crashing toward us as each second passes.

I look to Kalevi, smile, and then run headfirst at the beasts, keeping my eyes down, focusing my vision on their torsos and the bottoms of their wings. If they take off, I'll know and can change direction.

The creatures weren't expecting me—us. Kalevi's feet thunder just behind. We are going to take these creatures out together.

The Basilisks stand their ground, holding a line between us and certain death. I lunge at the first beast, keeping my eyes down. Its serpentine body tenses and twists as the gray-brown wings beat furiously, but it's useless. My palm contacts the winding body, evaporating before my eyes. Kalevi finishes his off moments after mine, and we stand in the path, panting .

More goblins scream in the forest as if they can sense our victory. There must be hundreds of them, and who knows what else. Well, Kalevi knows, and I imagine that's why he doesn't hesitate to run again, his pace even quicker now.

We are thundering through the forest, bodies wet with sweat and dew. I have no idea how we'll get out of this. We can't run forever. Even if we reach the castle, more beasts will await us.

That's not a heroic way to think, now is it? A purring feminine voice rings in my head. Kalevi looks over at me like he can hear it, too.

Who are you? Where are you coming from?

We're here to help, silly bo ys.